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Originally Posted by peachey
(Lead = as in the metal)
not sure if your all familiar with this term used for someone who makes the appearance of being busy and doing lots of work
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Interestingly the term derives from the old days of sailing before standard charts and depth measurements.
When a ship was approaching the coast, whilst everyone else was working hard navigating the ship, furling sails and ropes etc, there would be one guy at the bow who would be taking depth soundings.
This was done with a lead weight on a piece of rope which he would swing forward, let fall to the bottom of the sea and then haul back up to report how much water was under the keel and whether it was rock, sand, mud etc.
Naturally this was much easier work than all the rest, especially since instead of doing it every time he could "swing the lead" back and forth a few times without actually doing anything.
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when they are in fact skiving
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Another interesting expression, this one is from the leather working trade.
If you have a thick piece of leather (generally 3mm or more) that you want to bend around a buckle or other fitting, you can end up with a rather bulky fitting. So to make it less bulky you can cut away layers of the leather. This process is known as "skiving off".
Of course, if you want, you can cut these layers very thinly to make the job last as long as possible, meaning you don't have to do other, harder, work.
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sort of walking around quickly with pieces of paper behaving all importantly - that sort of stuff
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You mean like someone posting messages about definitions and origins of words when they should be working...? Erm...
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Leadswinging
Re: Leadswinging
