Idiom: shake the dew off the lily (antedating 1951 probably)

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sat, Jun 18, 2011 at 12:36 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>
> Extracted text from GB's copy of Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (2005)
> (editor Jonathon Green) seems to say: "shake the dew off the lily v.
> (also shake the dew off one's weenie) [1940s+]." Therefore, Jonathon
> Green's latest opus on slang may have an earlier citation.

GDoS cites Vincent J. Monteleone's _Criminal Slang_ (1949, revised
edition). I'm not finding it in the Google Books version of the 2003
reprint, however.

http://books.google.com/books?id=nN81uyN8WmIC

--bgz

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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