part II
. In print my panegyrics fill the street, And hired gaol-birds, their huzzas repeat.
1762. Smollett, L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. ix. He is become a blackguard gaol-bird.
1857. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. xi. The gaol-birds who piped this tune were without a single exception the desperate cases of this moral hospital; they were old offenders.
1882. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Oct. Liberating the gaol-birds in Alexandria.
Gaoler’s Coach, subs. phr. (old).—A hurdle to the place of execution.
1785. Grose. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Gap, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum: also Sportsman’s gap and water-gap (q.v.). For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
d. 1746. Robertson of Struan, Poems, p. 84. O gracious Hymen! Cure this dire Mishap, Sew up this mighty rent, or fill the gap.
To blow the gap, verb. phr. (old).—The same as to blow the gaff (q.v.).
1821. Egan, Real Life, etc., i., 557. He should like to smack the bit without blowing the gap.
Gaper, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Also, Gaper (and Gape) over the Garter. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
Gapes, subs. (colloquial).—A fit of yawning; also the open mouth of astonishment.
1818. Austen, Persuasion. Another hour of music was to give delight or the gapes.
1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker (ed. 1862), p. 373. But what gave me the gapes was the scenes (at the theatre).
Gapeseed, subs. (common).—1. A cause of astonishment; anything provoking the ignorant to stare with open mouth. Also to seek a gape’s nest.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Ansanare ... to go idly loytring vp and downe as we say, to go seeking for a halfepenie worth of gaping seede.
1600. Nashe, Summer’s Last Will, in wks. (Grosart), vi., 144. That if a fellow licensed to beg, Should all his life time go from faire to faire, And buy gapeseede, having no businesse there.
1690. B. E., Cant. Crew. Gapeseed, whatever the gazing crowd idly stares and gapes after; as Puppet-shows, Rope-dancers, Monsters and Mountebanks, anything to feed the eye.
1694. Poor Robin. ’Tis plainly clear, They for their gapes-seed do pay dear.
1856. N. and Q., 2 S 1., 362. Plenty of persons were sowing gapeseed.
1870. B. F. Clark, Mirthfulness p. 24. Do you wish to buy some gapeseed?
1884. Daily News, 8 Oct. Title (at head of sporting column).
2. (common).—An open-mouthed loiterer.
1885. Sportsman, June 23, p. 2, c. 4. The yearlings bred by Messrs. Graham were offered to a rather select audience of buyers, though the ring was surrounded by a fairly strong crowd of gapeseeds.
Gapped, ppl. adj. (old).—Worsted; floored (q.v. for synonyms).
1753. Richardson, Sir Chas. Grandison. I will never meet at hard-edge with her; if I did ... I should be confoundedly gapped.
Gap-Stopper, subs. (old).—1. A whoremaster. For synonyms, see Molrower.
2. (venery).—The penis. [Gap = female pudendum]. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.
Gar. See by gar!
Garble, to garble the coinage, verb. phr. (old).—See quot. [Garble = to pick and choose.]
1875. Jevons, Money, etc., p. 81. A practice amongst money-lenders of picking out the newest coins of full weight for export or re-melting, and passing the light ones into circulation.
Garden, subs. (various).—1. (greengrocers’, fruiterers’, etc.) = Covent Garden Market; 2. (theatrical) = Covent Garden Theatre; 3. (diamond merchants’) = Hatton Garden. Cf., House, Lane, etc.
[The Garden (= Covent Garden) was frequently used for the whole neighbourhood, which was notorious as a place of strumpets and stews. Thus, Garden-house = a brothel; Garden-goddess = a woman of pleasure; Garden-gout = the pox or clap; Garden-whore = a low prostitute, etc.]
1733. Bailey, Erasmus. When young men by whoring, as it commonly falls out, get the pox, which, by the way of extenuation, they call the Common Garden-gout.
1782. Geo. Parker, Humorous Sketches, p. 90 No more the Garden female orgies view.
1851–61. W. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. I., p. 85. Not only is the Garden itself all bustle and activity, but the buyers and sellers stream to and from it in all directions, filling every street in the vicinity.
1884. Jas. Payn, in Cornhill Mag., Mar., p. 257. She [Miss O’Neill] talked of the Garden and ‘the Lane,’ and was very fond of recitation.
1890. Tit-Bits, 29 Mar., p. 389, c. 1. Let me describe the Garden. A long, straight street, stretching almost due north and south, from Holborn Circus to Clerkenwell Road. Ibid. c. 2. The cut stones are chiefly sold to the large dealers in the Garden.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum. [The simile is common to all nations, ancient and modern. Shakspeare, in Sonnet 16, seems to play upon this double meaning; e.g., Now stand you on the top of happy hours; And many maiden-gardens, yet unset, With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers.] Also garden of eden. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
To put one in the garden, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To defraud a confederate; to keep back part of the Regulars (q.v.), or Swag (q.v.).
Gardener, subs. (common).—1. An awkward coachman. [In allusion to the gardener who on occasion drives the carriage.] Cf., Tea-kettle Coachman.
1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock. Noon: Par. I. He can drive neither to the right nor to the left, nor backwards nor forwards.... A sarcastic saloon omnibus driver behind jeeringly bids him keep moving, accompanying the behest by the aggressive taunt of gard’ner.
2. (venery).—The penis. Garden (q.v.) = female pudendum. Also Garden-engine. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.
Garden-gate, subs. phr. (rhyming).—1. A magistrate. For synonyms, see Beak.
2. (venery).—The labia minora. [Garden-hedge = the pubic hair.]
Garden-Latin, subs. (colloquial).—Barbarous or sham Latin. Also Apothecaries’, Bog, Dog, and Kitchen-Latin.
Garden-Rake, subs. phr. (common).—A tooth-comb. Also scratching-rake or rake.
Gardy-Loo, subs. (old Scots).—A warning cry; ‘take care!’ [Fr. gardez’ (vous de) l’eau! Used before emptying slops out of window into the street. Hence the act of emptying slops itself, as in quotation dated 1818.]
1771. Smollet, Humphry Clinker, (British Novelists), xxxi., p. 57. At ten o’clock the whole cargo is flung out of a back windore that looks into some street or lane, and the maid calls gardy-loo to the passengers, which signifies ‘Lord have mercy on you!’
1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxvii. She had made the gardy-loo out of the wrong window.
Gargle, subs. (formerly medical students’, now common).—A drink; also generic. Cf., Lotion, and for synonyms, see Go.
1889. Sporting Times, 3 Aug., p. 3, c. 1. We’re just going to have a gargle—will you join us?
Verb. (common).—To drink; to ‘liquor up.’ For synonyms, see Drinks and Lush.
1889. Sporting Times, 3 Aug., p. 5. c. 5. We gargled....
1891. Morning Advertiser, 2 Mar. It’s my birthday; let’s gargle.
Gargle-Factory, subs. (common).—A public house. For synonyms, see Lush Crib.
Garn, intj. (vulgar).—A corruption of Go on! Get away with you!
1888. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 80. Garn, you farthin’ face! She your neck.
1892. Ally Sloper, 19 Mar., p. 90, c. 3. Gar’n, you men ain’t got no sense.
1892. National Observer, 6 Feb. p. 307, c. 2. And so simple is the dictum, so redolent of the unlettered Arry that we long to add garn, oo’re you gettin’ at?
Garnish, subs. (old).—1. A fee or footing (q.v.); specifically one exacted by gaolers and old prisoners from a newcomer. The practice was forbidden by 4 Geo. IV., c. 43, sec. 12. Also Garnish-Money.
1592. Greene, Quip, in works, xi., 256. Let a poore man be arrested into one of the counters [prisons] ... he shall be almost at an angel’s charge, what with garnish [etc.].
1606. T. Dekker, Seven Deadly Sinnes, p. 28 (Arber’s ed.). So that the Counters are cheated of Prisoners, to the great dammage of those that shoulde have their morning’s draught out of the garnish.
1632. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, v. 6. You are content with the ten thousand pounds Defalking the four hundred garnish-money?
1704. Steele, Lying Lover, Act iv., Sc. iv. But there is always some little trifle given to prisoners, they call garnish.
1752. Fielding, Amelia, Bk. I., ch. iii. Mr. Booth ... was no sooner arrived in the prison, than a number of persons gathered round him, all demanding garnish.
1759. Goldsmith, The Bee, No. 5, p. 385 (Globe ed.). There are numberless faulty expenses among the workmen—clubs, garnishes, freedoms, and such like impositions.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xliv. [Jailor loq.] Thirty shillings a week for lodgings, and a guinea for garnish.
2. (thieves’).—Fetters; handcuffs. For synonyms, see Darbies.
Verb. (thieves’).—To fit with fetters: to handcuff.
Garret, subs. (common).—1. The head; cockloft (q.v.); or upper storey (q.v.). For synonyms, see crumpet.
1625. Bacon, Apothgm, No. 17. My Lord St. Albans said that wise Nature did Never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories high, and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty heads.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1837. Barham, Ingold. Leg. What’s called the claret Flew over the garret.
2. (old).—The fob-pocket.
To have one’s garret unfurnished, verb. phr. (common). To be crazy, stupid, lumpish. For synonyms, see Apartments and Balmy.
Garreteer, subs. (thieves’). A thief whose speciality is to rob houses by entering skylights or garret-windows. Also dancer and dancing-master. For synonyms, see thieves.
2. (journalists’).—An impecunious author; a literary hack.
