He glassed a bloke down the Cross Keys?

[Polyester]

What does the sentence mean below?

"He glassed a bloke down the Cross Keys?"

Thanks your great help!

 

[Roman55]

I am not a teacher.

Where does this come from?

If "glassed' is anything like 'bottled' it would mean, 'injured a man with a broken glass at a place called Cross Keys.'

 

[BobK]

:up: And the place is almost certainly a pub - 'The Cross Keys' is a very popular pub name. 'Cross' in that context means crossed, and the name refers to some kind of emblem (at a guess, the papal keys - but Wikipedia would no doubt explain).

I've never been either the subject or the object of either verb, but bottling - I think - involves breaking the bottle first and then using it as a weapon. When you glass someone you start with an unbroken glass and aim for the victim's face.

b

PS And 'down the....' is a slang way of saying 'down at the...'.

 

[Jill Dorchester]

It should be mentioned that "glassed a bloke down the Cross Keys" is strictly BrE. If you said this phrase to an American, he'd either stare back blankly at you in confusion, or maybe agree with you without really understanding. ("Well, if you've ever had your cross keys glassed, you know how painful that can be!") :lol:

 

[Polyester]

What's "Cross Keys" mean? A bar? A bear?

 

[Rover_KE]

It's a common pub name.

 

[bhaisahab]

"The Cross Keys", as has been explained to you by BobK, is a popular name for a pub in Britain.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/pub

 

[Tdol]

I've never been either the subject or the object of either verb, but bottling - I think - involves breaking the bottle first and then using it as a weapon. When you glass someone you start with an unbroken glass and aim for the victim's face.

I was told that you should break the bottle first. Apparently, there is a trick to it to ensure you don't cut yourself- most people would think you slam the bottle down on the tabletop, but that would allow glass to fly everywhere and the bottle would end up pointing the wrong way. The smarter thug breaks it against the underside of the table with an upwards stroke, so glass falls to the floor and the weaponised part is naturally moving upwards into an offensive position. At least, that is what I was told one night by a scary bloke down the Cross Keys.

 

[Rover_KE]

Good tip, that, Tdol. Can't wait to try it.

 

[Jill Dorchester]

I was told that you should break the bottle first. Apparently, there is a trick to it to ensure you don't cut yourself- most people would think you slam the bottle down on the tabletop, but that would allow glass to fly everywhere and the bottle would end up pointing the wrong way. The smarter thug breaks it against the underside of the table with an upwards stroke, so glass falls to the floor and the weaponised part is naturally moving upwards into an offensive position. At least, that is what I was told one night by a scary bloke down the Cross Keys.

Uh-huh. "Some bloke*" just happened to mention this to you. "Just in case" you ever found yourself in a situation where you needed to neatly break a bottle in the most efficient way to fashion a weapon. Not that you'd ever actually need to employ that knowledge..... ;-) It was just information exchanged with you in casual conversation..... ::: makes mental note to never upset Tdol :::


*Reminds me of something my friend, an Emergency Room physician, once told me - that the most dangerous man in America is Some Dude. Because just about every shooting or stabbing victim he's treated had the same explanation: "I wasn't doin' nothing, I was just minding my own business when some dude shot (or stabbed) me...."

 

[Tdol]

I confess- I did a sociolinguistics paper on the language of criminals and learnt lots of useful tips along the way. :up:

 

[emsr2d2]

In the same vein, in the UK, "some bloke" (and in certain parts of town/the country) or "some bird" would be equally dangerous!

 

[jawgar]

And "down" may be based on altitude/topography "I went down to the river" or imply south from where the speaker is presently as "I went down to the Antarctic".