WITH SYNONYMS IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, ETC. (continued 10)

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 66. To heue a bough, to robbe or rifle a boweth.

1575. Awdeley, Fraternitye of Vacabondes. But hys chiefest trade is to rob bowthes in a faire, or to pilfer ware from staules, which they cal heaving of the bowth.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London in Wks. (Grosart) III., 102. But the end of their land-voiages is to rob Boothes at fayres, which they call Heaving of the Booth.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, Pt. I., ch. xlv. p. 319 (1874). I met with an old comrade that had lately heav’d a booth, Anglice broken open a Shop.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Heave a bough. To rob a house.

1724. Coles, Eng. Dict., s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary, (5th Ed.). Heave (v.) … and in the Canting Language, it is to rob or steal from any person or thing.

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

To heave on (or ahead), verb. phr. (old).—To make haste; to press forward.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. iv. Come heave ahead, my lads, and be smart.

Heaven, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. To feel one’s way to heaven = to grope (q.v.) a woman. See also, St. Peter.

Heavenly-collar, (or lappel), subs. (tailors’).—A collar or lappel that turns the wrong way.

Heaver, subs. (old).—1. The bosom; the panter (q.v.).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Heaver. A breast.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

2. (American).—A person in love: i.e., sighing (= heaving the bosom, or making play with the heaver) like a furnace.

3. (old).—A thief: cf., Heave (verbal sense 2).

Heavy. See Heavy-wet.

Adj. (American).—Large: e.g., a heavy amount = a considerable sum of money.

To come (or do) the heavy, verb. phr. (common).—To affect a vastly superior position; to put on airs or frills (q.v.). See Come and Do.

The heavies, subs. phr. (military).—The regiments of Household Cavalry, 4th and 5th Dragoon Guards, and 1st and 2nd Dragoons. [From their equipment and weight.]

1841. Lever, Chas. O’Malley, ch. lviii. I’m thinking we’d better call out the heavies by turns.

Heavy-arsed (old colloquial), adj. phr.—Slow to move; inert; hard to stir. See Arse.

d. 1691. Richard Baxter. Shove to heavy-arsed Christians. [Title.]

Heavy-Cavalry (or Dragoons), subs. (common).—Bugs; light-infantry = fleas. Also heavy horsemen, the heavy troop, and the heavies.

Heavy-grog, subs. (workmen’s).—Hard work.

Heavy-grubber, subs. (common).—1. A hearty eater; a glutton. For synonyms, see Stodger.

1858. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xl., p. 190. ‘I’m a heavy grubber, dear boy,’ he said, as a polite kind of apology when he had made an end of his meal, ‘but I always was. If it had been in my constitution to be a lighter grubber, I might ha’ got into lighter trouble.’

Heavy-plodder, subs. (old).—A stock-broker.

1848. Duncombe, Sinks of London, s.v.

Heavy- (or Howling-) swell, subs. (common).—A man or woman in the height of fashion: a spiff (q.v.).

1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall, 74. We look such heavy swells, you see, we’re all aristo-crats.

Heavy-wet, subs. (common).—1. Malt liquor; specifically porter and stout. Also heavy. For synonyms, see Drinks and Swipes.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, p. 75. The soldiers and their companions were seen tossing off the heavy wet and spirits.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. vii. I had been lushing heavy wet.

1838. Grant, Sketches in London, p. 92. If it be heavywet, the favorite beverage … of Dr. Wade.

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. ii. Here comes the heavy. Hand it here to take the taste of that fellow’s talk out of my mouth.

1852. Judson, Mysteries of New York, bk. II., ch. x. What’ll it be, my covies? Heavy wet, cold or warm?

1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 86. Mother up with your heavy wet and try suthin’ short.

2. (common).—An extraordinarily heavy drinking bout.

Hebe, subs. (old).—1. See quots.

1648–9. Crashaw, Poems. ‘On the Death of Mr. H.’ Ere Hebe’s hand had overlaid His smooth cheeks with a downy shade.

1778. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v. The first Hair appearing about the genital parts; also the Parts themselves; but more specifically the Time of Youth at which it first appears.

2. (common).—A waiting maid at an inn; a barmaid.

1603. J. Sylvester, Tr. Du Bartas, Mag., p. 65 (1608). Heer, many a Hebe faire, heer more than one Quick-seruing Chiron neatly waits vpon The Beds and Boords.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xlix. Shortly after the same Hebe brought up a plate of beef-collops.

1886. Athenæum, 9 Jan., 63/2. It is not with the Colonel’s Hebes, however, that the manœuvres of the military quintet are carried on.

1891. Sportsman, 25 Mar. Not even the kindly morning welcome of La Rærdon, most pleasant and courteous of deft-handed Hebes, could blot out the fact.

Hebrew, subs. (common).—Gibberish; Greek (q.v.). To talk Hebrew = to talk nonsense or gibberish.

1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, ii., 1. Mon. If she did but know what part I take in her sufferings——. Flip. Mighty obscure. Mon. Well, I’ll say no more; but——. Flip. All Hebrew.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. ‘You may as well talk Hebrew,’ said of jargon.

Hector, subs. (old).—A bully; a blusterer.

1659. Lady Alimony, ii., 6 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 322). Hectors, or champion haxters, pimps or palliards. Ibid., iii., I., (p. 326). Levelling at honour, they declare themselves glorious hectors.

b. 1670. J. Hacket, Archbp. Williams, ii., 203. One Hector, a phrase at that time for a daring ruffian, had the ear of great ones sooner than five strict men.

1674. Cotton, Complete Gamester, p. 333. Shoals of Huffs, Hectors, Setters, Gilts, Pads.… And these may all pass under the general or common appellation of Rooks.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iv., 1. She would rather trust her honour with some dissolute debauched hector.

1679. Butler, Hudibras, iii., 2, 108. As bones of Hectors when they differ, The more th’are Cudgel’d, grow the Stiffer.

1689. Lestrange, Tr. Erasmus, p. 139. And a Ruffling Hector that lives upon the Highway.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hector, a Vaporing, Swaggering Coward.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 24. I hate, she cry’d, a hector, a Drone without a Sting.

1725. New Cant. Dict.

1750. Ozell, Rabelais, iv., Pref. xxiii. These roaring hectors.

1757. Pope, Imit. Hor., ii., 1, 71. I only wear it in a land of Hectors, thieves … and Directors.

1778. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v.

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

1826. Congress Deb., ii., 1., p. 1024. He hoped it would invite … a reply from the Southern Hector … of this debate.

Verb (common).—To play the bully; to bluster. Also to play the Hector.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii., 1. No hectoring, good Captain.

1849–61. Macaulay, Hist. of Eng., ch. xvi. To play the Hector at cockpits or hazard tables.

To wear Hector’s cloak, verb. phr. (old).—To receive the right reward for treachery. [When Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland, was routed in 1569, he hid himself in the house of Hector Armstrong, of Harlaw, who betrayed him for hire, and prospered so ill thereafter that he died a beggar by the roadside.]

Hectoring, subs. and adj. (old: now recognised).—Bullying; blustering.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, ii., 1. Thou art soe debauched, drunken, lewd, hectoring, gaming companion. Ibid., ii., 1. Every idle, young, hectoring, roaring companion, with a pair of turned red breeches, and a broad back, thinks to carry away any widow of the best degree.

1893. St. James’s Gazette, xxvii, 4074, p. 3. Mr. Sexton with much unnecessary outlay of hectoring bluster, repudiates guilty knowledge.

Hedge, subs. (racing).—See verbal sense.

1856. Hughes, Tom Brown, p. 200. Now listen, you young fool, you don’t know anything about it; the horse is no use to you. He won’t win, but I want him as a hedge.

1864. Eton Schooldays, ch. vii. He took the precaution to take those odds five or six times by way of a hedge, in case anything should happen to Chorley.

Verb (racing).—1. To secure oneself against, or minimise the loss on a bet by reversing on advantageous terms; to get out (q.v.). [Thus, if a man backs A to win him £100 at 5 to 1, he will if possible hedge by laying (say) 3 to 1 to the amount of (say) £60 against him. He will then stand thus: If A wins he gains on the first bet £100, and loses on the second £60, leaving a net gain of £40; if A loses he loses on the first bet £20, and wins on the second £20, thus clearing himself.] See Standing on Velvet and Go.

1616. Jonson, Devil is an Ass, iii., 1. I must have you do A noble gentleman a courtesy here, In a mere toy, some pretty ring or jewel, Of fifty or threescore pound. Make it a hundred, And hedge in the last forty that I owe you, And your own price for the ring.

1671. Buckingham, The Rehearsal, Prol. Now, critics, do your worst, that here are met, For, like a rook, I have hedg’d in my bet.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hedge, to secure a desperate Bet, Wager, or Debt.

1736. Fielding, Pasquin, Act iii. Sneer. That’s laying against yourself, Mr. Trapwit. Trap. I love a hedge, sir.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Hedge (v.) … also to secure or re-insure a dangerous debt, voyage, wager, etc.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxix. They changed their note, and attempted to hedge for their own indemnification, by proposing to lay the odds in favour of Gauntlet.

1754. Connoisseur, No. 15. Whatever turn things take, he can never lose. This he has effected, by what he has taught the world to call, hedging a bet.

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

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xii. If she says ‘Yes,’ sell out.… If she says ‘No’ get second leave.… So it’s hedged both ways.

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 201. You’d better hedge some of your sweep money.

2. (common).—To elude a danger.

To die by the hedge, verb. phr. (common).—To die in poverty.

To hang in the hedge, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. It hangs in the hedge, of a Law-suit or anything else Depending, Undetermined.

As common as the hedge (or highway), phr. (old).—Very common.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. As common as the hedge or highway, said of a prostitute or Strumpet.

1725. New Cant. Dict. s.v.

By hedge or by crook. See Hook.

Hedge-bird, subs. (old).—See quot.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. Out, you rogue, you hedge-bird, you pimp, you panier-man’s bastard, you.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Hedge-bird, a Scoundrel or sorry Fellow.

1725. New Cant. Dict.

Hedge-bottom Attorney (or Solicitor), subs. phr. (legal).—A person who, being not admitted or being uncertificated (or, it may be, admitted and certificated both, but struck off the rolls for malpractice), sets up in the name of a qualified man, and thus evades the penalties attaching to those who act as solicitors without being duly qualified. [All the business is done in another name, but the hedge-bottom is the real principal, the partner being only a dummy.]—Sir Patrick Colquhoun in Slang, Jargon and Cant.

Hedge-creeper, subs. (old).—A hedge-thief; a skulker under hedges; a pitiful rascal.

1594. Nashe, Unfortunate Traveller p. 32 (Chiswick Press, 1892). Call him a sneaking eavesdropper, a scraping hedge-creeper, and a piperley pickthanke.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hedge-creeper; a pitiful rascal.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

Hedge-docked, adj. (venery).—Deflowered in the open.

Hedge-marriage (or wedding), subs. (old).—An irregular marriage performed by a hedge-priest (q.v.); a marriage over the broom.

Hedge-note, subs. (old).—Low writing. [As Dryden: ‘They left these hedge-notes for another sort of poem.’]

