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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…

Brewer's: Tiber

called The Yellow Tiber, because it is discoloured with yellow mud. “Verticlbus rapidis, et multa flavus arena.” Virgil: AEneid, vii. 31. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E.…

Brewer's: Red Rose Knight

(The) Tom Thumb or Tom-a-lin. Richard Johnson, in 1597, published a “history of this ever-renowned soldier, the Red Rose Knight, surnamed the Boast of England. ...” Source: Dictionary of…

Brewer's: Loud Patterns

Flashy, showy ones. The analogy between sound and colour is very striking. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894Loud as Tom of LincolnLotus-eaters A B C D E…

Brewer's: Louis

(St.) is usually represented as holding the Saviour's crown of thorns and the cross, sometimes, however, he is represented with a pilgrim's staff, and sometimes with the standard of the…

Brewer's: Bedlam

A lunatic asylum or madhouse; a contraction for Bethlehem, the name of a religious house in London, converted into a hospital for lunatics. Tom o' Bedlam. (See Tom.) St. Mary of Bethlehem…

Brewer's: Black Thursday

February 6th, 1851; so called in the colony of Victoria, from a terrible bush-fire which then occurred. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894Black TomBlack-thorn…

Brewer's: Black Watch

Companies employed to watch the Islands of Scotland. They dressed in a “black” or dark tartan (1725). Subsequently they were enrolled into the 42nd regiment, under the Earl of Crawford, in…

Brewer's: Peep-o'-Day Boys

The Irish insurgents of 1784; so called because they used to visit the houses of their opponents (called defenders) at peep of day searching for arms or plunder. Source: Dictionary of…

Brewer's: Jerry-shop

or a Tom and Jerry Shop. A low-class beer-house. Probably the Tom and Jerry was a public-house sign when Pierce Egan's Life in London was popular. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable…