who laid the rail
adv. phr.— «He was selling very cheap to Wm. Larew, the grocer, when the capture was made, and “lit out for who laid the rail,” but the marshal was a little too spry for him.» —“Chicken Thief Caught” Knoxville Journal (Kentucky) Aug. 4, 1893. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A listener who grew up in Newfoundland remembers her grandfather declaring the fog was thick as burgoo. Turns out burgoo was sailors’ slang for a gray, gelatinous oatmeal—exactly the right image for an impenetrable Newfoundland fog. The word appears...
Chelsea from Louisville, Kentucky, is having a debate with her husband about how to pronounce antenna. She’s from Chicago, Illinois, and he’s from Louisville. She pronounces the second syllable to sound like the word ten, while he pronounces that...