Slang and its analogues, 2 | Project Gutenberg

1888. Texas Siftings, Aug. At any rate, we will not let Arcturus get the drop on the reading public.

To have a drop in the eye, verb. phr. (common).—To be slightly drunk. For synonyms, see Screwed.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation. O faith, Colonel, you must own you had a drop in your eye, for when I left you you were half-seas over. [331]

Drop it! phr. (colloquial).—Cease! Cut it! Cheese it (q.v. sense 2).

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xxvi. A jackdaw on the roof brings their hearts into their mouths; were it not for the case-bottle they would drop it even now.

1859. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, bk. II., ch. xix. You might as well flop as meditate. You may as well go again me one way as another. Drop it altogether.

1872. Public Opinion, 24 Feb., p. 241. ‘Inside Newgate.’ Do you know Newgate? I said to a cabman whom I hailed in Piccadilly on Saturday afternoon. He looked at me angrily, and briefly answered, drop it.

Drop-game, subs. (old).—A variety of the confidence trick:—The thief picks out his victim, gets in front of him, and pretends to pick up (say) a pocket-book, (snide) which he induces the greenhorn to buy for cash. The object is a Cog, and the operator a Dropper or Drop-cove.

Dropped on, adv. phr. (tailors’).—Disappointed.

Dropper, subs. (old).—A specialist in the drop-game (q.v.). Also drop-cove.

1669. Nicker Nicked, in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii. 108. [In list of names of thieves.]

Dropping, verb. subs. (old Royal Military Academy).—A beating; ‘I’ll give you a good dropping’ i.e., I’ll thrash you severely. For synonyms, see Tanning.

Dropping-member, subs. (old).—The penis; specifically one affected with gonorrhœa.

Droppings, subs. (vulgar).—The excrement of horses and sheep.

Drown the Miller.—See Miller.

Drudge, subs. (American).—Whiskey in its raw state, as used in the manufacture of alcohol. For synonyms, see Drinks.

1869. S. S. Haldeman, Pennsylvania Dutch. Drudge, another name for raw whiskey, originating in the Eastern States. I doubt whether the word drudge is thirty years old.

Drug, verb (colloquial).—To administer a narcotic.

A drug in the market, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Anything so common as to be not vendible.

Drum, subs. (old).—1. An entertainment; now a tea before dinner; a kettle-drum (q.v.).

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVII., ch. vi. A drum, then, is an assembly of well-dressed persons of both sexes, most of whom play at cards and the rest do nothing at all, while the mistress of the house performs the part of the landlady at an inn.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. i. We recollect it well, not so many years ago, lit up for one of those great solemnities which novelists call ‘a rout,’ but which people in real life, equally martially as well as metaphorically designate ‘a drum.’

2. (thieves’).—A road, street, or highway. [From the Gr. δρομός through the Gypsy drom.]

English Synonyms. Drag; toby; high or main toby; pad; donbite; finger and thumb (rhyming).

French Synonyms. La trime (thieves’); le Général Macadam (popular, also = the public). [332]

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. i., p. 231. We … slink into the crib (house) in the back drum (street).

4. (old).—A building; Hazard-drum = a gambling hell; Flash-drum = a brothel; Cross-drum = a thieves’ tavern. For synonyms, see Ken. In U.S.A., a drinking place.

1867. Jas. Greenwood, Unsent. Journeys, xxvi., 204. ‘Come along; I shall be a pot to your pot.’ ‘Where shall we go?’ ‘Oh, to the old drum, I suppose.’

1890. Illustrated Bits, 29 March, p. 11, col. 1. The two chums were footing it to the ‘ancient drum,’ as they called the Norwich theatre.

5. (Australian).—A bundle carried on tramp; generally worn as a roll over the right shoulder and under the left arm. Also Bluey and Swag (q.v.). Cf., Swagsman.

1887. G. A. Sala, in Ill. London News, 12 March, 282/2. Here are a few more items of Australian slang kindly forwarded to me by a correspondent:—‘To hump one’s swag,’ or ‘drum,’ i.e., to pack up a bundle to be carried on the shoulders.

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

Drummer, subs. (old).—1. A horse, the action of whose forelegs is irregular. [Grose—1785.]

2. (old).—A thief who before robbing narcotises or otherwise stupifies his victim.

1856. H. Mayhew, Great World of London, p. 46. Those who hocus or plunder persons by stupifying; as ‘drummer’ who drug liquor.

3. (general).—A commercial traveller; also Ambassador of Commerce or Bagman (q.v.); Fr., un gaudissart (from one of Balzac’s novels); une hirondelle (= a swallow). [Cf., Drum = a road; and old-time pedlars announced themselves by beating a drum at the town’s end.]

1827. Scott, to C. K. Sharpe, in C. K. S.’s Correspondence (1888), ii. 398. Dear Charles,—I find the Nos. of Lodge’s book did not belong to the set which I consider yours, but were left by some drummer of the trade upon speculation, so I must give you the trouble to return it. [In another letter on next page S. again refers to the ‘scoundrelly drummer.’

ante 1871. [in De Vere], A Country Merchant out West, p. 217. Look at that man, he’s drummer for A. T. Stewart.

1877. M. Twain, Life on the Mississippi, ch. xxxix., p. 365. It soon transpired that they were drummers—one belonging in Cincinnati, the other in New Orleans.

1885. G. A. Sala, Daily Telegraph, 14 August, 5, 3. Among whom were conspicuous sundry drummers, or representatives of American commercial firms, bound for Australasia, there to push their wares.

Drumstick-Cases, subs. (common).—Trousers. [From drumstick = a leg + case, a cover.] For synonyms, see Bags and Kicks.

Drumsticks, subs. (common).—1. The legs—especially of birds.

English Synonyms. Cheese-cutters (bandy legs); stumps; cabbage-stumps; pins; gams; notches; shanks; stems; stumps; clubs; marrow-bones; cat-sticks; trap-sticks; dripping sticks; trams; trespassers; pegs; knights of the garter. [333]

French Synonyms. Les brancards (popular, les brancards de laine = weak or lame legs); des baguettes de tambour (popular = thin legs; properly drumsticks); un bâton de tremplin (mountebanks’ = a leg; tremplin is properly a spring-board); des cotrets (popular: ‘a fagot’; jus de cotret = stirrup-oil, a ‘lathering’); des flûtes or flûtes à café (popular); des flageolets (popular); des gambettes (popular: from O. F. gambe = leg; des gambilles is of similar derivation); des fumerons (popular); des fuseaux (popular: also = a spindle or distaff); des jambes en manche de reste (popular = bandy-legs; des jambes de coq = spindle-shanks; des jambes de coton = weak legs); numéro onze (popular = Shank’s mare); des guibes, guiboles, guibolles, or guibonnes (popular and thieves’); des merlins (popular); des fourchettes (popular, literally, forks; fourchettes d’Adam = fingers); les chevaux à double semelles (popular. Cf., English Shank’s mare).

Italian Synonyms. Ramo (literally, ‘a branch’); calcha; colonna (literally, ‘a column’).

1770. Foote, Lame Lover, I. What, d’ye think I would change with Bill Spindle for one of his drumsticks.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby, ‘Lay of St. Nicholas.’ He helped his guest to a bit of the breast, And he sent the drumsticks down to be grilled.

Drunk, subs. (vulgar).—A debauch; by implication, a drunkard. On the drunk = ‘on the drink,’ i.e., drinking for days on end.

1871. Philadelphia Inquirer, 6 July. It seems that Gamble went on a drunk last Monday evening.

1879. G. R. Sims, Dagonet Ballads (told to the Missionary). I was out on the drunk and caught it—lor, what a cuss is drink!

[Among other meridians are drunk as a brewer’s fart; drunk as Bacchus; drunk as Chloe; drunk as the devil; drunk as hell; drunk as buggery; drunk as a Gosport fiddler; drunk as a fly; drunk as he (or she) can stick (or hang together); drunk as a lord; drunk as an owl (American, a biled owl); drunk as a tapster; drunk as a piper; blind drunk; crying drunk; pissing drunk; dead drunk; so drunk that you can’t see a hole through a ladder; drunk as blazes; and so drunk that he opens his shirt collar to piss; tumbling drunk].

Drunkard. To come the drunkard, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To feign drunkenness; also to be drunk.

To be quite the gay drunkard (colloquial), verb. phr.—To be more or less in liquor.

Drunken-Chalks, subs. (military).—Good conduct badges.—See Chalk.

Drunks, subs. (colloquial).—An abbreviation of ‘drunk and disorderly.’

1883. Daily Telegraph, 26 March, p. 2, col. 8. Of the twenty-nine night charges, by far the greater number were of drunks.

1884. W. D. Howells, Lady of the Aroostook, ch. xvii. If you could see how my mother looks when I come out of one of my drunks.

1890. Globe, 26 Feb., p. 1, col. 4. ‘A Short Way with drunks.’ At Buenos Ayres it is customary to punish drunkards, … by setting them to sweep the public streets for eight days or so. [334]

Drury-Lane Ague, subs. phr. (old).—A venereal disease.—See Ladies’ Fever.

Drury-Lane Vestal, subs. (old).—A prostitute. Cf., Covent Garden Nun, and Bank-side ladies.

Dry as a Lime-basket.—See Lime-basket.

Dry-bob, subs. and verb (venery).—Coition without emission (said of men only).

Dry-boots, subs. (old).—A dry humorist. [Grose—1785.]

Dry-hash, subs. (Australian).—A miser; or bad egg; also, by implication, a loafer.

1887. All the Year Round, 30 July, p. 66. In Australian parlance … a dry hash, or a stringy bark, that is, a ne’er-do-weel.

Dry-land! intj. (rhyming).—‘You understand!’

Dryland Sailor.—See Turnpike Sailor.

Dry-lodging, subs. (common).—Accommodation without board.

Dry-nurse, subs. (old).—A guardian; a bear-leader, or tutor; a junior who instructs an ignorant chief in his duties.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fayre, I. Quar. Well, this dry nurse, I say still, is a delicate man.

c. 1640. [Shirley], Captain Underwit, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii. 322. Tho. But, sir, you must have a dry nurse, as many Captaines have. Let me see: I can hire you an old limping decayed sergeant at Brainford that taught the boyes.

1747. Walpole, Lett. to Mann, 10 May (1833), vol. II., p. 292. This curious Minister … used to … walk in the Park with their daughters, and once went dry nurse to Holland with them.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxv. Oh, some poor devil old Grant has picked up cheap as dry-nurse to his pet idiot … half valet, half tutor.

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. When a superior officer does not know his duty, and is instructed in it by an inferior officer, he is said to be dry-nursed. The inferior nurses the superior as a dry nurse rears an infant.

Dry-room, subs. (thieves’).—A prison. For synonyms, see Cage.

Dry-shave, subs. (common).—Rubbing the chin with the fingers; also used as a verb. The action implies a certain effrontery.

Dry-up, subs. (theatrical).—A failure or Columbus (q.v.); contrast with draw, sense 2.

Verb (colloquial).—To cease talking; to abandon a purpose or position; to stop work. As an interjection = Hold your jaw!

1865. The Index, 2 Feb. With which modest contribution we dry up with reference to the subject.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 4 July. An audience which should cause defeated Boston to hang her diminished head, dry up, and feel small.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 69. I must dry up for the fellow’s bested me.

1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 617. Dry up! is the slangy and impatient exclamation with which he cuts short the occasional attempts of his mother to lecture him.

1887. O. W. Holmes, Our Hundred Days, p. 131. There were frequent … interruptions, something like these: ‘That will do, sir!’ or, ‘You had better stop, sir!’… With us it would have been dry up! or Hold on!

1888. R. Haggard, Mr. Meeson’s Will [in Illus. Lond. News, Summer No. p. 3, col. 1]. He … suddenly dried up [335]as he noticed the ominous expression on the great man’s brow.

Dry-walking, subs. (military).—A hard-up soldier’s outing.

D. T’s., subs. phr. (common).—Delirium tremens. For synonyms, see Jim-jams. Also The D. T. = Daily Telegraph.

1864. Soiled Dove, p. 266. I wish to God I could get d. t., and then I should go mad and cut my throat, or pitch myself out of the window.

1868. Public Opinion, 1 Aug. Frightful diseases, one of the commonest of which is jocularly spoken of by tipplers as d. t.

1880. G. R. Sims, Ballads of Babylon (Beauty and Beast).—And had sold her child to a titled churl, Who had just got round from a bad d.t.

1883. Globe, 7 July, p. 1, col. 5. One of the daily papers, which boasts the largest circulation in the world, is familiar to all as the d.t.

1887. Jas. Payn, Glow-worm Tales, vol. i., p. 209. As certain as d.t. is the end of drinking.

Dub, subs. (old).—1. A key; specifically a master key. [From dup or dub, to open; to do up; see verb, sense 1.] For synonyms, see Locksmith’s daughter.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 153. A bunch of young dubs by her side, which are a bunch of small keys.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 39. That’s the kinchin as was to try the dub for us, ain’t it? muttered Smith.

Verb (old).—To open, ‘Dub your mummer’ = Open your mouth. Cf., Dubber; ‘Dub the jigger’ = open the door.—See quot., 1848. Also by confusion, to shut or fasten.

1567. Harman, Caveat [E.E.T. Soc., 1869], p. 85. Dup the gygger, and maund that is bene shyp.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, Act iv. Sc. 5. Then up he rose and donned his clothes, and dupped the chamber door.

1848. Duncombe, Sinks of London Laid Open, p. 106. Dub the jigger, fasten the door.

Dub at a Knapping Jigger, subs. phr. (old).—A turnpike keeper.

Dubber, subs. (old).—1. The mouth or tongue; mum your dubber = hold your tongue. (Cf., dub your mummer, under dub).

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 150. Dubber mum’d. To keep your mouth shut, or be obliged to hold your tongue.

Dub-Cove.—See Dubsman.

Dub-lay, subs. (old).—Using picklocks. [From Dub (q.v.), a key + lay (q.v.).]—Grose, 1785.

Dublin-dissector, subs. (medical students’).—A cudgel.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 154. At first he perpetually carries a Dublin dissector under his arm.

Dubs, adj. (Winchester College).—Double.

Dubsman, or Dubs, subs. (old).—A turnkey or gaoler. [From dub (q.v.) = key + man.]

1887. Henley, Villon’s Good Night. For you, you coppers’ narks, and dubs, What pinched me when upon the snam.

French Synonyms.—Un gaffier (thieves’); un gaffe [336](thieves’ = boat hook); un oncle (thieves’ = uncle); un boye (thieves’: also an executioner at Cayenne or New Caledonia); le Duc de Guiche (thieves’: from guichettier = jailer); un artoupan (thieves’); un barbeaudier (thieves’); le Comte de Castue (thieves’: Castue = prison); un chat (thieves’ = a cat); le Comte de Canton (thieves’: Canton = prison or ‘stir’); le Comte de la Caruche (thieves’).

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], 30. Quoth a dubsman, who gazed on the shattered wall, ‘You have carved your epitaph, Claude du Val, With your chisel so fine, tra la!’

Dub up, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To hand over; pay; fork out. [Cf., provincial dubs = money.] Fr., foncer; abouler. Formerly, to lock up or secure; to button one’s pocket.

1840. Comic Almanack, p. 237. Come, dub up! roars a third: and I don’t mind telling you, in confidence, that I was so frightened that I took out the sovereign and gave it.

Ducats, subs. (theatrical).—1. Money. [Probably from Shylock and The Merchant of Venice.] For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, ch. vi. The Jews have always appeared to me a calumniated race. From spendthrift King John downwards, the Christian has ever pocketed the ducats, and abused the donor.

2. (thieves’).—Specifically a railway ticket; also pawnbroker’s duplicate; raffle-card, or brief (q.v.). Also ducket.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 501. So I took a ducat (ticket) for Sutton in Surrey.

Duce, subs. (old).—Twopence. [From the Latin.]

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 6. If any body offers you less nor a mag, or a duce, vy, you may say with the poet, Who vou’d his farthings bear? ven he himself might his quivetus make vith a bare bodkin.

Duck, subs. (common).—1. Scraps of meat; otherwise block-ornaments, stickings, faggots, manablins, or chuck (q.v.).

2. (Winchester College).—The face. To make a duck = to make a grimace. For synonyms, see Dial.

4. (colloquial).—A term of endearment; also used in admiration; e.g., a duck of a bonnet. Also ducky: duck of diamonds being a superlative. For synonyms, see My tulip.

1837. Comic Almanack, p. 78. You won’t grudge your poor rib a few ribbons, will you, Duck?

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, i., 2. Nel. Oh, isn’t he a duck of a fellow? Bob. He’s the very flower of the flock.

1846. Punch, vol. XI., p. 164. Though somewhat out at elbows, he’s what the ladies call a ‘duck.’

5. (cheap jacks’).—A metal-cased watch; i.e., old watch movements in German silver cases.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Advent. of Cheap Jack, p. 38. What appeared to the roughs a fine old English and valuable watch, but what in reality was an almost worthless duck.

To make a duck, or duck’s egg, verb. phr. (cricketers’).—To make no score; Cf., To [337]crack one’s egg, and pair of spectacles. [From the shape of the ‘O.’]

1868. St. Paul’s Magazine, Aug. You see by the twitch of the hand, the glove rapidly raised to the face, and replaced on the bat-handle, the jerk of the elbow, and perhaps the uneasy lifting of the foot, that his fear of a duck—as, by a pardonable contraction from ‘duck’s-egg,’—a nought is called in cricket play—etc.

1870. London Figaro, 21 June. J. C. Shaw is a host in himself; he took six wickets, and all of them for ducks.

1872. Weekly Dispatch 9 June. The next ball from Brice sends Caffyn’s bails flying: and out comes the last man—Southerton—and he is used to duck’s eggs.

1883. Echo, 15 May, p. 4, col. 2. Out of the eleven Surrey batsmen who played against Notts yesterday, no less than five were credited with ducks.

Duck that runs, or grinds the gospel mill, subs. phr. (American).—A clergyman. For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.

1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’) Innocents at Home, p. 17, 18. Are you the duck that runs the gospel mill next door?

To do a duck, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To hide under the seat of a public conveyance with a view to avoid paying the fare. [From duck = to bow or stoop.]

1889. Sporting Times. Doin’ a duck, macin’ the rattler, ridin’ on the cheap, on the odno, under the bloomin’ seat.

Ducket.—See Ducat.

Duck-footed, adj. phr. (common).—Said of people who walk like a duck; i.e., with the toes turned inwards.

Ducking. To go ducking, verb. phr. (common).—To go courting. [From duck (q.v.) = a term of endearment + ing.] See Goose-and-Duck.

Ducks, subs. (colloquial).—1. Linen trousers; generally white ducks. [From the material and colour.] At Eton worn only by men in the boats. For synonyms, see Bags and Kicks.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 248. There’s our man, Tom; he can have a pair of ducks of mine, and a check shirt of Bob’s.

1846. Punch, vol. X., p. 263. I wore my Russian Ducks, In their beautiful whiteness.

1888. Mrs. Musgrave, Savage London. Billy should do the thing proper, and be married in a pair of white ducks.

To make ducks and drakes of one’s money, verb. phr. (common).—To squander money as lavishly as stones are squandered at ‘ducks and drakes.’ [In allusion to the childish game. Lemprière (Art. Scipio Africanus the Younger) refers to Scipio and Lælius taking to ‘ducks and drakes’ as a supplementary recreation to shell-gathering, and an early notice of the game occurs in Minucius Felix (Octavius cap. iii.):—From the beach they choose a shell, thin and polished by the waves; they hold it in a horizontal position, and then whirl it along as near the surface of the sea as possible, so as to make it skim the surge in its even motion, or spring up and [338]bound from time to time out of the water. That boy is conqueror whose shell both runs out farthest and bounds oftenest.] Variants are To Blue One’s Pile; to Sweat (q.v.). Fr., galvauder; manger sa légitime.

1605. Chapman, etc., Eastward Hoe! Act i. Do nothing, be like a gentleman, be idle … make ducks and drakes with shillings.

1664. H. Peacham, Worth of a Penny, in Arber’s Garner, vol. VI., p. 259. I remember, in Queen Elizabeth’s time, a wealthy citizen of London left his son a mighty estate in money; who, imagining he should never be able to spend it, would usually make ‘ducks and drakes’ in the Thames, with Twelve pences [= 5/– now], as boys are wont to do with tile sherds and oyster shells.

d. 1680. S. Butler, Character of a Miser, in Remains, vol. II., p. 343 (ed. 1759). And he that made Ducks and Drakes with his Money enjoyed it every way as much.

1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. xvi., p. 372. They hook in the old fool again to make ducks and drakes with his money.

1700. Gentleman Instructed, p. 18. I would neither fawn on money for money’s sake, nor duck and drake it away for a frolick.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lviii. We’ve tied up the property, so that he can’t make ducks and drakes with it.

1858. Marian Evans (G. Eliot), Janet’s Repentance, ch. xxv. They say Mrs. Dempster will have as good as six hundred a year at least.… It’s well if she doesn’t make ducks and drakes of it somehow.

Duck’s-Bill, subs. (printers’).—A tongue cut in a piece of stout paper and pasted on at the bottom of the tympan sheet. [From the shape.]

Ducky or Duck of Diamonds.—See Duck, sense 4.

Dudder, Dudsman, or Duffer, subs. (old).—A pedlar of so-called smuggled wares—gown-pieces, silk waistcoats, etc. The term and practice are both obsolete, though in a few seaports, London especially, they survived till recently in a modified form. [From duds (q.v.) = clothes.] Fr., un marottier (thieves’). See also Whispering Dudder and Barrow-man.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 160. A dudder happened some time ago to meet a countryman in a dark lane, and sold him a waistcoat-piece for two guineas and a half, which stood himself in only four-and-sixpence.

Dude, subs. (American).—A swell; fop; ‘masher.’ For synonyms, see Dandy. [From Scots duds = clothes; Cf., quot., 1870.] Derivatives are Dudette and Dudinette = a young girl affecting the airs of a belle; Dudine = a female masher.

1870. Putnam’s Magazine, Feb. Think of her? I think she is dressed like a dud; can’t say how she would look in the costume of the present century.

1883. Graphic, 31 March, p. 319, col. 1. The one object for which the dude exists is to tone down the eccentricities of fashion.… The silent, subfuse, subdued ‘dude’ hands down the traditions of good form.

1889. Puck’s Library, April, p. 3. For the front rows two styles are recommended—dude, No. 16, and Bald-headed Man, No. 41—both original in design and exquisite in finish.

Dude Hamfatter, subs. phr. (American).—A wealthy pig-jobber. [From Dude, a swell + Hamfatter, in allusion to occupation.]

1888. New York National Police Gazette. It seems that the dude hamfatters, after trying various games to skip unseen, conceived the idea of making up as a couple of well-dressed women.

Duds, subs. (colloquial).—Clothes; sometimes old clothes or rags. [Scots dud, Dutch todde, a rag; [339]O.E. dudde = cloth. Duddery = a clothiers’ booth (De Foe’s Tour of Gt. Brit., p. 125).] In America applied to any kind of portable property (Cf., quots., 1622, 1780, and 1884). To angle for duds, see Anglers; To sweat duds = to pawn (see Sweat).

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 86. When we byng back to the deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Dudes, clothes.

1622. Head and Kirkman, English Rogue. ‘Canting Song.’ For all your duds [goods] are binged avast.

1780. R. Tomlinson, Slang Pastoral, IX. No duds in my pocket, no sea-coal to burn.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 20. Doubled him up, like a bag of old duds!

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. v. A ragged rascal, every dud upon whose back was bidding good-day to the other.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, ii. 3. Crissy, odsbuds! I’ll on with my duds.

1871. New York Tribune, 23 Jan. The three [railway] Commissioners, in whose appointment you had no choice, decide that you must get out, leave your house, bundle out your duds, and be off.

1881. A. Trollope, Marian Fay, ch. iii. To see her children washed and put in and out of their duds was perhaps the greatest pleasure of her life.

1884. Athenæum, 19 July, p. 74, col. 2. A writer in 1784 [in Gent. Mag., Gomme, vol. II.] says, for instance, that duds signifies rags, tatters, and that it comes from the Celtic. We do not believe in the derivation, but will not at present endeavour to refute it; we are sure the meaning is given wrongly, though it has the authority of Halliwell and Wedgwood in recent times. Duds, in the northern dialects means small things, or things of little account, whether articles of clothing, trade, or merchandise. We have frequently heard the word applied to workmen’s tools; and in an unprinted churchwarden’s account of an eastern shire we find in the year 1501 mention of ‘clocke-dudes.’ From the context it is evident that the small wheels belonging to the town clock are meant.

Dudsman.—See Dudder.

Dues, subs. (old).—Money. To tip the dues = to pay; to hand over a share. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt. [A colloquial extension of due = toll, tribute, fee, etc.]

1812. Vaux, Flash Dict. So a thief, requiring his share of booty from his palls, will desire them to bring the dues to light.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 13. Will he come down with the dues.

Duff, verb (thieves’).—1. Specifically, to sell flashy goods as pretended contraband or stolen; hence to cheat. Duffers, or Men at the duff = pedlars of flash. (Cf., Dudder). Duffing = the practice; used as an adjective = spurious.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 158. ‘The Duff’ [smuggled goods, so named and described in.]

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Duffers: cheats who pretend to deal in smuggled goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling them Spital-fields goods at double their current price.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 23. They have been regularly ‘duffed’ out of the streets, so much cheap rubbish is made to sell.

1888. G. R. Sims, in Cass. Sat. Journal, 31 March, p. 7. The man at the duff palms off false jewellery as real.

2. (common).—To rub up the nap of old clothes so as to make them look almost as good as new. [340]

Duffer = one who performs this operation, whilst the article operated upon is also a duffer by virtue of the fact itself. Cf., Duffer.

Duffer, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A pedlar; specifically a hawker of Brummagem (q.v.), and so-called smuggled goods (hence senses 2 and 3). In the population returns of 1831 duffer = one who gets a living by cheating pawnbrokers.—See Dudder and Duff.

1796. Colquhoun, Police of the Metropolis, p. 176. A class of sharpers who are known by the name of duffers, who go about from house to house, and attend public-houses, inns, and fairs, pretending to sell smuggled goods.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxxvii., p. 361. Nor did it mark him out as the prey of ring droppers, pea and thimble-riggers, duffers, touters, or any of those bloodless sharpers, who are, perhaps, a little better known to the police.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lx. Now it is a fact that Colonel Altamont had made a purchase of cigars and French silks from some duffers in Fleet Street about this period.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 413. An intelligent street-seller, versed in all the arts and mysteries of this trade, told me that he understood by a duffer, a man who sold goods under false pretences, making out that they were smuggled, or even stolen, so as to enhance the idea of their cheapness.

2. (colloquial).—Anything (or person) worthless; anything sham. [From sense 1.]

d. 1845. Hood [quoted in Annandale]. Duffers (if I may use a slang term which has now become classical, and which has no exact equivalent in English proper) are generally methodical and old. Fosset certainly was a duffer.

1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xi. Don’t you think, Hamish, he must have been a great duffer to go and marry before he knew how he could keep a wife?

1872. Standard, 12 Sept. ‘Who is to blame?’ we ask, in the interests of our government, and natural curiosity. ‘That duffer in feathers’ is the curt reply, pointing with the finger of scorn at one hero whom we had mistaken for something little short of a field marshal.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 264. I’d several sovs.—good ones—with me, and also a whole lot of duffers.

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 10. He made no bones about calling her stupid, and was more apt to call her a little duffer than to sympathise with her when she got into trouble.

1889. Answers, 29 June, p. 66, col. 1. If the note is a genuine one the water-mark will then stand out plainly. If a duffer it will almost disappear.

Duffer-out, verb. phr. (Australian miners’).—To get exhausted.

1887. Finch-Hatton, Advance Australia. He then reported to the shareholders that the lode had duffered out, and that it was useless to continue working.

Duffing, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—False; counterfeit; worthless; Cf., Duff and Duffer.

1862. London Herald, 27 Dec. ‘Answers to Correspondents.’ Houses burdened with ninety years’ repairing leases and heavy ground rents are run up by the ‘duffing’ builder, merely for sale.

1873. Times, Jan. We know now that so-called ‘duffing’ jewellery is scattered far and wide over the land.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 239. A ‘shise’ half-bull and a ‘duffing’ tanner: half-a-crown and a sixpence quietly palmed off on this man out of his half-sovereign.

Dugs, subs. (old).—The paps; once used without reproach of women; now only in contempt, except of animals. [From same stem as ‘daughter.’] For synonyms, see Dairy.

Duke, subs. (old).—1. Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks. [341]

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxiii. The stuff itself, which in the Western gin-shops goes generally by the name of ‘blue ruin,’ or ‘short,’ is here called … duke.

3. (thieves’).—Any transaction in the shape of a burglary; e.g., ‘I was Jemminy to their duke’ = ‘I was privy to the robbery.’

Duke Humphrey. To dine with Duke Humphrey.—See Dine.

Duke of Limbs, subs. phr. (common).—An awkward, uncouth man; specifically one with ungainly limbs. [Grose, 1785.]

Duke of York, verb. phr. (rhyming slang).—To walk; also, to talk.

Dukes, subs. (common).—The hands. For synonyms, see Bunch of fives and Daddle.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 501. So I said I would not go at all if he put his dukes (hands) on me.

1888. Lic. Vict. Gazette, 27 Jan., p. 55, 3. The men … put up their dukes to fight for supremacy.

1883. J. W. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. I went to him and asked him if he was not going to grease my duke.

To put up the dukes, verb. phr. (common).—To put up one’s hands for combat.

1885. Home Tidings, p. 369. ‘Boxing Club Report.’ The two contestants put up their dukes, and soon warmed up to their work.

Dukey.—See Dookie and Gaff.