Hedge-popping, subs. (sporting).—Shooting small birds about hedges. Whence Hedge-popper = a trumpery shooter; and Hedge-game = small birds, as sparrows and tits.

Hedge-priest (or parson), subs. (old: now recognised).—A sham cleric; a blackguard or vagabond parson; a couple beggar. [As Johnson notes, the use of Hedge in a detrimental sense is common. As Hedge-begot; Hedge-born; Hedge-brat; Hedge-found; Hedge-docked (q.v.); Hedge-tavern (= a low alehouse); Hedge-square (q.v.); Hedge-reared; Hedge-mustard; Hedge-writer (= a Grub-street author); Hedge-building, etc. Shakspeare uses the phrase ‘Hedge-born’ as the very opposite of ‘gentle blooded’ (1 Henry VI., iv., 1).] Specifically, Hedge-priests = (in Ireland) a cleric admitted to orders directly from a Hedge-school (q.v.) without having studied theology. [Before Maynooth, men were admitted to ordination ere they left for the continental colleges, so that they might receive the stipend for saying mass.]

1588. Marprelate’s Epistle, p. 30 (Ed. Arber). Is it any maruaile that we haue so many swine dumbe dogs nonresidents with their iourneimen the hedge-priests … in our ministry.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, v., 2. The pedant, the braggart, the hedge-priest, the fool, and the boy.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Arlotto, the name of a merie priest, a lack-latine, or hedge-priest.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hedge Priest. A sorry Hackney, Underling, Illiterate, Vagabond, see Patrico.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. A hedge-parson, or buckle-beggar, as that order of priesthood has been irreverently termed.

Hedger. See Hedge, sense 2.

1828–45. Hood, Poems (Ed. 1846), p. 96. A black-leg saint, a spiritual hedger.

Hedge-school, subs. (Irish).—A school in the country parts of Ireland formerly conducted in the open air, pending the erection of a permanent building to which the name was transferred. Hence, hedge-schoolmaster.

Hedge-square. To doss (or snooze) in Hedge-square (or street), verb. phr. (vagrants’).—To sleep in the open air.

English Synonyms.—To skipper it; to doss with the daisies; to be under the blue blanket; to put up at the Gutter Hotel; to do a star pitch.

French Synonyms.—Coucher à l’hotel de la belle étoile (pop. = to sleep at the Star Hotel); manger une soupe aux herbes (popular); filer la comète (popular = to nose the comet); coucher dans le lit aux pois verts.

1877. Greenwood, Under the Blue Blanket. The vagrant brotherhood have several slang terms for sleeping out in a field or meadow. It is called ‘snoozing in Hedge Square,’ etc.

Hedge-tavern (or -ale-house), subs. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hedge Tavern or Alehouse, A Jilting, Sharping Tavern, or Blind Alehouse.

1705. Farquhar, Twin-rivals, i., 1. That was … in the days of dirty linen, pit-masks, hedge-taverns, and beef-steaks.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

Hedge-whore (or Hedge-bit), subs. (old: now recognised).—A filthy harlot working in the open air.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v., Zambracca, a common hedge-whore, strumpet, a base harlot.

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

Hedging, subs. (racing).—See Hedge, verbal sense 2.

1867. A. Trollope, Claverings, ch. xxiv. He would be lessening the odds against himself by a judicious hedging of his bets.

Heel. To bless the world with one’s heels, verb. phr. (old).—To be hanged. For synonyms, see Ladder.

1566–7. Painter, Palace of Pleasure, sign R., 8. And the next daye, the three theves were conveied forth to blesse the worlde with their heeles.

To cool (or kick) the heels, verb. phr. (common).—To wait a long while at an appointed place.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair. Who forthwith comitted my little hot furie to the stockes, where we will leave him to coole his heeles, whilst we take a further view of the faire.

1673. Wycherley, Gentleman Dancing Master, iv., 1. They ne’er think of the poor watchful chambermaid, who sits knocking her heels in the cold, for want of better exercise, in some melancholy lobby or entry.

1752. Fielding, Amelia. In this parlour Amelia cooled her heels, as the phrase is, near a quarter of an hour.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford [Ed. 1854], p. 22. He expected all who kicked their heels at his house would behave decent and polite to young Mr. Dot.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xiii. Tell him that I’ll trouble him to forget to go to sleep again as he did last time, and leave me here kicking my heels contrary to the rules of the service.

1879. Sala, Paris Herself Again, i. We cooled our heels during the ordinary an intolerable half hour.

1888. Lynch, Mountain Mystery, ch. xlvi. That young gentleman, who had been cooling his heels for what seemed like half the night.

To lay by the heels, verb. phr. (common).—To confine; to fetter; to jail.

1601. Shakspeare, Henry VIII., v., 4. If the king blame me for it, I’ll lay ye all By the heels, and suddenly.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iii. Sir, if you be not quiet the quicklier, I’ll have you clapp’d fairly by the heels, for disturbing the Fair.

1663–1678. Butler, Hudibras, i., 3. Th’ one half of man, his mind, Is, sui juris, unconfined, And cannot be laid by the heels.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 184. If they lay me by the heels, Alan, it’s then that you’ll be needing the money.

To lift one’s heels, verb. phr. (venery).—To lie down for copulation; to spread (q.v.).

To turn (or topple) up the heels (or toes), verb. phr. (old).—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse [Grosart], ii., 77. Our trust is … you will tourne up their heeles one of these yeares together, and prouide them of such vnthrifts to their heires, as shall spend in one weeke … what they got … all their lifetime.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe. Leaven thousand and fifty people toppled up their heels.

To take to (or show) a pair of heels, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To take to flight; to run away. For synonyms, see Amputate.

1593. Shakspeare, Comedy of Errors. Nay … Sir, I’ll take my heels.

1864. Chambers’ Journal, Dec. Once before he had ‘found meanes yet at length to deceive his keepers, and took him to his heels’ to the sea coast.

His heels, verb. phr. (gaming).—The knave of trumps at cribbage or all-fours. Hence ‘two for his heels’ = two points scored (at cribbage) for turning up this card.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

To tread upon (or to be at or upon) the heels, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To follow close or hard after; to pursue.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iv., 7. One woe doth tread upon another’s heels.

To go heels over head, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To turn a somersault; to be hasty; to fall violently. Also Top over Tail.

1540. Lyndsay, Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, 3744. This fals warld is turnit top ouir taill.

To have (or get) the heels of, verb. phr. (old).—To outrun; to get an advantage.

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random. Thou hast got the heels of me already.

Down (or out) at heel, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Slipshod; shabby; in decay.

1605. Shakspeare, King Lear, ii., 2. A good man’s future may grow out at heels.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1851–6. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 122. He was a little down at heel.

Heeled, adj. (American).—Armed. [From the steel spur used in cock-fighting.]

Heeler, subs. (American).—1. Followers or henchmen of a politician or a party.

1888. Denver Republican, 29 Feb. The heelers and strikers, bummers and stuffers, otherwise known as practical politicians, who do the work at the Democratic polls, and manipulate the primaries and local conventions.

1888. New York Herald, 4 Nov. A band succeeded them and preceded a lot of ward heelers and floaters.

2. (American).—A bar, or other loafer; anyone on the look-out for shady work.

3. (American thieves’)—An accomplice in the pocket-book racket (q.v.). [The Heeler draws attention, by touching the victim’s heels, to a pocket-book containing counterfeit money which has been let drop by a companion, with a view to inducing the victim to part with genuine coin for a division of the find.]

4. (Winchester College).—A plunge, feet foremost, into water. Fr., une chandelle.

Heel-taps, subs. (common).—1. Liquor in the bottom of a glass. Bumpers round and no heel taps = Fill full, and drain dry! See Daylight. Fr., la musique.

1795. Gent. Mag., p. 118. Briskly pushed towards me the decanter containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll buzz you: come, no heel-taps!’

1836. Dickens, Pickwick (Ed. 1857), p. 10. No heel-taps, and he emptied the glass.

1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xxxii. There was a proper objection to drinking her in heeltaps.

1841. Punch, i., 117. Empty them heeltaps, Jack, and fill out with a fresh jug.

1844. Buckstone, The Maid with the Milking Pail. Added to which, she’s a termagant, and imbibes all the heeltaps.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xiv. The relics of yesterday’s feast—the emptied bottles … the wretched heel-taps that have been lying exposed all night to the air.

2. (common).—A dance peculiar to London dustmen.

Heifer, subs. (common).—A woman; old heifer (in Western America) = a term of endearment. For synonyms, see Petticoat.

18(?). In the Back Woods, p. 71. Now, git out, I says, or the ol’ heifer ’ll show you whar the carpenter left a hole for you to mosey.

Heifer-paddock, subs. (Australian).—A ladies’ school.

1885. Mrs. Campbell-Praed, Australian Life. The cattle (women) hereabouts are too scattered.… Next year I shall look over a heifer-paddock in Sydney, and take my pick.

Heigh-ho, subs. (thieves’).—Stolen yarn. [From the expression used to apprise the fence that the speaker had stolen yarn to sell.]

Heights. To scale the heights of connubial bliss, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Helbat, subs. (back).—A table.

Hell, subs. (old).—1. Generic for a place of confinement, as in some games (Sydney), or a cell in a prison: specifically, a place under the Exchequer Chamber, where the king’s debtors were confined.

1593. Shakspeare, Comedy of Errors, iv., 2. A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well, One that before the judgement, carries poor souls to hell.

1658. Counter-Rat. In Wood Street’s hole, or counter’s hell.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Secreta.… Also the name of a place in Venice where all their secret records and ancient evidences be kept, as hell is in Westminster Hall.

2. (old).—A workman’s receptacle for stolen or refuse pieces, as cloth, type, etc.; one’s eye. Also Hell-hole and Hell-box. See Cabbage. Hell-matter = (printers’) old and battered type.

(?). Newest Academy of Compliments. When taylors forget to throw cabbage in hell, And shorten their bills, that all may be well.

1589. Nashe, Martins Months Minde (Grosart), i. 185. Remember the shreddes that fall into the Tailors hell, neuer come backe to couer your backe.

1592. Defence of Conny Catching, in Greene’s Wks., xi., 96. This hel is a place that the tailors haue vnder their shopboord, wher al their stolne shreds is thrust.

1606. Day, Ile of Gulls. That fellowes pocket is like a tailors hell, it eats up part of every mans due; ’tis an executioner, and makes away more innocent petitions in one yeere, than a red-headed hangman cuts ropes in an age.

1625. Jonson, Staple of News, i., 1. That jest Has gain’d thy pardon, thou hadst lived Condemn’d To thine own hell.

1663. T. Killegrew, Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5., in Dodsley, O.P. (1780) xi., 452. Careless [addressing a tailor]. Why then, thou art damned. Go, go home, and throw thyself into thine own hell; it is the next way to the other.

1663–1712. King, Art of Cookery. In Covent Garden did a taylor dwell, Who might deserve a place in his own hell.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hell, the Place where the Taylers lay up their Cabbage, or Remnants, which are sometimes very large.

1698. Money Masters All Things, p. 56. The Cheating Knave some of the clues does throw Into his hell-hole; and then lets her know That he her web cannot work out o’ th’ Loom.

