pea-ˈsouper colloq.
[f. pea-soup + -er1.]
1. A pea-soupy or thick yellow fog. Also pea-souper fog.
| 1890 J. Payn Notes from ‘News’ 8 The fogs we have had this year have been made too much of... You could see something in them if you looked long enough, which is not the case of a genuine Peasouper. 1907 Daily Chron. 30 Nov. 4/4 A country cousin who wishes to see and breathe and mingle in a metropolitan pea-souper. 1926 Chambers's Jrnl. Mar. 192/1 The fog..became dense—a real pea⁓souper. 1954 M. Sharp Gipsy in Parlour v. 62 The coal⁓burning London of my childhood was undoubtedly foggier than the London of to-day: the legend of the pea-souper, like all legends, has roots in fact. 1973 H. Carvic Miss Seeton Sings (1974) 196 Fog had clamped down on Paris... The scene reminded Miss Seeton of the London pea⁓soupers of her childhood. 1975 G. Howell In Vogue 4/2 There were high prices and strikes, peasouper fogs, and precious little coal. 1978 Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVI. 490/2 Pea-souper fogs are no longer experienced in London or in other cities. |
2. = pea-soup b.
| 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §385/5 Pea-souper, a French-Canadian. 1962 Maclean's Mag. 2 June 51/2 And then we can highstick those pea⁓soupers. 1966 [see Joe n.2 7]. 1968 P. C. Newman Distemper of our Times xix. 257 You're selling Canada to the pea-soupers! |