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Sow (to rhyme with “now”)

.

You have got the wrong sow by the ear. Sow is a large tub with two ears or handles; it is used for pickling or sowsing. The expression means, therefore, You have got hold of the wrong vessel, or, as the Latin phrase has it, “Pro amʹphorâ urʹceus” (You have brought me the little jug instead of the great gotch). French, seau (a bucket).

You have got the right sow by the ear. You have hit upon the very thing.

Sow. (See Pig Iron.)

 

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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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Sound as a Roach
Soundings
Sour Grapes
Sour Grapeism
South-Sea Scheme or Bubble
Southampton Street (London)
Southampton’s Wise Sons
Southern Gate of the Sun
Soutras
Sovereign
Sow (to rhyme with “now”)
Spa or Spa Water
Spade
Spadish Language (In)
Spafields (London)
Spagiric Art
Spagiric Food
Spagnaletto [the little Spaniard]
Spaie
Spain
Span New