to oil the knocker
To fee the porter. The expression is from Racine's Les Plaideurs: "On rfentre point chez lui sans graisser le marteaiT' ("No one enters his house without oiling the knocker").
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to one's heart's content
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
to one's mind
to one's recollection or thinking
to open one's mouth wide
To name too high a price; to strain after too big a prize.
to open the ball
To lead off the first dance at a balL To strike the ball under the line. To fail in one's object. The allusion is to tennis, in which a line is stretched in the middle of the court, and the players standing on each side have to send the ball aver the line.
to overflowing
completely full, exceeding capacity
to pack up
Slang for to take one's de- parture; to have no more to do with the matter; also to die.
to paint the lion
A sailor's term, meaning to strip a person naked and then smear the body all over with tar.
to paint the town red
To have a gay, noisy time; to cause some disturbance in town by having a noisy spree. Possibly from the fre- quent firing of towns by Indians on the war- path.
to palaver
To flatter: originally an African word for a treaty, talk, or conference.
to palm off
To pass off fraudulently. The allusion is to jugglers, who conceal in the palm of their hand what they pretend to dispose of in some other way.
to paper a house
In theatrical phraseology, to fill the theatre with "deadheads," or non- paying spectators, admitted by paper orders.
to pass the buck
To evade responsibility. An American phrase, coming from the game of poker. The "buck," perhaps a piece of buck- shot or a bucktail, was passed from one player to another as a reminder that the recipient was to be the next dealer. The earliest recorded use of the phrase is by Mark Twain in 1872.
to pass under the spear
To be sold by auction, sold "under the hammer." Writing to Pepys (Aug. 12th, 1689) Evelyn speaks of "the noblest library that ever passed under the speare." The phrase is from the Latin sub hasta vendere.
to patch up a quarrel
To arrange the matter in a not very satisfactory way; a coat that has been torn and then "patched up" is pretty sure to break out again; so is a quarrel.
to patter
To talk. To patter flash; to speak flash, or the language used by thieves. How the blowen lushes jackey, and patters flash; how the wench drinks gin, and talks flash.
to paum
To conceal in the hand. To paum a die: to hide a die in the palm of the hand. He paums; he cheats. Don't pretend to paum that upon me.
to pay
To smear over. To pay the bottom of a ship or boat; to smear it over with pitch: The devil to pay, and no pitch hot or ready. SEA TERM.--Also to beat: as, I will pay you as Paul paid the Ephesians, over the face and eyes, and all your d---d jaws. To pay away; to fight manfully, also to eat voraciously. To pay through the nose: to pay an extravagant price.
to pay off old scores
Tp settle accounts; used sometimes of money debts, but usually in the sense of revenging an injury, "getting even" with one.
to pay through the nose
To pay an excessive price, or at an exorbitant rate. There may be some connexion between this old phrase, "rhino" (#.v.), slang for money, and Gr. rhinos, the nose; or there may be an allusion to nose- bleeding and being bled for money.
to pay your footing
To give money for drink when you first enter on a trade. Entry money for being allowed to put your foot in the premises occupied by fellow-craftsmen. Cp. GARNISH.
to peg away at it
To stick at it persistently, in spite of difficulties and discouragement.
to peter out
To come gradually to an end, to give out. The phrase came from the Ameri- can mining camps of about '49, but its origin is not known.
to pick holes in
To find fault with; properly, to cause some depreciation and then complain of it. The older phrase was to pick a hole in one's coat.
to pick straws
To show fatigue or weariness,, as birds pick up straws to make their nests (or bed).
to pieces
completely broken or destroyed
to pig together
To huddle together like pigs in a sty. To share and share alike, especially in lodgings in a small way; formerly it meant to sleep two (or more) in the same bed.
to pinch
Slang for to steal. Where the shoe pinches. See SHOE.
to pitch into one
To assail him vigorously; to give it him hot. Touch pitch, and you will be defiled. "The finger that touches rouge will be red." "Evil communications corrupt good manners." "A rotten apple injures its companions." Shake- speare introduces the proverb in Much Ado (ui, 3).
to play a part
To perform some duty or pursue some course of action; also, to act deceitfully. The phrase is from the stage, where an actor's part is the words or the character assigned to him.
to play a waiting game
To bide one's time, knowing that that is the best way of winning; to adopt Fabian tactics (q.v.).
to play fast and loose
To run with the hare and hunt with the hounds; to blow both hot and cold; to say one thing and do another.
to play into someone's hands
Unwittingly or carelessly to act so that the other party gets the best of it; to do just what will help him and not advance your own cause.
