Wreath for Riviera (1949), Inspector Alleyn whispers, ‘You cry mum and I’ll cry budget’, when hiding from a villain. The allusion is to Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, V.ii.6 (1600–1), in which Slender’s ludicrous planned elopement with Anne Page is to be carried out by their finding each other in the crowd with the greeting ‘Mum’ to be answered by ‘Budget’ – ‘and by that we know one another’. The Arden edition of Shakespeare adds the gloss: ‘An appropriately childish greeting. “Mumbudget”…was used of an inability or a refusal to speak…OED conjectures, with convincing citations, that it was “the name of some children’s game in which silence was required”. Thomas Hardy later uses “to come mumbudgeting” in the sense of “to come secretly”.’
crystal clear This phrase is about as clear (in meaning) as it is possible to get. Known in connection with glass (Browning, 1845) and water (1859). Identified as a current cliché in The Times (17 March 1995). ‘The Administration was never crystal-clear on exactly how we would massively retaliate with nuclear weapons’ – The Listener (29 March 1962); ‘In this book we have the service itself and the crystal clear explanations of Raymond Chapman as to the meaning of various passages and who does what and why’ – advertisement for book Draw Near With Faith (1995).
(a/the) cultural cringe A belief that one’s own country’s culture is inferior to that of others. This phrase is probably Australian in origin and is certainly well known in that country. Arthur Angell Phillips wrote in 1950: ‘Above our writers – and other artists – looms the intimidating mass of Anglo-Saxon culture. Such a situation almost inevitably produces the characteristic Australian Cultural Cringe – appearing either as the Cringe Direct, or as the Cringe Inverted, in the attitude of the Blatant Blatherskite, the God’s-Own-Country and I’m-a-better-man-than-you-are Australian bore.’
(a) culture vulture Slightly mocking name for a person who gobbles up artistic experiences, especially as a tourist. DOAS has it by 1947 and, indeed, it is probably an American coinage.
cunning plan See I HAVE.
cupboard love Devotion to people because of the material things, notably food, that they can provide. Originally, perhaps, from the display of love by children towards the cook in a household – love that is based on this kind of self-interest. From the middle of the 18th century. Later also known as lump-love, where the real object of affection is a lump of food.
(my) cup runneth over Meaning ‘I’m overjoyed; my blessings are numerous’, the expression derives from Psalms 23:5: ‘Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.’ Shirley Polykoff, the advertising executive, recounts in her book Does She…Or Doesn’t She? (1975) that she once jestingly proposed ‘Her cup runneth over’ as a slogan for a corset manufacturer. ‘It took an hour to unsell him,’ she adds.
(the) cup that cheers The reference here is to tea (taken in preference to alcohol). The phrase originated in ‘The Winter Evening’ from William Cowper’s The Task (1783), where it is in the plural: ‘Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast, / Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round, / And, while the bubbling and loud-hissing urn / Throws up a steamy column, and the cups, / That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each, / So let us welcome peaceful ev’ning in.’ Eric Partridge listed ‘cups that cheer but not inebriate’ in his Dictionary of Clichés (1940) and noted that earlier, in Siris (1744), Bishop Berkeley had said of tar water that it had a nature ‘so mild and benign and proportioned to the human constitution, as to warm without heating, to cheer but not inebriate’. In Three Men In a Boat, Chap. 2 (1889), Jerome K. Jerome puts the phrase into reverse: ‘Luckily you have a bottle of the stuff that cheers and inebriates, if taken in proper quantity, and this restores to you sufficient interest in life.’
(like a) curate’s egg Meaning, ‘patchy, good in parts, of unequal quality’, the phrase comes from the caption to a Punch cartoon entitled ‘TRUE HUMILITY’ (9 November 1895) in which a ‘Right Reverend Host’ (a bishop at the breakfast table) is saying: ‘I’m afraid you’ve got a bad egg, Mr Jones!’ The nervous young curate, keen not to say anything critical, flannels the reply: ‘Oh no, my Lord, I assure you! Parts of it are excellent.’ Hence the expression, although the point of the cartoon is rather that the egg is completely bad and the curate is seeking a way of softening any criticism implied by pointing this out in circumstances that are inexpedient. The cartoon was drawn by George Du Maurier, the French-born British artist and novelist (1834–96) during the last year of his life.
curlies See BY THE SHORT.
(the) curse of Scotland The nine of diamonds (playing card). As to why this should be, there are up to eight reasons advanced. The most popular of these is probably that which asserts that the Duke of Cumberland wrote his ‘no quarter’ command after the Battle of Culloden (1746) on the back of a nine of diamonds card. The slaughter of Jacobites at and after the battle by this ‘Butcher’ has never been forgotten in Scotland. However, the term for the playing card was already known by this date.
(a) curtain lecture (or Caudle lecture) Meaning ‘a private reproof given by a wife to her husband’, this phrase refers to the scolding that took place after the curtains round the bed (as on a four-poster) had been drawn. Known as such by 1633. The ‘Caudle’ variation derives from Douglas Jerrold’s Mrs Caudle’s Curtain Lectures, a series published by Punch in 1846 in which Mr Caudle suffered the naggings of his wife after they had gone to bed. Another early version of the idea is contained in the phrase ‘boulster lecture’ (1640). Lady Diana Cooper in a letter of 12 January 1944 wrote: ‘Clemmie has given him [Winston Churchill] a Caudle curtain lecture on the importance of not quarrelling with Wormwood.’
(the) customer is always right Gordon Selfridge (1856–1947) was an American who, after a spell with the Marshall Field store in Chicago came to Britain and introduced the idea of the monster department store to London. It appears that he was the first to assert that ‘the customer is always right’ and many other phrases now generally associated with the business of selling through stores. Punch had the phrase as a cartoon heading on 25 April 1934. However, the hotelier César Ritz was being credited with the saying ‘the customer is never wrong’ by 1908.
(a) custom more honour’d in the breach Usually taken to mean that whatever custom is under consideration has fallen into sad neglect. But in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I.iv.16 (1600–1), the Prince tells Horatio that the King’s drunken revelry is a custom that would be better ‘honour’d’ if it were not followed at all.
(to) cut and run Meaning, ‘to escape; run away’. The phrase has a nautical origin (recorded in 1704). In order to make a quick getaway, instead of the lengthy process of hauling up a ship’s anchor, the ship’s cable was simply cut. This was easy to do when the anchor was attached to a hemp rope rather than a chain. The figurative use was established by 1861.
(to) cut no ice with someone To make no impression whatsoever. Of American origin. Known by 1895. ‘Such speeches! Eloquence cut no ice at that dinner’ – J. S. Wood, Yale Yarns (1895).
(to) cut off at the pass Phrase from Western films, meaning ‘to intercept, ambush’ (sometimes in the form head ’em off at the pass). It resurfaced as one of the milder sayings in the transcripts of the Watergate tapes (published as The White House Transcripts, 1974). As used by President Nixon it meant simply, ‘We will use certain tactics to stop them’. The phrase occurred in a crucial exchange in the White House Oval Office on 21 March 1973 between
