Lick And A Promise

Today I was entering a multi-purpose room and the person cleaning said, “I’m giving it a lick and a promise.” I had not heard that phrase for years. The last person I heard say it was my mother. This person was not that old so I asked her where she had heard the phrase and what it meant.

In Progress..gotta run to help my wife with supper (dinner).

Charlene, said, “I really don’t know! It may have been from my mother or grandmother, but I say it all the time. To me, it means, I’ll give it a quick wash now with a promise to give it a complete clean later.”   Sounded good to me, however; I decided to try and find out where the saying originated.

The dictionary definition is; a hasty performance of a task, especially cleaning something. I usually say to my wife, I’ll finish it later. She is the one who usually does the finishing

According to the Urban Dictionary 

It’s an old English slang and it was first published in 1838  in an English newspaper. It was used to describe a half-hearted attempt at a task or a job.

I wonder how someone would react if you were cleaning a house and the owner came home and you said, “I gave it a lick and a promise.” You would maybe get a look of shock and disbelief.

This post has been made with a lick and a promise, to finish this post, when I am able to gather more material.

I just remembered something from my childhood. We didn’t have indoor plumbing. We did have a hand operated pump in the kitchen. As a child, I remember, when we were in a mad rush we would pump up a little cold water, wet our hands and wash with sunlight soap. Then we would splash water on our face, wipe with a towel and then out the door. Mom would say, ” that’s a lick and a prayer.”  I understand this is where, lick and a promise, came from.

Check out The Word Detective.

Found this on youtube by Aerosmith…I wasn’t into rock so I hadn’t heard of this song.