![]() Using a clothes wringer that was a hand crank could be difficult and take great strength. These rollers were called a mangle, as running the device could be dangerous. Clothing was cranked through the rollers so that excess water was squeezed out of it, making it easier for hanging drying clothes on the clothesline. This was an improvement over simple wash tubs or hand washing clothes in a river. Then the tub was filled with fresh water in order to rinse the clothes. Once finished with the clothes washing, a stopper was pulled and the soapy water was allowed to drain. ![]() In an old washing machine, hot water was poured into the basin, dirty clothes were added and agitation was achieved with the hands or a stick. Before the electric washing machine, women washed their soiled clothes in an appliance consisting of a washtub and a roller. The expression put through the wringer refers to an antique washing machine. For the most part when someone is said to have been put through the wringer, it means they have been through some sort of ordeal, whether through circumstance, chance, or design. Quite a journey! Like most such stories, it makes little sense and is completely untrue.To put someone through the wringer means to make them suffer, to scrutinize them closely, to question and interrogate them thoroughly. This is how dead ringer came to have its present meaning. ![]() Perhaps they were zombies! The popularity of zombies today has more to do with this than with any true history.Īfter such a person was rescued from their macabre predicament, their relatives, who thought they were dead, might see them up and about and presume they were a look-alike. That is, people must have actually rung the bells. Such a person was a ‘dead ringer.”įirst, we can dispense of this with logic: If the person was ‘alive’ why would they be called a ‘dead’ ringer? Also, how likely is it that anyone ever rang such a bell, provided they survived being asphyxiated? For an idiom to be derived from such a practice, we would have to presume that this actually happened. Thus, if they woke up and found themselves in a coffin, they could ring the bell and people above-ground would hear the bell and dig them up. According to this story, people in medieval Britain were terrified of being mistaken for dead and buried alive! The idiom ‘dead ringer’ comes from the fact that people used to be buried with bells above the ground that were attached to strings in the coffin. False Zombie Origin!Ī quite popular false origin has been attached to this idiom. Idioms in the News – 1,000 Phrases, Real Examples. London: Bloomsbury, 2009., 6 Bengelsdorf, Peter. Today, the term is still used to refer to fakes or imposters, such as players substituted on teams who are not on the official roster or who shouldn’t be eligible to play but give an advantage to the team.ĭead is used as an intensifier in many expressions and here it is used to mean precise or exact. Ringer has long been used to refer to something which “rings false” and was originally applied to a horse that was dishonestly substituted for another horse in a race. The car they found was a dead ringer for mine, though. “The police thought they had found my car but the identification numbers didn’t match. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re a dead ringer for your aunt Julie when she was your age?” “That lawyer is a dead ringer for Robert Redford, right down to his hair color.” Want to see more videos from Idioms.Online? Subscribe to our YouTube channel! Usageĭead ringer is usually used in the full phrase “to be a dead ringer for someone.” Examples Of Use
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