Slang and its analogues, 2 | Project Gutenberg

1885. Daily Telegraph, April 6, p. 6, col. 1. A prosperous butcher … gives him what Mr. Poleaxer calls a chi-hike at his gate as he passes that way in his cart, between five and six a.m.

1886. Sporting Times, 17 July, 7, 2. There was no charge for admission. Enough. They came, they saw, and they chi-iked.

To give chi-ike with the chill off, phr.—To scold; abuse. For synonyms, see Wig.

Child.—See This child.

Children’s Shoes.—See Make children’s shoes.

Chill or Take the Chill Off [of liquids], verb (popular).—To warm. Chill is a contraction of the fuller phrase.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 264. A pint pot, the contents of which were chilling on the hob. [92]

With the Chill Off, phr. (popular).—An expression of (1) dissent, (2) depreciation, or (3) disbelief. A variant of over the left (q.v.).

Chime, verb (thieves’).—To praise; extol; puff; canoodle: especially with a view to personal advantage.

Chimney, subs. (common).—A great smoker; Fr., un locomotive.

Chimney Chops, subs. (old).—A negro. [An allusion to colour.] For synonyms, see Snowball.

Chimney-Pot, subs. (common).—The silk hat worn by men, as also by women on horseback. Also called a stove-pipe, beaver, bell-topper etc., but for synonyms, see Golgotha. [An allusion to shape and colour.] The French has une cheminée.

1861. Punch, vol. XLI., p. 258. ‘The Riding-Hat Question.’ Lucy. ‘Now tell me, Mary, which is the best?’ Mary (who is rather horsey). ‘Well, dear, for tea in the arbour and that sort of thing, perhaps the little round one; but if you want to look like going across country, the Chimney-pot all to nothing.’

1864. Spectator, p. 356. The chimney-pot hat, for the power of its transcendant ugliness beat all the artists, penmen, and men of taste in England, ten years ago.

1871. Echo, 2 March. ‘London Trades—Hatters.’ The shape of the chimney-pot is constantly changing, as we all know.

1880. Punch’s Almanack, p. 10. Now, why should not gentlemen content themselves with mere underclothing, and discard the hideous chimney-pot, Frock Coat, and Trousers of the Period, so fatal to Pictorial Design?

1890. Daily Graphic, Jan. 7, p. 9, col. 4. Then the crowd go mad. Up fly head-gear, chimney-pot, and wide-a-wake alike, their owners careless of their fate.

Chimney-Sweep, subs. (common).—1. A black draught. Cf., Custom-house officer.

2. A clergyman. [In allusion to the black wear of ‘the cloth.’] For synonyms, see Devil-dodger. Sweeps are nicknamed clergymen.

Chin, subs. (American thieves’).—A child. [? A corruption of kinchin.]

1883. Bread-winners (1884), 161. You haven’t done a thing but … eat pea nuts and hear Bott chin. [m.]

1887. New York World. They chin about the best methods of relieving poverty. [m.]

18(?). Francis, Saddle and Moccasin. He was a worker, and liked nothing better than to get into a circle of young cow-punchers, and chin and josh with them.

Chinas, subs. (Stock Exchange). Eastern Extension Australasian and China Telegraph Shares.

Chin-Chopper, subs. (pugilists’).—A drive under the chin. For synonyms, see Dig.

Chink, subs. (old).—1. Money; ready cash; also chinkers, or jink. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. lvii., st. 43, p. 134 (E.D.S.). To buie it the cheaper, haue chinkes in thy purse.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act i., Sc. 5. I nursed her daughter, that you talk’d withal; I tell you he that can lay hold of her Shall have the chinks.

1603. John Day, Law Trickes, Act i. They know me rich, Horatio,—chinke, chinke! Whilst this holds out, my cause shall never sincke. [93]

1630. Jonson, New Inn, I. Where every jovial tinker, for his chink, May cry, Mine host, to crambe! ‘Give us drink.’

18(?). Miss Wetherell, Glenham-Family, ch. xxviii. ‘I guess it’s something else,—she had chink enough to buy shoes with, I know.’

Chinkers, subs. (old).—1. Money.—See Chink.

1834. Taylor, Ph. van Artevelde, pt. II., iii., 1. We’re vile crossbow-men, and a knight are you, But steel is steel, and flesh is still but flesh, So let us see your chinkers.

1887. Baumann, A Slang Ditty. Rum coves that relieve us of chinkers and pieces, Is gin’rally lagged, Or, wuss luck, they gits scragged.

2. (thieves’).—Handcuffs united by a chain. [Derivation obvious.] For synonyms, see Darbies.

Chin-Music, subs. (American).—Talk; chatter; oratory. Cf., Chin-wag. The French say casser un mot.

1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, p. 332. The thing I’m now on is to roust out somebody to jerk a little chin-music for us.

1874. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Gilded Age. Whereupon a young sprig … began to sass [sauce] the conductor with his chin-music.

1876, Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xxvi. ‘I am not,’ said he, ‘going to orate. You did not come here, I guess, to hear me pay out chin-music.’

1883. Bread-Winners, 77. If we have joined this order to listen to chin-music the rest of our lives.

Chinning, verbal subs. (American).—Chatting; talking.

