1673.Wycherley,Gentleman Dancing Master, iv., 1. They ne’er think of the poor watchful chambermaid, who sitsknocking her heels in the cold, for want of better exercise, in some melancholy lobby or entry.1752.Fielding,Amelia. In this parlour Ameliacooled her heels, as the phrase is, near a quarter of an hour.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford[Ed. 1854], p.22. He expected all whokicked their heelsat his house would behave decent and polite to young Mr. Dot.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. xiii. Tell him that I’ll trouble him to forget to go to sleep again as he did last time, and leave me herekicking my heelscontrary to the rules of the service.[297]1879.Sala,Paris Herself Again, i. Wecooled our heelsduring the ordinary an intolerable half hour.1888.Lynch,Mountain Mystery, ch. xlvi. That young gentleman, who had beencooling his heelsfor what seemed like half the night.To lay by the heels,verb. phr.(common).—To confine; to fetter; to jail.1601.Shakspeare,Henry VIII., v., 4. If the king blame me for it, I’lllayye allBy the heels, and suddenly.1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, iii. Sir, if you be not quiet the quicklier,I’llhave youclapp’dfairlyby the heels, for disturbing the Fair.1663–1678.Butler,Hudibras, i., 3. Th’ one half of man, his mind, Is,sui juris, unconfined, And cannot belaid by the heels.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1886.R. L. Stevenson,Kidnapped, p. 184. If theylay me by the heels, Alan, it’s then that you’ll be needing the money.To lift one’s heels,verb. phr.(venery).—To lie down for copulation; tospread(q.v.).To turn(ortopple)up the heels(ortoes),verb. phr.(old).—To die. For synonyms,seeAloft.1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse[Grosart], ii., 77. Our trust is … you willtourne up their heelesone of these yeares together, and prouide them of such vnthrifts to their heires, as shall spend in one weeke … what they got … all their lifetime.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe. Leaven thousand and fifty peopletoppled up their heels.To take to(orshow)a pair of heels,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To take to flight; to run away. For synonyms,seeAmputate.1593.Shakspeare,Comedy of Errors. Nay … Sir, I’lltake my heels.1864.Chambers’ Journal, Dec. Once before he had ‘found meanes yet at length to deceive his keepers, andtook him to his heels’to the sea coast.His heels,verb. phr.(gaming).—The knave of trumps at cribbage or all-fours. Hence ‘two for his heels’ = two points scored (at cribbage) for turning up this card.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.To tread upon(orto be atorupon)the heels,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To follow close or hard after; to pursue.1596.Shakspeare,Hamlet, iv., 7. One woe dothtread upon another’s heels.To go heels over head,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To turn a somersault; to be hasty; to fall violently. AlsoTop over Tail.1540.Lyndsay,Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, 3744. This fals warld is turnittop ouir taill.To have(orget)the heels of,verb. phr.(old).—To outrun; to get an advantage.1748.Smollett,Roderick Random. Thou hastgot the heelsof me already.Down(orout)at heel,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Slipshod; shabby; in decay.1605.Shakspeare,King Lear, ii., 2. A good man’s future may growout at heels.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1851–6.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 122. He was a littledown at heel.Heeled,adj.(American).—Armed. [From the steel spur used in cock-fighting.]Heeler,subs.(American).—1. Followers or henchmen of a politician or a party.1888.Denver Republican, 29 Feb. Theheelersand strikers, bummers and stuffers, otherwise known as practical[298]politicians, who do the work at the Democratic polls, and manipulate the primaries and local conventions.1888.New York Herald, 4 Nov. A band succeeded them and preceded a lot of wardheelersand floaters.2. (American).—A bar, or other loafer; anyone on the look-out for shady work.3. (American thieves’)—An accomplice in the pocket-bookracket(q.v.). [TheHeelerdraws attention, by touching the victim’s heels, to a pocket-book containing counterfeit money which has been let drop by a companion, with a view to inducing the victim to part with genuine coin for a division of the find.]4. (Winchester College).—A plunge, feet foremost, into water. Fr.,une chandelle.Heel-taps,subs.(common).—1. Liquor in the bottom of a glass.Bumpers round and no heel taps= Fill full, and drain dry!SeeDaylight. Fr.,la musique.1795.Gent. Mag., p. 118. Briskly pushed towards me the decanter containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll buzz you: come,no heel-taps!’1836.Dickens,Pickwick(Ed. 1857), p. 10.No heel-taps, and he emptied the glass.1838.Dickens,Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xxxii. There was a proper objection to drinking her inheeltaps.1841.Punch, i., 117. Empty themheeltaps, Jack, and fill out with a fresh jug.1844.Buckstone,The Maid with the Milking Pail. Added to which, she’s a termagant, and imbibes all theheeltaps.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xiv. The relics of yesterday’s feast—the emptied bottles … the wretchedheel-tapsthat have been lying exposed all night to the air.2. (common).—A dance peculiar to London dustmen.Heifer,subs.(common).—A woman;old heifer(in Western America) = a term of endearment. For synonyms,seePetticoat.18(?).In the Back Woods, p. 71. Now, git out, I says, or the ol’heifer’ll show you whar the carpenter left a hole for you to mosey.Heifer-paddock,subs.(Australian).—A ladies’ school.1885.Mrs. Campbell-Praed,Australian Life. The cattle (women) hereabouts are too scattered.… Next year I shall look over aheifer-paddockin Sydney, and take my pick.Heigh-ho,subs.(thieves’).—Stolen yarn. [From the expression used to apprise the fence that the speaker had stolen yarn to sell.]Heights.To scale the heights of connubial bliss,verb. phr.(venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Helbat,subs.(back).—A table.Hell,subs.(old).—1. Generic for a place of confinement, as in some games (Sydney), or a cell in a prison: specifically, a place under the Exchequer Chamber, where the king’s debtors were confined.1593.Shakspeare,Comedy of Errors, iv., 2. A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well, One that before the judgement, carries poor souls tohell.1658.Counter-Rat.In Wood Street’s hole, or counter’shell.1598.Florio,Worlde of Wordes, s.v.Secreta.… Also the name of a place in Venice where all their secret records and ancient evidences be kept, ashellis in Westminster Hall.[299]2. (old).—A workman’s receptacle for stolen or refuse pieces, as cloth, type, etc.;one’seye. AlsoHell-holeandHell-box.SeeCabbage.Hell-matter= (printers’) old and battered type.(?).Newest Academy of Compliments.When taylors forget to throw cabbage inhell, And shorten their bills, that all may be well.1589.Nashe,Martins Months Minde(Grosart), i. 185. Remember the shreddes that fall into the Tailorshell, neuer come backe to couer your backe.1592.Defence of Conny Catching, inGreene’sWks., xi., 96. Thishelis a place that the tailors haue vnder their shopboord, wher al their stolne shreds is thrust.1606.Day,Ile of Gulls. That fellowes pocket is like a tailorshell, it eats up part of every mans due; ’tis an executioner, and makes away more innocent petitions in one yeere, than a red-headed hangman cuts ropes in an age.1625.Jonson,Staple of News, i., 1. That jest Has gain’d thy pardon, thou hadst lived Condemn’d To thine ownhell.1663.T. Killegrew,Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5., in Dodsley,O.P.(1780) xi., 452.Careless[addressing a tailor]. Why then, thou art damned. Go, go home, and throw thyself into thine ownhell; it is the next way to the other.1663–1712.King,Art of Cookery. In Covent Garden did a taylor dwell, Who might deserve a place in his ownhell.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hell, the Place where the Taylers lay up their Cabbage, or Remnants, which are sometimes very large.1698.Money Masters All Things, p. 56. The Cheating Knave some of the clues does throw Into hishell-hole; and then lets her know That he her web cannot work out o’ th’ Loom.1704.Swift,Tale of a Tub, Sec. iii. The tailor’shellis the type of a critic’s common-place book.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1814.C. Lamb,Melancholy of TailorsinPoems, etc. (Ed. Ainger), p. 333. The tailor sitting over a cave or hollow place, in the cabalistic language of his order, is said to have certain melancholy regions always open under his feet.1853.Notes and Queries, 1 S., viii., 315, c. 2. The term cabbage, by which tailors designate the cribbed pieces of cloth, is said to be derived from an old word ‘cablesh,’i.e., wind-fallen wood. And theirhellwhere they store the cabbage, fromhelan, to hide.3. (common).—A gambling house. [WhenceSilver-hell= a gambling house where only silver is played for;Dancing-hell= an unchartered hall; and so forth.]1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, ii., 4.Jerry.Ahell, Tom? I’m at fault again!Log.A gambling house, Jerry!1841.Comic Almanack, p. 280. A man at ahell, Playing the part of aBonnetterwell.1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. xxxix. He plays still; he is in ahellevery night almost.1890.Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, c. 2. These privatehellsnevertheless exist, and as all money found on the premises is seized by the police, the players have to resort to all kinds of subterfuge when the three loud knocks are heard which indicate the presence of thecommissaire.4. (venery).—The femalepudendum;cf.,Heaven. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable. [SeeBoccaccio,Decameron.]Heaven, Hell and Purgatory,subs. phr.(old).—Three ale-houses formerly situated near Westminster Hall.1610.Jonson,Alchemist, v., 2. He must not break his fast In Heaven orHell.Hell broke loose,subs. phr.(common).—Extreme disorder; anarchy.1632.Hausted,Rivall Friends, v., 10. Fye, fye,hell is broke looseupon me.1672.Marvell,Rehearsal(Grosart), iii, 212. War broke out, and then to be surehell’s broke loose.1703.Farquhar,Inconstant, iv., 4.Hell broke looseupon me, and all the furies fluttered about my ears.[300]1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 96. Tho’hell’s broke loose, and the Devils roar abroad.Hell of a(lark,goer,row, and so forth),adj. phr.(common).—Very much of a ——; a popular intensitive.All to hell(orgone to hell),adj. phr.(colloquial).—Utterly ruined.To hope(orwish)to hell,verb. phr.(common).—To desire intensely.1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 229. Ihope to h——the horse will break his neck and his rider’s too.To play(orkick up)hell and tommy,verb. phr.(common).—To ruin utterly. Also,to play hell and break things;to raise hell;to make hell’s delight.1837–40.Haliburton,The Clockmaker, p. 287 (Ed. 1862). And in the mean time rob ’em, plunder ’em, and tax’em; hang their priests, seize their galls, andplay hell and tommywith them, and all because they speak French.1859.De Quincey,Wks.(14 vol., ed. vi., 336). About a hundred years earlier Lord Baconplayed h—— and tommywhen casually raised to the supreme seat in the Council by the brief absence in Edinburgh of the King and the Duke of Buckingham.1867.Lahore Chronicle, 20 May. The Sepoys are burning down the houses, andplaying h—— and tommywith the station.1879.Justin M’Carthy,Donna Quixote, ch. xxxii. We’ll have a fine bit of fun, I tell you. I’veplayed hell-and-tommyalready with the lot of them.To lead apes in hell,verb. phr.(old).—To die an old maid. [From a popular superstition.]1599.Henry Porter,The Two Angry Women of Abingdon. (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 294–5). For women that are wise will notlead apes in hell.… Therefore, come husband: maidenhead adieu.1600.Shakspeare,Much Ado about Nothing, ii., 1. He that is more than youth is not for me, and he that is less than man I am not for him; therefore I will … evenleadhisapes into hell.1605.London Prodigal, ii. But ’tis an old proverb, and you know it well, that women, dying maids,lead apes in hell.1611.Chapman,May-day, v. 2. I am beholden to her; she was loth to have melead apes in hell.1659.The London Chanticleers, i., 2. I’ll always live a virgin! What! andlead apes in hell?1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 179. Celladon at that began To talk ofapes in hell.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Bloudie Jacke.’ They say she is nowleading apes… And mends Bachelors’ small clothes below.To put the devil into hell,verb. phr.(old).—To copulate.—Boccaccio.[Hell= femalepudendum.] For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.To give hell,verb. phr.(common).—To trounce; abuse; or punish severely. Also (American),to make one smell hell(ora damn particular smell).Hell-for-leather,adv. phr.(common).—With the utmost energy and desperation.1892.R. Kipling,Barrack Room Ballads. When we rodehell-for-leather, Both squadrons together, Not caring much whether we lived or we died.Like hell,adv. phr.(common).—Desperately; with all one’s might.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xxix. I tried every place, everything; went to Ems, to Wiesbaden, to Hombourg, and playedlike hell.Go to hell!phr.(Common).—An emphatic dismissal: the full phrase is, ‘Go to hell and help the devil to make your mother into a bitch pie.’ [A variant is,[301]‘Go to hell and pump thunder.’] Foranalogousphrases,seeOaths.1836.Michael Scott,Cruise of the Midge, p. 72. So, good men,go to hellall of you—do—very mosh go to hell—do.1889.Daily News, 21 Dec., p. 7, c. 1. He was asked to see somebody about his evidence, and told himto go to hell.1892.Kipling,Barrack Room Ballads. ‘Ford o’ Kabul River.’ Kabul town’llgo to hell.Hell and Scissors!intj.(American).—An ejaculation of surprise and ridicule. In England,Scissors!Hell-bender,subs.(American).—A drunken frolic; a tremendous row. AlsoHell-a-poppingandHell’s delight.Hell-broth,subs.(common).—Bad liquor. For synonyms,seeDrinks.Hell-cat(-hag,-hound,-kite, etc.),subs.(old: now recognised).—A man or woman of hellish disposition; a lewdster of either sex;cf.,Hallion.1606.Shakspeare,Macbeth, v., 7.Macd.Turn,hell-hound, turn!Macb.Of all men else I have avoided thee.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hell-driver,subs.(old).—A coachman.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.Hellite,subs.(gaming).—A professional gambler.—Ducange.1838.Grant,Sketches in London. Prosecuting thehellitesfor assault.Hellophone,subs.(American).—The telephone. [FromHalloo!+phone.]Help,subs.(colloquial: once literary).—A hired assistant.Lady-help= a woman acting as a companion, and undertaking the lighter domestic duties with or without wages.1824.Peake,Americans Abroad, i., 1. Have you seen myhelp—my nigger.1839.De Quincey,Murder as one of the Fine Arts, ii. For domestichelpsare pretty generally in a state of transition.1848.Burton,Waggeries, p. 77. A bevy of readyhelpsrushed upon him and tore him from the seat of honour.1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. vi. ‘Well, you’ve had a pretty good day of it,’ said Tom, who had been hugely amused; ‘but I should feel nervous about thehelp, if I were you.’So help(ors’elpors’welp)me God(Bob,never, orsay-so, etc.),phr.(common).—An emphatic asseveration.1888.J. Runciman,The Chequers, p. 86. I’ll pay it back,s’elp me Gord.1892.A. Chevalier, ‘Mrs. ’Enery ’Awkins.’Selp me BobI’m crazy, Liza, you’re a daisy.1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 62.’Selp me never, old pal, it’s a scorcher.1893.Emerson,Signor Lippo, ch. xiv. Well,so help my blessed tater, if this isn’t our old Jose turned up again.Helpa,subs.(back).—An apple.Helpless,adj.(colloquial).—Drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.Hemispheres,subs.(venery).—The paps. For synonyms,seeDairy.Hemp(orHemp-seed,Stretch-Hemp,Hemp-string, orHempy),subs.(old).—1. A rogue; a candidate fit for the gallows. Frequently used jocularly. Acrack-halter(q.v.). Fr.,une graine de bagne.[302]1532.Sir T. More,Wks.[1557], folio 715. [He] feareth [not] to mocke the Sacrament, the blessed body of God, and ful like astretch hempe, call it but cake, bred, or starch.1566.Gascoigne,Supposes, iv., 3. If I come near you,hempstring, I will teach you to sing sol fa.1598.Shakspeare,2 Henry IV., ii., 1. Do, do, thou rogue, thouhemp-seed.1606.Chapman,Mons. D’Olive, Act v., p. 135. (Plays, 1874).Van.A perfect younghempstring.Va.Peace, least he overhear you.1659.Lady Alimony, iv., 6. (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., p. 350). Now, youhempstrings, had you no other time to nim us but when we were upon our visits?1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hemp,young-hemp, An appellation for a graceless boy.1817.Scott,Rob Roy, ch. xxxiv. She’s under lawful authority now; and full time, for she was a dafthempie.1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard, [Ed. 1840], p. 139. ‘We’ll see that, younghempseed,’ replied Sharples.2. (old).—A halter.1754.Fielding,Jonathan Wild, iv, 14. Laudanum, therefore, being unable to stop the health of our hero, which the fruit ofhempseed, and not the spirit of poppy-seed, was to overcome.…Verb(American).—To choke or strangle.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, s.v.To wag hemp in the wind,verb. phr.(old).—To be hanged.SeeHempen FeverandLadder.1532.Sir T. More,Wks.[1557], folio 715. Tindall calleth blessing and crossynge but wagging of folkes fingers in the æyre, and feareth not (like one yt would at lengthwagge hempe in the winde) to mocke at all such miracles.Hempen-bridle,subs.(old).—A ship’s rope or rigging.SeeHorseandTree.Hempen Collar(candle,circle,cravat,croak,garter,necktie, orhabeas),subs.(old).—The hangman’s noose; a halter. AlsoHemp, and theHearty-choke.Cf.,Anodyne neck-lace.Seequot. 1595.1530–95.Turbervile,Of Two Desperate Men. A man in deepe despaire, withhempein hand, Went out in haste to ende his wretched dayes.c.1586.Marlowe,Jew of Malta, iv., 4. When the hangman had put on hishempen.1594.Shakspeare,2 Henry VI., iv., 7. Ye shall have ahempen candlethen, and the pap of a hatchet.c.1785.Wolcot[P. Pindar],Rights of Kings, Ode xviii. Yourhemp cravats, your pray’r, your Tyburn miser.1819.Scott,Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xvi. I wad wager twa and a plack thathempplaits hiscravatyet.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hempen Habeas.He will get over it by ahempen habeas.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. iv. If ever I know as how you makes a flat of my Paul, blow me tight, but I’ll weave you ahempen collar:I’llhang you, you dog, I will.1886.Miss Braddon,Mohawks, ch. xxviii. A full confession were perhaps too much to expect. Nothing but the immediate prospect of ahempen necklacewould extort that.Hempen Fever.To die of a hempen fever,verb. phr.(old).—To be hanged. For synonyms,seeLadder.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hempen Fever, a man who was hanged, is said to havedied of a hempen fever; and in Dorsetshire to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard[1889], p. 76. She had been married four times; three of her husbands died ofhempen fevers.Hempen-fortune,subs.(old).—Bad luck; a term for the gallows.[303]1705.Vanbrugh,The Confederacy, v., 1. If ever I see one glance of yourhempen fortuneagain, I’m off your partnership for ever.Hempen-squincy,subs.(old).—Hanging. For synonyms,seeLadder.1646.Randolph’sJealous Lovers. Hear you, tutour, Shall not we be suspected for the murder, And choke with ahempen squincy.Hempen-widow,subs.(old).—A woman widowed by the gallows.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hempen Widow, One whose Husband was Hanged.1725.New Cant.Dict., s.v.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hempen-Widow(s.), a woman whose husband was hanged.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1834.Harrison Ainsworth,Rookwood, p. 89. In a box of the stone-jug I was born, Of ahempen-widowthe kid forlorn Fake away.Hen,subs.(common).—1. A woman. Specifically, a wife or mistress. For synonyms,seePetticoat.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hen.In Black-boy Alley I’ve a ken, A tyke and fighting cock; A saucy tip-slang moon-eyedhen, Who is oft mill-doll at block.2. (common).—Drink money.SeeHen drinking.1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 20. Whenever there’shenson the crow, ’Arry’s good for a hinnings,—no fear!Verb(Scots’).—To funk; to turn tail;to hen on= to fear to attempt.Cock and hen club,subs. phr.(common).—A club composed of men and women.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.Hens and Chickens,subs. phr.(thieves’).—Pewter measures; quarts and pints.Cf.,Cat and Kittens.1851.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. i., p. 276. Thehens and chickensof the roguish low lodging-houses are the publicans’ pewter measures; the bigger vessels are ‘hens,’ the smaller are ‘chickens.’Hen-drinking,subs.(provincial).—Seequot.1859.Notes and Queries, 2 S. viii., 239. There is yet another [Yorkshire marriage-custom], viz., thehen-drinking. On the evening of the wedding day the young men of the village call upon the bridegroom for a hen—meaning money for refreshments … should the hen be refused, the inmates may expect some ugly trick to the house ere the festivities terminate.Hen Frigate,subs.(nautical).—A ship commanded by the captain’s wife.Cf.,Hen-pecked.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1883.Clark Russell,Sailors’Language, s.v.Hen-fruit,subs.(American).—Eggs.Hen(orChicken)-hearted,adj.(old: now recognised).—Timorous; cowardly.d.1529.Skelton,Why Come Ye not to Courte. They kepe them in their holdes Lykehen-heartedcuckoldes.1506–56.Udal,James I.He is reconed a lowte and ahenne-heartedrascall.1639–61.Rump Songs, i., [1662] 319. Let thehen-heartedCit drink whey.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hen-hearted, of a cowardly, fearful, or timorous disposition.1754.B. Martin,Eng. Dict.(2nd Ed.), s.v. ‘Poltron.’ A coward, orhen-heartedfellow.1762.Foote,Liar, iii., 2. Why, what a dastardly,hen-hearted——But come, Papillion, this shall be your last campaign.[304]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Hen-hearted… a low word.1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. Are you turnedhen-hearted, Jack?Hen-house,subs.(old).—Seequot.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hen-house, a house where the woman rules, called also a she-house.Hen of the game.SeeGame.Hen-party(Convention-orTea-),subs.(common).—An assemblage of women for political or social purposes.Cf.,BullorStag-party. Also,Bitch-,Tabby-, andCat-party.Hen-pecked,adj.(old: now recognised).—Petticoat government; ruled by a woman.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.HenpecktFriggat, whose Commander and Officers are absolutely sway’d by their Wives.Ibid.HenpecktHusband, whose Wife wears the Breeches.1695.Congreve,Love for Love, iv., 13. I believe he that marries you will go to sea in ahen-pecked frigate.1712.Arbuthnot,History of John Bull, Pt. I., ch. v. He had a termagant wife, and, as the neighbours said, was playinghenpecked!1712.Spectator, No. 479. Socrates, who is by all accounts the undoubted head of the sect of thehen-pecked.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hen-pecked, a man that is over-awed by his wife, and dares do nothing disagreeable to her inclinations.1771.Smollett,Humphry Clinker, l. 27. I shall never presume to despise or censure any poor man for suffering himself to behenpecked, conscious how I myself am obliged to truckle to a domestic demon.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1837.Dickens,Oliver Twist, ch. xxxvii. He had fallen from all the height and pomp of beadleship, to the lowest depth of the most snubbedhen-peckery.1857.A. Trollope,Barchester Towers, ch. iii. But Mrs. Proudie is not satisfied with such home dominion, and stretches her power over all his movements, and will not even abstain from things spiritual. In fact, the bishop ishen-pecked.Hen’s-arsehole.—SeeMouth.Hen-snatcher,subs.(American).—A chicken thief.1888.Bulletin, 24 Nov. All the dead-beats and suspectedhen-snatchersplead when before the Bench that they were only ‘mouching round,’ etc.Hens’-rights,subs.(American).—Women’s rights.Hen-toed,adj. phr.(common).—To turn the toes in walking like a fowl.Here.Here’s to you(at you,unto you,now, orluck),phr.(common).—An invitation to drink; here’s a health to you. For synonyms,seeDrinks.1651.Cartwright,Royal Slave.Here’s to thee, Leocrates.1717.Ned Ward,Wks.ii., 71. Then we were fain To use Hertfordshire kindness,here’s to youagain.1853.Diogenesii., 46. Each a pot in his hand.… Observed in a style of remarkable ease, ‘Old Buckhere’s luck,’ And then at the pewter proceeded to suck.Here’s luck,phr.(tailors’).—I don’t believe you.I am not here,phr.(tailors’).—‘I don’t feel inclined to work’; ‘I wish to be left alone.’Here’s to it,phr.(common).—An obscene toast.SeeIt, sense 2.Here-and-Thereian,subs. phr.(old).—A rolling stone; a person with no permanent address.Lex. Bal., 1811.[305]Hereford,adj.(American cowboy). White. [Herefords are white-faced.]Herefordshire-weed,subs.(old).—An oak.Her Majesty’s Carriage,subs. phr.(common).—A prison van; the Queen’s ’bus.SeeBlack Maria. Fr.,l’omnibus à pègres.Her Majesty’s Tobacco Pipe,subs.(common).—The furnace where the forfeited tobacco from the Customs House is burnt. [Now a thing of the past: the tobacco being distributed to workhouses, etc.]1871.Echo, 27 Jan. All that was not sold will be burnt, according to custom, inher majesty’s tobacco pipe. We cannot think such waste justifiable.Hermit(orBaldheaded Hermit),subs.(venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.Herod.To out-herod Herod,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To out-do; specifically (theatrical) to excel in rant.1596.Shakspeare,Hamlet, iii., 2. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, perriwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings … itout-herods Herod.Herring.Neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring,phr.(old).—Neither one thing nor the other.1682.Dryden,Duke of Guise, Epil.(6th line from end). Neuters in their middleway of fleering, Areneither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.To throw a sprat to catch a herring(orwhale),verb. phr.(old).—To forego an advantage in the hope of greater profit.1826.Buckstone,Luke the Labourer, i., 2. I give dat likethrowing away a sprat to catch a herring, though I hope on this occasion to catch a bigger fish.1890.Grant Allen,Tents of Shem, ch. xix. He’scasting a sprat to catch a whale.Dead as a herring(orshotten herring),adv. phr.(old).—Quite dead. [Herrings die sooner on leaving the water than most fish.]SeeDead.1596.Shakspeare,Merry Wives of Windsor, ii., 3. By gar deherring is no deadas I vill kill him.1785.Burns,Death and Dr. Hornbook. I’ll nail the self-conceited sotAs dead’s a herrin’.1790.Rhodes,Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 4. Ay,dead as herrings—herrings that are red.Like herrings in a barrel,adv. phr.(common).—Very crowded.1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 117. People jammed inside likeherrings in a barrel.The devil a barrel the better herring,phr.(old).—All bad alike.—Lex. Bal.In modern American, all alike; indistinguishable.Cf.,Sardine.Herring-gutted,adj.(old).—Lanky; thin.—Grose.Herring-pond,subs.(common).—The sea; specifically, the North Atlantic Ocean.SeeBrinyandPuddle.To be sent across the herring-pond= to be transported.1722.England’s Path to Wealth.’Tis odds but a finer country, cheaper and better food and raiment, wholesomer air, easier rents and taxes, will tempt many of your countrymen to cross theherring-pond.1729.Gay,Polly, i., 1. Bless us all! how little are our customs known on this side theherring pond![306]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, etc., s.v.Herring-pond—the sea, the Atlantic; and he who is gone across it is said to be lagged, or gone a Botanizing.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 256, ed. 1854. You’re too old a hand for theherring-pond.1864.M. E. Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. xxv. You’re not going to run away? You’re not going to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and make an early expedition across theherring-pond—eh?1884.Phillipps-Woolley,Trottings of a Tenderfoot. Everyone nowadays has read as much as he or she cares to about the voyage across theherring-pond.1889.Notes and Queries, 7 S., vii., p. 36, c. 2. Terms which have lived in America, and again crossed theherring-pondwith modern traffic.1890.Punch, 6 Feb.Saturday.—My connection with war ended. Calculate I start to-morrow with the Show across theherring-pond, to wake up the Crowned Heads of Europe!1891.Gunter,Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. If so, I’ll—I’ll cut him, when I cross the—er—herrin’ pond.1892.Hume Nisbet,Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 119. I guess we have ruined one or two well-known authors, on the other side of theherring pond.Hertfordshire-kindness,subs.(old).—An acknowledgment, or return, in kind, of favours received. (Butseequots., 1662, 1690, and 1738).1662.Fuller,Worthies. This is generally taken in a good and grateful sense, for the mutual return of favours received: it being (belike) observed that the people in this county at entertainments drink back to them who drank to them.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hertfordshire-kindness, Drinking to the same Man again.1717.Ned Ward,Wks., ii., 7. Then we were fain To useHertfordshire-kindness, Here’s to you again.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1738.Swift,Polite Conversations.Neverout.My Lord, this moment I did myself the honour to drink to your Lordship.Lord Smart.Why then that’sHertfordshire Kindness.Neverout.Faith, my Lord, I pledged myself: for I drank twice together without thinking.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hertfordshire Kindness, drinking twice to the same person.Hewgag.The Hewgag,subs.(American).—A name for an undeterminate, unknown, mythical creature.—Slang, Jargon, and Cant.Hey-gammer-cook.To play at Hey-gammer-cook,verb. phr.(venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.1720.C. Johnson,Highwaymen and Pyrates, ‘Margaret Simpson’ (q.v.).Hiccius Doccius,subs. phr.(Old Cant).—A juggler; also a shifty fellow or trickster.1676.Shadwell,Virtuoso, ii., p. 19. I shall stand here till one of them has whipt away my Mistris about business, with aHixius Doxius, with the force of Repartee, and this, and that, and Everything in the world.1678.Butler,Hudibras, iii., 3, 579. At Westminster, and Hickses-Hall, AndHiccius Dockiusplay’d in all.1688.Wycherley,Country Wife, iii. That burlesque is a Hocus-pocus trick they have got, which by the virtue ofHictius doctius, topsey-turvey, etc.1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Hiccius doccius… a cant word for a juggler; one that plays fast and loose.Adj.(old).—Drunk; slovenly. Also,Hickey(q.v.). For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.1733.North,Examen, i., 3, 137 (1740). The author with hisHiccius-doxiusdelivery.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hicksius Doxius, Drunk.[307]Hic Jacet,subs. phr.(common).—A tombstone; also a memorial inscription. [From the opening words.]1598.Shakspeare,All’s Well, etc., iii., 6. The merit of service is seldom attributed to the true … performer. I would have that drum … orhic jacet.1858–59.Tennyson,Idylls of the King(‘Vivien’). Among the coldhic jacetsof the dead.Hick,subs.