handbags at dawn
n.— «Miss H. continued to be verbally abusive and to prevent any flared tempers from spilling over in the restaurant I asked her to step outside to discuss the matter further. On my part this was a risky maneuver, as If it were to deteriorate into “handbags at dawn,” I would be unprepared.» —“Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha gonna do?” The Special Constable’s Blog (U.K.) Feb. 17, 2005. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Is there such a thing as a “neutral” accent, and if so what does it sound like? And that quirk in the way southern Californians talk about freeways. They’ll say things like take the 405 and get on the 8. Why the definite article...
Floordrobe is the new word for an old habit: piling your clothes on the floor instead of putting them away. The Oxford English Dictionary recently added an entry for it, defining floordrobe as “an untidy heap of discarded clothing left on the floor...