Volume 2 — A · Dictionary · of Slang · and · its · Analogues. (continued 8)

1581. Riche, Farewell to Militarie Profession. She was such a devill of her tongue, and would so crossebite hym with suche tauntes and spightful quippes.

1593. G. Harvey, New Letter, in wks. I., 274 (Grosart). If he playeth at fast and loose … whom shall he conny catch, or crosbite, but his cast-away selfe.

1717. Prior, Alma, canto iii. As Nature slily had thought fit For some by ends to cross-bit wit.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. I know—I know—ugh—but I’ll cross-bite him.

Cross-Biter, subs. (old).—A cheat; swindler; or hoaxer. [From cross-bite, verb (q.v.), + er.] Fr., un goureur.

1592. Robert Greene, Blacke Bookes Messenger [part of title]. Laying open the Life and Death of Ned Browne, one of the most notable Cutpurses, cros-biters, and Coneycatchers.

1669. Nicker Nicked, in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), II., 108, s.v.

1681. A Dialogue, etc., in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), II., 126. I think nobody knows what he is; but I take him to be a cross-biter.

Cross-Biting, verbal subs. (old).—A deception; cheat; or hoax. Cf., Cross-bite, verb.

1576. Whetstone, Rocke of Regard, p. 50. Crosbiting, a kind of cousoning, under the couler of friendship; and in his epistle to the readers, The cheter will fume to see his crosbiting and cunning shiftes decyphered.

1586. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, IV., v. Like one that is employed in catzerie [knavery] and crossbiting.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 53 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). He [Lawrence Crosbiter] first vsed that art which now is named crosbiting, and from whose name this damned art (crosbiting) tooke her first call, as if Laurence Crosbiter first inuented the same.

1839. W. H. Ainsworth, J. Sheppard, p. 126, ed. 1840. ‘The devil,’ ejaculated Jonathan. ‘Here’s a cross-bite.’

Cross-Buttock, subs. (athletics’).—A peculiar throw in wrestling. Also used as a verb and verbal subs.

1690. D’Urfey, Collin’s Walk, c. ii., p. 74. When th’ hardy Major, skilled in Wars, To make quick end of fight prepares, By Strength or’e buttock cross to hawl him, And with a trip i’ th’ Inturn maul him.

1742. ‘Handbill,’ in P. Egan’s Boxiana, vol. I., p. 45. I doubt not but I shall prove the truth of what I have asserted, by pegs, darts, hard blows, falls, and cross-buttocks.

1760. Smollett, L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. viii. He was on his legs again … but, instead of accomplishing his purpose, he received a cross-buttock.

1836. M. Scott, Cringle’s Log, ch. xii. While the old woman keelhauled me with a poker on one side, he jerked at me on the other, until at length he gave me a regular cross-buttock.

1860. Chambers’ Journal, vol. XIII., p. 347. He is initiated into all the mysteries of ‘hitting’ and ‘counterhitting,’ ‘stopping’ and ‘infighting,’ ‘the suit in chancery, and the cross-buttock.’

Cross-Chap.—See Cross, subs., sense 2.

Cross-Cove.—See Cross, subs., sense 2.

Cross-Crib, subs. (thieves’ and vagrants’).—A thieves’ hotel. [From cross (q.v., subs., sense 2), a thief, + crib (q.v., subs., sense 2), a place of abode.]

Cross-Drum, subs. (thieves’).—A thieves’ tavern. [From cross (q.v., subs., sense 2), a thief, + drum, a house or lodging.]

Crosser, subs. (sporting).—One who arranges or takes part in a cross (q.v., subs., sense 1).

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood. The mill is o’er, the crosser crost, The loser’s won, the vinner’s lost!

Cross-Fan or Cross-Fam, subs. (thieves’).—Robbery from the person done cross-fammed, that is, with one hand (fam) across, and dissembling the action of, the other.

c. 1869. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Chickaleary Cove.’ Off to Paris I shall go, to show a thing or two, To the ‘dipping blokes’ what hangs about the caffies, How to do a cross-fan for a ‘super’ or a ‘slang.’

Verb (thieves’).—To rob from the person.—See subs.

Cross-Kid or Cross-Quid, verb (thieves’).—To question; cross-examine. [Kid = to quiz; hoax, or jest.] Fr., faire la jactance; also faire saigner du nez.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macmillan’s Mag., XL., 502. A reeler [policeman] came to the cell and cross-kidded (examined) me.

Cross-Man.—See Cross, subs., sense 2.

Cross-Patch, subs. (colloquial).—An ill-natured, ill-tempered person. As in the old nursery rhyme:

Cross-patch, Draw the latch, Sit by the fire and spin.—Lit.

Not mentioned in Ash.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cross-patch: a peevish boy or girl.

1841. Comic Almanack, p. 258. Miss Pigeon’s trying to look shy, He’s calling her crosspatch!

Cross the Damp-Pot, verbal phr. (tailors’).—To cross the Atlantic.—Cf., Big drink, Damp-pot, puddle, and Herring-pond.

Crow, subs. (thieves’).—1. A confederate on watch whilst another steals. Generally a man, but occasionally a woman acts as a crow; the latter is also called a canary (q.v., subs., sense 4).

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 286. One keeps a look-out to see there is no person near to detect them. This person is termed a ‘crow.’ If anyone should be near, the ‘crow’ gives a signal, and then decamps.

1862. Cornhill Mag., VI., 648. Occasionally they [women] assist at a burglary … remaining outside and keeping watch; they are then called crows.

1889. Answers, 18 May, p. 390, col. 2. A crow (confederate) is next planted outside, or in an upper window, if there be one, to give notice, by means of signals or a cord reaching to the workers, of the approach of a peeler or chance passer-by.

2. (common).—A piece of unexpected luck; a ‘fluke’; generally ‘a regular crow.’ [Originally billiards’ in which it = a hazard not played for, i.e., a ‘fluke’: no doubt a corruption of the Fr. raccroc.] A French equivalent is mettre dans le mille.

To eat crow.—See Broiled crow.

A crow to pluck, to pull, or to pick with one, phr. (colloquial). Something demanding explanation: a misunderstanding to clear; a disagreeable matter to settle. Sometimes, a bone to pick, etc.

1593. Shakspeare, Comedy of Errors, iii., 1. If a crow help us in, sirrah, we’ll pluck a crow together.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V., 302. So I coulde plucke a crowe wyth Poet Martiall for calling it putre halec.

1659. Howell, Proverbs. I have a goose to pluck with you.

1664. Butler, Hudibras, pt. II., 2. If not, resolve before we go, That you and i must pull a crow.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. To pluck a crow: To reprove anyone for a fault committed; to settle a dispute.

1819. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xv. If these Ravenswood cases be called over the coals in the House of Peers, you will find that the Marquis will have a crow to pluck with you.

Crowd, subs. (old).—A fiddle.

Crowder, subs. (theatrical).—1. A large audience.

1883. Referee, 18 March, p. 3, col. 2. If the proprietors want, in the way of audiences, to be able to boast of crowders, they should take care to avoid giving pain.

2. (old).—A fiddler.

Crow-Eater, subs. (colonial).—A lazybones who prefers subsisting upon what he can pick up, as the crows do, to putting himself to the trouble of working for it. For synonyms, see Loafer.

Crow-Fair, subs. (old).—A gathering of clergymen.

Crown, verb (thieves’).—To inspect a window with a view to operations.

Crown and Feathers, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Crowner, subs. (old colloquial).—A coroner. [A corruption of ‘coroner.’]

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act v., Sc. 1. Sec. Cl. The crowner hath sat on her, and finds it Christian burial.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V., 220. And if any drowne themselues in them, their crowners sit vpon them.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. ii. You’ll be to Connecticut afore they can wake up the crowner and summon a jury.

Crown-Office, subs. (old).—The head. For synonyms, see Crumpet. Quoted by Grose [1785].

Crow’s-Foot, subs. (thieves’).—The Government broad arrow; also (in pl.) wrinkles at the outside corners of the eyes.

Cruel or Cruelly, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Extremely; very; great. A fashionable intensitive; an Americanism by survival. Cf., Awful and Beastly.

1662. Pepys, Diary, 31 July. Met Captain Brown, of the ‘Rosebush,’ at which he was cruel angry. Ibid, 1666–7, 21 Feb. W. Batten denies all, but is cruel mad.

1848. Bartlett, Dict. of Americanisms, p. 170. Oh, doctor, I am powerful weak, but cruel easy.

Cruelty-Van or Booby-Hutch, subs. (common).—A four-wheeled chaise.

Crug, subs. (Christ’s Hospital).—1. At Hertford, a crust; in the London school, crust and crumb alike.

1820. Lamb, Elia (Christ’s Hospital), p. 322, wks. [ed. 1852]. He had his tea and hot rolls in a morning, while we were battening upon our quarter of a penny loaf—our crug.

2. (Christ’s Hospital).—A Blue; especially an ‘old boy.’

1877. Blanch, Blue Coat Boys, p. 80. All crugs will well remember, etc.

Cruganaler, subs. (Christ’s Hospital). A biscuit given on St. Matthew’s Day. [Orthography dubious. Blanch inclines to the following derivation: ‘The biscuit had once something to do with those nights when bread and beer, with cheese, were substituted for bread-and-butter and milk. Thence the term “crug and aler.” The only argument against this is the fact that the liquid was never dignified with the name of ale, but was invariably called “the swipes.” By another derivation = “hard as nails.” It is then spelt cruggy-nailer.’]

Cruggy, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Hungry. [From crug (q.v.).]

Cruisers, subs. (old).—1. Beggars, or highway spies: ‘those who traversed the road,’ says Grose, ‘to give intelligence of a booty’; also, rogues ‘ready to snap up any booty that may offer.’

2. in sing. (common).—A street-walker.

Crumb, subs. (military).—A pretty woman. Cf., Crummy, adj., senses 1 and 2.

Crumb and Crust Man, subs. phr. (common).—A baker. Cf., Burn-crust and Master of the rolls. Fr., un marchand de larton.

Crumbs.—See Pick up one’s crumbs and chates.

Crummy, adj. (popular).—1. Fat; plump; well-developed. Especially said of high-bosomed and full-figured women: e.g., a crummy piece of goods. [From a provincialism, crum or crom = to stuff, whence crummy = fat or well stuffed.] Fr., fort en mie (an almost literal translation); elle a de ça; Sp., carrilludo = plump-faced.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Crummy (a.): … also fat, rich, plump, or fleshy.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress p. 14. For they saw, notwithstanding Crib’s honest endeavour, To train down the crummy, ’twas monstrous as ever!

1828. Jon. Bee, Pict. of London, p. 60. A nice, crummy, young woman, who seemed surprised and interested at his situation.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxix., p. 289. ‘There’s the remains of a fine woman about Sairah. Poll, … Too much crumb, you know,’ said Mr. Bailey; ‘too fat, Poll.’

1865. Henry Kingsley, The Hillyars and the Burtons. You’re crummy and I ain’t a going to deny it. But you ain’t what I’d call fat.

2. (American).—Comely. Cf., sense 1.

3. (thieves’ and soldiers’).—Lousy.

4. (thieves’).—Plump in the pockets. [Probably an extended use of sense 1.]

Crummy-Doss, subs. (thieves’).—A lousy bed. [From crummy (q.v., sense 3), lousy, + doss (q.v.), a bed.]

Crump, subs. (Winchester College).—A hard hit; a fall. Used also as a verb in very much the same sense as to cob (q.v.). Cf., Barter.

Crumpet, subs. (common).—The head.

