Brewer's: Tom Tidler's Ground

The ground or tenement of a sluggard. The expression occurs in Dicken's Christmas story, 1861. Tidler is a contraction of “the idler” or t'idler. The game so called consists in this: Tom Tidler stands on a heap of stones, gravel, etc.; other boys rush on the heap crying, “Here I am on Tom Tidler's ground,” and Tom bestirs himself to keep the invaders off.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Related Content