Show Me State
proper noun
Forms the Show Me State
Synonyms
Etymology
Uncertain, but often attributed to Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who in a speech in Philadelphia in 1899 declared, "I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me."
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Show Me State”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details