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

Hard-mouthed, adj. (colloquial).—Difficult to deal with; wilful; obstinate. Also coarse in speech. [From the stable.]

1686. Durfey, Commonw. of Wordes, i., 1. [Speaking of a girl.] I hate your young Wechees, Skitish Colts—they are so hard mouth’d, there’s no dealing with em.

1704. Swift, Tale of a Tub, Sect. ix. I myself, the author of these momentous truths, am a person, whose imaginations are hard-mouthed, and exceedingly disposed to run away with his reason.

1704. Swift, Operation of the Spirit, Sect. ii., par. 9. The flesh … when it comes to the turn of being bearer, is wonderfully headstrong and hard-mouthed.

Hard-neck, subs. (tailors’).—Brazen impudence, monumental cheek (q.v.). [270]

Hard-on, adj. phr. (venery).—Prick-proud. For synonyms, see Horn.

Hard-pan, subs. phr. (American).—The lowest point; bed-rock (q.v.).

1882. Besant, All Sorts and Conditions of Men, ch. xxi. And as for business, it’s got down to the hard pan, and dollars are skurce.

1861. Holmes, Elsie Venner, ch. viii. Mr. Silas Peckham had gone a little deeper than he meant, and came upon the hard pan, as the well-diggers call it, of the Colonel’s character, before he thought of it.

To get down to hard-pan, verb. phr. (American).—To buckle to; to get to business.

Hard-puncher, subs. (common).—The fur cap of the London rough; formerly worn by men in training; a modification of the Scotch cap with a peak. [From the nickname of a noted pugilist.]

Hard-pushed, adv. (colloquial).—In difficulties; hard-up (q.v.).

a. 1871. Perils of Pearl Street, p. 123. As I said, at the end of six months we began to be hard-pushed. Our credit, however, was still fair.

Hard Put To, adj. phr. (colloquial).—In a difficulty, monetary or other; e.g., He’d be hard put to it to find a sovereign (or a word, or an excuse) = It would take him all his time, etc.

Hard-row. See Row.

Hard-run, adj. (colloquial).—In want of money; hard-up (q.v.)

Hard-shell, subs. (American).—A member of an extreme section of Baptists holding very strict and rigid views. [The soft-shells are of more liberal mind.] Also Hards and Softs.

1848. Jones, Sketches of Travel, p. 30. The old hard-shell laid about him like rath.

1888. Baltimore Sun. Mr. E., a regular member of the hard-shell Baptist Church.

1893. Stevenson, Island Night’s Entertainments, p. 35. He’s a hard-shell Baptist is Papa.

2. (political American).—A division of the Democratic Party in 1846–48, when the Hunkers (q.v.) received the name of Hards, and their opponents, the Barn-burners (q.v.) that of Softs.

1847. Robb, Squatter Life, p. 91. Hards, softs, whigs and Tylerites were represented.

Hard-stuff, subs. (American).—1. Money.

2. (Australian).—Intoxicating liquors; see Hard (adj. sense 2). For synonyms see Drinks.

Hard-tack, subs. (nautical).—1. Ship’s biscuits; specifically, ordinary sea-fare as distinguished from food ashore, or Soft-Tommy (q.v.).

1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. lxxxviii. No more hard-tack, thought I, no salt butter, but a genuine land breakfast.

1889. Lippincott, Oct., p. 476. They have feasted on salt horse and hard-tack many a day; but they know a good thing when they find it.

Hard-up, subs. (common).—1. A collector of cigar ends, a topper-hunter. [Which refuse, untwisted and chopped up, is sold to the very poor.] Sometimes Hard-cut. Fr., un mégottier.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., p. 5. The cigar-end finders, or hard-ups, as they are called, who collect the refuse pieces of smoked cigars from the gutters, and having dried them, sell them as tobacco to the very poor.

1888. Tit Bits, 24 March, 373. Smoking hard-up is picking up the stumps of cigars thrown away in the streets, cutting them up, and smoking them in the pipe.

1891. Morning Advertiser, 26 Mar. A constable on duty on the Embankment early in the morning saw the accused prowling about, and on asking what he was doing, received the reply that he was looking for hard cut.—Mr. Vaughan: Looking for what?—The Prisoner: Hard-cut; dropped cigar-ends.

Adv. phr. (colloquial).—1. Very badly in want of money; in urgent need of anything. Also Hard-run and Hard-pushed.

1809–41. Th. Hook, The Sutherlands. He returned, and being hard up, as we say, took it into his head to break a shop-window at Liverpool, and take out some trumpery trinket stuff.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 104. There I met in with two Edinburgh snibs, who were hard up.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Merchant of Venice.’ Who by showing at Operas, Balls, Plays, and Court, … Had shrunk his ‘weak means,’ and was ‘stump’d’ and hard up.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xi. He … was, not to put too fine a point upon it hard-up.

1865. New York Herald. This anxiety … shows conclusively that they are hard-up for political capital.

1871. Lond. Figaro, 25 Jan. For years, England has been a refuge for hard-up German princelings.

1887. Manville Fenn, This Man’s Wife, i., 13. I don’t look hard up do I? No, because you’ve spent my money on your wretched dress.

1891. Fun, 25 Mar. You’re hard up, ain’t you? Stumped? Well, it’s Threadneedle Street to a frying-pan, that if Popsy knew your real name, he’d lend you a thousand or two like a shot.

English Synonyms.—Many under floored apply equally to hard-up; others are:—At low water mark; cracked up; dead-broke; down on one’s luck; fast; in Queer Street; in the last of pea time; in the last run of shad; low down; low in the lay; oofless; out of favor with the oof-bird; pebble-beached; seedy; short; sold-up; stony-broke; strapped; stuck; stumped; suffering from an attack of the week’s (or month’s) end; tight; on one’s uppers; under a cloud; on one’s beam ends.

French Synonyms.—Se mettre dans le bœuf (common = to go in for block ornaments (q.v.)); être en brindezingue (mountebanks = gone to smash); être brouillé avec la monnaie (familiar = to have had a row with one’s banker); être coupé (printers’); être à la côte (familiar = on the shelf); être fauché (thieves’ = cut down); être dans la purée (thieves’); être molle (thieves’); être à la faridon (popular); être en dèche (popular); être désargenté (thieves’ = oofless); être bref (popular = short); être à fond de cale (popular = down to bed-rock); être à la manque (popular = on short commons); manger de la misère (popular = to sup sorrow); être dans le lac (popular = a hole); être pané (general); panné comme la Hollande (general = very hard up). [272]

Spanish Synonyms.—Estar pelado or ser un pelado (= skinned); tiñoso (= scabby).

Hard-upness or Hard-uppishness, subs. (colloquial).—Poverty; a condition of impoverishment.

1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack. There were frequent … collapses from death or hard-upness.

1883. Illust. London News, 26 May, p. 519, c. 3. These I O U’s … do not imply, as might be supposed, common hardupness.

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 28. Ike’s knowledge of some of the bookmakers he had met in the old land led him to believe that hard-uppishness would scare any knight of the pencil away.

Hardware (or Hard), subs. (American).—Counterfeit coin.

Hardware-bloke, subs. (thieves’).—A native of Birmingham; a Brum (q.v.).

Hardy-annual, subs. (Parliamentary).—A bill that is brought in every year, but never passed into law. Hence (journalistic), any stock subject.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Aug., p. 4, c. 2. Signs of the so called ‘silly season’ which has been somewhat delayed this year owing to the political crisis, are now beginning to appear. The readers of the Daily Telegraph are once more filling the columns of that journal with ‘Is Marriage a Failure?’ The hardy annual is called ‘English Wives’ this time.

Hare, verb. (old).—To dodge; to double; to bewilder.

1672. Marvell, Rehearsal, Tr. (Grosart), iii, 372. They amaze, shatter and hare their people.

To hare it, verb. phr. (American thieves’).—To retrace one’s steps; to double back. [From the way of a hare with the hounds.]

To make a hare of, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make ridiculous; to expose the ignorance of any person.

1830–32. Carleton, Traits and Stories, ‘The Hedge-School.’ What a hare that made of him … and did not leave him a leg to stand on!

1844. Lever, Tom Burke of Ours, ii., 393. It was Mister Curran made a hare of your Honor that day.

To swallow a hare, verb. phr. (old).—To get very drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. He has swallowed a hare, he is drunk, more probably a hair which requires washing down.

To hold with the hare and hunt with the hounds, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To play a double game; to keep on good terms with two conflicting parties.

