or “être battu de lʹoiseau,” to be utterly dismayed; to be dazed. The allusion is to bird-catching at night, when a candle or lantern is held up before the birds aroused from their sleep; the birds, being dazed, are beaten down easily with sticks.
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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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