‘This curate’s egg is just the ticket for the interested browser.’ T H E H ERA LD dictionary of idioms DICTIONARY OF IDIOMS Linda Flavell completed a first degree in modern languages and has subsequent qualifications in both secondary and primary teaching She has worked as an English teacher both in England and overseas, and more recently as a librarian in secondary schools and as a writer She has written three simplified readers for overseas students and co-authored, with her husband, Current English Usage for Papermac and several dictionaries of etymologies for Kyle Cathie Roger Flavelfs Master’s thesis was on the nature of idiomaticity and his doctoral research on idioms and their teaching in several European languages On taking up a post as Lecturer in Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, he travelled very widely in pursuit of his principal interests in education and training language teachers In more recent years, he was concerned with education and international development, and with online education He also worked as an independent educational consultant He died in November 2005 By the same authors Dictionary of Proverbs and their Origins Dictionary of Word Origins Dictionary of English down the Ages DICTIONARY OF IDIOMS and their Origins L in d a a n d R o g e r F l a v e l l K y le Books This edition reprinted in 2011 by Kyle Books 23 Howland Street London W IT 4AY general.enquiries@kylebooks.com www.kylebooks.com First published in Great Britain in 19 by Kyle Cathie Limited ISBN -1 -8 6 -5 -6 © 1992 by Linda and Roger Flavell All rights reserved No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act 1956 (as amended) Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages Linda and Roger Flavell are hereby identified as the authors of this work in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 A Cataloguing in Publication record for this title is available from the British Library Printed at Gopsons Papers Ltd., Noida INTRODUCTION I f / may be accused o f encouraging o r inventing a new v ic e -th e mania , or 'idiom ania, I may perhaps call it - o f collecting what Pater calls the 'gypsy phrases ’ o f our language , I have at least been punished by becom ing one o f its most careless and incorrigible victims (Logan Pearsall Smith , Words and Idioms, 1925) Our belief is that people turn to a book on idioms for two main purposes: for reference and to browse We have tried to cater for both Reference Each phrase dealt with in the body of the book is listed alphabetically in relation to a key word in it As idioms are by definition phrases and not single words, there is necessarily a choice to be made of which word to classify the phrase by We have exercised our judgement as to which is the key word (normally a noun or a verb) but, in case our intuitions not coincide with the reader’s, we have provided an index of the important words in each expression The head words are followed by a definition This is the contemporary sense or senses - an important point, given that many idioms have a long history and have undergone changes in meaning, often marked ones, during the centuries Similarly, the comments under Usage are there to provide guidance oil the current formality or informality of the phrase, typical con texts of its use, its grammatical peculiarities, variations in form - all necessary reference material given that idioms characteristically break the rules (see What is an idiom?, page 6) A further guide to usage lies in the contemporary quotations that are a part of many entries Quotations are listed in chronological order and the more recent provide a taste of how modem authors use idioms We would vi • Introduction • like to thank Harper Collins for permission to use a number of quotations from their computer corpus (acknowledged in the text in each instance as ‘Cobuild Corpus’) We have drawn on the traditional collections of extracts for other examples, but the great majority of the contemporary illustrations are from the serendipity of our eclectic reading over the last year We make no claims for comprehensive coverage of today’s press - the quoting of G ood Housekeeping and the Mid Sussex Times simply means that we read them regularly! The bibliography is there both to show our sources and to provide a point of extended reference It is by no means complete: it contains som e of the books we have referred to which are collections of idioms of one type or another To have included them all - not to mention the hundreds of books of general language and wider reference we have consulted - would have produced a bibliography of unmanageable length If in