patrickfor Mar 22, 2014:

@ Helen Shiner Yes! I think "winding her up" is spot on!
gonfler is exactly that... and probably anything anybody is going to tell her is going to wind her up anyway....

patrickfor Mar 22, 2014:

@Tony I agree as I wrote "il me semble" which is very far from being certain. The point I wanted to make was:
Please do not use a colloquial Anglicism as in french it is not. I mean "mal à l'aise dans sa culotte" might have a completely different meaning used elsewhere. it is only the context and the state of mind of the reader that makes it obvious (as to what it really means...)
To me it is a bit like somebody asking "where are you?" and the person answering "I'm coming"... Depending on the context, the persons, the listener that might not exactly be interpretated as "I am on my way" or "I'm catching up".

Tony M Mar 22, 2014:

@ Patrick No so sure your suggestion really works in EN — for one thing, 'pants' means 'culotte' in BE, but 'pantalon' in AE.

"A bit uneasy in the underwear" might possibly convey a similar idea, though I think there is a danger of its being interpreted as 'scared sh*tless' rather than...er... tumescent!

The British TV programme "Two Pints of Lager..." coined a perfect expression, but sadly, for a woman: "all bubbly in the gusset" — so no good here, where as far as I can see it is being applied to a guy?

I wonder about "all hot under the collar" — although that can suggest 'angry', it can equally well be used to describe over-stimulation — and I think the intended meaning would be clear enough here. Another similar expression which might well fit is 'all hot and bothered'; or, if a period feel can be tolerated, 'all unnecessary', which was a catchphrase of some British (radio?) comic around the '40s–'50s.

The fuller expression might fit well: "to come over all unnecessary"; looking on the 'Net for the original source, I was astonished to find it credited to a contemporary comic as recently as 1984, while I know for a fact the original usage dates back to way earlier than that :-(

patrickfor Mar 22, 2014:

Il n'y a aucune équivoque sur la signification de "s'en trouver mal à l'aise dans sa culotte" et ce n'est pas une expression en soi, c'est juste une manière de dire les choses sans y toucher... Il me semble que "to feel uncomfortable in their pants" dans le contexte permettra a un lecteur anglophone de comprendre l'allusion non ?

Quant à gonfler ce terme signifie l'énerver, la provoquer, la chercher....

malamour (asker) Mar 22, 2014:

Fleur de tonnerre Elle est la belle se croyant un etre surnaturelle qui va au crime d'un pas resolu empoisonnant tous les gens rencontres...

Nathan Vander Heyden Mar 22, 2014:

Besoin de plus d'informations Bonjour malamour, je pense qu'il nous faudrait plus d'infos pour répondre à cette question. "Mal à l'aise dans leur culotte", par sens obscène vous pensez à une érection? De quel personnage parle-t-on? (Les gens vertueux qui LA croisent) Merci!