an analogy for observantly tuning into the needs of someone around you who is very wrapped up in their own shit or
maybe others people's shit, so much so that without even knowing it they could really use someone to step in and help them with all that shit.
Maybe you're just being a good friend and your friend can be a bit of a space cadet so you regularly steer them away from walking into traffic even when you think they might be paying attention. That counts too. If you didn't step in and "stir their
onions" those metaphorical
onions might burn. Those onions could even be literal, thus where the term was coined.
"stirring someone's onions", "my onions just got stirred", "stirring my onions",
ex: Hey, thanks for being a good friend and stirring my onions, girl. I just got so caught up with my shit, and other people's shit...it was real nice of you to take my cat to get spayed
cuz cats in
heat...well, that shit is
weird.
ex: Well Jesus
F*&$ Face! My onions just got stirred! Thank goodness you were here to break into my
car and let some air in, I can't believe I left little
Timmy Tommerson in his car seat for that
long! Thanks Betsy, its been one hell of a
day.
ex:
Me: Aaaaahhhh ssshhhheeeeiiiitttt man, how did you know I was hurtin' so bad for some Fisherman's Friends cough drops?
Person stirring my onions: Well I noticed that you have a bit of a cough, and I've seen you with the Friends several times now...you just seemed really caught up with getting drunk so I thought I'd grab some for you while I was out.