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

1633. Ford, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, ii., 1. There is no way but to clap up a marriage in hugger-mugger.

1639–61. Rump Songs, i. [1662], 54. They brought me Gold and Plate in Huggar-Muggar.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, i., 3. Where’er th’ in hugger-mugger lurk, I’ll make them rue their handy-work.

1762. Churchill, The Ghost, bk. iii., line 27. It must not, as the Vulgar say, Be done in Hugger Mugger way.

1815. Mirror for Mag., p. 457. For most that most things knew, in hugger-mugger utter’d what they durst.

Hugging, subs. (common).—Garotting (q.v.).

Hugsome, adj. (colloquial).—Carnally attractive; Fuckable (q.v.).

Hulk (Hulky, or Hulking Fellow), subs. (colloquial).—A fat person; a big lout. Generally, ‘great hulk of a fellow.’

d. 1631. Drayton, The Mooncalf (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, iv., 126). Wallowing she lay, like to a boist’rous hulk Dropsied with humours.

1698. Ward, London Spy, Pt. xiv., p. 324. Up in the Chimney Corner sat a great hulking Fellow.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hulk (s.) … also a lazy, dronish fellow. [376]

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hulkey, or Hulking, a great hulkey fellow, an overgrown clumsy lout, or fellow.

1858. G. Eliot, Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ch. ii. When you’ve got … some great hulky fellow for a husband, who swears at you and kicks your children.

1870. Chambers’s Journal, 9 July, p 447. He sees a slouching, shambling, hulk of a fellow standing listlessly in a doorway.

1871. G. Eliot, Middlemarch, ch. lvi. I want to go first and have a round with that hulky fellow who turned to challenge me.

1883. A. Dobson, Old-World Idylls, p. 164. I’d like to give that hulking brute a hit—Beating his horse in such a shameful way!

1893. National Observer, 29 July, p. 267, col. 2. The absolute ascendancy exercised by a small but brilliant member … over a hulking Junior.

Hull between Wind and Water, verb. phr. (venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hull-cheese, subs. (Old Cant).—See quot. For synonyms, see Swipes.

1622. Taylor, A Very Merry Wherry-Ferry (Hindley, Works, 1872), 19. Give me hull-cheese, and welcome and good cheer. Ibid. Hull-cheese, is much like a loafe out of a brewers basket, it is composed of two simples, mault and water, in one compound, and is cousin germane to the mightiest ale in England.

Hulverhead, subs., and Hulver-headed, adj. (old).—See quots. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

Hum, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A kind of strong liquor: probably a mixture of beer and spirits, but see quot. 1690. Also hum-cap.

1616. Ben Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, i., 1. Carmen Are got into the yellow starch, and chimney sweepers To their tobacco, and strong waters, hum, Meath, and Obarni.

1619. Fletcher, Wild Goose Chase, ii., 3. Lord, what should I ail? What a cold I have over my stomach; would I’d some hum.

1622. Fletcher, Beggars’ Bush, ii., 1. Except you do provide me hum enough, And lour to bouze with.

d. 1645. Heywood, Drunkard, p. 48 [Gifford]. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of wines, yet there be stills and limbecks going, swetting out aqua vitæ and strong waters, deriving their names from cinnamon, balm, and aniseed, such as stomach-water, humm, etc.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hum-cap, old, mellow and very strong Beer.

1756. The World, No. 164. Now if this be only a hum (as I suppose it is) upon our country apes, it being blown in the World will put an end to it.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘A Tale.’ There, my good critics, lies the hum.

1806. Lamb, Letters in Wks. (Ed. 1852), ch. v., p. 81. I daresay all this is hum!

1820. Reynolds (P. Corcoran), The Fancy, ‘King Tims the First.’ You or your son have told a bouncing hum.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Row in an Omnibus Box.’ It’s ‘No Go!’—it’s ‘Gammon!’—it’s ‘all a Hum!’

1848. Punch, vol. XIV., p. 37. ‘Ye Frenche Goe Uppe to London.’ That ye French threats were all bouncing, That ye muster was a hum, And they’d never dare to come.

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 49. A hum and a huff, And none o’ the real stuff.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 76. Married life may be ticketed honey, but I know it’s more of a hum. [377]

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hums, persons at church; there is a great number of hums in the autem, there is a great congregation in the church.

1762. Goldsmith, Life of Nash, in Wks., p. 552 (Globe). Here Nash, if I may be permitted the use of a polite and fashionable phrase, was humm’d.

1764–1817. J. G. Holman, Abroad and at Home, i., 3. Ser. It is queer enough that his father, Sir Simon Flourish, should be hummed so as to think he is going the tour of Europe, when, all the while, he never got a step farther than St. George’s Fields.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, iii., 1. Go seek him there: I fear he’s only humming.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 4. While you hum the poor spoonies with speeches so pretty.

d. 1840. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, ii., 153 [ed. 1842]. I don’t mean to cajole you hither with the expectation of amusement or entertainment; you and I know better than to hum or be hummed in that manner.

1856. Elliott, Carolina Sports, p. 122. I hummed him, my stripping was all a feint.

1469. Paston Letters, II., 347 (Ed. Gairdner). He wold have gotyn it aweye by humys and by hays, but I wold not so be answeryd.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller (Grosart, Wks., v., 96). Hee made no more humming or haulting, but in despite of her husbandes kinsfolkes, gaue her her Nunc dimittis.

1610. Jonson, Alchemist, iii., 2. You may be anything, and leave off to make Long-winded exercises; or suck up Your ha! and hum! in a tune.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, i., 1. A sober-drawn exhortation of six hours, whose better part was the hum-ha-hum.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hum and Haw, to Hesitate in Speech; also to delay, or difficultly to be brought to Consent.

1706. Mrs. Centlivre, Love at a Venture, iv., 2, Wks. (1872), i., 304. That was the first excuse that came at my tongue’s end—and you know there is no humming and hawing with my old master, sir.

1729. Swift, Intelligencer, No. 14, p. 165 (2nd Ed.). If any person … shall presume to exceed six minutes in a story, to hum or haw, use hyphens between his words, or digressions.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. vi. Lord Ascot hummed and hawed, and told him to tell his father he had been a good boy.

To make things hum, verb. phr. (American).—To force the pace; to keep moving.

1888. San Francisco Weekly Exam., 23 Feb. Ever since he has taken the newspaper reins in San Francisco he has made things hum.

1890. Punch, 22 Feb. If I was flush of the ochre, I tell you I’d make the thing hum.

1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Aug., p. 2, c. 3. With their advent things begin to hum.

1893. W. T. Stead, Review of Reviews, p. 152. In the opinion of both foes and friends we make things hum.

To hum around, verb. phr. (American).—To call to account; to call over the coals (q.v.).

Human, subs. (old: now American).—A human being. [Also Human Boar]. For synonyms, see Cove. [378]

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxviii. They have little hovels for their cattle … and a house for the humans as grand as Noah’s Ark.

1882. Daily Telegraph, 13 Dec., p. 2, c. 2. In the opening pages Mr. Matthew Arnold mourns in verse over the death of ‘Poor Matthias,’ who is not a human but a canary.

1888. Denver Republican. He was only a dog … but was much more useful to society than many humans.

Humber-keels. See Billy-Boy.

Humble Pie. To eat humble pie, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To submit; to apologise; to knock under. For synonyms, see Cave In.

1862. Thackeray, Philip, xxvii. If this old chief had to eat humble pie, his brave adversaries were anxious that he should gobble up his portion as quickly as possible, and turned away their honest old heads as he swallowed it.

1887. Manville Fenn, This Man’s Wife, ch. ii., 4. Our savings are gone and we must eat humble pie for the future.

Hum-Box, subs. (common).—1. A pulpit.

1827. Lytton, Pelham, p. 302 [Ed. 1862]. Well, you parish bull prig, are you for lushing Jacky, or pattering in the hum-box?

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. ix., p. 309. He was nicknamed the ‘Amen bawler’ (parson) and recommended to take to the hum-box (pulpit) as better suited to him than cadging.

English Synonyms:—Autem; cackle tub; clack loft; cowards’ castle; gospel mill (also a church); wood.

Humbox Patterer, subs. (common).—A parson. For synonyms, see Devil Dodger and Sky Pilot.

1839. G. W. M. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. Though the humbox patterer talked of hell.

Humbug, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A hoax; an imposture; a swindle.

1735–40. Killigrew, The Universal Jester; or a pocket companion for the Wits: being a choice collection of merry conceits, facetious drolleries, &c., clenchers, closers, closures, bon-mots, and Humbugs. [Title].

1754. Connoisseur. No. 14. Single words, indeed, now and then broke forth; such as—odious, horrible, detestable, shocking, humbug. This last new-coined expression, which is only to be found in the nonsensical vocabulary, sounds absurd and disagreeable whenever it is pronounced.

1762. Churchill, The Ghost, bk. I., line 72. And that Great Saint, we Whitefield call, Keeps up the Humbug Spiritual.

1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. (Ed. 1862). p. 239. That sort of address which the British call humbug and Frenchmen ‘Finesse.’ (It’s ‘Blarney’ in Irish—I don’t know the Scotch.)

1842. Douglas Jerrold, Bubbles of the Day, i. Never say humbug; it’s coarse. Sir P. And not respectable. Smoke. Pardon me, my lord; it was coarse. But the fact is, humbug has received such high patronage, that now it’s quite classic.

d. 1783. Henry Brooke, Poems (1776). ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers’ English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Our hummers in state, physic, learning, and law. [379]

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Hum. He is a humbug that has recourse to the meanness. He wishes to be a bugaboo, or most exalted fool.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxx. ‘You’re a humbug, sir.’ ‘A what?’ said Mr. Winkle, starting. ‘A humbug, sir. I will speak plainer, if you wish it. An imposter, sir.’

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxv. He who seemed to be most afflicted of the two taking his departure with an exclamation of ‘Humbugged, egad!’

1826. The Fancy, ii., 77. We would not have the reader believe we mean to humbug him—not for a moment.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xliii. She was always ready to help him, provided, as she told him, ‘he didn’t humbug.’

Hence Humbugging = hoaxing, swindling, or Humbugable = gullible. Humbuggery = deception; imposture. Humbugger = a cheat, a hoaxer.

d. 1763. Henry Brooke, Poems (1778), ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Of all trades or arts in repute or possession humbugging is held the most ancient profession. Idem. To you, … the humbuggers of hearts.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xviii. The species of wit which has been long a favourite in the city, under the names of cross-biting, giving the dor, bamboozling, cramming, hoaxing, humbugging, and quizzing.

1825. Southey, Letters, iii., 488 [ed. Warter, 1856]. My charity does not extend so far as to believe that any reasonable man (humbuggable as the animal is) can have been so humbugged.

1826. The Fancy, ii., 29. A contemporary writer of eminence some years ago termed such exhibitions humbugging.

1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, p. 31. Do you not laugh, O Pharos of Bungay, at the continuance of a humbug such as this?—at the humbugging anniversary of a humbug?

1852. Judson, Myst., etc., of New York, ch. iv. Oh, blast your humbuggery—talk plain English to me.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. v. When the old lady was gone, Mr. Hobson had no need of any more humbugging, but took his pleasure freely.

1883. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, ch. xl., p. 369. Traces of its inflated language and other windy humbuggeries survive along with it.

Humdrum, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A tiresome dullard; a steady-going, common-place person. See also quot. 1725.

1596. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, i., 1. By gads-lid I scorn it, I, so I do, to be a consort for every humdrum.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Hum-Drums or Hums, a Society of Gentlemen, who meet near the Charter-House, or at the King’s Head in St. John’s Street. Less of mystery, and more of Pleasantry than the Free Masons.

1823. Hints for Oxford, p. 63. Men of spirit must ever dislike the unleavened humdrum of its monkish constitution.

1893. The Nation, 13 July, p. 32, col. 1. We go so far with the adorers of home and humdrum.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden (Grosart, Works, iii., 14). Whereof generous Dick (without humdrum be it spoken) I utterly despair of them.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. ii., p. 6. Tho’ it is their humdrum fashion To hate all musical precation. [380]

1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, Act I., p. 7 (2nd Ed.). Your fellows of colleges are a parcel of sad, muzzy, humdrum, lazy, ignorant old caterpillars.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘A Familiar Epistle.’ So frothy, vapid, stale, humdrum.

1765. C. Smart, Fables, xv., line 5. Content in humdrum mood t’adjust Her matters to disperse the dust.

1774. Foote, Cozeners, i., 1. Not one, madam, of the humdrum, drawling, long winded tribe.

1775. Sheridan, Rivals, ii., 1. Yet am I by no means certain that she would take me with the impediment of our friends’ consent, a regular humdrum wedding, and the reversion of a good fortune on my side.

d. 1823. Bloomfield, Poems, ‘Richard and Kate’ (1825), p. 89. Come, Goody, stop your humdrum wheel.

1825. Harriet Wilson, Memoirs, iii., 237. You are, in fact, too constant for Paris. One has enough of all that hum-drum stuff in England.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxi. The most fervent Liberals, when out of power, become humdrum Conservatives, or downright tyrants or despots in office.

1863. Alex. Smith, Dreamthorpe, p. 23. Giddy people may think the life I lead here staid and humdrum, but they are mistaken.

1893. Standard, 8 Aug., p. 4, col. 6. The thing, in his view, is to rattle off something pretentious, and avoid the humdrum and tiresome methods which statesmanship of the pre-Home-Rule period used to respect.

Humdurgeon, subs. (old).—1. An imaginary illness.—Grose.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxiii. I would never be making a humdudgeon about a scart on the pow.

Humdurgeoned, adj. (old).—Annoyed.

Humguffin (common).—A hobgoblin. Also a derisive address.

Humgumptious, adj. (obsolete).—See quot.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Hum. A knowing sort of humbug is humgumptious.

Hummer, subs. (old).—1. See quot.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hummer (s.) a great, monstrous, or notorious lie.

2. (American).—A man or woman of notable parts; a high stepper (q.v.); a good goer (q.v.). Cf., Rustler.

1889. Ally Sloper, 6 July. If Tootsie is anything as lively as the ‘Gaiety Girls,’ she must be a hummer.

1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. I just wanted to see my Tillie dance once. She’s a society hummer now.

Humming, adj. (old). Strong—applied to drink; brisk—applied to trade; hard—applied to blows. Humming October = the specially strong brew from the new season’s hops; stingo (q.v.).

1736. Fielding, Don Quixote, iii., 4. Landlord, how fares it? You seem to drive a humming trade here.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, ch. vii. Let us fortify our stomachs with a slice or two of hung beef, and a horn or so of humming stingo.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Wedding Day.’ A mighty magnificent tub Of what men, in our hemisphere, term ‘Humming Bub,’ But which gods—who, it seems, use a different lingo, From mortals, are wont to denominate ‘Stingo.’

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. vii. Wegg, in coming to the ground, had received a humming knock on the back of his devoted head.

Hump, verb. (common).—1. To spoil; to botch; to do for.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 252. To hump in street parlance, is equivalent to ‘botch,’ in more genteel colloquialism.

2. (colonial).—To shoulder and carry. E.g., To hump one’s swag = to shoulder one’s kit.

1887. All the Year Round, 30 July, p. 66. A large blanket rolled up which contains the personal luggage of the man who carries or humps it.

1887. G. A. Sala in Illus. Lon. News, 12 Mar., 282/2. All kinds of luggage, generally speaking, which are manually carried, are at present said to be humped. I have had to hump mine many a time and oft.

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, ch. xxii. We humped our saddles and swags ourselves.

1890. Family Herald, 8 Feb., p. 227. I was just debating whether I had better hump my drum.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hump, to hump. Once a fashionable word for copulation.

To hump oneself, verb. phr. (American).—To stir; to prepare for attack; to fancy oneself.

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc. p. 177. Ef thar are anything he humps hisself on besides ugly, it is his manners among the fimmales.

1847. Porter, Big Bear, etc., p. 126. He was breathin’ sorter hard, his eye set on the Governor, humpin’ himself on politics.

To get (or have) the hump, verb. phr. (common).—To be despondent, hurt, put out, down in the mouth (q.v.). also, to have the hump up or on. For synonyms, see Snaggy.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v., 267). So in his humps about it … that he had thought to have tumbled his hurrie-currie … into the sea.

1885. Punch, 10 Jan., p. 24. I had got the ’ump, and no error, along o’ Bill B. and that gal.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 43. The company consume what will be elegantly referred to as ‘a bit of booze.’ Aunt Snapper gets the ’ump.

1886. Jerome, Idle Thoughts, p. 14. ’Arry refers to the heavings of his wayward heart by confiding to Jimee that he has got the blooming hump!

Humpey, subs. (Australian).—See quot.

1893. Gilbert Parker, Pierre and his People, p. 135. McGann was lying on his back on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain hut. Australians would call it a humpey.

Humphrey, subs. (American thieves’).—A coat with pocket holes but no pockets.—Matsell.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse [Grosart], ii., 18. I … retired me to Paules, to seeke my dinner with Duke Humfrey.

1843. Moncrieff, The Scamps of London, i., 1. Dines oftener with Duke Humphrey than anybody else, I believe.

Humpty-dumpty, subs. (colloquial).—1. A short and thick-set person; a grundy (q.v.); a hunch-back. For synonyms, see Forty Guts. [382]

1698. M. Sorbière’s Journey to London in the Year 1698, p. 135, quoted in Notes and Queries, 6 S., xii., 167. He answer’d me that he had a thousand such sort of liquors, as Humtie Dumtie, Three Threads.…

1837. Disraeli, Venetia, i., 14. As for the beverage they drank humpty-dumpty, which is ale boiled with brandy.

Hum-strum, subs. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Humstrum, a musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some pack-thread, thence also called bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum; sometimes instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.

Hunch, verb. (old: now colloquial).—To jostle; to shove; to squeeze. For synonyms, see Ramp.

1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, Pt. III., App., ch. iii. Then Jack’s friends began to hunch and push one another.

1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial. 1. I was hunched up in a hackney-coach with three country acquaintance.

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 163. I hadn’t fairly got to sleep before the old ’oman hunched me.

Hung. See Well-hung.

To be hung up, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To come to a standstill; to be in a fix.

1891. Fun, 10 June, p. 237. ‘Ah! by Bendigo, I forgot! Grimmy’s hung up!’ ‘What, Grimmy? Never!’

Hungarian, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A hungry man; a rare pecker (q.v.).

1608. Dodsley, Merry Devil of Edmonton [Old Plays, v. 267]. Away, I have knights and colonels at my house, and must tend the hungarians.

1632. Lupton, London [‘Harl. Misc.’], ix., 314. The middle aile [of St. Paul’s] is much frequented at noon with a company of hungarians, not walking so much for recreation as need.

1608. Merry Devil of Edmonton [Dodsley, Old Plays, v. 285]. Come, ye Hungarian pilchers, we are once more come under the zona torrida of the forest.

1893. National Observer, ‘Spoliation,’ ix., 357. But, after all, it is only another note in the gamut of spoliation, whereof Mr. Gladstone’s hungarians (a good old word that!) would have the mastery.

Hunk. To be (or get) hunk or all hunk, verb. phr. (American).—1. To hit a mark; to achieve an object; to be safe. Also (2) to scheme. [From Dutch honk = goal or home.]

1847. Darley, Drama in Pokerville, p. 50. I’ll allow you’re just hunk this time.

1893. Detroit Free Press, June 23, ‘He Threatens to go back,’ p. 3. I propose to have some of it, or I’ll get hunk.

Hunker (or Old Hunker), subs. (American).—In New York (1844) a Conservative Democrat, as opposed to the Young Democracy or Barn-Burners (q.v.). Hence, an anti-progressive in politics.

Hunks, subs. (old).—A miser; a mean, sordid fellow; a curmudgeon. For synonyms, see Snide. [383]

1602. Dekker, Satiro-Mastix, in Wks. (1873), i., 201. Blun. Nay prethee deare Tucca, come you shall shake—Tuc. Not hands with great Hunkes there, not hands, but Ile shake the gull-groper out of his tan’d skinne.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Works, Bullen, 1889, p. 247). But it drinks up all: that hunks detestable.

1647–80. Rochester, Wks.; p. 11. There was an old coveteous hunks in the neighbourhood, who had notwithstanding his age, got a very pretty young wife.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, v., 2. Make a very pretty show in the world, let me tell you; nay, a better than your close hunks.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hunks, a covetous Creature, a miserable Wretch.

1712. Spectator, No. 264. Irus has … given all the intimations he skilfully could of being a close hunks with money.

1837. Marryat, Snarley-yow, ch. 12. So while they cut their raw salt junks, With dainties you’ll be cramm’d. Here’s once for all my mind, old hunks, Port Admiral, you be dammed!

1839. Buckstone, Brother Tom (Dick’s ed., p. 15). One calls him an old hunks, another a selfish brute.

1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 35. That you become the sole inheritor of the wealth of this rich old hunks.

1846. Melville, Moby Dick, 75 (ed. 1892). Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being an incorrigible old hunks.

1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. iii. I am sure he is a cross old hunks, though Mamma says he’s not.

1893. Theodore Martin, Roman Elegies, ii. (Goethe Society Trans., 1891–2, p. 72). Joys that he stints not his gold like the close hunxes of Rome.

Hunky, adj. (American).—Good; jolly; a general superlative. Also Hunkidorum.

d. 1867. Browne, ‘Artemus Ward,’ The Shakers (Railway ed.), p. 43. ‘Hunky boy! Go it my gay and festive cuss!’

1873. Justin McCarthy, Fair Saxon, ch. xxxviii. The guard dies, but never surrenders! Fine, isn’t it? But the hunky-boy that said that surrendered all the same.

1888. Texas Siftings, 20 Oct. Robert is all hunky, but he had a mighty close call the week before last.

Hunt, verb. (old).—To decoy a pigeon (q.v.) to the tables. Hence hunting = card-sharping. Flat-catching (q.v.).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hunting (c.), decoying or drawing others into Play.

To hunt for soft spots, verb. phr. (American).—To make oneself comfortable; to seek one’s ease.

1888. San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 Mar. It was demnition hot, and I commenced to hunt for soft spots in my saddle.

To hunt grass, verb. phr. (pugilists’).—To be knocked down; to be grassed (q.v.). Also, to be puzzled; to be dumfoundered.

1869. Clemens [Mark Twain], Innocents at Home, ch. ii. I hunt grass every time.

1892. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 21 Sep. p. 13, c. 2. For nearly ten years I earned a living—and a good one—by ‘wielding the willow’ and hunting the leather.

1878. Charles Hindley, Life and Times of James Catnach, p. 171. (Chorus)—Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, And finely hunt the dummy.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hunting the Squirrel, an amusement practised by post boys, and stage coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman, or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to be hunted.

In, or out of, the hunt, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Having a chance, or none; in or out of the swim (q.v.). Admitted to, or outside, a circle or society.

Hunt-about, subs. (colloquial).—1. A prying gossip.

Hunt-counter, subs. (old).—A beggar.

Hunters. Pitching the hunters, verb. phr. (costermongers’). See quot.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 390. Pitching the hunters is the three sticks a penny, with the snuff-boxes stuck upon sticks; if you throw your stick, and they fall out of the hole, you are entitled to what you knock off.

1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, p. 235. When … there was no cattle jobbing to be done, he would pitch the hunters, that is, put up the ‘three sticks a penny’ business.

Hurly-Burly, subs. (old: now colloquial).—A commotion; a bustle; an uproar.

c. 1509–1547. Lusty Juventus (Dodsley), [Old Plays, 4th ed., 1874, ii., 85]. What a hurly-burly is here! Smick smack, and all this gear!

1539. Tavernier, Garden of Wysdom, E. ii. verso. Thys kynge [Gelo] on a tyme exacted money of hys comons, whome when he perceuyed in a hurly burly for the same, and ready to make an insurrection, he thus sodaynly appeased.

1542. Udall, Apophthegms of Erasmus [1877], p. 115. the meaning of the Philosophier was, that princes for the ambition of honour, rule and dominion, being in continuall strife, and hurlee burlee, are in very deede persons full of miserie and wo.

1551. More, Utopia, (Pitt Press ed., 1884, i., 52, 5). Whereby so many nations for his sake should be broughte into a troublesome hurlei-burley.

1567. Fenton, Tragical Dicsourses, f. 104. They heard a great noyse and hurleyburley in the street of the Guard and chief officers of the Watch.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse (Grosart, Works, ii., 53). Not trouble our peaceable Paradise with their private hurlie-burlies about strumpets.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v., 293). Put them in feare where no feare is, and make a hurlie-burlie in the realm.

1606. Shakspeare, Macbeth, i., 1. When the hurley-burley’s done, When the battle’s lost and won.

1619. T. North’s Diall of Princes (1557), corrected, p. 703, c. 1. Two or three dayes before you shall see such resort of persons, such hurly burly, such flying this way, such sending that way, some occupyed in telling the cookes how many sorts of meates they will have.…

1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (ed. 1890, p. 185). As for the lawyer he waited below till the hurly-burly was over, and then he stole softly to his own chamber.

1811. J. and H. Smith, Horace in London, pp. 18–25, Ode ii., ‘Hurly-burly’ (Title).

1893. St. James’s Gazette, xxvii., 4076, p. 4. While all London was making holiday, Paris was engaged in a hurly-burly of a very different kind.

Hurra’s-nest, subs. (nautical).—The utmost confusion; everything topsy-turvy. For synonyms, see Sixes and Sevens.

1840. R. H. Dana, Two Years Before the Mast, ch. ii. Everything was pitched about in grand confusion. There was a complete hurrah’s nest, as the sailors say, ‘everything on top and nothing at hand.’

1869. Mrs. Stowe, Old Townsfolks, ch. iv. You’ve got our clock all to pieces, and have been keeping up a perfect hurrah’s nest in our kitchen for three days. Do either put that clock together or let it alone.

Hurrah in Hell. Not to care a single hurrah in hell, verb. phr. (American).—To be absolutely indifferent.

1893. Harold Frederic, National Observer, IX., 1 Apr., p. 493, col. 2. I don’t care a single hurrah in sheol.

Hurry, subs. (musical).—A quick passage on the violin, or a roll on the drum, leading to a climax in the representation.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 66. The wrongful heir comes in to two bars of quick music (technically called a hurry).

Hurry-curry, subs. (obsolete).—See quot.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v. 267). The … was so in his humps upon it … that he had thought to have tumbled his hurrie currie, or … can, into the sea.

Hurry-durry, adj. (old).—Rough; boisterous; impatient of counsel or control.

Hurrygraph, subs. (American).—A hastily written letter.

1861. Independent, 31 July. I must close this hurrygraph, which I have no time to review.

Hurry-whore, subs. (old).—A walking strumpet.

1630. Taylor, Wks. And I doe wish with all my heart, that the superfluous number of all our hyreling hackney carryknaves, and hurry-whores, with their makers and maintainers, were there, where they might never want continuall imployment.

Husband’s-boat, subs. (common).—The Saturday boat to Margate during the summer season.

1887. Murray, in New Eng. Dict., Pt. III., p. 956, c. 3. Waiting at Margate Pier for the husband’s boat on Saturday afternoon.

Husband’s-supper. To warm the husband’s supper, verb. phr. (common).—To sit before the fire with lifted skirts. Fr., faire chapelle.

