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From hell to breakfast

Posted by R. Berg on September 05, 2002

In Reply to: Scattered from here to breakfast posted by ESC on September 04, 2002

: : : Has anybody ever heard this expression? The sentence is, "Here is a resource scattered from here to breakfast...." origin, meanings...??? Thanks

: : I've heard: From HELL to breakfast.

: SCATTERED FROM HERE TO BREAKFAST - "Scattered over a great distance. 'The kids are all grown.Scattered from here to breakfast and all doing all right.'' (Jack Schaefer, 'The Kean Land,' 1953). From the "Happy Trails: Western Words and Sayings" section of the Facts on File Dictionary of American Regionalisms by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 2000).

: My guess is that it refers to cattle who are scattered so far that it will take all night and until breakfast the next day to round them up.

: I was mixing up this phrase with:

: HELL-BENT FOR BREAKFAST - "Very fast. 'I was going lickety-spilt, hell-bent for breakfast, trying to head off a gotch-earred brown stallion and his bunch.' (J. Frank Dobie, 'Coronado's Children,' 1931). Also from "Happy Trails."

"From hell to breakfast" is a set phrase, too.

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