英语词汇plow the sands的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

词汇	plow the sands
词源	plow the sands. To undertake an impossible endless job, to waste time and energy on such a project. Farmers have long known that crops will not grow on beach and desert sands, and the expression itself goes back several centuries, first recorded in Robert Greene’s play Never Too Late (1590). Greene, now best known as a detractor of Shakespeare, wrote: “With sweaty brows I long have ploughed the sands . . . Repent hath sent me home with empty hands.”
随便看	puss pussel-gutted pussyfoot put a flea in one-s ear put all your eggs in one basket put a sock in it putative put in a good word for someone put in one-s two cents’ worth put it all in the first paragraph put lay one-s finger upon put nothing smaller than your elbow in your ear put one-s best foot forward put one-s foot in one-s mouth put one-s oar in another-s boat put on nothing but the radio put on the buskin put on the dog put on the gloves put on the spot putt put that in your pipe and smoke it put the cart before the horse put the john d to her put the kibosh on

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