1849–61. Macaulay, Hist. of Eng., ch. xxv. Garreteers, who were never weary of calling the cousin of the Earls of Manchester and Sandwich an upstart.
1886. Shelley (quoted in Dowden’s Life), i., 47. Show them that we are no Grub-street garreteers.
1892. National Observer, 18 Mar., p. 453. Has proclaimed urbi et orbi that governments have no business to manufacture specious sentiment by greasing the palms of ignorant and greedy garreteers.
Garret-master, subs. (trade).—A cabinet-maker who works on his own account, selling his manufacture to the dealers direct.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii., p. 376. These trading operatives are known by different names in different trades. In the shoe trade, for instance, they are called ‘chamber-masters,’ in the cabinet trade garret-masters, and in the cooper’s trade the name for them is ‘small trading-masters.’
Garrison-hack, subs. (common).—1. A woman given to indiscriminate flirtation with officers at a garrison.
1889. Daily Telegraph, 14 Feb. Lord Normantower, Philip’s dearest friend, to whom she, when a garrison-hack, had been engaged, and whom she had thrown over simply because he was poor and prospectless.
1890. Athenæum, 8 Feb., p. 176, c. 1. The heroine is a garrison-hack, but the hero is an Australian.
2. (common).—A prostitute; a soldier’s trull. For synonyms, see Barrack Hack and Tart.
Garrotte, subs. (common).—A form of strangulation (see verb). [From the Spanish la garrota = a method of capital punishment, which consists in strangulation by means of an iron collar.]
Verb. (common).—1. A method of robbery with violence, much practised some years ago. The victims were generally old or feeble men and women. Three hands were engaged: the front-stall who looked out in that quarter, the back-stall at the rear, and the ugly or nasty-man who did the work by passing his arm round his subject’s neck from behind, and so throttling him to insensibility.
1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of Lond. Committed for trial for garrotting and nearly murdering a gentleman.
1873. Trollope, Phineas Redux, ch. xlvi. In those days there had been much garrotting in the streets.
2. (cards).—To cheat by concealing certain cards at the back of the neck.
Garrotter, subs. (common).—A practitioner of garrotting (under verb, sense 1.)
1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London, p. 201. The delectable epistle was written by garrotter Bill to his brother.
Garrotting. 1. See Garrotte (verb, sense 1).
2. (gamblers’).—Hiding a part of one’s hand at the back of the neck for purposes of cheating.
Garter, subs. (nautical).—1. in. pl. the irons, or bilboes. For synonyms, see Darbies.
To get over the Garter, verb. phr. (venery).—To take liberties with a woman.
To Fly or Prick the Garter. See Prick the Garter.
Garvies, subs. (Scots’).—1. Sprats. Sometimes Garvie-Herring.
1845. P. Alloa, Statis. Acc., viii., 597. They are often very successful in taking the smaller fish, such as herrings, garvies or sprats, sparlings or smelts.
2. (military).—The Ninety-fourth Foot. [From the small stature of the earlier recruits.]
1869. Notes and Queries, 4 S. iii., p. 349. Garvie. The soubriquet points to the low average height of the recruits in the Fifeshire regiments, which, however, may not now be the case, since recruiting has become less local.
Gas, subs. (common).—Empty talk; bounce; bombast.
1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 120. The boys said that was all gas to scare them off.
1867. Chambers’ Jour., 29 June. I’ve piped off Sabbath gas in my time I don’t deny, but under the woods we mostly tell the truth.
1868. Chambers’ Jour., 15 Feb., p. 110. I don’t, an’ never could splice ends with them as blow off gas about gold-digging—saying it’s plunder easy come an’ easy gone, seeking the root of evil, an’ other granny talk which hasn’t no meaning.
a. 1871. Emerson (quoted in De Vere’s Amer.). ’Tis odd that our people should have not water on the brain, but a little gas there.
1889. Globe, 31 Oct., p. 4, c. 4. It went on to state that the petitioner’s talk about a divorce was all gas, and made a further appointment.
Verb. (common).—1. To talk idly; to brag; to bounce; to talk for talking’s sake. Fr., faire son cheval de corbillard (in American ‘to be on the tall grass.’) See Long Bow.
1872. Lond. Figaro, 14 Dec. There is no good to be got out of gassing about rallying around standards, uniting as one man to resist, etc.
1875. ‘American English’ in Chambers’ Jour., 25 Sept., p. 610. To gas is to talk only for the purpose of prolonging a debate.
1885. Society, 7 Feb., p. 7. Agitators and place-seekers may gas as much as they please, but they cannot make black appear white.
2. (common).—To impose on by ‘gas’; to pill (q.v.); to splash (q.v.). For synonyms, see Gammon.
To take the gas out of one, verb. phr. (common).—To take the conceit out of; to take down a peg.
To turn on the gas, verb. phr. (common).—To begin bouncing; also to Gas (q.v.).
To turn off the gas, verb. phr. (common).—To cease, or cause to cease, from bouncing, vapouring, or Gas (q.v.).
To gas round, verb. phr. (common).—To seek information on the sly; also to Gas (q.v.).
Gas-Bag, subs. (common).—A man of words or gas (q.v.); a gasconader. Also gasometer. For synonyms, see Mouth Almighty.
1889. Referee, 6 Jan. That great gas-bag of modern days.
Gash, subs. (American).—1. The mouth. For synonyms, see potato-trap.
1878. H. B. Stowe, Poganuc People, ch. xiv., p. 122. Ef Zeph Higgins would jest shet up his gash in town-meetin’, that air school-house could be moved fast enough.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
Gashly, adj. (common).—A vulgarism for ghastly.
Gaskins, subs. (old).—Wide hose; wide breeches. [From Galligaskins. Johnson says, ‘an old ludicrous word.’]
Gasp, subs. (common).—A dram of spirits. For synonyms, see Go.
Verb. (common).—To drink a dram, e.g., ‘Will you gasp?’ = Will you take something neat.
Gaspipe, subs. (nautical).—1. An iron steamer, whose length is nine or ten times her beam. [At one time a ship’s length but rarely exceeded four and a half to five times the beam.]
2. (printers’).—Bad rollers.
3. (common).—A rifle; specifically the Snider.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 9 July, p. 5, col. 7. The old Snider—the despair-breeding gas-pipe of our Volunteers—continues to be used in many of the competitions.
Gaspipe-crawler, subs. phr. (common).—A thin man. Cf., Lamp-post.
Gasser, subs. (common).—A braggart. For synonyms, see Mouth Almighty.
Gassy (or Gaseous), adj. (common).—1. Likely to take umbrage or to flare-up.
1863. North American Review, cxliii., p. 220. Gassy politicians in Congress.
2. (colloquial).—Full of empty talk or gas (q.v.).
1872. Whitney, Life and Growth of Lang., p. 17. As when we call an empty and sophistical but ready talker gassy.
Gaster, subs. (nonce-word).—A fine and curious eater (Thackeray). In Rabelais = the belly and the needs thereof: a coinage adopted by Urquhart.
Gat, subs. (schoolboys’).—A quantity; e.g., a gat of grub = plenty to eat. Also gats.
1803. Every-day Life in our Public Schools. They are called up in gats of three at a time.
Gate, subs. (colloquial).—1. The attendance at a race or athletic meeting, held in enclosed grounds; the number of persons who pass the gate.
1883. Sportsman, 20 Dec. The Birmingham man, on account of the large gate that would be secured, wanted the affair to be brought off in that town, whereas Regan favoured Wolverhampton.
2. Money paid for admission to athletic sports, race course, etc.; the same as gate-money (q.v.).
1891. Telegraph, 21 Mar. The leading clubs are now commercial corporations, dependent for revenue on the gates at the matches.
3. in. pl. (University).—The being forbidden to pass outside the gate of a college. See verb, sense 1.
18(?). Bradley, Tales of College Life, p. 19. That’s the ticket; that will just land me in time for gates.
1881. Lang, xxxii Ballades, ‘Of Midsummer Term.’ When freshmen are careless of gates. Verb. (University).—To confine wholly or during certain hours within the college gate for some infraction of discipline.
1835. The Snobiad (Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 141). Two proctors kindly holding either arm Staunch the dark blood and gate him for the term.
1853. Bradley, Verd. Green, I., ch. xii. He won’t hurt you much, Giglamps! Gate and chapel you!
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xii. Now you’ll both be gated probably, and the whole crew will be thrown out of gear.
1865. Cornhill Mag., p. 227. He is requested to confine himself to college after a specified hour, which is familiarly termed being gated.
1870. Morning Advertiser, 23 May. The two least culpable of the party have been gated.
The gate, subs. phr. (various).—Among fishmongers, Billingsgate; among thieves, Newgate. Cf., Lane, Row, Garden, etc.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. i., p. 5. The ‘steel,’ a slang name of the large metropolitan prisons, as the gate is for Newgate.
To break gates, verb. phr.—(University).—To stay out of college after hours.
To be at Gates, verb. phr. (Winchester College).—To assemble in Seventh Chamber passage, preparatory to going to Hills or Cathedral.
1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 149. Soon after morning chapel on a holiday or a remedy all the boys assembled at gates.
On the gate, adv. phr. (thieves’).—On remand.
Gate-Bill, subs. (University).—The record of an undergraduate’s failure to be within the precincts of his college at, or before, a specified time at night.
1803. Gradus ad Cant., p. 128. To avoid gate-bills he will be out at night as late as he pleases ... climb over the college wall, and fee his gyp well.
