like cheese at fourpence

From the mill towns of Lancashire, where fourpence was considered expensive for cheese and hence cheese for sale at that price would not be bought.

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like cheese at fourpence

1. (idiomatic) Of a person: waiting idly or timewasting.
   • 1989, Colin Dunne, Hooligan, page 38:

     Don't stand there like cheese at fourpence.

   • 2003, Rachel Wyatt, Time's Reach, page 75:

     "Why are you standing there like cheese at fourpence?"

   • 2010, Ruth Hamilton, Mersey View, page 89:

     Then you can stay sat there like cheese at fourpence till Mrs Henshaw gets back with her lawyer.