(Old Cant).—I. A man; specifically a countryman; a booby. Also (American thieves’)HickjopandHicksam. For synonyms,seeJoskin.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hick, any Person of whom any Prey can be made, or Booty taken from; also a silly Country Fellow.1720.Smith,Lives of Highwaymen and Pyrates, ii., 39. Among whom was a country farmer … which was not missed at all by the CountryHick.1725.New Cant. Dict.Song 3. ‘The Thief-catcher’s Prophesy.’ The Eighth is a Bulk, that can bulk anyHick.1754.Scoundrel’s Dict.The fourteenth, a gamester, if he sees theHicksweet He presently drops down a cog in the street.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hickety-split,adj.(American).—With all one’s might; at top speed;hammer and tongs(q.v.);full chisel(q.v.).Hickey,adj.(old).—Seequot.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, s.v.Hickey, Tipsy; not quite drunk; elated.Hickory-shirt,subs.(American).—A checked shirt, cotton or woollen.Hide,subs.(common).—The human skin. Once literary; now colloquial and vulgar.1568.BannatyneMSS., ‘When Flora, etc.’ (Hunterian Club, 1879–88). Sche is so brycht ofhydand hew, I lufe bot hir allane I wene.1607.Marston,What You Will, ii., I. A skubbing railer, whose course harden’d fortune, Grating hishide, gauling his starued ribs, Sittes hauling at Deserts more battle fate.1731.C. Coffey,The Devil to Pay, Sc. 5. Come, and spin, you drab, or I’ll tan yourhidefor you.1892.Kipling,Barrack-Room Ballads. ‘Gunga-Din.’ An’ for all ’is dirty’ide’e was white, clear white, inside.Verb(common).—To flog. For synonyms,seeTan.1868.Cassell’s Mag., May, p. 80. This was carried across the yard to Jacky as a regular challenge, and some said that Kavanagh and his friends were coming over tohideJacky after dinner.1885.Punch, 29 Aug. p. 98. And the silver-topped rattan with which the boys I used tohide.Hidebound,adj.(old: now recognised).—Barren; intractable; niggardly; pedantic; utterly immovable.1606.Return from Parnassus, ii., 4 (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 125). Any of thehideboundbrethren of Oxford or Cambridge.1672.Wycherley,Love in a Wood, i., 2. I am as barren andhideboundas one of your scribbling poets, who are sots in company for all their wit.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hidebound Horse, whose Skin sticks very close, and tite like a Pudding Bag, usually when very Fat.Ibid.Hidebound Muse, Stiff, hard of Delivery, Sir J. Suckling call’d Ben Johnson’s so.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1893.Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Feb. ‘High Time to Get Up.’ The most dragging inertness and the mosthide-boundcelerity.Hiding,subs.(common).—A thrashing. For synonyms,seeTanning.1853.Bradley,Verdant Green, ii., p. 23. May the Gown give the Town a jolly goodhiding.[308]1864.Mark Lemon,Jest Book, p. 236. Some people have a notion that villany ought to be exposed, though we must confess we think it a thing that deserves ahiding.1871.All the Year Round, 18 Feb. p. 288. Served me right if I’d got ahiding.1883.Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Apr., p. 7, c. 2. They should stone all boys they met who were not members of the society, or in default themselves receive a goodhiding.1888.Sportsman, 22 Dec. The chairman told Deakin he could scarcely expect anything but ahidingfor being connected with such a scurrilous publication.1891.Licensed Vict. Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 7, c. 1. Before Paddock could claim the victory, which cost the Redditch fighter one of the severesthidingshe ever had to put up with.Higgledy-piggledy,adj.(Old Cant: now recognised).—In confusion; topsy-turvy; at sixes and sevens.1598.Florio,Worlde of Wordes, s.v.Alla rappa, snatchingly,higledi-pigledie, shiftingly, rap and run.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Higglede-piggledy, all together, as Hoggs and Piggs lie Nose in Arse.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1758.A. Murphy,The Upholsterer, ii. Ambassadors and Hair-Cutters, allhiggledy-piggledytogether.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Higgledy-piggledy, a cant word, corrupted fromhiggle, which denotes any confused mass, as higglers carry a huddle of provisions together.1849.Dickens,David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. His name’s got all the letters in it,higgledy-piggledy.1873.Miss Broughton,Nancy, ch. ii. We are allhiggledy-piggledy—at sixes and sevens!1876.M. E. Braddon,Joshua Haggard, ch. xvi. ‘If some of you will sit down,’ remonstrated Judith, ‘I’ll pour out the tea. But I don’t feel as if anybody wanted it while you’re standing abouthiggledy-piggledy.’Higgler,subs.(old).—A hawker.High,adj.(American).—Drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.2. (colloquial).—Stinking;gamey(q.v.).; whence, by implication, diseased (as a prostitute); obscene in intention and effect.The high and dry,subs. phr.(clerical).—The High Church or Anglo-Catholic party in the Establishment, as opposed to thelow and slow(q.v.), or Evangelical section.Cf.,Broad and Shallow.1854.Conybeare,Church Parties, 74. Its adherents [of the High Church] are fallen from their high estate, and are contemptuously denominatedthe high and dry, just as the parallel development of the Low Church is nicknamed ‘low and slow.’1857.Anthony Trollope,Barchester Towers, ch. liii. Who belongs tothe high and drychurch, the High Church as it was some fifty years since, before tracts were written and young clergymen took upon themselves the highly meritorious duty of cleaning churches?1886.Graphic, 10 Apr., 399. In the Church have we not the three schools ofHigh and Dry, Low and Slow, and Broad and Shallow?High and dry,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Stranded; abandoned; irrecoverable.1889.Pall Mall Gaz., 18 Oct., 6, 1. It seems to me that Mr. Chamberlain must really look out or he will find himself, as the result of that insidious ‘mellowing process’ to which Mr. Matthews has testified, landedhigh and dryin a Toryism compared to which Sir Walter Barttelot will show in Radical colours.High and mighty,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Arrogant; imperious; proud; ‘on the high horse,’ or the ‘high ropes’ (q.v.); full ofside(q.v.).[309]1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 121. None of yourhighandmightygames with me.1892.HenleyandStevenson,Deacon Brodie, i., 2. Ye need na be saehigh and mightyonyway.1892.Hume Nisbet,Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 49. ‘Mighty highsome people are, ain’t they?’ the man observed loudly, straightening himself, and ordering a nobbler for himself.Too high for one’s nut,adv. phr.(American).—Out of one’s reach; beyond one’s capacity;over one’s bend(q.v.).You can’t get high enough,verb. phr.(common).—A derisive comment on any kind of failure. [Probably obscene in origin.]How is that for high?phr.(American).—‘What do you think of it?’ [Once a tag universal; common wear now.]1860.Bartlett,Americanisms, s.v.High.For when he slapped my broad-brim off, and asked,How’s that for high?It roused the Adam in me, and I smote him hip and thigh!1872.Clemens(Mark Twain),Roughing It, 334. We are going to get it up regardless of expense. [He] was always nifty himself, and so you bet his funeral ain’t going to be no slouch,—solid silver door-plate on his coffin, six plumes on the hearse, and a nigger on the box in a biled shirt and a plug hat,—how’s that for high?1889.Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Sep., p. 2, c. 1. ‘Cricket’ stories are the thing just now.How is this for high?High-bellied(orHigh in the Belly),adj. phr.(colloquial).—Far gone in pregnancy. AlsoHigh-waisted.Highbinder,subs.(American).—1. A Chinese blackmailer.2. (political American).—A political conspirator.—Norton.High-bloke,subs.(American).—1. A judge.2. (American).—A well-dressed man; asplawger(q.v.).—Matsell.Higher-malthusianism,subs. phr.(colloquial).—Sodomy.Highfalute,verb.(American).—To use fine words. Alsoto yarn(q.v.).SeeHighfaluting. Fr.,faire l’étroite.Highfaluting,subs.(formerly American: now general).—Bombast; rant.1865.Orchestra.We should not think of usinghigh-falutinon ordinary serious occasions, and that we never shall use it in future, unless we happen to speak of thePorcupinecritic.1886.Pall Mall Gaz., 3 May, 6, 2. A glib master of frothy fustian, of flatulenthigh-falutin’, and of oratorical bombast.Adj.(general).—Bombastic; fustian; thrasonical.1870.Friswell,Modern Men of Letters. A driveller of tipsy, high-flown, andhigh-falutin’nonsense.1884.Echo, 17 Mar., p. 1, c. 4. It is the boast ofhigh-falutin’Americans that theirs is a country ‘where every man can do as he darn pleases.’High-feather.In high feather,adv. phr.(colloquial).—In luck; on good terms with oneself and the world.High-fly.To be on the high-fly,verb. phr.(thieves’).—Specifically, to practise the begging-letter imposture, but (generally) to tramp the country as a beggar.1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, 163. TheHigh-fly—beggars, with letters, pretending to be broken-down gentlemen, captains, etc.[310]
