turnip for the book

English

A humorous variation on turn up for the book.

(humorous) A very unexpected surprise or occurrence.
- 1974, Gordon Williams, Big Morning Blues, London […]: Hodder and Stoughton, →ISBN, page 102:
  You've got these Swedes in your office—that was a turnip for the books. Do go on.
- 1999, Terry Deary, The Savage Stone Age, London: Hippo, →ISBN, page 43:
  Swedes fired arrows into their corpses, though we don't know why. (This is better than corpses firing arrows into swedes which would be a real turnip for the book.)

“a turnip for the books” under “turnip, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.