WITH SYNONYMS IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, ETC. (continued 11)

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hobson’s Choice, that or None.

1710. Ward, England’s Reformation, ch. iv. ’Tis Hobson’s Choice, take that or none.

1712. Steele, Spectator, No. 509, p. 191. I shall conclude this discourse with an explanation of a proverb [Hobson’s choice], which by vulgar error is taken and used when a man is reduced to an extremity, whereas the propriety of the maxim is to use it when you would say there is plenty, but you must make such a choice as not to hurt another who is to come after you. Ibid. He [Hobson] kept a stable of forty good cattle, always ready and fit for travelling; but when a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where there was great choice, but was obliged to take the horse which stood nearest to the stable-door; so that every customer was alike well served, according to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice.

1717. Cibber, Non-Juror, i. Can any woman think herself happy that’s obliged to marry only with a Hobson’s choice?

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

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

1820. Reynolds [Peter Corcoran], The Fancy. Black men now are Hobson’s choice.

1851. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. liii. ‘When shall we go?’ inquired Laura. ‘Why, it’s a case of Hobson’s choice,’ returned Leicester.

1854. Notes and Queries, 21 Jan., p. 51. It was clear a choice had been given to him, but it was a Hobson’s choice.

Hock, subs. (American).—1. The last card in the dealer’s box at faro. [From soda (q.v.) to hock = from beginning to end.]

2. In. pl. (common).—The feet. Curby hocks = clumsy feet. For synonyms, see Creepers. [From the stable.]

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hocks … you have left the marks of your dirty hocks on my clean stairs.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

Old hock, subs. phr. (common).—Stale beer; swipes (q.v.). See Hockey.

In hock, adv. phr. (general).—Laid by the heels; fleeced; bested (q.v.).; and (thieves’), in prison.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. ‘If the cove should be caught in the hock he won’t snickle,’ if the fellow should be caught in the act, he would not tell.

Hock-dockies, subs. (old).—Shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 173. Shoes. Hockey-dockeys.

Hockey, adj. (old).—Drunk, especially on stale beer. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

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

Hocus, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A cheat; an imposter. [An abbreviation of hocus-pocus (q.v.).]

1654. Witts Recreations. Here Hocas lyes with his tricks and his knocks, Whom death hath made sure as a juglers box; Who many hath cozen’d by his leiger-demain, Is presto convey’d and here underlain. Thus Hocas he’s here, and here he is not, While death plaid the Hocas, and brought him to th’ pot.

2. (old: now recognised).—Drugged liquor.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hocus or Hocus Pocus.… A deleterious drug mixed with wine, etc., which enfeebles the person acted upon.

Adj. (old).—See quots. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1725. New. Cant. Dict., s.v. Hocus, disguised in Liquor; drunk.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hocus Pocus, he is quite hocus, he is quite drunk.

Verb (old: now recognised).—1. To cheat; to impose upon.

2. (old: now recognised).—To drug; to snuff (q.v.).

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xiii., p. 104. ‘What do you mean by hocussing brandy and water?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick. ‘Puttin’ laund’num in it,’ replied Sam.

1836. Comic Almanack, p. 1. For that we hocuss’d first his drink.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., ch. xxix. Mr. Frederick Pigeon avers that it was at her house at Lausanne that he was hocussed at supper and lost eight hundred pounds to Major Loder and the Honourable Mr. Deucease.

1854. De Quincey, Murder as one of the Fine Arts, Wks., xiii., 119. Him they intended to disable by a trick then newly introduced amongst robbers, and termed hocussing, i.e., clandestinely drugging the liquor of the victim with laudanum.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Hocus … ‘Hocus the bloke’s lush, and then frisk his sacks,’ put something into the fellow’s drink that will stupify him, and then search his pockets.

1859. The Bulletin, 21 May. An offence which goes by the name of hocussing, and which consists of an evil doer furtively introducing laudanum or some other narcotic into beer or spirits, which the victim drinks and, becoming stupified thereby, is then easily robbed.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. II., ch. xii. I will not say a hocussed wine, but fur from a wine as was ’elthy for the mind.

Hocus-pocus, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A juggler’s phrase. Hence a juggler’s (or impostor’s) stock in trade. Also Hocus-trade.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘Vanity of Vanities.’ A hocus-pocus, juggling Knight.

1639–61. Rump Songs, ii., 156. ‘The Rump Ululant.’ Religion we made free of hocus trade.

1646. Randolph, Jealous Lovers, If I do not think women were got with riddling, whip me! Hocas Pocas, here you shall have me, and there you shall have me.

1654. Gayton, Test. Notes Don. Quix., 46. This old fellow had not the Hocas Pocas of Astrology.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, iii., 2. That burlesque is a hocus-pocus trick they have got.

d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1759), ii., 122. With a little heaving and straining, would turn it into Latin, as Mille hoco-pokiana, and a thousand such.

1689. Marvell, Historical Poem, line 90. With hocus-pocus.… They gain on tender consciences at night.

c. 1755. Adey, Candle in the Dark, p. 29. At the playing of every trick he used to say, hocus-pocus, tontus, talontus, vade celeriter jubeo.

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

1824–28. Landor, Imaginary Conversations [2nd Ed., ii., 275]. Torke. What think you, for instance, of Hocus! Pocus! Johnson. Sir, those are exclamations of conjurors, as they call themselves.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 26 Mar., p. 5, c. 3. The lock of hair, the dragon’s blood, and the stolen flour were only the hocus-pocus of her sham witchcraft like the transfixed waxen puppets of the sorcerers of the past.

2. (old).—A trickster; a juggler; an impostor.

1625. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. That was the old way, gossip, when Iniquity came in [on the stage] like Hokos Pokos, in a juggler’s jerkin, with false skirts, like the knave of clubs.

1634. Hocus Pocus Junior, The Anatomie of Leger de main. [Title].

1656. Blount, Glossographia, s.v. Hocus Pocus, a juggler, one that shows tricks by sleight of hand.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hocus-pocus, a Juggler that shews Tricks by Slight of Hand.

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

3. (old).—A cheat; an imposition; a juggler’s trick.

1713. Bentley, Free Thinking, 12. Our author is playing hocus-pocus in the very similitude he takes from that juggler.

4. (old).—See Hocus, sense 2.

Adj. (old).—Cheating; fraudulent.

1715. Addison, The Drummer. If thou hast any hocus-pocus tricks to play, why can’st not do them here?

1725–29. Mason, Horace, iv., 8. Such hocus-pocus tricks, I own, Belong to Gallic bards alone.

1759. Macklin, Love à la Mode, ii., 1. The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science that smiles in yer face while it picks your pocket.

Verb (old).—To cheat; to trick.

Hod (or Brother Hod), subs. (common).—A bricklayer’s labourer.

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

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

Hod of Mortar, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A pot of porter.

Hoddy-Doddy (or Hoddie-doddie), subs. (old).—A short thick-set man or woman. The full expression is ‘Hoddy Doddy, all arse and no body.’—Grose. For synonyms, see Forty-guts. Also a fool.

c. 1534. Udall, Roister Doister, i., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 58). Sometimes I hang on Hankyn hoddy-doddy’s sleeve.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iv., 8. Well, good wife bawd, Cob’s wife, and you, That make your husband such a hoddy-doddy.

1639–61. Rump Songs, ii. [1662], 55. Every noddy … will … cry hoddy-doddy Here’s a Parliament all arse and no body.

1723. Swift, Mary the Cookmaid’s Letter (Chalmers, Eng. Poets, 1810, xi., 433). My master is a personable man, and not a spindle-shanked Hoddy-doddy.

Hoddy-peak (or -Peke), subs. (old).—A fool; a cuckold.

d. 1529. Skelton, Poems, ‘Duke of Albany.’ Gyue it up, And cry creke Lyke an huddy peke.

1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton, O. P., ii., 45. Art here again, thou hoddypeke?

1554. Christopherson, Exh. ag. Rebel. They counte peace to be cause of ydelnes, and that it maketh men hodi-pekes and cowardes.

d. 1555. Latimer, Sermons, fol. 44, b. What, ye brainsicke fooles, ye hoddy-peakes, ye doddy poules.

1560. Nice Wanton (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 164). Yea, marry, I warrant you, master hoddy-peak.

1589. Nashe, Anatomie of Absurdities, b. Who, under her husband’s that hoddy-peke’s nose, Must have all the destilling dew of his delicate rose.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Trav., 106 [Chiswick Press, 1891.] No other apte meanes had this poore shee captived Cicely to worke her hoddy peake husband a proportionable plague to his jealousy.

Hodge, subs. (colloquial).—A farm labourer; a rustic.

1589. Greene, Menaphon, p. 58 [ed. Arber, 1880]. These Arcadians are giuen to take the benefit of euerie Hodge.

1675. A. Marvel, Satire. Hodge’s Vision from the Monument. [Title.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hodge, a Country Clown, also Roger.

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

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

1791. Smart, Fables, xiii., 27. Is that the care (quoth Hodge)? O rare!

1880. Richard Jefferies, Hodge and his Masters. [Title.]

1884. Mrs. Craik, in Eng. Ill. Mag., Mar., p. 356. Quite different from the bovine, agricultural Hodge of the midland counties.

1893. National Observer, 25 Feb., ix., 358. ‘Pay me an infinitesimal sum,’ Lord Winchilsea says (in effect) to Hodge, ‘and you shall have a weekly newspaper for nothing.’

Hodge-podge (or Hotch-potch), subs. (old: now recognised).—A mixture; a medley. Sp., commistrajo. See Hotch-potch.

1553–99. Spenser, State of Ireland. They have made our English tongue a galimaufrey, or hodgepodge of all other speeches.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 199. Some Collier-like Saint, … Had rak’d a hodg podg for the Devil.

1726. Vanbrugh, Journey to London. They were all got into a sort of hodge-podge argument for the good of the nation which I did not well understand.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (774), ‘A Tale.’ Was ever such an hodge-podge seen.

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

Hodman, (Oxford Univ.).—A scholar from Westminster School admitted to Christ Church College, Oxford.

1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v. Hodman.

Hodmandod, subs. (old).—1. A snail in his shell—Bacon. See Doddy.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, v., 4 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 525). Painted snails with houses on their backs, and horns as big as Dutch cows.… Can any woman be honest that lets such hodmandods crawl o’er her virgin breast and belly?

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

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

1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v.

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

2. (old).—A Hottentot.

1686. Captain Cowley in Harris Voyages, i., 82. We walked, moreover, without the town to the villages inhabited by the hodmandods, to view their nasty bodies.

Hoe. To hoe in (American Univ.).—To work with vigour; to swot (q.v.).

To hoe one’s own row, verb. phr. (American).—To do one’s own work.

Hard row to hoe. See Hard Row.

Hoe-down, subs. (American).—A negro dance; a breakdown (q.v.).

Hog, subs. (old).—1. A shilling: also a sixpence: and (in America) a ten-cent piece. For synonyms, see Blow. Half-a-hog = sixpence, or five-cent piece.

