open Sesame
Language: English
Part of speech: phrase
Senses: examples: text: The hinges of the hall door were so stiff during Miss Magan’s tenancy, that Dr. Fleming, who as a cousin once ventured to visit the moneyed recluse, had to call at a neighbouring chemist’s for sweet oil ere he felt safe in crying ‘Open Sesame.’
ref: 1892, W[illiam] J[ohn] Fitzpatrick, Secret Service under Pitt, London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], page 150:
text: Thus, one by one, the gates have been thrown open. God’s providence is manifest. “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” The fable of Aladdin before the cave, crying “Open Sesame!” has been realized; and by this circumstance a tremendous emphasis is put upon the great commission of the Master, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.”
ref: 1899, David James Burrell, “The Logic of Events”, in God and the People and Other Sermons, New York, N.Y.: Wilbur B. Ketcham […], pages 277–278:
text: To Don Ramón González the heavy oak door opened of its own accord, and without crying “Open Sesame!”
ref: 1903, Paul Gwynne [pseudonym; Ernest Slater], The Pagan at the Shrine, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., page 147:
text: Knaves and thieves do not lightly enter the workshop, merely by crying “Open Sesame!”
ref: 1943 October 22, Victor Odin, “Wind Tunnel”, in Keith Monroe, editor, Ryan Flying Reporter, volume 6, number 8, San Diego, Calif.: Ryan Aeronautical Company, page 22, column 2:
text: “You’ve lost your sense of direction—forgotten your geography! The Pyrenees lie south.” / “And I suppose you expect me to stand there in front of them crying ‘Open Sesame! Stand aside, crags and valleys! Here I come!’ ”
ref: 1977, Devereaux Rochester, Full Moon to France, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, →ISBN, page 38:
text: The shrewd performer crying ‘Open Sesame’ as he rubs his magic lamp before the Aladdin’s cave of show business should be careful to take out an insurance policy in the event of the non-appearance of the Genie.
ref: 1978, Harry Secombe, “Preface”, in Roger Wilmut, Tony Hancock ‘Artiste’: A Tony Hancock Companion, London: Eyre Methuen Ltd, →ISBN, page vii:
text: We teach that parliament is sovereign, as in a democracy it should be. But we know that judges too make law. As Lord Reid observed, we must accept that fact for better or worse, for we no longer pretend that the common law is hidden in some Aladdin’s cave waiting only for the judge to discover it by crying ‘Open Sesame’.
ref: 1991, Lord Wedderburn [i.e., Bill Wedderburn, Baron Wedderburn of Charlton], “The Injunction and the Sovereignty of Parliament: Control of Judicial Discretion?”, in Employment Rights in Britain and Europe: Selected Papers in Labour Law, London: Lawrence and Wishart in association with the Institute of Employment Rights, →ISBN, page 155:
text: Satisfied that I was alone, I drifted over to the door and tapped it with my fingernail three times… two times… three times. “Open Sesame,” I murmured, as Rouffe worked his magic and the colours absorbed me.
ref: 1998, Conrad Williams, “The Gallery”, in Andy Cox, editor, The Third Alternative, number 15, Witcham, Cambs.: TTA Press, →ISSN, page 10, column 1:
text: ‘Open Sesame,’ I murmured again, my hand still resting against the rock-wall. And slowly, right before my very eyes, my hand began disappearing into the wall.
ref: 1999, Maggie Pearson, Omega Seven, London: Hodder Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 48:
text: He puffed out the muscles of his bare chest and touched me below with the scimitar, crying, “Open Sesame!”
ref: 2015, Leonard Ginsberg, American Twins Challenge the English, →ISBN, page 109:
glosses: Alternative form of open sesame.