Cabbage onto

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on May 31, 2010 at 22:01

In Reply to: Cabbage onto posted by Beth on May 30, 2010 at 07:21:

: Where does the phrase "to cabbage onto" something come from

It's not one I've ever heard: but at a guess, perhaps it's a regional variant of "cotton on to"? "Cotton" was for a long time used to mean "something fluffy that easily sticks to things", so to "cotton on" to something was to pick it up, to stick to it. (VSD)

• Cabbage phrases ESC 02/June/10