Idiom
live over the brush
Meaning
To cohabit without being married.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“They live over the brush in a small apartment.”
“Although they have been together for ten years, they prefer to live over the brush rather than get married.”
“Despite the traditional expectations of their families, the couple chose to live over the brush, prioritizing their personal commitment over a formal wedding ceremony.”
Examples
simple
“They live over the brush in a small apartment.”
contextual
“Although they have been together for ten years, they prefer to live over the brush rather than get married.”
complex
“Despite the traditional expectations of their families, the couple chose to live over the brush, prioritizing their personal commitment over a formal wedding ceremony.”
Origin
The expression is probably derived from the broomstick wedding, in which the broomstick functions as a linguistic marker for the ersatz or the sham. A popular but unproven story maintains that the phrase refers to an early British or Romani wedding practice where a couple attained a union outside the Church by leaping over a broom or brush.
While the image of the leaping couple remains a staple of folk histories, no evidence exists for such a ceremony. The brush appears to be a symbolic boundary for those who, for reasons of convenience or social exclusion, preferred to conduct their domestic arrangements without the intervention of the clergy.
Key words
Related idioms
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