Dulcamara, subs. (colloquial).—A quack-doctor. [From the name of a character in Donizetti’s l’Elixir d’Amour (1845).]

Dull in the Eye, adv. phr. (common).—Intoxicated. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Dull-swift, subs. (old).—A sluggish messenger.

Dumb-fogged, ppl. adj. (common).—Confused.

Dumb-foozled, ppl. adj. (common).—Confounded; puzzled.

1883. Hawley Smart, At Fault, I., x., 240. Considering you built the theatre, it struck me you weren’t very good at finding your way about, you seemed regularly dumbfoozled.

Dumbfound, Dumfound, verb (Also Dumbfounding, subs., Dumbfounded or Dumfoundered [Scots], adj. [Old Slang, now colloquial]).—To perplex; to confound.

1690. Dryden, Prologue to Prophetess. Then think on that bare bench my servant sat. I see him ogle still, and hear him chat. Selling facetious bargains, and propounding That witty recreation called dumbfounding.

1703. Ward, London Spy, pt. xvi., p. 379. This unexpected retort of the parsons, quite dumb-founded the Quaker.

1706. R. Estcourt, Fair Example, Act. III., Sc. i., p. 30. And if I can but dumb-found my husband with a dream, I shall be able to make my word good.

1714. Spectator, No. 616. They grew a little mutinous for more liquor. They had like to have dumfounded the justice; but his clerk came in to his assistance.

1766. Mortimer, Falstaff’s Wedding, I., ii. They let fly their jests so thick at me, and peppered me so plaguily with small wit, that I was dumfounded.

1855. A. Trollope, The Warden, ch. xi. At any other time how exquisitely valuable would have been that touch! but now he was distraught, dumb-founded, and unmanned. [342]

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. v. He utterly dumfoundered Charley, by asking abruptly ‘How’s Jim?’

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, Pledge xx. White as a ghost, dumbfoundered, and trembling, Dan attempted to explain that he was innocent.

1882. Democracy, ch. vii. She lost her command of thought, and sat dumbfounded.

Dumb-glutton, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Dumb-squint, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Dummacker, subs. (old).—A knowing person. For synonyms, see Downy Cove.

Dummerer.—See Dommerar.

Dummock, subs. (common).—The posteriors. For synonyms, see Monocular Eye-glass.

Dummy, subs. (colloquial).—A deaf mute; also an idiot; sometimes a Duffer, sense 2.

c. 1884. G. R. Sims, Dagonet Ballads (Mott Jarvis). And she left us like open-mouthed dummies a-waggin’ our heads at the moon.

2. (colloquial).—Generic for sham substitutes for real objects: e.g., empty bottles and drawers in an apothecary’s shop; wooden half-tubs of butter, bladders of lard, hams, cheeses, and so forth; Dummies in libraries generally take the form of works not likely to tempt the general reader. Hence, by implication, anything sham.

1846. Punch, vol. XI., p. 185. A Dummy list of Causes has long since been preferred, to enable Thompson to ascertain whether ‘we are retained on the other side’ when a brief is brought on behalf of either party.

1856. H. Mayhew, Gt. World of London, p. 112. The doorway is set round with sprucely-dressed ‘dummies’ of young gentlemen that have their gloved fingers spread out like bunches of radishes.

1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. ix. The large imposing stock turned out to be three parts dummies.

1871. Daily News. ‘Leader,’ 28 April. The Bill is not yet in the hands of members or public, the document placed on the table of the Lords being what is, in parliamentary slang, called a ‘dummy.’

1853. Lytton, My Novel, bk. XI., ch. iv. We might cheer the evening with a game at whist—double dummy.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Frisk the dummee of the screens = take all the bank notes out of the pocket book: Ding the dummee, and bolt, they sing out beef = Throw away the pocket book, and run off, as they call out ‘stop thief.’

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. He is caught—he must ‘stand and deliver’; Then out with the dummy, and off with the bit [money].

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

[Other colloquial usages are: (1) = dumb-waiter; (2) = a locomotive furnished with condensing engines, and hence without the noise of escaping steam; (3) = a fireman’s term for a jet from the main or chief water pipe; (4) = a hatter’s pressing iron: Cf., tailor’s Goose; (5) = a piece of cloth rolled tight and saturated with oil, for rubbing hard places to be cut; (6) = an actor or actress who has nothing to say, etc.]

Dummy-Daddle Dodge, subs. phr. (thieves’).—Picking pockets under cover of a sham hand or daddle (q.v.).

1883. Greenwood, in Daily Telegraph. Asked by the friendly warder what he thought of the dummy-daddle dodge, [343]Mr. Mobbs said he rather thought that game was played out. A woman, he proceeded to explain, can work with a dummy-daddle in an omnibus or a railway carriage much better than a man, because, without appearing conspicuous, she can wear any kind of loose shawl or cloak as concealment for her real hand.

Dummy-hunter, subs. (old).—A pickpocket who confined his operations to pocket-books. [From dummy (q.v.) = a pocket book + hunter.]

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood [ed. 1884] p. 89. No dummy hunter had forks so fly, No knuckler so deftly could fake a cly.

