until the pips squeak

English

Etymology

Originally coined by the First Lord of the Admiralty and Unionist election candidate Eric Geddes in an election promise to "squeeze the German lemon until the pips squeak", made during a speech in Cambridge on 10 December 1918 and reported the next day by the Cambridge Daily News.

Phrase

until the pips squeak

1. (UK) Until the maximum amount has been extracted.
   • 2006 October 26, Elizabeth Knowles, What They Didn't Say: A Book of Misquotations‎^[1]:

     Churchill was looking back to a statement made in 1918 by the British politician and businessman Eric Campbell Geddes. A Unionist candidate in the General Election of that year (seen as a 'khaki' election), he was pressed to make clear his position on war reperations to be extracted from Germany. An account of his speech at Cambridge, 10 December 1918, appeared in the Cambridge Daily News of the following day. According to this report, Geddes said: 'The Germans, if this Government is returned, are going to pay every penny; they are going to be squeezed as a lemon is squeezed - until the pips squeak.

   • 2011, Andrew Holmes, Pains in the Office: 50 People You Absolutely, Definitely Must Avoid at Work!:

     Martyrs are desperate to demonstrate their self-flagellatory capabilities in the hope that someone out there actually cares. If they think their peers or bosses really do, then they are seriously deluding themselves; I'm afraid the Martyr will be exploited until the pips squeak.

   • 2015, Darl Larsen, A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, page 101:

     It's also possible that this Dennis is based on the real-life Labour firebrand, Denis Healey (b. 1917), the shadow of Chancellor of the Exchequer 1972-1974. In the run-up to the 1974 general election, Healey was particularly on point, promising that when Labour took back the government ten days later (Febrary 28), he'd “squeeze property speculators until the pips squeak,” as well as “wring the neck of the Housing Finance Act.”

   • 2019 May 11, James Moore, “Sod the Rich List, we should be publishing a 'Tax Contributor' list that can be a badge of honour”, in The Independent:

     I’m no fan of the Labour leader, but if you take a look at the supposedly Marxist plans he and John McDonnell have put forward, they’re not exactly planning to tax the rich until the pips squeak.

   • 2019 September 22, Tim Newark, “Trump strikes right tone in necessary face-off with Iran”, in The Express:

     In the meantime he will continue to squeeze the Iranian economy until the pips squeak because clearly it is bothering them.

Usage notes

This phrase is usually, but not always, used with the verb squeeze.