OVER THE LEFT (or LEFT SHOULDER), adv. phr. (common).—Used in negation of a statement, and sometimes accompanied by pointing the thumb over the left shoulder: in FLORIO ‘in my other hose.’ It. zóccoli. The expression occurs also in le Parnasse Satyrique (1611). Cf. LEFT-HANDED.
1682. Preface to Julian the Apostate (London, printed for Langley Curtis). What benefit a Popish successor can reap from lives and fortunes spent in defence of the Protestant religion he may put in his eye; and what the Protestant religion gets by lives and fortunes spent in the service of a Popish successor will be OVER THE LEFT SHOULDER.
1705. Record of Country Court held in Hartford (U.S.A.), 4 Sept. The said Waters, as he departed from the table, said, ‘God bless you OVER THE LEFT SHOULDER.’ The court ordered a record thereof to be made forthwith. A true copie.
1748. RICHARDSON, Clarissa, I. 242. You will have an account to keep too; but an account of what will go OVER THE LEFT SHOULDER; only of what he squanders, what he borrows, and what he owes and never will pay.
1836. DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, ch. xli. Each gentleman pointed with his right thumb over his left shoulder. This action imperfectly described in words by the very feeble term of ‘OVER THE LEFT’ … its expression is one of light and playful sarcasm.
1841. Punch, i. 37, col. 2. I am thine, and thine only! Thine!—OVER THE LEFT.
1843. W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Scamps of London, i. 1. I think she will come. Ned. Yes, OVER THE LEFT—ha, ha, ha!
1870. H. D. TRAILL, Saturday Songs, ‘On the Watch,’ p. 22.
| Eh, waddyer say? Don’t it go? | |
| Ho, yes! my right honnerble friend. | |
| It’s go and go OVER THE LEFT, | |
| It’s go with a hook at the end. |
TO GET (or BE) LEFT, verb. phr. (common).—1. To fail; and (2) to be placed in a difficulty.
1892. A. C. GUNTER, Miss Dividends, ch. iv. Making the agreement for the return or the books on arrival at Ogden, much to the delight of the news-agent, who remarks oracularly, ‘Buck Powers is never quite LEFT.’
1894. GEORGE MOORE, Esther Waters, xii. I would not go out with him or speak to him any more; and while our quarrel was going on Miss Peggy went after him, and that’s how I GOT LEFT.
TO BE LEFT IN THE BASKET. See BASKETTED.
