Slang and its analogues past and present, volume 3 [of 7] (part 3 of 3)

Slang and its analogues past and present, volume 3 [of 7] (part 3 of 3)

c. 1755. Adey, Candle in the Dark, p. 29. At the playing of every trick he used to say, hocus-pocus, tontus, talontus, vade celeriter jubeo.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1824–28. Landor, Imaginary Conversations [2nd Ed., ii., 275]. Torke. What think you, for instance, of Hocus! Pocus! Johnson. Sir, those are exclamations of conjurors, as they call themselves.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 26 Mar., p. 5, c. 3. The lock of hair, the dragon’s blood, and the stolen flour were only the hocus-pocus of her sham witchcraft like the transfixed waxen puppets of the sorcerers of the past.

2. (old).—A trickster; a juggler; an impostor.

1625. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. That was the old way, gossip, when Iniquity came in [on the stage] like Hokos Pokos, in a juggler’s jerkin, with false skirts, like the knave of clubs.

1634. Hocus Pocus Junior, The Anatomie of Leger de main. [Title].

1656. Blount, Glossographia, s.v. Hocus Pocus, a juggler, one that shows tricks by sleight of hand.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hocus-pocus, a Juggler that shews Tricks by Slight of Hand.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

3. (old).—A cheat; an imposition; a juggler’s trick.

1713. Bentley, Free Thinking, 12. Our author is playing hocus-pocus in the very similitude he takes from that juggler.

4. (old).—See Hocus, sense 2.

Adj. (old).—Cheating; fraudulent.

1715. Addison, The Drummer. If thou hast any hocus-pocus tricks to play, why can’st not do them here?

1725–29. Mason, Horace, iv., 8. Such hocus-pocus tricks, I own, Belong to Gallic bards alone.

1759. Macklin, Love à la Mode, ii., 1. The law is a sort of hocus-pocus science that smiles in yer face while it picks your pocket.

Verb (old).—To cheat; to trick.

Hod (or Brother Hod), subs. (common).—A bricklayer’s labourer.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

Hod of Mortar, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A pot of porter.

Hoddy-Doddy (or Hoddie-doddie), subs. (old).—A short thick-set man or woman. The full expression is ‘Hoddy Doddy, all arse and no body.’—Grose. For synonyms, see Forty-guts. Also a fool.

c. 1534. Udall, Roister Doister, i., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 58). Sometimes I hang on Hankyn hoddy-doddy’s sleeve.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iv., 8. Well, good wife bawd, Cob’s wife, and you, That make your husband such a hoddy-doddy.

1639–61. Rump Songs, ii. [1662], 55. Every noddy ... will ... cry hoddy-doddy Here’s a Parliament all arse and no body.

1723. Swift, Mary the Cookmaid’s Letter (Chalmers, Eng. Poets, 1810, xi., 433). My master is a personable man, and not a spindle-shanked Hoddy-doddy.

Hoddy-peak (or -Peke), subs. (old).—A fool; a cuckold.

d. 1529. Skelton, Poems, ‘Duke of Albany.’ Gyue it up, And cry creke Lyke an huddy peke.

1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton, O. P., ii., 45. Art here again, thou hoddypeke?

1554. Christopherson, Exh. ag. Rebel. They counte peace to be cause of ydelnes, and that it maketh men hodi-pekes and cowardes.

d. 1555. Latimer, Sermons, fol. 44, b. What, ye brainsicke fooles, ye hoddy-peakes, ye doddy poules.

1560. Nice Wanton (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 164). Yea, marry, I warrant you, master hoddy-peak.

1589. Nashe, Anatomie of Absurdities, b. Who, under her husband’s that hoddy-peke’s nose, Must have all the destilling dew of his delicate rose.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Trav., 106 [Chiswick Press, 1891.] No other apte meanes had this poore shee captived Cicely to worke her hoddy peake husband a proportionable plague to his jealousy.

Hodge, subs. (colloquial).—A farm labourer; a rustic.

1589. Greene, Menaphon, p. 58 [ed. Arber, 1880]. These Arcadians are giuen to take the benefit of euerie Hodge.

1675. A. Marvel, Satire. Hodge’s Vision from the Monument. [Title.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hodge, a Country Clown, also Roger.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1791. Smart, Fables, xiii., 27. Is that the care (quoth Hodge)? O rare!

1880. Richard Jefferies, Hodge and his Masters. [Title.]

1884. Mrs. Craik, in Eng. Ill. Mag., Mar., p. 356. Quite different from the bovine, agricultural Hodge of the midland counties.

1893. National Observer, 25 Feb., ix., 358. ‘Pay me an infinitesimal sum,’ Lord Winchilsea says (in effect) to Hodge, ‘and you shall have a weekly newspaper for nothing.’

Hodge-podge (or Hotch-potch), subs. (old: now recognised).—A mixture; a medley. Sp., commistrajo. See Hotch-potch.

1553–99. Spenser, State of Ireland. They have made our English tongue a galimaufrey, or hodgepodge of all other speeches.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 199. Some Collier-like Saint, ... Had rak’d a hodg podg for the Devil.

1726. Vanbrugh, Journey to London. They were all got into a sort of hodge-podge argument for the good of the nation which I did not well understand.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (774), ‘A Tale.’ Was ever such an hodge-podge seen.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Hodman, (Oxford Univ.).—A scholar from Westminster School admitted to Christ Church College, Oxford.

1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v. Hodman.

Hodmandod, subs. (old).—1. A snail in his shell—Bacon. See Doddy.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, v., 4 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 525). Painted snails with houses on their backs, and horns as big as Dutch cows.... Can any woman be honest that lets such hodmandods crawl o’er her virgin breast and belly?

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

2. (old).—A Hottentot.

1686. Captain Cowley in Harris Voyages, i., 82. We walked, moreover, without the town to the villages inhabited by the hodmandods, to view their nasty bodies.

Hoe. To hoe in (American Univ.).—To work with vigour; to swot (q.v.).

To hoe one’s own row, verb. phr. (American).—To do one’s own work.

Hard row to hoe. See Hard Row.

Hoe-down, subs. (American).—A negro dance; a breakdown (q.v.).

Hog, subs. (old).—1. A shilling: also a sixpence: and (in America) a ten-cent piece. For synonyms, see Blow. Half-a-hog = sixpence, or five-cent piece.

1688. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia, s.v. Hog, a shilling.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hog, You Darkman Budge, will you Fence your hog at the next Boozing ken?

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4th Ed.), p. 12, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Half a Hog, Six-Pence.

1809–12. Miss Edgeworth, Ennui, ch. vi. ‘It’s only a tester or a hog they want your honour to give ’em, to drink your honour’s health,’ said Paddy. ‘A hog to drink my health?’ ‘Ay, that is a thirteen, plase your honour; all as one as an English shilling.’

1825. Egan, Life of an Actor, ch. iv. You shall have ... eighteen hog a week, and a benefit which never fails.

1842. Thackeray, Cox’s Diary in Comic Almanack, p. 237. Do you think I’m a-going to kill my horses, and break my precious back, and bust my carriage, and carry you, and your kids, and your traps, for six hog?

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 529. The slang phrases are constantly used by the street lads; thus a sixpence is a ‘tanner’; a shilling a ‘bob,’ or a hog.... The collections of coin dealers amply show, that the figure of a hog was anciently placed on a small silver coin.

1857. Mrs. Mathews, Tea Table Talk, p. 207. The shopwoman satisfied Suett after her fashion, that his little lump of Suett had absorbed flour and lard (pastry) to the amount of what her queer customer would have termed a hog.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Hog, a ten-cent piece.

2. (colloquial).—A foul-mouthed blackguard; a dirty feeder. Also, a common glutton.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Ciro, a hogge, a swine, a filthie fellowe.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 69. ’Arry’s a hog when he feeds.

3. (Cambridge Univ.: obsolete).—A student of St. John’s. Also, Johnian Hog. See Crackle, Bridge of Grunts, and Isthmus of Suez.

1690. Diary of Abraham de la Pryme (Surtees Society, No. 54), quoted in Notes and Queries, 6, S. xi., 328. For us Jonians are called abusively hoggs.

1795. Gent. Mag., lxv., 22. The Johnian hogs were originally remarkable on account of the squalid figures and low habits of the students, and especially of the sizars of Saint John’s College. [Another story of how name originated is given in detail in Gent. Mag. (1795), lxv., 107.]

1889. Whibley, In Cap and Gown, p. 28. An obsolete name for members of St. John’s College, Cambridge.

4. (old Scots’).—A yearling sheep.

1796. Burns, Poems. What will I do gin my hoggie die, my joy, my friend, my hoggie.

5. (American).—An inhabitant of Chicago. [That city being a notable pig-breeding and pork-packing centre.]

6. (old).—A Hampshireman.

1770. Lord Hailes, Ancient Scottish Poems, ‘Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins.’ Note on line 115. And thus his ill-bred raillery will be like that of Essex calves, Hampshire hogs, Middlesex mongrels, Norfolk dumplings, Welsh goats, etc.

Verb (American).—1. To cheat; to humbug; to gammon (q.v.).

1867. Browne (Artemus Ward). ‘Among the Mormons’, ii., 10. Go my son, and Hog the public.

2. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms see Greens and Ride.

3. (stables).—To cut short; e.g., to hog a horse’s mane.

A hog in armour, subs. phr. (old).—A lout in fine clothes. Also a Jack-in-office; Hog-in-togs = (in America) a well-dressed loafer. [Hog = Hodge (q.v.), a rustic.]

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog ... an awkward, or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed, is said to look like a hog in armour.

Hog and hominy, subs. phr. (American).—Plain fare; Common doings (q.v.). [Pork and maize are the two cheapest food stuffs in the U.S.A.]

To go the whole hog. See Whole Animal.

To bring one’s hogs (or pigs) to a fine market, verb. phr. (old).—To do well; to make a good deal (q.v.). Also, in sarcasm, the opposite.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v. He has brought his hoggs to a fair market, or he has Spun a fair Thread.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog.... He has brought his hogs to a fine market, a saying of one who has been remarkably successful in his affairs, and is spoken ironically to signify the contrary.

To drive one’s hogs (or pigs) to market, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To snore.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversations, ii., 455. I’gad he fell asleep, and snored so loud that we thought he was driving his hogs to market.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog.... to drive one’s hogs, to snore, the noise made by some persons in snoring being not much unlike the notes of that animal.

Hog-age, subs. (American).—The period between boyhood and manhood. Cf., Hobbledehoy.

Hogan-mogan, subs. (old).—See quot.

1892. Aitken, Satires of Andrew Marvell, p. 128. The States General of the United provinces were officially addressed as High and Mighty Lords, or in Dutch, Hoogmogenden; hence English satirists called them hogans-mogans, and applied the phrase to Dutchmen in general. Cf., Hoganmoganides, or the Dutch Hudibras (1694), and ‘A New Song on the hogan-mogans’ in ‘A Collection of the Newest Poems ... against Popery, etc.’ (1689).

Hog-grubber, subs. (old).—A miser; a niggard; a mean cuss (q.v.).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. A hog-grubber, ... a narrow-soul’d sneaking Fellow.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hog Grubber, a mean stingy fellow.

Hogmagundy (or Houghmagandie), subs. (Scots).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

1786. Burns, The Holy Fair [last stanza]. There’s some are fou o’ love divine, There’s some are fou o’ brandy; An’ mony jobs that day begin, May end in hougmagandie Some ither day.

Hogmenay, subs. (old Scots’).—1. New Year’s Eve, which is a national festival. [The origin has been the subject of much discussion.]

1776. Brand, Popular Antiquities, p. 102. Sirs, do you what Hagmane signifies? It is the devil be in the house.

1793. The Bee, 10 July, p. 17. The night preceding that festival Hoggmonay.

1879. James Napier, Folk Lore, p. 154. After the Reformation, the Scotch transferred Hagmanay [from Xmas Eve] to the last day of December, as a preparation day for the New Year.

2. Hence a wanton. [The feast is celebrated with much drink and not a little license.]

Hogo, subs. (old).—A flavour; an aroma; a relish. Hence, in irony, and by corruption, a stink. Cf., Fogo. [From Fr., haut goût.] See High, sense 2.

1569. Erasmus, Trans. Praise of Folly, p. 13 [1709]. Pleasure that haut-goust of Folly.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘A Vindication of the Rump.’ Oh! what a Hogo was there.

1645. Howell, Letters, V., xxxviii., p. 42. He can marinat fish, make gellies, and is excellent for a pickant sawce, and the haugou.

1653. Walton, Compleat Angler, I., ch. vii. To give the sawce a hogoe let the dish (into which you let the Pike fall) be rubed with it [garlick].

1656. Choyce Drollery, p. 34. And why not say a word or two Of she that’s just? witnesse all who Have ever been at thy ho-go.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 451). We’ll work ourselves into such a sauce as you can never surfeit on, and yet no hogough.

1667. Cowley, Government of Oliver Cromwell, Prose Works (Pickering, 1826), 94. Cromwell ... found out the true hogo of this pleasure, and rejoiced in the extravagance of his ways.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii., 1. She has ... no more teeth left than such as give a haut gout to her breath.

1686. Twelve Ingenious Characters. A bad husband is an inconsiderate piece of sottish extravagance; for though he consist of several ill ingredients, yet still good fellowship is the causa sine qua non, and gives him the ho-go.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hogo.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, Vol. I., Pt. vi., p. 4. Most stinking meat, Toss’d up with leeks into Raggoo, To overcome the unsav’ry hogo.

1718. Durfey, Pills, iii., 177. ‘Let’s drink and be merry.’ Your most Beautiful Bit, that hath all Eyes upon her, That her Honesty sells for a hogo of Honour.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hogo ... it has a confounded hogo, it stinks confoundedly.

Hogshead. To couch a hogshead, verb. phr. (Old Cant).—See quot. For synonyms, see Balmy.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. To couch a hogshead: to ly downe and slepe. Ibid., I couched a hogshead in a skypper this darkemans.

Hog-shearing, subs. (old).—Much ado about nothing; great cry and little wool.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hog. Labour in vain, which the Latines express by Goats-wooll, as the English by the shearing of Hoggs.

Hogs-norton. To have been born at Hogs-Norton, verb. phr. (old).—To be ill-mannered.

d. 1666. Howell, Eng. Proverbs, p. 16. I think thou wast born at Hoggs-Norton, where piggs play upon the organs.

1676. Marvel, Mr. Smirke [Grosart], iv., p. 89. A pair of organs of cats which he had done well to have made the pigs at Hogs-Norton play on.

Hogstye of Venus, subs. phr. (venery).—See quot. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Porcile di venere, the hog-stye of Venus, a womans privities or geare.

Hog-wash, subs. (common).—1. Bad liquor; specifically, rot-gut (q.v.).

2. (journalists’).—Worthless newspaper matter; slush, swash, and flub-dub (q.v.).

Hoi polloi, subs. phr. (university).—The candidates for ordinary degrees. [From the Greek.] Cf., Gulf.

Hoist, subs. (old).—A shop-lifter; also a confederate hoisting or helping a thief to reach an open window. The Hoist = shop-lifting. To go upon the hoist = to enter a house by an open window.

1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed.), s.v. Hoist. This is done by the assistance of a confederate called the hoist, who leans his head against the wall, making his back a kind of step or ascent.—Grose.

1819. Vaux, Cant. Dict. Hoist, the game of shop-lifting is called the hoist; a person expert at this practice is said to be a good hoist.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 38. We were principally engaged upon the hoys and coreing.

Verb (thieves’).—1. To practise shop-lifting; to rob by means of the hoist (q.v.).

2. (American).—To run away; to decamp. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 174. Jist hist, and take yourself off.

3. (common).—To drink. E.g., Will you hoist? = will you have a liquor?; Hoisting = drinking; On the hoist = on the drunk. Also a hoist in.

To give a hoist, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To do a bad turn.

To have (or do) a hoist in, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hoister, subs. (old).—1. A shop-lifter; a hoist (q.v., sense 1). Also a pickpocket.

1847–50. J. H. Jesse, London, i., 30. He that could take out a counter without any noise was allowed to be a public hoyster. N.B.—That a hoyster is a pickpocket.

2. (common).—A sot. For synonyms, see Lushington.

Hoisting (or Hoist-lay), subs. (thieves’).—1. Shop-lifting. The hoist (q.v.). Also shaking a man head downwards, so that his money rolls out of his pockets.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1821. D. Haggart, Life, glossary, p. 172. Hoys, shop-lifting.

1868. Temple Bar, xxiv., 534. She can secrete articles about her dress when in a shop looking at things, and that’s one way of hoisting.

2. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hoisting, a ludicrous ceremony, formerly performed on every soldier, the first time he appeared in the field, after being married: as soon as the regiment, or company, had grounded their arms, to rest awhile; three or four men of the same company, to which the bridegroom belonged, seized upon him, and putting a couple of bayonets out of the two corners of his hat, to represent horns, it was placed on his head, the back part foremost, he was then hoisted on the shoulders of two strong fellows, and carried round the arms, a drum and fife beating and playing, the pioneers call, named Round-heads and Cuckolds, but on this occasion stiled the Cuckold’s March; in passing the colours, he was to take off his hat.... This in some regiments was practised by the officers on their brethren.

Hoit (or Hoyt), verb. (old).—To be noisily or riotously inclined.

1611. Beaumont and Fletcher, Knight of the Burning Pestle, iv., 1. He sings, and hoyts, and revels among his drunken companions.

Hoity-toity. See Highty-tighty.

Hokey-pokey, subs. (common).—1. A cheat; a swindle; nonsense. [From Hocus Pocus.]

2. (common).—A cheap ice-cream sold in the streets.

Holborn Hill. To ride backwards up Holborn Hill, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—To go to the gallows. [The way was thence to Tyburn, criminals riding backwards.—Grose.]

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. Urs. Up the heavy hill—Knock. Of Holbourn, Ursula, mean’st thou so? for what, for what, pretty Urse? Urs. For cutting halfpenny purses, or stealing little penny dogs out o’ the Fair.

1659. Harry White’s Humour (Nares). Item, he loves to ride when he is weary, yet at certaine times he holds it ominous to ride up Holborne.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, ii., 7. Sirrah, you’ll be hanged; I shall live to see you go up Holborn hill.

Hold, verb. (old).—1. To bet; to wager. See Do you hold?

1534. Udall, Roister Doister, i., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 7). I hold a groat ye will drink anon of this gear.

1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, iii., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 216, and passim). I hold thee a groat I shall patch thy coat.

1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, ii., 1. I’ll hold you a guinea you don’t make her tell it you.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 54. I’ll hold ye five Guineas to four.

2. (venery) (or Hold it).—To be impregnated; to be got with child. [In certain parts of Scotland, it is said, a farm servant stating that she “disna haud” commands double wages.]

To hold on to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To apply oneself; to be persistent: generally, to hold on like grim death.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 71. He recovered, and wisely held on to for the future.

Hold up, verb. phr. (American and Australian).—1. To rob on the highway; to bail or stick up (q.v.). Also as subs. = a highwayman or road-agent (q.v.).

1888. Detroit Free Press, 8 Dec. One man held up six stage passengers in Arizona the other day and robbed them of $2,000. Each was armed, but it is customary to submit out there, and so up went their hands.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 13 Oct. Mounted on a white horse, he started on a land-prospecting tour and ran against a party of hold-ups.

1892. Lippincott, Oct., p. 495. Would hold the train up until I had finished.

2. (thieves’).—To arrest. For synonyms, see Nab.

To hold the stage, verb. phr. (theatrical).—To have the chief place on the boards and the eye of an audience. Fr., avoir les planches.

To hold a candle to (the devil, etc.), verb. phr. (colloquial).—See Devil, and add the following quot.

1868. Reade and Boucicault, Foul Play, p. 65. But you see, sir, he has got the ear of the merchant ashore; and so I am obliged to hold a candle to the devil.

To hold a candle to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To vie with; to be comparable to; also to assist in or condone.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 79. They had killed poor Ransome; and was I to hold the candle to another murder?

To hold (or hang) on by the eyelids, eyelashes or eyebrows, verb. phr. (common).—To pursue an object desperately; to insist upon a point; to carry on a forlorn hope. See also quot. and Splash Board.

1883. Clark Russell, Sailor’s Language, p. 69. Holding on with his eyelids. Said of a man aloft with nothing much to lay hold of.

To hold in hand, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To amuse; to possess the attention or the mind; to have in one’s pocket.

To hold the market, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To buy stock and hold it to so large an extent that the price cannot decline.

Do you hold? phr. (streets).—Have you money to lend? Can you stand treat? Cf. verb., sense 1.

Hold your horses, phr. (American).—Go easy; don’t get excited: a general injunction to calm in act and speech.

Hold your jaw, phr. (colloquial).—Hold your tongue; stow your gab (q.v.).

Hold hard! (or on)! intj. (colloquial).—Wait a moment! don’t be in a hurry!

1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, V., in Wks. (1777), i., 130. Hold hard! hold hard! you are all on a wrong scent.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 280. ‘Hold hard!’ said the conductor; ‘I’m blowed if we ha’n’t forgot the gen’lm’n as vas to be set down at Doory-lane.’

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. iv., p. 38 (1873). I told Meaburn to hold on, and we’d get a rise out of Punch.

Hold-stitch.—See Stitch.

Hold-water.—See Water.

Hold-out, subs. (gambling).—An old-fashioned apparatus, in poker, for ‘holding out’ desirable cards.

Hole (venery).—1. The female pudendum. Also, Hole of Content, and Hole (or Queen) of Holes. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. To give a hole to hide it in = to grant the favour (q.v.). [Hence, by a play upon words, Holy of Holies.]

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. This drivelling love is like a great natural, that runs lolling up and down to hide his bauble (q.v.) in a hole.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Carnafau, the brat-getting place, or hole of content.

1620. Percy, Folio MS., p. 197. ... He light in a hole ere he was aware!

1647–80. Rochester, Poems. Thou mighty princess, lovely queen of holes.

d. 1649. Drummond, Posthumous Poems, ‘The Statue of Alcides.’ Fair nymph, in ancient days, your holes, by far, Were not so hugely vast as now they are.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 72. It has a head much like a Mole’s, And yet it loves to creep in holes: The fairest She that e’er took Life, For love of this became a Wife.

2. (old).—A cell; cf., Hell, sense 1.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 1016. Wee have gart bind him with ane poill, And send him to the theifis hoill.

1607. Miseries of Enforced Marriage, iii., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875. ix., 514). If you shall think ... it shall accord with the state of gentry to submit myself from the feather-bed in the master’s side, or the flock-bed in the knight’s ward, to the straw-bed in the hole.

1607. Wentworth Smith, The Puritan, iii. But if e’er we clutch him again the Counter shall charm him. Rav. The hole shall rot him.

1657. Walks of Hogsdon. Next from the stocks, the hole, and little-ease.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iv., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 482). Make his mittymus to the hole at Newgate.

3. (old).—A private printing office where unlicensed books were made; a cock-robin shop (q.v.).—Moxon, 1683.

4. (colloquial).—A difficulty; a fix; on the turf, to be in a hole = to lose (a bet) or be defeated (of horses).

1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, ch. xvi. I should be in a deadly hole myself if all my customers should take it into their heads to drink nothing but water-gruel.

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. i. ‘I am in a hole—no end of a hole.’

5. (common).—A place of abode; specifically, a mean habitation; a dirty lodging. For synonyms, see Diggings.

6. (common).—The rectum: short for arse-hole. E.g., suck his hole = a derisive retort upon an affirmative answer to the question, ‘Do you know So-and-So?’ For synonyms, see Monocular Eyeglass.

1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, ‘The Miller’s Tale.’ And at the window she put out hir hole.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 2174. Lift vp hir clais: Kis hir hoill with your hart.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, v., 3. A pox o’ your manners, kiss my hole here, and smell.

1649. Drummond, Madrigals and Epigrams, ‘A Jest’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, x., 667). She turned, and turning up her hole beneath, Said, ‘Sir, kiss here.’

d. 1732. Gay, Tales ‘In Imitation of Chaucer’s Style’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, x., 504). Thou didst forget to guard thy postern, There is an hole which hath not crossed been.

Verb (venery).—To effect intromission; to put in (q.v.). Hence, Holed, adj. = in (q.v.).

A hole in one’s coat, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A flaw in one’s fame; a weak spot in one’s character. To pick a hole in one’s coat = to find a cause for censure.

1789. Burns, Verses on Capt. Grose. If there’s a hole in a’ your coats, I rede you tent it.

To make (or burn) a hole in one’s pocket, verb. phr. (colloquial).—Said of money recklessly spent.

To make a hole in anything, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To use up largely.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 456). Do it then, and make a hole in this angel.

To make a hole in the water, verb. phr. (common).—To commit suicide by drowning.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 76. I should just make a hole in the water, if ’tworn’t for the wife and the kids.

To make a hole, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To break; to spoil; to upset; to interrupt. Thus to make a hole in one’s manners = to be rude; to make a hole in one’s reputation = to betray, to seduce; to make a hole in the silence = to make a noise, to raise cain (q.v.).

Too drunk to see a hole in a ladder, phr. (common).—Excessively intoxicated. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Hole-and-corner, adj. (colloquial).—Secret; underhand; out of the way: e.g., hole-and-corner work = shady business. Also (venery) = copulation. [Cf., Hole, subs. sense 1.]

Holer (also Holemonger), subs. (colloquial).—A whoremaster (cf., Hole, subs., sense 1). Also (old), a harlot; a light woman (cf., Hole, verb.). Hence, Holing = whoring.

Holiday, adj. (old).—Unskilled; indifferent; careless.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Holiday, a holiday bowler, a bad bowler.

Blind Man’s Holiday. See ante.

To have a holiday at Peckham, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To go dinnerless. All holiday at Peckham = no work and nothing to eat. [A play upon words.] See Peckish.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. All holiday at Peckham ... a saying signifying that it is all over with the business or person spoken of or alluded to.

1848. Forster, Oliver Goldsmith, bk. I., ch. vi., p. 55 (5th Ed.). ‘Oh, that is all a holiday at Peckham,’ said an old friend very innocently one day.

To take a holiday, verb. phr. (common).—To be dismissed; to get the bag (q.v.) or sack (q.v.)

Gone for a holiday, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Said of a flaw, lapse, or imperfection of any kind (as dropped stitches, lost buttons, slurred painting, and so forth). See also quots.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Holiday ... a holiday is any part of a ship’s bottom, left uncovered in painting it.

1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language, p. 69, s.v. Holidays. Places left untarred on shrouds, backstays, etc., during the operation of tarring them.

Holler, verb. (American).—To cry enough; to give in; to cave in (q.v.).

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 89. The truth must come, he warped me nice, So jist to save his time I hollered.

Hollis, subs. (Winchester College).—A small pebble. [Said to be derived from a boy.—Notions.]

Hollow, adj. (colloquial).—Complete; certain; decided. As adv. completely; utterly. E.g., to beat or lick hollow. See Beat and Creation.

1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, i., 2. Crab was beat hollow.

1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, V., in Wks. (1777), i., 134. So, my lord, you and I are both distanced: a hollow thing, damme.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hollow. It was quite a hollow thing, i.e., a certainty, or decided business.

1814. Edgworth, Patronage, ch. iii. Squire Burton won the match hollow.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Bloudie Jack.’ His lines to Apollo Beat all the rest hollow And gained him the Newdegate Prize.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lxiv., p. 529. I have therefore taken a ’ouse in that locality, which, in the opinion of my friends, is a hollow bargain (taxes ridiculous, and use of fixtures included in the rent).

1871. Durham County Advertiser, 10 Nov. ‘It licks me hollow, sir, as I may say,’ put in the silent member.

1892. Punch, 9 July, p. 3. Booby-traps were beaten hollow.

Holloway, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Holloway, Middlesex (common).—The lower bowel; the arse-gut (q.v.).

Holt, verb. (American).—To take; to take hold of.

Holus-bolus, subs. (nautical).—The head. Also the neck.

Adv. (colloquial).—Helter skelter; altogether; first come, first served.

1868. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 1st Period, ch. xv. And, making a sudden snatch at the heap of silver, put it back, holus-bolus, in her pocket.

Holy. More holy than righteous, adv. phr. (common).—Said of a person in rags, or of a tattered garment.

Holy-boys, subs. (military).—The Ninth Foot. [From a trick of selling bibles for drink in the Peninsula.] Also, Fighting Ninth.

1886. Tinsley’s Magazine, Apr., 322. The 9th having bartered their Bibles in Spain for wine, and having there gained a reputation for sacking monasteries, were long known as the Holy Boys.

Holy-father, subs. (Irish).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Holy Father, A butcher’s boy of St. Patrick’s Market, Dublin, or other Irish blackguard; among whom the exclamation, or oath, by the Holy Father (meaning the Pope), is common.

Holy Iron. See Holy Poker.

Holy Joe, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A pious person, whether hypocritical or sincere. Also (nautical), a parson.

Holy Jumping Mother of Moses. See Moses.

Holy-lamb, subs. (old).—A thorough-paced villain.—Grose.

Holy-land (or ground), subs. (old).—1. St. Giles’s; Palestine (q.v.).

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 7. For we are the boys of the holy ground, And we’ll dance upon nothing and turn us round.

1821. The Fancy, i., p. 250. The Holy-land, as St. Giles’s has been termed, in compliment to the superior purity of its Irish population.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, ch. ii. At Mammy O’Shaughnessy’s in the back Settlements of the Holy Land.

1823. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 5. Let’s have a dive among the cadgers in the back slums, in the Holy Land.

1843. Punch’s Almanack, 1 Sept. St. Giles. The Marquis of Waterford makes a pilgrimage to his shrine in the Holy Land.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, one a.m., par. 28. Unfaithful topographers may have told you that the Holy Land being swept away and Buckeridge Street being pulled down, St. Giles’s exists no more.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 3 Apr. p. 215, col. 1. It would be hard to say whether the Irishmen of the Holy Land or the Hebrew scum of Petticoat Lane showed the finest specimens of ‘looped and windowed raggedness.’

2. (common).—Generic for any neighbourhood affected by Jews; specifically, Bayswater, and Brighton. Cf., New Jerusalem, and Holy of Holies.

Holy Moses. See Moses.

Holy of Holies, subs. phr. (common).—1. The Grand Hotel at Brighton. [Which is largely tenanted by Jews: cf., Holy Land (sense 2), and New Jerusalem.]

2. (colloquial).—A private room; a sanctum (q.v.).

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 215. Fletcher did not venture into that holy of holies.

1893. Westminster Gaz., 31 Jan., p. 3, c. 2. The Cabinet Council is the holy of holies of the British Constitution, and as Mr. Bagehot long ago regretted, no description of it at once graphic and authentic has ever been given.

3. (venery).—See Hole, sense 1, and for synonyms, Monosyllable.

Holy Poker (or Iron), subs. phr. (university).—The mace carried by an esquire bedel (of Law, Physic, or Divinity) as a badge of authority. [The term, which is applied to the bedels themselves, is very often used as an oath.]

1840. Comic Almanack, ‘Tom the Devil,’ p, 214. A hotel’s the place for me! I’ve thried em all, from the Club-house at Kilkinny, to the Clarendon, and, by the holy poker, never wish mysilf worse luck than such cantonments!

1870. London Figaro, 8 Oct., p. 2, col. 2. The bedels of a University are very important persons, although derisive undergraduates familiarly term them holy pokers.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 169. I swear upon the holy iron I had neither art nor part.

2. (venery).—The penis (by a play upon words). Cf., Hole, sense 1, Holy of Holies, sense 3, and Poke. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Holy-water Sprinkler, subs. phr. (old).—A mediæval weapon of offence; a morning star (q.v.).

Home, subs. (colonial).—England.

1893. Gentlemen’s Mag., Jan., p. 74. And then I learnt that by home he meant England, which, moreover, is referred to as ‘home’ by dusky myriads, who have never seen her cliffs rise above the waves.

To get home, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To achieve an object; to succeed perfectly; and (athletic) to reach the winning post.

1891. Sportsman, 26 Mar. A close struggle for the Palace Selling Plate ended in favour of Rosefield, who just got home a head in front of Mordure.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Jan., 3, 2. It is delightful to watch Mr. Charles Hawtrey telling lie after lie to his unbelieving wife, and joyfully, in misplaced confidence, saying to himself, ‘I’ve got home.’

2. (pugilists’).—To get in (a blow) with precision and effect; to land (q.v.). Also (old) to give a mortal wound.

1559. Elyot, Dictionarium, 3rd. ed. Aere meo me lacessis, thou gevest me scoffe for scoffe, or as we saie, thou paiest me home.

1631. Chettle, Hoffman. Sax. Not any, Austria; neither toucht I thee. Aust. Somebody toucht me home; vaine world farewell, Dying I fall on my dead Lucibell.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iv., 3. But hark ye, George; don’t push too home; have a care of whipping through the guts.

1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, ii., 1. That’s home.

1888. Sporting Life, 10 Dec. In the next round got home several times without a return.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 19 June, p. 395, c. 3. Mac got home a terrific cross-counter with the left on Bob’s left eye, which seemed to split the flesh open both above and below.

3. (turf).—To recover a loss; neither to win nor lose; to come out quits. Also, to bring oneself home.

4. (venery).—To get with child. Also, to compel the sexual spasm.

To make oneself at home, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To take one’s ease; to be familiar to the point of ill-breeding.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 10. As at home as a cat in a cream-shop.

To come home to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To reach the conscience; to touch deeply.

To go (send, or carry) home (or to one’s last home), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To die; to kill; to bury. [The Chinese say ‘to go home horizontally.’] See Aloft.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Mandar ’al palegro, to send to ones last home.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Home. Gone home, dead.

Home-bird, subs. (colloquial).—A henpecked husband. Also, a milksop. Fr., chauffe-la-couche (= warming-pan).

Home for lost dogs, subs. phr. (medical).—A large and well known medical school in London. [From the fact that the majority of its inmates have strayed there from the various hospital schools, as a last resource toward taking a degree.]

Home-rule, subs. (common).—Irish whiskey. For synonyms, see Drinks and Old Man’s Milk.

Home-sweet-home, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Homo, subs. (old).—A man: generally omee (q.v.). [From the Latin.] For synonyms, see Cove.

Homoney, subs. (old).—A woman. For synonyms, see Petticoat. Also, a wife. For synonyms, see Dutch and Cf. Homo.

1754. Discoveries of John Poulter, p. 43. My homoney is in quod, my wife is in gaol.

Homo-opathise, verb. (American).—To get bills (i.e., petitions) through Legislature, Congress, or City Council, by means of bills (i.e., bank-bills).

Hone, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 204. So I may no more pogue the hone of a Woman.

Honest, adj. (old).—1. Chaste.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, ii., 1. Why’t cannot be, where there is such resort, O wanton gallants, and young revellers, That any woman should be honest long.

1599. Henry Porter, Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 389). Is my fellow Dick in the dark with my mistress? I pray God they be honest, for there may be much knavery in the dark.

1600. Look About You, Sc. 28 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 476). What, lecher? No, she is an honest woman. Her husband is well known.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, iii., 3. I do not think but Desdemona’s honest.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, v., 3. De honest woman’s life is a dull scurvy life, indeed.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iii., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 454). There’s none but honest women.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, v., 4 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 525). Crooked, dirty-souled vermin, predestined for cuckolds, painted snails with houses on their backs, and horns as big as Dutch cows.... Can any woman be honest that lets such hodmandods crawl o’er her virgin breast and belly?

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii., 1. A man ... may bring his bashful wench, and not have her put out of countenance by the impudent honest women of the town.

1686–7. Aubrey, Gentilisme (1881), p. 163. The towne is full of wanton wenches, and ... (they say) scarce three honest women in the Town.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iii., 10. Silvia. I’m not such a fool neither, but I can keep myself honest.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, iii., 14. Mrs. Fore. Do you think any woman honest? Scan. Yes, several very honest; they’ll cheat a little at cards sometimes; but that’s nothing. Mrs. Fore. Pshaw! but virtuous, I mean.

2. (common).—Not positively illegal: as honest penny or shilling = money earned by means immoral (as by prostitution) but within the law. Also, To turn an honest penny = to make a profitable deal.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iii., 1. You must call usury and extortion God’s blessing, or the honest turning of the penny.

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society, ch. xxi. There was a chance of turning an honest penny in hiring them out for the donkey-race.

To make an honest woman, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To marry a mistress.

1629. Earle, Microcosmographie (5th ed.). ‘A Serving Man.’ The best work he does is his marrying, for he makes an honest woman, and if he follows in it his master’s direction, it is commonly the best service he does him.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, v., 6. Dap. Why she was my wench. Gripe. I’ll make her honest then.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XV., ch. viii. Mr. Nightingale, and his love, stepped into a hackney-coach, which conveyed him to Doctors’ Commons, where Miss Nancy was, in vulgar language, soon made an honest woman.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxv. My right honourable father nourished some thoughts of making an honest woman of Marie de Martigny, and a legitimate elder brother of Francis.

1827. Egan, Anecdotes of the Turf, p. 182. She had now only to play her cards well, she was sure of winning the game, also of becoming an honest woman.

As honest a man as when kings are out, phr. (old).—Knavish.

Honest as the skin between the brows (or Horns), phr. (old).—As honest as may be.

1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, (O.P.), ii., 67. I am as true, I wold thou knew, as skin betwene thy brows.

1599. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, ii., 2. Punt. Is he magnanimous? Gent. As the skin between your brows, sir.

1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado, iii., 5. An old man, sir, and his wits are not so blunt, as, God help, I would desire they were, but in faith, honest, as the skin between his brows.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv., 5. It shall be justified to thy husband’s faish, now: tou shalt be as honesht as the skin between his hornsh, la.

Honest Injun! phr. (American).—A pledge of sincerity; honour bright (q.v.).

1884. Clemens [Mark Twain], Huckleberry Finn. She says ‘Honest Injun, now hain’t you been telling me a lot of lies?’ ‘Honest Injun’ says I.

1892. Detroit Free Press, 12 Aug. I’ll agree not to feel hard about it. Honest Injun?

Honey, subs. (American).—1. A good fellow.

1888. Missouri Republican, 24 Feb. Dave is a honey.

2. (rhyming slang).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

3. (old colloquial).—A term of endearment.

4. (venery).—The semen. Also White Honey (q.v.). Cf., Hive.

Verb (American).—To cajole; to exchange endearments; to deceive by soft words or promises.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iii., 4. Stew’d in corruption; honeying and making love Over the nasty sty.

1602. Marston, Antonio and Mellida, A. 4. Can’st thou not honey me with fluent speach, And even adore my toplesse villany?

1604. Marston and Webster, Malcontent, O.P., iv., 66. O unpeerable! invention rare! Thou god of policy, it honies me.

1631. Chettle, Hoffman. Clo. A pretious villaine: a good villaine too. Well if he be no worse; that is doe worse, And honey me in my death-stinging thoughts, I will preferre him.

1888. Tuskaloosa News. It is of no use to honey; payments must be made at least once a year.

To sell honey for a half-penny, verb. phr. (old).—To rate at a vile price.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse [1842], p. 43. Thou that in thy dialogues soldst hunnie for a halfe-penie, and the choysest writers extant for cues a peece.

Honey-blobs, subs. (Scots’).—Large, ripe, yellow gooseberries.

1746. Walpole, Letters, i., 144. As he returned to the Tower, he stopped the coach at Charing Cross to buy honey-blobs, as the Scotch call gooseberries.

Honeycomb, subs. (old).—A sweetheart; a general term of endearment.

1552. Huloet, Abcedarium, s.v. Darlynge, a wanton terme used in veneriall speach, as be these: honycombe, pyggisnye, swetehert, true love.

Honey-fogle (or fugle), verb. (American).—To cheat; to swindle; to humbug. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1888. Missouri Republican, 20 Jan. Noonan’s companion objected to this honey-fugling by knocking the demonstrative stranger down.

Honey-pot, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iii., 342. For when you have possession got, Of Venus’ Mark, or hony-pot.

Honour Bright! intj. (common).—Upon my honour.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 36. At morning meet, and,—honour bright,—Agree to share the blunt and tatters!

1843. Selby, Antony and Cleopatra Married. Cle. Will you love me as dearly as ever? Ant. Dearer, dear Chloe, dearer! Cle. Honour? Ant. Bright and shining.

1869. F. Hall, Marginal reading to Lyndsay’s Satire of Three Estates [E.E. Text Soc.], p. 382. She is more than a match for twenty-four a night, honour bright.

1878. Hatton, Cruel London, bk. VIII, ch. ii. Honour bright, no kid, as we say in London.

1881. W. Black, Beautiful Wretch, ch. xix. ‘I do not mean to marry Mr. Jacomb, if that is what you mean.’ ‘No? Honour bright?’ ‘I shall not marry Mr. Jacomb.’

1892. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 28 Sep., p. 29., c. 3. ‘Come, come, Mr. Smith, you’re drawing the long bow!’ ‘Honour bright, I’m not.’

1892. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 158. ‘She did, honour bright,’ said Smirk.

Hood. two faces under one hood (or Hat), phr. (old).—Double-dealing.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hood.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hood. May the man be d——d and never grow fat, Who carries two faces under one hat.

To put a bone in one’s hood, verb. phr. (obsolete).—To cuckold.

1560. Nice Wanton (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 169). I could tell you who putteth a bone in your hood. Ibid. (p. 170), Then by the rood, a bone in your hood, I shall put you ere long.

Hoodlum, subs. (American).—A boy rough. Also, a rough of either sex. Also (political), a low-class voter. Originally Californian. Cf., Arab.

1872. Sacramento Weekly Union, 24 Feb., p. 2. All the boys to be trained as scriveners, tape-measurers, counter-hoppers, clerks, pettifoggers, polite loafers, street-hounds, hoodlums, and bummers.

1877. Los Angeles Express, 25 Aug. A gang of boys ... associated for the purpose of stealing.... Their words of warning were ‘Huddle ’em, Huddle ’em.’ ... soon contracted into hoodlum.

1877. Boston Journal, Aug. You at the East have but little idea of the hoodlums of this city. They compose a class of criminals of both sexes, far more dangerous than are to be found in the Eastern cities. They travel in gangs, and are ready at any moment for the perpetration of any crime.

1877. Congregationalist, 26 Sep. A newspaper man attempting to coin a word to designate a gang of young street Arabs under the beck of one named ‘Muldoon,’ hit upon noodlums, simply reversing the leader’s name.... The compositor, taking the n for an h, printed it hoodlum.

1877. Morning Call, 27 Oct. The rowdy element in the city ... who were soon after designated as hoodlums.

1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 12 Aug., p. 5, c. 5. In order to guard against the contingency of the white hoodlums, or roughs, coming down in force from the American quarter of the city [San Francisco], and ‘going for’ the Celestials.

1888. Missouri Republican, 31 Mar. It is conceded by all that the hoodlums have nominated weak men, and the citizens will have easy sailing on Tuesday.

1890. Norton, Political Americanisms, s.v. hoodlums, A general name for roughs. It originated on the Pacific coast, as the designation of a company of young ruffians in San Francisco (about 1868). Subsequently it spread Eastward, and attained some political significance; as ‘the hoodlum element’ in politics.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Feb., p. 2, c. 2. A right of public meeting dependent on the good will of the hoodlum is not worth having.

1893. National Observer, 4 Mar., ix., 398. In America, home of the Hoodlum, where they turn their murderers into mayors.

Hoodman, subs. (old).—A blind man; a groper (q.v.).

Adj. (old).—1. Blind. Also Hoodman Blind = blind drunk; cf., sense 2. Fr., berlu and sans mirettes.

2. (streets).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

Hoof, subs. (common).—A foot. For synonyms, see Creepers.

1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 134. Contriving in their complex twirlifications not only to tread heavily on my toes with his own hoofs, but to hop his partner repeatedly over the same unfortunate members.

1838. Grant, Sketches in London, p. 213. He again put both his ugly hoofs on it.

1867. Browne (‘Artemus Ward’), Among the Mormons [People’s ed.], p. 193. Waving their lily-white hoofs in the dazzling waltz.

1892. Sydney Watson, Wops the Waif, ch. iv., p. 5. Teddy, look out, yer’ve got yer hoof on my trotters!

Verb (common).—To kick; e.g., to hoof (or toe) one’s bum; to root (q.v. for synonyms). Hence to hoof out = to eject; to dismiss; to discharge; to decline to see.

To hoof it, (or to pad or beat the hoof), verb. phr. (common).—To walk; to ‘tramp it’; to run away. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle. Hence Hoof-padding.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, i., 3. Rogues, hence, avaunt, vanish like hailstones, go: Trudge, plod, away o’ the hoof.

d. 1687. Cotton, Poems, ‘Epistles’ (Chalmers English Poets), vi., 736. Being then on foot away I go And bang the hoof incognito.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hoof it or beat it on the hoof, to walk on Foot.

1691–2. Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, ii., 560. Landing at Liverpool, in Lancashire, they all beated it on the hoof thence to London.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1772. Cumberland, Fashionable Lover. Prologue. I am a devil, so please you, and must hoof Up to the poet yonder with this proof.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hoof. To beat the hoof, to travel on foot; he hoofed it, or beat the hoof, every step of the way from Chester to London.

1813. J. and H. Smith, Horace in London, ‘Hurly-Burly,’ p. 24. When hostile squadrons beat the hoof.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. ix. Charley Bates expressed his opinion that it was time to pad the hoof.

1885. Detroit Free Press, 5 Sept., p. 1, c. 1. These busted theatrical people who are hoofing it back to Detroit. They come along at all hours of the day and night.

1888. Lynch, Mountain Mystery, ch. xviii. I s’posed he was tired out, and had got over watchin’ for tricks. So I hoofed it in.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 70. Scenery’s all very proper, but where is the genuine pot who’d pad the ’oof over the moors.

To see one’s hoof in (a thing), verb. phr. (common).—To detect personal influence or interference in a matter.

1863. Thackeray, Roundabout Papers, ‘On Screens in Dining Rooms’ (1887, p. 58). I am informed by the same New York correspondent that ... I once said to a literary gentleman, who was possibly pointing to an anonymous article as his writing, ‘Ah! I thought I recognised your hoof in it.’

Hoof-padder, subs. (common).—A pedestrian.

Hoofy, adj. (common).—Splay (or large).

Hook, subs. (thieves’).—1. A finger. (Cf., Cunt-hooks). For synonyms, see Fork. In plural = the hands. Also, Hooks and Feelers.

d. 1842. Maginn, Vidocq Versified. To his clies my hooks I throw in.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 259. I one day asked a man ... if the hard work of prison did not spoil his hands for delicate manipulations. ‘Oh, bless you, no!’ he replied; ‘... In a week or two a man can bring his hooks and feelers into full working trim again and no mistake.’

2. (thieves’).—A thief. Specifically, a pickpocket; a hooker (q.v.). For synonyms, see Thieves.

1562. Jacke Juggler (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 139). So, yonder cometh that unhappy hook.

1887. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. Take my tip and turn square, from a hook who is going to be lagged, would be, in common parlance, take my advice and get your living honestly.

1892. Anstey, Voces Populi (2nd Series). ‘In Trafalgar Square.’ A professional hook.

3. (common).—A catch; an advantage; an imposture.

Verb (old).—1. To rob; to steal. Specifically, to steal watches, rings, etc., from a shop by cutting a small hole in the window, and fishing for such articles with a piece of string with a hook at the end.

1615. Albumazar, iii., 3. Is not this braver than sneak all night in danger, Picking of locks, or hooking cloths at windows.

b. 1796. Burns, Jolly Beggars. For mony a pursie she had hookit.

1876. Clemens [Mark Twain], Tom Sawyer, p. 34. And while Aunt Polly closed with a happy Scriptural flourish, Tom hooked a doughnut.

1884. M. Twain, Huck. Finn, xxx., 312. Didn’t you have it in your mind to hook the money and hide it?

2. (colloquial).—To secure, as for marriage; to marry.

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society, ch. xviii. I wonder if Mrs. Traff has contrived to hook him for her sweet Laura.

1892. Manville Fenn, New Mistress, ch. xxv. Have you I will—there now. Don’t you think you’re going to hook Lambent.

Intj. (Oxford Univ.).—An expression implying doubt. [Query from the note of interrogation (?) or connected with Hookey Walker (q.v.).]

On the hook, subs. phr. (common).—1. On the thieve; on the cross (q.v.).

2. (old).—On the Hip (q.v.); at an advantage.

1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iv., 18. Consider I have you on the hook; you will but flounder yourself a-weary, and be nevertheless my prisoner.

Hook and eye, subs. phr. (tailors’).—Arm in arm.

To take (or sling) one’s hook (or to hook it), verb. phr. (common).—To decamp; to run away. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, ii., 137. He slipped from her and hooked it.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xlvi. ‘Hook it! Nobody wants you here,’ he ses. ‘You Hook it. You go and tramp,’ he ses.

1856. Bradley [Cuthbert Bede], Tales of College Life, p. 36. Hook it! old ’un, hook it!

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xli. They all begins to get a bit noisy and want to fight, and so I hooked it.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 16 Jan., p. 43, col. 3. If you lot don’t hook it, I’ll stave in your blooming cocoa-nuts.

1891. Sportsman, 2 Apr., p. 2, col. 1. Plainly the worthy magistrate laid it down that a wife may hook it when and how she pleases.

1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall, 129–30. Take your ’ook while you can. Even now the outraged populace approaches.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 58. I went jest for a lark, and wos quietly slinging my ’ook.

1892. Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘Loot.’ Before you sling your ’ook, at the ’ousetops take a look.

1892. Globe, 19 Oct., p. 3. Again from some neighbouring roof comes back the weird responsive cry, Hook it! hook it.

1892. Herbert Campbell, Broadside Ballad, ‘Then Up Comes I with My little Lot.’ And the houses shook and the copper took his ’ook, and down come all the tiles.

To drop (go, or pop) off the hooks, verb. phr. (common).—1. To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Black Mousquetaire.’ I fear by his looks, Our friend, Francis Xavier, has popp’d off the hooks!

1842. Punch’s Almanack, Dec. 15. Death wandered by the sea And struck by Walton’s looks Broke Isaac’s line of life And took him off the hooks.

1872. M. E. Braddon, Dead Sea Fruit, ch. iv. ‘S’pose the odds are against Jerningham going off the hooks between this and the first spring-meeting, so as to give a party a chance with Mrs. J. herself,’ speculates young Belgravia, dreamily.

1880. Greenwood, Odd People in Odd Places, p. 37. I thought, to be sure, I was going off the hooks, and it was no use talking about it.

1890. Grant Allen, Tents of Shem, ch. xii. The old man has popped off the hooks this afternoon at Aix.

2. (colloquial).—To get married.

1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard, ch. x. Some of the young chaps will be wanting her to get married. These here pretty ones go off the hooks so soon.

To hook on to, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attach oneself to; to buttonhole (q.v.); to follow up.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 4. It’s nuts to ’ook on to a swell.

On one’s own hook, adv. phr. (colloquial).—On one’s own account, risk, or responsibility; for one’s own sake; dependent on one’s own resources or exertions.

1847. Robb, Squatter Life, p. 23. The signal was given, and in poured the subscribers to the dinner, with their guest, and in poured John on his own hook.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxix. Do we come out as Liberal Conservative, or as Government man, or on our own hook?

1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. xxvii. I worked on my own hook, after that, and I rather think I paid my expenses.

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London, p. 409. To steal on your own hook as a bookmaker.

1889. Answers, p. 52, c. 3. Finally Edison went to work on his own hook.

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. viii. We used to have to part company and go in twos and threes then on our own hook.

By hook or by crook, phr. (colloquial).—By some means or other; by fair means or foul; at all hazards. [Probably of forestal origin.]

d. 1298. Thomas the Rhymer, On Parliaments. Their work was by hook or crook to rap and bring all under the emperor’s power.

1525. Bodmin Register. Dynmure Wood was ever open and common to the ... inhabitants of Bodmin ... to bear away upon their backs a burden of lop, crop, hook, crook, and bag wood.

d. 1529. Skelton, Collyn Cloute. Nor wyll suffer this boke By hooke ne by crooke Prynted for to be.

1550. Bacon, Fortress of the Faithful. Whatsoever is pleasant or profitable must be theirs by hook or by crook.

1557. Tusser, Good Husbandrie, 30 Mar. Watch therefore in Lent, to thy sheepe go and look, For dogs will have vittels by hooke and by crooke.

1566. Archbp. Parker, Correspondence (Parker Soc.), p. 252. To win him in time, by hook or crook.

1596. Spenser, Faery Queen, v., 2, 27. The spoyle of people’s euill gotten good, The which her sire had scrapt by hooke and crooke.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Barocco, a shift made for good cheere, meate and drinke gotten by hooke or crooke.

1621. Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, xi., 186 (1836). By hook and by crook he will obtain it.

1629. Fonseca [Eng. by J. M.]. Devout Contemplations. Bee it by hooke or by crooke, by right or wrong.

1678. Butler, Hudibras, iii., 1. Which he by hook, or crook, had gather’d.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. By Hedge or By Style, by Hook or by Crook.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1781. Cowper, Letter to Newton, 12 July. And by hook or crook, with another book, If I live and am here, another year.

1820. Reynolds [Peter Corcoran]. The Fancy. Father, ere our purpose cool, Get down by hook or crook to Liverpool.

1824. Hitchings and Drewe, Hist. Cornwall, ii., 214. The prior’s cross, on which is cut the figure of a hook and a crook, in memory of the privilege granted ... to the poor ... for gathering such boughs and branches of such trees ... as they could reach with a hook or by a crook ... whence ... they will have it by hook and by crook.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 363. We must be manned by hook or crook, you know, however unwilling to distress running ships.

1868. Reade and Boucicault, Foul Play, p. 54. Several fellow-creatures have cheated me. Well, I must get as much back, by hook or by crook, from several fellow-creatures.

1883. W. Black, Yolande, ch. xlix. I should get you a ticket by hook or by crook, if I failed at the ballot; I heard that one was sold for £40 the last time.

1888. Rider Haggard, ‘Mrs. Meeson’s Will’ [in Illustrated News, Summer Number, p. 5, c. 1]. Somehow or other, it would go hard if, with the help of the one hundred a year that he had of his own, he did not manage, with his education, to get a living by hook or by crook.

With a hook at the end, phr. (common).—A reservation of assent; over the left (q.v.); in a horn (q.v.). Cf., hook, intj.: and Hookey Walker.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Hookey Walker—and with a hook, usually accompanied by a significant upliftment of the hand and crooking of the forefinger, implying that what is said is a lie, or is to be taken contrary-wise.

1843. Moncrieff, Scamps of London, i., 1. Bob. Will you have some gin? Fogg. Gin—Yes! Bob (turning away). Ha—ha!—With a hook ... I wish you may get it.

1870. Traill, Saturday Songs, p. 22. It’s go and go over the left, It’s go with a hook at the end.

Off the hooks, phr. (old).—Out of temper; vexed; disturbed; out of sorts. Fr., sortir de ses gonds = off the hinges (q.v.). For synonyms, see Nab the rust.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘Bum-fodder.’ That’s a thing would please the Butchers and Cooks, To see this stinking Rump quite off the hooks.

1665. Pepys, Diary, 26 May. In the evening by water to the Duke of Albemarle, whom I found mightily off the hooks, that the ships are not gone out of the River; which vexed me to see.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hooks. Off the hooks, in an ill Mood, or out of Humour.

d. 1704. L’Estrange [quoted in Ency. Dict.]. Easily put off the hooks, and monstrous hard to be pleased again.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iii., 22. Another that’s in the Blacksmith’s Books, And only to him for remedy looks, Is when a Man is quite off the hooks.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxx. Everybody that has meddled in this St. Ronan’s business is a little off the hooks—... in plain words, a little crazy.

Hook and Snivey (or Hookum Snivey), subs. phr. (old).—1. An imposture; specifically, the getting of food on false pretences.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, ii., 79. ‘Hook and Snivey, with Nix the Buffer’ [Title].

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hook and Snivey with Nix the Buffer. This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing.... Three men, one of whom pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house; the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf. s.v. Hook and Snivvy—practised by soldiers in quarters when they obtain grub for nix.

1835 in Comic Almanack 1835–43 (Hotten), p. 17, Zoological Society at Hookem Snivey. A new animal has been transmitted from No-Man’s Land, which has been named the Flat-Catcher.

2. (old).—An impostor as described in sense 1.

3. (streets).—A contemptuous or sarcastic affirmation, accompanied by the gesture of taking a sight (q.v.) or playing hookey (q.v.).

4. (thieves’).—A crook of thick iron wire in a wooden handle, used to undo the wooden bolts of doors from without.

1801. Edgeworth, Irish Bulls, With that I ranges ’em fair and even on my hook ’em snivey, up they goes.

Hooked, adj. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hookt, over-reached, Snapt, Trickt.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Hooker, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A thief; an angler (q.v.). Also, (modern) a watch-stealer; a dip (q.v.). Cf., quots. 1567 and 1888.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 35. These hokers, or Angglers, be peryllous and most wicked knaues, ... they customably carry with them a staffe of v. or vi. foote long, in which, within one ynch of the tope thereof, ys a lytle hole bored through, [leaf 9] in which hole they putte an yron hoke, and with the same they wyll pluck vnto them quickly any thing that they may reche ther with.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 8 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). They are sure to be clyd in the night by the angler, or hooker, or such like pilferers that liue upon the spoyle of other poore people.

d. 1626. John Davies, Scourge of Folly, p. 34. [Wks., Ed. Grosart]. A false knaue needs no brokers, but a broker Needs a false knaue (a hangman or a hooker).

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hookers, the third Rank of Canters; also Sharpers.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. No strange Abram, ruffler crack, hooker of another pack.

1888. Tit Bits, 17 Nov., p. 82, col. 2. There are usually three men in a gang; the hooker having got into conversation with his man, number two ‘covers’ his movements, whilst number three (on the opposite side of the street) keeps a look-out for the ‘enemy.’ The hooker, having by careful manipulation got a hold of the desired prize, detaches it from the chain by breaking the ring and passes it to number two, who in turn passes it on to number three, from whom it is usually transferred to a receiver and melted down within a few hours of its being purloined.

2. (American).—A prostitute: i.e., a fisher, angler, or Hooker of men. For synonyms, see Barrack Hack and Tart.

Hookey. To play hookey, verb. phr. (American).—To play truant; to do Charley-wag (q.v.).

1876. Clemens [Mark Twain], Tom Sawyer, p. 100. Took his flogging ... for playing hookey the day before.

To do (or play) hookey (or hooky), verb. phr. (common).—To apply the thumb and fingers to the nose; to take a sight (q.v.); to coffee-mill (q.v.).

Hookey Walker! (or Walker!) intj. (common).—Be off! go away. Also implying doubt. Cf., with a hook. [Bee: From John Walker, a hook-nosed spy, whose reports were proved to be fabrications.]

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hookey Walker, An expression signifying that the story is not true, or that the thing will not occur.

1843. Dickens, Christmas Carol [1843], p. 169. ‘Buy it,’ said Scrooge. ‘Walker!’ said the boy.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Old Woman Clothed in Grey.’ For mere unmeaning talk her Parch’d lips babbled now,—such as Hookey!—and Walker!—She expired, with her last breath expressing a doubt If ‘his Mother were fully aware he was out?’

1840. ‘Characters of Freshmen’ (Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 183). The pestilent freshman ... is very pugnacious, and walking in the streets suddenly turneth and asketh a huge snob ‘what the deuce he meant by that?’ Whereat the snob (having done nothing at all) coolly answereth (as the Pestilent Freshman intended he should) Hooky Walker, provocative of a combat.

Hooking-cow, subs. (Western American).—A cow that shows fight.

1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. One ... was ... a hooking-cow, and to escape her repeated charges tested all our ability.

Hook-pointed (or Hook-pintled), adj. (venery).—Imperfectly erected. Cf., Lob (q.v.).

Hook-pole Lay, subs. phr. (old).—Pulling a man off his horse by means of iron hooks at the end of a long pole, and plundering him. (Smith, Lives of Highwaymen, III., 192, 1720).

Hook-shop, subs. (American).—A brothel. [Hooker (q.v.) = prostitute.] For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

Hoop, subs. (American).—1. A ring.

2. (Devon).—See Bullfinch.

3. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Verb (old).—To beat. To well hoop one’s barrel = to thrash soundly. For synonyms, see Tan.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

To hoop it (or go through the hoop), verb. phr. (old).—1. To pass the Insolvent Debtor’s Court; to get hooped up = whitewashed (q.v.). For synonyms, see Dead-broke.

2. (old).—To run away. For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, 116. I have heard them tell ... boys ... who have hooped it from home that they had better go back whilst they had a home to go to.

Hooper’s Hide, subs. phr. (old venery).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 278. The while that his wife with Willy Was playing at Hooper’s Hide.

Hoop-stick, subs. (common).—The arm. For synonyms, see Chalk Farm.

Hoosier, subs. (American).—A native of Indiana. [Perhaps the most reasonable of several ingenious explanations is, that in the early days the customary challenge or greeting in that region was, ‘Who’s yer?’ (who’s here?): pronounced hoosier.—Norton.]

1843. D. Corcoran, A Genuine Hoosier. An original character is your genuine Hoosier. By genuine, we mean such a one as has all the attributes that peculiarly belong to the back-woodsmen of the West.

1847. Darley, Drama in Pokerville, p. 197. None of them ‘cotton’d’ to him more kindly than an elderly hoosier from the innermost depths of Indiana.

1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, p. 79. There is a swarm of ‘suckers,’ ‘hoosiers,’ ‘buckeyes,’ ‘corn-crackers,’ and ‘wolverines’ eternally on the qui vive in those parts.

Hooter, subs. (American).—1. A steam-whistle; an American devil (q.v.).

2. (colloquial).—A wooden trumpet, so contrived as to make a horrible noise.

3. (American).—A corruption of ‘iota’: e.g., ‘I don’t care a hooter for him.’

Hooting-pudding, subs. (provincial).—A plum-pudding with such a paucity of plums that you can hear them hooting after each other.—Slang, Jargon, and Cant.

Hop, subs. (common).—A dance. [Generally informal, as a Cinderella (q.v.).] Also, as in quot. 1579, the motions of dancing. For synonyms, see Skip.

1579. Gosson, Schoole of Abuse, p. 33 (Arber’s Ed.). He gaue Dauncers great stipends for selling their hopps.

1811. Jane Austen, Sense and S., ch. ix. At a little hop at the park, he danced from eight o clock till four.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hop—a contra-dance of ordinary persons and promiscuous company is ‘a hop’ and ‘a penny-hop’ from the price formerly paid for admission.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, iv. He gave them from time to time a very agreeable hop.

1847. Thackeray, Mrs. Perkins’s Ball (Mr. Larkins). To describe this gentleman’s infatuation for dancing, let me say, in a word, that he will even frequent boarding-house hops, rather than not go.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 189. The ‘temple’ was generally cleared for a hop two or three times during the week.

1850. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, p. 121. You’ll be at old Coleman’s hop to-night, I suppose; so bye! bye! for the present.

1852. Bristed, Upper Ten Thousand, p. 129. Two undress-balls—hops they were.

1882. Daily Telegraph, 13 Nov., p. 5, c. 3. At all seasons there is an immense amount of dancing; and at Washington there are continual ‘hotel hops’ in the winter.

1887. W. S. Gilbert, Patience, ii. Prefers suburban hops To all your Monday Pops.

1889. Lippincott, Oct., p. 447. Hang me if she isn’t always on the plain, or at a hop, with one of those twin kids!

1892. Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads. ‘Gentlemen Rankers.’ To dance with blowzy housemaids at the regimental hops.

Hop-and-go-kick, subs. phr. (tailors’).—A lameter; a Hop-and-go-one. Cf., Dot-and-carry-one.

To hop the wag, verb. phr. (common).—To play truant, or Charley-wag (q.v.).

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 207. They often persuaded me to hop the wag, that is play truant from school.

To hop (or jump) over the broom (or broomstick), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To live as husband and wife; to live (or go) tally (q.v.).

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, ii., 3. Jump o’er a broomstick, but don’t make a farce on The marriage ceremonies of the parson.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 336. There was always a broomstick wedding. Without that ceremony a couple weren’t looked on as man and wife.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, xlviii., 227. This woman in Gerrard Street, here, had been married very young, over the broomstick (as we say), to a tramping man.

c. 18(79). Broadside Ballad, ‘David Dove that Fell in Love.’ By L. M. Thornton. The girl that I had hoped to hear Pronounce my happy doom, sir, Had bolted with a carpenter, In fact hopped o’er the broom, sir.

To hop the twig, verb. phr. (common).—1. To leave; to run away; to skedaddle (q.v.). For synonyms, see amputate.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143. Hop the twig ... means to depart suddenly.

1830. Egan, Finish to Life in London, p. 217. I have lost my ticker; and all my toggery has been boned, I am nearly as naked as when I was born—and the cause—the lady bird—has hopped the twig.

1884. Daily News, 31 Oct., p. 3, c. 1. They knocked the Liberals down as fast as they could until they got too numerous and strong, and then we hopped the twig.

1888. All the Year Round, 9 June 543. To hop the twig ... and the like, are more flippant than humorous.

2. (common).—To die; to ‘kick the bucket’ (q.v.); to peg out (q.v.). Also To hop off.

English Synonyms. To be content; to cock up one’s toes; to croak; to cut (or let go) the painter; to cut one’s stick; to give in; to give up; to go to Davy Jones’ locker; to go off the hooks; to go under; to go up; to kick the bucket; kickeraboo (West Indian); to lay down one’s knife and fork; to lose the member of one’s mess; to mizzle; to pass in one’s checks; to peg out; to put on a wooden surtout; to be put to bed with a shovel; to slip one’s cable; to stick one’s spoon in the wall; to snuff it; to take an earth bath; to take a ground sweat.

French Synonyms.—Passer l’arme à gauche (pop.: = to ground arms); casser sa pipe (= to break one’s pipe); dévisser or décoller son billard (= to break one’s cue); graisser ses bottes (= to grease one’s boots); avaler sa langue (= to swallow one’s tongue); avaler sa gaffe (= to lower one’s boat-hook); avaler sa cuiller or sa fourchette (= to swallow one’s spoon or one’s fork); avaler ses baguettes (military: = to swallow one’s drumsticks); n’avoir plus mal aux dents (= to get rid of the toothache: mal de dents, also = love); poser sa chique (pop.: = to put down one’s quid); claquer (familiar: = to croak); saluer le public (theat.: = to go before the curtain); recevoir son décompte (military: = to get one’s quietus; décompte = also [military] a mortal wound); cracher son embouchure (= to spit one’s mouthpiece); déteindre (pop.: = to wash off one’s colour); donner son dernier bon à tirer (familiar: in American = to pass in one’s checks; properly = to send one’s last proof to press); lâcher la perche (pop.: = to hop the twig); éteindre son gaz (pop.: = to turn off one’s gas. Cf., to snuff it); épointer son foret (pop.: = to blunt one’s drill, as in boring); être exproprié (pop.: = to be dispossessed); exproprier (= to take possession of a debtor’s land); péter son lof (sailor’s); fumer ses terres; fermer son parapluie (pop.: = to close one’s umbrella); perdre son bâton (pop.: = to lose one’s walking stick); descendre la garde (pop.: = to come off guard); défiler la parade (military: = to face about); tortiller, or tourner de l’œil (pop.); perdre le goût du pain (pop.: = to lose one’s appetite); lâcher la rampe (theat.: = to chuck the footlights); faire ses petits paquets (pop.: = to pack up one’s traps); casser son crachoir (pop.: = to break one’s spittoon); remercier son boulanger (thieves’: = to thank the baker; boulanger = the Devil); canner; dévider à l’estorgue (thieves’); baiser or épouser la Camarde or camarder (pop: = to hug, or go to church with, Mother Bones [Camarde = Death]); fuir (thieves’: = to flee or escape); casser son câble (pop.: = to slip one’s cable); casser son fouet (pop.: = to break one’s whip); faire sa crêvaison (pop.: crêver = to burst up); déralinguer (sailors’: = to loose from the bolt-rope); virer de bord (sailors’: = to tack about); déchirer son faux-col (pop.: = to break one’s collar); dégeler (= to thaw); couper sa mèche (coachman’s: = to cut off one’s lash); piquer sa plaqu (sailors’); mettre la table pour les asticots (pop.: = to lay the cloth for the worms); aller manger les pissenlits par la racine (pop.: = to go grubbing off dandelion roots); laisser fuir son tonneau (familiar); calancher (vagrants’); laisser ses bottes quelque part (familiar: = to leave one’s boots about); déchirer son habit (pop.: = to tear one’s coat); déchirer son tablier (pop.: = to tear one’s apron); souffler sa veilleuse (pop.: = to blow out one’s candle: cf., to snuff it); pousser le boum du cygne (pop.); avoir son coke (familiar: = to get one’s cargo); rendre sa secousse (pop.); rendre sa bûche (tailors’); rendre sa canne au ministre (military: = to resign one’s commission); rendre sa clef (gipsy: = to give in one’s key); rendre son livret (pop.: = to pass in one’s checks); passer au dixième régiment (military); s’ennuyer (pop.: = to be at death’s door); chasser les mouches (pop.: to go fly-catching); ingurgiter son bilan (popular); resserrer son linge (pop.); faire sa malle (pop.: = to pack one’s trunk); avaler le goujon (pop.); s’habiller de sapin (pop.: = to put on a wooden surtout); avoir son compte (pop.); battre de l’œil (thieves’); s’évanouir (pop.: to mizzle); machaber (pop.: machabre = the Dance of Death); glisser (pop.); s’en aller dans le pays des marmottes (pop.: marmotte = puppet); déménager (pop.: = to move house).

German Synonyms.—Krachen gehen; niftern; pegern or peigern; schochern or verschochern (= to get black); verschwarzen.

Italian Synonyms. Sbasire (= to faint); sbasire su le funi (= to faint on the rope).

Spanish Synonyms.—Hacer bodoques (= to take an earth bath); liarlas (= also to run away); obispar; corvado (= bent, curved); cierto (= certain).

1839. Dance, Alive and Merry, i., 1. Couldn’t you wait a bit till she’s hopped off, and then you and I could marry, and be ladies and gentlemen?

1841. Punch, I., 2, 2. Clare pines in secret—Hops the twig and goes to glory in white muslin.

1842. Punch, vol. II., p. 20, c. 2. Yet henceforth—dash my wig! I’ll live with thee, with thee I’ll hop the twig!

1863. Fun, vol. IV., p. 188. The night when Cromwell died a storm tore up many of the trees [of St. James’s Park]—though what connexion there may be between the destruction of their branches and the hopping the twig of the Protector, we leave to our philosophical readers to decide.

1870. Chambers’s Miscellany, No. 87, p. 26. That her disease was mortal, was past a doubt, and a month or two more or less could make no difference, provided she hopped off ... before the year was expired.

On the hop, adv. phr. (common).—1. Unawares; at the nick of time; in flagrante delicto. Also On the h. o. p.

1868. Broadside Ballad, ‘The Chickaleary Cove.’ For to catch me on the hop.... You must wake up very early in the morning.

1870. London Figaro, 26 Aug. If to catch any of the more ordinary folk on the hop is to secure a laugh, what must it be to catch the Tycoon ‘on the—top?’

1872. Daily Telegraph, 3 Sept. Goodbye, Johnny: before I leave you, One more kiss before I go. For to catch me on the hop.

1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall, 32. I never saw a smarter hand at serving in a shop, For every likely customer she caught upon the ’op.

2. (common).—On the go; in motion; unresting.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 22. A deal on the ’op.

3. (colloquial).—See Hip.

Hopeful (or Young Hopeful), subs. (colloquial).—A boy or young man; in sarcasm or contempt.

1856. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Tales of College Life, 24. He’ll be no end riled at seeing his hopeful play truant in this fashion.

Hop- (or Hap-) Harlot, subs. (old).—A coarse coverlet; Cf., Wrap-rascal.

1807–8. Hollinshed, Chronicles of England, ch. 12. Covered only with a sheet, under coverlets made of dag-swain, or hop-harlots.

Hopkins (Hoppy, or Mr. Hopkins), subs. (old).—A lameter. For synonyms, see Dot-and-go-one Giles.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Don’t Hurry, Hopkins! phr. (American).—Ironical to persons slow to move or to meet an obligation.

Hop-merchant (or Hoppy), subs. (common).—A dancing master; a caper-merchant (q.v.). Also, a fiddler.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v.

1892. Sydney Watson, Wops the Waif, ch. iii., p. 4. Who-ay, Cully, here’s Hoppy with the rozin.

Hop-o-my-thumb, subs. (common).—A dwarf.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, in Wks. v., 248. Though the greatnesse of the redde herring be not small (as small a hoppe-on-my-thumbe as hee seemeth).

1603. Dekker, etc., Patient Grissell, IV., ii., in Wks. (Grosart) vi., 195. Bab. No; he shall not haue them [children]: knocke out his braines, and saue the little hop-a-my-thombes.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xi. You pitiful hop-o’-my-thumb coxcomb.

1764. O’Hara, Midas, i., 5. You Stump-o’-the-gutter, you Hop-o’-my-thumb, A husband must for you from Lilliput come.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hop-o-my-Thumb. She was such a hop-o-my-thumb that a pigeon, on sitting on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a—se.

1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xi. A mean-looking hop-o’-my-thumb sort of person.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘Account of a New Play.’ A hop-o’-my-thumb of a Page.

English Synonyms.—Go-by-the-ground; grub; grundy; Jack Sprat; little breeches; shrimp; stump-of-the-gutter; tom-tit. See also, Forty-foot.

Hopper, subs. (colloquial).—The mouth. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

To go a hopper, verb. phr. (sporting).—To go quickly.

Hopper-arsed (or Hipped), adj. (old).—Large in the breech. Also (as in quot. 1529) snaggy-boned. Also as subs.

d. 1529. Dunbar, Poems, ‘Complaint to the King’ (1836, i., 144). With hopper-hippis and hanches narrow.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, ii., 1. Moreover, she is bow-legged, hopper-hipped, and, betwixt pomatum and Spanish red, has a complexion like a Holland cheese.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hopper-arst, when the Breach sticks out.

1704. King, Orpheus and Eurydice (Chalmers, English Poets), vol. ix., p. 284. A lady of prodigious fame, Whose hollow eyes and hopper breech Made common people call her witch.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., vi., 351. And there’ll be hopper-arsed Nancy.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Hopper-docker, subs. (old).—A shoe. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

Hop-picker, subs. (common).—1. A prostitute; also Hopping-wife. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1888. Indoor Paupers, p. 55. Numbers of them go regularly to the hop-gardens; and each man must have a female companion—a hopping wife as she is termed.

2. in. pl. (gaming).—The queens of all the four suits.

Hopping-Giles, subs. (common).—A cripple. For synonyms, see Dot-and-go-one.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1885. Household Words, 27 June, p. 180. St. Giles is the patron saint of cripples; hence a lame person is mockingly called hopping giles.

Hopping-jesus, subs. (colloquial).—A lameter. For synonyms, see Dot-and-go-one.

Hopping-mad, adj. (American).—Very angry.

Hop-pole, subs. (common).—A tall, slight person, male or female. For synonyms, see Lamp-post.

1850. Smedley, Frank Farleigh, p. 5. I was tall for my age, but slightly built, and so thin, as often to provoke the application of such epithets as hop-pole, ‘thread-paper,’ etc.

Horizontal-refreshment, subs. (venery).—1. Carnal intercourse; cf., Upright. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride. [Fr., une horizontale = a prostitute.] Also, To Horizontalise.

2. (common).—Food taken standing; generally applied to a mid-day snack at a bar.

Horn, subs. (common).—1. The nose. Also, Horney. For synonyms, see Conk.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Horney—a nose; one that resounds in expectoration.

2. (common).—A drink; a dram of spirits. For synonyms, see Go.

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, p. 193. Go on, Venus. Take another horn first.

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West. p. 126. They called the Scotchman to take a horn.

3. (venery).—An erection of the penis. [Properly of men only; but said of both sexes. In the feminine equivalents are Cunt-itch and Cunt-stand].

Hence To get (or have) the horn, verb. phr. = to achieve erection; to cure the horn = to copulate; horning and horny, in course of, or disposed to erection; hornification, subs. = the state, or process, of erection; hornify (see verb), = to get (or give) the horn; Miss Horner, subs. = the pudendum muliebre; old horney (or hornington) = the penis.

English Synonyms.—Cock- (or prick-) stand; Irish toothache; in one’s Sunday (or best) clothes; the jack; hard-on (American); horn-colic; horn-mad (said also of an angry cuckold); fixed bayonets; lance in rest; the old Adam; standing; on the stand; stiffened up; the spike.

4. (old).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

5. (colloquial).—Also in pl., see verb.

Horn, verb (colloquial).—To cuckold. [Becco (= a he-goat) and cornuto (= a horned thing) are good Italian for a cuckold; in Florio (Worlde of Wordes, 1598) andar in cornouaglia senza barca (i.e., to go to Cornwall without a ship) = to win the horn; and the expression, as the example from Lydgate appears to show, may very well have been imported into English from the Italian. Also, it seems to have begun to be literary about the middle of the sixteenth century, when the Italian influence was at its height. For the rest it passed in triumph into written English, was used in every possible combination, had a run at least two centuries long, and is still intelligible, though not in common service.] See Actæon, antlers, bull’s feather, freeman of bucks, etc.

