What does the saying up the wooden hill mean?
The humorous British-English phrase up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire means upstairs to bed—American-English synonym: to go to Lilywhite’s party.
Where does the saying up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire come from?
The wooden hill refers to the stairs one must climb to reach their bed and the usage of Bedfordshire is simply to refer to one’s bed (Bed-fordshire geddit?). The term has been used consistently since the 1600s, but it’s peak usage was in middle class English country homes from the 1930s to the 1940s.
What does off to Bedfordshire mean?
I’m off to Bedfordshire – is rhyming English slang for when someone is tired and wants to go to bed.
What does it mean to go up the hill?
1 n-count; n-in-names A hill is an area of land that is higher than the land that surrounds it. We trudged up the hill to the stadium., Maple Hill. 2 If you say that someone is over the hill, you are saying rudely that they are old and no longer fit, attractive, or capable of doing useful work. INFORMAL.
Is it uphill or up hill?
up•hill
| Noun | 1. | uphill – the upward slope of a hill acclivity, ascent, climb, upgrade, raise, rise – an upward slope or grade (as in a road); “the car couldn’t make it up the rise” |
|---|---|---|
| Adv. | 1. | uphill – against difficulties; “she was talking uphill” |
| 2. | uphill – upward on a hill or incline; “this street lay uphill” |
What is the meaning of down hill?
Definition of downhill (Entry 1 of 3) 1 : toward the bottom of a hill. 2 : toward a worsened or inferior state or level —used especially in the phrase go downhill. downhill.
What does up hill mean?
up·hill | \ ˈəp-ˌhil \ Definition of uphill (Entry 3 of 3) 1 : situated on elevated ground. 2a : going up : ascending. b : being the higher one or part especially of a set specifically : being nearer the top of an incline.
What is going up a hill called?
a rising incline; ascent.
What does everything went downhill mean?
Deteriorate, worsen, as in Ever since the recession began, the business has been going downhill. The figurative use of downhill for “decline” dates from the mid-1800s.
What does the downhill slope mean?
1. down the slope of a hill; downward. 2. into a worse or inferior condition. The business has been going downhill.
Who do you think the road refers to in a poem up hill?
Answer: The road – In Up-hill, the road symbolises the journey the speaker takes. Instead of being straight, the fact that it is ‘winding’ and ‘up-hill’ suggests that the path is long and difficult.
What does going down hill mean?
Definition of downhill (Entry 1 of 3) 1 : toward the bottom of a hill. 2 : toward a worsened or inferior state or level —used especially in the phrase go downhill.
Where does the song up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire come from?
Nixon Grey 4 tells us of the origin of his latest song, “Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire.” While he was on tour the landlady brought in his supper and, after a few words of conversation, said, “Well, now I must he off up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire.”
What does go up the hill to Bedfordshire mean?
Go up the hill to Bedfordshire was phrase uttered to children in the UK when it was time to go upstairs to prepare for bed. The expression is now rather archaic and little-used.
Where did the phrase “going upstairs to bed come from?
The English author George Sturt (1863-1927) recorded the phrase in A Small Boy in the Sixties (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1927), his childhood reminiscences of Farnham, in Surrey, in the 1860s—this suggests that the phrase predates by several decades Nixon Grey’s song: Going upstairs to bed was “Going up Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire.”