rub one's face with a brass candlestick

English

Verb

rub one's face with a brass candlestick (third-person singular simple present rubs one's face with a brass candlestick, present participle rubbing one's face with a brass candlestick, simple past and past participle rubbed one's face with a brass candlestick)

1. (colloquial, archaic) To (prepare to) be very brazen or impudent.
   • 1853, Walter William Broom, Many Botanical Secrets, page 4:

     Every step you take you proclaim yourself the father of him who rubbed his face with a brass candlestick

   • 1873, The Gentleman's Magazine, volume 11, page 577:

     "Why, Walsher," said Mr. Stubber, "how many times a day do you rub your face with a brass candlestick? Why, I lent you a pony when you were stumped, and you carried off a cool hundred."

   • 1894, Werner's Magazine, volume 16, page 71:

     After dinner, I metaphorically rubbed my face with a brass candlestick and became bold enough to ask him to let me read something for him, for the sake of his suggestions and criticism.

References

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary