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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

more life in a tramp's vest en · NOUN

Etymology

A tramp's vest might be expected to be infested with living things such as fleas.

Meanings

  1. (UK, slang, uncountable) Used in comparisons to indicate that someone or something is devoid of life or animation.
    • I'd seen more life in a tramp's vest than I had in this lad, and he just sat on the bike totally unconcerned as I approached him on foot. 2012, Martyn Johnson, What's Tha Up To Nah?:
    • We had been used to the patter and banter of the Gorbals and, after a particularly dull conversation with one of our new neighbours, my mother told me that she'd 'seen mair life in a tramp's vest'. 2011, Colin MacFarlane, No Mean Glasgow: Revelations of a Gorbals Guy: