live over the brush

present singular third person lives over the brush · participle present living over the brush · participle past lived over the brush · past lived over the brush

1. Northern EnglandidiomaticTo cohabit without being married.

   I was saying to my Albert, I wouldn't be surprised if him and that so-called wife of his was living over the brush.

   2013, Gilda O'Neill, Just Around the Corner, →ISBN

   2 more examples

   I know what people think about the North. They think it's all muck and living over the brush with women like Elsie Tanner.

   1982, Peter Tinniswood, The Home Front, page 10

   After the birth of their son, Stanley, the couple moved to Bradford and "lived over the brush" in West Bowling in a back-to-back terraced house.

   1991, Punch, volume 300, page 134

   Synonyms: live in sin