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

1892. Tit Bits, 19 Mar., p. 416, c. 1. He. Great Cæsar! There you go again! She. James will you please remember that it is your wife to whom you are speaking, sir? He. No other woman could drive me raving, distracted, crazy, asking silly questions about—She. James!

Great Shakes. See Shakes.

Great Smoke, subs. (thieves’)—London.

Great Sun, intj. (common).—An exclamation.

Great-unwashed, subs. (colloquial).—The lower classes; the rabble. Also the unwashed. [First used by Burke; popularised by Scott.]

1892. Sydney Watson, Wops the Waif, ch. iii., p. 4. We begin to understand what is meant by the lowest classes, the great unwashed.

Great Whipper-in, subs. phr. (common).—Death; old floorer (q.v.).

Grecian, subs. (old).—1. A roysterer; a greek (q.v.).

Grecian Accent, subs. (popular).—A brogue.

Grecian-bend, subs. (common).—A stoop in walking. [Affected by some women c. 1869–80.] Cf., Alexandra Limp, Roman Fall, Italian Wriggle, Kangaroo Droop.

1821. Etonian, ii., 57. In person he was of the common size, with something of the Grecian bend, contracted doubtless from sedentary habits.

1869. Daily Telegraph, 1 Sept. I do not, however, think the ‘stoop’ our girls now have arises from tight-lacing. Some affect what is called the Grecian bend.

1870. Orchestra, 25 Mar. ‘Grand Comic Concert.’ The ladies have their Grecian bend, our typical gentleman explains a correspondent masculine affectation which he dubs ‘The Roman Fall—The Roman Fall.’

1871. Morning Advertiser, 4 Dec. A lady of five feet becomes, say, five feet two inches per heels, five feet six inches per hair, five feet again, per Grecian bend.

1876. Chambers’ Journal, No. 629. Your own advocacy for the Grecian bend and the Alexandra limp—both positive and practical imitations of physical affliction.

1886. Cornhill Magazine, Dec., p. 618. You ain’t nearly fine enough for a waitress or for ’im, neether. He likes a smart young woman with a Grecian bend.

Greed, subs. (thieves).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

Greedy-gut (or -guts), subs. (old).—A voracious eater; a glutton. [As in the old (schoolboys’) rhyme: ‘Guy-hi, Greedy-gut, Eat all the pudding up.’] For synonyms, see Stodger. Fr., un glafâtre.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, Edace, an eater, a devourer. a greedigut. Ibid. Putti occhi, greedie eies.

Greek, subs. (old).—1. Slang, or flash (q.v.); usually St. Giles’ Greek (q.v.). Cf., Cant, Gibberish, etc.

1528. Roy and Barlow, Rede me and be not wrothe, p. 117 [ed. Arber, 1871]. In carde playinge he is a goode Greke And can skyll of post and glycke, Also a prayre of dyce to trolle.

1568. Satirical Poems, ‘Scottish Text Soc.’ [1889–91] i., 77. A cowle, a cowle, for such a greek were fitter far to wea’re.

1602. Shakspeare, Troilus and Cressida, v. 6. Come, both you cogging Greeks; have at you both.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, xxviii. Most of the cant phrases in Head’s English Rogue, which was published, I believe, in 1666, would be intelligible to a Greek of the present day.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 5. Come lads, bustle about; play will begin—some of the pigeons are here already, the Greeks will not be long following.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch. i. Jerry was a Greek by nature, and could land a flat as well as the best of them.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxxvi. He was an adventurer, a pauper, a blackleg, a regular Greek.

1861. Once a Week, 25 May, p. 97. As the Greek places the packet [of cards] on the top of the other, he allows it to project the least bit in the world.

1884. Saturday Review, 16 Feb., p. 202. Without a confederate the now fashionable game of baccarat does not seem to offer many chances for the Greek.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. i., p. 240. We had the Greeks (the lately arrived Irish) down upon us more than once.

1872. Standard, 3 Sept. ‘Melbourne Correspondence.’ The most noticeable point of comparison between the two Administrations is the presence or the absence of the Greek element from the Cabinet. Greek, as some of your readers are aware, is colonial slang for ‘Irish.’

Merry Greek, subs. phr. (old).—A roysterer; a drunkard. Cotgrave. [In Latin, Graecare = to play the Greek—high-living and hard drinking.]

1602. Shakspeare, Troilus and Cressida, iv., 4. A woful Cressid ’mongst the merry Greeks.

Greek Fire, subs. phr. (thieves’).—Bad whiskey; Rotgut (q.v.).

Greek Kalends, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Never. To defer anything to the Greek Kalends is to put it off sine die. (The Greeks used no kalends in their reckoning of time.)

c. 1649. Drumm. of Hawth. Consid. Parlt., wks. (1711) 185. That gold, plate, and all silver, given to the mint-house in these late troubles, shall be paid at the Greek Kalends.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. I., ch. xx. The judgment or decree shall be given out and pronounced at the next Greek Calends, that is, never.

1823. Byron, Don Juan, c. xiii., st. 45. They and their bills, ‘Arcadians both,’ are left To the Greek Kalends of another session.

1825. Scott, Betrothed. Intro. Will you speak of your paltry prose doings in my presence, whose great historical poem, in twenty books, with notes in proportion, has been postponed ad Græcas Kalendas?

1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf. T. i., 18. His friends looked for it only on the Greek Calends, say on the 31st of April, when that should come round, if you would modernize the phrase. [205]

1882. Macmillan’s Mag., 253. So we go on … and the works are sent to the Greek Calends.

English Synonyms.—In the reign of Queen Dick; when the devil is blind; when two Sundays come in a week; at Doomsday; at Tib’s Eve; one of these odd-come-shortlys; when my goose pisses; when the ducks have eaten up the dirt; when pigs fly; in a month of Sundays; once in a blue moon.

French Synonyms.—Mardi s’il fait chaud (obsolete); Dimanche après la grande messe (popular); quand les poules pisseront; semaine des quatre jeudis (popular: when four Thursdays come in a week).

Green, subs. (common).—1. Rawness; simplicity. Generally, ‘Do you see any green in my eye’? = Do you take me for a fool? See adj. sense.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, ii., 247. I’m not a tailor, but I understands about clothes, and I believe that no person ever saw anything green in my eye.

1892. Ally Sloper, 19 Mar., p. 95, c. 2. Ally Sloper the ’cute, Ally Sloper the sly, Ally Sloper, the cove with no green in his eye.

1892. Illustrated Bits, 22 Oct., p. 14, c. 2. Sindin’ both shlips is it? How wud Oi have a check on ye? Do ye see inny green in me oi?

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act i., Sc. 3. Pol. Affection! pooh! you speak like a green girl.

1605. Chapman, All Fools, Act iv., p. 67 (Plays, 1874). Shall I then say you want experience? Y’are green, y’are credulous; easy to be blinded.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Green (a) … so likewise a young or unexperienced person in arts, sciences, etc., is sometimes said to be green, raw, etc.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry. Tom. No; you’re green! Jerry. Green! Log. Ah! not fly! Tom. Yes, not awake!

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. viii. ‘My eyes, how green!’ exclaimed the young gentleman. ‘Why a beak’s a madgst’rate.’

1841. Punch, July 17, p. 6. What a green chap you are, after all. A public man’s consistency! It’s only a popular delusion.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, p. 19. Eh! why! what’s the matter with you? have I done anything particularly green, as you call it?

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days, pt. I., ch. ii. You try to make us think … that you are, even as we, of the working classes. But bless your hearts, we ain’t so green.

1869. Literary World, 31 Dec., p. 129, c. 2. His fellow-passengers laughed at him for being so green.

1879. Punch’s Almanack, p. 7. Seasonable Slang. For Spring.—You be blowed! For Summer.—I’ll warm yer! For Autumn.—Not so blooming green! For Winter.—An ice little game all round.

1887. Lippincott, July, p. 104. Within the last day or so a young fellow has arrived who is in danger of being eaten by the cows, so green is he.

1890. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 7 Nov. Being quite green at the time, I rather lost my head over my good fortune.

Verb (colloquial).—To hoax; to swindle. At Eton to green up. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1836–41. T. C. Buckland, Eton. I was again catechized on many points personal to myself, and some mild attempts were made to green me, as boys call it.

1889. Answers, 2 Mar., p. 218, c. 1. Whereupon the old humbug burst into a loud guffaw, as though he were rejoicing at having greened the toff.

1892. Anstey, Voces Populi (Second Series). ‘Bank Holiday,’ 147. The Damsel (giggling). You go on—you don’t green me that w’y. [206]

Greens, subs. (old).—1. Chlorosis: i.e., the green sickness.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 313. The maiden takes five, too, that’s vexed with her greens.

To have, get, or give one’s greens, verb. phr. (venery).—To enjoy, procure, or confer the sexual favour. Said indifferently of both sexes.

Hence, also, on for one’s greens = amorous and willing; after one’s greens = in quest of the favour; green-grove = the pubes; green-grocery = the female pudendum; the price of greens = the cost of an embrace; fresh greens = a new piece (q.v.). [Derived by some from the old Scots’ grene = to pine, to long for, to desire with insistence: whence greens = longings, desires; which words may in their turn be referred, perhaps, to Mid. Eng., zernen, A.S., gyrnan, Icelandic, girna = to desire, and Gothic, gairns = desirous. Mod. Ger., begehren = to desire. See Dalziel, Darker Superstitions of Scotland, 1835, p. 106:—‘He answered that he wald gif the sum Spanyie fleis callit cantarides, quhilk, gif thou suld move the said Elizabeth to drynk of, it wold mak hir out of all question to grene eftir the.’ Trial of Peter Hay, of Kirklands, and others, for Witchcraft, 25th May, 1601. But in truth, the expression is a late and vulgar coinage. It would seem, indeed, to be a reminiscence of garden (q.v.), and the set of metaphors—as kail, cauliflower, parsley bed, and so forth (all which see)—suggested thereby.]

English Synonyms.—To be all there but the most of you; in Abraham’s bosom; up one’s petticoats (or among one’s frills); there; on the spot; into; up; up to one’s balls; where uncle’s doodle goes; among the cabbages.

To dance the blanket hornpipe; the buttock jig; the cushion dance (see Monosyllable.); the goat’s jig; the mattress jig; the married man’s cotillion; the matrimonial polka; the reels o’ Bogie (Scots’); the reels of Stumpie (Scots’); to the tune of the shaking of the sheets; with your arse to the ceiling, or the kipples (Scots’).

To go ballocking; beard-splitting; bed-pressing (Marston); belly-bumping (Urquhart); bitching (Marston); bum-fighting; bum-working; bum-tickling; bum-faking; bush-ranging; buttock-stirring (Urquhart); bird’s-nesting; buttocking; cock-fighting; cunny-catching; doodling; drabbing; fleshing it; flesh-mongering; goosing; to Hairyfordshire; jock-hunting; jottling; jumming (Urquhart); leather-stretching; on the loose; motting; molrowing; pile-driving; prick-scouring; quim-sticking; rumping; rump-splitting; strumming; twatting; twat-faking; vaulting (Marston, etc.); wenching; womanizing; working the dumb (or double, or hairy) oracle; twat-raking; tummy-tickling; tromboning; quim-wedging; tail-twitching; button-hole working; under-petticoating.

To have, or do, a bit of beef (of women); business [207](Shakspeare); bum-dancing; cauliflower; cock; cock-fighting; cunt; curly greens; fish; on a fork; fun; off the chump end; flat; front-door work; giblet pie; the gut- (or cream- or sugar-) stick (of women); jam; ladies’ tailoring; meat; mutton; pork; quimsy; rough; sharp-and-blunt (rhyming slang); stuff; split-mutton; skirt; summer cabbage.

To have, or do, or perform, the act of androgynation (Urquhart); a ballocking; a bit; a lassie’s by-job (Burns); a bedward bit (Durfey); a beanfeast in bed; a belly-warmer; a blindfold bit; a bottom-wetter (of women); a bout; a brush with the cue; a dive in the dark; a drop-in; a double fight; an ejectment in Love-lane; a four-legged frolic; a fuck; a futter; a game in the cock-loft; a goose-and-duck (rhyming); the culbatizing exercise (Urquhart); a grind; a hoist-in; a jottle; a jumble-giblets; a jumble-up; an inside worry; a leap; a leap up the ladder; a little of one with t’other (Durfey); a mount; a mow (David Lyndsay, Burns, etc.); a nibble; a plaster of warm guts (Grose); a poke; a put; a put-in; a random push (Burns); a rasp; a ride; a roger; a rootle; a rush up the straight; a shot at the bull’s eye; a slide up the board; a squirt-and-a squeeze; a touch-off; a touch-up; a tumble-in; a wet-’un; a wipe at the place; a wollop-in.

Specific.—To have, or do, a back-scuttle, (q.v.); a buttered bun (q.v.); a dog’s marriage (q.v.); a knee-trembler, perpendicular, or upright (q.v.); a matrimonial (q.v.); spoon-fashion (q.v.); a st. george (q.v.).

To play at, All-fours; Adam-and-Eve; belly-to-belly (Urquhart); brangle-buttock (Urquhart); buttock-and-leave-her; cherry-pit (Herrick); couple-your-navels; cuddle-my-cuddie (Durfey); Hey Gammer Cook (C. Johnson); fathers-and-mothers; the first-game-ever-played; Handie-Dandie; Hooper’s Hide (q.v.); grapple-my-belly (Urquhart); horses-and-mares (schoolboys’); the close-buttock-game (Urquhart); cock-in-cover; houghmagandie (Burns); in-and-in; in-and-out; Irish-whist (where-the-jack (q.v.)-takes-the ace [see Monosyllable.]); the-loose-coat-game (Urquhart); Molly’s hole (schoolboys’); pickle-me-tickle-me (Urquhart); mumble-peg; prick-the-garter; pully-hauly (Grose); put-in-all; the-same-old-game; squeezem-close; stable-my-naggie; thread-the-needle; tops-and-bottoms; two-handed-put (Grose); up-tails-all.

General.—To Adam and Eve it; to blow the groundsels; to engage three to one; to chuck a tread; to do (Jonson); to do it; to do ‘the act of darkness’ (Shakspeare), the act of love, the deed of kind, the work of increase, ‘the divine work of fatherhood’ (Whitman); to feed the dumb-glutton; to get one’s hair cut; to slip in Daintie Davie (Scots’), or Willie Wallace (idem); to get Jack in the orchard; to get on top of; to give a lesson in simple arithmetic (i.e., addition, division, multiplication and subtraction); to give a green gown (q.v.); to go ‘groping for trout in a peculiar [208]river’ (Shakspeare); to go face-making; to go to Durham (North Country); to go to see a sick friend; to have it; to join faces (Durfey); to join giblets; to make ends meet; to make the beast with two backs (Shakspeare and Urquhart); to make a settlement in tail; to play top-sawyer; to put it in and break it; to post a letter; to go on the stitch; to labor lea (Scots); to tether one’s nags on (idem); to nail twa wames thegither (idem); to lift a leg on (Burns); to ride a post (Cotton); to peel one’s end in; to put the devil into hell (Boccaccio); to rub bacons (Urquhart); to strop one’s beak; to strip one’s tarse in; to grind one’s tool; to grease the wheel; to take on a split-arsed mechanic; to take a turn in Bushey-park, Cock-alley, Cock-lane, Cupid’s-alley, Cupid’s-corner, Hair-court, ‘the lists of love’ (Shakspeare), Love-lane, on Mount Pleasant, among the parsley, on Shooter’s-hill, through the stubble; to whack it up; to wollop it in; to labour leather; to wind up the clock (Sterne).