English Synonyms. Brain-pan; nut; chump; jazey; steeple; tib or tibby; weather-cock; turnip; upper extremity; top end; twopenny; upper storey; canister; attic; garret; costard; sconce; bonce; nob; lolly; lobb; knowledge-box; block; cocoa-nut; Crown-Office; calabash; top-knot; crust; chimney-pot; onion; chevy; cockloft; top-flat; gable; pumpkin; hat-peg; billiard ball; upper-crust; mazzard; cabaza; dome.

French Synonyms. Le michaud (thieves’); un caillou (popular; properly a pebble or flint); une baigneuse (thieves’); un baptême (popular); une cafetière (thieves’ and vagrants’); une façade (popular); une armoire à glace (popular); une bille (popular: properly a billiard ball); un béguin (popular); une citrouille or un citrouillard (thieves’: literally a pumpkin or gourd); un citron (thieves’); une ardoise (popular); un coco (popular: literally a cocoa-nut); une calebasse (popular = a calabash); une cocarde (popular: properly a cocade); un caisson (common: literally a chest or locker); une coloquinte (thieves’); un chapiteau (popular: literally a capital); une balle (popular); un moule de bonnet (popular: literally a cap-mould); le grenier à sel (popular: properly the [Attic] salt-loft); le baldaquin (a canopy); la boule (popular: the bowl, ball, or sconce); une ciboule (popular: properly a scallion, green onion, or eschalot); la boussole (familiar: in nautical phraseology, the compass); la pomme (popular and thieves’); le tesson (roughs’); la bobine (popular: literally a bobbin or spool); la poire (popular); la boîte au sel (familiar: the [Attic] salt-box); la boîte à sardines (popular = sardine box); la boîte à surprises (general: box of surprises); la tirelire (popular: literally money-box); la hure (properly the head of a wild boar); la gouache (popular); la noisette (popular: literally nut); le char (popular); le réservoir (popular: reservoir or cistern); le bourrichon (popular); la goupine (thieves’); la tourte (popular: properly tart or fruit pie); la tronche (thieves’ = chunk (or ‘chump’ of wood); le trognon (popular); la guitare (common); la guimbarde (popular: properly a Jew’s harp); le soliveau (popular; properly a small joist); le bobéchon (popular); la bobinasse (popular); le kiosque (familiar); le vol-au-vent (general); l’omnibus (common); la sorbonne (see remarks under Balmy, sense 2); la caboche (possibly a language word); le soufflet (popular: literally bellows; also the head of a carriage); le jambonneau (popular: properly a small ham); le schako (popular).

German Synonym. Kiefel.

Italian Synonyms. Chiurla or ciurla (a popular term); elmo (literally a helmet); borella (properly a ball); grinta (in orthodox Italian, ringworm of the scalp).

Spanish Synonyms. Chimenea (fem.; literally a chimney. Se le subió el humo á la chimenea, = the smoke has got into his head; said of one who is affected with drink); cholla (fem.); cabezorro (mas.; a big head, an augmentative of cabeza); caletre (mas.; an abusive term, properly understanding, judgment, discernment); campanario (mas.; properly a belfry).

Balmy in one’s crumpet.—See Balmy, sense 2, and the foregoing.

Crumpet-face, subs. (common).—A pock-pitted face.—See Cribbage-face.

Crumpet-Scramble, subs. (popular).—A tea party; tea-fight, muffin-worry, muffin-fight, bitch-party or cooky-shine (q.v.).

1864. Derby Day, p. 16. There are men who do not disdain muffin-worries and crumpet-scrambles.

Crumpler, subs. (common).—1. A cravat.

2. (acrobats’).—See quot.

1874. G. A. Lawrence, Hagarene, ch. xxxviii. Pete knew how to fall as well as any acrobat, and thought no more of a common ‘crumpler,’ than ordinary hunting folks do of a ‘peck’ or stumble.

Crush, subs. (colloquial).—A fashionable name for any large social gathering.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xiii. We fear he had rather go to a crush at Lady Dinadam’s than sup with Boz.

1872. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 June. It would possibly be found that one week of political reunions, concerts, balls, and crushes would be as disastrous in its effects as two months of absinthe drinking.

1890. H. D. Traill, Tea Without Toast. ‘Saturday Songs,’ p. 100. It appeared to us a feast wouldn’t help the cause the least, And we settled that to give a crush at nine Would be greatly more effectual, and far more intellectual, Than at six o’clock to, greatly daring, dine.

Verb (general).—To run away; to decamp. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

To crush down sides, verbal phr. (Northern).—To keep tryst; also to run to a place of safety.

To crush or burst a pot, cup, or bottle, phr. (old).—To drink (generally in company). See Crack a bottle. [From the Italian crosciare = to decant.] Shakspeare, in The Taming of the Shrew, induction, Sc. 1, uses burst in a similar sense to crack and crush.

1592. Defence of Conny-catching, in Greene’s wks., xi., 43. If euer I brought my Conny but to crush a potte of ale with mee.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act I., Sc. 2. And if you be not of the house of Montagues, I pray, come and crush a cup of wine.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. vii. I crushed a quart with that jolly boy Jenkin.

Crusher, subs. (popular).—1. A policeman. [Possibly from the slang verb to crush = to run. Crush! was once a favourite signal of the ‘pea and thimble’ and other race-course sharpers, the meaning being: ‘Run! the police!’ The word came into general use, and was ultimately converted into crusher = a policeman.] For synonyms, see Beak, sense 1, and Copper.

c. 1840. Thackeray, The Organ-Boy’s Appeal. Though you set in Vestminster surrounded by your crushers, Harrogant and habsolute like the Hortocrat of hall the Rushers.

1842. Punch, vol. II., p. 137. ‘Proverbial Philosophy.’ There is not one crusher who is proof against the waistcoat pocket.

1853. Diogenes, II., 46. Here in came [to the Court] a crusher (Beg pardon—mean usher), Dragging in a Pot-boy, With great show of joy.

1859. Sala, Tw. Round the Clock, 5 p.m., par. 19. A crusher, or policeman, there is indeed.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 223. Oh, that’s one of the cleverest gentlemen cracksmen out.… The blooming crushers were precious glad when they ‘pinched’ ’im.

2. (popular).—Anything large, fine, or extraordinary. [From crush, to overwhelm or subdue.] Akin to whopper, stinger, corker, bouncer, etc. (q.v.).

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. iv. She is a crusher, ain’t she now?

1870. New York Herald, Jan. The Fenians in England received rather a crusher, if I may use so slang a word, two days ago.

Crushing, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Excellent; first-rate. For synonyms, see a1 and Fizzing.

Crust or Upper Crust, subs. (common).—1. The head. For synonyms, see Crumpet.

Upper-crust (q.v.), also = Society with a capital S.

Crusty-Beau, subs. (old).—One that uses paint and cosmetics to obtain a fine complexion.—Grose.

Crutch, subs. (colloquial).—The ‘fork,’ or inner angle of the thigh.

Crutches are Cheap.—See Wooden-Legs.

Cry, subs. (common).—A large number; a quantity. [From cry, a pack of dogs.] As in Shakspeare’s Coriolanus, Act iii., Scene 3. ‘You common cry of curs.’

Great cry and little wool, phr. (general).—Much ado about nothing. The original text of the proverb was, ‘Great cry and little wool, as the devil said when he sheared the hogs.’ Hudibras alters it into ‘All cry and no wool.’

To cry carrots and turnips, verbal phr. (old).—See quot.

1747. Charles Johnson, Highwaymen and Pyrates, p. 254. He came oft with crying carrots and turnips, a term which rogues use for whipping at the cart’s arse.

To cry [or call] a go, verbal phr. (common).—To give in, as one unable to proceed. An expression borrowed from cribbage signifying that the player who makes use of it has nothing playable in his hand, and is compelled to ‘cry a go.’] Cf., Pass.

1880. Punch’s Almanack. Got three quid; have cried a go with Fan, Game to spend my money like a man.

To cry cupboard, verbal phr. (common).—To be fasting, hungry, banded (q.v.). Fr., n’avoir rien dans le cornet; avoir le buffet vide; and danser devant le buffet.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. iii.), Footman. Madam, dinner’s upon the table. Col. Faith, I’m glad of it; my belly began to cry cupboard.

Cry matches! intj. phr. (American).—An exclamation of surprise. [Variously derived: (1) a corruption of ‘Crime hatches’; (2) cry = XPI or Christ, no suggestion being offered to account for ‘matches’; and (3) a conversion of the Fr. cré matin, presumably Canadian. Cf., Crimini.] Quoted in N. and Q., 5 S., viii., 491, and ix., 55, 318.

Cry off, verb (general).—To retreat; to back out from an engagement.

1866. London Miscellany, 5 May, p. 201. ‘London Revelations.’ ‘Why this gent told me to bid,’ said the dealer, patting his tingling fingers sharply, ‘and now he wants to cry off.’

To cry stinking fish.—See Stinking fish.

C.T.A., phr. (circus and showmen’s)—The police.

Cub or Unlicked-Cub, subs. (colloquial).—An awkward, sulky girl; a mannerless, uncouth lout of a boy. [In allusion to the clumsiness of bear cubs till their dam has ‘licked them into shape.’] Cf., Bear-leader.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, Act v., I., 167. Duke. O thou dissembling cub! what wilt thou be When time hath sow’d a grizzle on thy case?

1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Act iv., Sc. 8. A country squire, with the equipage of a wife and two daughters, came to Mrs. Snipwell’s shop while I was there—but, oh Gad! two such unlicked cubs!

1762. Foote, Liar, II., ii. I don’t reckon much upon him: for you know, my dear, what can I do with an awkward, raw, college cub?

1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act iv., Sc. 1. ‘A poor contemptible booby that would but disgrace correction.’… ‘An insensible cub.’

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. ix. And Tommy, you are an uncivil young,—young,—young,—I should say cub if I dared, to tell me that you don’t like dining with me any day of the week.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxix. I don’t see why that infernal young cub of a Clive is always meddling in our affairs.

Cubitopolis, subs. (obsolete).—The Warwick and Eccleston Square districts. [From the name of the builders, see quot., 1864.] Cf., Albertopolis, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, The New Jerusalem, Slopers’ Island, etc. (q.v.).

1864. The Press, 12 Nov. Cubitopolis received its felicitous cognomen from Lady Morley.

1866. E. Yates, Land at Last, ch. iii. There are men yet living among us whose mothers had been robbed on their way from Ranelagh in crossing the spot, then a dreary swampy marsh, on which now stands the city of palaces known as cubittopolis.

Cuckoo, subs. (popular).—1. A fool. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

1598. Shakspeare, Henry IV., Part I, Act i, Scene 4. O’horseback, ye cuckoo; but afoot he will not budge a foot.

2. (old).—A cuckold.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act v, Scene 2. Cuckoo, Cuckoo, O word of fear Unpleasing to a married ear.

3. (schoolboys’).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Cuckoos, subs. (old).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

1612. The Passenger of Benvenuto. These companions, who … carry the impression and marke of the pillerie galley, and of the halter, they call the purse a leafe, and a fleece; money, cuckoes, and aste, and crowns.

Cuckoo’s Nest, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Cucumber-Time, subs. (tailors’).—The dull season. [A correspondent of Notes and Queries (1 S., viii., 439) says it is of German origin, and remarks that many hundreds of London tailors are of German nationality. The German phrase is die saure Gurken Zeit (pickled gherkin-time). Hence, it is said, the expression ‘Tailors are vegetarians,’ because they live now on ‘cucumber’ and now on ‘cabbage.’ Quoted by Grose (1785).] Cf., quot., 1821.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 60. The chap in the corner … has been chaffing Spendall … about his being so cucumberish as to be compelled to ‘gammon the draper’ [which means when a man is without a shirt, and is buttoned up close to his neck, with merely a handkerchief round it to make an appearance of cleanliness, it is termed, ‘gammoning the draper’].

Cud, subs. (popular).—A chew of tobacco; a quid. [An allusion to ‘chewing the cud.’]

Adj. (Winchester College).—1. Pretty; handsome. [Thought to be derived from kudos.]

2. (Christ’s Hospital).—Severe.

Cuddie, subs. (Scots).—A donkey.

Cuddling, verbal subs. (athletic and pugilistic).—Wrestling.

Cuddy, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Hard; difficult; said of a lesson. Also Hertfordicé for passy (q.v.). [There is a common hard biscuit called a ‘cuddy-biscuit’ which doubtless has this derivation.]

Cue, verb (thieves’).—To swindle on credit.

Cuff, subs. (old).—1. A foolish old man. [Probably a contraction of cuffin (q.v.).]

1678. C. Cotton, Scarronides, bk. I., p. 3 (ed. 1725). The lustiest Carles thereabouts. Rich cuffs and very sturdy Louts.

1708. Centlivre, Busie Body, Act i. A very extraordinary Bargain I have made truly, if she should be really in Love with this old cuff now.

1760. Colman, Polly Honeycombe, in wks. (1777) IV., 38. They are just here! ten to one the old cuff may not stay with her: I’ll pop into this closet.

2. (tailors’).—A religious man, either real or sham.

To cuff Anthony, phr.—See Anthony.

To beat or cuff Jonas, phr. = To beat the Booby or goose (q.v. under Beat).

Cuffen.—See Cuffin.

Cuffer, subs. (military).—1. A lie; an exaggerated and improbable story.—See quot., under to spin cuffers, and for synonyms, see Whopper.

2. (American thieves’).—A man; also cuffir. [Cf., Cofe, Cove, and Cuffin, from one of which the American form is doubtless derived.]

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

To spin cuffers, phr.—To tell extremely improbable stories; to yarn; to draw the long bow (q.v.).

1888. Colonies and India, 14 Nov. The Australian youth can develop the art of spinning cuffers very successfully on his own account, without any adventitious assistance from a passing Minister of Public Instruction.

Cuffin, Cuffen, or Cuffing, subs. (Old Cant).—A man.

1567. Harman, Caveat, s.v.

1857. Punch, 31 Jan., p. 49. ‘Dear Bill, this Stone-jug.’ In the day-rooms the cuffins [warders] we queer at our ease, And at Darkmans we run the rig just as we please.

Queer-cuffin, subs. (old).—A magistrate. [From queer, an old canting term for bad, + cuffin, a man; literally a bad man—from a rogue’s point of view. Some of the old canting terms are curious enough: e.g., ‘quyer crampringes’ = bolts or fetters; ‘quyer kyn’ = a prison house.] For synonyms, see Beak, sense 2.

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candle-light [ed. Gros., III., p. 203]. To the quier cuffing we bing.

1837. Disraeli, Venetia, p. 71. The gentry cove will be romboyld by his dam said a third gypsy. ‘Queer cuffin’ [magistrate or queer man] will be the word if we don’t tour.

Cuff-Shooter, subs. (theatrical).—A beginner; one who gives himself ‘airs’; literally one who shoots his cuffs: having a greater regard for the display of his linen than for his work as an actor.

Cule, Cull, Culing, Culling, verb and verbal subs. (thieves’).—To purloin from the seats of carriages; the act of snatching handbags and other impedimenta therefrom. [Either an abbreviation and corruption of reticule, or from cull, to gather.]

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. Snatching reticules from a carriage—culing.

Cull or Cully, subs. (old).—A man; companion; partner. Specifically, a fool; one tricked or imposed upon. Grose seems to make a distinction, for he quotes cull = ‘a man honest or otherwise,’ and cully = ‘a fop, fool, or dupe to women,’ in which sense it was current in the seventeenth century. Thus Rochester (in Satire on the Times), ‘But pimp-fed Ratcliffe’s not a greater cully.’—See also quot., 1771. [Probably a contraction of cullion (Fr., couillon; It., coglione); but derived by Annandale from the Sp. Gypsy chulai, a man; Turkish Gypsy, khulai, a gentleman.]

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). Culle: a sap-headed fellow.

1676. A Warning for Housekeepers. As we walk along the street, We bite the cullly of his cole.

1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Act iii., Sc. 1. Man was by nature woman’s cully made: We never are but by ourselves betrayed.

1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. i. I won’t let him make me over, by deed and indenture, as his lawful cully.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Cull (s.): a cant word for a man, either good or bad, but generally means one that a wench has picked up for some naughty purpose.

1760. Johnston, Chrysal, ii., 17. Your secret, grave, old, rich culls, just fit to do business with.

1771. Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling, vol. I., ch. xxvi. Harley … sallied forth with a blush of triumph on his face, without taking notice of the sneer of the waiter who, twirling the watch in his hand, made him a profound bow at the door, and whispered to a girl who stood in the passage something in which the word cully was honoured with a particular emphasis.

1823. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxx. ‘Na, Na,’ answered the boy: ‘he is a queer auld cull, he disna frequent wi’ other folk.’

1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 75 (ed. 1854). A famous cull is my friend Attie—an old soldier—has seen the world, and knows what is what.

1839. W. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 14. Capital trick of the cull in the cloak to make another person’s brain stand the brunt for his own—capital!

1889. Puck’s Library, April, p. 18. Showman: Look-a-here, cully, yer don’t ’xpect ter git a lecture on nat’l history ’n’a free ticket ter the antipoads fer a quarter, do yer?

Rum cull, subs. (theatrical).—The manager of a theatre; also called a cully-gorger.

Culls, subs. (old).—The testes.

b. 1574, d. 1637. Ben Jonson. Claw a churl by the culls, and he’ll shite in your fist.

Cully-Gorger, subs. (theatrical).—The manager of a theatre; a companion or brother actor. [Cully (q.v.) = a man + gorger (q.v.), a swell, employer, or boss; literally a well-dressed man.]

Cully-Shangy, subs. (common).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens.

18(?). Carey, Life in Paris, p. 276, s.v.

Culminate, verb (University: obsolete).—To mount a coach-box.

1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.

Culty-Gun, subs. (venery).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Cum-Annexis, subs. (West Indian).—One’s belongings; specially applied to one’s wife and children. [In allusion to a legal locution connected with land transfer in Demerara. The outlying farms of estates come under this general description; e.g., Belair, (a well-known property) cum annexis includes, amongst others, estates formerly known as La Penitence, Turkeyen, Cuming’s Lodge, Industry, etc., and in official documents this congeries of estates is spoken of as Belair cum annexis.]

Cummer, subs. (common).—An intimate. For synonyms, see Chum.

Cundum, subs. (old).—An obsolete appliance worn in the act of coition, to prevent infection: so-called from the name of its inventor, a colonel in the Guards, temp., Charles II.: the modern equivalent is known as a French letter (q.v.).

1767. Rochester, Roscommon, and Dorset, A Panegyric upon Cundum, p. 208. Happy the man who in his pocket keeps, Whether with green or scarlet riband bound, A well-made cundum.

Cunnilinge, verb (venery).—To tongue a woman. [Latin cunnilingus, a form which occurs in Martial, from cunnus = the female pudendum + lingo. Cf., Tip the velvet.]

Cunnilingist, subs. (venery).—A man (or woman) addicted to the practice of tonguing the female pudendum.

Cunny-haunted, adj. phr. (popular).—Lecherous.

Cunny-Thumbed, adj. (old).—1. Said of a person who doubles the fist with the thumb turned inwards.

2. (schoolboys’).—Said of one who shoots his marble—as at ring-taw or shoot hole—with the first phalange of the thumb from the second of the forefinger, instead of with the knuckle of the thumb from the first of the forefinger.

Cunt, subs. (common).—The female pudendum; Latin cunnus. A language word, but vulgar in usage. Diminutives of varying degrees are cunnicle, cunnikin, cuntkin, cuntlet, cunny. Derivatives, the result of an obvious play upon words (old), are cunny-catcher and cunny-burrow ferret (Urquhart), for which see Cream-stick; cunny-hunter = a whoremonger; and Cunny-skin (Durfey), for which see Fleece. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1383. Chauce, The Miller’s Tale. Full prively he caught her by the queint, And sayde Ywis but if I have my will, For derne love of thee, lemman, I spill.

1622. Fletcher, Spanish Curate. They write sunt with a C, which is abominable.

1647–80. Rochester, The Royal Angler. However weak and slender in the string, Bait it with cunt, and it will hold a king.

1768. Sterne, The Sentimental Journey. So that, when I stretched out my hand, I caught hold of the fille-de-chambre’s ——.

Cunt-Pensioner, subs. (vulgar).—A male keep; one who lives by the prostitution of a wife, a mistress, a daughter, or any other female connection.

Cunt-Struck, adj. (vulgar).—Enamoured of women: who may, in turn, be either Cock-smitten or Prick-struck (q.v.).

Cup-and-Saucer Player, subs. phr. (theatrical).—A term of derision applied to the players associated with the late T. W. Robertson’s comedies.

Cupboard Love, subs. phr. (popular).—Interested affection: a variant of the saw that ‘the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.’ Cf., Rice-Christian.

c. 1661. Poor Robin [Herrick]. A cupboard love is seldom true, A love sincere is found in few.

1787. Miss Seward, Letters [ed. 1811], vol. II., p. 103. This last and long-enduring passion [of Dr. Johnson] for Mrs. Thrale was, however, composed perhaps of cupboard love, Platonic love, and vanity tickled and gratified.

1885. Girl’s Own Paper, VI., 830. When tea-time comes and milk, she’s not above Increasing her caresses, till we hear A whisper now and then of cupboard love.

Cupid.—See Fancy Joseph.

Cups. In one’s cups, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Drunk. Cf., Cup-shot, and for synonyms, see Screwed.

1593. Nashe, Christ’s Teares, in wks. IV., 228 (Grosart). Those whom the Sunne sees not in a month together, I nowe see in their cuppes and their jolitie.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, III., in wks. (1720), iv., 64. I shall take my leave: you are in your cups: you will wish you had heard me.

1693. Dryden, Juvenal, x. 288. Which in his cups the bowsy poet sings.

1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. II., ch. iv. She used to come home in her cups, and break the china and the locking-glasses.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Brothers of Birchington). Gets tipsy whenever he dines or he sups, And is wont to come quarrelsome home in his cups.

1864. Mark Lemon, Jest Book, p. 185 [of one remarkable at once for Bacchanalian devotion and large and startling eyes]. ‘I always know when he has been in his cups by the state of his saucers.’

Cup-Shot, adj. (old).—Drunk.

1639. Fuller, Holy War, bk. III., ch. xvi. The spring-tide of their mirth so drowned their souls that the Turks coming in upon them cut every one of their throats, to the number of twenty thousand, and quickly they were stabbed with the sword that were cup-shot before.

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

Cup-Tosser, subs. (common).—See quot.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. Cup Tosser: a juggler (French joueur de gobelet). The old symbol for a juggler was a goblet. The phrase and symbol are derived from the practice of jugglers who toss in the air, twist on a stick, and play all sorts of tricks with goblets or cups.

Curate, subs. (common).—A small poker, or tickler (q.v.), used to save a better one; also a pocket-handkerchief in actual use as against one worn for show. The better article is called a rector. Similarly when a tea-cake is split and buttered, the bottom half, which gets the more butter, is called the rector, and the other, the curate.

Curb, verb (old).—To steal. For synonyms, see Prig.

1615. Greene, Thieves Falling Out (Harl. Misc., VIII., 389). Though you can foyst, nip, prig, lift, curbe, and use the black art, yet you cannot crossbite without the helpe of a woman.

Curbstone-Broker, subs.—See Gutter-snipe.

Curbstone-Sailor, subs. (popular).—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart, and cf., Cruiser, sense 2.

Cure, subs. (common).—An eccentric; a fool; also a funny fellow. Originally applied in many connections, see quot.

1856. Punch, vol. XXXI., p. 201.

What’s a Cure.

Punch has no mission to repeat

The Slang he hears along the street,

But when a curious phrase he seizes,

Punch does—as always—what he pleases.

He finds then in the following word

No merit save that it’s absurd,

But as it’s likely to endure

He asks a question, ‘What’s a cure’?

He heard upon a river boat

The steersman told to move his coat,

The fellow grunted like a boor,

The captain said, ‘Well you’re a cure,’

The mud was thick, the crossing clean—

A well-dressed man, genteel of mien—

Walked through the first (he might be poor)—

The sweeper muttered ‘He’s a cure.’

Two youths talked ‘chaff’ (in phrase polite),

Each asked where ‘tother slept last night,’

‘Me? Up a spout.’ ‘Me? Down a sewer.’

The first: ‘Ain’t you a precious cure.’

A child more apt to eat than spell

Espied his little sweetheart Nell:

Embraced her with affection pure,

And cried, ‘You darling little cure.’

Before a shop stood maidens two

Where fine mock diamonds mocked their view:

‘Oh, Julia! That’s the Koh-i-noor.’

‘That!’ Julia said, ‘You silly cure.’

Lastly, he heard the word applied

To Lord Mayor Finnis in his pride;

A female shouted, ‘Well I’m sure!

Call him a mayor—he looks a cure.’

Thus having heard the word he mentions

Spoken with seven distinctions,

Punch doth the slangy world adjure

To state whence derivation ‘cure.’

Curious. To do curious, verbal phr. (common).—To act strangely.

Curl. Out of curl, adv. phr. (common).—Out of sorts; out of condition.

To curl up, verbal phr. (familiar).—To be silent; to ‘shut up.’

To curl one’s hair, verb. phr. (common).—To administer chastisement; to ‘go for’ one.

To curl one’s liver or to have one’s liver curled, verbal phr. (common).—To make one feel intensely. Cf., Turn the liver (q.v.).

1877. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Life on the Mississippi, pp. 414–415. This is sport that makes the body’s very liver curl with enjoyment.

Curle, subs. (old).—Clippings of money.—Grose.

Curl Paper, subs. (common).—Paper for the W.C.; toilet paper; ‘wipe-bummatory’ (Urquhart), or ‘sanitary’ paper; bum-fodder; bumf; ammunition.

Curlycues or Carlicues, subs. (common).—Fantastic ornaments worn on the person or used in architecture; also, by implication, a strange line of conduct. Used by Burns in The Merry Muses.

1858. Home Journal, 24 July. Architects have a wonderful predilection for all manner of curlycues and breaks in your roof.

Currants and Plums, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—A threepenny bit; or thrums (q.v.).

Currency, subs. (Australian).—A colonist born in Australia, those of English birth being sterling (q.v.). [In allusion to the colonial and home mintages, which, identical in value, present one or two strongly marked points of difference.]

1856. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. lxxxv. When gold was found in Victoria he crossed over to that port and robbed. One day he robbed the tent of an old man, a native of the colony, who was digging there with his son, a lad of fifteen. Now these currency lads are very sharp and determined.

Curse. Not to care or be worth a curse, phr. (common).—To care or be worth little—or nothing at all. [Curse may either = (1) the wild cherry; or (2) a corruption of A.S. cerse, watercress. Cf., Continental (q.v.).

1362. William Langland, Vision of Piers Ploughman. Wisdom and witt nowe is not worth a kerse, But if it be carded with cootis as clothers Kemble their woole.

1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xvi., p. 124. With regard to such questions … which one can’t be expected to care a curse about.

187(?). G. R. Sims, Dagonet Ballads (In the Workhouse). I care not a curse for the guardians.

Curse of God, subs. phr. (old).—A cockade.—Lexicon Balatronicum [1811].

Curse of Scotland, subs. phr. (popular).—The nine of diamonds. [The suggested derivations are inconclusive. The locution has nothing to do with Culloden and the Duke of Cumberland, for the card was nicknamed the justice-clerk, in allusion to the Lord Justice-Clerk Ormistone, who, for his severity in suppressing the Rebellion of 1715, was called the Curse of Scotland. Other suggestions are: (1) That it is derived from the game of Pope Joan, the nine of diamonds there being called the ‘pope,’ of whom the Scotch have always stood in horror. (2) The word ‘curse’ is a corruption of cross, and the nine of diamonds is so arranged as to form a St. Andrew’s Cross. (3) That it refers to the arms of Dalrymple, Earl of Stair (viz., or, on a saltire azure, nine lozenges of the field), who was held in abhorrence for the Massacre of Glencoe; or to Colonel Packer, who attended Charles I. on the scaffold, and had for his arms nine lozenges conjoined, or in the heraldic language, Gules, a cross of lozenges. These conflicting views were discussed at length in Notes and Queries, 1 S., i., 61, 90; iii., 22, 253, 423, 483; v., 619; 3 S., xii., 24, 96; 4 S., vi., 194, 289; also, see Chambers’ Encyclopædia.]

1791. Gent. Mag., vol. LXI., p. 141. The Queen of Clubs is … called Queen Bess … The Nine of Diamonds, the curse of Scotland.

Cursitor or Cursetor, subs. (old).—A low tramp or vagabond. [Properly, a cursitor (unde Cursitor Street, in Chancery Lane) was a clerk in the Court of Chancery, whose business was to make out original writs; also a courier or runner. From the Latin.]

Curtain-Raiser, subs. (theatrical).—A short ‘piece’ to bring up the curtain and play in the house. Fr., lever de rideau.

1889. Daily News, 2 Sept., p. 3, col. 4. Miss Grace Hawthorne is about to try an original experiment in what are known as curtain-raisers.

Curtall or Curtail, subs. (old).—A vagabond and thief.—See quots.

1560. John Awdeley, Fraternitye of Vacabondes (1869. English Dialect Society’s Reprint), p. 4. A curtall is much like to the Vpright man, but hys authority is not fully so great. He vseth commonly to go with a short cloke, like to grey Friers, and his woman with him in like liuery, which he calleth his altham if she be hys.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Curtails: thieves who cut off pieces of stuff hanging out of shop windows; the tails of women’s gowns, etc.; also thieves wearing short jackets.

Verb (old).—To cut off. Originally a cant word—vide Hudibras, and Bacchus and Venus, 1737.

Cuse, subs. (Winchester College).—A book in which a record is kept of the ‘marks’ in each division: its name to dons is ‘classicus paper’; also used for the weekly order.

Cushion, verb (thieves’).—To hide or conceal. Variants are, stall off; stow; slum. Sp., Hacer la agachadiza = to hide oneself.

To deserve the cushion, verbal phr. (old).—On the birth of a child a man was said to deserve the cushion; i.e., the symbol of rest from labour.

Cushion-Smiter or -Thumper, subs. (common).—A clergyman. [Derivation obvious.] For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.

1843. Thackeray, Irish Sketch Book, ch. xx. For what a number of such loud nothings, windy, emphatic tropes and metaphors, spoken, not for God’s glory, but the preacher’s, will many a cushion-thumper have to answer!

1849. Thackeray, in Scribn. Mag., June, 1887, p. 686. Cushion-thumpers and High and Low Church extatics.

1889. Modern Society, 19 Oct., p. 1294, col. 1. On a recent occasion a cushion-thumper received a challenge from the miserable sinner whom he so volubly denounced.

Cuss, subs. (American).—A man, cove, or cull. Generally, but not necessarily, disparaging. [Of uncertain derivation: may be either from ‘curse’ or from ‘customer.’] For synonyms, see Cove. Also see specific use in quot., 1883.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 25 July, p. 2, col. 1. I’ll give Tom his due, and say of him that for flumoxing a cuss (Custom House Officer) or working the weed, I don’t know any one he couldn’t give a chalk to and beat ’em.

1888. F. R. Stockton, Rudder Grange, ch. xii. The man that lives up this lane is a mean, stingy cuss, with a wicked dog, and it’s no good to go there.

Cussedness, subs. (American).—Generally in such phrases as ‘pure cussedness,’ the ‘cussedness of things,’ etc. Mischievousness, or resolution, or courage may be implied; but in the Coventry plays cursydnesse signified sheer wickedness and malignity.

18(?). Col. John Hay, Song of the Prairie Belle. Through the hot, black breath of the burnin’ boat Jim Bludsoe’s voice was heard, And they all had trust in his cussedness, And knowed he would keep his word.

1886. Detroit Free Press, Aug. A more mischievous boy never came under my observation. Pure cussedness was spread out all over him.

1888. … Mr. Potter of Texas (Ry. ed.), p. 122. The extraordinary belief he had of transatlantic blood-thirstiness, scalping, and general cussedness engendered by these books.

1890. Notes and Queries, 7 S., ix., 29 Mar., p. 244. To swear at something when ‘the cussedness of things’ manifests itself in any specially exasperating shape seems to be recognised as a necessity by a large majority of the adult male population of the globe.

1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 May, p. 4, col. 2. The cause of the difficulty is the pestilent cussedness of the working man.

Cuss Out, verb (common).—To talk down, to flummox by the lip (q.v.).

1881. New York Times, 18 Dec. [quoted in N. and Q., 6 S., v., 65]. He cussed that fellow out, i.e., he annihilated him verbally.

Customer, subs. (common).—A man; fellow; cove; cuss; or chap; with a certain qualification, e.g. An ‘ugly customer’ = a dangerous opponent; a queer customer = a suspicious person, one to be suspected; a ‘rum customer’ = an odd fish. For synonyms, see Cove.

1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, I., 19. Here … many an ugly customer has met with his match, and been frightened in his turn.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. vi. Some of these good-looking young gentlemen are ‘ugly customers’ enough when their blood is up.

1870. London Figaro, 8 Oct. Customers would then know the kind of ‘customers’ of tradesmen with whom they had to deal.

Customhouse-Officer, subs. (common).—An aperient pill. [Because it effects a clearance.] Cf., Chimney-sweep.

Cut, subs. (common).—1. A stage or degree.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 183. It looked so knowing, with the front garden, and the green railings, and the brass knocker, and all that—I really thought it was a cut above me.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. iv., p. 29. Any other man in the wide world, I am equal to; but Sylme is, I frankly confess, a great many cuts above me.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, vol. II., p. 123. He’s a cut above me a precious sight.

2. (popular).—A refusal to acknowledge acquaintance, or to associate, with another person.—See verbal sense. A cut direct or dead cut is a conspicuous non-acknowledgment of an acquaintance.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 55. His acquaintances were numerous, but they seldom lasted longer than a few days, when he made no hesitation in giving them the cut-direct.

1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. lii. He was a noted duellist, had killed his three or four men, and a cut direct from any person was, with him, sufficient ground for sending a friend.

3. (theatrical).—Mutilation of the ‘book’ of a play, opera, etc.

1779. Sheridan, The Critic, Act ii., Sc. 2. Puff (speaking of the mutilation of his play): Hey, what the plague!—what a cut is here!

1883. Saturday Review, 21 April, p. 501, col. 2. Mr. Mackenzie had not only modified the energy of the orchestra, but had shortened the opera by some judicious cuts.

4. (general).—A snub or set-down. Cf., sense 2.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 143. One of the greatest cuts I ever knew was once when a man was speaking of Chris. Newman and saying what a good sort he was, upon which the other said, ‘What do you mean by saying that? Why, d— me, sir, he never called for a bottle of champagne in his life!’

Adj. (old).—Tipsy; on the cut = on the spree. For synonyms, see Screwed.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Cut (a.) … also an epithet applied to one who is drunk, as, He is deeply cut, that is, he is so drunk, that he can neither stand nor go.

1830. Pierce Egan, Finish to Life in London, p. 214. Terry was terribly cut.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xli. I was so cut last night, old boy! Hopkins says to Tomkins (with amiable confidence).

1859. Punch, vol. XXXVII., p. 22. Our friend prone to vices you never may see, Though he goes on the Loose, or the cut, or the Spree.

Verb (old).—1. To talk.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66.

To cutte, to say.

To cut benle, to speake gentle.

To cut bene whydds, to speake or give good words.

To cutte quyer whyddes, to geue euil words or evil language.

1622. Head and Kirkman, The English Rogue. This Doxie Dell can cut bien whids, and drill well for a win.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. Meg’s true-bred; she’s the last in the gang that will start—but she has some queer ways, and often cuts queer words.

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 230 (ed. 1864). Here I am, pal Peter; and here are my two chums, Rust and Wilder. Cut the whid.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. ix. The infatuated young man went on cutting his jokes at the Admiral’s expense, fancying that all the world was laughing with him.

2. (colloquial).—To disown, ignore, or avoid associating with, a person. Sometimes to cut dead.—See Cut, subs., sense 2. An article in the Monthly Magazine for 1798 cites cut as a current peculiarity of expression, and says that some had tried to change it into ‘spear,’ but had failed.

1634. S. Rowley, Noble Souldier, Act ii., Sc. 1. Why shud a Souldier, being the world’s right arme, Be cut thus by the left, a Courtier?

1794. Gent. Mag., p. 1085. I no sooner learned he was at the ‘Black Bull’ than I determined to cut the old codger completely.

1811. Miss Austen, Sense and Sensibility, ch. xliv. That he had cut me ever since my marriage, I had seen without surprise or resentment.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xli. ‘You are angry with her because she cut you,’ growls Clive. ‘You know you said she cut you, or forgot you; and your vanity’s wounded.’

1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. viii. It was only a slight satisfaction to hear that she has utterly lost sight of my rival, and promises to cut him dead the first time they meet.

1870. Daily News, 26 May, ‘Leader.’ The old Greeks dedicated an altar to the Unknown God, for fear of cutting some jealous but obscure deity through ignorance of his existence and attributes.

Also as verbal substantive, cutting.

1840. Mrs. Gore, The Dowager, ch. xiii. [On the Continent.] Every person’s place in Society is so definite … that except in cases of some enormous breach of propriety, no person once established can ever be expelled. Unless for cogent reasons, he could not have been there at all.… There is no talk of ‘cutting.’ Such an outrage would reflect on the perpetrator rather than on the person ‘cut.’ All the vulgar caprices consequent on a shifting state of society are unknown.

3. (general).—Also to cut and run, cut it, cut one’s lucky, cut one’s stick, cut off, cut away, etc. To depart more or less hurriedly and perforce. [Originally nautical—to cut the cable and run before the wind.] Cut over and cut away formerly bore precisely the same meanings. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

1570. Lambarde, Perambulation of Kent. Let me cut over to Watling Streete.

1593. Nashe, Countercuffe to Martin Junior, in wks., vol. I., p. 79. He came latelie ouer-sea into Kent, fro thence he cut ouer into Essex at Grauesende.

1678. C. Cotton, Scarronides, bk. IV., p. 86 (ed. 1725). Put on the Wings that used to bear ye, And cut away to Carthage quickly.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 51. Explain the philosophical meaning of the sentence. ‘He cut away from the crushers as quick as a flash of lightning thro’ a gooseberry bush.’

1857. Dickens, Little Dorrit, bk. I., ch. xxxi., p. 238. ‘I see precious well,’ said Mr. Tip, rising, ‘that I shall get no sensible or fair argument here to-night, and so the best thing I can do is to cut.’

1888. Rider Haggard, Mr. Meeson’s Will [in Illus. Lond. News, Summer Number], p. 2, col. 3. Off you go! and mind you don’t set foot in Pompadour Hall, Mr. Meeson’s seat, unless it is to get your clothes. Come, cut.

4. (trade).—To compete in business; to under-sell. A cutting trade is one where profits are reduced to a minimum. Also cut under.

1874. H. Mayhew, London Characters, p. 469. All agreed in referring their misery to the spirit of competition on the part of the masters—the same universal desire to cut under.

1883. L. Oliphant, Altiora Peto, II., xxiii., 78. So we dissolved partnership, and I went in with another chap, to work on some kind of principle, but Ned was all the time cutting under us by bringing out some new contrivance—he’s great on electricity, Ned is.

5. (common).—To excel.—See quot., 1853. Also cut out (q.v.).

1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, ch. viii. There have been instances of the weaker sex … cutting down, from sheer nerve and determination, the bearded sons of Nimrod themselves.

1884. Referee, 13 April, p. 1, col. 4. George’s performance in the ten miles handicap at Stamford Bridge on Monday—51 min. 20 sec.—is hardly likely to be disturbed for a long time to come, unless he cuts himself.

6. (theatrical).—To strike out portions of a dramatic production, so as to shorten for representation. Cf., subs., sense 3.

7. (University).—To avoid; to absent oneself from. Thus, to cut lecture, to cut chapel, to cut hall, to cut gates are common phrases.

1794. Gentleman’s Mag., Dec., s.v.

1889. Whibley, In Cap and Gown, s.v.

Cut a Caper or Capers, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To play a trick or prank; to behave boisterously or fantastically. [From cut, a verb of action, + caper (q.v.) a freakish proceeding or prank.] Cf., Cut didoes. Fr., battre un huit.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, Act i., Sc. 3. Sir And. Faith, I can cut a caper.

c. 1626. Dick of Devonshire, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii., 68. Pike, Could I shake those chaines off I would cutt capers: poore Dick Pike would dance though Death pip’d to him.

1712. Spectator, No. 324. Others are called the dancing-masters, and teach their scholars to cut capers by running swords through their legs.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxvii. He … hied him home to his bride, to communicate his happiness, cutting capers, and talking to himself all the way.

1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, Act iv., Sc. 1. Har. Why, isn’t it a shame to see so many stout, well-built young fellows, masquerading, and cutting courants here at home, instead of making the French cut capers to the tune of your cannon; or sweating the Spaniards with an English fandango?

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xx., p. 208. Jonas only laughed at this, and getting down from the coach-top with great alacrity, cut a cumbersome kind of caper in the road.

Cut a Dash, Splash, or Shine, verbal phr. (general).—To make a show; to attract attention through some idiosyncrasy of manner, appearance, or conduct. In the United States to cut a splurge or cut a swathe. Fr., flamber; faire du flafla; and faire flouer.

1771. Foote, Maid of Bath, I. But the squire does not intend to cut a dash till the spring.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxii. Well, they cut as many shines as Uncle Peleg. One frigate they guessed would captivate, sink, or burn our whole navy.

1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xxxi. Gin and water was the ordinary tipple in the front parlour; and any one of its denizens inclined to cut a dash above his neighbours generally did so with a bottom of brandy.

1884. S. L. Clemens (‘M. Twain’), Huckleberry Finn, xxiii., 227. It would a made a cow laugh to see the shines that old idiot cut.

1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 1 Sept., p. 5, col. 4. It is while they are in the land of the living that I should like to see the Australian Crœsuses spending their money. Why don’t they—to use a very vulgar but very expressive locution—cut a splash with their magnificent revenues?

Cut a Figure, verbal phr. (common).—To make an appearance, good or bad.

1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy. vol. II., ch. ii. You will cut no contemptible figure in a metaphysic circle.

1766. Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield, ch. x. When Moses has trimmed them [the horses] a little, they will cut a very tolerable figure.

1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. i. He certainly cut a droll figure.

Cut and Come Again, phr. (colloquial).—Plenty: i.e., if one cut does not suffice plenty remains to come at again.

1738. Swift, Polite Conv., dial. ii. I vow, ’tis a noble sir-loyn. Neverout. Ay; here’s cut and come again.

1821. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, tour III., ch. iv. Something of bold and new design Dug from the never-failing mine, That’s work’d within your fertile brain, Where all is cut and come again.

Subs. (venery).—The female pudendum.

Cut-Away, subs. (common).—A morning coat. [From comparison to a frock-coat, the lappets in front being ‘cut away.’] For synonyms, see Capella.

1866. London Miscellany, 5 Jan., p. 201. ‘London Revelations.’ He wore a Newmarket cutaway, with huge flaps and pockets monopolising the whole of the skirts, suggestive of being receptacles for plunder.

1870. London Figaro, 8 June. It may be taken as an axiom that if a cutaway has been made for a fashionable man six feet high and broad in proportion, it will never sit nicely on the form of a wee little weaver of five feet two.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Oct., p. 3, col. 1. Off flies the frock coat and the flowing necktie; on goes the little red bow and the seedy brown ‘cutaway.’

Cut or Cut up Didoes, Shindies, Shines, etc., verbal phr. (colloquial).—To play pranks or tricks; the same as cut capers.

18(?). Pickings from the Picayune, p. 147. This ’ere Frenchman has been cutting up didoes in my house now for several days; he aint sober onst a week, and breaks all my cheers and tables Mr. Recorder.

1851. New York Tribune, 10 April. Had the Free States been manly enough, true enough, to enact the Wilmot Proviso as to all present or future territories of the Union, we should have had just the same didoes cut up by the chivalry that we have witnessed, and with no more damage to the Union.

Cut Dirt (American), or Cut One’s Stick, Lucky, etc., verbal phr. (common).—To make off; to escape. To cut dirt is clearly an allusion to the throwing up of mud and dust by a horse’s hoofs in fast trotting. Originally, to cut one’s stick refers to the cutting of a staff from a hedge or tree on the occasion of a journey. Cut over and cut away, though vulgarly colloquial in the nineteenth, were in literary use in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. A curious and noteworthy parallel is found in Zechariah xi. 10, where the ‘cutting of a stick’ is described as the symbol of breaking a friendly covenant. Cut one’s stick is sometimes elaborated into amputate one’s mahogany (q.v.). Cut one’s lucky is a simple reference to a ‘lucky’ escape. A Latin equivalent of Cut one’s stick is to be found in Juvenal’s Collige sarcinulas (‘collect the bags’). For synonyms, see Amputate. To cut one’s lucky also signifies to die.

1829. Negro Song [quoted in S. J., and C., p. 287]. He jump up fo’ sartin—he cut dirt and run, While Sambo follow arter wid his ‘tum, tum, tum.’

1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers (about 1827), p. 79 (ed. 1857). Hold still, sir; wot’s the use o’ runnin’ arter a man as has made his lucky, and got to t’other end of the Borough by this time.

1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. xl. ‘And now that the nag has got his wind again,’ said Mr. Chuckster, rising in a graceful manner, ‘I’m afraid I must cut my stick.’

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 136. He [James II.] is the only English sovereign who may be said to have amputated his bludgeon, which, if we were speaking of an ordinary man and not a monarch, we should have rendered by the familiar phrase of cut his stick.

1841. Comic Almanack, p. 278. As sune as ve arived at the sumat had a Werry hextensif vew off Prinse lewy a cuttin his unlukky, folowd by his folowers at Hi pressure spede.

1843. W. M. Thackeray, Lyra Hibernica. ‘The Battle of Limerick.’ … the best use Tommy made Of his famous battle blade, Was to cut his own stick from the Shannon shore.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 150. A man got me to go for some in a orchard, and told me how to manage; but I cut my lucky in a minute.

