A comical expression (see quotations) used in describing a large quantity of anything.
1818. We have in Lancaster as many Taverns as you can shake a stick at.—Lancaster (Pa.) Journal, Aug. 5.
1830. There’s no law that can make a ton of hay keep over ten cows, unless you have more carrots and potatoes than you can throw a stick at.—Mass. Spy, Feb. 10.
1833. More spots on the brim than you could … shake a stick at between now an’ everlastin’.—John Neal, ‘The Down-Easters,’ i. 18.
1833. He makes poetry himself sabbadays,—made more poetry an’ you could shake a stick at.—Id., i. 135.
1833. I han’t a right to the country about here, as much as I can throw a stick at.—J. K. Paulding, ‘The Banks of the Ohio,’ ii. 77 (Lond.).
1833. See more fine pictures than you could shake a stick at in a week.—Seba Smith, ‘Major Jack Downing,’ p. 213 (1860).
1836. The Claremont Eagle says that a flock of wild geese flew over that village, so near that you could shake a stick at them.… How long was the stick?—Phila. Public Ledger, Oct. 22.
1840. There are more pretty women in Raleigh than you could shake a stick at.—Daily Pennant, St. Louis, July 23.
1843. Our queen snake was leisurely retiring, attended by more of her subjects than we even dared to shake a stick at.—B. R. Hall (‘Robert Carlton’), ‘The New Purchase,’ i. 85–6.
1850. As for every sort of knave and villain, there’s more than you could shake a stick at in a whole day.—Cornelius Mathews, ‘Moneypenny,’ p. 32 (N.Y.).
1851. The whappinest, biggest, rustiest yaller moccasin that ever you shuck er stick at.—‘Polly Peablossom’s Wedding,’ &c., p. 69.
1866. I’m going where there’s work enough for all creation; where there’s more folks to mend shoes for than you can shake a stick at.—Seba Smith, ‘’Way Down East,’ p. 286.