Of women only.—To get an arselins coup (Burns); to catch an oyster; to do the naughty; to do a spread, a tumble, a back-fall, what mother did before me; a turn on one’s back, what Eve did with Adam; to hold, or turn up one’s tail (Burns and Durfey); to get one’s leg lifted, one’s kettle mended, one’s chimney swept out, one’s leather stretched; to lift one’s leg; to open up to; to get shot in the tail; to get a shove in one’s blind eye; to get a wet bottom; what Harry gave Doll (Durfey); to suck the sugar-stick; to take in beef; to take Nebuchadnezzar out to grass; to look at the ceiling over a man’s shoulder; to get outside it; to play one’s ace; to rub one’s arse on (Rochester); to spread to; to take in and do for; to give standing room for one; to get hulled between wind and water; to get a pair of balls against one’s butt; to take in cream; to show (or give) a bit; to skin the live rabbit; to feed (or trot out) one’s pussy (q.v.); to lose the match and pocket the stakes; to get a bellyful of marrow pudding; to supple both ends of it (Scots); to draw a cork; to get hilt and hair (Burns); to draw a man’s fireworks; to wag one’s tail (Pope); to take the starch out of; to go star-gazing (or studying astronomy) on one’s back; to get a green gown (Herrick and Durfey); to have a hot pudding (or live sausage) for supper; to grant the favour; to give mutton for beef, juice for jelly, soft for hard, a bit of snug for a bit of stiff, a hole to hide it in, a cure for the horn (q.v.), a hot poultice for the Irish toothache; to pull up one’s petticoats to; to get the best and plenty of it; to lie under; to stand the push; to get stabbed in the thigh; to take off one’s stays; to get touched up, a bit of the goose’s-neck, a go at the creamstick, a handle for the broom.

Conventionalisms.—To have connection; to have carnal, improper, or sexual intercourse; to know carnally; to have carnal knowledge of; to indulge in sexual commerce; to go to bed with; to lie with; to go in unto (Biblical); to be intimate, [209]improperly intimate, familiar, on terms of familiarity with; to have one’s will of; to lavish one’s favours on; to enjoy the pleasures of love, or the conjugal embrace; to embrace; to have one’s way with; to perform connubial rites; to scale the heights of connubial bliss; to yield one’s favours (of women); to surrender, or give one the enjoyment of one’s person (of women); to use benevolence to; to possess. For other synonyms, see Ride.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. My horse is not well, I shall send him to Doctor Green.

S’elp me greens! (or taturs!) intj. (common).—A veiled oath of an obscene origin; see Greens. For synonyms, see Oaths.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. iii., p. 144. They’ll say, too, s’elp my greens! and ‘Upon my word and say so!’

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 23 Jan. ‘Well, s’elp me greens,’ he cried, wiping his eyes and panting for breath, ‘if you arn’t the greatest treat I ever did meet; you’ll be the death o’ me, Juggins, you will. Why, you bloomin’ idiot, d’ye think if they had’nt been rogues we should have been able to bribe ’em?’

1848. Jones, Sketches of Travel, p. 7. I’ve made up my mind to make a tower of travel to the big North this summer, jest for greens, as we say in Georgia, when we hain’t got no very pertickeler reason for anything, or hain’t got time to tell the real one.

Green-apron, subs. (old).—A lay preacher. Also adjectively. For synonyms, see Devil-Dodger and Sky-Pilot.

1654. Warren, Unbelievers, 145. It more befits a green-apron preacher, than such a Gamaliel.

1705. Hickeringill, Priestcraft, I. (1721) 21. Unbeneficed Noncons. (that live by Alms and no Paternoster, no Penny, say the green-aprons).

1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II., 451. The gifted priestess amongst the Quaker is known by her green apron.

Green-back, subs. (common).—1. A frog.

2. (University).—One of Todhunter’s series of mathematical text-books. (Because bound in green cloth. Cf., Blue-ruin.)

3. (American).—The paper issue of the Treasury of the United States; first sent out in 1862 during the civil war. [From the backs being printed in green.] Hence green-backer = an advocate for an unlimited issue or paper money.

1873. Echo, 8 May. This was accomplished by the issue of legal tender notes, popularly known as greenbacks.

1877. Clemens, Life on the Mississippi, ch. lvii., p. 499. Anything in the semblance of a town lot, no matter how situated, was saleable, and at a figure which would still have been high if the ground had been sodded with greenbacks.

1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, p. 228. Gussie can hear the crinkle of the greenbacks as he folds them up.

Green Bag, subs. (old).—A lawyer. [From the green bag in which robes and briefs were carried. The colour is now blue, or, in cases of presentation from seniors to juniors, red.]

English Synonyms.—Black box; bramble (provincial); devil’s own; gentleman of the long robe; land-shark; limb of the law; mouth-piece; Philadelphia lawyer (q.v.); quitam; six-and-eightpence; snipe; sublime rascal.

French Synonyms. Un bavard (pop. = a talker or mouthpiece); un blanchisseur (= whitewasher); un brodancheur à la plaque, aux macarons, or à la cymbale (thieves’: a notary-public); un gerbier (thieves’); un grippemini (obsolete: grippeminaud = thief); un inutile (thieves’: a notary-public); une éponge d’or (= a sucker-up of gold: in allusion to the long bills); un macaron huissier (popular).

Italian Synonyms.—Dragon del gran soprano; dragonetto (= a dragon, or suck-all).

Spanish Synonyms.—Remedio (= a remedy); la letraderia (= a body or society of lawyers); cataribera (jocular).

Green-Bonnet, to have (or wear) a green bonnet, verb. phr. (common).—To fail in business; to go bankrupt. [From the green cloth cap once worn by bankrupts.]

Green Cheese. See Cream Cheese and Moon.

Green Cloth. See Board of Green Cloth.

Green Dragoons, subs. (military).—The fifth Dragoon Guards; also known as the Green Horse. [From their green facings.]

Greener, subs. (common).—A new, or raw hand; specifically employed of inexperienced workmen introduced to fill the place of strikers; Dung (q.v.). Cf., Flint. For synonyms, see Snooker.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 Oct., p. 6, c. 3. A howling mob of Hebrew men and women … in their own Yiddish jargon criticised the new arrivals, or greeners, in language that was anything but complimentary.

Green-Goods, subs. (American).—1. Counterfeit greenbacks.

1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, p. 223. In his opinion Stillman Myth, and Co., were in the green goods business.

Green-goods Man (or Operator), subs. (American).—1. A counterfeiter of spurious greenbacks; a Snide-pitcher (q.v.).

1888. Troy Daily Times, 3 Feb. Driscoll was hung, but the green goods-man escaped, for the only proof against him was that he sold a quantity of paper cut in the shape of bills, and done up in packages of that size.

2. (venery).—A Fresh Bit (q.v.) fancier. Also an amateur of defloration; a minotaur (q.v.).

Green-goose, subs. (old).—1. A cuckold.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv., 3. This is the liver vein, which makes flesh a deity; A green goose, a goddess, pure, pure idolatry.

1607. Beaumont and Fletcher, Woman Hater, i., 2. His palace is full of green geese.

Green-gown. To give a green-gown, verb. phr. (old).—To tumble a woman on the grass; to copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride. [211]

1647–8. Herrick, Hesperides. ‘To Corinna To go a Maying.’ Many a green gown has been given.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Green gown, s.v. A throwing of young lasses on the grass and kissing them.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 277. Kit gave a green gown to Betty, and lent her his hand to rise.

1719. Smith, Lives of Highwaymen, i., 214. Our gallant being disposed to give his lady a green gown.

Green-head, subs. (old).—A greenhorn. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Greenhead, s.v., A very raw novice or inexperienced fellow.

Greenhorn (or Green-Head, or Greenlander), subs. (common).—A simpleton; a fool; a gull (q.v.); also a new hand. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head. To come from Greenland = to be fresh to things; raw (q.v.). Greenlander sometimes = an Irishman.

1753. Adventurer, No. 100. A slouch in my gait, a long lank head of hair and an unfashionable suit of drab-coloured cloth, would have denominated me a greenhorn, or in other words, a country put very green.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xliv. ‘Why, wha but a crack-brained greenhorn wad hae let them keep up the siller that ye left at the Gordon-Arms?’

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist. A new pall.… Where did he come from? Greenland.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. ix. All these he resigned to lock himself into a lone little country house, with a simple widow and a greenhorn of a son.

Greenhouse, subs. (London ’bus-drivers’).—An omnibus.

Green Howards, subs. phr. (military).—The Nineteenth Foot. [From its facings and its Colonel’s name (1738–48), and to distinguish it from the Third Foot, also commanded by a Col. Howard.] Also Howard’s Garbage.

Green Kingsman, subs. (pugilistic).—A silk pocket-handkerchief: any pattern on a green ground.

Green Linnets, subs. phr. (military).—The 39th Foot. [From the facings.]

Greenly, adv. (old).—Like a greenhorn; foolishly.

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

Greenmans, subs. (old).—1. The fields; the country.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept.) 1874. Greenemans, the fields.

2. in sing. (builders’).—A contractor who speculates with other people’s money.

Green-meadow, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Greenness, subs. (colloquial).—Immaturity of judgment; inexperience; gullibility.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Greenness (s) … also the rawness, unskilfulness, or imperfection of any person in a trade, art, science, etc.

1838. Jas. Grant, Sketches in London, ch. vi., p. 205. Instances of such perfect simplicity or greenness, as no one could have previously deemed of possible existence. [212]

Green-rag.—See Greeny, sense 1.

Green-river. To send a man up green-river, verb. phr. (American).—To kill. [From a once famous factory on Green River, where a favourite hunting-knife was made.] For synonyms, see Cook One’s Goose.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 175. A thrust from the keen scalp-knife by the nervous arm of a mountaineer was no baby blow, and seldom failed to strike home up to the green river [i.e., the mark] on the blade.

Green-sickness, subs. (old).—Chlorosis.

Green-turtle. To live up to green-turtle, verb. phr. (American).—To do, and give, one’s best. [From the high esteem in which the green fat of turtle is held.]

