Slang and its analogues, 2 | Project Gutenberg

Davy putting on the coppers for the parsons, phr. (nautical).—The indications of a coming storm.

Davy Jones’ natural children, subs. phr. (nautical).—Smugglers; sea-rovers; pirates.

Davy’s Dust, subs. phr. (common).—Gunpowder. [Davy (q.v.) = the devil.]

1864. G. W. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, ch. xxvi. Let Davy’s dust and a well-faked claw, For fancy coves be the only law.

Dawb or Daub, verb (old).—To bribe.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v. The cull was scragged because he could not dawb.

Daylight, subs. (University).—A glass that is not a bumper; also Skylight (q.v.). Obsolete. [259]

To burn daylight, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To use artificial light before it is really dark; to waste time.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act i., 4. Mercutio. Come, we burn daylight.

To let or knock daylight into one, into the victualling department, or into the luncheon reservoir, phr. (common).—To stab in the stomach (or breadbasket); in the bread-room, potato-store, or giblet-pie, etc., and by implication to kill. Fr., bayafer. For synonyms, see Cook one’s goose.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 101, col. 2. A gentleman in a blue uniform has thrown himself into an attitude à la Crib, with the facetious intention of letting daylight into the wittling department.

Daylights, subs. (common).—1. The eyes. Cf., quots. under Darken the Daylights. For synonyms, see Glims.

1823. Bee, Sl. Dict. [quoted in]. The hero (Achilles) in his tent they found, His day-lights fixed upon the cold, cold ground.

2. (general).—The space in a glass between liquor and brim: inadmissible in bumpers at toasts: the toast-master cries ‘no daylights nor heeltaps!’

To darken one’s daylights, verbal phr. (pugilistic).—1. To give a black-eye; ‘to sew up one’s sees.’

1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. I., ch. x. If the lady says such another word to me, d—n me, I will darken her daylights.

1786. The Microcosm, No. 2. The nobility and gentry were taught theoretically as well as practically, to bruise the bodies, and (to use a technical term) darken the daylights of each other, with the vigour of a Hercules, tempered with the grace of an Apollo.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 3. If the Fine Arts Of fibbing and boring be dear to your hearts; If to level, to punish, to ruffian mankind, And to darken their daylights, be pleasures refin’d.

1822. David Carey, Life in Paris, p. 200. So here’s at darkening his daylights for the advantage of his mummer.

Deacon, verb (American).—To pack fruit, vegetables, etc., the finest on the top. [Either derived by inversion, or in allusion to the Yankee proverb—‘All deacons are good, but there is odds in deacons.’]

1868. Miss Alcott, Little Women, ch. xi. The blanc-mange was lumpy, and the strawberries not as ripe as they looked, having been skilfully deaconed.

To deacon land, verbal phr. (American).—To filch land by removing one’s fences into the highway or other common property.

To deacon off, verbal phr. (American).—To give the cue; to lead in debate. [From a custom, once universal but now almost extinct, in the New England Congregational churches. An important function of the deacon’s office was to read aloud the hymns given out by the minister one line at a time, the congregation singing each line as soon as read. This was called deaconing off.]

1848. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers. To funk right out o’ p’lit’cal strife ain’t thought to be the thing, Without you deacon off the tune you want your folks should sing.

1890. H. D. Traill, Saturday Songs, p. 7. We grieve, too, that of all men you, [260]Your own great Union’s stout defender Should deacon off the craven crew, Who here are clamouring for surrender.

Deacon-Seat, subs. (American lumberers’).—In log cabins the sleeping apartment is partitioned off by poles. The bed is mother earth, the pillow is a log, the foot-board a long pole six feet from the fire and in the centre of the cabin. The deacon seat is a plank fixed over and running parallel with the footboard so as to form a kind of settee in front of the fire. [Probably in allusion to the seats round a pulpit, facing the congregation, reserved for deacons.]

Deacon’s Hiding Place, subs. phr. (American).—A private compartment in oyster saloons and cafés; the Fr. cabinet particulier.

Dead, subs. (turf).—An abbreviation of ‘dead certainty.’—See Cert.

1889. Bailey’s Magazine [quoted in S. J. & C.]. ‘Dealers in the dead’ did well then.

Adj. (various).—Stagnant; ‘quiet’ (of trade); ‘flat’ (as of beer or aërated waters after exposure); cold (Am., see quot., 1888); good; thorough; complete (Cf., subs., sense). Also as an adv. as in dead beat, dead best, dead drunk, dead rolled (or flummoxed), dead nuts, dead bitched, etc.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, ii., 2. Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead-drunk.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress p. 36. As dead hands at a mill as they, and quite as ready after it.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvii., p. 187. ‘I wish you would pull off my boots for me,’ said Martin, dropping into one of the chairs, ‘I am quite knocked up. Dead beat, Mark.’

1845. Punch, vol. IX., p. 163. The general opinion is that the Premier is dead beat.

1872. Derby Mercury, 1 May. ‘Freemasonry in New Zealand.’ He was not dead, but only dead drunk.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. vii. So surely do I intend to try my dead best—all that I know—to win Florence’s love and possess her as a wife.

1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 27. Hungry Guest. Please bring me some clam fritters. Count (in disguise). Live ’r dead? Hungry Guest. Why, dead, of course! (And he got them stone-cold.)

Dead as a door-nail, mutton, a herring, a tent-peg, Julius Cæsar, etc., adv. phr. (common).—Utterly, completely dead. Dead as a door-nail is found in Langland’s Piers Plowman [1362]; all other forms are modern. [The door-nail is the striking-plate of the knocker. Herrings die sooner after capture than most fish.]

1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., in wks. II., 71. If you will needes strike it as dead as a dore naile.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 182. Wee’l strike it as dead as a doore-naile.

1598. Shakspeare, II. King Henry IV., iii. Falstaff. What! is the old king dead? Pistol. As nail in door.

1608. Armin, Nest of Ninnies. But now the thought of the new come foole so much moved him, that he was as dead as a doore-nayle, standing on tip-toe, looking toward the door to behold arivall.

1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, Act iv., Sc. 1. He’s as dead as a door-nail; for I gave him seven knocks on the head with a hammer.

1790. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, Ay, dead as herrings—herrings that are red.

1864. D. W. Thompson, Daydreams of a Schoolmaster, p. 230. The boat of Charon will push a difficult furrow through [261]innumerable bodies, brick-bat laden, of purrless, soul-less dead-as-door-nail cats. Poor pussies.

1878. Besant and Rice, By Celia’s Arbour, ch. xlviii. Quite dead he was, dead as a door-nail.

1880. E. Bellamy, Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process, p. 11. I am sure that you never had a more sincere, more dead-in-earnest convert than I was.

Dead Against, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Decidedly opposed to.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. vii. You know I was always dead agin your tariff bill.

Dead-Alive or Dead-and-Alive, adj. (colloquial).—Dull; stupid; mopish; formerly deadly-lively.

1884. H. D. Traill, in Eng. Ill. Mag., I., 541. The city has greatly revived of late … it has ceased to belong to the category of the dead-alive, and has entered that of the lively.

Dead-Amiss, adv. phr. (turf).—Incapacitated through illness from competing in a race; said of horses.

Dead-Beat, subs. (American).—1. A sponger; loafer; sharper. Cf., Dead-head and Beat, subs., sense 1.

1865. Glasgow Herald, 25 Dec. ‘Trial Swanborough v. Sotheran.’ I returned the whole of the receipts, and about £4 16s. for dead beats—free admissions who took advantage of the occasion and got paid—which caused great discontent.

1884. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p. 284. These uncles of your’n ain’t no uncles at all; they’re a couple of frauds—regular dead-beats.

1888. Bulletin, 24 Nov. All the dead-beats and suspected hen-snatchers plead when before the Bench that they were ‘only mouching round to find out whether the family neglected its religious dooties, yer washup.’

Verb (American).—To sponge; loaf; cheat. Cf., Beat, verb, and Dead-head.

Adj.—Exhausted; e.g., Billy romped in as ‘fresh as paint,’ but the rest were dead-beat.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 34. Logic was at length not only so dead-beat, as to be compelled to cry for quarter, but to seek a temporary retirement, in order to renovate his constitution.

Dead Broke, adv. phr. (general).—Utterly penniless; ruined. Also Flat or stone broke; used verbally, to dead-break.

1866. Cincinnatti Enquirer, 1 June. When he left the gambling-house, he was observed to turn toward a friend with the words, dead-broke! and then to disappear round the corner.

English Synonyms. Wound up; settled; coopered; smashed up; under a cloud; cleaned out; cracked up; done up; on one’s back; floored; on one’s beam ends; gone to pot; broken-backed; all U. P.; in the wrong box; stumped; feathered; squeezed; dry; gutted; burnt one’s fingers; dished; in a bad way; gone up; gone by the board; made mince meat of; broziered; willowed; not to have a feather to fly with; burst; fleeced; stony; pebble-beached; in Queer Street; stripped; rooked; hard up; broke; hooped-up; strapped; gruelled.

French Synonyms. Enfoncé (familiar: also—done brown); [262]centré (popular); désossé (popular: properly = boned); eréné (popular); atigé (thieves’); panné (= in Queer Street); see also Beat.

Dead-Cargo, subs. (thieves’).—Booty of a disappointing character.

Dead Certainty, subs. phr. (colloquial).—That which is sure to occur; usually contracted to Dead or Cert, both of which see.

18(?). Aytoun. The Dreepdaily Burghs, p. 4. Everybody is realising; the banks won’t discount; and when your bills become due, they will be, to a dead certainty, protested.

Dead cut.—See Cut.

Dead Duck, subs. phr. (American).—That which has depreciated to the verge of worthlessness.

1888. New York Clipper. Long Branch is said to be a dead duck. But for the investments made at Elberon the Branch proper would probably have been abandoned long ago.

Deader, subs. (military).—1. A funeral; a black-job (q.v.).

Dead Frost, subs. (theatrical).—A fiasco; a columbus (q.v.). Fr., un four noir.

Dead-Give-Away.—See Give dead-away.

Dead Gone, adv. phr. (colloquial). Utterly collapsed.

Dead-Head, Dead-Beat or Dead-Hand, subs. (American).—One who obtains something of commercial value without special payment or charge; a person who travels by rail, visits theatres, etc., by means of free passes (cf., Paper); a sponge (q.v.). Also a loafing sharper.—See Beat and Dead-beat.

1861. Morning Post, ‘New York Correspondence.’ The editor had evidently been travelling as a dead-hand, as it is called, and paid his bill by a laudatory notice.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms. The dead-head receives his newspapers without subscribing, travels free of charge on steamboat, railroad, and stage, walks into theatres and shows of every kind unmolested, and even drinks at the bar and lives at the hotel without charge.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 21 May, p. 3, col. 1. ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ is stale enough to warrant the most confirmed deadhead in declining to help make a house.

1871. New York Tribune, March. Elder Knapp, the noted revivalist, advertised that he would furnish a free pass to glory, but very few of the unrighteous population seemed anxious to be dead-headed on this train.

1888. Portland Transcript, 14 March. Unless we count those which had to do with the stage business and went dead-head.

Dead-Heat, subs. (colloquial).—A race with an equal finish. Formerly dead.

1635. Quarles, Emblems, Epig. 10. Mammon well follow’d, Cupid bravely led; Both touchers; equal fortune makes a dead; No reed can measure where the conquest lies; Take my advice; compound, and share the prize.

1828–45. T. Hood, Poems, vol. I., p. 170 (ed. 1846). Away! Away! she could ride a dead heat With the Dead who rides so fast and fleet.

1884. Ill. London News, 18 Oct., p. 362, col. 3. St. Gatien, the horse that ran a dead-heat for the Derby. [263]

Dead-Horse, subs. (common).—1. Work, the wages for which have been paid in advance; by implication, distasteful, or thankless labor. Fr., la bijouterie. To pull the dead horse = to work for wages already paid. [Seamen, on signing articles, sometimes get pay in advance, and they celebrate the term of the period thus paid for by dragging a canvas horse, stuffed with straw, round the deck and dropping him into the sea amidst cheers.] Fr., manger du salé (to eat salt pork.)

1651. Cartwright, Siedge. Ply. Now you’l wish I know, you ne’r might wear Foul linnen more, never be lowzy agen, Nor ly perdue with the fat sutler’s wife In the provoking vertue of dead horse, Your dear delights, and rare camp pleasures.

1669. Nicker Nicked, in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 110. Sir Humphry Foster had lost the greatest part of his estate, and then (playing, as it is said, for a dead horse) did, by happy fortune, recover it again.

1857. Notes and Queries, 2 S., iv., p. 192. A workman ‘horses’ it when he charges for more in his week’s work than he has really done. Of course he has so much unprofitable work to get through in the ensuing week, which is called dead horse.

2. (West Indian).—A shooting star. Among Jamaican negroes the spirits of horses that have fallen over precipices are thought to re-appear in this form.

To flog the dead horse, verb. phr. (common).—To work to no purpose; to dissipate one’s energy in vain; to make ‘much ado about nothing.’

1872. Globe, 1 Aug. ‘In the House,’ For full twenty minutes by the clock the Premier … might be said to have rehearsed that particularly lively operation known as flogging a dead horse.

Dead-Letter, subs. (colloquial).—Anything that has lost its force or authority by lapse of time or other causes.

1755. Fielding, Voyage to Lisbon, p. 145. And to enact laws without doing this, is to fill our statute-books, much too full already, still fuller with dead letter, of no use but to the printer of the Acts of Parliament.

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxi. The Metropolitan Buildings’ Act is a dead letter in Tattyboys Rents, for nobody ever thinks of building.

1861. Chambers’ Encyclopædia, s.v. Bunkum. Many laws, agitated for by popular factions, remain a dead letter, unless they happen to be enforced by clubs organized for the purpose.

Deadlights, subs. (nautical).—The eyes. For synonyms, see Glims.

Dead Lurk, subs. (thieves’).—See quot.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. i., p. 403. The dead lurk, for instance, is the expressive slang phrase for the art of entering dwelling-houses during divine service.

Deadly, adv. (colloquial).—Very; extremely; excessively. In Arbuthnot: ‘So deadly cunning a man.’

Deadly Lively, adv. phr. (common).—Jovial against the grain and to no purpose.

Deadly Nevergreen, subs. phr. (old).—The gallows. Also known as the leafless tree and the tree that bears fruit all the year round. For synonyms, see Nubbing Cheat.

Dead Man, subs. phr. (common).—1. An empty bottle: said also to bear Moll Thompson’s mark (i.e. M.T. = empty). [264]

English Synonyms.—Camp-candlestick; fellow-commoner; corpse; dummy; dead marine; dead recruit; dead ’un.

French Synonyms.—Une fillette (= a half-bottle); un corps mort (popular: literally, a corpse); une négresse morte (popular: a reference to color as well as condition).

1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial. 2. Ld. S. Come, John, bring us a fresh bottle. Col. Ay, my lord; and pray, let him carry off the dead men, as we say in the army [meaning the empty bottles].

1825. The English Spy, vol I., p. 152. On the right was the sleeping room and at the foot of a neat French bed, I could perceive the wine bin, surrounded by a regiment of dead men (empty bottles).

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, pt. I., p. 59. Talk of the pleasures of the dead languages, indeed! why, how many jolly nights have you, and I, Larkyns passed ‘down among the dead men.’

1871. London Figaro, 15 April. We knew that, in practical use, imperials were inconvenient and wasteful; and that, moreover, it was far from easy to dispose of their corpses when they became dead men.

1879. Miss Braddon, Vixen, ch. viii. And added more dead men to the formidable corps of tall hock bottles, which the astonished butler ranged rank and file in a lobby outside the dining room.

1888. E. Zola. Translation of L’Assommoir, ch. vii., p. 208. In a corner of the shop, the heap of dead men increased, a cemetery of bottles.

2. (bakers’).—A loaf, overcharged, or marked down though not delivered. In London, dead ’un is a popular term for a half-quartern loaf. Also, by implication, a baker.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 16. Dead men are bakers, so called from the loaves falsely charged to their master’s customers.

Deadman’s Lurk, subs. phr. (thieves’).—Extortion of money from the relatives of deceased persons. [Lurk = a sham, swindle, or imposition of any kind.]

Dead Marine.—See Dead Man.

Dead-Meat, subs. (common).—A corpse. [By comparison to butchers’ wares.] Cf., Cold meat.

English Synonyms.—Cold meat; pickles (medical students’: for specimens direct from the subject); croaker; stiff; stiff ’un; dustman; cold pig.

French Synonyms.—Un engourdi (thieves’: properly, torpid, heavy, dull); une falourde engourdie (popular: falourde = a heavy piece of firewood); un dégelé (pop: dégel = death); un rebouis (thieves’: one who has been ‘polished off’); un refroidi (thieves’: refroidir = to cool, to chill; in cant, to kill); les conserves (popular: literally, preserves; cf., ‘pickles’: specifically used of murdered bodies recovered from the water).

Dead Men’s Shoes, subs. phr. (common).—A situation, property, or possession formerly occupied or enjoyed by a person who is dead and buried. Waiting for dead men’s shoes = looking forward to inheritances.

b. 1584, d. 1660. Phineas Fletcher, Poems, p. 256. And ’tis a general shrift, that most men use, But yet ’tis tedious waiting dead men’s shoes.

1758. A. Murphy, The Upholsterer, Act i. I grant ye, ma’am, you have very good pretensions; but then it’s waiting for dead men’s shoes. [265]

1764. Wilkes [in P. Fitzgerald’s Life of] (1888), vol. I., p. 244. As they have no other relation but Miss Wilkes, I therefore suppose they will leave everything to her, independent of me. Yet this is, after all, waiting for dead men’s shoes.

1878. C. H. Wall, tr. Molière II., 218. Death is not always ready to indulge the heir’s wishes and prayers, and we may starve while waiting for dead men’s shoes.

Dead-nap, subs. (provincial).—A thorough-going rogue.

Dead-nip, subs. (provincial).—A plan or scheme of little importance which has turned out a failure.

Dead-oh, adv. (naval).—In the last stage of intoxication. For synonyms, see Drinks and cf., Screwed.

Dead on, or Dead nuts on, adv. phr. (common).—Originally, having some cause of complaint or quarrel; also, very fond of; having complete mastery over; sure hand at. Cf., death on, Derry on and down on, all of which are variants.—See also nuts on, an older form.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 288. Davies was dead nuts upon cutting men’s hair. The whole evening long was he calling men out to be operated upon.

Dead-set, subs. (colloquial).—A pointed and persistent effort or attempt.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 196. He then gave me what I term the dead set with his eye.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 145. He was made a dead set at by some other prisoners, who schooled him for a career of vice and crime.

1889. Globe, 2 Nov., p. 6, col. 2. Certain persons of the ‘thoughtful’ kind, says Rod and Gun, are making a dead set against the field sports of Britain.

Dead Sow’s Eye, subs. phr. (tailors’).—A badly worked button-hole.

Dead Stuck, adv. phr. (theatrical).—Said of actors who break down in the midst of a performance through sudden lapse of memory.

Dead Swag, subs. (thieves’).—‘Dead stock’ or dead cargo (q.v.); plunder that cannot be disposed of. [Swag = booty.]

Dead to Rights, adv. phr. (common).—Certain; without doubt. An amplification of To rights (q.v.).

1888. Cincinnati Weekly Gazette, 22 Feb. Hill claims he has the thing down dead to rights, and that he will make the farmers sweat who have been asserting that his claim was ‘N.G.’

Dead-’un, subs. (thieves’).—1. An uninhabited house. The cracksman who confines his attentions to ‘busting’ of this kind is, in Fr., un nourrisseur.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 505. Me and the screwsman went to Gravesend, and I found a dead ’un (uninhabited house).

3. (turf).—A horse destined to be scratched or not intended to win, and against which odds may be safely laid; a safe ’un (q.v.).

1864. Bailey’s Magazine, June. These al fresco speculators have their dead ’uns, and carry ‘milking pails,’ like their more civilised brethren, privileged with the entrée to the clubs and the Corner.

1868. London Review, 11 July, p. 38, col. 2. The stable and owners might safely lay against what was technically a dead ’un from the first.

1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, ch. v. Lord, what dead ’uns he did back, to be sure! [266]

1889. Bird o’ Freedom, 7 Aug., p. 3. We submitted, and with her help were soon surrounded with a formidable array of dead ’uns.

Dead Unit for [or against], adv. phr. (colloquial).—Collective advocacy of (or opposition to) a subject, principle, or line of action. Cf., to go the whole hog.

1888. The Solid Muldoon (Ouray, Colorado). The Eastern Press is a dead unit against the passage of the Postal Telegraph Bill.

Dead-wood Earnest, adv. phr. (American).—Quite earnest; ‘dead on.’ Cf., in dead earnest.

1876. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Tom Sawyer. No! oh, good licks, are you in real dead-wood earnest?

Dead Wrong ’Un.—See Wrong ’un.

Deady (modern American, Dead-Eye), subs. (old).—Gin; a special brand of full proof spirit, also known as Stark-naked (q.v.). [From Deady, a well-known gin-spinner.] For synonyms, see Drinks.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 35. As we’d been summon’d thus, to quaff our deady o’er some state affairs.

1834. Southey, The Doctor, inter-chapter xvi. Some of the whole-hoggery in the House of Commons he would designate by Deady, or Wet and Heavy; some by Weak Tea, others by Blue-Ruin.

Deal. There’s a deal of glass about, phr. (common).—Said of men and things; used as a compliment = showy, ‘its the thing.’

To wet the deal, verb. phr. (common).—To ratify a bargain by drinking; to ‘shake.’

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 268. I shall be back again shortly, when we will wet the deal.

Deal-Suit, subs. (common).—A coffin; especially one supplied by the parish. [In allusion to the wood of which cheap coffins are made.] For synonyms, see Eternity Box.

Dean, subs. (Winchester College).—A small piece of wood bound round a Bill-Brighter (q.v.); that securing a fagot is called a Bishop.

Deaner, subs. (thieves’).—A shilling. [Origin uncertain; possibly related to Latin denarius. In the 16th and 17th centuries, denier = a coin—vide Nashe, Shakspeare, Johnson, etc. Others trace it to (a) the Cornish dinair; (b) Yiddish dinoh, a coin; (c) Gypsy deanee, a pound; (d) Lingua Franca dinarly.] For synonyms, see Blow.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 444. Shilling, Deaner, also twelver.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 501. I had been down three or four days running, and could not buy anything to earn a deaner (shilling) out of.

Dearest Member.—The penis.

Death. To be death on, verb. phr. (common).—Very fond of, or thoroughly master of—a metaphor of completeness; the same [267]as dead on, a mark on, or some pumpkins on. Cf., nuts on. [Literally to prosecute or pursue any course of action to the death.]

To dress to death (colloquial).—To attire oneself in the very extreme of fashion. In America to dress within an inch of one’s life; to dress up drunk and to dress to kill. An old Cornish proverb has dressed to death like sally hatch (N. and Q., 3 ser., vi., 6). [Apparently a pun on killing (q.v.).]

1869. Newfoundland Fisheries [quoted in De Vere]. The next day I met Davis and Nye, my two chums, on board the Little Rhody, dressed to death and trunk empty, as they said of themselves.

Death-Hunter, subs. (common).—1. A vendor of the last dying speeches, or confessions of criminals; a running patterer or stationer.

1738. [From J. W. Jarvis and Son: Cat. No. 40, p. 38]. Ramble through London, containing observations on Beggars, Pedlars, Petticoat Pensioners, death hunters, Humours of the Exchange, etc., by a True-born Englishman [Title].

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., 228. The latter include the ‘running patterers,’ or death-hunters; being men (no women) engaged in vending last dying speeches and confessions.

? Old Song, ‘Life’s a Chase.’ And e’en the death-hunter, in coffins who deals Is at last hunted into a coffin.

Death or Glory Boys.—See Bingham’s dandies.

Debblish, subs. (South African).—A penny. For synonyms, see Winn.

Decapitate.—See Cut off one’s head.

Decent, Decently, Decentish, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Moderate; tolerable; passably; fairly good.

Decoy-bird or Duck, subs. (colloquial).—One employed to decoy persons into a snare; a buttoner or bug-hunter (q.v.). Fr., un allumeur, un chatouilleur, or un arrangeur.

Decus, subs. (old).—A crown piece. [From the Latin, the motto decus et tutamen on the rims of these coins.] For synonyms, see Caroon.

1688. T. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, ed. 1720, 2, vol. IV., p. 48. Madam Hackum, to testify my gratitude, I make bold to equip you with some Meggs, Decus’s, and Georges.

1822. Scott, Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. ‘You see,’ he said, pointing to the casket, ‘that noble Master Grahame, whom you call Green, has got the decuses and the smelts.’

Dee, subs. (vagrants’).—1. A pocket-book or reader. For synonyms, see Leather.

2. (common).—A detective; also ’tec, (q.v.). Cf., Deeker, and for synonyms, see Nark.

1886. Graphic, 30 Jan., p. 130, col. 1. A detective is known as a dee and a teck; the former is principally used by tramps and gipsies, and is properly D, the initial letter of the word.

Deeker, subs. (old).—See quot.

1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, p. 171. Deeker, a thief kept in pay by a constable.

Deep, adj. (colloquial).—Artful; e.g., ‘a deep one.’ [An extension [268]of the figurative sense = remote from comprehension, hard to penetrate—usages frequent in Biblical language.]

1672–1726. Vanbrugh, The Mistake, Act I. When you take us for fools, we never take you for wise men. For my part, in this present case, I take myself to be mighty deep.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, III., in wks. (1720) iv., 63. Fools! nay, there I am sure you are out: they are all deep, they are very deep, and sharp.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 268. I can scarcely believe my eyes. Oh! he’s a deep one.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. vi. He was, too, very deep, and some men, who could put up with his other failings, could not endure that.

1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Oct., p. 2, col. 2. His Majesty the Sultan is ‘a deep one,’ it is clear.

Deerstalker, subs. (popular).—A felt hat. For synonyms, see Golgotha.

1870. London Figaro [letter dated Dec. 9]. Either the wind must be bottled up or the P. of W. must start the fashion of wearing deerstalkers … in the windy weather.

Deferred Stock, subs. (city).—Inferior soup. [A play upon words.] For synonyms, see Glue.

1871. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 May. A few years ago, at an economical Chancellor of Exchequer’s dinner on the Queen’s Birthday, the Chairman of one of the Revenue Boards, after tasting the soup, asked the Governor of the Bank of England, who happened to be sitting next to him at the table, ‘What is this?’ ‘Deferred Stock, I suspect,’ replied the Governor.

Degen, Degan, or Dagen, subs. (old).—A sword. [From the German.]

Delicate, subs. (vagrants’).—A lurker’s (q.v.) false subscription book.

Dell, subs. (old).—1. A young girl; a virgin; a young wanton. Later, a mistress: cf., doxy. For synonyms, see Titter.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 75. A Dell is a yonge wenche, able for generation, and not yet knowen or broken by the vpright man.

1574–1637. Ben Jonson, Metam. Gipsies. Sweet doxies and dells My Roses and Nells.

1609. Thomas Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight. Docked the Dell, for a Coper meke His wach shall feng a Prounces Nab-chete.

1694. Dunton, Ladies’ Dictionary. Dells are young bucksom wenches, ripe, and prone to venery, but have not yet been debauch’d.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. I., ch. ix. He was seized … by the bailiff of Westminster when dead drunk, his liquor having been drugged by his dells—and was shortly afterwards hanged at Tyburn.

Delog, subs. (back slang).—Gold. For synonyms, see Redge.

Delo-Nammow, subs. (back slang).—An old woman. For synonyms, see Old Geezer.

Delve It, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To hurry with one’s work, head down and sewing fast. Cf., dig, verb.

Demand the Box, verb. phr. (nautical).—To call for a bottle.

Demaunder for Glymmar, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 61. These Demaunders for Glymmar be for the moste parte wemen; for glymmar [269]in their language, is fyre. These goe with fayned lycences and counterfayted wrytings, hauing the hands and seales of suche gentlemen as dwelleth nere to the place where they fayne them selues to haue bene burnt, and their goods consumed with fyre. They wyll most lamentable demaunde your charitie, and wyll quicklye shed salte teares, they be so tender harted. They wyll neuer begge in that Shiere where their losses (as they say) was.

Demi-doss, subs. (vagrants’).—See quot.

1886. Daily News, 3 Nov., p. 5, col. 5. Others, unable to find the coin wherewith to obtain even a demi-doss, i.e., penny sleep.

Demi-Rep, subs. (old slang, now recognised).—A woman of doubtful repute. [A contraction of demi-reputation.] For synonyms, see Barrack Hack and Tart.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XV., ch. ix. That character which is vulgarly called a demi-rep; that is to say, a woman who intrigues with every man she likes, under the name and appearance of virtue … in short, whom everybody knows to be what nobody calls her.

1754. Connoisseur, No. 4. An order of females lately sprung up … usually distinguished by the denomination of Demi-Reps; a word not to be found in any of our dictionaries.

1846–48. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, vol. II., ch. xx. So they went on talking about dancers, fights, drinking, demi-reps, until Macmurdo came down.

Demnition Bow-wows, subs. phr. (common).—The ‘dogs’ which spell ‘ruin.’ Originally a Dickensism (see quot., 1838). For analogues, see Dead Broke.

1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, II., 32. ‘I beg its little pardon,’ said Mr. Mantalini, dropping the handle of the mangle, and folding his arms together, ‘It’s all up with its handsome friend. He has gone to the demnition bow-wows.’

1888. New York Herald, 25 March. There are some men who, if they don’t make twice as much as they expect to make, will cry hard times, and say that general business is going to the demnition bow-wows, but these men would say the same thing in any event.

1889. The Nation, 19 Dec., p. 499, col. 1. Our great farming industry—the very soil of National growth—is not going to the demnition bow-wows.

Demnition Hot, adv. phr. (American).—Exceedingly warm; a heat supposed to be akin to that of the place where they don’t rake out the fires at night.

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

Demon, subs. (Australian prison).—1. A policeman. For synonyms, see Beak and Copper.

2. (colloquial).—A super-excellent adept; e.g., The demon bowler = Mr. Spofforth; The demon jockey = Fordham or Fred Archer, and so forth.

Den, subs. (common).—A place where intimates are received; one’s ‘diggings’ or ‘snuggery.’ [In Anglo-Saxon = a bed, cave, or lurking place.] For synonyms, see Diggings.

Dennis, subs. (old).—A small walking stick.

Dep, subs. (common).—1. A deputy; specifically the night porter or chamberlain at padding or dossing kens.

1870. C. Dickens, Mystery of Edwin Drood, ch. v. I’m man-servant up at the Travellers’ Twopenny in Gas Works Garding, this thing explains, all man-servants at Travellers’ Lodgings is named Deputy.

2. (Christ’s Hospital).—A deputy Grecian, i.e., a boy in the form below the Grecians. [270]

Derby.—See Darby.

Derrey, subs. (thieves’).—An eyeglass. To take the derrey, (tailors’) = to quiz, ridicule.

Derrick, subs. (old).—The gallows. [A corruption of Theodoric, the name of the public hangman at the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries.] Now the name of an apparatus, resembling a crane. Also, used as a verb = to hang; apparently the earliest recorded sense. For synonyms, see Nubbing Cheat.

1600. W. Kemp, Nine Days’ Wonder, in Arber’s English Garner, vol. VIII., p. 37. One that … would pol his father, derick his dad! do anything, how ill soever, to please his apish humour.

1607. Dekker, Jests to Make you Merie, in wks. (Grosart), ii., 318. For might I have beene her Judge, shee should haue had her due, and danst Derriks dance in a hempen halter.

1609. Dekker, Gul’s Horne-Booke, chap. ii. The Neapolitan will (like Derick, the hangman) embrace you with one arme, and rip your guts with the other.

Derwenter, subs. (Australian).—A convict. [From the penal settlement on the banks of the Derwent, Tasmania.]

Despatchers, subs. (gamesters’).—False dice with two sides, double four, five, and six.

Desperate, and Desperately, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—A metaphor of excessiveness; e.g., desperately mashed = over head and ears in love.

Detrimental, subs. (society).—An ineligible suitor; also a male flirt.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 133, col. 1. Defining that zero of fortune to stand below which constitutes a detrimental.

1859. Whitty, Political Portraits, p. 113. The fact is, that the detrimentals won’t work; born into shifty affluence, it is easier to struggle on in a false position than to struggle out of it.

1886. Household Words, 13 March, p. 400. A detrimental, in genteel slang, is a lover, who, owing to his poverty is ineligible as a husband; or one who professes to pay attentions to a lady without serious intention of marriage, and thereby discourages the intentions of others.

Detrimental-Club, subs. (society).—The Reform Club.

Deuce, Dewce, or Deuse, subs. (common).—1. The devil; perdition. Also used as an ejaculative, e.g., The deuce! What the deuce! Who the deuce! Deuce take you! etc. [Wedgwood: ‘The evolution of deuce from Thurs., the name of a Scandinavian demon is fully vouched.’ Skeat: Latin deus, God, deus, borrowed from French usage, being found as an interjection in early English works. Low German duus, Ger. daus are used similarly and may have the same origin; others connect it with Armor. dus, teuz, a goblin.] For synonyms, see Skipper.

b. 1670, d. 1729. Congreve. It was the prettiest prologue as he wrote it; well, the deuce take me if I ha’n’t forgot it.

1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, Act v., Sc. i. Miss C. Deuce take her! She’s six years younger than I am.

1827. R. B. Peake, Comfortable Lodgings, Act I., Sc. iii. De C. I am the Intendant of Police, sir. Sir H. The deuce you are!

1837. Barham, I. L. (Jackdaw of Rheims). There’s a cry and a shout, And a deuce of a rout, And nobody seems to know what they’re about. [271]

1854. Aytoun and Martin, Bon Gaultier Ballads. ‘To a forget-me-not.’ I can’t tell who the deuce it was That gave me this Forget-me-not.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 276. ‘Give him a deuce’ (2d.).

To play the deuce or devil with, verb. phr. (common).—To send, or be sent, to rack and ruin.

1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. i. I have a presentiment that the cooking will play the deuce with my digestion.

The deuce to pay, phr. (common).—Unpleasant or awkward consequences to be faced; see Devil to pay.

1854. Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring, p. 69. There has been such a row, and disturbance, and quarrelling, and fighting, and chopping of heads off, and the deuce to pay, that I’m inclined to go back to Cumtartary.

1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xxxiii. One or both of ’em … report me for negligence! I get a curt telegram to come to town, and here’s the deuce to pay!

Deuced, adj. (common).—Devilish; excessive; confounded. Also adverbially. [From deuce (q.v.), + ed.]

1836. Michael Scott, The Cruise of the Midge, vol. I. [ed. 1860], p. 160. Quacco all this while was twisting and turning himself, and, although evidently in a deuced quandary, trying to laugh the affair off as a joke.

