> as lemmas

1910 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 30 July 13/1 Stick him for all you can. You're a hard worker, and you mustn't let some~body else git the gravy.

1927 Amer. Speech 2 276 Gravy train, sinecure.

1932 P. G. Wodehouse Hot Water i. 30 ‘Sixty thousand dollars' worth, at least.’ Mr. Slattery was impressed. Sixty grand, he agreed, was pretty good gravy.

1933 Amer. Speech Feb. 32/1 Ride a gravy train, to continue to receive more than one's deserts.

1934 J. O'Hara Appointment in Samarra (1935) 11 If you sell two Cadillacs a month, you make expenses, and anything over that is so much gravy.

1939 E. S. Gardner D.A. draws Circle (1940) xv. 269 We started riding the gravy train like I said.

1942 D. Powell Time to be Born (1943) viii. 180 An apartment which he was able to furnish almost completely with ‘gravy’—sofas, mattresses, gadgets pressed on him by earnest manufacturers in hopes of public mention of their products.

1948 A. Menjou & M. M. Musselman It took Nine Tailors 141 Once you get on the Hollywood gravy boat, it is no trick to make money; the trick is to keep it.

1952 M. McCarthy Groves of Academe (1953) x. 197 There was a moment in the spring when the whole Jocelyn sideshow seemed to be boarding the gravy train, on to fatter triumphs of platitude and mediocrity.

1960 Guardian 17 Oct. 16/3 In 1960, says the cool Bob Kennedy, if his brother gets 55 [electoral votes]..‘anything else will be gravy’.

1967 Sun 20 Apr. 5/8 The tip is called the gravy, and when there is a mix-up at the table and two diners leave separate tips, it becomes double gravy.

1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 8/1 In the past 10 years, the Manitoba Government has reaped about $8-million from the Downs (more than $1-million last year). This revenue is almost pure gravy.