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

1859. Fast Life, p. 54. The craters, of course, caught it hot, and many had the sack.

1872. Figaro, 22 June. The German Emperor, Bismarck, and Earl Granville also got it, but not quite so hotly.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 887. A young man who … had been guilty of bigamy, and to such a degree that he got it hot for such a crime—five years.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 32. She spotted me in ’alf a jiff, and chaffed me precious hot.

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society, ch. xvi. Lady Mainwaring looked like an eel in a frying-pan, or, most of anything perhaps, like a cat on hot bricks.

Hot with, phr. (common).—Spirits with hot water and sugar. See Cider and, and Cold without.

Hot-arsed, adj. phr. (venery).—Excessively lewd. [Of women only.] Cf., Biter.

Hot-beef. To give hot-beef, verb. phr. (thieves’ rhyming).—To cry ‘Stop thief.’ Also Beef (q.v.).

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 506. He followed, giving me hot beef (calling ‘Stop thief’).

Hot-cakes. To go off like hot cakes, verb. phr. (common).—To sell readily; to be in good demand.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 Oct., p. 6, c. 1. Sold at one penny retail they often go off like hot cakes.

Hot-foot, adv. (colloquial).—Instant in pursuit.

Hotch-potch, subs. (old: now recognised).—A medley; a hodge-podge (q.v.).

1597. Hall, Satires, i., 3. A goodly hotch-potch when vile russettings are matched with monarchs and mighty kings.

1606. Return from Parnassus, iv., 2. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 183). This word, hotch-potch in English is a pudding; for in such a pudding is commonly not one thing only, but one thing with another.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hotch-potch, an Oglio, or Medly of several Meats in one Dish.

c. 1709. W. King, Art of Cookery, ix. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 259). The first delighting in hodge-podge, gallimaufry, forced meats … and salmagundy.

1728. Patrick Walker, Alexander Peden, ‘Postscript’ (ed. 1827, i., 128). A hotch-potch or bagful of Arian, Arminian, Socinian, Pelagian, etc.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Oct., p. 2, c. 1. Both are a sort of hotchpotch of songs, dances, and extravaganzas.

Hot-coppers, subs. (common).—The fever and parched throat, or mouth (q.v.), attending a debauch. See Cool one’s Copper.

1830. Egan, Finish to Life in London, 156. The ‘uncommonly big gentleman’ in spite of swallowing oceans of soda-water, declared his copper to be so hot that he thought all the water in the sea could not reduce his thirst!

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 244. ‘Oh blow your physiology!’ says Rapp. ‘You mean to say you’ve got a hot copper—so have I. Send for the precious balm and then fire away.’

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xliii. ‘Nothing like that beer,’ he remarked, ‘when the coppers are hot.’

1864. Comic Almanack, p. 63. ‘Cold Cream Internally.’ Cold cream is an excellent remedy for hot coppers. [364]

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 134. He came … as happy-looking, and lively as if no such thing as hot coppers existed.

Hotel (also Cupid’s Hotel and Cupid’s Arms).—subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Cf., Cock Inn. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Hotel Barbering, subs. (common).—Bilking.

1892. Daily Chronicle, 28 Mar., p. 5, c. 7. The inference is now fairly admissable that he may possibly have divided his time between polygamous pursuits and hotel barbering exploits.

Hotel Warming-pan, subs. phr. (common).—A chambermaid. Also warming-pan (q.v.). Fr., une limogère.

Hot-flannel (or Flannel), subs. (old).—Gin and beer, with nutmeg, sugar, etc., made hot.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 144. A mixed kind of liquor … when drank in a morning it is called flannel.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 269. A jug of what he termed hot flannel for three—a mixture of gin, beer, and eggs.

Hot-house, subs. (old).—A brothel. Also (see quot. 1616), a public bath. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

1596. Nashe, Have with You to Saffron Walden (Grosart, iii., 106). Any hot-house or bawdy-house of them all.

1599. Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour, iv., 4. Let a man sweat once a week in a hot-house, and be well rubbed and froted with a plump juicy wench and clean linen.

1603. Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, ii., 1. Now she professes a hot-house, which is a very ill house too.

1606. The Return from Parnassus, i., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 115). He cannot swagger it well in a tavern, nor domineer in a hot-house.

1616. Jonson, Epigrams, ‘On the New Hot-house.’ Where lately harboured many a famous whore, A purging bill now fixed upon the door Tells you it is a hot-house: So it may, And still be a whore-house. They’re synonyma.

1699. Garth, The Dispensary, ii., line 157. A hot-house he prefers to Julia’s arms.

Hot Meat (or Beef or Mutton), subs. phr. (venery).—See Bit.