Hence, to hornify (see subs., sense 3), and to graft (or give) horns; to wear horns = to live a cuckold; horner, subs. = a cuckold maker; horn-mad, adj. phr. (q.v.); horned, adj. = cuckolded; horn-grower (or merchant) subs. = a married man; horn-fever, subs. = cuckoldry; to exalt one’s horn, verb. phr. = (1) to cuckold, and (2) to rejoice in, or profit by, the condition; to wind the horn = to publish the fact of cuckoldom; horns-to-sell, subs. phr. = (1) a lewd wife, and (2) a wittol; to point the horn = to fork the fingers in derision (as in Hogarth’s ‘Industrious and Idle Apprentice,’ 1790, plate v.); horn-works = the process of cuckolding; at the sign of the horn = in cuckoldom; horn-pipe = (see quot. 1602); horned herd, subs. phr. = husbands in general (specifically, the city men, the Citizens of London, the cuckolding of whom by West-end gallants is a constant theme of seventeenth century jokes); gilt-horn, subs. = a contented Cuckold; spirit of hartshorn = the suspicion or the certainty of cuckoldom; long horns, subs. = a notorious cuckold; knight of Hornsey, also member for Horncastle, subs. phr. = a cuckold, etc.

d. 1440. Lydgate, Falle of Prynces, ii., leaf 56 (ed. Wayland, 1557, quoted in Dyce’s Skelton, 1843, ii., 132). To speke plaine Englishe made him cokolde. Alas I was not auised wel before Vnkonnyngly to speake such language: I should haue sayde how that he had an horne.... And in some land Cornodo men do them call, And some affirme that such folk have no gall.

c. 152(?). Hick Scorner (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 180). My mother was a lady of the stews, blood born, And (Knight of the Halter) my father wore an horne.

c. 1537. Thersites (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 412). Why wilt thou not thy hornes inhold? Thinkest thou that I am a cuckold.

c. 1550. The Pride and Abuse of Women (176 in Early Pop. Poetry, ed. Hazlitt, iv., 237). And loke well, ye men to your wives.... Or some wyll not styche.... To horne you on everye side.

1568. Bannatyne MSS. ‘The use of Court,’ p. 765 (Hunterian Club, 1886). Vp gettis hir wame, Scho thinkis no schame For to bring hame The laird ane horne.

1574. Appius and Virginia (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iv., 118). A hairbrain, a hangman, or a grafter of hornes.

1575. Laneham’s Letter (ed. 1871). p. 40. With yoor paciens, Gentlmen, ... be it said: wear it not in deede that hornz bee so plentie, hornware I beleeue woold bee more set by than it iz, and yet thear in our parts, that wyll not stick too auoow that many an honest man both in citee and cuntree hath his hoous bv horning well vphollden, and a daily freend allso at need.

c. 1580. Collier of Croydon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, viii., 436). My head groweth hard, my horns will shortly spring.

1586. Lupton, 1,000 Not. Things, ed. 1675, p. 261. Take heed thou art not horn’d, and then fetcht home.

1597. Hall, Satires, i., 8. Fond wittol that would’st load thy witless head, With timely horns before thy bridal bed. Idem, ii., 7. If chance it come to wanton Capricorne, And so into the Ram’s disgraceful horne.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., Act i., sc. 2. Well, he hath the horn of abundance and the lightness of his wife shines through it.

1598. Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, v., 1. See, what a drove of horns fly in the air, Winged with my cleansèd and my credulous breath.

1598. Sylvester, Du Bartas, ed. 1641, v., 41. The adulterous Sargus.... Courting the Shee Goates on the grassie shore Would horn their husbands that had horns before.

1599. Jonson, Every Man Out of his Humour, iv., 4. Now horn upon horn pursue thee, thou blind, egregious, dotard.

1600. Look About You, Sc. 10 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, v., 415). By adding horns unto our falcon’s head.

1600. Shakspeare, As You Like it, iv., 2. Take thou no scorn to wear the horn, It was a crest ere thou wast born.

1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado about Nothing, i. Then up comes the devil with his horns upon his head, looking like an old cuckold. Ibid. v. 1. But when shall we see the savage bull’s horns on the sensible Benedict’s head.

1601. Jonson, Poetaster, iv., 3. And there is never a star in thy forehead but shall be a horn if thou dost persist to abuse me.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Bullen, Works, 1889, p. 248). Mock him not with horns, the case is altered.

1603. Philotus (Pinkerton, Scottish Poems, 1792, iii., 17). Sen thair may be na uther buit? Plat on his heid ane horne.

1604. Marston, Malcontent, i., I. Mendoza is the man makes thee a horned beast: ’tis Mendoza cornutes thee.

1605. Jonson, Volpone, ii., 4. Volp.: Nay, then, I not repent me of my late disguise. Mos.: If you can horne him, Sir, you need not.

1605. Chapman, All Fools, v., 1 (Plays, 1874, p. 75). And will you blow the horn yourself where you may keep it to yourself? Go to, you are a fool. Ibid. (p. 76.) It may very well be that the devil brought horns into the world, but the women brought them to the men.

1607. How a Man May Choose a Good Wife From a Bad, ii., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 28). Quando venis aput, I shall have two horns on my caput.

1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, Act i., p. 8. If a man be deuorst, whether may he haue an action or no, gainst those that make horns at him. Ibid. iv., p. 54. This curse is on all letchers throwne, They give horns and, at last, hornes are their owne.

1608. Rowlands, Humor’s Looking Glass, p. 22. Besides, shee is as perfect chast as faire. But being married to a jealous asse, He vowes shee horns him.

1609. Jonson, Epicœne, iii., 1. By that light you deserve to be grafted, and your horns reach from one side of the island to the other.

1616. Jonson, Devil’s an Ass, v., 5. And a cuckold is, Wherever he puts his head, with a wannion, his horns be forth, the devil’s companion.

1618. Samuel Rowlands, The Night Raven, p. 25. ’Tis this bad liver doth the horne-plague breed, Which day and night my jealous thoughts doth feed.

1623. Cockeran, Eng. Dict. s.v. Sargus, an adulterous fish which goes on the grassie shore, and hornes the hee Goates that had horns before.

1627. Drayton, Agincourt and Other Poems, p. 174. Some made mouthes at him, others as in scorne With their forkt fingers poynted him the horn.

1629. Davenant, Albovine, ed. 1673, p. 436. ’Twas a subtle reach to tell him that the King had horn’d his brow.

1633. Rowley, Match at Midnight (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiii., 40). horning the headman of his parish and taking money for his pains.

1633. Ford, Love’s Sacrifice, iii., 3. Fernando is your rival, has stolen your duchess’s heart, murther’d friendship; horns your head, and laughs at your horns.

1637. Beaumont and Fletcher, Elder Brother, iv., 4. I shall have some music yet At my making free o’ th’ company of horners.

1640. Rawlins, The Rebellion, i., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 15). Fresh as a city bridegroom that has signed his wife a grant for the grafting of horns.

1643. Brome, A New Diurnal. (Chalmers, Eng. Poets, 1810, vi., 667). Prince Rupert, for fear that his name be confounded, Will saw off his horns, and make him a Roundhead.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Women Pleased, v. 3. I shall then be full of scorn, Wanton, proud (beware the horn).

1653. Middleton and Rowley, The Spanish Gypsy, iii., I. Beggars would on cock-horse ride. And boobies fall a-roaring, And cuckolds though no horns be spied, Be one another goring.

1653. Davenant, The Siege of Rhodes, p. 34. It stuffs up the marriage bed with thorns, It gores itself, it gores itself with imagined horns.

1657. Middleton, Women, Beware of Woman (1657), iii., 2. Cuckolds dance the hornpipe, and farmers dance the hay. Idem., iv., 2. Go, lie down, master; but take care your horns do not make holes in the pillow-beers.

1659. Lady Alimony, i., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 280). My scene, Trillo, is horn alley. Ibid., iii., 6 (p. 340). Doubt nothing, my fellow Knights of hornsey.

1661. Webster, Cure for a Cuckold (1661), v., 2. He that hath horns thus let him learn to shed.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, iv., 1 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 473). I hope to exalt the Parson’s horn here. Ibid., (p. 477). Only to fright the poor cuckholds and make the fools visit their horns. Ibid., v., 4 (p. 519). Methinks my horns ache more than my corns. Ibid. ib. (p. 520). I have seen a cuckold of your complexion: if he had lent as much hoof as horn, you might have hunted the beast by the slot.

1664. Butler, Hudibras, II., ii. For when men by their wives are cowed, Their horns of course are understood.

1668. L’Estrange, Visions of Quevedo, p. 251 (ed. 1708). He that marries, ventures fair for the horn, either before or after.

1672. Ray, Proverbs (in Bohn, 1889), s.v. He had better put his horns in his pocket than wind them. Idem. (p. 184). Horns and gray hairs do not come with years. Idem. id., Who hath horns in his pocket let him not put them on his head.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, v., 4. Epilogue: Encouraged by our woman’s man to-day, a horner’s part may vainly think to play. Ibid., i., 1. I make no more cuckolds, sir. [Makes horns.] Ibid., iv., 3. If ever you suffer your wife to trouble me again here, she shall carry you home a pair of horns.

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, iv., 1. First, the clandestine obscenity in the very name of horner.

d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1757), ii., 372. His own branches, his horns, are as mystical as the Whore of Babylon’s Palfreys, not to be seen but in a vision.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iv., 15. Pox choke him. Would his horns were in his throat.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, iv., 15. The clocks will strike twelve at noon, and the horned herd buzz in the Exchange at two.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iv., 3. Should I ever be tried before this judge, how I should laugh to see how gravely his goose cap sits upon a pair of horns!

1700. Congreve, Way of the World, iii., 7. Man should have his head and horns, and woman the rest of him.

1702. Steele, The Funeral or Grief à la Mode, Act. i., p. 22. This wench I know has played me false, and horned me in my gallants. [Note.—That the speaker is a female shows the word to have been transferable to the other sex.]

1708. W. King, Art of Love, pt. x. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 274). Sometimes his dirty paws she scorns, While her fair fingers show his horns.

1708. Prior, Poems. ‘The Turtle and Sparrow,’ line 302–9. ‘Two staring Horns,’ I often said, ‘but ill became a sparrow’s head’ ... ‘Whilst at the root your horns are sore, The more you scratch, they ache the more.’

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 174. Who’s the Cuckoo, Who’s the Cuckold, who’s the horner?

1728. Patrick Walker, Alexander Peden, ‘Postscript’ (ed. 1827, i.). A profane, obscene meeting called the horn-order.

1737. Fielding, Tumble-Down Dick, Works (1718) iii., 408. Think it enough your betters do the deed, And that by horning you I mend the breed.

d. 1742. Somerville, Occasional Poems (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 238). If I but catch her in a corner, Humph! ’tis your servant, Colonel Horner.

1759–67. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ch. xxxvii. Nor have the horn-works he speaks of anything to do with the horn-works of Cuckoldom.

1765. C. Smart, Fables, xi., line 66. And though your spouse my lecture scorns. Beware his fate, beware his Horns.

d. 1770. Chatterton, The Revenge, i., I. Let her do what she will, The husband is still, And but for his horns you would think him an ass. Idem., ii., 4. Have you come horning.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1786. Captain Morris (Collection of Songs), The Great Plenipotentiary, (9th ed. 1788, stanza ix., p. 43). She had horned the dull brows of her worshipful spouse Till they sprouted like Venus’s myrtle.

d. 1796. Burns, Merry Muses, ‘Cuddy the Cooper,’ p. 84. On ilka brow she’s planted a horn, An’ swears that there they shall stan’, O.

1813. Moore, Poems, ‘Re-inforcements for the Duke,’ iii., 209. Old H——df——t at horn-works again might be tried.

1816. Quiz, Grand Master, canto vii., p. 199, line 10. (She) smil’d, declaring that she scorn’d him, (She might have added that she’d horn’d him).

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, c. xxxvi. O what a generous creature is your true London husband! Horns hath he, but, tame as a fatted ox, he goreth not.

1825. Scott, The Betrothed, ch. xvii. I ever tell thee, husband, the horns would be worth the hide in a fair market.

To draw in one’s horns, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To withdraw or to retract; to cool down.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Horns.

To horn off, verb. phr. (American). = To put on one side; to shunt. [As a bull or stag with his horns.]

1851. Hooper, Widow Rugby’s Husband, etc., p. 69. You horned me off to get a chance to get gaming witnesses out of the way.

In a horn, adv. phr. (American).—A general qualification, implying refusal or disbelief; over the left (q.v.).

1858. Washington Evening Star, 26 Aug. I have mentioned before the innumerable comforts—in a horn—of the old White Sulphur Springs.

To wind (or blow) the horn, verb. phr. (old).—To break wind; to fart (q.v.).

1620. Percy, Folio, MSS., ‘Fryar and Boye.’ Her tayle shall wind the horne.

To cure the horn, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. See Horn, subs., sense 3. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

To have the horn, verb. phr. (venery). See Horn, subs., sense 3.

To come out of the little end of the horn, verb. phr. (common).—To get the worst of a bargain; to be reduced in circumstances. Also, to make much ado about nothing. Said generally of vast endeavour ending in failure. [Through some unexpected Squeeze (q.v.)].

1605. Jonson, Chapman, and Marston, Eastward Hoe, i., 1. I had the horne of suretiship ever before my eyes. You all know the devise of the horne, where the young fellow slippes in at the butte-end, and comes squesd out at the buckall.

1624. Fletcher, Wife for a Month, iii., 3. Thou wilt look to-morrow else Worse than the prodigal fool the ballad speaks of, That was squeezed through a horn.

1847. Porter, Big Ben, etc., p. 37. How did you make it? You didn’t come out at the little end of the horn, did you?

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 24. You never saw such a run of luck; everywhere I touched was pizen, and I came out of the leetle end of the horn.

1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 July, i., 2. The ‘great Trek,’ in that expressive transatlantic phrase, has toddled out of the little end of the horn.

Horn-colic, subs. (venery).—See Horn, subs., sense 3.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Hornet, subs. (common).—A disagreeable, cantankerous person.

Hornie (or Horness), subs. (old).—1. A constable or watchman; a sheriff.

1819. Vaux, Life, s.v. Horney, a Constable.

1821. Haggart, Life, 51. The woman missing it immediately, she sent for the hornies.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Horness.

2. (Scots’).—The devil; generally Auld Hornie (q.v.).

1785. Burns, Address to the Deil. O thou! whatever title suits thee, Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie.

Hornify, verb. (colloquial).—See Horn, subs., sense 3 and verb.

2. (venery).—See Horn, subs., sense 3.

Horn-mad, adj. (old).—1. See quot. 1690.

1593. Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors, ii., 1. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad.

1599. Henry Porter, The Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii.). And then I wound my horn, and he’s horn-mad.

1604. Marston, Malcontent, i., 7. I am horn mad.

1605. Jonson, The Fox, iii., 6. Yet I’m not mad, Not horn-mad, see you.

1639–61. Rump Songs, [1662], 293. The Country has grown sad, The City is horn-mad.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Woman’s Prize, ii., 6. After my twelve strong labours to reclaim her, Which would have made Don Hercules horn-mad.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horn-mad, stark staring Mad, because Cuckolded.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iv., 22. Ay, I feel it here; I sprout; I bud; I blossom; I am ripe horn-mad.

1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iv., 20. She forks out cuckoldom with her fingers, and you are running horn-mad after your fortune.

1695. Congreve, Love for Love, v., 8. She’s mad for a husband, and he’s horn-mad.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, iv., 3. Thou’rt horn-mad. Prithee, leave impertinence.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxvi. Ye might as well expect brandy from beanstalks, or milk from a crag of blue whunstane. The man is mad, horn-mad, to boot.

1825. Harriette Wilson, Memoirs, ii. 228. The little he did say was chiefly on the subject of cuckolds and cuckolding. His lordship was horn-mad.

2. (venery).—Sexually excited; lecherous; musty (q.v.). Also, Horny.

Hornswoggle, subs. (American).—Nonsense; humbug (q.v.). For synonyms, see Gammon.

Verb (American).—To humbug; to delude; to seduce.—Slang, Jargon, and Cant. Cf., In a horn.

Horn-thumb, subs. (old).—A pickpocket. [From the practice of wearing a sheath of horn to protect the thumb in cutting out.] See Thieves.

1569. Preston, Cambises (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1874, iv., 235). But cousin, because to that office ye are not like come, Frequent your exercises, a horne on your thumbe, A quick eye, a sharp knife.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii. I mean a child of the horn-thumb, a babe of booty, boy, a cut-purse.

1614. Greene, Looking-Glass [Dyce], p. 138. I cut this from a new-married wife by means of a horn-thumb and a knife.—Six shillings, four pence.

Horrors, subs. (common).—The first stage of delirium tremens. For synonyms, see Gallon-distemper. Also low spirits, or the blues (q.v.).

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 50. Paying the penalty in a fit of horrors.

1857. Philadelphia Evening Bulletin (quoted by Bartlett). This poison (fusil oil), which acts with terrible results on the nerves; seeming like a diabolical inspiration, stirring up mania, convulsions, and the horrorsin an incredibly short space of time.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. iv., ch. viii. What are popularly called ‘the trembles’ being in full force upon him that evening, and likewise what are popularly called the horrors, he had a very bad time of it; which was not made better by his being so remorseful as frequently to moan ‘Sixty threepennorths.’

1864. F. W. Robinson, Mr. Stewart’s Intentions, ch. i. ‘Well, sermons always gave me the horrors, and engendered a hate of the sermonizer.’

1883. Stevenson, Treasure Island ch. iii., p. 20 (1886). If I don’t have a dram o’ rum, Jim, I’ll have the horrors.

1889. C. Haddon Chambers, In Australian Wilds. He’s sober now, you see; but he managed to get blind drunk before eleven o’clock this morning, and last week he narrowly escaped an attack of the horrors.

1892. Henley and Stevenson, Three Rags, ‘Admiral Guinea,’ iv., 3. It’s the horrors come alive.

2. (common).—Sausages. See Chamber of Horrors and Dog’s-paste.

3. (thieves’).—Handcuffs. For synonyms, see Darbies.

Horse, subs. (common).—1. A five-pound note. See Finnup.

2. (thieves’).—Horsemonger Lane Gaol. Also the Old Horse. Now obsolete.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, 1, p. 457. The only thing that frightens me when I’m in prison is sleeping in a cell by myself—you do in the Old Horse and the Steel.

3. (American).—A man: generally in affection. Also Old Hoss, or Hoss-fly.

1838. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xviii. He is all sorts of a hoss, and the best live one that ever cut dirt this side of the big pond, or t’other side either.

1847. Robb, Squatter Life, p. 74. What in the yearth did you do with old Hoss on the road?—He ain’t gin out, has he? Ibid., p. 70. None of your stuck-up imported chaps from the dandy states, but a real genuine westerner—in short, a hoss!

1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 5. Hyar’s a hoss as’ll make fire come.

1857. Gladstone, Englishman in Kansas, p. 43. Here, boys, drink. Liquors, captain, for the crowd. Step up this way, old hoss, and liquor.

Verb (venery).—1. To possess a woman. For synonyms, see Ride.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, iv., 3. Say’st thou so, filly? Thou shalt have a leap presently, I’ll horse thee myself, else.

2. (workmen’s).—See quots. Cf., Flog the dead horse.

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.

1867. All the Year Round, 13 July, p. 59. To horse a man, is for one of two men who are engaged on precisely similar pieces of work to make extraordinary exertions in order to work down the other man. This is sometimes done simply to see what kind of a workman a new man may be, but often with the much less creditable motive of injuring a fellow workman in the estimation of an employer.

The gray mare is the better horse. See Gray-mare.

Horse foaled of an acorn, subs. phr. (old).—1. The gallows. For synonyms, see Triple-tree.

1760–61. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, ch. viii. I believe as how ’tis no horse, but a devil incarnate; and yet I’ve been worse mounted, that I have—I’d like to have rid a horse that was foaled of an acorn (i.e., he had nearly met with the fate of Absalom).

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. The cove ... is as pretty a Tyburn blossom as ever was brought up to ride a horse foaled by an acorn.

1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 8. ... As to this little fellow ... he shall never mount a horse foaled by an acorn, if I can help it.

2. (military).—The triangles or crossed halberds under which soldiers were flogged.

Old- (or Salt-) Horse, subs. (nautical). Salt beef. Also Junk and Salt-junk.

1889. Chambers’s Journal, 3 Aug., 495. Mr. Clark Russell declares that salt-horse works out of the pores, and contributes to that mahogany complexion common to sailors, which is often mistakenly attributed to rum and weather.

One-horse, adj. (American). Comparatively small, insignificant, or unimportant.

1858. Washington Evening Star. On Friday last, the engineer of a fast train was arrested by the authorities of a one-horse town in Dauphin County, Pa., for running through the borough at a greater rate of speed than is allowed by their ordinances.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 221. The indignant settler who has been ill-treated, as he fancies, in court, denounces his attorney as a ‘miserable, one-horse lawyer;’ and the Yankee newly arrived in England does not hesitate to declare that ‘Liverpool is a poor one-horse kind of a place,’ a term applied by Mark Twain to no less a city than Rome itself; and a witty clergyman of Boston inveighed once bitterly against ‘timid, sneaking, one-horse oaths, as infinitely worse than a good, round, thundering outburst.’

1891. National Review, Sep., p. 127. Mr. Marion Crawford’s Witch of Prague (Macmillan & Co.) is, as his compatriots would say, rather a one-horse witch.

To be horsed, verb. phr. (old).—To be flogged [from the wooden-horse used as a flogging-stool]; to take on one’s back as for a flogging.

1678. Butler, Hudibras, pt. III., c. 1. The spirit hors’d him like a sack Upon the vehicle his back.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xvii. Our unfortunate hero was publicly horsed, in terrorem of all whom it might concern.

1857. Thackeray, Virginians, ch. v. Serjeants, school-masters, slave-overseers, used the cane freely. Our little boys had been horsed many a day by Mr. Dempster.

1881. Notes and Queries, 1 Jan., p. 18. I got well horsed for such a breach of discipline.

To fall away from a horseload to a cartload, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horseplay. Fallen away from a horseload to a cartload, spoken ironically of one considerably improved in flesh on a sudden.

To flog the dead horse.—See Dead-horse and Horse, verb. sense 2.

To put the cart before the horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To begin at the wrong end; to set things hind-side before.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horse.

To put the saddle on the right horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To apportion accurately.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Horse. Set the saddle on the right horse, lay the Blame where the Fault is.

To ride on a horse with (or bayard of) ten toes, verb. phr. (common).—To walk; to use the Marrowbone-stage. Cf., Shanks’s Mare.

1606. Breton, Good and Badde, p. 14. His trauell is the walke of the woful, and his horse Bayard of ten toes.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, Somerset, ii., 291. At last he [Coryat] undertook to travail into the East Indies by land, mounted on an horse with ten toes.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Bayard.

As good as a shoulder of mutton to a sick horse, phr. (old).—Utterly worthless.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, ii., 1. Counsel to him is as good as a shoulder of mutton to a sick horse.

As strong as a horse, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Very strong: a general intensitive.

Horse and horse, adv. phr. (American).—Neck and neck; even.

Horsebreaker (or Pretty Horsebreaker), subs. (colloquial).—A woman (c. 1860), hired to ride in the park; hence, a riding courtesan. See also quot. 1864. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. iv., p. 33 (1873). Kate Mellor was a horsebreaker, a bonâ fide horsebreaker; one who curbed colts, and ‘took it out of’ kickers and rearers.

1865. Public Opinion, 30 Sep. These demi-monde people, anonymas, horsebreakers, hetairæ ... are by degrees pushing their way into society.

Horse-buss, subs. (old).—A loud-sounding kiss; a bite.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Horse-capper (-coper, -coser, -courser, or -chaunter), subs. (common).—A dealer in worthless or ‘faked’ horses. [Originally good English. To cope = to barter.] See Chanter. Hence Horse-coping and Horse-duffing.

1616. Overbury, Characters (Rimbault, 9th ed., 1856, p. 120). An arrant horse-courser hath the trick to blow up horseflesh as the butcher does veal.

d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1759), ii., 458. A horse-courser is one that hath read horses, and understands all the virtues and vices of the whole species by being conversant with them, and how to take the best advantage of both.

1742–4. North, Life of the Lord Keeper, i., 271. There were horse-copers among them.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Horse-coser, vulgarly and corruptly pronounced horse-coser, a dealer in horses. The verb to cose, was used by the Scots, in the sense of bartering or exchanging.

1863. Sporting Life, 29 Apr., p. 4, col. 3. Copers and Chaunters are now in full feather.

1864. London Review, 18 June, p. 643. Amongst the mysteries of horse-flesh is the noble science of coping, and its practitioners the horse-copers.

1874. G. A. Lawrence, Hagarene, ch. ii. He had lived somewhat precariously by his wits; eking out the scanty allowance wrung from his miserly old sire, by betting and horse-coping on a small scale.

1884. Daily News, 23 Aug., p. 4, c. 7. The most accomplished gipsy copers, if they are not belied, are not satisfied with merely doing up an unsound horse and selling him as a sound one, but frequently steal outright the subject of their scientific and often lucrative experiments.

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, ch. i. Poaching must be something like cattle and horse-duffing.

1889. Answers, 27 July, p. 141, c. 1. Allow me to expose some more tricks of horse copers.

1893. National Observer, 5 Aug., p. 291, col. 1. A veracious horse-coper is a monster which the world ne’er saw.

Horse-collar, subs. (venery).—1. The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

2. (tailors’).—An extremely long and wide collar.

3. (old).—A halter. To die in a horse’s nightcap = to be hanged. See Ladder.

English Synonyms.—Anodyne necklace; Bridport dagger; choker; hempen cravat; hempen elixir; horse’s neckcloth; horse’s necklace; neck-squeezer; neckweed; squeezer; St. Andrew’s lace; Sir Tristram’s knot; tight cravat; Tyburn tiffany; Tyburn tippet; widow.

French Synonym.—La cravate de chanvre.

1593. Bacchus’ Bountie in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 304. Yea, his very head so heavie as if it had beene harnessed in an horse-nightcap.

1608. Penniles Parliament in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), I., 181. And those that clip that they should not, shall have a horse night-cap for their labour.

1681. Dialogue on Oxford Parliament (Harl. Misc., ii., 125.). He better deserves to go up Holbourn in a wooden chariot, and have a horse night-cap put on at the farther end.

1883. Echo, 25 Jan., p. 2, c. 4. Even an attempt is made to lighten the horror of the climax of a criminal career, by speaking of dying in a horse’s night-cap, i.e., a halter.

Horse-editor, subs. (American journalists’).—A sporting editor. Horse-copy = sporting news.

Horseflesh, See Dead Horse and Horse, verb. sense 2.

Horse-godmother, subs. (old).—A strapping masculine woman; a virago. Fr., une femme hommasse.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

d. 1819. Wolcot, Wks. In woman angel sweetness let me see No galloping horse-godmother for me.

1838. Selby, Jacques Strop, iii., 1. What a couple of horse-godmothers.

1846–8. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ii., ch. 4. How do, my dear? Come to see the old man, hay? Gad—you’ve a pretty face, too. You ain’t like that old horse-godmother, your mother.

Horse-latitudes, subs. (nautical).—A space in the Atlantic, north of the trade-winds, where the winds are baffling.

1891. W. C. Russell, Ocean Tragedy, p. 137. The winds even north of the rains and horse-latitudes were in a sense to be reckoned on.

Horse-laugh, subs. (colloquial).—A loud, noisy laugh; a guffaw.

1738. Pope, Ep. to Satires, i., 38. A horselaugh, if you please, at honesty.

Horse-leech, subs. (colloquial).—1. An extortioner; a miser.

2. (venery).—Anything insatiable. Also a whore.

1597. Hall, Satires, iv., 5. An horse-leech, barren wench, or gaping grave.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. You are one of those horse-leeches that gave out I was dead in Turnbull Street.

3. (old).—A horse-doctor; also a quack.

1594. Nashe, Terrors of the Night (Grosart, iii., 250). Whereas his horse-leech ... will give a man twenty guineas in one.

1597. Hall, Satires, ii., 4. No horse-leech but will look for larger fee.

Horse-marines, subs. (common).—A mythical corps, very commonly cited in jokes and quizzies on the innocent. [The Jollies (q.v.) or Royal Marines, being ignorant of seamanship, have always been the butt of blue-jackets.] Tell that to the marines (or horse-marines) the sailors won’t believe it = a rejoinder to an attempt at imposition or credulity. Often amplified with when they’re riding at anchor. See also Bingham’s Dandies.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxi. ‘Come, none of your quizzing, my old buck,’ said Sir Bingo—‘what the devil has a ship to do with horse’s furniture?—Do you think we belong to the horse-marines?’

c. 1870. Broadside Ballad, ‘Captain Jinks.’ I’m Captain Jinks of the Horse-Marines.

1886. Stephens and Yardley, Little Jack Sheppard, p. 3. They may tell that yarn to the horse marines, For we bean’t such fools as we looks.

1886. Tinsley’s Mag., Apr., 321. Owing to a singular deviation from the ordinary functions of cavalry, the 17th Lancers were once christened the horse marines.

1892. Wops the Waif [Horner’s Penny Stories], ch. i., p. 1. Oh, nothink, eh! You’d better tell that to the hoss marines; I’ve lived a sight too long in Shoreditch to take that in.

Horse-milliner, subs. (common).—1. A dandy trooper.

1778. Chatterton, Ballads of Charity, ii., 113. The trammels of his palfrey pleased his sight, For the horse-milliner his head with roses dight.

1813. Scott, Bridal of Triermain, ii., 3. One comes in foreign trashery Of tinkling chain and spur, A walking haberdashery Of feathers, lace and fur; In Rowley’s antiquated phrase, Horse-milliner of modern days.

2. (old).—A saddler and harness-maker.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, xi. In my wretched occupation of a saddler, horse-milliner, and harness maker, we are out unconscionable sums just for barkened hides and leather.

Horse-nails, subs. (common).—1. Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

To feed on horse-nails, verb. phr. (cribbage).—So to play as not so much to advance your own score as to keep down your opponent’s.

To knock into horse-nails, verb. phr. (common).—To knock to pieces; to be absolutely victorious.

Horse-nightcap, subs. (old).—See Horse’s-Collar.

Horse-pox, subs. (old).—A superlative of Pox (q.v.). Used in adjuration. E.g., A horse-pox on you! Ay, with a horse-pox, etc.

Horse-Protestant, subs. (tailors’).—A churchman.

Horse-sense, subs. (American).—Sound and practical judgment.

1893. Lippincott, Mar., p. 260. A round bullet head, not very full of brains, perhaps, yet reputed to be fairly stocked with what is termed horse sense.

Horses-and-Mares. To play at horses-and-mares, verb. phr. (schoolboys’).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Horse’s-head, subs. (cobblers’).—The boot-sole, heel, and what is left of the front after the back and part of the front have been used to fox (q.v.) other boots withal.

Horse-shoe, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. [In German, Sie hat ein Hufeisen verloren (of women) = she has been seduced, i.e., she has lost a horse-shoe.]

Horse’s-meal, subs. (old).—Meat without drink.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Horse-sovereign, subs. (common).—A twenty-shilling piece with Pistrucci’s effigies of St. George and the Dragon.

1871. London Figaro, 26 Jan. A number of those coins, sometimes known as horse sovereigns, are to be issued.

Hortus, subs. (venery).—See quot. [Cf., Garden.] For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v. Hortus [by some writers] the privy parts of a woman.

Hose. In my other hose, subs. phr. (old). A qualification of refusal or disbelief; in a horn (q.v.); over the left (q.v.).

1598. Florio. A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Zoccoli Zoccoli, tushtush, awaie, in faith sir no, yea in my other hose.

Hoss. See Horse.

Hoss-fly (or Old Hoss-fly), subs. (American).—A familiar address; cf., Horse, subs. sense 3.

Host. To reckon without one’s host, verb. phr. (old: now recognised).—To blunder.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Host. To reckon without one’s host, or count your Chickens before they are Hatched.

Mine Host, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A taverner.

Hosteler, subs. (old).—See quot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hosteler, i.e., oat stealer.

Hot, subs. (Winchester College).—1. A mellay at football.

2. (Ibid).—A crowd.

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, p. 367. It would be replaced and a fresh hot formed.

Adj. (colloquial).—1. Of persons: sexually excitable; lecherous; on heat (q.v.); randy (q.v.). Of things (as books): obscene; blue (q.v.); high-kilted (q.v.); Hot member (q.v.) = a male or female debauchee; or (as in sense 2), a man or woman contemptuous of decorum. Hot as they make them = exceedingly amorous or reckless. Hot-blooded = lecherous: as (in Merry Wives, v., 5) ‘the hot-blooded gods assist me.’ Hot-house (q.v.) = a brothel.

1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales. Prologue to Canterbury Tales, lines 97 and 98. So hote he lovede, that by nightertale, He sleep no more than doth a nightyngale.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iv., 8. Dost thou not shame, When all thy powers in chastity are spent, To have a mind so hot.

1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., i., 2. A fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta.

1599. H. Porter, Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 354). Are ye so hot, with a pox? Would ye kiss my mistress?

1605. Jonson, Volpone, iii., 6. I am now as fresh, As hot, as high, and in as jovial plight As when in that so celebrated scene At recitation of our comedy For entertainment of the great Valois, I acted young Antinous.

1608. Shakspeare, Antony and Cleopatra, iii., 11. Besides what hotter hours, Unregistered in vulgar fame you have Luxuriously picked out.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii., 1. The whelp was hot and eager.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, v., 8. If either you esteem my friendship or your own safety, come not near that house—that corner house—that hot brothel.

1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, iii., 5. Young men are hot, I know, but they don’t boil over at that rate.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 123. He laughs to see the girls so hot.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 37. As most of our plays are now cribbed from the French, wy they’re all pooty hot.

2. (colloquial).—Careless of decorum; boisterous; utterly reckless and abandoned.

1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 187. You’re a red-hot member!

3. (thieves’).—Well known to the police; dangerous; uncomfortable; e.g., To make it hot for one.

1830. Buckstone, Wreck Ashore, i., 4. Mil. This place is now too hot for me, captain. Bills overdue, and bailiffs in full chase, have driven me to a hasty leave of my home.

1841. Tait’s Edinburgh Mag., viii., 217. Finding all too hot to hold him.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Hot. The cove had better move his beaters into Dewsville, it is too hot for him here.

1882. Evening Standard, 3 Oct., p. 5, c. 4. The Constable added that at the station the Prisoner told him that if he did not make it too hot he would give him £5.

1888. Tit Bits, 24 Mar., 373. The hottest suburb of London during Jubilee year was supposed to be Ealing.

1890. Marriott-Watson, Broken Billy (in Under the Gum-tree, p. 31). With a few pals, almost as brutal as himself, he made the place pretty hot from time to time.

1891. Morning Advertiser, 26 Mar., p. 2, col. 4. When Baker was arrested he asked Detective-sergeant Gold not to make it too hot for them, and tried to induce the officer to receive a sovereign.

1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 36. You’ll find they will make it hot for you.

4. (colloquial).—See quot. 1690. Also violent; sharp; severe.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. hot, exceeding Passionate.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 167. ‘Well,’ said he, ‘yon was a hot burst, David.’

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. xvi. I started life in a training stable, and a hot life it was for a boy.

5. (venery).—Infected; venereally diseased.

6. (colloquial).—Alive; vehement; instant.

1864. Browning, Dramatic Romances (ed. 1879, iv., 180), ‘The Italian in England.’ Breathed hot and instant on my train.

Verb (Winchester College).—To crowd; to mob.

To give (get, or catch) it hot, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To thrash or reprove soundly; to be severely beaten or taken to task.

1859. Fast Life, p. 54. The craters, of course, caught it hot, and many had the sack.

1872. Figaro, 22 June. The German Emperor, Bismarck, and Earl Granville also got it, but not quite so hotly.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 887. A young man who ... had been guilty of bigamy, and to such a degree that he got it hot for such a crime—five years.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 32. She spotted me in ’alf a jiff, and chaffed me precious hot.

Like a cat on hot bricks, phr. (colloquial).—Uncomfortable; restive.

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society, ch. xvi. Lady Mainwaring looked like an eel in a frying-pan, or, most of anything perhaps, like a cat on hot bricks.

Hot with, phr. (common).—Spirits with hot water and sugar. See Cider and, and Cold without.

Hot-arsed, adj. phr. (venery).—Excessively lewd. [Of women only.] Cf., Biter.

Hot-beef. To give hot-beef, verb. phr. (thieves’ rhyming).—To cry ‘Stop thief.’ Also Beef (q.v.).

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 506. He followed, giving me hot beef (calling ‘Stop thief’).

Hot-cakes. To go off like hot cakes, verb. phr. (common).—To sell readily; to be in good demand.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 11 Oct., p. 6, c. 1. Sold at one penny retail they often go off like hot cakes.

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. xii. It went off like hot cakes.

Hot-foot, adv. (colloquial).—Instant in pursuit.

Hotch-potch, subs. (old: now recognised).—A medley; a hodge-podge (q.v.).

1597. Hall, Satires, i., 3. A goodly hotch-potch when vile russettings are matched with monarchs and mighty kings.

1606. Return from Parnassus, iv., 2. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 183). This word, hotch-potch in English is a pudding; for in such a pudding is commonly not one thing only, but one thing with another.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hotch-potch, an Oglio, or Medly of several Meats in one Dish.

c. 1709. W. King, Art of Cookery, ix. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 259). The first delighting in hodge-podge, gallimaufry, forced meats ... and salmagundy.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1728. Patrick Walker, Alexander Peden, ‘Postscript’ (ed. 1827, i., 128). A hotch-potch or bagful of Arian, Arminian, Socinian, Pelagian, etc.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 17 Oct., p. 2, c. 1. Both are a sort of hotchpotch of songs, dances, and extravaganzas.

Hot-coppers, subs. (common).—The fever and parched throat, or mouth (q.v.), attending a debauch. See Cool one’s Copper.

1830. Egan, Finish to Life in London, 156. The ‘uncommonly big gentleman’ in spite of swallowing oceans of soda-water, declared his copper to be so hot that he thought all the water in the sea could not reduce his thirst!

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 244. ‘Oh blow your physiology!’ says Rapp. ‘You mean to say you’ve got a hot copper—so have I. Send for the precious balm and then fire away.’

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xliii. ‘Nothing like that beer,’ he remarked, ‘when the coppers are hot.’

1864. Comic Almanack, p. 63. ‘Cold Cream Internally.’ Cold cream is an excellent remedy for hot coppers.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 134. He came ... as happy-looking, and lively as if no such thing as hot coppers existed.

Hotel (also Cupid’s Hotel and Cupid’s Arms).—subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Cf., Cock Inn. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Hotel Barbering, subs. (common).—Bilking.

1892. Daily Chronicle, 28 Mar., p. 5, c. 7. The inference is now fairly admissable that he may possibly have divided his time between polygamous pursuits and hotel barbering exploits.

Hotel Warming-pan, subs. phr. (common).—A chambermaid. Also warming-pan (q.v.). Fr., une limogère.

Hot-flannel (or Flannel), subs. (old).—Gin and beer, with nutmeg, sugar, etc., made hot.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 144. A mixed kind of liquor ... when drank in a morning it is called flannel.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 269. A jug of what he termed hot flannel for three—a mixture of gin, beer, and eggs.

Hot-house, subs. (old).—A brothel. Also (see quot. 1616), a public bath. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

1596. Nashe, Have with You to Saffron Walden (Grosart, iii., 106). Any hot-house or bawdy-house of them all.

1599. Jonson, Every Man out of His Humour, iv., 4. Let a man sweat once a week in a hot-house, and be well rubbed and froted with a plump juicy wench and clean linen.

1603. Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, ii., 1. Now she professes a hot-house, which is a very ill house too.

1606. The Return from Parnassus, i., 2 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 115). He cannot swagger it well in a tavern, nor domineer in a hot-house.

1616. Jonson, Epigrams, ‘On the New Hot-house.’ Where lately harboured many a famous whore, A purging bill now fixed upon the door Tells you it is a hot-house: So it may, And still be a whore-house. They’re synonyma.

1699. Garth, The Dispensary, ii., line 157. A hot-house he prefers to Julia’s arms.

Hot Meat (or Beef or Mutton), subs. phr. (venery).—See Bit.

Hot-member (or Hot ’un).—See Warm Member.

Hot-Milk, subs. (venery).—The semen. For synonyms, see Cream.

Hot-place, subs. (colloquial).—Hell. For synonyms, see Tropical Climate.

1891. F. H. Groome, Blackwood, Mar., p. 320. A letter from her son in Hull, told the curate that ‘that did give me a tarn at fust, for I thought that come from the hot place.’

Hot-pot, subs. (old).—Ale and brandy made hot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1788. G. C. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, ii., 56. A watchman and an old Blind Woman, troubled with the palsy, drinking hot-pot together.

Hot-potato. To drop like a hot potato, verb. phr. (common).—To abandon (a pursuit, a person, a thing) with alacrity.

Hot-pudding. To have a hot-pudding for supper, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. Of women only. [Pudding (Durfey) = the penis]. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Hot-stomach. So hot a stomach as to burn the clothes off his back, phr. (old).—Said of one who pawns his clothes for drink.—Lex. Bal.

Hottentot, subs. (East-end). See quot.

1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, ch. x. The cry of Hottentots went round. ‘Hottentots’ is the playful way in this district of designating a stranger, that is to say, a stranger come from the West.

2. (common).—A fool. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

Hot-tiger, subs. (Oxford Univ.).—Hot-spiced ale and sherry.—Hotten.

Hot-water. To be in hot-water, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be in trouble, in difficulties, or worried.

1846. Punch’s Almanack, 29 Nov. The Times first printed by steam, 1814, and has kept the country in hot water ever since.

1864. Mark Lemon, Jest book, p. 238. Lord Allen, in conversation with Rogers, the poet, observed: ‘I never put my razor into hot water, as I find it injures the temper of the blade.’ ‘No doubt of it,’ replied Rogers; ‘show me the blade that is not out of temper when plunged into hot water.’

Hound, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—1. See quot.

1879. E. Walford, in N. and Q., 5 S., xii., 88. In the Anecdotes of Bowyer ... we are told that a hound of King’s College, Cambridge, is an undergraduate not on the foundation, nearly the same as a ‘sizar.’

2. (colloquial). A mean, contemptible fellow; a scoundrel; a filthy sneak.

Hounslow-heath, subs. (rhyming).—The teeth. For synonyms, see Grinders. Also Hampstead-heath.

1887. Dagonet in Referee, 7 Nov., p. 7, c. 3. She’d a Grecian ‘I suppose,’ And of Hampstead Heath two rows.

Houri of Fleet-street, subs. phr. (common).—A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

House, subs. (theatrical).—1. An audience. To bring down the house = to elicit a general burst of applause. Fr., avoir sa côtelette; boire du lait.

1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. House. With them (the players) it means Covent-garden or Drury-lane, or indeed any other theatre. ‘A full-house’ and ‘half-a-house’ indicate the state of the receipts or number of the audience.

1870. Athenæum, 13 Aug., p. 120. ‘Letter of J. O. Halliwell.’ It is now certain that Shakespeare was never proprietor of either (the Globe or Blackfriars) theatre. His sole interest in them consisted in a participation, as an actor in the receipts of what is called the house.

1873. Home News, 24 Jan. I exerted myself, not for praise of that well-dressed mob they called the house, but for very love of the congenial sport.

1892. Sydney Watson, Wops the Waif, ch. iii., p. 4. There was tremendous enthusiasm this evening. Every scene was uproariously applauded, and at the climax the whole house rose and cheered and encored with tumultuous feeling.

The House (colloquial).—(1) The Stock Exchange; (2) The House of Commons; (3) Christ Church, Oxford.

House under the hill, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

House (or apartments) to let, subs. phr. (common).—A widow.—Lex. Bal. Also Bill-of-Sale and Man-trap.

Father of the House, subs. phr. (Parliamentary).—The oldest elected member. See Babe.

House that Jack built, subs. phr. (common).—A prison. For synonyms, see Cage.

Like a house on fire, adv. phr. (common).—Quickly; with energy. See Like.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, ii., 85. I’m getting on like a regler house on fire.

Safe as houses, adv. phr. (common).—Perfectly safe.

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xxxii., p. 361 (1873). I have the means of doing that, as safe as houses.

1874. T. Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd, ch. lvii. ‘The clothes will floor us as safe as houses,’ said Coggan.

1886. Grant Allen, In All Shades, ch. i. Why, of course, then, that’s the explanation of it—as safe as houses, you may depend upon it.

1890. Grant Allen, Tents of Shem, ch. xxviii. You may make your forgery itself as safe as houses.

House-bit (or -keeper, or -piece), subs. (colloquial).—A servant-mistress.

House-dove, subs. (old).—A stay-at-home.

Household-brigade. To join the Household Brigade, verb. phr. (common).—To marry. For synonyms, see Splice.

1881. Home Tidings, April, p. 42, c. 1. Jem Ryan joined the household brigade on Easter Monday, E. New acting as best man.

House of Civil Reception, subs. phr. (old).—A brothel. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

House of Commons (or House of Office), subs. phr. (old).—A W.C. For synonyms, see Mrs. Jones.

1611. Chapman, May-Day, iv., 2. No room save you turn out my wife’s coal-house, and her other house of office attached to it, reserved for her and me sometimes, and will you use it being a stranger?

1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, c. xiii. Taking the candle in his hand, which he had left burning for the purpose, he went down to the house of office.

d. 1780. Robertson of Struan, Poems, 83. So to a House of Office straight a school-boy does repair, To ease his postern of its weight.

House-tailor, subs. (old).—An upholsterer.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. House-tailers, Upholsterers.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

Housewife (or Huswife, or Hussy), subs. (colloquial).—1. Primarily, a house-keeper. Hence (a) a domestic servant; (b) a wanton or a gad-about wench; and (c) a comic endearment. Hence, too, housewifery, subs., and housewife’s tricks = the habit of wantonness, the practice of men.

1508. Gawain and Gologras, ‘Ballade,’ (Pinkerton, Scottish Poems, 1792, iii.). A gude husy-wife ay rinning in the toun.

1589. Puttenham, English Poesie, 1589, ii., 16 (ed. Arber, p. 148). Half lost for lack of a good huswife’s looking to.

1600. Look about You, sc. 28 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 476). Huswife, I’ll have you whipped for slandering me.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, i., 2. I hope to see some housewife take thee between her legs and spin it off.

1659. Lady Alimony, iii., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 331). And if the hussy challenge more, Charm the maundering gossip with your roar. Idem. iii., 6. (p. 340). If I make not these haxters as hateful to our hussies as ever they were to us, their husbands, set me up for a Jack-a-Lent.

1672. Ray, Proverbs, s.v., Cat. Cats eat what hussies spare.

1673. Wycherly, Gentleman Dancing Master, iv., 1. What, hussy, would you not do as he’d have you?

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iv., 3. When I was of your age, hussy, I would have held fifty to one I could have drawn my own picture.

1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, i., 1. Hark you hussy. You can give yourself airs sometimes, you know you can.

1708. Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy-Body, iv., 2. I’ll charm you, housewife. Here lies the charm that conjured this fellow in.

1708. Prior, Poems (Aldine ed. ii., 270), ‘The Insatiable Priest.’ To suppress all his carnal desires in their birth At all hours a lusty young hussy is near.

1720. Swift, Poems, ‘A Portrait’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 448). A housewife in bed, at table a slattern.

1728. Swift, Poems, ‘My Lady’s Lamentations’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 460). Consider before You come to threescore, How the hussies will fleer Whene’er you appear.

1731. C. Coffey, The Devil to Pay, i. Don’t you know, hussy, that I am king in my own house.

1732. Henry Fielding, The Mock Doctor, i. Ay, hussy, a regular education; first at the charity-school where I learned to read.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, c. xviii. He supposed the object of his love was some paltry hussy, whom he had picked up when he was a boy at school.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘Chit-Chat.’ Lud! I could beat the hussey down, She’s poured it all upon my gown.

1768. Goldsmith, Good Natured Man, ii. And you have but too well succeeded, you little hussy, you.

1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (ed. 1800, p. 43). And I have been twice in the bath with mistress and na’r a smock upon our backs, hussy.

1782. Cowley, Bold Stroke for a Husband, i., 2. Don C. Now, hussy, what do you expect?

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1786. Burns, The Inventory. Frae this time forth I do declare, I’se ne’er ride horse nor hizzie mair.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxii. Say nothing of that, housewife, ... or I will beat thee—beat thee with my staff.

1829. C. A. Somerset, The Day After the Fair, i. Oh, you hussy! so you were Madame Maypole!

1893. R. le Gallienne, Intro. Liber Amoris, p. xliv. To think of poor Hazlitt gravely lavishing his choice Elizabethan quotations on the hussey.

2. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Housey, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Belonging to the Hospital.

Housle, verb. (Winchester College).—To hustle.

Hoveller, subs. (nautical).—A beach-thief.

How. How came you so? phr. (old).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1824. T. Hook, Sayings and Doings, 1st S. Merton, ch. xiii. Ould Mrs. Etherington was a right bad one; she used to be Lord, how come you so! every night, as regular as she went to bed.

How much? phr. (common).—‘What do you say?’ ‘What do you mean?’ What price?—a general request for explanations.

1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxxiv. ‘Then my answer must mainly depend on the exact height of the principles.’ ‘On the how much?’ inquired Frere, considerably mystified.

How are you off for soap, phr. (old).—A street catch.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. iv. Well, Reefer, how are you off for soap?

1842. Punch, ii., 94, c. 2. Walker! how are you off for soap?

How the blazes. See Blazes.

How is that for high. See High.

How’s your poor feet, phr. (streets’).—A street catch, of no particular meaning. See Street Cries.

1863. All the Year Round, x., 180. How’s your poor feet? a year ago cheated half the natives of Cockaigne into the belief that they were gifted with a special genius for repartee.

1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, p. 163 (1864). But how would you like a screeching multitude, fifty thousand strong, and with not one of whom, to the best of your knowledge, you had even a bowing acquaintance, to vociferate in your track—in the public street, mind—‘Ya-a-a-h! how are your poor feet?’

1890. Town and Country (Sydney), 11 Jan., p. 19, c. 4. Henry Irving’s revival of ‘The Dead Heart’ has revived a bit of slang.... When the play was brought out originally, where one of the characters says, ‘My heart is dead, dead, dead!’ a voice from the gallery nearly broke up the drama with How are your poor feet? The phrase lived.

How’ll you have it, phr. (common).—An invitation to drink. For synonyms, see Drinks.

How we apples swim (sometimes amplified by Quoth the horse-turd)! verb. phr. (old).—Said in derision of a parvenu; of a person in better company than he (or she) has any right to keep; or of a pretender to honour or credit he (or she) does not deserve.

1670. Ray, Proverbs, s.v.

1697–1764. Hogarth (Works by J. Ireland and J. Nichols, London, 1873) III., p. 29. And even this, little as it is, gives him so much importance in his own eyes, that he assumes a consequential air, sets his arms akimbo, and strutting among the historical artists cries, how we apples swim.

1860. Cornhill Mag. (D. Mallett, Tyburn), Dec., p. 737. While tumbling down the turbid stream, Lord, love us, how we apples swim.

Howard’s Garbage, subs. phr. (military).—The Nineteenth Foot. Also Green Howards.

Howard’s Greens, subs. phr. (military).—The Twenty-fourth Foot. [From its facings and its Colonel’s name, 1717–37.]

How-do-you-do, subs. (colloquial).—A ‘to do’; a ‘kettle of fish’; a ‘pass.’

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxvi. Thinks I, here’s a pretty how do you do; I’m in for it now, that’s a fact.

Howler, subs. (common).—An unblushing falsehood; an enormous blunder; a serious accident; and so forth. To come (or go) a howler = to come to grief; to run amuck.

1885. Daily News, 16 May, p. 4, c. 8. Now, to speak respectfully of old scholars that were before us, the translators of the Bible constantly made what undergraduates call howlers, or grievously impossible blunders.

1886. Stephens and Yardley, Little Jack Sheppard, p. 34. Jack. My dears, you’re late. Bess. Our hansom came a howler.

1888. Indoor Paupers, p. 24. As to how we are to spend the eight hours, or thereabouts, that remain after meals, church, and howlers are disposed of, nobody, except ourselves and a few private friends outside, cares in the least.

1891. Moonshine, 14 Mar. Oh, I saw some piece in which a Johnnie smoked some cigarettes, and at last came a howler, and wanted to commit suicide.

1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 Sep., p. 2, c. 3. We wondered yesterday how many of our classical readers would see the howler—or the joke.

Howling, adj. (common).—A general intensitive. E.g., Howling-swell = a man in the extreme of fashion; howling-lie = a gross falsehood; howling-bags = trousers extravagant in cut or pattern; howling-cad, etc.

1865. G. A. Sala, Trip to Barbary, ch. vii. The hotel at Marseilles was full of our countrymen of the order known at Lane’s and Limmer’s as howling swells.

1887. Household Words, 11 June, 116. Let’s hook it; that Jenny Morris is such an howling swell that she won’t wait for any one.

1889. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 8 Feb. The Hon. Juggins was what is popularly known as a howling swell.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 146. And all the while your heart was given to a howling cad.

Hoxter, subs. (old).—1. An inside pocket.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood bk. III., ch. v. No slour’d hoxter my snipes could stay.

2. (Royal Military Academy).—Extra drill. [Corruption of extra.] Fr., le bal.

1887. Barrère, Argot and Slang. The hoxter consists in the painful ordeal of being compelled to turn out of bed at an early hour, and march up and down under the watchful eye of a corporal.

Hoys. See Hoist.

Hoyt. See Hoit.

Hub, subs. (American).—1. Boston. Also, Hub of the Universe. [The description is Oliver Wendell Holmes’s.] Since extended to other centres or chief cities (see quot. 1876).

1869. Boston Herald, Dec. He is to have a quintette club of amateurs with him, from the Hub.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 4 July. Boston claims to be the Hub of the universe; but New York grandiloquently asserts itself to be the universal wheel itself.

1872. Daily Telegraph, Dec. The wealth of the Hub of the Universe, as Bostonians delight to call their city, is very great.

1876. Daily News, 18 Jan. Calcutta ... swaggers as if it were the hub of the Universe.

1888. Boston Daily Globe. The typical girl of the Hub has been much written about in the novels of the period, and without doubt she is worth all the attention bestowed upon her.

2. (colloquial).—A husband. See Hubby.

Hubble-bubble, subs. (colloquial).—1. See quots.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.). Hubble-Bubble (s.) a confused noise made by a talkative person, who speaks so quick, that it is difficult to understand what he says or means.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hubble-bubble. Confusion. A hubble bubble fellow, a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle.

2. (common).—A hookah; a pipe by which the smoke is passed through water.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hubble-bubble.... Also an instrument used for smoaking through water in the East Indies, called likewise a caloon and hooker.

1868. Ouida, Under Two Flags, ch. xxii. The Moor, warmly grateful, was ever ready to give him a cup of coffee and a hubble-bubble in the stillness of his dwelling.

1887. Field, 15 Oct. Off I went down the ravine, and half a mile below came to Besan quietly smoking his hubble-bubble.

1891. W. C. Russell, Ocean Tragedy, p. 130. A burning atmosphere sickly with the smell of the incense of the hubble-bubble, with a flavour of hot curry about.

Hubble-de-shuff, adv. (old).—Confusedly.—Lex. Bal.

Hubbub, subs. (old: now recognised).—See quots.

d. 1639. Robert Carey (Earl of Monmouth), Memoirs, 1759, p. 155. This made a great hub-bub in our Court.

1667. Milton, Paradise Lost, ii., 951. A universal hubbub wild, Of stunning sounds.

1682. Bunyan, Holy War (1893 ed. M. Peacock, p. 58). The conscience and understanding begin to receive conviction, and they set the soul in a hubbub.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hubbub, a Noise in the Streets made by the Rabble.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hubbub, a noise, riot, or disturbance.

1893. Westminster Gaz., 8 Aug., p. 2, col. 1. An indescribable hubbub of showmen’s, hawkers’, and children’s voices from near and far.

Hubby (or Hub), subs. (colloquial).—A husband.

1798. Morton, Secrets Worth Knowing. Epilogue. The wife poor thing, at first so blithe and chubby, Scarce knows again her lover in her hubby.

1807. Stevens, Wks., p. 175. What could hubby do then, what could hubby do? But sympathy-struck, as she cry’d, he cry’d too.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, ii., 3. Now, madam, this once was your hubby.

1883. Referee, 17 Apr., p. 3, c. 2. I did hear it whispered that her parents and guardians, or her horrified hubby, had turned the key on her.

Huck, verb. (old).—To chaffer; to bargain.

1577. Holinshead, Description of England, ed. 1807, i., 315. It was his custome likewise to saie, if anie man hucked hard with him about the price of a gelding: ‘So God helpe me ... either he did cost me so much,’ or else, ‘By Jesus I stole him.’

Huckleberry. Above one’s huckleberry (bend, or hook), adv. phr. (American).—Beyond one’s ability; out of one’s reach. See Bend.

1848. J. F. Cooper, The Oak Openings. It would be above my bend to attempt telling you all we saw among the red skins.

1852. ‘L’Allegro,’ As Good as a Comedy, p. 61. Well, Squire Barry, you’re a huckleberry above my persimmon, but I reckon something can be done.

Huckle-my-butt, subs. (old).—Beer, egg, and brandy made hot.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, iii., 5. ‘If that’s a bowl of huckle-my-butt you are brewing, Sir William,’ added he, addressing the knight of Malta, ‘you may send me a jorum at your convenience.’

Huckster, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A retailer of small goods; a pedlar.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Huckster, the Retailers of the Market, who Sell in the Market at second Hand.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hucksters, itinerant retailers of provisions.

2. (old).—A mean trickster.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

In huckster’s hands, adv. phr. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hucksters.... In huckster’s hands, at a desperate Pass, or Condition, or in a fair way to be Lost.