Chinny, adj. (American).—Talkative. [From chin, verb, sense 1, + ny.]

Chinqua Soldi, subs. phr. (theatrical).—Fivepence. [From the Italian.]

Chinse, subs. (Winchester College).—A chance. [Apparently a corrupted form of the word.]

Chin-Wag, subs. (common).—Talk; chatter; officious impertinence.

1879. Punch, No. 2061, p. 4. I’d just like to have a bit of chin-wag with you on the quiet.

Chip, subs. (American).—1. [In plural.] Items of news, more especially locals (q.v.).

1883. Miss Braddon, Phantom Fortune, ch. xli. Where sheafs of bank notes were being exchanged for those various coloured counters which represented divers values, from the respectable ‘pony’ to the modest chip

18(?). Francis, Saddle and Moccasin. I knew at once that they had got scared, and had trenched up like a bevy of quails; so I said to Jim, ‘Now you let me do the talking, when they begin to sing “Indians”—don’t you chip?’

To chip in, verb (common).—To contribute one’s share in money or kind; to join in an undertaking; to interpose smartly.

1884. Bret Harte, In the Tunnel. When you’ll hear the next fool Asking of Flynn—Just you chip in, Say you knew Flynn. [94]

1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, p. 22. Pard, he was a great loss to this town. It would please the boys if you could chip in something like that, and do him justice.

1888. American Magazine, Sept. A man who won’t chip in to charity is always an object of suspicion.

1888. Star, 12 Dec., p. 3, col. 3. Justice Smith here chipped in with the remark that counsel … had not curtailed their cross-examination.

Brother chip, subs. phr. (common).—‘Brother smut’; one of the same trade or profession. Cf., Chip of the old block.

1862. Penny Newsman. ‘Mr. Bernal Osborne on Pigs and Politics.’ I must say I never saw a set of gentlemen, who were in such excellent condition without verging upon obesity (considerable laughter). I could have wished, gentlemen, that there had been a larger show to-day. At the same time as a brother chip (a laugh)—Oh, gentlemen, I am a farmer (hear). I am one of those farmers that don’t understand my business as well as I ought.

Chip of the same, or the same old, block, sometimes abbreviated to chip, phr. (common). A person reproducing certain familiar or striking characteristics. Chip = also a man or thing, and in this sense is equivalent to Bloke, Cove, Cheat, etc., all of which see.

c. 1626. Dick of Devonshire, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii., 60. Your father used to come home to my mother, and why may not I be a chipp of the same blocke, out of which you two were cutt?

1762. Colman, Musical Lady, II., iii. You’ll find him his father’s own son, I believe; a chip of the old block, I promise you!

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xviii., p. 189. ‘Yes, yes, Chuffey, Jonas is a chip of the old block. It’s a very old block now, Chuffey,’ said the old man.

1860. Funny Fellow, May 7, p. 1. Hollo, my kiddy, stir your stumps, And chuck yourself about; Make haste, young chip, my boots to shine, Or your shine I’ll quick take out.

1865. M. E. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. xxxviii. I was in love myself once, though I do seem such a dry old chip.

Chip in porridge, broth, etc., phr. (common).—An old phrase signifying a thing of no moment; a nonentity.

1686. Goad, Celest. Bodies, I., xvii., 108. The Sextile is no chip in broth … but a very considerable Engine. [m.]

1688. Vox Cleri Pro Rege, 56. A sort of chip in pottage, which (he hopes) will not do Popery much good, nor the Church of England much harm. [m.]

1849. Sir Chas. Napier, as quoted in N. and Q., 1 S., i., p. 383. ‘The reviews which the Commander-in-Chief makes of the troops are not to be taken as so many chips in porridge.’

1880. Church Times, 25 June. The Burials Bill … is thought … to resemble the proverbial chip in porridge, which does neither good nor harm. [m.]

Chipper, adj. (American).—‘Fit’; active; ready to ‘chip in.’

Chippy, adj. (common).—Unwell; seedy. Generally used to describe the results of over-indulgence in eating, drinking, etc. Cf., Cheap.

1877. Belgravia, April, p. 235. After two copious libations of the above [B. and S.], a man is apt to feel chippy next morning.

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish [Ry. ed.], p. 157. A dozen cigars a day make one feel dreadfully chippy in the morning.

Chips, subs. (old).—1. A carpenter. Fourbesque equivalents are gangherino and zangarino, whilst the Gaunersprache has Mepaie.

1851. Chambers’ Paper, No. 52, p. 20. The carpenter, a rough hardy Swede, rejoicing in the name of Burstrome, was not offended in the slightest degree at being called chips even by the black cuddy servant.

1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, pref., xii. The carpenter is more politely termed chips.

1869. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, ch. ii. Don’t put up another chip till I look at my hand.

3. (American).—Cards. [Mr. C. Nordhoff writing to Mr. John Camden Hotten, on 1 May, 1865, states that ‘chips = slang for cards.’]

4. (common).—Money. [This usage is derived through sense 2, and passes naturally to sense 5 (q.v.).]

