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art thou weary? From a hymn translated from the Greek by the Reverend J. M. Neale (181866). It continues: art thou languid, / art thou sore distressed? Compare: Art thou troubled? / Music will calm thee. Art thou weary an aria from Handels opera Rodelinda (1725), with libretto by Salvi.
as any fule kno [as any fool know] A stock phrase of the schoolboy character Nigel Molesworth in the books written by Geoffrey Willans and illustrated by Ronald Searle in the 1950s. The books retained the schoolboy spelling of the Curse of St Custards. From Down With Skool! (1953): A chiz is a swiz or swindle as any fule kno. The phrase had a revival from the 1980s onwards when the books were republished.
as awkward as a pig with side pockets (Of a person) very awkward. Apperson finds as much need of it as a toad of a side pocket, said of a person who desires anything for which he has no real occasion, by 1785, and as much use as a cow has for side pockets, in Cheshire Proverbs (1917). Compare as awkward as a cow with a musket.
as black as Egypts night Very black indeed. The allusion is biblical. Exodus 10:21 mentions the plague of darkness which may be felt (a sandstorm, perhaps), that Moses imposed on the Pharaoh in response to the Lords instruction. Samuel Wesley (d. 1837) had: Gloomy and dark as Hells or Egypts night; and John and Charles Wesleys version of Psalm 55 contains (although the Bible doesnt): And horror deep as Egypts night, or hells tremendous gloom. A more benign view of Egypts night occurs in Kiplings The White Mans Burden (1899) where the people of India complain of British colonization: Why brought ye us from bondage, / Our loved Egyptian night? where the reference
is to civilized Egypt. In the poem Riding Down from Bangor, written by the American Louis Shreve Osborne and anthologized by 1897, a bearded student and a village maiden make the most of it when the railway train in which they are travelling enters a tunnel: Whiz! Slap! Bang! into the tunnel quite / Into glorious darkness, black as Egypts night
as black as Newgate knocker This comparison meaning extremely black and known by 1881 alludes to Newgate gaol, the notorious prison for the City of London until 1880. It must have had a very formidable and notable knocker because not only do we have this expression but a Newgate knocker was the name given to a lock of hair twisted to look like a knocker.
as black as the Devils nutting bag Apperson has this by 1866. Mrs Jean Wigget wrote (1995) that her mother used to say that Dirty hands looked like the colour of Old Nicks nutting bag.
as busy as a one-armed paperhanger with the itch Colourful comparison, listed by Mencken (1942) as an American saying. As busy as a one-armed man with the nettle-rash pasting on wall-paper appears in O. Henry, Gentle Grafter: The Ethics of Pig (1908). The supply is endless, but here are a few more: as scarce as rocking-horse manure (an example from Australia); as lonely as a country dunny (ditto); as mad as a gumtree full of galahs (ditto); as inconspicuous as Liberace at a wharfies picnic (ditto); as black as an Abos arsehole (ditto); as easy as juggling with soot; as jumpy as a one-legged cat in a sandbox; as much chance as a fart in a windstorm; as much use as a one-legged man at an arse-kicking contest (or a legless man in a pants-kicking contest Gore Vidal, Life Magazine (9 June 1961); as likely as a snowstorm in Karachi. In his 1973 novel Red Shift, Alan Garner has youre as much use as a chocolate teapot; as useless as a chocolate kettle (of a UK football team), quoted on BBC Radio QuoteUnquote (1986).
as cold as charity Ironic description of charity that is grudgingly given or dispensed without warmth particularly by the public charities of the Victorian era. In 1382, John Wycliffe translated Matthew 24:12 as: The charite of many schal wexe coold. Robert Southey, The Soldiers Wife (1721), has: Cold is thy heart and as frozen as charity. Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?, Chap. 43 (1865) has: The wind is as cold as charity.
as dark as the inside of a cow As dark as it can possibly be. A likely first appearance of this phrase is in Mark Twain, Roughing It, Chap. 4 (1891). He puts it within quotes, thus: made the place dark as the inside of a cow, as the conductor phrased it in his picturesque way. So probably an American coinage. A few years later Somerville & Ross were writing in Some Experiences of an Irish RM, Chap. 10 (1899): As black as the inside of a cow.
as different as chalk from cheese Very different indeed (despite the superficial similarity that they both look whitish). In use since the 16th century, although the pairing of the alliterative chalk and cheese has been known since 1393. Sometimes found as not to know chalk from cheese unable to tell the difference or to be able to tell chalk from cheese to have good sense.
as dim as a Toc H lamp Very dim (unintelligent). Dates from the First World War in which there was a Christian social centre for British other ranks opened at Talbot House in Poperinghe, Belgium, in 1915 and named after an officer who was killed G. W. L. Talbot, son of a Bishop of Winchester. Toc H was signalese for Talbot House. The institute continued long after the war under its founder, the Reverend P. B. (Tubby) Clayton. A lamp was its symbol.