Home UK English spit-and-sawdust

Meaning of spit-and-sawdust in English:

spit-and-sawdust

phrase

informal British

  • Used to describe an old-fashioned or simple pub or bar, of a type whose floor was originally covered with sawdust.

    • ‘an old spit-and-sawdust pub has metamorphosed into a smart hotel with bar and restaurant’
    • ‘The Grapes is an old-fashioned big northern pub, almost spit-and-sawdust, the type that still closes between lunchtime and the early evening.’
    • ‘Essentially, The Irish (an unapologetically back-to-basics, spit-and-sawdust kind of joint) is the very embodiment of unchanging timelessness in a world of ever-shifting certainties.’
    • ‘The law is about to be changed again to allow further modernisation of shops, and it is time for the few remaining spit-and-sawdust shops to go, and genuine standards of punter comfort to be imposed on all.’
    • ‘For location scenes, fashionable bars such as the Leith Oyster Bar and the area's host of restaurants will be the backdrop rather than spit-and-sawdust bars.’
    • ‘At any rate, the two of us ended up at the Black Cap, one of North London's more spit-and-sawdust dens of iniquity.’
    • ‘Like a butterfly from a chrysalis, an old spit-and-sawdust pub has metamorphosed into a smart hotel with bar and restaurant.’
    • ‘‘It's very spit-and-sawdust here,’ said gym owner Billy Murray.’