Get the lead out

Posted by ESC on May 17, 2004

In Reply to: Get the lead out posted by Smokey Stover on May 17, 2004

: : : Any ideas here?
: : : I imagine it's about guns: getting the lead out being firing fast. It crosses my mind it could be about ballest, but lead would be damn expensive ballest.

: : : Anyone care to weigh in?

: : "weigh in" very clever.

: : I still fondly remember my football (American) coach bellowing, as I struggled to run the length of the field in full gear at top speed, "Miller, get the lead out of your jock!" He was gently encouraging me to stop malingering and realize my full potential, speedwise.

: During World War II "get the lead out" was a very popular phrase, almost as popular as the phrase of which it was a shorter and less controversial form, namely, "Get the lead out of your ass!" Obviously, it meant "Get going, move with a little more celerity!" SS

I always thought it was get the lead out of your a**. But this reference says the original reference was to feet: "...One can see the image developing in William Jenkyn's 'Reformations Remora' : 'Shall our Reformation have an heel of lead?'" From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Wings Books, Originally New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985).