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

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, (3rd ed.), p. 445. Begging letters—the highfly.

Highflyer, subs. (old).—1. Anything or anybody out of the common, in opinion, pretension, attire, and so forth: as a prostitute (high-priced and well-dressed); an adventurer (superb in impudence and luck). 2. A dandy, male or female, of the first water. 3. A fast coach.

1690. Dryden. Prol. to Mistakes in Wks., p. 473 (Globe). He’s no high-flyer—he makes no sky-rockets, His squibs are only levelled at your pockets.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. High-flyers, Impudent, Forward, Loose, Light Women. Also, bold adventurers.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, i., 1. Well, as high a flyer as you are, I have a lure may make you stoop.

1706. R. Estcourt, Fair Example, Act i., p. 10. You may keep company with the highest flyer of ’em all.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, i. Mail-coach races against mail-coach, and high-flyer against high-flyer, through the most remote districts of Britain.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, v. As you have your high-fliers at Almack’s, at the West End, we have also some ‘choice creatures’ at our All Max in the East.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. High-flyers—women of the town, in keeping, who job a coach, or keep a couple of saddle-horses at least.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, (Ed. 1854) p. 75. Howsomever, the high-flyers doesn’t like him; and when he takes people’s money, he need not be quite so cross about it!

1860. Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller, xxii., p. 131. The old room on the ground floor where the passengers of the High-flyers used to dine.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, i., 5. Mrs. Boffin, Wegg … is a ’ighflyer at fashion.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 40. Foller yer leader, … all who can carry sufficient skyscrapers to keep in the ’unt, with that ’ighflyer ’Arry.

4. (thieves’).—A beggar with a certain style; a begging-letter writer; a broken swell.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 268. While pursuing the course of a high-flyer (genteel beggar).

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 268. He was a high-flier, a genteel beggar.

1887. Standard, 20 June, p. 5, c. 2. The pretended noblemen and knights who ‘say they have suffered by war, fire, or captivity, or have been driven away, and lost all they had,’ are still represented by the high-flyers or broken-down gentlemen.

High-flying, subs. (old).—1. Extravagance in opinion, pretension or conduct.

1689. Dryden, Epil. to Lee’s Princess of Cleves, 6. I railed at wild young sparks; but without lying Never was man worse thought on for high-flying.

High-gag, subs. (American).—A whisperer.—Matsell.

High-game, subs. (thieves’).—See quot.

1889. C. T. Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson, Police, p. 321. A mansion … a high game.

High-gig. In High-gig, adv. phr. (old).—In good fettle; lively. Cf., Gig. [311]

High-go, subs. (common).—A drinking bout; a frolic.

High-heeled Shoes. To have high-heeled shoes on, verb. phr. (American).—To set up as a person of consequence; to do the grand (q.v.).

High Horse. To be (or get) on (or ride) the high horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To give oneself airs; to stand on one’s dignity; to take offence. [Fr. monter sur ses grands chevaux. The simile is common to most languages.]

1716. Addison, Freeholder, 5 Mar. He told me, he did not know what travelling was good for, but to teach a man to ride the great horse, to jabber French, and to talk against passive obedience.

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xii. He was determined to ride the high horse—and that there should be no Equality Jack in future.

1842. Comic Almanack, p. 327. Yet Dublin deems the foul extortion fair, And swears that, as he’s ridden the high horse, So long and well, she now will make him mayor.

1864. Times, 5 July. Mr. Gladstone in the Dano-German Debate. The right hon. gentleman then got on what I may call his high horse, and he would not give us the slightest opinion upon any matter of substantive policy, because that, he said, would be accepting office upon conditions.

1868. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 2nd Period, 3rd Narr., ch. ii. Miss Rachael has her faults—‘I’ve never denied it,’ he began. ‘And riding the high horse now and then is one of them.’

High-jinks, subs. (old).—1. An old game variously played. [Most frequently dice were thrown by the company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain for a time a certain fictitious character, or to repeat a certain number of fescennine verses in a particular order. If they departed from the characters assigned … they incurred forfeits, which were compounded for by swallowing an additional bumper.—Guy Mannering, 1836. Note to ch. xxxii.]

