Game - guess Polish idioms/sayings in direct English translation

Indeed. Damski bokser sounds better than wife-beater.

Well a woman attacked by a damski bokser is not necessarily his wife...

I was thinking about lady`s boxer but somehow I had doubts if it was better than a female boxer.

A wife-beater's partner generally gets the brunt of it.

Before I forget: to jiggle sth like a priest jiggles an envelope. :):)

With the expectancy of ready cash but I'm sure that's not quite what it means ;)

The cash is the priest`s expectancy but he serves as a metaphor, so the whole saying isn`t about cash but.......

Some sort of other reward? The idiom seems to be similar to dangling a carrot in front of someone. To try to entice someone to do something by offering a reward, not necessarily monetary.

Yes, it is about any reward which is supposed to fulfill your impatient expectancy. Sometimes used in lewd contexts. There is a long list of funny I would.......like..... expressions:

I would knock like Jehova`s witnesses at the deaf man`s door.
zapytaj.onet.pl/Category/001,002/2,26374217,Lista_tekstow_z_serii_quotbralbymquot_Znacie_je_.html

Sth is sewn with thick threads

Someone just wrote this in a message to me while saying goodnight: "cmokam w lewą skroń"

The literal meaning about kissing the left temple is obvious, however does it have an idiomatic meaning as well? I don't remember every hearing it.

I don't really think she wants to give me a smacker on the left temple....

At a guess it means something that is easy to see through and expose? A tale that is very economical with the truth perhaps?

Kissing on the temple reveals a really deep affection. Somebody is hitting on you. Why left is a mystery to me.


Yes, exactly!

To pull up sleeves (and do sth)

Thanks. She is a bit full on, to say the least.

To get on with e.g the job at hand ? In the UK we would roll up our sleeves and get on with the job.

Yes, it is the same thing.

What does this comment mean?: - it`s a pip.

Really not sure about this one. Does it mean something very good, pleasing? Similar to it's a gem as we would say in the UK perhaps? Or a defeat by a narrow margin?

Sorry, no. The pip means that seed inside fruit. You say so when. e.g., you are going to somehow take part in an approaching situation.

I wouldn't have got that one.

My turn, although mine are always too easy for you....

Pears on a willow

Hey, I provided a clue but the riddle with that pip is still unsolved! :):) When is it used exactly?


It is about false promises which can`t be fulfilled and you fully realise they are false. Was it originated in 1940-1050s when the Soviet pseudo scientist Lysenko played tricks with plants genetics?

to be honest, Pawian, I have never heard of such a phrase, using 'pip'.
the only one I can think of is 'it gives me the pip'
en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/give_someone_the_pip

Do you mean it doesn`t exist and I made it up? :))

er...no, , perhaps you got it mixed up with something else?

:):) No, rather not, I checked it twice. Pip is the seed inside some fruit, e..g, plums, cherries, right? So I got it right. You say: it is a pip for/to me.

Apples, pears, raspberries etc have pips. Plums, cherries, peaches have stones.

I tried to answer quickly, in case somebody pipped me to the post...

I see. But it is still the same, whether a pip or a stone, it is one word in Polish.

"it is a pip for me" - never heard that - maybe it is American?

isn't it interesting that Amerecan hooey is really chuj


good one jon -

It's very easy! (or something very minor) (was blanking on the Polish word until you added the 'for/to me')


Is it? the meaning is different enough (the American meaning is 'nonsense' which is not how it's used in Polish, where in addition to the literal meaning it can mean something like 'rotten jerk' or 'worthless'...

This double meaning is well reflected in an old joke going back to the time when they were starting to build the first railway line in Russia.

The construction team went to tsar Alexander and asked him if the gauge (rozstaw torów) in Russia should be the same as in Europe or wider (szerszy). Tsar Alexander listened to their plea and told them the verdict in the form of a question: A na chuj szerszy? But the problem, however, was that they had a different grasp of the phrase than what tsar Alexander meant.

I always wondered about that, as soon as I heard the Polish word (or asked someone what this HWDP is that seemed to be written on every wall in Warsaw)


"A heap of hooey", roughly cognate to the well-known English language expession "bunch of arse".

"Bzdura" is the expression with which I'm most familiar. I remind myself of that high school slogan from several years ago MATURA BZDURA! This helps me to recall the word.