come the old soldier
verb/ˈkʌm ðiː‿əʊl(d)ˈsəʊld͡ʒə/UK/ˈkʌm ði‿oʊl(d)ˈsoʊld͡ʒə/US
Etymology
From come (“to behave in the manner of; to pretend to be”) + the + old soldier (“former soldier, or one who has served for a long time; one with a lot of experience in something”), in the sense of one taking advantage of their age or experience over someone else.
Definitions
Often followed by with
Often followed by with: to deceive, impose upon, or take advantage of someone, as if exploiting one's superior age or experience.
- Don’t come the old soldier with me, sunshine! Do you think I was born yesterday?
- [W]ere it not that I think he has scarce the impudence to propose such a thing to succeed, curse me but I should think he was coming the old soldier over me, and keeping up his game.
- But you needn't try to come the old soldier over me. D—n it, I'm not such a fool as that.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for come the old soldier. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA