Countercheck Quarrelsome
Preserved but no longer current.
Sir, how dare you utter such a falsehood? Sir, you know that it is not true. This, in Touchstone's classification (Shakespeare's As You Like It> v, 4\ is the third remove from the lie direct; or rather, the lie direct in the third degree.
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 “Countercheck Quarrelsome” mean?
Sir, how dare you utter such a falsehood? Sir, you know that it is not true. This, in Touchstone's classification (Shakespeare's As You Like It> v, 4\ is the third remove from the lie direct; or rather, the lie direct in the third degree.
Is “Countercheck Quarrelsome” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.