To kiss the hare’s foot, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be late; to be a day after the fair; to kiss the post. [273]

Hare-brained (or Hair-brained), adj. (old colloquial: now recognised).—Reckless; flighty; impudent; skittish. Also, substantively, hare-brain = a hare-brained person.

1534. N. Udal, Roister Doister, I., iv., p. 27 (Arber). Ah foolish hare-braine, This is not she.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, in Wks., ii., 53. A harebraind little Dwarfe it is.

1621. Burton, Anat. of Mel., I., III., I., ii., 259 (1836). Yet again, many of them, desperate hare-brains.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xliii. When the government of a nation depends upon the caprice of the ignorant, hair-brained vulgar.

1870. Chambers’ Miscellany, No. 53, p. 28. The Slater girls are as hare-brained as herself.

Hared, adj. (old).—Hurried.

Hare-sleep, subs. (old).—Sham slumber; foxes’ sleep (q.v.).

Harking, subs. (old).—See quots.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Harking, whispering on one side to borrow Money.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hark-ye-ing, whispering on one side to borrow money.

Harlequin, subs. (theatrical).—1. A sovereign. For synonyms, see Canary.

Harlequin China, adj. phr. (old).—Sets composed of several patterns and makes.

Harlotry, subs. (old).—A wanton.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, iv., i. But O the harlotry, did she make that use of it then.

1893. T. E. Brown, Old John, p. 205. That specious harlotry from hell’s black bosom spewed.

1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., ii., 4. Oh rare! he doth it as like one of these harlotry players, as ever I see.

Harman-beck (or Harman), subs. (old).—An officer of justice. For synonyms, see Beak and Copper.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-All. With the harman-beake out and alas to Whittington we goe.

1656. Broome, Jovial Crew, ii. Here safe in our skipper let’s cly off our peck, And bowse in defiance o’ th’ harman-beck.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xvii. From the watchmen who skip On the Harman Beck’s errand.

Harmans, subs. (Old Cant).—The stocks. [The suffix ‘mans’ is common; Cf., lightmans, darkmans, roughmans, etc.]

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-All, p. 39 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). Harmons the stockes. [274]

Harness. In Harness, adj. phr. (colloquial).—In business; at work: as, to die in harness = to die at one’s post; to get back into harness = to resume work after a holiday. [Harness also = armour.]

1872. Fun, 10 Aug. ‘Over.’ Aye! But the sting of it’s here, Just as I’m back into harness, Others are off to sea, mountain, and mere.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 2. My father died in harness.

Harp, interject. (Irish).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Harp … harp is also the Irish expression for ‘woman’ or ‘tail,’ used in tossing up in Ireland, from Hibernia being represented with a harp, on the reverse of the copper coins of that country, for which reason it is in hoisting the copper, i.e., tossing up, sometimes likewise called music.

To harp on, verb. phr. (old, now recognised).—To dwell persistently and at any cost upon a subject.

1596. Nashe, Have with you to Saffron Walden. As if I had continually harped upon it in every tenth line of my book.

Harper, subs. (old).—A brass coin current in Ireland, temp. Elizabeth, value one penny. [From the Irish Harp figured upon it.]

1574–1637. Ben Jonson, The Gipsies Metamorphosed. A two-pence I had to spend ever and above; besides the harper that was gathered amongst us to pay the piper.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Have among you my blind harpers, an expression used in throwing or shooting at random among a crowd.

Harridan, subs. (old, now recognised).—See quots. Also (colloquial) a disagreeable old woman. [A corruption of O. Fr. haridelle = a worn out horse, a jade.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Harridan, one that is half Whore, half Bawd.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. ii., p. 27. Old Leachers, Harridans, and Cracks.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Harridan, a hagged old woman, a miserable scraggy worn out harlot, fit to take her bawd’s degree.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch., xxxix. ‘Now what could drive it into the noddle of that old harridan,’ said Pleydell.

Harrington, subs. (old).—A brass farthing. [Lord Harrington obtained a patent of manufacture under James I.]

1616. B. Jonson, Devil is an Ass, ii., 1. Yes, sir, it’s cast to penny half-penny farthing, O’ the back side there you may see it, read; I will not bate a Harrington o’ the sum.

1632. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, ii., 6. His wit he cannot so dispose by legacy As they shall be a Harrington the better for’t.

Harry, subs. (old).—1. A countryman; a clown. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, ii., 1. By the Lord Harry I’ll stay no longer.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (1865), p. 406. Shall I summon Old Harry himself to this spot?

To play old Harry, verb. phr. (common).—To annoy; to ruin; to play the devil.

1889. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 18 Jan. Otherwise played old Harry with the guardians of the peace.

Tom, Dick, and Harry, phr. (common).—Generic for any and everybody; the mob.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 287. He rode from public house to public house and shouted his sorrows into the lug of Tom, Dick, and Harry.

What Harry gave Doll, verb. phr. (old venery).—The penis: also generic for fornication.

Harry-bluff, subs. (rhyming).—Snuff.

Harry-common, subs. phr. (old).—A general wencher.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, v., 4. Well, Harry Common, I hope you can be true to three.

Harry-soph, subs. (Cambridge Univ.: obsolete).—See quots.

1795. Gent. Mag., p. 20. A Harry, or errant Soph, I understand to be either a person, four-and-twenty years of age, and of an infirm state of health, who is permitted to dine with the fellows, and to wear a plain, black, full-sleeved gown: or, else, he is one who, having kept all the terms, by statute required previous to his law-act, is hoc ipso facto entitled to wear the same garment, and, thenceforth, ranks as bachelor, by courtesy.

1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam. Harry Soph; or Henry Sophister; students who have kept all the terms required for a law act, and hence are ranked as Bachelors of Law by courtesy. They wear a plain, black, full-sleeved gown.

Harum-scarum, adj. and subs. (old colloquial).—1. Giddy; careless; wild; a thoughtless or reckless fellow.

1740. Round about our Coal Fire, c. i. Peg would scuttle about to make a toast for John, while Tom run harum scarum to draw a jug of ale for Margery.

1780 Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, i., 358 [ed. 1842]. He seemed a mighty rattling harem-scarem gentleman.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Harum Scarum, he was running harum scarum, said of any one running or walking carelessly and in a hurry, after they know not what.

1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. xcii. I’m not one of those harum-scarum sort, who would make up a fight when there’s no occasion for it.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. v. They had a quarrel with Thomas Newcome’s own son, a harum-scarum lad, who ran away, and then was sent to India.

1870. London Figaro, 19 Oct. ‘Within an inch.’ Tom—that’s my son—has worked with me in the mine ever since he was quite a little chap; and a harum-scarum young dog he was, when a boy.

Has-been, subs. (colloquial Scots’).—Anything antiquated; specifically in commendation: as ‘the good old has-beens’; cf., never was.

1891. Sportsman, 1 Apr. Big Joe M’Auliffe proved conclusively that he is one of the has beens or else one of the never wasers, as Dan Rice, the circus man, always called ambitious counterfeits. [276]

Hash, subs. (colloquial).—1. A mess; specifically in the phrase ‘to make a hash of.’ For synonyms, see Sixes and Sevens.

1747. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 23 Feb. (1833) Vol. II., p. 274. About as like it, as my Lady Pomfret’s hash of plural persons and singular verbs or infinitive moods was to Italian.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 115 [Ry. ed.]. Listado never could compass Spanish, because, as he said, he had previously learnt French, and thus spoke a hash of both.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘M. of Venice.’ Don’t suppose my affairs are at all in a hash, But the fact is, at present I’m quite out of cash.

1845. Punch’s Guide to Servants, ‘The Cook,’ Vol. IX., p. 45. He who gives a receipt for making a stew, may himself make a sad hash of it.

1889. Sporting Life, 30 Jan. Successfully negotiated the tricky entrance to the stable-yard of the hotel, at which job I have been in a mortal funk many a time with poor old Jim beside me, for fear of making a hash of it.

1890. Grant Allen, Tents of Shem, ch. xvi. She made a hash of the proper names, to be sure.

1891. Notes and Queries, 7 S. xii., 22 Aug., p. 144. I do not think that Earle, a scholar of a high order and a man of the most keen wit and judgment, would have spoken thus of a thing hashed up by a hard-headed pedant, however able, such as Gauden.

2. (American).—To vomit. Also to flash the hash (q.v.). For synonyms, see Accounts and Cat.

