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

Gambler, subs. (old, now recognised). See quots.

1816. Johnson, Eng. Dict. (11th ed.). Gambler, a cant word, I suppose. A knave whose practice it is to invite the unwary to game and cheat them. [108]

Gambol, subs. (booking clerks’).—A railway ticket.

1882. Daily News, 6 Sept., p. 2, c. 5. … Mr. Chance [the magistrate] asked what gambols meant. The inspector said doubtless the railway tickets.

Gam-cases, subs. (old). Stockings (Parker, Life’s Painter). [From gam = leg + case.]

Game, subs. (old).—1. The proceeds of a robbery; swag (q.v.).

1676. Warning for Housekeepers. Song. When that we have bit the bloe, we carry away the game.

2. (old).—A company of whores. A game-pullet = a young prostitute, or a girl inclined to lechery; cf., adj., sense 8.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. game … Mother, have you any game, Mother, have you any girls?

4. (thieves’).—Specifically, the game = thieving; also (nautical), slave trading; and (venery), the practice of copulation (e.g., good at the game = an expert and vigorous bedfellow. Cf., Shakspeare, Troilus, iv., 5, ‘Spoils of opportunity, daughters of the game’). In quot. (1639) it would seem that hen of the game = a shrew, a fighting woman.

1639–61. Rump, ii., 185. ‘Free Parliament Litany.’ From a dunghill Cock and a Hen of the Game.

1640. Ladies’ Parliament. Stamford she is for the game, She saies her husband is to blame, For her part she loves a foole, If he hath a good toole.

1668. Etheredge, She Would if She Could, i., 1. A gentleman should not have gone out of his chambers but some civil officer of the game or other would have … given him notice where he might have had a course or two in the afternoon.

17(?). Burns, Merry Muses, ‘Jenny Macraw’ (old song). Jenny Macraw was a bird of the game.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, Glossary. On the game—thieving.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 263. Whether the game got stale, or Peter became honest, is beyond the purport of my communication to settle.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. The particular line of rascality the rogue is engaged in; thieving; cheating.

1860. Chambers’ Journal, Vol. 13, p. 281. I asked him if he meant by a trading voyage, the game.

5. (colloquial).—A source of amusement; a lark (q.v.); a barney (q.v.); as, e.g., It was such a game!

6. (colloquial).—A design; trick; object; line of conduct: e.g., What’s your little game = What are you after? Also, None of your little games! = None of your tricks! See High Old Game.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. ix. Honesty, indeed! if honesty’s the game, you’ve a right to your share, what Mrs. Kettering intended you should have.

1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulg. Tongue, p. 9. Game n. Intention. ‘What’s your game?’ or, ‘What are you up to?’ (very generally used).

1870. Standard, 27 Sept. If we accept the meaner game which the Times indicates for us, it can only be by deliberate choice.

1879. Justin McCarthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xiii. Come, what’s your little game? [109]

1883. Edw. E. Morris, in Longman’s Mag., June, p. 176. A youth, who left England, and then carried on the same game in Australia.

1889. Standard, 1 May, p. 5, c. 1. The ‘game of law and order’ is not up, in Paris.

1890. Punch, 30 Aug., p. 97. Mug’s game! They’ll soon find as the Marsters ain’t going to be worried and welched.

1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 46. She knew how to work the game of fascination right.

1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 349, ‘It was the thing in your times, that’s right enough; but you’re old now, and the game’s up.’

Adj. (old).—1. Plucky; enduring; full of spirit and bottom (q.v.). [Cock-pit and pugilists’. The word may be said to have passed into the language with the rise to renown of Harry Pearce, surnamed the Game Chicken.]

1747. Capt. Godfrey, Science of Defence, p. 64. Smallwood (a boxer) is thorough game, with judgment equal to any, and superior to most.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 57. Pitying raised from earth the game old man.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry (ed. 1891), p. 38. Tom, however, was too game to acknowledge any sort of alarm at this slight visitation.

1827. Reynolds, Peter Corcoran, The Fancy. ‘The Field of Tothill.’ The highest in the fancy—all the game ones, Who are not very much beneath her weight.

1855. A. Trollope, The Warden, ch. viii. He was a most courageous lad, game to the backbone.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 19 June, p. 395. The round had lasted sixteen minutes, and no one present had ever seen gamer or more determined fighting.

2. (common).—Ready; willing; prepared. [Also from cock-fighting. See sense 1].

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, p. 99, (ed. 1857). ‘All alive to-day, I suppose?’ ‘Regular game, sir.’

1865. Bentley, p. 182, ‘The Excursion Train.’ Again to London back we came The day the excursion ticket said, And really both of us felt game To travel round the world instead.

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

1891. Farjeon, The Mystery of M. Felix, p. 103. ‘I’m game,’ said Sophy, to whom any task of this kind was especially inviting.

1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 51. ‘Yes, I am gamey, you bet!’ exclaimed the Chinaman, softly.

1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 121. It is nearly midnight. I am game for another hour, are you?

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. i. Catching hold of the devil’s game leg with his episcopal crook.

1851. G. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. lxvii., p. 204 (1888). Mr. Platitude, having what is vulgarly called a game leg, came shambling into the room.

1875. Jas. Payn, Walter’s Word, ch. i. Well, you see, old fellow, with a game-arm (his left arm is in a sling), and a game-leg (he has limped across the platform with the aid of his friend, and also of a crutch), one feels a little helpless.

4. (thieves’).—Knowing; wide-awake; and (of women) Flash (q.v.), or inclined to venery. E.g., Game-cove = an associate of thieves; Game-woman = a prostitute: i.e., a woman who is game (sense 2); Game-pullet (Grose) = a girl that will show sport, a female game-cock; game-ship (old) = a ship whose commander and officers could be corrupted by bribes to allow the cargo to be stolen (Clark Russell). [110]

1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, ii. Go on, be the game mistress of the town and entice all our young fops as fast as they come from travel.

Cock of the Game, subs. phr. (old).—A champion; an undoubted blood; a star of magnitude (cock-pit).

1719. Durfey, Pills, iii., 329. Now all you tame gallants, you that have the name, And would accounted be cocks of the game.

1822. Scott, Nigel, xiv. I have seen a dung-hill chicken that you meant to have picked clean enough; it will be long ere his lordship ruffles a feather with a cock of the game.

To make game of, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To turn into ridicule; to delude; to humbug.

1671. Milton, Samson, 1331. Do they not seek occasion of new quarrels, On my refusal, to distress me more; Or ake a game of my calamities?

1690. B. E., New Dictionary. What you game me? c. do you jeer me, or pretend to expose me to make a May-game of me?

1745. Hist. of Coldstream Guards, 25 Oct. If the militia are reviewed to-morrow by his Majesty, the soldiers of the third regiment of Guards are to behave civilly and not to laugh or to make any game of them.

To die game, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To maintain a resolute attitude to the last; to show no contrition.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. To die game, to suffer at the gallows without showing any signs of fear or repentance.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. liv. The ruffian lay perfectly still and silent. ‘He’s gaun to die game ony how,’ said Dinmont.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick (ed. 1857), p. 363. I say that the coachman did not run away; but that he died game—game as pheasants; and I won’t hear nothin’ said to the contrary.

1869. Spencer, Study of Sociology, ch. viii., p. 183 (9th ed.). Nor should we forget the game-cock, supplying, as it does, a word of eulogy to the mob of roughs who witness the hanging of a murderer, and who half condone his crime if he dies game.

1871. Times, 30 Jan. Critique on London, etc. The principal was acquitted, and though his accomplices were hung in Pall Mall at the scene of their act, they died game.

To get against the game, verb. phr. (American).—To take a risk; to chance it. [From the game of poker].

To play the game, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To do a thing properly; to do what is right and proper.

1889. Geoffrey Drage, Cyril, ch. vii. I really think he is … not playing the game.

The first game ever played, subs. phr. (venery).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Gamecock, adj. (old).—Hectoring; angry; valiant out of place.

1838. Lever, Handy Andy. Smoke and fire is my desire, So blaze away my gamecock squire.

Gameness, subs. (colloquial).—Pluck; endurance; the mixture of spirit and bottom.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxiv. There was no doubt about his gameness.

1884. Referee, 23 March, p. 1, c. 4. Carter fought with great gameness, but he never had a look in.

Gamester, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1598. Shakspeare, All’s Well, v. 3. She’s impudent, my lord, and was a common gamester to the camp.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii. 1. Ay, ay, gamesters, mocke a plain soft wench of the suburbs, do. [111]

1620. Percy, Folio MSS., p. 404. Be not att ffirst to nice nor coye when gamsters you are courtinge.

2. (old).—A ruffler; a gallant; a wencher; a man fit and ready for anything; also a player.

1639–61. Rump, i., 253, ‘A Medley.’ Room for a gamester that flies at all he sees.

1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, v., 1. Live it also like a frank gamester, on the square.

Gamey, adj. (colloquial).—1. High-smelling; offensive to the nose; half-rotten.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xi. There’s something gamey in it, young ladies, ain’t there.

Gaminess, subs. (colloquial).—The malodorousness proceeding from decay and—by implication—filthiness.

Gaming-house, subs. (old).—A house of ill-repute—hell, tavern, or stews.

1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie, Berlan, a common tippling house, a house of gaming, or of any other disorder.

Gammer, subs. (old).—An old wife; a familiar address; the correlative of gaffer (q.v.).

1706. Hudibras Redivivus, Part VI. And monkey faces, yawns, and stammers, Delude the pious dames and gammers To think their mumbling guides precation So full of heavenly inspiration.

Gamming, subs. (nautical).—A whaleman’s term for the visits paid by crews to each other at sea.

1884. G. A. Sala, in Illus. Lon. News, July 19, p. 51, c. 2. When two or more American whalers meet in mid-ocean, and there are no whales in sight, it is customary to tack topsails and exchange visits. This social intercourse the whalemen call gamming … I cannot help fancying that ‘gam’ is in greater probability an abbreviation of the Danish ‘gammen,’ sport, or that it has something to do with the nautical ‘gammoning,’ the lasting by which the bowsprit is bound firmly down to the cutwater.

1890. Century, Aug. To gam means to gossip. The word occurs again and again in the log-books of the old whalers.

Gammon, subs. (colloquial).—1. Nonsense; humbug; deceit. Sometimes gammon and spinach. No gammon = no error, no lies.

[Skeat says from Mid. Eng. Gamen = a game; but R. Sherwood (Eng. Dict., 1660), gives ‘a beggar or seller of gammons of Bacon; and in Cotgrave (1611), jambonnier = a beggar, also a seller of bacon, or gammons of bacon.’]

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I. 208. I thought myself pretty much a master of gammon, but the Billingsgate eloquence of Mrs. P. … exceeded me.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Gamon. What rum gamon the old file pitched to the flat.

1823–45. Hood, Poems (ed. 1846), vi., p. 96, Behold yon servitor of God and Mammon, Who, binding up his Bible with his ledger, Blends Gospel texts with trading gammon.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxvii. Lord bless their little hearts, they thinks its all right, and don’t know no better, but they’re the wictims o’ gammon, Samivel, they’re the wictims o’ gammon. [112]

1837. Barham, I. L., Blasphemer’s Warning. When each tries to humbug his dear Royal Brother, in Hopes by such gammon to take one another in.

1839. Comic Almanack, Jan. But if you wish to save your bacon, Give us less gammon.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. ‘Oh, my goodness, how polite we are!’ exclaimed Miss Mowcher.… ‘What a world of gammon and spinnage it is!’

2. (thieves’).—A confederate whose duty is to engage the attention of a victim during robbery; a bonnet (q.v.) or cover (q.v.).

Verb (colloquial).—1. To humbug: to deceive; to take in with fibs; to kid (q.v.).

1700. Step to the Bath, quoted in Ashton’s Soc. Life in Reign of Queen Anne, v. ii., p. 111. We went to the Groom Porter’s … there was Palming, Hodging, Loaded Dice, Levant, and gammoning, with all the Speed imaginable.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 6. Vile I can get fifteen bob a day by gammoning a maim, the devil may vork for me.

1825. Buckstone, The Bear Hunters, ii. There! that’s just the way she gammons me at home.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. Why, my lad, we shall see to-morrow morning; but you gammons so bad about the rhino that we must prove you a bit; so Kate, my dear,—to the pretty girl who had let me in.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xiii. So then they pours him out a glass o’ wine, and gammons him about his driving, and gets him into a reg’lar good humour.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ And ’cause he gammons so the flats, ve calls him Veeping Bill!

1840. Hood, Tale of a Trumpet. Lord Bacon couldn’t have gammoned her better.

1890. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 70. Oh, don’t try to gammon me, you cunning young school-miss.

English Synonyms.—To bam; to bamblustercate; to bamboozle; to bambosh; to barney; to be on the job; to best; to bilk; to blarney; to blow; to bosh; to bounce; to cob; to cod; to cog; to chaff; to come over (or the artful, or Paddy, or the old soldier over) one; to cram; to do; to do brown; to doctor; to do Taffy; to fake the kidment; to flare up; to flam; to flummox; to get at (round, or to windward of) one; to gild the pill; to give a cock’s egg; to gravel; to gull; to haze; to jimmify; to jaw; to jockey; to jolly; to kid; to make believe the moon is made of green cheese (Cotgrave); to mogue; to palm off on; to pickle; to plant; to plum; to poke bogey (or fun) at; to promoss; to put the kibosh on; to put in the chair, cart, or basket; to pull the leg; to queer; to quiz; to roast; to roorback; to run a bluff, or the shenanigan; to sell; to send for pigeon’s milk; to sit upon; to send for oil of strappum, etc.; to shave; to slum, or slumguzzle; to smoke; to snack; to soap, soft soap, sawder, or soft sawder; to spoof; to stick; to stall; to string, or get on a string; to stuff; to sawdust, or get on sawdust and treacle; to suck; to suck up; to sugar; to swap off; to take a rise out of; to rot; to tommy-rot; to take in, or down; to take to town; to take to the fair; to tip the traveller; to try it on; to throw dust in the eyes; to throw a tub to a whale; to pepper; to throw pepper in the eyes; to use the pepper box; to whiffle; to work the poppycock racket (Irish-American). [Note.—Many of the foregoing are used substantively, e.g., a bam, a barney, a [113]sell, bambosh = nonsense; deceit; a hoax, etc.]

French Synonyms.—Donner un pont à faucher (also, thieves’ = to lay a trap); dindonner (popular: from dindon = a gull, a gobbler); battre à la Parisienne (thieves’: = to cheat; to come the cockney); se ficher de la fiole, or de la bobine, de quelqu’un (popular: to get on with it, i.e., to try to fool); envoyer chercher le parapluie de l’escouade (military: parapluie de l’escouade = the squad’s umbrella: to send on a fool’s errand; cf., to send for pigeon’s milk, etc.); la faire à quelqu’un (popular); faucher (thieves’ = to best); enfoncer (familiar: to let in: also to surpass); cabasser (popular); monter des couleurs, le Job, or un schtosse (= to do up brown); faire le coup, or monter le coup, à quelqu’un (popular: = to take a rise); bouffer la botte (military: = to sell (q.v.) or bilk, as a woman refusing congress after receiving the socket-money (q.v.) in advance); bouler (popular: also to whop (q.v.)); être l’autre (popular: = to get left (q.v.)); mettre dans le sac (thieves’: = to bag, i.e., to trap); coller or poser un lapin (popular: = to make a hare of (q.v.); also more generally, to bilk (q.v.)); emblémer (thieves’: = to stick); faire voir le tour (popular: = to show how it’s done; connaitre le tour = to know the game); faire la queue à quelqu’un (popular: = to pull one’s leg); tirer la carotte (thieves’); canarder (popular: = to bring down); empaler (popular: = to stick); passer des curettes (popular: = to befool); monter une gaffe (popular: gaffe = a joke, a hoax); jobarder (popular: job = simpleton, and is the same as jobelin); mener en bateau un pante pour le refaire (thieves’: = to take a man on); monter un bateau (popular); promener quelqu’un (popular: cf., to take to town); compter des mistoufles (fam.: mistoufle = a scurvy trick); gourrer (popular: = to bosh); affluer (from flouer = to cheat, to diddle); rouster (popular and thieves’); affûter (thieves’ = to run down, also to make unlawful profits); bouler (popular); juiffer (popular = to Jew); pigeonner (popular to pluck a pigeon (q.v.)); flancher (popular = to kid (q.v.)); faire la barbe (popular = to shave (q.v.)); monter or hisser un gandin (thieves’ = literally to hoist a swell); fourrer or mettre dedans (popular = to take in and do for); planter un chou (fam.); être marron (popular); interver dans les vannes (= to let oneself be sucked-up); monter un godan à quelqu’un (popular); griller quelqu’un (popular = to cuckold); passer en lunette (popular); goujonner (i.e., to hook like a gudgeon); fourguer (thieves’ = also to fence (q.v.)); pousser une blague (popular = to cram); paqueliner (thieves’); se baucher (thieves’); balancer (popular).

German Synonyms.—Zinkennen an Almoni peloni (= to send one after Cheeks the Marine [q.v.]. Almoni and peloni are used mockingly in combination and also singly for a non-existent person); anbeulen (= to fool); jemanden arbeiten (= to haze, to cram); bekaspern, or bekaschpern, or beschwatzen (= to fool: from Heb. kosaw = to cheat).

Spanish Synonyms.—Disparar (= also to talk nonsense; to [114]blunder); hacer á uno su dominguillo, or hacer su dominguillo de uno (colloquial: dominguillo = a figure made of straw and used at bull fights to enrage the bulls); freirsela á alguno (freir = to fry: to deceive: Cf., to roast, or have one on toast); pegar una tostada á alguno (= to put one on toast: more generally to play a practical joke); echar de baranda (= to embroider (q.v.)); bola (subs. = humbug; a hoax); borrufalla (subs. = bombast); chicolear (= to jest in gallantry); engatusar (= to rob, or hurt; also to trick without intention); candonguear (also = to jeer); abrir á chasco (also to jeer); encantar (= to enchant).

Italian Synonyms. Ganezzarre; dar la stolfa; traversare (cf., to come over); scamuffare (= to disguise oneself).

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. vii. Gammon, tell that to the marines: you’re a spy, messmate.

1854. Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring, p. 100. Ha! said the king, you dare to say gammon to your sovereign.

1861. A. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, ch. iv. Gammon, said Mr. Gowerby; and as he said it he looked with a kind of derisive smile into the clergyman’s face.

Gammon and Patter, subs. phr. (thieves’).—1. (old).—The language used by thieves; 2. (modern).—A meeting; a palaver. (q.v.). 3. Commonplace talk of any kind.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 150. Gammon and Patter is the language of cant, spoke among themselves: when one of them speaks well, another says he gammons well.

To give (or keep) in gammon. verb. phr. (thieves’).—To engage a person’s attention while a confederate is robbing him.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 51. Bagrie called the woman of the house, kept her in gammon in the back room, while I returned and brought off the till. Ibid., p. 68. I whidded to the Doctor and he gave me gammon.

To Gammon Lushy (or queer, etc.). verb. phr. (thieves’).—To feign drunkenness, sickness, etc.

1819. Vaux, Life. A man who has been tried by a criminal court and by a plausible defence has induced the jury to acquit him, or to banish the capital part of the charge and so to save his life, is said by his associates to have gammoned the twelve in prime twig, alluding to the number of jurymen.

Gammoner, subs. (old).—1. One who gammons (q.v.); a nonsense-monger. Fr., bonisseur de loffitudes; blagueur; mangeur de frimes.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry i. Fly to the gammoners, and awake to everything that’s going on.

2. (thieves’).—A confederate who covers the action of his chief; a bonnet, a cover, a stall, all which see. [115]

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 66. The Doctor played the part of the gammoner so well that I made my escape without being observed.

Gammy, subs. (tramps’).—1. Cant.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Do you stoll the gammy? Do you understand cant?

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 191. Well, of all the gammies you are the gammiest, Slowboy, to go and string yourself to a woman, when you might have had the pick of Melbourne.

Adj. (tramps’).—1. Bad; impossible. Applied to householders of whom it is known that nothing can be got. See Beggars’ Marks. Gammy-vial = a town in which the police will not allow unlicensed hawking. (Vial = Fr., Ville).

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i., 466. No villages that are in any way gammy are ever mentioned in these papers. Ibid., i., 404. These are left by one of the school at the houses of the gentry, a mark being placed on the door post of such as are bone or gammy, in order to inform the rest of ‘the school’ where to call, and what houses to avoid.

2. Forged; false; spurious: as a gammy-moneker = a forged signature; gammy-lour = counterfeit money, etc.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3rd. ed.), p. 445. Spurious medicine, gammy stuff, bad coin, gammy lower, p. 446.

1889. C. T. Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson, Police, p. 321. Bad money (coin).… Gammy lower.

4. (common).—Same as Game, sense 3: e.g., a gammy arm = an arm in dock. Gammy-eyed = blind; sore-eyed; or afflicted with ecchymosis in the region of the eyes. Gammy-leg = a lame leg. Also (subs.) a term of derision for the halt and the maimed.

Gamp, subs. (common).—1. A monthly nurse; a fingersmith (q.v.). [After Mrs. Sarah Gamp, a character in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843).] Also applied to a fussy and gossiping busybody.

1868. Brewer, Phr. and Fab. (quoted from Daily Telegraph). Mr. Gathorne Hardy is to look after the gamps and Harrises of the Strand.

2. (common).—An umbrella; specifically, one large and loosely-tied; a lettuce (q.v.). [The original Sarah always carried one of this said pattern.] Sometimes a Sarah Gamp. For synonyms, see Rain-napper.

1890. Daily Chron., 5 Mar. Sainte-Beuve insisted that though he was prepared to stand fire he was under no obligation to catch cold, and with his gamp over his head he exchanged four shots with his adversary.

1892 Ally Sloper, 2 Apr., p. 106, c. 3. I never had a brand new tile, a glossy silk or swagger brown, But I left home without a gamp, And rain or hail or snow came down.

1864. Derby Day, p. 18. I wasn’t joking, there is an air of long-suffering about you, as if you had been mortifying the flesh by carrying a gampish umbrella up Piccadilly, and back again.

Gamut, subs. (artists’).—Tone; general scheme; swim (q.v.). Thus in the gamut = a picture, a detail, or a shade of colour, in tone with its environment.

Gan (also Gane), subs. (old).—The mouth. [A.S., ganian = to yawn.] Occasionally = throat, lip. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

1512–13. Douglas, Virgil, 250, 29. To behald his ouglie ene twane, His teribill vissage, and his grislie gane.

1610. Rowland, Martin Mark-all, p. 38. (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). Gan, a mouth. Ibid. A gere peck in thy gan.

1656. Broome, A Jovial Crew, Act ii. This bowse is better than rombowse, it sets the gan a giggling.

Gander, subs. (colloquial).—A married man; in America one not living with his wife; a grass-widower (q.v.).

Verb. (old).—To ramble; to waddle (as a goose). Also, to go in quest of women; to grouse (q.v.).

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoff. Hamblyn, ch. x. Nell might come gandering back in one of her tantrums.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xlvii. She gandered upstairs to the dressing-room again.

To see how the gander hops, verb. phr. (American.)—To watch events. A variant of To see how the cat jumps.

1847. Porter, Big Bear, p. 96. Seein’ how the gander hopped I jumped up and hollered, Git out, Tromp, you old raskel!

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, phr. (common).—A plea for consistency.

Gander-month, subs. (common).—The month after confinement; when a certain license (or so it was held) is excusable in the male. Also Gander-moon, the husband at such a period being called a Gander-mooner. Cf., Buck-hutch and Goose-month.

1653. Brome, English Moor in Fiue New Playes. I’le keep her at the least this gander-month, while my fair wife lies-in.

Gander-party, subs. (common).—A gathering of men; a stag-party (q.v.); also Bull-dance, Gander-gang, etc. Cf., Hen-party = an assembly of women.

Gander-pulling. See Goose-riding.

Gander’s Wool, subs. phr. (common.)—Feathers.

Gang, subs. (old: now recognised).—A troop; a company.

1639–61. Rump, i., 228. ‘The Scotch War.’ With his gay gang of Blue-caps all. Ibid., ii., 104, ‘The Gang; or, the Nine Worthies, etc.’

1690. B. E., Cant. Crew, s.v. Gang, an ill knot or crew of thieves, pickpockets or miscreants; also a society of porters under a regulation. [117]

1704. Cibber, Careless Husband, i., 1. Sir C. Who was that other? More. One of Lord Foppington’s gang.

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. i., c. 14. What then have I to do in the pursuit of greatness, but to employ a gang, and to make the use of this gang centre in myself? Idem. bk. iii., c. 14. But in an illegal society or gang, as this of ours, it is otherwise.

Ganger, subs. (old: now recognised).—An overseer or foreman of a gang of workmen; one who superintends. For synonyms, see Governor.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii., 487. The ganger, or head of the working gang, who receives his orders from the inspector, and directs the men accordingly.

1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 614, The mother and boy do the work, while the father constitutes himself contractor for and ganger over their labour.

Ganymede, subs. (old).—1. A sodomist. For synonyms, see Usher.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Catamito, a ganimed, an ingle, a boie hired to sinne against nature. [And in Cotgrave (1611) under Ganymedes; Any boy that’s loved for carnal abuse, an Ingle.]

1598. Marston, Satyres, ii. But Ho! What ganimede is it doth grace The gallant’s heels.

2. (popular).—A pot-boy (i.e., a cup-bearer). The masculine of hebe (q.v.).

1659. Florio-Torriano, Vocabolario. Mescitore, a skinker or filler of wine; also a mingler, a ganimede.

1841. Punch I., p. 101, c. 1. Lo! Ganymede appears with a foaming tankard of ale.

Gaol-bird, subs. (old: now recognised).—A person who has been often in gaol; an incorrigible rogue. Fr., un chevronné. For synonyms, see Wrong ’Un.

1680. Hist. of Edward II., p. 146. It is the piety and the true valour of an army, which gives them heart and victory; which how it can be expected out of ruffians and gaol-birds, I leave to your consideration.

1701. Defoe, True Born Englishman, part II. In print my panegyrics fill the street, And hired gaol-birds, their huzzas repeat.

1762. Smollett, L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. ix. He is become a blackguard gaol-bird.

1857. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. xi. The gaol-birds who piped this tune were without a single exception the desperate cases of this moral hospital; they were old offenders.

Gaoler’s Coach, subs. phr. (old).—A hurdle to the place of execution.

Gap, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum: also Sportsman’s gap and water-gap (q.v.). For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

d. 1746. Robertson of Struan, Poems, p. 84. O gracious Hymen! Cure this dire Mishap, Sew up this mighty rent, or fill the gap.

1821. Egan, Real Life, etc., i., 557. He should like to smack the bit without blowing the gap.

Gaper, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Also, Gaper (and Gape) over the Garter. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Gapes, subs. (colloquial).—A fit of yawning; also the open mouth of astonishment.

1818. Austen, Persuasion. Another hour of music was to give delight or the gapes. [118]

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker (ed. 1862), p. 373. But what gave me the gapes was the scenes (at the theatre).

Gapeseed, subs. (common).—1. A cause of astonishment; anything provoking the ignorant to stare with open mouth. Also to seek a gape’s nest.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Ansanare … to go idly loytring vp and downe as we say, to go seeking for a halfepenie worth of gaping seede.

1600. Nashe, Summer’s Last Will, in wks. (Grosart), vi., 144. That if a fellow licensed to beg, Should all his life time go from faire to faire, And buy gapeseede, having no businesse there.

1690. B. E., Cant. Crew. Gapeseed, whatever the gazing crowd idly stares and gapes after; as Puppet-shows, Rope-dancers, Monsters and Mountebanks, anything to feed the eye.

1694. Poor Robin. ’Tis plainly clear, They for their gapes-seed do pay dear.

1885. Sportsman, June 23, p. 2, c. 4. The yearlings bred by Messrs. Graham were offered to a rather select audience of buyers, though the ring was surrounded by a fairly strong crowd of gapeseeds.

Gapped, ppl. adj. (old).—Worsted; floored (q.v. for synonyms).

1753. Richardson, Sir Chas. Grandison. I will never meet at hard-edge with her; if I did … I should be confoundedly gapped.

Gap-Stopper, subs. (old).—1. A whoremaster. For synonyms, see Molrower.

2. (venery).—The penis. [Gap = female pudendum]. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Gar. See by gar!

Garble, to garble the coinage, verb. phr. (old).—See quot. [Garble = to pick and choose.]

1875. Jevons, Money, etc., p. 81. A practice amongst money-lenders of picking out the newest coins of full weight for export or re-melting, and passing the light ones into circulation.

Garden, subs. (various).—1. (greengrocers’, fruiterers’, etc.) = Covent Garden Market; 2. (theatrical) = Covent Garden Theatre; 3. (diamond merchants’) = Hatton Garden. Cf., House, Lane, etc.

[The Garden (= Covent Garden) was frequently used for the whole neighbourhood, which was notorious as a place of strumpets and stews. Thus, Garden-house = a brothel; Garden-goddess = a woman of pleasure; Garden-gout = the pox or clap; Garden-whore = a low prostitute, etc.]

1733. Bailey, Erasmus. When young men by whoring, as it commonly falls out, get the pox, which, by the way of extenuation, they call the Common Garden-gout.

1782. Geo. Parker, Humorous Sketches, p. 90 No more the Garden female orgies view.

1851–61. W. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. I., p. 85. Not only is the Garden itself all bustle and activity, but the buyers and sellers stream to and from it in all directions, filling every street in the vicinity.

1884. Jas. Payn, in Cornhill Mag., Mar., p. 257. She [Miss O’Neill] talked of the Garden and ‘the Lane,’ and was very fond of recitation.

1890. Tit-Bits, 29 Mar., p. 389, c. 1. Let me describe the Garden. A long, straight street, stretching almost due north and south, from Holborn Circus to Clerkenwell Road. Ibid. c. 2. The cut stones are chiefly sold to the large dealers in the Garden. [119]

2. (venery).—The female pudendum. [The simile is common to all nations, ancient and modern. Shakspeare, in Sonnet 16, seems to play upon this double meaning; e.g., Now stand you on the top of happy hours; And many maiden-gardens, yet unset, With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers.] Also garden of eden. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

To put one in the garden, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To defraud a confederate; to keep back part of the Regulars (q.v.), or Swag (q.v.).

Gardener, subs. (common).—1. An awkward coachman. [In allusion to the gardener who on occasion drives the carriage.] Cf., Tea-kettle Coachman.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock. Noon: Par. I. He can drive neither to the right nor to the left, nor backwards nor forwards.… A sarcastic saloon omnibus driver behind jeeringly bids him keep moving, accompanying the behest by the aggressive taunt of gard’ner.

2. (venery).—The penis. Garden (q.v.) = female pudendum. Also Garden-engine. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Garden-gate, subs. phr. (rhyming).—1. A magistrate. For synonyms, see Beak.

Garden-Latin, subs. (colloquial).—Barbarous or sham Latin. Also Apothecaries’, Bog, Dog, and Kitchen-Latin.

Garden-Rake, subs. phr. (common).—A tooth-comb. Also scratching-rake or rake.

Gardy-Loo, subs. (old Scots).—A warning cry; ‘take care!’ [Fr. gardez’ (vous de) l’eau! Used before emptying slops out of window into the street. Hence the act of emptying slops itself, as in quotation dated 1818.]

1771. Smollet, Humphry Clinker, (British Novelists), xxxi., p. 57. At ten o’clock the whole cargo is flung out of a back windore that looks into some street or lane, and the maid calls gardy-loo to the passengers, which signifies ‘Lord have mercy on you!’

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxvii. She had made the gardy-loo out of the wrong window.

Gargle, subs. (formerly medical students’, now common).—A drink; also generic. Cf., Lotion, and for synonyms, see Go.

1889. Sporting Times, 3 Aug., p. 3, c. 1. We’re just going to have a gargle—will you join us?

Verb. (common).—To drink; to ‘liquor up.’ For synonyms, see Drinks and Lush.

Gargle-Factory, subs. (common).—A public house. For synonyms, see Lush Crib.

Garn, intj. (vulgar).—A corruption of Go on! Get away with you!

1888. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 80. Garn, you farthin’ face! She your neck.

1892. Ally Sloper, 19 Mar., p. 90, c. 3. Gar’n, you men ain’t got no sense.

1892. National Observer, 6 Feb. p. 307, c. 2. And so simple is the dictum, so redolent of the unlettered Arry that we long to add garn, oo’re you gettin’ at? [120]

Garnish, subs. (old).—1. A fee or footing (q.v.); specifically one exacted by gaolers and old prisoners from a newcomer. The practice was forbidden by 4 Geo. IV., c. 43, sec. 12. Also Garnish-Money.

1592. Greene, Quip, in works, xi., 256. Let a poore man be arrested into one of the counters [prisons] … he shall be almost at an angel’s charge, what with garnish [etc.].

1606. T. Dekker, Seven Deadly Sinnes, p. 28 (Arber’s ed.). So that the Counters are cheated of Prisoners, to the great dammage of those that shoulde have their morning’s draught out of the garnish.

1632. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, v. 6. You are content with the ten thousand pounds Defalking the four hundred garnish-money?

1704. Steele, Lying Lover, Act iv., Sc. iv. But there is always some little trifle given to prisoners, they call garnish.

1752. Fielding, Amelia, Bk. I., ch. iii. Mr. Booth … was no sooner arrived in the prison, than a number of persons gathered round him, all demanding garnish.

1759. Goldsmith, The Bee, No. 5, p. 385 (Globe ed.). There are numberless faulty expenses among the workmen—clubs, garnishes, freedoms, and such like impositions.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xliv. [Jailor loq.] Thirty shillings a week for lodgings, and a guinea for garnish.

Garret, subs. (common).—1. The head; cockloft (q.v.); or upper storey (q.v.). For synonyms, see crumpet.

1625. Bacon, Apothgm, No. 17. My Lord St. Albans said that wise Nature did Never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high, and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.

To have one’s garret unfurnished, verb. phr. (common). To be crazy, stupid, lumpish. For synonyms, see Apartments and Balmy.

Garreteer, subs. (thieves’). A thief whose speciality is to rob houses by entering skylights or garret-windows. Also dancer and dancing-master. For synonyms, see thieves.

1849–61. Macaulay, Hist. of Eng., ch. xxv. Garreteers, who were never weary of calling the cousin of the Earls of Manchester and Sandwich an upstart.

1886. Shelley (quoted in Dowden’s Life), i., 47. Show them that we are no Grub-street garreteers.

1892. National Observer, 18 Mar., p. 453. Has proclaimed urbi et orbi that governments have no business to manufacture specious sentiment by greasing the palms of ignorant and greedy garreteers.

Garret-master, subs. (trade).—A cabinet-maker who works on his own account, selling his manufacture to the dealers direct.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii., p. 376. These trading operatives are known by different names in different trades. In the shoe trade, for instance, they are called ‘chamber-masters,’ in the cabinet trade garret-masters, and in the cooper’s trade the name for them is ‘small trading-masters.’ [121]

Garrison-hack, subs. (common).—1. A woman given to indiscriminate flirtation with officers at a garrison.

1889. Daily Telegraph, 14 Feb. Lord Normantower, Philip’s dearest friend, to whom she, when a garrison-hack, had been engaged, and whom she had thrown over simply because he was poor and prospectless.

1890. Athenæum, 8 Feb., p. 176, c. 1. The heroine is a garrison-hack, but the hero is an Australian.

2. (common).—A prostitute; a soldier’s trull. For synonyms, see Barrack Hack and Tart.

Garrotte, subs. (common).—A form of strangulation (see verb). [From the Spanish la garrota = a method of capital punishment, which consists in strangulation by means of an iron collar.]

Verb. (common).—1. A method of robbery with violence, much practised some years ago. The victims were generally old or feeble men and women. Three hands were engaged: the front-stall who looked out in that quarter, the back-stall at the rear, and the ugly or nasty-man who did the work by passing his arm round his subject’s neck from behind, and so throttling him to insensibility.

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of Lond. Committed for trial for garrotting and nearly murdering a gentleman.

1873. Trollope, Phineas Redux, ch. xlvi. In those days there had been much garrotting in the streets.

Garrotter, subs. (common).—A practitioner of garrotting (under verb, sense 1.)

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London, p. 201. The delectable epistle was written by garrotter Bill to his brother.

Garrotting. 1. See Garrotte (verb, sense 1).

2. (gamblers’).—Hiding a part of one’s hand at the back of the neck for purposes of cheating.

Garter, subs. (nautical).—1. in. pl. the irons, or bilboes. For synonyms, see Darbies.