The Facts on File Dictionary of Allusions - Green Valley High School

period of low morale. His Great Depression began in
the 1950s and lasted the next 40 years. See also black
monday.
Great Divide A remote place, or a serious divide
between two parties or things, especially the
divide between life and death. <strong>The</strong> Great Divide is
an alternative name for the Continental Divide or
the Rocky Mountain range that runs down the
western side of the United States from Canada to
Mexico. “Like all the children born shortly after
the Great War, we knew that to our parents, the
war was the great divide” (Molly Horne, Life, Love
and Laughter, 1989).
greater love hath no man <strong>The</strong> sacrifi ce of one’s
own life or interests for the good of others is the
supreme virtue. <strong>The</strong> expression appears in the Bible
in John 15:13, where Christ, in his last address to
his disciples, teaches that “Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
“Greater love hath no man,” quipped their friend as he
stood up to accept the blame on their behalf.
Great Escape An apparently miraculous escape
in the face of overwhelming odds. <strong>The</strong> allusion is
to the 1963 fi lm <strong>The</strong> Great Escape, which depicted
the mass escape of Allied prisoners- of- war from a
German prison camp during World War II. “<strong>The</strong>
journey represents the great escape from destruction;
it is begun in time and ended beyond it”
(Marion Glasscoe, En glish Medieval Mystics: Games of
Faith, 1993).
Greatest, the A person who is unsurpassed in his
or her fi eld. <strong>The</strong> epithet is particularly associated
with the U.S. boxer muhammad ali (b. 1942),
who famously boasted, with some justifi cation
within the boxing sphere, “I am the greatest.” In
Great Train Robbery
fact, he may well have borrowed the line from a
wrestler called George Raymond Wagner, who
was also well known for his showmanship. As far as
disco- dancing goes, he’s the Greatest.
greatest of these is charity See faith, hope, and
charity.
Greatest Show on Earth, <strong>The</strong> See p. t. barnum.
Great Leap Forward A substantial advance or
great change of some kind. <strong>The</strong> original Great
Leap Forward was a package of economic and
social policies introduced by Chairman Mao
Zedong of China in 1958 to improve the lives of
Chinese peasants. In the event, the policy proved a
complete failure and resulted only in a disastrous
decline in the living standards of both the rural
and the industrial populations. As a consequence,
the term today is often employed facetiously of
some mea sure that appears to be, or has actually
turned out to be, doomed to failure. <strong>The</strong> manager’s
Great Leap Forward consisted of hiring two new players
and having the stadium repainted in garish colors.
Great Train Robbery A robbery in which money
or other valuables are taken from a train. <strong>The</strong>re
have been numerous robberies from trains over
the years, many of which have been described as
“great train robberies,” but the most infamous is
that which took place in En gland at Cheddington,
Buckinghamshire, on August 8, 1963, when a gang
stole £2.5 million from a mail train. <strong>The</strong> gang
were eventually brought to justice, but much of
the money was never recovered. <strong>The</strong> ultimate origin
of the term is, however, probably a 1903 silent
movie called <strong>The</strong> Great Train Robbery. To hear him go
on you would think he had pulled off the Great Train
Robbery.
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