TO RETURN TO ONE'S MUTTONS, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To hark back to the point at issue.
1868. Brewer, Phrase & Fable, s.v. Moutons. The phrase is taken from an old French play, called l'Avocat Patholin, in which a woollen-draper charges a shepherd with stealing sheep. In telling his grievance he kept for ever running away from his subject; and to throw discredit on the defendant's attorney, accused him of stealing a piece of cloth. The judge had to pull him up every moment with 'Mais, mon ami, REVENONS à NOS MOUTONS.'
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 8 Nov., p. 2, col. 1. 'Now to RETURN TO OUR MUTTONS. Here is a drawer full of M.P.'s, Liberals, Radicals, Conservatives.'
1890. G. Allen, The Tents of Shem, chap. xi. I desire to live and die a humble Christian, in complete ignorance of that hard-hearted science. Let's RETURN TO OUR MUTTONS.
Who stole the mutton, phr. (obsolete).—See quot.
1868. Brewer, Phrase & Fable, s.v. Mutton. Mutton {Who Stole the)? This was a common street jeer flung on policemen when the force was first organized, and rose thus: The first case the force had to deal with was the theft of a leg of mutton; but they wholly failed to detect the thief, and the laugh turned against them.
Mutton-chops, subs. (common).—
A sheep's head.
2. (common).—See quot. Also MUTTON-CHOP WHISKERS.
1865. Evening Citizen, 28 July. Mr. Steinmetz shaved close, leaving no hair on his face save a short pair of mutton-chop whiskers.
1878. Besant & Rice, By Celia's Arbour, ii. His whiskers, equally white, were cut to the old-fashioned regulation mutton-chop, very much like what has now come into fashion again. They advanced into the middle of the cheek, and were then squared off in a line which met the large stiff collar below at an angle of forty-five.
1880. Life in a Debtor's Prison, 62. The equally well-trained whiskers, which were of the old military style, known as mutton-chops.
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, p. 53. White aprons, and trim mutton-chopper each side.
Mutton-cove, subs. (old).—1. The
Coventry-Street end of Windmill
Street. [Once a notorious resort of
harlots]. Cf. Mutton, senses 1
and 2.
2. (common).—A man addicted to women; a mutton-monger (q.v.). For synonyms see MOLROWER.
Muttoner, subs. (obsolete Winchester
College).—A blow on the
knuckles from a cricket-ball.
2. (old).—A MUTTON-MONGER (q.V.).
Mutton-eyed. See Sheep's-eyed.
Mutton-fist (or -hand), subs. (common).—A
hand large, bony, and
coarse.
1672. C. Cotton, Scarronides, Bk. i. p. 10 (ed. 1725). With woful Heart and blubber'd Eyes, Lifting his mutton-fists to th' Skies.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, xvi. 45. Will he, who saw the soldier's mutton-fist, And saw thee maul'd, appear within the list To witness truth?
1706. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, Vol. 1. pt. vii. p. 25. Attended by a Rogue, design'd To guard and vindicate his Jewel With mutton fist and Oaken Towel.
1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge, i. 92. But when plump Ciss got the Ball in her mutton fist, once fretted, she'd hit it farther than any.
1812. H. and J. Smith, Rejected Addresses ('Punch's Apotheosis'). See she twists her mutton fists like Molyneux or Beelzebub, And t'other's clack, who pats her back, is louder far than Bell's hubbub.
