What does cavarsela in Italian mean?

What is the meaning of the word cavarsela in Italian? The article explains the full meaning, pronunciation along with bilingual examples and instructions on how to use cavarsela in Italian.

The word cavarsela in Italian means get by, manage, succeed, remove, extract, get, obtain, elude, shirk, rid of, manage on your own, do just fine, manage just fine. To learn more, please see the details below.

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Meaning of the word cavarsela

get by, manage, succeed

verbo riflessivo o intransitivo pronominale (superare una difficoltà)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
Me la sono cavata senza danni.
I managed to get by without getting hurt.

remove, extract

verbo transitivo o transitivo pronominale (tirar fuori, togliere)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
Farsi cavare un dente senza anestesia è un supplizio che non augurerei a nessuno.
Having a tooth extracted without anaesthesia is a form of torture I wouldn't wish on anyone.

get, obtain

verbo transitivo o transitivo pronominale (figurato (ricavare, ottenere)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
Non caverai fuori nulla da lui: è muto come una tomba.
You won't get anything out of him: he's as silent as the grave.

elude, shirk

verbo riflessivo o intransitivo pronominale (togliersi da [qc], levarsi [qc])

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
Voglio cavarmi le scarpe dopo una giornata così intensa.
After a day like this, I just want to get out of my shoes.

rid of

verbo riflessivo o intransitivo pronominale (figurato (voglia: levarsi, soddisfare)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
Mi sono cavato la voglia di dirgli quello che pensavo.
I rid myself of the desire to tell him exactly what I thought.

manage on your own

verbo riflessivo o intransitivo pronominale (fare [qlcs] senza l'aiuto di nessuno)

do just fine, manage just fine

(verbal expression: Phrase with special meaning functioning as verb--for example, "put their heads together," "come to an end.")
He's studied Italian for two years. I think he'll do just fine on his trip to Rome.

Let's learn Italian

So now that you know more about the meaning of cavarsela in Italian, you can learn how to use them through selected examples and how to read them. And remember to learn the related words that we suggest. Our website is constantly updating with new words and new examples so you can look up the meanings of other words you don't know in Italian.

Do you know about Italian

Italian (italiano) is a Romance language and is spoken by about 70 million people, most of whom live in Italy. Italian uses the Latin alphabet. The letters J, K, W, X and Y do not exist in the standard Italian alphabet, but they still appear in loanwords from Italian. Italian is the second most widely spoken in the European Union with 67 million speakers (15% of the EU population) and it is spoken as a second language by 13.4 million EU citizens (3%). Italian is the principal working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy. An important event that helped to the spread of Italian was Napoleon's conquest and occupation of Italy in the early 19th century. This conquest spurred the unification of Italy several decades later and pushed the language of the Italian language. Italian became a language used not only among secretaries, aristocrats and the Italian courts, but also by the bourgeoisie.