1853. Western Scenes. Now you cut dirt, and don’t let me see you here again for a coon’s age, you hear?

1855. J. Richardson, Recollections of Last Half Century, vol. II., p. 172. In less than half an hour he swallowed the whole undiluted contents of the bottle, and having done so cut his lucky, and retired.

ante 1871. Border Adventures, p. 231. Now, I say, old hoss, if you don’t hurry up and cut dirt like streak-lightnin’, this child goes arter you, and you look out for a windin’ sheet, you hear?

1880. Punch’s Almanack, p. 3.

Cute, Cuterer, and Cutely, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Sharp; clever; ‘fly to wot’s wot.’ [A corruption of acute.] Fr., avoir le nez creux. For synonyms, see Knowing. So also cuteness, the quality or character of being cute.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Cute (a): sharp, witty, ingenious, ready, etc.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.). Cute (a low word used instead of (Acute): witty.

1762. Foote, Orators, Act i. I did speechify once at a vestry concerning new lettering the church buckets, and came off cutely enough.

1765. Foote, Commissary, III. I did not know but they might be after, more cuterer now in catching their larning.

1768. Goldsmith, Good Natured Man, Act ii. Well, who could have thought so innocent a face could cover so much ’cuteness!

1768. Goldsmith, Good Natured Man, Act iv. Truly, madam, I write and indite but poorly. I never was ’cute at my learning.

1874. M. Collins, Frances, ch. xxxv. We can leave them to their own devices; they’re both pretty ’cute.

1884. C. Gibbon, By Mead and Stream, ch. xx. Dressed in the latest City fashion—for there is a City fashion, designed apparently to combine the elegance of the West end with a suggestion of superhuman ‘cuteness.’

Cut Fine, verbal phr. (common).—To narrow down to a minimum.

Cut In, verbal phr. (common).—To join in suddenly and without ceremony; to intrude, or chip in (q.v.). Also substantively.

1819. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xxi. He was afraid you would cut in and carry off the girl.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxiv., p. 246. I advise you to keep your own counsel, and to avoid tittle-tattle, and not to cut in where you’re not wanted.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. vii. ‘Most injudicious,’ cut in the Major.

1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. vi. Keeping all her after-supper waltzes for him religiously, though half the men in town were trying to cut in.

1883. Referee, 17 June, p. 7, col. 4. I am anxious to have a cut in and get a big advertisement for nothing.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. v. ‘In short,’ cut in my uncle unceremoniously, ‘you have seen enough of Jack’s life to know something about it?’

Cut Into, verbal phr. (Winchester College).—Originally to hit one with a ‘ground ash.’ The office was exercised by Bible-clerks upon a ‘man’ kicking up a row when ‘up to books.’ Now generally used in the sense of to correct in a less formal manner than tunding (q.v.).

Cut It, verbal phr. (common).—To move off quickly; to run away, or cut dirt (q.v.). For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

1885. Indoor Paupers, p. 36. Once a week we cut it From the workhouse gate.

Intj. phr. (common).—‘Cease!’ ‘Stow it!’ ‘Stash it!’—A forcible injunction to desist and be off. Also cut that! or simply cut!

1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, II., 240. Then first he seemed to awake to his danger, and uttered a stentorian cry of terror, that rang through the night, and made two [unprofessional] of his three captors tremble. ‘Cut that,’ said Green [professional] sternly, ‘or you’ll get into trouble.’ Mr. Hardie lowered his voice directly.

Cut it Fat, verbal phr. (general).—To show off; to make a display; to ‘come it strong’; ‘put on side,’ or cut a dash (q.v.).

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 54. Gentlemen, in alarming waistcoats, and steel watch-guards, promenading about, three abreast, with surprising dignity (or as the gentleman in the next box facetiously observes, ‘cutting it uncommon fat!’)

1841. Comic Almanack, ‘Christmas Fair.’ A goose, even tailors have, who cut it fat, And use the goose itself to get a flat.

1887. Baumann, Londonismen. ‘A slang ditty,’ p. v. But, there, it don’t matter, Since to cut it still fatter, By ’ook and by crook Ve’ve got up this book.

Cut Mutton, verbal phr. (old).—To partake of one’s hospitality. Cf., ‘to break bread’ with one.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxxii. Bungay … hoped to have the pleasure of seeing both gents to cut mutton with him before long.

Cut Off One’s Head, verbal phr. (American political).—Used when an official’s term of office has come to an end through change of Government, or supercession in other ways. Also to decapitate and to behead.

1869. New York Herald, 5 Aug. ‘The axe,’ wrote a correspondent from Washington, ‘is still doing its bloody work, and heads are flying off in all directions. The clerks in the Treasury Department begin to feel anxious, as the work of decapitation will soon make an end of them also.’

1872. Daily Telegraph, 5 Jan. ‘Leader.’ At the commencement of any fresh Presidency, hundreds of Democratic employés have their heads cut off to make room for Republicans who, in their turn, will be decapitated when the Democrats get the upper hand again.

Cut of One’s Jib, subs. phr. (nautical).—The general appearance. [From the foremost sail of a ship, which is frequently indicative of a vessel’s character. A strange sail is judged by the cut of its jib.]

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple [ed. 1846], vol. I., ch. ii., p. 9. I axes you because I see you’re a sailor by the cut of your jib.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. iv. For I seed by the cut of the feller’s jib that he was a preacher.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge (ed. 18), p. 363. Oh, I see—there is a smart hand, in the gay jacket there, who does not seem to belong to your crew—a good seaman, evidently, by the cut of his jib.

1881. Buchanan, God and the Man, ch. xvi. By the voice of you, by the rigs of you, and by the cut of your precious jib.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. iii. My democratic wide-awake and the republican cut of my jib, said he looking down at his clothes.

Cut One’s Cart, verbal phr. (vagrants’)—See quot.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 339. I’ve seen them doze and sleep against the door. They like to be there before anyone cuts their cart (exposes their tricks).

Cut One’s Comb, verbal phr. (common).—To snub; to lower conceit.

1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Supererog., in wks. II., 283. Can … loue quench, or Zeale luke warme, or valour manicle, or, excellencie mew-vpp, or perfection geld, or supererogation combe-cutt itselfe?

1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch the Old One, IV., iv. To see ten men ride after me in watchet liveries, with orange-tawny caps,—’twill cut his comb, i’ faith.

ed. 1717. Ned Ward, wks. II., 302. If you prate one word more, I shall slice a sliver off your coxcomb, and teach you a little more manners before I’ve done with you.

1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. ii. I will take my own time; and all the Counts in Cumberland shall not cut my comb.

Cut One’s Eyes, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To get suspicious.

Cut One’s Eye (or Wisdom) Teeth, verbal phr. (common).—To learn ‘what’s what.’ [A play upon the word ‘eye,’ with an allusion to the canine teeth.]

Cut One’s Own Grass, verbal phr. (prison).—To get one’s own living. Cf., Paddle one’s own canoe.

Cut Out, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To debar; deprive of advantage; supersede. Cf., Cut, verb, sense 5. [Originally a nautical term; from cutting out a ship in an enemy’s port.]

1779. R. Cumberland, Wheel of Fortune, Act iv., Sc. 3. I suspect your heart inclines to Captain Woodville; and now he is come to England, I suppose I am likely to be cut out.

1856. C. Bronté, Professor, ch. iii. There’s Waddy—Sam Waddy—making up to her; won’t I cut him out?

1863. Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lost and Saved, p. 182. One woman has often cut another out, whose superiority, if dissected and analysed, would be found to be composed of the carriage that whirled her up to the door, the nimble footman who rapped at it, the soft carpet on the handsome staircase, the drawing-room to which it led, and the gilt stand full of geraniums, heliotropes, and roses in the curtained window.

1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. xxv. Here, as elsewhere, she pursued her favourite amusement, remorselessly. Fallowfield called it ‘her cutting out expeditions.’ She used to watch till a mother and daughter had, between them, secured a good matrimonial prize, and then employ her fascinations on the captured one.

Cut Out of, verbal phr. (common).—To ‘do,’ or be done, out of.

Cuts, subs. (tailors’).—Scissors. ‘Small cuts’ = button-hole scissors.

Cut Saucy.—See Saucy.

Cut Short. (Generally cut it short!) phr. (common).—A common injunction not to be prolix. For synonyms, see Stow it.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lvii., p. 478. ‘Come, then!’ he gruffly cried to her, ‘You hear what she says. Cut it short, and tell her.’

1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ch. xvi. Let us cut this short, Pennicuick. There is nothing more of importance to be said, and such talk is painful to both of us.

Cutter, subs. (old).—A robber; a bully. [From committing acts of violence like those ascribed to the Mohocks; or, from cutting purses. Cotgrave translates cutter (or swash-buckler) by balaffreux, taillebras, fendeur de naseaux. Coles has, ‘A cutter (or robber), gladiator, latro.’] This ancient cant word now survives in the phrase, ‘to swear like a cutter.’

c. 1589. Nashe, Month’s Mind, in wks., vol. I., p. 152. These like lustie cutters … aduentured to lay holde fast on our purses, and like strong theeues in deed proffered to robbe vs of all our monnie.

1633. Rowley, Match at Midn., O. Pl., vii., 353. He’s out of cash, and thou know’st, by cutter’s law we are bound to relieve one another.

1663. Abraham Cowley, The Cutter of Coleman St. [Title of play.]

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Fifty thousand decuses, the spoils of five thousand bullies, cutters, and spendthrifts.

Cut the Line, Rope, or String, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To cut a story short; to stop yarning.—See Cave.

Cut the Painter, verbal phr. (nautical). 1. To decamp; make off—secretly and suddenly. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

2. To die.—See Aloft and Hop the twig.

Cutting, verbal subs. and ppl. adj. (trade).—1. The process of underselling; synonymous with competition of the keenest kind.—See Cut, verb, sense 4.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 372. There is great competition in the trade, and much of what is called cutting, or one tradesman underselling another. Ibid., vol. II., p. 232. Those employers who seek to reduce the prices of a trade are known technologically as cutting employers, in contradistinction to the standard employers, or those who pay their workpeople, and sell their goods at the ordinary rates.

1863. Once a Week, vol. VIII., p. 552. At first sight it would seem that the poor men got a better article for less money than the rich and well-to-do classes; but a little inquiry into the method by which these cutting bakers ‘make things pleasant’ soon dissipate this seeming anomaly.

1863. Once a Week, vol. VIII., p. 179. If she is accustomed to frequent cutting shops, where the stock is periodically thrown into a state of convulsions in its efforts to sell itself off, of course she expects to be done.

2. (colloquial).—Disowning or ignoring a person.—See Cut, verb, sense 2.

1854. Aytoun and Martin, Bon Gaultier Ballads. ‘The Doleful Lay of the Honble. I. O. Uwins.’ Uselessly down Bond Street strutting, Did he greet his friends of yore: Such a universal cutting, Never man received before.

Cuttle or Cuttle Bung, subs. (old).—A knife used by cut-purses. [From Latin cultellus, a knife; unde, a cutlass.] For synonyms, see Chive.

1592. Greene, Second Part Conny-catching, in wks., vol. X., p. 3. And feeling if his cuttle boung were glibbe and of a good edge, went to this meale-man to enter combate hand to hand with his purse.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Harl. Misc., VI., 172). [He] unsheathed his cuttle-bong, and from the nape of the necke to the taile dismembered him.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 154. He that cuts the purse is called the Nip.… The knife is called a cuttle-bung.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). A Roome Cuttle: a sword. A Cuttle bung: a knife to cut a purse.

Cutty-Eyed, adj. (thieves’).—Suspicious looking; leering.

