Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

deaconB asks about the idiom "to be grassed off" and thinks it might have to do with "personality conflict, and spiteful retaliation". Nothing helpful showed up on a Google search, but during a second look, the phrase "grassed up" appeared as a suggestion. Google's ability to find things near the search term was pretty handy in this case, though maybe not for deaconB's question.

Here's a selection from Phrase Finder (http://phrases.org.uk/meanings/grass-up.html)  

"Grass up: [to] Inform on someone to the police... In 2005, British newspapers picked up on a story about a burglar who had stolen cash, jewellery and an African Grey parrot from a house near Hungerford, Berkshire. David Carlile, widely described in the press as 'feather-brained', explained to the police that he knew that African Greys could talk and he didn't want the bird to 'grass him up'…  

'Grassing up' has been a commonly used expression in the UK since the mid 20th century, but is less common elsewhere. The first known use of 'grass' in that context is Arthur Gardner's Tinker's Kitchen, 1932, which defined a grass as "an informer"...

It could just have arisen from 'snake in the grass', which derives from the writings of Virgil (in Latin, as 'latet anguis in herba') and has been known in English, meaning traitor, since the late 17th century.There is another route to the word and this is via rhyming slang. Farmer and Henley's 1893 Dictionary of Slang defines 'grasshopper' as 'copper', that is, policeman. The theory is that a 'grass' is someone who works for the police and so has become a surrogate 'copper'."

Or is it possible that "brassed off" was the idiom? World Wide Words (www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bra2.htm) has this:

"…it's a slang expression for “fed up; disgruntled”...

Brassed off could come from somebody having had a telling off from a superior officer, since senior officers were commonly called “the brass”, and very senior ones “the top brass”, in reference to the amount of gilt on their uniforms. Eric Partridge, in his 1948 book A Dictionary of Forces' Slang, says it is connected to that job, often given as a punishment, of polishing the brasswork on board ships (frequently done with a product called Brasso). So to be brassed off could just mean that you have been doing some piece of mindless scut work and are thoroughly disgruntled as a result."

Both uses suggest some opportunities for personality conflict, spite, and retaliation, but I still can't tell if that's what deaconB was after.

Wikipedia's article on the Mummers Parade gives its history. Apparently, it may be the oldest folk festival in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummers_Parade