What was in the woodshed?

The British-English phrase something nasty in the woodshed and variants are used to denote a traumatic or unpleasant experience in a person’s history, or something, especially something shocking or distasteful, that is or has been concealed or kept secret.

Where did the term woodshed originate?

woodshed (n.) “shed for keeping wood as fuel,” 1799, from wood (n.) + shed (n.). Sometimes a euphemism for “outhouse.” Figuratively, as the place for private punishment, by 1907, American English colloquial.

Where Ada Doom saw something nasty in the woodshed?

Cold Comfort Farm
Reference to Cold Comfort Farm usually triggers the famous quote that there was ‘something nasty in the woodshed’. Aunt Ada Doom claims to have seen it when she was ‘no bigger than a titty wren’.

What is Sukebind?

Sukebind is a flowering plant. The plant is said to represent the darkness overhanging the farm, thus, all evidence of the plant is removed before Elfine’s wedding.

What does Taken to the Cleaners mean?

Definition of take to the cleaners informal. : to deprive (someone) of a large amount of money or possessions “… I’ll tell you one thing, though: I’m glad I wasn’t paying for it. Kid, they’ll take you to the cleaners. …”—

Who saw something nasty in the woodshed?

Aunt Ada Doom
Cold Comfort Farm’s Aunt Ada Doom famously saw “something nasty in the woodshed!” (or the potting shed, or the bicycle shed), and was waited on hand and foot and could never be contradicted on anything for decades.

What was nasty in the woodshed in Cold Comfort Farm?

Gibbons would never reveal what the ‘something nasty’ was; but it represents childhood trauma, whether real or imagined, and the way its ‘victims’ use it to excuse their behaviour. The novel contains delicious examples of local dialect and of parodied rural expressions.

What is a Scranlet?

I love invented words – as long as they come from a sound knowledge of English etymology. (‘scranlet’ – doing something agricultural involving scraping the soil, no doubt; ‘marsh tigget’ – bound to be a bird; ‘sukebind’ – a plant of the convolvulus genus for sure).

Who is Anthony Pookworthy?

Pookworthy is fictitious and is believed to be based on the writer Hugh Walpole. ABS apparently stands for associate back scratcher and LLR for licensed log roller. The book itself was, according to Gibbons, written in response to the overblown writing of Mary Webb.

Where did the phrase taken to the cleaners come from?

The phrase take to the cleaners most probably evolved from an older idiom, to clean someone out, meaning to strip him of his money. Take to the cleaners came into use when dry cleaning establishments began to crop up in the 1920s. Related phrases are takes to the cleaners, took to the cleaners, taking to the cleaners.

Should I take her to the cleaner?

take (one) to the cleaners To cheat or swindle one for a lot or all of their money. Despite its meaning, the phrase as used often does not refer to actual cheating. It was my first time playing poker at the casino, and the more experienced players definitely took me to the cleaners.