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Brewer's: Door Nail
(See Dead.) Scrooge's partner is “dead as a door-nail.” (Dickens. Christmas Carol, chap. i.) Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894Door-openerDoor A B C D E…Brewer's: Box Days
Two days in spring and autumn, and one at Christmas, during vacation, in which pleadings may be filed. This custom was established in 1690, for the purpose of expediting business. Each…Brewer's: Boots at an Inn
A servant whose duty it is to clean the boots. The Boots of the Holly-tree Inn, a Christmas tale by Charles Dickens (1855). Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer,…Brewer's: Mosse
Napping, as Mosse took his mare. Wilbraham says Mosse took his mare napping, because he could not catch her when a wake. “Till day come, catch him as Mosse his grey mare, napping.” —…Brewer's: Hansel Monday
The Monday after New-Year's Day, when “hansels,” or free gifts, were given in Scotland to servants and children. Our boxing-day is the first weekday after Christmas Day. (Anglo-Saxon,…Brewer's: Hot Cockles
A Christmas game. One blindfolded knelt down, and being struck had to guess who gave the blow. Thus poets passing time away. Like children at hot-cockles play. (1653.) Source: Dictionary…Brewer's: Hulking
A great hulking fellow. A great overgrown one. A bulk is a big, lubberly fellow, applied to Falstaff by Shakespeare. It means the body of an old ship. (See above.) The monster sausage…Brewer's: King Cash
what the Americans call the “Almighty Dollar.” Now birth and rank and breeding Hardly saved from utter smash, Have been ousted, rather roughly, By the onslaught of King Cash. Truth (…Brewer's: Stir Up Sunday
The last Sunday in Trinity. So called from the first two words of the collect. It announces to schoolboys the near approach of the Christmas holidays. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and…Brewer's: Tib
St. Tib's Eve. Never. A corruption of St. Ubes. There is no such saint in the calendar as St. Ubes, and therefore her eve falls on the “Greek Kalends” (q.v.), neither before Christmas Day…Trending
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