All mouth and trousers

Posted by R. Berg on March 02, 2003

In Reply to: All mouth and trousers posted by jim on March 02, 2003

: can anyone tell me if this is correct?
: all mouth and trousers

Yes, that phrase is in Eric Partridge's book Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day and is defined as "noisy and worthless stuff," applied to "a loud-mouthed, blustering fellow."

It must be a British phrase. I haven't heard it here in the U.S.

• all mouth and trousers ESC 03/02/03
  • All mouth and trousers TheFallen 03/03/03
    • All mouth and no trousers Lewis 03/03/03