on the

on the

barrel/barrelhead
Granting, giving, or requesting no credit: paid cash on the barrel for the car.
See also: on

on the

up-and-up/up and up Informal
Open and honest.
See also: on
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • (as) crooked as a barrel of fish hooks
  • crooked
  • crooked as a barrel of fish hooks
  • sound as a barrel
  • (as) funny as a barrel of monkeys
  • funny as a barrel of monkeys
  • it's more fun than a barrel of monkeys
  • more fun than a barrel of monkeys
References in classic literature
I have listened for hours to this most pertinacious pedlar (I wonder whether he is dead or has made a fortune), while sitting on the rail of the old Duke of S- (she's dead, poor thing!
The cabmen, too, who twice a week, on the night when the A.S.N.
He used to go ashore every night to foregather in some hotel's parlour with his crony, the mate of the barque Cicero, lying on the other side of the Circular Quay.
She sat sobbing till the candle went out, and then, wearied, aching, stupefied with crying, threw herself on the bed without undressing and went to sleep.
But Hetty's was not a nature to face difficulties--to dare to loose her hold on the familiar and rush blindly on some unknown condition.
"Na-a-y," said old Martin, with an elongation of the word, meant to make it bitter as well as negative, while he leaned forward and looked down on the floor.
156: But Hesiod says that he changed himself in one of his wonted shapes and perched on the yoke-boss of Heracles' horses, meaning to fight with the hero; but that Heracles, secretly instructed by Athena, wounded him mortally with an arrow.
221: That this tribe (the Pelasgi) were from Arcadia, Ephorus states on the authority of Hesiod; for he says: `Sons were born to god- like Lycaon whom Pelasgus once begot.'
Fragment #36 -- Apollonius Dyscolus (28), On the Pronoun, p.
He grows too proud in his authority, Lifting his lofty head above the clouds, And, like a steeple, overpeers the church: But we'll pull down his haughty insolence; And, as Pope Alexander, our progenitor, Trod on the neck of German Frederick, Adding this golden sentence to our praise, "That Peter's heirs should tread on Emperors, And walk upon the dreadful adder's back, Treading the lion and the dragon down, And fearless spurn the killing basilisk," So will we quell that haughty schismatic, And, by authority apostolical, Depose him from his regal government.
CURSED BE HE THAT STRUCK HIS HOLINESS A BLOW ON THE FACE!
'Hangin' on the verge of starvation,' I says--'for the honor of the family--hic--sen' me some bread.
Then Freddie gave a number on the Lake Shore Drive, and the carriage started away.
So he gives up altogether the lower and middle parts of the form, and looks round in despair at the boys on the top bench, to see if there is one out of whom he can strike a spark or two, and who will be too chivalrous to murder the most beautiful utterances of the most beautiful woman of the old world.
He's sure to have learnt to the end." Next moment he is reassured by the spirited tone in which Arthur begins construing, and betakes himself to drawing dogs' heads in his notebook, while the master, evidently enjoying the change, turns his back on the middle bench and stands before Arthur, beating a sort of time with his hand and foot, and saying; "Yes, yes," "Very well," as Arthur goes on.