on the square vs straight from the shoulder

on the square

prep

  • A discreet, unassuming reference to freemasonry. 

  • Honest and open. 

straight from the shoulder

adj

  • Done in a direct manner; blunt. 

adv

  • In a straightforward manner; directly; bluntly. 

How often have the words on the square and straight from the shoulder occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )