[Ads-l] Knotted cotton

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Here are three instances from a family of similes. I did not see any
examples mentioning cotton during a few quick searches in Google
Books.

(1) muscles like a knot in a piece of string
(2) muscles like knotted shipping rope,
(3) muscles like a knot of coiled rope

Year 2013 (2002-2013 Copyright)
Book Title: The Cal Innes Omnibus
Author: Ray Banks
Quote Page 1131
Publisher: Blasted Heath
Database: Google Books Preview

[Begin excerpt]
A short, skinny lad with muscles like a knot in a piece of string. I
remember him getting leathered three times a week. The other lads
sniggering behind his back. Soft-spoken, almost effeminate, threw a
punch like he had a handbag in his fist.
[End excerpt]

Year: 2021 Copyright
Book Title: The Great Big One
Author: J. C. (Jeffrey Clapton) Geiger
Unnumbered Page
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company: Hachette Book Group, New York
Database: Google Books Preview

[Begin excerpt]
Two guys scaled the rock, free-climbing. They had muscles like knotted
shipping rope, crimping, shoving their hands like trowels into tiny
mouths in the stone. Thomas fumbled a knot on the metal housing at the
sculpture's crown.
[End excerpt]

Year: 2023 (Previously published in slightly different form in 2015)
Book Title: The Cherokee Rose: A Novel of Gardens and Ghosts
Author: Tiya Miles
Quote Page 86
Publisher: Random House: Penguin, New York

[Begin excerpt]
In sixth grade, when she had started filling out, her mother noticed a
ripple of flesh across Cheyenne's stomach. "Oh, no, honey," she had
said. "We're not having that. Hold that belly in. A true beauty like
you can't afford fat." So Cheyenne had held it in, every day, until
she forgot what it felt like not to clasp her muscles like a knot of
coiled rope.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Mar 13, 2024 at 6:15 AM Michael Quinion
<michael.quinion at worldwidewords.org> wrote:
>
> A message has come in to my World Wide Words site from a visitor who
> asks about an expression used by his wife: "He's got muscles like a knot
> in a piece of number one cotton". My research sources are very limited
> these days and I can turn up no examples, let alone information on
> origin. Does anybody recognise it?
>
> --
> *Michael Quinion
> *https://www.worldwidewords.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org