Among colloquialisms are.—BEEN IN THE SUN = drunk: see SCREWED. BEEN MEASURED FOR A NEW UMBRELLA = a sportive allusion to anyone appearing in new, ill-fitting clothes, or who has struck out a new line of action, the wisdom of which is doubtful: the joke is an old one and refers to a man of whom it was said that nothing fitted him but his umbrella. Oh, yes, I’ve been there!—‘I know what I am about’: when it is said of a man that he has BEEN THERE, shrewdness, pertinacity, and experience are implied; when said of women secret prostitution or adultery is meant.
1888. Atlanta Constitution, 4 May. The Japanese say: ‘A man takes a drink; then the drink takes a drink, and next the drink takes the man.’ Evidently the Japanese ‘HAVE BEEN THERE.’