1688. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, s.v. Hog, a shilling.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hog, You Darkman Budge, will you Fence your hog at the next Boozing ken?

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

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Half a Hog, Six-Pence.

1809–12. Miss Edgeworth, Ennui, ch. vi. ‘It’s only a tester or a hog they want your honour to give ’em, to drink your honour’s health,’ said Paddy. ‘A hog to drink my health?’ ‘Ay, that is a thirteen, plase your honour; all as one as an English shilling.’

1825. Egan, Life of an Actor, ch. iv. You shall have … eighteen hog a week, and a benefit which never fails.

1842. Thackeray, Cox’s Diary in Comic Almanack, p. 237. Do you think I’m a-going to kill my horses, and break my precious back, and bust my carriage, and carry you, and your kids, and your traps, for six hog?

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 529. The slang phrases are constantly used by the street lads; thus a sixpence is a ‘tanner’; a shilling a ‘bob,’ or a hog.… The collections of coin dealers amply show, that the figure of a hog was anciently placed on a small silver coin.

1857. Mrs. Mathews, Tea Table Talk, p. 207. The shopwoman satisfied Suett after her fashion, that his little lump of Suett had absorbed flour and lard (pastry) to the amount of what her queer customer would have termed a hog.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Hog, a ten-cent piece.

2. (colloquial).—A foul-mouthed blackguard; a dirty feeder. Also, a common glutton.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Ciro, a hogge, a swine, a filthie fellowe.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 69. ’Arry’s a hog when he feeds.

3. (Cambridge Univ.: obsolete).—A student of St. John’s. Also, Johnian Hog. See Crackle, Bridge of Grunts, and Isthmus of Suez.

1690. Diary of Abraham de la Pryme (Surtees Society, No. 54), quoted in Notes and Queries, 6, S. xi., 328. For us Jonians are called abusively hoggs.

1795. Gent. Mag., lxv., 22. The Johnian hogs were originally remarkable on account of the squalid figures and low habits of the students, and especially of the sizars of Saint John’s College. [Another story of how name originated is given in detail in Gent. Mag. (1795), lxv., 107.]

1889. Whibley, In Cap and Gown, p. 28. An obsolete name for members of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

4. (old Scots’).—A yearling sheep.

1796. Burns, Poems. What will I do gin my hoggie die, my joy, my friend, my hoggie.

5. (American).—An inhabitant of Chicago. [That city being a notable pig-breeding and pork-packing centre.]

6. (old).—A Hampshireman.

1770. Lord Hailes, Ancient Scottish Poems, ‘Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins.’ Note on line 115. And thus his ill-bred raillery will be like that of Essex calves, Hampshire hogs, Middlesex mongrels, Norfolk dumplings, Welsh goats, etc.

Verb (American).—1. To cheat; to humbug; to gammon (q.v.).

1867. Browne (Artemus Ward). ‘Among the Mormons’, ii., 10. Go my son, and Hog the public.

2. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms see Greens and Ride.

3. (stables).—To cut short; e.g., to hog a horse’s mane.

A hog in armour, subs. phr. (old).—A lout in fine clothes. Also a Jack-in-office; Hog-in-togs = (in America) a well-dressed loafer. [Hog = Hodge (q.v.), a rustic.]

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog … an awkward, or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed, is said to look like a hog in armour.

Hog and hominy, subs. phr. (American).—Plain fare; Common doings (q.v.). [Pork and maize are the two cheapest food stuffs in the U.S.A.]

To go the whole hog. See Whole Animal.

To bring one’s hogs (or pigs) to a fine market, verb. phr. (old).—To do well; to make a good deal (q.v.). Also, in sarcasm, the opposite.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v. He has brought his hoggs to a fair market, or he has Spun a fair Thread.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog.… He has brought his hogs to a fine market, a saying of one who has been remarkably successful in his affairs, and is spoken ironically to signify the contrary.

To drive one’s hogs (or pigs) to market, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To snore.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversations, ii., 455. I’gad he fell asleep, and snored so loud that we thought he was driving his hogs to market.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog.… to drive one’s hogs, to snore, the noise made by some persons in snoring being not much unlike the notes of that animal.

Hog-age, subs. (American).—The period between boyhood and manhood. Cf., Hobbledehoy.

Hogan-mogan, subs. (old).—See quot.

1892. Aitken, Satires of Andrew Marvell, p. 128. The States General of the United provinces were officially addressed as High and Mighty Lords, or in Dutch, Hoogmogenden; hence English satirists called them hogans-mogans, and applied the phrase to Dutchmen in general. Cf., Hoganmoganides, or the Dutch Hudibras (1694), and ‘A New Song on the hogan-mogans’ in ‘A Collection of the Newest Poems … against Popery, etc.’ (1689).

Hog-grubber, subs. (old).—A miser; a niggard; a mean cuss (q.v.).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. A hog-grubber, … a narrow-soul’d sneaking Fellow.

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog Grubber, a mean stingy fellow.

Hogmagundy (or Houghmagandie), subs. (Scots).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

1786. Burns, The Holy Fair [last stanza]. There’s some are fou o’ love divine, There’s some are fou o’ brandy; An’ mony jobs that day begin, May end in hougmagandie Some ither day.

Hogmenay, subs. (old Scots’).—1. New Year’s Eve, which is a national festival. [The origin has been the subject of much discussion.]

1776. Brand, Popular Antiquities, p. 102. Sirs, do you what Hagmane signifies? It is the devil be in the house.

1793. The Bee, 10 July, p. 17. The night preceding that festival Hoggmonay.

1879. James Napier, Folk Lore, p. 154. After the Reformation, the Scotch transferred Hagmanay [from Xmas Eve] to the last day of December, as a preparation day for the New Year.

2. Hence a wanton. [The feast is celebrated with much drink and not a little license.]

Hogo, subs. (old).—A flavour; an aroma; a relish. Hence, in irony, and by corruption, a stink. Cf., Fogo. [From Fr., haut goût.] See High, sense 2.

1569. Erasmus, Trans. Praise of Folly, p. 13 [1709]. Pleasure that haut-goust of Folly.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘A Vindication of the Rump.’ Oh! what a Hogo was there.

1645. Howell, Letters, V., xxxviii., p. 42. He can marinat fish, make gellies, and is excellent for a pickant sawce, and the haugou.

1653. Walton, Compleat Angler, I., ch. vii. To give the sawce a hogoe let the dish (into which you let the Pike fall) be rubed with it [garlick].

1656. Choyce Drollery, p. 34. And why not say a word or two Of she that’s just? witnesse all who Have ever been at thy ho-go.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 451). We’ll work ourselves into such a sauce as you can never surfeit on, and yet no hogough.

1667. Cowley, Government of Oliver Cromwell, Prose Works (Pickering, 1826), 94. Cromwell … found out the true hogo of this pleasure, and rejoiced in the extravagance of his ways.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii., 1. She has … no more teeth left than such as give a haut gout to her breath.

1686. Twelve Ingenious Characters. A bad husband is an inconsiderate piece of sottish extravagance; for though he consist of several ill ingredients, yet still good fellowship is the causa sine qua non, and gives him the ho-go.

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

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, Vol. I., Pt. vi., p. 4. Most stinking meat, Toss’d up with leeks into Raggoo, To overcome the unsav’ry hogo.

1718. Durfey, Pills, iii., 177. ‘Let’s drink and be merry.’ Your most Beautiful Bit, that hath all Eyes upon her, That her Honesty sells for a hogo of Honour.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hogo … it has a confounded hogo, it stinks confoundedly.

Hogshead. To couch a hogshead, verb. phr. (Old Cant).—See quot. For synonyms, see Balmy.

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

Hog-shearing, subs. (old).—Much ado about nothing; great cry and little wool.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hog. Labour in vain, which the Latines express by Goats-wooll, as the English by the shearing of Hoggs.

Hogs-norton. To have been born at Hogs-Norton, verb. phr. (old).—To be ill-mannered.

d. 1666. Howell, Eng. Proverbs, p. 16. I think thou wast born at Hoggs-Norton, where piggs play upon the organs.

1676. Marvel, Mr. Smirke [Grosart], iv., p. 89. A pair of organs of cats which he had done well to have made the pigs at Hogs-Norton play on.

Hogstye of Venus, subs. phr. (venery).—See quot. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Porcile di venere, the hog-stye of Venus, a womans privities or geare.

Hog-wash, subs. (common).—1. Bad liquor; specifically, rot-gut (q.v.).

2. (journalists’).—Worthless newspaper matter; slush, swash, and flub-dub (q.v.).

Hoi polloi, subs. phr. (university).—The candidates for ordinary degrees. [From the Greek.] Cf., Gulf.

Hoist, subs. (old).—A shop-lifter; also a confederate hoisting or helping a thief to reach an open window. The Hoist = shop-lifting. To go upon the hoist = to enter a house by an open window.

1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed.), s.v. Hoist. This is done by the assistance of a confederate called the hoist, who leans his head against the wall, making his back a kind of step or ascent.—Grose.

1819. Vaux, Cant. Dict. Hoist, the game of shop-lifting is called the hoist; a person expert at this practice is said to be a good hoist.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 38. We were principally engaged upon the hoys and coreing.

Verb (thieves’).—1. To practise shop-lifting; to rob by means of the hoist (q.v.).

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

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 174. Jist hist, and take yourself off.

3. (common).—To drink. E.g., Will you hoist? = will you have a liquor?; Hoisting = drinking; On the hoist = on the drunk. Also a hoist in.

To give a hoist, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To do a bad turn.

To have (or do) a hoist in, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hoister, subs. (old).—1. A shop-lifter; a hoist (q.v., sense 1). Also a pickpocket.

1847–50. J. H. Jesse, London, i., 30. He that could take out a counter without any noise was allowed to be a public hoyster. N.B.—That a hoyster is a pickpocket.

2. (common).—A sot. For synonyms, see Lushington.

Hoisting (or Hoist-lay), subs. (thieves’).—1. Shop-lifting. The hoist (q.v.). Also shaking a man head downwards, so that his money rolls out of his pockets.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1821. D. Haggart, Life, glossary, p. 172. Hoys, shop-lifting.

1868. Temple Bar, xxiv., 534. She can secrete articles about her dress when in a shop looking at things, and that’s one way of hoisting.

2. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hoisting, a ludicrous ceremony, formerly performed on every soldier, the first time he appeared in the field, after being married: as soon as the regiment, or company, had grounded their arms, to rest awhile; three or four men of the same company, to which the bridegroom belonged, seized upon him, and putting a couple of bayonets out of the two corners of his hat, to represent horns, it was placed on his head, the back part foremost, he was then hoisted on the shoulders of two strong fellows, and carried round the arms, a drum and fife beating and playing, the pioneers call, named Round-heads and Cuckolds, but on this occasion stiled the Cuckold’s March; in passing the colours, he was to take off his hat.… This in some regiments was practised by the officers on their brethren.

Hoit (or Hoyt), verb. (old).—To be noisily or riotously inclined.

1611. Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of the Burning Pestle, iv., 1. He sings, and hoyts, and revels among his drunken companions.

Hoity-toity. See Highty-tighty.

Hokey-pokey, subs. (common).—1. A cheat; a swindle; nonsense. [From Hocus Pocus.]

2. (common).—A cheap ice-cream sold in the streets.

Holborn Hill. To ride backwards up Holborn Hill, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—To go to the gallows. [The way was thence to Tyburn, criminals riding backwards.—Grose.]

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. Urs. Up the heavy hill—Knock. Of Holbourn, Ursula, mean’st thou so? for what, for what, pretty Urse? Urs. For cutting halfpenny purses, or stealing little penny dogs out o’ the Fair.

1659. Harry White’s Humour (Nares). Item, he loves to ride when he is weary, yet at certaine times he holds it ominous to ride up Holborne.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, ii., 7. Sirrah, you’ll be hanged; I shall live to see you go up Holborn hill.

Hold, verb. (old).—1. To bet; to wager. See Do you hold?

1534. Udall, Roister Doister, i., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 7). I hold a groat ye will drink anon of this gear.

1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, iii., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 216, and passim). I hold thee a groat I shall patch thy coat.

1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, ii., 1. I’ll hold you a guinea you don’t make her tell it you.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 54. I’ll hold ye five Guineas to four.

2. (venery) (or Hold it).—To be impregnated; to be got with child. [In certain parts of Scotland, it is said, a farm servant stating that she “disna haud” commands double wages.]

To hold on to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To apply oneself; to be persistent: generally, to hold on like grim death.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 71. He recovered, and wisely held on to for the future.

Hold up, verb. phr. (American and Australian).—1. To rob on the highway; to bail or stick up (q.v.). Also as subs. = a highwayman or road-agent (q.v.).

1888. Detroit Free Press, 8 Dec. One man held up six stage passengers in Arizona the other day and robbed them of $2,000. Each was armed, but it is customary to submit out there, and so up went their hands.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 13 Oct. Mounted on a white horse, he started on a land-prospecting tour and ran against a party of hold-ups.

1892. Lippincott, Oct., p. 495. Would hold the train up until I had finished.

2. (thieves’).—To arrest. For synonyms, see Nab.

To hold the stage, verb. phr. (theatrical).—To have the chief place on the boards and the eye of an audience. Fr., avoir les planches.

To hold a candle to (the devil, etc.), verb. phr. (colloquial).—See Devil, and add the following quot.

1868. Reade and Boucicault, Foul Play, p. 65. But you see, sir, he has got the ear of the merchant ashore; and so I am obliged to hold a candle to the devil.

To hold a candle to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To vie with; to be comparable to; also to assist in or condone.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 79. They had killed poor Ransome; and was I to hold the candle to another murder?

To hold (or hang) on by the eyelids, eyelashes or eyebrows, verb. phr. (common).—To pursue an object desperately; to insist upon a point; to carry on a forlorn hope. See also quot. and Splash Board.

1883. Clark Russell, Sailor’s Language, p. 69. Holding on with his eyelids. Said of a man aloft with nothing much to lay hold of.

To hold in hand, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To amuse; to possess the attention or the mind; to have in one’s pocket.

To hold the market, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To buy stock and hold it to so large an extent that the price cannot decline.

Do you hold? phr. (streets).—Have you money to lend? Can you stand treat? Cf. verb., sense 1.

Hold your horses, phr. (American).—Go easy; don’t get excited: a general injunction to calm in act and speech.

Hold your jaw, phr. (colloquial).—Hold your tongue; stow your gab (q.v.).

Hold hard! (or on)! intj. (colloquial).—Wait a moment! don’t be in a hurry!

1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, V., in Wks. (1777), i., 130. Hold hard! hold hard! you are all on a wrong scent.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 280. ‘Hold hard!’ said the conductor; ‘I’m blowed if we ha’n’t forgot the gen’lm’n as vas to be set down at Doory-lane.’

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. iv., p. 38 (1873). I told Meaburn to hold on, and we’d get a rise out of Punch.

Hold-stitch.—See Stitch.

Hold-water.—See Water.

Hold-out, subs. (gambling).—An old-fashioned apparatus, in poker, for ‘holding out’ desirable cards.

Hole (venery).—1. The female pudendum. Also, Hole of Content, and Hole (or Queen) of Holes. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. To give a hole to hide it in = to grant the favour (q.v.). [Hence, by a play upon words, Holy of Holies.]

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. This drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble (q.v.) in a hole.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Carnafau, the brat-getting place, or hole of content.

1620. Percy, Folio MS., p. 197. … He light in a hole ere he was aware!

1647–80. Rochester, Poems. Thou mighty princess, lovely queen of holes.

d. 1649. Drummond, Posthumous Poems, ‘The Statue of Alcides.’ Fair nymph, in ancient days, your holes, by far, Were not so hugely vast as now they are.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 72. It has a head much like a Mole’s, And yet it loves to creep in holes: The fairest She that e’er took Life, For love of this became a Wife.

2. (old).—A cell; cf., Hell, sense 1.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 1016. Wee have gart bind him with ane poill, And send him to the theifis hoill.

1607. Miseries of Enforced Marriage, iii., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875. ix., 514). If you shall think … it shall accord with the state of gentry to submit myself from the feather-bed in the master’s side, or the flock-bed in the knight’s ward, to the straw-bed in the hole.

1607. Wentworth Smith, The Puritan, iii. But if e’er we clutch him again the Counter shall charm him. Rav. The hole shall rot him.

1657. Walks of Hogsdon. Next from the stocks, the hole, and little-ease.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iv., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 482). Make his mittymus to the hole at Newgate.

3. (old).—A private printing office where unlicensed books were made; a cock-robin shop (q.v.).—Moxon, 1683.

4. (colloquial).—A difficulty; a fix; on the turf, to be in a hole = to lose (a bet) or be defeated (of horses).

1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, ch. xvi. I should be in a deadly hole myself if all my customers should take it into their heads to drink nothing but water-gruel.

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. i. ‘I am in a hole—no end of a hole.’

5. (common).—A place of abode; specifically, a mean habitation; a dirty lodging. For synonyms, see Diggings.

6. (common).—The rectum: short for arse-hole. E.g., suck his hole = a derisive retort upon an affirmative answer to the question, ‘Do you know So-and-So?’ For synonyms, see Monocular Eyeglass.

1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, ‘The Miller’s Tale.’ And at the window she put out hir hole.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 2174. Lift vp hir clais: Kis hir hoill with your hart.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, v., 3. A pox o’ your manners, kiss my hole here, and smell.

1649. Drummond, Madrigals and Epigrams, ‘A Jest’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, x., 667). She turned, and turning up her hole beneath, Said, ‘Sir, kiss here.’

d. 1732. Gay, Tales ‘In Imitation of Chaucer’s Style’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, x., 504). Thou didst forget to guard thy postern, There is an hole which hath not crossed been.

Verb (venery).—To effect intromission; to put in (q.v.). Hence, Holed, adj. = in (q.v.).

A hole in one’s coat, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A flaw in one’s fame; a weak spot in one’s character. To pick a hole in one’s coat = to find a cause for censure.

1789. Burns, Verses on Capt. Grose. If there’s a hole in a’ your coats, I rede you tent it.

To make (or burn) a hole in one’s pocket, verb. phr. (colloquial).—Said of money recklessly spent.

To make a hole in anything, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To use up largely.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 456). Do it then, and make a hole in this angel.

To make a hole in the water, verb. phr. (common).—To commit suicide by drowning.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 76. I should just make a hole in the water, if ’tworn’t for the wife and the kids.

To make a hole, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To break; to spoil; to upset; to interrupt. Thus to make a hole in one’s manners = to be rude; to make a hole in one’s reputation = to betray, to seduce; to make a hole in the silence = to make a noise, to raise cain (q.v.).

Too drunk to see a hole in a ladder, phr. (common).—Excessively intoxicated. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Hole-and-corner, adj. (colloquial).—Secret; underhand; out of the way: e.g., hole-and-corner work = shady business. Also (venery) = copulation. [Cf., Hole, subs. sense 1.]

Holer (also Holemonger), subs. (colloquial).—A whoremaster (cf., Hole, subs., sense 1). Also (old), a harlot; a light woman (cf., Hole, verb.). Hence, Holing = whoring.

Holiday, adj. (old).—Unskilled; indifferent; careless.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Holiday, a holiday bowler, a bad bowler.

Blind Man’s Holiday. See ante.

To have a holiday at Peckham, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To go dinnerless. All holiday at Peckham = no work and nothing to eat. [A play upon words.] See Peckish.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. All holiday at Peckham … a saying signifying that it is all over with the business or person spoken of or alluded to.

1848. Forster, Oliver Goldsmith, bk. I., ch. vi., p. 55 (5th Ed.). ‘Oh, that is all a holiday at Peckham,’ said an old friend very innocently one day.

To take a holiday, verb. phr. (common).—To be dismissed; to get the bag (q.v.) or sack (q.v.)

Gone for a holiday, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Said of a flaw, lapse, or imperfection of any kind (as dropped stitches, lost buttons, slurred painting, and so forth). See also quots.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Holiday … a holiday is any part of a ship’s bottom, left uncovered in painting it.

1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, p. 69, s.v. Holidays. Places left untarred on shrouds, backstays, etc., during the operation of tarring them.

Holler, verb. (American).—To cry enough; to give in; to cave in (q.v.).

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 89. The truth must come, he warped me nice, So jist to save his time I hollered.

Hollis, subs. (Winchester College).—A small pebble. [Said to be derived from a boy.—Notions.]

Hollow, adj. (colloquial).—Complete; certain; decided. As adv. completely; utterly. E.g., to beat or lick hollow. See Beat and Creation.

1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, i., 2. Crab was beat hollow.

1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, V., in Wks. (1777), i., 134. So, my lord, you and I are both distanced: a hollow thing, damme.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hollow. It was quite a hollow thing, i.e., a certainty, or decided business.

1814. Edgworth, Patronage, ch. iii. Squire Burton won the match hollow.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Bloudie Jack.’ His lines to Apollo Beat all the rest hollow And gained him the Newdegate Prize.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lxiv., p. 529. I have therefore taken a ’ouse in that locality, which, in the opinion of my friends, is a hollow bargain (taxes ridiculous, and use of fixtures included in the rent).

1871. Durham County Advertiser, 10 Nov. ‘It licks me hollow, sir, as I may say,’ put in the silent member.

1892. Punch, 9 July, p. 3. Booby-traps were beaten hollow.

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

Holloway, Middlesex (common).—The lower bowel; the arse-gut (q.v.).

Holt, verb. (American).—To take; to take hold of.

Holus-bolus, subs. (nautical).—The head. Also the neck.

Adv. (colloquial).—Helter skelter; altogether; first come, first served.

1868. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 1st Period, ch. xv. And, making a sudden snatch at the heap of silver, put it back, holus-bolus, in her pocket.

Holy. More holy than righteous, adv. phr. (common).—Said of a person in rags, or of a tattered garment.

Holy-boys, subs. (military).—The Ninth Foot. [From a trick of selling bibles for drink in the Peninsula.] Also, Fighting Ninth.

1886. Tinsley’s Magazine, Apr., 322. The 9th having bartered their Bibles in Spain for wine, and having there gained a reputation for sacking monasteries, were long known as the Holy Boys.

Holy-father, subs. (Irish).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Holy Father, A butcher’s boy of St. Patrick’s Market, Dublin, or other Irish blackguard; among whom the exclamation, or oath, by the Holy Father (meaning the Pope), is common.

Holy Iron. See Holy Poker.

Holy Joe, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A pious person, whether hypocritical or sincere. Also (nautical), a parson.

Holy Jumping Mother of Moses. See Moses.

Holy-lamb, subs. (old).—A thorough-paced villain.—Grose.

Holy-land (or ground), subs. (old).—1. St. Giles’s; Palestine (q.v.).

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 7. For we are the boys of the holy ground, And we’ll dance upon nothing and turn us round.

1821. The Fancy, i., p. 250. The Holy-land, as St. Giles’s has been termed, in compliment to the superior purity of its Irish population.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, ch. ii. At Mammy O’Shaughnessy’s in the back Settlements of the Holy Land.

1823. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 5. Let’s have a dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land.

1843. Punch’s Almanack, 1 Sept. St. Giles. The Marquis of Waterford makes a pilgrimage to his shrine in the Holy Land.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, one a.m., par. 28. Unfaithful topographers may have told you that the Holy Land being swept away and Buckeridge Street being pulled down, St. Giles’s exists no more.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 3 Apr. p. 215, col. 1. It would be hard to say whether the Irishmen of the Holy Land or the Hebrew scum of Petticoat Lane showed the finest specimens of ‘looped and windowed raggedness.’

2. (common).—Generic for any neighbourhood affected by Jews; specifically, Bayswater, and Brighton. Cf., New Jerusalem, and Holy of Holies.

Holy Moses. See Moses.

Holy of Holies, subs. phr. (common).—1. The Grand Hotel at Brighton. [Which is largely tenanted by Jews: cf., Holy Land (sense 2), and New Jerusalem.]

2. (colloquial).—A private room; a sanctum (q.v.).

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 215. Fletcher did not venture into that holy of holies.

1893. Westminster Gaz., 31 Jan., p. 3, c. 2. The Cabinet Council is the holy of holies of the British Constitution, and as Mr. Bagehot long ago regretted, no description of it at once graphic and authentic has ever been given.

3. (venery).—See Hole, sense 1, and for synonyms, Monosyllable.

Holy Poker (or Iron), subs. phr. (university).—The mace carried by an esquire bedel (of Law, Physic, or Divinity) as a badge of authority. [The term, which is applied to the bedels themselves, is very often used as an oath.]

1840. Comic Almanack, ‘Tom the Devil,’ p, 214. A hotel’s the place for me! I’ve thried em all, from the Club-house at Kilkinny, to the Clarendon, and, by the holy poker, never wish mysilf worse luck than such cantonments!

1870. London Figaro, 8 Oct., p. 2, col. 2. The bedels of a University are very important persons, although derisive undergraduates familiarly term them holy pokers.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 169. I swear upon the holy iron I had neither art nor part.

2. (venery).—The penis (by a play upon words). Cf., Hole, sense 1, Holy of Holies, sense 3, and Poke. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Holy-water Sprinkler, subs. phr. (old).—A mediæval weapon of offence; a morning star (q.v.).

Home, subs. (colonial).—England.

1893. Gentlemen’s Mag., Jan., p. 74. And then I learnt that by home he meant England, which, moreover, is referred to as ‘home’ by dusky myriads, who have never seen her cliffs rise above the waves.

To get home, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To achieve an object; to succeed perfectly; and (athletic) to reach the winning post.

1891. Sportsman, 26 Mar. A close struggle for the Palace Selling Plate ended in favour of Rosefield, who just got home a head in front of Mordure.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Jan., 3, 2. It is delightful to watch Mr. Charles Hawtrey telling lie after lie to his unbelieving wife, and joyfully, in misplaced confidence, saying to himself, ‘I’ve got home.’

2. (pugilists’).—To get in (a blow) with precision and effect; to land (q.v.). Also (old) to give a mortal wound.

1559. Elyot, Dictionarium, 3rd. ed. Aere meo me lacessis, thou gevest me scoffe for scoffe, or as we saie, thou paiest me home.

1631. Chettle, Hoffman. Sax. Not any, Austria; neither toucht I thee. Aust. Somebody toucht me home; vaine world farewell, Dying I fall on my dead Lucibell.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iv., 3. But hark ye, George; don’t push too home; have a care of whipping through the guts.

1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, ii., 1. That’s home.

1888. Sporting Life, 10 Dec. In the next round got home several times without a return.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 19 June, p. 395, c. 3. Mac got home a terrific cross-counter with the left on Bob’s left eye, which seemed to split the flesh open both above and below.

3. (turf).—To recover a loss; neither to win nor lose; to come out quits. Also, to bring oneself home.

4. (venery).—To get with child. Also, to compel the sexual spasm.

To make oneself at home, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To take one’s ease; to be familiar to the point of ill-breeding.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 10. As at home as a cat in a cream-shop.

To come home to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To reach the conscience; to touch deeply.

To go (send, or carry) home (or to one’s last home), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To die; to kill; to bury. [The Chinese say ‘to go home horizontally.’] See Aloft.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Mandar ’al palegro, to send to ones last home.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Home. Gone home, dead.

Home-bird, subs. (colloquial).—A henpecked husband. Also, a milksop. Fr., chauffe-la-couche (= warming-pan).

Home for lost dogs, subs. phr. (medical).—A large and well known medical school in London. [From the fact that the majority of its inmates have strayed there from the various hospital schools, as a last resource toward taking a degree.]

Home-rule, subs. (common).—Irish whiskey. For synonyms, see Drinks and Old Man’s Milk.

Home-sweet-home, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Homo, subs. (old).—A man: generally omee (q.v.). [From the Latin.] For synonyms, see Cove.

Homoney, subs. (old).—A woman. For synonyms, see Petticoat. Also, a wife. For synonyms, see Dutch and Cf. Homo.

1754. Discoveries of John Poulter, p. 43. My homoney is in quod, my wife is in gaol.

Homo-opathise, verb. (American).—To get bills (i.e., petitions) through Legislature, Congress, or City Council, by means of bills (i.e., bank-bills).

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

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 204. So I may no more pogue the hone of a Woman.

Honest, adj. (old).—1. Chaste.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, ii., 1. Why’t cannot be, where there is such resort, O wanton gallants, and young revellers, That any woman should be honest long.

1599. Henry Porter, Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 389). Is my fellow Dick in the dark with my mistress? I pray God they be honest, for there may be much knavery in the dark.

1600. Look About You, Sc. 28 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 476). What, lecher? No, she is an honest woman. Her husband is well known.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, iii., 3. I do not think but Desdemona’s honest.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, v., 3. De honest woman’s life is a dull scurvy life, indeed.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 454). There’s none but honest women.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, v., 4 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 525). Crooked, dirty-souled vermin, predestined for cuckolds, painted snails with houses on their backs, and horns as big as Dutch cows.… Can any woman be honest that lets such hodmandods crawl o’er her virgin breast and belly?

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii., 1. A man … may bring his bashful wench, and not have her put out of countenance by the impudent honest women of the town.

1686–7. Aubrey, Gentilisme (1881), p. 163. The towne is full of wanton wenches, and … (they say) scarce three honest women in the Town.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iii., 10. Silvia. I’m not such a fool neither, but I can keep myself honest.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, iii., 14. Mrs. Fore. Do you think any woman honest? Scan. Yes, several very honest; they’ll cheat a little at cards sometimes; but that’s nothing. Mrs. Fore. Pshaw! but virtuous, I mean.

2. (common).—Not positively illegal: as honest penny or shilling = money earned by means immoral (as by prostitution) but within the law. Also, To turn an honest penny = to make a profitable deal.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iii., 1. You must call usury and extortion God’s blessing, or the honest turning of the penny.

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society, ch. xxi. There was a chance of turning an honest penny in hiring them out for the donkey-race.

To make an honest woman, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To marry a mistress.

1629. Earle, Microcosmographie (5th ed.). ‘A Serving Man.’ The best work he does is his marrying, for he makes an honest woman, and if he follows in it his master’s direction, it is commonly the best service he does him.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, v., 6. Dap. Why she was my wench. Gripe. I’ll make her honest then.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XV., ch. viii. Mr. Nightingale, and his love, stepped into a hackney-coach, which conveyed him to Doctors’ Commons, where Miss Nancy was, in vulgar language, soon made an honest woman.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxv. My right honourable father nourished some thoughts of making an honest woman of Marie de Martigny, and a legitimate elder brother of Francis.

1827. Egan, Anecdotes of the Turf, p. 182. She had now only to play her cards well, she was sure of winning the game, also of becoming an honest woman.

As honest a man as when kings are out, phr. (old).—Knavish.

Honest as the skin between the brows (or Horns), phr. (old).—As honest as may be.

1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, (O.P.), ii., 67. I am as true, I wold thou knew, as skin betwene thy brows.

1599. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, ii., 2. Punt. Is he magnanimous? Gent. As the skin between your brows, sir.

1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado, iii., 5. An old man, sir, and his wits are not so blunt, as, God help, I would desire they were, but in faith, honest, as the skin between his brows.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv., 5. It shall be justified to thy husband’s faish, now: tou shalt be as honesht as the skin between his hornsh, la.

Honest Injun! phr. (American).—A pledge of sincerity; honour bright (q.v.).

1884. Clemens [Mark Twain], Huckleberry Finn. She says ‘Honest Injun, now hain’t you been telling me a lot of lies?’ ‘Honest Injun’ says I.

1892. Detroit Free Press, 12 Aug. I’ll agree not to feel hard about it. Honest Injun?

Honey, subs. (American).—1. A good fellow.

1888. Missouri Republican, 24 Feb. Dave is a honey.

2. (rhyming slang).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

3. (old colloquial).—A term of endearment.

4. (venery).—The semen. Also White Honey (q.v.). Cf., Hive.

Verb (American).—To cajole; to exchange endearments; to deceive by soft words or promises.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iii., 4. Stew’d in corruption; honeying and making love Over the nasty sty.

1602. Marston, Antonio and Mellida, A. 4. Can’st thou not honey me with fluent speach, And even adore my toplesse villany?

1604. Marston and Webster, Malcontent, O.P., iv., 66. O unpeerable! invention rare! Thou god of policy, it honies me.

1631. Chettle, Hoffman. Clo. A pretious villaine: a good villaine too. Well if he be no worse; that is doe worse, And honey me in my death-stinging thoughts, I will preferre him.

1888. Tuskaloosa News. It is of no use to honey; payments must be made at least once a year.

To sell honey for a half-penny, verb. phr. (old).—To rate at a vile price.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse [1842], p. 43. Thou that in thy dialogues soldst hunnie for a halfe-penie, and the choysest writers extant for cues a peece.

Honey-blobs, subs. (Scots’).—Large, ripe, yellow gooseberries.

1746. Walpole, Letters, i., 144. As he returned to the Tower, he stopped the coach at Charing Cross to buy honey-blobs, as the Scotch call gooseberries.

Honeycomb, subs. (old).—A sweetheart; a general term of endearment.

1552. Huloet, Abcedarium, s.v. Darlynge, a wanton terme used in veneriall speach, as be these: honycombe, pyggisnye, swetehert, true love.

Honey-fogle (or fugle), verb. (American).—To cheat; to swindle; to humbug. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1888. Missouri Republican, 20 Jan. Noonan’s companion objected to this honey-fugling by knocking the demonstrative stranger down.

Honey-pot, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iii., 342. For when you have possession got, Of Venus’ Mark, or hony-pot.

Honour Bright! intj. (common).—Upon my honour.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 36. At morning meet, and,—honour bright,—Agree to share the blunt and tatters!

1843. Selby, Antony and Cleopatra Married. Cle. Will you love me as dearly as ever? Ant. Dearer, dear Chloe, dearer! Cle. Honour? Ant. Bright and shining.

1869. F. Hall, Marginal reading to Lyndsay’s Satire of Three Estates [E.E. Text Soc.], p. 382. She is more than a match for twenty-four a night, honour bright.

1878. Hatton, Cruel London, bk. VIII, ch. ii. Honour bright, no kid, as we say in London.

1881. W. Black, Beautiful Wretch, ch. xix. ‘I do not mean to marry Mr. Jacomb, if that is what you mean.’ ‘No? Honour bright?’ ‘I shall not marry Mr. Jacomb.’

1892. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 28 Sep., p. 29., c. 3. ‘Come, come, Mr. Smith, you’re drawing the long bow!’ ‘Honour bright, I’m not.’

1892. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 158. ‘She did, honour bright,’ said Smirk.

Hood. two faces under one hood (or Hat), phr. (old).—Double-dealing.

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

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

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hood. May the man be d——d and never grow fat, Who carries two faces under one hat.

To put a bone in one’s hood, verb. phr. (obsolete).—To cuckold.

1560. Nice Wanton (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 169). I could tell you who putteth a bone in your hood. Ibid. (p. 170), Then by the rood, a bone in your hood, I shall put you ere long.

Hoodlum, subs. (American).—A boy rough. Also, a rough of either sex. Also (political), a low-class voter. Originally Californian. Cf., Arab.

1872. Sacramento Weekly Union, 24 Feb., p. 2. All the boys to be trained as scriveners, tape-measurers, counter-hoppers, clerks, pettifoggers, polite loafers, street-hounds, hoodlums, and bummers.

1877. Los Angeles Express, 25 Aug. A gang of boys … associated for the purpose of stealing.… Their words of warning were ‘Huddle ’em, Huddle ’em.’ … soon contracted into hoodlum.

1877. Boston Journal, Aug. You at the East have but little idea of the hoodlums of this city. They compose a class of criminals of both sexes, far more dangerous than are to be found in the Eastern cities. They travel in gangs, and are ready at any moment for the perpetration of any crime.

1877. Congregationalist, 26 Sep. A newspaper man attempting to coin a word to designate a gang of young street Arabs under the beck of one named ‘Muldoon,’ hit upon noodlums, simply reversing the leader’s name.… The compositor, taking the n for an h, printed it hoodlum.

1877. Morning Call, 27 Oct. The rowdy element in the city … who were soon after designated as hoodlums.

1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 12 Aug., p. 5, c. 5. In order to guard against the contingency of the white hoodlums, or roughs, coming down in force from the American quarter of the city [San Francisco], and ‘going for’ the Celestials.

1888. Missouri Republican, 31 Mar. It is conceded by all that the hoodlums have nominated weak men, and the citizens will have easy sailing on Tuesday.

1890. Norton, Political Americanisms, s.v. hoodlums, A general name for roughs. It originated on the Pacific coast, as the designation of a company of young ruffians in San Francisco (about 1868). Subsequently it spread Eastward, and attained some political significance; as ‘the hoodlum element’ in politics.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Feb., p. 2, c. 2. A right of public meeting dependent on the good will of the hoodlum is not worth having.

1893. National Observer, 4 Mar., ix., 398. In America, home of the Hoodlum, where they turn their murderers into mayors.

Hoodman, subs. (old).—A blind man; a groper (q.v.).

Adj. (old).—1. Blind. Also Hoodman Blind = blind drunk; cf., sense 2. Fr., berlu and sans mirettes.

2. (streets).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Hoof, subs. (common).—A foot. For synonyms, see Creepers.

1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 134. Contriving in their complex twirlifications not only to tread heavily on my toes with his own hoofs, but to hop his partner repeatedly over the same unfortunate members.

1838. Grant, Sketches in London, p. 213. He again put both his ugly hoofs on it.

1867. Browne (‘Artemus Ward’), Among the Mormons [People’s ed.], p. 193. Waving their lily-white hoofs in the dazzling waltz.

1892. Sydney Watson, Wops the Waif, ch. iv., p. 5. Teddy, look out, yer’ve got yer hoof on my trotters!

Verb (common).—To kick; e.g., to hoof (or toe) one’s bum; to root (q.v. for synonyms). Hence to hoof out = to eject; to dismiss; to discharge; to decline to see.

To hoof it, (or to pad or beat the hoof), verb. phr. (common).—To walk; to ‘tramp it’; to run away. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle. Hence Hoof-padding.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, i., 3. Rogues, hence, avaunt, vanish like hailstones, go: Trudge, plod, away o’ the hoof.

d. 1687. Cotton, Poems, ‘Epistles’ (Chalmers English Poets), vi., 736. Being then on foot away I go And bang the hoof incognito.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hoof it or beat it on the hoof, to walk on Foot.

1691–2. Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, ii., 560. Landing at Liverpool, in Lancashire, they all beated it on the hoof thence to London.

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

1772. Cumberland, Fashionable Lover. Prologue. I am a devil, so please you, and must hoof Up to the poet yonder with this proof.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hoof. To beat the hoof, to travel on foot; he hoofed it, or beat the hoof, every step of the way from Chester to London.

1813. J. and H. Smith, Horace in London, ‘Hurly-Burly,’ p. 24. When hostile squadrons beat the hoof.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. ix. Charley Bates expressed his opinion that it was time to pad the hoof.

1885. Detroit Free Press, 5 Sept., p. 1, c. 1. These busted theatrical people who are hoofing it back to Detroit. They come along at all hours of the day and night.

1888. Lynch, Mountain Mystery, ch. xviii. I s’posed he was tired out, and had got over watchin’ for tricks. So I hoofed it in.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 70. Scenery’s all very proper, but where is the genuine pot who’d pad the ’oof over the moors.

To see one’s hoof in (a thing), verb. phr. (common).—To detect personal influence or interference in a matter.

1863. Thackeray, Roundabout Papers, ‘On Screens in Dining Rooms’ (1887, p. 58). I am informed by the same New York correspondent that … I once said to a literary gentleman, who was possibly pointing to an anonymous article as his writing, ‘Ah! I thought I recognised your hoof in it.’

Hoof-padder, subs. (common).—A pedestrian.

Hoofy, adj. (common).—Splay (or large).

Hook, subs. (thieves’).—1. A finger. (Cf., Cunt-hooks). For synonyms, see Fork. In plural = the hands. Also, Hooks and Feelers.

d. 1842. Maginn, Vidocq Versified. To his clies my hooks I throw in.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 259. I one day asked a man … if the hard work of prison did not spoil his hands for delicate manipulations. ‘Oh, bless you, no!’ he replied; ‘… In a week or two a man can bring his hooks and feelers into full working trim again and no mistake.’

2. (thieves’).—A thief. Specifically, a pickpocket; a hooker (q.v.). For synonyms, see Thieves.

1562. Jacke Juggler (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 139). So, yonder cometh that unhappy hook.

1887. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. Take my tip and turn square, from a hook who is going to be lagged, would be, in common parlance, take my advice and get your living honestly.

1892. Anstey, Voces Populi (2nd Series). ‘In Trafalgar Square.’ A professional hook.

3. (common).—A catch; an advantage; an imposture.

Verb (old).—1. To rob; to steal. Specifically, to steal watches, rings, etc., from a shop by cutting a small hole in the window, and fishing for such articles with a piece of string with a hook at the end.

1615. Albumazar, iii., 3. Is not this braver than sneak all night in danger, Picking of locks, or hooking cloths at windows.

b. 1796. Burns, Jolly Beggars. For mony a pursie she had hookit.

1876. Clemens [Mark Twain], Tom Sawyer, p. 34. And while Aunt Polly closed with a happy Scriptural flourish, Tom hooked a doughnut.

1884. M. Twain, Huck. Finn, xxx., 312. Didn’t you have it in your mind to hook the money and hide it?

2. (colloquial).—To secure, as for marriage; to marry.

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society, ch. xviii. I wonder if Mrs. Traff has contrived to hook him for her sweet Laura.

1892. Manville Fenn, New Mistress, ch. xxv. Have you I will—there now. Don’t you think you’re going to hook Lambent.

Intj. (Oxford Univ.).—An expression implying doubt. [Query from the note of interrogation (?) or connected with Hookey Walker (q.v.).]

On the hook, subs. phr. (common).—1. On the thieve; on the cross (q.v.).

2. (old).—On the Hip (q.v.); at an advantage.

1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iv., 18. Consider I have you on the hook; you will but flounder yourself a-weary, and be nevertheless my prisoner.

Hook and eye, subs. phr. (tailors’).—Arm in arm.

To take (or sling) one’s hook (or to hook it), verb. phr. (common).—To decamp; to run away. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, ii., 137. He slipped from her and hooked it.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xlvi. ‘Hook it! Nobody wants you here,’ he ses. ‘You Hook it. You go and tramp,’ he ses.

1856. Bradley [Cuthbert Bede], Tales of College Life, p. 36. Hook it! old ’un, hook it!

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xli. They all begins to get a bit noisy and want to fight, and so I hooked it.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 16 Jan., p. 43, col. 3. If you lot don’t hook it, I’ll stave in your blooming cocoa-nuts.

1891. Sportsman, 2 Apr., p. 2, col. 1. Plainly the worthy magistrate laid it down that a wife may hook it when and how she pleases.

1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall, 129–30. Take your ’ook while you can. Even now the outraged populace approaches.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 58. I went jest for a lark, and wos quietly slinging my ’ook.

1892. Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘Loot.’ Before you sling your ’ook, at the ’ousetops take a look.

1892. Globe, 19 Oct., p. 3. Again from some neighbouring roof comes back the weird responsive cry, Hook it! hook it.

1892. Herbert Campbell, Broadside Ballad, ‘Then Up Comes I with My little Lot.’ And the houses shook and the copper took his ’ook, and down come all the tiles.

