as the actress said to the bishop

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#1·4h ago

(UK, humorous) Used to highlight a sexual ambiguity in an innocent remark.

Heavens, that's a big one – as the actress said to the bishop.

Origin: In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the occupation of actress was commonly associated with prostitute. The phrase plays on the contrasting natures of an actress or prostitute on one hand and a presumably (although possibly not actually) chaste bishop on the other. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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