Deusea-ville, subs. (old).—The Country.—See Daisyville.

Deusea-ville Stampers, subs. phr. (old).—Country carriers.

Devil, subs. (common).—1. Formerly a barrister who devils, or ‘gets up,’ a case for a leader; as in A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton for Mr. Stryver. Now common for anyone hacking for another.—(See quots., 1889.)

1872. Echo, 14 Nov. Mr. Archibald, the Attorney-General’s devil is to be made a judge. Well, other devils have been made judges of. Sir James Hannen, we are told, was a devil once.

1873. Daily Telegraph, 12 Feb. It will not be possible even to send a telegram to a French journal during a sitting. Not a word must be printed until the President’s devil has distributed the Officiel to the different office boys who will henceforth, etc.

1889. Telegram. M— 84, B— Street, London, E.C. Strange letter received. Will you please see devil at my chambers? R—. [In original telegram the word ‘devil’ was queried by the P.O. authorities!]

1889. George R. Sims, The Author’s Ghost. ‘Who are you?’ I asked in dismay. ‘I’m a devil.…’ ‘A what!’ I exclaimed with a start. ‘A devil.… I give plots and incidents to popular authors, sir, write poetry for them, drop in situations, jokes, work up their rough material: in short, sir, I devil for them.’

1890. Speaker, 22 Feb., p. 211, col. 2. No one who is not in the swim can have any conception of the amount of work and worry that devolves upon a counsel in leading practice at the criminal bar.… He has to do the best he can, with the assistance of juniors and devils.

2. (printers’).—An errand boy or young apprentice; in the early days of the craft, the boy who took the printed sheets as they came from the press. Fr., un attrape-science.

1754. Connoisseur, No. 9. Our publisher, printer, corrector, devil, or any other employed in our service.

1757. Foote, Author, Act I. A printer’s prime minister, called a devil. [272]

1859. Punch, vol. XXXVI, p. 82. ‘An author’s paradise.’ A place where there are no printers’ devils.

1863. Alex. Smith, Dreamthorp, p. 211. He wrote in a leisurely world, when there was plenty of time for writing and reading; long before the advent of the printer’s devil or of Mr. Mudie.

1883. Illustrated London News, 16 June, p. 603, col. 2. It is proposed to prevent the use of the devil, a kind of sharpened anchor, at the bows of a trawler for cutting the nets of drifters in the North Sea.

1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. III., ch. vii. The captain, perceiving an opportunity, pinned a cracker or devil to the cassock, and then lighted it.

5. (licensed victuallers’).—Gin seasoned with capsicums. Cf., following sense.

1828. G. Smeaton, Doings in London. The extract of Capsicums or extract of Grains of Paradise is known in the gin-selling trade by the appellation of the devil. They are manufactured by putting a quantity of small East India chillies into a bottle of spirits of wine and keeping it closely stopped for about a month.

6. (common).—A grilled bone seasoned with mustard and cayenne. Cf., Attorney.

1889. Daily News, 8 July. ‘The Camp at Wimbledon.’ They raised also clouds of dust that went whirling across the common in spiral cones like desert devils.

The or a devil of [a thing], adj. and adv. (colloquial).—An indefinite intensitive: e.g., devil of a mess, of a woman, of a row, etc.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, ii., 3. The devil, a puritan that he is, or anything constantly.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge [ed. 1860], p. 102. a devil of a good fight he made of it.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge [ed. 1860], p. 298. The devil a thing was there in sight, not even a small white speck of a sail.

American devil, subs. phr. (workmen’s).—A steam whistle or ‘hooter’; used in place of a bell for summoning to work.

1872. Manchester Guardian, 24 Sept. Mr. Powell’s Bill contains abundant powers for suppressing the vile nuisance known as the American devil, and should any man suffer from it in future he will have nobody to thank but himself.

Little (or young) devil, subs. phr. (common).—A half playful, half sarcastic, address; a term of endearment; e.g., you little devil. Cf., you young tinker.

1841. R. B. Peake, Court and City, Act i., Sc. 1. My wife was such an unreasonable little devil, as to ask me forty questions about my staying out so late.

Verb (common).—1. To act as a devil (q.v., subs.); to perform routine or detail work for another.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 30 Nov. Letter, ‘Called to the Bar.’ Then I took legislative rambles in the Courts, so that I might see practice, and that practitioners might see me; and then I devilled and reported a little.

1883. Graphic, 12 May, p. 478, col. 2. The practice prevailing among eminent counsel of undertaking more cases than they can possibly manage, and handing over some to the juniors who devil for them.

What, Who, When, Where, or How the Devil, phr. (common).—An expletive of wonder, vexation, etc. [273]

b. 1688, d. 1744. Pope [quoted in Annandale]. The things we know are neither rich nor rare; But wonder how the devil they got there.

1776. David Garrick, Bon Ton, or High Life Above Stairs, Act ii., Sc. 1. Sir T. Why, what the devil do you make one at these masqueradings.

1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, Act i., Sc. 3. Har. Who the devil could have foreseen that?

1827. R. B. Peake, Comfortable Lodgings, Act i, Sc. 3. What the devil is all this about?