Slang and its analogues, 2 | Project Gutenberg

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. i., p. 4. Two large slices of bread, … the allowance given out to some prisoner who … had forgotten to eat what in prison slang is called his ‘toke’ or chuck.

1877. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Life on the Mississippi, ch. lii., p. 463. i wish i was nere you so i could send you chuck (refreshments) on holidays.

2. (common).—Scraps of meat; block ornaments (q.v.). For synonyms, see Duck.

1871. Echo, 11 Dec. ‘Sunday amongst the Silk Weavers.’ Few regular butchers ply their trade on Sunday morning—money is only to be made by the vendors of nauseous substitutes for wholesome meat—the refuse portion of beef and mutton, tough, coarse, and meagre pork, flaccid tripe, lean little sheeps’ chuks, as the natives call them, the savourless saveloy of Old England.

1887. Standard, 20 Jan. ‘The Poor at Market.’ From a sort of ludicrous spirit of snobbery a labourer will term a fellow he dislikes a ‘beggar who eats chuck,’ chuck being a low-priced part of the carcase.

1851–61. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 73. Sprats … are sold at Billingsgate by the ‘toss,’ or chuck, which is about half a bushel, and weighs about 40 lbs. to 50 lbs.

1883. Punch, June 2, p. 264, col. 1. The average number of chucks at cocoa-nuts before achieving success is six.

5. (nautical).—Sea biscuit. Cf., senses 1 and 6. A sailor’s variant is ‘chow-dow.’

1864. Standard, 13 Dec. Of naval slang Mr. Hotten has missed the words chuck, used by sailors for biscuit, and barge, the box or cask in which the chuck is kept by the messes on the lower deck.

1593. Prodigal Son, iv., 112. Yes, this old one will I give you (chucks him old hose and doublet). [m.]

1627. Drayton, Agincourt, 63. In the Tauerne, in his cups doth rore, chocking his crownes. [m.]

1753. Adventurer, No. 43. I … was kicked about, hustled, tossed up, and chucked into holes.

1771. Smollet, Humphry Clinker, l. 36. Dirt and trash chucked into it by roguish boys for the joke’s sake.

1820. Coombe, Dr. Syntax, tour II., ch. i. Yes, faith, as I’ve a soul to save, I will for nothing dig her grave; Yes, I would do it too as willing As if her hand had chuck’d a shilling.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxxix., p. 342. I’m not only ready but villin’ to do anythin’ as’ll make matters agreeable; and if chuckin’ either o’ them sawbonesses out of winder u’ll do it, I’m the man.

1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 150. Many a time I walked through the streets and picked a piece of bread that the servants chucked out of the door.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. IV., ch. i. ‘When you’re ready for your snooze,’ said the honest creature, ‘chuck yourself on my bed in the corner.’

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 192. Mo and his man were having a great breakfast one morning … Mo exclaimed to his man, ‘Chuck rumbo (eat plenty), my lad.’

3. (pigeon fanciers’).—To despatch a pigeon. Cf., sense 1, and To chuck it; also Hard chuck.

4. (general).—To spend extravagantly. For synonyms, see Ducks and Drakes. [107]

1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xviii. Next to unlimited chucking of his own money, the youthful Englishman would like—what he never gets—the unlimited chucking of other people’s.

To chuck, chuck it, or chuck up, verbal phr. To abandon; ‘turn up’; dismiss; turn out of doors; to give up. Also chuck it up = ‘drop it.’ [From the custom of throwing up the sponge at a prize fight in sign of defeat. Often corrupted into jack up.—See Sponge. A French equivalent is laisser tout en plan.

1869. Daily Telegraph, 6 Sept. ‘Season at Baden.’ Why is it that Englishwomen can never combine their colours, or put on their clothes? Are their maids used to haymaking when at home, and do they ‘pitch’ on the petticoats, and give three cheers and have beer when they finish the work by chucking up the dress?

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. xxvi. ‘But here, Cis, if you mean business, take my advice and chuck that corps.’

1883. Miss Braddon, Phantom Fortune, ch. xxv. She knows on which side her bread is buttered. Look how easily she chucked you up because she did not think you good enough.

To get or give the chuck, phr.—To dismiss, or be dismissed, Cf., bag and sack.

1889. Sporting Times [quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant]. And I shall get the blooming chuck as well as fourteen days.

To chuck [oneself] about or into, phr.—To move expeditiously. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle. Also, to fall into.

1860. Funny Fellow, 7 May, p. 1. Hollo, my kiddy, stir your stumps, And chuck yourself about.

Chuck her up, phr. (cricket).—An expression of delight. [From the practice of throwing the ball into the air after a successful catch.]

[The verb, to chuck, is attached in an active sense to any number of objectives, and may be taken as equivalent to ‘to perform’ or ‘do.’ Thus ‘to chuck a fag’ = to ‘give a beating’; to ‘chuck a turd’ = to ‘rear,’ to evacuate; to ‘chuck a tread’ = to have intercourse; to ‘chuck a jolly’ = to undertake a bout of chaff; to ‘chuck a fit’ = to have an epileptic, or apoplectic, seizure; to ‘chuck a cram’ or ‘a kid’ = to lie, etc.]

Hard-chuck (pigeon fanciers’).—A long distance; also a trying flight. From Gravesend to London is considered a hard-chuck, as the low, flat country is bare of landmarks.

Chuck a Curly, verbal phr. (military).—To feign sickness; to malinger. [For possible derivation, see general remarks on Chuck, in a preceding paragraph, + curly, ‘doubling up,’ or writhing, as in pain.]

Chuck a Jolly, verbal phr. (costermongers’).—To bear up or ‘bonnet’: as when a costermonger praises the inferior article his mate or partner is trying to sell. This process is usually commenced with a chi-ike (q.v.). Also to undertake a bout of chaff.

Chuck a Stall, verb phr. (thieves’).—To attract a person’s attention while a confederate picks his pockets, or otherwise robs him. [Stall = an accomplice; and as a verb, to keep watch or spy upon.]

1884. Greenwood, Seven Years’ Penal Servitude. I said to my pal ‘chuck me a stall and I’ll have that.’ What [108]did I mean? Why, keep close to me, and cover what I’m doing.

Chucked. To be chucked or chucked up, verbal phr. (thieves’).—1. To escape committal; to be acquitted or released.

1887. Horsley, Jottings from Jail, Rit from 7 dials; remanded innocent on two charges of pokes, only out 2 weeks for a drag, expects to be fullied or else chucked.

1889. Evening News [quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant, p. 251, col. 1]. When I was chucked up they took me to an old Jew’s in Dudley Street for my clothes.

1889. Answers, 9 Feb. He was fortunate enough to get chucked, to escape, that is to say, as the evidence against him was not strong enough.

2. (common).—[Generally chucked out.] To be forcibly ejected. [From chuck, verb, sense 1, + ed + out.] Cf., Chucker-out.

1889. Ally Sloper’s Half-Holiday, Aug. 17, p. 258, col. 2. His back being nearly broken from your constantly falling over him when you’ve been chucked.

4. (prostitutes’).—Amorous; and hence ‘fast.’ French, galoper une femme = to make hot love to a woman. Cf., Molrower.

French Synonyms. S’allumer or allumer son pétrole or son gaz (the first of these terms is in general use, the others being employed chiefly by prostitutes); battre du beurre (popular: used more in the sense of ‘to be fast,’ but also = to speculate on ‘Change’ and to dissemble).

German Synonym. Spannen (to ogle prostitutes; to waylay women in order to make overtures; generally to lear with concupiscence).

Spanish Synonyms. Apacentar (properly to tend cattle); desbeber (also = to make water); despepitarse (literally to give a loose to one’s tongue or to act imprudently); rabanillo (m = an ardent longing).

5. (common).—To be disappointed; put out in one’s calculations; put to shame; ‘sold.’

c. 1879. Broadside Ballad. ‘Chucked again.’ Chucked again, chucked again! Whatever may happen I get all the blame, Wherever I go, it is always the same—Jolly well chucked again!

Chucked-In, adv. phr. (popular).—Into the bargain. Cf., Lagniappe. [From chuck, sense 1, + ed + in.]

1880. Punch, No. 2055, p. 245. Happy thought! chucked in an extra chapter on Literature.

1884. Punch, Oct. 11. ‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ Went to one on ’em yesterday, Charlie; a regular old up and down lark. The Pallis free gratis, mixed up with a old country fair in a park, And Rosherville Gardens chucked in.

Chucker, subs. (cricketers’).—1. A volunteer who does not keep a promise to play.

Chucker-Out, subs. (colloquial).—A man retained to eject or ‘chuck out’ from public meetings, taverns, brothels, and hells.—See quot., 1880.

1880. Punch, No. 2040, p. 63. Lord Grey was about to resume his rôle of chucker-out to the proposed measures of his own party.

1883. Saturday Review, March 31, p. 398, col. 1. We hired a smiling but stalwart assistant to act in the capacity of chucker-out. [109]

1884. Good Words, June, p. 400, col. 1. He had done twelve months [in prison] for crippling for life the chucker-out of one of these pubs. [m.]

1885. All the Year Round, Nov., 2226. Dens to which Brickey is attached in the capacity of chucker-out. [m.]

1887. Guardian, 2 March, p. 343, col. 1. Bogus meetings, where the chairman, committee, reporters, audience, and chuckers-out were all subsidised. [m.]

1890. The Scots Observer, p. 394, col. 2. The result of which was the resolution to appoint a body of Chuckers-out to keep delegates in order, and to show the Commons what to do with its Healys and its Tanners.

Chuck-Farthing, Chuck, Chuck-and-Toss, or Pitch-and-Toss, subs. phr. (common).—Games played with money, which is pitched at a line, gathered, shaken in the hands, and tossed up into the air so as to fall ‘heads and tails’ until the stakes are guessed away. A parish clerk was formerly nicknamed a chuck-farthing.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Chuck Farthing: a Parish Clerk (in the Satyr against Hypocrites) also a Play among Boies.

1703. Ward, London Spy, pt. XIII., p. 317. Where Mumpers, Soldiers and Ballad-Singers, were as busie at chuck-farthing and Hussle-Cap, as so many Rooks at a gaming Ordinary.

1712. Spectator, No. 509. The unlucky boys with toys and balls were whipped away by a beadle, I have seen this done indeed of late, but then it has been only to chase the lads from chuck, that the beadle might seize their copper.

1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vol. I., ch. x. The spinning-wheel forgot its round,—even chuck-farthing and shuffle-cap themselves stood gaping till he had got out of sight.

1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I., 174. With chuck and marbles wearing Sunday through.

1851. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, II., p. 398. They frequently had halfpence given to them. They played also at chuck and toss with the journeymen, and of course were stripped of every farthing.

c. 1868. Brough, Field of the Cloth of Gold. From pitch-and-toss to manslaughter’s my game.

1878. M. E. Braddon, Cloven Foot, ch. xlii. ‘I remember when I was a little chap, at Dr. Prossford’s grammar school, playing chuck-farthing.’

1888. Illus. London News, Summer Number, p. 26, col. 1. Having replaced the musty documents upon the shelf, that ingenious youth adjourned to indulge in the passionately exhilarating game of chuck-farthing.

Chuck In, verb (pugilistic).—To challenge.—[From the custom of throwing a hat into the ring; a modern version of throwing down the gauntlet. Also, ‘to compete’; e.g., I shall have a chuck in = ‘I shall try my luck’—with a woman, a raffle, a personal encounter, and so on.

Chucking-Out, subs. (popular).—Ejection. [From chuck, verb, sense 1, through chuck up (q.v.), + ing + out.] Also as an adj.

1881. Sportsman, Jan. 31, p. 3, col. 5. We were the first to take the part of the pit against a chucking-out policy. [m.]

1887. Pall Mall Gaz., Feb. 23, p. 11, col. 1. Evictions in Glenbeigh … and chuckings-out in London. [m.]

1887. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 83. It is fair to say that the youths seemed quite ready for the emergency, and took their chucking-out most skilfully.

Chucks! intj. (school).—A boy’s signal on a master’s approach. A French schoolboy’s equivalent is Vesse!

Chuck the Dummy, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To feign sickness, especially epilepsy; a common dodge in prisons to get an order for the infirmary. [110]

Chuff It! intj. (common).—Be off! Take it away! For synonyms, see Hookey Walker!

Chul or Chull, verb (Anglo-Indian).—See quot.

1886. G. A. Sala, in Ill. L. News, June 19, p. 644. In Calcutta chul is a word that you hear fifty times a day. A lady tells you that her new Ayah will not chul at all; the proprietor of that popular weekly journal, the Hooghly Dacoit … tells you that he is going home for six months; but that he has an able editor, and that the paper will chul very well during his absence. The chul, I apprehend, means to go on, to proceed, to do.

Chum, subs. (colloquial).—A close companion; a bosom friend; an intimate. Formerly a chamber-fellow or mate. [Johnson calls it a term used in the Universities, and the earliest quot. seems to bear him out. The derivation is uncertain, and Dr. Murray says ‘no historical proof connecting it with “chamber-fellow” or “chamber-mate” has been found.’]

1684. Creech, Theocritus, Idyll XII. Ded. to my chum, Mr. Hody of Wadham College. [m.]

1714. Spectator, No. 617. Letter written by University man to a friend begins ‘Dear Chum.’

c. 1750. Humours of the Fleet, quot. in Ashton’s Eighteenth Century Waifs, p. 249. When you have a chum, you pay but fifteen pence per week each.

1828–45. T. Hood, Poems, vol. II., p. 201 (ed. 1846). The very chum that shared my cake Holds out so cold a hand to shake It makes me shrink and sigh.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. v. The Colonel, as has been stated, had an Indian chum or companion, with whom he shared his lodgings.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Nov. 21, p. 6, col. 2. His [Allingham’s] own chosen friend was Dante Gabriel Rossetti, his chums the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood.

English Synonyms. Gossip; pal; pard (American); marrow (north-country); cully (theatrical); cummer; ben cull; butty; bo’ (nautical); mate or matey; ribstone; bloater.

French Synonyms. Une branche (literally a branch or bough); un amar or amarre (thieves’, Cf., amarre, a cable, rope, hawser); un aminche, aminchemar, or aminchemince (thieves’: aminche d’af = an accomplice or stallsman); amis comme cochons (popular, m. pl.: literally ‘as thick as pigs.’ Cf., as thick as thieves); un matelot; une coterie (popular); un bon attelage (cavalry = a couple of good friends; literally ‘a good team’); un artiste (popular); un camerluche or camarluche (popular); vieux frère la côte (sailors’); un camaro; une faridole (prostitutes’ = a female pal); un fanande, or fanandel (thieves’).

German Synonyms. Gleicher (also ‘a brother’); Kineh or Kinehbruder (Viennese thieves’: German thieves use Kinne; from the Hebrew Kinnim, ‘a louse’; Kinnemachler, literally ‘lice eater’ = a dirty, filthy fellow; also = a miser. Kinimer = a man full of lice).

Italian Synonyms. Furbo = ‘an imposter, rogue, or sharper’; foneo; calcagno; guido, or guidone (literally a ‘guide.’ Also a ‘dog’ or ‘beggar’).

Portuguese Synonym. Filhos do Golpe (literally ‘children of the crowd’). [111]

1890. Rudyard Kipling, Plain Tales (3rd ed.), p. 264. Oh! where would I be when my froat was dry? Oh! where would I be when the bullets fly? Oh! where would I be when I came to die? Why, Somewheres anigh my chum.

Verb, trs. and intrs. (colloquial).—To occupy a joint lodging, or share expenses; to be on the closest terms of intimacy with another; to be ‘thick as thieves’; or ‘thick as hops.’ French slang has être dans la chemise de quelqu’un; also être du dernier bien avec quelqu’un.

1730. Wesley, wks. (1872) XII., 20. There are … some honest fellows in College, who would be willing to chum in one of them. [m.]

1762. Churchill, The Ghost, bk. II. Old Maids and Rakes are join’d together. Coquettes and Prudes, like April weather, Wits forc’d to chum with Common Sense.

1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 339 (ed. 1857). ‘Why I don’t rightly know about to night,’ replied the stout turnkey. ‘You’ll be chummed on somebody to-morrow, and then you’ll be all snug and comfortable.’

1864. Temple Bar, Nov., p. 587. We choose our own carriages, and either leave our fellow trippers altogether, or, making a selection, chum in parties of three or four.

1871. Mortimer Collins, Mrq. and Merch., II., v., 143. She … found herself chummed upon a young person who turned out to be … a … slattern. [m.]

1877. Besant and Rice, With Harp and Crown, ch. xii. Here are City clerks, who, by chumming together, are able to afford one festive evening in the week at the Oxford.

New Chum, subs. (Australian).—A new arrival in the colony; a ‘greenhorn’; or ‘tenderfoot.’ For general synonyms, see Snooker.

1861. Earles, Ups and Downs of Australian Life, p. 199. ‘I suppose you’re a stranger, or as we calls ’em, a new chum, ain’t you?’

1886. E. Wakefield, Nineteenth Century, Aug., p. 173. In these colonies [Australia], where pretty nearly every one has made several sea voyages, that subject is strictly tabooed in all rational society. To dilate upon it is to betray a new chum.

1889. Town and Country, 16 Feb. ‘Answers to Correspondents.’ New Chum (Forbes):—The first instalment will be due, etc.

Chummage, subs. (old).—Money procured by the practice of chumming together; but various extensions of meaning appear to have been in vogue at different periods.—See quots. [The practice alluded to in quot. 1777, was the rough music made with pokers, tongs, sticks, and saucepans, for which ovation the initiated prisoner had to pay or ‘fork out’ a certain sum of money, or submit to being deprived of its equivalent from among his personal effects; otherwise called chumming up.]

1777. Howard, State of Prisons in England and Wales, quoted in J. Ashton’s The Fleet, p. 295. A cruel custom obtains in most of our Gaols, which is that of the prisoners demanding of a new comer Garnish, Footing, or (as it is called in some London Gaols) chummage.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Chummage: money paid by the richer sort of prisoners in the Fleet and King’s Bench to the poorer for their share of a room.… A prisoner who can pay for being alone, chooses two poor chums, who for a stipulated price, called chummage, give up their share of the room.

1859. G. A. Sala, Twice Round the Clock (1861), 103. The time-honoured system of chummage, or quartering two or more collegians in one room, and allowing the richest to pay his companions a stipulated sum to go out and find quarters elsewhere.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xlii., p. 364. You’ll have a chummage ticket upon twenty-seven in the third, and them as is in the room will be your chums. [112]

Chummery, subs. (common).—Chumhood; also the quarters occupied by ‘chums.’ [From Chum + ery; cf., Rookery, snuggery, &c.].

1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, p. 196. Jack and her father lived in bachelor Chummery.

Chummy, subs. (colloquial).—1. A chimney-sweep’s climbing boy. [A corruption of ‘chimney’ through ‘chumley.’]

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 169. Vereas he ’ad been a chummy—he begged the cheerman’s parding for using such a vulgar hexpression, etc.

1844. Thackeray, Greenwich, wks. (1886) XXIII., 380. The hall … was decorated with banners and escutcheons of deceased chummies. [m.]

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. II., p. 417. A chummy (once a common name for the climbing-boy, being a corruption of chimney).

1859. W. Gregory, Egypt, I.; 154. His shrill voice, high up aloft, like a chummy’s on a London summer morn. [m.]

1864. Gilbert, Bab Ballads, Etiquette. Old chummies at the Charterhouse were Robinson and he. [m.]

Adj. (colloquial).—Very intimate; friendly; sociable. The analogous French terms are chouette; chouettard; chouettaud.

1884. Harper’s Magazine, Sept., p. 536 col. 2. I … saw them form into small chummy groups. [m.]

1888. W. Besant, Herr Paulus, bk. III, ch. xi., vol. III., p. 204. I liked the fellow, I confess, and we got chummy in the evenings.

1889. Answers, May 11, p. 380. When I was at Pentonville, a man in the same ward, who had got rather chummy with his warder, asked him to post a letter to his friends in Manchester.

Chump, subs. (common).—1. A blockhead.

1883. Hawley Smart, At Fault, II., i., 29. Such a long-winded old chump at telling a story one don’t often see, thank goodness.

1887. Pall Mall Gazette, 2 Feb., p. 10. col. 1. Frank audibly remarked: ‘This man is a chump. I could go … this minute and do better than that.’ [m.]

2. (popular).—A variant of chum, subs. (q.v.). French ma vieille branche = my old chump.

1884. Punch, 11 Oct. ‘’Arry at a Political Picnic.’ All my Saturday arfs are devoted to Politics. Fancy, old chump, Me doing the sawdusty reglar, and follering swells on the stump.

3. (popular).—The head; especially in the phrase off one’s chump (q.v.). For synonyms, see Crumpet.

Off one’s chump, phr. (vulgar).—Insane. Cf., Off one’s Head, nut, etc. For synonyms, see Apartments.

c. 1860. Broadside Ballad, ‘We are a merry family.’ The fire is out, the fender’s broke, And father’s out on strike, Sister Ann’s gone off her chump, In fact, we’re all alike.

1866. Broadside Ballad, ‘Oh, She Was Such a Beautiful Girl.’ She diddled me, she fiddled me, She sent me off my chump.

1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, II., xxiv., p. 377. ‘Master.’ he said, ‘have gone off his chump—that’s all.’

1883. Besant, Captain’s Room, ch. vii., p. 85 (1885). He … was engaged to be married to the king’s sister … unfortunately, only the week before I arrived, he was killed and devoured by a lion, and the princess was gone off her royal chump.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 242. ‘Cut her own grass! Good gracious, what is that?’ I asked. ‘Why, purvide her own chump—earn her own living,’ the old man replied.

Chumpy, adj. (common).—The same as off one’s chump.

Chunk, subs. (colloquial).—1. A thick piece or lump of wood, bread, coal, etc.

1691. Ray, S. and E. Country Wds. (E.D.S.) Chuck, a great chip.… In other countries [= districts] they call it a chunk. [m.]

1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary, ‘Chuck.’ Chuck, a great chip, Suss. In other counties called a chunk or junk.

1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xxix. Why not keep a clerk to read for you, and pay out the information in small chunks? I should like to tackle Mr. Carlyle that way.

c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Hungry Man from Clapham.’ He’d eat everything there was in the place, He bit a chunk from his mother-in-law’s face.

18(?). Thor Fredur, Sketches from Shady Places. Here they gambol about like rabbits, until somebody raises the cry, ‘Nix! the chunk’ (the slang term for School Board officer).

Church, verb (thieves’).—To take out the works of a watch and substitute another set, so that identification is impossible.—See Christen, verb, sense 1.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 445. To have the works of a watch put into another case—To church a yack.

1868. Doran, Saints and Sinn., II., 290. The (thieves’) church their yacks when they transpose the works of stolen watches to prevent identification. [m.]

1851. Newland, Erne, 217. Looking at those wretched people and talking church. [m.]

Churchwarden, subs. (general).—A clay pipe with a long stem.—See quot., 1864, under Clay. The following are general variants.

French Synonyms. Une bouffarde; une Belge; une chiffarde (thieves’); une marseillaise; une gambier (pop. from a manufacturer’s name).

German Synonyms. Lülke (M.H.G. lullen or löllen = to suck; lülken, to smoke); Massel (Swabian: also = a street-walker; masseln = to smoke); Nagel; Pilmerstab (only in Zimmermann); Sarcherstock (from the Hebrew sorach, through särchen, to stink or to smoke. Sarcher, tobacco; Sarcherkippe or Sarchertiefe, tobacco-box; Sarcherhanjo, tobacco-pouch); Selcher (Viennese thieves’: from selchen, to smoke); Schmalfink.

1857. Hood, Pen and Pencil Pictures, p. 269. Give me my willow-tube for a lance, the lid of a cigar-box for a shield. Thrust me a pair of cutties into my girdle for pistols; hang a churchwarden by my side for a sabre.

1863. Alex. Smith, Dreamthorpe, p. 262. He … lifted a pipe of the kind called churchwarden from the box on the ground, filled and lighted it.

1864. Dr. Richardson, on ‘Tobacco,’ before Brit. Assoc. Meeting at Bath. Cigars are more injurious than any form of pipe; and the best pipe is unquestionably what is commonly called a churchwarden or long clay.

Churl. To put a churl upon a gentleman.—See Gentleman. [114]

Cider. All talk and no cider, phr. (American).—Purposeless loquacity; ‘Much cry and little wool.’ Literally, much ado about nothing. [For suggested derivation, see quot., 1871.]

1835–40. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxi. It is an expensive kind of honour that, bein’ Governor.… Great cry and little wool! all talk and no cider.

1858. Notes and Queries, 2 S., v., 233. All talk and no cider. This expression is applied to persons whose performances fall far short of their promises.

1862. C. F. Browne, Artemus Ward: His Book, p. 135. What we want is more cider and less talk.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 591. This phrase originated at a party in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which had assembled to drink a barrel of superior cider; but politics being introduced, speeches were made, and discussion ensued, till some malcontents withdrew on the plea that it was a trap into which they had been lured, politics and not pleasure being the purpose of the meeting, or, as they called it, all talk and no cider.

Cider And, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Cider mixed with some other ingredient. Cf., Cold without, Hot with, etc.

1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. I., ch. xvi. She then asked the doctor and Mr. Barnabas what morning’s draught they chose, who answered, they had a pot of cider-and at the fire.

Cig, subs. (common).—A cigar. [An abbreviation of the legitimate word.] For synonyms, see Weed.

Cinch, verb (American).—To get a grip on; to ‘corner’; to put the screw on; also, in the passive sense, to come out on the wrong side in speculations. [From the Spanish cincha, a belt or girdle; cinchar, to girdle. Properly used of the saddling of horses with the huge Mexican saddle. To cinch a horse, however, is by no means the same as girthing him. The two ends of the tough cordage which constitute the cinch terminate in long narrow strips of leather called latigos—thongs—which connect the cinches with the saddle, and are run through an iron ring and then tied by a series of complicated turns and knots known only to the craft.]

1875. Scribner’s Mag., July, p. 277. A man is cinched = he is hurt in a mining transaction (San Francisco localism).

1881. New York Times, Dec. 18, quoted in Notes and Queries, 6 S., v. 65. Cinch. To subdue, to forcibly bind down and overcome. Thus it is unfairly said that the Northern Pacific Company intends to cinch the settlers by exacting large prices for its lands. Query, from Latin cingere.

1888. Daily Inter-Ocean, 2 Feb. Black and Blue thinks the Dwyers have a cinch on both the great events.

1888. New York World, 22 July. The bettor, of whom the pool-room bookmaker stands in dread, however, is the racehorse owner, who has a cinch bottled up for a particular race, and drops into the room an hour or two before the races begin.

Cincinnati Olive, subs. (American).—A pig. [A spurious ‘olive oil’ is manufactured from lard, and Cincinnati is one of the largest centres of the ‘pork packing industry’ in America.] Cf., Cincinnati Oysters.

Cincinnati Oysters, subs. (American).—Pigs’ trotters. A curious interchange of names occurs between fish, flesh, and fowl. In Cincinnati Oysters we have flesh presented in the guise of fish; and the reverse is the case when the sturgeon is spoken of as Albany beef. Amongst other examples may be quoted marble-head turkey, for a codfish; also, in Nova Scotia a digby chicken = a herring smoked and dried in a peculiar fashion. [115]In England a Billingsgate pheasant is a fresh herring; whilst a Yarmouth bloater is sometimes a two-eyed steak.

Cinder, subs. (common).—1. Any strong liquor as brandy, whiskey, sherry, etc., mixed with a weaker, as soda-water, lemonade, water, etc., to fortify it.

1883. Referee, March 18, p. 2, col. 4. Having rushed out to get a glass of cold water with a cinder in it to take the chill off.

2. (sporting).—A running path or track; merely an abbreviation of ‘cinder-path,’ it being laid with ‘cinders.’

Cinder-Garbler, subs. (old).—A female servant. Grose [1785] says the term was ‘Custom House wit,’ but gives no particulars.

English Synonyms. Marchioness; slavey; cinder-grabber; cinderella; can (Scots); piss-kitchen; Julia.

French Synonyms. Un extrait de garni (popular); un chambrillon; une bobonne (for bonne); une larbine; une cambrouse; une jeanneton; une groule or groulasse.

German Synonyms. Schifche or Schifches; Schammesch or Schammes (from the Hebrew).

Circling-Boy, subs. (old).—A ‘rook’; swindler. Nares says a species of roarer; one who in some way drew a man into a snare, to cheat or rob him. See Gifford.—Ben Jonson, Barth. Fair, iv., 3, p. 481.

Circs, subs. (common).—Circumstances.

Circumbendibus, subs. (old).—A roundabout; a long-winded story. [From Lat. circum, around, + Eng. bend, with a Latin termination.]

1681. Dryden, Sp. Friar, V., ii. I shall fetch him back with a circumbendibus, I warrant him. [m.]

1768. Lord Carlisle, in Jesse’s Selwyn, II., 317 (1882). I can assure you it grieved me that anything of yours should make such a circumbendibus before it came to my hands.

1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act v., Sc. 2. ‘And from that, with a circumbendibus, I fairly lodged them in the horse-pond at the bottom of the garden.’

1849. Lytton, Caxtons, pt. VIII., ch. i. The cabman, to swell his fare, had thought proper to take a circumbendibus.

1890. Notes and Queries, 7 S., ix., 29 March.… No choice but to deliver himself of a malediction with a circumbendibus.

Circumlocution Office, subs. (common).—A centre of red-tape; a roundabout way. [A term invented by Charles Dickens (see quot., 1857), and applied at first in ridicule to public offices, where everybody tries to shuffle off his responsibilities upon some one else.]

1857. C. Dickens, Little Dorrit, I., x. The Circumlocution Office was the most important Department under Government. Ibid. Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving—How not to do it.

1870. Graphic, Feb. 19, in ‘By the Bye.’ To complete the contretemps a portion of the telegraphs struck work on the very first day of the Government taking them in hand. Of course the great tribe [116]of evil-wishers ran about chuckling, and rubbing their hands gleefully. ‘I told you so,’ cried Rubasore. Circumlocution Office again, sneered Crossgrain.

Circumslogdologize.—See Stockdollagize.

Circumstance. Not a circumstance, etc., phr. (American).—Not to be compared with; a trifle; of no account—unfavourable comparison.

18(?). J. H. Beadle, Western Wilds, p. 28. I took a broadhorn to Noo Orleens, and when I was paid off on the levee, I was the worst lost man you ever did see. In the middle of the thickest woods in the world wasn’t a circumstance to it.

1848. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers. For Jacob warn’t a suckemstance to Jeff at financierin’; He never’d thought of borryin’ from Esau like all nater An’ then cornfiscatin’ all debts to sech a small pertater.

To whip [something] into a circumstance = to surpass. Thus a newspaper correspondent writes that ‘the streets of Georgetown, Demerara, are broad, smooth, and well laid out. Georgetown could give points to New York in its roads, and whip it into a circumstance.’

Circus-Cuss, subs. (thieves’).—A circus-rider.

Citizen, subs. (thieves’).—A wedge for ‘prizing open’ safes, before the alderman (q.v.), and jemmy (q.v.).—See also Citizens’ friend.

Citizens’ Friend, subs. (thieves’).—A smaller wedge than the citizen (q.v.), for ‘prizing open’ safes. The order in which the tools are used is (1) Citizens’ Friend; (2) Citizen; (3) the Alderman (i.e., a Jemmy); and sometimes (4) a Lord Mayor. For synonyms, see Jemmy and Betty.

City College, subs. (thieves’).—Newgate. In New York = ‘The Tombs.’ For synonyms, see Cage.

City Stage, subs. (old).—The gallows, formerly in front of Newgate. For synonyms, see Nubbing Cheat.

Civet, subs. (general).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Civil Reception.—See House of Civil Reception.

Civil-Rig, subs. (vagrants’).—A trick to obtain alms by a profuse show of civility and obsequiousness.

Civvies, subs. (military).—Civilians’ clothes, as opposed to regimentals. [A corruption of the legitimate word.]

Clack, subs. (colloquial).—1. Idle, loquacious talk; gossip; prattle—an exceedingly old usage. For synonyms, see Patter.

c. 1440. York, Myst. XXXIV., 211. Ther quenes vs comeres with her clakke. [m.]

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in wks. V. 251. Their clacke or gabbling to this purport.

1678. Butler, Hudibras, pt. III., ch. ii. And, with his everlasting clack, Set all men’s ears upon the rack.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. liv. I dreaded her unruly tongue, and felt by anticipation the horrors of an eternal clack!

1812. H. and J. Smith, Rejected Addresses (‘Punch’s Apotheosis’). See she twists her mutton fists like Molyneux [117]or Beelzebub, And t’other’s clack, who pats her back, is louder far than Bell’s hubbub.

1888. J. Payn, Myst Mirbridge (Tauchn.) II., xviii., 197. The old fellow would have had a clack with her. [m.]

2. (common).—The tongue [i.e., that which clacks (q.v.), verb.] A more ancient form was clap dating back to 1225.

French Synonyms. La diligence de Rome (popular); un battant (thieves’: also ‘heart,’ ‘stomach,’ and ‘throat’); un bon battant (‘a nimble tongue.’ Cf., ‘clapper’); une chiffe or un chiffon rouge (popular); une gaffe; le grelot.

Italian Synonyms. Serpentina; dannoso (literally ‘damagable’); zavarina (properly ‘a trifling old woman’).

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Clack (s.) … also a nickname for a woman’s tongue; a prattler or busybody.

1828. D’Israeli, Chas. I., II., i., 23. Who, as washerwomen … at their work, could not hold their clack. [m.]

1864. E. Sargent, Peculiar, III., 76. To hermetically seal up this Mrs. Gentry’s clack. [m.]

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

French Synonyms. Un parlotteur (familiar); un dévideur or une dévideuse (popular: literally ‘a winder’); un bagoulard (popular: c’est un fameux bagoulard = he is the bloke to slam); un chambert: abuser du crachoir (said of a chatterbox who does too much with the ‘spitter’).

Spanish Synonyms. Hablatista (m; jocular); hablantin or hablanchin (m; colloquial); ladrador (m; properly ‘a barker’); prosador (m; properly ‘a sarcastic and malicious babbler’); gazetilla (f; ‘a farthing newspaper’); garlador; fuelle (m; properly ‘a pair of bellows’); ya escampa (it is importunate babbling; escampar signifies literally ‘to clean or clear out a place’); cotorrera (= a gossip; cotorreria = loquacity; a term specially applied to women); comadre (f; juéves de comadres = Cummers’ Thursday, the last before Shrove Tuesday); una chicharra (a prattler; chicharra = ‘a froth worm’ or ‘harvest fly’); charlantin.

Clack-Loft, subs. (popular).—A pulpit. [From clack, verb, + loft, an elevated room or place.] For synonyms, see Hum-box.

Claim, verb (thieves’).—To steal. (A locution similar in character to ‘annex,’ ‘convey,’ etc., and derived from a sense of the legitimate word signifying ‘to demand on the ground of right.’) For synonyms, see Prig. [118]

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macmillan’s Mag., XL., 501. So I claimed (stole) them.

To jump a claim, phr. (American and colonial).—To take forcible possession; to defraud; specifically to seize land which has been taken up and occupied by another settler, or squatter. The first occupant is, by squatter law and custom, entitled to the first claim on the land.—See Jump.

1846. E. H. Smith, Hist. of Black Hawk. When I hunted claims, I went far and near, Resolved from all others to keep myself clear; And if, through mistake, I jumped a man’s claim, As soon as I knew it I jumped off again.

18(?). F. Marryat, Mountains and Molehills, p. 217. If a man jumped my claim, and encroached on my boundaries, and I didn’t knock him on the head with a pickaxe, I appealed to the crowd, and, my claim being carefully measured and found correct, the jumper would be ordered to confine himself to his own territory.

1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Silverado Squatters, p. 221. The claim was jumped; a track of mountain-side, fifteen hundred feet long by six hundred wide … had passed from Ronalds to Hanson, and in the passage changed its name from the ‘Mammoth’ to the ‘Calistoga.’

