prove (SHOW), hair of the dog , for a song

European Union officials want to cut farm subsidies and encourage increased production amid soaring global food prices. But agreeing on which subsidies to remove, or on how to use EU farm money to lower food prices, is proving tough.

Housing bill

A hair of the dog

Jul 31st 2008
From The Economist print edition

Congress has been too lenient on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Illustration by David Simonds

IT IS hard to deal with an alcoholic. But most experts would agree that the answer is not to leave your credit card behind the bar, persuade the pub landlord to stay open till dawn and leave the inebriate to get on with it. Sadly that is how the American Congress, in its new housing bill, is treating those troubled mortgage groups, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.




of the dog that bit you
Whatever made you ill used as a remedy, especially alcohol as a hangover cure. For example, A little hair of the dog will cure that hangover in no time.
This expression, already a proverb in John Heywood's 1546 compendium, is based on the ancient folk treatment for dogbite of putting a burnt hair of the dog on the wound. It is often shortened, as in the example.

Housing bill

A hair of the dog 

for a song

informal

​

very cheaply:

She bought the bed for a song at an auction.

Because the shop's closing down, most of the stock is going for a song (= being sold very cheaply).

hair of the dog

informal An alcoholic drink taken to cure a hangover.

From hair of the dog that bit you, formerly recommended as a remedy for the bite of a mad dog

Example sentences

• The team also experimented with the hair of the dog - or drinking a little more alcohol in the morning.
• I started the day off trying to stave off my hangover with the hair of the dog.
• Down the ages, there have been numerous ‘folk’ cures and remedies for hangovers, one of the best known being ‘the hair of the dog that bit you’ - another drink on waking.

prove (SHOW)
verb [T; L] proved, proved, ESP. US proven
1 to show a particular result after a period of time:
The operation proved a complete success.
The dispute over the song rights proved impossible to resolve.
[L (+ to be)] The new treatment has proved to be a disaster.

2 prove yourself to show that you are good at something:
I wish he'd stop trying to prove himself all the time.