born on the wrong side of the blanket
Born to parents who were not married. His parents eventually married, but that boy was born on the wrong side of the blanket. My parents are very upset about having a grandchild born on the wrong side of the blanket, but I refuse to marry someone I don't love solely because he's my baby's father. Once my mom got pregnant with me, my parents married to keep me from being born on the wrong side of the blanket.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
born on the wrong side of the blanket
Rur. [of a child] illegitimate. All his life, Edward felt that people looked down on him because he was born on the wrong side of the blanket. Just between you and me, I suspect Mrs. Potter's oldest child was born on the wrong side of the blanket.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
born on the wrong side of the blanket
illegitimate. datedFarlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
wrong side of the blanket, born on the
Illegitimate. This term was current in the eighteenth century and may well be obsolete. Tobias Smollett used it in Humphry Clinker (1771): “My mother was an honest woman. I didn’t come in on the wrong side of the blanket.”
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer