To someone's credit

Posted by Smokey Stover on April 12, 2007

In Reply to: To someone's credit posted by Madi on April 12, 2007

: Could you please let me explain "to someone's credit"?

If Saint Peter keeps the books on us the way businessmen used to keep the books on their money, there's probably a credit column, for good deeds, and a debit column for the other. That's not necessarily how the first user of the metaphor intended it, but I think it's close enough. What you do that's good is in your credit column. Gossipers dwell on the debit side so much that it's probably not necessary to name it. But you can always talk about black marks, or demerits.
SS