Volume 2 — A · Dictionary · of Slang · and · its · Analogues. (continued 7)

1887. W. E. Henley and R. L. Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, Act 4. Moore. And is he thundering well corpsed?… Then damme, I don’t mind swinging.

Corpse-Provider, subs. (common).—A doctor or physician. For synonyms, see Crocus.

Corpse Reviver, subs. phr. (American).—A mixed drink.—See Drinks.

1871. Birmingham Daily Post, 22 Dec. And our American refreshment bars, In drinks of all descriptions cut a dash, From corpse revivers down to ‘brandy smash.’

1883. Daily Telegraph, March 8, p. 7, col. 1. In winter the dash into the open air or the standing for a few minutes in a line of comrades will certainly enhance the joys of the English equivalents for the Yankee corpse reviver.

Correct or K’rect Card.—See Card.

Corroboree, subs. (Australian).—A disturbance. [Properly a tremendous native dance.]

Verb.—To boil.—See preceding.

Corsican, subs. (sporting).—Something out of the common; a ‘buster.’ [A ‘Burnandism.’]

1889. Polytechnic Mag., 18 April, p. 232, col. 2. This heat was a Corsican.

Corybungus, subs. (pugilistic).—The posteriors.—See Blind cheeks, Bum, and Monocular eye glass.

Cosh, subs. (popular and thieves’).—A ‘neddy’; a life-preserver; a short, loaded bludgeon. Also a policeman’s truncheon.

Cosouse.—See Come Souse.

Cossack, subs. (common).—A policeman. For synonyms, see Beak and Copper.

1886. Graphic, Jan. 30, p. 130, col. 1. A policeman is also called a ‘cossack,’ a ‘Philistine,’ and a ‘frog.’

Costard, subs. (old).—The head. [Properly an apple.] For synonyms, see Crumpet.

1534. N. Udall, Roister Doister, III., v., p. 58 (Arber). I knocke youre costarde if ye offer to strike me.

1605. Shakspeare, King Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6. Edg. … Nay, come not near th’ old man; keep out, che vor ye, or ise try whether your costard or my bat be the harder.

1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, Costard, the head; a kind of opprobrious word, used by way of contempt, probably alluding to a costard apple.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. xii. ‘It’s hard I should get raps over the costard.’

Cotch, verb (vulgar).—To catch. [A corruption.] Also ppl. adj., cotched.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., Oct. 12, p. 5, col. 2. Taken before some French beak whom he did not know, and an interpreter brought, the cotched culprit was made to pay 20 f.

Cots, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—See quot. [A corruption of ‘cotton.’]

1810. Charles Lamb, Recollections of Christ’s Hospital [1835], p. 24. The Cots, or superior Shoe Strings of the Monitors.

Cotsold or Cotswold Lion, subs. phr. (old).—A sheep. Mentioned by Ray in his proverbs. For synonyms, see Wool-bird.

1615. Harington, Epigrams, bk. III., ep. 18. Lo then the mystery from whence the name Of Cotsold lyons first to England came.

Cotton-Lord or King, subs. (common).—A wealthy cotton manufacturer.

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. xix. ‘But, Mr. Fulsby [a Manchester man], the country will never … do away with the army because you cotton lords consider it unnecessary.’

Cottonopolis, subs. (general).—Manchester. [In allusion to the staple.] Cf., Albertopolis, Cubitopolis, Hygeiapolis.

1884. Echo, May 12, p. 4, col. 2. For the big race [Manchester Cup] at Cottonopolis a fine lot are let in.

Cottons, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Confederate Bonds. [From the staple of the Southern States.]

Cotton To, verb (common).—To take a fancy to; to unite with; to agree with. In the last sense it is found occasionally in the Elizabethan writers, and is American by survival. [As regards derivation, it comes from the Welsh cytuno, to agree, to consent.]

Some French analogues are:—Avoir un béguin pour quelqu’un and avoir un pépin pour une femme; one who cottons to another is by students called un colleur; while concubinage by sheer force of habit is damned as le collage.

1582. Stanyhurst, Virgil, p. 19 (Arber). If this geare cotten, what wight wyl yeelde to myn aulters Bright honor and Sacrifice.

1605. Play of Stucley, I., 290. John a Nokes and John a Style and I cannot cotton.

1837. Barham, I. L. (The Bagman’s Story). For when once Madam Fortune deals out her hard raps, It’s amazing to think, How one cottons to drink!

1846. Punch, vol. II., p. 12. I agree in the words of Mrs. Judy, who says, ‘My dear, I hope one day to see Peel and Cobden cotton together.’

1864. Derby Day, p. 152. ‘You stop here and cotton up to the gipsies,’ exclaimed Charley Brickwood.

1880. Ouida, Moths, ch. vii. ‘Ride? Ah! That’s a thing I don’t cotton to anyhow,’ said Miss Fuschia Leach, who had found that her talent did not lie that way.

To die with cotton in one’s ears, phr. (obsolete).—See quots.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry (ed. 1890), p. 92. Many of the most hardened and desperate offenders, from the kindness, attention, and soothing conduct of the Rev. Mr. Cotton [the chaplain at Newgate, 1821], who is indefatigable in administering consolation to their troubled minds, have become the most sincere penitents.

1864. Athenæum, 29 Oct., No. 1931. Rev. of Sl. Dict. When a late chaplain of Newgate [Rev. Mr. Cotton] used to attend poor wretches to the scaffold, standing by their side to the last moment, they were said to ‘die with cotton in their ears!’ Let us add here, that Rowe invented the phrase ‘launched into eternity,’ to signify the simple but solemn matter of hanging.

This was by no means the only instance of a popular punning allusion to the name of Cotton. The Jesuit Father Coton, having obtained a great ascendency over Henri IV., it was remarked by that monarch’s subjects that, unfortunately, ‘his ears were stuffed with cotton.’

Cotton-Top, subs. (obsolete).—A woman loose in fact, but keeping up some sort of appearance. [In allusion to cotton stockings with silk feet.]

Couch a Hogshead, verbal phr. (old).—To lie down and sleep. [Couch, to lie down, was in common use in Shakspeare’s time (Merry Wives of Windsor, v., 2). Hogshead = the head.]—See, however, quot., 1610, and for synonyms, see Balmy.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. To couch a hogshead: to ly downe and slepe. Ibid, I couched a hogshead in a skypper this darkemans.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Cowch a hogshead: to lie doune and sleepe; this phrase is like an Alminacke that is out of date: now the duch word to slope is with them vsed, to sleepe, and liggen, to lie downe.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. iv., p. 37 (1874). The fumes of drink had now ascended into their brain, wherefore they coucht a hogs-head, and went to sleep.

1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict., s.v.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. ‘We’ll couch a hogshead, and so better had you.’ They retired to repose, accordingly.

Councillor of The Pipowder Court, subs. (old).—A pettifogging lawyer. [The Pipowder Court was one held at fairs, where justice was done to any injured person before the dust of the fair was off his feet; the name being derived from the French pié poudré. Some, however, think that it had its origin in pied-pouldreux, a pedlar, and signifies a pedlars’ court.

Council-of-Ten, subs. phr. (common).—The toes of a man who walks duck-footed (q.v.). Cf., Ten commandments. Fr., arpions.

Counsellor, subs. (Irish).—A barrister. Fr., un gerbier.

1889. Answers, 9 Feb. I referred him to my solicitors, who very kindly lent their services for nothing, giving the £3 he had to the counsellor (thieves always call barristers counsellors) employed.

Count, subs. (common).—A man of fashion; a swell.—See quot., 1883, and Dandy for synonyms.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 6 p.m., par. 20. Tremendous counts are the clerks in the secretary’s office, jaunty bureaucrats, who ride upon park hacks, and are ‘come for’ by ringlets in broughams at closing time.

1883. G. A. S[ala], in Ill. London News, April 21, p. 379, col. 2. Fops flourished before my time, but I can remember the ‘dandy,’ who was superseded by the count, the ‘toff,’ and other varieties of the ‘swell.’

Counter, verb (pugilistic).—To strike while parrying. Also used as a verbal subs., countering. Figuratively, to oppose; to circumvent.

1853. C. Bede, Verdant Green, pt. I., p. 106. His kissing traps countered, his ribs roasted.

1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. vii. He will certainly knock the little man’s head off, if he strikes him. Feinting, dodging, stopping, hitting, countering—little man’s head not off yet.

1871. Daily News, 17 April, p. 2, col. 2. The Jockey Club met on Wednesday last, when they countered the Hunt Committee … by refusing to father the said ‘wrangling stakes’ by a majority of eleven to three.

1873. Conservative, 15 Feb. If ‘The Druid’ is the prettier sparrer, ‘The Ædile’ must be admitted to have shown unexpected powers of countering, and has stood up gamely to his bigger opponent.

Another lie nailed to the counter.—See Another.

Counterfeit-Cranke, subs. (old).—Explained in quots.—See Cranke.

1567. Harman, Caveat. These that do counterfet the cranke be yong knaves and yonge harlots, that deeply dissemble the falling sickness.

1621. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 159. A lawyer of Bruges hath some notable examples of such counterfeit cranks. Ibid. 436. Thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater.

1622. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, ii., 1. And these, what name or title e’er they bear, Jarkman, or Patrico, Cranke, or Clapper-dudgeon, Frater, or Abram-man, I speak to all That stand in fair election for the title Of king of beggars.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 39 (1874), s.v.

Counter-Jumper (or Skipper), subs. (common).—A draper’s assistant; a shopman. Fr., chevalier du mètre. For synonyms, see Knight of the yard. Also counter-jump = to act as a shop-assistant, and counter-jumping, verbal subs.

1855. C. Kingsley, Westward Ho. ‘Why,’ said he, stifling his anger, ‘it seems free enough to every counter-jumper in the town.’

1860. Guide to Eton, p. 236. They are like the young counter-jumper, mentioned by Dickens, on the outside of a coach, who lighted a great many cigars, and threw them away when he thought no one was looking.

1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, II., 189. Mamma, dear, you open that gigantic wardrobe of yours, and I’ll oil my hair, whitewash my mug (a little moan from Mrs. D.), and do the counter-jumping business to the life.

1864. G. A. Sala, in Temple Bar, Dec., p. 40. He is as dextrous as a Regent Street counter-jumper in the questionable art of ‘shaving the ladies.’

1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard, ch. viii. I don’t want my son and heir to keep company with counter jumpers.

Count-Noses, verbal phr. (parliamentary).—To count the ‘Ayes’ and ‘Noes.’ [A punning allusion to the latter.] Generally, to take the sense of any assembly.

Country, subs. (cricket).—That part of the ground at a great distance from the wicket; thus, a fielder at ‘deep-long-off,’ or ‘long-on’ is said ‘to be in the Country,’ and a ball hit to the far boundary is ‘hit into the Country.’

Country-Put, subs. (old).—An ignorant, country fellow. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1717. Mrs. Centlivre, Bold Stroke for a Wife, Act iv., Sc. 2. Col. F. Enough. Now for the country-put.

County-Crop, subs. (general).—The hair cut close to the skull; a mode once common to all prisoners, but now to convicts only. Also prison-crop. [An abbreviation of county-prison crop.] Used likewise adjectively.

1867. Jas. Greenwood, Unsent. Journeys, xxv., 199. A slangy, low-browed, bull-necked, county-cropped … crew.

Couple- (also Buckle-) Beggar, subs. (old).—A celebrant of irregular marriages—as the Chaplain of the Fleet; a hedge priest. A Spanish colloquialism for such a marriage is bodijo.

1737. Swift, Proposal for Badges to the Beggars. Nay, their happiness is often deferred until they find credit to borrow, or cunning to steal, a shilling to pay their popish priest, or infamous couple-beggar.

1842. Lever, Handy Andy, ch. xxix. This was a degraded clergyman, known in Ireland under the title of Couple-Beggar, who was ready to perform irregular marriages on such urgent occasions as the present.

