ChatterBank1 min ago
As black as Newgate's Knocker
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No best answer has yet been selected by ursula62. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.I'm sure the above answers are right, but - purely as a matter of interest - a 'Newgate knocker' was the fringe or lock of hair which costermongers and thieves twisted back towards their ears in the mid 19th century. (Possibly this name came about by reference to the colour and shape of the prison's real knocker.)
An actual door-knocker seems a more likely explanation, but it's just possible that it's a reference to hair-colour. In what circumstances did your grandmother use the phrase...was it in threatening/deathly circumstances or just when she meant 'very black'.
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