Charles

Related to Charles: Ray Charles

Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father

A mnemonic used in music to remember the names of the flat keys (B, E, A, D, G, C, and F). Reading the phrase in reverse can be used to remember the sharp keys. A: "It's no use, I keep getting the names of the flats all mixed up!" B: "It's easy, so long as you remember Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father!"
See also: and, battle, down, End, father, goes

Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle

A mnemonic used in music to remember the names of the sharp keys (F, C, G, D, A, E, and B). Reading the phrase in reverse can be used to remember the flat keys. A: "It's no use, I keep getting the names of the sharps all mixed up!" B: "It's easy, so long as you remember that Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle!"
See also: and, battle, Charles, down, End, father, goes

King Charles's head

A topic, idea, or agenda that is a source of obsessive fixation or preoccupation for one. Sometimes written "King Charles' head" (with no "s" after the apostrophe). An allusion to Charles Dickens' book David Copperfield, in which the character Mr. Dick is unable to write or speak without bringing up the topic of the severed head of King Charles. Immigration reform, the King Charles's head of the party in recent years, was again the focus of today's debate. My poor aunt can't help bringing up her troubled childhood whenever she begins a conversation with someone. The trauma of it all has become a kind of King Charles' head for her.
See also: head, king
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

King Charles's head

an obsession.
This expression alludes to the character of ‘Mr Dick’, in Charles Dickens's novel David Copperfield, who could not write or speak on any matter without the subject of King Charles's head intruding.
See also: head, king
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

Charles

1. n. cocaine. (Drugs.) Is there a house where I can buy some Charles somewhere close?
2. n. a Caucasian. (Black. Not necessarily derogatory.) And what is Charles gonna say about what you did to his car?
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle
  • Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father
  • for the life of
  • for the life of (one)
  • for the life of me
  • for the life of one
  • it escapes (one)
  • AFAICR
  • doggo
  • jog (one's) memory
References in classic literature
There had been music, singing, talking, laughing, all that was most agreeable; charming manners in Captain Wentworth, no shyness or reserve; they seemed all to know each other perfectly, and he was coming the very next morning to shoot with Charles. He was to come to breakfast, but not at the Cottage, though that had been proposed at first; but then he had been pressed to come to the Great House instead, and he seemed afraid of being in Mrs Charles Musgrove's way, on account of the child, and therefore, somehow, they hardly knew how, it ended in Charles's being to meet him to breakfast at his father's.
The morning hours of the Cottage were always later than those of the other house, and on the morrow the difference was so great that Mary and Anne were not more than beginning breakfast when Charles came in to say that they were just setting off, that he was come for his dogs, that his sisters were following with Captain Wentworth; his sisters meaning to visit Mary and the child, and Captain Wentworth proposing also to wait on her for a few minutes if not inconvenient; and though Charles had answered for the child's being in no such state as could make it inconvenient, Captain Wentworth would not be satisfied without his running on to give notice.
In two minutes after Charles's preparation, the others appeared; they were in the drawing-room.
Charles"--she hit herself wildly--"come in at once to Father.
Charles began to run, but checked himself, and stepped heavily across the gravel path.
Charles took two letters, and read them as he followed the procession.
Charles, to steady them further, read the enclosure out loud: "A note in my mother's handwriting, in an envelope addressed to my father, sealed.
"How!" exclaimed Charles, in astonishment, "and have I then a rival, and a successful one too?"
"Yes--yes--I will conceal my misery from others," cried Charles, springing on his feet and rushing from the room; "would to God I could conceal it from myself!"
Miss Emmerson was enabled to discover some secret uneasiness between Charles and Julia, although she was by no means able to penetrate the secret.
Then a middle-aged laborer stepped from the road into the field, hat in hand, ducked respectfully, and said: "Look 'e here, Sir Charles. Don't 'e mind them fellers.
"Sir Charles will stand by me," he said, after a pause, with assumed confidence, but with an anxious glance at the baronet.
"Hold your tongue, Jane, for God's sake," said Sir Charles, taking her horse by the bridle and backing him from Trefusis.
I am in the service of the parliament, which orders me to fight General Lambert and Charles Stuart -- its enemies, and not mine.
"Then I may positively say that your honor is not inclined to favor King Charles II.?"