"Lace (one's) boots" : To put (someone) wise. 1. To inform someone of anothers personal attitude, feelings or ideas; To warn, caution or advise someone. 2. To inform someone of a group attitute, basic concept or point of view, esp. in order generally to enlighten the person or make the person more alert, receptive or hip. Fairly common student and young adult use. In both instances, the person put wise is generally considered of inferior intellect, experience or sensitivity to the speaker. 3. equal to "wise up".
Example: "Somebody needs to lace that boys boots up real tight!"
Clarification: "A person besides myself should enlighten that young man about the rules around here in such a way that he should never forget them."
I've decided to post an American slang of the day from here on out. I found this great book during one of my thrifting forays; "The pocket dictionary of American Slang". It was published in 1960 and compiled by Harold Wentworth and Stuart Berg Flexner. It took ten years to prepare so a large majority of the 'substandard' language published within was at the height of its popularity during the 1950's. I'm going to open the book with my eyes closed and point to a word or phrase every single day, unless I break a leg or a tooth or something, and post it here.
The highly colored, many flavored words and expressions of every sector of our national life--
the Beat generation, Madison Avenue, the underworld, prizefighters, teenyboppers, addicts,
astronauts, soda-jerks and hobos.
This is an AMAZING idea!
ReplyDelete