"out like Flout"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 8/16/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> The precise antonym of "in like Flynn."  From billions of Web pages indexed,
> Google spits out precisely eight examples.
>
>   None of those responsible for the eight examples seems likely to have read
> Mackinlay Kantor's blank-verse epic, _Glory for Me_ (N.Y.: Coward-McCann, 1945).
> This was the direct source of the film _The Best Years of Our Lives_ (1946).
>
>   P. 7: "By God!.../ I'm in like Flynn!"  P. 56: "The point is: as a wife, / You're out
> like Flout, Marie!"

Interesting variation on "Out like Stout", which appeared along with
"in like Flynn" in the Feb 9, 1943 _San Francisco Call-Bulletin_
(Tamony file):

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9906b&L=ads-l&P=7104
http://www.wordorigins.org/index.php/in_like_flynn/
http://www.mtannoyances.com/?p=675

"Stout" doesn't seem to have been much more successful than "Flout".
Google initially tells me that there are "about 14,300" hits for "out
like stout", but then only shows 13 non-identical results, including
the three links above.


--Ben Zimmer

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