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Commodity of Brown Paper (A)

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Rubbish served as make-weight; worthless stock; goods palmed off on the inexperienced. In most auctions the buyer of a lot has a fair share of the commodity of brown paper. Rubbish given to supplement a loan.

“Here’s young Master Rashʹ! he’s in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, nine-score and seventeen pounds [i.e. £197, a part of the advance being old ginger and brown paper].”—Shakespeare: Measure for Measure, iv. 3.

 

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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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Comet Wine
Coming Round
Command Night
Commandment
Comme il Faut
Commendam
Commendation Ninepence
Commis-voyageur (A)
Committee
Committing Falsehood
Commodity of Brown Paper (A)
Commodore
Common Pleas
Common Prayer
Common Sense
Commoner
Commons
Commons in Gross
Commonwealths (Ideal)
Companion Ladder
Companions of Jehu