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I have just tried to kill your avatar!!
Quote from: Nick on October 03, 2010, 06:30:17 PMMr Thread meet Mr Gutter Are you training to be a ventriloquist
Mr Thread meet Mr Gutter
Just switched on Central to watch Heartbeat and there's some freaking X factor crap on. Tried Harlech and it's the same...
Best Answer - Chosen by VotersThis comes from a site I often find a helpful source of information:www.phrases.org: "British English A to Zed" (HarperCollins, New York, 1991)by Norman W. Schur says: "slap-up, adj. (informal) First rate, great, terrific. The British once used both slap-up and bang-up commonly; both would be considered old-fashioned now. A 'slap-up do' meant a 'bang-up job,' a first rate piece of work, and especially a splendid party with no expense spared."Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable gives an origin and a Dickens quote.Slap up. To have a slap up meal means to eat well. The expression goes back to the time of Charles Dickens, when it was a "slap-bang" meal, derived from cheap eating houses, where one slapped one's money down as the food was banged on the table. Why "down" has turned to "up" is probably another example of language evolution, in much the same way as "to be sold a pig in a poke" has come to mean that one has been cheated, whereas, in reality, the reason for going to a medieval market was often to buy the pig and not to be "sold a pup"!Quote: Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 3, 36. "They lived in the same street, walked to town every morning at the same hour, dined at the same slap-bang every day."
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