make someone's toes curl

• make one's toenails curl

make someone's toes curl (third-person singular simple present makes (someone's) toes curl, present participle making (someone's) toes curl, simple past and past participle made (someone's) toes curl)

1. To cause a strong emotional reaction, especially an unpleasant one.
   • 1983 October, Listener and BBC Television Review, page 27:

     For every good thing in the week, there was something to make one's toes curl.

   • 2021, Elle Cosimano, Finlay Donovan Is Killing It, Minotaur Books, →ISBN:

     He gave me a last lingering kiss that made my toes curl and left me panting.

• “make someone's toes curl”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.