I was looking up this today and could not find many references. (On my tablet )To me it was just what you said.
"Skin a rabbit for ninepence" when pulling off a small childs clothes for bed. I am from the East Midlands where I would have first heard it. any help please.
I was born on the south coast but moved to Scotland for a few years when I was 16. I remember falling about laughing when I heard someone say 'clap the dog' - I fully expected a round of applause, but it means to pat it. And doors weren't knocked, they were chapped. So you chap doors and clap dogs. It was like learning a whole new language.
That said, Scots are among the nicest people on the planet and it's a stunningly beautiful country. Not too keen on midges though.
My granddad always said he ' was going to see a man about a dog' went he went to the toilet. When it wasn't very good drying weather my gran would say ' there's no drieth in the air' I think it's a shame that the youngsters today have no idea about the old sayings like 'there's many a slip tween cup and lip' etc
My childhood spent in Sussex. ‘Round the pig market’ the same meaning as ‘ all round the Wrekin’. ‘Dragged through a hedge backwards’ being very untidy. A wasp was called a waps, part of old Sussex dialect and twitten as mentioned before, a narrow path between houses. ‘Down the reck’, being at the playground.
My mother always ‘took her welcome with her’ when visiting, cake or biscuits usually. ‘Sure a blind man on a galloping horse would never notice’ was another. ‘Go on with you’ if she didn’t believe what she was hearing, she was Irish but occasionally used the Annaker’s Midden saying.
My mum used to tell us to go 'up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire' when it was bedtime. If we asked what was for tea we'd be told 'if it' as in if it's in the cupboard you can have it. A cold wind would be termed a 'lazy wind' because it blew through you not round you. Someone who always says their cold would be termed 'nesh'.
When we moved to Merseyside I discovered many sayings that were new to me, including: I was stood there like one of Lewis's An Twacky for old fashioned (I presume this is a corruption of antique?) 'Eres your hat what's your hurry? Her tears were tripping her up Snooing for 'a lot' as in 'the tree was snooing with apples' By the bird! (Expression of surprise)
I grew up in a small town in Cumberland. We used to say something was hacky mucky if it was dirty. Dad used to say he was going to the back of beyond, where they clog ducks . When saying goodbye to my mother she would tell me "if I don't see you through the week, I'll see you through the window". We always set the table, and side things away.
My granny always said ''Skin the rabbit'' when undressing us as children. When our top clothes were being removed it was sometimes ''Hands up for Jesus''. My grandfather, when describing someone who was not too fussy about personal hygiene, would say ''He/she has never had a wash since the midwife last bathed him/her'' I am from the North East and we always set the table, go for the messages (shopping). Things I have not heard since my childhood are bullets (sweets) cracket ( stool) hacky (dirty) and got wrong (punished or told off). My granny always referred to the dustbin as the ash kit, the bin men she called the kit men.
When I was a child, the elderly man who lived next door to us used to tell us about about what winters were like "in the old days". He described it as "First it snew; then it thew and then it friz agin".
Oh now Ive read the thread I see thats been mentioned before. My granmother used to say there was bread and pull it for a meal and my motger told me it was a play on words as it could mean bread and chicken (pullet.)
Another of my mother’s, to describe a very thin person, was, ‘straight up and doon, like the shithoose door’. And many times she said, “In two halfs, like the Pope’s bum”.
In these parts my mother and grandmother talked about ‘ having a kaloorie’, which was an outbreak of emotion, and ‘ taking a turravee’, which was a burst of energy, usually resulting in serious house cleaning!