The French expression “tirer les vers du nez à quelqu’un” translates literally to “to pull the worms out of somebody’s nose”. English meanings include:
- to worm information out of somebody
- to get somebody to talk
A French meaning is: “extirper des informations à quelqu’un” or to drag out or extract information from somebody. In essence, the expression means to successfully get somebody to talk when they’re holding onto information that they don’t want to divulge.
Raconte-moi ce qui s’est passé? Est-ce que je dois te tirer les vers du nez? Tell me what happened! Do I have to worm the information out of you?