1877. W. Black, Green Past. and Picc., ch. xlix. You kent fool away your hand and keep the chips.

1885. Sporting Times, 23 May. ‘The Chorister’s Promise.’ The landlady came and knocked at the door—(Sing Fulham Road), Saying she’d have to clear out, and swore She’d distrain on her wardrobe what was more (Because of the chips she owed).

5. (general).—A sovereign. Used both in sing. and pl.—See quot. under Chip, sense 3, and Cf., preceding sense.

To hand in one’s chips, phr. (gamblers’).—To die. [For probable derivation, see Checks.]

Chirp, verb (thieves’).—1. To talk. For synonyms, see Patter. Grose has chirping merry = exhilarated with liquor.

1884. J. Greenwood, The Little Ragamuffins. I firmly resolved to chirp, when I was taken before the magistrate to give evidence, as little as possible.

Chirper, subs. (common).—1. A singer.

1862. George Meredith, Juggling Jerry Poems. Hand up the chirper! ripe ale winks in it; Let’s have comfort and be at peace. Once a stout draught made me light as a linnet. Cheer up! the Lord must have his lease.

4. (music-hall).—One of a gang frequenting the stage doors of music-halls to blackmail the singers. If money be refused them, they go into the auditorium and hoot, hiss, and groan at the performer. [Cf., Chirrup, quot., 1888.]

1889. Daily News, 2 July, p. 2. Singularly enough the Canterbury Music-hall … was mentioned in one of the night-charges, two men known as chirpers or chirripers being brought before Mr. Biron.

Chirpy, adj. (colloquial).—Cheerful; lively. [From chirp = babble of birds, + y.]

1837. J. Bates, in Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., III., 332. It makes me chirpy to think of Roseland.

1879. Justin McCarthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xxxv. To Charlton this appeared gravely ominous … Paulina, on the other hand, was what she would herself have called chirpy.

1882. Besant, All Sorts and Conditions of Men, ch. xx., p. 146. Her ladyship put quite a chirpy face upon it. [96]

Chirrup, verb (music-hall).—To cheer or applaud under a system of blackmail. [The term appears to have come into vogue in the early part of 1888.—See quots, under Chirruper; also Cf., Chirper, sense 4, and Chirruping.]

Chirruper.—See Chirper, senses 1 and 4, Fr., un intime.

1888. Pall Mall Gazette, 6 Mar., p. 4, col. 2. A chirruper … excused himself at the Lambeth Police Court yesterday by alleging that ‘he thought there was no harm in it.’

1888. J. Payn, in Illustrated London News, 17 Mar., p. 268. The … singers in music-halls cannot … do without him (the chirruper). [m.]

Chirruping, verbal subs. (music-hall).—Hanging about stage doors to intercept the ‘artistes,’ and extort money with a statement that the performer who ‘parts’ will be applauded. [For suggested, but very dubious, derivation, see quot., and Cf., Chirper, sense 4.]

1888. Pall Mall Gazette, 9 March, p. 14. Chirruping. Mr. Rintoul Mitchell writing from the Savage Club [asks] to add a hint as to the etymology of the word. It is not remote. The French argot for blackmail is chantage. Such paltry operations as those reported from the Lambeth music-hall do not merit the description of singing—they are simply twittering or chirruping.

Chisel, Chizzle, or Chuzzle, verb (common).—To cheat. [Possibly an extension of the orthodox meaning of the verb in the sense of ‘to cut, shave, or pare with a chisel to an excessive degree.’ Jamieson (1808) gives chisel as to cheat, or act deceitfully. Current during the first half of the present century, it seems first to have appeared in literature about 1840. Cf., Gouge, Shave, Skin, and other words of a kindred type.] For synonyms, see Stick.

1844. Illustrated London News, 25 May. ‘The Derby.’ They have chiseled the peaman and no mistake about that.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 78. When we got home at night we shared 2s. a piece. There was five of us altogether; but I think they chisselled me.

1858. Savannah Republican, 17 May. When the books were overhauled by the Committee, it was found that … the stockholders would be chiselled out of a pretty considerable sum.

1865. Saturday Review, April. Mr. Hotten has given the supposed classical originals of ‘Dickey’ and of ‘Skedaddle.’ He might have traced the slang verb to chisel to the Latin deascio and deruncino.

1865. G. A. Sala, Trip to Barbary, ch. xx. To ‘carrotter’ any one, say an uncle or a creditor, is to chizzle or ‘chouse’ or ‘do’ him out of his property amidst assurances of high-flown benevolence and exalted integrity.

To go full chisel, phr. (American).—To go at full speed or ‘full drive’; to show intense earnestness; to use great force; to go off brilliantly.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker (1862), 95. The long shanks of a bittern … a drivin’ away like mad, full chisel arter a frog.

1878. Mrs. Stowe, Poganuc P., ix., 76. Then he’d turn and run up the narrow way, full chisel. [m.]

Chiselling, verbal subs. Cheating. [Cf. Chisel, verb.] Variants are bamming; biting; besting; gouging, etc.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 298. Other efforts at cheating are designated as chisselling—not as some have believed from the practice of chiselling, that is, opening by means of cold chisels the safes of banks and merchants, since the term is much older than the introduction of safes. [97]

Chit, subs. (Anglo-Indian).—1. A letter; corruption of a Hindoo word.

1785. In Seton-Karr, I., 114. [They] may know his terms by sending a chit. [m.]

1887. Chamb. Jour., 25 June, p. 411. He had brought a note or chitti, as they call it in those parts [Bengal].

2. (society).—An order for drinks in clubs, etc. [Obviously an extended use of sense 1. In India the practice of writing chits or notes on the smallest provocation has always been carried to excess.]

3. (common).—A girl, under age and undersized. For general synonyms, see Titter.

4. subs. (Scots). Food eaten in the hand: as a thumber (q.v.), a workman’s lunch, and a child’s piece (q.v.).

Chitterlings, subs. (old).—The shirt frills once fashionable. [Properly the entrails of a pig, to which they are supposed to bear some resemblance.]

Chitty, subs. (tailors’).—An assistant cutter or trimmer.

Chitty-Faced, adj. (old).—Thin; weazened; baby-faced. Cf., Chit, sense 3.

1601. Munday, Downf. R. Earl of Huntingdon, I., iii. You halfe-fac’t groat, you thick [? thin] cheekt chitti-face. [m.]

Chiv.—See Chive.

Chivalry, subs. (old).—Coition. [From the Lingua Franca or O. F. chevaulcher.] For synonyms, see Greens and Cf., Ride.

Chive or Chiv, subs. (thieves’).—1. A knife. [The Gypsy has chive, to stab.]

English Synonyms. Arkansas toothpick (a bowie knife); cabbage-bleeder; whittle; gully; jocteleg (a clasp knife: a corruption of Jacques de Liége); snickersnee (nautical); cuttle; cuttle-bung; pig-sticker.

French Synonyms. Un bince (thieves’); un coupe-lard (popular: literary ‘a bacon slicer,’ lard being used as the English ‘bacon’ for the human body); un coupe-sifflet (thieves’: couper le sifflet à quelqu’un = ‘to cut any one’s throat’); un lingre or lingue (thieves’: from Langres, a manufacturing town); un trente-deux or un vingt-deux (thieves’: originally terms used by Dutch and Flemish thieves’); un chourin or surin (thieves’: possibly from the Gypsy churi, ‘a knife’); un pliant (thieves’); une petite flambe (thieves’: also a sword, said by Michel to be derived from Flamberge, the name of the sword of Renaud de Montauban. Mettre flamberge au vent = ‘to draw’).

German Synonyms. Hechtling; Kaut (possibly connected with the English ‘cut’); Mandel or Mandle: (Viennese thieves’: in the Gaunersprache = ‘a man,’ especially a little one); Sackin, Sackem, Sackum, Zackin, Zacken (from the Hebrew sochan); Schorin or Schorie (from the Gypsy churi, which in Hanover appears as Czuri). [98]

1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, p. 26. Some of these accomplices also carry a chiv, or knife.

1837. Disraeli, Venetia, ch. xiv. ‘Berwnu,’ he shouted, ‘gibela chiv for the gentry cove.’

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 503. So we had a fight, and he put the chive (knife) into me.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v. To chiv a person is to stab or cut him with a knife.

1868. Cassell’s Magazine, May, p. 80. He [a bushranger] was as good a man as Jacky at any weapon that could be named, and if Jacky were game for a chiving (stabbing) match, he (Kavanagh) was ready for him.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 503. After the place got well where I was chived.

Chive-Fencer, subs. (costers’).—A street hawker of cutlery. [From chive, a knife, + fence or fencer, a receiver of stolen property.]

Chivey or Chivvy, subs. (common).—A shout; greeting or cheer. Cf., Chi-ike.

Verb (common).—To ‘guy’; to chase round or hunt about; to throw or pitch about. Also chevy. [Mr. C. G. Leland says in Annandale (vol. I., 460) chivvy is a common English word, meaning to goad, drive, vex, hunt, or throw as it were here and there. It is purely Gypsy. Chiv in Rommany means anything sharp-pointed, as a dagger, goad, or knife. The old Gypsy word Chiv among its numerous meanings has exactly that of casting, throwing, pitching, and driving. Murray, however, inclines to derive it from Chevy Chase, the scene of a famous Border skirmish; in any case the usage is modern, but see quot., 1821.] So also chivied, chiveying, etc.

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, I., vii. Log. Come along, then. Now, Jerry, chivey! Jerry. Chivey? Log. Mizzle! Jerry. Mizzle? Log. Tip your rags a gallop! Jerry. Tip my rags a gallop?… Log. Bolt! Jerry. Bolt? Oh, aye! I’m fly now. You mean go.

1840. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), V. 50. The other side are to blame, if they do not, as we should say in the dragoons ‘chevy’ them back again.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 44. I never had patience enough to try and kill fleas by my process; it would be too much of a chivey to please me.

1863. H. Kingsley, Austin Elliot, ch. xxxix. The dog … used to chivy the cats into the window among the bon bons, and play the deuce and all.

1864. Eton School-days, ch. xiv., p. 168. Burke, however, ran the faster of the two, and after a short chivey, succeeded in capturing him.

1868. Miss Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, bk. VI., ch. iv. The Board of Health came a-chivying of us to take up our floorings, and limewash ourselves inside.

1871. Daily News Report, ‘A Republican Demonstration in Hyde Park, on Sunday, April 17.’ A comparatively decent man selling ‘A History of Ireland’ was mobbed and chivied from side to side.

Chiving Lay, subs. phr. (old).—Cutting the braces of coaches behind, whereupon, the coachman quitting the box, an accomplice [99]broke and robbed the boot. Also cutting through the back of the coach to snatch the large and costly wigs then fashionable.—Grose. [From Chive, a knife.]

Chivy or Chevy, subs. (thieves’).—The face. For synonyms, see Dial.

Choakee.—See Chokey.

Chock, verb (streets’).—To strike a person under the chin. [Probably a corruption of to chuck, i.e., ‘chuck under the chin.’]—See Chocker.

Chocker, subs. (streets’).—A man. Generally Old Chocker, and thus comparable with Old Codger (q.v.). The term is not however, used in contempt; presumably, therefore, it signifies a manly man, i.e., one who is capable of ‘chocking.’—See Chock.

Chocolate. To give chocolate without sugar, phr. (old).—To reprove.—Grose [1785], and Lexicon Balatronicum [1811].

Choke-Dog, subs. (common).—Cheese; especially that made in Devonshire.

1870. Good Words, March. As I have said before, the Dorsetshire hind is undoubtedly under-fed. Bread and choke-dog, as he calls his county’s cheese, etc.—these, as I have said before, are the chief items in his bill of fare.

Choke Off, verb (common).—To get rid of; to put a stop to; and in a milder sense, ‘to run contrary to.’ [In the first instance the idea was associated with the throttling of bull-dogs to make them loose their hold; but the editor of a recent edition of the Slang Dictionary (Mr. Henry M. Sampson of The Referee) adds en parenthèse, ‘Of course by those who don’t know the scientific way used in canine exhibitions and dog-fights—of biting their tails till they round to bite the biter.’]

English Synonyms. To shut off; to shunt; to fub off; to rump; to cold shoulder. For synonyms in a more emphatic sense, see Floor.

French Synonyms. Envoyer quelqu’un s’asseoir (popular: Cf., ‘to set one down’); arrêter les frais (‘to put a stop to proceedings.’)

1818. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXIII., 72. The Duke’s seven mouths … made the Whig party choak off Sheridan. [m.]

1848. New York Exp., 21 Feb. (Bartlett). In the House … of … Representatives. The operation of choking off a speaker was very funny, and reminded me of the lawless conduct of fighting school-boys.

1864. Derby Day, p. 155. ‘That will do, mother,’ he said; ‘I think I have had my five shillings’ worth’; but the gipsy would not be choked off until she had finished the patter she had learnt by heart.

1870. London Figaro, 26 November. The hair-oil vendor was proceeding in this strain of eulogium on the virtues of his particular invigorating application when he was gently but firmly choked off.

1883. Graphic, July 7, p. 11, col. 2. English dealers attend these fairs with the object of purchasing these noble-looking animals, but prices have now risen to £20 per head, and the English demand is being choked off. [100]

Choker, subs. (common).—1. A cravat; primarily the large neckerchief once worn high round the neck. Sometimes white choker (q.v.), the white neckerchief peculiar to evening dress.

English Synonyms. Neckinger; tie (this is now technical, but was formerly a slang term); crumpler.

French Synonyms. Un collier or coulant; un blave or blavin; un épiploon (students’).

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. i., p. 146. The usual attire of a gentleman, viz., pumps, a gold waistcoat, a crush hat, a sham frill, and a white choker.

1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, ch. xix. Cram on a wrap-rascal and a shawl choaker. Never mind the gold-laced overalls and spurs.

1853. Rev. E. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, pt. I., p. 72. I’ll take off his choker and make him easy about the neck, and then we’ll shut him up and leave him. Why, the beggar’s asleep already.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. vii. There’s Mr. Brown, who oils his hair, and wears rings, and white chokers—my eyes! such white chokers!—and yet we call him the handsome snob!

1869. Orchestra, 20 August. I found myself elbowing a fellow-countryman in a button-up waistcoat, and white choker!

1871. London Figaro, 13 May, p. 3, col. 3. ‘Bill ain’t hungry this morning,’ she repeated; ‘or the cove with the white choker ’ud be safe to collar. But look!’

1869. New York Herald, 6 Sept. ‘Prince Arthur in Canada.’ A neat and elegant black dress coat, closely buttoned, pants of a light drab hue, a choker collar of enormous size, and a black silk tie, were the garments most conspicuous.

1884. St. James’s Gazette, Jan. 4, p. 12, col. [missing text] He preferred to go to choker.

5. (thieves’).—The hangman’s rope or ‘squeezer’; a halter. For synonyms, see Horse’s nightcap.

White-choker, subs. (common).—A clergyman. [In allusion to the white ties worn by ‘the cloth.’] For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.

1849. Punch’s Almanack. The Swell Mobsman’s Almanack. Plant about Exeter ’All, in May take old ladies on way to ’All, as they generally hempties into the plate. The vite chokers may be fingured on their way ’ome as they mostly brings hoff a pocketful.

1852. Comic Almanack. ‘Modes of addressing persons of various ranks.’ The Clergy as a body, you will speak of as the white-chokers, The lay aristocracy are simply styled The Nobs.

