bacon

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

To save one's bacon. A vulgar expression, meaning to save one's flesh from injury, to preserve one's flesh from harm or from punishment. We say also, to escape with whole skin. A very old phrase.


What frightens you thus, my good son? says the priest;

You murder'd, are sorry, and have been confest.

Oh, father! my sorrow will scarce save my bacon;

For 'twas not that I murder'd, but that I was taken.--Prior's Poems.

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

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