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

In hock, adv. phr. (general).—Laid by the heels; fleeced; bested (q.v.).; and (thieves’), in prison.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. ‘If the cove should be caught in the hock he won’t snickle,’ if the fellow should be caught in the act, he would not tell.

Hock-dockies, subs. (old).—Shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

Hockey, adj. (old).—Drunk, especially on stale beer. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Hocus, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A cheat; an imposter. [An abbreviation of hocus-pocus (q.v.).]

1654. Witts Recreations. Here Hocas lyes with his tricks and his knocks, Whom death hath made sure as a juglers box; Who many hath cozen’d by his leiger-demain, Is presto convey’d and here underlain. Thus Hocas he’s here, and here he is not, While death plaid the Hocas, and brought him to th’ pot.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hocus or Hocus Pocus.… A deleterious drug mixed with wine, etc., which enfeebles the person acted upon.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hocus Pocus, he is quite hocus, he is quite drunk.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xiii., p. 104. ‘What do you mean by hocussing brandy and water?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick. ‘Puttin’ laund’num in it,’ replied Sam.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., ch. xxix. Mr. Frederick Pigeon avers that it was at her house at Lausanne that he was hocussed at supper and lost eight hundred pounds to Major Loder and the Honourable Mr. Deucease.

1854. De Quincey, Murder as one of the Fine Arts, Wks., xiii., 119. Him they intended to disable by a trick then newly introduced amongst robbers, and termed hocussing, i.e., clandestinely drugging the liquor of the victim with laudanum.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Hocus … ‘Hocus the bloke’s lush, and then frisk his sacks,’ put something into the fellow’s drink that will stupify him, and then search his pockets.

1859. The Bulletin, 21 May. An offence which goes by the name of hocussing, and which consists of an evil doer furtively introducing laudanum or some other narcotic into beer or spirits, which the victim drinks and, becoming stupified thereby, is then easily robbed.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. II., ch. xii. I will not say a hocussed wine, but fur from a wine as was ’elthy for the mind.

Hocus-pocus, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A juggler’s phrase. Hence a juggler’s (or impostor’s) stock in trade. Also Hocus-trade.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘Vanity of Vanities.’ A hocus-pocus, juggling Knight.

1639–61. Rump Songs, ii., 156. ‘The Rump Ululant.’ Religion we made free of hocus trade.

1646. Randolph, Jealous Lovers, If I do not think women were got with riddling, whip me! Hocas Pocas, here you shall have me, and there you shall have me.

1654. Gayton, Test. Notes Don. Quix., 46. This old fellow had not the Hocas Pocas of Astrology.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, iii., 2. That burlesque is a hocus-pocus trick they have got.

d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1759), ii., 122. With a little heaving and straining, would turn it into Latin, as Mille hoco-pokiana, and a thousand such.

1689. Marvell, Historical Poem, line 90. With hocus-pocus.… They gain on tender consciences at night.

c. 1755. Adey, Candle in the Dark, p. 29. At the playing of every trick he used to say, hocus-pocus, tontus, talontus, vade celeriter jubeo.

1824–28. Landor, Imaginary Conversations [2nd Ed., ii., 275]. Torke. What think you, for instance, of Hocus! Pocus! Johnson. Sir, those are exclamations of conjurors, as they call themselves.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 26 Mar., p. 5, c. 3. The lock of hair, the dragon’s blood, and the stolen flour were only the hocus-pocus of her sham witchcraft like the transfixed waxen puppets of the sorcerers of the past.

1625. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. That was the old way, gossip, when Iniquity came in [on the stage] like Hokos Pokos, in a juggler’s jerkin, with false skirts, like the knave of clubs.

1656. Blount, Glossographia, s.v. Hocus Pocus, a juggler, one that shows tricks by sleight of hand.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hocus-pocus, a Juggler that shews Tricks by Slight of Hand.

1713. Bentley, Free Thinking, 12. Our author is playing hocus-pocus in the very similitude he takes from that juggler.

1715. Addison, The Drummer. If thou hast any hocus-pocus tricks to play, why can’st not do them here?

1725–29. Mason, Horace, iv., 8. Such hocus-pocus tricks, I own, Belong to Gallic bards alone.

1759. Macklin, Love à la Mode, ii., 1. The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science that smiles in yer face while it picks your pocket.

Hod (or Brother Hod), subs. (common).—A bricklayer’s labourer.

Hoddy-Doddy (or Hoddie-doddie), subs. (old).—A short thick-set man or woman. The full expression is ‘Hoddy Doddy, all arse and no body.’—Grose. For synonyms, see Forty-guts. Also a fool.

c. 1534. Udall, Roister Doister, i., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 58). Sometimes I hang on Hankyn hoddy-doddy’s sleeve.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iv., 8. Well, good wife bawd, Cob’s wife, and you, That make your husband such a hoddy-doddy.

1639–61. Rump Songs, ii. [1662], 55. Every noddy … will … cry hoddy-doddy Here’s a Parliament all arse and no body.

1723. Swift, Mary the Cookmaid’s Letter (Chalmers, Eng. Poets, 1810, xi., 433). My master is a personable man, and not a spindle-shanked Hoddy-doddy.

Hoddy-peak (or -Peke), subs. (old).—A fool; a cuckold.

d. 1529. Skelton, Poems, ‘Duke of Albany.’ Gyue it up, And cry creke Lyke an huddy peke.

1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton, O. P., ii., 45. Art here again, thou hoddypeke?

1554. Christopherson, Exh. ag. Rebel. They counte peace to be cause of ydelnes, and that it maketh men hodi-pekes and cowardes.

d. 1555. Latimer, Sermons, fol. 44, b. What, ye brainsicke fooles, ye hoddy-peakes, ye doddy poules.

1560. Nice Wanton (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 164). Yea, marry, I warrant you, master hoddy-peak.

1589. Nashe, Anatomie of Absurdities, b. Who, under her husband’s that hoddy-peke’s nose, Must have all the destilling dew of his delicate rose. [326]

1594. Nashe, Unf. Trav., 106 [Chiswick Press, 1891.] No other apte meanes had this poore shee captived Cicely to worke her hoddy peake husband a proportionable plague to his jealousy.

Hodge, subs. (colloquial).—A farm labourer; a rustic.

1589. Greene, Menaphon, p. 58 [ed. Arber, 1880]. These Arcadians are giuen to take the benefit of euerie Hodge.

1884. Mrs. Craik, in Eng. Ill. Mag., Mar., p. 356. Quite different from the bovine, agricultural Hodge of the midland counties.

1893. National Observer, 25 Feb., ix., 358. ‘Pay me an infinitesimal sum,’ Lord Winchilsea says (in effect) to Hodge, ‘and you shall have a weekly newspaper for nothing.’

Hodge-podge (or Hotch-potch), subs. (old: now recognised).—A mixture; a medley. Sp., commistrajo. See Hotch-potch.

1553–99. Spenser, State of Ireland. They have made our English tongue a galimaufrey, or hodgepodge of all other speeches.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 199. Some Collier-like Saint, … Had rak’d a hodg podg for the Devil.

1726. Vanbrugh, Journey to London. They were all got into a sort of hodge-podge argument for the good of the nation which I did not well understand.

Hodman, (Oxford Univ.).—A scholar from Westminster School admitted to Christ Church College, Oxford.

Hodmandod, subs. (old).—1. A snail in his shell—Bacon. See Doddy.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, v., 4 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 525). Painted snails with houses on their backs, and horns as big as Dutch cows.… Can any woman be honest that lets such hodmandods crawl o’er her virgin breast and belly?

1686. Captain Cowley in Harris Voyages, i., 82. We walked, moreover, without the town to the villages inhabited by the hodmandods, to view their nasty bodies.

Hoe. To hoe in (American Univ.).—To work with vigour; to swot (q.v.).

Hoe-down, subs. (American).—A negro dance; a breakdown (q.v.).

Hog, subs. (old).—1. A shilling: also a sixpence: and (in America) a ten-cent piece. For synonyms, see Blow. Half-a-hog = sixpence, or five-cent piece.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hog, You Darkman Budge, will you Fence your hog at the next Boozing ken? [327]

1809–12. Miss Edgeworth, Ennui, ch. vi. ‘It’s only a tester or a hog they want your honour to give ’em, to drink your honour’s health,’ said Paddy. ‘A hog to drink my health?’ ‘Ay, that is a thirteen, plase your honour; all as one as an English shilling.’

1825. Egan, Life of an Actor, ch. iv. You shall have … eighteen hog a week, and a benefit which never fails.

1842. Thackeray, Cox’s Diary in Comic Almanack, p. 237. Do you think I’m a-going to kill my horses, and break my precious back, and bust my carriage, and carry you, and your kids, and your traps, for six hog?

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 529. The slang phrases are constantly used by the street lads; thus a sixpence is a ‘tanner’; a shilling a ‘bob,’ or a hog.… The collections of coin dealers amply show, that the figure of a hog was anciently placed on a small silver coin.

1857. Mrs. Mathews, Tea Table Talk, p. 207. The shopwoman satisfied Suett after her fashion, that his little lump of Suett had absorbed flour and lard (pastry) to the amount of what her queer customer would have termed a hog.

2. (colloquial).—A foul-mouthed blackguard; a dirty feeder. Also, a common glutton.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Ciro, a hogge, a swine, a filthie fellowe.

3. (Cambridge Univ.: obsolete).—A student of St. John’s. Also, Johnian Hog. See Crackle, Bridge of Grunts, and Isthmus of Suez.

1690. Diary of Abraham de la Pryme (Surtees Society, No. 54), quoted in Notes and Queries, 6, S. xi., 328. For us Jonians are called abusively hoggs.

1795. Gent. Mag., lxv., 22. The Johnian hogs were originally remarkable on account of the squalid figures and low habits of the students, and especially of the sizars of Saint John’s College. [Another story of how name originated is given in detail in Gent. Mag. (1795), lxv., 107.]

1889. Whibley, In Cap and Gown, p. 28. An obsolete name for members of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

1796. Burns, Poems. What will I do gin my hoggie die, my joy, my friend, my hoggie.

5. (American).—An inhabitant of Chicago. [That city being a notable pig-breeding and pork-packing centre.]

1770. Lord Hailes, Ancient Scottish Poems, ‘Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins.’ Note on line 115. And thus his ill-bred raillery will be like that of Essex calves, Hampshire hogs, Middlesex mongrels, Norfolk dumplings, Welsh goats, etc.

1867. Browne (Artemus Ward). ‘Among the Mormons’, ii., 10. Go my son, and Hog the public.

A hog in armour, subs. phr. (old).—A lout in fine clothes. Also a Jack-in-office; Hog-in-togs = (in America) a well-dressed loafer. [Hog = Hodge (q.v.), a rustic.]

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog … an awkward, or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed, is said to look like a hog in armour. [328]

Hog and hominy, subs. phr. (American).—Plain fare; Common doings (q.v.). [Pork and maize are the two cheapest food stuffs in the U.S.A.]

To bring one’s hogs (or pigs) to a fine market, verb. phr. (old).—To do well; to make a good deal (q.v.). Also, in sarcasm, the opposite.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v. He has brought his hoggs to a fair market, or he has Spun a fair Thread.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog.… He has brought his hogs to a fine market, a saying of one who has been remarkably successful in his affairs, and is spoken ironically to signify the contrary.

To drive one’s hogs (or pigs) to market, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To snore.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversations, ii., 455. I’gad he fell asleep, and snored so loud that we thought he was driving his hogs to market.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog.… to drive one’s hogs, to snore, the noise made by some persons in snoring being not much unlike the notes of that animal.

Hog-age, subs. (American).—The period between boyhood and manhood. Cf., Hobbledehoy.

Hogan-mogan, subs. (old).—See quot.

1892. Aitken, Satires of Andrew Marvell, p. 128. The States General of the United provinces were officially addressed as High and Mighty Lords, or in Dutch, Hoogmogenden; hence English satirists called them hogans-mogans, and applied the phrase to Dutchmen in general. Cf., Hoganmoganides, or the Dutch Hudibras (1694), and ‘A New Song on the hogan-mogans’ in ‘A Collection of the Newest Poems … against Popery, etc.’ (1689).

Hog-grubber, subs. (old).—A miser; a niggard; a mean cuss (q.v.).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. A hog-grubber, … a narrow-soul’d sneaking Fellow.

Hogmagundy (or Houghmagandie), subs. (Scots).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

1786. Burns, The Holy Fair [last stanza]. There’s some are fou o’ love divine, There’s some are fou o’ brandy; An’ mony jobs that day begin, May end in hougmagandie Some ither day.

Hogmenay, subs. (old Scots’).—1. New Year’s Eve, which is a national festival. [The origin has been the subject of much discussion.]

1776. Brand, Popular Antiquities, p. 102. Sirs, do you what Hagmane signifies? It is the devil be in the house.

1879. James Napier, Folk Lore, p. 154. After the Reformation, the Scotch transferred Hagmanay [from Xmas Eve] to the last day of December, as a preparation day for the New Year.

2. Hence a wanton. [The feast is celebrated with much drink and not a little license.]

Hogo, subs. (old).—A flavour; an aroma; a relish. Hence, in irony, and by corruption, a stink. Cf., Fogo. [From Fr., haut goût.] See High, sense 2.

1569. Erasmus, Trans. Praise of Folly, p. 13 [1709]. Pleasure that haut-goust of Folly.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘A Vindication of the Rump.’ Oh! what a Hogo was there. [329]

1645. Howell, Letters, V., xxxviii., p. 42. He can marinat fish, make gellies, and is excellent for a pickant sawce, and the haugou.

1653. Walton, Compleat Angler, I., ch. vii. To give the sawce a hogoe let the dish (into which you let the Pike fall) be rubed with it [garlick].

1656. Choyce Drollery, p. 34. And why not say a word or two Of she that’s just? witnesse all who Have ever been at thy ho-go.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 451). We’ll work ourselves into such a sauce as you can never surfeit on, and yet no hogough.

1667. Cowley, Government of Oliver Cromwell, Prose Works (Pickering, 1826), 94. Cromwell … found out the true hogo of this pleasure, and rejoiced in the extravagance of his ways.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii., 1. She has … no more teeth left than such as give a haut gout to her breath.

1686. Twelve Ingenious Characters. A bad husband is an inconsiderate piece of sottish extravagance; for though he consist of several ill ingredients, yet still good fellowship is the causa sine qua non, and gives him the ho-go.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, Vol. I., Pt. vi., p. 4. Most stinking meat, Toss’d up with leeks into Raggoo, To overcome the unsav’ry hogo.

1718. Durfey, Pills, iii., 177. ‘Let’s drink and be merry.’ Your most Beautiful Bit, that hath all Eyes upon her, That her Honesty sells for a hogo of Honour.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hogo … it has a confounded hogo, it stinks confoundedly.

Hogshead. To couch a hogshead, verb. phr. (Old Cant).—See quot. For synonyms, see Balmy.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. To couch a hogshead: to ly downe and slepe. Ibid., I couched a hogshead in a skypper this darkemans.

Hog-shearing, subs. (old).—Much ado about nothing; great cry and little wool.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hog. Labour in vain, which the Latines express by Goats-wooll, as the English by the shearing of Hoggs.

Hogs-norton. To have been born at Hogs-Norton, verb. phr. (old).—To be ill-mannered.

d. 1666. Howell, Eng. Proverbs, p. 16. I think thou wast born at Hoggs-Norton, where piggs play upon the organs.

1676. Marvel, Mr. Smirke [Grosart], iv., p. 89. A pair of organs of cats which he had done well to have made the pigs at Hogs-Norton play on.

Hogstye of Venus, subs. phr. (venery).—See quot. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Porcile di venere, the hog-stye of Venus, a womans privities or geare.

Hog-wash, subs. (common).—1. Bad liquor; specifically, rot-gut (q.v.).

2. (journalists’).—Worthless newspaper matter; slush, swash, and flub-dub (q.v.).

Hoi polloi, subs. phr. (university).—The candidates for ordinary degrees. [From the Greek.] Cf., Gulf.

Hoist, subs. (old).—A shop-lifter; also a confederate hoisting or helping a thief to reach an open window. The Hoist = shop-lifting. To go upon the hoist = to enter a house by an open window.

1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed.), s.v. Hoist. This is done by the assistance of a confederate called the hoist, who leans his head against the wall, making his back a kind of step or ascent.—Grose.

1819. Vaux, Cant. Dict. Hoist, the game of shop-lifting is called the hoist; a person expert at this practice is said to be a good hoist. [330]

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 38. We were principally engaged upon the hoys and coreing.

Verb (thieves’).—1. To practise shop-lifting; to rob by means of the hoist (q.v.).

2. (American).—To run away; to decamp. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

3. (common).—To drink. E.g., Will you hoist? = will you have a liquor?; Hoisting = drinking; On the hoist = on the drunk. Also a hoist in.

To have (or do) a hoist in, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hoister, subs. (old).—1. A shop-lifter; a hoist (q.v., sense 1). Also a pickpocket.

1847–50. J. H. Jesse, London, i., 30. He that could take out a counter without any noise was allowed to be a public hoyster. N.B.—That a hoyster is a pickpocket.

Hoisting (or Hoist-lay), subs. (thieves’).—1. Shop-lifting. The hoist (q.v.). Also shaking a man head downwards, so that his money rolls out of his pockets.

1868. Temple Bar, xxiv., 534. She can secrete articles about her dress when in a shop looking at things, and that’s one way of hoisting.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hoisting, a ludicrous ceremony, formerly performed on every soldier, the first time he appeared in the field, after being married: as soon as the regiment, or company, had grounded their arms, to rest awhile; three or four men of the same company, to which the bridegroom belonged, seized upon him, and putting a couple of bayonets out of the two corners of his hat, to represent horns, it was placed on his head, the back part foremost, he was then hoisted on the shoulders of two strong fellows, and carried round the arms, a drum and fife beating and playing, the pioneers call, named Round-heads and Cuckolds, but on this occasion stiled the Cuckold’s March; in passing the colours, he was to take off his hat.… This in some regiments was practised by the officers on their brethren.

Hoit (or Hoyt), verb. (old).—To be noisily or riotously inclined.

1611. Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of the Burning Pestle, iv., 1. He sings, and hoyts, and revels among his drunken companions.

Hoity-toity. See Highty-tighty.

Hokey-pokey, subs. (common).—1. A cheat; a swindle; nonsense. [From Hocus Pocus.]

Holborn Hill. To ride backwards up Holborn Hill, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—To go to the gallows. [The way was thence to Tyburn, criminals riding backwards.—Grose.]

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. Urs. Up the heavy hill—Knock. Of Holbourn, Ursula, mean’st thou so? for what, for what, pretty Urse? Urs. For cutting halfpenny purses, or stealing little penny dogs out o’ the Fair.

1659. Harry White’s Humour (Nares). Item, he loves to ride when he is weary, yet at certaine times he holds it ominous to ride up Holborne.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, ii., 7. Sirrah, you’ll be hanged; I shall live to see you go up Holborn hill. [331]

Hold, verb. (old).—1. To bet; to wager. See Do you hold?

1534. Udall, Roister Doister, i., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 7). I hold a groat ye will drink anon of this gear.

1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, iii., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 216, and passim). I hold thee a groat I shall patch thy coat.

1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, ii., 1. I’ll hold you a guinea you don’t make her tell it you.

2. (venery) (or Hold it).—To be impregnated; to be got with child. [In certain parts of Scotland, it is said, a farm servant stating that she “disna haud” commands double wages.]

To hold on to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To apply oneself; to be persistent: generally, to hold on like grim death.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 71. He recovered, and wisely held on to for the future.

Hold up, verb. phr. (American and Australian).—1. To rob on the highway; to bail or stick up (q.v.). Also as subs. = a highwayman or road-agent (q.v.).

1888. Detroit Free Press, 8 Dec. One man held up six stage passengers in Arizona the other day and robbed them of $2,000. Each was armed, but it is customary to submit out there, and so up went their hands.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 13 Oct. Mounted on a white horse, he started on a land-prospecting tour and ran against a party of hold-ups.

To hold the stage, verb. phr. (theatrical).—To have the chief place on the boards and the eye of an audience. Fr., avoir les planches.

To hold a candle to (the devil, etc.), verb. phr. (colloquial).—See Devil, and add the following quot.

1868. Reade and Boucicault, Foul Play, p. 65. But you see, sir, he has got the ear of the merchant ashore; and so I am obliged to hold a candle to the devil.

To hold a candle to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To vie with; to be comparable to; also to assist in or condone.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 79. They had killed poor Ransome; and was I to hold the candle to another murder?

To hold (or hang) on by the eyelids, eyelashes or eyebrows, verb. phr. (common).—To pursue an object desperately; to insist upon a point; to carry on a forlorn hope. See also quot. and Splash Board.

1883. Clark Russell, Sailor’s Language, p. 69. Holding on with his eyelids. Said of a man aloft with nothing much to lay hold of.

To hold in hand, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To amuse; to possess the attention or the mind; to have in one’s pocket.

To hold the market, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To buy stock and hold it to so large an extent that the price cannot decline.

Do you hold? phr. (streets).—Have you money to lend? Can you stand treat? Cf. verb., sense 1. [332]

Hold your horses, phr. (American).—Go easy; don’t get excited: a general injunction to calm in act and speech.

Hold hard! (or on)! intj. (colloquial).—Wait a moment! don’t be in a hurry!

1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, V., in Wks. (1777), i., 130. Hold hard! hold hard! you are all on a wrong scent.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 280. ‘Hold hard!’ said the conductor; ‘I’m blowed if we ha’n’t forgot the gen’lm’n as vas to be set down at Doory-lane.’

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. iv., p. 38 (1873). I told Meaburn to hold on, and we’d get a rise out of Punch.

Hold-out, subs. (gambling).—An old-fashioned apparatus, in poker, for ‘holding out’ desirable cards.

Hole (venery).—1. The female pudendum. Also, Hole of Content, and Hole (or Queen) of Holes. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. To give a hole to hide it in = to grant the favour (q.v.). [Hence, by a play upon words, Holy of Holies.]

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. This drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble (q.v.) in a hole.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Carnafau, the brat-getting place, or hole of content.

d. 1649. Drummond, Posthumous Poems, ‘The Statue of Alcides.’ Fair nymph, in ancient days, your holes, by far, Were not so hugely vast as now they are.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 72. It has a head much like a Mole’s, And yet it loves to creep in holes: The fairest She that e’er took Life, For love of this became a Wife.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 1016. Wee have gart bind him with ane poill, And send him to the theifis hoill.

1607. Miseries of Enforced Marriage, iii., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875. ix., 514). If you shall think … it shall accord with the state of gentry to submit myself from the feather-bed in the master’s side, or the flock-bed in the knight’s ward, to the straw-bed in the hole.

1607. Wentworth Smith, The Puritan, iii. But if e’er we clutch him again the Counter shall charm him. Rav. The hole shall rot him.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iv., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 482). Make his mittymus to the hole at Newgate.

3. (old).—A private printing office where unlicensed books were made; a cock-robin shop (q.v.).—Moxon, 1683.

4. (colloquial).—A difficulty; a fix; on the turf, to be in a hole = to lose (a bet) or be defeated (of horses).

1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, ch. xvi. I should be in a deadly hole myself if all my customers should take it into their heads to drink nothing but water-gruel.

5. (common).—A place of abode; specifically, a mean habitation; a dirty lodging. For synonyms, see Diggings.

6. (common).—The rectum: short for arse-hole. E.g., suck his hole = a derisive retort upon an affirmative answer to the [333]question, ‘Do you know So-and-So?’ For synonyms, see Monocular Eyeglass.

1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, ‘The Miller’s Tale.’ And at the window she put out hir hole.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 2174. Lift vp hir clais: Kis hir hoill with your hart.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, v., 3. A pox o’ your manners, kiss my hole here, and smell.

1649. Drummond, Madrigals and Epigrams, ‘A Jest’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, x., 667). She turned, and turning up her hole beneath, Said, ‘Sir, kiss here.’

d. 1732. Gay, Tales ‘In Imitation of Chaucer’s Style’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, x., 504). Thou didst forget to guard thy postern, There is an hole which hath not crossed been.

Verb (venery).—To effect intromission; to put in (q.v.). Hence, Holed, adj. = in (q.v.).

A hole in one’s coat, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A flaw in one’s fame; a weak spot in one’s character. To pick a hole in one’s coat = to find a cause for censure.

1789. Burns, Verses on Capt. Grose. If there’s a hole in a’ your coats, I rede you tent it.

To make (or burn) a hole in one’s pocket, verb. phr. (colloquial).—Said of money recklessly spent.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 456). Do it then, and make a hole in this angel.

To make a hole in the water, verb. phr. (common).—To commit suicide by drowning.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 76. I should just make a hole in the water, if ’tworn’t for the wife and the kids.

To make a hole, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To break; to spoil; to upset; to interrupt. Thus to make a hole in one’s manners = to be rude; to make a hole in one’s reputation = to betray, to seduce; to make a hole in the silence = to make a noise, to raise cain (q.v.).

Too drunk to see a hole in a ladder, phr. (common).—Excessively intoxicated. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Hole-and-corner, adj. (colloquial).—Secret; underhand; out of the way: e.g., hole-and-corner work = shady business. Also (venery) = copulation. [Cf., Hole, subs. sense 1.]

Holer (also Holemonger), subs. (colloquial).—A whoremaster (cf., Hole, subs., sense 1). Also (old), a harlot; a light woman (cf., Hole, verb.). Hence, Holing = whoring.

Holiday, adj. (old).—Unskilled; indifferent; careless.

To have a holiday at Peckham, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To go dinnerless. All holiday at Peckham = no work and nothing to eat. [A play upon words.] See Peckish.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. All holiday at Peckham … a saying signifying that it is all over with the business or person spoken of or alluded to. [334]

1848. Forster, Oliver Goldsmith, bk. I., ch. vi., p. 55 (5th Ed.). ‘Oh, that is all a holiday at Peckham,’ said an old friend very innocently one day.

To take a holiday, verb. phr. (common).—To be dismissed; to get the bag (q.v.) or sack (q.v.)

Gone for a holiday, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Said of a flaw, lapse, or imperfection of any kind (as dropped stitches, lost buttons, slurred painting, and so forth). See also quots.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Holiday … a holiday is any part of a ship’s bottom, left uncovered in painting it.

1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, p. 69, s.v. Holidays. Places left untarred on shrouds, backstays, etc., during the operation of tarring them.

Holler, verb. (American).—To cry enough; to give in; to cave in (q.v.).

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 89. The truth must come, he warped me nice, So jist to save his time I hollered.

Hollis, subs. (Winchester College).—A small pebble. [Said to be derived from a boy.—Notions.]

Hollow, adj. (colloquial).—Complete; certain; decided. As adv. completely; utterly. E.g., to beat or lick hollow. See Beat and Creation.

1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, V., in Wks. (1777), i., 134. So, my lord, you and I are both distanced: a hollow thing, damme.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hollow. It was quite a hollow thing, i.e., a certainty, or decided business.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Bloudie Jack.’ His lines to Apollo Beat all the rest hollow And gained him the Newdegate Prize.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lxiv., p. 529. I have therefore taken a ’ouse in that locality, which, in the opinion of my friends, is a hollow bargain (taxes ridiculous, and use of fixtures included in the rent).

1871. Durham County Advertiser, 10 Nov. ‘It licks me hollow, sir, as I may say,’ put in the silent member.

Holloway, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Holt, verb. (American).—To take; to take hold of.

Holus-bolus, subs. (nautical).—The head. Also the neck.

1868. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 1st Period, ch. xv. And, making a sudden snatch at the heap of silver, put it back, holus-bolus, in her pocket.

Holy. More holy than righteous, adv. phr. (common).—Said of a person in rags, or of a tattered garment.

Holy-boys, subs. (military).—The Ninth Foot. [From a trick of selling bibles for drink in the Peninsula.] Also, Fighting Ninth.

1886. Tinsley’s Magazine, Apr., 322. The 9th having bartered their Bibles in Spain for wine, and having there gained a reputation for sacking monasteries, were long known as the Holy Boys. [335]

Holy-father, subs. (Irish).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Holy Father, A butcher’s boy of St. Patrick’s Market, Dublin, or other Irish blackguard; among whom the exclamation, or oath, by the Holy Father (meaning the Pope), is common.

Holy Iron. See Holy Poker.

Holy Joe, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A pious person, whether hypocritical or sincere. Also (nautical), a parson.

Holy Jumping Mother of Moses. See Moses.

Holy-lamb, subs. (old).—A thorough-paced villain.—Grose.

Holy-land (or ground), subs. (old).—1. St. Giles’s; Palestine (q.v.).

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 7. For we are the boys of the holy ground, And we’ll dance upon nothing and turn us round.

1821. The Fancy, i., p. 250. The Holy-land, as St. Giles’s has been termed, in compliment to the superior purity of its Irish population.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, ch. ii. At Mammy O’Shaughnessy’s in the back Settlements of the Holy Land.

1823. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 5. Let’s have a dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land.

1843. Punch’s Almanack, 1 Sept. St. Giles. The Marquis of Waterford makes a pilgrimage to his shrine in the Holy Land.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, one a.m., par. 28. Unfaithful topographers may have told you that the Holy Land being swept away and Buckeridge Street being pulled down, St. Giles’s exists no more.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 3 Apr. p. 215, col. 1. It would be hard to say whether the Irishmen of the Holy Land or the Hebrew scum of Petticoat Lane showed the finest specimens of ‘looped and windowed raggedness.’

2. (common).—Generic for any neighbourhood affected by Jews; specifically, Bayswater, and Brighton. Cf., New Jerusalem, and Holy of Holies.

Holy Moses. See Moses.

Holy of Holies, subs. phr. (common).—1. The Grand Hotel at Brighton. [Which is largely tenanted by Jews: cf., Holy Land (sense 2), and New Jerusalem.]

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 215. Fletcher did not venture into that holy of holies.

1893. Westminster Gaz., 31 Jan., p. 3, c. 2. The Cabinet Council is the holy of holies of the British Constitution, and as Mr. Bagehot long ago regretted, no description of it at once graphic and authentic has ever been given.

Holy Poker (or Iron), subs. phr. (university).—The mace carried by an esquire bedel (of Law, Physic, or Divinity) as a badge of authority. [The term, which is applied to the bedels themselves, is very often used as an oath.]

1840. Comic Almanack, ‘Tom the Devil,’ p, 214. A hotel’s the place for me! I’ve thried em all, from the Club-house at Kilkinny, to the Clarendon, and, by the holy poker, never wish mysilf worse luck than such cantonments!

1870. London Figaro, 8 Oct., p. 2, col. 2. The bedels of a University are very important persons, although derisive undergraduates familiarly term them holy pokers.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 169. I swear upon the holy iron I had neither art nor part.

2. (venery).—The penis (by a play upon words). Cf., Hole, sense 1, Holy of Holies, sense [336]3, and Poke. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Holy-water Sprinkler, subs. phr. (old).—A mediæval weapon of offence; a morning star (q.v.).

Home, subs. (colonial).—England.

1893. Gentlemen’s Mag., Jan., p. 74. And then I learnt that by home he meant England, which, moreover, is referred to as ‘home’ by dusky myriads, who have never seen her cliffs rise above the waves.

To get home, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To achieve an object; to succeed perfectly; and (athletic) to reach the winning post.

1891. Sportsman, 26 Mar. A close struggle for the Palace Selling Plate ended in favour of Rosefield, who just got home a head in front of Mordure.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Jan., 3, 2. It is delightful to watch Mr. Charles Hawtrey telling lie after lie to his unbelieving wife, and joyfully, in misplaced confidence, saying to himself, ‘I’ve got home.’

2. (pugilists’).—To get in (a blow) with precision and effect; to land (q.v.). Also (old) to give a mortal wound.

1559. Elyot, Dictionarium, 3rd. ed. Aere meo me lacessis, thou gevest me scoffe for scoffe, or as we saie, thou paiest me home.

1631. Chettle, Hoffman. Sax. Not any, Austria; neither toucht I thee. Aust. Somebody toucht me home; vaine world farewell, Dying I fall on my dead Lucibell.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iv., 3. But hark ye, George; don’t push too home; have a care of whipping through the guts.

1888. Sporting Life, 10 Dec. In the next round got home several times without a return.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 19 June, p. 395, c. 3. Mac got home a terrific cross-counter with the left on Bob’s left eye, which seemed to split the flesh open both above and below.

3. (turf).—To recover a loss; neither to win nor lose; to come out quits. Also, to bring oneself home.

To make oneself at home, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To take one’s ease; to be familiar to the point of ill-breeding.

To come home to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To reach the conscience; to touch deeply.

To go (send, or carry) home (or to one’s last home), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To die; to kill; to bury. [The Chinese say ‘to go home horizontally.’] See Aloft.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Mandar ’al palegro, to send to ones last home.

Home-bird, subs. (colloquial).—A henpecked husband. Also, a milksop. Fr., chauffe-la-couche (= warming-pan).

Home for lost dogs, subs. phr. (medical).—A large and well known medical school in London. [From the fact that the majority of its inmates have strayed there from the various hospital schools, as a last resource toward taking a degree.] [337]

Home-rule, subs. (common).—Irish whiskey. For synonyms, see Drinks and Old Man’s Milk.

Home-sweet-home, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Homo, subs. (old).—A man: generally omee (q.v.). [From the Latin.] For synonyms, see Cove.

Homoney, subs. (old).—A woman. For synonyms, see Petticoat. Also, a wife. For synonyms, see Dutch and Cf. Homo.

1754. Discoveries of John Poulter, p. 43. My homoney is in quod, my wife is in gaol.

Homo-opathise, verb. (American).—To get bills (i.e., petitions) through Legislature, Congress, or City Council, by means of bills (i.e., bank-bills).

Hone, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.