[Ads-l] a can of whoop-ass
Jonathan Lighter
wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM
Tue Aug 11 22:14:19 UTC 2015
I first heard this in 1976, from a fellow graduate student who was from
Chattanooga, Tenn., though he form he used was "...can of whoop-de-ass":
http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/08/11/no-one-talks-about-liberating-mosul-anymore-iraq-islamic-state-military-pentagon/
"It’s time to let the U.S. military get creative with partners on the
ground — and let pilots above open up a can of whoop-ass."
It seems to have become common in the '90s, acc. to the HDAS files.
JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
More information about the Ads-l
mailing list