1780. Ramsay, Maggy Johnston, i., 25. The queff or cup is filled to the brim, then one of the company takes a pair of dice, and after crying Hy-jinks, he throws them out; the number he casts out points out the person that must drink; he who threw beginning at himself number one, and so round till the number of the person agree with that of the dice (which may fall upon himself if the number be within twelve); then he sets the dice to him, or bids him take them; he on whom they fall is obliged to drink, or pay a small forfeiture in money, then throws, and so on. But if he forgets to cry ‘Hy-jinks’ he pays a forfeiture into the bank. Now, he on whom it falls to drink (if there be anything in the bank worth drawing) gets it all if he drinks; then with a great deal of caution he empties his cup, sweeps up the money, and orders the cup to be filled again, and then throws; for if he errs in the articles he loses the privilege of drawing the money. The articles are—(1) Drink, (2) Draw, (3) Fill, (4) Cry ‘Hy-jinks,’ (5) Count just, (6) Chuse your doublet, man—viz., when two equal numbers of the dice is thrown, the person whom you chuse must pay a double of the common forfeiture, and so must you when the dice is in his hand (sic).

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxvi. The frolicsome company had begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of high jinks.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, lv. He had made an engagement to drive Lord Saltire, the next morning, up to Wargrave in a pony-chaise, to look at Barrymore House, and the place where the theatre stood, and where the game of high jinks had been played so bravely fifty years before.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. A gambler at dice, who, having a strong head, drinks to intoxicate his adversary, or pigeon. Under this head are also classed [312]those fellows who keep little goes, take in insurances; also, attendants at the races, and at the E O tables; chaps always on the look out to rob unwary countrymen at cards, etc.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, i. All sorts of high jinks go on on the grass plot.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 13 Sept. ‘Filey the Retired.’ Frisky Filey cannot assuredly be called. There are no high jinks on her jetty; and, besides, she hasn’t got a jetty, only a ‘Brigg.’

1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 July, 4, 2. Yesterday and to-day there have been high jinks in Petworth Park, rich and poor for miles round being invited, and right royally feasted on the coming of age of Lord and Lady Leconfield’s eldest son.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 3 Apr. While Bank Holiday was being celebrated with such éclat at Kempton, they were carrying on high jinks over hurdles and fences at Manchester.

1892. Sala’s Journal, 2 July, p. 223. High jinks with the telephone have been the order of the day at Warwick Castle; taps and wires have been turned on and off, and floods of melody of various kinds have delighted listening ears.

1893. National Observer, 25 Feb., ix., 357. Time was when there were high jinks in that vast quadrangle.

To be at his high jinks, phr. (common).—To be stilted and arrogant in manner; to ride the high horse (q.v.). Fr., faire sa merde or sa poire.

High-kicker, subs. (colloquial).—Specifically, a dancer whose speciality is the high kick or the porte d’armes; whence, by metaphor, any desperate spreester (q.v.), male or female.

High-kilted, adj. (Scots’).—Obscene or thereabouts; full flavoured (q.v.).

Highland-bail, subs. (Scots’).—The right of the strongest; force majeure.

1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxix. The mute eloquence of the miller and smith, which was vested in their clenched fists, was prepared to give Highland bail for their arbiter.

High-lawyer, subs. (old).—A highwayman. For synonyms, see Road Agent.

1592. John Day, Blind Beggar, p. 21 (Ed. Bullen). He wo’d be your prigger, your prancer, your high-lawyer.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 50 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). He first gaue termes to robbers by the high-way, that such as robbe on horse-backe were called high lawyers, and those who robbed on foote, he called Padders.

High-liver, subs. (old).—A garretteer; a thief housed in an attic. Hence, High-living = lodging in a garret.—Lex. Bal.

High-men, subs. (old).—Dice loaded to show high numbers. Also, High-runners. See Fulhams and Low-men.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller in Wks. [Grosart], v., 27. The dice of late are growen as melancholy as a dog, high men and low men both prosper alike.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, i., 3. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd and fullam holds, And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.

1605. London Prodigal, i., 1. I bequeath two bale of false dice, videlicet, high men and low men, fullams, stop-catertraies, and other bones of function.

1657–1733. John Dennis, Letters, ii., 407. Shadwell is of opinion, that your bully, with his box and his false dice, is an honester fellow than the rhetorical author, who makes use of his tropes and figures, which are his high and his low runners, to cheat us at once of our money and of our intellectuals. [313]

High-nosed, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Very proud in look and in fact; supercilious in bearing and speech; superior (q.v.).

High- [or gay-] old (time, game, liar, etc.), adj. phr. (common).—A general intensitive: e.g., high old time = a very merry time indeed; high old liar = a liar of might; high old drunk = an uncommon booze (q.v.).

1883. Referee, 11 Mar., p. 3, c. 2. All the children who have been engaged in the Drury Lane pantomime took tea on the stage, and had a high old time (while it lasted).

1888. J. McCarthy and Mrs. Campbell-Praed, Ladies’ Gallery, ch. xxxv. I went down to Melbourne, intending to have a high old time.

