[Ads-l] "them's the breaks"

[Shapiro, Fred]

I am probably just missing something, but it seems to me that the OED is omitting an expression larger than "them's the breaks."  I don't see in any of the OED senses that the word "break" can refer to a stroke of fortune that could be bad.  Think of the expression "I got a bad break."

Fred


________________________________
From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM>
Sent: Thursday, July 7, 2022 11:27 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: "them's the breaks"

>From Boris Johnson's resignation speech -- a candidate for Quotation of the
Year?

“I want people to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the
world. But them’s the breaks.”

I'm not finding any coverage for "them's the breaks" in OED, HDAS, or GDoS.
Here's the earliest I've found so far:

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https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fvariety93-1928-11%2Fpage%2Fn109%2Fmode%2F1up%3Fq%3Dbreaks&data=05%7C01%7Cfred.shapiro%40YALE.EDU%7Cfd909426904f40e2699808da602d3bd1%7Cdd8cbebb21394df8b4114e3e87abeb5c%7C0%7C0%7C637928044637777046%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=if1W%2BsLrURP7CmNefWOH9PxAGcrmsF3KuJl3p1qWmog%3D&reserved=0
Variety, Nov. 14, 1928, p. 46, col. 1 ("New York Chatter")
"Mike," a stage hand with "Scandals," had saved $225. He bet it on Al
Smith. Members of the company laid $1,200 against his pile. Them's the
breaks.
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--bgz

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