Couple of Shakes.—See Brace of Shakes.

Coupling-House, subs. (old).—A brothel. [From coupling, the act of copulating, + house.] For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

Couranne.—See Caroon.

Court-Card, subs. (old).—A beau, or ‘swell.’ For synonyms, see Dandy.

Court Holy Water or Court Promises, subs. phr. (old).—Fair speeches without performance.

Cousin Betty, subs. (colloquial).—A half-witted person. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

1860. Mrs. Gaskell, Sylvia’s Lovers, ch. xiv. I dunnot think there’s a man living—or dead for that matter—as can say Foster’s wrong him of a penny, or gave short measure to a child or a cousin betty.

Cousin-Trumps, subs. (old).—One of a kind: brother smut; brother chip.

1825. English Spy, p. 255. Most noble cracks, and worthy cousin-trumps, etc.

Couter or Cooter, subs. (common).—A sovereign. For synonyms, see Canary, sense 3. Half a couter = half-a-sovereign.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3 ed.), p. 444, s.v.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 243. ‘A foulcher, with flimsies and couters for a score of quid in it.’

1880. James Payn, A Confidential Agent, I., 207. ‘Well, he gave us half a couter at all events,’ pleaded John in mitigation.

Cove, Covey, Cofe, Cuffing, and, in the feminine, Covess, subs. (general).—1. A person; a companion. [Some derive cove from the Gypsy cova, covo = that man, covi = that woman; Cova, says Pott (quoted in Annandale), has a far wider application than the Latin res; there is no expression more frequent in a gypsy’s mouth. Others connect it with the north country coof; a lout or dolt.] Cove enters into many combinations: e.g.,

Cross-cove = a robber.

Flash-cove = a thief or swindler.

Kinchin-cove = a little man.

Flogging-cove = a beadle.

Smacking-cove = a coachman.

Narry-cove = a drunkard.

Topping-cove = a highwayman.

Abram-cove = a beggar.

Queer-cove = a rogue.

Nubbing-cove = the hangman.

Gentry-cove = a gentleman.

Downy-cove = a shrewd man.

Rum-cove = a doubtful character.

Nib-cove = a gentleman,

etc., etc., etc., all which see.

English Synonyms. Boy; chap; cull; cully; customer; kiddy; homo or omee; fish; put; bloke; gloak; party; cuss; codger; buffer; gaffer; damber; duck; chip.

French Synonyms. Bête à pain (popular: literally a bread-eater; also a man who ‘keeps’ a woman); un bonhomme (familiar); un type (prostitutes’ = a dupe); un gonce, gonse or gonze, and une gonzesse (thieves’); un goncier (thieves’); un gonsalé (thieves’); un gadouille; un nière or niert; un pante (thieves’: from pantin, a puppet); un mastic (thieves’: properly cement or putty); une mazette (military); une mecque (thieves’); un marquant (thieves’: especially applied to bullies or Sunday-men); un marpaut or marpeau (old cant); un lancier (thieves’); un lascar (thieves’); un messier or messière (thieves’: from mézière, a fool); un orgue (thieves’); un gas (thieves’); un gosselin (popular = Eng. covey; une fignolé gosseline = a ‘natty piece’); un gniasse (thieves’); un loncegue (thieves’).

German Synonyms. Baal (perhaps one of the most comprehensive terms in the Gaunersprache, and signifying not only a ‘cove’ [i.e., an individual], but also a master, husband, possessor, artist, expert, artisan—in fact, one owning or capable of anything. Combinations are Balbajis, Balbos [fem. Balboste, Balboëste] = master of the house; Baldower = a principal or leader of a gang, an adviser, the creator of opportunities, the spy; Baleze, Baleize = an adviser, also a chief of police; Balhoche [from Baal and hocho (there)], prostitutes’ = ‘one in possession’ but removeable; Balhoche (thieves’) = one with an opportunity of theft; Balhei is merely the abbreviation or Baalhe or hei; Balmassematten [masso umattan], the business man, the leader of a gang; Balmelocho, the artisan; Balmelochestift, the artisan’s apprentice; Balplete, Balpleite, the runaway; Balschochad, any official who takes bribes; Balspiess = a common lodging-house; Balm, Balmach, Balmachan, Palm, Palmer, Palmach, Pallmack, Pallmagen = a soldier; the Hanov. has Palemachome [Palemachen, Pallemacher]; Balverschmai = an inquisitor or judge); Brooker (Hanoverian = one in trousers, from the North German Broek or Bracca, trousers); Gatscho (from the Gypsy gaxo); Isch (from the Hebrew isch).

1567. Harman, Caveat. Cofe: a person.

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, in wks. (Grosart) III., 196. The word cove, or cofe, or cuffin, signifies a Man, a Fellow, etc.

1654. Witts, Recreations. As priest of the game, And prelate of the same, There’s a gentry cove here.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 12, s.v.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. x. ‘Do you see that old cove at the book-stall?’

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. ii.: [a misquotation of a far older song.] ‘The ministers talk a great deal about port, And they makes Cape wine very dear, But blow their hi’s if ever they tries, To deprive a poor cove of his beer.’

1871. Figaro, 15 April. We need hardly say that the cove in question is not a man.

[For examples of the use of Covey and Covess, see same.]

2. (Up-country Australian).—The master, ‘boss,’ or ‘gaffer’ of a sheep station.

Cove of Dossing-Ken, subs. phr. (thieves’).—The landlord of a common lodging-house. Fr., marchand de sommeil.

Covent-Garden, subs. (rhyming slang).—A ‘farden’ or farthing.

Covent-Garden Abbess, subs. (old).—A procuress. [Covent Garden at one time teemed with brothels: as Fielding’s Covent Garden Tragedy (1751–2) suggests. Cf., Bankside ladies, and Barnwell ague.]—See Covent-Garden ague and Abbess. For synonyms, see Mother.

Covent-Garden Ague, subs. phr. (old).—A venereal disease. [An allusion to brothels in the neighbourhood in question.] Cf., Bankside ladies. For synonyms, see Ladies’ fever.

Covent-Garden Nun, subs. phr. (old).—A prostitute.—[See Covent-garden ague and Nun.]

Coventry. To send one to, or to be in Coventry, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To exclude from social intercourse, or notice; to be in disgrace. [Variously but indecisively explained:—(1) From Coventry Gaol, as a place of imprisonment for Royalists during the Parliamentary war. (2) From the fact that in Coventry, as elsewhere, the privilege of trading was anciently confined to certain privileged persons. (3) As a corruption of put or sent into quarantine, the transition from ‘Coventry’ formerly pronounced and written Cointrie—(‘his breech of Cointrie blewe.’ Drayton’s Dowsabell: 1593)—being easy and natural, in which connection, see quot., 1821. The expression appears first in Grose, but ‘Quarantine’ used analogically is found in Swift.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1821. Croker, in Croker Papers, vol. I., p. 203. I found MacMahon in a kind of Coventry, and was warned not to continue my acquaintance with him.

1838. Lytton, Alice, bk. IV., ch. iii. ‘If any one dares to buy it, we’ll send him to Coventry.’

1869. Spencer, Study of Sociology, ch. x., p. 244 (9 ed.). The skilful artizan, who in a given period can do more than his fellows, but who dares not do it because he would be sent to Coventry by them.

1872. Post, 21 June. Another representation on behalf of Lieutenant Tribe, of the 9th Lancers, now for some months past in Coventry, will be made in the course of a few days to the Minister for War and to his Royal Highness Commanding-in-Chief.

Cover, subs. (thieves’).—A pickpocket’s confederate: one who ‘fronts,’ i.e., distracts the attention of, the victim; a stall (q.v.).

Verb (thieves’).—1. To act as a pickpocket’s confederate.

1868. Glasgow Gazette, 13 Nov. ‘A Sensitive Thief.’ I saw Merritt lift up the tail of a gentleman’s coat and thrust his hand into the pocket.… Jordan and O’Brien were covering Merritt while so acting. I knew them all to be regular thieves.

2. (American).—To drink. For synonyms, see Lush.

3. (venery).—To ‘have’ or ‘possess’ a woman. [Properly used of a stallion and a mare.]

1653. Urquhart, Translation of Rabelais. Madam, it would be a very great benefit to the commonwealth, delightful to you, honourable to your progeny, and necessary for me, that I cover you for the propagating of my race.

Cover-arse Gown, subs. phr. (Univ., obsolete).—A gown without sleeves.

1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.

Cover-Down, subs. (thieves’).—An obsolete term for a false tossing coin.—See Cap.

Cover-Me-Decently, verbal phr. (old).—A coat. For synonyms, see Capella.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, p. 5. (Dicks’ ed., 1889.) Tom. This, what do you call it?—this cover-me-decently, was all very well at Hawthorn Hall, I daresay.

Covess, subs. (old).—A woman.—See Cove.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 144. He was well acquainted with the cove and covess.

1827. Sir E. B. Lytton, Pelham, p. 310 (ed. 1864). Ah, Bess my covess, strike me blind if my sees don’t tout your bingo muns in spite of the darkmans.

Covey, subs. (common).—A man; a diminutive of cove (q.v.).

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Tom. Well there’s a flimsy for you; serve the change out in max to the covies.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. Upon this, the boy crossed over; and, walking close up to Oliver, said, ‘Hullo, my covey! what’s the row?’

1854. Aytoun and Martin, The Bon Gaultier Ballads. ‘The Laureate’s Tourney.’ ‘Undo the helmet! cut the lace! pour water on his head!’ ‘It ain’t no use at all, my lord; ’cos vy? the covey’s dead.’

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 19. Ah! Ah! you half-starved, hungry, ugly-looking covey, why, if they had you in the country where I came from they’d boil you down for the pigs.

Cow, subs. (old).—1. A woman. The term is now opprobrious; but in its primary and natural sense the usage is ancient. Howell [1659] says: ‘There are some proverbs that carry a kind of authority with them, as that which began in Henrie the Fourth’s time. “He that bulls the cow must keep the calf.” ’ For synonyms, see Petticoat.

2. (general).—A prostitute. [By analogy from sense 1.] Fr., une vache. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

3. (sporting).—A thousand pounds. Other slang terms for sums of money are:—

Pony = £25.

Century = £100.

Monkey = £500.

Plum = £100,000.

Marigold = £1,000,000.

but for complete list, see Monkey.

1870. Athenæum, 10 Sept. ‘Liverpool.’ All over Lancashire a horse is called a cow, which everywhere else where slang prevails is a cant term for a thousand pounds.

To talk the hind leg off a cow or dog.—See Talk.

Tune the cow died of.—See Tune.

Cowan, subs. (common).—A sneak or prying individual. Among masons the uninitiate in general.

Cow-and-Calf, verb (rhyming slang).—To laugh.

Coward’s-Castle or Corner, subs. phr. (popular).—A pulpit. [Because a clergyman may deliver himself therefrom without fear of contradiction or argument.] For synonyms, see Hum-box.

1883. Notes and Queries, 6 S., viii., p. 147. Coward’s Castle.… An epithet … in use not inaptly for a pulpit. Ibid. p. 238. I have often heard the pulpit called the Coward’s Castle, it being said to be ‘six feet above argument.’

Cowcumber, subs. (vulgar).—A corruption of ‘cucumber.’

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Bob. Very vell, two pound, vith a pickled cowcumber, and a pen’orth o’ ketchup.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxv. In case there should be such a thing as a cowcumber in the house will you be so kind as bring it, for I’m rayther partial to ’em myself, and they does a world of good in a sick room.

Cow- (also Bushel- and Sluice-) Cunted, adj. phr. (venery).—term of opprobrium applied to women deformed by parturition or debauchery.

Cow-Grease or Cow-Oil, subs. (common).—Butter. For synonyms, see Cart-grease.

Cow-Juice, subs. (popular).—Milk. Cf., Bung-juice and Cow-grease. For synonyms, see Sky-blue.

Cow-Lick, subs. (common).—A peculiar lock of hair, greased, curled, brought forward from the ear, and plastered on the cheek. Once common amongst costermongers and tramps. For synonyms, see Aggerawators.

Cow-Oil.—See Cow-grease.

Cow-Puncher, subs. (American).—A cowboy or herdsman.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 21 July. He was a cowboy, or, in Western parlance, a cow-puncher.

Cow-Quake, subs. (Irish).—The roar of a bull.

Cows-and-Kisses, subs. (rhyming slang).—The ‘missus,’ or mistress; also women generally.

1887. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. Come, cows-and-kisses, put the battle of the Nile on your Barnet fair, and a rogue and villain in your sky-rocket.

Cow’s-Baby or Babe, subs. (common).—A calf. In Old Cant bleating-cheat (q.v.). For synonyms, see Mooer; Cf., Cow-juice and Cow’s-spouse. Also a poltroon; Fr., un fouinard, un fouetteux de chats, un fouailleur, un foie, un flemard or flaquadin, or un frileux.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Cow-Shooter, subs. (Winchester College).—A ‘deerstalker’ hat: only worn by præfects and ‘candle-keepers.’

Cow’s-Spouse, subs. (old).—A bull.—Grose [1785].

Cow With the Iron Tail, subs. phr. (general).—A pump; the source of the ‘cooling medium’ for ‘regulating’ milk. Thus, Dr. Wendell Holmes, in The Professor at the Breakfast Table (1860):—It is a common saying of a jockey that he is all horse, and I have often fancied that milkmen get a stiff upright carriage, and an angular movement that reminds one of a pump and the working of a handle. Also black-cow; one-armed man; and Simpson’s cow (q.v.).

1867. Punch. The Rinderpest does not affect the cow with the iron tail.

1872. Standard, 25 Dec. Simpson … is, however, universally accepted as the title for that combined product of the Cow natural, and the cow with the iron tail.

1876. Once a Week, 23 August. Every drop of milk brought into Paris is tested at the barriers by the lactometer, to see if the iron tailed cow has been guilty of diluting it; if so, the whole of it is remorselessly thrown into the gutter—the Paris milk is very pure in consequence.

Coxy, adj. (public schools’).—Stuck up; conceited; impudent.

1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 202. He’s the coxiest young blackguard in the house—I always told you so. Ibid, p. 214. ‘Confoundly coxy those young rascals will get if we don’t mind,’ was the general feeling.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. iv. ‘Now then young Bultitude, you used to be a decent fellow enough last term, though you were coxy. So, before we go any further—what do you mean by this sort of thing?’

Coyduck, verb (old).—To decoy. [An ingenious blend of conduct and decoy.]

1829. A Laconic Narrative of the Life and Death of James Wilson. That awful monster, William Burke. Like Reynard sneaking on the lurk, Coyducked his prey into his den And then the woeful work began.

Coyote, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Cozza, subs. (cheap Jacks’).—See quot.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack. p. 28. Mo … declared he would never eat another bit of cozza, i.e., pork, as long as he lived.

Crab, subs. (auction).—The same as bonnet (q.v.), subs., sense 1.

Verb (thieves’).—To expose; to inform; to offend or insult; and especially to interrupt, to get in the way of, to spoil. [Properly to render harsh, sour, or peevish; to make crabbed.] Also used adjectively. For synonyms, see Peach and Rile, respectively.

1825. The English Spy, vol. I., p. 179. Liveryman, Eglantine. What coming crabb over us, old fellow? Very well, I shall bolt and try Randall, and that’s all about it.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. If a patterer has been crabbed, that is offended at any of the ‘cribs’ (houses), he mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. Ibid, vol. II., p. 568. ‘We don’t crab one another when we are sweeping; if we was to crab one another, we’d get to fighting and giving slaps of the jaw to one another.’

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, pp. 5–6. Others, however, would be what we termed crabbed.

1880. Millikin, Punch’s Almanack. Crab your enemies,—I’ve got a many, You can pot ’em proper for a penny.

To catch a crab; also to cut a crab; to catch or cut a cancer or lobster, verbal phr. (common).—There are various ways of catching a crab, as, for example, (1) to turn the blade of the oar or ‘feather’ under water at the end of the stroke, and thus be unable to recover; (2) to lose control of the oar at the middle of the stroke by ‘digging’ too deeply; or (3) to miss the water altogether.

Crab Louse, subs. (old).—The pulex pubis, the male whereof is called a cock, the female a hen.—Grose [1785].

Crabs, subs. (thieves’).—1. The feet. [A punning comparison of the feet and ten toes to the ten-footed, short-tailed crustaceans popularly known as ‘crabs.’] For synonyms, see Creepers. In Haggart (see Glossary, 1821) crabs = shoes.

2. (old).—Lice. For synonyms, see Chates, sense 2.

3. (gaming).—A pair of aces, or deuce-ace—the lowest throw at hazard.

1768. Lord Carlisle, in Jesse’s Selwyn, II., 238 (1882). I hope you have left off hazard. If you are still so foolish, and will play, the best thing I can wish you is, that you may win and never throw crabs.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Hard Times), p. 4, ed. 1851. Well, we know in these cases Your crabs and ‘Deuce Aces’ Are wont to promote frequent changes of places.

1874. G. A. Lawrence, Hagarene, ch. iii. ‘My annuity drops with me; and if this throw comes off crabs, there won’t be enough to bury me, unless I die a defaulter.’

To turn out crabs or a case of crabs, verbal phr. (common).—A matter turns out crabs when it is brought to a disagreeable conclusion. [Cf., Crab, verb, in the sense of to interrupt; to get in the way of; to spoil.]

Crabshells, subs. (popular).—Shoes. [From crabs, subs., sense 1 (q.v.), + shells, an outer covering.] For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 210, ‘Now these ’ere shoes,’ he said … ‘even now, with a little mending, they’ll make a tidy pair of crab-shells again.’

1889. Answers, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. The state of my crabshells, or boots, pointed to the fact that I had come down in the world.

Crack, subs. (old).—A crazy person, or soft-head. [From crack = to impair, or to be impaired.] For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, in wks. (Grosart) III., 212. A Foyst nor a Nip shall not walke into a Fayre or a Play-house, but euerie cracke will cry looke to your purses.

b. 1672, d. 1719. Addison (quoted in Annandale). I cannot get the Parliament to listen to me, who look upon me as a crack.

2. (old).—A prostitute, see sense 4. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, Act v., Sc. 3. You imagine I have got your whore, cousin, your crack.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. II., p. 27. Old Leachers, Harridans, and Cracks.

1715. Vanbrugh, Country House, II., v. For you must know my sister was with me, and it seems he took her for a crack, and I being a forward boy he fancied I was going to make love to her under a hedge, ha, ha.

1748. T. Dyce, Dictionary (5 ed.), s.v.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vul. Tongue, s.v.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

3. (old).—A lie. Cf., Cracker (the modern form), and for synonyms, see Whopper.

1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act ii. Miss N. There’s something generous in my cousin’s manner. He falls out before faces to be forgiven in private. Tony. That’s a damned confounded crack.

4. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

5. (thieves’).—A burglary. Cf., Crack a crib, and for synonyms, see Panny. [The term originated about the beginning of the present century. Fr., une fraction.]

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood p. 120 (ed. 1864). We’ll overhaul the swag here, when the speak is spoken over. This crack may make us all for life.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, p. 124. The crack failed, said Toby, faintly.

1841. G. W. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, ch. xxvi. But should the traps be on the sly, For a change we’ll have a crack.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 5. Come on, then! A sweet ride of a dozen miles, just to cool one’s head, then for the crack; and then back to London.

1889. Answers, 13 April, p. 313. Such inscriptions as ‘Poor Joe from the Dials in for a crack,’ meaning ‘Poor Joe from Seven Dials in for a burglary,’ are numerous.

6. (thieves’).—A burglar. [See sense 5, and cf., Cracksman.]

1749. Life of Bampfylde-Moore Carew. Suffer none, from far or near, With their rights to interfere; No strange Abram, ruffler crack.

1857. Punch, 31 Jan. (from slang song). That long over Newgit their Worships may rule, As the High-toby, mob, crack, and screeve model school.

7. (colloquial).—An approach to perfection. Cf., sense 8.

1825. English Spy, p. 255. Most noble cracks and worthy cousin trumps, permit me to introduce a brother of the togati.

1864. Glasgow Herald, 5 April. ‘Report of R. N. Y. Club.’ This vessel (one of Fyfe’s cracks) being almost new, and coppered, will be free from the objectionable fouling which is so great a drawback to the use of iron yachts.

1871. London Figaro, 17 Oct. Does it mean that the crack is a thing of the past, and that the learned author is no longer to be considered as a crack?

1889. Answers, March 23, p. 265, col. 3. Warders are not, thank goodness, first-rate shots, but even a crack would find it difficult to hit a man’s head appearing for only a moment or two in probably a heavy fog.

8. (turf).—A racehorse eminent for speed. Hunting: a famous ‘mount.’ [An extension of the usage in sense 7.]

1853. Diogenes, II., 271. ‘The Betting Boy’s Lament.’ Cesarewitch, Cambridgeshire now No longer for me have a charm; the cracks may be ranged in a row, But for me they’ve no fear nor alarm.

1864. Derby Day, p. 38. Sir Bridges Sinclair would not scratch a horse—no, not if it was ever so, let alone a Derby crack.

1871. Standard, 6 Nov. Unlimited gossip as to the welfare and chances of forthcoming cracks.

1883. The Echo, Feb. 7, p. 3, col. 6. I give below a few of the probable starters for the Waterloo Cup, including all the cracks.

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 155. Of course he was au courant with all the rumours concerning the Panton Lodge crack.

9. (vagrants’).—Dry firewood.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 358. The next process is to look for some crack (some dry wood to light a fire).

Adj. (colloquial).—Approaching perfection; used in a multitude or combinations. A crack hand is an adept or ‘dabster’; a crack corps, a brilliant regiment; a crack whip, a good coachman; etc. As a connecting link between the adjective and the earlier use of crack, cf., The crack.

1836. W. H. Smith, The Individual, 13 Nov. ‘The Thieves’ Chaunt.’ Her duds are bob—she’s a kinchin crack, and I hopes as how she’ll never back.

1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots (July). And such a crack-shot myself, that fellows were shy of insulting me.

1859. Whitty, Political Portraits, p. 106. But he [the Earl of Shaftesbury] has insisted on a recognition of the facts of our appalling civilisation, and that was a good deal to do, which none other than a Peer and crack Christian could hope to do. Ibid, p. 288. The whippers-in will never receive instructions to find the addresses of the brilliances of Union debating clubs, bar messes, and crack newspapers.

1865. M. E. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. xx. Who was moreover a crack shot, a reckless cross-country-going rider, and a very tolerable amateur artist.

Verb (old).—1. To talk to; to boast. [The verb was once good English, and in the sense of to talk or gossip is still good Scots. The modern form to crack-up, is well within the borderland between literary and colloquial English. The following quots., together with those under crack-up, form an unbroken series].

1597. G. Harvey, Trimming of Nashe, in wks. (Grosart) III., 31. So you may cracke your selfe abroad, and get to be reported the man you are not.

1621. Burton, Anat. of Mel., I., II., III., xiv., 199, (1876). Your very tradesmen, if they be excellent, will crack and brag, and show their folly in excess.

1654. Witts, Recreations. And let them that crack In the praises of sack, Know malt is of mickle might.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

2. (thieves’).—To force open; to commit a burglary. [A shorter form of crack a crib (q.v.)]

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xix. The crib’s barred up at night like a jail; but there’s one part we can crack, safe and softly.

3. (American thieves’).—To forge or utter worthless paper. [An extension by analogy of ‘to crack,’ i.e., ‘to force,’ and ‘cracksman,’ a burglar.]

