turnip for the book
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English
Alternative forms
Etymology
A humorous variation on turn up for the book.
Pronunciation
Noun
- (humorous) A very unexpected surprise or occurrence.
- 1974, Gordon Williams, Big Morning Blues, London : Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 102:
- You've got these Swedes in your office—that was a turnip for the books. Do go on.
- 1999, Terry Deary, The Savage Stone Age, London: Hippo, →ISBN, page 43:
- Swedes fired arrows into their corpses, though we don't know why. (This is better than corpses firing arrows into swedes which would be a real turnip for the book.)
References
- “a turnip for the books” under “turnip, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
