Definitions
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Examples
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Shall elephants catch flies, or Hurlo-Thrumbo stain his club with brains of Dagonet the jester?
Westward Ho!, or, the voyages and adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the county of Devon, in the reign of her most glorious majesty Queen Elizabeth Charles Kingsley 1847
raven_in_the_woods commented on the word Hurlo-Thrumbo
A ridiculous burlesque, which in 1730 had an extraordinary run at the Haymarket theatre. So great was its popularity that a club called “The Hurlo-Thrumbo Society” was formed. The author was Samuel Johnson, a half-mad dancing master, who put this motto on the title-page when the burlesque was printed:
Ye sons of fire, read my Hurlo-Thrumbo,
Turn it betwixt your finger and your thumbo,
And being quite undone, be quite struck dumbo.
-Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
July 31, 2010