4. (colloquial).—To fall to ruin; to be impaired. Cf., subs., sense 1.

b. 1631. d. 1701. Dryden [quoted in Annandale]. The credit of the exchequer cracks when little comes in and much goes out.

5. (thieves’).—To inform; to peach (q.v. for synonyms).

c. 1850, but date uncertain. Broadside Ballad, ‘Bates’ Farm.’ I mean to crack a crib to-night, but pals don’t crack on me.

To crack a bottle or a quart, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To drink. Analogous and equally old is ‘to crush a cup.’ Fr., étouffer une négresse or un enfant de chœur. For synonyms, see Lush.

1598. Shakspeare, II. Henry IV., v., 3, 66. Shal. By the mass, you’ll crack a quart together.

1711. Spectator. No. 234. He hems after him in the public street, and they must crack a bottle at the next tavern.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VIII., ch. vii. ‘What,’ says the wife, ‘you have been tippling with the gentleman! I see.’ ‘Yes,’ answered the husband, ‘we have cracked a bottle together.’

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. viii. ‘You have cracked my silver-mounted cocoa-nut of sack, and tell me that you cannot sing!’

1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. xvii., p. 221. ‘I chose to invite the landlords of the ‘Bell’ and the ‘Lion’ to crack a bottle with me.’

To crack a crib, swag, or ken, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To commit a burglary; to break into a house. [From crack, to force open, + crib, a house.]

English Synonyms. To stamp a ken or crib; to work a panny; to jump a house (also applied to simple robbery without burglary); to do a crack; to practice the black art; to screw; to bust a crib; to flimp; to buz; to tool; to wire; to do a ken-crack-lay.

French Synonyms. Faire un cassement de porte (thieves’); faire une condition (thieves’); faire copeaux (thieves’: in allusion to the splinters from a forced door); écorner une boutanche or un boucard (thieves’ = to enter shops burglariously); faire un vol à l’esquinte (thieves’); maquiller une cambriole (thieves’: maquiller = to do, to ‘fake’—an almost universal verb of action); faire fric-frac; nettoyer un bocart (thieves’).

German Synonyms. Aufnollen (to ‘burgle’ with skeleton keys); aufplatzen (literally ‘to wrench’ or ‘break open’); aufschränken (schränken [from Schranke, O.H.G. screnchan, M.H.G. schranne, schrange, schrand] = a burglary with violence. Schränker = burglar. Up to the middle of the present century burglars used to be called Schränker a zierlicher; Schränkmassematten = a burglary with violence; Schränkzeug, Schränkschaure, Schränkschurrich = burglars’ tools); blaupfeifen (Viennese thieves’); Cassne handeln or melochenen (to commit burglary with open violence); einen Massematten handeln (Massematten is a word whose Hebraic components very nearly correspond to the English ‘debit and credit’; it signifies commerce and activity—of the kind that pertains to cracksmanship; e.g., einen Massematten baldowern, to make an opportunity for theft; einen Massematten stehen haben, to have ‘dead-lurked’ a crib, or prepared a burglary; Massematten bekoach, a burglary with violence.)

1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 297, ed. 1854. And you ‘members as now I met Harry and you—there, and I vas all afeard at you—cause vy? I had never seen you afore and ve vas a going to crack a swell’s crib.’

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 5. Jer. Now comes the grand spec; we go to crack a ken; Kit’s in, so’s the captain. Steady’s the word; I go first, you all follow.

1871. Standard, 26 Dec. If their pals outside, the gentry who hocus Jack ashore in the east, pick the pockets of Lord Dundreary in the west, and crack cribs in the lonely outskirts could only realise how miserable the Christmas-day was for them, we might look out for a needful retrenchment in the estimates of penal expenditure.

1871. Morning Advertiser, 11 May. ‘Leader.’ He took to burglary, employing professional burglars to assist him, whenever it became necessary to crack a crib.

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip. Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack.

To crack a judy (or her tea cup), verb. phr. (common).—To deflower a maid.

To crack a crust, phr. (common).—To rub along in the world. A superlative for doing very well is, To crack a tidy crust.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 445. I am now just managing to crack an honest crust; and while I can do that I will never thieve more.

To crack a ken, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To commit a burglary; to crack a crib (q.v.).—[See Crack, verb, sense 2 and Ken.]

To crack a whid, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To talk. [Whid (q.v.) = a word: Old Cant.] Cf., Cut, verb, sense 1. For synonyms, see Patter.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 22. The whids as the words or set phrases used by Cheap Johns in disposing of their articles are called are very much alike … many little circumstances occur when they (the whids) are being cracked which are lost to a reader.

To crack on, verb. phr. (common).—To ‘put on speed’; increase one’s pace.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xi. ‘I shot a wild goose at River Philip last year, with the rice of Varginny fresh in his crop; he must have cracked on near about as fast as them other geese, the British travellers.’

1876. Broadside Ballad [quoted in C. G. Leland’s Captain Jonas]. We carried away the royal yards, and the stuns’le boom was gone. Says the skipper, ‘they may go or stand, I’m darned if I don’t crack on.’

To crack up, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To praise; eulogize. A superlative is to crack up to the nines. Fr., faire l’article, (commercial travellers’) and faire son boniment or son petit boniment (cheap jacks’ and showmen’s).

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit. Ch. 33 … We must be cracked up, said Mr. Chollop, darkly.

1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 139. Then don’t object to my cracking up the old school house, Rugby.

1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ch. i. ‘We find them cracking up the country they belong to, no matter how absurd may be the boast.’

The crack, or all the crack, phr. (general).—The go (q.v.); ‘the thing’; the ‘kick’; the general craze of the moment.

In a crack, phr. (colloquial).—Instantaneously; in the twinkling of an eye. For synonyms, see Bedpost.

1725. Ramsay, Gentle Shepherd, Act i. I trow, when that she saw, within a crack, She came with a right thieveless errand back.

1763. Foote, Mayor of Garrett, Act i. Nic Goose, the taylor, from Putney, they say, will be here in a crack.

1819. Byron, Don Juan, ch. i., st. 135. ‘They’re on the stair just now, and in a crack will all be here.’

1842. Punch, vol. III., p. 136. In a crack the youth and maiden To a flowery bank did come.

Cracked or Cracked-Up, ppl. adj. phr. (colloquial).—1. Ruined; ‘bust up’; ‘gone to smash’ or to ‘pot.’ For synonyms, see Dead broke.

1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 2 [also pp. 24, 47]. If a Catholic coster,—there’s only a very few of them—is cracked up (penniless) he’s often started again, and the others have a notion that it’s through some chapel fund. Ibid, p. 22. ‘If we’re cracked up, that is, if we’re forced to go into the Union.’

1870. Britannia, June. ‘Speculation in 1870.’ Of these there only remain now 122 companies, with a capital of a hundred and eighty millions, the rest having one and all cracked up, as the Americans would say.

2. (common).—Crazy. For synonyms, see Apartments and Tile Loose.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 3 Sept. ‘Police Court Report.’ Mr. Bushby: Is her head affected? The Prisoner: Am I cracked? Of course—in the nut. You’ll be to-morrow.

3. (common).—Deflowered. Also Cracked in the Ring.

Cracker, subs. (common).—Anything approaching perfection. Used in both a good and bad sense; e.g., a rattling pace, a large sum of money, a bad fall, an enormous lie, a dandy (male or female) of the first magnitude, and so forth. [Cf., Crack, subs.; senses 3 and 7, adj., and verb, sense 1.]

1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. vi. ‘I remember … Belphegor’s year. What a cracker I stood to win on him and the Rejected!’

1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, I., 28. You know the University was in a manner beaten, and he took the blame. He never cried; that was a cracker of those fellows.

1869. Daily News, Nov. 8. ‘Leader.’ Now he’s gone a cracker over head and ears.

1871. Daily News, Nov. 1. ‘Prince of Wales’ Visit to Scarborough.’ The shooting party, mounting their forest ponies, came up the straight a cracker, Lord Carrington finishing a good first.

1883. Graphic, March 24, p, 303, col. 1. He [the Oxford stroke] could also depend on his own men for not falling to pieces through being taken off at a cracker.

Crackey.—See Crikey.

Crack-Halter, or Crack-Rope, subs. (old).—A vagabond; an old equivalent of jail-bird. Cf., Hemp-seed.

1566. Gascoigne, Supposes, i., 4. You crackhalter, if I catch you by the ears, I’ll make you answer directly.

1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, IV., i. Featherstone’s boy, like an honest crack-halter, laid open all to one of my prentices.

1639. Massinger, Unnatural Combat, II., ii. Peace, you crack-rope!

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. ‘Hark ye, ye crack-rope padder, born-beggar, and hedge-thief,’ replied the hag.

Crack-Hunter, or Haunter, subs. (venery).—The penis. Cf., Crack, subs., sense 4. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Cracking, verbal subs. (thieves’).—House-breaking. [From crack, verb, sense 2.]

1862. Cornhill Mag., vol. VI., 651. We are going a-flimping, buzzing, cracking, tooling, etc.

Crackish, adj. (old).—Wanton, said only of women. [From crack, subs., sense 4.] Cf., Coming.

Crack-Jaw Words, Names, etc., subs. (colloquial).—Long words difficult to pronounce. [From crack, to break, + jaw, speech.] Variants are half-crown words, jaw-breakers, and cramp words.

1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard’s Daughter, ch. vii. ‘He brings her plants with crackjaw names.’

1883. Daily Telegraph, June 25, p. 3, col. 1. ‘Some of the ways with the crack-jaw names of cooking it would give it a foreign flavour to me.’

Crackle or Crackling, subs. (University).—The velvet bars on the gowns of the Johnian ‘hogs’ (q.v.). [From their resemblance to the scored rind on roast pork.] The covered bridge between one of the courts and the grounds of John’s is called the Isthmus of Suez (Latin sus, a swine).

1885. Cuthbert Bede, in Notes and Queries, 6 S., xi., 414. The word crackle refers to the velvet bars on the students’ gowns.

Crackmans or Cragmans, subs. (old).—A hedge.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 57 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874), s.v.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874), s.v.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. The cull thought to have loped, by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope.

Crack or Break One’s Egg, or Duck, verbal phr. (cricket).—To begin to score. [To make no run is to ‘lay, or make, a duck’s egg’; to make none in either innings is ‘to get a double-duck,’ or to come off with a pair of spectacles.]

1890. Polytechnic Magazine, 5 June, p. 367, col. 2. Watson bowled splendidly, taking 8 wickets at a very small cost, two of his foemen being unable to crack their egg.

Crack-Pot, subs. (popular).—A pretentious, worthless person. For synonyms, see Swash-Buckler.

1883. Broadside Ballad, ‘I’m Living with Mother now.’ My aunty knew lots, and called them crack-pots.

Crack-Rope.—See Crack-halter.

Cracksman, subs. (popular).—1. A housebreaker. [From crack, verb, sense 2, + man; literally one who cracks or forces his way into a house.] For synonyms, see Thieves.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. The kiddy is a clever cracksman.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 298, ed. 1854. I have no idea of a gentleman turning cracksman.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, p. 123. You’ll be a fine young cracksman afore the old file now.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Lay of St. Aloys). Your cracksman, for instance, thinks night-time the best To break open a door or the lid of a chest.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 70. I’ll turn cracksman, like my father.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 21 Nov., p. 6, col. 1. The latest dodge among cracksmen is to personate an electric-light man.

2. (common).—The penis.—See Crack, subs., sense 4.

Cradle, Altar, and Tomb Column, subs. phr. (American).—The births, marriages, and deaths column in newspaper. An English equivalent is hatch, match, and dispatch column.

Crag.—See Scrag.

Cram, subs. (popular).—1. A lie; oftentimes crammer. [The idea is that of stuffing with nonsense.] For synonyms, see Whopper.

1842. Punch, vol. II., p. 21, col. 2. It soundeth somewhat like a cram: but our honour is at stake, and we repeat the ‘mile.’

1864. Le Fanu, Uncle Silas, ch. xxxviii. ‘It is awful, an old un like that telling such crams as she do!’

1864. Quiver, 4 June. By some delicate distinction the falsehood presented itself under the guise of a cram, and not of a naked lie.

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Good Night. You magsmen bold that work the cram.

2. (colloquial).—Hard, forced study. Resulting rather in a test of memory than of capacity.

1872. Morning Post, Oct. 15. Poor Toots, the head boy of Dr. Blimber’s academy … bloomed early and had by cram been enabled to answer any given set of questions, and to work any papers at an ‘exam.’

1872. Daily Telegraph, July 25. ‘Speech Day at King’s College School.’ Dr. Maclear also said a few words on the advantage of boys going up straight from school to college without any interval of cram.

1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ch. xii. They have gained their position by cram of the philosophic kind.

3. (colloquial).—One who prepares another for an examination; a coach; a ‘grindstone.’

1861. Dutton Cook, Paul Foster’s Daughter, ch. ix. ‘I shall go to a coach, a cram, a grindstone.’

4. (University).—An adventitious aid to study; a translation; a ‘crib.’ For synonyms, see Pony.

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘C. Bede’), Verdant Green, pt. II., p. 68. The infatuated Mr. Bouncer madly persisted … in going into the school clad in his examination coat, and padded over with a host of crams.

Verb (colloquial).—1. To study at high pressure for an examination. Also to prepare one for examination. Cf., Dig and Coach.

1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.

1825–27. Hone, Every-day Book, Feb. 22. Shutting my room door, as if I was ‘sported in’ and cramming Euc.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, chap. li., p. 446. ‘He crammed for it, to use a technical but expressive term; he read up for the subject, at my desire, in the Encyclopædia Britannica.’

1844. Puck, p. 13. Though for Great Go and for Small, I teach Paley, cram and all.

1872. Besant and Rice, My Little Girl. The writer of one crushing article crammed for it, like Mr. Pott’s young man.

2. (general).—To lie; to deceive, [Literally to stuff with nonsense.] For synonyms, see Stick.

1794. Gent. Mag., p. 1085. Luckily, I crammed him so well, that at last honest Jollux tipped me the cole [money].

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xviii. A thousand ridiculous tales … with some specimens of which our friend Richie Moniplies had been crammed … by the malicious apprentice.

Crammer, subs. (general). 1. A liar; one who tells crams (q.v.). [From cram (m), a lie, + er.]

2. (common).—A lie; the same as cram, sense 1.

1861. H. C. Pennell, Puck on Pegasus, p. 17. I sucked in the obvious crammer kindly as my mother’s milk.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xxxviii. ‘What on earth made you tell him crammers like that?’ asked Silverbridge.

c. 1884. Broadside Ballad, ‘On Monday I Met Mary Ann.’ I thought t’would last for ever and I never should be sold, Because I was so clever in the crammers that I told.

3. (general).—One who prepares men for examination; a coach, or grinder (q.v., for synonyms).

1812. Miss Edgeworth, Patronage, ch. iii. Put him into the hands of a clever grinder or crammer, and they would soon cram the necessary portion of Latin and Greek into him.

1872. Evening Standard, 16 Aug. ‘The Competition Wallah.’ The crammer follows in the wake of competitive examinations as surely as does the shadow the body.

Cramming, verbal subs. (common).—The act of studying hard for an examination. [From cram (q.v., sense 2) + ing.] American, boning.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 201, col. 1. Aspirants to honours in law, physic, or divinity, each know the value of private cramming.

1863. Charles Reade, Hard Cash, I., p. 16. ‘All this term I have been (‘training’ scratched out and another word put in: c—r oh, I know) cramming.’ ‘Cramming, love?’ ‘Yes, that is Oxfordish for studying.’

1869. Spencer, Study of Sociology, ch. xv., p. 574 (9 ed.). And here, by higher culture, I do not mean mere language-learning, and an extension of the detestable cramming system at present in use.

1872. Daily News, Dec. 20. Competitive examinations for the public service defeated in a great measure, the object of their promoters, which was to place rich and poor on an equality, because success was made to depend very largely on successful cramming, which meant a high-priced crammer.

Cramped or Crapped, ppl. adj. (old).—Hanged; also killed. For synonyms, see Ladder.

Cramping-Cull, subs. (old).—The hangman. [From the cramping of the rope, + cull, a man.] Cf., cramp rings (q.v.).

Cramp in the Hand, subs. phr. (common).—Meanness; stinginess.

Cramp-Rings, subs. (old).—Bolts; shackles; fetters. [Properly a ring of gold or silver, which after being blessed by the sovereign, was held a specific for cramp and falling-sickness.] For synonyms, see Darbies.

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight [ed. Grosart, III., 203]. Straight we’re to the Cuffin Queer forced to bing; And ’cause we are poor made to scour the cramp-ring.

1671. Head and Kirkman, The English Rogue, ‘Canting Song.’ Till cramprings quire, tip Cove his Hire, And Quire-ken do them catch.

1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Cramp-Words, subs. (old).—1. Hard, unpronounceable vocables; crackjaw words (q.v.).

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Cramp words (s.): hard, difficult, unusual or uncommon words.

1779. Mrs. Cowley, Who’s the Dupe? II., ii. I’ve been in the Dictionary this half-hour, and have picked up cramp words enough to puzzle and delight the old gentleman the remainder of his life.

1812. Coombe, Tour in S. of Picturesque, C. xxv. Who get cramp words, and cant the Muse In Magazines and in Reviews.

2 (thieves’).—Sentence of death. [A figurative usage of sense 1.]

1748. Dyche, Dict., 5 ed. Cramp-words(s) … also in the canting dialect the sentence of death pass’d by the judge upon a criminal.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. He has just undergone the cramp-word.

Cranberry-Eye, subs. (American). A blood-shot eye resulting from alcoholism.

Crank, subs. (old).—1. Sometimes cranke.—See quots. and Counterfeit crank.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 33. These that do counterfet the cranke be yong knaues and yonge harlots, that deeply dissemble the falling sicknes. For the crank in their language is the fallinge evill.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Crancke, the falling sickenesse: and thereupon your Rogues that counterfeit the falling sickenes, are called counterfeit crancks.

2. (old).—Gin and water:—Grose [1785].

3. (American).—An eccentric, a crotcheteer. [From the colloquial cranky (q.v.) = full of crotchets; crazy.] Cf., Counterfeit Crank.

1886. Florida Times Union, 22 May. I know perfectly well that I shall probably be called an old fogy, if not a crank, for presuming to think that anything in the past can be better than in the present.

1887. New York Tribune, 4 Nov. A good deal of ridicule, mostly good-natured, is showered upon the base-ball crank, as everybody persists in calling the man or woman who manifests any deep interest in the great American game.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 2 Feb. The man was evidently a crank, and said that 4,000 dollars were due him by the Government.

Adj. (nautical).—Easily upset: e.g., ‘the skiff is very crank.’

Crank-Cuffin, subs. (old).—One of the canting-crew whose specialty was to feign sickness. [From crank (q.v., sense 1), the ‘falling-sickness,’ + cuffin (see Cove), a man.]

1749. Bampfylde Moore-Carew, Oath of the Canting Crew. I, Crank-Cuffin, swear to be True to this fraternity.

Cranky, adj. (colloquial).—Crotchetty; whimsical; ricketty; not to be depended upon; crazy. [Cf., quot., 1787.]

English Synonyms. Dicky; maggotty; dead-alive; yappy; touched; chumpish; comical; dotty; rocketty; queer; faddy; fadmongering; twisted; funny.

French Synonyms. Chevrotin (popular: applied to a bad or irritable temper); être comme un crin (popular); avoir sa chique (familiar: said of the temper).

1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary. Cranky, ailing, sickly; from the Dutch crank, sick.

1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 33. Adding to this retort an observation to the effect that his friend appeared to be rather cranky in point of temper.

1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, II., 113. He had repeatedly been called into cases of mania described as sudden, and almost invariably found the patient had been cranky for years.

1873. Mrs. Edwards, A Vagabond Heroine, in Temple Bar, June. ‘On goes the cranky carriage, on goes the swearing driver and the high souled Burke.’

1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. III., p. 42. ‘What’s the matter now?’ asked Mrs. Hall, in her cranky way.

Cranny, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Cranny-Hunter, subs. (venery).—The penis. For synonyms; see Creamstick.

Crap, subs. (old):—1. Money; sometimes crop. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.); s.v.

1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary and Dict. Vulg. Tongue [1785]. Crap … In the north it is sometimes used for money.

2. (old).—The gallows. For synonyms, see Nubbing Cheat.

1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 255 (ed. 1854). ‘Ah!’ said Long Ned, with a sigh, ‘that is all very well, Mr. Nabbem; but I’ll go to the crap like a gentleman.’

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood. And what if, at length, boys, he comes to the crap Even rack punch has some bitter in it.

3. (printers’).—Type that has got mixed; technically known as ‘pi.’ [Here compared to excrement.]

Verb, trs. and intrs. (old).—1. To hang; to be crapped = to be hanged.

2. (common).—To ease oneself by evacuation. For synonyms, see Bury a Quaker and Mrs. Jones.

Crapped, ppl. adj. (old).—Hanged. [From crap (q.v., subs., sense 2), + ed.]—See Cropped.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. s.v.

Crapping Casa, Case, Castle or Ken, subs. (common).—A water-closet. [From crap, verb, sense 2 (q.v.), to ease oneself, + ing + casa or ken, a house.] For synonyms, see Bury a Quaker and Mrs. Jones.

Crapping-Castle, subs. (hospital).—A night-stool.

Crash, subs. (old).—1. Entertainment. Probably a cant word.—Nares.

2. (theatrical).—The machine used to suggest the roar of thunder; a noise of desperate (and unseen) conflict; an effect of ‘alarums, excursions’ generally.

Verb (old).—To kill. For synonyms, see Cook one’s goose.

Crashing-Cheats or Chetes, subs. (old).—1. The teeth. [From crash, to break to pieces. + ing + cheat, a thing, from A.S. ceat.] For synonyms, see Grinders.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 64, s.v.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874), s.v.

1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

2. (old).—See quots.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. Crashing chetes: appels, peares, or any other fruit.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874), Crashing cheates: apples.

Crater, Cratur, or Creature, subs. (old).—Formerly, any kind of liquor, but now, Irish whiskey. [Fuller speaks of water as ‘a creature so common and needful,’ and Bacon describes light as ‘God’s first creature.’ Transition is easy.] The skin of the creature = the bottle. For synonyms, see Drinks.

1598. Shakspeare, II. King Henry IV., ii. 2. My appetite was not princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer.

1663. Howard, The Committee, Act iv. Mrs. Day. Oh fie upon’t! who would have believ’d that we should have liv’d to have seen Obadiah overcome with the creature.

1683. S. B. Anacreon done into English out of the original Greek. Oxford. There goes a very pleasant Story of him, that once having took a Cup too much of Creature, he came staggering homewards through the Market Place, etc;

1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. VII., ch. ii. You will never be able to hold out as Mr. Whitfield does. He seems to like a bit of the good cretur as well as other folks.

1816. Scott, Old Mortality, I., p. … I do most humbly request … that … thou wilt take off this measure, called by the profane a gill, of the comfortable creature, which the carnal do denominate brandy.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. xiv. He produced two bottles of brandy … so we passed the creature round, and tried all we could to while away the tedious night.

1842. Punch, vol. II., p. 23. And reaching home refresh myself with a ‘kervartern of the cretur!’

1864. Good Words, p. 952. Well as an Irishman—who had already paid for one pot of porter and a drop of the crater besides—I was not going to hear anything against ould Ireland.

Crawl, subs. (tailors’).—A workman who curries favour with a foreman or employer; a ‘lickspittle’ or ‘bum-sucker.’

