Hoover flag

English Etymology From en Hoover flag Herbert Hoover, US president at the start of the Great Depression. Noun en US dated idiomatic An empty (penniless) pocket, turned inside out, showing that someone has no money (especially during the Great Depression.) en 1982 Everette Maddox The Everette Maddox Songbook NEW ORLEANS POETRY JOURNAL 9780938498025 39 But drawing from my pants an old Hoover flag left over from my father's failed youth, I see I lack the least smudge of a penny to pay salvation's cover charge [...] with. So I begin circling the block drunkenly, in a holding pattern, [...] en 2000 Alaska Quarterly Review the Great Depression - the old guy had gone around with his Hoover Flags door to door. They'd pledged to each other one night by the railroad station, taken vows over a bottle of Wild Turkey, just the first wonderful sip, to die together, to en 2009 Barbara Kingsolver The Lacuna Faber & Faber 9780571252657 134 Bull's Eye pretends he's a hobo, pulling out his Hoover flags, empty pockets turned inside out. Sometimes for a joke he covers himself with Hoover blankets, his newspapers. When it's hot he sits on his bed with nothing on at all, en 2009 D. C. Riechel German Departures iUniverse 9781440136221 192 But he flew no “Hoover flags,” pockets inside-out, and the slip of paper the editor at the World had given him had led to the job behind the soda fountain in Brooklyn. en 2014 Joyce Van Haren On Woodward Abbott Press 9781458210517 114 the angry voice yelled, “Let's fly the Hoover flag!” A band of ragged men ran into the street in front of the limousine and pulled their pockets inside out. The crowd around Alma gasped. The ragged men thumbed their noses at the limousine. Related terms en Hoover blanket Hoover hog Hooverville Hoover wagon en eponyms en Herbert Hoover