E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Tom Tidler’s Ground.
The ground or tenement of a sluggard. The expression occurs in Dickens’s Christmas story, 1861. Tidler is a contraction of “the idler” or t’idler. The game so called consists in this: Tom Tidler stands on a heap of stones, gravel, etc.; other boys rush on the heap crying, “Here I am on Tom Tidler’s ground,” and Tom bestirs himself to keep the invaders off.
