Chapter Strawberry to Stump Orator of S by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

July, 1883.

Strode The babes of Strode are born with tails.

“As Becket, that good saint, sublimely rode,
Thoughtless of insult, through the town of Strode,
What did the mob? Attacked his horse's rump
And cut the tail, so flowing, to the stump.
What does the saint? Quoth he, `For this vile trick
The town of Strode shall heartily be sick."
And lo! by power divine, a curse prevails-
The babes of Strode are born with horse's tails.”
Peter Pindar: Epistle to the Pope

Stroke The oarsman who sits on the bench next the coxswain, and sets the stroke of the oars.

Stromkarl A Norwegian musical spirit. Arndt informs us that the Strömkarl has eleven different musical measures, to ten of which people may dance, but the eleventh belongs to the night-spirit, his host. If anyone plays it, tables and benches, cups and cans, old men and women, blind and lame, babies in their cradles, and the sick in their beds, begin to dance. (See Fairy )

Strong - as iron, as a horse, as brandy (See Similes .)

Strong-back One of Fortunio's servants. He was so strong he could carry any weight upon his back without difficulty. (Grimm's Goblins, Fortunio.)

Strong-bow Richard de Clare, Earl of Strigul. Justice of Ireland. (*-1176).

Strontian This mineral receives its name from Strontian, in Argyleshire, where it was discovered by Dr. Hope, in 1792.

Struldbrugs Wretched inhabitants of Luggnagg, an imaginary island a hundred leagues south-east of Japan. These human beings have the privilege of eternal life without those of immortal vigour, strength, and intellect. (Swift: Gulliver's Travels.)

“Many persons think that the picture of the Stulbrugs (sic) was intended to wean us from a love of life but I am certain that the dean never had any such thing in view.”- Paley's Natural Theology (Lord Brougham's note bk. i. p. 140).

Stubble Geese called in Devonshire Arish Geese. The geese turned into the stubble- fields or arrishers, to pick up the corn left after harvest. (See Earing.)

Stuck Pig To stare like a stuck pig. A simile founded on actual observation. Of course, the stuck pig is the pig in the act of being killed. (See Similes .)

Stuck Up An Australian phrase for robbed on the highway. (See Gone Up .)

Stuck-up People Pretentious people; parvenus; nobodies who assume to be somebodies. The allusion is to birds, as the peacock, which sticks up its train to add to its “importance” and “awe down” antagonists.

Stuck his Spoon in the Wall Took up his residence. Sometimes it means took up his long home, or died. In primitive times a leather strap was very often nailed to the wall, somewhere near the fireplace, and in this strap were stuck such things as scissors, spoons for daily use, pen-case, and so on. In Barclay's Ship of Fools is a picture of a man stirring a pot on the fire, and on the wall is a strap with two spoons stuck into it.

Stuff Gown An outer barrister or one without the bar. (See Barrister .)

Stumers, in the language of the turf, are fictitious bets recorded in the books of bookmakers, and published in the papers, to deceive the public by running up the odds on a horse which is not meant to win.

Stump To take to the stump. To roam about the country speechifying,
   To stump the country. To go from town to town making [political] speeches.

“The Irish members have already taken to the stump.”- A Daily Journal.

Stump Orator (in America). A person who harangues the people from the stump of a tree or other chance elevation; a mob orator.