Dictionary definition of “revolving bastard”

revolving bastard

n. a very stupid, despicable, or disagreeable person. Also spherical or rotating son of a bitch or S.O.B. Subjects: English, Derogatory, Slang

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Citations: 1939 (Jan. 15) @ White Columns in Hollywood: Reports from the GWTW Sets (June, 1986) Susan Myrick p. 20: I have had a fine encounter with Pappy Selznick. I wrote you about the requirement that I send publicity to Birdwell. Well, Birdwell is the revolving bastard if there ever was one. (The Revolving Bastard, in case you don’t know, is a bastard any way you turn him.) 1943 Harry Allen Smith Life in a Putty Knife Factory p. 5: Some people who had been my good friends even started calling me a revolving s.o.b. A revolving s.o.b, according to the late Iron Pants Johnson, is a man who’s an s.o.b. any way you look at him. 1950 Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) (Apr. 21) “Marshall Gets Into McCarthy Line of Attack” (in Washington, D.C.) p. 1: Because he “challenged communists and their agents in the United States” he “automatically became a revolving SOB” to his critics. 1958 Thomas Berger Crazy in Berlin (June) p. 428 @ (1970): Scatophagous Reinhart, the traitor, the Oedipus Rex, the fornicator of infants, the defiler of graves, the double-barreled international bastard and revolving son of a bitch. 1961 Robert A. Heinlein Stranger in a Strange Land p. 154 @ (Oct. 1, 1991): I happen to be of an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman—which means I can be a real revolving son of a bitch when it suits me. 1971 Alex Gerber The Gerber Report: The Shocking State of American Medical Care and What Must be Done About It (Apr.) p. 140: He did so, he adds with a smile, only by being “a self-propelled, rotating bastard.” 1973 John Whitlatch The Iron Shirt (May 1) p. 44: He’s nothing but a revolving bastard. No matter which way you turn him, he’s still one. 2002 Steven Barnes Charisma (June 29) p. 126: This was one pure-D rotating bastard of a situation: no matter which direction you viewed it from, it stank. 2007 Guy Gugliotta Discover (May) “Mining for Dark Matter” p. 40: He reputedly derided the astronomers at Mount Wilson Observatory as “spherical bastards” because they looked like bastards from any side.

Posted 6 Apr 07 | Permalink | Tell a Friend