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  What it means

  Literally: “to lie down in rubble” — evoking the image of a building collapsed into ruins. Figuratively, the phrase means for something — a plan, a project, a relationship, an empire — to fail completely and irreversibly. It implies total breakdown rather than a minor setback: there is nothing left to salvage. You might say “jego plany legnęły w gruzach” (his plans lay in ruins) after a spectacular failure. The subject is almost always an abstract noun representing something that was built up over time and now lies destroyed.

  Vocabulary

  • legnąć — to fall, to collapse (perfective, archaic/literary verb)
  • gruzach — rubble, ruins (locative plural of 'gruz')
  • gruz — rubble, a piece of debris
  • w — in (preposition governing locative)

  Grammar note

  The verb 'legnąć' is perfective and somewhat archaic, found mainly in literary or journalistic writing. Past tense forms: 'legnął' (masc. sg.), 'legnęła' (fem. sg.), 'legnęło' (neut. sg.), 'legnęły' (pl.). 'Gruzach' is the locative plural of 'gruz', required by the preposition 'w' expressing location. The subject of the idiom is the thing that collapses — it never takes a direct object.

  Cultural context

  The expression carries literary gravitas associated with wartime destruction and the fall of civilisations. It is common in Polish journalism when describing the collapse of political projects, businesses, or ideals, and in historical writing about wars. The English equivalents are 'to lie in ruins', 'to fall apart completely', or 'to go up in smoke'.

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