push comes to shove (1940)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

The latest OED draft revision has 1948 for "push comes to shove". Here
it is in a 1940 article entitled "Lace Up Your Boots And Dig This
Jive!" about jitterbugs at the Golden Gate Ballroom.

1940 _New York Amsterdam News_ 2 Mar. 21/4 If push comes to shove,
they'll start leaping in a candy store whenever there is a music box
around.


--Ben Zimmer

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