Cut Up, verbal phr. (colloquial).—1. To run down; to mortify.

1759. Goldsmith, The Bee, No. 5, p. 390 (Globe ed.). The pack of critics, who probably have no other occupation but that of cutting up everything new.

1819. Shelley, Letter to Ollier, in Letters (Camelot), p. 309. I read the article.… I am glad, however, to see the Quarterly cut up, and that by one of their own people.

1874. Mortimer Collins, Frances, ch. xvii. The slashing writers who delight to cut up a book, especially if the author is a friend or a rival.

2. (common).—To come up; turn up; become; show up.

3. (thieves’).—To divide plunder; to share; to ‘nap the regulars.’ Cf., Cut up fat.

1779. R. Cumberland, Wheel of Fortune, Act iv., Sc. 3. Sir D. D. A gentleman, who trusts to servants in his absence, is sure to be cut up. Emily. Cut up! what’s that. Sir D. D. Why, ’tis a common phrase.

1870. J. K., Good Words, April. ‘The Nailmakers’ Lamentation.’ Now, what’s twelve shillings to cut up, To pay so many things.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 505. We had between sixty and seventy quid to cut up (share).

1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live. These … were mostly ‘ramps,’ or swindles, got up to obtain the gate-money, and generally interrupted by circumstances arranged beforehand by those who were going to cut up the plunder.

4. (common).—To behave.

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. I., ch. v. You see, a great deal depends on how a fellow cuts up, at first. If he’s got nothing odd about him, and answers straightforward, and holds his head up, he gets on.

1883. Illust. London News, 12 May, p. 463, col. 2. Export again cut up wretchedly in the Burwell Stakes, which fell to Blue Glass, and one of the best of the American three-year-olds.

Cut up fat, verbal phr. (common).—To leave a large fortune. Cf., Cut up, sense 3.

1824. T. Hook, Sayings and Doings, 1 S., Danvers, p. 13 (‘Colburn’s Stand. Novels’). His property was immense … and few people ventured to guess … what he would cut up for.

1831. Disraeli, The Young Duke, bk. IV., ch. vii., p. 228 (ed. 1866). ‘You think him rich?’ ‘Oh, he will cut up very large,’ said the Baron.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. vii. The old banker died in course of time, and to use the affectionate phrase common on such occasions, cut up prodigiously well.

1860. O. W. Holmes, The Professor at the Breakfast Table, xi., p. 351. In the midst of these kind expressions, the gentleman with the diamond, the Koh-i-noor, as we called him, asked in a very unpleasant sort of way, how the old boy was likely to cut up,—meaning what money our friend was going to leave behind.

1872. Civilian, 2 March. Time wears on, and old Stubbs pays the debt of nature, and cuts up splendidly. His colossal fortune is the making of his needy sons-in-law.

Cut up [rough, rusty, savage, stiff, ugly, etc.], verbal phr.—To become quarrelsome or dangerous.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xliii., p. 377. ‘I’ll trouble you for the loan of five-and-twenty pound.’ ‘Wot good ’ull that do?’ inquired Mr. Weller. ‘Never mind,’ replied Sam. ‘P’raps you may ask for it five minits arterwards; p’raps I may say I von’t pay, and cut up rough.’

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. 1. I didn’t mean any offence—beg pardon—hang it! you cut up quite savage.

1855–7. W. M. Thackeray, Miscellanies, II., 272. It is true that Natty [Edward’s Julia’s younger brother] called many times in Pocklington Square, and complained to Edward that he, Nat, could neither see his Mar nor the Gurls, and that the old gent cut up uncommon stiff.

1864. A. Trollope, The Small House at Allington, ch. iv. She’s always talking of Lupex being jealous! if he was to cut up rough, you wouldn’t find it pleasant.

Cut up well, verb. phr. (venery).—To strip well; to be an engaging bed-fellow.

To be cut up (common).—To be vexed; hurt; dejected; sometimes simply cut. Formerly, to be in embarrassed circumstances.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 60. But, owing to a combination of unfortunate circumstances, such as gambling, dissipation, etc., Jem is so cut up, that all his old pals have turned their backs upon him.

1846. Thackeray, V. Fair, vol. I., ch. xxv. ‘I should have liked to see the old girl before we went,’ Rawdon said. ‘She looks so cut up and altered that I’m sure she can’t last long.’

1855. W. M. Thackeray, Newcomes, II., p. 201. It’s not when a fellow’s down and cut up, and riled,—naturally riled—as you are,—I know you are, Marquis; it’s not then that I’m going to be angry with you.…

1864. Glasgow Herald, 28 Dec. Not a word was said. I felt confoundly cut, and every mouthful of that dinner felt as if it would choke me.

Cutty, subs.—A short pipe; a nose-warmer, (q.v.).

Cuz, subs. (printers’).—A workman free of the ‘chapel.’

Cymbal, subs. (thieves’).—A watch. For synonyms, see Ticker.

, subs. (common)—1. A penny, or (in pl.) pence; e.g., two d; three d, etc., = two-pence, three-pence, etc. [The initial letter of the Latin denarius.]

1880. Punch’s Almanack, p. 3. Got the doldrums dreadful, that is clear. Two d left! must go and do a beer!

2. (common).—A detective; among thieves, a policeman. For synonyms, see Beak and Nark.

1879. Thor Fredur, Sketches from Shady Places. Still I play Shoeblack odd times. I have a few friends among the d’s (detectives), who give me the job to watch a house occasionally.

To use a big d, verbal phr. (common).—‘To swear’; the ‘d’ stands for ‘damned.’

1878. Gilbert and Sullivan, Her Majesty’s Ship ‘Pinafore.’ ‘What, never use a big, big D?’

1890. H. D. Traill, Saturday Songs, p. 3. Do we fight the senseless duel, do we sling the big, big d, No; our strongest word is ‘Bother,’ and revolvers all we see.

The two d’s, phr. (military).—Army regulations enact that a soldier’s pay must not be so docked in fines as to leave him less than two-pence a day. Hence, if a man, from any cause, is put on short pay, he is said to be ‘on the two d’s.’

Dab, subs. (colloquial).—1. An expert; a dabster. [Thought to be a corruption of ‘adept’ (Latin adeptus); a dep; a dap; a dab.] Cf., ‘dabbler,’ one who meddles without mastery; a superficial meddler. Fr., dab, dabe, or dade.

1733. Letter of Lord Chesterfield to Lady Suffolk, 17 Aug. [Suffolk Correspondence, 1824, ii., 64.] … known dabs at finding out mysteries.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Dab (s.) … also an expert gamester is so called [also 1754, Martin, Eng. Dict. (2 ed.), s.v.].

1759. Goldsmith, The Bee, No. 1. One writer, for instance, excels at a plan or a title-page, another works away the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index.

1838. Comic Almanack, p. 148. Such a dab to get up a commission.

1849. J. D. Lewis, in Whibley, p. 231. When Hicks, who’s no dab, with his oar cuts a crab, And our coxswain he swears like the devil.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xlii., p. 200. He was a smooth one to talk, and was a dab at the ways of gentlefolks.

2. (common).—A bed. For synonyms, see Bug-walk and Kip.

1823. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Mace:… Vhen ve’ve had the liqvor, ve’ll kick up a reel, and all go to our dabs.

3. (river-side thieves’).—The drowned corpse of an outcast woman.

4. (old).—A trifle.

1745. Walpole to Mann, ii., 53. The Count may have procured for her some dirty dab of a negotiation about some acre of territory more for Hanover.

Adj. (colloquial).—1. Clever; skilled; expert.—See subs., sense 1. Fr., avoir le ponce long, or rond, i.e., ‘to have a long or round thumb.’

2. (back slang).—Bad. A dabheno, a bad market, day, or sale, Doogheno = a good day, etc.; dab tros = a bad sort.

1877. Diprose, London Life. I’ve been doing awful dab with my tol (lot) or stock, have’nt made a yennep (penny).

Rum-dabe, subs. (old).—The same as dab, subs., sense 1. [Rum (q.v.) is Old Cant for ‘good.’]

Dab down, verbal phr. (common).—To pay; hand over; to ‘post’ or ‘shell out’ (q.v. for synonyms).

To dab it up [with a woman], verbal phr. (old).—To pair off; to agree to cohabitation.

Dabster, subs. (colloquial).—An expert or dab (q.v.).

1877. J. Greenwood, Dick Temple, ch. iii. ‘Not in the least like the performance of an amateur dabster,’ remarked Jack Mallet, admiringly. ‘Much more like the work of an old master for style and finish.’

Dace, subs. (old).—Two-pence; in America, two cents. [From ‘deuce.’]

Dacha-Saltee, subs. (thieves’ and vagrants’).—A franc; or tenpence English. [From the Italian dieci soldi.]—See Saltee.

1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth, ch. lv. What with my crippledom and thy piety, a wheeling of thy poor old dad, we’ll bleed the bumpkins of a dacha-saltee.

Dad-Binged (also -Blamed, -Fetched), -Gasted, -Goned, -Rotted, or -Snatched, ppl. adj. (American).—Half veiled oaths; ‘whips to beat the devil round the stump.’ [Dad is a corrupted form of ‘God,’ which, with other forms, (Dod-, Dog-, etc.), is found in various combinations, as above.] For synonyms, see Oaths.

1887. Scribner’s Magazine. ‘Dadgum ye!’ cried Jeff, irritably, ‘whut—by grabs, hit’s a human critter!’

1888. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p. 122. A chile er two, mo ’er less, warn’t no consekens to Sollermun, dad-fetch him. Ibid. ‘Why, Mars Tom, I doan want no rats. Dey’s de dad-blamedest creturs to ’sturb a body … I ever see.’

Dad-Dad, Mum-Mum or Daddy-Mammy, subs. phr. (military).—A beginner’s practice on the drum.

Daddle, subs. (common).—The hand; or fist. To tip the daddle, to shake hands. For synonyms, see Bunch of fives, to which may be added the following lists:—

English Synonyms. Chalk-farm; claw; clutch; cornstealer; duke; fam; famble; feeler; fin; flapper; flipper; forceps; forefoot; fork; grappling-iron or hook; goll (old); oar; paddle; palette; paw; plier; shaker; wing; Yarmouth mitten.

French Synonyms. Les abatis or abattis (popular: a term applied to both hands and feet; properly giblets); l’agrafe (common; hook or clasp); la croche (thieves’: properly a quaver; possibly influenced by croc = hook, grapnel, or drag; an allusion to the hooked appearance of the musical note); la cuiller (popular: literally a spoon); les brancards (popular: this expression, like abatis, is also used of the feet; properly = shafts, as of a cart); l’arguemine (thieves’); le battoir (popular: properly a washerwoman’s ‘bat’); un gigot (popular: a large, thick hand, a ‘mutton fist’); le grappin; les harpions (also = feet).

Italian Synonym. Gramoso (properly ‘a wretch’); cerra.

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

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143, s.v.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Mem. to Cong., p. 23. From this to the finish, ’twas all fiddle-faddle, Poor Georgy, at last, could scarce hold up his daddle. Ibid. With daddles high uprais’d, and nob held back, In awful prescience of th’ impending thwack.

1827. Scott, Two Drovers, ch. ii. Ah, this comes of living so long with kilts and bonnets—men forget the use of their daddles.

1842. Punch, vol. III, p. 136. And her daddle link’d in his’n gone to roam as lovers use.

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. v. ‘Tip us your daddle, my boy,’ said the second speaker.

Daddy, subs. (general).—1. The superintendent of a casual ward; generally an old pauper.

2. (theatrical).—A stage manager.—See quot.

1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. The manager himself is sometimes known as the ‘gorger,’ and daddy is the stage-manager.

