Out of Pocket

[Marc Velasco]

I've heard someone try to link it to the political angle of _under
influence_ as in :
"He attends one meeting with Grover Norquist so now *he is in his pocket*?"


So 'out of pocket' would mean something like 'we have no influence over him
at all' ... or something.  No idea if this is true or not... sounds like
mostly guesswork to me.

Similar guesswork can be found here:

http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2007/05/out-of-pocket.html


On Sun, Oct 26, 2008 at 1:32 AM, Doug_Harris <cats22 at stny.rr.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Doug_Harris <cats22 at STNY.RR.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Out of Pocket
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I've heard that, too, and it _is_ strange, and totally nonsensical. They
> may
> be out of reach, or out of touch, or even, perhaps, out of bounds, but
> unless they previously were _in_ a pocket, it's hard to imagine why being
> unavailable places them outside of one.
> dh
>
> David Metevia wrote:
> Subject: Out of Pocket
>
> I usually associate this phrase with expenses, specifically health care
> expenses not covered by insurance.  However, I hear both work colleagues
> and friends & family use the term to describe people who are unavailable
> (under the weather, out sick, or just incommunicado).  This sounds
> strange to me.
>
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