Thread: расшибись в лепешку!?

Can someone explain how the idiom "расшибись в лепешку"; which literally means: "you hurt yourself into a cookie" wind up meaning "you exert yourself to the fullest"

Originally Posted by Siriusly

Can someone explain how the idiom "расшибись в лепешку"; which literally means: "you hurt yourself into a cookie" wind up meaning "you exert yourself to the fullest"

Да и немного похоже на "stretch yourself thin".

Imagine that you need to break through a brick wall and all you have is your body. What would happen to you if you "exerted yourself to the fullest"?

Okay, but give me more. How can human pain or exertion relate to pastry?
I worked so hard that I fell on the floor and laid there "as flat as a pancake"! or
Я работал так много что в конце концов я выглядел похож блин!

Originally Posted by Siriusly

Я работал так много, что в конце концов (я) стал похож на блин!

or "в конце концов выглядел как блин".

Originally Posted by Siriusly

Okay, but give me more. How can human pain or exertion relate to pastry?
I worked so hard that I fell on the floor and laid there "as flat as a pancake"! or
Я работал так много, что в конце концов я выглядел похожим на блин!

We say in Russian a little bit different: "Я работал так много, что в конце концов был похож на выжатый лимон"

Btw, my Lingvo says that "расшибиться в лепешку" means "to lay oneself out"

Originally Posted by Siriusly

How can human pain or exertion relate to pastry?

That definition - "you hurt yourself into a cookie" - is not literal. Literal - "you crash/flatten yourself into a cookie". So, it's not about pain, it's about shape.

Originally Posted by Siriusly

Okay, but give me more. How can human pain or exertion relate to pastry?
I worked so hard that I fell on the floor and laid there "as flat as a pancake"! or
Я работал так много что в конце концов я выглядел похож блин!

Advise: take this idiom as it is. Don't think too hard about how human pain can relate to pastry. There are hundreds of idioms both in English and Russian that seem to make no sense whatsoever when translated literally.

Originally Posted by Siriusly

"you hurt yourself into a cookie"

Come to think of it, the translation of "лепёшка" in this definition is not literal either. The thing is, "лепёшка" does not necessarily refer to food. Again, it is shape that matters.
One can "расшибиться в лепёшку" not metaphorically but literally - jumping out of the window if the building is high enough.
There is "коровья лепёшка" too.

по-моему немного old-fashioned эта лепешка, господа, вам не кажется?
что-то я не замечаю, чтобы так говорили. как думаете?

Originally Posted by E-learner

There is "коровья лепёшка" too.

Americans call them "cow chips". And in some places they have "cow chip throwing" contests. Do they do this in Russia?

Originally Posted by Paxan

по-моему немного old-fashioned эта лепешка, господа, вам не кажется?

Какая именно? Если та, которая из выражения "расшибиться в лепешку", то так говорят. Я слышу.

Ближе всего, пожалуй, вот так: do it, or die trying.

Originally Posted by Siriusly

Originally Posted by E-learner

There is "коровья лепёшка" too.

Americans call them "cow chips". And in some places they have "cow chip throwing" contests. Do they do this in Russia?

The British call it a cow pat

по-моему немного old-fashioned эта лепешка, господа, вам не кажется?
что-то я не замечаю, чтобы так говорили. как думаете?

I don't think so. I reckon Оля is right that the idiom is still very much in use. I hear a lot of people say this idiom and also I myself use it pretty often.

Originally Posted by Siriusly

And in some places they have "cow chip throwing" contests. Do they do this in Russia?

Never participated in or even heard of it. But I live neither in Russia (not so far away though) nor in the country.