Crawler, subs. (common).—1. A cab that leaves the rank and ‘crawls’ the street in search of fares.

1860. Daily News. It is said the question of making increased provisions for cab-stands, with a view to the restriction of the wandering cabs called crawlers, is now under the consideration of the Chief Commissioner of Police.

1885. Daily News, August 7, p. 5, col. 1. How often does the driver of the crawler increase his pace just as he sees some one venturing to attempt a crossing.

2. (common).—A contemptible person, especially a ‘bum-sucker’ or ‘lickspittle.’ For Synonyms, see Snide.

1885. Evening News, 21 Sept., p. 4, col. 1. The complainant called her father a liar, a bester, and a crawlers.

Crawthumpers, subs. (old).—1. Roman Catholics, ‘the Pope’s cockrels’ (1629). Also called brisket-beaters and, collectively, the breast-fleet. In America a crawthumper = an Irishman or dick, i.e., an Irish Catholic.

1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, No. 7; in wks. (1809) I., 69. We are no crawthumpers, no devotees.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Craw Thumpers: Roman Catholics, so called from their beating their breasts in the confession of their sins.

1889. Philadelphia Public Ledger [quoted in S. J. & C., p. 279]. Wanted a servant-maid. No pulings or crawthumpers need apply.

Cream, subs. (venery).—The seminal fluid; Marlowe’s ‘thrice decocted blood’; the ‘white-blow’ and the ‘father-stuff’ of Whitman. A single drop is called a snowball (q.v.).

English Synonyms. Butter; buttermilk; fuck; white honey; jelly; baby-juice; homebrewed; jam; ‘delicious jam’ (Whitman); lather; ‘lewd infusion’; love-liquor; milk; milt; ointment; the oyster; roe; seed; soap; spendings; sperm; spermatic juice (Rochester); spume; spunk; starch; stuff; the tread.—See Come.

Portuguese Synonyms. Leite (= milk); esporra; langouha (= a kind of thick gum).

Cream Cheese. To make one believe the moon is made of cream (or green) cheese, verbal phr. (popular).—To humbug; to deceive; to impose upon. For synonyms, see Bamboozle and Jockey.

Cream Fancy.—See Billy, subs., sense 1.

Cream Jugs, subs. (Stock Exchange).—1. Charkof-Krementschug Railway Bonds.

1887. Atkin, House Scraps. Oh! supposing our cream-jugs were broken, Or ‘Beetles’ were souring the ‘Babies.’

2. (common).—The paps.

Cream of the Valley, also Cold Cream, subs. phr. (common).—Gin. Cf., Mountain Dew = whiskey. For synonyms, see Drinks.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, ch. i., p. 1. ‘What’s up, Jim? … is it cream o’ the walley or fits as has overcome the lady?’

1864. Comic Almanack, p. 63. Cold Cream Internally.—Cold cream is an excellent remedy for ‘hot coppers.’

Cream-Stick, subs. (common).—The penis. [Literally a stick supplying cream (q.v.).]

English Synonyms. Aaron’s Rod; Adam’s Arsenal (the penis and testes); the Old Adam; arbor vitæ; arse-opener; arse-wedge; athenæum; bayonet; bean-tosser; beak; beef (the penis and testes); bag of tricks (idem); belly-ruffian; Billy-my-Nag; bludgeon; Blueskin; bracmard (Urquhart); my body’s captain (Whitman); broom-handle; bum-tickler; bush-beater; bush-whacker; butter-knife; catso or gadso; child-getter; chink-stopper; clothes-prop; club; cock; concern; copper-stick; crack-hunter; cracksman; cranny-haunter; cuckoo; cunny-catcher; ‘crimson chitterling’ (Urquhart); dagger; dearest member (Burns); dicky; dibble (Scots); dirk (Scots); Don Cypriano (Urquhart); doodle; dropping member; drumstick; eye-opener; father-confessor; ‘cunny-burrow ferret’ (Urquhart); fiddle-bow; o-for-shame; flute; fornicator; garden-engine and gardener (garden = the female pudendum); gaying instrument; generation tool (C. Johnson and Urquhart); goose’s neck; cutty gun (Scots); gut-stick; hair- (or beard-) splitter; hair-divider; Hanging Johnny; bald-headed hermit; Irish root; Jack-in-the-box; Jack Robinson; jargonelle; Jezabel; jiggling-bone (Irish); jock (q.v.); Dr. Johnson; ‘Master John Goodfellow’ (Urquhart); John-Thomas; ‘Master John Thursday’ (Urquhart); man Thomas; jolly-member (Urquhart); Julius Cæsar; ‘knock-Andrew’ (Urquhart); lance of love; Langolee (Irish); leather-stretcher; life-preserver; live sausage (Urquhart); Little Davy (Scots); lollipop; lullaby; machine; ‘man-root’ (Whitman); marrow-bone; marrow-bone-and-cleaver; Member for Cockshire; merry-maker; middle-leg; mouse; mole; mowdiwort (Scots); Nebuchadnezzar (cf., Greens); nilnisistando (Urquhart); Nimrod; nudinnudo (Urquhart); ‘nine-inch knocker’ (Urquhart); old man; peace-maker; pecker; pecnoster; pego; pestle; pike (Shakspeare); pike-staff; pile-driver; pintle; pizzle; ploughshare; plug-tail; pointer; ‘poperine pear’ (Shakspeare); Polyphemus; ‘pond-snipe’ (Whitman); prick (Shakspeare and Fletcher); ‘prickle’; privates, and private property (the penis and testes); ‘privy member’ (Biblical); quim-stake; ramrod; ‘Rector of the females’ (Rochester); Roger; rolling-pin; root; rudder; rump-splitter; Saint Peter (who ‘keeps the keys of Paradise’); ‘sausage’ (Sterne); sceptre; shove-straight; sky-scraper; solicitor-general; spigot; ‘split-rump’ (Urquhart); spindle; sponge (cf., Ramrod); staff of life; stern-post; sugar-stick; tarse; tent-peg; thing; ‘thumb of love’ (Whitman); ‘tickle-gizzard’ (Urquhart); tickle-toby; tool; toy; trifle (tailors’); trouble-giblets; tug-mutton; unruly-member; vestry-man; watch-and-seals (the penis and testes); wedge; whore-pipe (Rochester); wimble; yard; Zadkiel (almanack) = the female pudendum.

French Synonyms. Le sansonnet (popular: literally a starling); le gluant (thieves’ = Old Slimy. In Argot also ‘a baby’); l’asticot (properly = a flesh-worm); le jambot (Villon).

German Synonyms. Bletzer (from Bletz = a wedge; bletzen = to beget); Breslauer (Viennese thieves’ = magnum membrum virile; also, a head-piece, and a large glass, or indeed any quantity of brandy); Bruder (also an expression belonging to the Fiesellange; literally a brother. Cf., Schwesterlein, little sister = the female pudendum); Butzelmann (in Luther’s Liber Vagatorum [1529]; Buze = little man); Fiesel (supposed to be from Faser a birch-rod or fibre; the Eng. feaze is also connected with it. Thus, Mädchenfiesel, a ‘hot member’; Pechfiesel, a shoemaker, etc. Fiesellange signifies the language of the strong, i.e., those of the ‘fellowship’ of thieves, burglars, and rowdies [Fr., coupeur], etc. In Vienna Fiesel = the lowest and most dangerous type of bawdy-house bully). Dickmann (also, an egg, or testicle); Pinke or Finke (Low German); Schmeichaz or Schmeigaz (O.H.G. smeichen = to flatter, to laugh); Schwanz (also, a fool or boaster).

Portuguese Synonyms. Pae de todos (= father of all); porra (= a strong stick); virgolleiro (= that which deprives of virginity); pica (= lance; also, a measure equal in length to the handle of a long spear; cf., Eng. yard); bacamarte (= a milk-giving gun); a montholia de Pastor (= an oil-flask).

Creamy, adj. (general).—Excellent; first-rate. For synonyms, see a1 and Fizzing.

Creation. To beat or lick creation, verbal phr. (American).—To overpower; excel; surpass; to be incomparable. English variants are ‘to beat hollow, to sticks, or to fits,’ etc. Cf., Big as all outdoors.

1848. Bartlett, Dict. of Amer. ‘Proverbs.’ When a man runs his head against a post, he curses the post first, all creation next, and something else last, and never thinks of cursing himself.

1862. Among the Mermaids. ‘An Old Sailor’s Yarn,’ p. 86. The notion of finding the capting’s cask pleased me mightily cos I knowed it would tickle the old man like all creation.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 14 Aug. I’m willin’ to take advice. Beats all creation how I mistook, but I shan’t go agin yer words.

Creeme, verb (old).—To slip or slide anything into the hands of another.—Grose [1785].

Creeper, subs. (general).—One who cringes and ‘curries favour’; a ‘skunk,’ or snide (q.v., for synonyms).

Creepers, subs. (common).—1. The feet.

English Synonyms. Dew-beaters; beetle-crushers; understandings; trotters; tootsies; stumps (also the legs); everlasting shoes; hocks; boot-trees; pasterns; ards (Old Cant: now used as an adjective, = ‘hot’); double-breasters; daisy-beaters; kickers; crabs; trampers; hockles; hoofs; pudseys.

French Synonyms. Les trottins (popular: trottiner, to go a jog-trot; aller chercher les pardons de Saint-Trottin, to take a walk instead of going to church); les reposoirs (common: properly [in sing.] a resting place or pause; also an altar set up in the streets for a procession); les ripatons (popular); les palerons (thieves’: properly, in sing., a shoulder-blade); les paturons (thieves’: properly pasterns); les harpions (thieves’: also hands). Cotgrave has harpe d’un chien = a dog’s claw or paw; also, Il mania très bien ses harpes, He stirred his fingers very nimbly. [Cf., ‘pickers and stealers’ = fingers]; les mains courantes (popular: literally running hands).

German Synonyms. Tretter (Cf., English ‘trotter’); Trittling, or Trittchen (Hanoverian = shoe, boot, foot, or staircase); Trittlingspflanzer or Trittlingsmelochner (the shoemaker).

Italian Synonyms. Calcioso; pisante; bottiero; mazzo.

2. (general).—Lice. For synonyms, see Chates.

Creeps, subs. (common).—The peculiar thrill resulting from an undefinable sense of dread. [Literally a ‘crawling’ of the flesh as with fear.] Also known as goose-flesh, cold shivers, and cold water down the back.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers. I wants to make yer flesh creep.

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xiii. [Late Autumn.] Dreary down in the old country mansions … where the servants, town-bred, commence to be colded, sniffy, to have shivers and creeps.

1870. London Figaro, 27 June. ‘A River Romance.’ Talking about bodies, I could give you the creeps with what I’ve seen.

1883. The Lute, 15 Jan., p. 18, col. 2. We see the great tragedian holding on to a chair, and giving his audience creeps with the ‘Dream of Eugene Aram.’

1890. Globe, 22 May, p. 1, col. 4. Miss Gertrude is the sister of Mrs. Chanler-Rives (better known as Amélie, or still better as the writer of The Quick or the Dead, by which many ladylike persons have been given ‘the creeps’).

Crevecœur.—See Heart-breaker.

Crevice, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Cri, subs. (popular).—The Criterion, theatre and restaurant, at Piccadilly Circus.

c. 1886. Broadside Ballad, ‘Another Fellah’s.’ Round into the cri ev’ry evening I slip, And deep in the pale sparkling bitter I dip.

Crib, subs. (old).—1. The stomach. Cf., Cribbing, sense 1. [A transferred sense of crib = a manger, rack, or feeding place. Cf., Isaiah i., 3, ‘The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.’] For synonyms, see Bread-basket and Victualling office.

1656. Brome, Jovial Crew, Act. ii. Here’s pannum and lap, and good poplars of Yarrum, To fill up the crib, and to comfort the quarron.

