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Soaped-pig Fashion (In)

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Vague; a method of speaking or writing which always leaves a way of escape. The allusion is to the custom at fairs, etc., of soaping the tail of a pig before turning it out to be caught by the tail.

“He is vague as may be; writing in what is called the ‘soaped-pigʹ fashion.”—Carlyle: The Diamond Necklace, chap. iv.

 

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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.

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Snooks
Snore
Snow King
Snowdonia
Snowdrop (The)
Snuff
Snuff Out
Soane Museum
Soap
Soap (Castile)
Soaped-pig Fashion (In)
Soapy Sam
Sober or Sobrius
Sober as a Judge—i.e. grave and sedate
Sobrino (in Orlando Furioso)
Sobriquet (French)
Socialism
Société de Momus
Society
Sock [comedy]
Sock a Corpse (To)