Chapter Word to Wraxen of W by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Word to Wraxen

Word (The). The second person of the Christian Trinity. (John i. 1.)

Word to the Wise (A). “Verbum sap. ”

Words Soft words butter no parsnips. In Scotland an excellent dish is made of parsnips and potatoes beaten up with butter. (See Butter .)
   Many words will not fill a bushel. Mere promises will not help the needy. If we say to a beggar, “Be thou filled,” is he filled?
   The object of words is to conceal thoughts. (See Language.)
   To have words with one. To quarrel; to have an angry discussion. Other phrases to the same effect are- They exchanged words together; There passed some words between them (in French, “Ils ont en quelques paroles ”).

Working on the Dead Horse doing work which has been already paid for. Such work is a dead horse, because you can get no more out of it.

World A man of the world. One acquainted with the ways of public and social life.
   A woman of the world. A married woman. (See above.

“Touchstone. To-morrow will we be married.
Audrey. I do desire it with all my heart; and I hope it is no dishonest desire to be a woman of the world.”- Shakespeare: As You Like It, v. 3.

   All the world and his wife. Everyone without exception.
   To go to the world. To get married. The Catholics at one time exalted celibacy into “a crown of glory,” and divided mankind into celibates and worldlings (or laity). The former were monks and nuns, and the latter were the monde (or people of the world). Similarly they divided literature into sacred and profane.

“Everyone goes to the world but I, and I may sit in a corner and cry heigho! for a husband.”- Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 1.

“If I may have your ladyship's good will to go to the world, Isabel and I will do as we may.”- All's Well that Ends Well, i. 3.

World (The). The world, the flesh, and the devil. “The world,” i.e. the things of this world, in contradistinction to religious matters; “the flesh,” i.e. love of pleasure and sensual enjoyments; “the devil,” i.e. all temptations to evil of every kind, as theft, murder, lying, blasphemy, and so on.

Worm To have a worm in one's tongue. To be cantankerous; to snarl and bite like a mad dog.

There is one easy artifice
That seldom has been known to miss-
To snarl at all things right or wrong.
Like a mad dog that has a worm in's tongue.”
Samuel Butler: Upon Modern Critics.

   To worm out information. To elicit information indirectly and piecemeal.
   To worm oneself into another's favour. To insinuate oneself in an underhand manner into the good graces of another person.
    A worm is a spiral instrument resembling a double corkscrew, used for drawing wads and cartridges from cannon, etc.

Worms in Germany, according to tradition, is so called from the Lindwurm or dragon slain by Siegfried under the linden tree.

“Yet more I know of Seigfried that well your
your ear may hold.
Beneath the lindeu tree he slew the dragon
bold;
Then in its blood he bathed him, which turned
to horn his skin,
So now no weapon harms him, as oft hath
proven been.” Nibelungen, st. 104.

Wormwood The tradition is that this plant sprang up in the track of the serpent as it writhed along the ground when driven out of Paradise.

Worse than a Crime It was worse than a crime, it was a blunder. Said by Talleyrand of the murder of the Due d'Enghien by Napoleon I.

Worship means state or condition of worth, hence the term “his worship,” meaning his worthyship. “Thou shalt have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee” (Luke xiv. 10) means “Thou shalt have worth-ship [value or appreciation].” In the marriage service the man says to the woman, “With my body I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow”- that is, I confer on you my