WITH SYNONYMS IN ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, ETC. (continued 12)

1607. How a Man May Choose a Good Wife From a Bad, ii., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 28). Quando venis aput, I shall have two horns on my caput.

1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, Act i., p. 8. If a man be deuorst, whether may he haue an action or no, gainst those that make horns at him. Ibid. iv., p. 54. This curse is on all letchers throwne, They give horns and, at last, hornes are their owne.

1608. Rowlands, Humor’s Looking Glass, p. 22. Besides, shee is as perfect chast as faire. But being married to a jealous asse, He vowes shee horns him.

1609. Jonson, Epicœne, iii., 1. By that light you deserve to be grafted, and your horns reach from one side of the island to the other.

1616. Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, v., 5. And a cuckold is, Wherever he puts his head, with a wannion, his horns be forth, the devil’s companion.

1618. Samuel Rowlands, The Night Raven, p. 25. ’Tis this bad liver doth the horne-plague breed, Which day and night my jealous thoughts doth feed.

1623. Cockeran, Eng. Dict. s.v. Sargus, an adulterous fish which goes on the grassie shore, and hornes the hee Goates that had horns before.

1627. Drayton, Agincourt and Other Poems, p. 174. Some made mouthes at him, others as in scorne With their forkt fingers poynted him the horn.

1629. Davenant, Albovine, ed. 1673, p. 436. ’Twas a subtle reach to tell him that the King had horn’d his brow.

1633. Rowley, Match at Midnight (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiii., 40). horning the headman of his parish and taking money for his pains.

1633. Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, iii., 3. Fernando is your rival, has stolen your duchess’s heart, murther’d friendship; horns your head, and laughs at your horns.

1637. Beaumont and Fletcher, Elder Brother, iv., 4. I shall have some music yet At my making free o’ th’ company of horners.

1640. Rawlins, The Rebellion, i., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 15). Fresh as a city bridegroom that has signed his wife a grant for the grafting of horns.

1643. Brome, A New Diurnal. (Chalmers, Eng. Poets, 1810, vi., 667). Prince Rupert, for fear that his name be confounded, Will saw off his horns, and make him a Roundhead.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Women Pleased, v. 3. I shall then be full of scorn, Wanton, proud (beware the horn).

1653. Middleton and Rowley, The Spanish Gypsy, iii., I. Beggars would on cock-horse ride. And boobies fall a-roaring, And cuckolds though no horns be spied, Be one another goring.

1653. Davenant, The Siege of Rhodes, p. 34. It stuffs up the marriage bed with thorns, It gores itself, it gores itself with imagined horns.

1657. Middleton, Women, Beware of Woman (1657), iii., 2. Cuckolds dance the hornpipe, and farmers dance the hay. Idem., iv., 2. Go, lie down, master; but take care your horns do not make holes in the pillow-beers.

1659. Lady Alimony, i., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 280). My scene, Trillo, is horn alley. Ibid., iii., 6 (p. 340). Doubt nothing, my fellow Knights of hornsey.

1661. Webster, Cure for a Cuckold (1661), v., 2. He that hath horns thus let him learn to shed.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iv., 1 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 473). I hope to exalt the Parson’s horn here. Ibid., (p. 477). Only to fright the poor cuckholds and make the fools visit their horns. Ibid., v., 4 (p. 519). Methinks my horns ache more than my corns. Ibid. ib. (p. 520). I have seen a cuckold of your complexion: if he had lent as much hoof as horn, you might have hunted the beast by the slot.

1664. Butler, Hudibras, II., ii. For when men by their wives are cowed, Their horns of course are understood.

1668. L’Estrange, Visions of Quevedo, p. 251 (ed. 1708). He that marries, ventures fair for the horn, either before or after.

1672. Ray, Proverbs (in Bohn, 1889), s.v. He had better put his horns in his pocket than wind them. Idem. (p. 184). Horns and gray hairs do not come with years. Idem. id., Who hath horns in his pocket let him not put them on his head.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, v., 4. Epilogue: Encouraged by our woman’s man to-day, a horner’s part may vainly think to play. Ibid., i., 1. I make no more cuckolds, sir. [Makes horns.] Ibid., iv., 3. If ever you suffer your wife to trouble me again here, she shall carry you home a pair of horns.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iv., 1. First, the clandestine obscenity in the very name of horner.

d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1757), ii., 372. His own branches, his horns, are as mystical as the Whore of Babylon’s Palfreys, not to be seen but in a vision.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iv., 15. Pox choke him. Would his horns were in his throat.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, iv., 15. The clocks will strike twelve at noon, and the horned herd buzz in the Exchange at two.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iv., 3. Should I ever be tried before this judge, how I should laugh to see how gravely his goose cap sits upon a pair of horns!

1700. Congreve, Way of the World, iii., 7. Man should have his head and horns, and woman the rest of him.

1702. Steele, The Funeral or Grief à la Mode, Act. i., p. 22. This wench I know has played me false, and horned me in my gallants. [Note.—That the speaker is a female shows the word to have been transferable to the other sex.]

1708. W. King, Art of Love, pt. x. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 274). Sometimes his dirty paws she scorns, While her fair fingers show his horns.

1708. Prior, Poems. ‘The Turtle and Sparrow,’ line 302–9. ‘Two staring Horns,’ I often said, ‘but ill became a sparrow’s head’ … ‘Whilst at the root your horns are sore, The more you scratch, they ache the more.’

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 174. Who’s the Cuckoo, Who’s the Cuckold, who’s the horner?

1728. Patrick Walker, Alexander Peden, ‘Postscript’ (ed. 1827, i.). A profane, obscene meeting called the horn-order.

1737. Fielding, Tumble-Down Dick, Works (1718) iii., 408. Think it enough your betters do the deed, And that by horning you I mend the breed.

d. 1742. Somerville, Occasional Poems (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 238). If I but catch her in a corner, Humph! ’tis your servant, Colonel Horner.

1759–67. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ch. xxxvii. Nor have the horn-works he speaks of anything to do with the horn-works of Cuckoldom.

1765. C. Smart, Fables, xi., line 66. And though your spouse my lecture scorns. Beware his fate, beware his Horns.

d. 1770. Chatterton, The Revenge, i., I. Let her do what she will, The husband is still, And but for his horns you would think him an ass. Idem., ii., 4. Have you come horning.

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

1786. Captain Morris (Collection of Songs), The Great Plenipotentiary, (9th ed. 1788, stanza ix., p. 43). She had horned the dull brows of her worshipful spouse Till they sprouted like Venus’s myrtle.

d. 1796. Burns, Merry Muses, ‘Cuddy the Cooper,’ p. 84. On ilka brow she’s planted a horn, An’ swears that there they shall stan’, O.

1813. Moore, Poems, ‘Re-inforcements for the Duke,’ iii., 209. Old H——df——t at horn-works again might be tried.

1816. Quiz, Grand Master, canto vii., p. 199, line 10. (She) smil’d, declaring that she scorn’d him, (She might have added that she’d horn’d him).

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, c. xxxvi. O what a generous creature is your true London husband! Horns hath he, but, tame as a fatted ox, he goreth not.

1825. Scott, The Betrothed, ch. xvii. I ever tell thee, husband, the horns would be worth the hide in a fair market.

To draw in one’s horns, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To withdraw or to retract; to cool down.

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

To horn off, verb. phr. (American). = To put on one side; to shunt. [As a bull or stag with his horns.]

1851. Hooper, Widow Rugby’s Husband, etc., p. 69. You horned me off to get a chance to get gaming witnesses out of the way.

In a horn, adv. phr. (American).—A general qualification, implying refusal or disbelief; over the left (q.v.).

1858. Washington Evening Star, 26 Aug. I have mentioned before the innumerable comforts—in a horn—of the old White Sulphur Springs.

To wind (or blow) the horn, verb. phr. (old).—To break wind; to fart (q.v.).

1620. Percy, Folio, MSS., ‘Fryar and Boye.’ Her tayle shall wind the horne.

To cure the horn, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. See Horn, subs., sense 3. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

To have the horn, verb. phr. (venery). See Horn, subs., sense 3.

To come out of the little end of the horn, verb. phr. (common).—To get the worst of a bargain; to be reduced in circumstances. Also, to make much ado about nothing. Said generally of vast endeavour ending in failure. [Through some unexpected Squeeze (q.v.)].

1605. Jonson, Chapman, and Marston, Eastward Hoe, i., 1. I had the horne of suretiship ever before my eyes. You all know the devise of the horne, where the young fellow slippes in at the butte-end, and comes squesd out at the buckall.

1624. Fletcher, Wife for a Month, iii., 3. Thou wilt look to-morrow else Worse than the prodigal fool the ballad speaks of, That was squeezed through a horn.

1847. Porter, Big Ben, etc., p. 37. How did you make it? You didn’t come out at the little end of the horn, did you?

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 24. You never saw such a run of luck; everywhere I touched was pizen, and I came out of the leetle end of the horn.

1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 July, i., 2. The ‘great Trek,’ in that expressive transatlantic phrase, has toddled out of the little end of the horn.

Horn-colic, subs. (venery).—See Horn, subs., sense 3.

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

Hornet, subs. (common).—A disagreeable, cantankerous person.

Hornie (or Horness), subs. (old).—1. A constable or watchman; a sheriff.

1819. Vaux, Life, s.v. Horney, a Constable.

1821. Haggart, Life, 51. The woman missing it immediately, she sent for the hornies.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Horness.

2. (Scots’).—The devil; generally Auld Hornie (q.v.).

1785. Burns, Address to the Deil. O thou! whatever title suits thee, Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie.

Hornify, verb. (colloquial).—See Horn, subs., sense 3 and verb.

2. (venery).—See Horn, subs., sense 3.

Horn-mad, adj. (old).—1. See quot. 1690.

1593. Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, ii., 1. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad.

1599. Henry Porter, The Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii.). And then I wound my horn, and he’s horn-mad.

1604. Marston, Malcontent, i., 7. I am horn mad.

1605. Jonson, The Fox, iii., 6. Yet I’m not mad, Not horn-mad, see you.

1639–61. Rump Songs, [1662], 293. The Country has grown sad, The City is horn-mad.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Woman’s Prize, ii., 6. After my twelve strong labours to reclaim her, Which would have made Don Hercules horn-mad.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horn-mad, stark staring Mad, because Cuckolded.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iv., 22. Ay, I feel it here; I sprout; I bud; I blossom; I am ripe horn-mad.

1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iv., 20. She forks out cuckoldom with her fingers, and you are running horn-mad after your fortune.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, v., 8. She’s mad for a husband, and he’s horn-mad.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iv., 3. Thou’rt horn-mad. Prithee, leave impertinence.

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

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxvi. Ye might as well expect brandy from beanstalks, or milk from a crag of blue whunstane. The man is mad, horn-mad, to boot.

1825. Harriette Wilson, Memoirs, ii. 228. The little he did say was chiefly on the subject of cuckolds and cuckolding. His lordship was horn-mad.

2. (venery).—Sexually excited; lecherous; musty (q.v.). Also, Horny.

