Literature Network » Charlotte M. Yonge

trail

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From: The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms
Date: 20040101
Author:JUDITH SIEFRING

trail blaze a trail : see blaze .
trail ( or drag) your coat deliberately provoke a quarrel or fight.

•If you trail your coat behind you someone is likely to step on it, either intentionally or unintentionally, so enabling you to pick a fight. This behaviour was traditionally associated with Irishmen at Donnybrook Fair, an annual fair once held in what is now a suburb of Dublin. Charlotte M. Yonge, in the novel Womankind (1877), alludes to this association: ‘Party spirit is equally ready to give offence and to watch for it. It will trail its coat like the Irishman in the ...

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