Hoist with His Own Petard marshal me to knavery. Let it work; for ’tis good sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard.” —SHAKESPEARE : Hamlet,  Thus Hamlet, in Shakespeare’s play, seeking to foil the designs of the king against him. The phrase means to be caught in one’s own trap. In the early days of the use of cannon in warfare, the French had a species of artillery...

Take Time by The Forelock The common figure of Old Father Time represents him as having a small curly lock drooping over his forehead: otherwise he is as bald as a new-born babe. Shakespeare (King John, tn. i) calls him 7 “Old Time, the clock-seller: that bald sexton, Time.” The origin of our phrase goes back to the time of Thales of Miletus (636-546 B.C.), and the underlying idea seems to...

At All Hazards When we say that we will undertake a certain venture “at all hazards,” we mean that we shall be prepared to stake. all we have on the risk of defeat and consequent total loss. Soldiers and sailors, it has been remarked in other notes, have been responsible for the introduction into our language of many words: Some of these words were coined from the faulty pronunciation, on one...

Cut Off The Nose To Spite The Face “He that smites his nose and has it not, forfeits his face to the king.” —Old proverb. To cut off the nose to spite the face is said of one who, Ito be revenged on his neighbour, materially injures himself. (Grose: Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1796). The origin of this phrase is probably based on the story of a man who, having...

Cut The Gordian Knot “His sword would have cut the Gordian Knot of hereditary right.” -BOLINGBROKE: On Parties (1735). “Cutting the Gordian knot” is ordinarily held to signify a promptitude in the determination to solve an intricate problem. As the result of a chariot race which he had won, he being the first to enter the Temple of Jupiter at Gordium, a certain peasant of Phrygia, named Gordiok, was chosen by...