subs.—Common colloquial expressions are: TO SAY PRAYERS = to stumble: of horses: cf. DEVOTIONAL HABITS; TO SAY PRAYERS BACKWARDS = to blaspheme (RAY); TO PRAY WITH KNEES UPWARDS (GROSE) = to copulate: of women; AT HER LAST PRAYERS = of an old maid (RAY); PRAYER-BONES = the knees.
1706. WARD, The Wooden World Dissected, 42. All the Ship’s Company daily pray for him, but they PRAY as they row, BACKWARDS.
1725. N. BAILEY, trans. The Colloquies of Erasmus (1900), i. 73. Ra. Sirrah! did I not hear you mutter? Sy. I was SAYING my Prayers. Ra. Ay, I believe so, but it was THE LORD’S-PRAYER BACKWARDS then.
