He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter-of-a-penny loaf — our crug — moistened with attenuated small beer, in wooden piggings, smacking of the pitched leathern jack it was poured from.

He couldn't carry a tune in a wheelbarrow, but he keeps time like a damn machine.

Cuir-bouilli was leather softened by boiling (generally in oil), and stamped or moulded into a definite form when in that condition; upon drying it became intensely hard and tough.

She keeps a ton of budgies in her home.