П-129

ХОТЬ В ПЕТЛЮ ЛЕЗЬ (ПОЛЕЗАЙ) coll (хоть + VPimper these forms only usu. subord clause fixed WO

(used to express despair, one's inability to find a way out of a difficult, hopeless situation) one feels absolutely desperate

one might (may) as well go (and) hang o.s.

one could hang (kill) o.s. (Один из купцов:) Такого городничего никогда еще... не было. Такие обиды чинит, что описать нельзя. Постоем совсем заморил, хоть в петлю полезай (Гоголь 4). (Merchant:) Never before...has there been such a Prefect. The outrages that he commits are quite indescribable. His billeting has been the ruin of us-we may as well go and hang ourselves (4b).

«Что я делала?.. A, да. Я в тот вечер, помнится, психанула. Мотала я бинты, и вдруг такая тоска на меня навалилась, как головная боль, хоть в петлю» (Стругацкие 1). "What was I doing? Oh, I know. That was the evening I broke down. I'd been rolling bandages, and then this incredible despair came over me, like a headache, I could have killed myself" (1a).