putterings 536 < 537 > 538 index
[wanting] sprawl; a streak of lack; always late in the tide; the puttering stage
A man who lacked energy or was downright lazy was said not to have “sprawl” enough to dig his potatoes, or whatever he neglected. Did that mean that he would not even move when sprawled out? Certain ones had no “gumption,” “a streak of lack,” were “wishy washy” “looked [135] like something the cat had brought in after dragging it over the stone wall and through the wet grass.” A man or woman who was inefficient but not vicious was often called “a poor tool.” Some were “always late in the tide,” had “reached the puttering stage,” or just “fudged.” A weak inferior sickly man was called “a puke of misery.” A shiftless person was “easy as old Tilly” or “did not amount to a Hannah Cook.”
ex Anne E. Perkins, M.D., “Vanishing Expressions of the Maine Coast,” American Speech 3:2 (December 1927) : 134-141 (135)
U Michigan [?] copy/scan (via google books) : link
same (via hathitrust) : link
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Anne E. Perkins (1873-1961), “physician, ornithologist, botanist and botanical collector”
wikidata : link
Maine Women Writers Collection : link