TAKE A CHILD TO BANBURY CROSSVERB
to swing a child up and down on one's foot ...1848 ETYMOLOGY Grown-ups often amused children in this way, sitting on a chair or sofa, repeating the nursery rhyme: Ride a cock-horse To Banbury Cross, To see an old woman Ride on a white horse, With rings on her fingers And bells on her toes, She shall have music Wherever she goes. FIRST DOCUMENTED USE 1848 - See Example below EXAMPLE "...that she caught up little Miss Toodle, who was running past, and took her to Banbury Cross immediately." From: Dombey and Son By: Charles Dickens, 1848 SOURCES • Dictionary of Idiomatic English Phrases, James Main Dixon, 1891
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