to carry coals
Preserved but no longer current.
To be put upon. "Greg- ory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals" — i.e. submit to be "put upon" (Romeo and Juliet, i, 1). So in Every Man out of his Humour, "Here comes one that will carry coals, ergo, will hold my dog." The allusion is to the dirty, laborious occupation of charcoal carriers.
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 “to carry coals” mean?
To be put upon. "Greg- ory, o' my word, we'll not carry coals" — i.e. submit to be "put upon" (Romeo and Juliet, i, 1). So in Every Man out of his Humour, "Here comes one that will carry coals, ergo, will hold my dog." The allusion is to the dirty, laborious occupation of charcoal carriers.
Is “to carry coals” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.