who laid the rail
adv. phr.— «If the poolrooms were to shut up tomorrow, we have enough material already in hand to keep us busy for months. That could not stop us. We are going to smoke them out for who laid the rail.» —“Policy Is Announced” Dallas Morning News (Texas) Aug. 10, 1906. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Aubrey in Waco, Texas, says her mother used to warn the kids against contracting honkus of the bonkus, a fanciful name for a contagious disease. This colloquial term probably comes from the words bonk and konk, meaning “to hit” or...
Janet in Montgomery, Alabama, reports that a day after she had surgery on her hand, the wound burst open, and a doctor noted that her wound dehisced. She’s used to hearing dehisce used in botany to mean the splitting of a plant structure to...