Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/282

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 a. in APRIL u, 1917.

As tough as bull-beef.

As tough as the devil's shoe-sole.

As tough as the tongs.

As tough, or as tiff, as whitleather.

As trig as a drum. "Trig " is tight strained, distended.

As trig as a mouse. When any one has over- eaten himself, he feels " as trig as a mouse."

As waffy, or as weak, as a cat. " Waffy " means weak, or suffering from an indefinable feeling of malaise.

As washed out [in appearance] as a dish-cloth.

As wet, or weet, as a drowned rat.

As wet as -drip. " Drip " here may mean snow, as it does in Lancashire. In its other sense it mea-ns the fat exuding from fried bacon.

As wet as muck.

As wet as thack. The straw used for thatching is wetted before it is laid in place, to make it " bed " properly.

As white as drip. " Drip " here may mean snow, though snow is not spoken of as " drip " in a general way.

As wick as an eel. " Wick " is quick, lively.

As wide as a week.

As wild as the wind.

As yellow as a duck's foot. Used of the com- plexion.

Then you'll have to lump it, as dogs do suet. Said to any one who grumbles. The phrase pro- bably once meant that something disagreeable must be endured, even if taken " in the lump," as dogs bolt miet ; but now it signifies, " You will have to do it, or, bear it," without regard to time.

Like a bee in a bottle. Used of a booming or humming sound. G. T.'s singing was said to be " like a bee in a bottle."

Like a bully cooked in soot. Very swarthy, very dark. " Bully " means a bullace.

Like a cat in pattens. Used of one who moves in an affected manner with delicate precision.

Like cobbler Bole,

Who set the patch beside the hole.

To cling like a cleg. " Cleg " is one of the names of the breeze-fly, or gad-fly, Tabamts bovinus, the female of which is very bloodthirsty. It inflicts great pain and is difficult to get rid of.

He cawed like a craw [crow] with a scalded throat.

To shine like a craw [crow].

Like a dog in a well, or, like a pig in a well. 111 at ease, out of one's element, lonely, helpless. See 6 S. viii. 202.

Like trying to get feathers from a frog, or, from a fish.

A memory like a frog's tail. No memory at all.

Like eating hasty-pudding with a pin. Said when the means used are manifestly inadequate to accomplish the end in view.

Like Gims's pig, that thought they were bringing its supper when they came to kill it.

Like a hen with one chicken. " II est plus embarrass^ qu'une poule qui n'a qu'un poulet " (J. Fleury, ' Litte>ature Orale de la Basse- Normandie,' 1883, p. 375).

Jiffle and flit like an ill-sitting hen. To wag like a lamb's tail. Used of the tongue of a garrulous person.

To do it like Old Boots. To do it with great energy, vehemenc*.

Like a primrose in a casson. I.e., in cow-dung. Dancing about like a spindle bewitched.

Like a sow with side-pockets. Used of some one unsuitably dressed. " Of no more use than a side-pocket to a toad " is also to be heard, and a similar phrase is current in Nottinghamshire.

Like a toad dressed in muslin.

Like a toad dressed in writing-paper. Un- suitably attired, and therefore grotesque.

Like a toad peeping out of a rimy hedge. Said of a not very clean-looking man in a fine white collar.

Like a toad in a cream-pot. " Me in white muslin ! I should look like a toad in a cream- pot." " Like a hedgehog dressed in lace " is to be heard in France.

Like a toad on a shovel. Used of riders with a certain ungraceful, and apparently insecure seat in the saddle ; also of people who live in a state of uncertainty with regard to health, or worldly affairs.

Like a toad under a harrow. Suffering from oppression. Any one with an exacting employer, or a long-tongued wife, lives " like a toad under a harrow." The Scotch have the saying in a longer form. A French thirteenth-century pro- verb says : "A deables tant de maistres dist li crapos a la herse " (' Le Livre des Proverbea Francais,' par Le Boux de Lincy, 1842, i. 112).

Straight up and down, like a yard of pump- water.

Lincolnshire is one of the counties in which it is customary to hear idioms like " As cruel as cruel," meaning very cruel, extremely cruel. One often remarks such phrases as t " I am as glad as glad to see you." " Butter- cups is as yellow as yellow." " He was as foul as foul"=he was as ill-tempered as possible. " Them clothes is as wet as wet."

Glossaries of the various dialects should be consulted. SOUTHUMBRIA.

All behind like a cow's tail.

DE V. PA YEN-PAYNE.

The late Edward Peacock noted down several comparisons similar in kind to " as big as a lump of chalk." These were :

As big as A Testament.

As big as a Psalter.

As big as a lady's prayer-book.

As big as a poetry-book.

As big as a basket.

As big as a dog.

As big as a room.

" The space cleared," says The Times, " is about as large as a fair-sized drawing-room" (The Antiquary, June, 1900, p. 161).

The size of a wheel. Used by Sir Charles Lyall, but the full reference is not given.

As long as a boat (Charles Kingsley, ' Water Babies,' 1889, p. 140).

To these may be added : " It [snow] began to fall in flakes as large as a butterfly " (' Pveminiscences of Admiral Montagu,' 1910, p. 179). According to ' Chambers' s En- cyclopaedia,' 1886, " Butterflies vary in size from less than an inch to almost a foot across the expanded wings. The largest species are tropical." M. P.