1888. Paton, Down the Islands. People who, as hosts, live up to their green turtle.

Greenwich Barber, subs. (old).—A retailer of sand from the Greenwich pits. [A pun upon ‘shaving’ the banks.]

Greenwich-Goose, subs. (old).—A pensioner of Greenwich Hospital.

Greeny, subs. (old theatrical).—1. The curtain. [From the colour.] Also Green-rag.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, p. 110 [ed. 1890]. It is far more difficult to please the company behind Greeny; I beg pardon, sir, I should have said than the audience before the curtain.

1834. Southey, The Doctor, ch. i. He was entered among the greenies of this famous University.

3. (common).—A simpleton; a Greenhorn (q.v.). For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

1852. Judson, Myst., etc., of New York, part III., ch. 9, p. 58. Anybody could know that these was took by a greeny.

1887. Congregationalist, 7 April. Jim said I was a greeny … [and] that he had a lot of houses.

Greetin’ Fu’, adv. phr. (Scots’), Drunk: literally ‘crying drunk.’ For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Greeze, subs. (Westminster School).—A crowd; a push (q.v.).

Gregorian, subs. (old).—A kind of wig worn in the 17th century. [After the inventor, one Gregory, a barber in the Strand.]

Gregorian-tree, subs. (old).—The gallows. [After a sequence of three hangmen of the name.] For synonyms, see Nubbing-cheat.

1641. Mercurius Pragmaticus. This trembles under the black rod, and he Doth fear his fate from the Gregorian tree.

Gregorine, subs. (common).—A louse; specifically, head vermin. [From the Italian.] For synonyms, see Chates.

Greshamite, subs. (old).—A Fellow of the Royal Society.—B. E. [1690.]

Grey.—See Gray, passim. [213]

Griddle, subs. (streets’).—To sing in the streets. Whence, Griddling = street-singing; griddler = a street-singer.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor. Got a month for griddling in the main drag.

1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, pt. I., ch. xii. Cardiff Jack’s never got so low as to be griddling on the main drag—singing, I mean, on the high-road.

1888. W. Besant, Fifty Years Ago, ch. iv., p. 53. They [street singers] have not yet invented Moody and Sankey, and therefore they cannot sing ‘Hold the Fort’ or ‘Dare to be a Daniel,’ but there are hymns in every collection which suit the gridler.

1890. Daily Telegraph, 20 May. Singing or shouting hymns in the streets on Sundays. To this system the name of gridling has been applied. The gridlers, it was stated, were known to boast, as they returned to their haunts in Deptford and Southwark, how much they could make in a few hours.

Gridiron, subs. (American).—1. The United States’ flag; the Stars and Stripes. Also Stars and Bars; Blood and Entrails; Gridiron and Doughboys; and, in speaking of the Eagle in conjunction with the flag, the Goose and Gridiron.

2. (common).—A County Court Summons. [Originally applied to Writs of the Westminster Court, the arms of which resemble a gridiron.]

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxi. He collects debts for anybody in the neighbourhood, takes out the abhorred gridirons, or County Court summonses.

The Gridiron, subs. phr. (common).—The Grafton Club. [Where the grill is a speciality.]

On the Gridiron, adv. phr. (common).—Troubled; harassed; in a bad way; on toast (q.v.).

Grief, To Come to Grief, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To come to ruin; to meet with an accident; to fail. In quot., 1891 = trouble.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. x. We drove on to the Downs, and we were nearly coming to grief. My horses are young, and when they get on the grass they are as if they were mad.

1888. Cassell’s Saturday Jour., 8 Dec., p. 249. In the United States he had started a ‘Matrimonial Agency,’ in which he had come to grief, and he had been obliged to return to this country for a similar reason.

1891. Sportsman, 28 Feb. The flag had scarcely fallen than the grief commenced, as Midshipmite and Carlo rolled over at the first fence, Clanranald refused at the second, and Dog Fox fell at the third.

Griffin (or Griff), subs. (common).—1. A new-comer; a raw hand; a Greenhorn (q.v.) See Snooker and Sammy Soft. [Specific uses are (Anglo-Indian) = a new arrival from Europe; (military) = a young subaltern; (Anglo-Chinese) = an unbroken horse.] Griffinage (or Griffinism) = the state of greenhornism.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffry Hamlyn, ch. xxviii. All the griffins ought to hunt together.

1878. Besant and Rice, By Celia’s Arbour, ch. xxx. We were in the Trenches; there had been joking with a lot of griffs, young recruits just out from England.

1882. Miss Braddon, Mount Royal, ch. xxii. There was only one of the lads about the yard when he left, for it was breakfast-time, and the little griffin didn’t notice. [214]

1883. Graphic, 17 March, p. 286, c. 3. Many a youngster has got on in his profession … by having the good fortune to make a friend of the old Indian who took him in as a griffin or a stranger.

2. (colloquial).—A woman of forbidding manners or appearance; a Gorgon. Also a caretaker, chaperon, or sheep-dog (q.v.) [A reflection of the several griffins of ornithology and of heraldry: the former a feeder on birds, small mammals, and even children; the latter (as in Milton) a perfection of vigilance.]

1824. R. B. Peake, Americans Abroad, i., 2. It is always locked up by that she-griffin with a bunch of keys.

3. (thieves’).—A signal: e.g., to tip the griffin = to warn; to give the office (q.v.), or tip (q.v.). The straight griffin = the straight tip.

1888. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 22 Dec., p. 305. Plank yourself at the corner to give the griffin if you hear or see owt.

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 22. He’s got the straight griff for something.

1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 95. When he wanted to give the chaps in the office the straight griffin, he used to say, ‘Nelson’s my guide.’

4. in. pl. (trade).—The scraps and leavings from a contract feast, which are removed by the purveyor.

Griff-metoll, subs. (old).—Sixpence. For synonyms, see Tanner.

Grig, subs. (old).—1. An active, lively, and jocose person: as in the phrase ‘Merry as a Grig.’ [An allusion to the liveliness of the grasshopper, sand-eel, or to grig (= Greek: cf., Troilus and Cressida i. 2; iv. 4).]

1673. Wycherley, Gent. Danc. Master, i., 1., wks. (1713) 251. Hah, ah, ah, cousin, dou art a merry grigg—ma foy.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 43. The statesman that talks on the Woolsack so big, Could hustle to the open as merry as a grig.

1765. Goldsmith, Essays VI. I grew as merry as a grig, and laughed at every word that was spoken.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xix, p. 159. The learned gentleman … is as merry as a grig at a French watering-place.

1680. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Not a grig did he tip me, not a farthing would he give me.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 15. ‘He shall go through the whole course,’ replied Blueskin, with a ferocious grin, ‘unless he comes down to the last grig.’

1855. Haliburton [S. Slick], Human Nature, p. 83. That word ‘superiors’ grigged me. Thinks I, ‘My boy, I’ll just take that expression, roll it up in a ball, and shy it back at you.’

Grim, subs. (American thieves’).—A skeleton. Also Grin.

Grin, verb. (American University, Virginia).—See quot.

1887. Lippincott, July, p. 99. If there are many ‘old men’ in the room they immediately begin to grin him; that is, they strike on their plates with their knives and forks, beat with their feet, and shout at the top of their voices, in the effort to make their victim grin. Woe to him if they succeed; for in that event the same thing will be repeated three times a day, until he ceases to notice it. [215]

To grin in a Glass Case. verb. phr. (old).—To be shown as an anatomical preparation. [The bodies and skeletons of criminals were once preserved in glass cases at Surgeon’s Hall.—Grose.]

To flash the Upright Grin, verb. phr. (venery).—To expose the person (of women).

Grinagog, the Cat’s Uncle, subs. phr. (old).—A grinning simpleton.—Grose.

Grincums, subs. (old).—Syphilis. For synonyms, see Ladies’ Fever.

1608. Middleton, Family of Love, B. 1. I had a receipt for the grincomes in his own hand.

1635. Jones, Adrasta or the Woman’s Spleen, c. 2. You must know, sir, in a nobleman ’tis abusive; no, in him the serpigo, in a knight the grincomes, in a gentleman the Neapolitan scabb, and in a serving man or artificer the plaine pox.

1637. Massinger, Guardian, iv. The comfort is, I am now secure from the grincomes, I can lose nothing that way.

Grind, subs. (common).—1. A walk; a constitutional: e.g., ‘to take a grind’ or (University) ‘to go on the Grandchester (or Gog Magog Hills) grind.’

1853. Bradley, Verdant Green, pt. III., ch. xi. To a University man, a grind did not possess any reading signification, but a riding one. In fact, it was a steeple-chase, slightly varying in its details according to the college that patronised the pastime.

1870. London Figaro, 28 July. The world is a wearisome grind, love, Nor shirk we our turn at the wheel.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xxv. ‘Isn’t it a great grind, sir?’ asked Silverbridge. ‘A very great grind, as you call it. And there may be the grind and not the success. But——’

1880. One and All, 27 Mar., p. 207. Soul-weary of life’s horrid grind, I long to come to thee.

3. (schools’).—Study; reading up for an examination; also a plodding student, i.e., a grinder.

1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days, pt. II., ch. v. ‘Come along, boys,’ cries East, always ready to leave the grind, as he called it.

1887. Chambers’ Jour., 14 May, p. 310. Smalls made just such a goal as was required, and the grind it entailed was frequently of no slight profit to him.

4. (medical students’).—A demonstration: as (1) a ‘public grind’ given to a class and free to all; and (2) a ‘private grind’ for which a student pays an individual teacher. In America, a quiz (q.v.).

1872. Chambers’ Jour., April. Joe Rullock, the mighty gymnasiarch, the hero of a hundred grinds, the unwearied haunter of the palæstra, could never give the lie to his whole past life, and deny his own gymnastics.

6. (venery).—An act of sexual intercourse: e.g., To do a grind. [Mill and grindstone (venery) = the female pudendum.] For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Macinio, the grinding of grist. Also taken for carnal copulation.

1647. Ladies Parliament. Digbie’s lady takes it ill, that her Lord grinds not at her mill. [216]

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days, pt. II., ch. vii. ‘The thing to find out,’ said Tom meditatively, ‘is how long one ought to grind at a sentence without looking at the crib.’

3. (common).—To do a round of hard and distasteful work; to apply oneself to daily routine.

1880. Punch, 5 June, p. 253. ‘Fred on Pretty Girls and Pictures.’ And the pars in the Scanmag—he does them—are proper, and chock full of ‘go.’ Only paper I care to grind though.

1879. W. D. Howells, Lady of the Aroostook, ch. vii. After all, it does grind me to have lost that money!

Also grinding = (1) the act of reading or studying hard; (2) the act or occupation of preparing students, for an examination; and (3) the act of copulation.

On the grind, subs. phr. (venery).—Said of incontinent persons of both sexes. Also of prostitutes.

To get a grind on one, verb. phr. (American).—To play practical jokes; to tell a story against one; to annoy or vex.

To grind wind, verb. phr. (old prison).—To work the treadmill. See Everlasting Staircase.

1889. Clarkson and Richardson. Police, p. 322. On the treadmill … grinding wind.

Grinder, subs. (college).—1. A private tutor; a coach (q.v.). Cf., Crammer.

1812. Miss Edgeworth, Patronage, ch. iii. Put him into the hands of a clever grinder or crammer, and they would soon cram the necessary portion of Latin and Greek into him.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 201. Then contriving to accumulate five guineas to pay a grinder, he routs out his old note books from the bottom of his box and commences to read.

1841. A. Smith, ‘The London Medical Student’ in Punch, i., p. 229. G was a grinder, who sharpen’d the the fools.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. v. She sent me down here with a grinder. She wants me to cultivate my neglected genius.

English Synonyms.—Bones; chatterers; cogs; crashing cheats; dining-room furniture (or chairs); dinner-set; dominoes; front-rails; Hampstead Heath (rhyming); head rails; ivories; park-palings (or railings); snagglers; tushes (or tusks); tomb-stones.

French Synonyms.—Les soeurs blanches (thieves’ = the ‘white sisters’ or ivories); les chocottes (thieves’); les cassantes (thieves’ = grinders); les broches (popular = head-rails); les crocs (popular = tusks); le clou de giroflé (common = a decayed, black tooth); les branlantes (popular = the quakers: specifically, [217]old men’s teeth); le mobilier (thieves’ = furniture); les meules de moulin (popular = millstones); le jeu de dominos (thieves’ = dominoes); les osanores (thieves’); les osselets (thieves’ = bonelets); les palettes (popular and thieves’); la batterie (= the teeth, throat, and tongue).

Italian Synonyms.—Merlo (= battlement); sganascio; rastrelliera (= the rack).

1640. Humphrey Mill, Night’s Search, Sect. 39, p. 194. Her grinders white, her mouth must show her age.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. IV. Author’s Prologue. The devil of one musty crust of a brown George the poor boys had to scour their grinders with.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Grinder, s.v. The Cove has Rum Grinders, the Rogue has excellent Teeth.

1693. Dryden, Juvenal, x., 365. One, who at sight of supper open’d wide His jaws before, and whetted grinders tried.

1740. Walpole, Correspondence. A set of gnashing teeth, the grinders very entire.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xlv. Like a dried walnut between the grinders of a Templar in the pit.

1817. Scott, Ivanhoe, c. 16. None who beheld thy grinders contending with these peas.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 23. With grinders dislodg’d, and with peepers both poach’d.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. iv., ch. i. A grinder having been dislodged, his pipe took possession of the aperture.

1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 83. Every now and then he would clap his head sideways on the ground, so as to get the back grinders to bear on his prey.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xiii. Sir Robert Peel, though he wished it ever so much, has no power over Mr. Benjamin Disraeli’s grinders, or any means of violently handling that gentleman’s jaw.

1871. Chambers’ Jour., 9 Dec., p. 772. My grinders is good enough for all the wittels I gets.

To take a grinder, verb. phr. (common).—To apply the left thumb to the nose, and revolve the right hand round it, as if to work a hand-organ or coffee-mill; to take a sight (q.v.); to work the coffee-mill (q.v.). [A street boy’s retort on an attempt to impose on his good faith or credulity.]

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxxi. Here Mr. Jackson smiled once more upon the company; and, applying his left thumb to the tip of his nose, worked a visionary coffee-mill with his right hand, thereby performing a very graceful piece of pantomime (then much in vogue, but now, unhappily, almost obsolete) which was familiarly denominated taking a grinder.

1870. Athenæum, 8 July. ‘Rev. of Comic Hist. of United States.’ He finds himself confronted by a plumed and lightly-clad Indian, who salutes him with what street-boys term a grinder.

Grinding-house, subs. (old).—1. The House of Correction. For synonyms, see Cage.

1614. Terence in English. The fellow is worthy to be put into the grinding-house.

2. (venery).—A brothel. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop. [Grinding-tool = the penis.] [218]

Grinding-mill, subs. (common).—The house of a tutor or Coach (q.v.) where students are prepared for an examination.

Grind-off (or Grindo), subs. (common).—A miller. [From a character in The Miller and his Men.]

Grindstone, subs. (common).—1. A tutor; a coach (q.v.).

To bring (hold, put, or keep) one’s nose to the grindstone, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To oppress, harass, or punish; to treat harshly. To have one’s nose kept to the grindstone = to be held to a bargain, or at work.

1578. North, Plutarch, p. 241. They might be ashamed, for lack of courage, to suffer the Lacedæmonians to hold their noses to the grindstone.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hold. Hold his nose to the grindstone, to keep him Under, or Tie him Neck and Heels in a Bargain.