Gate-money, subs. (colloquial).—The charge for admission to a race-meeting. See Gate, subs., sense 1.
1885. Daily News, 25 May, p. 3, c. 2. The truth of the matter is, that so far as sport goes, open meetings like those at Bath and Salisbury cannot stand up against gate-money meetings such as Manchester.
1888. Sporting Life, 10 Dec. The comfort that is brought home at our great gate-money meetings gatherings to every visitor.
Gate-of-Horn, subs. phr. (venery). The female pudendum. Cf., Horn, and for synonyms, see Monosyllable.
Gate-of-Life, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Also Gate-of-Horn. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
Gater, subs. (Winchester College).—A plunge head foremost into a pot (q.v.).
Gate-race (or -meeting), subs. (sporting).—Formerly, a contest not got up for sport but entrance money; now a race or athletic meeting to which admission is by payment.
1881. Daily News, 14 July. Few of these athletics care to compete at gate-meetings.
Gath, subs. (colloquial).—A city or district in Philistia (q.v.); often used, like Askelon (q.v.) for Philistia itself. Hence, to be mighty in gath = to be a Philistine (q.v.) of the first magnitude; to prevail against gath = to smite the Philistines hip and thigh, as becomes a valiant companion of the Davidsbund; and so forth.
Tell it not in Gath, verb. phr. (colloquial).—An interjection of derision, signifying that the person exclaimed against has done something the knowledge of which would bring on him the wrath, or the amazement, of his friends.
Gather. To gather up, verb. phr. (American).—To lead away.
1847. Chronicles of Pineville, p. 182. ‘Gather him up, boys,’ said the judge, ‘the sentence of the law must be executed.’
To gather the taxes, verb. phr. (tailor’s).—To go from workshop to workshop seeking employment. Hence, Tax-gatherer = a man out of work and looking for a job. Cf., Inspector of public buildings.
Out of gathers, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In distress. Cf., Out at elbows.
Gatherings. See Gags.
Gatter, subs. (common).—Beer; also liquor generally. Shant of gatter = a pot of beer. Fr., la moussante. For synonyms, see Drinks.
1818. Maginn, Vidocq Versified. Lots of gatter, says she, is flowing. Lend me a lift in the family way.
1841. Punch, I., p. 243, Gatter is but threepence a pot, and that’s the price of a reasonable ’pike ticket.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. i., p. 232. They have a ‘shant of gatter’ (pot of beer) at the nearest ‘boozing-ken’ (alehouse).
Gaudeamus, subs. (colloquial).—A feast; a drinking bout; any sort of merry-making. [German students’, but now general and popular.] From the first word of the mediæval (students’) ditty. For synonyms, see Jamboree.
Gaudy (or Gaudy-day), subs. (common).—A feast or entertainment: specifically the annual dinner of the fellows of a college in memory of founders or benefactors; or a festival of the Inns of Court. (Lat. gaudere = to rejoice.)
1724. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Gaudy days, college or Inns of Court festivals.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2nd ed. Gaudies, double commons, such as they have on gaudy or grand days in colleges.
1760. Foote, Minor, Act i. Dine at twelve, and regale, upon a gaudy day, with buns and beer at Islington.
1803. Gradus ad Cantab., p. 122. Cut lectures ... give gaudies and spreads.
1820. Lamb, Elia (Oxford in the Vacation). Methought I a little grudged at the coalition of the better Jude with Simon—clubbing (as it were) their sanctities together, to make up one poor gaudy-day between them.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. We had a carouse to your honour ... we fought, too, to finish off the gaudy.
1878. Besant and Rice, By Celia’s Arbour, ch. xxxiii. Champagne ... goes equally well with a simple luncheon of cold chicken, and with the most elaborate gaudy.
Adj. (colloquial).—Good; frolicsome; festive. Cf., Shakspeare’s ‘Let’s have one other gaudy night.’—Ant. and Cleo., iii, 13.
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 176. ‘Yes,’ answered the trainer, slowly, ‘he’s right enough; but a Leger’s a Leger, and I don’t think they are likely to give him a very gaudy chance.’
Neat but not gaudy, as the devil said when he painted his bottom pink, and tied up his tail with pea-green, phr. (common).—A locution used to ancient ladies dressed in flaming colours.
Gauge. See Gage.
To get the gauge of, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To divine an intention; to read a character; to size, (or reckon) up (q.v.). Hence, That’s about the gauge of it = That’s a fair description.
Gauley. See by golly.
Gawf, subs. (costers’).—A red-skinned apple.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i., 63. A cheap red-skinned fruit, known to costers as gawfs, is rubbed hard, to look bright and feel soft, and is mixed with apples of a superior description. Gawfs are sweet and sour at once, I was told, and fit for nothing but mixing.
Gawk, subs. (colloquial).—A simpleton, especially an awkward one, whether male or female. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head. [Scots Gowk = a cuckoo; a fool; whence, to gowk = to, play the fool. As in the ‘Derision of Wanton Women’ (Bannatyne, MS., 1567), ‘To gar them ga in gucking’ = to make them play the fool.]
1837. H. Martineau, Soc. in America, i., 299. They proved such gawks that they were unable to learn.
1882. McCabe, New York, p. 217. I wasn’t half as awkward as some of the gawks about me.
1887. H. Frederic, Seth’s Brother’s Wife, ch. iv. Girls brought up to be awkward gawks, without a chance in life.
Verb. (colloquial).—To loiter round; to play the goat. [The same verb is used by Jonson (Magnetic Lady, iii., 4, 1632) in the sense of amazed, or bamboozled, i.e., absolutely befooled: Nay, look how the man stands, as he were gowked!]
1888. F. R. Stockton, Rudder Grange, ch. xvi. That afternoon we gawked around, a-lookin’ at all the outside shows, for Jone said he’d have to be pretty careful of his money now.
Gawkiness, subs. (colloquial).—Awkwardness; silliness; greenness (q.v.).
1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, ch. xxxvii. The crude gawkiness of the raw girl he has drifted into marrying.
Gawking, subs. (colloquial).—Loitering and staring; gathering hayseed (q.v.).
Gawky, subs. (colloquial).—An awkward booby; a fool. ‘Now squire gawky’ = a challenge to a clumsy lout. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.
1686–1758. Ramsay, Poems, ii., 299. Or, gentle born ye be; but youths in love you’re but a gawky.
1777. Sheridan, School for Scandal, Act ii., Sc. 2. Crab. Yes, and she is a curious being to pretend to be censorious—an awkward gawky, without any one good point under heaven.
1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, ii., ch. 18. Great, long, slab-sided gawkys from the country.
1878. C. H. Wall, tr. Molière, ii., 197. Our big gawky of a viscount.
Adj. (colloquial).—Lanky; awkward; stupid.
1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, i., 1. Under the form of a gawky country boy I will be an eye-witness of my servants’ behaviour.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xlviii. Even for his cousin Samuel Newcome, a gawky youth with an eruptive countenance, Barnes had appropriate words of conversation.
Gawney (or Goney), subs. (common).—A fool. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.
Gay, adj. (colloquial).—1. Dissipated; specifically, given to venery: As in the French, avoir la cuisse gaie = to be addicted to the use of men. Hence gay woman, or girl, or bit = a strumpet; gay house = a brothel; to be gay = to be incontinent; gay in the legs, in the groin, in the arse = short-heeled (q.v.); gaying instrument = the penis [Lexicon Balatronicum, 1811, s.v.]; gay man = a wencher; gay ladie (old) = a mistress; gaying it = copulating.
1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 3767. What eyeleth you? Some gay girl, God it wot, Hath brough you thus upon the very trot.
1754. Adventurer, No. 124. The old gentleman, whose character I cannot better express than in the fashionable phrase which has been contrived to palliate false principles and dissolute manners, had been a gay man, and was well acquainted with the town.
1854. Leech, Pictures of Life and Character. How long have you been gay?
1857. J. E. Ritchie, Night Side of London, p. 40. Here in Catherine-street vice is a monster of a hideous mien. The gay women, as they are termed, are worse off than American slaves.
1868. Sunday Times, 19 July. As soon as ever a woman has ostensibly lost her reputation, we, with a grim inappositeness, call her gay.
2. (common).—In drink. For synonyms, see Screwed.
All Gay (or All so Gay). adv. phr. (common).—All right; first-rate; all serene (q.v.).
To feel gay. verb. phr. (colloquial).—Inclined for sport, venereal or other; To feel naughty (q.v.).
Gay Tyke Boy, subs. phr. (old).—A dog fancier.
1848. Duncombe, Sinks of London, s.v.
Gazebo, subs. (old).—A summer-house commanding an extensive view. [Dog-Latin, gazebo = I will gaze.]
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Geach, subs. (thieves’).—A thief. For synonyms, see Thieves.
1821. Haggart, Life, p. 56. He was a tolerable geach.
Verb. (thieves’).—To steal. For synonyms, see Prig.
1821. Haggart, Life, p. 73. A small dross scout ... which I knew had been geached.
Gear, subs. (venery).—1. The private parts, both male and female. [‘Geere, besognes; aussi les parties honteuses’ (Robert Sherwood’s Dictionarie, English and French, appended to Cotgrave, 1660). ‘Besongner ... also to do or leacher with’ (Cotgrave). Anglo-Saxon: gearwe (strong feminine plural) ornaments. Skeat says original sense of gear was ‘preparation.’]
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, Mozza, a wench, a lasse, a girle. Also a woman’s geare or cunnie.
1620. Percy, Folio MSS. ‘Ffryar and Boye.’ I sweare, by night nor day thy geare is not to borrow.
1659. Torriano, Vocabulario, s.v.
2. (obsolete).—Work, business (q.v.). Thus: Here’s goodly gear = Here’s fine doings; Here’s a pretty kettle of fish. As in Romeo and Juliet (ii., 2, 106).
Gee, subs. (colloquial).—See Gee-gee.
Verb. (colloquial).—1. To go or turn to the off-side; used as a direction to horses. Cf.: It.: gio = Get on!
1480. Dialogus Creaturum. Et cum sic gloriaretur, et cogitaret cum quanta gloria duceretur ad illum virum super equum, dicendo, ‘Gio! Gio!’ cepit pede percutere terram quasi pungeret equum calcaribus.
2. (colloquial).—To move faster: as a teemster to his horses, ‘Gee up!’
1824. Blackwood’s Mag., Oct. Mr. Babb ge-hupped in vain, and strove to jerk the rein, Nobbs felt he had his option to work or play.
3. (colloquial).—To stop: as ‘Gee whoa!’
To gee with, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To agree with; to fit; to be congenial; to go on all fours with; to do.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, Gears, s.v. ... It won’t gee, it won’t hit or go.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. gee, it won’t gee, it won’t hit or do, it does not suit or fit.
1850. Seaworthy, Nag’s Head, ch. v., p. 35. It don’t seem to Gee! said Isaac, as he was trying to adjust the stove.
1888. Missouri Repub., 8 April. He and Mrs. Barnay did not gee.
Gee-gee (or Gee).—subs. (common).—1. A horse. See Gee, verb. in all senses. For synonyms, see Prad.
1888. Referee, 15 April, 1/2. In nearly all other races they see most of the gees do a canter on their way up the course.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 April. He knows as much about gee-gee’s as a professional trainer.
1890. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 8 Feb. The gees were all broken to the stable.
2. (colloquial).—The nickname among journalists (of the interviewer, type) of Mr. G(eorge) G(rossmith), better known, perhaps, as the Society Clown.
Gee-gee Dodge, subs. phr. (trade).—Selling horseflesh for beef.
1884. Greenwood, Veiled Mysteries. The gee-gee dodge ... was seldom or ever practised ... it was impossible ... to bargain for a regular supply.
Geekie, subs. (Scots thieves’).—A police-station.
Geeloot. See Galoot.
Geese, All his geese are swans, phr. (colloquial).—He habitually exaggerates, or embroiders (q.v.); or, He is always wrong in his estimates of persons and things.
The old woman’s picking her geese (proverbial).—Said of a snowstorm. [The other leg of the couplet (schoolboys’) runs: ‘And selling the feathers a penny a piece.’]
Like geese on a common (colloquial).—Wandering in a body, aggressive and at large: e.g., as faddists (q.v.) in pursuit of a fad; or members of Parliament in recess, when both sides go about to say the thing which is in them.
Geewhilikens! intj. (Western American).—An exclamation of surprise; also jeewhilikens.
1888. Detroit Free Press. It is on time? No? Three hours late? Geewhilikens!
Geezer, subs. (popular).—An appellation, sometimes, but not necessarily, of derision and contempt; applied to both sexes, but generally to women. Usually, old geezer. For synonyms, see Witch.
1885. Truth about the Stage, p. 16. If we wake up the old geezers we shall get notice to quit without compensation.
1886. Broadside Ballad, ‘Her Mother’s Got the Hump.’ This frizzle-headed old geezer had a chin on her as rough—well, as rough as her family, and they’re rough ’uns.
1890. A. Chevalier, ‘Knocked ’Em in the Old Kent Road.’ Nice old geezer with a nasty cough.
1892. Anstey, Voces Populi, p. 82. Our old geeser’s perdoocin’ the custimary amount o’ sensation.
Gelding, subs. (old).—A eunuch.
1380. Wycliffe, Trans. of the Bible, Acts viii. 39. ... the spirit of the Lord ravysched Filip, and the geldynge say him no more.
1659. Torriano, Vocabolario, s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
to enter for the geldings’ stakes, verb. phr. (old).—To castrate a man; also used to describe a eunuch.
Gelt, subs. (old).—Money; gilt (q.v.). Also gelter.—(Duncombe, 1848).
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v. There is no gelt to be got, Trading is very dull.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Gemini! (or Geminy! or Jiminy!) intj. (common).—An exclamation of surprise; a mild oath. [Generally referred to the Lat.: Gemini = the Twins (i.e., Castor and Pollux, the objects of an old Roman oath); but Palmer (Folk Etymology), traces the interjection to the German, O Gemine!; Dutch, Jemy Jemini!; both abbreviated from the Latin, O Jesu Domine!; or merely from Jesu meus!; Italian, Giesu mio! It seems to have come in at the Restoration.] Also O Jimminy!; O Jimminy Figs!; O Jimminy Gig! etc.: for the phrase has pleased the cockney mind, and been vulgarised accordingly.
1672. Dryden, The Assignation, Act ii., Sc. 3. Ben. O gemini! is it you, sir?
1704. Steele, Lying Lover, Act iv., Sc. 3. Sim. I stay with you? Oh gemini! Indeed, I can’t.
1731. Fielding, The Lottery, Sc. 2. Lord Lace! Oh gemini! who’s that?
1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, iv., 2. Oh gemini! beg the petticoat’s pardon.
1797. M. G. Lewis, Castle Spectre, iii., 3. Oh gemini! what would he use with me, lady?
1798. Morton, Secrets Worth Knowing, i., 1. A parcel of lazy chaps, I dare say—but I’ll make them stir their stumps. Well, here we are at last.—Oh gemini gig how my poor bones do ache!
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. i. ‘Gemini! what is that now?’ quoth Tip again.
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, I., 125. O, jiminy! This polite ejaculation was drawn out by the speaker’s sudden recognition of Alfred.
Gemman, subs. (vulgar).—A contraction of gentleman.
1550. Docteur Double-All (the word occurs in this play).
c. 1551. L. Shepherd, John Bon in Arber’s Garner, iv., 107. Ye be the jolliest gemman that I ever saw in my life.
1767. Colman, Oxonian in Town, I., i. I am glad to see your honour’s well. I hope you left all the gemmin well at Oxford.
1818. Byron, Beppo, st. 86. At home our Bow-street gemmen keep the laws.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. iii., ch. v. ... but knock down a gemman.
1851. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. 26. Here the gipsy gemman see.
Gen, subs. (costers’).—A shilling. Back slang, but cf. Fr., argent. For synonyms, see Blow.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 19. I’ll try you a gen (shilling) said a coster.
1887. Saturday Review, 14 May, p. 700. The difficulty of inverting the word shilling accounts for ‘generalize.’ from which the abbreviation to gen is natural as well as affectionate.
Gender, verb. (old).—To copulate. [An abbreviation of Engender.] For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, iv., 2. A cistern for foul toads To knot and gender in.
1659. Torriano, Vocabolario, s.v.
1778. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v.
1816. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v.
1892. Bible, Lev. xix., 19. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind.
Feminine Gender, subs. phr. (schoolboys’).—The female pudendum. [As in the old (schoolboys’) rhyme: Amo, amas, I loved a lass, And she was tall and slender, Amas, amat, I laid her flat, And tickled her feminine gender. Quoted (with modifications) by Marryat in Jacob Faithful, 1835.]
Generalize, subs. (costers’). A shilling. See Gen.
Generating Place, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum.
Generation Tool, subs. phr. (venery).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.
Geneva Print, subs. phr. (old).—Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks and Satin.
1584–1640. Massinger (quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant). And if you meet an Officer preaching of sobriety, Unless he read it in Geneva Print, Lay him by the heels.
Gen-net, subs. phr. (back slang).—Ten shillings.
Gennitraf, subs. (back slang).—A farthing.
Genol, adj. (back slang).—Long.
Gent, subs. (once literary: now vulgar).—1. A showily-dressed vulgarian. [A contraction of ‘gentleman.’]
1635. [Glapthorne], Lady Mother, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii., 114. Hees not a gent that cannot parlee. I must invent some new and polite phrases.
1785. Burns, Epistle to J. Lapraite, st. 11. Do ye envy the city gent, Behint a kist to lie and sklent?
1843. Thackeray, Irish Sketch Book, ch. viii. The crowd of swaggering gents (I don’t know the corresponding phrase in the Anglo-Irish vocabulary to express a shabby dandy), awaiting the Cork mail.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, bk. IV., ch. ii. ‘Ah, not in business! Hem! professional?’ ‘No,’ said Coningsby, ‘I am nothing.’—‘Ah! an independent gent; hem! and a very pleasant thing too.’
1846. Sunday Paper, 24 May. Mr. Rawlinson (Magistrate at Marylebone Police Court). What do you mean by gent? There is no such word in our language. I hold a man who is called a gent to be the greatest blackguard there is.
1848. Punch, vol. XIV., p. 226. His aversion for a gent is softened by pity.
1869. Blue Budget. The gent indicates a being who apes the gentility without the faintest shadow of a claim to it.
2. (Old Cant).—Money. [From Fr., argent.] For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.
1864. Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 Sept., p. 470. Les voleurs anglais disent gent pour ‘argent.’
3. (colloquial).—A sweetheart, a mistress: e.g., My gent = my
## particular friend.
Adj. (old literary).—Elegant; comely; genteel.
1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales. ‘Miller’s Tale.’ [Skeat, 1878, i., 194]. As any wesil her body gent and small.
1553–99. Spenser. He loved as was his lot, a lady gent. Idem. A knight had wrought against a lady gent.
1704. Mad. Knight’s Jour., p. 44. Law you, sais she, it’s right gent, do you take it—’tis dreadfull pretty.
Gentile, subs. (colloquial). Any sort of stranger, native or foreign; among the Mormons, any person not professing the Gospel according to Joe Smith. Hence, In the Land of the Gentiles = (1) in foreign parts; and (2) in strange neighbourhoods or alien society.
Gentle, subs. (anglers’).—A maggot; vulgarly, Gentile.
1811. Songs of the Chase. ‘The Jolly Anglers.’ We have gentles in our horns.
Gentle Craft, subs. (old).—1. The trade of shoemaking. [From the romance of Prince Crispin, who is said to have made shoes.]
1662. Rump Songs. ‘A Hymn to the Gentle Craft,’ etc., ii. 152. Crispin and he were nere akin: The gentle craft hath a noble kin.
2. (anglers’).—Angling.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 65. Sez I, gentle craft, said I.
Gentleman, subs. (thieves’).—A crowbar. For synonyms, see jemmy.
To put a churl (or beggar) upon a gentleman, verb. phr. (old).—To drink malt liquor immediately after wine.—Grose.
Gentleman of the (Three, or Four, or Five) Outs (or Ins), subs. phr. (old).—A varying and ancient wheeze, of which the following are representative:—
Out of money, and out of clothes; Out at the heels, and out at the toes; Out of credit, and in debt.
A man in debt, in danger, and in poverty; or in gaol, indicted, and in danger of being hanged.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. iv. Paul became a gentleman of three outs—out of pocket, out of elbows, and out of credit.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, Bk. III., ch. v. Jerry Juniper was what the classical Captain Grose would designate a gentleman with three outs, and, although he was not entirely without wit, nor his associates avouched, without money, nor certainly, in his own opinion, had that been asked, without manners.
Gentleman of the Back (or Backdoor), subs. (old).—A sodomist. For synonyms, see Usher.
Gentleman of fortune, subs. phr. (common).—An adventurer.
1890. R. L. Stevenson, Treasure Island, p. 149. ‘Why, in a place like this, where nobody puts in but gentlemen of fortune, Silver would fly the jolly roger, you don’t make no doubt of that.’
Gentleman of Observation, subs. phr. (turf).—A tout.
Gentleman of the Round, subs. phr. (old).—An invalided or disabled soldier, making his living by begging.
1596. Jonson, Every Man in, etc., 2. Your decaied, ruinous, worme-eaten gentlemen of the round.
Gentleman of the Short Staff, subs. phr. (old).—A constable.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 12. In the language of the gentleman of the short staff an important caption could be effected.
Gentleman of the Fist, subs. phr. (pugilists’).—A prize-fighter.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 44. Furnish such gentlemen of the fist.
Gentleman in Brown, subs. phr. (common).—A bed bug. For synonyms, see Norfolk Howard.
1885. G. A. Sala in Daily Telegraph, 14 Aug., 5/3. Bed bugs, the convertible term for which is ‘chintzes,’ are the disagreeable insects known in modern polite English as ‘Norfolk Howards,’ or gentlemen in brown.
The Little Gentleman in Brown Velvet, subs. phr. (obsolete).—A mole. [The Tory toast after the death of William III., whose horse was said to have stumbled over a mole-hill.]
Gentleman of the Green Baize Road, subs. phr. (gamesters’).—A card sharper.
Gentleman Commoner, subs. phr. (University).—1. A privileged class of commoners at Oxford, wearing a special cut of gown and a velvet cap.
2. (common).—An empty bottle. Also fellow-commoner (q.v.). [A sarcastic allusion to the mental capacity of this class of student.] For synonyms, see Dead-man.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Gentleman-ranker, subs. (military).—A broken gentleman serving in the ranks.
1892. Kipling, Barrack Room Ballads. ‘Gentlemen Rankers.’ Gentleman-rankers out on the spree, Damned from here to eternity, God ha’ mercy on such as we, Baa! Yah! Bah!
Gentleman’s Companion, subs. phr. (common).—A louse. For synonyms, see Chates.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Gentleman’s Master, subs. phr. (old).—A highwayman.—Grose.
Gentleman’s (or Ladies’) Piece, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A small or delicate portion; a tit-bit.
Gentleman’s Pleasure-garden, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. [Hence, Gentleman’s Pleasure-Garden Padlock = menstrual cloth.]
Gentlemen’s Sons, subs. phr. (common).—The three regiments of Guards.
Gently! intj. (stables’ and colloquial).—An interjection = stand still (q.v.); hence, colloquially, = don’t get into a passion, go slow (q.v.).
Gentry Cove (or Cofe), subs. (old cant).—A gentleman; a nib-cove (q.v.). Fr., un messire de la haute.
1567. Harman, Caveat, s.v.
1656. Brome, Joviall Crew, Act ii. For all this bene Cribbing and Peck let us then, Bowse a health to the gentry cofe of the Ken.
1654. Witts’ Recreations. As priest of the game, And prelate of the same. There’s a gentry cove here.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. Tour the bien mort twiring the gentry cove.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, p. 71. The gentry cove will be ramboyled by his dam.
Gentry Cove’s Ken (or Gentry-Ken), subs. phr. (Old Cant).—A gentleman’s house.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. A gentry cofe’s ken, a noble or gentleman’s house. A gentry cofe, a noble or gentle man.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). Gentry cove’s ken, a gentleman’s house.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Gentry Mort, subs. phr. (old cant).—A lady.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. A gentry mort, a noble or gentle woman.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). Gentry mort, a gentlewoman.
1728. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Genuine, subs. (Winchester College).—Praise.
Adj. (colloquial).—Trustworthy; not false nor double-faced.
Verb. (Winchester College).—To praise. ‘He was awfully quilled and genuined my task.’ [Probably from calling a thing genuine. Cf., to blackguard, to lord, etc. But fifty years ago it was a subs. only.—Notions.]
Geordie, subs. (North Country).—1. A pitman; also, a Northumbrian in general.
2. (nautical).—A North Country collier.
3. See George.
George (or Scots’ diminutive Geordie), subs. (old). 1.—A half crown. Also (obsolete), the noble = 6s. 8d., temp., Henry VIII.
1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, List of cant words. george, half-a-crown.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew. He tipt me Forty Georges for my earnest, He paid me Five Pounds for my Share or Snack.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
2. (old).—A guinea; also more frequently Yellow George.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1787. Burns, The Twa Dogs. The yellow-lettered Geordie keeks.
3. (old).—A penny.
1820. Reynolds, The Fancy, Glossary. A Penny-piece—a georgy.
Brown George.—See Ante.
By Fore, or By George.—See By George.
George Horne, intj. (printers’).—A derisive retort on a piece of stale news. Also G. H.! [From a romancing compositor of the name.]
Georgy-Porgy, verb (colloquial).—To pet; to fondle; to beslobber.
1883. R. L. Stevenson, The Treasure of Franchard, ch. iii., in Longman’s Magazine, April, p. 685. He must be spoken to with more respect, I tell you; he must not be kissed and georgy-porgy’d like an ordinary child.
German. The German, subs. phr. (New York).—A round dance.
German Duck, subs. phr. (obsolete).—1. Half a sheep’s head, stewed with onions.—Grose.
2. (common).—A bed bug. For synonyms, see Norfolk Howard.
German Flutes, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A pair of boots.
Germantowner, subs. (American billiards’).—A pushing shot—when the balls played with, and at, are jarred together. Cf., Whitechapeller.
Gerry, subs. (Old Cant).—Excrement.
1567. Harman, Caveat, s.v.
Gerry Gan, intj. (Old Cant).—A retort forcible. Stow it! (q.v.). [From Gerry = excrement + Gan = mouth, i.e., literally, Shit in your mouth.] The common form is: Shit (or a turd) in your teeth; as in Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, 1614. Fr., Tais ta gueule ou j’te chie dedans.
1567. Harman, Caveat. Gerry gan, the ruffian cly thee.
Gerrymander (pronounced with the ‘g’ hard, as in ‘get’), verb. (political American).—To arrange the electoral subdivisions of a State to the profit and advantage of a particular party.
[The term, says Norton, is derived from the name of Governor Gerry, of Massachusetts, who, in 1811, signed a Bill readjusting the representative districts so as to favour the Democrats and weaken the Federalists, although the last-named party polled nearly two-thirds of the votes cast. A fancied resemblance of a map of the districts thus treated led Stuart, the painter, to add a few lines with his pencil, and say to Mr. Russell, editor of the Boston Sentinel. ‘That will do for a Salamander.’ Russell glanced at it: ‘Salamander,’ said he, ‘call it a Gerrymander!’ The epithet took at once, and became a Federalist war-cry, the caricature being published as a campaign document.]
1871. Boston Daily Advertiser, 6 Dec. Gerrimander was the name printed under a picture of a pretended monster, whose shape was modified from the distorted geography which Mr. Gerry’s friends inflicted on part of the State for the sake of economizing, majorities.
Gerrymandering, subs. (political American). See Gerrymander.
1872. New York Sunday Mercury, 31 March. The Legislature of Ohio intends to prove itself a veritable master in the gerrymandering business.
