What does “пофлексить” mean in Russian slang?

Мама наказывает псевдогангстеров за стрим в инстаграме

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B1 Russian listening practice · Standard Russian · Picked for people who know some

💡 Did you know?
пофлексить (pofleksit')
Russian internet anglicism
to flex, to show off — English “flex” wearing a Russian -ить ending

Пофлексить is the perfective of флексить — “to flex,” borrowed from English and bolted straight onto a Russian -ить infinitive. It means to show off, to posture, to perform toughness for an audience. The -ить ending is the standard runway for English verbs landing in Russian: гуглить (to google), лайкать (to like), стримить (to stream) — the language absorbs the stem and conjugates it like any native verb.

In the clip, three friends start an Instagram livestream “чтобы пофлексить перед камерой” — to flex in front of the camera — waving an airsoft gun and throwing gangster poses. Their performance ends abruptly when the host’s mother walks in with a belt. The perfective prefix по- implies a completed bout of showing off, a nuance that fits the scene perfectly: they flexed, briefly, and then paid for it.

How common are the words?

How common are the words in this B1 Russian listening practice video?

89.9%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Russian words
Most of the words in this video are common Russian words.

How common in Russian

81.2%
Top 1,000
89.9%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Russian

92.1%
Top 1,000
98.4%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000
👄 Words for talking
This video uses words people often say in Russian.

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than B1. Here is what they mean.

ганг
1×
Not in top 5,000
gang
гладить
1×
Not in top 5,000
to iron
инстаграме
1×
Not in top 5,000
Instagram
кидали
1×
Not in top 5,000
threw
пофлексить перед камерой
1×
to show off on camera

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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