savage as a meat axe

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

Exceedingly hungry. This vulgar simile is often used in the Northern and Western States.


"Why, you don't eat nothing!" he exclaimed; "ridin' don't agree with you, I guess! Now, for my part, it makes me as savage as a meat axe."--Mrs. Clavers's Forest Life, Vol. I. p. 103.

It would be a charity to give the pious brother some such feed as chicken fixins and doins, for he looks half-starved, and as savage as a meat axe.--Carlton's New Purchase.

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