Rhyming slang all cases, omitting, from the end of the phrase, the secondary rhyming word (which is thereafter implied), making the origin and meaning of the phrase elusive to listeners not in the know. The form that is followed is made clear with the following example. The rhyming phrase "apples and pears" evolved to mean "stairs". Following the pattern of omission, "and pears" is dropped, thus the spoken phrase "I'm going up the apples" means "I'm going up the stairs". The following are further common examples of these phrases: Thus a construction of the following type could conceivably arise: "It nearly knocked
Discworld characters reveals that in Dimwell slang, ""syrup of prunes"" means wig. (In Cockney rhyming slang, the expected derivation would be ""syrup of figs".") Another example given in the text is ""cup-and-plate""—no definition is given, but ""He's a bit cup-and-plate in the head"" implies it means ""not quite right"." Tolliver also had a very small part in "[[Wintersmith]]". The wintersmith approaches him to take some sulfur, so that he would become a man. This incident was reported in The Ankh Morpork Times, and a widow approached him, swayed by 'a man who knows his hygiene.' It is now believed that they are