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  What it means

  Literally “to go with bags,” this idiom means to go bankrupt, to be financially ruined, or to end up destitute. The image evokes the historical figure of a beggar carrying all their possessions in a bag after losing everything. When someone or an organisation ‘pójdzie z torbami,’ it means they have suffered total financial collapse. The phrase can also be used hyperbolically for less extreme situations of serious financial difficulty.

  Vocabulary

  • iść — to go (imperfective)
  • pójść — to go (perfective)
  • torba — bag, sack
  • torbami — bags (instrumental plural of 'torba')
  • pójść z torbami — to go bankrupt, to end up ruined (perfective)

  Grammar note

  The noun 'torby' (bags) appears in the instrumental plural 'torbami,' used after the motion verb 'iść' to describe the manner or accompanying state: going while carrying bags. The perfective 'pójść z torbami' is the more common form when describing a definitive financial collapse, while the imperfective 'iść z torbami' may suggest the process is underway.

  Cultural context

  The idiom is historically rooted in the image of medieval beggars (żebracy) who wandered from village to village with a sack on their back. Today it is colloquial and mildly dramatic — Poles use it both for genuine bankruptcy and for comic exaggeration ('If I keep buying coffee every day, I'll end up bankrupt!'). The closest English equivalent is 'to go bust' or 'to end up in the poorhouse.'

  Intermediate

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