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put the beggar on the gentleman. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Verb
put the beggar on the gentleman (third-person singular simple present puts the beggar on the gentleman, present participle putting the beggar on the gentleman, simple past and past participle put the beggar on the gentleman)
- (UK, idiomatic, slang, obsolete) To follow up something good with something inferior.
1838, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Papers, volume 11:He called for two gills of ale, and I took my share; but I was determined not to put the beggar on the gentleman, that was my phrase to him, being a fellow workman. And when they brought the two glasses of ale, I took mine, and gave it to a man of the name of Thomas Kay; […]
1979, Harold W. Thompson, Body, Boots, and Britches, page 504:And there is the grandmother who says scornfully, if someone makes a good cake with poor icing, "That is putting the beggar on the gentleman".
References
- 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary (describing porter drunk after spirits)