Hot-member (or Hot ’un).—See Warm Member.

Hot-Milk, subs. (venery).—The semen. For synonyms, see Cream.

Hot-place, subs. (colloquial).—Hell. For synonyms, see Tropical Climate.

1891. F. H. Groome, Blackwood, Mar., p. 320. A letter from her son in Hull, told the curate that ‘that did give me a tarn at fust, for I thought that come from the hot place.’

Hot-pot, subs. (old).—Ale and brandy made hot.

1788. G. C. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, ii., 56. A watchman and an old Blind Woman, troubled with the palsy, drinking hot-pot together.

Hot-potato. To drop like a hot potato, verb. phr. (common).—To abandon (a pursuit, a person, a thing) with alacrity.

Hot-pudding. To have a hot-pudding for supper, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. Of women only. [Pudding (Durfey) = the penis]. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride. [365]

Hot-stomach. So hot a stomach as to burn the clothes off his back, phr. (old).—Said of one who pawns his clothes for drink.—Lex. Bal.

Hottentot, subs. (East-end). See quot.

1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, ch. x. The cry of Hottentots went round. ‘Hottentots’ is the playful way in this district of designating a stranger, that is to say, a stranger come from the West.

Hot-tiger, subs. (Oxford Univ.).—Hot-spiced ale and sherry.—Hotten.

Hot-water. To be in hot-water, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be in trouble, in difficulties, or worried.

1846. Punch’s Almanack, 29 Nov. The Times first printed by steam, 1814, and has kept the country in hot water ever since.

1864. Mark Lemon, Jest book, p. 238. Lord Allen, in conversation with Rogers, the poet, observed: ‘I never put my razor into hot water, as I find it injures the temper of the blade.’ ‘No doubt of it,’ replied Rogers; ‘show me the blade that is not out of temper when plunged into hot water.’

Hound, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—1. See quot.

1879. E. Walford, in N. and Q., 5 S., xii., 88. In the Anecdotes of Bowyer … we are told that a hound of King’s College, Cambridge, is an undergraduate not on the foundation, nearly the same as a ‘sizar.’

Hounslow-heath, subs. (rhyming).—The teeth. For synonyms, see Grinders. Also Hampstead-heath.

1887. Dagonet in Referee, 7 Nov., p. 7, c. 3. She’d a Grecian ‘I suppose,’ And of Hampstead Heath two rows.

Houri of Fleet-street, subs. phr. (common).—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

House, subs. (theatrical).—1. An audience. To bring down the house = to elicit a general burst of applause. Fr., avoir sa côtelette; boire du lait.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. House. With them (the players) it means Covent-garden or Drury-lane, or indeed any other theatre. ‘A full-house’ and ‘half-a-house’ indicate the state of the receipts or number of the audience.

1870. Athenæum, 13 Aug., p. 120. ‘Letter of J. O. Halliwell.’ It is now certain that Shakespeare was never proprietor of either (the Globe or Blackfriars) theatre. His sole interest in them consisted in a participation, as an actor in the receipts of what is called the house.

1873. Home News, 24 Jan. I exerted myself, not for praise of that well-dressed mob they called the house, but for very love of the congenial sport.

1892. Sydney Watson, Wops the Waif, ch. iii., p. 4. There was tremendous enthusiasm this evening. Every scene was uproariously applauded, and at the climax the whole house rose and cheered and encored with tumultuous feeling.

The House (colloquial).—(1) The Stock Exchange; (2) The House of Commons; (3) Christ Church, Oxford.

House under the hill, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

House (or apartments) to let, subs. phr. (common).—A widow.—Lex. Bal. Also Bill-of-Sale and Man-trap. [366]

Father of the House, subs. phr. (Parliamentary).—The oldest elected member. See Babe.

House that Jack built, subs. phr. (common).—A prison. For synonyms, see Cage.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, ii., 85. I’m getting on like a regler house on fire.

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xxxii., p. 361 (1873). I have the means of doing that, as safe as houses.

1874. T. Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, ch. lvii. ‘The clothes will floor us as safe as houses,’ said Coggan.

1886. Grant Allen, In All Shades, ch. i. Why, of course, then, that’s the explanation of it—as safe as houses, you may depend upon it.

1890. Grant Allen, Tents of Shem, ch. xxviii. You may make your forgery itself as safe as houses.

House-bit (or -keeper, or -piece), subs. (colloquial).—A servant-mistress.

House-dove, subs. (old).—A stay-at-home.

Household-brigade. To join the Household Brigade, verb. phr. (common).—To marry. For synonyms, see Splice.

1881. Home Tidings, April, p. 42, c. 1. Jem Ryan joined the household brigade on Easter Monday, E. New acting as best man.

House of Civil Reception, subs. phr. (old).—A brothel. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

House of Commons (or House of Office), subs. phr. (old).—A W.C. For synonyms, see Mrs. Jones.

1611. Chapman, May-Day, iv., 2. No room save you turn out my wife’s coal-house, and her other house of office attached to it, reserved for her and me sometimes, and will you use it being a stranger?

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, c. xiii. Taking the candle in his hand, which he had left burning for the purpose, he went down to the house of office.

d. 1780. Robertson of Struan, Poems, 83. So to a House of Office straight a school-boy does repair, To ease his postern of its weight.

House-tailor, subs. (old).—An upholsterer.

Housewife (or Huswife, or Hussy), subs. (colloquial).—1. Primarily, a house-keeper. Hence (a) a domestic servant; (b) a wanton or a gad-about wench; and (c) a comic endearment. Hence, too, housewifery, subs., and housewife’s tricks = the habit of wantonness, the practice of men.

1508. Gawain and Gologras, ‘Ballade,’ (Pinkerton, Scottish Poems, 1792, iii.). A gude husy-wife ay rinning in the toun.

1589. Puttenham, English Poesie, 1589, ii., 16 (ed. Arber, p. 148). Half lost for lack of a good huswife’s looking to.

1600. Look about You, sc. 28 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 476). Huswife, I’ll have you whipped for slandering me.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, i., 2. I hope to see some housewife take thee between her legs and spin it off.

1659. Lady Alimony, iii., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 331). And if the hussy challenge more, Charm the maundering gossip with your roar. Idem. iii., 6. (p. 340). If I make not these haxters as hateful to our hussies as ever they were to us, their husbands, set me up for a Jack-a-Lent.

1673. Wycherly, Gentleman Dancing Master, iv., 1. What, hussy, would you not do as he’d have you?

1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iv., 3. When I was of your age, hussy, I would have held fifty to one I could have drawn my own picture.

1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, i., 1. Hark you hussy. You can give yourself airs sometimes, you know you can.

1708. Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy-Body, iv., 2. I’ll charm you, housewife. Here lies the charm that conjured this fellow in.

1708. Prior, Poems (Aldine ed. ii., 270), ‘The Insatiable Priest.’ To suppress all his carnal desires in their birth At all hours a lusty young hussy is near.

1720. Swift, Poems, ‘A Portrait’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 448). A housewife in bed, at table a slattern.

1728. Swift, Poems, ‘My Lady’s Lamentations’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 460). Consider before You come to threescore, How the hussies will fleer Whene’er you appear.

1731. C. Coffey, The Devil to Pay, i. Don’t you know, hussy, that I am king in my own house.

1732. Henry Fielding, The Mock Doctor, i. Ay, hussy, a regular education; first at the charity-school where I learned to read.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, c. xviii. He supposed the object of his love was some paltry hussy, whom he had picked up when he was a boy at school.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘Chit-Chat.’ Lud! I could beat the hussey down, She’s poured it all upon my gown.

1768. Goldsmith, Good Natured Man, ii. And you have but too well succeeded, you little hussy, you.

1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (ed. 1800, p. 43). And I have been twice in the bath with mistress and na’r a smock upon our backs, hussy.

1782. Cowley, Bold Stroke for a Husband, i., 2. Don C. Now, hussy, what do you expect?

1786. Burns, The Inventory. Frae this time forth I do declare, I’se ne’er ride horse nor hizzie mair.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxii. Say nothing of that, housewife, … or I will beat thee—beat thee with my staff.

1829. C. A. Somerset, The Day After the Fair, i. Oh, you hussy! so you were Madame Maypole!

1893. R. le Gallienne, Intro. Liber Amoris, p. xliv. To think of poor Hazlitt gravely lavishing his choice Elizabethan quotations on the hussey.

Housey, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Belonging to the Hospital.

Housle, verb. (Winchester College).—To hustle.

Hoveller, subs. (nautical).—A beach-thief.

How. How came you so? phr. (old).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1824. T. Hook, Sayings and Doings, 1st S. Merton, ch. xiii. Ould Mrs. Etherington was a right bad one; she used to be Lord, how come you so! every night, as regular as she went to bed.

How much? phr. (common).—‘What do you say?’ ‘What do you mean?’ What price?—a general request for explanations.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxxiv. ‘Then my answer must mainly depend on the exact height of the principles.’ ‘On the how much?’ inquired Frere, considerably mystified.

How’s your poor feet, phr. (streets’).—A street catch, of no particular meaning. See Street Cries. [368]

1863. All the Year Round, x., 180. How’s your poor feet? a year ago cheated half the natives of Cockaigne into the belief that they were gifted with a special genius for repartee.