Hornswoggle, subs. (American).—Nonsense; humbug (q.v.). For synonyms, see Gammon.

Verb (American).—To humbug; to delude; to seduce.—Slang, Jargon, and Cant. Cf., In a horn.

Horn-thumb, subs. (old).—A pickpocket. [From the practice of wearing a sheath of horn to protect the thumb in cutting out.] See Thieves.

1569. Preston, Cambises (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1874, iv., 235). But cousin, because to that office ye are not like come, Frequent your exercises, a horne on your thumbe, A quick eye, a sharp knife.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii. I mean a child of the horn-thumb, a babe of booty, boy, a cut-purse.

1614. Greene, Looking-Glass [Dyce], p. 138. I cut this from a new-married wife by means of a horn-thumb and a knife.—Six shillings, four pence.

Horrors, subs. (common).—The first stage of delirium tremens. For synonyms, see Gallon-distemper. Also low spirits, or the blues (q.v.).

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 50. Paying the penalty in a fit of horrors.

1857. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin (quoted by Bartlett). This poison (fusil oil), which acts with terrible results on the nerves; seeming like a diabolical inspiration, stirring up mania, convulsions, and the horrorsin an incredibly short space of time.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. iv., ch. viii. What are popularly called ‘the trembles’ being in full force upon him that evening, and likewise what are popularly called the horrors, he had a very bad time of it; which was not made better by his being so remorseful as frequently to moan ‘Sixty threepennorths.’

1864. F. W. Robinson, Mr. Stewart’s Intentions, ch. i. ‘Well, sermons always gave me the horrors, and engendered a hate of the sermonizer.’

1883. Stevenson, Treasure Island ch. iii., p. 20 (1886). If I don’t have a dram o’ rum, Jim, I’ll have the horrors.

1889. C. Haddon Chambers, In Australian Wilds. He’s sober now, you see; but he managed to get blind drunk before eleven o’clock this morning, and last week he narrowly escaped an attack of the horrors.

1892. Henley and Stevenson, Three Rags, ‘Admiral Guinea,’ iv., 3. It’s the horrors come alive.

2. (common).—Sausages. See Chamber of Horrors and Dog’s-paste.

3. (thieves’).—Handcuffs. For synonyms, see Darbies.

Horse, subs. (common).—1. A five-pound note. See Finnup.

2. (thieves’).—Horsemonger Lane Gaol. Also the Old Horse. Now obsolete.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, 1, p. 457. The only thing that frightens me when I’m in prison is sleeping in a cell by myself—you do in the Old Horse and the Steel.

3. (American).—A man: generally in affection. Also Old Hoss, or Hoss-fly.

1838. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xviii. He is all sorts of a hoss, and the best live one that ever cut dirt this side of the big pond, or t’other side either.

1847. Robb, Squatter Life, p. 74. What in the yearth did you do with old Hoss on the road?—He ain’t gin out, has he? Ibid., p. 70. None of your stuck-up imported chaps from the dandy states, but a real genuine westerner—in short, a hoss!

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 5. Hyar’s a hoss as’ll make fire come.

1857. Gladstone, Englishman in Kansas, p. 43. Here, boys, drink. Liquors, captain, for the crowd. Step up this way, old hoss, and liquor.

Verb (venery).—1. To possess a woman. For synonyms, see Ride.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv., 3. Say’st thou so, filly? Thou shalt have a leap presently, I’ll horse thee myself, else.

2. (workmen’s).—See quots. Cf., Flog the dead horse.

1857. Notes and Queries, 2 S., iv., p. 192. A workman horses it when he charges for more in his week’s work than he has really done. Of course he has so much unprofitable work to get through in the ensuing week, which is called dead horse.

1867. All the Year Round, 13 July, p. 59. To horse a man, is for one of two men who are engaged on precisely similar pieces of work to make extraordinary exertions in order to work down the other man. This is sometimes done simply to see what kind of a workman a new man may be, but often with the much less creditable motive of injuring a fellow workman in the estimation of an employer.

The gray mare is the better horse. See Gray-mare.

Horse foaled of an acorn, subs. phr. (old).—1. The gallows. For synonyms, see Triple-tree.

1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, ch. viii. I believe as how ’tis no horse, but a devil incarnate; and yet I’ve been worse mounted, that I have—I’d like to have rid a horse that was foaled of an acorn (i.e., he had nearly met with the fate of Absalom).

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

1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. The cove … is as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an acorn.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 8. … As to this little fellow … he shall never mount a horse foaled by an acorn, if I can help it.

2. (military).—The triangles or crossed halberds under which soldiers were flogged.

Old- (or Salt-) Horse, subs. (nautical). Salt beef. Also Junk and Salt-junk.

1889. Chambers’s Journal, 3 Aug., 495. Mr. Clark Russell declares that salt-horse works out of the pores, and contributes to that mahogany complexion common to sailors, which is often mistakenly attributed to rum and weather.

One-horse, adj. (American). Comparatively small, insignificant, or unimportant.

1858. Washington Evening Star. On Friday last, the engineer of a fast train was arrested by the authorities of a one-horse town in Dauphin County, Pa., for running through the borough at a greater rate of speed than is allowed by their ordinances.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 221. The indignant settler who has been ill-treated, as he fancies, in court, denounces his attorney as a ‘miserable, one-horse lawyer;’ and the Yankee newly arrived in England does not hesitate to declare that ‘Liverpool is a poor one-horse kind of a place,’ a term applied by Mark Twain to no less a city than Rome itself; and a witty clergyman of Boston inveighed once bitterly against ‘timid, sneaking, one-horse oaths, as infinitely worse than a good, round, thundering outburst.’

1891. National Review, Sep., p. 127. Mr. Marion Crawford’s Witch of Prague (Macmillan & Co.) is, as his compatriots would say, rather a one-horse witch.

To be horsed, verb. phr. (old).—To be flogged [from the wooden-horse used as a flogging-stool]; to take on one’s back as for a flogging.

1678. Butler, Hudibras, pt. III., c. 1. The spirit hors’d him like a sack Upon the vehicle his back.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xvii. Our unfortunate hero was publicly horsed, in terrorem of all whom it might concern.

1857. Thackeray, Virginians, ch. v. Serjeants, school-masters, slave-overseers, used the cane freely. Our little boys had been horsed many a day by Mr. Dempster.

1881. Notes and Queries, 1 Jan., p. 18. I got well horsed for such a breach of discipline.

To fall away from a horseload to a cartload, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horseplay. Fallen away from a horseload to a cartload, spoken ironically of one considerably improved in flesh on a sudden.

To flog the dead horse.—See Dead-horse and Horse, verb. sense 2.

To put the cart before the horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To begin at the wrong end; to set things hind-side before.

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

To put the saddle on the right horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To apportion accurately.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horse. Set the saddle on the right horse, lay the Blame where the Fault is.

To ride on a horse with (or bayard of) ten toes, verb. phr. (common).—To walk; to use the Marrowbone-stage. Cf., Shanks’s Mare.

1606. Breton, Good and Badde, p. 14. His trauell is the walke of the woful, and his horse Bayard of ten toes.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, Somerset, ii., 291. At last he [Coryat] undertook to travail into the East Indies by land, mounted on an horse with ten toes.

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

As good as a shoulder of mutton to a sick horse, phr. (old).—Utterly worthless.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, ii., 1. Counsel to him is as good as a shoulder of mutton to a sick horse.

As strong as a horse, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Very strong: a general intensitive.

Horse and horse, adv. phr. (American).—Neck and neck; even.

Horsebreaker (or Pretty Horsebreaker), subs. (colloquial).—A woman (c. 1860), hired to ride in the park; hence, a riding courtesan. See also quot. 1864. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. iv., p. 33 (1873). Kate Mellor was a horsebreaker, a bonâ fide horsebreaker; one who curbed colts, and ‘took it out of’ kickers and rearers.

1865. Public Opinion, 30 Sep. These demi-monde people, anonymas, horsebreakers, hetairæ … are by degrees pushing their way into society.

Horse-buss, subs. (old).—A loud-sounding kiss; a bite.

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

Horse-capper (-coper, -coser, -courser, or -chaunter), subs. (common).—A dealer in worthless or ‘faked’ horses. [Originally good English. To cope = to barter.] See Chanter. Hence Horse-coping and Horse-duffing.

1616. Overbury, Characters (Rimbault, 9th ed., 1856, p. 120). An arrant horse-courser hath the trick to blow up horseflesh as the butcher does veal.

d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1759), ii., 458. A horse-courser is one that hath read horses, and understands all the virtues and vices of the whole species by being conversant with them, and how to take the best advantage of both.

1742–4. North, Life of the Lord Keeper, i., 271. There were horse-copers among them.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Horse-coser, vulgarly and corruptly pronounced horse-coser, a dealer in horses. The verb to cose, was used by the Scots, in the sense of bartering or exchanging.

1863. Sporting Life, 29 Apr., p. 4, col. 3. Copers and Chaunters are now in full feather.

1864. London Review, 18 June, p. 643. Amongst the mysteries of horse-flesh is the noble science of coping, and its practitioners the horse-copers.

1874. G. A. Lawrence, Hagarene, ch. ii. He had lived somewhat precariously by his wits; eking out the scanty allowance wrung from his miserly old sire, by betting and horse-coping on a small scale.

1884. Daily News, 23 Aug., p. 4, c. 7. The most accomplished gipsy copers, if they are not belied, are not satisfied with merely doing up an unsound horse and selling him as a sound one, but frequently steal outright the subject of their scientific and often lucrative experiments.

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, ch. i. Poaching must be something like cattle and horse-duffing.

1889. Answers, 27 July, p. 141, c. 1. Allow me to expose some more tricks of horse copers.

1893. National Observer, 5 Aug., p. 291, col. 1. A veracious horse-coper is a monster which the world ne’er saw.

Horse-collar, subs. (venery).—1. The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

2. (tailors’).—An extremely long and wide collar.

3. (old).—A halter. To die in a horse’s nightcap = to be hanged. See Ladder.

English Synonyms.—Anodyne necklace; Bridport dagger; choker; hempen cravat; hempen elixir; horse’s neckcloth; horse’s necklace; neck-squeezer; neckweed; squeezer; St. Andrew’s lace; Sir Tristram’s knot; tight cravat; Tyburn tiffany; Tyburn tippet; widow.

French Synonym.—La cravate de chanvre.

1593. Bacchus’ Bountie in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 304. Yea, his very head so heavie as if it had beene harnessed in an horse-nightcap.

1608. Penniles Parliament in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), I., 181. And those that clip that they should not, shall have a horse night-cap for their labour.

1681. Dialogue on Oxford Parliament (Harl. Misc., ii., 125.). He better deserves to go up Holbourn in a wooden chariot, and have a horse night-cap put on at the farther end.

1883. Echo, 25 Jan., p. 2, c. 4. Even an attempt is made to lighten the horror of the climax of a criminal career, by speaking of dying in a horse’s night-cap, i.e., a halter.

Horse-editor, subs. (American journalists’).—A sporting editor. Horse-copy = sporting news.

