Robert's your uncle
English
Alternative forms
Phrase
- Synonym of Bob's your uncle.
- 1949 February 19, Charles, “My Column”, in Bristol Evening Post, number 5,224, Bristol, →OCLC, page 2, columns 2–3:
- They would send a man immediately, and if he could not get it open they would run us home! We left the telephone, walked up two small flights of stairs, and opened the front door as, believe it or not, the car with three policemen in it was just pulling up. I mention this amazing promptitude hoping that it will be a comfort to timorous souls whose tums turn over when things go bump in the night. A few words to the police, give the address first, and before you can say “Robert’s your uncle” there he is—stalwart two or three of him.
- 1976 September 25, Barry Conn Hughes, “How to build a hotel chain without any money: Delta did it with finesse”, in The Financial Post Magazine, Toronto, Ont.: Maclean-Hunter, →OCLC, page 48, column 3:
- When the $120,000 first mortgage came due in 1970, they managed to get it renewed for another five years and finally paid it off in 1975. Delta sold some portions of the land on the north side over the years, but retained enough to put up another office building, due to open this fall. And Robert’s your uncle. It’s easy when you know how — and if you’ve got the guts.
- 1985 October 10, Ian Ross, “Rock”, in Daily Post: The Paper for Wales, Wrexham, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16, column 1:
- The overbearingly wealthy Yank had been so impressed with the demos flown from the home of Siren Records to the U.S.A. that he was grimly determined to catch the band in a live setting. All systems go, I mused. Grab a London saver, hitch-hike to the little-known Key Club and Robert’s your Uncle.
- 1991 October, Vicles, quotee, “Hero Quest”, in Andy Ide, editor, Your Sinclair, number 70, Bath, Somerset: Future Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 45, column 3:
- Low on dosh? Just select Quest 7 (The Stone Hunter) and go straight to the exit. Do this a few times and Robert’s your uncle.
- 1992 February, Daniel Pemberton, “PG Tips”, in Paul Lakin, editor, Game Zone, number 4, London: Dennis Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 67, column 2:
- Jimmy May definitely knows his tees from his teas as he’s given us a cheat to enter the fantasy zone (phwooarr!) in this great golf game. Firstly start a new game and then take 100 strokes on any hole without putting out on that hole. GAME OVER should soon appear. Now quickly press UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT and button A. And hey presto! Robert’s your uncle!
- 1997 January 26, Ron Goldman, “All I wanted to do was meet Bill [Clinton]”, in The Sunday Star, Toronto, Ont., →ISSN, →OCLC, page E1, column 5:
- My adventure began a couple of months ago when an invitation to the “inaugural” was extended to my girlfriend Leslie and I[sic] from my first cousin’s best friend’s ex-husband named Robert Deaton, who has been working with the Clinton administration since the early years in Little Rock. […] All we had to do was join the Arkansas Democratic Party ($100 each)[,] pay Robert a service fee ($100 each), reserve a five-night minimum stay at the Georgetown Mariott[sic] (way too much), reserve two inaugural ball tickets ($150) and Robert’s your uncle.
- 2000, Ken Lukowiak, “Home’s where the heart is”, in Marijuana Time: Join the Army, See the World, Meet Interesting People and Smoke All Their Dope, London: Orion Media, →ISBN, page 170:
- If I could come up to Manchester tomorrow, he’d pick me up at the station, take me to see a couple of third parties, and Robert’s your uncle. But there was, of course, one more thing to discuss: like how much, mate? I didn’t really know the going rate, so I let him tell me.
- 2019 January 5, Rex Murphy, “Much show, null impact: How the Liberal carbon tax is not unlike that $2,000 cat door”, in National Post, volume 21, number 59, Toronto, Ont.: National Post, →ISSN, →OCLC, page A10, column 3:
- It would be nice to know, for example, what jewelry he selected for his litter box. No self-respecting tabby with a two-grand bolt hole is going to back-squirt in some 10-buck plastic pan from Walmart. That we can be sure of. It’s a Birks box and a gold flush or Robert’s your uncle.