To drop (go, or pop) off the hooks, verb. phr. (common).—1. To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Black Mousquetaire.’ I fear by his looks, Our friend, Francis Xavier, has popp’d off the hooks!

1842. Punch’s Almanack, Dec. 15. Death wandered by the sea And struck by Walton’s looks Broke Isaac’s line of life And took him off the hooks.

1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. iv. ‘S’pose the odds are against Jerningham going off the hooks between this and the first spring-meeting, so as to give a party a chance with Mrs. J. herself,’ speculates young Belgravia, dreamily.

1880. Greenwood, Odd People in Odd Places, p. 37. I thought, to be sure, I was going off the hooks, and it was no use talking about it.

1890. Grant Allen, Tents of Shem, ch. xii. The old man has popped off the hooks this afternoon at Aix.

2. (colloquial).—To get married.

1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard, ch. x. Some of the young chaps will be wanting her to get married. These here pretty ones go off the hooks so soon.

To hook on to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attach oneself to; to buttonhole (q.v.); to follow up.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 4. It’s nuts to ’ook on to a swell.

On one’s own hook, adv. phr. (colloquial).—On one’s own account, risk, or responsibility; for one’s own sake; dependent on one’s own resources or exertions.

1847. Robb, Squatter Life, p. 23. The signal was given, and in poured the subscribers to the dinner, with their guest, and in poured John on his own hook.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxix. Do we come out as Liberal Conservative, or as Government man, or on our own hook?

1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. xxvii. I worked on my own hook, after that, and I rather think I paid my expenses.

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London, p. 409. To steal on your own hook as a bookmaker.

1889. Answers, p. 52, c. 3. Finally Edison went to work on his own hook.

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. viii. We used to have to part company and go in twos and threes then on our own hook.

By hook or by crook, phr. (colloquial).—By some means or other; by fair means or foul; at all hazards. [Probably of forestal origin.]

d. 1298. Thomas the Rhymer, On Parliaments. Their work was by hook or crook to rap and bring all under the emperor’s power.

1525. Bodmin Register. Dynmure Wood was ever open and common to the … inhabitants of Bodmin … to bear away upon their backs a burden of lop, crop, hook, crook, and bag wood.

d. 1529. Skelton, Collyn Cloute. Nor wyll suffer this boke By hooke ne by crooke Prynted for to be.

1550. Bacon, Fortress of the Faithful. Whatsoever is pleasant or profitable must be theirs by hook or by crook.

1557. Tusser, Good Husbandrie, 30 Mar. Watch therefore in Lent, to thy sheepe go and look, For dogs will have vittels by hooke and by crooke.

1566. Archbp. Parker, Correspondence (Parker Soc.), p. 252. To win him in time, by hook or crook.

1596. Spenser, Faery Queen, v., 2, 27. The spoyle of people’s euill gotten good, The which her sire had scrapt by hooke and crooke.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Barocco, a shift made for good cheere, meate and drinke gotten by hooke or crooke.

1621. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, xi., 186 (1836). By hook and by crook he will obtain it.

1629. Fonseca [Eng. by J. M.]. Devout Contemplations. Bee it by hooke or by crooke, by right or wrong.

1678. Butler, Hudibras, iii., 1. Which he by hook, or crook, had gather’d.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. By Hedge or By Style, by Hook or by Crook.

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

1781. Cowper, Letter to Newton, 12 July. And by hook or crook, with another book, If I live and am here, another year.

1820. Reynolds [Peter Corcoran]. The Fancy. Father, ere our purpose cool, Get down by hook or crook to Liverpool.

1824. Hitchings and Drewe, Hist. Cornwall, ii., 214. The prior’s cross, on which is cut the figure of a hook and a crook, in memory of the privilege granted … to the poor … for gathering such boughs and branches of such trees … as they could reach with a hook or by a crook … whence … they will have it by hook and by crook.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 363. We must be manned by hook or crook, you know, however unwilling to distress running ships.

1868. Reade and Boucicault, Foul Play, p. 54. Several fellow-creatures have cheated me. Well, I must get as much back, by hook or by crook, from several fellow-creatures.

1883. W. Black, Yolande, ch. xlix. I should get you a ticket by hook or by crook, if I failed at the ballot; I heard that one was sold for £40 the last time.

1888. Rider Haggard, ‘Mrs. Meeson’s Will’ [in Illustrated News, Summer Number, p. 5, c. 1]. Somehow or other, it would go hard if, with the help of the one hundred a year that he had of his own, he did not manage, with his education, to get a living by hook or by crook.

With a hook at the end, phr. (common).—A reservation of assent; over the left (q.v.); in a horn (q.v.). Cf., hook, intj.: and Hookey Walker.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Hookey Walker—and with a hook, usually accompanied by a significant upliftment of the hand and crooking of the forefinger, implying that what is said is a lie, or is to be taken contrary-wise.

1843. Moncrieff, Scamps of London, i., 1. Bob. Will you have some gin? Fogg. Gin—Yes! Bob (turning away). Ha—ha!—With a hook … I wish you may get it.

1870. Traill, Saturday Songs, p. 22. It’s go and go over the left, It’s go with a hook at the end.

Off the hooks, phr. (old).—Out of temper; vexed; disturbed; out of sorts. Fr., sortir de ses gonds = off the hinges (q.v.). For synonyms, see Nab the rust.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘Bum-fodder.’ That’s a thing would please the Butchers and Cooks, To see this stinking Rump quite off the hooks.

1665. Pepys, Diary, 26 May. In the evening by water to the Duke of Albemarle, whom I found mightily off the hooks, that the ships are not gone out of the River; which vexed me to see.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hooks. Off the hooks, in an ill Mood, or out of Humour.

d. 1704. L’Estrange [quoted in Ency. Dict.]. Easily put off the hooks, and monstrous hard to be pleased again.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iii., 22. Another that’s in the Blacksmith’s Books, And only to him for remedy looks, Is when a Man is quite off the hooks.

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

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxx. Everybody that has meddled in this St. Ronan’s business is a little off the hooks—… in plain words, a little crazy.

Hook and Snivey (or Hookum Snivey), subs. phr. (old).—1. An imposture; specifically, the getting of food on false pretences.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, ii., 79. ‘Hook and Snivey, with Nix the Buffer’ [Title].

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hook and Snivey with Nix the Buffer. This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing.… Three men, one of whom pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house; the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf. s.v. Hook and Snivvy—practised by soldiers in quarters when they obtain grub for nix.

1835 in Comic Almanack 1835–43 (Hotten), p. 17, Zoological Society at Hookem Snivey. A new animal has been transmitted from No-Man’s Land, which has been named the Flat-Catcher.

2. (old).—An impostor as described in sense 1.

3. (streets).—A contemptuous or sarcastic affirmation, accompanied by the gesture of taking a sight (q.v.) or playing hookey (q.v.).

4. (thieves’).—A crook of thick iron wire in a wooden handle, used to undo the wooden bolts of doors from without.

1801. Edgeworth, Irish Bulls, With that I ranges ’em fair and even on my hook ’em snivey, up they goes.

Hooked, adj. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hookt, over-reached, Snapt, Trickt.

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

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

Hooker, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A thief; an angler (q.v.). Also, (modern) a watch-stealer; a dip (q.v.). Cf., quots. 1567 and 1888.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 35. These hokers, or Angglers, be peryllous and most wicked knaues, … they customably carry with them a staffe of v. or vi. foote long, in which, within one ynch of the tope thereof, ys a lytle hole bored through, [leaf 9] in which hole they putte an yron hoke, and with the same they wyll pluck vnto them quickly any thing that they may reche ther with.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 8 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). They are sure to be clyd in the night by the angler, or hooker, or such like pilferers that liue upon the spoyle of other poore people.

d. 1626. John Davies, Scourge of Folly, p. 34. [Wks., Ed. Grosart]. A false knaue needs no brokers, but a broker Needs a false knaue (a hangman or a hooker).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hookers, the third Rank of Canters; also Sharpers.

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

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. No strange Abram, ruffler crack, hooker of another pack.

1888. Tit Bits, 17 Nov., p. 82, col. 2. There are usually three men in a gang; the hooker having got into conversation with his man, number two ‘covers’ his movements, whilst number three (on the opposite side of the street) keeps a look-out for the ‘enemy.’ The hooker, having by careful manipulation got a hold of the desired prize, detaches it from the chain by breaking the ring and passes it to number two, who in turn passes it on to number three, from whom it is usually transferred to a receiver and melted down within a few hours of its being purloined.

2. (American).—A prostitute: i.e., a fisher, angler, or Hooker of men. For synonyms, see Barrack Hack and Tart.

Hookey. To play hookey, verb. phr. (American).—To play truant; to do Charley-wag (q.v.).

1876. Clemens [Mark Twain], Tom Sawyer, p. 100. Took his flogging … for playing hookey the day before.

To do (or play) hookey (or hooky), verb. phr. (common).—To apply the thumb and fingers to the nose; to take a sight (q.v.); to coffee-mill (q.v.).

Hookey Walker! (or Walker!) intj. (common).—Be off! go away. Also implying doubt. Cf., with a hook. [Bee: From John Walker, a hook-nosed spy, whose reports were proved to be fabrications.]

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hookey Walker, An expression signifying that the story is not true, or that the thing will not occur.

1843. Dickens, Christmas Carol [1843], p. 169. ‘Buy it,’ said Scrooge. ‘Walker!’ said the boy.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Old Woman Clothed in Grey.’ For mere unmeaning talk her Parch’d lips babbled now,—such as Hookey!—and Walker!—She expired, with her last breath expressing a doubt If ‘his Mother were fully aware he was out?’

1840. ‘Characters of Freshmen’ (Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 183). The pestilent freshman … is very pugnacious, and walking in the streets suddenly turneth and asketh a huge snob ‘what the deuce he meant by that?’ Whereat the snob (having done nothing at all) coolly answereth (as the Pestilent Freshman intended he should) Hooky Walker, provocative of a combat.

Hooking-cow, subs. (Western American).—A cow that shows fight.

1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. One … was … a hooking-cow, and to escape her repeated charges tested all our ability.

Hook-pointed (or Hook-pintled), adj. (venery).—Imperfectly erected. Cf., Lob (q.v.).

Hook-pole Lay, subs. phr. (old).—Pulling a man off his horse by means of iron hooks at the end of a long pole, and plundering him. (Smith, Lives of Highwaymen, III., 192, 1720).

Hook-shop, subs. (American).—A brothel. [Hooker (q.v.) = prostitute.] For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

Hoop, subs. (American).—1. A ring.

2. (Devon).—See Bullfinch.

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

Verb (old).—To beat. To well hoop one’s barrel = to thrash soundly. For synonyms, see Tan.

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

To hoop it (or go through the hoop), verb. phr. (old).—1. To pass the Insolvent Debtor’s Court; to get hooped up = whitewashed (q.v.). For synonyms, see Dead-broke.

2. (old).—To run away. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, 116. I have heard them tell … boys … who have hooped it from home that they had better go back whilst they had a home to go to.

