wall in passing; hence to get the better of (or the advantage): cf. 'to get to windward' (q.v.): the wall (= the right of choice of way) was in olden times the safest and cleanest; to hang by the wall = to be neglected, remain disused; to see as far into a brick wall (millstone or milestone) as . . . = to be as able (or as cute) as . . .; 'Look on the wall, and it will not bite you' (a jeer to one whose tongue has been bitten by mustard); 'Walls have ears' = 'Be careful, someone may be listening.'
1530. Tyndale, Works, i. 329. Hold heretics to the wall [Oliphant, New Eng. i. 431. . . . the first hint of the place whither the weakest go].
1533. Thersites[Dodsley, Old Plays (Hazlitt), i. 401]. They give me the wall.
[1546. Heywood, Proverbs, ii. v. Fieldes have eies, and woodes have eares.] Ibid. She had seene far in a milstone. Ibid. Drive him to the wall.
1579-80. Lyly, Euphues, 53. The weakest must still to the wall. Ibid. (1594), Mother Bombie, ii. 1. Lucio. I see not yet what you goe about. Dro. Lucio, that can pierce a mud wall of twentie foot thicke, would make us beleeve hee cannot see a candle through a paper lanthorne.
1595. Shakspeare, Romeo, i. 1. That shews thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the wall. Ibid. Women being the weaker vessels are ever thrust to the wall. Ibid. I will take the wall of any man or maid. Ibid. (1605), Cymbeline, iii. 4. I am richer than to hang by the walls.
1605. Heywood, If You Know not Me, i. Since you will needs haue the wall, Ile take the pains to thrust you into the kennel.
1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood. Walls have ears.
Wallaby. On the wallaby (or
wallaby-track), phr. (Australian).—Tramping
the country
on foot looking for work. [Morris:
Wallaby = a small kangaroo.
Often in the bush the only perceptible
tracks, and sometimes
the only tracks by which the scrub
can be penetrated, are the tracks
worn down by the wallaby, as
a hare tramples its 'form.' These
tracks may lead to water or they
may be aimless and rambling.
Thus the man on the wallaby
may be looking for food or for
work, or aimlessly wandering by
day and getting food and shelter
as a sundowner (q.v.) at night.]
1869. Clarke, Peripatetic Philosopher (Reprint), 41. The Wimmera district is noted for the hordes of vagabond 'loafers' that it supports, and has earned for itself the name of 'The Feeding Track.' I remember an old bush ditty, which I have heard sung when I was on the wallaby. . . . At the station where I worked for some time (as 'knock-about man') three cooks were kept during the wallaby season—one for the house, one for the men, and one for the travellers.
1890. Boldrewood, Colonial Reformer, 82. 'What is the meaning of out on the wallaby?' asked Ernest. 'Well, it's bush slang, sir, for men just as you or I might be now, looking for work or something to eat; if we can't get work, living on the country, till things turn round a little.'
1893. Gilbert Parker, Pierre and his People, 242. The wallaby track? That's the name in Australia for trampin' west, through the plains of the Never Never Country, lookin' for the luck o' the world.
1894. Longmans, Notes on Books (31 May), 206. 'On the Wallaby: a Book of Travel and Adventure.'
1894. Carmichael [Australasian, 22 Dec., 1127. 5]. A wallaby Christmas, Jack, old man!—Well, a worse fate might befall us! The bush must do for our church to-day, And birds be the bells to call us.
1896. Lawson, When the World was Wide. 134. Though joys of which the poet rhymes Was not for Bill an' me: I think we had some good old times Out on the wallaby.
Wallah. See Competition
wallah.
