Slang and its analogues past and present, volume III (of 7)

ab, subs. (vulgar).—1. The mouth; also Gob. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

1785. Burns, Jolly Beggars. And aye he gies the touzie drab The tither skelpin kiss, While she held up her greedy gab, Just like an aumos dish.

1820. Scott, The Abbot, ch. xiv. ‘And now, my mates,’ said the Abbot of Unreason, ‘once again digut your gabs and be hushed—let us see if the Cock of Kennaguhair will fight or flee the pit.’

1890. Rare Bits, 12 Apr., p. 347. ‘Clap a stopper on your gab and whack up, or I’ll let ’er speak!’

1712. Spectator, No. 389. Having no language among them but a confused gabble, which is neither well understood by themselves or others.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, I., 3. Then hold your gab, and hear what I’ve to tell.

1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, ch. xxxiv. ‘Hush your gab,’ said Mr. Green, roughly.

1887. Punch, 10 Sept., p. 111. Gladstone’s gab about ‘masses and classes’ is all tommy rot.

Verb. (vulgar: O. E., and now preserved in Gabble).—To talk fluently; to talk brilliantly; to lie.

1402. [? T. Occleve], Letter of Cupid, in Arber’s Garner, vol. IV., p. 59. A foul vice it is, of tongue to be light, For whoso mochil clappeth, gabbeth oft.

1601. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, Act II., Sc. iii. Mal. … Have you no wit, manners, nor honesty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, pt. I., ch. i., p. 5. Which made some think when he did gabble Th’ had heard three Labourers of Babel.

1786. Burns, Earnest Cry and Prayer, st. 10. But could I like Montgomeries fight, Or gab like Boswell.

1880. G. R. Sims, Zeph, ch. vii. An elderly clergyman … gabbled the funeral service as though he were calling back an invoice at a draper’s entering desk.

Gift of the Gab (or Gob), subs. phr. (colloquial).—The gift of conversation; the talent for speech. Fr., n’avoir pas sa langue dans sa poche.

d. 1653. Z. Boyd, Book of Job, quoted in Brewer’s Phrase and Fable, s.v., ‘gab. There was a good man named Job, Who lived in the land of Uz, He had a good gift of the gob.’

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Canting Crew. Gift of the gob, a wide, open Mouth; also a good Songster, or Singing-master.

1820. Shelley, Œdipus Tyrannus, Act I. You, Purganax, who have the gift o’ the gab, Make them a solemn speech. [95]

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xliii. And we’ll have a big-wig, Charley: one that’s got the greatest gift of the gab: to carry on his defence.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 250. People reckon me one of the best patterers in the trade. I’m reckoned to have the gift—that is, the gift of the gab.

1869. Whyte-Melville, M. or N., p. 29. I’ve got the gift of the gab, I know, and I stick at nothing.

1870. Lond. Figaro, 18 Sept. ‘Of all gifts possessed by man,’ said George Stephenson, the engineer, to Sir William Follett, ‘there is none like the gift of the gab.’

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 193. Others, although they have the gift of the gab when they are on the ground, as soon as they mount the cart are dumbfounded.

To blow the gab, verb. phr. (vulgar).—To inform; to peach (q.v.). Also to blow the gaff (q.v.).

To flash the gab, verb. phr. (common).—To show off (q.v.) in talk; cf., Air one’s vocabulary.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 2. While his Lordship … that very great dab At the flowers of rhet’ric is flashing his gab.

Gabble, subs. (colloquial).—1. A gossip. Also Gabbler, Gabble-grinder, Gabble-merchant, and Gabble-monger.

Gabble-mill, subs. (American).—1. The United States Congress. Also Gabble-manufactory.

Gable, subs. (common).—The head. Also Gable-end. For synonyms, see Crumpet.

Gabster, subs. (common).—A voluble talker, whether eloquent or vain; one having the gift of the gab (q.v.).

Gab-string.—See Gob-string.

Gaby (also Gabbey and Gabby), subs. (common).—A fool; a babbler; a boor. Icl. gapi = a foolish person, from gapa = to gape.

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days, pt. 1, ch. iii. Two boys, who stopped close by him, and one of whom, a fat gaby of a fellow, pointed at him and called him young ‘mammy-sick.’

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. ix. Don’t stand laughing there like a great gaby.

1875. Ouida, Signa, vol. I., ch. iv., p. 47. ‘You have never dried your clothes, Bruno,’ said his sister-in-law, ‘What a gaby a man is without a wife!’

Gad, subs. (common).—An idle slattern. An abbreviation of gad-about (q.v.).

Intj. (common).—An abbreviation of by Gad! Cf. Agad, Egad—themselves corruptions of by God, Lit.

1818. Austen, Persuasion. I have no very good opinion of Mrs. Charles’ nursery maid.… She is always upon the gad. [96]

3. (colloquial).—On the spree (especially of women); and, by implication, on the town.

To gad the hoof, verb. phr. (common).—To walk or go without shoes; to pad the hoof (q.v.). Also, more loosely, to walk or roam about.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 447. Going without shoes, gadding the hoof.

Gadabout, subs. (colloquial).—A trapesing gossip; as a housewife seldom seen at home, but very often at her neighbours’ doors. [From Gad = to wander, to stray (Cf., Lycidas: ‘the gadding vine’) + About.] Used also as an adjective; e.g., ‘a Gad-about hussey.’

Gadso, subs. (old)—The penis. Italian cazzo. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Intj. (old: still literary and colloquial).—An interjection. [A relic of phallicism with which many popular oaths and exclamations have a direct connection, especially in Neo-Latin dialects. A Spaniard cries out, Carajo! (—the member), or Cojones! (—the testicles); an Italian says Cazzo (the penis); while a Frenchman exclaims by the act itself, Foutre! The female equivalent, (coño with the Spaniard, conno with the Italian, con with the Frenchman, and cunt with ourselves), was, and is, more generally used as an expression of contempt, which is also the case with the testicles. (Cf., ante, All Balls!) Germanic oaths are profane rather than obscene; except, perhaps, in Potz! and Potztaufend! and the English equivalent Pox! which last is obsolete. See Catso. In Florio (A Worlde of Wordes, 1598), Cazzo = ‘a man’s privie member,’ and cazzo di mare = a pintle fish; while cazzica = ‘an interjection of admiration and affirming. What? Gad’s me, Gad forfend, tush.’]

1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, iii., 1. Sir? Gadso! we are to consult about playing the devil to night.

1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. iv. ‘Gadso!’ said the undertaker … ‘that’s just the very thing I wanted to speak to you about.’

Gadzooks! intj. (old and colloquial).—A corruption of Gadzo (q.v.).

Gaff, subs. (old).—1. A fair.

1754. Discoveries of John Poulter, p. 32. The first thing they do at a gaff is to look for a room clear of company.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. The drop coves maced the joskins at the gaff; the ring-droppers cheated the countryman at the fair.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 22. We stopped at this place two days, waiting to attend the gaff.

1823. Jon. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, etc., s.v. A fair is a gaff as well as all the transactions enacted there.

2. (common).—A cheap, low music-hall or theatre; frequently penny-gaff, Cf., quot. 1823, sense 1. Also dookie. Fr., un beuglant (= a low music-hall; beugler = to bellow); un bouisbouis (boui = brothel); une guinche (popular). See also quot. 1889.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 46. They court for a time, going to raffles and gaffs together, and then the affair is arranged.

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London, p. 68. A gaff is a place where stage plays, according to the strict interpretation [97]of the term, may not be represented. The actors of a drama may not correspond in colloquy, only in pantomime; but the pieces brought out at the gaff are seldom of an intricate character, and the not over-fastidious auditory are well content with an exhibition of dumb-show and gesture.

1870. Orchestra, 18 Feb. The absolute harm done by these gaffs does not consist in the subjects represented.

1889. Notes and Queries, 7 S. vii., p. 395. I have often heard the British soldier make use of the word when speaking of the entertainment got up for his benefit in barracks.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 312. I also saw that Jemmy’s blowing up of me wos all gaff. He knew as well as I did the things left the shop all right.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 227. Can you put me up to this other gaff.

To blow the gaff, or gab (q.v.), verb. phr. (common). To give information; to let out a secret. For synonyms, see Peach.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. To blow the gab (cant), to confess, or impeach a confederate.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xliii. One of the French officers, after he was taken prisoner, axed me how we had managed to get the gun up there; but I wasn’t going to blow the gaff.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 122. The prisoner, burning for revenge, quietly bides his time till the chief warder comes round, then asks to speak to him, and blows the gaff.

1891. Referee, 8 Mar. Under sacred promise not to blow the gaff I was put up to the method.

Gaffer, subs. (old).—1. An old man; the masculine of Gammer (q.v.). Also a title of address: e.g., ‘Good day, gaffer!’ Cf., Uncle and Daddy. Also (see quot. 1710), a husband.

1710. Dame Hurdle’s Letter (quoted by Nares). My gaffer only said he would inform himself as well as he could against next election, and keep a good conscience.

1714. Gay, Shepherd’s Week. For Gaffer Treadwell told us, by-the-bye, Excessive sorrow is exceeding dry.

2. (common).—A master; an employer; a boss (q.v.); (athletic) a pedestrian trainer and ‘farmer’; and (navvies’) a gang-master or ganger (q.v.).

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 123. In comes our gaffer Underwood, And sits him on the bench.

1748. T. Dyche, Dict. (5th ed.) Gaffer (S.) a familiar word mostly used in the country for master.

1885. Daily News, 24 Jan., p. 3, c. 1. They go and work at fivepence, and some on ’em as low as threepence halfpenny, an hour; that’s just half what we get, and the gaffers keep ’em on and sack us.

1888. Sportsman, 20 Dec. Comic enough were some of the stories ‘Jemmy’ told of his relations with ‘the gaffer.’

1889. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Gaffers of the Gang.’ We are the boys that can do the excavations, We are the lads for the ’atin’ and the dhrinkin’, With the ladies we are so fascinatin’, Because we are the gaffers of the gang. [98]

1828. Jon Bee, Living Picture of London, p. 241. If the person calling for ‘man’ or ‘woman’ is not right or wrong at five guesses, neither of the gaffers win or lose, but go again.

Gaffing, subs. (old).—See quot.

1821. Pierce Egan, Life in London, p. 279. Gaffing was unfortunately for him introduced. Ibid. Note.—A mode of tossing for drinks, etc., in which three coins are placed in a hat, shaken up, and then thrown on the table. If the party to ‘call’ calls ‘heads’ (or ‘tails’) and all three coins are as he calls them, he wins; if not, he pays a settled amount towards drinks.

Gag, subs. (common).—1. A joke; an invention; a hoax.

1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Gag—a grand imposition upon the public; as a mountebank’s professions, his cures, and his lottery-bags, are so many broad gags.

1871. All the Year Round, 18 Feb., p. 288. You won’t bear malice now, will you? All gag of mine, you know, about old Miss Ponsonby.

1885. Daily News, 16 May, p. 5, c. 2. ‘The Mahdi sends you lies from Khartoum, and laughs when you believe them,’ said a native, lately. We need not gratify the Mahdi by believing any bazaar-gag he may circulate.

2. (theatrical).—Expressions interpolated by an actor in his part: especially such as can be repeated again and again in the course of performance. Certain plays, as The Critic, are recognised ‘gag-pieces,’ and in these the practice is accounted legitimate. Cf., Hamlet, iii., 2: ‘And let those, that play your clowns, say no more than is set down for them.’ Cf., Wheeze. Fr., la cocotte (specifically additions to vocal scores). A typical example is the ‘I believe you, my boy!’ of the late Paul Bedford. In the quot. under 1851–61, it is probable that gag = patter (q.v.)

1841. Punch, i., p. 105. I shall do the liberal in the way of terms, and get up the gag properly.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., p. 148. When I go out I always do my own gag, and I try to knock out something new.

1866. W. D. Howells, Venetian Life, ch. v.… I have heard some very passable gags at the Marionette, but the real commedia a braccio no longer exists.

1889. Globe, 12 Oct., p. 4, c. 4. In a high-class music hall it is a rule that no song must be sung till it is read and signed by the manager, and this applies even to the gag.

1890. Pall Mall Gazette, 5 Mar., p. 4, c. 3. Mr. Augustus Harris pointed out that if the clause were carried the penalty would, in many cases, be incurred twenty times in one scene, for actors and singers were continually introducing gag into their business.

3. (American).—A commonwealth of players in which the profits are shared round. Cf., Conscience.

1847. Darley, Drama in Pokerville, p. 124. The artist … merely remarking that he had thought of a gag which would bring them through, mounted a ladder, and disappeared.

4. (American).—A fool; i.e., a thing to laugh at. For synonyms, see Cabbage- and Buffle-head and Sammy Soft.

1838–40. Haliburton, The Clockmaker, p. 46. ‘Sam,’ says he, ‘they tell me you broke down the other day in the House of Representatives and made a proper gag of yourself.’ [99]

1813. Lamb, Christ’s Hospital, in wks., p. 324 (ed. 1852). L. has recorded the repugnance of the school to gags, or the fat of fresh beef boiled; and sets it down to some superstition.… A gag-eater in our time was equivalent to a ghoul … and held in equal estimation.

6. (Winchester College).—An exercise (said to have been invented by Dr. Gabell) which consists in writing Latin criticisms on some celebrated piece, in a book sent in about once a month. In the Parts below Sixth Book and Senior Part, the gags consisted in historical analysis. [An abbreviation of ‘gathering.’]

1870. Mansfield, School-life at Winchester College, p. 108. From time to time, also, they had to write … an analysis of some historical work; these productions were called gatherings (or gags).

Verb, trs. and intrs. (theatrical).—1. To speak gags (q.v.), sense 2. Fr., cascader.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, III., 149. He has to gag, that is, to make up words.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxxix. The same vocalist gags in the regular business like a man inspired.

1883. Referee, 15 April, p. 3, c. 1. Toole … cannot repress a tendency to gag and to introduce more than is set down for him by the author.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 154. Having discovered the weak side of him he means to gag.

1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf, etc., s.v. A showman cries ‘Walk in, ladies and gentlemen, they’re all alive,’ but the spectators soon perceive ’tis all stuff, reproach Mr. Merryman, and he, in excuse, swears he said ‘they were’ and not ‘are alive’ He thus gags the public.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 325. Then they gag the thing up, and send their bills out about the immense cost of scenery and dresses, and other expenses they are at, etc.

3. (thieves’).—To inform; to round on (q.v.); also to blow the gag. Cf., Gaff, Gab, etc. For synonyms, see Peach.

1891. Morning Advertiser, 28 Mar. She … besought them with (crocodile) tears not to gag on them, in other words not to give information to the police.

On the high gag. adv. phr. (old).—On the whisper; telling secrets; cf., verb, sense 3.

On the low gag, adv. phr. (old).—On the last rungs of beggary, ill-luck, or despair.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (ed. 1889), p. 43. ‘A clever device,’ replied Jonathan; ‘but it won’t serve your turn. Let us pass, sir. Strike the gag, Blueskin.’

Gage (Gauge or Gag), subs. (old).—1. A quart pot (i.e., a measure). Also a drink or go (q.v.).

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). Gage, a quart pot.

1622. J. Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush. I crown thy nab with a gage of benbouse. [100]

1656. Broome, Jovial Crew, Act ii., I bowse no lage, but a whole gage Of this I bowse to you.

1690. B. E., New Dict. of the Cant. Crew. Gage, c. A pot or pipe. Tip me a gage, c. give me a pot, or pipe.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, Bk. III., ch. v. In the mean time, tip me a gage of fogus, Jerry.

Gagers, subs. (American).—The eyes. For synonyms, see Glims.

Gagga, subs. (old).—See quot.

1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed). Cheats who by sham pretences and wonderful stories of their sufferings impose on the credulity of good people.

Gagger, subs. (theatrical).—A player who deals in gags (q.v.), sense 2. Also Gaggist, Gagmaster, and Gagster.

1841. Punch, Vol. I., p. 169. Men with ‘swallows’ like Thames tunnels, in fact accomplished gaggers and unrivalled ‘wiry watchers.’

1887. Burnand and a’Beckett in Fortn. Review, April, p. 548. Robson … was an inveterate gagger.

1890. Globe, 3 March, p. 1, c. 4. The low comedy was much toned down.… In other words, the gaggers were gagged.

Gaggery, subs. (theatrical).—The practice of Gagging (q.v.), sense 3.

Gagging, subs. (old).—1. Bluff (q.v.); specifically, bunco-steering (q.v.), the art of talking over and persuading a stranger that he is an old acquaintance. Cf., Gag, verb, sense 2.

1828. G. Smeaton, Doings in London, p. 28. One of the modes of raising money, well known in town by the flash name of gagging, has been practised of late to a considerable extent on simple countrymen, who are strangers to the ‘ways of town.’

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. III., p. 366. The means used are gagging, that is to say, driving about and loitering in the thoroughfares for jobs.

1883. The Echo, 5 Jan., p. 2, c. 3. A protest, by no means unneeded, against the insolence or ignorance of some playwrights, and gagging actors.

1889. Answers, 27 July, p. 143, c. 2. Gagging is a thing about which the public know little.

Gaggler’s Coach, subs. phr. (old).—A hurdle.

Gail, subs. (old).—A horse. For synonyms, see Prad. [101]

Gaily-like, adj. (American).—Showy; expensive: bang-up (q.v.).

1872. Clemens (Mark Twain), Undertaker’s Chat. Now, you know how difficult it is to roust out such a gaily-like thing as that in a little one-horse town like this.

Gain-pain, subs. (old).—A sword; specifically, in the Middle Ages, that of a hired soldier. [From Fr., gagner = to gain + pain = bread. Cf., Breadwinner (prostitutes’) and Potboiler (artists’).] For synonyms, see Cheese-toaster and Poker.

Gait, subs. (colloquial).—Walk in life; profession; mode of making a living; game (q.v.).

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. ‘I say, Tim, what’s your gait now?’ ‘Why, you see, I’m on the crack’ (burglary).

Gaiters, subs. (American colloquial).—Half boots; shoes.

Gal, subs. (common).—1. A girl; a servant-maid; a sweetheart. Best girl = favourite flame.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., p. 535. Upon the most trivial offence in this respect, or on the suspicion of an offence, the gals are sure to be beaten cruelly and savagely by their ‘chaps.’

Galaney. See Galeny.

Galanty (Gallanty or Galantee) Show, subs. phr. (common).—A shadow pantomime: silhouettes shown on a transparency or thrown on a white sheet by a magic lantern. Specifically, the former. See Punch and Judy.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. III., p. 81. The galantee show don’t answer, because magic lanterns are so cheap in the shops.

1884. Cassell’s Technical Educator, pt. 10, p. 244. That reminiscence of the nursery, the galanty show.

1888. Notes and Queries, 7 S. v., p. 265. A flourish on the panpipes and a rumble on the drum was followed by the cry, galanty-show!

Gal-boy, subs. (American).—A romp; a tom-boy (q.v.).

Galen, subs. (common).—An apothecary. For synonyms, see Gallipot.

Galena, subs. (American).—Salt pork. [From Galen, Ill., a chief hog-raising and pork-packing centre].

Galeny (or Galany), subs. (old).—The domestic hen; now (West of England) a Guinea fowl. [Latin, gallina]. For synonyms, see Cackling-cheat.

1887. Temple Bar, Mar., p. 333 It’s a sin to think of the money you’d be spending on girls and things as don’t know a hen’s egg from a galeeny’s.

Galimaufrey, subs. (old).—1. A medley; a jumble; a chaos of differences. [Fr., gallimaufrée = a hash].

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, in wks., ii., 93. Coblers, Tinkers, Fencers, none escapt them, but they mingled them all on one gallimafrey of glory.

1592. John Day, Blind Beggar, Act iv., Sc. 1, p. 75. Can. Let me be torn into mammocks with wilde Bears if I make not a gallemaufry of thy heart and keep thy Skull for my quaffing bowl.

1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, Act iv., Sc. 4. And they have a dance which the wenches say is a gallimaufry of gambols, because they are not in’t.

1690. Durfey, Collin’s Walk, ch. ii., p. 58. But, like thy Tribe of canting Widgeons, A gallimaufry of Religions. [102]

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, i., 207. A compound of Player, Soldier, Stroller, Sailor, and Tinker! An odd gallimaufry!

1860. Haliburton (Sam Slick), The Season Ticket, No. 7. This portion of my journal, which includes a variety of topics and anecdotes, some substantial like solid meat, some savoury as spicy vegetable ingredients, and some fragments to swell the bulk, which, though not valuable as materials, help to compound the gallimaufry.

1724. Coles, Eng. Dict.; 1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict.; 1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue; 1811. Lexicon Balatronicum.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii., 1. He loves thy gallymawfry; Ford, perpend.

Gall, subs. (common).—Effrontery; cheek (q.v.); brass (q.v.); e.g., ‘Ain’t he got a gall on him?’

1789. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed.), s.v. His gall is not yet broken, a saying used in prisons of a man just brought in who appears melancholy and dejected, [i.e., ‘He is not yet embittered enough to care for nothing, and meet everything with a front of brass.’]

a 1891. New York Sun (quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant, s.v.). ‘What do you think he had the gall to do to-day?’ Brown: ‘He has the gall to do anything.’ Dumley: ‘He asked me to drink with him; but he’ll never repeat the impudence.’

Gallant, subs. (old).—A dandy (q.v.); a ladies’ man; a lover; a cuckold-maker, whether in posse or in esse (Shakspeare).

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, ii. One that is well-nigh worn to pieces with age to show himself a young gallant!

1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., ii., 4. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you.

1690. B. E., A New Dict. Gallant a very fine man; also a Man of Metal, or a brave Fellow; also one that Courts, or keeps, or is Kept by, a Mistress.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 110 There’s never a gallant but sat at her hand.

1751–4. Jortin, Eccles. Hist. (quoted in Encyclopædic Dict.). As to Theodora, they who had been her gallants when she was an actress, related that dæmons, or nocturnal spirits, had often driven them away to lie with her themselves.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 40. O London is a fine town, and a gallant city.

To Gallant a Fan. verb. phr. (old).—To break with design, to afford an opportunity of presenting a better.—B. E. (1690).

Gallant Fiftieth, subs. phr. (military).—The Fiftieth Foot. [For its share in Vimiera, 1808.] Also, blind half hundred (q.v.); and dirty half hundred (q.v.).

