• ЗАДЕВАТЬ/ЗАДЕТЬ (ЗАБИРАТЬ/ЗАБРАТЬ, ЗАТРАГИВАТЬ/ЗАТРОНУТЬ и т. п.) ЗА ЖИВОЕ кого coll
[VP; subj: human or abstr; more often pfv]
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1. [often impers]
⇒ to hurt s.o. by saying or doing sth. that is particularly painful for him, wound s.o. s pride:
- X задел Y-а за живое••≈ X cut (stung) V to the quick;
- X got V where it hurts;
- X touched (hit) a (raw) nerve.
♦ [Липочка:] Кого не заденет за живое: все подруги с мужьями давно, а я словно сирота какая! (Островский 10).[L.:] Who wouldn't be cut to the quick? All my girl friends have been married forever, while I stand around like an orphan (10a).
♦ [authors usage] Он встал из-за стола и ухмылялся уже по-иному, злорадно: ага, поймал за живое! (Копелев 1). He rose from his desk and smirked a different way now, maliciously: aha, got you where it hurts! (1a).
2. Also: БРАТЬ/ВЗЯТЬ ЗА ЖИВОЕ to touch s.o.'s innermost feelings:
- X задел Y-а за живое••≈ X moved (touched) Y very deeply;
- thing X cut Y to the heart.
♦ Серьезное чтение утомляло его. Мыслителям не удалось расшевелить в нем жажду к умозрительным истинам. Зато поэты задели его за живое: он стал юношей, как все (Гончаров 1). Serious reading exhausted him. The philosophers were unable to arouse in him a thirst for speculative thought. ...However, the poets touched him deeply, and he became a youth like any other (1b).