Nautical Terminology: The Devil to Pay

April 24, 2004 · 1 min read

Today, the expression "the devil to pay" is used primarily to describe having an unpleasant result from some action that has been taken.  An example is when someone has done something they should not have and, as a result, "there will be the devil to pay."  Originally, this expression described one of the more unpleasant tasks aboard a wooden ship.

The "devil" was the wooden ship's longest seam in the hull.  Caulking of seams between boards of the hull was done with "pay" or pitch (a kind of tar).  The task of "paying the devil" (caulking the longest seam of the hull) was despised by every seaman.

This article is part of the GWB Archives. Original Author: Mark Treadwell

New on Geeks with Blogs

  • We Won The One Award I Actually Care About

    Full Scale made the Inc. 5000 for the fifth year straight, the 12th listing across my three companies. Here is why the one award you cannot buy is worth stopping for.

  • Your Customers Build the Features Now

    I let a tool I liked sit dead for a year rather than build the features I wanted. An MCP server meant I never had to, and your customers can do the same to your product.

  • Get the Size of a Directory in Linux the Easy Way

    du -sh for the quick answer, ncdu for the cleanup, df for the disk itself: every command for checking directory size in Linux, plus why du and df never agree.

  • Vim Search and Replace: The Ultimate Guide

    One :%s command replaces every match in a file before a find dialog would even open. The Vim substitute patterns worth the muscle memory: flags, ranges, capture groups, and multi-file edits.