The phrase “come hell or high water” means: Let the consequences be whatever they may, however ill.
We’d say that this is considerably older than the date 1915, shown for it in A Dictionary of Americanisms.
In fact, we heard it commonly employed in Colorado and Wyoming some years earlier, and it is the sort of expression that one would expect to find studded through Bret Harte’s Western stories.
And, though the dictionaries describe “high water” as either being about the same thing as ordinary highest tide or ordinary highest flow of a stream, we’d translate the “high water” of this saying as referring specifically to the flash floods of water that roll down a canyon after a heavy storm above, sweeping everything before it.
Certainly that’s the kind of destructive force worthy of comparison with “hell.”
Related Posts
-
Where does the expression “hell on wheels” originate and What does hell on wheels mean?
The expression "hell on wheels" means: Very tough, vicious, wild, or, especially of towns of the "wild and woolly West," lawless. During the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad back in the 1860's,…
-
Where does the phrase “hell bent for election” come from and What does it mean?
"Hell-bent," an American term, means so determined as to be regardless of the consequences, even hell itself. An article in Knickerbocker Magazine in an issue of 1835 describes a band of Indians as…
-
Where Did the Phrase “Hell Bent For Leather” For a Determined Person Originate and What Does it Mean?
It is a good idea to stay out of the way of anyone "hell bent for leather." The word bent has meant a mental inclination other than straight since 1586 and resurfaced as…
-
Where does the expression “to lead apes in hell” come from and What does it mean?
The expression "to lead apes in hell" was common in the times of Shakespeare and is found in The Taming of the Shrew in the lines where Katharina says to her father, "Nay,…
-
What does the expression “from hell to breakfast” mean and Where does it come from?
We have little doubt that the original expression was "hell bent for breakfast," cowboy slang of the past thirty or forty years, typifying the rush from bunkhouse to cookshack at the clang of…
-
Where does the expression “like a bat out of hell” come from and What does it mean?
The expression "like a bat out of hell" means: Moving or speaking, etc., with extreme speed; like greased lightning; hell-bent for election. Though this might have become a part of British aviation slang…
