Word.ws English Dictionary

as the actress said to the bishop

as the actress said to the bishop phrase: used to highlight a sexual ambiguity in an innocent remark.

Phrase

as the actress said to the bishop

  1. (UK, humorous) Used to highlight a sexual ambiguity in an innocent remark.
    • Heavens, that's a big one – as the actress said to the bishop.
    • The important thing was where you do it, not what you do (as the actress said to the bishop)1976, David Widgery, The Left in Britain

Forms of as the actress said to the bishop

alternative formas the bishop said to the actress
alternative formsaid the actress to the bishop
alternative formsaid the bishop to the actress

Origin of as the actress said to the bishop

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the occupation of actress was commonly associated with prostitute. The phrase plays on the contrasting natures of an actress or prostitute on one hand and a presumably (although possibly not actually) chaste bishop on the other.

Questions about as the actress said to the bishop

What does as the actress said to the bishop mean?
As the actress said to the bishop means used to highlight a sexual ambiguity in an innocent remark.
What part of speech is as the actress said to the bishop?
As the actress said to the bishop is a phrase.

Words near as the actress said to the bishop in the dictionary

  1. as soon as possible
  2. as soon as possy
  3. as such
  4. as sure as eggs are eggs
  5. as sure as eggs is eggs
  6. as the actress said to the bishop
  7. as the bishop said to the actress
  8. as the case may be
  9. as the crow flies
  10. as the day is long
  11. as the fella said

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: as the actress said to the bishop (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-as_the_actress_said_to_the_bishop.ogg.

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