• Listen

  What it means

  Literally “to over-bend the stick,” this is a very common colloquialism for going too far or overstepping a boundary. It describes a situation where someone has exhausted another person’s patience or behaved in an exaggeratedly inappropriate way. If a friend makes a joke that is too personal or mean, you might tell them they’ve “over-bent the stick.”

  Vocabulary

  • przegiąć — to over-bend / to distort (perfective)
  • pała — stick / baton / club
  • przesadzić — to overdo it / to exaggerate (synonym)

  Grammar note

  'Przegiąć' is the perfective aspect, used here to describe a specific moment where a limit was crossed. 'Pałę' is the accusative form of the feminine noun 'pała', serving as the direct object of the verb.

  Cultural context

  While 'pała' can be slang for "head" or even a "failing grade" in school, in this idiom it simply represents a physical limit. It is a very frequent expression in informal Polish, similar to "to cross the line."

  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!