Hi
Is it OK to say "Those people always buy on the slate".
Thanks
In BrE there is an expression, not frequently used these days, "to put something on the slate". It means to take goods from a shop and pay for them later. It originates from a time when people could get groceries from a local shop where they were known to the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper would write down the amount they owed, originally on a slate, and they would pay on pay day. This was at a time when most people were weekly paid.
So this expression is not used any more?
So what people say today: on credit. "They always buy alcohol on credit".
:up: The idiom did refer to an actual slate (blackboard, written on with chalk). Small businesses and pubs in the UK used to do it. It's not at all common now.In BrE there is an expression, not frequently used these days, "to put something on the slate". It means to take goods from a shop and pay for them later. It originates from a time when people could get groceries from a local shop where they were known to the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper would write down the amount they owed, originally on a slate, and they would pay on pay day. This was at a time when most people were weekly paid.