‘mother-in-law joke’: meanings and origin – word histories
USA, 1874—a joke made at the expense of the joke-teller’s (real or fictitious) mother-in-law; this type of joke considered (especially depreciatively) as a genre| word histories
‘woodpushing’: chess-playing, draughts-playing—‘woodpusher’: a chess-player, a draughts-player—refers to the wooden pieces that chess-players and draughts-players move across the board| word histories
UK, 1951—‘mother-in-law’s chair’, ‘mother-in-law’s cushion’ and ‘mother-in-law’s seat’ are colloquial appellations for the globular spiny cactus Echinocactus grusonii, native to Mexico| word histories
an uncovered extra seat at the back or on the side of a two-seater motor car—USA, 1907| word histories
USA, 1874—a joke made at the expense of the joke-teller’s (real or fictitious) mother-in-law; this type of joke considered (especially depreciatively) as a genre| word histories
British, 1771—as an adjective: emaciated; weak and starving—as a noun: an emaciated or starving person| word histories
England; also: the British Parliament—UK, 1857—popularised in 1865 by the British politician John Bright| word histories
a charwoman, a cleaning lady—UK, 1940—popularised in 1942 by the charwoman’s name in the BBC radio comedy series ‘It’s That Man Again’| word histories
conventionally middle-class—UK, 1953—from ‘Mrs Dale’, the name of a conventional middle-class woman in Mrs Dale’s Diary, a BBC radio serial broadcast from 1948 to 1969| word histories
a narrow escape from danger, disaster or mishap—UK, 1820—refers to the act of shaving with a cutthroat razor, which may result in injury| word histories
looking or feeling ill or nauseated—1843, in a letter by Charles Dickens—when applied to a person, the plural noun ‘gills’ designates the flesh under the jaws and ears; also the cheeks| word histories