1704. Swift, Tale of a Tub, Sec. iii. The tailor’s hell is the type of a critic’s common-place book.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

1814. C. Lamb, Melancholy of Tailors in Poems, etc. (Ed. Ainger), p. 333. The tailor sitting over a cave or hollow place, in the cabalistic language of his order, is said to have certain melancholy regions always open under his feet.

1853. Notes and Queries, 1 S., viii., 315, c. 2. The term cabbage, by which tailors designate the cribbed pieces of cloth, is said to be derived from an old word ‘cablesh,’ i.e., wind-fallen wood. And their hell where they store the cabbage, from helan, to hide.

3. (common).—A gambling house. [Whence Silver-hell = a gambling house where only silver is played for; Dancing-hell = an unchartered hall; and so forth.]

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 4. Jerry. A hell, Tom? I’m at fault again! Log. A gambling house, Jerry!

1841. Comic Almanack, p. 280. A man at a hell, Playing the part of a Bonnetter well.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxxix. He plays still; he is in a hell every night almost.

1890. Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, c. 2. These private hells nevertheless exist, and as all money found on the premises is seized by the police, the players have to resort to all kinds of subterfuge when the three loud knocks are heard which indicate the presence of the commissaire.

4. (venery).—The female pudendum; cf., Heaven. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. [See Boccaccio, Decameron.]

Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, subs. phr. (old).—Three ale-houses formerly situated near Westminster Hall.

1610. Jonson, Alchemist, v., 2. He must not break his fast In Heaven or Hell.

Hell broke loose, subs. phr. (common).—Extreme disorder; anarchy.

1632. Hausted, Rivall Friends, v., 10. Fye, fye, hell is broke loose upon me.

1672. Marvell, Rehearsal (Grosart), iii, 212. War broke out, and then to be sure hell’s broke loose.

1703. Farquhar, Inconstant, iv., 4. Hell broke loose upon me, and all the furies fluttered about my ears.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 96. Tho’ hell’s broke loose, and the Devils roar abroad.

Hell of a (lark, goer, row, and so forth), adj. phr. (common).—Very much of a ——; a popular intensitive.

All to hell (or gone to hell), adj. phr. (colloquial).—Utterly ruined.

To hope (or wish) to hell, verb. phr. (common).—To desire intensely.

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 229. I hope to h—— the horse will break his neck and his rider’s too.

To play (or kick up) hell and tommy, verb. phr. (common).—To ruin utterly. Also, to play hell and break things; to raise hell; to make hell’s delight.

1837–40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, p. 287 (Ed. 1862). And in the mean time rob ’em, plunder ’em, and tax ’em; hang their priests, seize their galls, and play hell and tommy with them, and all because they speak French.

1859. De Quincey, Wks. (14 vol., ed. vi., 336). About a hundred years earlier Lord Bacon played h—— and tommy when casually raised to the supreme seat in the Council by the brief absence in Edinburgh of the King and the Duke of Buckingham.

1867. Lahore Chronicle, 20 May. The Sepoys are burning down the houses, and playing h—— and tommy with the station.

1879. Justin M’Carthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xxxii. We’ll have a fine bit of fun, I tell you. I’ve played hell-and-tommy already with the lot of them.

To lead apes in hell, verb. phr. (old).—To die an old maid. [From a popular superstition.]

1599. Henry Porter, The Two Angry Women of Abingdon. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 294–5). For women that are wise will not lead apes in hell.… Therefore, come husband: maidenhead adieu.

1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado about Nothing, ii., 1. He that is more than youth is not for me, and he that is less than man I am not for him; therefore I will … even lead his apes into hell.

1605. London Prodigal, ii. But ’tis an old proverb, and you know it well, that women, dying maids, lead apes in hell.

1611. Chapman, May-day, v. 2. I am beholden to her; she was loth to have me lead apes in hell.

1659. The London Chanticleers, i., 2. I’ll always live a virgin! What! and lead apes in hell?

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 179. Celladon at that began To talk of apes in hell.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Bloudie Jacke.’ They say she is now leading apes … And mends Bachelors’ small clothes below.

To put the devil into hell, verb. phr. (old).—To copulate.—Boccaccio. [Hell = female pudendum.] For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

To give hell, verb. phr. (common).—To trounce; abuse; or punish severely. Also (American), to make one smell hell (or a damn particular smell).

Hell-for-leather, adv. phr. (common).—With the utmost energy and desperation.

1892. R. Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads. When we rode hell-for-leather, Both squadrons together, Not caring much whether we lived or we died.

Like hell, adv. phr. (common).—Desperately; with all one’s might.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxix. I tried every place, everything; went to Ems, to Wiesbaden, to Hombourg, and played like hell.

Go to hell! phr. (Common).—An emphatic dismissal: the full phrase is, ‘Go to hell and help the devil to make your mother into a bitch pie.’ [A variant is, ‘Go to hell and pump thunder.’] For analogous phrases, see Oaths.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 72. So, good men, go to hell all of you—do—very mosh go to hell—do.

1889. Daily News, 21 Dec., p. 7, c. 1. He was asked to see somebody about his evidence, and told him to go to hell.

1892. Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads. ‘Ford o’ Kabul River.’ Kabul town’ll go to hell.

Hell and Scissors! intj. (American).—An ejaculation of surprise and ridicule. In England, Scissors!

Hell-bender, subs. (American).—A drunken frolic; a tremendous row. Also Hell-a-popping and Hell’s delight.

Hell-broth, subs. (common).—Bad liquor. For synonyms, see Drinks.

Hell-cat (-hag, -hound, -kite, etc.), subs. (old: now recognised).—A man or woman of hellish disposition; a lewdster of either sex; cf., Hallion.

1606. Shakspeare, Macbeth, v., 7. Macd. Turn, hell-hound, turn! Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

Hell-driver, subs. (old).—A coachman.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

Hellite, subs. (gaming).—A professional gambler.—Ducange.

1838. Grant, Sketches in London. Prosecuting the hellites for assault.

Hellophone, subs. (American).—The telephone. [From Halloo! + phone.]

Help, subs. (colloquial: once literary).—A hired assistant. Lady-help = a woman acting as a companion, and undertaking the lighter domestic duties with or without wages.

1824. Peake, Americans Abroad, i., 1. Have you seen my help—my nigger.

1839. De Quincey, Murder as one of the Fine Arts, ii. For domestic helps are pretty generally in a state of transition.

1848. Burton, Waggeries, p. 77. A bevy of ready helps rushed upon him and tore him from the seat of honour.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. vi. ‘Well, you’ve had a pretty good day of it,’ said Tom, who had been hugely amused; ‘but I should feel nervous about the help, if I were you.’

So help (or s’elp or s’welp) me God (Bob, never, or say-so, etc.), phr. (common).—An emphatic asseveration.

1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 86. I’ll pay it back, s’elp me Gord.

1892. A. Chevalier, ‘Mrs. ’Enery ’Awkins.’ Selp me Bob I’m crazy, Liza, you’re a daisy.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 62. ’Selp me never, old pal, it’s a scorcher.

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. xiv. Well, so help my blessed tater, if this isn’t our old Jose turned up again.

Helpa, subs. (back).—An apple.

Helpless, adj. (colloquial).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Hemispheres, subs. (venery).—The paps. For synonyms, see Dairy.

Hemp (or Hemp-seed, Stretch-Hemp, Hemp-string, or Hempy), subs. (old).—1. A rogue; a candidate fit for the gallows. Frequently used jocularly. A crack-halter (q.v.). Fr., une graine de bagne.

1532. Sir T. More, Wks. [1557], folio 715. [He] feareth [not] to mocke the Sacrament, the blessed body of God, and ful like a stretch hempe, call it but cake, bred, or starch.

1566. Gascoigne, Supposes, iv., 3. If I come near you, hempstring, I will teach you to sing sol fa.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., ii., 1. Do, do, thou rogue, thou hemp-seed.

1606. Chapman, Mons. D’Olive, Act v., p. 135. (Plays, 1874). Van. A perfect young hempstring. Va. Peace, least he overhear you.

1659. Lady Alimony, iv., 6. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., p. 350). Now, you hempstrings, had you no other time to nim us but when we were upon our visits?

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hemp, young-hemp, An appellation for a graceless boy.

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. xxxiv. She’s under lawful authority now; and full time, for she was a daft hempie.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, [Ed. 1840], p. 139. ‘We’ll see that, young hempseed,’ replied Sharples.

2. (old).—A halter.

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, iv, 14. Laudanum, therefore, being unable to stop the health of our hero, which the fruit of hempseed, and not the spirit of poppy-seed, was to overcome.…

Verb (American).—To choke or strangle.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

To wag hemp in the wind, verb. phr. (old).—To be hanged. See Hempen Fever and Ladder.

1532. Sir T. More, Wks. [1557], folio 715. Tindall calleth blessing and crossynge but wagging of folkes fingers in the æyre, and feareth not (like one yt would at length wagge hempe in the winde) to mocke at all such miracles.

Hempen-bridle, subs. (old).—A ship’s rope or rigging. See Horse and Tree.

Hempen Collar (candle, circle, cravat, croak, garter, necktie, or habeas), subs. (old).—The hangman’s noose; a halter. Also Hemp, and the Hearty-choke. Cf., Anodyne neck-lace. See quot. 1595.

1530–95. Turbervile, Of Two Desperate Men. A man in deepe despaire, with hempe in hand, Went out in haste to ende his wretched dayes.

c. 1586. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv., 4. When the hangman had put on his hempen.

1594. Shakspeare, 2 Henry VI., iv., 7. Ye shall have a hempen candle then, and the pap of a hatchet.

c. 1785. Wolcot [P. Pindar], Rights of Kings, Ode xviii. Your hemp cravats, your pray’r, your Tyburn miser.

1819. Scott, Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xvi. I wad wager twa and a plack that hemp plaits his cravat yet.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hempen Habeas. He will get over it by a hempen habeas.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. iv. If ever I know as how you makes a flat of my Paul, blow me tight, but I’ll weave you a hempen collar: I’ll hang you, you dog, I will.

1886. Miss Braddon, Mohawks, ch. xxviii. A full confession were perhaps too much to expect. Nothing but the immediate prospect of a hempen necklace would extort that.

Hempen Fever. To die of a hempen fever, verb. phr. (old).—To be hanged. For synonyms, see Ladder.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hempen Fever, a man who was hanged, is said to have died of a hempen fever; and in Dorsetshire to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 76. She had been married four times; three of her husbands died of hempen fevers.

Hempen-fortune, subs. (old).—Bad luck; a term for the gallows.

1705. Vanbrugh, The Confederacy, v., 1. If ever I see one glance of your hempen fortune again, I’m off your partnership for ever.

Hempen-squincy, subs. (old).—Hanging. For synonyms, see Ladder.

1646. Randolph’s Jealous Lovers. Hear you, tutour, Shall not we be suspected for the murder, And choke with a hempen squincy.

Hempen-widow, subs. (old).—A woman widowed by the gallows.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hempen Widow, One whose Husband was Hanged.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hempen-Widow (s.), a woman whose husband was hanged.

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

1834. Harrison Ainsworth, Rookwood, p. 89. In a box of the stone-jug I was born, Of a hempen-widow the kid forlorn Fake away.

Hen, subs. (common).—1. A woman. Specifically, a wife or mistress. For synonyms, see Petticoat.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hen. In Black-boy Alley I’ve a ken, A tyke and fighting cock; A saucy tip-slang moon-eyed hen, Who is oft mill-doll at block.

2. (common).—Drink money. See Hen drinking.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 20. Whenever there’s hens on the crow, ’Arry’s good for a hinnings,—no fear!

Verb (Scots’).—To funk; to turn tail; to hen on = to fear to attempt.

Cock and hen club, subs. phr. (common).—A club composed of men and women.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Hens and Chickens, subs. phr. (thieves’).—Pewter measures; quarts and pints. Cf., Cat and Kittens.

1851. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. i., p. 276. The hens and chickens of the roguish low lodging-houses are the publicans’ pewter measures; the bigger vessels are ‘hens,’ the smaller are ‘chickens.’

Hen-drinking, subs. (provincial).—See quot.

1859. Notes and Queries, 2 S. viii., 239. There is yet another [Yorkshire marriage-custom], viz., the hen-drinking. On the evening of the wedding day the young men of the village call upon the bridegroom for a hen—meaning money for refreshments … should the hen be refused, the inmates may expect some ugly trick to the house ere the festivities terminate.

Hen Frigate, subs. (nautical).—A ship commanded by the captain’s wife. Cf., Hen-pecked.

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

1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, s.v.

Hen-fruit, subs. (American).—Eggs.

Hen (or Chicken)-hearted, adj. (old: now recognised).—Timorous; cowardly.

d. 1529. Skelton, Why Come Ye not to Courte. They kepe them in their holdes Lyke hen-hearted cuckoldes.

1506–56. Udal, James I. He is reconed a lowte and a henne-hearted rascall.

1639–61. Rump Songs, i., [1662] 319. Let the hen-hearted Cit drink whey.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hen-hearted, of a cowardly, fearful, or timorous disposition.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2nd Ed.), s.v. ‘Poltron.’ A coward, or hen-hearted fellow.

1762. Foote, Liar, iii., 2. Why, what a dastardly, hen-hearted——But come, Papillion, this shall be your last campaign.

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

1812. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v. Hen-hearted … a low word.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. Are you turned hen-hearted, Jack?

Hen-house, subs. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hen-house, a house where the woman rules, called also a she-house.

Hen of the game. See Game.

Hen-party (Convention- or Tea-), subs. (common).—An assemblage of women for political or social purposes. Cf., Bull or Stag-party. Also, Bitch-, Tabby-, and Cat-party.

Hen-pecked, adj. (old: now recognised).—Petticoat government; ruled by a woman.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Henpeckt Friggat, whose Commander and Officers are absolutely sway’d by their Wives. Ibid. Henpeckt Husband, whose Wife wears the Breeches.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, iv., 13. I believe he that marries you will go to sea in a hen-pecked frigate.

1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, Pt. I., ch. v. He had a termagant wife, and, as the neighbours said, was playing henpecked!

1712. Spectator, No. 479. Socrates, who is by all accounts the undoubted head of the sect of the hen-pecked.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hen-pecked, a man that is over-awed by his wife, and dares do nothing disagreeable to her inclinations.

1771. Smollett, Humphry Clinker, l. 27. I shall never presume to despise or censure any poor man for suffering himself to be henpecked, conscious how I myself am obliged to truckle to a domestic demon.

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

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xxxvii. He had fallen from all the height and pomp of beadleship, to the lowest depth of the most snubbed hen-peckery.

1857. A. Trollope, Barchester Towers, ch. iii. But Mrs. Proudie is not satisfied with such home dominion, and stretches her power over all his movements, and will not even abstain from things spiritual. In fact, the bishop is hen-pecked.

Hen’s-arsehole.—See Mouth.

Hen-snatcher, subs. (American).—A chicken thief.

1888. Bulletin, 24 Nov. All the dead-beats and suspected hen-snatchers plead when before the Bench that they were only ‘mouching round,’ etc.

Hens’-rights, subs. (American).—Women’s rights.

Hen-toed, adj. phr. (common).—To turn the toes in walking like a fowl.

Here. Here’s to you (at you, unto you, now, or luck), phr. (common).—An invitation to drink; here’s a health to you. For synonyms, see Drinks.

1651. Cartwright, Royal Slave. Here’s to thee, Leocrates.

1717. Ned Ward, Wks. ii., 71. Then we were fain To use Hertfordshire kindness, here’s to you again.

1853. Diogenes ii., 46. Each a pot in his hand.… Observed in a style of remarkable ease, ‘Old Buck here’s luck,’ And then at the pewter proceeded to suck.

Here’s luck, phr. (tailors’).—I don’t believe you.

I am not here, phr. (tailors’).—‘I don’t feel inclined to work’; ‘I wish to be left alone.’

Here’s to it, phr. (common).—An obscene toast. See It, sense 2.

Here-and-Thereian, subs. phr. (old).—A rolling stone; a person with no permanent address. Lex. Bal., 1811.

Hereford, adj. (American cowboy). White. [Herefords are white-faced.]

Herefordshire-weed, subs. (old).—An oak.

Her Majesty’s Carriage, subs. phr. (common).—A prison van; the Queen’s ’bus. See Black Maria. Fr., l’omnibus à pègres.

Her Majesty’s Tobacco Pipe, subs. (common).—The furnace where the forfeited tobacco from the Customs House is burnt. [Now a thing of the past: the tobacco being distributed to workhouses, etc.]

1871. Echo, 27 Jan. All that was not sold will be burnt, according to custom, in her majesty’s tobacco pipe. We cannot think such waste justifiable.

Hermit (or Baldheaded Hermit), subs. (venery).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Herod. To out-herod Herod, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To out-do; specifically (theatrical) to excel in rant.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iii., 2. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, perriwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings … it out-herods Herod.

Herring. Neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring, phr. (old).—Neither one thing nor the other.

1682. Dryden, Duke of Guise, Epil. (6th line from end). Neuters in their middleway of fleering, Are neither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.

To throw a sprat to catch a herring (or whale), verb. phr. (old).—To forego an advantage in the hope of greater profit.

1826. Buckstone, Luke the Labourer, i., 2. I give dat like throwing away a sprat to catch a herring, though I hope on this occasion to catch a bigger fish.

1890. Grant Allen, Tents of Shem, ch. xix. He’s casting a sprat to catch a whale.

Dead as a herring (or shotten herring), adv. phr. (old).—Quite dead. [Herrings die sooner on leaving the water than most fish.] See Dead.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, ii., 3. By gar de herring is no dead as I vill kill him.

1785. Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook. I’ll nail the self-conceited sot As dead’s a herrin’.

1790. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 4. Ay, dead as herrings—herrings that are red.

Like herrings in a barrel, adv. phr. (common).—Very crowded.

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 117. People jammed inside like herrings in a barrel.

The devil a barrel the better herring, phr. (old).—All bad alike.—Lex. Bal. In modern American, all alike; indistinguishable. Cf., Sardine.

Herring-gutted, adj. (old).—Lanky; thin.—Grose.

Herring-pond, subs. (common).—The sea; specifically, the North Atlantic Ocean. See Briny and Puddle. To be sent across the herring-pond = to be transported.

1722. England’s Path to Wealth. ’Tis odds but a finer country, cheaper and better food and raiment, wholesomer air, easier rents and taxes, will tempt many of your countrymen to cross the herring-pond.

1729. Gay, Polly, i., 1. Bless us all! how little are our customs known on this side the herring pond!

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

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, etc., s.v. Herring-pond—the sea, the Atlantic; and he who is gone across it is said to be lagged, or gone a Botanizing.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 256, ed. 1854. You’re too old a hand for the herring-pond.

1864. M. E. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. xxv. You’re not going to run away? You’re not going to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and make an early expedition across the herring-pond—eh?

1884. Phillipps-Woolley, Trottings of a Tenderfoot. Everyone nowadays has read as much as he or she cares to about the voyage across the herring-pond.

1889. Notes and Queries, 7 S., vii., p. 36, c. 2. Terms which have lived in America, and again crossed the herring-pond with modern traffic.

1890. Punch, 6 Feb. Saturday.—My connection with war ended. Calculate I start to-morrow with the Show across the herring-pond, to wake up the Crowned Heads of Europe!

1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. If so, I’ll—I’ll cut him, when I cross the—er—herrin’ pond.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 119. I guess we have ruined one or two well-known authors, on the other side of the herring pond.

Hertfordshire-kindness, subs. (old).—An acknowledgment, or return, in kind, of favours received. (But see quots., 1662, 1690, and 1738).

1662. Fuller, Worthies. This is generally taken in a good and grateful sense, for the mutual return of favours received: it being (belike) observed that the people in this county at entertainments drink back to them who drank to them.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hertfordshire-kindness, Drinking to the same Man again.

1717. Ned Ward, Wks., ii., 7. Then we were fain To use Hertfordshire-kindness, Here’s to you again.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversations. Neverout. My Lord, this moment I did myself the honour to drink to your Lordship. Lord Smart. Why then that’s Hertfordshire Kindness. Neverout. Faith, my Lord, I pledged myself: for I drank twice together without thinking.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hertfordshire Kindness, drinking twice to the same person.

Hewgag. The Hewgag, subs. (American).—A name for an undeterminate, unknown, mythical creature.—Slang, Jargon, and Cant.

Hey-gammer-cook. To play at Hey-gammer-cook, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

1720. C. Johnson, Highwaymen and Pyrates, ‘Margaret Simpson’ (q.v.).

Hiccius Doccius, subs. phr. (Old Cant).—A juggler; also a shifty fellow or trickster.

1676. Shadwell, Virtuoso, ii., p. 19. I shall stand here till one of them has whipt away my Mistris about business, with a Hixius Doxius, with the force of Repartee, and this, and that, and Everything in the world.

1678. Butler, Hudibras, iii., 3, 579. At Westminster, and Hickses-Hall, And Hiccius Dockius play’d in all.

1688. Wycherley, Country Wife, iii. That burlesque is a Hocus-pocus trick they have got, which by the virtue of Hictius doctius, topsey-turvey, etc.

1812. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v. Hiccius doccius … a cant word for a juggler; one that plays fast and loose.

Adj. (old).—Drunk; slovenly. Also, Hickey (q.v.). For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1733. North, Examen, i., 3, 137 (1740). The author with his Hiccius-doxius delivery.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hicksius Doxius, Drunk.

Hic Jacet, subs. phr. (common).—A tombstone; also a memorial inscription. [From the opening words.]

1598. Shakspeare, All’s Well, etc., iii., 6. The merit of service is seldom attributed to the true … performer. I would have that drum … or hic jacet.

1858–59. Tennyson, Idylls of the King (‘Vivien’). Among the cold hic jacets of the dead.

Hick, subs. (Old Cant).—I. A man; specifically a countryman; a booby. Also (American thieves’) Hickjop and Hicksam. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hick, any Person of whom any Prey can be made, or Booty taken from; also a silly Country Fellow.

1720. Smith, Lives of Highwaymen and Pyrates, ii., 39. Among whom was a country farmer … which was not missed at all by the Country Hick.

