breath and britches
English
Noun
breath and britches (uncountable)
- (Southern US, figuratively) The minimal qualities that make one a person (especially a man), either
- physically (implying extreme thinness) or,
- 1990, Lee K. Abbott, “Why I Live in Hanoi” in Dreams of Distant Lives, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, p. 109,
- […] San Antonio Mexicans named Cisco and Pancho, both in black-market sombreros. They were skinny—all breath and britches—and short-timers, soon to go home.
- 1990, Lee K. Abbott, “Why I Live in Hanoi” in Dreams of Distant Lives, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, p. 109,
- in terms of character, accomplishments, etc.
- 1957, Frank Yerby, Fairoaks, New York: Pocket Books, 1963, Chapter 22, p. 295,
- “ […] I don’t know a blessed thing but planting. What does she expect me to do? Hire out as an overseer?”
- I would, Guy thought clearly, coldly; before I’d accept the slightest favor from anybody. But you haven’t got that, have you, Kil? Reckon you never were anything more than breath and britches.
- 1966, Margaret Walker, Jubilee, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2016, Part I, Chapter 3, p. 54,
- Man ain’t nothing but trouble, just breath and britches and trouble. Don’t let him feel all over you, now, don’t let a no-good man touch you, else he’ll big you up sho-nuff.
- 1981, John Edgar Wideman, “The Songs of Reba Love Jackson” in Damballah, New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1998, p. 122,
- We’s all God’s creatures and it ain’t in the Bible to sit in the back of no buses or bow down to any man what ain’t nothing but breath and britches.
- 1957, Frank Yerby, Fairoaks, New York: Pocket Books, 1963, Chapter 22, p. 295,
- physically (implying extreme thinness) or,
- (Southern US, figuratively) A man of no substance.
- 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, University of Illinois Press, 1978, Chapter 2, p. 27,
- “ […] Ah don’t want no trashy nigger, no breath-and-britches, lak Johnny Taylor usin’ yo’ body to wipe his foots on.”
- 1937, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God, University of Illinois Press, 1978, Chapter 2, p. 27,