I Believe . . . This Makes NO Sense

[Douglas G. Wilson]

> When was the last time you heard someone talk to 'cleaning X's
> clock'? And WTF did _that_ mean???
-

Here's my guess: originally "clean the clock of [the locomotive]" meant
"bring [the locomotive] to an abrupt halt", "clock" probably originally
referring to some gauge with a pointer which would sweep across its face
when the engine was coming to a stop.

Then "clean [someone's] clock" = "stop [someone] in his tracks". Then
"clean [someone's] clock" = "defeat [someone] utterly". I guess.

Here are some early citations:

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0602B&L=ADS-L&D=0&I=-3&P=9976

-- Doug Wilson

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