- skip - Brewer’s

Tear (to rhyme with “snare”)

.

To tear Christ’s body. To use imprecations. The common oaths of mediæval times were by different parts of the Lord’s body, hence the preachers used to talk of “tearing God’s body by imprecations.”

“Her others been so greet and so dampnable.

That it is grisly for to hiere hëm swere.

Our blisful Lordës body thay to-tere.”


Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, 13,889.

 

previous entry · index · next entry

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.

previous entry · index · next entry

Taylor
Taylor’s Institute
Tohin
Tohow Dynasty
Te Deum, etc.
Te Igitur
Teague (A)
Teakettle Broth
Tean or Teian Poet
Teanlay Night
Tear (to rhyme with “snare”)
Tear (to rhyme with “fear”)
Tear Handkerchief (The)
Teaspoon (A)
Teazle (Lady)
Teazle (Sir Peter)
Teck (A)
Teeth
Teeth are Drawn (His)
Teeth of the Wind (In the)
Teetotal

Linking here:

Pen and Feather