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buckle down. Set to work, apply oneself with determination, as in All right, we’ll buckle down now and study for exams. Originating about 1700 as buckle to, the expression gained currency with the football song Buckle-Down, Winsocki (from the Broadway musical comedy Best Foot Forward, 1941). [Mid-1800s]
The smoking lamp is lighted or the smoking lamp is out’ were the expressions indicating that smoking was permitted or forbidden. The smoking lamp has survived only as a figure of speech. When the officer of the deck says the smoking lamp is out before drills, refueling or taking ammunition, that is the Navy’s way of saying cease smoking.
The phrase a spot of tea is certainly known in the UK as well as the US — the letter writer is wrong to suggest it isn’t used this side of the Atlantic — though it sounds old-fashioned to me, being more my parents’ generation than mine.
“For heaven’s sake” dates at least from the nineteenth century. “For Pete’s sake” appeared in Dialect Notes in 1924. “For pity’s sake” dates from the sixteenth century; Michael Drayton used it in one of his Idea sonnets of 1593: “Rebate thy spleen, if but for pities sake!” See also for the love of Mike/Pete/God. For Pete’s sake! For Pete’s sake!
b chips plural : money —used especially in the phrase in the chipsThe beginning was always characterized by careless haste in the expectation of landing in the chips,…— William Kittredge. c : something valuable that can be used for advantage in negotiation or trade a bargaining chip.