Coat

Cut your coat according to your cloth. Curtail your expenses to the amount of your income; live within your means. Si non possis quod velis, velis id quod possis.

Near is my coat, but nearer is my skin. “Tunica pallĭo propior est.” “Ego proximus inihi.”

To baste one’s coat. To dust his jacket; to beat him.

To wear the king’s coat. To be a soldier.

Turning one’s coat for luck. It was an ancient superstition that this was a charm against evil spirits. (See Turncoat.)

“William found

A means for our deliverance: ‘Turn your cloaks

Quoth hee, ‘for Pucke is busy in these oakes.ʹ”

Bishop Corbett: Iter Borealë.

· ·

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

Linking here: