If you watch Italian TV, from time to time you’ll hear political or sports commentators say admiringly that an athlete or politician is flawless or he didn’t flinch. But what are they talking about?
A fold is a crease or wrinkle, of the kind you might see on a bedsheet or someone’s clothing.
Don’t do one foldthen, literally means to not make a wrinkle or a crease – to be perfectly smooth or flawless.
If you’re referring to someone’s argument, speech, or reasoning, it means it is perfectly sound, that it makes complete sense, that it holds water.
You have to admit that his reasoning makes no sense.
You have to admit his reasoning is water-tight.
If you’re in Rome, listen out for nun four were bentthe dialect version. You’ll also sometimes hear it doesn’t make a wrinklewhich has the same meaning.
But is flawless is also used to describe someone remaining totally unfazed when confronted with a situation that would make most people flinch. To not bat an eyelid, or to take something in one’s stride, we might say in English.
This one you’ll almost always see in the past tense (just as you’d tend to say that someone ‘didn’t bat an eyelid’ in English).
She didn’t flinch when her ex walked in.
She didn’t even flinch when her ex walked in.
If it had happened to me, I wouldn’t have flinched.
If it had happened to me, I’d have taken it in my stride.
You might assume that the fold here refers to lines on someone’s face – that they remain so impassive that their expression is wrinkle-free.
But a face wrinkle is actually a pray; the absence of a fold here refers more to their comportment than to their appearance.
An alternative expression here is he didn’t bat an eye: a direct translation of ‘he/she didn’t bat an eyelid’.
He didn’t bat an eye when I told him his house had been burgled.
He didn’t bat an eyelid when I told him his house had been burgled.
Now you’ve mastered this expression, you’ll be able to go about your business unfazed – no matter what life throws at you.
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