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"Done like Dinner"

Posted by ESC on July 08, 2003

In Reply to: "Done like Dinner" posted by Mable on July 08, 2003

: what does this phrase mean and what did it originate?
: thank you in advance.

I don't know when it originated. It is along the same line as "Stick a fork in me, I'm done." "Done" as in finished, washed up, ruined.

It may come from this phrase: COOKED HIS GOOSE -- Did him in; spoiled his plans. There is an old story that the authorities of a medieval town under seige hung a goose from a tower, the goose symbolizing stupidity. The attackers were so irked that they burned the town, thereby literally cooking the real goose and cooking the townspeople's goose in the modern sense. The story appears not to hold up under scholarly research, which finds the phrase to be of 19th century origin..." The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).

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