Brewer's: Long-tailed

How about the long-tailed beggar? A reproof given to one who is drawing the longbow too freely. The tale is that a boy who had been a short voyage pretended on his return to have forgotten everything belonging to his native home, and asked his mother what she called that “long-tailed beggar,” meaning the cat.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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