While scrolling through wordnerd's link to find one of the defined terms, my eye came across this:

carry the can: To take responsibility for a mistake. E.g."I'm not carrying the can for your inability to control your kids." {Informal}

Now, I'd heard the phrase only once, in an epitath, but with the entirely different meaning of "to drink alcohol."

quote:

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Upjohn Adams lies here, of the parish of Southwell,
A carrier who carried his can to his mouth well;
He carried so much, and he carried so fast,
He could carry no more, so was carried at last;
For the liquor he drunk was too much for the one,
He could not carry off, so he's now carrion."

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Can anyone cast light on this phrase?

Tip: when curious about the origin of a phrase or saying, always check the World Wide Words site out first. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-car1.htm

EDIT: I just realised I forgot to mention the "carry his can" phrase.

I suspect that is nothing more than a punning reference to the usual phrase, and is unique to the epitaph cited.

[This message was edited by arnie on Tue Oct 21st, 2003 at 10:42.]

Arnie, you've prompted me to do some research about "carry the can". Not to disagree with World Wide Words, of course, but:

One of the meanings of "can" is "a vessel for holding liquids; specifically: a drinking vessel." (in link, click to "²can")
"Fill the cup and fill can, Have a rouse before the morn." -- Tennyson.
"And let me the canakin clink, clink; / And let me the canakin clink / A soldier's a man; / A life's but a span; / Why, then, let a soldier drink." -- Shakespeare; Othello II, iii

The epitaph I cited, using that sense of "can" came from memory enhancd by finding it on the web in John Ploughman's Talks by C. H. Spurgeon (1834-92). That work was published in 1869, so the epitaph and cited phrase also go back quite a way. Another website attributes the epitaph to Lord Byron, who died in 1824, but I cannot vouch for the attribution.

None of this is contrary to World Wide Words, but adds another dimension.