To settle one’s hash, verb. phr. (common).—To defeat one’s object; to kill. For synonyms, see Cook one’s Goose.

1864. Browning, Dramatis Personæ. ‘Youth and Art.’ You’ve to settle yet Gibson’s hash.

c. 1871. Butler, Nothing to Wear. To use an expression More striking than classic, it settled my hash.

1883. Punch, Nov. 3, p. 208, c. 1. That one stab, with a clasp-knife, which settled the young Squire’s hash in less than two seconds.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 123. We’ll keep the cops off till you settle his hash, the rest replied, getting round us.

To go back on one’s hash, verb. phr. (American).—To turn; to succumb; to weaken (q.v.).

Hash-house, subs. (American).—A cheap eating-house; a grubbing crib (q.v.).

1883. Daily Telegraph, 10 Jan., p. 5, c. 4. There are [in New York] lunch counters, cookshops, ‘penny’ restaurants, fifteen-cent restaurants, commonly called hash-houses and foreign cafés.

Haslar-hag, subs. (nautical).—A nurse at the Haslar Hospital. Cf., Hag.

Hastings. To be none of the Hastings sort, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—To be slow, deliberate, or slothful.

1690. b. e., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. You are none of the Hastings, of him that loses an Opportunity or a Business for want of Dispatch. [277]

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. He is none of the Hastings sort; a saying of a slow, loitering fellow: an allusion to the Hastings pea, which is the first in season.

Hasty, adj. (old: now recognised).—Rash; passionate; quick to move.

1883. Daily News, 24 Mar., p. 5, c. 2. Mr. Weller’s own hasty g. (as Cambridge men say when they mean a ‘hasty generalisation’).

Hasty Pudding, subs. (common).—1. A bastard. For synonyms, see Bloody Escape.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. The way through Wandsworth is quite a hasty pudding.

Hat, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—1. A gentleman commoner. [Who is permitted to wear a hat instead of the regulation mortar-board.] Also Gold Hatband.

1628. Earle, Microcosmographie. ‘Young Gentleman of the Universitie’ (ed., Arber, 1868). His companion is ordinarily some stale fellow that has beene notorious for an ingle to gold hatbands, whom hee admires at first, afterwards scornes.

1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam. Hat Commoner; the son of a Nobleman, who wears the gown of a Fellow Commoner with a hat.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. xxxii. I knew intimately all the hats in the University.

1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, bk. I., ch. i. He had certainly nourished the belief that some one of the hats or tinsel gowns—i.e., young lords or fellow-commoners, with whom he was on such excellent terms … would do something for him in the way of a living.

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

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, i., 6 (note). I shall conclude this learned note with remarking that the term old hat is used by the vulgar in no very honourable sense.

1760. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ch. cxxvi. A chapter of chambermaids, green gowns, and old hats.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. [‘Because often felt.’] See also Top Diver.

3. (Scots’).—A prostitute of long standing. For synonyms, see Barrack-Hack and Tart.

To eat one’s hat (or head), verb. phr. (common).—Generally, I’ll eat my hat. Used in strong emphasis. See Eat.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xlii., 367. ‘If I knew as little of life as that, I’d eat my hat and swallow the buckle whole,’ said the clerical gentleman.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xiv. Even admitting the possibility of scientific improvements being ever brought to that pass which will enable a man to eat his own head, Mr. Grimwig’s head was such a particularly large one that the most sanguine man alive could hardly entertain a hope of being able to get through it at a sitting.

1844. J. B. Buckstone, The Maid with the Milking Pail. If you are not as astonished as I was, I’ll eat old Rowley’s hat.

1887. E. E. Money, Little Dutch Maiden, II., viii., 148. And if you don’t run up against him next day in Bond Street, you may eat your hat!

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 38. If some of the swells didn’t ditto, I’ll eat my old hat, which it’s tough.

To have a brick in one’s hat, verb. phr. (American).—To be top-heavy with drink. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

To pass (or send) round the hat, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make a collection.

To talk through one’s hat, verb. phr. (American).—To rag; to huff; to bluster.

1888. New York World, 13 May. Dis is only a bluff dey’re makin’—see! Dey’re talkin’ tru deir hats.

All round my hat, phr. (streets).—A derisive retort. [From a Broadside Ballad, popular c. 1830: ‘All round my hat I wears a green willow, All round my hat for a twelvemonth and a day, And if any one should ask you the reason why I wear it, Tell them my true love is gone far away’; sung to a tune adapted from a number in Zampa.] Also, as in quot. = all over; completely; generally.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 54. I’m a ’ot un, mate, all round my ’at.

Shoot that hat! phr. (streets).—A derisive retort. Also I’ll have your hat! Both circa 1860–72.

Well, you can take my hat! phr. (American) = ‘Well, that beats me,’ i.e., ‘that is past belief.’

1873. A Yankee in a Planter’s House. ‘What’s yer name?’ ‘Name Grief, manssa.’ ‘Name what?’ ‘Name Grief.’ ‘Get out! Yew’re jokin’! What’s yer name, anyhow?’ ‘Name Grief manssa.’ ‘Wal, yew kin take my hat.’

What a shocking bad hat, phr. (streets).—[Said to have originated with a candidate for parliamentary honours, who made the remark to his poorer constituents, and promised them new head-gear.]

1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall, 140. Lord B. Regular bounder! Shocking bad hat! Ver. Not so bad as his boots, and they are not so bad as his face.

Hatch, verb. (common).—To be brought to bed with child; to bust up (q.v.).

To be under hatches, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be in a state of trouble, poverty or depression. Also dead.

1606. Marston, The Fawne, iv. Remember hee got his elder brother’s wife with child … that will stow him under hatches, I warrant you.

1632–1704. Locke [quoted in Ency. Dict.]. He assures us how this fatherhood continued its course, till the captivity in Egypt, and then the poor fatherhood was under hatches.

1639–1661. Rump Songs, i. [1662], 260. And all her orphans bestowed under hatches.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Under the hatches, in trouble, distress, or debt.

1789. Dibdin, Tom Bowling, For though his body’s under hatches his soul has gone aloft.

1835. Buckstone, Dream at Sea. iii., 3. Good-bye, dame, cheer up; you may not always be under hatches.

Hatchet, subs. (tailors’).—1. An ill-favoured woman. For general synonyms, see Ugly Mug. [279]

2. (American).—A bribe received by Customs officers in New York for permitting imported dutiable goods to remain on the wharf when they ought to go to the general store-house.

To throw (or sling) the hatchet, verb. phr. (common).—1. To tell lies, to yarn; to draw the long bow (q.v.). Hence hatchet flinging (or throwing) = lying or yarning.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 94. This is a fault, which many of good understanding may fall into, who, from giving way too much to the desire of telling anecdotes, adventures, and the like, habituate themselves by degrees to a mode of the hatchet-flinging extreme.

1821. P. Egan, Life in London, p. 217. There is nothing creeping or throwing the hatchet about this description.

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. xx. We had to call her mother, and, if anyone stopped, she’d sling the hatchet to them, and tell them she was a poor lone widow left with five children.

Hatchet-faced, adj. (old colloquial: now recognised).—See quots. For synonyms, see Ugly-mug.

1865. Sala, Trip to Barbary, p. 130. The man in black baize with the felt képi, and who had a hatchet face desperately scarred with the small-pox, looked from head to heel a bad egg.

1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 7. His hatchet face with its piggish eyes, his thin cruel lips, his square jaw, are all murderous.

Hatch, Match, and Dispatch Column, subs. phr. (journalistic).—The births, marriages, and deaths announcements. Also Cradle, Altar and Tomb Column.

Hatchway, subs. (common).—1. The mouth. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

2. (venery).—The female pudendum. Also Fore-hatch. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Hate-out, verb. (American).—To boycott; to send to Coventry.

18(?). S. Kercheval, History of Virginia. The punishment for idleness, lying, dishonesty, and ill-fame generally, was that of hating the offender out, as they expressed it. It commonly resulted in the reformation or banishment of the person against whom it was directed. If a man did not do his share of the public service, he was hated-out as a coward.

Hatfield, subs. (common).—A drink, whose chief ingredients are gin and ginger-beer.

1883. Daily News, 5 July, p. 5, c. 1. There are, we believe, all sorts of strong waters in the mild-looking and seductive hatfield, while the majority of ‘cups’ are distinctly ‘mixed.’

Hatful, subs. (colloquial).—A large quantity; a heap.

