meanings of ‘more holy than righteous’
1) a seemingly devout or respectable person who lacks virtue—2) (with a pun on ‘holey’, i.e., full of holes) jocularly applied to holey things such as clothes
Read MoreCategory: United Kingdom & Ireland
‘a handsome husband and a thousand a year’
UK, 1907—the ideal of an unmarried woman—the phrase was especially used when offering to an unmarried woman the last cake or piece of bread from a plate
Read Morethe theatrical phrase ‘eternity version’
jocularly denotes a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in its entirety—UK, 1946—all occurrences from articles by theatre critic J. C. Trewin (1908-1990)
Read More‘God bless the Duke of Argyll’: meaning and origin
UK, 1825—the Scots, allegedly verminous, were said to rub themselves against posts erected by the Duke of Argyll and to bless the Duke when doing so
Read More‘not waving but drowning’: meaning and origin
used of a person whose display of distress misleads others into underestimating this distress—UK, 1962—from ‘Not Waving but Drowning’ (1954), by Stevie Smith
Read More‘since Pontius was a pilot’: meaning and origin
meaning: ‘for a very long time’—UK, 1944—with a pun on ‘Pilate’, originated in the British Royal Air Force during the Second World War
Read More‘the more firma, the less terra’: meanings and origin
expresses distrust at air or sea travel—USA, 1926—with a pun on ‘terror’, jocularly decouples from each other the components of ‘terra firma’ (firm land)
Read More‘refreshes the parts other — cannot reach’
UK, 1976—from “Heineken. Refreshes the parts other beers cannot reach”, an advertising slogan for Heineken lager, in use from 1975 onwards
Read Morenotes on ‘all fur coats and no knickers’
UK, 1963—ostentatious vulgarity in social life—from the literal sense of a fashionably dressed woman whose appearance covers vulgarity
Read More‘quoth the raven’: beware of these lodgings
UK, 1899—warning that touring actors wrote in the visitors’ books of low-quality lodgings—alludes to ‘Quoth the raven, “Nevermore.”’ in Edgar Poe’s ‘The Raven’
Read More