3. (common).—A confederate of ‘workers’ of mock raffles, lotteries, etc.; generally the person selected to receive the prize.

Daddyism, subs. (American).—Pride of birth.

1871. Kate Field, in Harper’s Bazaar, Aug. An Eastern man commending the services of a young Philadelphian to a Chicago tradesman, said: ‘He comes of a very good family; his grandfather was a distinguished man.’ ‘Was he?’ replied the man of Chicago. ‘That’s of no account with us. There’s less daddyism here than any part of the United States. What’s he himself.’

Daffy or Daffy’s Elixir, subs. (common).—Gin. [From a popular medicine sold as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century: see advertisements (1709), in Ashton’s Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, i., pp. 7, 8: now known as ‘Tincture of Senna.’] For synonyms, see Drinks.

1821. The Fancy, vol. I., p. 304. While carrying on his new vocation of publican, Jack did not deny himself the use of drops of daffy.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 2. Take some daffy to the back parlour.

1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 430. When I goes in where they are a havin’ their daffies—that’s drops o’ gin, sir.

1871. London Figaro, 15 April. [If the baby] should bawl persistently … he would … thoroughly dose it with daffy.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., 193. They had low foreheads, and wore big buttonholes, for so they termed the flowers, it was ‘the thing’ to wear. A good many of them, too, had been partaking freely of daffy.

Daffy-Down-Dilly, subs. (old).—A dandy; one ‘got up regardless.’ For synonyms, see Dandy.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 2. Bob: I’m here, my daffy-down-dilly!

Dagen, subs. (old).—An ‘artful member.’ [From dagen, a sword or dagger.] For synonyms, see Downy cove. Dagger = the penis.

Dagger-Cheap, adj. phr. (old).—‘Dirt’ cheap. [From an ordinary of low repute in Holborn, notorious for the coarseness of its entertainment.—See Jonson’s Alchemist, v., 2, and Devil is an Ass, i., 1.]

1631. Bishop Andrewes, Sermons (posthumous). We set our wares at a very easy price; he (the devil) may buy us even dagger-cheap, as we say.

Dags, subs. (common).—A feat; a performance or work, e.g., I’ll do your dags = an incitement to emulation. [From dag, the old Saxon form of ‘day.’ Darg for a day’s work is common in Scotland. A love-darg is a day’s free help given to a farmer by his neighbours.]

1879. Notes and Queries, 5 S., xii., 15 Aug., p. 128. ‘I’ll do you (or your) dags.’ An expression used by children of young, and sometimes of older, growth, meaning, ‘I’ll do something that you cannot do.’

1886. Fun. He was very fond of what, in schoolboy days, we used to call doing dags.

Daily Levy, subs. (journalistic).—The Daily Telegraph. [This London daily was established by Mr. Edward Levy Lawson.]

Dairy, subs. (common).—The paps. To air the dairy = to expose the breast.

English Synonyms. Bubs or bubbies; charlies; blubber; butter-boxes; butter-bags; berkeleys; cat-heads; diddies; globes; dugs; milk-walk; milk-shop; milky way; dumplings; udder (Browning); ‘Nature’s founts’; feeding bottles; ‘charms’; hemispheres; apple-dumpling shop; meat market; poonts; titties; cabman’s rests (rhyming); baby’s bottom.

French Synonyms. Les avantages (familiar); l’avant-cœur (popular = the fore-heart; as l’avant-bras = the fore-arm); l’avant-main; les avant-scènes (properly that goes before; the front of a stage); les avant-postes (literally, the outposts); l’oranger (popular = the orange-tree. Cf., des oranges sur l’étagère); les nénais or nénets (popular); deux œufs sur le plat (common); le monzu or mouzu (Old Cant); des blagues à tabac (popular = tobacco-pouches); des bessons (common = twins); une étagère or un étal (properly a butcher’s stall; étalage = goods exposed for sale; Cf., étaler sa marchandise = to wear a low-necked dress); la doublure de la pièce (popular); devant de gilet (popular: un gilet à la mode = well-developed paps); une livraison de bois devant sa porte (popular); le ragoût de la poitrine (ragoût = pleasure, poitrine = breast); la mappe-monde (popular: literally a map of the two hemispheres); les nichons (familiar); il y a du monde au balcon (said of one with large paps); les bossoirs (sailors’; gabarit sans bossoirs = thin or withered paps); les calebasses (= gourds); les éclaireurs (popular: scouts); des gibasses (popular: skinny paps); des œufs sur la place d’armes (popular).

German Synonym. Gleishaus (i.e., milk-house; Gleis = milk).

Italian Synonym. Tetta.

Spanish Synonyms. Balso-peto (m; properly = a large pouch carried near the breast); chiche or chichi (f; a Mexican vulgarism); pechera (f; also = a stomacher or frill on the bosom of a shirt).

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Daisies, subs. (general).—Boots. Cf., Daisy-roots, and for synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 503. While waiting for my pal I had my daisies cleaned.

To turn up one’s toes to the daisies.—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft and Hop the twig.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Babes in the Wood). Be kind to those dear little folks When our toes are turned up to the daisies.

Daisy, subs. (American).—A man or thing first-rate of a kind. Also equivalent to Dandy, subs., sense 4.

c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, ‘Mrs. Brady’s Daughter.’ She’s such a daisy, she sets me crazy.

1888. Denver Republican, May. Jack Dempsey is beyond compare a pugilistic daisy.

1890. Rudyard Kipling, Fuzzy Wuzzy, in Scots Observer, iv., p. 439, col. 1. ’E’s a daisy, ’e’s a ducky, ’e’s a lamb.

Adj. (American).—First-rate; A1.

1889. Puck’s Library, April, p. 7. Big scene of boats ascending Nile cataracts—new sensation, never done before—and chance for daisy effects in the desert.

Daisy Beat.—See under Beat.

Daisy-Beaters.—See Creepers.

Daisy-Cutter, subs. (common).—1. A horse whether good or bad. Also daisy-kicker. Fr., un rase-tapis.

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

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iii. I should like to try that daisy-cutter of yours upon a piece of level road (barring canter) for a quart of claret at the next inn.

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood. Song, ‘The Game of High Toby.’ But what daisy-cutter can match that black tit.

1866. C. Reade, Griffith Gaunt, ch. i. Others galloped uselessly about pounding the earth, for daisy-cutters were few in those days.

2. (cricket).—A ball which travels more than half the ‘pitch’ along the ground without rising; a ‘sneak.’ Wykehamicè, ‘a ramrod.’—See Grub.

Daisy-Kicker, subs. (old).—1. A horse. Cf., Daisy-cutter and Grogham. For synonyms, see Prad.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 48. The hostler then says, ‘He has a choice nag or daisy-kicker to sell or swap.’

2. (old).—An ostler. [By implication from sense 1.]

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 39. Daisy-kickers are Hostlers belonging to large inns; and are known to each other by this name.

Daisy-Roots (rhyming slang).—Boots. Also daisies. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases. Fr., des salaires.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. I piped [saw] three or four pair of daisy-roots (boots).

To pick a daisy, verbal phr. (common).—To evacuate in the open air; also, to retire to make water.

Daisyville, subs. (thieves’).—The country. Also deuseaville.

English Synonym. Monkery.

French Synonyms. La camplouse; la cambrouse; le pasclin or pasquelin.

Italian Synonyms. Longa (literally = an expanse); polverosa (literally = dusty); graziosa (literally = graceful).

1622. Head and Kirkman, ‘Canting Song.’ This Doxie Dell can cut bien whids, And drill well for a win; And prig and cloy so benshiply, All the deusea-vile within.

Dakma, verb (thieves’).—To silence.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

1881. New York Slang Dict. I had to dakma the bloke to cly the swag.

Dam. Not to care or be worth a dam, phr. (common).—To care or be worth nothing. [The dam or dawm is an Indian coin worth barely the fortieth part of a rupee.] Cf., Care and Fig.

Damage, subs. (colloquial).—The cost of anything; the sum total in the sense of recompense. ‘What’s the damage?’ ‘what’s to pay?’ also What’s the swindle? (q.v.). [An allusion to damages at law.]

b. 1788, d. 1824. Byron [quoted in Annandale]. Many thanks, but I must pay the damage and will thank you to tell me the amount of the engraving.

1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. xiv. Well, now, my good fellow, what’s the damage, as they say in Kentucky; in short, what’s to be paid out for this business.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 576. When he wishes to know what he has to pay, he asks, What’s the damage? or not so charitably, What’s the swindle?

Damaged, ppl. adj. (common).—Drunk; screwed (q.v. for synonyms).—See Drinks.

Damber, subs. (old).—A man, cove, or cull belonging to the fraternity of vagabonds. For synonyms, see Cove.

Damme, Dammy or Dammy-Boy, subs. (old).—A sixteenth and seventeenth century roysterer; a blustering fellow. [So called from the excess to which swearing was carried by the rakes of the day.]

1654. Witts, Recreations. To valiant dammee. Dam-me, thy brain is valiant, ’tis confest; Thou more, that with it every day dar’st jest Thy self into fresh braules; but call’d upon, With swearing dam-me, answer’st every one. Keep thy self there, and think thy valour right, He that dares damne himself, dares more than fight.

1687. Cleveland, Works. Depriver of those solid joys, Which sack creates; author of noise Among the roaring punks and dammy-boys.

Dam Nasty Oath, subs. phr. (American).—A corruption of amnesty oath. [Southerners, at the close of the Civil War, were required, as an outward sign of submission to the Union, to subscribe to certain conditions, upon which a free pardon was granted. The terms were deemed unpalatable—hence dam nasty oath.]

Damned-Soul, subs. (old).—A Customs House clearing clerk. [Because to avoid perjury he was alleged to have taken a general oath never to swear truly in making ‘declarations.’] [Lexicon Balatronicum, 1811.]

Damp (Generally, something damp), subs. phr. (common).—A drink; or ‘go’ (q.v. for synonyms).

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxvii., p. 228. ‘So we’ll just give ourselves a damp, Sammy.’ Saying this, Mr. Weller mixed two glasses of spirits and water, and produced a couple of pipes.

Damper, subs. (thieves’).—1. A till or ‘lob.’ Drawing a damper = robbing a till, i.e., ‘lob-sneaking.’

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 445, s.v.

2. (tailors’).—A sweater; one who takes as much as possible out of workmen for a minimum of pay.

3. (colloquial).—He or that which damps, chills, or discourages.

4. (old).—Ale or stout after spirits and water.—See Cooler.

5. (old).—A snack between meals.—See senses 6 and 7.

6. (schoolboys’).—A suet pudding served before meat. Cf., senses 4 and 5.

7. (Australian).—Unleavened bread made of flour and water and baked in thin cakes, in a frying pan or on a flat stone in wood ashes.

1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 3 Sept., p. 5, col. 5. They got enough flour from Sydney to make their dampers.

1886. G. Sutherland, Australia, p. 77. They must at least receive a ‘pannikin’ of flour and be allowed to bake it up into a piece of damper at the cooking fire.

Damp One’s Mug, verbal phr. (common).—To drink. For synonyms, see Lush.

Damp-Pot, subs. (tailors’).—The sea; specifically the Atlantic. For synonyms, see Briny and Puddle.

Damp the Sawdust, verbal phr. (licensed victuallers’).—To ‘crack a bottle’ with friends ‘for luck’ on starting a new ‘house.’

Damson-Pie, subs. (Black Country).—A Birmingham and ‘black country’ term for ‘Billingsgatry.’

1888. W. Black, Strange Adv. of House Boat, ch. viii. Even if you were to hear some of the Birmingham lads giving each other a dose of damson-pie … you wouldn’t understand a single sentence.