• Listen

  What it means

  Literally: “the dogs of war.” This idiom refers to the destructive, violent forces unleashed by armed conflict — soldiers, mercenaries, and the uncontrollable chaos of battle that cannot easily be recalled once set in motion. When someone says ‘uwolnić psy wojny’ (to unleash the dogs of war), they mean to trigger violent conflict or release aggression that will be hard to contain. The phrase is used metaphorically in political commentary, literature, and journalism, and rarely in casual conversation.

  Vocabulary

  • psy — dogs (accusative/nominative plural of 'pies')
  • wojny — of war (genitive singular of 'wojna')
  • uwolnić — to unleash, to set free (perfective)

  Grammar note

  'Psy' is the nominative or accusative plural of 'pies' (dog) — the masculine animate noun takes the same form in both cases in the plural. 'Wojny' is the genitive singular of 'wojna' (war), functioning as a possessive modifier: 'dogs of war.' In Polish, the genitive case expresses possession and relationship, mirroring the English preposition 'of' or the possessive 's.'

  Cultural context

  The phrase originates from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar — 'Cry Havoc! and let slip the dogs of war' — and entered Polish through translations of Shakespeare and later through Cold War political language. It is literary and formal in register, typically encountered in journalism, political speeches, and war literature rather than everyday speech. The standard Polish collocations are 'uwolnić psy wojny' or 'spuścić psy wojny' (to let slip / unleash the dogs of war).

  Advanced

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!