Powder

Iʹll powder your jacket for you. A corruption of poudrer (to dust). (See Dust.)

“Lo! in powdur [dust] ye schall slepe,

For out of powdur fyrst ye came.”

Quoted by Halliwell under “Poudre.”

Not worth powder and shot. “Le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle.” The thing shot wonʹt pay the cost of powder and shot.

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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.