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
It shows that until about 40 years before Abraham Lincoln entered public life, the Lincolns were a wealthy and distinguished family of ironmasters who spoke the king's English.
From Time Magazine Archive
This book makes no more sense than the king's English, but it projects the same fey charm.
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
The king's English difficulties were increasing, and the Scots had now many sympathizers among Englishmen, who looked upon them as fighting for the same cause of Protestantism and constitutional government.
From An Outline of the Relations between England and Scotland (500-1707) by Rait, Robert S.
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.