the text of the book we refer to a specific source, the name of the autfior alone may be given (e.g Edwards); if he has more than one entry in the bibliography, the name is followed by a date (e.g Funk 1950) Browsing Our own love of the curious in language is, we have observed, shared by others For them, and for ourselves, we have written the parts of this book that aim to please the browser The entries have been selected because they have a tale to tell Many idioms were rejected because there was nothing interesting to say about them Plenty more have had to be excluded because of pressures of time and space, but we hope that what remains is a satisfying cross-section of the vast range of idioms which occur in everyday English, even if it cannot claim to be a comprehensive list The etymology - or etymologies, since there are often alternative accounts - tries to go back to the earliest origins We endeavour to give dates, but it is often impossible to this with any confidence Phrases have literal mean ings, then they generally develop metaphorical uses and ultimately, in typical cases, acquire an idiomatic sense that is separate from the literal one The form a phrase takes may also vary considerably over the years It is therefore extremely difficult to state accurately when the idiom was first used - as an idiom Wherever possible, we make the best estimate we can We have also sometimes selected quotations to show the historical change in the use or form of phrases, as well as for their intrinsic interest The stories behind the expressions are in part those that authorities sug gest: Our own researches have added to or replaced these, where we felt it was necessary Quite often it is impossible to say with certainty what is the •Introduction • Vii best source; in these instances, we have not hesitated to admit that doubt exists There are various essays strategically situated throughout the book (usually near entries on a connected theme) These are of various kinds - linguistic, historical, just plain curious - and are intended to inform and entertain One of them is entitled The Old Curiosity Shop of Linguistics (see page 108) This could also serve as the watchword for all that we have tried to provide for the browser! In conclusion, our aim has been to provide a balance of reference information and a richer varied diet for the curious; we have striven for scholarly accuracy without falling into academic pedantry We have certainly made mistakes and would welcome comments and corrections We owe a debt to many The erudition of Stevenson and Funk, for example, is extraordinary and it is complemented in recent times by the labours of Brandreth, Manser and Rees, amongst others Our local library has been very helpful and our children, John and Anna, extremely indulgent with their occupied parents To these and many more, our thanks N O TE TO T H E PA PER BA CK ED ITIO N We were delighted to receive very well-informed comments from a number of sources on the publication of the hardback edition of this book One corres pondent even devoted much of Christmas Day to the task! On the publication of the paperback edition, we would like to extend a similar invitation to readers to comment where they feel appropriate MAIN ESSAYS What is an idiom? Creativity 19 Proverbs and idioms 24 In black and white 30 A question of colour 36 Like a load of old bull 43 Splitting one’s sides 53 A transatlantic duo 63 National rivalries 76 Hammer horror stories 93 People 105 The Old Curiosity Shop of Linguistics 108 Giving it to them hot and strong 117 The absurd 118 Moonshine 130 A life on the ocean waves 138 Memorable events 156 Justice for the Scots! 165 Advertisements 173 The Bible and Shakespeare 180 It’s not cricket 201 Rights for animals 205 204 • w olf • know Andrews H e's a wolf who doesn't even bother to put on sheep's clothing JA M ES H A D LE Y CH A SE, The Double Shuffle, 1952 The \philanthropic M r Owen’ suddenly appeared as a wolf in sheep's clothing; and his plans fo r the unemployed took on quite a new aspect when they were seen as merely one part o f a vast and sinister design against the established order in both Church and State I take it your uncle cut o ff your allowance after that Goodwood binge and you had to take this tutoring job to keep the wolf from the door? P G W O D EH O U SE, The Inimitable Jeeves, 1924 wool: to pull the wool over some one’s eyes to deceive someone G D H C O L E, Socialist Thought, 1953 A t one time anyone who considered him self a gentleman would wear a powdered wig Such creations were humorously re wolf: to keep the w olf from the door ferred to as ‘wool’ because the curls to