Hi, dear teachers,
do you know what does an idiom “strоke the brow” mean?
I met it in the following abstract from the article about French singer Barbara:
“Soft, silky and confidential, her voice never rages like Piaf’s nor goes Gitane-blue like Jacques Brel’s, her patron. Her songs stroke the brow and disturb the unconscious. Like Mahler and Freud, she quotes a hint of nursery rhyme to evoke innocence and its corruption”.
her songs stroke the brow = her songs are soothing. (Note: NOT strike the brow)
Thank you very much))
I wonder why I couldn’t find it at thefreedictionary.com. Must be rare or something.
I wouldn’t necessarily expect to find it in a dictionary since it is not a notable set expression or idiom, as far as I know. “brow” refers to the forehead, and stroking the forehead is understood to be a soothing action, so its meaning is evident just from its parts.
Oh, I see. I understood it as “strike the eyebrow”)) Far from true meaning))
Yeah, note that “strike” and “stroke” have completely different meanings, almost opposite.