ALL MOUTH AND TROUSERS

[Q] ?I have always known the saying as all mouth and trousers. But Matthew Parris recently wrote in The Times about the tendency of the Conservative Party to use soundbites such as ?All mouth and no delivery?. He said: ?The phrase (surely?) is all mouth and no trousers. The Tory grip on gritty northern folk truths is uncertain, and there may be some mental confusion with all talk and no action or even all fur coat and no knickers?. Can you shed light on the subject??

[A] The form with the negative is certainly common. I can?t give you chapter and verse from direct experience, though I know that the BBC television programme Last of the Summer Wine ? firmly based in Yorkshire ? has always used your form, all mouth and trousers, as an effective put-down of a certain kind of over-confident man.

In the Cassell Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green is also quite sure that the expression should lack a negative. He explains it as being a pairing of mouth, cheek or insolence, with trousers, a pushy sexual bravado, a fine double example of metonymy (?a container for the thing contained?).

I think Matthew Parris, like others who don?t know the origin of the expression, is trying to make sense of it by adding the no. And the other idioms he quotes are persuasive in supporting this faulty interpretation. It?s a lovely phrase, though, as good a put-down as anyone could want (all the better for being slightly obscure), and it?s one that ought to be preserved pristine. Eliminate the negative!

Posted By: Johnny Comecardiff on June 30th 2008 at 10:43:20

Message Thread

FAO anyone who can realistically look at this situation (NCFC) - Yellow Ice, Jun 30, 10:25:28
- Shitloads! (NCFC) - Small, Jun 30, 10:28:58
- If Cullum doesnt invest (NCFC) - phrankin, Jun 30, 10:28:40
- Jesus christ on a bike (with all the orphans in a pull-along behind) (NCFC) - Arizona Bay, Jun 30, 10:27:51
  - I CANT' I HAVE NO PATIENCE!!!! (NCFC) - megson, Jun 30, 10:30:41
    - *drawer (NCFC) - Arizona Bay, Jun 30, 10:31:24
      - is it? thanks for that (NCFC) - megson, Jun 30, 10:35:10
        
        and 'arse over tit' (n/m) (NCFC) - blindasabat, Jun 30, 10:37:32
        
        All mouth and NO trousers (n/m) (NCFC) - Old Git, Jun 30, 10:37:29
        
        See i Disagree with you there (NCFC) - megson, Jun 30, 10:39:31
        
        Well well (NCFC) - Old Git, Jun 30, 10:44:48
        
        OH GET IN YOU BEAUTY!!!!!! Forget Cullum this is todays BIG Story! (NCFC) - megson, Jun 30, 10:47:30
        
        megson mugs off old git in idiom wonder victory (NCFC) - Tomblander, Jun 30, 10:50:06
        
        Old Git uses well known metropolitan variation of Dirty Northern phrase (NCFC) - Old Git, Jun 30, 10:52:27
        
        Man bites dog (n/m) (NCFC) - Holden Caulfield, Jun 30, 10:59:12
        
        ALL MOUTH AND TROUSERS (NCFC) - Johnny Comecardiff, Jun 30, 10:43:20
        
        i thought you delibrately got that wrong... (n/m) (NCFC) - blindasabat, Jun 30, 10:41:43
        
        I'm convinced its right, honestly! (NCFC) - megson, Jun 30, 10:43:24
        
        fur coat, no knickers (NCFC) - camcan, Jun 30, 10:45:13
        
        Fur coat, no knickers (NCFC) - Holden Caulfield, Jun 30, 10:49:13
        
        If only I could persuade Mrs CC to try that. (n/m) (NCFC) - Johnny Comecardiff, Jun 30, 10:47:34
        
        Just buy her the fur coat, Johnny, and you'd be amazed what she would do (n/m) (NCFC) - Old Git, Jun 30, 10:51:35
        
        You've clearly never met Mrs CC...... (NCFC) - Johnny Comecardiff, Jun 30, 10:56:40
        
        PS I will get round to sending you the Sibbo this week. (NCFC) - Johnny Comecardiff, Jun 30, 10:57:17
        
        chuckle, Fur coat and just knickers (and Bra) may be more fun. (n/m) (NCFC) - megson, Jun 30, 10:49:18
        
        No Trousers No Future (n/m) (NCFC) - Tomblander, Jun 30, 10:45:11
      - *can't (NCFC) - camcan, Jun 30, 10:34:28
  - well we had piss all in January and havent sold anyone (NCFC) - phrankin, Jun 30, 10:29:22

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