show ankle

Probably an allusion to the flirtatious practice by some young women, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, of raising a long skirt sufficiently to reveal a bare ankle but no more than that.

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show ankle (third-person singular simple present shows ankle, present participle showing ankle, simple past showed ankle, past participle shown ankle)

1. (idiomatic) To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest.
   • 1984 November 28, William Beecher, “Reagan under Pressure to Modify Arms Stance”, in Boston Globe, USA, page 1:

     "He figures that to do so, he'll have to be able to show a little ankle, to give some idea of new positions the United States is prepared to take."

   • 1987 November 23, “Suddenly, A Visit by Cuomo Enlivens a Benefit For Casey”, in Philadelphia Inquirer, USA, page B01:

     No one expects Cuomo to declare his candidacy tonight But Carduff said "we expect him to show some ankle".

   • 2005 June 7, Erin Joyce, “SQL Server 2005 Queues Up for Prime Time”, in InternetNews.com, USA, retrieved 5 September 2011:

     Microsoft showed some ankle and then some with advanced tools, database and server features in the latest builds of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006.

   • 2006 October 18, “On the right track”, in The Telegraph, UK, retrieved 5 September 2011:

     Now, it seems, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is ready to show a little ankle by welcoming a proposal from Lord Forsyth's tax commission to abolish stamp duty on shares.

   • 2011 August 12, “Football & Sport: Manchester United: A Comparison of Sneijder, Cantona, Scholes And Ronaldo”, in Sabotage Times, UK, retrieved 5 September 2011:

     Sneijder showed some ankle last week with a veiled ‘come and get me’ plea that was promptly rebuffed by David Gill stating that the deal probably won’t go ahead now.

• Usually used with intervening words between show and ankle which characterize the amount of "ankle" shown, such as a little, some, a lot of, etc.

• come-on

• Discussion of the expression “show ankle” by William Safire (New York Times, Sunday, March 11, 2007)