Brewer's: Tapisserie

Faire tapisserie. To play gooseberry-picker, to be mere chaperon for the sake of “propriety.” “Se dit des personnes qui assertent á un bal ou á quelque autre grande réunion sansy prendre part.”

“You accepted out of pure kindness faire tapisserie: Mrs. Arbuthnot, you are too amiable.” —Mrs. Edwardes: A Girton Girl, chap. xxvi.

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