2. (colloquial).—A house; place of abode; apartments; lodgings; shop; warehouse; ‘den,’ ‘diggings,’ or ‘snuggery.’ For synonyms, see Diggings. [From A.S., crib, or cribb a small habitation.]

1598. Shakspeare, King Henry IV. Why, rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Than in the perfumed chambers of the great?

1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 80 (ed. 1854). Now, now in the crib, where a ruffler may lie, Without fear that the traps should distress him.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xix. The crib’s barred up at night like a jail.

1847. Illus. London News, 22 May. The burglar has his crib in Clerkenwell.

1860. Chambers’ Journal, vol. XIII., p. 212. He said he was awful flattered like by the honour of seeing two such gents at his crib.

1882. Daily News, 5 Oct., p. 5, col. 2. To manage escapes from prison successfully is only an application of the principles which enable the burglar to crack the rural crib and appropriate the swag of her Majesty’s peaceful subjects.

3. (popular).—A situation, ‘place,’ or ‘berth.’ [The transition from subs., sense 2, is easy and natural.]

4. (school and University).—A literal translation surreptitiously used by students; also a theft of any kind; specifically, anything copied without acknowledgment.—[See verb., sense 2.] For synonyms, see Pony.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 185. He has with a prudent forethought stuffed his cribs inside his double-breasted waistcoat.

1853. C. Bede, Verdant Green, pt. I., p. 64.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxii. I wish I had read Greek a little more at school … when we return I think I shall try and read it with cribs.

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. vi. Tom, I want you to give up using vulgus books and cribs.

1889. Globe, 12 Oct., p. 1, col. 4. Always, it seems likely, there will be men ‘going up’ for examinations; and every now and again, no doubt, there will be among them a wily ‘Heathen Pass-ee’ like him of whom Mr. Hilton speaks—who had cribs up his sleeve, and notes on his cuff.

5. (thieves’).—A bed.—[See subs., senses 2 and 3.]

1827. Maginn, from Vidocq. Lend me a lift in the family way. You may have a crib to stow in.

Verb (colloquial).—1. To steal or pilfer; used specifically of petty thefts. For synonyms, see Prig.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Crib (v.): to with-hold, keep back, pinch, or thieve a part out of money given to lay out for necessaries.

1772. Foote Nabob, Act i. There are a brace of birds and a hare, that I cribbed this morning out of a basket of game.

1846. T. Hood, Ode to Rae Wilson, Esqr., wks., vol. IV., p. 224. Yet sure of Heaven themselves, as if they’d cribb’d Th’ impression of St. Peter’s keys in wax.

1855. Robert Browning, Men and Women. Fra Lippo Lippi, ed. 1863, p. 351. Black and white I drew From good old gossips waiting to confess Their cribs of barrel-droppings, candle-ends.

1889. Answers, 27 July, page 141, col. 1. He knew that if the manuscript got about the Yankees would think it a smart thing to crib it.

2. (school and University).—To use a translation; to cheat at an examination; to plagiarise.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 177. Cribbing his answers from a tiny manual of knowledge, two inches by one-and-a-half in size, which he hides under his blotting-paper.

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. iii. Finishing up with two highly moral lines extra, making ten in all, which he cribbed entire from one of his books.

To crack a crib.—See under Crack.

Cribbage-Face and Cribbage-Faced, subs. and adj. phr. (common).—Pock-marked and like a cribbage-board. Otherwise colander-faced, crumpet-faced, pikelet-faced, and mockered (q.v.).

French Synonyms. Avoir un grenier à lentilles (popular: a cock-loft, granary, or garret, for the storage of lentils); ne pas s’être assuré contre la grêle (popular: grêle = hail); un morceau de gruyère (popular: that cheese being honeycombed with holes); avoir un moule à gaufres (popular: moule = mould; gaufre = a cake); une écumoire (familiar: properly a skimmer); poèle à châtaignes (poèle = frying pan and châtaignes = chestnuts; the colander-like shovel for roasting chestnuts).

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cribbage-faced: marked with the small-pox, the pits bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a cribbage-board.

Cribber, subs. (military).—A grumbler. [A horse that gnaws his crib or manger.] Cf., Crib-biter, and for synonyms, see Rusty-guts.

Cribbeys or Cribby-Islands, subs. (old).—Blind alleys, courts, and bye-ways; Fr., culs-de-sac.

Cribbing, verbal subs. (old).—1. Food and Drink. Cf., Crib, sense 1.

1656. R. Brome, A Jovial Crew. For all this ben cribbing and Peck let us then, Bowse a health to the gentry cofe of the ken.

2. (schools’ and University and general).—Stealing; purloining; using a translation. Cf., Crib, subs., sense 4.

1862. Farrar, St. Winifred’s, ch. xxxv. They would not call it stealing but bagging a thing, or, at the worst, cribbing it—concealing the villainy under a new name.

Crib-Biter, subs. (common).—An inveterate grumbler. [Properly a horse that worries his crib, rack, manger, or groom, and at the same time draws in his breath so as to make the peculiar noise called wind-sucking.] French equivalents are un gourgousseur; un rême; un renâcleur; and un renaudeur.—See Cribber.

Crib-Cracker, subs. (general).—A housebreaker.

1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 11. The little boys look up half with awe and half with admiration at the burly Sikes with his flash style, and delight in gossip concerning his talents as a crib-cracker, and his adventures as a pickpocket.

Crib-Cracking, verbal subs. (thieves’).—Housebreaking.

1852. Punch, vol. XXIII., p. 161. With higher ambition Bill Sykes he burned, And becoming experter as he grew older, From cly-faking to crib-cracking turned.

Cries.—See Street cries.

Crikey! Cracky! Cry! intj. (common).—Formerly, ‘a profane oath’; now a mere expression of astonishment. [A corruption of ‘Christ.’]

1837. R. H. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 276. It would make you exclaim, ’twould so forcibly strike ye, If a Frenchman Superbe!—if an Englishman crikey!

1841. Comic Almanack, p. 275. Oh! crikey, Bill; vot a conch that lady’s got!

1853. Diogenes, II., 54. O, crikey! the switching I got, At the hand of the cruel old miser.

1888. W. E. Henley. ‘Culture in the Slums.’ ‘O crikey, Bill!’ she says to me, she ses. ‘Look sharp,’ ses she, ‘with them there sossiges.’

Crimini, Criminey, or Crimes!—See Crikey. [Possibly the latter usage has been influenced by crimen meum, my fault.]

1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, Act iv., Sc. 1. Murder’d my brother! O crimini!

1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xvi. ‘A monument of a knight-templar on each side of a Grecian porch, and a Madonna on the top of it!—O crimini!’

1841. The Comic Almanack, p. 280. ‘A Lament for Bartlemy Fair.’ Oh! lawk; oh! dear; oh! crimeny me; what a downright sin and a shame.

Crimson. To make things look crimson, verbal phr. (American).—To indulge in a drunken frolic; to paint the town red (q.v.)

Crimson Chitterling, subs. phr. (old).—The penis. Used by Urquhart. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Crincle-Pouch, subs. (old).—A sixpence. For synonyms, see Bender.

1593. ‘Bacchus’ Bountie,’ Harl. Misc., II., p. 270 [ed. 1808–11]. See then the goodnes of this so gracious a god, al yee, which in the driest drought of summer, had rather shroude your throates with a handfull of hemp, than with the expence of an odde crinclepouch, wash yourselues within and without, and make yourselues as mery as dawes.

Crinkum-Crankum, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. [Properly a winding way.] For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Crinkums, subs. (old).—A venereal disease. Cf., Crinkum-crankum. For synonyms, see Ladies’ fever.

Crinoline, subs. (common).—A woman. For synonyms, see Petticoat.

Cripple, subs. (old).—1. A ‘snid’ (Scots) or sixpence.—[See quots., 1785 and 1885.] For synonyms, see Bender.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cripple: six pence, that piece being commonly much bent and distorted.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178, s.v.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 25, n. A bandy or cripple, a sixpence.

1885. Household Words, 20 June, p. 155. The sixpence is a coin more liable to bend than most others, so it is not surprising to find that several of its popular names have reference to this weakness. It is called a bandy, a ‘bender,’ a cripple.

2. (common).—An awkward oaf; also a dullard. Fr., malapatte (popular: properly mal à la patte). [Figurative for one that creeps, limps, or halts—whether physically or mentally.] Cf., sense 3, and Go it, you cripples.

3. (Wellington College).—A dolt; literally one without a leg to stand on. Cf., sense 2, and Go it, you cripples.

Go it, you cripples! phr. (general).—A sarcastic comment on strenuous effort; frequently used without much sense of fitness; e.g., when the person addressed is a capable athlete. Wooden legs are cheap is sometimes added as an intensitive.

1840. Thackeray, Cox’s Diary. ‘Striking a balance,’ p. 229. ‘O! come along,’ said Lord Lollypop, ‘come along this way, ma’am! Go it, ye cripples.’

Crisp, subs. (popular).—A banknote. For synonyms, see Soft.

Crispin, subs. (common).—A shoemaker. [From Saints Crispin and Crispianus, the patrons of the ‘gentle craft,’ i.e., shoemaking.]

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1861. Punch, vol. XLI., p. 246. Crispin, everybody knows to be a name for a shoemaker.

St. Crispin’s Lance, subs. phr. (old).—An awl. [From Crispin (q.v.) + lance, a weapon.] Fr., une lance.

Crispin’s Holiday, subs. phr. (old).—Every Monday throughout the year, but most particularly the 25th of October, being the anniversary of Crispinus and Crispianus.

Croak, subs. (thieves’).—A dying speech, especially the confession of a murderer. Also the same as printed for sale in the streets by a ‘flying stationer.’ [From the verbal sense (q.v.).]

1887. A. Barrère, Argot and Slang, p. 272. The criminal … would perhaps utter for the edification of the crowd his ‘tops, or croaks,’ that is, his last dying speech.

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip. Go crying croaks, or flash the drag.

Verb.—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.

Croaker, subs. (old).—1. A sixpence. For synonyms, see Bender.

2. (old).—A beggar.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444, s.v.

3. (common).—A dying person.—See Croak, verbal sense.

4. (common).—A corpse. [From croak, verb. sense, through croaker, senses 2 and 3.] For synonyms, see Dead-meat.

5. (provincial).—See quot.

1886. Ulster Echo, 31 July, p. 4. The inspector of nuisances said the meat was known as croaker, or the flesh of an animal which had died a natural death.

6. (prison).—A doctor [connected with crocus, but influenced by croaker, subs., senses 2, 3, and 4.]

1889. Evening News [quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant]. One man who had put his name for the ‘butcher’ or croaker, would suddenly find that he had three ounces of bread less to receive, and then a scene would ensue.

7. (common).—A person, male or female, who sees everything en noir, and whose conversation is likened to that of the raven, which is a bird of ill-omen.—See Goldsmith’s Good Natured Man. Fr., un glas = also a passing bell.

Croakumshire, subs. (old).—Northumberland. [Grose: ‘from the particular croaking in the pronunciation of the people of that county, especially about Newcastle and Morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter “r”.’]

Crock, subs. (common).—A worthless animal; a fool; said of a horse it signifies a good-for-nothing brute; of a man or woman, a duffer, a ‘rotter.’ [Most likely from the Scots crock = an old sheep.]

1887. Sporting Times, 12 March, p. 2, col. 5. The wretched crocks that now go to the post will be relegated to more appropriate work.

1889. Bird o’ Freedom, 7 Aug., p. 3. For five minutes that crock went about twice as fast as it had ever done.

1889. Illustrated Bits, 13 July. ‘I say,’ said the Lumberer to the Old Hermit, as they stood at the mouth of the Cave listening to the song birds, ‘you are getting a bit of a crock—failing fast, I should say.’

