lamp-post
(ˈlæmpˌpəʊst)
[f. lamp n. + post.]
A post, usually of iron, used to support a street-lamp. Sometimes with allusion to its use during the French Revolution for hanging a victim of popular fury.
| 1790 Roy in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 164 The same socket that fitted the top of the flag-staff, or lamp-post, could be applied to the tripod. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 109 This sort of discourse does well enough with the lamp-post for its second. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. i. v, He contrived a back to his wooden stool by placing it against the lamp⁓post. 1880 L. Wallace Ben-Hur 295 A platform garnished by some lamp-posts. |
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Add: b. Colloq. phr. between you and me and the lamp-post: in strict confidence. Cf. gate-post n. b.
| 1919 Wodehouse Damsel in Distress xxvi. 309 Between me and you and the lamp-post, you haven't an earthly! 1924 D. Stone Yank Brown, Pitcher i. 14 Even then, though, just between you and me and the lamp-post, when I wanted to eat a piece of pie, I ate it. 1940 J. L. Bonney Murder without Clues vi. 94 Between you and me and the lamp-post I'm tickled you got here. |