1673.Wycherley,Gentleman Dancing Master, iv., 1. They ne’er think of the poor watchful chambermaid, who sitsknocking her heels in the cold, for want of better exercise, in some melancholy lobby or entry.1752.Fielding,Amelia. In this parlour Ameliacooled her heels, as the phrase is, near a quarter of an hour.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford[Ed. 1854], p.22. He expected all whokicked their heelsat his house would behave decent and polite to young Mr. Dot.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. xiii. Tell him that I’ll trouble him to forget to go to sleep again as he did last time, and leave me herekicking my heelscontrary to the rules of the service.[297]1879.Sala,Paris Herself Again, i. Wecooled our heelsduring the ordinary an intolerable half hour.1888.Lynch,Mountain Mystery, ch. xlvi. That young gentleman, who had beencooling his heelsfor what seemed like half the night.To lay by the heels,verb. phr.(common).—To confine; to fetter; to jail.1601.Shakspeare,Henry VIII., v., 4. If the king blame me for it, I’lllayye allBy the heels, and suddenly.1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, iii. Sir, if you be not quiet the quicklier,I’llhave youclapp’dfairlyby the heels, for disturbing the Fair.1663–1678.Butler,Hudibras, i., 3. Th’ one half of man, his mind, Is,sui juris, unconfined, And cannot belaid by the heels.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1886.R. L. Stevenson,Kidnapped, p. 184. If theylay me by the heels, Alan, it’s then that you’ll be needing the money.To lift one’s heels,verb. phr.(venery).—To lie down for copulation; tospread(q.v.).To turn(ortopple)up the heels(ortoes),verb. phr.(old).—To die. For synonyms,seeAloft.1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse[Grosart], ii., 77. Our trust is … you willtourne up their heelesone of these yeares together, and prouide them of such vnthrifts to their heires, as shall spend in one weeke … what they got … all their lifetime.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe. Leaven thousand and fifty peopletoppled up their heels.To take to(orshow)a pair of heels,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To take to flight; to run away. For synonyms,seeAmputate.1593.Shakspeare,Comedy of Errors. Nay … Sir, I’lltake my heels.1864.Chambers’ Journal, Dec. Once before he had ‘found meanes yet at length to deceive his keepers, andtook him to his heels’to the sea coast.His heels,verb. phr.(gaming).—The knave of trumps at cribbage or all-fours. Hence ‘two for his heels’ = two points scored (at cribbage) for turning up this card.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.To tread upon(orto be atorupon)the heels,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To follow close or hard after; to pursue.1596.Shakspeare,Hamlet, iv., 7. One woe dothtread upon another’s heels.To go heels over head,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To turn a somersault; to be hasty; to fall violently. AlsoTop over Tail.1540.Lyndsay,Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, 3744. This fals warld is turnittop ouir taill.To have(orget)the heels of,verb. phr.(old).—To outrun; to get an advantage.1748.Smollett,Roderick Random. Thou hastgot the heelsof me already.Down(orout)at heel,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Slipshod; shabby; in decay.1605.Shakspeare,King Lear, ii., 2. A good man’s future may growout at heels.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1851–6.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 122. He was a littledown at heel.Heeled,adj.(American).—Armed. [From the steel spur used in cock-fighting.]Heeler,subs.(American).—1. Followers or henchmen of a politician or a party.1888.Denver Republican, 29 Feb. Theheelersand strikers, bummers and stuffers, otherwise known as practical[298]politicians, who do the work at the Democratic polls, and manipulate the primaries and local conventions.1888.New York Herald, 4 Nov. A band succeeded them and preceded a lot of wardheelersand floaters.2. (American).—A bar, or other loafer; anyone on the look-out for shady work.3. (American thieves’)—An accomplice in the pocket-bookracket(q.v.). [TheHeelerdraws attention, by touching the victim’s heels, to a pocket-book containing counterfeit money which has been let drop by a companion, with a view to inducing the victim to part with genuine coin for a division of the find.]4. (Winchester College).—A plunge, feet foremost, into water. Fr.,une chandelle.Heel-taps,subs.(common).—1. Liquor in the bottom of a glass.Bumpers round and no heel taps= Fill full, and drain dry!SeeDaylight. Fr.,la musique.1795.Gent. Mag., p. 118. Briskly pushed towards me the decanter containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll buzz you: come,no heel-taps!’1836.Dickens,Pickwick(Ed. 1857), p. 10.No heel-taps, and he emptied the glass.1838.Dickens,Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xxxii. There was a proper objection to drinking her inheeltaps.1841.Punch, i., 117. Empty themheeltaps, Jack, and fill out with a fresh jug.1844.Buckstone,The Maid with the Milking Pail. Added to which, she’s a termagant, and imbibes all theheeltaps.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xiv. The relics of yesterday’s feast—the emptied bottles … the wretchedheel-tapsthat have been lying exposed all night to the air.2. (common).—A dance peculiar to London dustmen.Heifer,subs.(common).—A woman;old heifer(in Western America) = a term of endearment. For synonyms,seePetticoat.18(?).In the Back Woods, p. 71. Now, git out, I says, or the ol’heifer’ll show you whar the carpenter left a hole for you to mosey.Heifer-paddock,subs.(Australian).—A ladies’ school.1885.Mrs. Campbell-Praed,Australian Life. The cattle (women) hereabouts are too scattered.… Next year I shall look over aheifer-paddockin Sydney, and take my pick.Heigh-ho,subs.(thieves’).—Stolen yarn. [From the expression used to apprise the fence that the speaker had stolen yarn to sell.]Heights.To scale the heights of connubial bliss,verb. phr.(venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Helbat,subs.(back).—A table.Hell,subs.(old).—1. Generic for a place of confinement, as in some games (Sydney), or a cell in a prison: specifically, a place under the Exchequer Chamber, where the king’s debtors were confined.1593.Shakspeare,Comedy of Errors, iv., 2. A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well, One that before the judgement, carries poor souls tohell.1658.Counter-Rat.In Wood Street’s hole, or counter’shell.1598.Florio,Worlde of Wordes, s.v.Secreta.… Also the name of a place in Venice where all their secret records and ancient evidences be kept, ashellis in Westminster Hall.[299]2. (old).—A workman’s receptacle for stolen or refuse pieces, as cloth, type, etc.;one’seye. AlsoHell-holeandHell-box.SeeCabbage.Hell-matter= (printers’) old and battered type.(?).Newest Academy of Compliments.When taylors forget to throw cabbage inhell, And shorten their bills, that all may be well.1589.Nashe,Martins Months Minde(Grosart), i. 185. Remember the shreddes that fall into the Tailorshell, neuer come backe to couer your backe.1592.Defence of Conny Catching, inGreene’sWks., xi., 96. Thishelis a place that the tailors haue vnder their shopboord, wher al their stolne shreds is thrust.1606.Day,Ile of Gulls. That fellowes pocket is like a tailorshell, it eats up part of every mans due; ’tis an executioner, and makes away more innocent petitions in one yeere, than a red-headed hangman cuts ropes in an age.1625.Jonson,Staple of News, i., 1. That jest Has gain’d thy pardon, thou hadst lived Condemn’d To thine ownhell.1663.T. Killegrew,Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5., in Dodsley,O.P.(1780) xi., 452.Careless[addressing a tailor]. Why then, thou art damned. Go, go home, and throw thyself into thine ownhell; it is the next way to the other.1663–1712.King,Art of Cookery. In Covent Garden did a taylor dwell, Who might deserve a place in his ownhell.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hell, the Place where the Taylers lay up their Cabbage, or Remnants, which are sometimes very large.1698.Money Masters All Things, p. 56. The Cheating Knave some of the clues does throw Into hishell-hole; and then lets her know That he her web cannot work out o’ th’ Loom.1704.Swift,Tale of a Tub, Sec. iii. The tailor’shellis the type of a critic’s common-place book.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1814.C. Lamb,Melancholy of TailorsinPoems, etc. (Ed. Ainger), p. 333. The tailor sitting over a cave or hollow place, in the cabalistic language of his order, is said to have certain melancholy regions always open under his feet.1853.Notes and Queries, 1 S., viii., 315, c. 2. The term cabbage, by which tailors designate the cribbed pieces of cloth, is said to be derived from an old word ‘cablesh,’i.e., wind-fallen wood. And theirhellwhere they store the cabbage, fromhelan, to hide.3. (common).—A gambling house. [WhenceSilver-hell= a gambling house where only silver is played for;Dancing-hell= an unchartered hall; and so forth.]1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, ii., 4.Jerry.Ahell, Tom? I’m at fault again!Log.A gambling house, Jerry!1841.Comic Almanack, p. 280. A man at ahell, Playing the part of aBonnetterwell.1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. xxxix. He plays still; he is in ahellevery night almost.1890.Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, c. 2. These privatehellsnevertheless exist, and as all money found on the premises is seized by the police, the players have to resort to all kinds of subterfuge when the three loud knocks are heard which indicate the presence of thecommissaire.4. (venery).—The femalepudendum;cf.,Heaven. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable. [SeeBoccaccio,Decameron.]Heaven, Hell and Purgatory,subs. phr.(old).—Three ale-houses formerly situated near Westminster Hall.1610.Jonson,Alchemist, v., 2. He must not break his fast In Heaven orHell.Hell broke loose,subs. phr.(common).—Extreme disorder; anarchy.1632.Hausted,Rivall Friends, v., 10. Fye, fye,hell is broke looseupon me.1672.Marvell,Rehearsal(Grosart), iii, 212. War broke out, and then to be surehell’s broke loose.1703.Farquhar,Inconstant, iv., 4.Hell broke looseupon me, and all the furies fluttered about my ears.[300]1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 96. Tho’hell’s broke loose, and the Devils roar abroad.Hell of a(lark,goer,row, and so forth),adj. phr.(common).—Very much of a ——; a popular intensitive.All to hell(orgone to hell),adj. phr.(colloquial).—Utterly ruined.To hope(orwish)to hell,verb. phr.(common).—To desire intensely.1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 229. Ihope to h——the horse will break his neck and his rider’s too.To play(orkick up)hell and tommy,verb. phr.(common).—To ruin utterly. Also,to play hell and break things;to raise hell;to make hell’s delight.1837–40.Haliburton,The Clockmaker, p. 287 (Ed. 1862). And in the mean time rob ’em, plunder ’em, and tax’em; hang their priests, seize their galls, andplay hell and tommywith them, and all because they speak French.1859.De Quincey,Wks.(14 vol., ed. vi., 336). About a hundred years earlier Lord Baconplayed h—— and tommywhen casually raised to the supreme seat in the Council by the brief absence in Edinburgh of the King and the Duke of Buckingham.1867.Lahore Chronicle, 20 May. The Sepoys are burning down the houses, andplaying h—— and tommywith the station.1879.Justin M’Carthy,Donna Quixote, ch. xxxii. We’ll have a fine bit of fun, I tell you. I’veplayed hell-and-tommyalready with the lot of them.To lead apes in hell,verb. phr.(old).—To die an old maid. [From a popular superstition.]1599.Henry Porter,The Two Angry Women of Abingdon. (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 294–5). For women that are wise will notlead apes in hell.