criss-cross applesauce
Meaning
Adverb
Related
Similar words
Origin
- Rhyming on criss-cross, particularly with a word familiar to children and teachers, possibly with similarity to lap forming a bowl.
- Apparently originated in the 1990s US, as an alternative for Indian style.
- Compare also traditional children’s rhyming game / massage (rhyme said while touching, tickling, and blowing), which goes:
- : Criss, cross. Apple sauce.
- : Spiders climbing up your back.
- : Spiders here, Spiders there.
- : Spiders even in your hair.
- : Cool breeze,
- : Tight squeeze,
- : And now you have the shivers.
- : Brrrrrrr.
- :: —
Modern English dictionary
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