1725. New Cant. Dict. Song 3. ‘The Thief-catcher’s Prophesy.’ The Eighth is a Bulk, that can bulk any Hick.

1754. Scoundrel’s Dict. The fourteenth, a gamester, if he sees the Hick sweet He presently drops down a cog in the street.

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

Hickety-split, adj. (American).—With all one’s might; at top speed; hammer and tongs (q.v.); full chisel (q.v.).

Hickey, adj. (old).—See quot.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Hickey, Tipsy; not quite drunk; elated.

Hickory-shirt, subs. (American).—A checked shirt, cotton or woollen.

Hide, subs. (common).—The human skin. Once literary; now colloquial and vulgar.

1568. Bannatyne MSS., ‘When Flora, etc.’ (Hunterian Club, 1879–88). Sche is so brycht of hyd and hew, I lufe bot hir allane I wene.

1607. Marston, What You Will, ii., I. A skubbing railer, whose course harden’d fortune, Grating his hide, gauling his starued ribs, Sittes hauling at Deserts more battle fate.

1731. C. Coffey, The Devil to Pay, Sc. 5. Come, and spin, you drab, or I’ll tan your hide for you.

1892. Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads. ‘Gunga-Din.’ An’ for all ’is dirty ’ide ’e was white, clear white, inside.

Verb (common).—To flog. For synonyms, see Tan.

1868. Cassell’s Mag., May, p. 80. This was carried across the yard to Jacky as a regular challenge, and some said that Kavanagh and his friends were coming over to hide Jacky after dinner.

1885. Punch, 29 Aug. p. 98. And the silver-topped rattan with which the boys I used to hide.

Hidebound, adj. (old: now recognised).—Barren; intractable; niggardly; pedantic; utterly immovable.

1606. Return from Parnassus, ii., 4 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 125). Any of the hidebound brethren of Oxford or Cambridge.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, i., 2. I am as barren and hidebound as one of your scribbling poets, who are sots in company for all their wit.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hidebound Horse, whose Skin sticks very close, and tite like a Pudding Bag, usually when very Fat. Ibid. Hidebound Muse, Stiff, hard of Delivery, Sir J. Suckling call’d Ben Johnson’s so.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

1893. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Feb. ‘High Time to Get Up.’ The most dragging inertness and the most hide-bound celerity.

Hiding, subs. (common).—A thrashing. For synonyms, see Tanning.

1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, ii., p. 23. May the Gown give the Town a jolly good hiding.

1864. Mark Lemon, Jest Book, p. 236. Some people have a notion that villany ought to be exposed, though we must confess we think it a thing that deserves a hiding.

1871. All the Year Round, 18 Feb. p. 288. Served me right if I’d got a hiding.

1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Apr., p. 7, c. 2. They should stone all boys they met who were not members of the society, or in default themselves receive a good hiding.

1888. Sportsman, 22 Dec. The chairman told Deakin he could scarcely expect anything but a hiding for being connected with such a scurrilous publication.

1891. Licensed Vict. Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 7, c. 1. Before Paddock could claim the victory, which cost the Redditch fighter one of the severest hidings he ever had to put up with.

Higgledy-piggledy, adj. (Old Cant: now recognised).—In confusion; topsy-turvy; at sixes and sevens.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Alla rappa, snatchingly, higledi-pigledie, shiftingly, rap and run.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Higglede-piggledy, all together, as Hoggs and Piggs lie Nose in Arse.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1758. A. Murphy, The Upholsterer, ii. Ambassadors and Hair-Cutters, all higgledy-piggledy together.

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

1812. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v. Higgledy-piggledy, a cant word, corrupted from higgle, which denotes any confused mass, as higglers carry a huddle of provisions together.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. His name’s got all the letters in it, higgledy-piggledy.

1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, ch. ii. We are all higgledy-piggledy—at sixes and sevens!

1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard, ch. xvi. ‘If some of you will sit down,’ remonstrated Judith, ‘I’ll pour out the tea. But I don’t feel as if anybody wanted it while you’re standing about higgledy-piggledy.’

Higgler, subs. (old).—A hawker.

High, adj. (American).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

2. (colloquial).—Stinking; gamey (q.v.).; whence, by implication, diseased (as a prostitute); obscene in intention and effect.

The high and dry, subs. phr. (clerical).—The High Church or Anglo-Catholic party in the Establishment, as opposed to the low and slow (q.v.), or Evangelical section. Cf., Broad and Shallow.

1854. Conybeare, Church Parties, 74. Its adherents [of the High Church] are fallen from their high estate, and are contemptuously denominated the high and dry, just as the parallel development of the Low Church is nicknamed ‘low and slow.’

1857. Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, ch. liii. Who belongs to the high and dry church, the High Church as it was some fifty years since, before tracts were written and young clergymen took upon themselves the highly meritorious duty of cleaning churches?

1886. Graphic, 10 Apr., 399. In the Church have we not the three schools of High and Dry, Low and Slow, and Broad and Shallow?

High and dry, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Stranded; abandoned; irrecoverable.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 18 Oct., 6, 1. It seems to me that Mr. Chamberlain must really look out or he will find himself, as the result of that insidious ‘mellowing process’ to which Mr. Matthews has testified, landed high and dry in a Toryism compared to which Sir Walter Barttelot will show in Radical colours.

High and mighty, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Arrogant; imperious; proud; ‘on the high horse,’ or the ‘high ropes’ (q.v.); full of side (q.v.).

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 121. None of your high and mighty games with me.

1892. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, i., 2. Ye need na be sae high and mighty onyway.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 49. ‘Mighty high some people are, ain’t they?’ the man observed loudly, straightening himself, and ordering a nobbler for himself.

Too high for one’s nut, adv. phr. (American).—Out of one’s reach; beyond one’s capacity; over one’s bend (q.v.).

You can’t get high enough, verb. phr. (common).—A derisive comment on any kind of failure. [Probably obscene in origin.]

How is that for high? phr. (American).—‘What do you think of it?’ [Once a tag universal; common wear now.]

1860. Bartlett, Americanisms, s.v. High. For when he slapped my broad-brim off, and asked, How’s that for high? It roused the Adam in me, and I smote him hip and thigh!

1872. Clemens (Mark Twain), Roughing It, 334. We are going to get it up regardless of expense. [He] was always nifty himself, and so you bet his funeral ain’t going to be no slouch,—solid silver door-plate on his coffin, six plumes on the hearse, and a nigger on the box in a biled shirt and a plug hat,—how’s that for high?

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Sep., p. 2, c. 1. ‘Cricket’ stories are the thing just now. How is this for high?

High-bellied (or High in the Belly), adj. phr. (colloquial).—Far gone in pregnancy. Also High-waisted.

Highbinder, subs. (American).—1. A Chinese blackmailer.

2. (political American).—A political conspirator.—Norton.

High-bloke, subs. (American).—1. A judge.

2. (American).—A well-dressed man; a splawger (q.v.).—Matsell.

Higher-malthusianism, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Sodomy.

Highfalute, verb. (American).—To use fine words. Also to yarn (q.v.). See Highfaluting. Fr., faire l’étroite.

Highfaluting, subs. (formerly American: now general).—Bombast; rant.

1865. Orchestra. We should not think of using high-falutin on ordinary serious occasions, and that we never shall use it in future, unless we happen to speak of the Porcupine critic.

1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 May, 6, 2. A glib master of frothy fustian, of flatulent high-falutin’, and of oratorical bombast.

Adj. (general).—Bombastic; fustian; thrasonical.

1870. Friswell, Modern Men of Letters. A driveller of tipsy, high-flown, and high-falutin’ nonsense.

1884. Echo, 17 Mar., p. 1, c. 4. It is the boast of high-falutin’ Americans that theirs is a country ‘where every man can do as he darn pleases.’

High-feather. In high feather, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In luck; on good terms with oneself and the world.

High-fly. To be on the high-fly, verb. phr. (thieves’).—Specifically, to practise the begging-letter imposture, but (generally) to tramp the country as a beggar.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, 163. The High-fly—beggars, with letters, pretending to be broken-down gentlemen, captains, etc.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, (3rd ed.), p. 445. Begging letters—the highfly.

Highflyer, subs. (old).—1. Anything or anybody out of the common, in opinion, pretension, attire, and so forth: as a prostitute (high-priced and well-dressed); an adventurer (superb in impudence and luck). 2. A dandy, male or female, of the first water. 3. A fast coach.

1690. Dryden. Prol. to Mistakes in Wks., p. 473 (Globe). He’s no high-flyer—he makes no sky-rockets, His squibs are only levelled at your pockets.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. High-flyers, Impudent, Forward, Loose, Light Women. Also, bold adventurers.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, i., 1. Well, as high a flyer as you are, I have a lure may make you stoop.

1706. R. Estcourt, Fair Example, Act i., p. 10. You may keep company with the highest flyer of ’em all.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, i. Mail-coach races against mail-coach, and high-flyer against high-flyer, through the most remote districts of Britain.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, v. As you have your high-fliers at Almack’s, at the West End, we have also some ‘choice creatures’ at our All Max in the East.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. High-flyers—women of the town, in keeping, who job a coach, or keep a couple of saddle-horses at least.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, (Ed. 1854) p. 75. Howsomever, the high-flyers doesn’t like him; and when he takes people’s money, he need not be quite so cross about it!

1860. Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller, xxii., p. 131. The old room on the ground floor where the passengers of the High-flyers used to dine.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, i., 5. Mrs. Boffin, Wegg … is a ’ighflyer at fashion.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 40. Foller yer leader, … all who can carry sufficient skyscrapers to keep in the ’unt, with that ’ighflyer ’Arry.

4. (thieves’).—A beggar with a certain style; a begging-letter writer; a broken swell.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 268. While pursuing the course of a high-flyer (genteel beggar).

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 268. He was a high-flier, a genteel beggar.

1887. Standard, 20 June, p. 5, c. 2. The pretended noblemen and knights who ‘say they have suffered by war, fire, or captivity, or have been driven away, and lost all they had,’ are still represented by the high-flyers or broken-down gentlemen.

5. (circus).—A swing fixed in rows in a frame much in vogue at fairs.

High-flying, subs. (old).—1. Extravagance in opinion, pretension or conduct.

1689. Dryden, Epil. to Lee’s Princess of Cleves, 6. I railed at wild young sparks; but without lying Never was man worse thought on for high-flying.

2. (thieves’).—Begging; the high-fly (q.v.); stilling (q.v.).

High-gag, subs. (American).—A whisperer.—Matsell.

The high-gag, subs. phr. (American).—Telling secrets.—Matsell.

High-game, subs. (thieves’).—See quot.

1889. C. T. Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson, Police, p. 321. A mansion … a high game.

High-gig. In High-gig, adv. phr. (old).—In good fettle; lively. Cf., Gig.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 15. Rather sprightly—the Bear in high-gig.

High-go, subs. (common).—A drinking bout; a frolic.

High-heeled Shoes. To have high-heeled shoes on, verb. phr. (American).—To set up as a person of consequence; to do the grand (q.v.).

High Horse. To be (or get) on (or ride) the high horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To give oneself airs; to stand on one’s dignity; to take offence. [Fr. monter sur ses grands chevaux. The simile is common to most languages.]

