[Idiom] Egbert isn’t the sort of name most fellows would be seen dead in a ditch with.

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booklovers

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[FONT=&#45208]Egbert isn’t the sort of name[/FONT][FONT=&#45208] [/FONT][FONT=&#45208]m[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]ost[/FONT][FONT=&#45208] f[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]e[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]ll[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]o[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]w[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]s [/FONT][FONT=&#45208]w[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]ou[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]l[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]d be s[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]een[/FONT][FONT=&#45208]dead in a ditchwith[/FONT][FONT=&#45208].

In the above sentence the narrator is insinuating the name "Egbert" is not a common name, but what exactly the above sentence means?
How does the idiom 'dead in a ditch with" be in another situation, for example ?

It is from the novel 'Grey Mask' by Patricia Wentworh in 1929.

(I am not a native English speaker.)[/FONT]
 

MikeNewYork

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The author is being critical of the name, either because it is unusual or unpopular.
 

booklovers

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Thank you so much.
 
J

J&K Tutoring

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Dead in a ditch has a certain poetical quality to it.

I've more often heard a similar idiom: 'I wouldn't be caught dead...' as in: 'I wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like that!'
 
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