William Tell

English

Etymology

After the legendary Swiss folk hero said to have shot an apple off his son's head with an arrow.

Noun

William Tell

  1. (attributive) the act of shooting an object off the top of a person's head.
    • 2000, Jessica Treat, Not a Chance (page 25)
      […] did a William Tell number on his wife, you know, with a glass of gin on her head […]
    • 2005, Claire Elise Katz, ‎Lara Trout, Emmanuel Levinas: Levinas and the question of religion (page 199)
      According to Zornberg, "Rashi cites the midrash that presents the game the boys are playing as a kind of William Tell game, with Ishmael shooting arrows at Isaac and then claiming, 'But I am only playing.'"
    • 2018, Karen Rose, Death Is Not Enough
      Did a William Tell type act where he shot an apple off his assistant's head.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.