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Cho7712 Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
meaning
While reading the short story 'A string of beads',
I encounter a part which looks grammatically odd.
(Definitely it is due to my ignorance of the grammar or what could be thought as a matter of style.)
How is the underlined part understood?
...We've all heard of wives palming off on their husbands
as false a string of pearls that was real and expensive.
I encounter a part which looks grammatically odd.
(Definitely it is due to my ignorance of the grammar or what could be thought as a matter of style.)
How is the underlined part understood?
...We've all heard of wives palming off on their husbands
as false a string of pearls that was real and expensive.
Top answer
To palm something off on someone is to get someone to accept or buy something by making them think it is valuable when you know it is not. You have palmed it off. You have palmed it off on them.
- To palm something off on someone is to get someone to accept or buy something by making them think it is valuable when you know it is not.
- You have palmed it off.
- You have palmed it off on them.
- Maugham has jumbled and reversed the idiom, probably on purpose.
- A wife has a string of pearls that is real and expensive, and she palms it off on her husband as a false one, meaning that she deceives him into accepting the expense of her purchase not knowing the true cost.
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2 Answers
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To palm something off on someone is to get someone to accept or buy something by making them think it is valuable when you know it is not. You have palmed it off. You have palmed it off on them. Maugham has jumbled and reversed the idiom, probably on purpose. A wife has a string of pearls that is real and expensiv
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