get away with, to

To escape the usual penalty. This Americanism origi- nated  in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  at  one  point  also meant to get the better of someone. It was still considered slangy when it appeared in the Congressional Record in 1892: “[They] will have to be content with the pitiful $240,000 that they have already ‘got away with.’”

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fall short (of), to

To fail to attain a certain standard; to be insufficient. The expression comes from archery, horseshoes, and other activities in which a missile may fall to the ground before reaching the desired goal, or mark (it is sometimes put as falling short of the mark). The essayist William Hazlitt wrote, “Cavanagh’s blows were not undecided and ineffectual—lumbering like Mr. Wordsworth’s epic poetry, nor wavering like Mr. Coleridge’s lyric prose, nor short of the mark like Mr. Brougham’s speeches” (Table Talk, 1821–22).

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eat someone out of house and home, to

To  consume  a  great  deal. This  expression  is  at  least  two  thousand  years  old.  It  appeared  in  the Alexandrian  philosopher  Philo’s  De  Agricultura  (c.  A.D.  40)  as  well  as  in numerous   English   writings,   before   Shakespeare   used   it   for   Mistress Quickly’s  description  of  the  gluttonous  Falstaff: “He  hath  eaten  me  out  of house and home” (Henry IV, Part 2, 2.1).

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dead set against

Unutterably   opposed.  This  Americanism   probably comes from industry, where a machine is said to be dead set when it is fas- tened  so  that  it  cannot  be  made  to  move. The  transfer  to  firm  resolve  or hostility against some person, course of action, and so on, was made by the early  nineteenth  century. “A  dead  set  is  to  be  made  from  various  quarters against  the  abominable  innovation  of  publishing  Divisions  by  authority”

(General P. Thompson, 1836).

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carrot and the stick, the

Reward and punishment. The term alludes to dangling a carrot in front of a horse or donkey to get it to move, and threat- ening or beating it with a stick.  An essay about philosopher John Stuart Mill explains that for Mill’s father, “Praise and blame . . . were to man what car- rots or sticks are to a horse or an ass . . . It was this carrot and stick discipline

to which Mr. John Mill was subjected.” The term dates from the late 1800s.

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barefaced lie/liar

A shamelessly bold untruth/prevaricator. Bare here means bold-faced or brazen, but one writer speculates that barefaced, which dates from the late sixteenth century, originally meant “beardless,” a condi- tion perhaps considered audacious in all but the youngest men. In any event, by the late seventeenth century it also meant bold and became attached to lie in succeeding years. See also NAKED TRUTH.

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American dream,

The  image  of  prosperity,  achievable  through  hard work. A political cliché invoked by candidates, it was used by Alexis de Toc- queville in Democracy in America (1835) but may be even older. In 1975 psycho- analyst  David Abrahansen  was  quoted  as  saying, “The American  dream  is  in part  responsible  for  a  great  deal  of  crime  and  violence, because  people  feel that  the  country  owes  them  not  only  a  living  but  a  good  living.” A  similar cliché of even less precise definition is the American way, evoking an image of democracy, fairness, and other desirable traits.

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