1890. Athenæum, 22 Feb. p. 238, c. 1. Whatever faults can be found with Sir John’s administration, it has been good and successful enough to afford excuse for all the gerrymandering with which he is charged by his critics.
1891. Belfort’s Mag., Aug., p. 439. The Democrats of Michigan have carried the art of gerrymandering to such an extent that they have thoroughly disgusted their opponents.
Gerund-Grinder, subs. (common).—A schoolmaster, especially a pedant. Also Gerund-Grinding.
1759–67. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, iv., 112. Tutors, governors, gerund-grinders, and bear-leaders.
1788. Knox, Winter Evenings, 59. A pedant, a mere plodder, a petty tyrant, a gerund-grinder.
1825–7. Hone, Every Day Book, II., p. 33. Gerund-Grinding and parsing are usually prepared for at the last moment.
Get, subs. (old).—1. A cheating contrivance; a Have (q.v.).
2. (old).—A child; the result, that is, of an act of procreation or begetting. Thus, one of his gets = one of his making; whose get is that? = Who’s the father? It’s his get, anyhow = At all events he got it.
1570. Scottish Text Society, Satirical Poems, I., 171, ‘Treason of Dumbarton’ (1891). Ganelon’s gets, relicts of Sinon’s seed.
d. 1798. Burns, Merry Muses. ‘For a’ that.’ O’ bastard getts some had a score, An’ some had mair than a’ that.
1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 41. This, again, is unusual for a Chester, as his get are generally quiet and docile, but a bit lazy.
Get! (or You Get!) intj. (American).—Short for Get out! Usually, Git! (q.v.).
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 176. None of your damned impertinence. Get!
To get at, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To quiz; to banter; to aggravate; to take a rise out of. Also To get back at.
1891. Sloper’s Half Holiday, 3 Jan. ‘Your family don’t seem to get on, missie.’ ‘On!’ replied the child, with dignity flashing from her great blue eyes; ‘on! I’ve got a father on the booze, a sister on the music ’all, an’ a brother on the treadmill. On! who’re ye gettin’ at?’
2. (racing and colloquial).—To influence; to bribe; to nobble (of horses), and to corrupt (of persons); applied to horse, owner, trainer, jockey, and vet. alike.
1870. Spectator, 23 April. That, of course, makes it profitable for owners to withdraw horses they have secretly betted against, and for scoundrels to get at horses.
1871. Saturday Review, 9 Sept. It is quite clear that some of the foreign working men have been got at.
1883. Graphic, 17 March, p. 262, c. 2. The House of Commons ... can also be trusted to decide in local questions without any suspicion of being got at, as is sometimes the case elsewhere.
1883. Badminton Library, Steeplechasing, p. 404. Suspicions that the mare had been got at, that is to say, drugged, were afterwards noised abroad.
1888. Daily Telegraph, 17 Nov. It was strongly suspected that he had been got at.
1890. Globe, 11 Aug., p. 1, c. 1. Fancy the professional agitator trying to get at such men as these—men who gloried in being soldiers and nothing else!
1892. Pall Mall Gazette, May 10, p. 3, c. 3. The scoundrels (verily of the lowest form) who have tried to get at Orme.
1892. National Observer, vii. 630. If the horse were got at, then a
## bookie who stood heavily to lose is probably assumed.
To get about, verb. phr. (venery).—To do the act of intromission. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.
To get back at, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To satirise; to call to account.
1888. Daily Inter-Ocean. The newspapers are getting back at Sam.
Get back into your box! phr. (American).—An injunction to silence; stow it! (q.v. for synonyms).
To get encored, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To have a job returned for alterations.
To get even with, verb. phr. (common).—To take one’s revenge; to give tit for tat.
To get it, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be punished (morally or physically); to be called over the coals. Also (venery) to catch a clap.
To get off, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To (1) escape punishment, to be let off; (2) to utter, to deliver oneself of, to perpetrate—as to get off a joke; and (3) to get married.
To get on, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To back a horse; to put a bit on (q.v.).
2. (colloquial).—To succeed; or, simply, to fare. Thus, How are you getting on? may signify (1) To what extent are you prospering? or (2) How are you doing?
1871. Pall Mall Gaz., 29 Dec. That great Anglo-Saxon passion of rising in the world, or getting on—that is, rising into the class above him.
1892. A. W. Pinero, The Times: a Comedy, v. 1. We used to go very early to such places and stay right through, now that papa has got on, we arrive late everywhere and murmur an apology!
To get one in the cold, verb. phr. (American).—To have at an advantage; to be on the windward side (q.v.); to have on toast (q.v.).
To get one on, verb. phr. (pugilists’).—To land a blow.
To get down fine (or close), verb. phr. (American).—To know all about one’s antecedents; and (police) to know where to find one’s man.
To get into, verb. phr. (venery).—To occupy (q.v.). Also To get in and To get up. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.
1620. Percy, Folio MSS., p. 197. Gett vp againe, Billy, if that thou louest me.
To get over, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To seduce, to fascinate, to dupe. Also To come over and To get round.
To get outside of, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1. To eat or drink; also to accomplish one’s purpose.
1892. S. Watson, Wops the Waif, p. 9. Tickle urged Wops again and again to drink, but Wops’s only reply was, ‘Yer go on, Tickle; git outside the lot, if yer can; it’ll do yer good, Cully.’
2. (venery).—To receive the sexual embrace: of women only.
To get out of bed on the wrong side, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be testy or cross-grained. [A corruption of an old saying, ‘To rise on the right side is accounted lucky’; hence the reverse meant trials to temper, patience, and luck.]
1607. Marston, What You Will. You rise on your right side to-day, marry.
1608. Machin, Dumb Knight, iv., 1. Sure I said my prayers, ris’d on my right side, Wash’d hands and eyes, put on my girdle last; Sure I met no splea-footed baker, No hare did cross me, nor no bearded witch, Nor other ominous sign.
1614. Terence in English. C. What doth shee keepe house alreadie? D. Alreadie. C. O good God!; we rose on the right side to-day.
1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, i. Women Pleased. You rose o’ your right side.
1890. Globe, 15 May, p. 2, col. 2. Some of them had—if we may employ such a vulgar expression—got out of bed on the wrong side.
To get out (or Round), verb. phr. (racing).—To back a horse against which one has previously laid; to Hedge (q.v.).
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 318. He had an idea Johnson was this time cleverly working a very well authorised commission, and that he personally had taken more than one opportunity of what is termed getting out.
To get set, verb. phr. (cricketing).—1. To warm to one’s work at the wicket, and collar the bowling; to get one’s eye well in.
To get there, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attain one’s object; to be successful; to make one’s jack (q.v.); to get there with both feet = to be very successful.
1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin. He said as he’d been gambling, and was two hundred dollars ahead of the town. He got there with both feet at starting.
1888. New York Herald, 29 July. Although not a delegate he got there all the same.
2. (common).—To get drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.
3. (venery).—To enjoy the sexual favour.
To get through, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To pass an examination; to accomplish.
1853. Bradley, Verd. Green, II. ch. xii. So you see, Giglamps, I’m safe to get through.
To get up and dust, verb. phr. (American).—To depart hastily. For synonyms, see Skedaddle and Amputate.
To get up behind (or get behind) a man, verb. phr. (common).—To endorse or back a bill.
1880. Life in a Debtor’s Prison, p. 87. In other cases he figured as the drawer, or simply as endorser. This, Mr. Whipper described as getting up behind.
To get up the mail, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To find money (as counsels’ fees, etc.) for defence.
1889. Clarkson and Richardson, Police, 322, s.v.
[Get enters into many other combinations. See back teeth; bag or sack; bead; beans; beat; big bird and goose; big head; billet; bit; boat; bolt; books; bulge; bullet; bull’s feather; crocketts; dander and monkey; dark; drop; eye; flannels; flint; game; grand bounce; gravel-rash; grind; grindstone; hand; hang; hat; head; hip or hop; home; horn; hot; jack; keen; length of one’s foot; measure; mitten; needle; religion; rise; run; scot, swot, or scrape; set; shut of; silk; snuff; straight; sun; ticket of leave; wool; wrong box.]
Getaway, subs. (American thieves’).—A locomotive or train; a puffer (q.v.).
Getter. A sure getter, subs. phr. (Scots).—A procreant male with a great capacity for fertilization.
Get-up, subs. (colloquial).—1. Dress; constitution and appearance; disguise. See Get-up, verb, sense 1.
1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. xiv. Is that killing get up entirely for your benefit, John? I asked.
1865. G. A. Sala, Trip to Barbary, ch. x. Altogether the get up of a Mauresque en promenade is livelier and smarter than that of a Turkish woman.
1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. xii. The graceful, well-appointed Mr. Christian, who sneered at Scales about his get up, having to walk back to the house with only one tail to his coat.
1882. Graphic, 9 Dec., p. 643, c. 2. Comic gets up, which will make the house roar presently, are elaborated with the business air of a judge in banc, or a water-rate collector.
1889. Mirror, 26 Aug., p. 2, c. 1. I cannot, however, congratulate F. C. G. on his sketch of Blowitz; it isn’t much like the great man, and the get up is quite too absurd.
1890. Daily Telegraph, 25 Feb., p. 7. col. 7. Dressed as a copurchic, and, giving himself out as an Italian count—thinking to entrap some Transatlantic heiress by his title, fascinating appearance, and gorgeous get up.
