BEAT ABOUT THE BUSH

When hunting birds some people would beat about the bush to drive them out into the open. Other people would than catch the birds. 'I won't beat about the bush' came to mean 'I will go straight to the point without any delay'.

BITTER END

Anchor cable was wrapped around posts called bitts. The last piece of cable was called the bitter end. If you let out the cable to the bitter end there was nothing else you could do, you had reached the end of your resources.

CHOCK-A-BLOCK

When pulleys or blocks on sailing ship were pulled so tightly together that they could not be moved any closer together they were said to be chock-a-block.

CODSWALLOP

In the 19th century wallop was slang for beer. A man named Codd began selling lemonade and it was called Codswallop. In time codswallop began to mean anything worthless or inferior and later anything untrue.

COPPER

The old word cop meant grab or capture so in the 19th century policemen were called coppers because they grabbed or caught criminals.
FLYING COLOURS

If a fleet won a clear victory the ships would sail back to port with their colours proudly flying from their masts.

GET THE SACK

This comes from the days when workmen carried their tools in sacks. If your employer gave you the sack it was time to collect your tools and go.

GET THE SACK

This comes from the days when workmen carried their tools in sacks. If your employer gave you the sack it was time to collect your tools and go.

HUMBLE PIE

The expression to eat humble pie was once to eat umble pie. The umbles were the intestines or less appetising parts of an animal and servants and other lower class people ate them. So if a deer was killed the rich ate venison and those of low status ate umble pie. In time it became corrupted to eat humble pie and came to mean to debase yourself or act with humility.

KICK THE BUCKET

When slaughtering a pig you tied its back legs to a wooden beam (in French buquet). As the animal died it kicked the buquet.

LICK INTO SHAPE

In the Middle Ages people thought that bear cubs were born shapeless and their mother literally licked them into shape.

RED HERRING

Poachers and other unsavoury characters would drag a herring across the ground where they had just walked to throw dogs off their scent. (Herrings were made red by the process of curing).