nie dać żyć
Meaning: To make someone's life so difficult and burdensome that they cannot function normally.
Language: Polish
Literally: to not give life
Category: Daily Life
Origin: The phrase pictures life itself being withheld or denied, rendering someone unable to operate or exist freely.
More idioms — Daily Life
- zamiatać pod dywan — To conceal or hide a problem rather than address it directly.
- włożyć kij w szprychy — To obstruct or sabotage someone's plans or efforts.
- grać na zwłokę — To stall or delay deliberately in order to buy time until one is ready.
- wziąć na ambit — To take something on as a matter of personal pride; to be set on succeeding because one's…
- wziąć na bajer — To deceive someone or con them into believing something false.
- книга за семью печатями (kniga za sem'yu pechatyami) — Something utterly mysterious and incomprehensible; a complete enigma.
More Polish idioms
- strzyc uszami — To prick up one's ears; to listen intently.
- cud miód — Something delicious, wonderful, or excellent.
- wąchać kwiatki od spodu — To be dead; to push up daisies.
- rany koguta — A mild exclamation expressing surprise, frustration, or emphasis.
- stracić nerwy — To lose one's emotional control and become agitated or frantic.
- stracić głowę — To act without rational thought; to abandon self-control and sound judgment.
From our untranslatable words
- Yurodivy — One who plays the fool deliberately as a religious act, and is therefore licensed to spea…
- Khalyava — Something good got for free and without effort — and, strictly, something you were never…
- Beloruchka — Someone who dodges dirty or hard work — a person whose hands stay conspicuously clean.