Citations:out on a limb

English citations of out on a limb

Phrase

					1895 1897	1901 1903 1907 1909 1911 1917 1920–1924 1960	2002 2007 2008 2010 2011
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

• 1895, The Great Debate on the Financial Question Between Hon. Roswell G. Horr of New York and William H. Harvey of Illinois, Chicago: Debate Publishing, pages 244–5:

  [William H. Harvey speaking] It is gold that property and labor is being priced in, it is not priced in labor, and the average human intellect will have to be reduced a little lower than it is now, before Mr. Horr can toll the people out on a limb and chop the limb off and mangle them any more than they are now mangled. He is trying to lead you off on a theory that has no practical application as a monetary unit.

• 1897, Alfred Henry Lewis, Wolfville, 12th edition, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 79:

  But, however that is, Dave don't seem to gain no comfort of it at the time. I can see myse'f she gets Dave plumb treed an' out on a limb by them accusations when she makes 'em.

• 1901 July, “Fraternal”, in The Railway Conductor, volume 18, number 7, Cedar Rapids, IA: Order of Railway Conductors, Letter from G. B. M. Sewell, page 586:

  Harry has a little smoke house just back of the yard office at Huntington, Ind., where he keeps on tap a keg of cigars and a keg of tobacco and several other articles too numerous to mention. For fear some of the Brothers might get out on a limb as to the meaning of those kegs, I will just say that Harry would not violate section 30 of the statutes.

• 1903 May 30, Alfred Henry Lewis, “The Lighter Side”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 175, number 48, Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing, page 8, column 3:

  Gorman's desertion of his own candidacy, to employ a colloquialism of the woods, left many an excellent gentleman out on a limb—notably Crisp, whose second Speakership would be much at Cleveland's mercy when tenant of the White House.

• 1907, Andy Adams, Reed Anthony, Cowman; an Autobiography, Boston, New York: Houghton, Mifflin, page 267:

  “Go slow and learn to peddle,” was the motto of successful merchants; I had got out on a limb before and met with failure, and had no desire to rush in where angels fear for their footing.

• 1909 September 4, “Snakes and Eatin' Snakes”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 182, number 10, Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing, page 35, column 2:

  “Boss, I'se the best Bosco in the business. I'se got every other eat-'em-alive snake artist out on a limb. If you kin find a place for a tent I kin put up a show that kill all these other Boscoes what's eatin' snakes alive. […]”

• 1911 February 4, “Who's Who—and Why: Coozan Bob”, in The Saturday Evening Post, volume 183, number 32, Philadelphia: Curtis Publishing, page 21, column 3:

  One night, after the speaking, Mr. Broussard found himself in a poker game with some friends. Broussard has a reputation for bluffing every time he gets a chance, and during the game he stepped debonairly out on a limb and bet forty-five dollars.

• 1917, E. J. Rath, Too Much Efficiency, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 205:

  Alice sighed and made a helpless gesture. ¶ “It leaves us out on a limb,” continued Billy. “It was three against one until this started; now it's fifty-fifty. How can we expect to win out?” ¶ “We can't—alone. Connie isn't fair.”

• 1920 April 1, Ray W. Felton, “Getting on a Footing in Idaho”, in Frank D. Tomson, editor, The Shorthorn in America, volume 5, number 1, Chicago, IL: American Shorthorn Breeders' Association, page 13:

  Some of these youngsters know more now about cattle than a majority of their parents did when they began to breed Shorthorns. In competition with some of these bright-eyed boys—and girls, too—the average man, in a judging contest, would find himself out on a limb.

• 1921 February 23, H. L. Wood, “Personnel of Petroleum”, in National Petroleum News, volume 13, number 8, Cleveland, OH, page 75, columns 2–3:

  The great slump in crude oil prices hit north Texas very hard because so many speculators and promoters are now forced to get out from under, leaving land-owners and other legitimate interests out on a limb, for hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of property must be turned loose at almost any price to pay debts and obligations entered into when the tide of enthusiastic prosperity was at its height.

• 1921 December, Fred C. Kelly, “College Thoughts After Twenty Years”, in The Michigan Chimes, volume 3, number 3, page 12:

  There were Visigoths and there were Lombards, and the Lombards had some kind of league. If you were to ask me point-blank to tell in what century the Visigoths or Lombards lived or anything else about them you would have me out on a limb.

