Adamı yakar

09:48 Oct 8, 2013 

Thanks as ever, Tim, for your clear & accurate analysis. It parallels that very strange idiom, which means to fall head over heels in love with someone, viz. abayı yakmak literally signifying 'to burn the coarse woollen coat' e.g. Yoksul bir çoban zengin adamın kızına abayı yakmış' :- ' A poor shepherd boy fell in love with the rich man’s daughter' [sentence from Jim Master's website].

08:56 Oct 8, 2013 

'Adamı' is indeed the object. Yes, it does mean: 'it/she/he sets the man alight', although 'adam' can be used in a general sense meaning people at large, roughly equivalent to the English 'one', so the meaning would be more that it/she/he sets people/everybody/one/you alight. I have never heard this used in the sense of being sexy, but then I left Turkey in 1999! The first thing that would come to my mind on hearing this would be that the reference is to something that will cause you a lot of problems and is best steered clear of, i.e. is "too hot to handle." In colloquial language, of course, context is everything.