Lie Direct (The)

Sir, that’s a lie. You are a liar. This is an offence no gentleman can take.

“One day as I was walking, with my customary swagger,

Says a fellow to me, ‘Pistol, youʹre a coward, though a bragger.ʹ

Now, this was an indignity no gentleman could take, sir.

So I told him flat and plump. ‘You lie—(under a mistake, sir).ʹ”

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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.