Chokered, ppl. adj. (common).—Wearing a choker (q.v.).

1866. London Review, 7 April, p. 388, col. 1. A whitebait waiter is admirably chokered.

Chokey, Choky, Chokee or Choker, subs. (common).—1. A prison. [Indian: from Hindī chaukī, a shed, station, or lock-up. In use from 1698 onwards and transferred to English slang early in the present century.] The Queen’s Bench prison has been called the Queen’s chokey. For synonyms, see Cage.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge (ed. 18), p. 107. Lord, but it’s chokey!

1866. London Miscellany, March 3, p. 58, col. 1. I’ve jist crept out o’ chokey. This is the twenty-ninth time I’ve been took that way, and I’m jist gone twenty. [101]

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 131. Both were marched off to chokee, and I have no doubt got punished.

1877. Besant and Rice, This Son of Vulcan, II., ch. vi., p. 223. Find out this stranger, and, by God, I’m a justice of the peace, and I’ll cool his heels in chokee for a month.

1884. Daily News, Sept. 24, p. 3, col. 1. Wright … would get two or three days’ choky (i.e., bread and water).

1889. Answers, 30 March, p. 280, col. 2. But I am reminded that I have not yet described that horrible institution known as the dark cell—chokey, we convicts called it.

Chonkeys, subs. (common).—See quot.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 208. Chonkeys, or a kind of mincemeat baked in crust.

Chop, subs. (old).—1. A blow. Once (in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) literary; and still respectable in a ‘chopping’—i.e., a beating ‘sea.’

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 140. I purchased, or more properly speaking, had a chop with a wooden bowl maker from Chesham.

Verb (colloquial).—1. To exchange; to barter: as, to chop logic = to give argument for argument; and to chop stories = to ‘cap’ one anecdote with another. Also to change quarters: as ‘the wind chopped round to the north.’ Cf., Swap.

1554. Latimer, wks. (1845), II., 433. Shall we go about to chop away this good occasion, which God offereth us. [m.]

1693. Shadwell, Volunteers, IV. (1720), iv., 467. Horses that are jades … may be chopt away or sold in Smithfield. [m.]

1871. City Press, Jan. 21. ‘Curiosities of Street Literature.’ He hangs out in Monmouth-court, And wears a pair of blue-black breeches, Where all the ‘Polly Cox’s crew’ do resort, To chop their swag for badly-printed dying speeches.

1841. Mrs. Gore, Cecil, xx. I would rather have chopped at the ‘Blue Posts’ as I once did, fifteen years before. [m.]

1887. Sala, Illustrated London News, Feb. 5, 144. I went one day … to chop at the ‘Cock.’ [m.]

1871. Sheffield Telegraph, April. West African (New Calabar) slang for cannibalistic practice. He’s chopped, i.e., he is eaten.

Chop and change, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Ups and downs; vicissitudes; changes of fortune.

1759–67. Sterne, Tristam Shandy [ed. 1772], I., ch. xi. [Surnames] which, in a course of years, have generally undergone as many chops and changes as their owners.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, xvi. At last we were all arranged … although there were several chops and changes about until the order of precedence could be correctly observed.

1849–50. Thackeray, Pendennis, III., p. 423. I have heard of all that has happened, and all the chops and changes that have taken place during my absence.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., 238. The accounts of such transactions for a series of years, with all their chops and changes.

Verbal phr., trs. and intrs.—To barter; buy and sell; exchange; change tactics; veer frequently from one side to the other; vacillate, etc.

1485. Digby Myst. (1882), v., 641. I … choppe and chaunge with Symonye, and take large yiftes. [m.] [102]

1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., in wks. II., 115. To mangle my sentences, hack my arguments, chopp and change my phrases.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, wks. V. (1713), 431. We have chop’d and chang’d, and hid our Christina’s so long, and often, that at last, we have drawn each of us our own?

1883. Principal Shairp, in Good Words, Jan., p. 27. The politicians seemed bent on making the Church a tool which they might chop and change as the political wind blew.

Chop-Chop, adv. (pidgin).—Immediately; quickly.

1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ch. ii. ‘Chow-chow is not fish, but food,’ explained Conway, laughing, ‘and chop-chop only means directly.’

Chopper or Chopping Blow, subs. (pugilistic).—1. See quotation. For synonyms, see Dig, Bang, and Wipe.

1819. Thos. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, pref., p. 30. A chopper is a blow, struck on the face with the back of the hand. Mendoza claims the honour of its invention, but unjustly; he certainly revived, and considerably improved it. It was practised long before our time—Broughton occasionally used it; and Slack, it also appears, struck the chopper in giving the return in many of his battles.

1865. Pall Mall Gazette, 4 Sept., p. 9, col. 2. I was glad to get it off to a chopper at last.… Dr. Letheby explained that a chopper is the trade term for a sausage maker.

To have a chopper, or Button, on, phr. (printers’).—To be miserable; ‘down in the dumps’ or in a fit of the ‘blues.’

Chopping, adj. (old).—Sexually forward; said of girls unduly ‘vain and amatorious.’ [An extension in sense of chopping = strapping, thumping, bouncing, etc.] The French express it by avoir la cuisse gaie.

Chopping-Block, subs. (pugilistic).—A man like a butcher’s block, i.e., who takes an immense amount of ‘punishment’ in a fight without the science or the strength to return it.

Chops. To lick the chops, phr. (common).—See quots. [Chops = the mouth, lips, jaws.] Fr., les jaffes.

1655. Fellowes, tr., Milton’s 2nd Defence, 227. The sight of this egg … caused our monarchy-men … to lick their chops. [m.]

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 6, Manager. Of course then the Tories will take office? Punch. I rayther suspect they will. Have they not been licking their chops for ten years outside the Treasury door while the sneaking Whigs were helping themselves to all the fat tit-bits within?

Down in the Chops or mouth, phr. (colloquial).—Sad, melancholy. Cf., To have a chopper on.

1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 28, ed. 1854. ‘Vy, Paul, my kid, you looks down in the chops; cheer up, care killed a cat.’

1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable. Down in the chops—i.e., down in the mouth; in a melancholy state; with the mouth drawn down. Chop or chap is Saxon for mouth; we still say a pig’s chap.

Chop the Whiners, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To say prayers. [From an extended use of chop in the sense of to bandy words—hence to speak + whiners (q.v.), prayers.] Fr., manger sa paillasse. [103]

1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 2, ed. 1854. I tells you, I vent first to Mother Bussblour’s, who, I knows, chops the whiners morning and evening to the young ladies, and I axes there for a Bible, and she says, says she, ‘I ’as only a Companion to the Halter! but you’ll get a Bible, I think at Master Talkins the cobbler as preaches.’

1857. Punch, 31 Jan. For them coves in Guildhall and that blessed Lord Mayor, Prigs on their four bones should chop whiners I swear.

Chortle, verb (popular).—To chuckle; to laugh in one’s sleeve; to ‘snort.’ [Introduced by Lewis Carrol in Through the Looking Glass.—See quot.]

1872. Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking Glass, i. ‘O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!’ He chortled in his joy.

1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, xxxii., 242. It makes the cynic and the worldly-minded man to chuckle and chortle with an open joy.

1887. Athenæum, 3 Dec., p. 751, col. 1. A means of exciting cynical chortling.

1888. Daily News, 10 Jan., p. 5, col. 2. So may chortle the Anthropophagi. [m.]

Chosen Twelve.—See Apostles.

Chouse, subs. (colloquial).—1. A trick; swindle; sham; or ‘sell’ (q.v.). [From chouse, a cheat, trickster, or swindler, through the verb. The derivation is thus discussed and weighed by Dr. Murray: ‘As to the origin of the Eng. use, Gifford (1814), in a note on the quot. from Ben Jonson, says, ‘In 1609, Sir Robt. Shirley sent a messenger or chiaus to this country, as his agent from the Grand Signior and the Sophy to transact some preparatory business.’ The latter ‘chiaused the Turkish and Persian merchants of £4,000,’ and decamped. But no trace of this incident has yet been found outside of Gifford’s note; it was unknown to Peter Whalley, a previous editor of Ben Jonson, 1756; also to Skinner, Henshaw, Dr. Johnson, Todd, and others who discussed the history of the word. Yet most of these recognised the likeness of chouse to the Turkish word, which Henshaw even proposed as the etymon on the ground that the Turkish chiaus ‘is little better than a fool.’ Gifford’s note must therefore be taken with reserve.’] The word is also used at Eton in this sense, but see sense 2, which is the commoner. Variously spelt chiaus, chews, showse, ghowse, and chouse.

1610. Ben Jonson, Alchymist, I., ii., 25. ‘D. What do you think of me? That I am a chiause? Face. What’s that? D. The Turk [who] was here. As one would say, doe you think I am a Turke?’

1639. Ford, Lady’s Trial, II., i. Gulls, or Moguls, Tag, rag, or other, hogen-mogen, vanden, Skip-jacks, or chouses.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, I., i., wks. (1713), 343. You are no better than a chouse, a cheat.

1673. Wycherley, Gent. Danc. Master, III., in wks. (1713), 295. He a dancing-master, he’s a chouse, a cheat, a meer cheat.

1864. Athenæum. When an Eton boy says that anything is ‘a beastly chouse,’ he means that it is a great shame; and when an Eton peripatetic tradesman is playful enough to call his customer ‘a little chouser,’ he means that a leaf has been taken out of his own book by one on whom he has practised.

1883. Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton. The boy … was told that what he had done was an awful chouse. [104]

Verb (colloquial).—To cheat. [For suggested derivation, see subs., sense 1.] Synonyms will be found under Stick.

1659. Shirley, Honoria and Mam., II., iii. We are in a fair way to be ridiculous.… Chiaus’d by a scholar! [m.]

1663. Pepys, Diary, May 15. The Portugalls have choused us, it seems, in the Island of Bombay, in the East Indys.

1708. Centlivre, Busie Body, Act iii. You and my most conscionable Guardian here … plotted and agreed, to chouse a very civil, honest, honourable gentleman, out of a Hundred Pound.

1742–4. Roger North, Lives of the Norths, I., 90. The judge held them to it, and they were choused of the treble value.

