Popping over

A versatile idiom

Sir, – A letter writer mentions that she had “popped over to Ireland” from Wales for a holiday (Letters, April 28th).

What a wonderful verb to “pop” is. I once knew a dentist who used to ask his patients to pop into the dental chair, after which he would pop some local anaesthetic into their mouths. He would then ask the patient to pop back into the waiting room until the local was working. Eventually he would pop out the tooth, and finally he would pop his fee note in the post.

It’s a long time since I popped into him for an appointment, so I think that by now he must have popped his clogs. – Yours, etc,

FINBAR KEARNS,

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Piercestown,

Co Wexford.