Point

subs. (colloquial).—In pl. = Beauties: of women or children: accepted as applied to the characteristics of animals.

  1370.  Torrent of Portugal [HALLIWELL], 1910.

  POSSESSION IS NINE (or ELEVEN) POINTS OF THE LAW, phr. (colloquial).—Said in deprecation of any attempt to change things as they are, or to seek redress.

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 368. At least she had POSSESSION, and that IS NINE POINTS OF THE LAW, though scarcely one of honesty.

  PHRASES, more or less colloquial, are numerous. They mostly centre on a figurative use of POINT = (1) a sharp end, or (2) a small but well-defined spot: as a dot, a speck, a hole, a moment, &c. TO SEE (TELL, or MAKE PLAIN) A POINT = to understand (narrate or explicate) the drift, or application of a thing: as an argument, a narrative, a detail; TO CARE (or BE WORTH) BUT A POINT = to esteem lightly; POINT (like PIN, RAP, CENT, &c.) = the smallest standard of value; TO UNTRUSS A POINT = (1) to take down one’s breeches, and hence (2) to ease one’s bowels; POINT = a tagged lace, used of old to keep doublet and hose together; TO GIVE POINT TO (or BRING A POINT TO BEAR ON) = to emphasise: also TO POINT; TO COME TO THE POINT = to go to the root of a matter; TO BOIL DOWN (or CLOSE) TO A POINT = (1) to condense: as a paragraph, and (2) to balance: as an account; TO STRETCH (or STRAIN) A POINT = to exceed a limit (GROSE); TO MAKE A POINT OF = (1) to strive (or insist) to an end, and (2) to elicit a detail or make a desired impression (also TO PROVE ONE’S POINT); TO GAIN ONE’S POINT = to effect a purpose; TO STAND ON POINTS = to be punctilious; TO BE AT A POINT = to be determined; TO COME TO POINTS = to fight: with swords; TO GIVE POINTS TO = (1) to have (or give) an advantage, and (2) to impart exclusive or valuable information, TO TIP (q.v.): also POINTERS; AT ALL POINTS = completely; AT (or IN) THE POINT = (1) ready, and (2) in the act of; IN GOOD POINT = in good condition (Fr. embonpoint); IN POINT = apropos; IN POINT OF = as regards; POINT FOR POINT = exactly; TO POINT = completely; BEYOND A POINT = in excess; A POINT IN FAVOUR = an advantage in hand; FULL OF POINT = epigrammatic, effective; THE POINT OF A MATTER = its end or purpose; at POINT NONPLUS = hard up, IN QUEER ST. (q.v.); AT POINT BLANK = immediately, direct. See also CUCKOLD’S POINT; POTATO; SPEAR; and V.

  1350.  William of Palerne [E.E.T.S.], 3764. Armed AT ALLE POYNTES.

  1358.  CHAUCER, Parliament of Fowls [Chaucer Society], 76. [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, I. 112. Another verb is dropped in TO THE POYNTE.]

  1359.  GAYTRIGG [Religious Pieces (E.E.T.S.), 29]. And PROVE HIS POYNT [purpose].

  1362.  LANGLAND, Piers Plowmans Crede [WRIGHT], l. 1676.

  c. 1500.  The Romans of Partenay [E.E.T.S.], 3392. Where she no POINT had off diffame no dais.

  c. 1420.  PALLADIUS, On Husbondrie [E.E.T.S.], 154. And over yere thai wol been IN GOODE POINTE.

  1383.  CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales, The Prologue, 136.

  c. 1400.  The Smyth and his Dame [HAZLITT, Remains of the Early Popular Poetry of England, III. 219].

  c. 1440.  Merlin [E.E.T.S.], ii. 350. Amaunt be-thought hym that he myght come neuer IN BETTER POYNT to conquere his Castell. Ibid., i. 106. Thei cowde not in hym espie no POYNTE of covetise. Ibid., iii. 562. The thirde was Monevall, that was a noble knyght, and richely armed OF ALLE POINTES.

  d. 1529.  SKELTON, The Bowge of Courte, 246. But TO THE POYNTE shortely to procede.

  1564.  UDALL, The Apophthegmes of Erasmus, 8. In matters, NOT WORTH A BLEWE POINCT … we wil spare for no cost.

  1580.  SIDNEY, Arcadia, i. But in what particular POINTS the oracle was, in faith I know not.

  1587.  W. HARRISON, The Description of England [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, II. 3. Among the Romance words are … AT POINT BLANK, &c.].

  1590.  SPENSER, The Fairie Queene, I. ii. 12.

  1592.  SHAKESPEARE, Midsummer Night’s Dream, v. 1, 118. This fellow doth not STAND UPON POINTS. Ibid. (1594), 2 Henry VI., iv. 7. Now art thou within POINT-BLANK of our jurisdiction regal. Ibid. (1596), Hamlet, i. 2. A figure like your father, Armed AT POINT exactly, Cap-a-pe, Appears before them. Ibid. (1598), 2 Henry IV., ii. 4. Give me some sack: and, sweetheart, lie thou there. [Laying down his sword.] Come we to FULL POINTS here. Ibid. (1601), Henry VIII., i. 2. I’ll hear him his confessions justify; And POINT BY POINT the treasons of his master he shall again relate. Ibid. (1602). Twelfth Night, v. 1. Like to the Egyptian thief AT POINT OF DEATH. Ibid. (1603), Measure for Measure, i. 2. No, indeed, sir … you are therein in the right: but TO THE POINT. Ibid. (1609), Tempest, i. 2, 194. Hast thou … Performed TO POINT the tempest that I bade thee.

  1611.  CHAPMAN, May-Day, i. 2. I’ll to the enemy POINT BLANK; I’m a villain else.

  1611.  Bible, Authorised Version, Gen. xxv. 32. And Esau said, Behold, I am AT THE POINT to die.

  1616.  JONSON, The Devil is an Ass, iii. 1.

  1637.  FLETCHER, The Elder Brother, iii. 1. Young Eustace is a gentleman AT ALL POINTS. Ibid. (1647), The Knight of Malta, i. 1. Thou hurriest me beyond mine honour’s POINT.

  1648.  SUCKLING, Letters, 86. A pretty POINT of security, and such a one as all Germany cannot afford.

  1657.  J. BRADFORD, Letters [Parker Society (1853), ii. 120]. Be AT A POINT with yourselves, to follow not your will but God’s will.

  1713.  STEELE, The Guardian, No. 42, 29 April. There is a kind of drama in the forming of a a story, and the manner of conducting and POINTING it, is the same as in an epigram.

  d. 1732.  GAY, Fables, xxxix.

  d. 1745.  SWIFT, A Letter to a Young Clergyman. The constant design of both these orators, in all their speeches, was, to DRIVE SOME one particular POINT.

  1749.  JOHNSON, The Vanity of Human Wishes, 222.

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 110. Set their faces POINT-BLANK against the tastes of the public; and as a proof of this there were a thousand cases in point. Ibid., 120. Blanche … was armed AT ALL POINTS with the weapons of a most perfect beauty.

  1759.  STERNE, Tristram Shandy, i. 9. Every author has a way of his own in BRINGING HIS POINTS TO BEAR.

  1760.  SMOLLETT, Sir Launcelot Greaves, iii. They would have COME TO POINTS immediately had not the gentlemen interposed.

  1779.  SHERIDAN, The Critic, ii. 1. When history … furnishes anything like A CASE IN POINT … an author will take advantage of it…. It is a received POINT among poets that … you may fill up with a little love at your own discretion.

  1790.  BRUCE, Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, I. 371. Many disadvantages IN POINT OF climate.

  1814.  WORDSWORTH, The Excursion, vi.

  1819.  GREVILLE, Memoirs, 3 Feb. Both her letters and her conversation are FULL OF POINT.

  1830.  SOUTHEY, Bunyan, 42. He maintained, which was in fact THE POINT AT ISSUE, that the opinions held at that day by the Quakers were the same that the Ranters had held long ago.

  d. 1832.  CRABBE, Works, I. 93. Not one grief was POINTED by remorse.

  1841.  DISRAELI, Amenities of Literature, II. 352. An epigram now is a short satire closing with a POINT of wit.

  1843.  MACAULAY, Lord Clive. Shah Alum had invested Patna, and was ON THE POINT OF proceeding to storm.

  1847.  TENNYSON, The Princess, iii.

  1847.  C. BRONTË, Jane Eyre, xi. I suppose the POINT of the exhibition lay in hearing the notes of love and jealousy warbled with the lisp of childhood; and in very bad taste that POINT was.

  1870.  J. K. MEDBERY, Men and Mysteries of Wall Street, 83. If the operator has a good ‘POINT,’ he has a ‘sure thing.’… In other words,… a bit of secret information concerning a stock, whether it be that an extra dividend is to be declared, a bull movement is organizing, an emission of new shares is to take place, or some other cause is at work, or likely to be at work, which will seriously affect prices.

  1883.  The American, vi. 383 [Century]. Any average Eton boy could GIVE POINTS TO His Holiness in the matter of Latin verses.

  1884.  New York Herald, 4 Nov. I will give him a POINTER that will be of great benefit to you in your business.

  1888.  New York Mercury, 7 Aug. All things taken into consideration, there never was a bolder voyage over the Atlantic than this made by the ‘Romer,’ all for the sake of a few POINTS in news.

  1888.  Denver Republican [Americanisms]. There is a big POINTER for those gentlemen who cannot restrain their sporting proclivities in these sentences.

  1888.  Pittsburg Times, 26 Jan. BOILED DOWN TO A fine POINT, bondsmen are in demand.

  1889.  Pall Mall Gazette, 23 Sept., 2, 1. The smallest chit of a dressmaker’s apprentice could give her POINTS about modern dress and its present rational tendency.

  1892.  Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 19 March, 94, 2. Harry Payne is a clown of the old school, ’tis true, but still he can give POINTS and an easy licking to most, if not all, of his modern rivals.

  1901.  Daily Telegraph, 19 Oct., 7, 1, 2. Would any person who was not mad say he was not himself? I have MADE MY POINT.