the weakest go to the wall
- the weakest go to the wall
Usually said to derive from the installation of seating (around the walls) in the churches of the late Middle Ages. To go to the wall means figuratively ‘to succumb in a conflict or struggle’.
a 1500 Coventry Plays (EETS) 47 The weykist gothe eyuer to the walle.
c 1595 SHAKESPEARE Romeo & Juliet I. i. 14 That shows thee a weak slave; for the weakest goes to the wall.
1714 DEFOE (title) The weakest go to the wall, or the Dissenters sacrific’d by all parties.
1834 MARRYAT Peter Simple I. v. You will be thrashed all day long... The weakest always goes to the wall there.
1888 C. M. DOUGHTY Travels in Arabia Deserta I. x. There perished many among them;..it is the weak which go to the wall.
1916 ‘J. OXENHAM’ My Lady of Moor i. He saw to it that I had a good education,..knowing the necessity and value of it in these strenuous days of the ‘weak to the wall’.
1955 T. WARRINER Doors of Sleep i. ‘As in the early church, the weakest go to the wall,’ the Archdeacon said, seating himself on the low parapet.
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