Horseflesh, See Dead Horse and Horse, verb. sense 2.

Horse-godmother, subs. (old).—A strapping masculine woman; a virago. Fr., une femme hommasse.

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

d. 1819. Wolcot, Wks. In woman angel sweetness let me see No galloping horse-godmother for me.

1838. Selby, Jacques Strop, iii., 1. What a couple of horse-godmothers.

1846–8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ii., ch. 4. How do, my dear? Come to see the old man, hay? Gad—you’ve a pretty face, too. You ain’t like that old horse-godmother, your mother.

Horse-latitudes, subs. (nautical).—A space in the Atlantic, north of the trade-winds, where the winds are baffling.

1891. W. C. Russell, Ocean Tragedy, p. 137. The winds even north of the rains and horse-latitudes were in a sense to be reckoned on.

Horse-laugh, subs. (colloquial).—A loud, noisy laugh; a guffaw.

1738. Pope, Ep. to Satires, i., 38. A horselaugh, if you please, at honesty.

Horse-leech, subs. (colloquial).—1. An extortioner; a miser.

2. (venery).—Anything insatiable. Also a whore.

1597. Hall, Satires, iv., 5. An horse-leech, barren wench, or gaping grave.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. You are one of those horse-leeches that gave out I was dead in Turnbull Street.

3. (old).—A horse-doctor; also a quack.

1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night (Grosart, iii., 250). Whereas his horse-leech … will give a man twenty guineas in one.

1597. Hall, Satires, ii., 4. No horse-leech but will look for larger fee.

Horse-marines, subs. (common).—A mythical corps, very commonly cited in jokes and quizzies on the innocent. [The Jollies (q.v.) or Royal Marines, being ignorant of seamanship, have always been the butt of blue-jackets.] Tell that to the marines (or horse-marines) the sailors won’t believe it = a rejoinder to an attempt at imposition or credulity. Often amplified with when they’re riding at anchor. See also Bingham’s Dandies.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxi. ‘Come, none of your quizzing, my old buck,’ said Sir Bingo—‘what the devil has a ship to do with horse’s furniture?—Do you think we belong to the horse-marines?’

c. 1870. Broadside Ballad, ‘Captain Jinks.’ I’m Captain Jinks of the Horse-Marines.

1886. Stephens and Yardley, Little Jack Sheppard, p. 3. They may tell that yarn to the horse marines, For we bean’t such fools as we looks.

1886. Tinsley’s Mag., Apr., 321. Owing to a singular deviation from the ordinary functions of cavalry, the 17th Lancers were once christened the horse marines.

1892. Wops the Waif [Horner’s Penny Stories], ch. i., p. 1. Oh, nothink, eh! You’d better tell that to the hoss marines; I’ve lived a sight too long in Shoreditch to take that in.

Horse-milliner, subs. (common).—1. A dandy trooper.

1778. Chatterton, Ballads of Charity, ii., 113. The trammels of his palfrey pleased his sight, For the horse-milliner his head with roses dight.

1813. Scott, Bridal of Triermain, ii., 3. One comes in foreign trashery Of tinkling chain and spur, A walking haberdashery Of feathers, lace and fur; In Rowley’s antiquated phrase, Horse-milliner of modern days.

2. (old).—A saddler and harness-maker.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, xi. In my wretched occupation of a saddler, horse-milliner, and harness maker, we are out unconscionable sums just for barkened hides and leather.

Horse-nails, subs. (common).—1. Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

To feed on horse-nails, verb. phr. (cribbage).—So to play as not so much to advance your own score as to keep down your opponent’s.

To knock into horse-nails, verb. phr. (common).—To knock to pieces; to be absolutely victorious.

Horse-nightcap, subs. (old).—See Horse’s-Collar.

Horse-pox, subs. (old).—A superlative of Pox (q.v.). Used in adjuration. E.g., A horse-pox on you! Ay, with a horse-pox, etc.

Horse-Protestant, subs. (tailors’).—A churchman.

Horse-sense, subs. (American).—Sound and practical judgment.

1893. Lippincott, Mar., p. 260. A round bullet head, not very full of brains, perhaps, yet reputed to be fairly stocked with what is termed horse sense.

Horses-and-Mares. To play at horses-and-mares, verb. phr. (schoolboys’).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Horse’s-head, subs. (cobblers’).—The boot-sole, heel, and what is left of the front after the back and part of the front have been used to fox (q.v.) other boots withal.

Horse-shoe, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. [In German, Sie hat ein Hufeisen verloren (of women) = she has been seduced, i.e., she has lost a horse-shoe.]

Horse’s-meal, subs. (old).—Meat without drink.

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

Horse-sovereign, subs. (common).—A twenty-shilling piece with Pistrucci’s effigies of St. George and the Dragon.

1871. London Figaro, 26 Jan. A number of those coins, sometimes known as horse sovereigns, are to be issued.

Hortus, subs. (venery).—See quot. [Cf., Garden.] For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v. Hortus [by some writers] the privy parts of a woman.

Hose. In my other hose, subs. phr. (old). A qualification of refusal or disbelief; in a horn (q.v.); over the left (q.v.).

1598. Florio. A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Zoccoli Zoccoli, tushtush, awaie, in faith sir no, yea in my other hose.

Hoss. See Horse.

Hoss-fly (or Old Hoss-fly), subs. (American).—A familiar address; cf., Horse, subs. sense 3.

Host. To reckon without one’s host, verb. phr. (old: now recognised).—To blunder.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Host. To reckon without one’s host, or count your Chickens before they are Hatched.

Mine Host, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A taverner.

Hosteler, subs. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hosteler, i.e., oat stealer.

Hot, subs. (Winchester College).—1. A mellay at football.

2. (Ibid).—A crowd.

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 367. It would be replaced and a fresh hot formed.

Adj. (colloquial).—1. Of persons: sexually excitable; lecherous; on heat (q.v.); randy (q.v.). Of things (as books): obscene; blue (q.v.); high-kilted (q.v.); Hot member (q.v.) = a male or female debauchee; or (as in sense 2), a man or woman contemptuous of decorum. Hot as they make them = exceedingly amorous or reckless. Hot-blooded = lecherous: as (in Merry Wives, v., 5) ‘the hot-blooded gods assist me.’ Hot-house (q.v.) = a brothel.

1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales. Prologue to Canterbury Tales, lines 97 and 98. So hote he lovede, that by nightertale, He sleep no more than doth a nightyngale.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iv., 8. Dost thou not shame, When all thy powers in chastity are spent, To have a mind so hot.

1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., i., 2. A fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta.

1599. H. Porter, Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 354). Are ye so hot, with a pox? Would ye kiss my mistress?

1605. Jonson, Volpone, iii., 6. I am now as fresh, As hot, as high, and in as jovial plight As when in that so celebrated scene At recitation of our comedy For entertainment of the great Valois, I acted young Antinous.

1608. Shakspeare, Antony and Cleopatra, iii., 11. Besides what hotter hours, Unregistered in vulgar fame you have Luxuriously picked out.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. The whelp was hot and eager.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, v., 8. If either you esteem my friendship or your own safety, come not near that house—that corner house—that hot brothel.

1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, iii., 5. Young men are hot, I know, but they don’t boil over at that rate.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 123. He laughs to see the girls so hot.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 37. As most of our plays are now cribbed from the French, wy they’re all pooty hot.

2. (colloquial).—Careless of decorum; boisterous; utterly reckless and abandoned.

1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 187. You’re a red-hot member!

3. (thieves’).—Well known to the police; dangerous; uncomfortable; e.g., To make it hot for one.

1830. Buckstone, Wreck Ashore, i., 4. Mil. This place is now too hot for me, captain. Bills overdue, and bailiffs in full chase, have driven me to a hasty leave of my home.

1841. Tait’s Edinburgh Mag., viii., 217. Finding all too hot to hold him.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Hot. The cove had better move his beaters into Dewsville, it is too hot for him here.

1882. Evening Standard, 3 Oct., p. 5, c. 4. The Constable added that at the station the Prisoner told him that if he did not make it too hot he would give him £5.

1888. Tit Bits, 24 Mar., 373. The hottest suburb of London during Jubilee year was supposed to be Ealing.

1890. Marriott-Watson, Broken Billy (in Under the Gum-tree, p. 31). With a few pals, almost as brutal as himself, he made the place pretty hot from time to time.

1891. Morning Advertiser, 26 Mar., p. 2, col. 4. When Baker was arrested he asked Detective-sergeant Gold not to make it too hot for them, and tried to induce the officer to receive a sovereign.

1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 36. You’ll find they will make it hot for you.

4. (colloquial).—See quot. 1690. Also violent; sharp; severe.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. hot, exceeding Passionate.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 167. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘yon was a hot burst, David.’

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. xvi. I started life in a training stable, and a hot life it was for a boy.

5. (venery).—Infected; venereally diseased.

6. (colloquial).—Alive; vehement; instant.

1864. Browning, Dramatic Romances (ed. 1879, iv., 180), ‘The Italian in England.’ Breathed hot and instant on my train.

Verb (Winchester College).—To crowd; to mob.

To give (get, or catch) it hot, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To thrash or reprove soundly; to be severely beaten or taken to task.

1859. Fast Life, p. 54. The craters, of course, caught it hot, and many had the sack.

1872. Figaro, 22 June. The German Emperor, Bismarck, and Earl Granville also got it, but not quite so hotly.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 887. A young man who … had been guilty of bigamy, and to such a degree that he got it hot for such a crime—five years.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 32. She spotted me in ’alf a jiff, and chaffed me precious hot.

Like a cat on hot bricks, phr. (colloquial).—Uncomfortable; restive.

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society, ch. xvi. Lady Mainwaring looked like an eel in a frying-pan, or, most of anything perhaps, like a cat on hot bricks.

Hot with, phr. (common).—Spirits with hot water and sugar. See Cider and, and Cold without.

Hot-arsed, adj. phr. (venery).—Excessively lewd. [Of women only.] Cf., Biter.

Hot-beef. To give hot-beef, verb. phr. (thieves’ rhyming).—To cry ‘Stop thief.’ Also Beef (q.v.).

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 506. He followed, giving me hot beef (calling ‘Stop thief’).

Hot-cakes. To go off like hot cakes, verb. phr. (common).—To sell readily; to be in good demand.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 Oct., p. 6, c. 1. Sold at one penny retail they often go off like hot cakes.

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. xii. It went off like hot cakes.

Hot-foot, adv. (colloquial).—Instant in pursuit.

Hotch-potch, subs. (old: now recognised).—A medley; a hodge-podge (q.v.).

1597. Hall, Satires, i., 3. A goodly hotch-potch when vile russettings are matched with monarchs and mighty kings.

1606. Return from Parnassus, iv., 2. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 183). This word, hotch-potch in English is a pudding; for in such a pudding is commonly not one thing only, but one thing with another.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hotch-potch, an Oglio, or Medly of several Meats in one Dish.

c. 1709. W. King, Art of Cookery, ix. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 259). The first delighting in hodge-podge, gallimaufry, forced meats … and salmagundy.

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

1728. Patrick Walker, Alexander Peden, ‘Postscript’ (ed. 1827, i., 128). A hotch-potch or bagful of Arian, Arminian, Socinian, Pelagian, etc.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Oct., p. 2, c. 1. Both are a sort of hotchpotch of songs, dances, and extravaganzas.

Hot-coppers, subs. (common).—The fever and parched throat, or mouth (q.v.), attending a debauch. See Cool one’s Copper.

1830. Egan, Finish to Life in London, 156. The ‘uncommonly big gentleman’ in spite of swallowing oceans of soda-water, declared his copper to be so hot that he thought all the water in the sea could not reduce his thirst!

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 244. ‘Oh blow your physiology!’ says Rapp. ‘You mean to say you’ve got a hot copper—so have I. Send for the precious balm and then fire away.’

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xliii. ‘Nothing like that beer,’ he remarked, ‘when the coppers are hot.’

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

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 134. He came … as happy-looking, and lively as if no such thing as hot coppers existed.

Hotel (also Cupid’s Hotel and Cupid’s Arms).—subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Cf., Cock Inn. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Hotel Barbering, subs. (common).—Bilking.

1892. Daily Chronicle, 28 Mar., p. 5, c. 7. The inference is now fairly admissable that he may possibly have divided his time between polygamous pursuits and hotel barbering exploits.

Hotel Warming-pan, subs. phr. (common).—A chambermaid. Also warming-pan (q.v.). Fr., une limogère.

Hot-flannel (or Flannel), subs. (old).—Gin and beer, with nutmeg, sugar, etc., made hot.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 144. A mixed kind of liquor … when drank in a morning it is called flannel.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 269. A jug of what he termed hot flannel for three—a mixture of gin, beer, and eggs.

Hot-house, subs. (old).—A brothel. Also (see quot. 1616), a public bath. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

1596. Nashe, Have with You to Saffron Walden (Grosart, iii., 106). Any hot-house or bawdy-house of them all.

1599. Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour, iv., 4. Let a man sweat once a week in a hot-house, and be well rubbed and froted with a plump juicy wench and clean linen.

1603. Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, ii., 1. Now she professes a hot-house, which is a very ill house too.

1606. The Return from Parnassus, i., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 115). He cannot swagger it well in a tavern, nor domineer in a hot-house.

1616. Jonson, Epigrams, ‘On the New Hot-house.’ Where lately harboured many a famous whore, A purging bill now fixed upon the door Tells you it is a hot-house: So it may, And still be a whore-house. They’re synonyma.

1699. Garth, The Dispensary, ii., line 157. A hot-house he prefers to Julia’s arms.

Hot Meat (or Beef or Mutton), subs. phr. (venery).—See Bit.

Hot-member (or Hot ’un).—See Warm Member.

Hot-Milk, subs. (venery).—The semen. For synonyms, see Cream.

Hot-place, subs. (colloquial).—Hell. For synonyms, see Tropical Climate.

1891. F. H. Groome, Blackwood, Mar., p. 320. A letter from her son in Hull, told the curate that ‘that did give me a tarn at fust, for I thought that come from the hot place.’

Hot-pot, subs. (old).—Ale and brandy made hot.

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

1788. G. C. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, ii., 56. A watchman and an old Blind Woman, troubled with the palsy, drinking hot-pot together.

Hot-potato. To drop like a hot potato, verb. phr. (common).—To abandon (a pursuit, a person, a thing) with alacrity.

Hot-pudding. To have a hot-pudding for supper, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. Of women only. [Pudding (Durfey) = the penis]. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hot-stomach. So hot a stomach as to burn the clothes off his back, phr. (old).—Said of one who pawns his clothes for drink.—Lex. Bal.

Hottentot, subs. (East-end). See quot.

1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, ch. x. The cry of Hottentots went round. ‘Hottentots’ is the playful way in this district of designating a stranger, that is to say, a stranger come from the West.

2. (common).—A fool. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

Hot-tiger, subs. (Oxford Univ.).—Hot-spiced ale and sherry.—Hotten.

Hot-water. To be in hot-water, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be in trouble, in difficulties, or worried.

1846. Punch’s Almanack, 29 Nov. The Times first printed by steam, 1814, and has kept the country in hot water ever since.

1864. Mark Lemon, Jest book, p. 238. Lord Allen, in conversation with Rogers, the poet, observed: ‘I never put my razor into hot water, as I find it injures the temper of the blade.’ ‘No doubt of it,’ replied Rogers; ‘show me the blade that is not out of temper when plunged into hot water.’

Hound, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—1. See quot.

1879. E. Walford, in N. and Q., 5 S., xii., 88. In the Anecdotes of Bowyer … we are told that a hound of King’s College, Cambridge, is an undergraduate not on the foundation, nearly the same as a ‘sizar.’

2. (colloquial). A mean, contemptible fellow; a scoundrel; a filthy sneak.

Hounslow-heath, subs. (rhyming).—The teeth. For synonyms, see Grinders. Also Hampstead-heath.

1887. Dagonet in Referee, 7 Nov., p. 7, c. 3. She’d a Grecian ‘I suppose,’ And of Hampstead Heath two rows.

Houri of Fleet-street, subs. phr. (common).—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

House, subs. (theatrical).—1. An audience. To bring down the house = to elicit a general burst of applause. Fr., avoir sa côtelette; boire du lait.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. House. With them (the players) it means Covent-garden or Drury-lane, or indeed any other theatre. ‘A full-house’ and ‘half-a-house’ indicate the state of the receipts or number of the audience.

1870. Athenæum, 13 Aug., p. 120. ‘Letter of J. O. Halliwell.’ It is now certain that Shakespeare was never proprietor of either (the Globe or Blackfriars) theatre. His sole interest in them consisted in a participation, as an actor in the receipts of what is called the house.

1873. Home News, 24 Jan. I exerted myself, not for praise of that well-dressed mob they called the house, but for very love of the congenial sport.

1892. Sydney Watson, Wops the Waif, ch. iii., p. 4. There was tremendous enthusiasm this evening. Every scene was uproariously applauded, and at the climax the whole house rose and cheered and encored with tumultuous feeling.

The House (colloquial).—(1) The Stock Exchange; (2) The House of Commons; (3) Christ Church, Oxford.

House under the hill, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

House (or apartments) to let, subs. phr. (common).—A widow.—Lex. Bal. Also Bill-of-Sale and Man-trap.

Father of the House, subs. phr. (Parliamentary).—The oldest elected member. See Babe.

House that Jack built, subs. phr. (common).—A prison. For synonyms, see Cage.

Like a house on fire, adv. phr. (common).—Quickly; with energy. See Like.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, ii., 85. I’m getting on like a regler house on fire.

Safe as houses, adv. phr. (common).—Perfectly safe.

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xxxii., p. 361 (1873). I have the means of doing that, as safe as houses.

1874. T. Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, ch. lvii. ‘The clothes will floor us as safe as houses,’ said Coggan.

1886. Grant Allen, In All Shades, ch. i. Why, of course, then, that’s the explanation of it—as safe as houses, you may depend upon it.

1890. Grant Allen, Tents of Shem, ch. xxviii. You may make your forgery itself as safe as houses.

House-bit (or -keeper, or -piece), subs. (colloquial).—A servant-mistress.

House-dove, subs. (old).—A stay-at-home.

Household-brigade. To join the Household Brigade, verb. phr. (common).—To marry. For synonyms, see Splice.

1881. Home Tidings, April, p. 42, c. 1. Jem Ryan joined the household brigade on Easter Monday, E. New acting as best man.

House of Civil Reception, subs. phr. (old).—A brothel. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

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

House of Commons (or House of Office), subs. phr. (old).—A W.C. For synonyms, see Mrs. Jones.

1611. Chapman, May-Day, iv., 2. No room save you turn out my wife’s coal-house, and her other house of office attached to it, reserved for her and me sometimes, and will you use it being a stranger?

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, c. xiii. Taking the candle in his hand, which he had left burning for the purpose, he went down to the house of office.

d. 1780. Robertson of Struan, Poems, 83. So to a House of Office straight a school-boy does repair, To ease his postern of its weight.

House-tailor, subs. (old).—An upholsterer.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. House-tailers, Upholsterers.

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

Housewife (or Huswife, or Hussy), subs. (colloquial).—1. Primarily, a house-keeper. Hence (a) a domestic servant; (b) a wanton or a gad-about wench; and (c) a comic endearment. Hence, too, housewifery, subs., and housewife’s tricks = the habit of wantonness, the practice of men.

1508. Gawain and Gologras, ‘Ballade,’ (Pinkerton, Scottish Poems, 1792, iii.). A gude husy-wife ay rinning in the toun.

1589. Puttenham, English Poesie, 1589, ii., 16 (ed. Arber, p. 148). Half lost for lack of a good huswife’s looking to.

1600. Look about You, sc. 28 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 476). Huswife, I’ll have you whipped for slandering me.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, i., 2. I hope to see some housewife take thee between her legs and spin it off.

1659. Lady Alimony, iii., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 331). And if the hussy challenge more, Charm the maundering gossip with your roar. Idem. iii., 6. (p. 340). If I make not these haxters as hateful to our hussies as ever they were to us, their husbands, set me up for a Jack-a-Lent.

1672. Ray, Proverbs, s.v., Cat. Cats eat what hussies spare.

1673. Wycherly, Gentleman Dancing Master, iv., 1. What, hussy, would you not do as he’d have you?

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

1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iv., 3. When I was of your age, hussy, I would have held fifty to one I could have drawn my own picture.

1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, i., 1. Hark you hussy. You can give yourself airs sometimes, you know you can.

1708. Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy-Body, iv., 2. I’ll charm you, housewife. Here lies the charm that conjured this fellow in.

1708. Prior, Poems (Aldine ed. ii., 270), ‘The Insatiable Priest.’ To suppress all his carnal desires in their birth At all hours a lusty young hussy is near.

1720. Swift, Poems, ‘A Portrait’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 448). A housewife in bed, at table a slattern.

1728. Swift, Poems, ‘My Lady’s Lamentations’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 460). Consider before You come to threescore, How the hussies will fleer Whene’er you appear.

1731. C. Coffey, The Devil to Pay, i. Don’t you know, hussy, that I am king in my own house.

1732. Henry Fielding, The Mock Doctor, i. Ay, hussy, a regular education; first at the charity-school where I learned to read.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, c. xviii. He supposed the object of his love was some paltry hussy, whom he had picked up when he was a boy at school.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘Chit-Chat.’ Lud! I could beat the hussey down, She’s poured it all upon my gown.

1768. Goldsmith, Good Natured Man, ii. And you have but too well succeeded, you little hussy, you.

1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (ed. 1800, p. 43). And I have been twice in the bath with mistress and na’r a smock upon our backs, hussy.

1782. Cowley, Bold Stroke for a Husband, i., 2. Don C. Now, hussy, what do you expect?

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

1786. Burns, The Inventory. Frae this time forth I do declare, I’se ne’er ride horse nor hizzie mair.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxii. Say nothing of that, housewife, … or I will beat thee—beat thee with my staff.

1829. C. A. Somerset, The Day After the Fair, i. Oh, you hussy! so you were Madame Maypole!

1893. R. le Gallienne, Intro. Liber Amoris, p. xliv. To think of poor Hazlitt gravely lavishing his choice Elizabethan quotations on the hussey.

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

Housey, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Belonging to the Hospital.

Housle, verb. (Winchester College).—To hustle.

Hoveller, subs. (nautical).—A beach-thief.

How. How came you so? phr. (old).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1824. T. Hook, Sayings and Doings, 1st S. Merton, ch. xiii. Ould Mrs. Etherington was a right bad one; she used to be Lord, how come you so! every night, as regular as she went to bed.

How much? phr. (common).—‘What do you say?’ ‘What do you mean?’ What price?—a general request for explanations.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxxiv. ‘Then my answer must mainly depend on the exact height of the principles.’ ‘On the how much?’ inquired Frere, considerably mystified.

How are you off for soap, phr. (old).—A street catch.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. iv. Well, Reefer, how are you off for soap?

1842. Punch, ii., 94, c. 2. Walker! how are you off for soap?

How the blazes. See Blazes.

How is that for high. See High.

How’s your poor feet, phr. (streets’).—A street catch, of no particular meaning. See Street Cries.

1863. All the Year Round, x., 180. How’s your poor feet? a year ago cheated half the natives of Cockaigne into the belief that they were gifted with a special genius for repartee.

1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, p. 163 (1864). But how would you like a screeching multitude, fifty thousand strong, and with not one of whom, to the best of your knowledge, you had even a bowing acquaintance, to vociferate in your track—in the public street, mind—‘Ya-a-a-h! how are your poor feet?’

1890. Town and Country (Sydney), 11 Jan., p. 19, c. 4. Henry Irving’s revival of ‘The Dead Heart’ has revived a bit of slang.… When the play was brought out originally, where one of the characters says, ‘My heart is dead, dead, dead!’ a voice from the gallery nearly broke up the drama with How are your poor feet? The phrase lived.

How’ll you have it, phr. (common).—An invitation to drink. For synonyms, see Drinks.

How we apples swim (sometimes amplified by Quoth the horse-turd)! verb. phr. (old).—Said in derision of a parvenu; of a person in better company than he (or she) has any right to keep; or of a pretender to honour or credit he (or she) does not deserve.

1670. Ray, Proverbs, s.v.

1697–1764. Hogarth (Works by J. Ireland and J. Nichols, London, 1873) III., p. 29. And even this, little as it is, gives him so much importance in his own eyes, that he assumes a consequential air, sets his arms akimbo, and strutting among the historical artists cries, how we apples swim.

1860. Cornhill Mag. (D. Mallett, Tyburn), Dec., p. 737. While tumbling down the turbid stream, Lord, love us, how we apples swim.

Howard’s Garbage, subs. phr. (military).—The Nineteenth Foot. Also Green Howards.

Howard’s Greens, subs. phr. (military).—The Twenty-fourth Foot. [From its facings and its Colonel’s name, 1717–37.]

How-do-you-do, subs. (colloquial).—A ‘to do’; a ‘kettle of fish’; a ‘pass.’

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxvi. Thinks I, here’s a pretty how do you do; I’m in for it now, that’s a fact.

Howler, subs. (common).—An unblushing falsehood; an enormous blunder; a serious accident; and so forth. To come (or go) a howler = to come to grief; to run amuck.

1885. Daily News, 16 May, p. 4, c. 8. Now, to speak respectfully of old scholars that were before us, the translators of the Bible constantly made what undergraduates call howlers, or grievously impossible blunders.

1886. Stephens and Yardley, Little Jack Sheppard, p. 34. Jack. My dears, you’re late. Bess. Our hansom came a howler.

1888. Indoor Paupers, p. 24. As to how we are to spend the eight hours, or thereabouts, that remain after meals, church, and howlers are disposed of, nobody, except ourselves and a few private friends outside, cares in the least.

1891. Moonshine, 14 Mar. Oh, I saw some piece in which a Johnnie smoked some cigarettes, and at last came a howler, and wanted to commit suicide.

1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 Sep., p. 2, c. 3. We wondered yesterday how many of our classical readers would see the howler—or the joke.

Howling, adj. (common).—A general intensitive. E.g., Howling-swell = a man in the extreme of fashion; howling-lie = a gross falsehood; howling-bags = trousers extravagant in cut or pattern; howling-cad, etc.

1865. G. A. Sala, Trip to Barbary, ch. vii. The hotel at Marseilles was full of our countrymen of the order known at Lane’s and Limmer’s as howling swells.

1887. Household Words, 11 June, 116. Let’s hook it; that Jenny Morris is such an howling swell that she won’t wait for any one.

1889. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 8 Feb. The Hon. Juggins was what is popularly known as a howling swell.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 146. And all the while your heart was given to a howling cad.

Hoxter, subs. (old).—1. An inside pocket.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood bk. III., ch. v. No slour’d hoxter my snipes could stay.

2. (Royal Military Academy).—Extra drill. [Corruption of extra.] Fr., le bal.

1887. Barrère, Argot and Slang. The hoxter consists in the painful ordeal of being compelled to turn out of bed at an early hour, and march up and down under the watchful eye of a corporal.

Hoys. See Hoist.

Hoyt. See Hoit.

Hub, subs. (American).—1. Boston. Also, Hub of the Universe. [The description is Oliver Wendell Holmes’s.] Since extended to other centres or chief cities (see quot. 1876).

1869. Boston Herald, Dec. He is to have a quintette club of amateurs with him, from the Hub.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 4 July. Boston claims to be the Hub of the universe; but New York grandiloquently asserts itself to be the universal wheel itself.

1872. Daily Telegraph, Dec. The wealth of the Hub of the Universe, as Bostonians delight to call their city, is very great.

1876. Daily News, 18 Jan. Calcutta … swaggers as if it were the hub of the Universe.

1888. Boston Daily Globe. The typical girl of the Hub has been much written about in the novels of the period, and without doubt she is worth all the attention bestowed upon her.

2. (colloquial).—A husband. See Hubby.

Hubble-bubble, subs. (colloquial).—1. See quots.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hubble-Bubble (s.) a confused noise made by a talkative person, who speaks so quick, that it is difficult to understand what he says or means.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hubble-bubble. Confusion. A hubble bubble fellow, a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle.

2. (common).—A hookah; a pipe by which the smoke is passed through water.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hubble-bubble.… Also an instrument used for smoaking through water in the East Indies, called likewise a caloon and hooker.

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. xxii. The Moor, warmly grateful, was ever ready to give him a cup of coffee and a hubble-bubble in the stillness of his dwelling.

1887. Field, 15 Oct. Off I went down the ravine, and half a mile below came to Besan quietly smoking his hubble-bubble.

1891. W. C. Russell, Ocean Tragedy, p. 130. A burning atmosphere sickly with the smell of the incense of the hubble-bubble, with a flavour of hot curry about.

Hubble-de-shuff, adv. (old).—Confusedly.—Lex. Bal.

Hubbub, subs. (old: now recognised).—See quots.

d. 1639. Robert Carey (Earl of Monmouth), Memoirs, 1759, p. 155. This made a great hub-bub in our Court.

1667. Milton, Paradise Lost, ii., 951. A universal hubbub wild, Of stunning sounds.

1682. Bunyan, Holy War (1893 ed. M. Peacock, p. 58). The conscience and understanding begin to receive conviction, and they set the soul in a hubbub.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hubbub, a Noise in the Streets made by the Rabble.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hubbub, a noise, riot, or disturbance.

1893. Westminster Gaz., 8 Aug., p. 2, col. 1. An indescribable hubbub of showmen’s, hawkers’, and children’s voices from near and far.

Hubby (or Hub), subs. (colloquial).—A husband.

1798. Morton, Secrets Worth Knowing. Epilogue. The wife poor thing, at first so blithe and chubby, Scarce knows again her lover in her hubby.

1807. Stevens, Wks., p. 175. What could hubby do then, what could hubby do? But sympathy-struck, as she cry’d, he cry’d too.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, ii., 3. Now, madam, this once was your hubby.

1883. Referee, 17 Apr., p. 3, c. 2. I did hear it whispered that her parents and guardians, or her horrified hubby, had turned the key on her.

Huck, verb. (old).—To chaffer; to bargain.

1577. Holinshead, Description of England, ed. 1807, i., 315. It was his custome likewise to saie, if anie man hucked hard with him about the price of a gelding: ‘So God helpe me … either he did cost me so much,’ or else, ‘By Jesus I stole him.’

Huckleberry. Above one’s huckleberry (bend, or hook), adv. phr. (American).—Beyond one’s ability; out of one’s reach. See Bend.

1848. J. F. Cooper, The Oak Openings. It would be above my bend to attempt telling you all we saw among the red skins.

1852. ‘L’Allegro,’ As Good as a Comedy, p. 61. Well, Squire Barry, you’re a huckleberry above my persimmon, but I reckon something can be done.

Huckle-my-butt, subs. (old).—Beer, egg, and brandy made hot.

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

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, iii., 5. ‘If that’s a bowl of huckle-my-butt you are brewing, Sir William,’ added he, addressing the knight of Malta, ‘you may send me a jorum at your convenience.’

Huckster, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A retailer of small goods; a pedlar.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Huckster, the Retailers of the Market, who Sell in the Market at second Hand.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hucksters, itinerant retailers of provisions.

2. (old).—A mean trickster.

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

In huckster’s hands, adv. phr. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hucksters.… In huckster’s hands, at a desperate Pass, or Condition, or in a fair way to be Lost.

Hucksum (also Huckle, or Huckle-bone, or Huck-bone).—The hip.

c. 1508. Dunbar, Flyting (Poems, ed. 1834, ii., 72). With huck-bones harth and haw.

d. 1529. Skelton, Elynor Rummyn (Poems, 1843, i.). The bones of her huckels Lyke as they were buckels.

1575. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 180). For bursting of her huckle-bone, or breaking of her shin.

Huddle, verb. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hue, verb. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. The Cove was Hued in the Naskin, the Rogue was severely Lasht in Bridewell.

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

Huey, subs. (Old Cant).—A town or village.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 231. ‘Where do you stall to in the huey?’ which, fairly translated, means, ‘Where do you lodge in the town?’

Huff, subs. (colloquial).—1. An outburst of temper; peevishness; offence at some real or imaginary wrong or slight. Hence, to get (or take) the huff = to fly into a passion.

1599. H. Porter, Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 311). And as thou say’st to me, to him I said, But in a greater huff and hotter blood.

1676. Etherege, Man of Mode, Wks. (1704), i., 190. Tax her with the next fop that comes Into my head, and in a huff march away.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, Wks. (1720), iv., 63. If you were not the brother to my dearest friend, I know what my honour would prompt me to [walks in a huff].

1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, ii., 2. I offer’d her fifty guineas, and she was in her airs presently, and flew away in a huff.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. iv., p. 26. I pay’d three Shillings, in a Huff, For my half Pint of liquid Stuff.

