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- "Nós roubamos o berço."
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349
Funny, I kept hearing that expression and never looked it up. Had no idea that's what it meant, thank god I didn't use it :D http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+cradle-robber
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In Australia we often use cradle snatcher for someone robbing the cradle. I've also heard robbing the rocking chair for the same relationship viewed from the reverse perspective ;-)
This is also an idiom in English when someone is dating someone else much younger than they are. Let's say my friend is 40yrs old and he is dating someone that is 18yrs old. I would call him a "cradle robber", or that he is "robbing the cradle". It can be used in a rude way, or simply between friends. Use caution.
Well, if we do some basic math we see that the younger one in the second couple is twice the age of the younger one in the first couple (18 vs 36 – which is a different level of maturity and only 4 years younger than the elder in the first couple), and while the Eldest is 10 years older than the elder of the first couple (50 vs 40), the age difference in the second couple is only 14 years not 22... which means 5 years have to pass before the first couple will not have an age difference that is more than double the age of the youngest.
Hahaha! You're a math lover, aren't you? :-)
But that wasn't the original question :-) And being no English native speaker myself I'm interested to know more...
I can understand why it's called a "cradle robber" when someone in his 40s is dating someone who is 18... But is the same true for someone in his 40s dating someone who is 25 or 30? Just to give another example ;-)
More generally used when the younger party is also literally young, possibly questionably so, not just relatively young. As with any phrase, can be used by extension for circumstances where that doesn't fit. As it dates to an era without strict limits for age of consent, some people may be quite offended if jokingly accused of cradle robbing.
Depends on who is doing the judging, but 25 or 30 is 7 to 12 years more mature than 18; and at 7 years that is 40%, while 12 years is 67% older than the 18 year-old.
It is the same sort of reasoning when you are 3, it is a big deal to turn 4 because one year of your life at 3 is 33% of your entire life, while at 4 a year is 25% of your entire life (that is also why a year seems so long when you are young but flies by as you age).
But of course, many people – at least jokingly – will say that a 70 year-old coupled with one who is 50 is also, "robbing the cradle"
The idiom is "robbing the cradle": a relationship in which one person is much younger than the other. What constitutes "robbing the cradle" is culturally based.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=robbing%20the%20cradle
I have trouble pronouncing the word "roubamos". It sounds like "four-BAH-mus" to me. Does the R sound like an F in this word? (I can read Portuguese but I cannot speak it because I have trouble understanding the accent. (Mi lengua materna es el Inglés , pero puedo hablar y entender español. Estoy aprendiendo portugués como tercer lengua. Tengo dificultad para pronunciar las palabras portugueses y entender el acento. Por cierto, he aprendido a hablar español en Duolingo!) Where can I get more help learning and understanding the basic sounds of the alphabet?