Drawing a blank
Posted by David FG on May 14, 2006
In Reply to: Drawing a blank Posted by Joe Michael on May 14, 2006
: I note comments regarding "drawing a blank" referring to drawing a blank ticket in a lottery. I suggest that "drawing a blank" could also refer to a huntsman "drawing" [sending his hounds in to hunt] a "blank" [referring to a day or covert w/o game]
I am rather drawn (no pun intended) to the reference to hunting. Brewer's makes a distinction between 'drawing blank', which is a phrase I have never heard but which apparently does come from drawing coverts, and 'drawing a blank' which refers to lotteries. I am not convinced and I rather suspect that hunting came first and was associated with gambling later - but I fully expect to be proven wrong on this one.
DFG