‘all duck or no dinner’: meaning and origin
all or nothing—Australia, 1895—the image is of a dinner composed entirely of duck, i.e. of choice food, as opposed to no dinner at all
Read MoreTag: phrases
‘any man who hates children and dogs can’t be all bad’
used in 1939 by Leo Rosten about U.S. actor W. C. Fields—has been wrongly attributed to the latter—but first used by U.S. journalist Byron Darnton, according to an article of 1937
Read More‘gone to Gowings’: meaning and origin of this Australian phrase
originally applied to someone’s absence—Australia, 1945—originated in 1940s advertisements for Gowings, showing scenes vacated in a hurry by those seeking bargains
Read Morean offensive phrase: ‘bingo wings’
USA, 1992—the folds of loose skin or fat which hang from the undersides of a person’s upper arms—so named because they are common in older women, who are regarded as the type of person most likely to play bingo
Read More‘the (great) god Bingo’: meaning and early occurrences
USA, 1938—UK, 1961—satirical phrase referring to the addiction to bingo, a game in which players mark off numbers on cards as the numbers are drawn randomly by a caller, the winner being the first person to mark off all their numbers
Read Morenotes on the phrase ‘feeding time at the zoo’
UK, 1879—meanings: an undisciplined assault on food and drink, and, by extension, any disorderly but excited scene
Read More‘call me anything, so long as you don’t call me late to dinner’
USA, 1833—jocular phrase meaning that the speaker does not care what he is being called—a U.S. and Australian variant uses ‘breakfast’ instead of ‘dinner’
Read More‘to squeeze a nickel until the Indian is riding the buffalo’: meaning and origin
to be extremely tight with money—USA, 1926—refers to the five-cent coin, struck from 1913 to 1938, featuring a Native American on one side and a bison on the other
Read More‘the books won’t freeze’: meaning and purported origin
USA, 1944—was used when a cattle-owner let the autumn book tally stand all winter and sold out the herd on that basis, no matter how many head froze or got stolen over winter
Read More‘six-hat and fifty-shirt’ (strong back and a weak mind)
U.S. underworld phrase, 1931—The image is of a man whose hat is only a six-incher, but who needs a fifty-inch chest measurement in shirts.
Read More