Gallantry, subs. (1). Sparkishness (q.v.); dandyism; (2) the habit, or pursuit, of the sexual favour. A life of gallantry = a life devoted to the other sex. [103]

Gallery, subs. (Winchester College).—A commoner bedroom. [From a tradition of galleries in Commoners.] See gallery-nymphs.

To play to the Gallery, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To act so as to win the applause of the vulgar: i.e., to abandon distinction and art for coarseness of means and cheapness of effect. Said indifferently of anyone in any profession who exerts himself to win the suffrages of the mob; as a political demagogue, a ‘popular’ preacher, a ‘fashionable’ painter, and so on.

1872. Standard, 23 Oct. ‘New York Correspondence.’ His dispatches were, indeed, too long and too swelling in phrase; for herein he was always playing to the galleries.

Hence, Gallery-hit, shot, stroke, etc. = a touch designed for, and exclusively addressed to, the non-critical.

To play the Gallery, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make an audience; to applaud.

1870. Echo, 23 July, p. 5, c. 4. He seemed altogether a jovial, amusing sort of fellow, and as we were close by him, and constantly called in to play the gallery to his witty remarks, we asked him, when his friends left him, to join our party.

Gallery Nymph, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—A housemaid. See Gallery.

Galley—put a brass galley down your back, verb. phr. (printers’).—An admonition to appear before a principal; implying that the galley will serve as a screen.

Galley-foist, subs. (old).—The state barge, used by the Lord Mayor when he was sworn in at Westminster.

1609. Ben Jonson, Silent Woman, iv., 2. Out of my doores, you sons of noise and tumult, begot on an ill May day, or when the galleyfoist is afloate to Westminster.

Galley-growler or -stoker, subs. (nautical).—A loafer; a malingerer (q.v.); a grumble-guts (q.v.).

Galley-halfpenny, subs. (old).—A base coin, tempus Henry IV. [So called because it was commonly imported in the Genoese galleys. See Leake, English Money, p. 129; Ruding, Annals of Coinage, i., 250; and Stow, Survey (ed. 1842) p. 50.]

Galley-Slave, subs. (printers’).—A compositor. [From the oblong tray whereon the matter from the composing stick is arranged in column or page.] For synonyms, see Donkey.

Galleywest, adj. or adv. (American).—An indefinite superlative. Cf., About-east.

1884. Clemens, (M. Twain) Huck. Finn, xxxvii., 382. Then she grabbed up the basket and slammed it across the house, and knocked the cat galleywest.

1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin (quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant). I’ll be darned if this establishment of yours, Hunse, don’t knock any one of them galley-west!—galleywest, sir, that’s what it does.

Galley-yarn (or news), subs. phr. (nautical).—A lying story; a swindle or take-in (q.v.). Frequently abbreviated to ‘G.Y.’

1884. Henley and Stevenson, Admiral Guinea, iii., 4. What? lantern and cutlass yours; you the one that knew the house; you the one that saw; you the one overtaken and denounced; and you spin me a galley-yarn like that. [104]

Gallied, ppl. adj. (old).—‘Harried; vexed; over-fatigued; perhaps like a galley-slave’ (Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.). In Australia, frightened.

Gallinipper, subs. (West Indian).—A large mosquito.

1847. Porter, Big Bear, etc., p. 119. In the summer time the lakes and snakes … musketoes and gallinippers, buffalo gnats and sandflies … prevented the Injins from gwine through the country.

1888. Lippincott’s Magazine. I thought the gallinippers would fly away with me before the seed ticks had sucked all my blood.

Gallipot, subs. (common).—An apothecary.

1836. M. Scott, Cringle’s Log, ch. xiv. In truth, sir, I thought our surgeon would be of more use than any outlandish gallipot that you could carry back.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xxvii. ‘Half a-dozen little gallipots,’ interposed Miss Wirt.

English Synonyms.—Bolus; bum-tender; clyster-giver; clyster-pipe; croaker; crocus; drugs; Ollapod (from a creation of the Younger Coleman’s); gage-monger; Galen (from the great physician); jakes-provider; pill-box; pill-merchant; pills; squirt; salts-and-senna; squire of the pot.

French Synonyms.—Un mirancu (obsolete: a play on mire en cul, respecting which cf., Béralde, in Molière, Malade Imaginaire: ‘On voit bien que vous n’avez pas accoutumé de parler à des visages’); un limonadier de postérieurs (popular: cf., ‘bum-tender’); un flûtencul (common); un insinuant (popular: one who ‘insinuates’ the clyster-pipe).

