Oracle (Sir)

A dogmatical person, one not to be gainsaid. The ancient oracles professed to be the responses of the gods, from which there could be no appeal.

And when I ope my lips let no dog bark.”

To work the oracle. To induce another to favour some plan or join in some project.

“They fetched a rattling price through Starlight’s working the oracle with those swells.”—Boldrewood: Robbery under Arms, chap. xii.

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