1759–67. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ch. xxix. He left off the study of projectiles in a kind of huff, and betook himself to the practical part of fortification only. Idem. ch. c. Can I? cried Susannah, shutting the door in a huff.

1769. Chatterton, Poems, ‘Journal’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xv., 495). ‘Sir,’ quoth the Rector in a huff.

1777. Sheridan, Trip to Scarborough, i., 1. The lady not condescending to give me any serious reasons for having fooled me for a month, I left her in a huff.

1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, bk. II., ch. 16. What a huff you’re at! I only axed a question.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xx. He is as proud as Lucifer, he is always taking huff about one thing or the other.

1855. Browning, Men and Women, ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ (Ed. 1864, p. 357). You’ll not mistake an idle word Spoke in a huff by a poor monk?

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 30. Already my goodness! he’s taking the huff.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 37. Some parties in a huff rage At the plea for Female Suffrage.

2. (old).—A bully; a Hector (q.v.); a sharper. Also Captain Huff.

1569. Preston, Cambises (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iv., 177). [Enter three ruffians, huff, Ruff, and Snuff.]

1680. Cotton, Complete Gamester, p. 333. Huffs, hectors, setters, gilts, pads, biters, etc.

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

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iv., 9. Good, slovenly Captain Huff, Bluffe (what is your hideous name?).

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

3. (common).—A dodge; a trick.

4. (draughts’).—A term in the game of draughts; the penalty for not taking a piece.

5. (Winchester College).—See Huff-cap.

Verb. (colloquial).—1. To bluster; to bounce; to swagger.

1607. How a Man May Choose a Good Wife, etc., iv., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 78). A huffing wench i’ faith.

1630. Taylor, Workes. The smell is the senting bawd, that huffs and snuffs up and downe, and hath the game alwayes in the winde. Ibid. One asked a huffing gallant why hee had not a looking-glasse in his chamber; he answered, he durst not, because hee was often angry, and then he look’d so terribly that he was fearefull to looke upon himselfe.

d. 1631. Donne, Satires, iv. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, v., 158). To th’ huffing, braggart, puffed nobility.

1643. Randolph, Muses Looking-Glasse, i., 1. Flowrd. Iniquity aboundeth, though pure zeal Teach, preach, huffe, puffe, and snuffe at it, yet still, Still it aboundeth.

1673. Wycherley, Gentleman Dancing Master, v., 1. How! my surly, huffing, jealous, senseless, saucy master.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife. ‘Prologue.’ Well, let the vain rash fop, by huffing so, Think to obtain the better terms of you.

1680. Dryden, Prol. to Lee’s Cæsar Borgia, p. 29. So big you look, though claret you retrench, That, armed with bottled ale, you huff the French.

d. 1680. Rochester, Poems, ‘Woman’s Honour’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, viii., 239). This huffing honour domineers In breasts when he alone has place.

1682. Bunyan, Holy War (ed. M. Peacock, 1893, p. 72). He refused and huffed as well as he could, but in heart he was afraid.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Huff. To huff and ding, to bounce and swagger.

1690. The Pagan Prince. And the same threats and menaces of the palatine being carry’d to the marshal de Tonneure, notwithstanding all his former encomiums, Oh! quo he, the palatine’s a young prince; give him leave to huff and ding for his living; words break no bones: when all’s done, ’tis the coach wheel, not the fly that raises the dust.

1699. Robert Franck, Northern Memoirs (quoted in New Review, Aug., 1893, p. 145). So huffed away.

1700. Mrs. Centlivre, Perjured Husband. ‘Epilogue.’ Let cowards cease to huff.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. iii., p. 14. And in their frenzy, huff and threaten With what sad stripes we shall be beaten.

1708. Prior, Poems, ‘The Mice.’ (Aldine ed. ii., 244, 50). One went to Holland where they huff folk, T’other to vend his wares in Suffolk.

1714. Newest Academy of Compliments. Pray neighbour, why d’ye look awry? You’re grown a wondrous stranger; You huff, you pout, you walk about As tho’ you’d burst with anger.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 283. Thus, thus I strut and huff. Idem., i., 154. But when the new ones did stoop, The t’other as huffing would be. Idem., v., 99. When Bullies leave huffing and Cowards their Trembling.

1725. Swift, Poems, ‘A New Song’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 446). If he goes to the baker’s the baker will huff, And twenty pence ask for a twopenny loaf.

d. 1742. Somerville, Occasional Poems, ‘The Officious Messenger’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 206). Her ladyship began to huff.

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

2. To anger; to cheek (q.v.); to get angered.

1708. Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy-Body, iii., 4. Impossible, without he huffs the lady, and makes love to Sir Francis.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xliii. Upon this she huffs outright, and tells Tom he may go about his business, for she didn’t care if she never sees him no more.

1839. W. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 133 (Ed. 1840). If they do, now and then, run away with a knocker, paint a sign, beat the watch, or huff a magistrate.

Intj. (obsolete).—See quots. Also Huffa and Huffa-gallant. [Probably the oldest form of the word.]

c. 1510. Rastell, Four Elements (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 20). With huffa gallant, tirl on the berry, And let the wide world wind.

c. 152(?). Hick Scorner (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 188). Huff! huff! huff! who sent after me.

d. 1529. Skelton, Poems, ‘Against Garnesche’ (Dyce, i., 118, and note ii., 181–2). Huf a galante, Garneysche, loke on your comely ars.

To stand the huff, verb. phr. (old).—To stand the reckoning.—Lex. Bal.

Also Huffy = easily offended; Huffed = annoyed; Huffily = testily; in a tantrum.

1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, bk. II., ch. 15. A leetle on the huffy order, I guess! Aint you?

1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. xvi. I … actually was so cruel as to restrict him to one dozen of my cambric handkerchiefs. Dolph was particularly huffy about it, and I had to talk to him like a father to bring him round.

1853. Lytton, My Novel, bk. I., ch. ix. Though the Squire was inclined to be very friendly to all his neighbours, he was, like most country gentlemen, rather easily huffed.

1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, ch. xxxvi. ‘I have no doubt you would!’ say I, turning sharply and huffily away.

1875. Ouida, Signa, vol. II., ch. xx., p. 324. ‘She is a stupid little mule,’ thought the old woman, angrily. ‘She feels nothing, she sees no greatness in it all—she is only good to grub amongst her cabbages.’ And she went away huffed.

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 31. huffed is he, eh? And who regards him?

Huff-cap (or Huff), subs. (Old Cant: still in use at Winchester College).—1. Strong ale. [‘From inducing people to set their caps in a bold and huffing style.’—Nares.]

1579. Fulwell, Art of Flattery. Commonly called Hufcap, it will make a man look as though he had seene the devil.

1586. Holinshed, Description of England. These men hale at Huff-cap till they be red as cockes and little wiser than their combes.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Bullen, Works, 1889, p. 247). Hunks detests when huffcap ale he tipples.

1614. Greene, Looking-Glass [Dyce], p. 127. The ale is strong ale, ’tis hufcap; I warrant you, ’twill make a man well.

1630. Taylor, Wks. And this is it, of ale-houses and innes, Wine-marchants vintners, brewers, who much wins By others losing, I say more or lesse, Who sale of hufcap liquor doe professe.

1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 180. Washed down by libations of Huff.

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, s.v. Huff, the strong ale brewed by the College.

2. (old).—A swaggering bully; a Hector (q.v.).

1596. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v., 306). The huff-cappes to drink in that house, thou shalt be sure of always.

1630. Taylor, Wks. But ’tis a maxime mortals cannot hinder, The doughty deeds of Wakefield’s huffe-cap Pinder Are not so pleasant as the faire Aurora, When Nimrod rudely plaid on his bandora.

1687. Clifford, Notes upon Dryden, letter 2. Prethee tell me true, was not this huff-cap once the Indian emperour, and at another time did not he call himself Maximine?

1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, v., 6. You have made a fine speech good Captain Huff-cap.

Adj. (old).—Swaggering; blustering; rousing.

1597. Hall, Satires, i., 3. Graced with huff-cap terms and thundering threats.

Huffer, subs. (old).—A swaggerer.

1682. Banks, Vertue Betrayed, Prol. lines 23–4. Welcome mask-teazer, peevish gamster, huffer: All fools, but politicians, we can suffer.

1770. Lord Hailes, Ancient Scottish Poetry, note on ‘Seven Deadly Sins,’ line 34. Huffers (or threateners), boasters, and they who pick quarrels.

Huffle, verb. (venery).—1. To bag-pipe (q.v.).

2. (colloquial).—To shift; to hesitate; to waver.

Huff-snuff, subs. (old).—A person apt to take offence.

1592. Nashe, Strange News, etc. (Grosart, Works, ii., 184). Gabriel Huffe-Snuffe Knowne to the world for a foole, and clapt in the Fleete for a poet.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Risentito.… Also a huffe snuffe, one that will soone take pepper in the nose, that will revenge euerie small matter.

1750. Ozell, Rabelais, iv., pref. xxiii. Freebooters, desperadoes, and bullying huff-snuffs.

Huftie-tuftie, adj. (old).—Swaggering; gallant.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden (Grosart, Works, iii., 106). Came a ruffling it out, huftie-tuftie, in his velvet suit.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, (Grosart, Works, v., 250). Huftie-tuftie youthful ruffling comrades, wearing every one three yards of feathers in his cap for his mistres’ favour.

Hug, subs. (thieves’).—Garrotting (q.v.). Also verbally, and to put on the hug.

1864. Home Magazine, 16 Mar. Hoax upon hoax about the putting on the hug was played off upon a credulous and bugbear-loving community.

2. (old).—The sexual embrace. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride. Also the close hug.

1659. Lady Alimony, ii., ‘Prologue’ (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 288). Apt for a spousal hug.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 163. They’ve a new drug Which is called the close hug.

Verb. (colloquial).—Properly to grapple with and hold the body, as a bear with his fore-paws. Hence (1) to cuddle; and (2) to perform the sexual embrace (see subs., sense 2). Hence, also, to hug brown bess (q.v.); to hug the gunner’s daughter = to cuddle a gun for punishment; to hug the ground = to fall, or be hit off one’s legs; to give the hug (pugilists) = to close with and grapple the body; to hug the shore (or bank, or wall) to keep close to; cornish hug = a hold in wrestling; to hug a belief (or delusion, or thought) = to cherish; to hug one’s chains = to delight in captivity.

1696. Landsdowne, Poems, ‘Prologue to The She-Gallants’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., p. 36). Then, like some pensive statesman, treads demure, And smiles and hugs to make distinction sure.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Buller, Works, 1889, p. 249). Changed is Helen. Helen hugs the stranger.

1631. Drayton, The Mooncalf (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, iv., 133). Hug him, and swear he was her only joy.

1637. Beaumont and Fletcher, Elder Brother, iv., 1. This night I’ll hug my Lilly in my arms.

d. 1649. Drummond, Posthumous Poems, ‘Of a Kiss.’ Nor her who had the fate Ravis’d to be and hugged on Ganges’ shore.