1716. Addison, Freeholder, 5 Mar. He told me, he did not know what travelling was good for, but to teach a man to ride the great horse, to jabber French, and to talk against passive obedience.

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xii. He was determined to ride the high horse—and that there should be no Equality Jack in future.

1842. Comic Almanack, p. 327. Yet Dublin deems the foul extortion fair, And swears that, as he’s ridden the high horse, So long and well, she now will make him mayor.

1864. Times, 5 July. Mr. Gladstone in the Dano-German Debate. The right hon. gentleman then got on what I may call his high horse, and he would not give us the slightest opinion upon any matter of substantive policy, because that, he said, would be accepting office upon conditions.

1868. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 2nd Period, 3rd Narr., ch. ii. Miss Rachael has her faults—‘I’ve never denied it,’ he began. ‘And riding the high horse now and then is one of them.’

High-jinks, subs. (old).—1. An old game variously played. [Most frequently dice were thrown by the company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain for a time a certain fictitious character, or to repeat a certain number of fescennine verses in a particular order. If they departed from the characters assigned … they incurred forfeits, which were compounded for by swallowing an additional bumper.—Guy Mannering, 1836. Note to ch. xxxii.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Highjinks, a Play at Dice who Drinks.

1780. Ramsay, Maggy Johnston, i., 25. The queff or cup is filled to the brim, then one of the company takes a pair of dice, and after crying Hy-jinks, he throws them out; the number he casts out points out the person that must drink; he who threw beginning at himself number one, and so round till the number of the person agree with that of the dice (which may fall upon himself if the number be within twelve); then he sets the dice to him, or bids him take them; he on whom they fall is obliged to drink, or pay a small forfeiture in money, then throws, and so on. But if he forgets to cry ‘Hy-jinks’ he pays a forfeiture into the bank. Now, he on whom it falls to drink (if there be anything in the bank worth drawing) gets it all if he drinks; then with a great deal of caution he empties his cup, sweeps up the money, and orders the cup to be filled again, and then throws; for if he errs in the articles he loses the privilege of drawing the money. The articles are—(1) Drink, (2) Draw, (3) Fill, (4) Cry ‘Hy-jinks,’ (5) Count just, (6) Chuse your doublet, man—viz., when two equal numbers of the dice is thrown, the person whom you chuse must pay a double of the common forfeiture, and so must you when the dice is in his hand (sic).

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxvi. The frolicsome company had begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of high jinks.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, lv. He had made an engagement to drive Lord Saltire, the next morning, up to Wargrave in a pony-chaise, to look at Barrymore House, and the place where the theatre stood, and where the game of high jinks had been played so bravely fifty years before.

2. See quot., and cf. sense 1.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. A gambler at dice, who, having a strong head, drinks to intoxicate his adversary, or pigeon. Under this head are also classed those fellows who keep little goes, take in insurances; also, attendants at the races, and at the E O tables; chaps always on the look out to rob unwary countrymen at cards, etc.

3. (common).—A frolic; a row. [From sense 1.]

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, i. All sorts of high jinks go on on the grass plot.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 13 Sept. ‘Filey the Retired.’ Frisky Filey cannot assuredly be called. There are no high jinks on her jetty; and, besides, she hasn’t got a jetty, only a ‘Brigg.’

1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 July, 4, 2. Yesterday and to-day there have been high jinks in Petworth Park, rich and poor for miles round being invited, and right royally feasted on the coming of age of Lord and Lady Leconfield’s eldest son.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 3 Apr. While Bank Holiday was being celebrated with such éclat at Kempton, they were carrying on high jinks over hurdles and fences at Manchester.

1892. Sala’s Journal, 2 July, p. 223. High jinks with the telephone have been the order of the day at Warwick Castle; taps and wires have been turned on and off, and floods of melody of various kinds have delighted listening ears.

1893. National Observer, 25 Feb., ix., 357. Time was when there were high jinks in that vast quadrangle.

To be at his high jinks, phr. (common).—To be stilted and arrogant in manner; to ride the high horse (q.v.). Fr., faire sa merde or sa poire.

High-kicker, subs. (colloquial).—Specifically, a dancer whose speciality is the high kick or the porte d’armes; whence, by metaphor, any desperate spreester (q.v.), male or female.

High-kilted, adj. (Scots’).—Obscene or thereabouts; full flavoured (q.v.).

Highland-bail, subs. (Scots’).—The right of the strongest; force majeure.

1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxix. The mute eloquence of the miller and smith, which was vested in their clenched fists, was prepared to give Highland bail for their arbiter.

High-lawyer, subs. (old).—A highwayman. For synonyms, see Road Agent.

1592. John Day, Blind Beggar, p. 21 (Ed. Bullen). He wo’d be your prigger, your prancer, your high-lawyer.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 50 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). He first gaue termes to robbers by the high-way, that such as robbe on horse-backe were called high lawyers, and those who robbed on foote, he called Padders.

High-liver, subs. (old).—A garretteer; a thief housed in an attic. Hence, High-living = lodging in a garret.—Lex. Bal.

High-men, subs. (old).—Dice loaded to show high numbers. Also, High-runners. See Fulhams and Low-men.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller in Wks. [Grosart], v., 27. The dice of late are growen as melancholy as a dog, high men and low men both prosper alike.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, i., 3. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd and fullam holds, And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Pise, false dice, high men or low men.

1605. London Prodigal, i., 1. I bequeath two bale of false dice, videlicet, high men and low men, fullams, stop-catertraies, and other bones of function.

1615. Harington, Epigrams, i., 79. Your high And low men are but trifles.

1657–1733. John Dennis, Letters, ii., 407. Shadwell is of opinion, that your bully, with his box and his false dice, is an honester fellow than the rhetorical author, who makes use of his tropes and figures, which are his high and his low runners, to cheat us at once of our money and of our intellectuals.

1822. Scott, Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Men talk of high and low dice.

High-nosed, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Very proud in look and in fact; supercilious in bearing and speech; superior (q.v.).

High- [or gay-] old (time, game, liar, etc.), adj. phr. (common).—A general intensitive: e.g., high old time = a very merry time indeed; high old liar = a liar of might; high old drunk = an uncommon booze (q.v.).

1883. Referee, 11 Mar., p. 3, c. 2. All the children who have been engaged in the Drury Lane pantomime took tea on the stage, and had a high old time (while it lasted).

1888. J. McCarthy and Mrs. Campbell-Praed, Ladies’ Gallery, ch. xxxv. I went down to Melbourne, intending to have a high old time.

1891. Murray’s Mag., Aug., p. 202. There will be a Want of Confidence Motion, and a high old debate.

1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 7. You are a big fraud and a high old liar.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 35. We’d the highest old game.

1892. F. Anstey, Voces Populi, ‘The Riding Class,’ p. 108. We’ve bin having a gay old time in ’ere.

High-pad (or Toby, or High-toby-splice), subs. (old).—1. The highway. Also, high-splice toby. For synonyms, see Drum.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p, 86. Roge, Nowe bynge we a waste to the hygh pad, the ruffmanes is by.

c. 1819. Slang Song (quoted in notes to Don Juan, x., 19). On the high-toby-splice flash the muzzle In spite of each gallows old scout.

1836. H. M. Milner, Turpin’s Ride to York, i., sc. 2. Come, lads a stirrup-cup at parting, and then hurrah for the game of high-toby.

1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 4. Halting for a few hours at mid-day during the heat in the high spice-toby, as we used to call the main road.

2. (old).—A highwayman. Also, high-tobyman (or -gloak). For synonyms, see Road Agent.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. High Pad, a Highwayman, Highway Robber well Mounted and Armed.

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

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. High toby-gloak, a highway robber well mounted.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch i. Tom King, a noted high-toby gloak of his time.

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

3. (old).—Highway robbery.

1819, Vaux, Cant. Dict. High-toby, the game of highway robbery, that is exclusively on horseback.

High-pooped, adj. (colloquial).—Heavily buttocked.

High-rented, adj. (popular).—1. Hot.

2. (thieves’).—Very well known to the police; hot (q.v.).

High-roller, subs. (American).—A goer (q.v.); a fast liver; a heavy gambler; a highflyer (q.v.).

1887. Francis, Saddle and Moccasin, He’s a high-roller, by gum!

High-ropes. To be on the high ropes, verb. phr. (common).—To be angry or excited. Also to put on airs; to stand on one’s dignity; to ride the high-horse (q.v.).

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. To be on the high ropes, to be in a passion.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

1866. Yates, Land at Last, ii. He’s on the high ropes, is Master Charley! Some of you fellows have been lending him half a-crown, or that fool Caniche has bought one of his pictures for seven-and-six!

High-seasoned (or Highly-spiced), adj. (colloquial).—Obscene. For synonyms, see Spicy.

High- (or clouted-) shoon, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

High-sniffing, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Pretentious; supercilious; very obviously better than one’s company; high-nosed (q.v.).

High-stepper, subs. (common).—An exemplar, male or female, of what is fashionable in conversation, conduct, or attire; a swell (q.v.). Also, a person of spirit. Whence, adj., high-stepping (or high-pacing) = conspicuously elegant or gallant in dress, speech, manner, conduct, anything.

1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, ch. ix. From her actions and style I’m pretty certain she’s English and a high-stepper.

High-stomached, adj. (colloquial).—Proud; disdainful; very valiant.

High-strikes, subs. (common).—A corruption of ‘hysterics.’

1838. Selby, Jacques Strop, ii., 4. Capital! … didn’t I do the high-strikes famously.

1860. Miss Wetherell, Say and Seal, ch. vii. She wants you to come. I’m free to confess she’s got the high-strikes wonderful.

High-tea, subs. (colloquial).—A tea with meat, etc. In Lancashire Bagging (q.v.).

1888. Sporting Life, 15 Dec. Following run there will be high tea and a grand smoking concert, to which visitors are cordially invited.

High-ti, subs. (American: Williams Coll.).—A showy recitation; at Harvard = a squirt (q.v.).

High-tide (or water) subs. (colloquial).—Rich for the moment; The state of being flush (q.v.). For synonyms, see Well Ballasted.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. high tide when the Pocket is full of Money.

1725. New Cant. Dict.

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

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. High-tide—plenty of the possibles; whilst ‘low-water’ implies empty clies.

Up to high-water mark, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In good condition; a general expression of approval.

High-toby. See High Pad.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. Oh! the game of High-Toby for ever.

High-toned, adj. (American).—Aristocratic; also, morally and intellectually endowed; spiritually beyond the common. High-souled = cultured; fashionable. High-toned nigger = a negro who has raised himself in social position. [Once literary; now utterly discredited and never used, save in ignorance or derision.] Stokes, the maniac who shot Garfield, described himself as a ‘High-Toned Lawyer.’

1884. Phillips Woolley, Trottings of a Tender Foot. I never saw any so-called high-toned niggers.

1893. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 1 Feb., p. 389, 1. One day a fashionably-dressed young man, giving an address in a high-toned suburb, called upon Messrs. Glitter.

Highty-tighty (or Hoity-toity), subs. (old).—A wanton.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hightetity, a Ramp, or Rude Girl.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

Adj. (colloquial).—Peremptory; waspish; quarrelsome.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xviii. La, William, don’t be so highty-tighty with us. We’re not men.

