show ankle

English

Etymology

Probably an allusion to the flirtatious practice by some young women, especially in the first half of the twentieth century, of raising a long skirt sufficiently to reveal a bare ankle but no more than that.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Verb

show ankle (third-person singular simple present shows ankle, present participle showing ankle, simple past showed ankle, past participle shown ankle)

1. (idiomatic) To provide a hint or to reveal partial information in order to gain attention or arouse interest.
   • 1984 Nov. 28, William Beecher, "Reagan under Pressure to Modify Arms Stance," Boston Globe (USA), page 1:

     "He figures that to do so, he'll have to be able to show a little ankle, to give some idea of new positions the United States is prepared to take."

   • 1987 Nov. 23, "Suddenly, A Visit by Cuomo Enlivens a Benefit For Casey," Philadelphia Inquirer (USA), page B01:

     No one expects Cuomo to declare his candidacy tonight But Carduff said "we expect him to show some ankle".

   • 2005 June 7, Erin Joyce, "SQL Server 2005 Queues Up for Prime Time," InternetNews.com (USA) (retrieved 5 Sep. 2011):

     Microsoft showed some ankle and then some with advanced tools, database and server features in the latest builds of SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006.

   • 2006 Oct. 18, "On the right track," The Telegraph (UK) (retrieved 5 Sep. 2011):

     Now, it seems, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is ready to show a little ankle by welcoming a proposal from Lord Forsyth's tax commission to abolish stamp duty on shares.

   • 2011 Aug. 12, "Football & Sport: Manchester United: A Comparison of Sneijder, Cantona, Scholes And Ronaldo," Sabotage Times (UK) (retrieved 5 Sep. 2011):

     Sneijder showed some ankle last week with a veiled ‘come and get me’ plea that was promptly rebuffed by David Gill stating that the deal probably won’t go ahead now.

Usage notes

• Usually used with intervening words between show and ankle which characterize the amount of "ankle" shown, such as a little, some, a lot of, etc.

See also

• come-on

References

• Discussion of the expression “show ankle” by William Safire (New York Times, Sunday, March 11, 2007)