• Listen

  What it means

  Literally “to let someone smoke.” To give someone a hard time, to make things very difficult for them — to really put them through it.

  Vocabulary

  • dać — to give, to let
  • popalić — to smoke for a while; (idiom) to make it hot for someone

  Grammar note

  'Dać' + infinitive construction. 'Popalić' is a perfective verb from 'palić' (to burn/smoke).

  Cultural context

  The image is of making things so hot that the other person is left 'smoking.' Used in sports, competition, and conflict.

  Intermediate

Noticed a typo, a wrong translation, or anything that doesn't look right? We'd love to fix it — just let us know via the contact page. Thank you!