Clam, subs. (American).—1. A blockhead. Anglicé, ‘as stupid as an oyster.’ Shakspeare (Much Ado About Nothing, ii. 3) has ‘Love may transform me to an oyster; but I’ll take my oath on it, till he hath made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a fool.’—See Chowder-headed; chowder is a favourite form of serving clams.

1871. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Sketches, I., 46. A fine stroke of sarcasm, that, but it will be lost on such an intellectual clam as you.

2. The mouth or lips. Also clam-shell. ‘Shut your clam-shell’ = ‘Shut your mouth.’ The padlock now used on the United States mail-bags is called the ‘Clam-shell padlock.’ For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

1848. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers, II., p. 19. You don’t feel much like speakin’, When if you let your clam-shells gape, a quart of tar will leak in.

1848. Bartlett, Dict. Americanisms. Shut up your clam-shells. Close your lips together; be silent. Common along the shores of Connecticut and Rhode Island, where clams abound. Same as ‘shut your head.’

Clam-Butcher, subs. (American).—A man who opens clams; the attendant at an oyster bar is an ‘oyster-butcher.’

Clank, subs. (thieves’).—A pewter tankard; formerly a silver one.

1837. Disraeli, Venetia, ch. xiv. Tip me the clank like a dimber mort as you are.

Clanker, subs. (old).—1. A great lie.—Grose. Cf., Clinker. For synonyms, see Whopper.

Clank Napper, subs. (old).—A thief whose speciality is silver-plate. [From clank, subs. + napper (q.v.), a thief.] For synonyms, see Thieves.

Clap (or Clapper), subs. (common).—1. The tongue. [From clap = chatter; a babbler’s tongue is said to be hung in the middle, and to sound with both ends.] For synonyms, see Clack.

1609. Dekker, Guls’ Horne-Booke, ch. vi. And to let that clapper (your tongue) be tost so high, that all the house may ring of it.

1633. Massinger, New Way to Pay Old Debts, III., 2. Greedy. Sir Giles, Sir Giles! Over. The great fiend, stop that clapper!

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VII., ch. xv. My landlady was in such high mirth with her company that no clapper could be heard there but her own.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xix. I thought I should have snorted right out two or three times … to hear the critter let her clapper run that fashion.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. vi. But old Murdoch was too pleased at hearing his own clapper going, and too full of whiskey, to find him out.

1878. John Payne, tr. Poems of Villon, p. 139. Enough was left me (as warrant I will) To keep me from holding my clapper still, When jargon that meant ‘You shall be hung’ They read to me from the notary’s bill: Was it a time to hold my tongue?

2. (vulgar).—Gonorrhœa; once in polite use. [Origin uncertain; cf., Old Fr. clapoir, bosse, bubo, panus inguinis; clapoire, clapier, ‘lieu de débauche,’ ‘maladie q’on y attrape’]. For synonyms, see Ladies’ Fever.

1706. Farquhar, The Recruiting Officer. Five hundred a year besides guineas for claps.

1738. Johnson, London, 114. They sing, they dance, clean shoes, or cure a clap.

1680. Butler, Rem. [1759], I. 249. [They] had ne’er been clap’d with a poetic itch.

1738. Laws of Chance. Pref. 9. It is hardly 1 to 10 … that a Town-Spark of that Age has not been clap’d.

Clapper-Dudgeon, subs. (old).—A whining beggar.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 26. These Palliards be called also Clapper dogens, these go with patched clokes, and haue their morts with them which they cal wiues.

1625. Jonson, Staple of News, II. Here he is, and with him—what? a clapper-dudgeon! That’s a good sign, to have the beggar follow him so near.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. V., p. 10. Says he, there is an old curmudgeon, A hum-drum, preaching, clapperdudgeon.

1863. Sala, Capt. Dang., II., vii., 225. Rogues, Thieves … and Clapper-dudgeons … infested the outskirts of the Old Palace. [m.]

Clap of Thunder, subs. phr. (old).—A glass of gin: a variant of Flash of Lightning (q.v.).

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry [Ed. 1890], p. 79. I have not exactly recovered from the severe effects of the repeated ‘flashes of lightning’ and strong claps of thunder, with which I had to encounter last night.

Clap-Shoulder, subs. (old).—A term applied to the officers of justice who laid their hands upon people’s shoulders when they arrested them. Cf., Catch-pole.

1630. Taylor, Workes. Clap-shoulder serjeants get the devill and all, By begging and by bringing men in thrall.

Clapster, subs. (vulgar).—An habitual sufferer from gonorrhœa; by implication, one much and often in the way of getting clapped.

Claras, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Caledonian Railway Deferred and Ordinary Stock.

1887. Atkin, House Scraps. For we have our Sarahs and Claras. Our Noras and Doras for fays. [120]

Claret, subs. (pugilistic).—Blood, Variants are Badminton, Bordeaux, and Cochineal-dye. French le vermeil or le vermois.

1604. Dekker, Honest Whore, II., 45, wks. [1873]. This should be a Coronation day: for my head runs claret lustily.

1819. Thomas Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 25.… This being the first Royal Claret let flow, Since Tom took the Holy Alliance in Tow, The uncorking produced much sensation about, As bets had been flush on the first painted snout.