• Listen

  What it means

  Literally “to give a scratcher.” Means to make a run for it, to scarper — to flee quickly, usually to avoid trouble or an unpleasant situation.

  Vocabulary

  • dawać — to give (imperfective)
  • drapak — a run / a bolt (colloquial, from 'drapać' — to scratch/claw)

  Grammar note

  'Drapaka' is the accusative of 'drapak'. The perfective form is 'dać drapaka'.

  Cultural context

  The image may come from clawing at the ground to run faster. A vivid, old-fashioned colloquialism still used today.

  Intermediate

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