1659. Lady Alimony, iv. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 288a). Shall we hug none of our own, But such as drop from the frigid zone.

c. 1708. W. King, The Art of Love, Pt. iv. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 266). Then hugging her in brawny arm.

d. 1710. R. Duke, Poems, ‘A Song’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 224). Close hugs the charmer, and ashamed to yield, Though he has lost the day yet keeps the field. Idem. She hugs the dart that wounded her, and dies.

d. 1742. Somerville, Occasional Poems, etc., ‘The Fortune-Hunter,’ canto iii. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 221). Drinks double bub with all his might And hugs his doxy every night.

1746. Smollett, Advice, line 4. We’ll hug the curse that not one joy can boast.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘The Cit’s County Box.’ Hugging themselves in ease and clover.

d. 1773. G. Cunningham, Poems, ‘Holiday-Gown’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xiv., 441). He hugs me so close, and he kisses so sweet.

1791. Antient and Modern Scottish Songs, ‘My Jockey is a Bonnie Lad,’ ii., 325. And then he fa’s a kissing, clasping, hugging, squeezing, tousling, pressing, winna let me be.

d. 1796. Burns, The Jolly Beggars. And at night in barn or stable, hugs our doxies on the hay.

Hugger-mugger, subs. (colloquial).—Muddle; confusion.

1868. C. Reade, Foul Play, ch. vii. Why didn’t you tell me, and I’d have tidied the room: it is all hugger-mugger, with miss a leaving.

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 36. And every place as neat as a pin, And couldn’t stand no hugger-mugger.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Oct., p. 2, c. 2. He wrote some lampoons in the papers at the time, in which he ridiculed the hugger-mugger of the prosecution.

Adv. (old).—See quots.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hugger-Mugger, Closely or by Stealth, Underboard: To eat so, that is, to Eat by one’s self.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hugger-Mugger, by stealth, privately, without making an appearance; they spent their money in a hugger-mugger way.

Adj. (common).—Confused; disorderly; hap-hazard; hand-to-mouth (q.v.).

1882. Daily Telegraph, 5 Oct., p. 2, c. 2. Nor, can they be very severely blamed for this hugger-mugger, slipshod way of life.

Verb. (common).—To meet by stealth; to lay heads together.

1879. Justin McCarthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xxxii. I can see already that she won’t stand much more of you and me hugger-muggering together.

In hugger-mugger, adv. phr. (old).—1. In secret.

1565. Stapleton, Fort. of the Faith, fol. 88. They should not have lurked all this while in hucker-mucker.

1588. J. Udall, Demonstration of Discipline, p. 30. (ed. Arber). The Byshop without any lawfull election, is chosen in huggermuger of the canons, or prebendaries onely, without the knowledge of the people.

1594. Nashe, Unfortunate Traveller (Grosart, Works, v., 19). Myself that am but a poore childish wel-willer of yours, with the vain thought that a man of your desert and state by a number of pesants and varlets should be so incuriously abused in hugger-mugger haue wept al my vrine upward.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden (Grosart, Works, iii., 181). Hee sent her 18 pence in hugger-mugger, to pay the fiddlers.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iv., 5. King. … We have done but greenly, In hugger-mugger to inter him.

1602. Dekker, Satiromastix, iii., 133 (Dodsley, Old Plays, viii., 48). One word, sir Quintilian, in hugger-mugger.

1607. Tourneur, Revenger’s Trag. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875), v., i. And how quaintly he died, like a politician, in hugger-mugger.

1611. Coryat, Crud., ii., p. 251, repr. So these perhaps might sometimes have some furtive conversation in hugger mugger.

1633. Ford, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, ii., 1. There is no way but to clap up a marriage in hugger-mugger.

1639–61. Rump Songs, i. [1662], 54. They brought me Gold and Plate in Huggar-Muggar.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, i., 3. Where’er th’ in hugger-mugger lurk, I’ll make them rue their handy-work.

1762. Churchill, The Ghost, bk. iii., line 27. It must not, as the Vulgar say, Be done in Hugger Mugger way.

1815. Mirror for Mag., p. 457. For most that most things knew, in hugger-mugger utter’d what they durst.

Hugging, subs. (common).—Garotting (q.v.).

Hugsome, adj. (colloquial).—Carnally attractive; Fuckable (q.v.).

Hulk (Hulky, or Hulking Fellow), subs. (colloquial).—A fat person; a big lout. Generally, ‘great hulk of a fellow.’

d. 1631. Drayton, The Mooncalf (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, iv., 126). Wallowing she lay, like to a boist’rous hulk Dropsied with humours.

1698. Ward, London Spy, Pt. xiv., p. 324. Up in the Chimney Corner sat a great hulking Fellow.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hulk (s.) … also a lazy, dronish fellow.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hulkey, or Hulking, a great hulkey fellow, an overgrown clumsy lout, or fellow.

1858. G. Eliot, Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ch. ii. When you’ve got … some great hulky fellow for a husband, who swears at you and kicks your children.

1870. Chambers’s Journal, 9 July, p 447. He sees a slouching, shambling, hulk of a fellow standing listlessly in a doorway.

1871. G. Eliot, Middlemarch, ch. lvi. I want to go first and have a round with that hulky fellow who turned to challenge me.

1883. A. Dobson, Old-World Idylls, p. 164. I’d like to give that hulking brute a hit—Beating his horse in such a shameful way!

1893. National Observer, 29 July, p. 267, col. 2. The absolute ascendancy exercised by a small but brilliant member … over a hulking Junior.

Verb (colloquial).—To hang about; to mooch (q.v.).

Hull between Wind and Water, verb. phr. (venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hull-cheese, subs. (Old Cant).—See quot. For synonyms, see Swipes.

1622. Taylor, A Very Merry Wherry-Ferry (Hindley, Works, 1872), 19. Give me hull-cheese, and welcome and good cheer. Ibid. Hull-cheese, is much like a loafe out of a brewers basket, it is composed of two simples, mault and water, in one compound, and is cousin germane to the mightiest ale in England.

Hulverhead, subs., and Hulver-headed, adj. (old).—See quots. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hulver-head, a silly Foolish fellow.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hulver Headed, silly, puzzle-pated.

Hum, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A kind of strong liquor: probably a mixture of beer and spirits, but see quot. 1690. Also hum-cap.

1616. Ben Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, i., 1. Carmen Are got into the yellow starch, and chimney sweepers To their tobacco, and strong waters, hum, Meath, and Obarni.

1619. Fletcher, Wild Goose Chase, ii., 3. Lord, what should I ail? What a cold I have over my stomach; would I’d some hum.

1622. Fletcher, Beggars’ Bush, ii., 1. Except you do provide me hum enough, And lour to bouze with.

d. 1645. Heywood, Drunkard, p. 48 [Gifford]. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of wines, yet there be stills and limbecks going, swetting out aqua vitæ and strong waters, deriving their names from cinnamon, balm, and aniseed, such as stomach-water, humm, etc.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hum-cap, old, mellow and very strong Beer.

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

2. (common).—A trick; a delusion; a cheat. Also a lie.

1756. The World, No. 164. Now if this be only a hum (as I suppose it is) upon our country apes, it being blown in the World will put an end to it.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘A Tale.’ There, my good critics, lies the hum.

1806. Lamb, Letters in Wks. (Ed. 1852), ch. v., p. 81. I daresay all this is hum!

1820. Reynolds (P. Corcoran), The Fancy, ‘King Tims the First.’ You or your son have told a bouncing hum.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hum—a whispered lie.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Row in an Omnibus Box.’ It’s ‘No Go!’—it’s ‘Gammon!’—it’s ‘all a Hum!’

1848. Punch, vol. XIV., p. 37. ‘Ye Frenche Goe Uppe to London.’ That ye French threats were all bouncing, That ye muster was a hum, And they’d never dare to come.

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 49. A hum and a huff, And none o’ the real stuff.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 76. Married life may be ticketed honey, but I know it’s more of a hum.

3. (old).—See quot.

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hums, persons at church; there is a great number of hums in the autem, there is a great congregation in the church.

Verb (old).—1. To cheat; to bamboozle; to quiz (q.v.).

1762. Goldsmith, Life of Nash, in Wks., p. 552 (Globe). Here Nash, if I may be permitted the use of a polite and fashionable phrase, was humm’d.

1764–1817. J. G. Holman, Abroad and at Home, i., 3. Ser. It is queer enough that his father, Sir Simon Flourish, should be hummed so as to think he is going the tour of Europe, when, all the while, he never got a step farther than St. George’s Fields.

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

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, iii., 1. Go seek him there: I fear he’s only humming.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 4. While you hum the poor spoonies with speeches so pretty.

d. 1840. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, ii., 153 [ed. 1842]. I don’t mean to cajole you hither with the expectation of amusement or entertainment; you and I know better than to hum or be hummed in that manner.

1856. Elliott, Carolina Sports, p. 122. I hummed him, my stripping was all a feint.

2. (old).—To mumble.

d. 1842. Maginn, Vidocq Versified. To hear Old Cotton humming his pray.

To hum and haw, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To hesitate, to raise objections.

1469. Paston Letters, II., 347 (Ed. Gairdner). He wold have gotyn it aweye by humys and by hays, but I wold not so be answeryd.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller (Grosart, Wks., v., 96). Hee made no more humming or haulting, but in despite of her husbandes kinsfolkes, gaue her her Nunc dimittis.

1610. Jonson, Alchemist, iii., 2. You may be anything, and leave off to make Long-winded exercises; or suck up Your ha! and hum! in a tune.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, i., 1. A sober-drawn exhortation of six hours, whose better part was the hum-ha-hum.

1620. Massinger, Fatal Dowry, iv., 1. Do you stand Humming and hahing now?

d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1759), ii., 103. He hums and hahs.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hum and Haw, to Hesitate in Speech; also to delay, or difficultly to be brought to Consent.

1706. Mrs. Centlivre, Love at a Venture, iv., 2, Wks. (1872), i., 304. That was the first excuse that came at my tongue’s end—and you know there is no humming and hawing with my old master, sir.

1729. Swift, Intelligencer, No. 14, p. 165 (2nd Ed.). If any person … shall presume to exceed six minutes in a story, to hum or haw, use hyphens between his words, or digressions.

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

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. vi. Lord Ascot hummed and hawed, and told him to tell his father he had been a good boy.

To make things hum, verb. phr. (American).—To force the pace; to keep moving.

1888. San Francisco Weekly Exam., 23 Feb. Ever since he has taken the newspaper reins in San Francisco he has made things hum.

1890. Punch, 22 Feb. If I was flush of the ochre, I tell you I’d make the thing hum.

1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Aug., p. 2, c. 3. With their advent things begin to hum.

1893. W. T. Stead, Review of Reviews, p. 152. In the opinion of both foes and friends we make things hum.

To hum around, verb. phr. (American).—To call to account; to call over the coals (q.v.).

Human, subs. (old: now American).—A human being. [Also Human Boar]. For synonyms, see Cove.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 332. Mongst humans by Court dunning.

1783–5. Cowper, Task, ii., line 105. And agonies of human and of brute.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxviii. They have little hovels for their cattle … and a house for the humans as grand as Noah’s Ark.

