close one's eyes and think of England
close one's eyes and think of England verb: to accept one's duty patriotically, particularly (idiomatic, euphemistic) to endure sex (sexual activity) under a concept of sex as solely a marital and reproductive duty.
Verb
close one's eyes and think of England (third-person singular simple present closes one's eyes and thinks of England, present participle closing one's eyes and thinking of England, simple past and past participle closed one's eyes and thought of England)
- To accept one's duty patriotically, particularly (idiomatic, euphemistic) to endure sex (sexual activity) under a concept of sex as solely a marital and reproductive duty.
- I am happy now that Charles calls on my bedchamber less frequently than of old. As it is, I now endure but two calls a week and when I hear his steps outside my door I lie down on my bed, close my eyes, open my legs and think of England.1912, Alice Marion Mills, Journal (attrib.)
- ...when the test comes, when the United Kingdom gets into trouble again, and when the King calls upon his loyal subjects all over the world, the Canadian knows at a still deeper level of his being that he will undoubtably do as he has always done before. He will close his eyes and think of England.1940 Nov. 2, "Canadian Industrial Independence Seen as War Outcome", Windsor Daily Star, p. 10
Forms of close one's eyes and think of England
| third-person singular present | closes one's eyes and thinks of England |
|---|---|
| present participle | closing one's eyes and thinking of England |
| past participle | closed one's eyes and thought of England |
| past | closed one's eyes and thought of England |
| alternative form | shut one's eyes and think of England |
| alternative form | lie back and think of England |
| alternative form | think of England |
Origin of close one's eyes and think of England
Supposedly derived from the journal of Alice Marion Mills in 1912, Lady Hillingdon, now lost. Later apocryphally connected to Lucy Baldwin, wife of Prime Minister Baldwin, and Queen Victoria or described as advice given to Victorian era brides-to-be. First popularized by the translation in 1955 of Pierre Daninos's Les Carnets du Major Thompson (1954), a French satire on upper class British culture.
Questions about close one's eyes and think of England
- What does close one's eyes and think of England mean?
- Close one's eyes and think of England means to accept one's duty patriotically, particularly (idiomatic, euphemistic) to endure sex (sexual activity) under a concept of sex as solely a marital and reproductive duty.
- What part of speech is close one's eyes and think of England?
- Close one's eyes and think of England is a verb.
- What is the past tense of close one's eyes and think of England?
- The past tense of close one's eyes and think of England is closed one's eyes and thought of England.
Words near close one's eyes and think of England in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: close one's eyes and think of England (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-close one's eyes and think of England.ogg.
Cite this entry: “close one's eyes and think of England.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/close_one%27s_eyes_and_think_of_england. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.