1823. Hints for Oxford, p. 26. Everything in common use at Oxford, with the exception, perhaps, of books, is charged at an exorbitant rate; and, what is worse … you are often having yourself choused with abominable trash.

1890. Academy, Feb. 22, p. 125, col. 1. Susan Burnay’s letters, with charming naïveté, confess that, in the expectation of an early visit from the delightful mimic, she for four mornings was up at seven o’clock, only to find herself, borrowing the slang phrases of the day, ‘choused, for he nick’d us entirely, and never came at all.’

Chout, subs. (East London).—An entertainment.—Hotten.

Chovey, subs. (costermongers’).—A shop. A shopman is known amongst the fraternity as a man-chovey, and a shop-woman as ann-chovey.

French Synonyms. Une boutogue (thieves’); une boutanche (thieves’); un boucard (thieves’); un rade or radeau (thieves’); also primarily, a till.

German Synonym. Chenwene (a market stall, the stock itself, or a box full of goods; Chenwener, the owner of such a place—a merchant or shop-keeper).

Chow, subs. (theatrical).—Talk; ‘lip’; jaw; e.g., to have ‘plenty of chow’ = to have a good deal to say.

Verb (theatrical).—To talk incessantly; to grumble. A variant is to chip. [Chow is apparently a form of ‘chew,’ now fallen into desuetude.]

Chowder-Headed, adj. (American).—Stupid. [The term though only dialectical in England is pretty general in U.S.A. It is given by Murray as a variant of cholter-headed, which in turn is another form for jolt or jolter-headed. Chowder is properly a kind of hotch-potch, and applied to the intellectuals would imply ‘confusedness,’ and hence idiocy.]

1819. Scott, Lett., 15 April, in Lockhart. I hesitate a little about Raeburn … [he] has twice already made a very chowder-headed person of me.

1851. H. Melville, Whale, xv., 73. What’s that stultifying saying about chowder-headed people? [m.]

18(?). S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Launch of the Steamer ‘Capital.’ The Showman … grabbed the orchestra and shook him up, and says, ‘That lets you out, you chowder-headed old clam.’

Christen, verb (thieves’)—1. To erase the markings from a watch, and substitute a fictitious inscription, with a view to preventing identification. An Old Cant variant was to church (q.v.), the derivation being analogous. French thieves, in speaking of a Christened watch or other ‘faked’ silver, use couvert. [105]

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 74. This alteration is called christening, and the watch thus transformed faces the world without fear of detection.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. To alter the maker’s name in a watch—to christen a yack.

1868. Doran, Saint and Sinn., II., 290. The pietist thieves … christen daily as soon as they have stolen a watch. This thieves’ christening consists in erasing the maker’s name and supplying another. [m.]

1872. Standard, ‘Middlesex Sessions Report.’ William Miller, the detective officer in the case, being called upon by the judge to state what he knew of the prisoner, said he knew him by his trade as a baker, but he mixed up with watch thieves and housebreakers, and the tools found in his possession he used for christening stolen watches and putting new bows to them.

2. (colloquial).—To mix water with wine; to mix liquors generally. Fr., Maquiller le vitriol = to adulterate brandy; monter sur le tonneau (vinters’ = to add water to a cask of wine). A Spanish equivalent is exactly translated bautizar el vino. To drown the miller (q.v.), = to add too much water.

1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. xiii. We’ll christen him with the brewer (here he added a little small beer to his beverage).

4. (common).—To take a dram; or ‘do a drain,’ in celebration of something, as the purchase of a new pair of boots, a removal, etc.

Christian, subs. (common).—A good fellow; a decent or presentable person. [A human being as distinguished from the brute creation, in which sense it is used by Shakspeare; the modern slang usage was apparently introduced by Dickens.]—See quots. in various senses.

1595. Shakspeare, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii., Sc. 1, 272. Thee hath more qualities than a Water-Spaniell, which is much in a bare Christian.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, Christian: a tradesman who has faith, i.e., will give credit.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xxxiv. You must take your passage like a Christian; at least, as like a Christian as a fore-cabin passenger can.

1859. Times, 20 April. Grey parrot for sale, the property of a lady. She talks like a Christian, and is in first-rate condition. Price, including cage. £15. Apply, etc., etc.

Christian Pony, subs. phr. (old Irish slang).—The chairman or president of a meeting.

Christians, subs. pl. (Cambridge Univ.).—Members of Christ’s College.—[Of obvious derivation.]

Christmas, Christmassing, subs. and verbal subs. (colloquial).—Holly and mistletoe.

1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 228 (ed. 1857). The fat boy pointed to the destination of the pies. ‘Wery good,’ said Sam, ‘stick a bit o’ Christmas in ’em.’

1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 141. In London a large trade is carried on in Christmasing, or in the sale of holly and mistletoe for Christmas sports and decorations.… ‘Look,’ said a gardener to me, ‘what’s spent on a Christmasing the churches!’

Chuck, subs. (prison).—1. Bread; meat; in fact, refreshment of any kind.

1850. Lloyd’s Newspaper, Oct. 6. ‘Inquest on murder of Rev. Mr. Hollest, Frimley Grove, Surrey.’ Macey, the village constable, stated that the prisoner, [106]upon coming to his cottage door had tried hard to get some chuck out of him, but had failed.