1882. Daily Telegraph, 13 Dec., p. 2, c. 2. In the opening pages Mr. Matthew Arnold mourns in verse over the death of ‘Poor Matthias,’ who is not a human but a canary.

1888. Denver Republican. He was only a dog … but was much more useful to society than many humans.

Humber-keels. See Billy-Boy.

Humble Pie. To eat humble pie, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To submit; to apologise; to knock under. For synonyms, see Cave In.

1862. Thackeray, Philip, xxvii. If this old chief had to eat humble pie, his brave adversaries were anxious that he should gobble up his portion as quickly as possible, and turned away their honest old heads as he swallowed it.

1887. Manville Fenn, This Man’s Wife, ch. ii., 4. Our savings are gone and we must eat humble pie for the future.

Hum-Box, subs. (common).—1. A pulpit.

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

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

1827. Lytton, Pelham, p. 302 [Ed. 1862]. Well, you parish bull prig, are you for lushing Jacky, or pattering in the hum-box?

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. ix., p. 309. He was nicknamed the ‘Amen bawler’ (parson) and recommended to take to the hum-box (pulpit) as better suited to him than cadging.

English Synonyms:—Autem; cackle tub; clack loft; cowards’ castle; gospel mill (also a church); wood.

2. (American).—An auctioneer’s rostrum.

Humbox Patterer, subs. (common).—A parson. For synonyms, see Devil Dodger and Sky Pilot.

1839. G. W. M. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. Though the humbox patterer talked of hell.

Humbug, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A hoax; an imposture; a swindle.

1735–40. Killigrew, The Universal Jester; or a pocket companion for the Wits: being a choice collection of merry conceits, facetious drolleries, &c., clenchers, closers, closures, bon-mots, and Humbugs. [Title].

1754. Connoisseur. No. 14. Single words, indeed, now and then broke forth; such as—odious, horrible, detestable, shocking, humbug. This last new-coined expression, which is only to be found in the nonsensical vocabulary, sounds absurd and disagreeable whenever it is pronounced.

1762. Churchill, The Ghost, bk. I., line 72. And that Great Saint, we Whitefield call, Keeps up the Humbug Spiritual.

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

1828. Webster, Eng. Dict., s.v.

2. Deceit; pretence; affectation.

1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. (Ed. 1862). p. 239. That sort of address which the British call humbug and Frenchmen ‘Finesse.’ (It’s ‘Blarney’ in Irish—I don’t know the Scotch.)

1842. Douglas Jerrold, Bubbles of the Day, i. Never say humbug; it’s coarse. Sir P. And not respectable. Smoke. Pardon me, my lord; it was coarse. But the fact is, humbug has received such high patronage, that now it’s quite classic.

3. A cheat; an impostor; a pretender. Also (old), hummer.

d. 1783. Henry Brooke, Poems (1776). ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers’ English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Our hummers in state, physic, learning, and law.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Hum. He is a humbug that has recourse to the meanness. He wishes to be a bugaboo, or most exalted fool.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxx. ‘You’re a humbug, sir.’ ‘A what?’ said Mr. Winkle, starting. ‘A humbug, sir. I will speak plainer, if you wish it. An imposter, sir.’

Verb. To hoax; to swindle; to cajole.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxv. He who seemed to be most afflicted of the two taking his departure with an exclamation of ‘Humbugged, egad!’

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

1826. The Fancy, ii., 77. We would not have the reader believe we mean to humbug him—not for a moment.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xliii. She was always ready to help him, provided, as she told him, ‘he didn’t humbug.’

Hence Humbugging = hoaxing, swindling, or Humbugable = gullible. Humbuggery = deception; imposture. Humbugger = a cheat, a hoaxer.

d. 1763. Henry Brooke, Poems (1778), ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Of all trades or arts in repute or possession humbugging is held the most ancient profession. Idem. To you, … the humbuggers of hearts.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xviii. The species of wit which has been long a favourite in the city, under the names of cross-biting, giving the dor, bamboozling, cramming, hoaxing, humbugging, and quizzing.

1825. Southey, Letters, iii., 488 [ed. Warter, 1856]. My charity does not extend so far as to believe that any reasonable man (humbuggable as the animal is) can have been so humbugged.

1826. The Fancy, ii., 29. A contemporary writer of eminence some years ago termed such exhibitions humbugging.

1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, p. 31. Do you not laugh, O Pharos of Bungay, at the continuance of a humbug such as this?—at the humbugging anniversary of a humbug?

1852. Judson, Myst., etc., of New York, ch. iv. Oh, blast your humbuggery—talk plain English to me.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. v. When the old lady was gone, Mr. Hobson had no need of any more humbugging, but took his pleasure freely.

1883. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, ch. xl., p. 369. Traces of its inflated language and other windy humbuggeries survive along with it.

Humdrum, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A tiresome dullard; a steady-going, common-place person. See also quot. 1725.

1596. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, i., 1. By gads-lid I scorn it, I, so I do, to be a consort for every humdrum.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Hum-Drums or Hums, a Society of Gentlemen, who meet near the Charter-House, or at the King’s Head in St. John’s Street. Less of mystery, and more of Pleasantry than the Free Masons.

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

2. Monotony; tameness; dullness.

1823. Hints for Oxford, p. 63. Men of spirit must ever dislike the unleavened humdrum of its monkish constitution.

1893. The Nation, 13 July, p. 32, col. 1. We go so far with the adorers of home and humdrum.

3. (old).—The same as Humbug (q.v.).

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden (Grosart, Works, iii., 14). Whereof generous Dick (without humdrum be it spoken) I utterly despair of them.

4. (old).—A wife; also a husband.

Adj. Dull; tame; commonplace; monotonous.

1702. Vanbrugh, False Friend, ii. A very humdrum marriage this.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. ii., p. 6. Tho’ it is their humdrum fashion To hate all musical precation.

1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, Act I., p. 7 (2nd Ed.). Your fellows of colleges are a parcel of sad, muzzy, humdrum, lazy, ignorant old caterpillars.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘A Familiar Epistle.’ So frothy, vapid, stale, humdrum.

1765. C. Smart, Fables, xv., line 5. Content in humdrum mood t’adjust Her matters to disperse the dust.

1774. Foote, Cozeners, i., 1. Not one, madam, of the humdrum, drawling, long winded tribe.

1775. Sheridan, Rivals, ii., 1. Yet am I by no means certain that she would take me with the impediment of our friends’ consent, a regular humdrum wedding, and the reversion of a good fortune on my side.

d. 1823. Bloomfield, Poems, ‘Richard and Kate’ (1825), p. 89. Come, Goody, stop your humdrum wheel.

1825. Harriet Wilson, Memoirs, iii., 237. You are, in fact, too constant for Paris. One has enough of all that hum-drum stuff in England.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxi. The most fervent Liberals, when out of power, become humdrum Conservatives, or downright tyrants or despots in office.

1863. Alex. Smith, Dreamthorpe, p. 23. Giddy people may think the life I lead here staid and humdrum, but they are mistaken.

1893. Standard, 8 Aug., p. 4, col. 6. The thing, in his view, is to rattle off something pretentious, and avoid the humdrum and tiresome methods which statesmanship of the pre-Home-Rule period used to respect.

Humdurgeon, subs. (old).—1. An imaginary illness.—Grose.

2. (common).—Needless noise; ado about nothing.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxiii. I would never be making a humdudgeon about a scart on the pow.

Humdurgeoned, adj. (old).—Annoyed.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford. Don’t be humdurgeoned but knock down a gemman.

Humguffin (common).—A hobgoblin. Also a derisive address.

Humgumptious, adj. (obsolete).—See quot.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Hum. A knowing sort of humbug is humgumptious.

Hummer, subs. (old).—1. See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hummer, a loud Lie, a Rapper.

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

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hummer (s.) a great, monstrous, or notorious lie.

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

2. (American).—A man or woman of notable parts; a high stepper (q.v.); a good goer (q.v.). Cf., Rustler.

1889. Ally Sloper, 6 July. If Tootsie is anything as lively as the ‘Gaiety Girls,’ she must be a hummer.

1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. I just wanted to see my Tillie dance once. She’s a society hummer now.

3. (obsolete).—See Humbug, sense 3.

Humming, adj. (old). Strong—applied to drink; brisk—applied to trade; hard—applied to blows. Humming October = the specially strong brew from the new season’s hops; stingo (q.v.).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Humming Liquor, Double Ale, Stout, Pharoah.

1701. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, iv., 2. The wine was humming strong.

1736. Fielding, Don Quixote, iii., 4. Landlord, how fares it? You seem to drive a humming trade here.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, ch. vii. Let us fortify our stomachs with a slice or two of hung beef, and a horn or so of humming stingo.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. A humming double pot of ale.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Wedding Day.’ A mighty magnificent tub Of what men, in our hemisphere, term ‘Humming Bub,’ But which gods—who, it seems, use a different lingo, From mortals, are wont to denominate ‘Stingo.’

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. vii. Wegg, in coming to the ground, had received a humming knock on the back of his devoted head.

Hump, verb. (common).—1. To spoil; to botch; to do for.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 252. To hump in street parlance, is equivalent to ‘botch,’ in more genteel colloquialism.

2. (colonial).—To shoulder and carry. E.g., To hump one’s swag = to shoulder one’s kit.

1886. Daily Telegraph, 1 Jan. Ladies whom I have met humping their own drums.

1887. All the Year Round, 30 July, p. 66. A large blanket rolled up which contains the personal luggage of the man who carries or humps it.

1887. G. A. Sala in Illus. Lon. News, 12 Mar., 282/2. All kinds of luggage, generally speaking, which are manually carried, are at present said to be humped. I have had to hump mine many a time and oft.

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, ch. xxii. We humped our saddles and swags ourselves.

1890. Family Herald, 8 Feb., p. 227. I was just debating whether I had better hump my drum.

3. (old).—See quot. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hump, to hump. Once a fashionable word for copulation.

To hump oneself, verb. phr. (American).—To stir; to prepare for attack; to fancy oneself.

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc. p. 177. Ef thar are anything he humps hisself on besides ugly, it is his manners among the fimmales.

1847. Porter, Big Bear, etc., p. 126. He was breathin’ sorter hard, his eye set on the Governor, humpin’ himself on politics.

To get (or have) the hump, verb. phr. (common).—To be despondent, hurt, put out, down in the mouth (q.v.). also, to have the hump up or on. For synonyms, see Snaggy.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v., 267). So in his humps about it … that he had thought to have tumbled his hurrie-currie … into the sea.

1885. Punch, 10 Jan., p. 24. I had got the ’ump, and no error, along o’ Bill B. and that gal.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 43. The company consume what will be elegantly referred to as ‘a bit of booze.’ Aunt Snapper gets the ’ump.

1886. Jerome, Idle Thoughts, p. 14. ’Arry refers to the heavings of his wayward heart by confiding to Jimee that he has got the blooming hump!

Humpey, subs. (Australian).—See quot.

1893. Gilbert Parker, Pierre and his People, p. 135. McGann was lying on his back on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain hut. Australians would call it a humpey.