Middlemarch vocabulary

4 idioms used

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4 [idiom] words
castle in the air
keep counsel
make a clean breast
at sixes and sevens
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at sixes and sevens

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Definition:
Left at sixes and sevens: i.e. in confusion; commonly said of a room where the furniture, &c. is scattered about; or of a business left unsettled.

Francis Grose. 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
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Uses:
"Well, whatever you do, if he's a lazy good-for-nought, everything'll be at sixes and sevens. If he has a conscience, he'll work, and if not, there's no doing anything."
"Oh, come, you say yourself Ivan has begun looking after the cattle better."

Leo Tolstoy. Anna Karenina (Translated by Constance Garnett)
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For similar reasons I made no allusion to the skirmishing plates upon the floor; or to the disreputable appearance of the castors, which were all at sixes and sevens, and looked drunk; or to the further blockade of Traddles by wandering vegetable dishes and jugs.

Charles Dickens. David Copperfield (1850)
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