Hooper’s Hide, subs. phr. (old venery).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 278. The while that his wife with Willy Was playing at Hooper’s Hide.

Hoop-stick, subs. (common).—The arm. For synonyms, see Chalk Farm.

Hoosier, subs. (American).—A native of Indiana. [Perhaps the most reasonable of several ingenious explanations is, that in the early days the customary challenge or greeting in that region was, ‘Who’s yer?’ (who’s here?): pronounced hoosier.—Norton.]

1843. D. Corcoran, A Genuine Hoosier. An original character is your genuine Hoosier. By genuine, we mean such a one as has all the attributes that peculiarly belong to the back-woodsmen of the West.

1847. Darley, Drama in Pokerville, p. 197. None of them ‘cotton’d’ to him more kindly than an elderly hoosier from the innermost depths of Indiana.

1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, p. 79. There is a swarm of ‘suckers,’ ‘hoosiers,’ ‘buckeyes,’ ‘corn-crackers,’ and ‘wolverines’ eternally on the qui vive in those parts.

Hooter, subs. (American).—1. A steam-whistle; an American devil (q.v.).

2. (colloquial).—A wooden trumpet, so contrived as to make a horrible noise.

3. (American).—A corruption of ‘iota’: e.g., ‘I don’t care a hooter for him.’

Hooting-pudding, subs. (provincial).—A plum-pudding with such a paucity of plums that you can hear them hooting after each other.—Slang, Jargon, and Cant.

Hop, subs. (common).—A dance. [Generally informal, as a Cinderella (q.v.).] Also, as in quot. 1579, the motions of dancing. For synonyms, see Skip.

1579. Gosson, Schoole of Abuse, p. 33 (Arber’s Ed.). He gaue Dauncers great stipends for selling their hopps.

1811. Jane Austen, Sense and S., ch. ix. At a little hop at the park, he danced from eight o clock till four.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hop—a contra-dance of ordinary persons and promiscuous company is ‘a hop’ and ‘a penny-hop’ from the price formerly paid for admission.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, iv. He gave them from time to time a very agreeable hop.

1847. Thackeray, Mrs. Perkins’s Ball (Mr. Larkins). To describe this gentleman’s infatuation for dancing, let me say, in a word, that he will even frequent boarding-house hops, rather than not go.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 189. The ‘temple’ was generally cleared for a hop two or three times during the week.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, p. 121. You’ll be at old Coleman’s hop to-night, I suppose; so bye! bye! for the present.

1852. Bristed, Upper Ten Thousand, p. 129. Two undress-balls—hops they were.

1882. Daily Telegraph, 13 Nov., p. 5, c. 3. At all seasons there is an immense amount of dancing; and at Washington there are continual ‘hotel hops’ in the winter.

1887. W. S. Gilbert, Patience, ii. Prefers suburban hops To all your Monday Pops.

1889. Lippincott, Oct., p. 447. Hang me if she isn’t always on the plain, or at a hop, with one of those twin kids!

1892. Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads. ‘Gentlemen Rankers.’ To dance with blowzy housemaids at the regimental hops.

Hop-and-go-kick, subs. phr. (tailors’).—A lameter; a Hop-and-go-one. Cf., Dot-and-carry-one.

To hop the wag, verb. phr. (common).—To play truant, or Charley-wag (q.v.).

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 207. They often persuaded me to hop the wag, that is play truant from school.

To hop (or jump) over the broom (or broomstick), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To live as husband and wife; to live (or go) tally (q.v.).

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, ii., 3. Jump o’er a broomstick, but don’t make a farce on The marriage ceremonies of the parson.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 336. There was always a broomstick wedding. Without that ceremony a couple weren’t looked on as man and wife.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, xlviii., 227. This woman in Gerrard Street, here, had been married very young, over the broomstick (as we say), to a tramping man.

c. 18(79). Broadside Ballad, ‘David Dove that Fell in Love.’ By L. M. Thornton. The girl that I had hoped to hear Pronounce my happy doom, sir, Had bolted with a carpenter, In fact hopped o’er the broom, sir.

To hop the twig, verb. phr. (common).—1. To leave; to run away; to skedaddle (q.v.). For synonyms, see amputate.

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

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143. Hop the twig … means to depart suddenly.

1830. Egan, Finish to Life in London, p. 217. I have lost my ticker; and all my toggery has been boned, I am nearly as naked as when I was born—and the cause—the lady bird—has hopped the twig.

1884. Daily News, 31 Oct., p. 3, c. 1. They knocked the Liberals down as fast as they could until they got too numerous and strong, and then we hopped the twig.

1888. All the Year Round, 9 June 543. To hop the twig … and the like, are more flippant than humorous.

2. (common).—To die; to ‘kick the bucket’ (q.v.); to peg out (q.v.). Also To hop off.

English Synonyms. To be content; to cock up one’s toes; to croak; to cut (or let go) the painter; to cut one’s stick; to give in; to give up; to go to Davy Jones’ locker; to go off the hooks; to go under; to go up; to kick the bucket; kickeraboo (West Indian); to lay down one’s knife and fork; to lose the member of one’s mess; to mizzle; to pass in one’s checks; to peg out; to put on a wooden surtout; to be put to bed with a shovel; to slip one’s cable; to stick one’s spoon in the wall; to snuff it; to take an earth bath; to take a ground sweat.

French Synonyms.—Passer l’arme à gauche (pop.: = to ground arms); casser sa pipe (= to break one’s pipe); dévisser or décoller son billard (= to break one’s cue); graisser ses bottes (= to grease one’s boots); avaler sa langue (= to swallow one’s tongue); avaler sa gaffe (= to lower one’s boat-hook); avaler sa cuiller or sa fourchette (= to swallow one’s spoon or one’s fork); avaler ses baguettes (military: = to swallow one’s drumsticks); n’avoir plus mal aux dents (= to get rid of the toothache: mal de dents, also = love); poser sa chique (pop.: = to put down one’s quid); claquer (familiar: = to croak); saluer le public (theat.: = to go before the curtain); recevoir son décompte (military: = to get one’s quietus; décompte = also [military] a mortal wound); cracher son embouchure (= to spit one’s mouthpiece); déteindre (pop.: = to wash off one’s colour); donner son dernier bon à tirer (familiar: in American = to pass in one’s checks; properly = to send one’s last proof to press); lâcher la perche (pop.: = to hop the twig); éteindre son gaz (pop.: = to turn off one’s gas. Cf., to snuff it); épointer son foret (pop.: = to blunt one’s drill, as in boring); être exproprié (pop.: = to be dispossessed); exproprier (= to take possession of a debtor’s land); péter son lof (sailor’s); fumer ses terres; fermer son parapluie (pop.: = to close one’s umbrella); perdre son bâton (pop.: = to lose one’s walking stick); descendre la garde (pop.: = to come off guard); défiler la parade (military: = to face about); tortiller, or tourner de l’œil (pop.); perdre le goût du pain (pop.: = to lose one’s appetite); lâcher la rampe (theat.: = to chuck the footlights); faire ses petits paquets (pop.: = to pack up one’s traps); casser son crachoir (pop.: = to break one’s spittoon); remercier son boulanger (thieves’: = to thank the baker; boulanger = the Devil); canner; dévider à l’estorgue (thieves’); baiser or épouser la Camarde or camarder (pop: = to hug, or go to church with, Mother Bones [Camarde = Death]); fuir (thieves’: = to flee or escape); casser son câble (pop.: = to slip one’s cable); casser son fouet (pop.: = to break one’s whip); faire sa crêvaison (pop.: crêver = to burst up); déralinguer (sailors’: = to loose from the bolt-rope); virer de bord (sailors’: = to tack about); déchirer son faux-col (pop.: = to break one’s collar); dégeler (= to thaw); couper sa mèche (coachman’s: = to cut off one’s lash); piquer sa plaqu (sailors’); mettre la table pour les asticots (pop.: = to lay the cloth for the worms); aller manger les pissenlits par la racine (pop.: = to go grubbing off dandelion roots); laisser fuir son tonneau (familiar); calancher (vagrants’); laisser ses bottes quelque part (familiar: = to leave one’s boots about); déchirer son habit (pop.: = to tear one’s coat); déchirer son tablier (pop.: = to tear one’s apron); souffler sa veilleuse (pop.: = to blow out one’s candle: cf., to snuff it); pousser le boum du cygne (pop.); avoir son coke (familiar: = to get one’s cargo); rendre sa secousse (pop.); rendre sa bûche (tailors’); rendre sa canne au ministre (military: = to resign one’s commission); rendre sa clef (gipsy: = to give in one’s key); rendre son livret (pop.: = to pass in one’s checks); passer au dixième régiment (military); s’ennuyer (pop.: = to be at death’s door); chasser les mouches (pop.: to go fly-catching); ingurgiter son bilan (popular); resserrer son linge (pop.); faire sa malle (pop.: = to pack one’s trunk); avaler le goujon (pop.); s’habiller de sapin (pop.: = to put on a wooden surtout); avoir son compte (pop.); battre de l’œil (thieves’); s’évanouir (pop.: to mizzle); machaber (pop.: machabre = the Dance of Death); glisser (pop.); s’en aller dans le pays des marmottes (pop.: marmotte = puppet); déménager (pop.: = to move house).

German Synonyms.—Krachen gehen; niftern; pegern or peigern; schochern or verschochern (= to get black); verschwarzen.

Italian Synonyms. Sbasire (= to faint); sbasire su le funi (= to faint on the rope).

Spanish Synonyms.—Hacer bodoques (= to take an earth bath); liarlas (= also to run away); obispar; corvado (= bent, curved); cierto (= certain).

1839. Dance, Alive and Merry, i., 1. Couldn’t you wait a bit till she’s hopped off, and then you and I could marry, and be ladies and gentlemen?

1841. Punch, I., 2, 2. Clare pines in secret—Hops the twig and goes to glory in white muslin.

1842. Punch, vol. II., p. 20, c. 2. Yet henceforth—dash my wig! I’ll live with thee, with thee I’ll hop the twig!

1863. Fun, vol. IV., p. 188. The night when Cromwell died a storm tore up many of the trees [of St. James’s Park]—though what connexion there may be between the destruction of their branches and the hopping the twig of the Protector, we leave to our philosophical readers to decide.

1870. Chambers’s Miscellany, No. 87, p. 26. That her disease was mortal, was past a doubt, and a month or two more or less could make no difference, provided she hopped off … before the year was expired.

On the hop, adv. phr. (common).—1. Unawares; at the nick of time; in flagrante delicto. Also On the h. o. p.

1868. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Chickaleary Cove.’ For to catch me on the hop.… You must wake up very early in the morning.

1870. London Figaro, 26 Aug. If to catch any of the more ordinary folk on the hop is to secure a laugh, what must it be to catch the Tycoon ‘on the—top?’

1872. Daily Telegraph, 3 Sept. Goodbye, Johnny: before I leave you, One more kiss before I go. For to catch me on the hop.

1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall, 32. I never saw a smarter hand at serving in a shop, For every likely customer she caught upon the ’op.

