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

Skywalker, Luke
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Skywalker, Luke See star wars.
slam dunk An impressive success. <strong>The</strong> term
comes from basketball, in which it describes a shot
in which a player leaps high in the air before slamming
the ball down into the basket. <strong>The</strong> party’s slam
dunk in the primaries was a surprise to everyone.
slaughter of the innocents See massacre of the
innocents.
Sleeping Beauty A person who is sleeping
soundly. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to a fairy tale collected by
the French folklorist Charles Perrault (1628–
1703) in 1697, which relates how a princess falls
into a magic sleep for 100 years until she is woken
by the kiss of a handsome young prince. You’d better
go and wake up Sleeping Beauty over there or he’ll be
late for school. See also prince charming.
Sleepy Hollow See ichabod crane.
Sleipnir (sleepneer) Archetype of a fast horse or
other animal or vessel. Sleipnir was identifi ed in
Norse mythology as the eight- legged horse belonging
to Odin. It was reputed to be able to outstrip
the wind while running on land or water or in the
air. He patted his mount lovingly, as though convinced it
would prove a new Sleipnir in the right conditions.
slings and arrows Setbacks; adversity. <strong>The</strong>
phrase comes from William Shakespeare’s tragedy
Hamlet (c. 1600), in which Hamlet muses on the
foibles of fate: “To be, or not to be—that is the
question; / Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
/ <strong>The</strong> slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
/ Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, / And
by opposing end them?” “One of the reasons why
play is so absorbing is that it is self- initiated, in a
way that is not available to us in the pro cess of
combating, enduring or avoiding the slings and
arrows of day- to- day living” (Gavin Bolton, Drama
as Education, 1988).
slough of despond (slow) A state of hopeless
despair or despondency. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the allegorical
pilgrim’s progress (1678, 1684) by the
En glish preacher and poet John Bunyan (1628–
88), in which the Slough of Despond is a bog
into which Christian and his companion Pliable
become stuck on their journey to the celestial
city. Christian fi ghts his way out, but Pliable gives
up and turns back. “It was while I was in this
slough of despond that my publisher rang to ask if
I would like to read a manuscript that needed
transforming into a readable book before it could
be published” (Raymond Hitchcock, Fighting Cancer:
A Personal Story, 1989).
small is beautiful Sometimes things on a smaller
scale are more satisfactory. <strong>The</strong> allusion is to the
title of the book Small is Beautiful (1973) by
German- born British economist E. F. Schumacher
(1911–77), although it was actually coined by his
publishers Anthony Blond and Desmond Briggs.
<strong>The</strong> slogan became a favorite of businessmen and
politicians, but has since been applied in many
other contexts. <strong>The</strong> company’s survival through turbulent
times only goes to show that small is beautiful.
smile like a Cheshire Cat See cheshire cat.
smite them hip and thigh To beat someone thoroughly.
<strong>The</strong> phrase comes from Judges 15:8, which
describes how Samson exacted his revenge on the
Philistines after they burned his wife and fatherin-
law, smiting them “hip and thigh with a great
slaughter.” “. . . the old Jew could for some time