Husband’s-tea, subs. (common).—Weak tea; water bewitched (q.v.).

Hush, verb. (old).—To kill.—Grose.

Hush-money, subs. (old: now recognised).—Money paid for silence, to quash a case, or stay a witness; a bribe; blackmail.

1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 26. I expect hush-money to be regularly sent for every folly or vice any one commits in this whole town.

1713. Guardian, No. 26. A poor chambermaid has sent in ten shillings out of her hush-money, to expiate her guilt of being in her mistress’s secret.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxxvii. To allow Ada to be made a bribe and hush-money of, is not the way to bring it out.

1884. Spectator, p. 530. They were disappointed of their hush-money, but he gave them an easy revenge.

Hush-shop (or -crib), subs. (common).—An unlicensed tavern.

1872. Globe, 18 Sep. At Barrow-in-Furness the new Licensing Act has had the effect of calling numerous hush shops into existence.

Husky, subs. (Winchester College).—Gooseberry fool with the husks in it, obsolete. [Notions.]

1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 145. There were two kinds [Gooseberry fool] Husky and non-husky.

Husky-lour, subs. (Old Cant).—A guinea; a job (q.v.). For synonyms, see Canary.

Hussy, subs. (colloquial).—A corruption of housewife (q.v.).

Hustle, verb. (venery).—1. To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

2. (American).—To bestir oneself; to go to work with vigour and energy. Also to hustle around.

Hustler, subs. (American).—An active, busy man or woman. A hummer (q.v.); a rustler (q.v.).

1890. Harold Frederic, Lawton Girl. A whimsical query as to whether this calamitous boy had also been named Benjamin Franklin crossed his confused mind, and then … whether the child if so named, would be a hustler or not.

Hutch, subs. (common).—A place of residence or employment; one’s diggings (q.v.).

Hutter. See Hatter.

Huxter, subs. (common).—Money. Also Hoxter. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

c. 186(?). Broadside Ballad. These seven long years I’ve been serving, and Seven I’ve got for to stay, All for meeting a bloke down our alley And a-taking his huxters away.

Huzzy (or Huzzie), subs. (old).—A case of needles, pins, scissors, bodkins, etc.; a housewife’s companion.

Hymeneal-Sweets, subs. (venery).—Copulation.

1604. Marston, Malcontent, i., 3. True to her sheetes, nay, diets strong his blood, To give her height of hymeneall sweetes.

Hypernese, subs. (Winchester College).—See quot. Ziph (q.v.).

1864. The Press, 12 Nov. p. 1098. This dialect of school cryptoëpy was known in our youth as Hypernese. When spoken fast it defies an outsider’s curiosity. If two consonants commence a syllable, the former is dropped, and W substituted: thus breeches would be wareechepes. If P commences a syllable, G is interpolated: thus penny would be pegennepy.… That Ziph and its cognate languages are well known beyond the boundaries of Winchester is certain. Bishop Wilkins described it, without mentioning it as a novelty, a couple of centuries ago.

Hyphenated American, subs. (American).—A naturalised citizen, as German-Americans, Irish-Americans, and the like. [Nortons.] [387]

Hypocrite, subs. (American).—A pillow slip or ‘sham.’

Hypogastric-cranny, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum.—Urquhart. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Hyps (or Hypo), subs. (old).—The Blue Devils (q.v.).

1710. Swift, Tatler, No. 230. Will Hazard has got the hipps, having lost to the tune of five hund’rd pound.

1729. Swift, Poems (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 486). And the doctor was plaguily down in the hips.

1738. Swift’s Polite Conversation, Dial. 1. Her ladyship was plaguily bamb’d; I warrant it put her into the hipps.

1830. C. Lamb, Pawnbroker’s Daughter, i., 2. The drops so like to tears did drip, They gave my infant nerves the hyp.

1854. Haliburton, Americans at Home, i., 176. The old man would give up to the hypo, and keep his bed for weeks. During this time, he wouldn’t say a word, but ‘I’m not long for this world.’