pea souper

pea souper

euphemism Especially thick fog or smog. Originally used to refer to the thick, brown, sometimes lethal fog caused by air pollution in London during the 19th and early 20th century, humorously likened to the thick soup made from split peas. For many older citizens living in London during that time, a pea souper could be as deadly as an attack from any criminal. Heathrow had to suspend all outgoing flights for nearly two hours on Sunday due to a particularly bad pea souper hanging over the city.
See also: pea
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • a London particular
  • London
  • (as) thick as pea soup
  • thick as pea soup
  • be (as) thick as thieves
  • fog in
  • fog over
  • come thick and fast
  • thick
  • soup
References in periodicals archive
Lamps' own future, with a potential return to Chelsea tugging at his heart-strings, is as clear as a pea souper.
Ask this question in the 1950s and early 1960s and the answer would have been London, having attained infamy for the deaths of thousands of its residents during thick pea souper smogs.
The 'pea souper' lasted for five days, and killed more than 4,000 people.
It was like a London pea souper or the inside of one of Blake's "dark satanic mills".
This pea souper of fact and fiction sees real-life Victorian characters mixed up with a fictional serial killer in London's downmarket Limehouse district.
This might go against current rules and would possibly be seen by many as a backward step, but it would make life a little more pleasant for both the smokers and for those who currently have to walk through the nicotine-filled pea souper.
United, in the middle of their sensational three Wembley victories of the early 50s, had their game against Swansea called off after only eight minutes because of thick fog, but incredibly, across the Tyne, Gateshead completed a victory over Liverpool, though most of the fans missed the winning goal by Ian Winters from a Campbell corner because they couldn't see through a pea souper!
United, in the middle of their sensational three Wembley victories of the early 50s, had their game against Swansea called off after only eight minutes because of thick fog but incredibly across the Tyne Gateshead completed a victory over Liverpool though most of the fans missed the winning goal by Ian Winters from a Campbell corner because they couldn't see through a pea souper!
The pilot of the Robinson R66 chopper took the decision to make an emergency landing after "pea souper" conditions made it too dangerous to fly.
For German tourist Harald Gummlich, 60, the pea souper was not what he was expecting.
Detective Superintendent Michael Broster was criticised after his assistant was told he had offered evidence as "helpful as a London pea souper" at the inquest into Mr Williams's death.
One afternoon, in February I think, we had an almighty pea souper.
He was once dragged over the bonnet of his car by an angry muscle man because he had accidentally cut him up in a pea souper.
PEA SOUPER: Anfield is shrouded in fog as Wenger and Benitez, below, both lament last night's cup-tie call-off
Immortalised by the 19th Century novelist Robert Louis Stevenson, the notorious "pea souper" added atmosphere to his classic horror novel The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.