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  What it means

  Literally “like blood from a nose,” this idiom is used to describe something that is extremely difficult to get out of someone — typically information, money, or a confession. Just as a nosebleed produces blood painfully and reluctantly, this phrase captures the frustration of trying to extract something from someone who is evasive, stubborn, or tight-lipped. You might say “wyciąganie z niego słowa to jak krew z nosa” — getting a word out of him is like getting blood from a nose.

  Vocabulary

  • krew — blood
  • nosa — of the nose (genitive singular of nos)
  • z — from, out of (+ genitive)

  Grammar note

  The preposition 'z' governs the genitive case: 'z nosa' (from the nose). The phrase is typically used in comparison constructions: 'wyciągać coś jak krew z nosa' (to extract something like blood from a nose). The noun 'krew' is feminine and belongs to a small group of nouns ending in a consonant that are feminine (like 'twarz', 'noc', 'mysz').

  Cultural context

  This is an informal, vivid expression with slightly humorous undertones despite its dramatic imagery. It is used in everyday spoken Polish across all age groups when complaining about an uncommunicative person. The English equivalent would be 'like pulling teeth' — both expressions emphasise the painful difficulty of extracting something.

  Intermediate

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