phrases

[aleem3]

were does the saying "clap eyes on " originate

[Quizmonster]

The word 'clap' has always had a notion of suddenness about it, as in a 'clap of thunder', so to 'clap eyes on' suggests seeing someone/thing out of the blue, as it were. The earliest recorded example of the phrase actually occurs in Dickens' Oliver Twist. published in 1838, so that may possibly have been where it originated in that form.