High Wood. To live in high wood, verb. phr. (common).—To hide; to dissemble of purpose; to lie low and keep quiet.

Higulcion-flips, subs. (Texas).—An imaginary ailment.

Hike, verb. (old).—To move about. Also to carry off; to arrest.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hike. To hike off; to run away.

1884. Daily Telegraph, 2 Feb., p. 3, c. 1. We three, not having any regler homes nor a steady job of work to stick to, hike about for a living, and we live in the cellar of a empty house.

Hilding, subs. (old).—A jade; a wanton; a disreputable slut.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii., 1. For shame thou hilding of a devilish spirit.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. Hildings and harlots.

Hill. Not worth a hill of beans, phr. (American).—Absolutely worthless.

Hills, subs. (Winchester Coll.).—1. St. Catharine’s Hill.

1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 28. Some of his principal duties were to take the boys ‘on to hills,’ call names there, etc.

2. (Cambridge Univ.).—The Gogmagog Hills; a common morning’s ride. Gradus ad Cantab.

Hilly, adj. (colloquial).—Difficult: e.g., hilly reading = hard to read; hilly going = not easy to do; etc.

Hilt. Loose in the hilt, adv. phr. (old).—Unsteady; rocky (q.v.); lax in the bowels.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘Bum-fodder,’ ii., 56. If they stay longer, they will us beguilt With a Government that is loose in the hilt.

Hind-boot, subs. (common).—The breech. For synonyms, see Monocular Eyeglass.

Hind-coachwheel, subs. (common).—A five shilling piece. Fr., roue de derrière, thune, or palet, = a five-franc piece. For synonyms, see Caroon.

Hinder-blast, subs. (old).—Crepitation.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaitis [in Bannatyne MSS., Hunterian Club, ed., (1879–88), p. 511] line 1429–30. Scho hes sic rumling in her wame, That all the nycht my hairt ouercastis With bokking and with hinder blastis.

Hinder-end, subs. phr. (common).—The breech. Also, hinder-parts and hinder-world.

Hinder-entrance, subs. phr. (common).—The fundament.

Hind-leg. To kick out a hind leg, verb. phr. (old).—To lout; to make a rustic bow.

To talk the hind leg off a horse (or dog). See Talk.

To sit upon one’s hind legs and howl, verb. phr. (American).—To bemoan one’s fate; to make a hullabaloo.

Hindoo, subs. (American).—See Know Nothing.

Hindoo Punishment, subs. phr. (circus).—See quot.

1875. Frost, Circus Life, ch. xviii. The Hindoo Punishment is what is more often called the muscle grind, a rather painful exercise upon the bar, in which the arms are turned backward to embrace the bar, and then brought forward upon the chest, in which position the performer revolves.

Hind-shifters, subs. (old).—The feet. For synonyms, see Creepers.

1823. Lamb, Elia, Wks., (Ed. 1852), p. 311. They would show as fair a pair of hind-shifters as the expertest loco-motor in the colony.

Hinges. Off the hinges, adv. phr. (common)—In confusion; out of sorts; ‘not quite the thing.’

Hinterland, subs. (old).—The breech.

Hip, (in. pl.), subs. (colloquial).—Conventional—as in the proverb, ‘Free of her lips; free of her hips’—for the buttocks. Hence, to walk with the hips = to make play with the posteriors in walking; long in the hips; and hips to sell = broad in the beam; nimble-hipped = active in copulation.

c. 1508. Dunbar. Poems, ‘Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer’ (1836), i., 119. His hippis gaff mony a hiddouss cry. Ibid. i., 124. ‘Of Ane Blak-moir.’… Sall cum behind and kiss hir hippis.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 3227. My craig will wit quhat weyis my hippis. Ibid., line 4424. Ye wald not stick to preise my graith With hobbling of your hippis.

c. 1580. Collier of Croydon, iv., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, 459). I keep her lips and her hips for my own use.

d. 1607. Montgomerie, Poems, ‘Polwart and Montgomerie’s Flyting,’ p. 85, line 779 (Scottish Text Soc., 1885–6). Kailly lippes, kiss my hips.

To have (get, or catch) on the hip, verb. phr. (old).—To have (or get) an advantage. [From wrestling.]

1591. Harington, Orlando Furioso, bk. xlvi., st. 117. In fine he doth apply one speciall drift, Which was to get the pagan on the hip, And having caught him right, he doth him lift By nimble sleight, and in such wise doth trip That down he threw him.

1598. Shakspeare, Merchant of Venice, i. 3. If I can catch him once upon the hip. I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

1605. Marston, Dutch Courtezan. iii., 1. He said he had you a the hyp.

1617. Andrewes, Sermons (‘Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology’), Vol. IV., p. 365. If he have us at the advantage, on the hip as we say, it is no great matter then to get service at our hands.

1635. D. Dike, Michael and the Dragon, in Wks., p. 328. The Divell hath them on the hip, he may easily bring them to anything.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Upon the Hip … at an Advantage in Wrestling, or Business.

1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, iv., 1. My lord, she has had him upon the hip these seven years.

1812. Johnson, Eng. Dict. Hip, s.v., A low phrase.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 226. ‘Ha! ha! I have you on the hip now, my master,’ shouted Peter.

Hipe, subs. (wrestling).—A throw over the hip. Hence Hipe, verb = to get across the hip before the throw.

Hip-hop, verb (old).—To skip or move on one leg; to hop. ‘A cant word framed by the reduplication of hop.’—Johnson, 1812.

1670–1729. Congreve [Quoted in Johnson’s Eng. Dict.]. Like Volscius hip-hop in a single boot.

Hip-inside, subs. (thieves’).—An inner pocket. Hip-outside = an outer ditto.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3rd Ed.), p. 445, s.v.

Hipped (or Hippish), adj. (common).—Bored; melancholical; out of sorts. [From hypochondria.]

1710. Gay, Wine in Wks. (1811) p. 348. By cares depress’d, in pensive hippish mood.

1712. Spectator, No. 284. I cannot forbear writing to you, to tell you I have been to the last degree hipped since I saw you.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Babes in the Wood.’ The wicked old Uncle, they say, In spite of his riot and revel, Was hippish and qualmish all day, And dreamt all night long of the devil.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. x. ‘You are a little hipped, dear fellow,’ said Eugene; ‘you have been too sedentary. Come and enjoy the pleasures of the chase.’

Hippen, subs. (Scots’: colloquial).—A baby’s napkin (i.e., hipping cloth). Also (theatrical), the green curtain.

Hiren, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. [A corruption of ‘Irene,’ the heroine in Poole’s play: see quot. 1584.] For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1584. Poole, The Turkish Mahomet and Hyren the Fair Greek. Note. In Italian called a courtezan; in Spaine a margarite; in English … a punk.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., ii., 4. Have we not Hiren here?

1615. Adams, Spiritual Navigator. There be sirens in the sea of the world. Syrens? Hirens, as they are now called. What a number of these sirens [Hirens], cockatrices, courteghians, in plain English, harlots, swimme amongst us!

d. 1618. Sylvester, Trans. Du Bartas’ Week of Creation, ii., 2, pt. 3. Of charming sin the deep-inchaunting syrens, The snares of virtue, valour-softening hyrens.

2. (old).—A sword. Also a roaring bully; a fighting hector. [From Irene = the Goddess of Peace, a lucus a non lucendo.]

Hishee-hashee. See Soap-and-bullion.

His Nibs (or Nabs). See Nibs.

Hiss. The hiss, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—The signal of a master’s approach.

Historical- (Wrought, or Illustrated-) Shirt, subs. (old).—A shirt or shift worked or woven with pictures or texts.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour; iv., 6. I wonder he speaks not of his wrought-shirt.

1639. Mayne, City Match, ii., 2. My smock sleeves have such holy imbroideries, And are so learned that I fear in time, All my apparel will be quoted by Some pure instructor.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Custom of the County, ii., 1. Having a mistress, sure you should not be Without a neat historical-shirt.

1848. Punch, XIV., 226. He never broke a bank, He shuns cross-barred trousers, His linen is not illustrated, but beautifully clean.

1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 51. Colored, or illustrated shirts, as they are called, are especially objected to by the men.

1889. Puck’s Library, Apr., p. 12. Being an educated man, I feel ten thousand woes, Cavorting for the populace In illustrated clothes.

History of the Four Kings. See Four Kings.

Hit, subs. (common).—A success; e.g., To make a hit = to score; to profit; to excel.

1602. Marston, Antonio and Mellida. Induction. When use hath taught me action to hit the right point of a ladie’s part.

1700. Congreve, Way of the World, ii., 5. A hit, a hit! a palpable hit! I confess it.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, bk. I., ch. i. Teach me to make a hit of so Kean a quality that it may not only ‘tell,’ but be long remembered in the metropolis.

1822–36. Jno. Wilson, Noctes Amb., Wks. II., 210. Mr. Peel seems to have made a hit in the chief character of Shiel’s play, The Apostate.

1828–45. T. Hood, Poems, v., p. 197, (Ed. 1846). Nor yet did the heiress herself omit The arts that help to make a hit.

1870. Figaro, 10 June. To make a great hit is, after all, more a matter of chance than merit.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 July. Madam Melba makes an especial hit in the valse from Roméo et Juliette.

1889. Referee, 6 Jan. Quite a hit has been made by the clever juvenile, La Petite Bertoto.

Adj. (Old Bailey).—Convicted.

Hard-hit, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Sore beset; hard-up (q.v.). Also deep in love (or grief, or anger).

1890. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 7 Nov. It was pretty generally known that he had been hard hit during the season.

Verb (American).—To arrive at; to light upon.

1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. Professor Rose, who hit this town last spring, is around calling us a fugitive from justice.

To hit it, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attain an object; to light on a device; to guess a secret.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv., 1. Thou cans’t not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou can’st not hit it, my good man.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, iii., 2. I can never hit one’s name.

1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer. Ecod, I have hit it. It’s here. Your hands. Yours and yours, my poor sulky! My boots there, ho! Meet me two hours hence at the bottom of the garden.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. lii. He dressed himself in ten minutes, and joined the party as they had finished their fish. ‘I am awfully sorry,’ he said, rushing up to his father, ‘but I thought that I should just hit it.’

To hit off, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To agree together; to fit; to describe with accuracy and precision.

1857. A. Trollope, Barchester Towers, ch. xxxiv. It is not always the case that the master, or warden, or provost, or principal can hit it off exactly with his tutor. A tutor is by no means indisposed to have a will of his own.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xxxvi. ‘One gentleman with another, you mean?’ ‘Put it so. It don’t quite hit it off, but put it so.’

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society. ‘Sidelight,’ ch. xiv. ‘Hey!’ said Orford. ‘Didn’t you and he hit it off?’

1889. Daily News, 22 Oct., p. 5. The nations that quarrel are the nations that do not hit it off on some point of feeling or taste.

To hit the flat, verb. phr. (American cowboy).—To go out on the prairie.

To hit the pipe, verb. phr. (American).—To smoke opium.

To hit one where he lives, verb. phr. (American).—To touch in a tender part; to hurt the feelings; to touch on the raw (q.v.).

