couldn't stop a pig in a passage

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Verb

couldn't stop a pig in a passage

1. (Yorkshire, idiomatic) is bow-legged.
   • 2004, Margaret Dickinson, chapter 15, in Red Sky in the Morning:

     Joe laughed. ‘Aye, I know I'm a funny little feller. I couldn't stop a pig in a passage, could I lass? But I'm good at me job, else Eddie wouldn't have asked me to come and look at that there roof.’

   • 2008, Wilf’ Lunn, My Best Cellar, page 112:

     I remember seeing old ladies with incredible bowlegs caused by rickets. Unkind folks would remark ‘They couldn't stop a pig in a passage’.

   • 2011 March 1, KE Payne, 365 Days:

     And he's got funny-looking legs from all the football he plays; talk about bowed legs! Couldn't stop a pig in a passage, that one.

References

• Jennifer Meierhans (2016 November 6) “England's oddest phrases explained”, in BBC News‎^[1], BBC