… Therefore, come husband: maidenhead adieu.1600.Shakspeare,Much Ado about Nothing, ii., 1. He that is more than youth is not for me, and he that is less than man I am not for him; therefore I will … evenleadhisapes into hell.1605.London Prodigal, ii. But ’tis an old proverb, and you know it well, that women, dying maids,lead apes in hell.1611.Chapman,May-day, v. 2. I am beholden to her; she was loth to have melead apes in hell.1659.The London Chanticleers, i., 2. I’ll always live a virgin! What! andlead apes in hell?1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 179. Celladon at that began To talk ofapes in hell.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Bloudie Jacke.’ They say she is nowleading apes… And mends Bachelors’ small clothes below.To put the devil into hell,verb. phr.(old).—To copulate.—Boccaccio.[Hell= femalepudendum.] For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.To give hell,verb. phr.(common).—To trounce; abuse; or punish severely. Also (American),to make one smell hell(ora damn particular smell).Hell-for-leather,adv. phr.(common).—With the utmost energy and desperation.1892.R. Kipling,Barrack Room Ballads. When we rodehell-for-leather, Both squadrons together, Not caring much whether we lived or we died.Like hell,adv. phr.(common).—Desperately; with all one’s might.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xxix. I tried every place, everything; went to Ems, to Wiesbaden, to Hombourg, and playedlike hell.Go to hell!phr.(Common).—An emphatic dismissal: the full phrase is, ‘Go to hell and help the devil to make your mother into a bitch pie.’ [A variant is,[301]‘Go to hell and pump thunder.’] Foranalogousphrases,seeOaths.1836.Michael Scott,Cruise of the Midge, p. 72. So, good men,go to hellall of you—do—very mosh go to hell—do.1889.Daily News, 21 Dec., p. 7, c. 1. He was asked to see somebody about his evidence, and told himto go to hell.1892.Kipling,Barrack Room Ballads. ‘Ford o’ Kabul River.’ Kabul town’llgo to hell.Hell and Scissors!intj.(American).—An ejaculation of surprise and ridicule. In England,Scissors!Hell-bender,subs.(American).—A drunken frolic; a tremendous row. AlsoHell-a-poppingandHell’s delight.Hell-broth,subs.(common).—Bad liquor. For synonyms,seeDrinks.Hell-cat(-hag,-hound,-kite, etc.),subs.(old: now recognised).—A man or woman of hellish disposition; a lewdster of either sex;cf.,Hallion.1606.Shakspeare,Macbeth, v., 7.Macd.Turn,hell-hound, turn!Macb.Of all men else I have avoided thee.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hell-driver,subs.(old).—A coachman.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.Hellite,subs.(gaming).—A professional gambler.—Ducange.1838.Grant,Sketches in London. Prosecuting thehellitesfor assault.Hellophone,subs.(American).—The telephone. [FromHalloo!+phone.]Help,subs.(colloquial: once literary).—A hired assistant.Lady-help= a woman acting as a companion, and undertaking the lighter domestic duties with or without wages.1824.Peake,Americans Abroad, i., 1. Have you seen myhelp—my nigger.1839.De Quincey,Murder as one of the Fine Arts, ii. For domestichelpsare pretty generally in a state of transition.1848.Burton,Waggeries, p. 77. A bevy of readyhelpsrushed upon him and tore him from the seat of honour.1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. vi. ‘Well, you’ve had a pretty good day of it,’ said Tom, who had been hugely amused; ‘but I should feel nervous about thehelp, if I were you.’So help(ors’elpors’welp)me God(Bob,never, orsay-so, etc.),phr.(common).—An emphatic asseveration.1888.J. Runciman,The Chequers, p. 86. I’ll pay it back,s’elp me Gord.1892.A. Chevalier, ‘Mrs. ’Enery ’Awkins.’Selp me BobI’m crazy, Liza, you’re a daisy.1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 62.’Selp me never, old pal, it’s a scorcher.1893.Emerson,Signor Lippo, ch. xiv. Well,so help my blessed tater, if this isn’t our old Jose turned up again.Helpa,subs.(back).—An apple.Helpless,adj.(colloquial).—Drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.Hemispheres,subs.(venery).—The paps. For synonyms,seeDairy.Hemp(orHemp-seed,Stretch-Hemp,Hemp-string, orHempy),subs.(old).—1. A rogue; a candidate fit for the gallows. Frequently used jocularly. Acrack-halter(q.v.). Fr.,une graine de bagne.[302]1532.Sir T. More,Wks.[1557], folio 715. [He] feareth [not] to mocke the Sacrament, the blessed body of God, and ful like astretch hempe, call it but cake, bred, or starch.1566.Gascoigne,Supposes, iv., 3. If I come near you,hempstring, I will teach you to sing sol fa.1598.Shakspeare,2 Henry IV., ii., 1. Do, do, thou rogue, thouhemp-seed.1606.Chapman,Mons. D’Olive, Act v., p. 135. (Plays, 1874).Van.A perfect younghempstring.Va.Peace, least he overhear you.1659.Lady Alimony, iv., 6. (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., p. 350). Now, youhempstrings, had you no other time to nim us but when we were upon our visits?1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hemp,young-hemp, An appellation for a graceless boy.1817.Scott,Rob Roy, ch. xxxiv. She’s under lawful authority now; and full time, for she was a dafthempie.1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard, [Ed. 1840], p. 139. ‘We’ll see that, younghempseed,’ replied Sharples.2. (old).—A halter.1754.Fielding,Jonathan Wild, iv, 14. Laudanum, therefore, being unable to stop the health of our hero, which the fruit ofhempseed, and not the spirit of poppy-seed, was to overcome.…Verb(American).—To choke or strangle.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, s.v.To wag hemp in the wind,verb. phr.(old).—To be hanged.SeeHempen FeverandLadder.1532.Sir T. More,Wks.[1557], folio 715. Tindall calleth blessing and crossynge but wagging of folkes fingers in the æyre, and feareth not (like one yt would at lengthwagge hempe in the winde) to mocke at all such miracles.Hempen-bridle,subs.(old).—A ship’s rope or rigging.SeeHorseandTree.Hempen Collar(candle,circle,cravat,croak,garter,necktie, orhabeas),subs.(old).—The hangman’s noose; a halter. AlsoHemp, and theHearty-choke.Cf.,Anodyne neck-lace.Seequot. 1595.1530–95.Turbervile,Of Two Desperate Men. A man in deepe despaire, withhempein hand, Went out in haste to ende his wretched dayes.c.1586.Marlowe,Jew of Malta, iv., 4. When the hangman had put on hishempen.1594.Shakspeare,2 Henry VI., iv., 7. Ye shall have ahempen candlethen, and the pap of a hatchet.c.1785.Wolcot[P. Pindar],Rights of Kings, Ode xviii. Yourhemp cravats, your pray’r, your Tyburn miser.1819.Scott,Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xvi. I wad wager twa and a plack thathempplaits hiscravatyet.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hempen Habeas.He will get over it by ahempen habeas.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. iv. If ever I know as how you makes a flat of my Paul, blow me tight, but I’ll weave you ahempen collar:I’llhang you, you dog, I will.1886.Miss Braddon,Mohawks, ch. xxviii. A full confession were perhaps too much to expect. Nothing but the immediate prospect of ahempen necklacewould extort that.Hempen Fever.To die of a hempen fever,verb. phr.(old).—To be hanged. For synonyms,seeLadder.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hempen Fever, a man who was hanged, is said to havedied of a hempen fever; and in Dorsetshire to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard[1889], p. 76. She had been married four times; three of her husbands died ofhempen fevers.Hempen-fortune,subs.(old).—Bad luck; a term for the gallows.[303]1705.Vanbrugh,The Confederacy, v., 1. If ever I see one glance of yourhempen fortuneagain, I’m off your partnership for ever.Hempen-squincy,subs.(old).—Hanging. For synonyms,seeLadder.1646.Randolph’sJealous Lovers. Hear you, tutour, Shall not we be suspected for the murder, And choke with ahempen squincy.Hempen-widow,subs.(old).—A woman widowed by the gallows.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hempen Widow, One whose Husband was Hanged.1725.New Cant.Dict., s.v.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hempen-Widow(s.), a woman whose husband was hanged.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1834.Harrison Ainsworth,Rookwood, p. 89. In a box of the stone-jug I was born, Of ahempen-widowthe kid forlorn Fake away.Hen,subs.(common).—1. A woman. Specifically, a wife or mistress. For synonyms,seePetticoat.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hen.In Black-boy Alley I’ve a ken, A tyke and fighting cock; A saucy tip-slang moon-eyedhen, Who is oft mill-doll at block.2. (common).—Drink money.SeeHen drinking.1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 20. Whenever there’shenson the crow, ’Arry’s good for a hinnings,—no fear!Verb(Scots’).—To funk; to turn tail;to hen on= to fear to attempt.Cock and hen club,subs. phr.(common).—A club composed of men and women.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.Hens and Chickens,subs. phr.(thieves’).—Pewter measures; quarts and pints.Cf.,Cat and Kittens.1851.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. i., p. 276. Thehens and chickensof the roguish low lodging-houses are the publicans’ pewter measures; the bigger vessels are ‘hens,’ the smaller are ‘chickens.’Hen-drinking,subs.(provincial).—Seequot.1859.Notes and Queries, 2 S. viii., 239. There is yet another [Yorkshire marriage-custom], viz., thehen-drinking. On the evening of the wedding day the young men of the village call upon the bridegroom for a hen—meaning money for refreshments … should the hen be refused, the inmates may expect some ugly trick to the house ere the festivities terminate.Hen Frigate,subs.(nautical).—A ship commanded by the captain’s wife.Cf.,Hen-pecked.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1883.Clark Russell,Sailors’Language, s.v.Hen-fruit,subs.(American).—Eggs.Hen(orChicken)-hearted,adj.(old: now recognised).—Timorous; cowardly.d.1529.Skelton,Why Come Ye not to Courte. They kepe them in their holdes Lykehen-heartedcuckoldes.1506–56.Udal,James I.He is reconed a lowte and ahenne-heartedrascall.1639–61.Rump Songs, i., [1662] 319. Let thehen-heartedCit drink whey.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hen-hearted, of a cowardly, fearful, or timorous disposition.1754.B. Martin,Eng. Dict.(2nd Ed.), s.v. ‘Poltron.’ A coward, orhen-heartedfellow.1762.Foote,Liar, iii., 2. Why, what a dastardly,hen-hearted——But come, Papillion, this shall be your last campaign.[304]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Hen-hearted… a low word.1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. Are you turnedhen-hearted, Jack?Hen-house,subs.