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Death’s Head on a Mopstick

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A thin, sickly person, a mere anatomy, is so called. When practical jokes were more common it was by no means unusual to mount on a mopstick a turnip with holes for eyes, and a candʹe inside, to scare travellers at night time.

 

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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Dearest
Death
Death and Doctor Hornbook
Death from Strange Causes
Death in the Pot
Death under Shield
Death-bell
Death-meal (A)
Death-watch
Death’s Head
Death’s Head on a Mopstick
Deaths-man
Debateable Land
Debon
Debonair [Le Débonnaire]
Débris
Debt of Nature
Decameron
Decamp
Decaniller
December. (Latin, the tenth month.)