Verb. phr. (colloquial).—(1). To prepare (a part, a paper, a case); (2) to arrange (a concert); (3) to dress (as got up regardless, to the nines, to the knocker, to kill, within an inch of one’s life); (4) to disguise (as a sailor, a soldier, Henry VIII., a butcher, a nun). See also Get into.
1828. L. Hunt, Essays (Camelot ed.), p. 13. The pocket-books that now contain any literature are got up, as the phrase is, in the most unambitious style.
1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. xviii. Three very gentleman-like, good-looking men, got up to the utmost extent of hunting splendour.
1864. Eton School Days, ch. xviii., p. 207. He felt confident in his power of getting up so that no one would recognise him.
1866. New York Home Journal, Jan. While that admirable old dame, Nature, has been strangely neglectful of much which might be conducive to our comfort, she has gotten up, regardless of expense, a few articles which are good for some purposes, as the witty Hood has told us.
1871. London Figaro, 11 Mar. It is got up very much in the style of the Paris journals, and is very inferior compared with any respectable journal in England.
1889. Polytechnic Magazine, 24 Oct., p. 261. He came specially got up in piebald trousers.
1892. Chevalier. ‘The Little Nipper.’ I’ve knowed ’im take a girl on six feet tall; ’E’d git ’imself up dossy, Say ‘I’m goin’ out wi’ Flossie.’
G.H. See George Horne.
Ghastly, adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Very: a popular intensitive; Cf., Awful, Bloody, Fucking.
Ghost, subs. (common).—One who secretly does artistic or literary work for another person taking the credit and receiving the price. [The term was frequently used during the trial of Lawes v. Belt in 188(?).] Cf., devil.
1890. Daily Telegraph, 8 Feb. The sculptor’s ghost is conjured up from the vasty deep of byegone lawsuits.
1892. National Observer, vii., 327. Would not the unkind describe your ‘practical man’ as a ghost?
Verb. (common).—To prowl; to spy upon; to shadow (q.v.).
The ghost walks (or does not walk) phr. (theatrical).—There is (or is not) money in the treasury.
1853. Household Words, No. 183. When no salaries are forthcoming the ghost doesn’t walk.
1883. Referee, 24 June, p. 3, c. 2. An Actor’s Benevolent Fund box placed on the treasurer’s desk every day when the ghost walks would get many an odd shilling or sixpence put into it.
1885. The Stage, p. 112. The rogues seldom appear at a loss for a plausible story when it is time for the ghost to walk. Ibid. The next day the ghost declines to walk.
1889. J. C. Colman (in Slang, Jargon, and Cant), p. 405. Ghost-walking, a term originally applied by an impecunious stroller in a sharing company to the operation of ‘holding the treasury,’ or paying the salaries, which has become a stock facetiæ among all kinds and descriptions of actors. Instead of enquiring whether the treasury is open, they generally say—‘Has the ghost walked?’ or ‘What, has this thing appeared again?’ (Shakspeare).
1890. Illustrated Bits, 29 Mar., p. 11, c. 1. And a few nights with empty benches laid the ghost completely. It could not even walk to the tune of quarter salaries.
The ghost of a chance, subs. phr. (colloquial).—The faintest likelihood, or the slightest trace: e.g., He hasn’t the ghost of a chance.
1891. Sportsman, 26 Mar. He did not give the ghost of a chance.
Ghoul, subs. (American.)—1. A spy; specifically a man who preys on such married women as addict themselves to assignation houses.
2. (journalistic).—A newspaper chronicler of the smallest private tittle-tattle.
Gib, subs. (colloquial).—1. Gibraltar. Once a penal station: whence—2. A gaol.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 221. I did a lagging of seven, and was at the gib three out of it.
1892. Pall Mall Gazette, 23 Mar., p. 6, c. 1. ‘Stormy Weather at gib.’ The weather here has been fearful; 51 inches of rain have been registered, and the land for miles round Gibraltar is submerged.
To hang one’s gib, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To pout. See Jib.
Gibberish (or Gebberish, Gibberidge, Gibrige, etc.), subs. (old: now recognised).—Originally the lingo of gipsies, beggars, etc. Now, any kind of inarticulate nonsense. [From gibber, a variant of Jabber.] See Cant, Slang, Pedlar’s French, etc.
1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller, in wks., v., 68. That all cried out upon him mightily in their gibrige, lyke a companie of beggers.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Gergare, to speak fustian, pedlers french, or rogues language, or gibbrish.
1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie. Jargon, gibridge fustian language, pedler’s French, a barbarus jangling.
1638. H. Shirley, Martyr’d Souldier, Act iii., Sc. 4. Feele my pulse once again and tell me, Doctor, Tell me in tearmes that I may understand,—I doe not love your gibberish,—tell me honestly Where the Cause lies, and give a Remedy.
1659. Torriano, Vocabolario, s.v.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Gibberish (s.) an unintelligible jargon, or confused way of speaking, used by the gipsies, beggars, etc., to disguise their wicked designs; also any discourse where words abound more than sense.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xxx. He repeated some gibberish which by the sound seemed to be Irish.
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. viii. Since that d——d clerk of mine has taken his gibberish elsewhere.
1850. D. Jerrold, The Catspaw, Act i. Odds and ends ... writ down in such a kind of gibberish that I can’t make out one of ’em.
1858. G. Eliot, Mr. Gilfit’s Love Story, ch. iv. It’ll learn to speak summat better nor gibberish, an’ be brought up i’ the true religion.
1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 129. It was Fo’c’s’le Jack that piped and drawled his ungrammatical gibberish.
Gibble-Gabble, subs. (colloquial).—Nonsense; gibberish (q.v.). [A reduplication of gabble (q.v.).]
1600. Dekker, Shoemaker’s Holiday, in wks. (1873) i., 21. Hee’s some uplandish workeman, hire him good master, That I may learne some gibble gabble, ’twill make us worke the faster.
1659. Torriano, Vocabolario, s.v.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Gibble-gabble (s), silly, foolish, idle talk.
Gib-cat, subs. (old).—A tom-cat. [An abbreviation of Gilbert = O. Fr.: Tibert, the cat in the fable of Reynard the Fox.]
1360. Chaucer, Romaunt of the Rose, 6204 (Thibert le Cas is rendered by gibbe, our cat).
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., Act i., Sc. 2. I am as melancholy as a gib-cat.
1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, i., 1. Before I endure such another day with him, I’ll be drawn with a good gib-cat through the great pond at home.
1663. Rump Songs. ‘Rump Carbonadoed,’ ii., 71. As if they had less wit and grace than gib-cats.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Gibe, verb. (American).—To go well with; to be acceptable. See Gee.
Gibel, verb. (thieves’).—To bring.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, bk. i., ch. xiv. Gibel the chive, bring the knife.
Gib-face, subs. (colloquial).—A heavy jowl; an ugly-mug (q.v.). Cf., to hang one’s gib.
Giblets, subs. (common).—1. The intestines generally; the manifold (q.v.). Cf. trouble-giblets.
1864. Browning, Dramatis Personæ, ‘Flight of the Duchess.’ Is pumped up briskly through the main ventricle, And floats me genially round the giblets.
2. (colloquial).—A fat man; forty-guts (q.v.). Also Duke of Giblets.
To join giblets, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. Also to have or do a bit of giblet-pie. For synonyms, see Ride. Hence to cohabit as husband and wife; to live tally. Cf., plaster of warm guts.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1887. Notes and Queries, 7 S., iv., 511. ‘To join giblets.’—This expression may occasionally be heard in this district, among the lowest and vulgarest, and has a very offensive meaning.
To fret one’s giblets, verb. phr.—See Fret.
Gibraltar, subs. (American).—A party stronghold: e.g., the Gibraltar of Democracy.—Norton.
Gibson (or Sir John Gibson), subs. (old coachbuilders’).—A rest to support the body of a building coach.
Gibus, subs. (colloquial).—1. An opera, or crush hat. Fr., un accordéon. [From the name of the inventor.]
1867. Jas. Greenwood, Unsent. Journeys, iii., 21. West-End aristocrats, with spotless jean coats and Gibus hats.
1871. Figaro, 2 Sept. Much fun may be made by wearing a Gibus, and collapsing it at the moment of contact with the funnel.
1885. Punch, 4 Apr., p. 160. Giving his comic, shiny, curly-brimmed hat to the swell who couldn’t by any possible chance have mistaken it for his own Gibus.
1887. Atkin, House Scraps, p. 144. Their Gibus hats are cock’d awry.
Giddy, adj. (colloquial).—Flighty; wanton: e.g., to play the giddy goat = to live a fast life; to be happy-go-lucky.
1892. Ally Sloper, 19 Mar., p. 91, c. 2. Fanny Robinson was flighty; she played the giddy ox—I mean heifer.
Giffle-gaffle, subs. (old).—Nonsense; a variant of gibble-gabble (q.v.).
1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary. Giff-gaff, unpremeditated discourse.
Gif-gaf (or Giff-gaff), subs. (Scots’).—A bargain on equal terms. Whence the proverb: Gif-gaf maks guid friens. Fr.: Passe-moi la casse et je t’enverrai la senne.
Gift, subs. (colloquial).—1. Anything, lightly gained or easily won.
2. (common).—A white speck on the finger nails, supposed to portend a gift.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
3. (printers’).—See Gift-house.
As full of gifts as a brazen horse of farts, phr. (old).—Mean; miserly; disinclined to part (q.v.).
