dip your pen in gall
dip your pen in gall
write unpleasantly or spitefully.
Gall is another word for bile, the bitter secretion of the liver. It is used in many places in the Bible as a metaphor for bitterness or affliction.
dip your toe into something begin to do or test something cautiously
The image here is of putting your toe briefly into water in order to check the temperature.
RELATED IDIOMS :
by dint of
by means of
Dint in the sense of blow or stroke is now archaic and in the sense of application of force survives only in this phrase.
dip your pen in gall :
Idioms Index – Previous Page