Crocketts, subs. (Winchester College).—A kind of bastard cricket, sometimes called ‘small crochetts.’ Five stumps are used and a fives ball, with a bat of plain deal about two inches broad, or a broomstick.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 122. The more noisily disposed would indulge in … playing Hicockolorum, or Crocketts.

To get crocketts, verbal phr.—To fail to score at cricket; to make a duck’s egg.

Crocodile, subs. (University).—A girl’s school walking two and two.

Crocus, Crocus-Metallorum or Croakus, subs. (common).—A doctor; specifically, a quack. [Conjecturally, a derivative of croak = to die. Cf., quot. 1781, under Crocussing rig.]

English Synonyms. Pill; squirt; butcher; croaker; corpse-provider; bolus; clyster; gallipot. [Several of these terms also = an apothecary.]

French Synonyms. Un dragueur (popular: literally a dredging machine); un cliabeau (a doctor at St. Lazare); un bénévole (popular: a young doctor, especially one walking the hospitals); un marchand de morts subites (common: literally ‘a dealer in sudden death.’ Cf., Corpse provider).

German Synonym. Rofe or Raufe (from the Hebrew).

Italian Synonyms. Maggio (signifying God, king, lord, and pope); posteggiatore (literally ‘he that places’; used of any charlatan, but particularly of a quack doctor); dragon di farda.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Crocus or crocus metallorum: a nickname for the surgeons of the army and navy.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 231 (quoted in list of patterer’s words).

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed. p. 444, s.v.

Crocus-Chovey (vagrants’ and thieves’).—A doctor’s shop. From [crocus = doctor + chovey, a shop.]

Crocus-Pitcher, subs. (vagrants’ and thieves’).—A quack ambulant. [From crocus (q.v.), a doctor, + pitcher, one that stands in the street to hold forth concerning his business.]

Crocussing-Rig, subs. (old).—Travelling from place to place, as a quack doctor. [From crocus (q.v.), a doctor, + ing + rig, a performance or trick.]

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 171. Crocussing Rig is performed by men and women, who travel as Doctors or Doctoresses.

Crone, subs. (showmen’s).—A clown or buffoon.

Crook, subs. (old).—1. A sixpence. [An abbreviation of crookback (q.v.).]

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178. s.v.

2. (general).—A thief; swindler; one who gets things on the crook (q.v.).

1887. Orange Journal, 16 April. Strange as the statement may seem, the public know nothing of the work of a really clever crook, and the police themselves know very little more. The explanation of this ignorance is a very simple one. A crook whose methods are exposed is a second-rate crook.

On the crook, adv. phr. (thieves’).—The antithesis of on the straight (q.v.). Cf., On the cross.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 503. Which he had bought on the crook (dishonestly).

To crook (or cock) the elbow, or the little finger, verbal phr. (popular).—To drink. [A French colloquialism, identical in meaning, is lever le coude; a hard drinker is un adroit du coude.] For synonyms, see Lush.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms. To crook the elbow, is one of the many slang terms for drinking.

1877. Besant and Rice, With Harp and Crown, ch. xix. The secretary … might have done great things in literature but for his unfortunate crook of the elbow. As he only crooks it at night, it does not matter to the hospital.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 3 May, p. 4, col. 1. I’ll … ask him to take a drink, chat with him while he crooks his elbow.

Crook-Back, subs. (old).—A sixpenny piece, many of the slang names of which suggest a bashed and battered appearance; e.g., ‘bender,’ ‘cripple,’ ‘crook,’ crookback, etc. Quoted by Grose [1785]. For synonyms, see Bender.

Crooked, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Disappointing; the reverse of straight (q.v.); pertaining to the habits, ways, and customs of thieves.—See On the crook. So also, mutatis mutandis, crookedness = rascality of every kind.

1837. Comic Almanack, p. 94. Things have gone very crooked.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 126. The prisoner’s friend was also a ‘fly’ man, and he immediately saw how he could thoroughly pay off the crooked officer.

1884. Daily Telegraph, 22 Jan., p. 3, col. 1. My time was up the same day as that of two lads of the crooked school; it was through them that I took to thieving.

1884. Echo, 28 Jan., p. 4, col. 1. Last season will be long remembered in the racing world for the crookedness of some owners.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 3 Nov. ‘What are you trying to get out of me?’ ‘I am going to see that to-night you are better lodged to begin with. I may decide to do more, but that will depend pretty much on yourself.’ ‘Nothing crooked, is it?’ asked the other, suspiciously!

Crooked as a Virginia (or snake) fence, phr. (American).—Uneven; zig-zag; said of matters or persons difficult to keep ‘straight.’ To make a Virginia fence is to walk unsteadily, as a drunkard. The Virginia fences zigzag with the soil.

Crooky, verb (common).—To hang on to; to lead; to walk arm-in-arm; to court or pay addresses to a girl. For synonyms, see Trot out.

Crop.—See Crap, sense 1.

Cropped, ppl. adj. (old).—Hanged. For synonyms, see Ladder and Topped.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 30. Sentencing some more to be crapped (sic) [hanged].

Cropper, subs. (common).—A heavy fall or failure of any kind; generally ‘to come a cropper.’ [Originally hunting.] Analagous French phrases are avoir une discussion avec le pavé (literally ‘to argue with the pavement’); prendre un billet de parterre (a punning play upon words: the pit of a theatre is parterre; par terre = on the ground: hence to take a ticket for the pit); se lithographier (popular). For synonyms in a metaphorical sense, see Go to pot.

1868. Echoes from the Clubs, 23 Dec. ‘Pleasures of the Hunting Field.’ In short, it is fox-hunting which … induces the belief that life is a mistake without occasional croppers.

1869. H. J. Byron, Not such a Fool as He Looks (French’s Acting ed.), p. 8. Mr. Topham Sawyer missed his own tip as well as his wictim’s, and came down a cropper on a convenient doorstep.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. lxvii. Talking to his father he could not quite venture to ask what might happen if he were to come a cropper.

1883. Daily News, 24 Jan., p. 5, col. 3. Ouida treads ‘alone, aloft, sublime’ where Astræa might fear to pass, and though she comes what men call croppers over a thousand details, she is sublimely unconscious of her blunders.

Croppie or Croppy, subs. (old).—Originally applied to criminals cropped as to their ears and their noses by the public executioner; subsequently, to convicts, in allusion to their close cropped hair; hence to any person whose hair was cut close to the head; e.g., the Puritans and the Irish Rebels of 1789.

1870. Sir G. C. Lewis, Letters, p. 410. Wearing the hair short and without powder was, at this time, considered a mark of French principles. Hair so worn was called a ‘crop.’ Hence Lord Melbourne’s phrase, ‘crop-imitating wig’ [Poetry of Anti-Jacobin, p. 41]. This is the origin of croppies, as applied to the Irish rebels of 1789.

1877–79. Green, Short Hist. Eng. People, ch. x., The croppies, as the Irish insurgents were called in derision from their short-cut hair.

Croppled. To be croppled, verbal phr. (Winchester College).—To fail in an examination; to be sent down at a lesson.

Croppy.—See Croppie.

Crops, verbal phr.—To go and look at the crops = to leave the room for the purpose of consulting Mrs. Jones (q.v.).

Cross, subs. (thieves’).—1. A pre-arranged swindle. In its special sporting signification a cross is an arrangement to lose on the part of one of the principals in a fight, or any kind of match. When both principals conspire that one shall win, it is called a double cross (q.v.). [Obviously a shortened form of cross-bite (q.v., verbal sense).]

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood. Two milling coves, each vide avake, Vere backed to fight for heavy stake; But in the mean time, so it vos, Both kids agreed to play a cross.

1864. Derby Day, p. 39. ‘As sure as the sun shines, Askpart ’ll lick ’em; if so be,’ he added significantly, ‘as there ain’t no cross.’

1867. A. Trollope, Claverings, ch. xxx. I always suppose every horse will run to win; and though there may be a cross now and again, that’s the surest line to go upon.

2. (thieves’).—A thief; also cross-man, cross-cove, cross-chap, squire, knight, or lad, of the cross, etc. [Literally a man on the cross (q.v.).] For synonyms, see Thieves.

1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 72, ed. 1854. There is an excellent fellow near here, who keeps a public-house, and is a firm ally and generous patron of the lads of the cross. Ibid, p. 140. Gentlemen of the Road, the Street, the Theatre and the Shop! Prigs, Toby-men, and squires of the cross!

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch. ii. Never a cross cove of us all can throw off so prime a chant as yourself.

1864. Cornhill Magazine, II., 336. In the following verse, taken from a pet flash song, you have a comic specimen of this sort of guilty chivalry:—‘A cross cove is in the street for me, And I a poor girl of low degree; If I was as rich as I am poor, Ye never should go on the cross no more.’

Verb.—1. To play false in a match of any kind.

1887. W. E. Henley and R. L. Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, Act iv., Sc. 3. What made you cross the fight and play booty with your own man?

2. (venery).—To possess or ‘cover’ a woman.

Cross in the air, subs. phr. (volunteers’).—A rifle carried butt-end upwards.

3. (colloquial).—To thwart; to baffle; to spoil.

1709. Matthew Prior, The Thief, etc. There the squires of the pad and the knights of the post, Find their fears no more balked and their hopes no more crossed.

To play a cross, verbal phr.—See Cross, subs., sense 1; and verb, sense 1.

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 257 (ed. 1864), Zoroaster was just the man to lose a fight; or, in the language of the Fancy, to play a cross.

To shake the cross, verbal phr. (American thieves’).—To quit the cross and go on the square (q.v.).

1877. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Life on the Mississippi, ch. lii., p. 459. The day my time was up, you told me if i would shake the cross and live on the square for three months, it would be the best job i ever done in my life.

To be crossed, verbal phr. (University).—Thus explained in a University Guide:—For not paying term bills to the bursar (treasurer), or for cutting chapels, or lectures, or other offences, an undergrad can be crossed at the buttery, or kitchen, or both, i.e., a cross is put against his name by the Don, who wishes to see him, or to punish him.

1853. Rev. E. Bradley, (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, pt. II., ch. x. Sir!—You will translate all your lectures; have your name crossed on the buttery and kitchen books; and be confined to chapel, hall, and college.

See also Cross, verb, sense 1.

On the cross, phr.—The opposite of on the square (q.v.). Cf., On the Crook.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xxxv. [Chas. Ravenshoe to Shoeblack] ‘Have you any brothers?’ ‘Five altogether. Jim was gone for a sojer, it appeared; and Nipper was sent over the water, Harry was gone on the cross.’ ‘On the cross?’ said Charles. ‘Ah,’ the boy said, ‘he goes out cly-faking and such. He’s a prig, and a smart one, too. He’s fly, is Harry.’

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. v. Rake had seen a good deal of men and manners, and, in his own opinion at least, was ‘up to every dodge on the cross’ that this iniquitous world could unfold.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 244. We went down to a bloke I knew up in one of the streets leading off the Euston road who did a little on the cross now and again, to see what he’d stand for the £300.

1884. Echo, 1 March, p. 3, col. 6. Prisoner knew they were stolen, and said he could get rid of any quantity of similar articles that were got on the cross, a slang expression for stolen goods.

1889. Answers, 8 June, p. 25. One of them then came a little nearer, and produced a good gold scarf pin, worth, perhaps, £2 or £3, and asked if I would buy it, adding it was on the cross (stolen), and I could have it for 2s., as they wanted a shilling to get a bed.

Cross-Belts, subs. (military).—The Eighth Hussars. [The regiment wears the sword belt over the right shoulder in memory of the Battle of Saragossa, where it took the belts of the Spanish cavalry. This privilege was confirmed by the King’s Regulations of 1768.]

Cross-Bite, subs. (old).—See Cross-biting.

Verb (old).—To cheat; to scold; to hoax. [Nares thinks it a compound of cross and bite. It has suffered a double abbreviation, both its components being used substantively and verbally in the same sense.] For synonyms, see Stiff.