I pulled my cord pants from the dryer last night, and upon inspecting them closely, discovered that patches of the corduroy had worn thin. “Well,” I say, showing them to my husband. “These pants have pretty much had the biscuit.”
I was met with a blank stare, and after some confusion and questions, explained to him what “had the biscuit” meant, since it wasn’t a saying he was familiar with. Odd, I thought, but who hears everything? Besides Santa Claus.
At work today, the saying came up again, as I held up a ratty-looking blanket. I used it this time specifically because I wondered if my co-workers, all West Coast Americans (except the Czech lady, who I didn’t expect to understand at all)(…because she often doesn’t, she’s still learning English as she goes along), would look at me as blankly as my husband had the night before.
They did. And I found myself having to explain it again.
Now, there have been quite a few little sayings that I’ve popped out with over the years that were met with surprise, confusion, or amusement, since they are not spoken around here, and it made sense, since I’m from the Maritimes, and boy, do we have some colourful sayings, apparently. But for some reason, I really thought “had the biscuit” was a widespread, North American, as-seen-on-TV expression. Is it not?
How old are you, where-ish are you, and have you heard the phrase, and understood it when you heard it?
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