on one's Pat Malone
English edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Australian rhyming slang; possibly from the ballad Paddy Malone in Australia, recounting the tribulations of an Irish immigrant.
Pronunciation edit
Audio (AU) (file)
Prepositional phrase edit
- (Australia, slang) Alone, on one's own
- 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia[1], page 139:
- "Who's paying?" asked Oscar. "Abo Department?"
"Oh, no," said Lace lightly. "I'm doing it on my pat."
- 2004, Jay Verney, Percussion[2], St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press, page 298:
- "My daughter worries about me. Isn't that nice," Brian said to the room. "She'd be on her Pat Malone there then, wouldn't she?"
Further reading edit
- Eric Partridge (2005) “on your Pat”, in Tom Dalzell and Terry Victor, editors, The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, volumes 2 (J–Z), London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, →ISBN, page 1449.