Hit (or struck) with, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Taken; enamoured; prepossessed. Also, hit up with.

1891. Tales from Town Topics. ‘Count Candawles,’ p. 28. She is very amusing, but the Count cannot be really hit with such a little mountebank.

Hit on the tail, verb. phr. (old venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

d. 1529. Skelton, Bowge of Courte. How oft he hit Jonet on the tayle.

Hit in the teeth, verb. phr. (old).—To reproach; to taunt; to fling in one’s face.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, ii., 6 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 431). They are always hitting me in the teeth with a man of my coat.

Hitch, verb (American).—1. To marry. Hitched = married.

1867. Browne, Artemus Ward’s Courtship, People’s ed., p. 23. If you mean getting hitched, I’m in.

1883. L. Oliphant, Altiora Peto, II., xxix., 156. ‘How long is it since we parted, Ned?’ ‘A matter of five years; and it wasn’t my fault if we didn’t stay hitched till now.’

1892. Tit-Bits, 17 Sept., p. 419, c. 1. ‘We’ve come to get hitched,’ said the man, bashfully.

2. (American).—To agree. Also to hitch horses.

To hitch one’s team to the fence, verb. phr. (American).—To settle down.

Hittite, subs. (pugilists’).—A prize fighter.

English synonyms.—Basher; bruiser; dukester; fistite; knight of the fist; gemman of the fancy; milling-cove; pug; puncher; scrapper; slasher; slogger; slugger; sparring-bloke.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hittites—boxers and ring-goers assembled.

1860. The Druid, Post and Paddock. ‘The Fight for the Belt.’ And the Sherwood Ranger, bold Bendigo, Is on training no more intent; But the trout full well that ex-Hittite know On a Summer’s eve in the Trent.

Hive, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Cf. Honey. Hence, verbally, to hive it = to effect intromission.

Verb (American cadet).—To steal. For synonyms, see Prig.

To get hived, verb. phr. (American Cadets’ and popular).—1. To be caught out in a scrape. Also, to be hidden. To be hived perfectly frigid = to be caught in flagrante delicto.

Hiver, subs. (Western American).—A travelling bawd.

Hivite, subs. (school).—A student of St. Bees’ (Cumberland).

1865. John Bull, 11 Nov. To be a Hivite has long been considered a little worse than a ‘literate’.… Of the value of some St. Bees testimonials we may form an estimate, etc., etc.

Hoaky. By the hoaky, intj. (nautical).—A popular form of adjuration.

Hoax, subs. (old: now recognised).—A jest; a practical joke; a Take-in. Originally (Grose) University cant. [Probably from Hocus (q.v.).]

1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed.), s.v.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hoaxing. Bantering, ridiculing. Hoaxing a quiz; joking an odd fellow.—University wit.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. iii. Whose humble efforts at jocularity were chiefly confined to what were then called bites and bams, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes.

1835–7. Richardson, Dict. Eng. Lang., s.v. Hoax. Malone considers the modern slang hoax as derived from hocus, and Archdeacon Nares agrees with him.

Verb. To play a practical joke; to ‘take-in’; to bite (q.v.). See subs. sense. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1812. Combe, Syntax, Picturesque, xix. An arch young sprig, a banker’s clerk, Resolv’d to hoax the rev’rend spark.

1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. viii. I thought you were hoaxing us, and I sat down to play the duet for the amiable purpose of exposing your ignorance.

Hob (or Hobbinol), subs. (old).—A clown.—Grose.

Hob and Nob (or Hob Nob), verb. (old).—1. To invite to drink; to clink glasses.

1756. Foote, Englishman from Paris, i. With, perhaps, an occasional interruption of ‘Here’s to you, friends,’ ‘Hob or nob,’ ‘Your love and mine.’

1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, ii. Duke. Lady Charlotte, hob or nob. Lady Char. Done, my lord; in Burgundy, if you please.

1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. VIII., ch. xxi. (new Ed., 1808). Having drunk hob or nob with a young lady in whose eyes he wished to appear a man of consequence, he hurried out into the summer-house.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hob nob—two persons pledging each other in a glass.

1836. Horace Smith, Tin Trumpet, ‘Address to a Mummy.’ Perchance that very hand now pinioned flat, Has hob-and-nobbed with Pharoah glass for glass.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxx. He would have liked to hob and nob with celebrated pick-pockets, or drink a pot of ale with a company of burglars and cracksmen.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 68. So the pair sat down and hob-a-nobbed.

2. (old).—To give or take; to hit or miss at random. [Saxon, habban, to have; nabban, not to have.]

1577–87. Holinshed, Chroncles of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande (1807) p. 317. The citizens in their rage shot habbe or nabbe (hit or miss) at random.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, iii., 4. Hob-nob is his word, give ’t or take ’t.

1615. Harington, Epigrams, iv. Not of Jack Straw, with his rebellious crew, That set king, realm, and laws, at hab or nab.

1673. Quack Astrologer. He writes of the weather hab nab, and as the toy takes him, chequers the year with foul and fair.

3. (colloquial).—To be on terms of close intimacy; to consort familiarly together.

1870. Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. i. They were to hob-nob with nobility and hold friendly converse with kings and princes.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 109. I had hob-nobbed for the last two hours with the most notorious bushranger in the colony.

1892. A. K. Green, Cynthia Wakeham’s Money, p. 5. Each tree looks like a spectre hob-nobbing with its neighbour.

Hobbes’s-voyage, subs. (old).—A leap in the dark.

1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, v., 6. So, now, I am in for Hobbes’s voyage; a great leap in the dark.

Hobbinol, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, ii., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 396). Who, Master Jeffrey? Hobbinol the second! By this life, ’tis a very veal, and licks his nose like one.

Hobble. In a hobble (or Hobbled), adv. phr. (colloquial).—In trouble; hampered; puzzled. Also (thieves), committed for trial. Fr., tomber dans la mélasse (= to come a cropper), and faitré (= booked (q.v.)). Hobbled upon the legs = transported, or on the hulks.

1777. Foote, Trip to Calais (1795), ii., p. 39. But take care what you say! you see what a hobble we had like to have got into.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 163. A term when any of the gang is taken up and committed for trial, to say, such a one is hobbled.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestie, iii., 5. Horatio, I am sorry for this squabble; I fear ’twill get me in a precious hobble.

1819. Vaux, Cant. Dict., s.v. Hobbled, taken up, or in custody; to hobble a plant, is to spring it.

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2nd S., ch. xvii. A body has to be cautious if he don’t want to get into the centre of a hobble.

1849. Punch, Fortune-Tellers’ Almanack. To dream that you are lame is a token that you will get into a hobble.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 44. I got into a ’obble.

Verb (venery).—See quot.

1688. Sempill, ‘Crissell Sandilands’ in Bannatyne MSS. (Hunterian Club, 1879–88), p. 354, lines 21–2. Had scho bene undir, and he hobland above, That were a perellous play for to suspect them.

Hobbledehoy, subs. (old, now colloquial).—A growing gawk: as in the folk-rhyme, ‘Hobbledehoy, neither man nor boy.’ [For derivation, see Notes and Queries, 1 S., v., 468, vii., 572; 4 S., ii., 297, viii., 451, ix., 147; 7 S., iv., 523, and v., 58.]

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. 60, st 3, p. 138 (E. D. S.). The first seuen yeers bring vp as a childe, The next to learning, for waxing too wilde. The next keepe vnder sir hobbard de hoy, The next a man no longer a boy.

1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial 1. Why, he is a mere hobbledehoy, neither a man nor a boy.

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

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Aunt Fanny.’ At the epoch I speak about, I was between a man and a boy, A hobble-de-hoy, A fat, little, punchy concern of sixteen.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. iv. He remembered perfectly well being thrashed by Joseph Sedley, when the latter was a big, swaggering, hobbadyhoy, and George an impudent urchin of ten years old.

Hence Hobbledehoyish and Hobbledehoyhood.

1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 12 (2nd Ed.). When Master Daw full fourteen years had told, He grew, as it is term’d, hobbedyhoyish; For Cupidons and Fairies much too old, For Calibans and Devils much too boyish.

1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots, Apr. From boyhood until hobbadyhoyhood (which I take to be about the sixteenth year of the life of a young man).

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xlii. A half-grown, or hobbadehoyish footman, so to speak, walked after them.

Hobbledejee, subs. (old).—A pace between a walk and a run; a jog-trot.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Hobbler, subs. (nautical).—A coast-man, half smuggler, half handyman; an unlicensed pilot. Also a landsman acting as tow-Jack.—Smyth. Also (Isle of Man), a boatman.

1887. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 226. An’ the hobblers there was terr’ble divarted.

Hobby, subs. (old).—A hackney; a horse in common use.

1606. Return from Parnassus, ii., 6 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 151). An’t please you, your hobby will meet you at the lane’s end. Idem (p. 154). Is not my master an absolute villain that loves his hawk, his hobby, and his greyhound more than any mortal creature? Idem (p. 145). Sirrah, boy, hath the groom saddled my hunting hobby?

2. (university).—A translation. To ride hobbies = to use Cribs (q.v.).

Sir Posthumous Hobby, subs. phr. (old).—One nice or whimsical in his clothes.

Hobby-horse, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A whim; a fancy; a favourite pursuit. Hence Hobbyhorsical = strongly attached to a particular fad.

1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1793), ch. vii., p. 18. Have they not had their hobby-horses?

d. 1768. Sterne, Letters (1793), letter 19, p. 65. ’Tis in fact my hobby-horse.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hobby Horse, a man’s favourite amusement, or study, is called his hobby horse.

1893. Westminster Gaz., 15 Mar., p. 9, c. 1. We quarrel a bit—he is so hobby-horsical, you can’t avoid it—and then we make friends again.

2. (colloquial).—A rantipole girl; a wench; a wanton.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iii., 1. Call’st thou my love hobby-horse? Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love, perhaps a hackney.

1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, 1., 2. They say my wife’s a hobby-horse.

3. (old).—A witless and unmannerly lout.

1609. Jonson, Epicœne, iv., 2. Daw. Here be in presence have tasted of her favors. Cler. What a neighing hobby-horse is this!

Verb (old).—To romp.

Hob-collingwood, subs. phr. (North Country).—The four of hearts, considered an unlucky card.

Hob-jobber, subs. (streets).—A man or boy on the look out for small jobs—holding horses, carrying parcels, and the like.

Hob-nail, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii., 6. The hob-nail thy husband’s as fitly out o’ th’ way now.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hobnail, a country clodhopper, from the shoes of country farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full of hobnails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron.

Hobnailed, adj. (colloquial).—Boorish; clumsy; coarse; ill-done.

1599. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour. Sog. A wretched hobnailed chuff.

Hobson’s-choice, subs. (common).—That or none: i.e., there is no alternative. [Popularly derived from the name of a Cambridge livery stable keeper, whose rule was that each customer must take the horse next the door, or have no horse at all. That old Hobson existed is clear from Milton’s epitaph, but Bellenden Ker (Archæology of Popular Phrases) affirms the story to be a Cambridge hoax, and maintains the proverb to be identical in sound and sense as the Low Saxon, Op soens schie ho eysche = when he had a kiss he wanted something else.]