Hucksum (also Huckle, or Huckle-bone, or Huck-bone).—The hip.

c. 1508. Dunbar, Flyting (Poems, ed. 1834, ii., 72). With huck-bones harth and haw.

d. 1529. Skelton, Elynor Rummyn (Poems, 1843, i.). The bones of her huckels Lyke as they were buckels.

1575. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, i., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iii., 180). For bursting of her huckle-bone, or breaking of her shin.

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

Hue, verb. (old).—See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. The Cove was Hued in the Naskin, the Rogue was severely Lasht in Bridewell.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

Huey, subs. (Old Cant).—A town or village.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 231. ‘Where do you stall to in the huey?’ which, fairly translated, means, ‘Where do you lodge in the town?’

Huff, subs. (colloquial).—1. An outburst of temper; peevishness; offence at some real or imaginary wrong or slight. Hence, to get (or take) the huff = to fly into a passion.

1599. H. Porter, Two Angry Women of Abingdon (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 311). And as thou say’st to me, to him I said, But in a greater huff and hotter blood.

1676. Etherege, Man of Mode, Wks. (1704), i., 190. Tax her with the next fop that comes Into my head, and in a huff march away.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, Wks. (1720), iv., 63. If you were not the brother to my dearest friend, I know what my honour would prompt me to [walks in a huff].

1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, ii., 2. I offer’d her fifty guineas, and she was in her airs presently, and flew away in a huff.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. iv., p. 26. I pay’d three Shillings, in a Huff, For my half Pint of liquid Stuff.

1759–67. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ch. xxix. He left off the study of projectiles in a kind of huff, and betook himself to the practical part of fortification only. Idem. ch. c. Can I? cried Susannah, shutting the door in a huff.

1769. Chatterton, Poems, ‘Journal’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xv., 495). ‘Sir,’ quoth the Rector in a huff.

1777. Sheridan, Trip to Scarborough, i., 1. The lady not condescending to give me any serious reasons for having fooled me for a month, I left her in a huff.

1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, bk. II., ch. 16. What a huff you’re at! I only axed a question.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xx. He is as proud as Lucifer, he is always taking huff about one thing or the other.

1855. Browning, Men and Women, ‘Fra Lippo Lippi’ (Ed. 1864, p. 357). You’ll not mistake an idle word Spoke in a huff by a poor monk?

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 30. Already my goodness! he’s taking the huff.

1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 37. Some parties in a huff rage At the plea for Female Suffrage.

2. (old).—A bully; a Hector (q.v.); a sharper. Also Captain Huff.

1569. Preston, Cambises (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, iv., 177). [Enter three ruffians, huff, Ruff, and Snuff.]

1680. Cotton, Complete Gamester, p. 333. Huffs, hectors, setters, gilts, pads, biters, etc.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, iv., 9. Good, slovenly Captain Huff, Bluffe (what is your hideous name?).

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

3. (common).—A dodge; a trick.

4. (draughts’).—A term in the game of draughts; the penalty for not taking a piece.

5. (Winchester College).—See Huff-cap.

Verb. (colloquial).—1. To bluster; to bounce; to swagger.

1607. How a Man May Choose a Good Wife, etc., iv., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 78). A huffing wench i’ faith.

1630. Taylor, Workes. The smell is the senting bawd, that huffs and snuffs up and downe, and hath the game alwayes in the winde. Ibid. One asked a huffing gallant why hee had not a looking-glasse in his chamber; he answered, he durst not, because hee was often angry, and then he look’d so terribly that he was fearefull to looke upon himselfe.

d. 1631. Donne, Satires, iv. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, v., 158). To th’ huffing, braggart, puffed nobility.

1643. Randolph, Muses Looking-Glasse, i., 1. Flowrd. Iniquity aboundeth, though pure zeal Teach, preach, huffe, puffe, and snuffe at it, yet still, Still it aboundeth.

1673. Wycherley, Gentleman Dancing Master, v., 1. How! my surly, huffing, jealous, senseless, saucy master.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife. ‘Prologue.’ Well, let the vain rash fop, by huffing so, Think to obtain the better terms of you.

1680. Dryden, Prol. to Lee’s Cæsar Borgia, p. 29. So big you look, though claret you retrench, That, armed with bottled ale, you huff the French.

d. 1680. Rochester, Poems, ‘Woman’s Honour’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, viii., 239). This huffing honour domineers In breasts when he alone has place.

1682. Bunyan, Holy War (ed. M. Peacock, 1893, p. 72). He refused and huffed as well as he could, but in heart he was afraid.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Huff. To huff and ding, to bounce and swagger.

1690. The Pagan Prince. And the same threats and menaces of the palatine being carry’d to the marshal de Tonneure, notwithstanding all his former encomiums, Oh! quo he, the palatine’s a young prince; give him leave to huff and ding for his living; words break no bones: when all’s done, ’tis the coach wheel, not the fly that raises the dust.

1699. Robert Franck, Northern Memoirs (quoted in New Review, Aug., 1893, p. 145). So huffed away.

1700. Mrs. Centlivre, Perjured Husband. ‘Epilogue.’ Let cowards cease to huff.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. iii., p. 14. And in their frenzy, huff and threaten With what sad stripes we shall be beaten.

1708. Prior, Poems, ‘The Mice.’ (Aldine ed. ii., 244, 50). One went to Holland where they huff folk, T’other to vend his wares in Suffolk.

1714. Newest Academy of Compliments. Pray neighbour, why d’ye look awry? You’re grown a wondrous stranger; You huff, you pout, you walk about As tho’ you’d burst with anger.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 283. Thus, thus I strut and huff. Idem., i., 154. But when the new ones did stoop, The t’other as huffing would be. Idem., v., 99. When Bullies leave huffing and Cowards their Trembling.

1725. Swift, Poems, ‘A New Song’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 446). If he goes to the baker’s the baker will huff, And twenty pence ask for a twopenny loaf.

d. 1742. Somerville, Occasional Poems, ‘The Officious Messenger’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 206). Her ladyship began to huff.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

2. To anger; to cheek (q.v.); to get angered.

1708. Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy-Body, iii., 4. Impossible, without he huffs the lady, and makes love to Sir Francis.

1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, ch. xliii. Upon this she huffs outright, and tells Tom he may go about his business, for she didn’t care if she never sees him no more.

1839. W. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 133 (Ed. 1840). If they do, now and then, run away with a knocker, paint a sign, beat the watch, or huff a magistrate.

Intj. (obsolete).—See quots. Also Huffa and Huffa-gallant. [Probably the oldest form of the word.]

c. 1510. Rastell, Four Elements (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 20). With huffa gallant, tirl on the berry, And let the wide world wind.

c. 152(?). Hick Scorner (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, i., 188). Huff! huff! huff! who sent after me.

d. 1529. Skelton, Poems, ‘Against Garnesche’ (Dyce, i., 118, and note ii., 181–2). Huf a galante, Garneysche, loke on your comely ars.

To stand the huff, verb. phr. (old).—To stand the reckoning.—Lex. Bal.

Also Huffy = easily offended; Huffed = annoyed; Huffily = testily; in a tantrum.

1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, bk. II., ch. 15. A leetle on the huffy order, I guess! Aint you?

1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. xvi. I ... actually was so cruel as to restrict him to one dozen of my cambric handkerchiefs. Dolph was particularly huffy about it, and I had to talk to him like a father to bring him round.

1853. Lytton, My Novel, bk. I., ch. ix. Though the Squire was inclined to be very friendly to all his neighbours, he was, like most country gentlemen, rather easily huffed.

1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, ch. xxxvi. ‘I have no doubt you would!’ say I, turning sharply and huffily away.

1875. Ouida, Signa, vol. II., ch. xx., p. 324. ‘She is a stupid little mule,’ thought the old woman, angrily. ‘She feels nothing, she sees no greatness in it all—she is only good to grub amongst her cabbages.’ And she went away huffed.

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 31. huffed is he, eh? And who regards him?

Huff-cap (or Huff), subs. (Old Cant: still in use at Winchester College).—1. Strong ale. [‘From inducing people to set their caps in a bold and huffing style.’—Nares.]

1579. Fulwell, Art of Flattery. Commonly called Hufcap, it will make a man look as though he had seene the devil.

1586. Holinshed, Description of England. These men hale at Huff-cap till they be red as cockes and little wiser than their combes.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Bullen, Works, 1889, p. 247). Hunks detests when huffcap ale he tipples.

1614. Greene, Looking-Glass [Dyce], p. 127. The ale is strong ale, ’tis hufcap; I warrant you, ’twill make a man well.

1630. Taylor, Wks. And this is it, of ale-houses and innes, Wine-marchants vintners, brewers, who much wins By others losing, I say more or lesse, Who sale of hufcap liquor doe professe.

1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 180. Washed down by libations of Huff.

1878. Adams, Wykehamica, s.v. Huff, the strong ale brewed by the College.

2. (old).—A swaggering bully; a Hector (q.v.).

1596. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v., 306). The huff-cappes to drink in that house, thou shalt be sure of always.

1630. Taylor, Wks. But ’tis a maxime mortals cannot hinder, The doughty deeds of Wakefield’s huffe-cap Pinder Are not so pleasant as the faire Aurora, When Nimrod rudely plaid on his bandora.

1687. Clifford, Notes upon Dryden, letter 2. Prethee tell me true, was not this huff-cap once the Indian emperour, and at another time did not he call himself Maximine?

1706. Farquhar, Recruiting Officer, v., 6. You have made a fine speech good Captain Huff-cap.

Adj. (old).—Swaggering; blustering; rousing.

1597. Hall, Satires, i., 3. Graced with huff-cap terms and thundering threats.

Huffer, subs. (old).—A swaggerer.

1682. Banks, Vertue Betrayed, Prol. lines 23–4. Welcome mask-teazer, peevish gamster, huffer: All fools, but politicians, we can suffer.

1770. Lord Hailes, Ancient Scottish Poetry, note on ‘Seven Deadly Sins,’ line 34. Huffers (or threateners), boasters, and they who pick quarrels.

Huffle, verb. (venery).—1. To bag-pipe (q.v.).

2. (colloquial).—To shift; to hesitate; to waver.

Huff-snuff, subs. (old).—A person apt to take offence.

1592. Nashe, Strange News, etc. (Grosart, Works, ii., 184). Gabriel Huffe-Snuffe Knowne to the world for a foole, and clapt in the Fleete for a poet.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Risentito.... Also a huffe snuffe, one that will soone take pepper in the nose, that will revenge euerie small matter.

1750. Ozell, Rabelais, iv., pref. xxiii. Freebooters, desperadoes, and bullying huff-snuffs.

Huftie-tuftie, adj. (old).—Swaggering; gallant.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden (Grosart, Works, iii., 106). Came a ruffling it out, huftie-tuftie, in his velvet suit.

1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, (Grosart, Works, v., 250). Huftie-tuftie youthful ruffling comrades, wearing every one three yards of feathers in his cap for his mistres’ favour.

Hug, subs. (thieves’).—Garrotting (q.v.). Also verbally, and to put on the hug.

1864. Home Magazine, 16 Mar. Hoax upon hoax about the putting on the hug was played off upon a credulous and bugbear-loving community.

2. (old).—The sexual embrace. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride. Also the close hug.

1659. Lady Alimony, ii., ‘Prologue’ (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 288). Apt for a spousal hug.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 163. They’ve a new drug Which is called the close hug.

Verb. (colloquial).—Properly to grapple with and hold the body, as a bear with his fore-paws. Hence (1) to cuddle; and (2) to perform the sexual embrace (see subs., sense 2). Hence, also, to hug brown bess (q.v.); to hug the gunner’s daughter = to cuddle a gun for punishment; to hug the ground = to fall, or be hit off one’s legs; to give the hug (pugilists) = to close with and grapple the body; to hug the shore (or bank, or wall) to keep close to; cornish hug = a hold in wrestling; to hug a belief (or delusion, or thought) = to cherish; to hug one’s chains = to delight in captivity.

1696. Landsdowne, Poems, ‘Prologue to The She-Gallants’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., p. 36). Then, like some pensive statesman, treads demure, And smiles and hugs to make distinction sure.

1602. Campion, English Poesy (Buller, Works, 1889, p. 249). Changed is Helen. Helen hugs the stranger.

1631. Drayton, The Mooncalf (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, iv., 133). Hug him, and swear he was her only joy.

1637. Beaumont and Fletcher, Elder Brother, iv., 1. This night I’ll hug my Lilly in my arms.

d. 1649. Drummond, Posthumous Poems, ‘Of a Kiss.’ Nor her who had the fate Ravis’d to be and hugged on Ganges’ shore.

1659. Lady Alimony, iv. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 288a). Shall we hug none of our own, But such as drop from the frigid zone.

c. 1708. W. King, The Art of Love, Pt. iv. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 266). Then hugging her in brawny arm.

d. 1710. R. Duke, Poems, ‘A Song’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, ix., 224). Close hugs the charmer, and ashamed to yield, Though he has lost the day yet keeps the field. Idem. She hugs the dart that wounded her, and dies.

d. 1742. Somerville, Occasional Poems, etc., ‘The Fortune-Hunter,’ canto iii. (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 221). Drinks double bub with all his might And hugs his doxy every night.

1746. Smollett, Advice, line 4. We’ll hug the curse that not one joy can boast.

d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), ‘The Cit’s County Box.’ Hugging themselves in ease and clover.

d. 1773. G. Cunningham, Poems, ‘Holiday-Gown’ (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xiv., 441). He hugs me so close, and he kisses so sweet.

1791. Antient and Modern Scottish Songs, ‘My Jockey is a Bonnie Lad,’ ii., 325. And then he fa’s a kissing, clasping, hugging, squeezing, tousling, pressing, winna let me be.

d. 1796. Burns, The Jolly Beggars. And at night in barn or stable, hugs our doxies on the hay.

Hugger-mugger, subs. (colloquial).—Muddle; confusion.

1868. C. Reade, Foul Play, ch. vii. Why didn’t you tell me, and I’d have tidied the room: it is all hugger-mugger, with miss a leaving.

1885. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 36. And every place as neat as a pin, And couldn’t stand no hugger-mugger.

1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Oct., p. 2, c. 2. He wrote some lampoons in the papers at the time, in which he ridiculed the hugger-mugger of the prosecution.

Adv. (old).—See quots.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hugger-Mugger, Closely or by Stealth, Underboard: To eat so, that is, to Eat by one’s self.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hugger-Mugger, by stealth, privately, without making an appearance; they spent their money in a hugger-mugger way.

Adj. (common).—Confused; disorderly; hap-hazard; hand-to-mouth (q.v.).

1882. Daily Telegraph, 5 Oct., p. 2, c. 2. Nor, can they be very severely blamed for this hugger-mugger, slipshod way of life.

Verb. (common).—To meet by stealth; to lay heads together.

1879. Justin McCarthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xxxii. I can see already that she won’t stand much more of you and me hugger-muggering together.

In hugger-mugger, adv. phr. (old).—1. In secret.

1565. Stapleton, Fort. of the Faith, fol. 88. They should not have lurked all this while in hucker-mucker.

1588. J. Udall, Demonstration of Discipline, p. 30. (ed. Arber). The Byshop without any lawfull election, is chosen in huggermuger of the canons, or prebendaries onely, without the knowledge of the people.

1594. Nashe, Unfortunate Traveller (Grosart, Works, v., 19). Myself that am but a poore childish wel-willer of yours, with the vain thought that a man of your desert and state by a number of pesants and varlets should be so incuriously abused in hugger-mugger haue wept al my vrine upward.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden (Grosart, Works, iii., 181). Hee sent her 18 pence in hugger-mugger, to pay the fiddlers.

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iv., 5. King. ... We have done but greenly, In hugger-mugger to inter him.

1602. Dekker, Satiromastix, iii., 133 (Dodsley, Old Plays, viii., 48). One word, sir Quintilian, in hugger-mugger.

1607. Tourneur, Revenger’s Trag. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875), v., i. And how quaintly he died, like a politician, in hugger-mugger.

1611. Coryat, Crud., ii., p. 251, repr. So these perhaps might sometimes have some furtive conversation in hugger mugger.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Verb (colloquial).—To hang about; to mooch (q.v.).

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

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

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

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

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hulver-head, a silly Foolish fellow.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hulver Headed, silly, puzzle-pated.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

2. (common).—A trick; a delusion; a cheat. Also a lie.

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

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

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

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

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hum—a whispered lie.

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

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

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

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

3. (old).—See quot.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

Verb (old).—1. To cheat; to bamboozle; to quiz (q.v.).

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

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

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

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

2. (old).—To mumble.

d. 1842. Maginn, Vidocq Versified. To hear Old Cotton humming his pray.

To hum and haw, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To hesitate, to raise objections.

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

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

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

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

1620. Massinger, Fatal Dowry, iv., 1. Do you stand Humming and hahing now?

d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1759), ii., 103. He hums and hahs.

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

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 332. Mongst humans by Court dunning.

1783–5. Cowper, Task, ii., line 105. And agonies of human and of brute.

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

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

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

Humber-keels. See Billy-Boy.

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

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

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

Hum-Box, subs. (common).—1. A pulpit.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

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

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

2. (American).—An auctioneer’s rostrum.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1828. Webster, Eng. Dict., s.v.

2. Deceit; pretence; affectation.

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

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

3. A cheat; an impostor; a pretender. Also (old), hummer.

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

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

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

Verb. To hoax; to swindle; to cajole.

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

2. Monotony; tameness; dullness.

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

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

3. (old).—The same as Humbug (q.v.).

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

4. (old).—A wife; also a husband.

Adj. Dull; tame; commonplace; monotonous.

1702. Vanbrugh, False Friend, ii. A very humdrum marriage this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. (common).—Needless noise; ado about nothing.

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

Humdurgeoned, adj. (old).—Annoyed.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford. Don’t be humdurgeoned but knock down a gemman.

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

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

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

Hummer, subs. (old).—1. See quot.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hummer, a loud Lie, a Rapper.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

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

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

3. (obsolete).—See Humbug, sense 3.

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

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Humming Liquor, Double Ale, Stout, Pharoah.

1701. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, iv., 2. The wine was humming strong.

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

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

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. A humming double pot of ale.

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

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

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

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

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

1886. Daily Telegraph, 1 Jan. Ladies whom I have met humping their own drums.

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

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

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

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

3. (old).—See quot. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Humpey, subs. (Australian).—See quot.

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

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

To dine with Duke Humphrey. See Dine, Sir Thomas Gresham, and Knights.

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

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

2. (old).—See quot. 1690.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Humptey Dumptey, Ale boild with Brandy.

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

1786. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

Adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Short and thick; all of a heap; all together.

Hum-strum, subs. (old).—See quot.

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

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

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hunch, to justle, or thrust.

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

Hung. See Well-hung.

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

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

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

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

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

2. (Old Cant).—A freebooter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

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

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

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

To hunt leather, verb. phr. (cricketers’).—To field at cricket.

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

To hunt the dummy, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To steal pocket books.

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

To hunt the squirrel, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.

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

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

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

2. (common).—A walking whore.

Hunt-counter, subs. (old).—A beggar.

1623. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., i., 2. You hunt-counter, hence! Avaunt!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

1886. Max Adeler, Out of the Hurly-Burly. Title.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, i., 1. ’Tis a hurrydurry blade.

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

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

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

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

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

c. 1867. Vance, Broadside Ballad. ‘The Husband’s Boat.’

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

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

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

Hush, verb. (old).—To kill.—Grose.

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

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

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

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.), s.v.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Adj. (American).—Stout; well built.

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

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hutter. See Hatter.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

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

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

End of Vol. III.

LONDON HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS, ST. MARTIN’S LANE.

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