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Skirt

.

To sit upon one’s skirt. To insult, or seek occasion of quarrel. Tarlton, the clown, told his audience the reason why he wore a jacket was that “no one might sit upon his skirt.” Sitting on one’s skirt is, like stamping on one’s coat in Ireland, a fruitful source of quarrels, often provoked.

“Crosse me not, Liza, nether be so perte,

For if thou dost, Iʹll sit upon thy skirte.”


The Abortive of an Idle Howre (1620).


(Quoted by Halliwell: Archoic Words.)

 

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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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Skied
Skillygolee
Skimble-Skamble
Skimmington
Skin
Skin a Flint
Skin of his Teeth
Skinfaxi
Skinflint
Skinners
Skirt
Skogan (Henry)
Skopts, Skopti, or White Doves
Skull
Skurry (A)
Sky
Sky
Sky-blue
Sky-rakers
Skye (Isle of)
Skylark