Gallivant, verb. (colloquial).—1. To gad about with, or after, one of the other sex; to play the gallant; to ‘do the agreeable.’

1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. lxiv. You were out all day yesterday, and gallivanting somewhere, I know.

1862. H. Beecher Stowe, in The Independent, 27 Feb. What business had he to flirt and gallivant all summer with Sally Kittridge?

1886. Hawley Smart, Struck Down, xi. The ramparts is a great place for gallivanting.

1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, i., 112. It’s them gals, Mr. Austin. Come in afore she sees you, else she’ll not be at home. She is gallivanting in the paddock with Captain Hertford.

1859. Boston Post, 10 Dec. Senator Seward is gallivanting gaily about Europe. Now at Compiègne, saying soft things to the Empress and studying despotism, now treading the battle-field of Waterloo, then back at Paris, and so on.

1871. C. D. Warner, My Summer in a Garden. More than half the Lima beans, though on the most attractive sort of poles, which budded like Aaron’s rod, went gallivanting off to the neighboring grape trellis.

1848. Ruxton, Far West, p. 145. The three remaining brothers were absent from the Mission … Fray Jose, gallivanting at Pueblo de los Angeles.

1863. Norton, Lost and Saved, p. 255. A pretty story, if, when her services were most wanted by the person who paid for them, she was to be gadding and gallivanting after friends of her own.

1865. M. E. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. x. A pretty thing it would have been if your pa had come all the way from India to find his only daughter gallivanting at a theaytre.

1870. London Figaro, 6 Dec. You’re never content but when you’re galavanting about somewhere or other. [105]

Gallivate, verb (American).—To frisk; to ‘figure about’; cf., Gallivant.

Gallon. What’s a gallon of rum among one? phr. (American).—The retort sarcastic; applied, e.g., to those with ‘eyes too big for their stomach’; to disproportionate ideas of the fitness of things, and so forth.

Gallon Distemper, subs. phr. (common).—1. Delirium tremens; (2.) the lighter after-effects of drinking.

English Synonyms.—(1) For the former, barrel-fever; black-dog; blue-devils; blue Johnnies (Australian); B. J’s. (idem.); blues; bottle-ache; D. T.; horrors; jim-jams; jumps; pink-spiders; quart-mania; rams; rats; shakes; snakes in the boots; trembles; triangles; uglies.

2. For the latter: a head; hot-coppers; a mouth; a touch of the brewer; a sore head (Scots).

French Synonyms.—Avoir mal aux cheveux (familiar = the hair-ache); les papillons noirs (Cf., pink spiders; also = hypochondria); avoir fumé dans une pipe neuve (= sick of a new clay).

Galloper, subs. (old).—1. A blood horse; a hunter.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. The toby gill clapped his bleeders to his galloper and tipped the straps the double.

Gallow-grass, subs. phr. (old).—Hemp. [i.e., halters in the rough.]

1578. Lyte, Trans. of Dodoens History of Plantes, fol. 72. Hempe is called in … English, Neckweede, and gallowgrass.

Gallows, subs. (old).—1. A rascal; a wretch deserving the rope.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, v., 2. A shrewd unhappy gallows too.

1838. Jas. Grant, Sketches in London, ch. ii., p. 58. Blow me tight, young gallows, if I don’t pound your ribs to powder!

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xv. Chock-full of spring, like the wire end of a bran new pair of trouser galluses.

1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, p. 168. If I wouldn’t spile his picter bust my boots and gallowses.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 431. The braces, which in some parts of the country are called ‘gallowses.’

c. 1852. Traits of American Humor, p. 58. Hole on, dod drot you, wait till I unbutton my gallowses.

1883. G. A. S[ala], in Ill. Lond. News, Sept. 22, p. 275, c. i. Braces (which, when I was young, used, in the north of England, to be known by the expressive name of gallowses.)

Adv. (old).—Excessively; same as bloody, bleeding, (q.v.), etc. (As adj.) great; uncommon; real.

c. 1551. L. Shepherd. John Bon in Arber’s Garner, Vol. IV., p. 109. Ye, are much bound to God for such a spittle holiness. A gallows gift!

1789. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 120. Some they pattered flash with gallows fun and joking.

1827. Egan, Anecdotes of the Turf, etc., p. 44. Then your blowen will wax gallows haughty! [Also quoted in notes to Don Juan.] [106]

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 293. (ed. 1854). Ah, Dame Lobkin, if so be as our little Paul vas a vith you, it would be a gallows comfort to you in your latter hend!

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, III., 90. I’ll be smothered if I’m going to look down that gallows long chimney.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xli. And the pleece come in, and got gallus well kicked about the head.