1843. Punch, vol. IV., p. 129. While ears are cramm’d with humbug, boys! The dummy-hunters ply An easy trade.

Dump, subs. (old).—A metal counter.

Verb (colloquial).—1. To throw down so as to produce a heavy noise: e.g., to dump down coals.

2. (Winchester College).—To put out. ‘Dump the tolly!’ = Extinguish the candle!

Dump Fencer, subs. (old).—A button-merchant.

Dumpies, subs. (military).—The Nineteenth Hussars. [From the diminutive size of the men when the regiment was first raised.] Obsolete. Dumpy = squat or undersized.

Dumpling-depôt, subs. (common).—The stomach. For synonyms, see Bread-basket.

Dumpling-Shop, subs. (common).—The paps. For synonyms, see Dairy.

Dumps, subs. (common).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Sir Rupert). May I venture to say when a gentleman jumps In the river at midnight for want of the dumps He rarely puts on his knee-breeches and pumps.

In the dumps, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Cast down; ill at ease; unpleasantly situate.

1592. Greene, Groatsworth of Wit, in wks. xii., 115. Whence spring these dumps?

1596. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, III., iii. How now, Master Knowell, in dumps, in dumps! Come, this becomes not.

1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado about Nothing, ii., 3. Sing no more ditties, sing no mo Of dumps so dull and heavy.

1711. Spectator, No. 176. When I come home she is in the dumps, because she says she is sure I came so soon only because I think her handsome.

1717. Mrs. Centlivre, Bold Stroke for a Wife, v., 1. What art thou in the dumps for?

1847. W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, p. 19. My happiness is chang’d to doleful dumps, Whilst, merry Michael, all thy cards were trumps.

1855. Trench, English, Past and Present (2nd ed.), p. 131. In the great ballad of Chevy-Chase a noble warrior, whose legs are hewn off, is described as being in doleful dumps. Holland’s translation of Livy represents the Romans as being in the dumps after the battle of Cannæ. It was in elegant use then.

1885. Daily Telegraph, 19 Jan., p. 5, col. 2. Everybody who suffers now and then from a fit of the dumps is counselled to read amusing books.

Dun, subs. and verb (originally slang: now recognised).—An importunate creditor; to persist in demanding payment. [A.S. dynian = to clamour, to din; possibly influenced by the memory of a certain Joe Dunn, a famous [344]English bailiff, temp. Henry VII.] Fr., un loup (= wolf); un Anglais (= an Englishman). Also dunner and dunning.

1663. T. Killegrew, Parson’s Wedding, III., v., in Dodsley, O.P. (1780), xi., 452. We shall have the sport, and be revenged upon the rogue for dunning a gentleman in a tavern.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, I., in wks. (1713), 136. The most insatiable sorts of duns, that invade our lodgings in a morning.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act V., Sc. ii. Man. No, no. Those you have obliged most, most certainly avoid you, when you can oblige ’em no longer; and they take your visits like so many duns.

1678. C. Cotton, Scarronides, bk. i., p. 43 (ed. 1725). Have what you want, nor will I dun ye, But pay me when you can get mony.

1707. Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem, Act III., Sc. iii. I remember the good days when we could dun our masters for our wages, and if they refused to pay us, we could have a warrant to carry ’em before a Justice.

1712. Spectator, No. 454. Though they never buy, they are ever talking of new silks, laces, and ribbons, and serve the owners, in getting them customers as their common dunners do in making them pay.

1731. Daily Journal, 9 Jan. [‘List of the officers established in the most notorious gaming-houses.’] 9th.: A dunner, who goes about to recover money lost at play.

1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. III., ch. iii. Poverty and distress, with their horrid train of duns, attorneys, bailiffs, haunted me day and night.

1777. Sheridan, Trip to Scarborough, Act I., Sc. ii. What, hast spent all, eh? And art thou come to dun his lordship for assistance?

1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xv. I refused him admittance as flatly, Blount, as you would refuse a penny to a blind beggar; as obstinately, Tracy, as thou didst ever deny access to a dun.

1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. ix., p. 66. To fetch three new boys, and dun the relations of two old ones for the balance of a small account.

1888. C. J. Dunphie, The Chameleon, p. 6. Dunning for payment which may not be convenient to them, and which would in no sense conduce to the honour of the dunners.

Dunaker, subs. (old).—A cattle-lifter.

16(?). Poem of 17th Century (quoted by Nares). The seventeenth a dun-aker, that maketh his vows To go i’ the country and steal all their cows.

1693. Herrick (‘Poor Robin’). Mercury is in a conjunction with Venus, and when such conjunctions happen, it signifies a most plentiful crop that year, of hectors … donnakers, cross-biters, etc.

Dunderhead, subs. (old).—A fool. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

Dundreary, subs. and adj. (colloquial).—Specifically, a stammering, foolish, and long-whiskered fop—the Lord Dundreary of Our American Cousin (1858)—generally, a foppish fool. Cf., Jubilee Juggins.

1876. Jas. Grant, One of the Six Hundred, ch. iii. His whole air had the ‘used up’ bearing of those miserable dundrearys who affect to act as if youth, wealth, and luxury were the greatest calamities that flesh is heir to, and that life itself was a bore.