Turfed out

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on February 01, 2011 at 22:55

In Reply to: Turfed out posted by Paul Binns on January 30, 2011 at 19:54:

: What is origin of the phrase "turfed out"?

"To turf" has been used to mean ‘to dig up or excavate for turf or peat’ since the 18th century, and you can ‘turf out’ a pit. The OED first records the sense ‘throw or kick (a person, etc.) forcibly out’ in a Kipling story of 1888. So I suppose the image here is of a workman slinging spadefuls of peat out of a pit, landing with a dull thud. (VSD)