2. (common).—On the go; in motion; unresting.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 22. A deal on the ’op.

3. (colloquial).—See Hip.

Hopeful (or Young Hopeful), subs. (colloquial).—A boy or young man; in sarcasm or contempt.

1856. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Tales of College Life, 24. He’ll be no end riled at seeing his hopeful play truant in this fashion.

Hop- (or Hap-) Harlot, subs. (old).—A coarse coverlet; Cf., Wrap-rascal.

1807–8. Hollinshed, Chronicles of England, ch. 12. Covered only with a sheet, under coverlets made of dag-swain, or hop-harlots.

Hopkins (Hoppy, or Mr. Hopkins), subs. (old).—A lameter. For synonyms, see Dot-and-go-one Giles.

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

Don’t Hurry, Hopkins! phr. (American).—Ironical to persons slow to move or to meet an obligation.

Hop-merchant (or Hoppy), subs. (common).—A dancing master; a caper-merchant (q.v.). Also, a fiddler.

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

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

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

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v.

1892. Sydney Watson, Wops the Waif, ch. iii., p. 4. Who-ay, Cully, here’s Hoppy with the rozin.

Hop-o-my-thumb, subs. (common).—A dwarf.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in Wks. v., 248. Though the greatnesse of the redde herring be not small (as small a hoppe-on-my-thumbe as hee seemeth).

1603. Dekker, etc., Patient Grissell, IV., ii., in Wks. (Grosart) vi., 195. Bab. No; he shall not haue them [children]: knocke out his braines, and saue the little hop-a-my-thombes.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xi. You pitiful hop-o’-my-thumb coxcomb.

1764. O’Hara, Midas, i., 5. You Stump-o’-the-gutter, you Hop-o’-my-thumb, A husband must for you from Lilliput come.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hop-o-my-Thumb. She was such a hop-o-my-thumb that a pigeon, on sitting on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a—se.

1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xi. A mean-looking hop-o’-my-thumb sort of person.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Account of a New Play.’ A hop-o’-my-thumb of a Page.

English Synonyms.—Go-by-the-ground; grub; grundy; Jack Sprat; little breeches; shrimp; stump-of-the-gutter; tom-tit. See also, Forty-foot.

Hopper, subs. (colloquial).—The mouth. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

To go a hopper, verb. phr. (sporting).—To go quickly.

Hopper-arsed (or Hipped), adj. (old).—Large in the breech. Also (as in quot. 1529) snaggy-boned. Also as subs.

d. 1529. Dunbar, Poems, ‘Complaint to the King’ (1836, i., 144). With hopper-hippis and hanches narrow.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii., 1. Moreover, she is bow-legged, hopper-hipped, and, betwixt pomatum and Spanish red, has a complexion like a Holland cheese.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hopper-arst, when the Breach sticks out.

1704. King, Orpheus and Eurydice (Chalmers, English Poets), vol. ix., p. 284. A lady of prodigious fame, Whose hollow eyes and hopper breech Made common people call her witch.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., vi., 351. And there’ll be hopper-arsed Nancy.

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

Hopper-docker, subs. (old).—A shoe. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

Hop-picker, subs. (common).—1. A prostitute; also Hopping-wife. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1888. Indoor Paupers, p. 55. Numbers of them go regularly to the hop-gardens; and each man must have a female companion—a hopping wife as she is termed.

2. in. pl. (gaming).—The queens of all the four suits.

Hopping-Giles, subs. (common).—A cripple. For synonyms, see Dot-and-go-one.

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1885. Household Words, 27 June, p. 180. St. Giles is the patron saint of cripples; hence a lame person is mockingly called hopping giles.

Hopping-jesus, subs. (colloquial).—A lameter. For synonyms, see Dot-and-go-one.

Hopping-mad, adj. (American).—Very angry.

Hop-pole, subs. (common).—A tall, slight person, male or female. For synonyms, see Lamp-post.

1850. Smedley, Frank Farleigh, p. 5. I was tall for my age, but slightly built, and so thin, as often to provoke the application of such epithets as hop-pole, ‘thread-paper,’ etc.

Horizontal-refreshment, subs. (venery).—1. Carnal intercourse; cf., Upright. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride. [Fr., une horizontale = a prostitute.] Also, To Horizontalise.

2. (common).—Food taken standing; generally applied to a mid-day snack at a bar.

Horn, subs. (common).—1. The nose. Also, Horney. For synonyms, see Conk.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Horney—a nose; one that resounds in expectoration.

2. (common).—A drink; a dram of spirits. For synonyms, see Go.

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, p. 193. Go on, Venus. Take another horn first.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West. p. 126. They called the Scotchman to take a horn.

3. (venery).—An erection of the penis. [Properly of men only; but said of both sexes. In the feminine equivalents are Cunt-itch and Cunt-stand].

Hence To get (or have) the horn, verb. phr. = to achieve erection; to cure the horn = to copulate; horning and horny, in course of, or disposed to erection; hornification, subs. = the state, or process, of erection; hornify (see verb), = to get (or give) the horn; Miss Horner, subs. = the pudendum muliebre; old horney (or hornington) = the penis.

English Synonyms.—Cock- (or prick-) stand; Irish toothache; in one’s Sunday (or best) clothes; the jack; hard-on (American); horn-colic; horn-mad (said also of an angry cuckold); fixed bayonets; lance in rest; the old Adam; standing; on the stand; stiffened up; the spike.

4. (old).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

5. (colloquial).—Also in pl., see verb.

Horn, verb (colloquial).—To cuckold. [Becco (= a he-goat) and cornuto (= a horned thing) are good Italian for a cuckold; in Florio (Worlde of Wordes, 1598) andar in cornouaglia senza barca (i.e., to go to Cornwall without a ship) = to win the horn; and the expression, as the example from Lydgate appears to show, may very well have been imported into English from the Italian. Also, it seems to have begun to be literary about the middle of the sixteenth century, when the Italian influence was at its height. For the rest it passed in triumph into written English, was used in every possible combination, had a run at least two centuries long, and is still intelligible, though not in common service.] See Actæon, antlers, bull’s feather, freeman of bucks, etc.

Hence, to hornify (see subs., sense 3), and to graft (or give) horns; to wear horns = to live a cuckold; horner, subs. = a cuckold maker; horn-mad, adj. phr. (q.v.); horned, adj. = cuckolded; horn-grower (or merchant) subs. = a married man; horn-fever, subs. = cuckoldry; to exalt one’s horn, verb. phr. = (1) to cuckold, and (2) to rejoice in, or profit by, the condition; to wind the horn = to publish the fact of cuckoldom; horns-to-sell, subs. phr. = (1) a lewd wife, and (2) a wittol; to point the horn = to fork the fingers in derision (as in Hogarth’s ‘Industrious and Idle Apprentice,’ 1790, plate v.); horn-works = the process of cuckolding; at the sign of the horn = in cuckoldom; horn-pipe = (see quot. 1602); horned herd, subs. phr. = husbands in general (specifically, the city men, the Citizens of London, the cuckolding of whom by West-end gallants is a constant theme of seventeenth century jokes); gilt-horn, subs. = a contented Cuckold; spirit of hartshorn = the suspicion or the certainty of cuckoldom; long horns, subs. = a notorious cuckold; knight of Hornsey, also member for Horncastle, subs. phr. = a cuckold, etc.

d. 1440. Lydgate, Falle of Prynces, ii., leaf 56 (ed. Wayland, 1557, quoted in Dyce’s Skelton, 1843, ii., 132). To speke plaine Englishe made him cokolde. Alas I was not auised wel before Vnkonnyngly to speake such language: I should haue sayde how that he had an horne.… And in some land Cornodo men do them call, And some affirme that such folk have no gall.

c. 152(?). Hick Scorner (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 180). My mother was a lady of the stews, blood born, And (Knight of the Halter) my father wore an horne.

c. 1537. Thersites (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 412). Why wilt thou not thy hornes inhold? Thinkest thou that I am a cuckold.

c. 1550. The Pride and Abuse of Women (176 in Early Pop. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, iv., 237). And loke well, ye men to your wives.… Or some wyll not styche.… To horne you on everye side.

1568. Bannatyne MSS. ‘The use of Court,’ p. 765 (Hunterian Club, 1886). Vp gettis hir wame, Scho thinkis no schame For to bring hame The laird ane horne.

1574. Appius and Virginia (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iv., 118). A hairbrain, a hangman, or a grafter of hornes.

1575. Laneham’s Letter (ed. 1871). p. 40. With yoor paciens, Gentlmen, … be it said: wear it not in deede that hornz bee so plentie, hornware I beleeue woold bee more set by than it iz, and yet thear in our parts, that wyll not stick too auoow that many an honest man both in citee and cuntree hath his hoous bv horning well vphollden, and a daily freend allso at need.

c. 1580. Collier of Croydon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, viii., 436). My head groweth hard, my horns will shortly spring.

1586. Lupton, 1,000 Not. Things, ed. 1675, p. 261. Take heed thou art not horn’d, and then fetcht home.

1597. Hall, Satires, i., 8. Fond wittol that would’st load thy witless head, With timely horns before thy bridal bed. Idem, ii., 7. If chance it come to wanton Capricorne, And so into the Ram’s disgraceful horne.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., Act i., sc. 2. Well, he hath the horn of abundance and the lightness of his wife shines through it.

1598. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, v., 1. See, what a drove of horns fly in the air, Winged with my cleansèd and my credulous breath.

1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, ed. 1641, v., 41. The adulterous Sargus.… Courting the Shee Goates on the grassie shore Would horn their husbands that had horns before.

1599. Jonson, Every Man Out of his Humour, iv., 4. Now horn upon horn pursue thee, thou blind, egregious, dotard.

1600. Look About You, Sc. 10 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, v., 415). By adding horns unto our falcon’s head.

1600. Shakspeare, As You Like it, iv., 2. Take thou no scorn to wear the horn, It was a crest ere thou wast born.

1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado about Nothing, i. Then up comes the devil with his horns upon his head, looking like an old cuckold. Ibid. v. 1. But when shall we see the savage bull’s horns on the sensible Benedict’s head.

1601. Jonson, Poetaster, iv., 3. And there is never a star in thy forehead but shall be a horn if thou dost persist to abuse me.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Bullen, Works, 1889, p. 248). Mock him not with horns, the case is altered.

1603. Philotus (Pinkerton, Scottish Poems, 1792, iii., 17). Sen thair may be na uther buit? Plat on his heid ane horne.

1604. Marston, Malcontent, i., I. Mendoza is the man makes thee a horned beast: ’tis Mendoza cornutes thee.

1605. Jonson, Volpone, ii., 4. Volp.: Nay, then, I not repent me of my late disguise. Mos.: If you can horne him, Sir, you need not.

1605. Chapman, All Fools, v., 1 (Plays, 1874, p. 75). And will you blow the horn yourself where you may keep it to yourself? Go to, you are a fool. Ibid. (p. 76.) It may very well be that the devil brought horns into the world, but the women brought them to the men.