"[Swear word] this for a game of soldiers"

Question

There is an idiom that seems to be distinctly British: "---- this/that for a game of soldiers" where the dashes are replaced with various swear words. For example: "Sod this for a game of soldiers." It usually seems to involve profanity but there are some cleaned-up variations such as "Stuff this for a game of soldiers."

The basic meaning is clear: "---- this" expresses disapproval of a situation. But I'm curious about the modifying phrase.

My guess, and it is only a guess, is that the phrase is expressing a preferred alternative. "---- this, I would prefer to play a game of soldiers." My reason for this is that there is an alternative formulation, "---- this for a lark" where "a lark" means "a fun and carefree activity".

I have done Google searches and haven't found any authoritative source. Most sources seem to agree that there is a meaning of "this activity is not worth the trouble" or possibly "this activity is no longer worth the trouble".

I have found several sources suggesting that "game of soldiers" is somehow referring to the unpleasantness of war, which would suggest the meaning "---- this, the current situation has become an unpleasant one." But this seems highly unlikely to me as the related phrase cannot possibly be construed that way: a "lark" is never an unpleasant situation.

What does it mean? And where did it originate, did this come from the military, or what?

EDIT: Since posting this, I have come to think that maybe the overall sense of the phrase is "this activity is not worth my time," which may be a British understatement for some usages. (I saw this phrase in a web comic where explosions started happening and a character ran for his life shouting "Sod this for a game of soldiers!") "a game of soldiers" and "a lark" might both simply be metaphors for an activity with no real benefit. Thus, if someone waits for almost an hour for a late friend and then says "---- this for a game of soldiers" it could mean "to continue waiting would be as unprofitable a use of my time as playing soldiers" or more simply "--- this, it's not a good use of my time."

Answer 1

I always understood this to mean "this is no fun and a waste of time" and that the "game of soldiers" or "lark" we thought it would be - has turned into something far less fun. I.e. "this is a rubbish game of soldiers" "this is no fun if it's supposed to be a lark" The "Sod this/blow this/ ___ this" is meaning "who the hell thought this would be a good game of soldiers.

Answer 2

Sod this for a game of soldiers/bugger this for a game of soldiers:

• oath uttered when faced with a pointless or exasperating task popular expression dating back into the mid-1900s and possibly before this, of uncertain origin although it has been suggested to me (ack R Brookman) that the 'game of soldiers' referred to a darts game played (a variation or perhaps the game itself) and so named in Yorkshire, and conceivably beyond. There certainly seem to be long-standing references to 'soldiers' in darts games, for example when numbers on the board are allocated to players who then 'kill' each other's soldiers by landing darts in the relevant numbers. There is also a fundamental association between the game of darts and soldiers - real or perceived - since many believe that the game itself derived from medieval games played by soldiers using spears or arrows (some suggest with barrel-ends as targets), either to ease boredom, or to practise skills or both.

• The allusion of the expression is to a difficult and painstaking or frustrating pastime, for which a game (perhaps darts, or some other reference now forgotten and lost) serves as the metaphor. See also ST FAGOS in the acronyms section. In this context (ack P Kone and S Leadbeater for raising this particular point) sod, and bugger for that matter, are expletives referring to the act of anal intercourse, which through history has been regarded by righteous sorts a most unspeakable and ungodly sin, hence the unending popularity of these words as oaths.

(Businessballs.com)

Blow this for a lark:

• "Blow" in the sense of "damn" or "curse" was fairly common in the UK up until about 50 years ago - I remember my mother when surprised or irritated using "oh blow" undoubtedly as a euphemism for some swearword exclamation. I imagine it originally comes from a wish for the offending issue to be blown away - possibly to Hell - though I have no evidence of such. "Blow this for a lark (or laugh)" would still be understood here, though we'd be more likely these days to use "screw" rather than "blow". We might even say "screw this for a game of soldiers".

• "Blow" in a pejoritive sense has of course recently got a new lease of life, courtesy of US English from what I understand, as in "let's blow this popsicle stand" or even the more vulgar "that blows".

• As a side note, and to jump eagerly onto one of my favourite hobbyhorses, Terry Pratchett is of course one of the finest writers writing today.

  • Well...in the U.S. "blow" does mean leave. "Let's blow this firetrap." But it also means oral copulation. As in: "This blows," another way of saying "This sucks."'

(The Phrase Finder)

Answer 3

I am 78 and have used this expression many times over the years, read it's usage, and also heard many others use it, including my own father who had fought in the war. From every usage heard it means the same every time, whether you were playing a game, fighting in battle, or having a long walk with others.

It means that, you were ok doing this activity, despite it's drawbacks, but now (with the added complications arising,ie, having to walk through a field of thistles, bombs dropping all around or even getting thrashed at every point of a game)...you had had enough and were getting out, using the expression,'Sod this for a game of soldiers', i.e. you were OK doing it,but with this extra burden thrown in, you were getting out, as it was now too much to bear willingly!

Answer 4

I came across this discussion because an Australian friend asked me what "sod this for a game of soldiers" meant when I used it in conversation.

I'm a 50+ woman from Yorkshire, UK. My family is from Yorkshire going back hundreds of years.

It means: I thought this was going to be fun (a game) and it turns out to be far from it. That's it - there is no more meaning than that. The game is boys playing with toy soldiers. It is exactly as it seems and no more!

Answer 5

As a child in the UK during the 70's I often heard "Sod this for a game of sojees" (Scottish vernacular - soldiers), and "Bugger (or sod) this for a lark", both essentially inferring the same meaning - this is pointless, let's do something else, but more worthwhile.

Somehow the delivery seemed understood even when the words weren't to the young ear.

Answer 6

"XXX this ...for a lark/game of soldiers/good time.

Surely the essential sense of this construction (which I use and hear often) is that the speaker is saying that the activity they are engaged with is turning out to be a lot less rewarding/pleasing than they were expecting/hoping.

The activity used for comparison may be playfully facetious (e.g. a game of soldiers), or literally describing what it was that they had hoped to be doing (e.g. a lark; a good time ...).

Answer 7

Nigel Rees, A Word in Your Shell-like: 6,000 Curious and Everyday Phrases Explained (2004) has this relevant entry:

sod this for a game of soldiers (or beggar this ... or blow that ... or fuck this ...) Expression signifying that one is giving up some activity through exhaustion or disillusionment. 'Beggar' is, of course, a soft form of 'bugger', but quite what is meant by a game of soldiers in either version of the expression is not totally clear. Perhaps the speaker considers the activity being abandoned as pointless as a game of toy soldiers or as futile as the 'army game' (life as a professional). Compare FUCK THIS (OR THAT) FOR A LARK! [The entry for this term reads "Expression of disgust at some chore or duty imposed. Mostly British use since the 1940s. Laurence Olivier is said to have used a cod French translation: 'Baisez cela pour une alouette.'"] Perhaps none of these date from before the Second World War. 'I met him in the pub one summer. I'd just been stood up by a man I was having a relationship with. Blow that for a game of soldiers, I thought, when suddenly Jim appeared from one corner of the pub and offered me a drink' – Independent on Sunday (13 February 1994).

Eric Partridge & Paul Beale, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, eighth edition (1984) notes that 'skittle' sometimes replaces 'soldiers' in variants of the expression:

fuck that (or this) for a game of skittles (or soldiers)! and fuck that (or this) for a lark! Elaborations of fuck that!, an emphatic condemnation of any activity in which one is , or could be, forced to join. the exclam[ation] being often ruefully joc[ular], since there is no help for this situation. Soldiers is an army var[iant] of C.20; skittles, which often implies underhand cunning, also C.20; lark, since latish C.19. The shortest, the orig[inal] and basic, prob[ably] throughout C.19–20, is as so often, the strongest; orig[inally] very low.

I didn't have any luck finding early pre-1970 instances of "[blank] this for a game of skittles," but Google Books searches turned up several seemingly on-point instances of "[blank] this for a game of soldiers." Not surprisingly, the earliest instances appeared in military contexts.

James Landon Hodson, Through the Dark Night: Being Some Account of a War Correspondent's Journeys, Meetings and What Was Said to Him, in France, Britain, and Flanders During 1939–1940 (1941) [combined snippets]:

I met a man today who lives near a spot where air battles frequently occur. On his wireless he can hear warnings and messages called by radio from one pilot to another. The Germans shout, "Achtung! Achtung! Spitfieren! Spitfieren!" He heard a British pilot shout to another, "Keep out, don't be nosey!" He wanted that fight to himself. In the middle of a very hot mixed-up fight one of our men remarked drily on his radio, "What price this for a game of soldiers!"

From Hashomer Hatzair in Great Britain, Forging the Link: A Handbook of Hashomer Hatzair 1952 [snippet view]:

A cold gust of wind fans your face, you shiver slightly, you have been standing still, "get moving," you say to yourself, only another hour to do, the rifle is heavy, brrrr, blow this for a game of soldiers, they have no consideration at all.

From Willis Hall, The Long and the Short and the Tall: And Each His Own Wilderness, in The New English Dramatists, volume 3 (1961)[combined snippets]:

BAMFORTH: It's a crumb patrol. It's just about the crummiest detail in the Far East is this, and no messing. Two days humping kit and two days back! Routine Patrol! You can stick this for a game of soldiers. Talk about the P.B.I. If ever there was an all-time crumb patrol, we're on it. {He glances round at WHITAKER, who has taken a needle, ball of wool, and a pair of socks from his pack and is busily engaged in darning.} What the hell are you supposed to be doing?

From Charles Wood, Cockade, in Plays and Players volume 11 (1963):

DICKIE BIRD: And I could. No – to be strictly factual there's only on thing I'm sweating on ...

Harry: You're sweating on him stopping ...

GARIBALDI: Get some in.

DICKIE BIRD: And that for a game of soldiers – I'd be back in that box with the instructions 'fore you can say F.F.I.

GARIBALDI: That's your sweat.

DICKIE BIRD: Don't come to me Jack. I'll be too busy sorting out rations.

And from Stanley Middleton, Terms of Reference (1966):

'You start the ball rolling,' Jake said.

'Damn that for a game of soldiers. You're the one ...'

'No,' Jake said. 'Say something to me. Rude or otherwise.'

'D'you know,' Robert said, 'I can't think of a ... Get stuffed. That do?'

The implication in these early instances seems to be that if the real-life military situation that the soldiers are talking about in each of these instances were a game of pretend warfare and they were children playing it, they would quit in disgust or annoyance. The tone of rueful jocularity mentioned in the description by Partridge & Beale seems very much in line with the tone of phrase's usage in the examples cited above.

The earliest four examples I have cited clearly take place in a military milieu; however, I can't tell what the setting is for the conversation in Middleton's novel. In any event, "[blank] this for a game of soldiers" was in use in nonmilitary contexts no later than the early 1970s.

Answer 8

Here is an answer on Quora, written by Leah Earl.

The “for” is in the sense of being or constituting — so the phrase as a whole means “this activity is a very poor approximation to a game of soldiers” (or “this activity is a very poor approximation to a lark”).

There seem to be differing opinions on what precisely is meant by “a game of soldiers”. From context it’s clearly meant to be something lighthearted and enjoyable[...]

Read the rest of the answer on Quora: https://www.quora.com/In-the-phrase-XXX-this-for-a-game-of-soldiers-what-is-the-meaning-of-the-last-part-of-the-phrase-starting-with-for#

Answer 9

It can mean different but related things depending on the context.

If something is happening that reaches a point where you need to act "Sod this for a game of soldiers" means action is more important than a game of soldiers (whatever the origin of the phrase is).

If something is happening that you don't want to be part of it can mean that a game of soldiers (something very unimportant) is preferable to what is happening, often followed by your physical or participatory departure.

Answer 10

I had always imagined that the 'game of soldiers' was a real one - the first world war, where soldiers lives were thrown away as if 'in a game'. They were 'cannon fodder' or expendable items, used.

I imagined that the phrase would have been uttered by a soldier in that situation 'fook this for a game of soldiers' meaning - 'hell - I'm in this shoddy game, this incompetent parody of a war' nothing more than 'a game of soldiers'.

And that, I imagined that this expression then continued to be interchangeably used in other situations that were similarly badly set up, badly run, or badly conceived of, by authority.

'Fook this for a game of soldiers' means - 'I'm out of here - let's do something else'. It is usually followed by leaving the situation.

It reminds me that some troops in the first world war, maddened by the firing and the carnage, did in fact run towards the border so that they would be shot down, to escape it by being killed.

Fook that for a game of soldiers.

I'm from the UK.

Answer 11

Since an alternative to this is "---- this for a game of monkeys", I cannot see that it has anything to do with toy soldiers: I have always understood it to mean - from context - a total waste of time, and I have seen derivations that suggest that soldiers spend a lot of time doing nothing, especially in wartime, and would therefore invent trivial games purely to pass the time - games without winners, purpose or meaning. And monkeys would also do similar.

I personally think that it is a military expression, possibly coined in one of the various wars of attrition that The British Army has been engaged in, in its history.

Answer 12

Historically soldiers were notorious for becoming engaged in silly and most times (e.g. the game of the "bisquit") non-sense games to kill the time, practice that over time gave them a poorly credible connotation and stereotype. Hence this old fashioned colloquialism (the original version was Sod this for a game of soldiers) compares the foolishness of a certain action/thing with that of "a game of soldiers"..from The Urban Dictionary

Answer 13

I've always understood 'a game of soldiers' to refer to being a soldier. So, the expression, as I've always understood it, is: [swear word of your choice], I've had enough of "playing at" being a soldier because "this" (whatever you're supposed to be doing) has become a right fag (tedious, unpleasant, unending, utterly f-ed up, whatever). The "playing at" is just a reference to not taking unpleasant things seriously, hence "a game of soldiers" which has the same sort of emotion as the American chickenshit outfit, but with a more humorous bent as befits the English sense of humour. So, "playing at a game of soldiers" is serving in the army, sort of as a little tin soldier messed about with by the higher ups, with about as much consideration, and at the same time, just making light of the unpleasantness that life can bring.

I'm a 59-year old NZer, and recall the expression from way, way back. It's more my father's generation than mine.