come the raw prawn
English
Etymology
From World War 2 military slang. Construction obscure; suggestions are:[1]
Pronunciation
Audio (AU) (file)
Verb
come the raw prawn (conjugates with come)
- (Australia, informal, intransitive) To attempt to deceive or impose upon.
- 1951, Dymphna Cusack, Florence James, 1957, Come In Spinner, page 306,
- “ […] Coupla bastards come the raw prawn over me on the last lap up from Melbourne and I done me last bob at Swy.”
- 1968, Barrie Humphries, The wonderful World of Barry McKenzie, page 12:
- "Don't come the raw prawn! I only gave her a bit of a smack on the chops, we didn't get around to the fair dinkum article!
- 1979, Lance Peters, The Dirty Half-Mile, page 155:
- Come on, Dimitri, don't come the raw prawn love! Four quid's the price.
- 1995, Australia. Parliament. Senate, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).: Senate:
- — I do not suggest that the Minister for the Environment, Sport and Territories, Senator Faulkner, is attempting to come the raw prawn with the Senate on these particular measures, but I do feel that he is trying to use these in an attempt to suggest to the Senate that this is an unintended consequence of the November decision.
- 2007, Peter Yeldham, Barbed Wire and Roses, unnumbered page,
- Until this dag in a shiny new uniform comes the raw prawn and says I didn′t salute him with proper respect.
- 1951, Dymphna Cusack, Florence James, 1957, Come In Spinner, page 306,
References
- "don′t come the raw prawn", entry in 2007, Eric Partridge, Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor, The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, page 211.
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