eat the leek

Gammerstang commented on the word eat the leek

(verb) - (1) In familiar language, to withdraw under compulsion . . . and to apologise.

--Rev. James Stormonth's Dictionary of the English Language, 1884

(2) In allusion to the Shakespeare passage from Henry V, "Hee is come to me, and prings me pread and sault yesterday; looke you, and bid me eate my Leeke."

--Sir James Murray's New English Dictionary, 1897

January 15, 2018