Hell in a hen basket and walking the talk

Michael Quinion wordseditor at WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG
Thu Nov 3 10:17:29 UTC 2005


A correspondent has just pointed out "going to hell in a hen basket",
which has some circulation online as a variation on the older form.

And, while I'm on altered expressions, when did "walk the talk" start to
appear as a modified and condensed version of the longer expression? I
only came across it the other day (in a British newspaper, as it happens)
but found it to be extremely common.


--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: wordseditor at worldwidewords.org
Web: http://www.worldwidewords.org



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