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Clement Skitt’s word of the day

Clement Skitt’s word of the day published on No Comments on Clement Skitt’s word of the day

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“He’s real blowed-in-the-glass, you’d never smoke he’d go caterwauling and end up in monkey and parrot time.”

Let’s dissect:

Blowed-in-the-glass:  a genuine, trustworthy individual (Wikipedia: Hobo Expressions used through 1940s)

Monkey and parrot time: a lady left her favorite bird in company with a monkey and during her absence the two animals had a fight.  When she returned the monkey was wiping his scratched face and the almost featherless parrot called out, ‘we’ve been having a hell of a  time.’  a general row or free fight is a ‘monkey and parrot time.’ (1891 American Slang Dictionary by James Maitland)

CATERWAULING: Going out in the night in search of  intrigues, like a cat in the gutters. (1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose)

TO SMOKE: To observe, to suspect. (1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Francis Grose)

To sum up “He’s real blowed-in-the-glass, you’d never smoke he’d go caterwauling and end up in monkey and parrot time” means “he’s a really genuine and trustworthy, you’d never suspect that he’d go out on the town all night and get into to fights.”

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