As Busy as a One-Armed Paper Hanger + Examples

Hey. I’m here again with a very interesting subject to teach you. I am going to tell you everything about a very new idiom “as busy as a one-armed paper hanger”. I guess you had not heard it before.

This idiom is said in another way as well, which is “busier than a one-armed paper hanger”. Both variants of this idiom mean “very busy” or “exceedingly busy”.

 

Don’t miss our new video about AS BUSY AS A ONE-ARMED PAPER HANGER – watch now!

Definition and Examples

First thing, let’s find out about the definition of the idiom and read some examples. The dictionary explanation for this idiom is as follows:
(as) busy as a one-armed paperhanger (with an itch)
Meaning: Constantly busy, active, or occupied (with something)
Examples:

• I’m currently designing three plays, so I’m busy as one-armed paperhanger.
• Can we meet next week instead? I’m just as busy as a one-armed paperhanger with an itch right now.
• Between working two part-time jobs, volunteering on the weekends, and looking after his little brother, Sam’s been busy as a one-armed paperhanger this summer.

Origin of the idiom “as busy as a one-armed paperhanger”

This idiom is quite a recent one; it dates back to the early 1900s and was coined in the USA. Perhaps the earliest version of this phrase comes from a 1908 short story by O. Henry, “as busy as a one-armed man with the nettle rash pasting on wallpaper”.

Other versions of this idiom have emerged afterwards in which the “paper hanger” is battling hives, the itch, the crabs, or the seven-year-itch.

But, how was this idiom coined? If you have ever tried to hang a wallpaper, you know that it is a difficult job to do. Imagine that you have spread the wallpaper paste and then you have to lift it up the ladder and attach it to the corner of the ceiling to hang it on the wall.

It is tricky to get it perfectly lined up with the vertical line and get it glued evenly to the wall, without bubbles or lumps.

And you have to do all of these in a fairly short time, before the paste dries. It’s a complicated job at most of the times when you have two arms. Now, imagine the hassle of doing all these at once with one arm!

Most of the early examples of the phrase in print use a longer form of this idiom which is “as busy as a one-armed paperhanger with the hives”.

“Hives” means rashes or pimples; when you have rash, you have to scratch your body. The longer variant is the one used in the earliest example of the idiom found in The Washington newspaper “The Evening Star” dating back to October 1906:
“The next man up at the cashier’s window was a Russian grand duke, a spender from way back, a man who on his tour of this country was as busy as a one-armed paper-hanger with the hives just tossing away money.”

This idiom stayed in the USA for most of the 20th century and is only recently being used worldwide. Other English-speaking countries have stuck with the earlier idiom “as busy as a bee”.

Other Synonymous Idioms

Other attractive English idioms to state such busyness include “busy as a beaver”, “busy as a bee”, “busier than a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest”, “busier than flies in a tarpit”,

“busier than a bee in a tar bucket”, “busier than a bee on a buzzsaw”, “busier than a cranberry merchant”, and “busier than a one-eyed cat watching three mice holes”.

In the following section, I have provided a list of sample sentences including this idiom and its variants in different books and media programs. The year and the country in which the idiom has been used is mentioned as well.

 

Learn English for free and have fun with me!: Home

 

Sample Sentences

1907 T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 22: It was one of those lightning-like affairs in which both men worked so fast that you are even busier than the one-armed paper hanger who had the hives.

1908 [US] ‘O. Henry’ ‘The Ethics of Pig’ in Gentle Grafter (1915) 235: I got busy as a one-armed man with the 4

1912 [Aus] Nat. Advocate (Bathurst) 29 May 4/1: Cyril, the bookkeeper, was busier than a one-armed paperhanger with the hives, three days behind with his books.

1914 [US] T.A. Dorgan Indoor Sports 5 Mar. [synd. cartoon] He’s as busy as a one-armed club swinger with the poison ivy.

1915 A. Baer Training Camp 1 Mar. [synd. col.] Mike is busier than a one-armed paperhanger with an extravagant wife.

1918 [Aus] Queenslander (Brisbane) 16 Mar. n.p.: For three weeks the old gentleman was as busy as the proverbial one-armed paper hanger with the itch.

1920 A. Baer Speaking of Beauty 28 Aug. [synd. col.] America is busier than a one-eared telephone operator.

1921 [US] Jerry on the Job [comic strip] I’m as busy as a one-armed guy buttoning his glove.

1925 [US] (con. 1899) H.P. Bailey Shanghaied Out of Frisco 64: Busy? Why, I am that goldarn busy, I—I’m busy as a one-armed paperhanger with an itchy armpit.

