Meaning of "Bajan los brazos"

Question

In the following sentence the phrase "bajan los brazos" is used.

Los investigadores no bajan los brazos y ahora buscan al posible autor de los homicidios, un asesino serial.

I know that it literally translates to "lower the arms" but am wondering if in fact it is an expression or idiom that refers to the fact that they are "not under arms (weapons)". Appreciate any assistance.

Answer 1

I would say they did not give up.

link text

at the above way down in the middle under "never say die":

"nunca bajar los brazos"

I cannot copy and paste the section right now, but it is there.

How did you ever find that? - 0074b507, Dec 1, 2011

Thank you Quentin for doing the cut and paste for me. I have no idea how I find things, I just search. That matched with what I would have guessed from context reading the sentence posted. - Stadt, Dec 1, 2011

Answer 2

They did not drop or lower their guard. ?

Answer 3

Thanks for the resolution...

No hay de que. :-) - Stadt, Dec 1, 2011

Answer 4

Okay, so, used figuratively, it IS an idiom, (or in some cases the use is literal, either to arms or in the other sense, as in English, to weapons).

Given the Google hits it generates, the expression apparently is one in fairly common use.

Thank you for the question about this, cdunn. . .

Here are some more ex[amples from

http://www.linguee.es/espanol-ingles/traduccion/bajar+los+brazos.html

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...en ningún caso bajar los brazos.---> not give up the fight by any means.

...no hay que bajar los brazos ---> we must not drop our guard,

...dirigido ... no bajar los brazos y seguir adelante. --> Their message ... was to not give up and move forward.

...o si debe bajar los brazos y retirarse? --> or if they should throw up their hands and walk away?

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Answer 5

Read Exodus 17, 8-14. "No bajar los brazos" means "not surrender"