To push his nose past the judges' box

Posted by Judy on August 11, 2004

In Reply to: To push his nose past the judges' box posted by james@briggs13.fsnet.co.uk on August 11, 2004

: : "I realized exactly what must be done if this Fink-Nottle was to be enabled to push his nose past the judges' box."
: : (PG Wodehouse, of coures :-) )

: : (It means more or less that Fink-Nottle will have the courage to do something)

: : What is the origin of this phrase?

: Almost certainly from horse racing prior to the development of photo-finish technology. Judges had to decide which horse had won a race. Their judging point seems to have been a box on the finishing line.

This makes sense. Wodehouses uses a lot of phrases from horse racing.
So the phrase actually means to win, or to succeed. Thank you