live over the brush

Possibly ultimately derived from broomstick wedding, with broomstick meaning ersatz or sham. Often said to be derived from early British or Romani wedding practices, in which a couple could become married outside the Church by leaping a broom or brush, but no evidence exists for such a ceremony.

live over the brush (third-person singular simple present lives over the brush, present participle living over the brush, simple past and past participle lived over the brush)

1. (Northern England, idiomatic) To cohabit without being married.
   • 1982, Peter Tinniswood, The Home Front, page 10:

     I know what people think about the North. They think it's all muck and living over the brush with women like Elsie Tanner.

   • 1991, Punch, volume 300, page 134:

     After the birth of their son, Stanley, the couple moved to Bradford and "lived over the brush" in West Bowling in a back-to-back terraced house.

   • 2013, Gilda O'Neill, Just Around the Corner, →ISBN:

     I was saying to my Albert, I wouldn't be surprised if him and that so-called wife of his was living over the brush.

• live in sin