1926 [US] Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 10: busy as a one-armed paper-hanger with the barber’s itch. Very busy.

1926 [Aus] Cessnock Eagle (NSW) 13 July 5/2: It may be truthfully said that Charlie was as busy as a one-armed paper-hanger with the hives.

1930 [US] J. Held Jr ‘Merely Margy’ [comic strip] Not a chance. I’m as busy as a one-armed paper-hanger.

1930 [UK] Eve. News 1 Aug. 6/5: One thing is certain, and that is that the Commissioner, for the next six months, is going to be busier than a one-armed paper-hanger with the itch.

1932 [Aus] Townsville Dly Bulletin (Qld) 5 May 8/5: [T]he latter being as busy as a one-arm paper-hanger with prickly heat.

1940 [Aus] Truth (Brisbane) 2 June 2/3: As energetic as a one-armed paper hanger with the itch,Ted Fordyce rattled Rosante into giving off his very best.

1941 [Aus] Truth (Brisbane) 21 Dec. 2/3: [They] had to resort to ‘Shanks’ Pony’ and foot-slog it to the Valley, where tram conductors were kept as busy as one-armed paper-hangers suffering from prickly heat.

1949 [US] W.R. Burnett, Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 201: Busy as one-armed paper-hangers right now.

1949 [Aus] Brisbane Teleg. 29 Apr. 12/3: ‘As busy as a one-armed paper-hanger with an itch’ might well describe the activities of timpanist Ralph Benfell .

1951 [Aus] D. Stivens, Jimmy Brockett 112: Nine-thirty in the morning saw me as busy as a one-armed man with the itch.

1951 [Aus] Advertiser (Adelaide) 7 Dec. 1/6: We were busier than a battalion of one-armed paper hangers.

1959 [NZ] G. Slatter, Gun in My Hand 147: I’ve been busy as a one-armed paper-hanger.

1967 [US] M. Braly, On the Yard (2002) 28: Hell, I had to hustle like a one-armed paperhanger to keep myself straight.

1974 [Aus] Aus. Women’s Wkly 28 Aug. 110/3: You can plan to be as busy as a one-armed paper-hanger with the itch, but if no one really cares if you do it or not, it is all valueless.

1977 [US] R. Coover Public Burning (1979) 407: I’ve been busy as a one-armed paperhanger with the nettle rash.

1979 [Aus] D. Maitland Breaking Out 276: The Reverend, here, has worked like a bloody one-armed paper hanger to turn this place into something fit for human beings.

1983 [Aus] Canberra Times (ACT) 22 June 29/4: An extended version of the simile offered last week about the one-armed paper-hanger is ‘as busy as a one-armed paperhanger with the hives’.

1984 [US] in Maledicta VIII 240: He was busier than a one-armed paperhanger with crabs.

1985 [Aus] R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 46: Sally was going at it busier than a one-armed paper hanger with the crabs.

1986 B. Hudson First Aus. Dict. Vulgarities & Obscenities n.p: One-armed. Indicating frenetic activity: (1) Busy as a one-armed (wall) paper hanger. (2) Busy as a one-armed taxi driver with crabs.

1992 [Aus] Sun-Herald (Sydney) 16 Aug. 25: She says she’s busier than a one-armed paper hanger.

2003 [NZ] McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 40: busy as a one-armed paperhanger with crabs [ibid.] 130: looks like a one-armed taxi driver with crabs; Very busy.

2003 K. Richards Aussie Bible 36: At the time Jesus was busy healing – busy as a one-armed paper-hanger in a gale – dealing with every kind of sickness in the medical dictionary.

2005 [US] B. Zimmer posting at ADS-L 26 June. The ‘Canonical List Of Language Humor’ maintained by the rec.humor newsgroup in the mid-’90s included these similes: […] Busy as a one-armed wallpaper hanger with the crabs.

2012 Blokey Shed 22 Sept. Classic lines […] Busy as a one-armed paper hanger with crabs.

2015 [Aus] N. Cummins Tales of the Honey Badger [e-book] I was busier than a one-armed bricklayer in Baghdad.

 

Learn English for free and have fun with me!: Cream Rises to the Top [Definition + Examples]

 

Concluding Note

Well, that was today’s lesson about the idiom “as busy as a one-armed paper hanger”. In this lesson, we learned about the definition and origin of this interesting idiom.

We also studied a number of sample sentences including the idiom. In addition, we learned a few other idioms with the same structure and meaning. As you see, this idiom and its variants are used very commonly in conversations.

I hope you enjoyed todays’ lesson. Try to use this idiom and its variants in your conversations to sound more native-like. And visit my page again for more interesting English lessons.