1811 Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Gift of the Gab.—See Gab.
Gift-house (or Gift), subs. (printers’).—A club; a house of call; specifically for the purpose of finding employment, or providing allowances for members.
Gig (Gigg, Gigge), subs. (old).—1. a wanton; a mistress; a flighty girl. Cf., Giglet.
1373. Chaucer, House of Fame, iii. 851. This house was also ful of gygges.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew. A young gig, a wanton lass.
1780. D’Arbley, Diary, etc., (1876), i., 286. Charlotte L—— called, and the little gig told ... of the domestic life she led in her family, and made them all ridiculous, without meaning to make herself so.
1825. Planché, Success in Extravaganzas (1879) I., 26. He! he! What a gig you look in that hat and feather!
1832. Macaulay in Life, by Trevelyan (1884), ch. v., p. 188. Be you Foxes, be you Pitts, You must write to silly chits, Be you Tories, be you Whigs, You must write to sad young gigs.
2. (old).—A jest; a piece of nonsense; anything fanciful or frivolous. Hence, generally, in contempt.
1590. Nashe, Pasquil’s Apologie, in wks. Vol. I., p. 234. A right cutte of the worde, withoute gigges or fancies of haereticall and newe opinions.
1793. Butt, Poems.... Fograms, quizzes, treats, and bores, and gigs, Were held in some account with ancient prigs.
1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. xiv. Such a set of gigs, my dear, I never saw in my life; large underbred horses, and not a good-looking man amongst them.
3. (old).—The nose. For synonyms, see Conk. To snitchell the gig = to pull the nose. Grunter’s gig = a hog’s snout.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
4. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable. [Possibly from gig = a top, i.e., a toy; possibly, too, from It. giga = a fiddle (q.v.); but see post sense 8.]
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
5. (old: now recognised).—A light two-wheeled vehicle drawn by one horse.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1809. Windham, Speech, 25 May. Let the former riders in gigs and whiskeys, and one horsed carriages continue to ride in them.
6. (old).—A door. See Gigger.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. It is all bob, now let’s dub the gigg of the case: now the coast is clear, let us break open the door of the house.
7. (Eton).—A fool; an overdressed person. For synonyms, see Sammy-soft.
1797. Colman, Heir at Law, iv., 3. Dick.—What a damn’d gig you look like. Pangloss.—A gig! umph! that’s an Eton phrase—the Westminsters call it Quiz.
1870. Athenæum, 16 Apr. He would now be what Eton used to call a gig, and Westminster a Quiz.
8. (old).—Fun; a frolic; a spree. [Possibly from Fr.: gigue = a lively dance movement. Cf., gigue et jon = a Bacchanalian exclamation of sailors. In Florio, too, frottolare = ‘to sing gigges, rounds, or ... wanton verses.’] Full of gig = full of laughter, ripe for mischief.
1811. Moore, Twopenny Post-bag, Letter 3. We were all in high gig—Roman punch and tokay travelled round, till our heads travelled just the same way.
1820. Randall, Diary. In search of lark, or some delicious gig, The mind delights on, when ’tis in prime twig.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, i., 3. I hope we shall have many a bit of gig together.
1888. Besant, Fifty Years Ago, p. 134. A laughter-loving lass of eighteen who dearly loved a bit of gig.
9. (old).—The mouth. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.
1871. Finish to Tom and Jerry, p. 175 (ed. 1872). The bit of myrtle in his gig.
10. (old).—A farthing. Formerly grig (q.v.).
11. (American).—See Policy Dealing.
Verb. (old).—To hamstring.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. To gigg a Smithfield hank, to hamstring an overdrove ox.
By Gigs! intj. (old).—A mild and silly oath. See Oaths.
1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton’s Needle, ii., 51. Chad a foule turne now of late, chill tell it you, by gigs!
Gigamaree, subs. (American).—A thing of little worth; a pretty but useless toy; a gimcrack (q.v.).
1848. Jones, Sketches of Travel, p. 9. Byin’ fineries and northern gigamarees of one kind or another.
Ibid. I ax’d the captain what sort of a gigamaree he had got up there for a flag.
Gigantomachize, verb. (old).—To rise in revolt against one’s betters. Gr., Gigantomachia = the War of the Giants against the Gods. [Probably a coinage of Ben Jonson’s.]
1599. Jonson, Every Man Out, Act v., 4. Slight, fed with it the whoreson, strummel-patched, goggle-eyed grumble-dores would have gigantomachized their Maker.
Gigger, subs. (tailors’).—1. A sewing machine. (In allusion to noise and movement).
2. See Jigger.
Giggles-nest. Have you found a giggles-nest? phr. (old).—Asked of a person tittering, or one who laughs immoderately and senselessly.
Gig-lamps, subs. (common).—1. Spectacles. For synonyms, see Barnacles.
1848. Bradley, in Letter to J. C. H. Gig-lamps (certainly a university term. I first heard it in 1848 or 1849, long before Mr. Verdant Green was born or thought of).
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 140. You with the gig-lamps, throw us your cigar.
1887. Punch, 30 July, p. 45. Jack’s a straw-thatched young joker in gig-lamps.
1892. F. Anstey, Voces Populi. ‘At the Tudor Exhibition.’ Stop, though, suppose she has spotted me? Never can tell with giglamps.
2. (common).—One who wears spectacles; a four eyes (q.v.). [Popularised by Verdant Green.]
Gigler (or Giglet, Goglet, Gigle, Gig), subs. (old).—A wanton; a mistress. Giglet (West of England) = a giddy, romping girl; and in Salop a flighty person is called a giggle. Cf., Gig, sense 1.
1533. Udal, Floures for Latine Spekynge, fo. 101. What is the matter, foolish giglotte? What meanest thou? Whereat laughest thou?
1567. Harman, Caveat, leaf 22, back. Therefore let us assemble secretly into the place where he hath appoynted to meet this gyleot that is at your house.
1603. Shakspeare, Measure for Measure, v., 1. Let him speak no more: away with those giglots too, and with the other confederate companion.
1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie. Gadrouillette, minx, gigle, flirt.
1620. Massienger, Fatal Dowry, Act. iii. If this be The recompence of striving to preserve A wanton gigglet honest, very shortly ’Twill make all mankind pandars.
1690. B. E., Cant. Crew, s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. Gigglers, wanton women.
Adj. (old).—Loose in word and deed. Also giglet-like, and giglet-wise = like a wanton.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., Act v., Sc. 1. Young Talbot was not born To be the pillage of a giglot wench.
1600. Fairfax, Jerusalem Delivered, vi., 72. That thou wilt gad by night in giglet-wise, Amid thine armed foes to seek thy shame.
Gild, verb. (old).—To make drunk; to flush with drink.
1609. Shakspeare, Tempest, Act v., Sc. 1. This grand liquor that hath gilded them.
1620. Fletcher, Chances, iv., 3. Is she not drunk, too? A little gilded o’er, sir.
To gild the pill, phr. (colloquial).—To say, or do, unpleasant things as gently as may be; to impose upon; to bamboozle (q.v.).
Gilded Rooster, subs. phr. (American).—A man of importance; a howling swell (q.v.); sometimes the gilded rooster on the top of the steeple. Cf., big-bug; big dog of the tanyard, etc.
1888. New York Herald. We admit that as a metropolis Chicago is the gilded rooster on top of the steeple, but even gilded roosters have no right to the whole corn bin.
Gilderoy’s Kite. To be hung higher than gilderoy’s kite, verb. phr. (old).—To be punished more severely than the very worst criminals. ‘The greater the crime the higher the gallows’ was at one time a practical legal axiom. Hence, out of sight; completely gone.
Giles’ Greek. See St. Giles’ Greek.
Gilguy, subs. (nautical).—Anything which happens to have slipped the memory; equivalent to what’s-his-name or thingamytight.
Gilkes, subs. (old).—Skeleton keys.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). Gilkes or the Gigger, false keyes for the doore or picklockes.
Gill (or Jill), subs. (old).—1. A girl; (2) a sweetheart: e.g., ‘every Jack must have his Gill’; (3) a wanton, a strumpet (an abbreviation of gillian). For synonyms, see Jomer and Titter.
1586–1606. Warner, Albion’s England, bk. vii., ch. 37. The simplest gill or knave.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, Palandrina, a common queane, a harlot, a strumpet, a gill.
1620. Percy, Folio MSS., p. 104. There is neuer a Jacke for gill.
1659. Torriano, Vocabolario, s.v.
2. (common).—a drink; a go (q.v.).
1785. Burns, Scots Drink. Haill breeks, a scone, and whisky gill.
3. in. pl. ‘g’ hard (colloquial).—The mouth or jaws; the face. See Potato-trap and Dial.
1622. Bacon, Historia Naturalis. Redness about the cheeks and gills.
1632. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, i. He ... draws all the parish wills, Designs the legacies, and strokes the gills of the chief mourners.
b. 1738. Wolcot, Pindar’s Works (1809), i., 8. Whether you look all rosy round the gills, Or hatchet-fac’d like starving cats so lean.
1820. Lamb, Elia (Two Races of Men). What a careless, even deportment hath your borrower! what rosy gills!
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. viii. Binnie, as brisk and rosy about the gills as chanticleer, broke out in a morning salutation.
1884. Punch. He went a bit red in the gills.
4. in. pl. (common).—A very large shirt collar; also stick-ups and sideboards. Fr.: cache-bonbon-à-liqueur = a stick-up.
1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 6 p., in