Browse phrases beginning with: [A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][T][U,V][W][X,Y,Z] Life's not all beer and skittlesMeaning 'Beer and skittles' is shorthand for a life of indulgence spent in the pub. Origin Skittles, also known as Ninepins, which was the pre-cursor to ten-pin bowling, has been a popular English pub game since the 17th century. The pins are set up in a square pattern and players attempt to knock them down with a ball. It is still played but not so much as previously. The phrase was referred to in Footman's History of the Parish Church of Chipping Lambourn (1894), which reprints a piece from 1634:
Citations of beer and skittles and variants appear in literature from the 19th century. For example, Dickens' Pickwick Papers,1837:
Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays, 1857:
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