Send someone packing

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Meaning

Dismiss, reject or drive someone away abruptly and decisively. Informal and forceful. In sport it commonly means eliminate from a competition. Regional use: English origin; now international English.

Origin

A 1567 transcription of Geoffrey Fenton's Certaine tragicall discourses contains the near-exact construction 'to sende her packinge', before Falstaff says 'I'll send him packing' in Henry IV, Part 1 around 1596-97. Shakespeare therefore preserved a phrase already in circulation rather than coining it. The wording uses packing in a departure sense and does not require the dismissed person to collect or carry literal luggage.

Research Sources

  1. Henry IV, Part 1 - Entire Play Folger Shakespeare Library
  2. Send packing Phrase Finder
  3. Certaine tragicall discourses written out of Frenche and Latin University of Michigan Library Digital Collections, Early English Books Online

Variants

  • Send him packing
  • Send her packing
  • Be sent packing

Usage Examples

  • The committee found the proposal careless and sent its authors packing.
  • When the salesman became aggressive, Mara sent him packing.
  • The champions were sent packing in the first round.

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