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London, p. 244. Put it on your face so gallus thick that the devil himself won’t see through it.

Gallows-bird (also Newgate-bird), subs. (common).—1. A son of the rope; an habitual criminal; a vagabond or scoundrel, old or young; a crack-rope or wag-halter (Cotgrave); a gallows-clapper (Florio). Fr., gibier de Cayenne, or de potence.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xi. That very gallows-bird were enough to corrupt a whole ante-chamber of pages.

1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth, ch. xxviii. I ne’er minced (dissected) ape nor gallows-bird.

Gallows-faced, adj. (old).—Evil-looking; hang-dog. Also gallows-looking.

1766. H. Brooke, Fool of Quality, ii. 16. Art thou there, thou rogue, thou hang-dog, thou gallows-faced vagabond?

1768. Goldsmith, Good-natured Man, Act v. Hold him fast, he has the gallows in his face.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Misadv. at Margate). A little gallows-looking chap—dear me! what could he mean?

Gallows-minded, adj. (colloquial).—Criminal in habit and idea; also, evil-hearted.

Gallowsness, subs. (old).—Rascality; recklessness; mischievousness.

Gallows-ripe, adj. (old).—Ripe for the rope.

1837. Carlyle, French Revolution, Pt. II., bk. v., ch. iii. Loose again, as one not yet gallows-ripe.

Gallus.—See Gallows.

Gally-foist.—See Galley-foist.

Gallyslopes, subs. (Old Cant).—Breeches. For synonyms, see Kicks.

Galoot (also galloot and geeloot), subs. (general).—A man (sometimes in contempt); also (in America) a worthless fellow (or thing, see quot. 1888); a rowdy; a cad (q.v.).

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xxxiv. Four greater galloots were never picked up, but never mind that.

1869. S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain) Innocents at Home, p. 22. He could lam any galoot of his inches in America.

1871. John Hay, Jim Bludso. I’ll hold her nozzle agin the bank Till the last galoot’s ashore.

1885. Saturday Review, Feb. 7, p. 167. ‘I’ll never draw a revolver on a man again as long as I live.’… ‘Guess I’ll go for the galoot with a two-scatter shoot-gun.’

1888. New York Tribune, May 16. It is better to have a Carrot for a President than a dead beat for a son-in-law. In this way we again score a live beat on the galoot.

1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 137. ‘My dear boy, I may be a galoot about literature, but you’ll always be an outsider in business.’

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 3. I’m off on the gay galoot somewheres. [107]

Galoptious or Galuptious, adj. (popular).—Delightful; a general superlative.

1887. Judy, 21 Sept., p. 140. Four young ladies represented the galopshus sum of 20,000,000 dollars.

Galore (also gallore and golore), adv. (old; now recognised).—In abundance; plenty. [Irish and Gaelic go leor = in plenty.]

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p 14. Galore of alcohol to ratify the trade.

1856. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. lx. He found rogues galore, and envious spirits that wished the friends ill.

1891. Licensed Vic. Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 1, c. 1. Of chit-chat this week we have galore, and the difficulty is how to sift the wheat from the chaff.

Galumph, verb. (American).—To bump along (Onomatopœia).

1888. New York World, 13 May. The young man tackled the driver of a green bobtail car that galumphed through Lewis Street at a high rate of speed.

Galvanised Yankee, subs. phr. (American Civil War).—A Grey-back (q.v.) who took the oath to the North and served in its armies.

Gam, subs. (thieves’).—1. Pluck; gameness.

1888. Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 8 Dec., p. 260. I’m not so sure about his lack of cunnin’, speed, or gam.

2. (American).—To engage in social intercourse; to make a call; to have a chat. See Gamming.

Gamaliel, subs. (colloquial).—A pedant; a person curious of the letter and the form: e.g., ‘these Gamaliels of the theory’ = these ultra-puritans, to whom the spirit is nothing.

Gamaruche, subs. (venery).—See Cunnilingist and Cock-Teaser. Verb (venery).—To irrumate; to Bag-pipe (q.v.). Also to cunnilinge (q.v.). Fr., gamahucher.

Gamb (or Gam), subs. (old).—A leg. In use also in this sense as an heraldic term. [It., gambe; Fr., jambe; probably through Lingua Franca.] For synonyms, see Drumsticks and Pins.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143. If a man has bow legs, he has queer gams, gams being cant for legs.

[To flutter a gam = to dance; to lift a gam = to break wind; to gam it = to walk; to run away; to leg it (q.v.)].

Gamble, subs. (colloquial).—A venture: a flutter (q.v.).

1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 250. And you know the Flying Scud was the biggest gamble of the crowd.