/ · 1894 Brewer’s · T · Tailor’s Sword (A), or A Tailor’s Dagger
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A needle.
“The tailors cross-legged on their boards,
Needle-armed, hand-extended, prepared
To stab the black cloth with their swords [to make up mourning]
The instant that death is declared.”
Peter Pindar: Great Cry and Little Wool, Epist. i.
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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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