First recorded in 1545–55
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He, however, is so wrapped up in his studies of phonetics that his only interest in Eliza is her appalling command of the king's English.
From Seattle Times • Aug. 25, 2011
Episcopalians seem to be polls apart It was in 1549 that the Church of England forsook the Latin liturgy and began worshiping in the king's English.
From Time Magazine Archive
All concerned murder the king's English, but in a grand, Gaelic manner.
From Time Magazine Archive
From the cockney and king's English of My Fair Lady, past the pure Iowa corn of The Music Man to the pidgin of Flower Drum Song, the best of the musicals make a cosmopolitan chorus.
From Time Magazine Archive
As William Pitman Priest, Esq., citizen, taxpayer, and Confederate veteran he mishandled the king's English as though he had but small personal regard for the king or his English either.
From Sundry Accounts by Cobb, Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
