Search
Search results
Displaying 21 - 30
Brewer's: Majority
He has joined the majority. He is dead. Blair says, in hisGrave, “'tis long since Death had the majority.” “Abiit ad plures;” “Quin prius me ad plures penetravi” (Plautus; Trinummus, line…Brewer's: Sosia
The living double of another, as the brothers Antipholus and brothers Dromio in the Comedy of Errors, and the Corsican brothers in the drama so called. Sosia is a servant of Amphitryon, in…Brewer's: Demerit
has reversed its original meaning (Latin, demereo, to merit, to deserve). Hence Plautus, Demertas dare laudas (to accord due praise); Ovid, Numina culta demeruisse; Livy, dernerèri…Brewer's: Die
The die is cast. The step is taken, and I cannot draw back. So said Julius Caesar when he crossed the Rubicon. I have set my life upon the cast, And I will stand the hazard of the die.…Brewer's: Crux
(A). A knotty point, a difficulty. Instantia crucis means a crucial test, or the point where two similar diseases crossed and showed a special feature. It does not refer to the cross, an…Brewer's: Cuckoo
A cuckold. The cuckoo occupies the nest and eats the eggs of other birds; and Dr. Johnson says “it was usual to alarm a husband at the approach of an adulterer by calling out `Cuckoo,'…Brewer's: Bos
[ei] in lingua. He is bribed to silence; he has a coin (marked with a bull's head) on his tongue. Adalardus, in Statutis Abbatiæ Corbeiensis (bk. i. c. 8), seems to refer to the bos as a…Brewer's: Cut your Coat according to your Cloth
Stretch your arm no farther than your sleeve will reach. Little barks must keep near shore, Larger ones may venture more. French: “Selon ta bourse nourris ta bouche.” “Selon le pain il…Brewer's: All to break (Judges ix. 53).
“A certain woman cast a piece of millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all to brake his skull” does not mean for the sake of breaking his skull, but that she wholly smashed his skull. A…Brewer's: Drinking Healths
was a Roman custom. Thus, in Plautus, we read of a man drinking to his mistress with these words: “Bene vos, bene nos, bene te, bene me, bene nostrum etiam Stephanium ” (Here's to you,…