ward off hunger tended to be ill-fitting and cumbersome The wolf here is hunger Since ancient eyes so that he could not see what was times, the wolf has been a symbol of pov going on around him This made him an erty and want Fables depict the wolf as easy victim of theft or pranks looked rather like a fleece The wigs and were easily pushed over the wearer’s ravenously hungry, in cjesperate need of Judges wear wigs to the present day ‘manger and some authorities suggest that the comme un loup' (to eat like a wolf) and the Germans have an expression *wolfshunger' In English someone who eats expression may have been used in courts ravenously is said to ‘w olf’ their food ing pulled the wool over the judge's eyes sustinence The French say of law when lawyers, who had succeeded in a skilful deception, would boast at hav Keeping the wolf from the door, then, means to ward off gnawing hunger and starvation, which our ancestors in the fif teenth century who first used the phrase would have understood far better than we The first thing she's going to when she meets you is to try to pull the wool over your eyes and persuade you that he's as sane as I am P G W O D EH O U SE, Uncle Fred in the Springtime, 1939 That hungry Wolf, want and necessity, which now stands at his door They are suspicious people over whose eyes no coloured Festival wool can poss ibly be pulled, the great undiddleable JOH N GOODM AN, The Penitent Pardoned, 1679 It makes a lot o f difference to one's happiness if the wolf is not scratching at the door D Y LA N TH OM AS, Quite Early One Morning, ‘The Festival Exhibition 1951’, 1954 see also: a big wig H EN R Y H ERM A N , His Angel, 1891 writing is on the w all, the downfall or ruin is imminent rights fo r animals In Daniel, chapter 5, the Bible tells how Belshazzar, King of Babylon, showed his contempt of the Lord by holding a great feast where wine was served in goblets taken from the temple in Jerusalem Dur ing the feast a human hand appeared, writing on the wall The inscription read: Mene, mene, tekel, parsin The only one able to interpret the sign was the Jewish exile, Daniel, who voiced the Lord’s anger and prophesied the downfall of Bel shazzar and his kingdom Just as Daniel had said, that very night Belshazzar was slain and his kingdom taken by a foreign power These days the message of doom is likely to apply to a failing enterprise, a politician or a football manager • 20S The writing on the wall is clear: if Man behaves like an animal and allows his population to increase while each nation steadily increases the complexity and range o f its environment, nature will take her course and the Law o f the Jungle will prevail J G R A Y , ‘The Proper Study of Mankind is Man’, The Listener, September 3, 1959 Collective belt-tightening threatens to bring down not only Blitz but its style conscious competitors The writing has been on the wall fo r some time now The style press actually started dying when newspapers like this one launched their own style pages G U A R D IA N , September 2, 1991 Rights for animals! Animals often play a gruesome part in idioms There are a number of accounts in the entries of this book where they usually meet a grisly death A cat might get away with its life on its discovery in a bag (see pig in a poke for how it got there), but a cat in a bag in Shakespeare’s time might well not escape with its life if there were any bowmen about For the full story of that one, see no room to swing a cat Many animals up to the nineteenth century met a judicial death through no fault of their own dogs were by no means the only ones who could properly wear a hangdog look! Other animals have been actively pursued for sport: fox-hunting may give us a red herring, stag-hunting to keep at bay The long-banned bear-baiting spawned phrases such as to stave off See Hammer horror stories (page 93) for more macabre idioms BIBLIOGRAPHY A select list of some books to which reference has been made C O W IE, Anthony P and MACKIN Ronald 1975: Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English Vol ume (Oxford University Press) A PPERSON George Latimer 1929: English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases BACCHUS and VENU S, 1737: A New Canting Dictionary B A R T L E T T , John, 1st edition 5 ,14th edition 1968: Familiar Quotations ( L ittle , B rc w n B o sto n a n d T o ro n to ) BEN H A M , Sir William Gurney, 1st edition 1907, revised edition 1948: Book of Quotations, Proverbs and Household Words ( C a ss e ll, L o n d o n ) * B E R G Paul C 1953: A Dictionary of New Words in English (A lle n & U n w in , L o n d o n ) B E R R Y Lester V and VAN DEN B A R