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What does it mean to be ‘fit as a butcher’s dog’?

21 November 2020

9:00 AM

21 November 2020

9:00 AM

Boris and the butcher’s dog

Who first coined the phrase ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’? It has been traced to Lancashire. It is not the only quality attached to butcher’s dogs, however — such animals were perhaps widely observed as a result of customers having to entertain themselves somehow while the butcher prepared their cuts, and a dog gave them something to watch.

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