Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation

to lie on the planks - what does it mean?

I don't think it means anything pawian. I have certainly never heard it as an expression.

Think about boxing...

Ahhh...something like...to be KO'd?

To be finished?

In English there us the saying 'to throw in the towel' also from boxing..also meaning to finish doing something that was v hard ...

Yes :) At least I think so. Sometimes I have a problem with recognising the saying :P

Yes, Lenka and rozumiemnic, you are both right, the idiom takes its origin from a defeated boxer who is lying in the ring after KO. Today it is used in other contexts, also political, e.g., elections. Who is lying on the planks/floorboards after the first round?

Also, I read this one in a commentary:
He was already in the garden and about to meet the goose - who does this idiom refer to?

@pawian
It describes a situation when you fail shortly before achieving or succeeding in something and it's a line from a fable about a fox.

Yes, of course! The fox was so close..... when: BANG! hahaha

Another election context:
What is: Little Warsaw, Little Krakow?

Another one: sth is worth a pound of tangled hair

@pawian
I'll leave kłaki but I'm kind of confused with little Warsaw and little Kraków. The previous might be 'warszafka' but the latter can't be krakufka; )

Not Krakófka, but it`s a close one. Try masculine form .:)

Next one before I forget: sb/sth is going/driving on vapours.

Something is worthless?


Running on fumes or running on empty?

Yes, and yes.

OK, if you have come back to guessing, let get orderly and I will use one of my fav books which I have just finished reading to kids. Tumbo From Good Hope Cape.

easy one first: to throw an eye

@pawian
Keeping to the spelling mistake in warszafka, I'd totally use krakufka. It's kind of derogatory so with spelling mistakes.
I'll leave it to others, though.

No, let`s solve it right now, we won`t wait, life is too short.
It is Krakówek. With Warszawka, they are contemptuous expressions about pseudo elites from those cities - pretending to be rich and educated. hahaha

Very funny. A propos, have you already had a dig into your famous mounds to see how many Celtic warriors are buried inside them?

Cast a cursory glance over something?

not worth of a bucket of warm spit.


yes

Didn't some politician say that? I've heard it before......

I have NEVER heard it before. Some sick politicians must have said it.

Just looked it up. It wasn't a politician it was a US vice president, John Nance Garner.

A US vice president is by definition a politician....

They don`t need to dig, it is enough to use scanners now. Only one body was found - Krak`s. And his pet dragon`s next to it.


It seems Mr President reads our forum coz one day after we had mentioned it here he used the expression krakówek.

wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,143907,26096422,duda-mowil-o-krakowku-i-warszawce-prof-bralczyk-bez-watpienia.html:

What is meant by Bear's favour?

A favour which brings more harm than good. In one of La Fontaine`s fables, a bear wants to kill a fly which bothers his human friend, but as it uses a heavy rock, it kills both the man and the fly.

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Again, election fever context: to make sb into a balloon.

Yes, you are correct of course.


I think it's pretty much like 'to turn someone into a horse'. To make a fool of somebody? Deliberately duping or misleading them?

This is an easy one:

A bad ballerina blames the hem of her skirt.

you are genius, Pam - nothing short of

an I'm not being ironic

today two idioms were used at the lunch table:

give sb into the bone.
give sb school

Are you sure you don't mean sarcastic ;-)


Give somebody a hard time? To punish them?


To put someone through the mill, to treat them harshly?

Yes and yes, actually both have similar meanings.

How about this one:
to horseradish sb.