martin

all my eye (and Betty Martin)

Nonsense talk. The origin of this phrase is disputed, but it may have originated with a sailor whose retelling of a beggar's (misheard) words was regarded as nonsense. Oh please, she's not rich. Any talk of wealth is all my eye and Betty Martin. If he says he's good at tennis, it's all my eye—he's terribly uncoordinated on the court.
See also: all, betty, eye

like a martin to his/its gourd

dated, colloquial A reference to the purple martin, a type of swallow that often nest in hollowed-out gourds provided by humans. Primarily heard in US.
1. Very fast in a straight line. He stepped in the door and walked over to the bar like a martin to his gourd.
2. Quickly, directly, and intuitively. I wasn't sure Sarah would be cut out for carpentry, but she took to it like a martin to its gourd.
See also: gourd, like, martin
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • all my eye
  • all my eye (and Betty Martin)
  • betty
  • horsefeathers
  • Horsefeathers!
  • nonsense
  • rubbish
  • a load of nonsense
  • a load of rubbish, nonsense, etc.
  • flamdoodle
References in classic literature
here is the money;' and, so saying, he handed him the hundred florins, which the peasant pocketed, and Martin took possession of the cat, which was called Waska.
'I had no money over to buy anything else with,' replied Martin.
'Leave the house at once, and go and beg your bread among strangers;' and as Martin did not dare to contradict her, he called Schurka and Waska and started off with them to the nearest village in search of work.
Yellow Fairy Book
It was a hard bargain, but one that Wade could afford to take up, for if the wheat were to freeze out, or if the grasshoppers should eat it, or the chinch bugs ruin it, or a hail storm beat it down into the mud, or if any of the many hatreds Stepmother Nature holds out toward those trusting souls who would squeeze a living from her hard hands--if any of these misfortunes should transpire, he would be out nothing but labor, and that was the one thing he and Martin could afford to risk.
The seed deal was arranged, and Martin made the trip six times back and forth, for the wagon could hold only fifty bushels.
The shattering anguish in his mother's voice startled Martin, stirred within him tumultuous, veiled sensations.
Dust
It was more as a demonstration of defiance against Keggs than because he really hoped that anything would come of it that Martin approached Elsa next morning after breakfast.
'I don't know that I'm so set on shooting today, myself,' said Martin.
'I shouldn't give way to that sort of thing if I were you,' said Martin. 'The police are pretty down on road-hogging in these parts.'
The Man Upstairs and Other Stories
And now what he so wished for had come to pass; he almost hailed it as a special providence (as indeed it was, but not for the reasons he gave for it--what providences are?) that Arthur should have singled out Martin of all fellows for a friend.
"Well, I say," sputtered out Martin eagerly, "will you come to- morrow, both of you, to Caldecott's Spinney then?
Tom Browns Schooldays
"What do you want, Martin?" Olney demanded, turning squarely upon him.
Martin felt very uncomfortable, and looked entreaty at Ruth.
Martin Eden
He was reckoned very handsome; his person much admired in general, though not by her, there being a want of elegance of feature which she could not dispense with:but the girl who could be gratified by a Robert Martin's riding about the country to get walnuts for her might very well be conquered by Mr.
Goddard, and the teachers, and the girls and the affairs of the school in general, formed naturally a great part of the conversationand but for her acquaintance with the Martins of AbbeyMill Farm, it must have been the whole.
Emma