as quickly as possible
Preserved but no longer current.
In old bed-frames it is said that posts were placed in brackets at the two sides of the bedstead for keeping the bed- clothes from rolling off; there was also in some cases a staff used to beat the bed and clean it. In the reign of Edward I, Sir John Chichester had a mock skirmish with his servant (Sir John with his rapier and the servant with the bed-staff), in which the servant was accidentally killed.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “as quickly as possible” mean?
In old bed-frames it is said that posts were placed in brackets at the two sides of the bedstead for keeping the bed- clothes from rolling off; there was also in some cases a staff used to beat the bed and clean it. In the reign of Edward I, Sir John Chichester had a mock skirmish with his servant (Sir John with his rapier and the servant with the bed-staff), in which the servant was accidentally killed.
Is “as quickly as possible” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.