• 1922, Mark Sullivan, The Great Adventure at Washington: The Story of the Conference, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Page, page 46:

  Having thus, on the day before the Conference, “gone out on a limb” (this is the phrase used among American newspaper men when they deal too confidently with the future) this writer found it necessary, the day after the Conference's first session, to hug close to the branch which was now waving wildly in the hurricanes of world-wide popular approval for what Hughes proposed.

• 1923 October, Edward O'Reilly, “The Saga of Pecos Bill”, in The Century Magazine, volume 106, number 6, pages 828–9:

  “I 'm a coyote.” ¶ The cow-boy argued with him that he was a human, but Bill would n't believe him. ¶ “Ain't I got fleas?” he insisted. “And don't I howl around all night, like a respectable coyote should do?” ¶ “That don't prove nothin',” the cow-boy answered. “All Texans have fleas, and most of them howl. Did you ever see a coyote that did n't have a tail? Well, you ain't got no tail; so that proves you ain't a varmint.” ¶ Bill looked, and, sure enough, he did n't have a tail. ¶ “You sure' got me out on a limb,” says Bill. “I never noticed that before. […]”

• 1924, “Testimony of H. A. Barre Executive Engineer Southern California Edison Co., Los Angeles, Calif.”, in Hearings Before the Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation, House of Representatives, Sixty-Eighth Congress, First Session, on H. R. 2903 by Mr. Swing, a Bill to Provide for the Protection and Development of the Lower Colorado River Basin, part 5, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, page 959:

  Mr. Barre: “ […] Now, if we had to wait for a bond issue, or that sort of thing, we would have to wait a long time. The people would be out on the limb and gone before the issue could be made.” Mr. Raker: “Well, when they are out on a limb that way, you can get them to act more quickly and favorably than you can if every thing is working along all right.”

  (With the first occurrence of the phrase being a variation of the usual form.)

• 1960, Eleanor Mathews Sliney, Forward Ho!, New York: Vantage Press, page 113:

  At such violent times, I too stared and longed for home—home with its solid houses that grew up from deep concrete roots, its vestibules and heavy glass windows. Yes, I would have moved into one of San Francisco's twenty-five-foot frontage houses and lived happily ever after as in a book on a shelf. ¶ But here I was out on a limb seventy-five hundred miles away, looking at a land that had blown apart.

• 2002 May 9, “Swallow Me, Swallow”, in The Economist, retrieved 13 May 2019:

  Exchanges out on a limb, as the LSE is today, cannot hope to increase profits through higher trading volumes or greater efficiencies.

• 2002 September 12, “Why Gerhard Schröder Has Gone Out on a Limb”, in The Economist, retrieved 13 May 2019:

  [Gerhard Schröder] has categorically rejected any German support for an American-led attack on Iraq, even if backed by a United Nations mandate. The relationship that has been the cornerstone of German foreign policy since the second world war is under severe strain. Though several European governments feel much the same towards Mr Bush's policy, Germany's has gone furthest out on a limb.

• 2007 August 30, “Czechs With Few Mates”, in The Economist, retrieved 13 May 2019:

  EU diplomats describe the Czech Republic as out on a limb, even “unprofessional”, when it makes emotional points about freedom that are far off the agenda of given meetings.

• 2008 May 19, “Peaked Oil”, in The Economist, retrieved 13 May 2019:

  James Hamilton has gone out on a limb and declared that the long ride up for oil prices is over. A daring statement, but he has an excellent analysis backing it up.

• 2010 August 2, R. A., quoting Richard Fisher (Dallas Fed President), “The Inactive Fed”, in The Economist, retrieved 13 May 2019:

  I also suspect that the Fed is reluctant to do more because the last time they went out on a limb and took extraordinary/unorthodox actions—bailing out AIG, establishing currency swap lines, supporting the money market funds—they were eventually savaged by politicians and the press for those actions.

• 2011 September 23, R. M., “A Missed Opportunity”, in The Economist, retrieved 13 May 2019:

  Now perhaps it is foolish to expect one of the candidates to step out on a limb (a pretty sturdy limb it seems) and stand up for the repeal of DADT, but why did none of the candidates jump into this void and, at the very least, thank the soldier for his service? Would it have been that risky to say that no American soldier deserves to be booed by a crowd enjoying the freedoms he defends?