1891. Murray’s Mag., Aug., p. 202. There will be a Want of Confidence Motion, and a high old debate.

1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 7. You are a big fraud and a high old liar.

1892. F. Anstey, Voces Populi, ‘The Riding Class,’ p. 108. We’ve bin having a gay old time in ’ere.

High-pad (or Toby, or High-toby-splice), subs. (old).—1. The highway. Also, high-splice toby. For synonyms, see Drum.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p, 86. Roge, Nowe bynge we a waste to the hygh pad, the ruffmanes is by.

c. 1819. Slang Song (quoted in notes to Don Juan, x., 19). On the high-toby-splice flash the muzzle In spite of each gallows old scout.

1836. H. M. Milner, Turpin’s Ride to York, i., sc. 2. Come, lads a stirrup-cup at parting, and then hurrah for the game of high-toby.

1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 4. Halting for a few hours at mid-day during the heat in the high spice-toby, as we used to call the main road.

2. (old).—A highwayman. Also, high-tobyman (or -gloak). For synonyms, see Road Agent.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. High Pad, a Highwayman, Highway Robber well Mounted and Armed.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch i. Tom King, a noted high-toby gloak of his time.

1857. Punch, 31 Jan. (from slang song). That long over Newgit their Worships may rule, As the High-toby, mob, crack, and screeve model school.

1819, Vaux, Cant. Dict. High-toby, the game of highway robbery, that is exclusively on horseback.

High-pooped, adj. (colloquial).—Heavily buttocked.

High-rented, adj. (popular).—1. Hot.

High-roller, subs. (American).—A goer (q.v.); a fast liver; a heavy gambler; a highflyer (q.v.).

High-ropes. To be on the high ropes, verb. phr. (common).—To be angry or excited. Also to put on airs; to stand on one’s dignity; to ride the high-horse (q.v.).

1866. Yates, Land at Last, ii. He’s on the high ropes, is Master Charley! Some of you fellows have been lending him half a-crown, or that fool Caniche has bought one of his pictures for seven-and-six!

High-seasoned (or Highly-spiced), adj. (colloquial).—Obscene. For synonyms, see Spicy.

High- (or clouted-) shoon, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see Joskin.

High-sniffing, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Pretentious; supercilious; very obviously better than one’s company; high-nosed (q.v.).

High-stepper, subs. (common).—An exemplar, male or female, of what is fashionable in conversation, conduct, or attire; a swell (q.v.). Also, a person of spirit. Whence, adj., high-stepping (or high-pacing) = conspicuously elegant or gallant in dress, speech, manner, conduct, anything.

1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, ch. ix. From her actions and style I’m pretty certain she’s English and a high-stepper.

High-stomached, adj. (colloquial).—Proud; disdainful; very valiant.

High-strikes, subs. (common).—A corruption of ‘hysterics.’

1838. Selby, Jacques Strop, ii., 4. Capital! … didn’t I do the high-strikes famously.

1860. Miss Wetherell, Say and Seal, ch. vii. She wants you to come. I’m free to confess she’s got the high-strikes wonderful.

High-tea, subs. (colloquial).—A tea with meat, etc. In Lancashire Bagging (q.v.).

1888. Sporting Life, 15 Dec. Following run there will be high tea and a grand smoking concert, to which visitors are cordially invited.

High-ti, subs. (American: Williams Coll.).—A showy recitation; at Harvard = a squirt (q.v.).

High-tide (or water) subs. (colloquial).—Rich for the moment; The state of being flush (q.v.). For synonyms, see Well Ballasted.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. high tide when the Pocket is full of Money.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. High-tide—plenty of the possibles; whilst ‘low-water’ implies empty clies.

Up to high-water mark, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In good condition; a general expression of approval.

High-toby. See High Pad.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. Oh! the game of High-Toby for ever.

High-toned, adj. (American).—Aristocratic; also, morally and intellectually endowed; spiritually beyond the common. High-souled = cultured; fashionable. High-toned nigger = a negro who has raised himself in social position. [Once literary; now utterly discredited and never used, save in ignorance or derision.] Stokes, the maniac who shot Garfield, described himself as a ‘High-Toned Lawyer.’

1884. Phillips Woolley, Trottings of a Tender Foot. I never saw any so-called high-toned niggers. [315]

1893. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 1 Feb., p. 389, 1. One day a fashionably-dressed young man, giving an address in a high-toned suburb, called upon Messrs. Glitter.

Highty-tighty (or Hoity-toity), subs. (old).—A wanton.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xviii. La, William, don’t be so highty-tighty with us. We’re not men.

High Wood. To live in high wood, verb. phr. (common).—To hide; to dissemble of purpose; to lie low and keep quiet.

Higulcion-flips, subs. (Texas).—An imaginary ailment.

Hike, verb. (old).—To move about. Also to carry off; to arrest.

1884. Daily Telegraph, 2 Feb., p. 3, c. 1. We three, not having any regler homes nor a steady job of work to stick to, hike about for a living, and we live in the cellar of a empty house.

Hilding, subs. (old).—A jade; a wanton; a disreputable slut.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii., 1. For shame thou hilding of a devilish spirit.

Hill. Not worth a hill of beans, phr. (American).—Absolutely worthless.

Hills, subs. (Winchester Coll.).—1. St. Catharine’s Hill.

1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 28. Some of his principal duties were to take the boys ‘on to hills,’ call names there, etc.

2. (Cambridge Univ.).—The Gogmagog Hills; a common morning’s ride. Gradus ad Cantab.

Hilly, adj. (colloquial).—Difficult: e.g., hilly reading = hard to read; hilly going = not easy to do; etc.

Hilt. Loose in the hilt, adv. phr. (old).—Unsteady; rocky (q.v.); lax in the bowels.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘Bum-fodder,’ ii., 56. If they stay longer, they will us beguilt With a Government that is loose in the hilt.

Hind-boot, subs. (common).—The breech. For synonyms, see Monocular Eyeglass.

Hind-coachwheel, subs. (common).—A five shilling piece. Fr., roue de derrière, thune, or palet, = a five-franc piece. For synonyms, see Caroon.

Hinder-blast, subs. (old).—Crepitation.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaitis [in Bannatyne MSS., Hunterian Club, ed., (1879–88), p. 511] line 1429–30. Scho hes sic rumling in her wame, That all the nycht my hairt ouercastis With bokking and with hinder blastis.

Hinder-end, subs. phr. (common).—The breech. Also, hinder-parts and hinder-world.

Hinder-entrance, subs. phr. (common).—The fundament.

Hind-leg. To kick out a hind leg, verb. phr. (old).—To lout; to make a rustic bow. [316]

To sit upon one’s hind legs and howl, verb. phr. (American).—To bemoan one’s fate; to make a hullabaloo.

Hindoo, subs. (American).—See Know Nothing.

1875. Frost, Circus Life, ch. xviii. The Hindoo Punishment is what is more often called the muscle grind, a rather painful exercise upon the bar, in which the arms are turned backward to embrace the bar, and then brought forward upon the chest, in which position the performer revolves.

Hind-shifters, subs. (old).—The feet. For synonyms, see Creepers.

1823. Lamb, Elia, Wks., (Ed. 1852), p. 311. They would show as fair a pair of hind-shifters as the expertest loco-motor in the colony.

Hinges. Off the hinges, adv. phr. (common)—In confusion; out of sorts; ‘not quite the thing.’

Hinterland, subs. (old).—The breech.

Hip, (in. pl.), subs. (colloquial).—Conventional—as in the proverb, ‘Free of her lips; free of her hips’—for the buttocks. Hence, to walk with the hips = to make play with the posteriors in walking; long in the hips; and hips to sell = broad in the beam; nimble-hipped = active in copulation.

c. 1508. Dunbar. Poems, ‘Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer’ (1836), i., 119. His hippis gaff mony a hiddouss cry. Ibid. i., 124. ‘Of Ane Blak-moir.’… Sall cum behind and kiss hir hippis.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 3227. My craig will wit quhat weyis my hippis. Ibid., line 4424. Ye wald not stick to preise my graith With hobbling of your hippis.

c. 1580. Collier of Croydon, iv., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, 459). I keep her lips and her hips for my own use.

d. 1607. Montgomerie, Poems, ‘Polwart and Montgomerie’s Flyting,’ p. 85, line 779 (Scottish Text Soc., 1885–6). Kailly lippes, kiss my hips.

To have (get, or catch) on the hip, verb. phr. (old).—To have (or get) an advantage. [From wrestling.]

1591. Harington, Orlando Furioso, bk. xlvi., st. 117. In fine he doth apply one speciall drift, Which was to get the pagan on the hip, And having caught him right, he doth him lift By nimble sleight, and in such wise doth trip That down he threw him.

1598. Shakspeare, Merchant of Venice, i. 3. If I can catch him once upon the hip. I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

1617. Andrewes, Sermons (‘Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology’), Vol. IV., p. 365. If he have us at the advantage, on the hip as we say, it is no great matter then to get service at our hands.

1635. D. Dike, Michael and the Dragon, in Wks., p. 328. The Divell hath them on the hip, he may easily bring them to anything.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Upon the Hip … at an Advantage in Wrestling, or Business.

1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, iv., 1. My lord, she has had him upon the hip these seven years.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 226. ‘Ha! ha! I have you on the hip now, my master,’ shouted Peter.

Hipe, subs. (wrestling).—A throw over the hip. Hence Hipe, verb = to get across the hip before the throw. [317]

Hip-hop, verb (old).—To skip or move on one leg; to hop. ‘A cant word framed by the reduplication of hop.’—Johnson, 1812.

1670–1729. Congreve [Quoted in Johnson’s Eng. Dict.]. Like Volscius hip-hop in a single boot.

Hip-inside, subs. (thieves’).—An inner pocket. Hip-outside = an outer ditto.

Hipped (or Hippish), adj. (common).—Bored; melancholical; out of sorts. [From hypochondria.]

1710. Gay, Wine in Wks. (1811) p. 348. By cares depress’d, in pensive hippish mood.

1712. Spectator, No. 284. I cannot forbear writing to you, to tell you I have been to the last degree hipped since I saw you.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Babes in the Wood.’ The wicked old Uncle, they say, In spite of his riot and revel, Was hippish and qualmish all day, And dreamt all night long of the devil.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. x. ‘You are a little hipped, dear fellow,’ said Eugene; ‘you have been too sedentary. Come and enjoy the pleasures of the chase.’

Hippen, subs. (Scots’: colloquial).—A baby’s napkin (i.e., hipping cloth). Also (theatrical), the green curtain.

Hiren, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. [A corruption of ‘Irene,’ the heroine in Poole’s play: see quot. 1584.] For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1584. Poole, The Turkish Mahomet and Hyren the Fair Greek. Note. In Italian called a courtezan; in Spaine a margarite; in English … a punk.

1615. Adams, Spiritual Navigator. There be sirens in the sea of the world. Syrens? Hirens, as they are now called. What a number of these sirens [Hirens], cockatrices, courteghians, in plain English, harlots, swimme amongst us!

d. 1618. Sylvester, Trans. Du Bartas’ Week of Creation, ii., 2, pt. 3. Of charming sin the deep-inchaunting syrens, The snares of virtue, valour-softening hyrens.

2. (old).—A sword. Also a roaring bully; a fighting hector. [From Irene = the Goddess of Peace, a lucus a non lucendo.]

Hishee-hashee. See Soap-and-bullion.

His Nibs (or Nabs). See Nibs.

Hiss. The hiss, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—The signal of a master’s approach.

Historical- (Wrought, or Illustrated-) Shirt, subs. (old).—A shirt or shift worked or woven with pictures or texts.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour; iv., 6. I wonder he speaks not of his wrought-shirt.

1639. Mayne, City Match, ii., 2. My smock sleeves have such holy imbroideries, And are so learned that I fear in time, All my apparel will be quoted by Some pure instructor.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Custom of the County, ii., 1. Having a mistress, sure you should not be Without a neat historical-shirt.

1848. Punch, XIV., 226. He never broke a bank, He shuns cross-barred trousers, His linen is not illustrated, but beautifully clean.

1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 51. Colored, or illustrated shirts, as they are called, are especially objected to by the men. [318]

1889. Puck’s Library, Apr., p. 12. Being an educated man, I feel ten thousand woes, Cavorting for the populace In illustrated clothes.

History of the Four Kings. See Four Kings.

Hit, subs. (common).—A success; e.g., To make a hit = to score; to profit; to excel.

1602. Marston, Antonio and Mellida. Induction. When use hath taught me action to hit the right point of a ladie’s part.

1700. Congreve, Way of the World, ii., 5. A hit, a hit! a palpable hit! I confess it.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, bk. I., ch. i. Teach me to make a hit of so Kean a quality that it may not only ‘tell,’ but be long remembered in the metropolis.

1822–36. Jno. Wilson, Noctes Amb., Wks. II., 210. Mr. Peel seems to have made a hit in the chief character of Shiel’s play, The Apostate.

1828–45. T. Hood, Poems, v., p. 197, (Ed. 1846). Nor yet did the heiress herself omit The arts that help to make a hit.

1870. Figaro, 10 June. To make a great hit is, after all, more a matter of chance than merit.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 July. Madam Melba makes an especial hit in the valse from Roméo et Juliette.

1889. Referee, 6 Jan. Quite a hit has been made by the clever juvenile, La Petite Bertoto.

Hard-hit, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Sore beset; hard-up (q.v.). Also deep in love (or grief, or anger).

1890. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 7 Nov. It was pretty generally known that he had been hard hit during the season.

1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. Professor Rose, who hit this town last spring, is around calling us a fugitive from justice.

To hit it, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attain an object; to light on a device; to guess a secret.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv., 1. Thou cans’t not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou can’st not hit it, my good man.

1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer. Ecod, I have hit it. It’s here. Your hands. Yours and yours, my poor sulky! My boots there, ho! Meet me two hours hence at the bottom of the garden.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. lii. He dressed himself in ten minutes, and joined the party as they had finished their fish. ‘I am awfully sorry,’ he said, rushing up to his father, ‘but I thought that I should just hit it.’

To hit off, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To agree together; to fit; to describe with accuracy and precision.

1857. A. Trollope, Barchester Towers, ch. xxxiv. It is not always the case that the master, or warden, or provost, or principal can hit it off exactly with his tutor. A tutor is by no means indisposed to have a will of his own.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xxxvi. ‘One gentleman with another, you mean?’ ‘Put it so. It don’t quite hit it off, but put it so.’

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society. ‘Sidelight,’ ch. xiv. ‘Hey!’ said Orford. ‘Didn’t you and he hit it off?’

1889. Daily News, 22 Oct., p. 5. The nations that quarrel are the nations that do not hit it off on some point of feeling or taste.

To hit the flat, verb. phr. (American cowboy).—To go out on the prairie. [319]

To hit one where he lives, verb. phr. (American).—To touch in a tender part; to hurt the feelings; to touch on the raw (q.v.).

Hit (or struck) with, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Taken; enamoured; prepossessed. Also, hit up with.

1891. Tales from Town Topics. ‘Count Candawles,’ p. 28. She is very amusing, but the Count cannot be really hit with such a little mountebank.

Hit on the tail, verb. phr. (old venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hit in the teeth, verb. phr. (old).—To reproach; to taunt; to fling in one’s face.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, ii., 6 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 431). They are always hitting me in the teeth with a man of my coat.

Hitch, verb (American).—1. To marry. Hitched = married.

1867. Browne, Artemus Ward’s Courtship, People’s ed., p. 23. If you mean getting hitched, I’m in.

1883. L. Oliphant, Altiora Peto, II., xxix., 156. ‘How long is it since we parted, Ned?’ ‘A matter of five years; and it wasn’t my fault if we didn’t stay hitched till now.’

1892. Tit-Bits, 17 Sept., p. 419, c. 1. ‘We’ve come to get hitched,’ said the man, bashfully.

Hittite, subs. (pugilists’).—A prize fighter.

English synonyms.—Basher; bruiser; dukester; fistite; knight of the fist; gemman of the fancy; milling-cove; pug; puncher; scrapper; slasher; slogger; slugger; sparring-bloke.

1860. The Druid, Post and Paddock. ‘The Fight for the Belt.’ And the Sherwood Ranger, bold Bendigo, Is on training no more intent; But the trout full well that ex-Hittite know On a Summer’s eve in the Trent.

Hive, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Cf. Honey. Hence, verbally, to hive it = to effect intromission.

To get hived, verb. phr. (American Cadets’ and popular).—1. To be caught out in a scrape. Also, to be hidden. To be hived perfectly frigid = to be caught in flagrante delicto.

Hiver, subs. (Western American).—A travelling bawd.

Hivite, subs. (school).—A student of St. Bees’ (Cumberland).

1865. John Bull, 11 Nov. To be a Hivite has long been considered a little worse than a ‘literate’.… Of the value of some St. Bees testimonials we may form an estimate, etc., etc.

Hoaky. By the hoaky, intj. (nautical).—A popular form of adjuration. [320]

Hoax, subs. (old: now recognised).—A jest; a practical joke; a Take-in. Originally (Grose) University cant. [Probably from Hocus (q.v.).]

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hoaxing. Bantering, ridiculing. Hoaxing a quiz; joking an odd fellow.—University wit.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. iii. Whose humble efforts at jocularity were chiefly confined to what were then called bites and bams, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes.

1835–7. Richardson, Dict. Eng. Lang., s.v. Hoax. Malone considers the modern slang hoax as derived from hocus, and Archdeacon Nares agrees with him.

Verb. To play a practical joke; to ‘take-in’; to bite (q.v.). See subs. sense. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1812. Combe, Syntax, Picturesque, xix. An arch young sprig, a banker’s clerk, Resolv’d to hoax the rev’rend spark.

1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. viii. I thought you were hoaxing us, and I sat down to play the duet for the amiable purpose of exposing your ignorance.

Hob (or Hobbinol), subs. (old).—A clown.—Grose.

Hob and Nob (or Hob Nob), verb. (old).—1. To invite to drink; to clink glasses.

1756. Foote, Englishman from Paris, i. With, perhaps, an occasional interruption of ‘Here’s to you, friends,’ ‘Hob or nob,’ ‘Your love and mine.’

1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, ii. Duke. Lady Charlotte, hob or nob. Lady Char. Done, my lord; in Burgundy, if you please.

1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. VIII., ch. xxi. (new Ed., 1808). Having drunk hob or nob with a young lady in whose eyes he wished to appear a man of consequence, he hurried out into the summer-house.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hob nob—two persons pledging each other in a glass.

1836. Horace Smith, Tin Trumpet, ‘Address to a Mummy.’ Perchance that very hand now pinioned flat, Has hob-and-nobbed with Pharoah glass for glass.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxx. He would have liked to hob and nob with celebrated pick-pockets, or drink a pot of ale with a company of burglars and cracksmen.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 68. So the pair sat down and hob-a-nobbed.

2. (old).—To give or take; to hit or miss at random. [Saxon, habban, to have; nabban, not to have.]

1577–87. Holinshed, Chroncles of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande (1807) p. 317. The citizens in their rage shot habbe or nabbe (hit or miss) at random.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, iii., 4. Hob-nob is his word, give ’t or take ’t.

1615. Harington, Epigrams, iv. Not of Jack Straw, with his rebellious crew, That set king, realm, and laws, at hab or nab.

1673. Quack Astrologer. He writes of the weather hab nab, and as the toy takes him, chequers the year with foul and fair.

3. (colloquial).—To be on terms of close intimacy; to consort familiarly together.

1870. Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. i. They were to hob-nob with nobility and hold friendly converse with kings and princes. [321]

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 109. I had hob-nobbed for the last two hours with the most notorious bushranger in the colony.

1892. A. K. Green, Cynthia Wakeham’s Money, p. 5. Each tree looks like a spectre hob-nobbing with its neighbour.

Hobbes’s-voyage, subs. (old).—A leap in the dark.

1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, v., 6. So, now, I am in for Hobbes’s voyage; a great leap in the dark.

Hobbinol, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, ii., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 396). Who, Master Jeffrey? Hobbinol the second! By this life, ’tis a very veal, and licks his nose like one.

Hobble. In a hobble (or Hobbled), adv. phr. (colloquial).—In trouble; hampered; puzzled. Also (thieves), committed for trial. Fr., tomber dans la mélasse (= to come a cropper), and faitré (= booked (q.v.)). Hobbled upon the legs = transported, or on the hulks.

1777. Foote, Trip to Calais (1795), ii., p. 39. But take care what you say! you see what a hobble we had like to have got into.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 163. A term when any of the gang is taken up and committed for trial, to say, such a one is hobbled.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestie, iii., 5. Horatio, I am sorry for this squabble; I fear ’twill get me in a precious hobble.

1819. Vaux, Cant. Dict., s.v. Hobbled, taken up, or in custody; to hobble a plant, is to spring it.

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2nd S., ch. xvii. A body has to be cautious if he don’t want to get into the centre of a hobble.

1849. Punch, Fortune-Tellers’ Almanack. To dream that you are lame is a token that you will get into a hobble.

1688. Sempill, ‘Crissell Sandilands’ in Bannatyne MSS. (Hunterian Club, 1879–88), p. 354, lines 21–2. Had scho bene undir, and he hobland above, That were a perellous play for to suspect them.

Hobbledehoy, subs. (old, now colloquial).—A growing gawk: as in the folk-rhyme, ‘Hobbledehoy, neither man nor boy.’ [For derivation, see Notes and Queries, 1 S., v., 468, vii., 572; 4 S., ii., 297, viii., 451, ix., 147; 7 S., iv., 523, and v., 58.]

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. 60, st 3, p. 138 (E. D. S.). The first seuen yeers bring vp as a childe, The next to learning, for waxing too wilde. The next keepe vnder sir hobbard de hoy, The next a man no longer a boy.

1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial 1. Why, he is a mere hobbledehoy, neither a man nor a boy.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Aunt Fanny.’ At the epoch I speak about, I was between a man and a boy, A hobble-de-hoy, A fat, little, punchy concern of sixteen.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. iv. He remembered perfectly well being thrashed by Joseph Sedley, when the latter was a big, swaggering, hobbadyhoy, and George an impudent urchin of ten years old.

1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 12 (2nd Ed.). When Master Daw full fourteen years had told, He grew, as it is term’d, hobbedyhoyish; For Cupidons and Fairies much too old, For Calibans and Devils much too boyish.

1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots, Apr. From boyhood until hobbadyhoyhood (which I take to be about the sixteenth year of the life of a young man).

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xlii. A half-grown, or hobbadehoyish footman, so to speak, walked after them.

Hobbledejee, subs. (old).—A pace between a walk and a run; a jog-trot.

Hobbler, subs. (nautical).—A coast-man, half smuggler, half handyman; an unlicensed pilot. Also a landsman acting as tow-Jack.—Smyth. Also (Isle of Man), a boatman.

1887. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 226. An’ the hobblers there was terr’ble divarted.

Hobby, subs. (old).—A hackney; a horse in common use.

1606. Return from Parnassus, ii., 6 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 151). An’t please you, your hobby will meet you at the lane’s end. Idem (p. 154). Is not my master an absolute villain that loves his hawk, his hobby, and his greyhound more than any mortal creature? Idem (p. 145). Sirrah, boy, hath the groom saddled my hunting hobby?

Sir Posthumous Hobby, subs. phr. (old).—One nice or whimsical in his clothes.

Hobby-horse, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A whim; a fancy; a favourite pursuit. Hence Hobbyhorsical = strongly attached to a particular fad.

1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1793), ch. vii., p. 18. Have they not had their hobby-horses?

d. 1768. Sterne, Letters (1793), letter 19, p. 65. ’Tis in fact my hobby-horse.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hobby Horse, a man’s favourite amusement, or study, is called his hobby horse.

1893. Westminster Gaz., 15 Mar., p. 9, c. 1. We quarrel a bit—he is so hobby-horsical, you can’t avoid it—and then we make friends again.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iii., 1. Call’st thou my love hobby-horse? Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love, perhaps a hackney.

1609. Jonson, Epicœne, iv., 2. Daw. Here be in presence have tasted of her favors. Cler. What a neighing hobby-horse is this!

Hob-collingwood, subs. phr. (North Country).—The four of hearts, considered an unlucky card.

Hob-jobber, subs. (streets).—A man or boy on the look out for small jobs—holding horses, carrying parcels, and the like.

Hob-nail, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see Joskin. [323]

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii., 6. The hob-nail thy husband’s as fitly out o’ th’ way now.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hobnail, a country clodhopper, from the shoes of country farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full of hobnails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron.

Hobnailed, adj. (colloquial).—Boorish; clumsy; coarse; ill-done.

Hobson’s-choice, subs. (common).—That or none: i.e., there is no alternative. [Popularly derived from the name of a Cambridge livery stable keeper, whose rule was that each customer must take the horse next the door, or have no horse at all. That old Hobson existed is clear from Milton’s epitaph, but Bellenden Ker (Archæology of Popular Phrases) affirms the story to be a Cambridge hoax, and maintains the proverb to be identical in sound and sense as the Low Saxon, Op soens schie ho eysche = when he had a kiss he wanted something else.]

1710. Ward, England’s Reformation, ch. iv. ’Tis Hobson’s Choice, take that or none.

1712. Steele, Spectator, No. 509, p. 191. I shall conclude this discourse with an explanation of a proverb [Hobson’s choice], which by vulgar error is taken and used when a man is reduced to an extremity, whereas the propriety of the maxim is to use it when you would say there is plenty, but you must make such a choice as not to hurt another who is to come after you. Ibid. He [Hobson] kept a stable of forty good cattle, always ready and fit for travelling; but when a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where there was great choice, but was obliged to take the horse which stood nearest to the stable-door; so that every customer was alike well served, according to his chance, and every horse ridden with the same justice.

1717. Cibber, Non-Juror, i. Can any woman think herself happy that’s obliged to marry only with a Hobson’s choice?

1820. Reynolds [Peter Corcoran], The Fancy. Black men now are Hobson’s choice.

1851. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. liii. ‘When shall we go?’ inquired Laura. ‘Why, it’s a case of Hobson’s choice,’ returned Leicester.

1854. Notes and Queries, 21 Jan., p. 51. It was clear a choice had been given to him, but it was a Hobson’s choice.

Hock, subs. (American).—1. The last card in the dealer’s box at faro. [From soda (q.v.) to hock = from beginning to end.]

2. In. pl. (common).—The feet. Curby hocks = clumsy feet. For synonyms, see Creepers. [From the stable.]

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hocks … you have left the marks of your dirty hocks on my clean stairs.