Make like a tree and leave

Posted by Bill November 25, 2005In reply to Make like a tree and leave posted by Brian from Shawnee on November 10, 2005

COME BACK KID - Can any one tell me for whom this term was first coined for?
and what's the meaning of "Make like a tree and leave"?
Thanks

Never heard this, but it seems to me that it is a pun on 'leaf'. Trees make leaves, so behave like a tree and leave...

It's not a great pun, in my opinion, but there we go.

DFG

I don't know. But I'm betting it was a kid thing. Along the lines of, "Put an egg in your shoe and beat it."

Yes, a kid's joke, circa 1955. That's the source of the joke in "Back to the Future" where the stupid bully in the diner threatens "Make like a tree, and ... get out of here."

There's also "Make like the wind, and blow" (which seems dated), and my personal favorite "Make like a banana, and split".

Earlier than 1955. We used this in the 1940's and I'm not sure it was new then. A more colorful expression of the same genre was "Make like an alligator and drag ass."