"Bet the Farm"

[Fred Shapiro]

In a Supreme Court opinion yesterday, Justice Scalia used the expression
"bet the farm."  A journalist is asking me about this phrase.  Can anyone
point me to any good information, or even give a hunch, as to the
derivation of this expression?

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                             ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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