get down to brass tacks
(redirected from get down to bedrock)get down to brass tacks
To focus on the most important aspects of a particular situation. Let's get down to brass tacks so that everyone has a good grasp on the project overall before we split up to do our separate parts. Don't get overwhelmed with this case, just get down to brass tacks.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
get down to brass tacks
Fig. to begin to talk about important things; to get down to business. Let's get down to brass tacks. We've wasted too much time chatting. Don't you think that it's about time to get down to brass tacks?
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
get down to brass tacks
Also, get down to bedrock or the nitty gritty or cases . Deal with the essentials; come to the point. For example, Stop delaying and get down to brass tacks, or We really need to get down to bedrock, or He has a way of getting down to the nitty gritty, or Let's get down to cases. The origin of the first phrase, dating from the late 1800s, is disputed. Some believe it alludes to the brass tacks used under fine upholstery, others that it is Cockney rhyming slang for "hard facts," and still others that it alludes to tacks hammered into a sales counter to indicate precise measuring points. The noun bedrock has signified the hard rock underlying alluvial mineral deposits since about 1850 and has been used figuratively to denote "bottom" since the 1860s. The noun nitty-gritty dates from the mid-1900s and alludes to the detailed ("nitty") and possibly unpleasant ("gritty") issue in question. The noun cases apparently alludes to the game of faro, in which the "case card" is the last of a rank of cards remaining in play; this usage dates from about 1900. Also see to the point.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
get down to brass tacks
If people get down to brass tacks, they begin to discuss the basic, most important aspects of a situation. To get down to brass tacks, what I want to know is, do you know anything at all about her mother's side of the family? Note: The usual explanation for this expression is that in Cockney rhyming slang `brass tacks' are facts.
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
get (or come) down to brass tacks
start to consider the essential facts or practical details; reach the real matter in hand. informal 1932 T. S. Eliot Sweeney Agonistes That's all the facts when you come to brass tacks: Birth, and copulation, and death.
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
get down to brass ˈtacks
(informal) begin to discuss and deal with the really important practical details: Let’s get down to brass tacks — how much will it all cost?Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
get down to brass tacks, to/let's
To arrive at the heart of the matter. Some think this late nineteenth-century term comes from Cockney rhyming slang for hard facts. Another possible and perhaps more likely source is the American general store, where a countertop was marked with brass tacks at one-yard intervals for measuring cloth, and “getting to brass tacks” meant measuring precisely. Still another theory is that in upholstered furniture, brass tacks were used to secure the undermost cloth, and to reupholster properly one had to strip the furniture to that layer. A mid-twentieth-century American synonym is to get down to the nitty-gritty, alluding to the detailed (nitty) and perhaps unpleasant (gritty) facts of the case. It was borrowed from black English, where it signified the anus and alluded to picking body lice (nits) from that body part. This association had been largely forgotten by the time the term was popularized by the 1964 hit song “The Nitty Gritty” by Shirley Ellis.
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer