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Examples

  • When it comes to Dick Cheney .. you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear come to mind.

    Cheney reflects on 'f**k' yourself comment 2010

  • Like seriously, I can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, if I'm given enough free reign to do so.

    I Mean You. karenhealey 2010

  • It will rather declare that the fruits of 1 & 2 were the sow's ear, and must now be re-thunk.

    Leadership 2010

  • She identified some of the chickens, especially an obstreperous old hen who resented the thrust of the sow's muzzle, particularly pecked at the little pigs, and laid about her with a vengeance when the grain fell.

    CHAPTER XVII 2010

  • The strategy will be filled with data from quantitative and qualitative research, it will have lots of graphs and graphics, and it will answer the question - how do we turn our sow's ear into a silk purse?

    Students 2010

  • It will rather declare that the fruits of 1 & 2 were the sow's ear, and must now be re-thunk.

    Students 2010

  • The strategy will be filled with data from quantitative and qualitative research, it will have lots of graphs and graphics, and it will answer the question - how do we turn our sow's ear into a silk purse?

    8 posts from January 2010 2010

  • The strategy will be filled with data from quantitative and qualitative research, it will have lots of graphs and graphics, and it will answer the question - how do we turn our sow's ear into a silk purse?

    Leadership 2010

  • It will rather declare that the fruits of 1 & 2 were the sow's ear, and must now be re-thunk.

    8 posts from January 2010 2010

  • Sort of like making a silk purse out of a sow's ear?

    Scientists meet to save Lascaux cave from fungus The Nag 2009

Comments

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  • A sow's is the possessive of the noun sow, female pig. There is a regional variant of the idiom 'He made a dog's ear of it', that substitutes sow for dog. He made a sow's ear of it.'

    February 1, 2014