1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, p. 163 (1864). But how would you like a screeching multitude, fifty thousand strong, and with not one of whom, to the best of your knowledge, you had even a bowing acquaintance, to vociferate in your track—in the public street, mind—‘Ya-a-a-h! how are your poor feet?’

1890. Town and Country (Sydney), 11 Jan., p. 19, c. 4. Henry Irving’s revival of ‘The Dead Heart’ has revived a bit of slang.… When the play was brought out originally, where one of the characters says, ‘My heart is dead, dead, dead!’ a voice from the gallery nearly broke up the drama with How are your poor feet? The phrase lived.

How’ll you have it, phr. (common).—An invitation to drink. For synonyms, see Drinks.

How we apples swim (sometimes amplified by Quoth the horse-turd)! verb. phr. (old).—Said in derision of a parvenu; of a person in better company than he (or she) has any right to keep; or of a pretender to honour or credit he (or she) does not deserve.

1697–1764. Hogarth (Works by J. Ireland and J. Nichols, London, 1873) III., p. 29. And even this, little as it is, gives him so much importance in his own eyes, that he assumes a consequential air, sets his arms akimbo, and strutting among the historical artists cries, how we apples swim.

1860. Cornhill Mag. (D. Mallett, Tyburn), Dec., p. 737. While tumbling down the turbid stream, Lord, love us, how we apples swim.

Howard’s Garbage, subs. phr. (military).—The Nineteenth Foot. Also Green Howards.

Howard’s Greens, subs. phr. (military).—The Twenty-fourth Foot. [From its facings and its Colonel’s name, 1717–37.]

How-do-you-do, subs. (colloquial).—A ‘to do’; a ‘kettle of fish’; a ‘pass.’

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxvi. Thinks I, here’s a pretty how do you do; I’m in for it now, that’s a fact.

Howler, subs. (common).—An unblushing falsehood; an enormous blunder; a serious accident; and so forth. To come (or go) a howler = to come to grief; to run amuck.

1885. Daily News, 16 May, p. 4, c. 8. Now, to speak respectfully of old scholars that were before us, the translators of the Bible constantly made what undergraduates call howlers, or grievously impossible blunders.

1886. Stephens and Yardley, Little Jack Sheppard, p. 34. Jack. My dears, you’re late. Bess. Our hansom came a howler.

1888. Indoor Paupers, p. 24. As to how we are to spend the eight hours, or thereabouts, that remain after meals, church, and howlers are disposed of, nobody, except ourselves and a few private friends outside, cares in the least.

1891. Moonshine, 14 Mar. Oh, I saw some piece in which a Johnnie smoked some cigarettes, and at last came a howler, and wanted to commit suicide.

1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 Sep., p. 2, c. 3. We wondered yesterday how many of our classical readers would see the howler—or the joke.

Howling, adj. (common).—A general intensitive. E.g., Howling-swell = a man in the extreme of fashion; howling-lie = a gross falsehood; howling-bags = trousers extravagant in cut or pattern; howling-cad, etc. [369]

1865. G. A. Sala, Trip to Barbary, ch. vii. The hotel at Marseilles was full of our countrymen of the order known at Lane’s and Limmer’s as howling swells.

1887. Household Words, 11 June, 116. Let’s hook it; that Jenny Morris is such an howling swell that she won’t wait for any one.

1889. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 8 Feb. The Hon. Juggins was what is popularly known as a howling swell.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 146. And all the while your heart was given to a howling cad.

Hoxter, subs. (old).—1. An inside pocket.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood bk. III., ch. v. No slour’d hoxter my snipes could stay.

2. (Royal Military Academy).—Extra drill. [Corruption of extra.] Fr., le bal.

1887. Barrère, Argot and Slang. The hoxter consists in the painful ordeal of being compelled to turn out of bed at an early hour, and march up and down under the watchful eye of a corporal.

Hoys. See Hoist.

Hoyt. See Hoit.

Hub, subs. (American).—1. Boston. Also, Hub of the Universe. [The description is Oliver Wendell Holmes’s.] Since extended to other centres or chief cities (see quot. 1876).

1869. Boston Herald, Dec. He is to have a quintette club of amateurs with him, from the Hub.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 4 July. Boston claims to be the Hub of the universe; but New York grandiloquently asserts itself to be the universal wheel itself.

1872. Daily Telegraph, Dec. The wealth of the Hub of the Universe, as Bostonians delight to call their city, is very great.

1876. Daily News, 18 Jan. Calcutta … swaggers as if it were the hub of the Universe.

1888. Boston Daily Globe. The typical girl of the Hub has been much written about in the novels of the period, and without doubt she is worth all the attention bestowed upon her.

Hubble-bubble, subs. (colloquial).—1. See quots.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hubble-Bubble (s.) a confused noise made by a talkative person, who speaks so quick, that it is difficult to understand what he says or means.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hubble-bubble. Confusion. A hubble bubble fellow, a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hubble-bubble.… Also an instrument used for smoaking through water in the East Indies, called likewise a caloon and hooker.

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. xxii. The Moor, warmly grateful, was ever ready to give him a cup of coffee and a hubble-bubble in the stillness of his dwelling.

1887. Field, 15 Oct. Off I went down the ravine, and half a mile below came to Besan quietly smoking his hubble-bubble.

1891. W. C. Russell, Ocean Tragedy, p. 130. A burning atmosphere sickly with the smell of the incense of the hubble-bubble, with a flavour of hot curry about.

Hubble-de-shuff, adv. (old).—Confusedly.—Lex. Bal.

Hubbub, subs. (old: now recognised).—See quots.

d. 1639. Robert Carey (Earl of Monmouth), Memoirs, 1759, p. 155. This made a great hub-bub in our Court.

1667. Milton, Paradise Lost, ii., 951. A universal hubbub wild, Of stunning sounds. [370]

1682. Bunyan, Holy War (1893 ed. M. Peacock, p. 58). The conscience and understanding begin to receive conviction, and they set the soul in a hubbub.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hubbub, a Noise in the Streets made by the Rabble.

1893. Westminster Gaz., 8 Aug., p. 2, col. 1. An indescribable hubbub of showmen’s, hawkers’, and children’s voices from near and far.

Hubby (or Hub), subs. (colloquial).—A husband.

1798. Morton, Secrets Worth Knowing. Epilogue. The wife poor thing, at first so blithe and chubby, Scarce knows again her lover in her hubby.

1807. Stevens, Wks., p. 175. What could hubby do then, what could hubby do? But sympathy-struck, as she cry’d, he cry’d too.

1883. Referee, 17 Apr., p. 3, c. 2. I did hear it whispered that her parents and guardians, or her horrified hubby, had turned the key on her.

Huck, verb. (old).—To chaffer; to bargain.

1577. Holinshead, Description of England, ed. 1807, i., 315. It was his custome likewise to saie, if anie man hucked hard with him about the price of a gelding: ‘So God helpe me … either he did cost me so much,’ or else, ‘By Jesus I stole him.’

Huckleberry. Above one’s huckleberry (bend, or hook), adv. phr. (American).—Beyond one’s ability; out of one’s reach. See Bend.

1848. J. F. Cooper, The Oak Openings. It would be above my bend to attempt telling you all we saw among the red skins.

1852. ‘L’Allegro,’ As Good as a Comedy, p. 61. Well, Squire Barry, you’re a huckleberry above my persimmon, but I reckon something can be done.

Huckle-my-butt, subs. (old).—Beer, egg, and brandy made hot.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, iii., 5. ‘If that’s a bowl of huckle-my-butt you are brewing, Sir William,’ added he, addressing the knight of Malta, ‘you may send me a jorum at your convenience.’

Huckster, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A retailer of small goods; a pedlar.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Huckster, the Retailers of the Market, who Sell in the Market at second Hand.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hucksters.… In huckster’s hands, at a desperate Pass, or Condition, or in a fair way to be Lost.

Hucksum (also Huckle, or Huckle-bone, or Huck-bone).—The hip.

c. 1508. Dunbar, Flyting (Poems, ed. 1834, ii., 72). With huck-bones harth and haw.

d. 1529. Skelton, Elynor Rummyn (Poems, 1843, i.). The bones of her huckels Lyke as they were buckels.

1575. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 180). For bursting of her huckle-bone, or breaking of her shin.

Huddle, verb. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hue, verb. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. The Cove was Hued in the Naskin, the Rogue was severely Lasht in Bridewell.

Huey, subs. (Old Cant).—A town or village.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 231. ‘Where do you stall to in the huey?’ which, fairly translated, means, ‘Where do you lodge in the town?’

Huff, subs. (colloquial).—1. An outburst of temper; peevishness; offence at some real or imaginary wrong or slight. Hence, to get (or take) the huff = to fly into a passion.

1599. H. Porter, Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 311). And as thou say’st to me, to him I said, But in a greater huff and hotter blood.

1676. Etherege, Man of Mode, Wks. (1704), i., 190. Tax her with the next fop that comes Into my head, and in a huff march away.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, Wks. (1720), iv., 63. If you were not the brother to my dearest friend, I know what my honour would prompt me to [walks in a huff].

1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, ii., 2. I offer’d her fifty guineas, and she was in her airs presently, and flew away in a huff.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. iv., p. 26. I pay’d three Shillings, in a Huff, For my half Pint of liquid Stuff.

1759–67. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ch. xxix. He left off the study of projectiles in a kind of huff, and betook himself to the practical part of fortification only. Idem. ch. c. Can I? cried Susannah, shutting the door in a huff.

1769. Chatterton, Poems, ‘Journal’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xv., 495). ‘Sir,’ quoth the Rector in a huff.

1777. Sheridan, Trip to Scarborough, i., 1. The lady not condescending to give me any serious reasons for having fooled me for a month, I left her in a huff.

1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, bk. II., ch. 16. What a huff you’re at! I only axed a question.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xx. He is as proud as Lucifer, he is always taking huff about one thing or the other.

1855. Browning, Men and Women, ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ (Ed. 1864, p. 357). You’ll not mistake an idle word Spoke in a huff by a poor monk?

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 30. Already my goodness! he’s taking the huff.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 37. Some parties in a huff rage At the plea for Female Suffrage.

1569. Preston, Cambises (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iv., 177). [Enter three ruffians, huff, Ruff, and Snuff.]

1680. Cotton, Complete Gamester, p. 333. Huffs, hectors, setters, gilts, pads, biters, etc.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iv., 9. Good, slovenly Captain Huff, Bluffe (what is your hideous name?).

4. (draughts’).—A term in the game of draughts; the penalty for not taking a piece.

1607. How a Man May Choose a Good Wife, etc., iv., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 78). A huffing wench i’ faith.

1630. Taylor, Workes. The smell is the senting bawd, that huffs and snuffs up and downe, and hath the game alwayes in the winde. Ibid. One asked a huffing gallant why hee had not a looking-glasse in his chamber; he answered, he durst not, because hee was often angry, and then he look’d so terribly that he was fearefull to looke upon himselfe.

d. 1631. Donne, Satires, iv. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, v., 158). To th’ huffing, braggart, puffed nobility. [372]

1643. Randolph, Muses Looking-Glasse, i., 1. Flowrd. Iniquity aboundeth, though pure zeal Teach, preach, huffe, puffe, and snuffe at it, yet still, Still it aboundeth.

1673. Wycherley, Gentleman Dancing Master, v., 1. How! my surly, huffing, jealous, senseless, saucy master.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife. ‘Prologue.’ Well, let the vain rash fop, by huffing so, Think to obtain the better terms of you.

1680. Dryden, Prol. to Lee’s Cæsar Borgia, p. 29. So big you look, though claret you retrench, That, armed with bottled ale, you huff the French.

d. 1680. Rochester, Poems, ‘Woman’s Honour’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, viii., 239). This huffing honour domineers In breasts when he alone has place.

1682. Bunyan, Holy War (ed. M. Peacock, 1893, p. 72). He refused and huffed as well as he could, but in heart he was afraid.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Huff. To huff and ding, to bounce and swagger.

1690. The Pagan Prince. And the same threats and menaces of the palatine being carry’d to the marshal de Tonneure, notwithstanding all his former encomiums, Oh! quo he, the palatine’s a young prince; give him leave to huff and ding for his living; words break no bones: when all’s done, ’tis the coach wheel, not the fly that raises the dust.

1699. Robert Franck, Northern Memoirs (quoted in New Review, Aug., 1893, p. 145). So huffed away.

1700. Mrs. Centlivre, Perjured Husband. ‘Epilogue.’ Let cowards cease to huff.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. iii., p. 14. And in their frenzy, huff and threaten With what sad stripes we shall be beaten.

1708. Prior, Poems, ‘The Mice.’ (Aldine ed. ii., 244, 50). One went to Holland where they huff folk, T’other to vend his wares in Suffolk.

1714. Newest Academy of Compliments. Pray neighbour, why d’ye look awry? You’re grown a wondrous stranger; You huff, you pout, you walk about As tho’ you’d burst with anger.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 283. Thus, thus I strut and huff. Idem., i., 154. But when the new ones did stoop, The t’other as huffing would be. Idem., v., 99. When Bullies leave huffing and Cowards their Trembling.

1725. Swift, Poems, ‘A New Song’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 446). If he goes to the baker’s the baker will huff, And twenty pence ask for a twopenny loaf.

d. 1742. Somerville, Occasional Poems, ‘The Officious Messenger’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 206). Her ladyship began to huff.

1708. Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy-Body, iii., 4. Impossible, without he huffs the lady, and makes love to Sir Francis.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xliii. Upon this she huffs outright, and tells Tom he may go about his business, for she didn’t care if she never sees him no more.

1839. W. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 133 (Ed. 1840). If they do, now and then, run away with a knocker, paint a sign, beat the watch, or huff a magistrate.

Intj. (obsolete).—See quots. Also Huffa and Huffa-gallant. [Probably the oldest form of the word.]

c. 1510. Rastell, Four Elements (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 20). With huffa gallant, tirl on the berry, And let the wide world wind.

c. 152(?). Hick Scorner (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 188). Huff! huff! huff! who sent after me.

d. 1529. Skelton, Poems, ‘Against Garnesche’ (Dyce, i., 118, and note ii., 181–2). Huf a galante, Garneysche, loke on your comely ars.

Also Huffy = easily offended; Huffed = annoyed; Huffily = testily; in a tantrum. [373]

1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, bk. II., ch. 15. A leetle on the huffy order, I guess! Aint you?

1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. xvi. I … actually was so cruel as to restrict him to one dozen of my cambric handkerchiefs. Dolph was particularly huffy about it, and I had to talk to him like a father to bring him round.

1853. Lytton, My Novel, bk. I., ch. ix. Though the Squire was inclined to be very friendly to all his neighbours, he was, like most country gentlemen, rather easily huffed.

1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, ch. xxxvi. ‘I have no doubt you would!’ say I, turning sharply and huffily away.

1875. Ouida, Signa, vol. II., ch. xx., p. 324. ‘She is a stupid little mule,’ thought the old woman, angrily. ‘She feels nothing, she sees no greatness in it all—she is only good to grub amongst her cabbages.’ And she went away huffed.

Huff-cap (or Huff), subs. (Old Cant: still in use at Winchester College).—1. Strong ale. [‘From inducing people to set their caps in a bold and huffing style.’—Nares.]

1579. Fulwell, Art of Flattery. Commonly called Hufcap, it will make a man look as though he had seene the devil.

1586. Holinshed, Description of England. These men hale at Huff-cap till they be red as cockes and little wiser than their combes.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Bullen, Works, 1889, p. 247). Hunks detests when huffcap ale he tipples.

1614. Greene, Looking-Glass [Dyce], p. 127. The ale is strong ale, ’tis hufcap; I warrant you, ’twill make a man well.

1630. Taylor, Wks. And this is it, of ale-houses and innes, Wine-marchants vintners, brewers, who much wins By others losing, I say more or lesse, Who sale of hufcap liquor doe professe.

1596. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v., 306). The huff-cappes to drink in that house, thou shalt be sure of always.

1630. Taylor, Wks. But ’tis a maxime mortals cannot hinder, The doughty deeds of Wakefield’s huffe-cap Pinder Are not so pleasant as the faire Aurora, When Nimrod rudely plaid on his bandora.

1687. Clifford, Notes upon Dryden, letter 2. Prethee tell me true, was not this huff-cap once the Indian emperour, and at another time did not he call himself Maximine?

1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, v., 6. You have made a fine speech good Captain Huff-cap.

1597. Hall, Satires, i., 3. Graced with huff-cap terms and thundering threats.

Huffer, subs. (old).—A swaggerer.

1682. Banks, Vertue Betrayed, Prol. lines 23–4. Welcome mask-teazer, peevish gamster, huffer: All fools, but politicians, we can suffer.

1770. Lord Hailes, Ancient Scottish Poetry, note on ‘Seven Deadly Sins,’ line 34. Huffers (or threateners), boasters, and they who pick quarrels.

Huffle, verb. (venery).—1. To bag-pipe (q.v.).

Huff-snuff, subs. (old).—A person apt to take offence.

1592. Nashe, Strange News, etc. (Grosart, Works, ii., 184). Gabriel Huffe-Snuffe Knowne to the world for a foole, and clapt in the Fleete for a poet.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Risentito.… Also a huffe snuffe, one that will soone take pepper in the nose, that will revenge euerie small matter. [374]

1750. Ozell, Rabelais, iv., pref. xxiii. Freebooters, desperadoes, and bullying huff-snuffs.

Huftie-tuftie, adj. (old).—Swaggering; gallant.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden (Grosart, Works, iii., 106). Came a ruffling it out, huftie-tuftie, in his velvet suit.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, (Grosart, Works, v., 250). Huftie-tuftie youthful ruffling comrades, wearing every one three yards of feathers in his cap for his mistres’ favour.

Hug, subs. (thieves’).—Garrotting (q.v.). Also verbally, and to put on the hug.

1864. Home Magazine, 16 Mar. Hoax upon hoax about the putting on the hug was played off upon a credulous and bugbear-loving community.

2. (old).—The sexual embrace. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride. Also the close hug.

1659. Lady Alimony, ii., ‘Prologue’ (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 288). Apt for a spousal hug.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 163. They’ve a new drug Which is called the close hug.

Verb. (colloquial).—Properly to grapple with and hold the body, as a bear with his fore-paws. Hence (1) to cuddle; and (2) to perform the sexual embrace (see subs., sense 2). Hence, also, to hug brown bess (q.v.); to hug the gunner’s daughter = to cuddle a gun for punishment; to hug the ground = to fall, or be hit off one’s legs; to give the hug (pugilists) = to close with and grapple the body; to hug the shore (or bank, or wall) to keep close to; cornish hug = a hold in wrestling; to hug a belief (or delusion, or thought) = to cherish; to hug one’s chains = to delight in captivity.

1696. Landsdowne, Poems, ‘Prologue to The She-Gallants’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., p. 36). Then, like some pensive statesman, treads demure, And smiles and hugs to make distinction sure.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Buller, Works, 1889, p. 249). Changed is Helen. Helen hugs the stranger.

1631. Drayton, The Mooncalf (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, iv., 133). Hug him, and swear he was her only joy.

1637. Beaumont and Fletcher, Elder Brother, iv., 1. This night I’ll hug my Lilly in my arms.

d. 1649. Drummond, Posthumous Poems, ‘Of a Kiss.’ Nor her who had the fate Ravis’d to be and hugged on Ganges’ shore.

1659. Lady Alimony, iv. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 288a). Shall we hug none of our own, But such as drop from the frigid zone.

c. 1708. W. King, The Art of Love, Pt. iv. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 266). Then hugging her in brawny arm.

d. 1710. R. Duke, Poems, ‘A Song’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 224). Close hugs the charmer, and ashamed to yield, Though he has lost the day yet keeps the field. Idem. She hugs the dart that wounded her, and dies.

d. 1742. Somerville, Occasional Poems, etc., ‘The Fortune-Hunter,’ canto iii. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 221). Drinks double bub with all his might And hugs his doxy every night.

1746. Smollett, Advice, line 4. We’ll hug the curse that not one joy can boast.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘The Cit’s County Box.’ Hugging themselves in ease and clover.

d. 1773. G. Cunningham, Poems, ‘Holiday-Gown’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xiv., 441). He hugs me so close, and he kisses so sweet.

1791. Antient and Modern Scottish Songs, ‘My Jockey is a Bonnie Lad,’ ii., 325. And then he fa’s a kissing, clasping, hugging, squeezing, tousling, pressing, winna let me be.

d. 1796. Burns, The Jolly Beggars. And at night in barn or stable, hugs our doxies on the hay. [375]

Hugger-mugger, subs. (colloquial).—Muddle; confusion.

1868. C. Reade, Foul Play, ch. vii. Why didn’t you tell me, and I’d have tidied the room: it is all hugger-mugger, with miss a leaving.

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 36. And every place as neat as a pin, And couldn’t stand no hugger-mugger.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Oct., p. 2, c. 2. He wrote some lampoons in the papers at the time, in which he ridiculed the hugger-mugger of the prosecution.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hugger-Mugger, Closely or by Stealth, Underboard: To eat so, that is, to Eat by one’s self.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hugger-Mugger, by stealth, privately, without making an appearance; they spent their money in a hugger-mugger way.

1882. Daily Telegraph, 5 Oct., p. 2, c. 2. Nor, can they be very severely blamed for this hugger-mugger, slipshod way of life.

1879. Justin McCarthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xxxii. I can see already that she won’t stand much more of you and me hugger-muggering together.

1565. Stapleton, Fort. of the Faith, fol. 88. They should not have lurked all this while in hucker-mucker.

1588. J. Udall, Demonstration of Discipline, p. 30. (ed. Arber). The Byshop without any lawfull election, is chosen in huggermuger of the canons, or prebendaries onely, without the knowledge of the people.

1594. Nashe, Unfortunate Traveller (Grosart, Works, v., 19). Myself that am but a poore childish wel-willer of yours, with the vain thought that a man of your desert and state by a number of pesants and varlets should be so incuriously abused in hugger-mugger haue wept al my vrine upward.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden (Grosart, Works, iii., 181). Hee sent her 18 pence in hugger-mugger, to pay the fiddlers.

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

1602. Dekker, Satiromastix, iii., 133 (Dodsley, Old Plays, viii., 48). One word, sir Quintilian, in hugger-mugger.

1607. Tourneur, Revenger’s Trag. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875), v., i. And how quaintly he died, like a politician, in hugger-mugger.

1611. Coryat, Crud., ii., p. 251, repr. So these perhaps might sometimes have some furtive conversation in hugger mugger.