1859. Punch, lxxx., vi., 236. If they had trusted their own judgment they would have won a hatful.

1864. M. E. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. xxii. He was in a very good temper however, for he had won what his companions called a hatful of money on the steeple-chase.

Hatpeg, subs. (common).—The head. For synonyms, see Crumpet.

Hatter, subs. (Australian).—A gold-digger working alone.

1881. A. Bathgate, Waitaruna, p. 88. He is what they call a hatter, that is he works alone.

1885. Chambers’ Journal, 2 May, p. 286. Some prefer to travel, and even to work, when they can get it, alone, and these are known to the rest as hatters. [280]

1890. Illustrations, p. 158. The former occupant was what is known as a hatter, i.e., a digger living by himself.

1890. Marriott Watson, Broken Billy. He was looked upon as a hatter, that is to say, a man who has lived by himself until his brain has been turned.

Hat-trick, subs. (cricket).—Taking three wickets with three consecutive balls: which feat is held to entitle the bowler to a new hat at the cost of the club.

1888. Sportsman, 28 Nov. Mr. Absolom has performed the hat trick twice, and at Tufnell Park he took four wickets with four balls.

1892. Cassell’s Sat. Jour. 21 Sept., p. 13, c. 2. On one occasion I succeeded in doing the hat trick.

1892. Woolwich Polytechnic Mag., 20 May. Three of these wickets were taken in succession, thus accomplishing the hat-trick.

Hat-work, subs. (journalists’).—Hack work; such stuff as may be turned out by the yard without reference to quality.

1888. H. Rider Haggard, Mr. Meeson’s Will, c. 1. And five-and-twenty tame authors (who were illustrated by thirteen tame artists) sat—at salaries ranging from one to five hundred a year—in vault-like hutches in the basement, and week by week poured out that hat-work for which Meeson’s was justly famous.

Haulable, adj. (University).—Used of a girl whose society authorities deem undesirable for the men: e.g., she’s haulable = a man caught with her will be proctorised.

Haul-bowline, subs. (nautical).—A seaman. For synonyms, see Strawyarder.

Haul-devil, subs. (common).—A clergyman. For synonyms, see Devil-dodger and Sky-pilot.

Haut-boy (or Ho-boy), subs. (American).—A night scavenger; a jakesman or gold-finder (q.v.).

Have, subs. (common).—1. A swindle; a take-in (q.v.); a do (q.v.). For synonyms, see Sell.

2. in. pl. (common).—The moneyed classes; as opposed to the Have-nots, their antipodes.

1893. National Observer, Feb. 25, ix., 357. A body whose policy is to make the Have-nots as comfortable and objectionable as possible at the cost in coin and comfort of the Haves.

Is that a Catch or a Have? verb. phr. (vulgar).—A formula of acknowledgment that the speaker has been ‘had.’ [If the person addressed be unwise enough to answer with a definition, the instant retort is ‘Then you catch (or have, as the case may be) your nose up my arse.’]

1805. G. Harrington, New London Spy (4th Ed.) p. 26. Ten to one but you are had, a cant word they make use of, instead of saying, as the truth is, we have cheated him. [281]

1825. Egan, Life of an Actor, ch. iv. ‘He’s not to be had,’ said Gag, in an audible whisper.

1878. Hatton, Cruel London, bk. II., ch. v. ‘They have had me, bless you,’ said Brayford, ‘the men who have “limbed” you.’

1889. Answers, 23 Feb., p. 196, c. 2. But even these fellows, sharp as they are, have been caught napping lately in a humorous way. Those who have had them have been young fellows with friends inside the Stock Exchange.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 23 Jan. I never felt so wild in my life. I’m no fool, you know, and I began to think I was being had a bit.

1892. Illus. Bits, 22 Oct., p. 14. c. 2. Oh, mebboy, Oi wasn’t t’ be had that way. Oi always kape resates—spishully Gov’ment wans. Oi got it safe and cosy in me pocket-book.

2. (venery).—To possess carnally. [Said indifferently of, and by, both sexes.] For synonyms, see Greens.

To have (or take) it out of one, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To punish; to retaliate; to extort a quid pro quo; to give tit for tat.

To have it out with one, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To speak freely in reproof; to complete an explanation; to settle a dispute with either words or blows.

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society, ch. xix. Instead of going down to St. Eve’s and having it out, he fretted, and worried, and fumed the six days away.

1888. Daily News, 8 Dec. There was a question as to who struck the first blow, but it seemed to him certain that a man who crossed the road to have it out with another was the most likely to have commenced hostilities.

To have on, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To secure a person’s interest, attention, sympathy: generally with a view to deceiving him (or her).

To have towards (or with, or at), verb. phr. (old).—1. To pledge in drinking; to toast. See Here.

1637. Cartwright, Royal Slave. Here’s to thee, Leocrates. Leoc. Have towards thee, Philotas. Phil. To thee, Archippus. Arch. Here, Molops. Mol. Have at you, fidlers.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. ‘Have with you, boy—have with you,’ shouted half-a-dozen other voices, while each stuck his oaken twig through the handkerchief that held his bundle, and shouldered it, clapping his straw or tarpaulin hat, with a slap on the crown, on one side of his head, and staggering and swaying about under the influence of the poteen.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 8. ‘Hurraw, Dick, mind your hair,’ and I ups old Greaser and let one Injun have it, as was going plum into the boy with his lance.

Have up, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To bring before the authorities; to summons (q.v.).

Havercake-lads, subs. phr. (Military).—The Thirty-third Foot. [From the circumstance that its recruiting sergeants always preceded their party with an oatcake on their swords.] [282]

Havey-cavey, adj. (old).—Uncertain; doubtful; shilly-shally.

Havil, subs. (old).—A sheep. For synonyms, see Wool-bird.

Havock, subs. (old: now recognised).—Devastation; waste.

1607. Shakspeare, Julius Cæsar, iii., 1. Cry havock, and let slip the dogs of war.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. They made sad Havock, they Destroy’d all before ’em.

Hawcubite, subs. (old).—A roysterer; a street bully. [After the Restoration there was a succession of these disturbers of the peace: first came the Muns, then followed the Tityre Tus, the Hectors, the Scourers, the Nickers, the Hawcubites, and after them the Mohawks (q.v.).]

Hawk, subs. (common).—1. A card-sharper; a rook (q.v.).

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hawk also signifies a sharper, in opposition to pigeon.

1891. New York Herald [London ed.], 31 May. These were hawks and pigeons, and those who are no longer pigeons, and never had, or will have, an inclination to be hawks.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. I., ch. iii. ‘The game’s spoiled this time, Rob Rust, anyhow,’ growled one, in an angry tone; ‘the hawks are upon us, and we must leave this brave buck to take care of himself.’

1589. Nashe, Anatomie, Whereas, by their humming and hawking … they have leisure to gesture the mislike of his rudeness.

1600. Shakspeare, As You Like It, v., 3. Shall we clap into ’t roundly, without hawking, or spitting, or saying we are hoarse?

1604. Marston, Malcontent, ii., 2. Is he troubled with the cough of the lungs still? Does he hawke a night’s?

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. … Hawking, an effort to spit up the thick phlegm, called oysters, whence it is wit upon record, to ask the person so doing, whether he has a license, a punning allusion to the act of hawkers and pedlars.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xlvi. This tremendous volley of superlatives which Sampson hawked up from the pit of his stomach.

1822. Byron, Vision of Judgment, xc. To cough and hawk, and hem, and pitch His voice into that awful note of woe.

1625. Jonson, Staple of News, v. 2. See! the whole covey is scattered; ware, ware the hawks!

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hawk, ware hawk, the word to look sharp, a bye-word when a bailiff passes.

To hawk one’s meat, verb. phr. (common).—To peddle one’s charms, i.e., to show a great deal of neck and breasts. Fr., montrer sa viande.

Hawk-a-mouthed, adj. phr. (old).—See quot. [283]

c. 1750. Dialogue in the Devonshire Dialect (Palmer, 1839) s.v. One that is perpetually hawking and spitting; also foul-mouthed.

Hawker, subs. (old: now recognized).—A pedlar.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hawkers, licensed itinerant retailers of different commodities, called also pedlars; likewise the sellers of newspapers.

Hawking, verb. subs. (old: now recognised).—Peddling; offering small wares for sale from door to door. Also see quot. 1690.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hawking, going about Town and Country with Scotch-Cloth, etc., or News-Papers: also Spitting difficultly.