A few days ago
Anonymous

P’s and Q’s?

what does watch or mind your p’s and Q’s mene

Top 9 Answers
A few days ago
lix
It comes from the days of the old printing presses when each letter had to be set individually. The p and the q looked exactly the same (as you can see here) and were quite often set the wrong way round so it was quite common to hear the printers say ‘mind your Ps and Qs’
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A few days ago
Mezazoth
like others said it means pints and quarts. In ye olden days, pubs would record patrons’ bar tabs under “p” for pints and “q” for quarts as a way to keep track of how much they owed.

The saying originated as a way to say “don’t spend too much” and “don’t drink too much”

Nowadays, it generally means watch yourself so you don’t get in over your head.

1

A few days ago
rod85
To behave. According to Eric Partridge in A Dictionary of Historical Slang: “to be careful, exact, or prudent in behaviour”.
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A few days ago
can_i_have_a_snack
it came around a few hundred years ago. it means mind your pints and quarters. the bartenders would tell the people that is getting to drunk.
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A few days ago
?
it means to mind your manners. some people say it went back to the old days in english pubs, where they sold pints and quarts of ale (or beer, or whatever) and people were told to “mind the p’s and q’s”
1

A few days ago
katywithay2009
It means watch your manners.

It stands for watch you “pints and quarts” which originated way back in the 1800’s.

1

A few days ago
Experto Credo
One school of thought is that it comes from the pub, where the barkeep had to keep track of all the (p)ints and (q)uarts he sold
2

A few days ago
Get that corn outta my face
its stands for Please and thanQ
1