Idioms & Phrases: The Top and Tail

Top and tail is a versatile idiom and technique used across several contexts.  Most commonly it refers to specific method of washing a baby's face and bottom using cotton wool and warm water, trimming the ends of vegetables, sleeping head to toe with someone or placing a train engine at both ends. 

The exact meaning depends on context: 

Parenting

This is a method for keeping a baby clean between baths or before the umbilical cord falls off.  You wash the face and upper body (the top) using warm water and cotton balls, and then clean the bottom (the tail) using fresh water and clean cotton.

Cooking 
It means the trimming off the hard inedible parts at each end of the fruit or vegetable, such as the ends of green beans or carrots before cooking.

Sleeping 
When two people share a same bed or sleep in the same room, they may sleep with their heads facing opposite directions (head-to-toe) to save space or maximize comfort.

Railway
Refers to train operation where there is a locomotive or engine at both ends.  This eliminates the need to turn the train around at the end of a line, or allowing the train to simply be driven from the opposite end.

Broadcasting
The practice of adding physical markers, trimming unwanted audio/video portions, or playing the same advertisement at the very beginning and end of the program.

In Chapter 56 of Far From The Madding Crowd, Gabriel Oak uses this idiomatic expression meaning the "whole story" 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thousand & One Nights: 72nd Night contd.The Story of Two Viziers

The province of Egypt. Once, here lived a king. He was kind, generous, trusted, courageous and just. He associated himself with learned. He was sympathetic to poor. He had a wise and experienced vizier. The vizier had two sons. And they were two moons. They were elegant, beautiful and graceful. The elder was Shams al Din Muhammad, and the younger was Nur al Din Ali. The younger was more beautiful than the elder. When the vizier died the King summoned the sons of vizier and said, "You shall take your father's place and be joint viziers of Egypt." They kissed the ground before him and withdrew. For a full month they performed the ceremonial mourning of their father. After the mourning, they assumed their duties; each of them accompanied the king on alternate weeks. When they did not accompanied the king they were in charge of other duties. The two lived in the same house and their word was one. Both brothers were in their house. It was a night. The elder brother was to set ...
Read more

Thousand & One Nights: 70th Night

Harun al Rashid on his roaming the country side, saw a fisherman who did not have any catch for the day and worried about his family's bread. The Caliph had brought him to the banks of Tigris and asked him to throw the net. When they pulled the net the catch was a locked heavy chest. The Caliph paid him one hundred dinars. The chest was taken to the palace. Now the story to continue: When the chest was opened there was a girl. She had been cut into nineteen pieces. The Caliph looked at her, felt very sad, and turned to Ja'far and said angrily, "You, dog of a vizier, people are being killed and thrown into river in my city while I take the responsibility of Doomsday. If you do not find her killer, I will hang you and forty of your kin with you." "O Commander of the Faithful, give me three days."Ja'far said. Ja'far went into the city, vexed, worried and sad. He had no idea what to do. He thought to himself, "Where shall I find the murderer?" ...
Read more

Thousand & One Nights: 72nd Night

When the story was completed by the young man the king was astonished. "By God, I will hang none," said the king. But he had already decided to find out the slave who played trick on the young man. He said to Ja'far, "Go to the city and bring the slave, or I will strike your neck." Ja'far left in tears in search of the slave. How could he identify the slave who snatched the apple from the young man's son. He thought, "There is no escape from death this time, for the jar cannot be saved everytime. All powerful and omnipotent God who saved me always save me again. By God, I will stay home for three days until God's will is accomplished. He stayed home for two days, and for the third day, by noon, giving himself up for lost, Ja'far summoned the judges and witnesses, and made his will. Then he called his children to him, bade them farewell, and wept. Soon a messenger from the Caliph arrived. He informed that the Caliph was in great rage and swor...
Read more