To play Old Harry
To play the devil; to ruin, or seriously damage.
to play one's best card
To do that which one hopes is most likely to secure victory.
to play one's last trump
To be reduced to one's last expedient; a phrase from card- playing.
to play one's own hand
To look after Number One; to act entirely for one's own advantage.
to play second fiddle
To take a subordinate part. To fiddle about To trifle, fritter away one's time, mess about, play at doing things instead of doing them. To fiddle with one's fingers is to move them about as a fiddler moves his fingers up and down the fiddle-strings.
to play the game
To act in a straightforward, honourable manner; to keep to the rules. This they all with a joyful mind Bear through life like a torch in flame, And falling, fling to the host behind — "Play up! Play up! and play the game!
to play the giddy ox
To act the fool gene- rally; to behave in an irresponsible or over- hilarious manner.
To play the Greek
To indulge in one's cups. The Greeks have always been considered a luxurious race, fond of creature comforts. The rule in Greek banquets was E pithi e apithi (Quaff, or be off!).
To play the Jack
To play the rogue, the knave. To deceive or lead astray like Jack-o'- lantern, or ignis fatuus.
to plough the sands
To engage in some al- together fruitless labour. To plough with another's heifer. To use information obtained by unfair means>e.£. through a treacherous friend. A biblical phrase.
to pluck a pigeon
To cheat a gullible person of his money; to fleece a greenhorn.
to plume oneself on something
To be proud of it, conceited about it; to boast of it. A plume is a feather, and to plume oneself is to feather one's own conceit.
to pocket an insult
To submit to an insult without showing annoyance. To put one's hand in one's pocket. To give money (generally to some chanty).
to polish off a meal
To eat it quickly, and not keep anyone waiting.
to pommel
To beat: originally confined to beating with the hilt of a sword, the knob being, from its similarity to a small apple, called pomelle; in Spanish it is still called the apple of the sword. As the clenched fist likewise somewhat resembles an apple, perhaps that might occasion the term pommelling to be applied to fisty-cuffs.
to pop the question
To propose or make an offer of marriage. As this important demand is supposed to be unexpected, the question is said to be "popped.
to post the cole
To pay or put down the cash. If he don't tip the cole without more ado, give him a taste of the pump, that's all. — HARRISON ATNSWORTH: Jack Sheppard.
to pour oil on troubled waters
To soothe by gentle words; to bring about a state of calm after great anger or excitement, etc., by tact and diplomacy.
to pray a tales
To pray that the number of jurymen may be completed. In the celebrated action Bardell v.
to press the button
To set in motion, literally or figuratively, generally by simple means as the pressing of a button will start electrically-driven machinery or apparatus.
to prick up one's ears
To listen attentively to something not expected, as horses prick up their ears at a sudden sound.
to prophesy upon velvet
To prophesy what is already a known fact. Vended, War of La (la von' da). The rising of royalists against the French Republic in 1793-5 in La Vendee, a Department of western France, and Brittany. It was followed by the War of the Chouans (see CHOUAN), which was finally suppressed by Napoleon in 1800.
to pull caps
To quarrel like two women, who pull each other's caps. An obsolete phrase, used only of women.
to pull one's weight
To do the very best one can, exert oneself to the utmost of one's ability. The phrase comes from rowing; an oarsman who does not put all his weight into the stroke tends to become a passenger.
to pull oneself together
To rouse oneself to renewed activity; to shake off depression or inertia.
to pull someone's leg
To delude him in a humorous way, lead him astray by chaff, exag- geration, etc.
to pull the wires
To control events, politics, etc., clandestinely from behind the scenes, as the unseen operator manipulates the marion- ettes in a puppet-show.
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