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Taken down a peg or two

Posted by ESC on September 18, 2002

In Reply to: Taken down a peg or two posted by Chad Edgecombe on September 18, 2002

: Is this from Monastarian times regarding pegs measuring the amount drunk?

I don't know. Here's another theory:

TAKE HIM DOWN A PEG - "Deflate a pompous person; show up a boaster. 'Pegs' have served in various ways to indicate rankings or quantities; ships' colors, for example, were put on pegs at a height reflecting the honor the ship had gained. The expression is very old, an early example being in John Lyly's 'Pappe with an Hatchet' : 'Now haue at you all my gaffers of the rayling religion, tis I that must take you a peg lower." From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).

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