What is the saying about brass tacks?
“When you come down to ‘brass tacks’ – if we may be allowed the expression – everybody is governed by selfishness.” All of the other known early citations either originate in, or refer to, Texas. It is reasonable to assume that the phrase was coined there, in or about the 1860s.
How do you use brass tacks in a sentence?
I wanted to bring the matter to actualities and down to brass tacks. He has to clear the decks and throw overboard all the passengers and get down to brass tacks. This is the language of getting down to brass tacks and no argument. Now we are getting down to brass tacks.
What is the meaning of get down to business?
: to start doing what needs to be done : to start working Now that we’ve all introduced ourselves, let’s get down to business.
Is it brass tax or brass tacks?
The proper spelling of this expression is “brass tacks” not “brass tax.” If you want to “get down to brass tacks,” that means to get down to the core of something or to get down to the issue or task at hand.
Why do people say brass tacks?
To make measuring the fabric easier, owners would hammer brass tacks at common intervals — a yard, half-yard and quarter-yard. So after the customer picked the cloth, the clerk would say something like, “OK, I’ll measure it, so let’s get down to brass tacks.”
What does it mean get down to brass tacks?
: to start to discuss or consider the most important details or facts about something We finally got down to brass tacks and decided to work out a schedule for the project.
What does to get the ball rolling means?
informal. : to begin an activity or process At the meeting, she tried to get the ball rolling by asking a few questions.
What does getting down to brass tacks mean?
Definition of get down to brass tacks informal. : to start to discuss or consider the most important details or facts about something We finally got down to brass tacks and decided to work out a schedule for the project.
When you get too old to cut the mustard lick the jar?
The modern sense of the idiom is ‘to succeed; to have the ability to do something; to come up to expectations’, but the phrase is most often used in the negative form, as “can’t cut the mustard,” meaning ‘not able to handle the job’. Evidence for the phrase can be found in a Galveston, Texas newspaper in 1891–92.
What does the idiom get down to Brass Tacks mean?
Meaning of Idiom ‘Get Down to Brass Tacks’ To get down to brass tacks means to start discussing the most important and crucial aspects of or facts of a problem or situation; to skip over pleasantries or unimportant details or theories and ‘get right to the heart of the matter.’
Is there really a tax on Brass Tacks?
Of the supposed explanations that don’t have literal allusions, we can rule out links with any form of ‘brass tax’. There have been taxes on brass at various times, but no one can find any connection with this phrase. ‘Getting down to brass tax’ appears to be just a misspelling.
Where does the phrase ” get Down to the nitty gritty ” come from?
Deal with the essentials; come to the point. For example, Stop delaying and get down to brass tacks, or We really need to get down to bedrock, or He has a way of getting down to the nitty gritty, or Let’s get down to cases. The origin of the first phrase, dating from the late 1800s, is disputed.
