in the green tree … in the dry prepositional phrase1 •(old-fashioned) In a better situation as against a worse one; used chiefly in rhetorical questions to suggest that the current unfavorable situation will worsen in the future.If you do that sort of thing in the green tree, what will you do in the dry? When the honourable member does it to members who support the Prime Minister, what will he do to members of his own party? — 1910
