Put the scuppers on
Posted by Victoria S Dennis on November 20, 2009 at 18:15
In Reply to: Put the scuppers on posted by Jack on November 20, 2009 at 08:49:
: ound in the Guardian Online 20091120 "The lost Art of telling a joke"
: "But the rise of alternative comedy in the 1980s helped put the scuppers on joke parroting" What are the origin and meaning of the expression "put the scuppers on"?
: Same article "...my dad had a ready arsenal of stinkers he'd trot out when conversation dipped". I've never heard the word "stinkers" being used that way. Is it rhyming slang? Thanks.
The first sounds like a confusion between "to put the mockers on" (for which see www.phrases.org.uk meanings put-the-mockers-on.html) and "to scupper", meaning "to thwart or destroy".
"Stinkers" isn't rhyming slang: a "stinker" is just something that stinks, thus by extension something of poor quality, a clunker. (VSD)