get a word in edgeways
English
Verb
get a word in edgeways (third-person singular simple present gets a word in edgeways, present participle getting a word in edgeways, simple past got a word in edgeways, past participle (UK) got a word in edgeways or (US) gotten a word in edgeways)
- (chiefly Britain) Alternative form of get a word in edgewise
- 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Servants of the Queen”, in The Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, OCLC 752934375, page 196:
- The baggage-camel had been bobbing his head to and from for some time past, anxious to get a word in edgeways.
- 1999, Zena Collier, chapter 3, in A Cooler Climate, Lincoln, Neb.: toExcel Press, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 24:
- I sat there, letting his voice run on. Even if I'd wanted to, I couldn't have gotten a word in edgeways. Perhaps if life continued thi way, I would gradually lose the faculty of speech, [...]
- 1999, Felicia Hughes-Freeland, “Dance on Film: Strategy and Serendipity”, in Theresa J. Buckland, editor, Dance in the Field: Theory, Methods and Issues in Dance Ethnography, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, DOI:, →ISBN, part II (Methodological Approaches), page 117:
- I only included the interview because it is revealing of Javanese gender relationships. The young dancer is muted and hardly gets a word in edgeways, as the (male) troupe leader and her mother hijack each question and provide answers which are sometimes contradictory.
- 2014, Ben Elton, chapter 5, in Time and Time Again, London: Black Swan, Transworld Publishers, →ISBN, page 57:
- Stanton stood up. It seemed the only way of getting a word in edgeways.
- 2014, Emma O’Reilly; with Shannon Kyle, “Old Wounds”, in The Race to Truth: Blowing the Whistle on Lance Armstrong and Cycling’s Doping Culture, London: Bantam Press, →ISBN, page 248:
- Betsy rang me every now and then, but I couldn't get caught up in the 'fight' like she did. Besides, if I got a word in edgeways during each call I'd be lucky.
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