See Also: CONTINUITY, DULLNESS

1. Continue unceasingly like a drip from a leaking faucet —Anon
2. Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress —George Eliot
3. Kept on repeating the words like a talisman —Edith Wharton
4. Life as repetitive as the seasons —J. B. Priestly
5. Like warmed-up cabbage served at each repast the repetition kills the wretch at last —Juvenal
6. Monotonous … like a tap with a worn-out washer dripping … in a kitchen sink —Gerald Kersch

   In Kersh’s novel, Repetition, the dripping faucet image describes a character’s voice.

7. Recited tirelessly as a language record —Marge Piercy

   In Piercy’s poem, A Cold and Married War, the narrator is reciting her sins and errors.

8. (Rages … which seemed to) recur in cycles, like menstruation — Ursule Molinaro
9. (Thought) repeated like a lesson —William H. Gass
10. Repeated like a rhyme —Amy Lowell
11. Repeats … like an advertisement in neon —Marge Piercy
12. Repetitive as hieroglyphs —Derek Walcott
13. (Disembodied and) repetitive as the sea in a shell —Elizabeth Spencer
14. [The sweep hand of a clock] went around and around like a door-to-door salesman —Raymond Chandler

hark back To revert, to go back, to retrace one’s steps, to return to an earlier subject; to recall, to revive. This expression was originally used in hunting in reference to hounds who returned along the trail in order to pick up a lost scent. It has been used in its extended, figurative sense since the early 19th century.

harp on To dwell on tediously, to repeat endlessly and monotonously, to belabor, to beat into the ground; also to harp on one or the same string. Ancient harpists reputedly played on only one string in order to demonstrate more fully their skill on the instrument. The phrase appears in Richard Grafton’s A Chronicle at Large and Mere History of the Affairs of England (1568), where it is attributed to Sir Thomas More:

The expression and its variants date from the 16th century.

return to one’s muttons To get back to the subject at hand, to return to the point at issue; to stick to the point, to get back on track. Little known in the U.S., this British expression derives from the French Revenons à nos moutons ‘Let’s get back to our sheep.’ The line originated as an often repeated admonition in an early French play by Blanchet, L’Avocat Pathelin, in which the plaintiff continually tried to discredit the defense’s lawyer by claiming he had stolen from him. The judge’s attempts to concentrate on the charge against the defendant, that he had stolen sheep, were marked by addressing the line Revenons à nos moutons to the plaintiff. The phrase was much quoted by Rabelais, which accounts for its wider currency.

ride a hobbyhorse See OBSESSION.

ring the changes To repeat the same thing in different ways; to vary the manner in which one performs a routine task. Originally, ring the changes referred to performing all possible permutations in ringing a set of bells. The expression is commonly applied figuratively to describe changing the order of a series of words, restating a fact or opinion in several different ways, or varying one’s technique in accomplishing an otherwise routine task.

run that by me again A somewhat rude request to have information repeated, usually (but not necessarily) similar in tone to “Come again.” The likelihood is that the expression’s origin lies in the electronic re-runs and replays made commonplace by tape recordings and videotape.