IdiomBody & Senses
Russian
Russianгнать в три шеи (gnat' v tri shei)
Meaning: To expel or drive someone away forcefully and without ceremony.
Literally: To chase in three necks
Example: “Назойливого торговца прогнали в три шеи.” — They sent the pushy salesman packing.
English equivalent: To send someone packing
Equivalents in other languages
French: Envoyer paître Literally: To send someone off to graze
English: send someone packing
Origin: В шею (by the neck) is to throw someone out roughly, by the scruff, and в три шеи is the same thing three times over. Michelson's phrase dictionary records it as an intensified form of в шею, with examples from Ostrovsky's play Не всё коту масленица (1871) and the writer Nikolai Grech.
More Russian idioms
- полтора землекопа (poltora zemlyekopa) A ridiculously small number of people; a handful.
- метать бисер перед свиньями (metat' biser pered svin'yami) To offer something precious or refined to someone incapable of appreciating it.
- сушить сухари (sushit' sukhari) To prepare oneself mentally and materially for imprisonment or arrest.
- отбросить копыта (otbrosit' kopyta) To die, to kick the bucket.
- чепуха на постном масле (chepukha na postnom masle) Complete and utter nonsense or rubbish.
- пан или пропал (pan ili propal) To risk everything on a single venture; all or nothing, sink or swim.
Explore another collection: Untranslatable Words
Words that capture a feeling or idea English needs a whole sentence for.
- Beloruchka Someone who dodges dirty or hard work — a person whose hands stay conspicuously clean.
- Zapoi A bender running for days, in which a person drops out of ordinary life entirely.
- Toska A dull ache of the soul; a great longing with nothing in particular to long for.
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