K , Melvin, 1st edition 1942, 2nd edition 1952: American Thesaurus of Slang (C ro w e ll, N ew Y o r k ) BO A T N ER , Maxine Tull and G A T E S, John Edward, 1966: A Dictionary of Idioms for the Deaf BO M BA U G H , C C , 1905: Facts and Fancies for the Curious from the Harvest Fields o f Literature (Lippincott Philadelphia and London) BR A N D R ET H , Gyles, 1990: Everyman’s Modern Phrase and Fable (D e n t, London) B R E W E R Ebenezer Cobham, 1970: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (C a sse ll, L o n d o n ) BR O P H Y , John and PA R T R ID G E , Eric, 1931, revised edition 1965: The Long Tail - Soldiers’ Songs and Slang 1914-1918 ( D e u tsch , L o n d o n ) BU RV EN IC H , Arthur, 1905: English Idioms and Colloquialisms (T h iem e, Z u h e n , A d H e rck e n th Le d e b e rg -G e n t) COLLINS, Vere Henry 1st edition 1956, 3rd edition 1958: A Book of English Idioms (L o n g m a n , L o n d o n ) COLLINS, Vere Henry, 1958: A Second Book of English Idioms (L o n g m a n , L o n d o n ) COLLINS Vere Henry 1960: A Third Book of English Idioms ( L o n g m a n L o n d o n ) 206 COW IE Anthony P MACKIN, Ronald and M cCAIG, Isobel, 1983: Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English Vol ume (O x f o r d U n iversity P ress) C U RR A N , Peter, n.d.: Beware of Idioms An audio-active course for students of English (T u d o r -T a p e C o , L o n d o n ) DIXON, James Maine, 1891: English Idioms (N e lso n , L o n d o n ) DONALDSON, Graham and RO SS, Maris 1990: The Complete Why Do We Say That? (D a v id a n d C h a rle s, N ew ton A b b o t) ED W A RD S Eliezer 1882, revised 1911: Words, Facts and Phrases (C h a tto & W indus, London) EW A RT, Neil 1983: Everyday Phrases (B la n d fo rd , P o o le ) FA R M ER John Stephen, 1888 and 1889: Americanisms - Old and New (T h o m a s P o u lter, London) FA R M E R , John Stephen, 1890-1904: Slang and its Analogues, past and present (T h o m a s P o u lter, L o n d o n ) FA R M E R John Stephen and H EN LEY William Ernest, 1905, USA 1966: A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English (R o u tledge a n d S o n s, L o n d o n ) FR EEM A N , William 1951-1952: A Concise Dictionary of English Idioms (T h e E n g lish U n iversity P ress, L o n d o n ) FUNK, Charles Earle 1950: A Hog on Ice and other curious expressions (H a rp e r B ro s , N ew Y o r k ) FUNK Charles Earle 1950A: Thereby Hangs a Tale: Stories of Curious Word Origins (H a rp e r B ro s, N ew Y o r k ) FUNK Charles Earle 1955: Heavens to Betsy! and other curious sayings ( H a rp e r B ro s , N ew Y o r k ) Bibliography FUNK, Charles Earle, 1958: Horsefeathers and other curious words (H a rp e r B ro s , New Y o rk ) FUNK, Wilfred John 1950: Word Origins and their Romantic Stories (W ilfre d F u n k , In c , N e w Y o r k ) G R O S E , Francis, 1963: A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (R o u tledge a n d K e g a n P a u l, L o n d o n ) H A R G R A V E , Basil, 1911: Origins and Meanings of Popular Phrases and Names (W ern er L a u rie , L o n d o n ) • 207 M OSS, Walter, 1956: English Idioms - selected and explained (N a u c k & C o , K o ln a n d B e rlin ) M U RPH Y, M J , 1968: Test Yourself on English Idioms (U n iv e rs ity o f L o n d o n P re ss) N A R E S, Robert, 1822: Glossary of Words, Phrases, Names and Allusions, particularly of Shakespeare (R o u tled g e, L o n d o n ) NEAMAN, Judith and S IL V E R , Carole, 1991: In Other Words: A Thesaurus o f Euphemisms (A n g u s & R o b e rtso n , L o n d o n ) H EN DERSON , B L L and G C E , 1964: A Dictionary of English Idioms (B la ck w o o d , L o n d o n ) N O RT H EY , James, 1985: My Best Togs (Sa lva tio n A rm y ) H ILL, Robert H , 1963: A Dictionary of Difficult Words (A r ro w , L o n d o n ) NO TES AND Q U E R IE S 1849-1935: for readers and writers, collectors and librarians Edi tors: E G STANLEY (O x f o r d U n iversity Press, H OLT Alfred Hubbard, 1961: Phrase and Word Origins (D o v e r, N e w Y o r k ) H OTTEN , John Camden, 1874 and 1922: The Slang Dictionary, etymological historical and anec dotal ( C h a tto & W in d u s, L o n d o n ) H YAMSON, Albert Montefiore, 1922 and 1970: A Dictionary of English Phrases (R o u tle d g e & S o n s, L o n d o n , E P D u tto n & C o , N e w Y o r k ) JOHNSON, Trench Henry, 1906: Phrases and Names; their Origins and Meanings (W e rn e r L a u rie , L o n d o n ) K IR K P A T R IC K , John, 1912 and 1914: Handbook of Idiomatic English ( C a r l W inter, H e id e l berg a n d E d in b u rg h ) KN O X Thomas 1856: Dictionary of Familiar Sayings and Phrases, with Anecdotes illustrating their Origins (Su th e rla n d