(old).—Seequot.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hen-house, a house where the woman rules, called also a she-house.Hen of the game.SeeGame.Hen-party(Convention-orTea-),subs.(common).—An assemblage of women for political or social purposes.Cf.,BullorStag-party. Also,Bitch-,Tabby-, andCat-party.Hen-pecked,adj.(old: now recognised).—Petticoat government; ruled by a woman.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.HenpecktFriggat, whose Commander and Officers are absolutely sway’d by their Wives.Ibid.HenpecktHusband, whose Wife wears the Breeches.1695.Congreve,Love for Love, iv., 13. I believe he that marries you will go to sea in ahen-pecked frigate.1712.Arbuthnot,History of John Bull, Pt. I., ch. v. He had a termagant wife, and, as the neighbours said, was playinghenpecked!1712.Spectator, No. 479. Socrates, who is by all accounts the undoubted head of the sect of thehen-pecked.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hen-pecked, a man that is over-awed by his wife, and dares do nothing disagreeable to her inclinations.1771.Smollett,Humphry Clinker, l. 27. I shall never presume to despise or censure any poor man for suffering himself to behenpecked, conscious how I myself am obliged to truckle to a domestic demon.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1837.Dickens,Oliver Twist, ch. xxxvii. He had fallen from all the height and pomp of beadleship, to the lowest depth of the most snubbedhen-peckery.1857.A. Trollope,Barchester Towers, ch. iii. But Mrs. Proudie is not satisfied with such home dominion, and stretches her power over all his movements, and will not even abstain from things spiritual. In fact, the bishop ishen-pecked.Hen’s-arsehole.—SeeMouth.Hen-snatcher,subs.(American).—A chicken thief.1888.Bulletin, 24 Nov. All the dead-beats and suspectedhen-snatchersplead when before the Bench that they were only ‘mouching round,’ etc.Hens’-rights,subs.(American).—Women’s rights.Hen-toed,adj. phr.(common).—To turn the toes in walking like a fowl.Here.Here’s to you(at you,unto you,now, orluck),phr.(common).—An invitation to drink; here’s a health to you. For synonyms,seeDrinks.1651.Cartwright,Royal Slave.Here’s to thee, Leocrates.1717.Ned Ward,Wks.ii., 71. Then we were fain To use Hertfordshire kindness,here’s to youagain.1853.Diogenesii., 46. Each a pot in his hand.… Observed in a style of remarkable ease, ‘Old Buckhere’s luck,’ And then at the pewter proceeded to suck.Here’s luck,phr.(tailors’).—I don’t believe you.I am not here,phr.(tailors’).—‘I don’t feel inclined to work’; ‘I wish to be left alone.’Here’s to it,phr.(common).—An obscene toast.SeeIt, sense 2.Here-and-Thereian,subs. phr.(old).—A rolling stone; a person with no permanent address.Lex. Bal., 1811.[305]Hereford,adj.(American cowboy). White. [Herefords are white-faced.]Herefordshire-weed,subs.(old).—An oak.Her Majesty’s Carriage,subs. phr.(common).—A prison van; the Queen’s ’bus.SeeBlack Maria. Fr.,l’omnibus à pègres.Her Majesty’s Tobacco Pipe,subs.(common).—The furnace where the forfeited tobacco from the Customs House is burnt. [Now a thing of the past: the tobacco being distributed to workhouses, etc.]1871.Echo, 27 Jan. All that was not sold will be burnt, according to custom, inher majesty’s tobacco pipe. We cannot think such waste justifiable.Hermit(orBaldheaded Hermit),subs.(venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.Herod.To out-herod Herod,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To out-do; specifically (theatrical) to excel in rant.1596.Shakspeare,Hamlet, iii., 2. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, perriwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings … itout-herods Herod.Herring.Neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring,phr.(old).—Neither one thing nor the other.1682.Dryden,Duke of Guise, Epil.(6th line from end). Neuters in their middleway of fleering, Areneither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.To throw a sprat to catch a herring(orwhale),verb. phr.(old).—To forego an advantage in the hope of greater profit.1826.Buckstone,Luke the Labourer, i., 2. I give dat likethrowing away a sprat to catch a herring, though I hope on this occasion to catch a bigger fish.1890.Grant Allen,Tents of Shem, ch. xix. He’scasting a sprat to catch a whale.Dead as a herring(orshotten herring),adv. phr.(old).—Quite dead. [Herrings die sooner on leaving the water than most fish.]SeeDead.1596.Shakspeare,Merry Wives of Windsor, ii., 3. By gar deherring is no deadas I vill kill him.1785.Burns,Death and Dr. Hornbook. I’ll nail the self-conceited sotAs dead’s a herrin’.1790.Rhodes,Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 4. Ay,dead as herrings—herrings that are red.Like herrings in a barrel,adv. phr.(common).—Very crowded.1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 117. People jammed inside likeherrings in a barrel.The devil a barrel the better herring,phr.(old).—All bad alike.—Lex. Bal.In modern American, all alike; indistinguishable.Cf.,Sardine.Herring-gutted,adj.(old).—Lanky; thin.—Grose.Herring-pond,subs.(common).—The sea; specifically, the North Atlantic Ocean.SeeBrinyandPuddle.To be sent across the herring-pond= to be transported.1722.England’s Path to Wealth.’Tis odds but a finer country, cheaper and better food and raiment, wholesomer air, easier rents and taxes, will tempt many of your countrymen to cross theherring-pond.1729.Gay,Polly, i., 1. Bless us all! how little are our customs known on this side theherring pond![306]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, etc., s.v.Herring-pond—the sea, the Atlantic; and he who is gone across it is said to be lagged, or gone a Botanizing.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 256, ed. 1854. You’re too old a hand for theherring-pond.1864.M. E. Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. xxv. You’re not going to run away? You’re not going to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and make an early expedition across theherring-pond—eh?1884.Phillipps-Woolley,Trottings of a Tenderfoot. Everyone nowadays has read as much as he or she cares to about the voyage across theherring-pond.1889.Notes and Queries, 7 S., vii., p. 36, c. 2. Terms which have lived in America, and again crossed theherring-pondwith modern traffic.1890.Punch, 6 Feb.Saturday.—My connection with war ended. Calculate I start to-morrow with the Show across theherring-pond, to wake up the Crowned Heads of Europe!1891.Gunter,Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. If so, I’ll—I’ll cut him, when I cross the—er—herrin’ pond.1892.Hume Nisbet,Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 119. I guess we have ruined one or two well-known authors, on the other side of theherring pond.Hertfordshire-kindness,subs.(old).—An acknowledgment, or return, in kind, of favours received. (Butseequots., 1662, 1690, and 1738).1662.Fuller,Worthies. This is generally taken in a good and grateful sense, for the mutual return of favours received: it being (belike) observed that the people in this county at entertainments drink back to them who drank to them.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hertfordshire-kindness, Drinking to the same Man again.1717.Ned Ward,Wks., ii., 7. Then we were fain To useHertfordshire-kindness, Here’s to you again.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1738.Swift,Polite Conversations.Neverout.My Lord, this moment I did myself the honour to drink to your Lordship.Lord Smart.Why then that’sHertfordshire Kindness.Neverout.Faith, my Lord, I pledged myself: for I drank twice together without thinking.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hertfordshire Kindness, drinking twice to the same person.Hewgag.The Hewgag,subs.(American).—A name for an undeterminate, unknown, mythical creature.—Slang, Jargon, and Cant.Hey-gammer-cook.To play at Hey-gammer-cook,verb. phr.(venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.1720.C. Johnson,Highwaymen and Pyrates, ‘Margaret Simpson’ (q.v.).Hiccius Doccius,subs. phr.(Old Cant).—A juggler; also a shifty fellow or trickster.1676.Shadwell,Virtuoso, ii., p. 19. I shall stand here till one of them has whipt away my Mistris about business, with aHixius Doxius, with the force of Repartee, and this, and that, and Everything in the world.1678.Butler,Hudibras, iii., 3, 579. At Westminster, and Hickses-Hall, AndHiccius Dockiusplay’d in all.1688.Wycherley,Country Wife, iii. That burlesque is a Hocus-pocus trick they have got, which by the virtue ofHictius doctius, topsey-turvey, etc.1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Hiccius doccius… a cant word for a juggler; one that plays fast and loose.Adj.(old).—Drunk; slovenly. Also,Hickey(q.v.). For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.1733.North,Examen, i., 3, 137 (1740). The author with hisHiccius-doxiusdelivery.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hicksius Doxius, Drunk.[307]Hic Jacet,subs. phr.(common).—A tombstone; also a memorial inscription. [From the opening words.]1598.Shakspeare,All’s Well, etc., iii., 6. The merit of service is seldom attributed to the true … performer. I would have that drum … orhic jacet.1858–59.Tennyson,Idylls of the King(‘Vivien’). Among the coldhic jacetsof the dead.Hick,subs.(Old Cant).—I. A man; specifically a countryman; a booby. Also (American thieves’)HickjopandHicksam. For synonyms,seeJoskin.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hick, any Person of whom any Prey can be made, or Booty taken from; also a silly Country Fellow.1720.Smith,Lives of Highwaymen and Pyrates, ii., 39. Among whom was a country farmer … which was not missed at all by the CountryHick.1725.New Cant. Dict.Song 3. ‘The Thief-catcher’s Prophesy.’ The Eighth is a Bulk, that can bulk anyHick.1754.Scoundrel’s Dict.The fourteenth, a gamester, if he sees theHicksweet He presently drops down a cog in the street.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hickety-split,adj.(American).—With all one’s might; at top speed;hammer and tongs(q.v.);full chisel(q.v.).Hickey,adj.(old).—Seequot.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, s.v.Hickey, Tipsy; not quite drunk; elated.Hickory-shirt,subs.(American).—A checked shirt, cotton or woollen.Hide,subs.(common).—The human skin. Once literary; now colloquial and vulgar.1568.BannatyneMSS., ‘When Flora, etc.’ (Hunterian Club, 1879–88). Sche is so brycht ofhydand hew, I lufe bot hir allane I wene.1607.Marston,What You Will, ii., I. A skubbing railer, whose course harden’d fortune, Grating hishide, gauling his starued ribs, Sittes hauling at Deserts more battle fate.1731.C. Coffey,The Devil to Pay, Sc. 5. Come, and spin, you drab, or I’ll tan yourhidefor you.1892.Kipling,Barrack-Room Ballads. ‘Gunga-Din.’ An’ for all ’is dirty’ide’e was white, clear white, inside.Verb(common).—To flog. For synonyms,seeTan.1868.Cassell’s Mag., May, p. 80. This was carried across the yard to Jacky as a regular challenge, and some said that Kavanagh and his friends were coming over tohideJacky after dinner.1885.Punch, 29 Aug. p. 98. And the silver-topped rattan with which the boys I used tohide.Hidebound,adj.(old: now recognised).—Barren; intractable; niggardly; pedantic; utterly immovable.1606.Return from Parnassus, ii., 4 (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 125). Any of thehideboundbrethren of Oxford or Cambridge.1672.Wycherley,Love in a Wood, i., 2. I am as barren andhideboundas one of your scribbling poets, who are sots in company for all their wit.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hidebound Horse, whose Skin sticks very close, and tite like a Pudding Bag, usually when very Fat.Ibid.Hidebound Muse, Stiff, hard of Delivery, Sir J. Suckling call’d Ben Johnson’s so.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1893.Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Feb. ‘High Time to Get Up.’ The most dragging inertness and the mosthide-boundcelerity.Hiding,subs.(common).—A thrashing. For synonyms,seeTanning.1853.Bradley,Verdant Green, ii., p. 23. May the Gown give the Town a jolly goodhiding.[308]1864.Mark Lemon,Jest Book, p. 236. Some people have a notion that villany ought to be exposed, though we must confess we think it a thing that deserves ahiding.1871.All the Year Round, 18 Feb. p. 288. Served me right if I’d got ahiding.1883.Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Apr., p. 7, c. 2. They should stone all boys they met who were not members of the society, or in default themselves receive a goodhiding.1888.Sportsman, 22 Dec. The chairman told Deakin he could scarcely expect anything but ahidingfor being connected with such a scurrilous publication.1891.Licensed Vict. Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 7, c. 1. Before Paddock could claim the victory, which cost the Redditch fighter one of the severesthidingshe ever had to put up with.Higgledy-piggledy,adj.(Old Cant: now recognised).—In confusion; topsy-turvy; at sixes and sevens.1598.Florio,Worlde of Wordes, s.v.Alla rappa, snatchingly,higledi-pigledie, shiftingly, rap and run.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Higglede-piggledy, all together, as Hoggs and Piggs lie Nose in Arse.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1758.A. Murphy,The Upholsterer, ii. Ambassadors and Hair-Cutters, allhiggledy-piggledytogether.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Higgledy-piggledy, a cant word, corrupted fromhiggle, which denotes any confused mass, as higglers carry a huddle of provisions together.1849.Dickens,David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. His name’s got all the letters in it,higgledy-piggledy.1873.Miss Broughton,Nancy, ch. ii. We are allhiggledy-piggledy—at sixes and sevens!1876.M. E. Braddon,Joshua Haggard, ch. xvi. ‘If some of you will sit down,’ remonstrated Judith, ‘I’ll pour out the tea. But I don’t feel as if anybody wanted it while you’re standing abouthiggledy-piggledy.’Higgler,subs.(old).—A hawker.High,adj.(American).—Drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.2. (colloquial).—Stinking;gamey(q.v.).; whence, by implication, diseased (as a prostitute); obscene in intention and effect.The high and dry,subs. phr.(clerical).—The High Church or Anglo-Catholic party in the Establishment, as opposed to thelow and slow(q.v.), or Evangelical section.Cf.,Broad and Shallow.1854.Conybeare,Church Parties, 74. Its adherents [of the High Church] are fallen from their high estate, and are contemptuously denominatedthe high and dry, just as the parallel development of the Low Church is nicknamed ‘low and slow.’1857.Anthony Trollope,Barchester Towers, ch. liii. Who belongs tothe high and drychurch, the High Church as it was some fifty years since, before tracts were written and young clergymen took upon themselves the highly meritorious duty of cleaning churches?1886.Graphic, 10 Apr., 399. In the Church have we not the three schools ofHigh and Dry, Low and Slow, and Broad and Shallow?High and dry,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Stranded; abandoned; irrecoverable.1889.Pall Mall Gaz., 18 Oct., 6, 1. It seems to me that Mr. Chamberlain must really look out or he will find himself, as the result of that insidious ‘mellowing process’ to which Mr. Matthews has testified, landedhigh and dryin a Toryism compared to which Sir Walter Barttelot will show in Radical colours.High and mighty,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Arrogant; imperious; proud; ‘on the high horse,’ or the ‘high ropes’ (q.v.); full ofside(q.v.).[309]1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 121. None of yourhighandmightygames with me.1892.HenleyandStevenson,Deacon Brodie, i., 2. Ye need na be saehigh and mightyonyway.1892.Hume Nisbet,Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 49. ‘Mighty highsome people are, ain’t they?’ the man observed loudly, straightening himself, and ordering a nobbler for himself.Too high for one’s nut,adv. phr.(American).—Out of one’s reach; beyond one’s capacity;over one’s bend(q.v.).You can’t get high enough,verb. phr.(common).—A derisive comment on any kind of failure. [Probably obscene in origin.]How is that for high?phr.(American).—‘What do you think of it?’ [Once a tag universal; common wear now.]1860.Bartlett,Americanisms, s.v.High.For when he slapped my broad-brim off, and asked,How’s that for high?It roused the Adam in me, and I smote him hip and thigh!1872.Clemens(Mark Twain),Roughing It, 334. We are going to get it up regardless of expense. [He] was always nifty himself, and so you bet his funeral ain’t going to be no slouch,—solid silver door-plate on his coffin, six plumes on the hearse, and a nigger on the box in a biled shirt and a plug hat,—how’s that for high?1889.Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Sep., p. 2, c. 1. ‘Cricket’ stories are the thing just now.How is this for high?High-bellied(orHigh in the Belly),adj. phr.(colloquial).—Far gone in pregnancy. AlsoHigh-waisted.Highbinder,subs.(American).—1. A Chinese blackmailer.2. (political American).—A political conspirator.—Norton.High-bloke,subs.(American).—1. A judge.2. (American).—A well-dressed man; asplawger(q.v.).—Matsell.Higher-malthusianism,subs. phr.(colloquial).—Sodomy.Highfalute,verb.(American).—To use fine words. Alsoto yarn(q.v.).SeeHighfaluting. Fr.,faire l’étroite.Highfaluting,subs.(formerly American: now general).—Bombast; rant.1865.Orchestra.We should not think of usinghigh-falutinon ordinary serious occasions, and that we never shall use it in future, unless we happen to speak of thePorcupinecritic.1886.Pall Mall Gaz., 3 May, 6, 2. A glib master of frothy fustian, of flatulenthigh-falutin’, and of oratorical bombast.Adj.(general).—Bombastic; fustian; thrasonical.1870.Friswell,Modern Men of Letters. A driveller of tipsy, high-flown, andhigh-falutin’nonsense.1884.Echo, 17 Mar., p. 1, c. 4. It is the boast ofhigh-falutin’Americans that theirs is a country ‘where every man can do as he darn pleases.’High-feather.In high feather,adv. phr.(colloquial).—In luck; on good terms with oneself and the world.High-fly.To be on the high-fly,verb. phr.(thieves’).—Specifically, to practise the begging-letter imposture, but (generally) to tramp the country as a beggar.1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, 163. TheHigh-fly—beggars, with letters, pretending to be broken-down gentlemen, captains, etc.[310]
1673.Wycherley,Gentleman Dancing Master, iv., 1. They ne’er think of the poor watchful chambermaid, who sitsknocking her heels in the cold, for want of better exercise, in some melancholy lobby or entry.1752.Fielding,Amelia. In this parlour Ameliacooled her heels, as the phrase is, near a quarter of an hour.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford[Ed. 1854], p.22. He expected all whokicked their heelsat his house would behave decent and polite to young Mr. Dot.1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. xiii. Tell him that I’ll trouble him to forget to go to sleep again as he did last time, and leave me herekicking my heelscontrary to the rules of the service.[297]1879.Sala,Paris Herself Again, i. Wecooled our heelsduring the ordinary an intolerable half hour.1888.Lynch,Mountain Mystery, ch. xlvi. That young gentleman, who had beencooling his heelsfor what seemed like half the night.To lay by the heels,verb. phr.(common).—To confine; to fetter; to jail.1601.Shakspeare,Henry VIII., v., 4. If the king blame me for it, I’lllayye allBy the heels, and suddenly.1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, iii. Sir, if you be not quiet the quicklier,I’llhave youclapp’dfairlyby the heels, for disturbing the Fair.1663–1678.Butler,Hudibras, i., 3. Th’ one half of man, his mind, Is,sui juris, unconfined, And cannot belaid by the heels.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1886.R. L. Stevenson,Kidnapped, p. 184. If theylay me by the heels, Alan, it’s then that you’ll be needing the money.To lift one’s heels,verb. phr.(venery).—To lie down for copulation; tospread(q.v.).To turn(ortopple)up the heels(ortoes),verb. phr.(old).—To die. For synonyms,seeAloft.1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse[Grosart], ii., 77. Our trust is … you willtourne up their heelesone of these yeares together, and prouide them of such vnthrifts to their heires, as shall spend in one weeke … what they got … all their lifetime.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe. Leaven thousand and fifty peopletoppled up their heels.To take to(orshow)a pair of heels,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To take to flight; to run away. For synonyms,seeAmputate.1593.Shakspeare,Comedy of Errors. Nay … Sir, I’lltake my heels.1864.Chambers’ Journal, Dec. Once before he had ‘found meanes yet at length to deceive his keepers, andtook him to his heels’to the sea coast.His heels,verb. phr.(gaming).—The knave of trumps at cribbage or all-fours. Hence ‘two for his heels’ = two points scored (at cribbage) for turning up this card.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.To tread upon(orto be atorupon)the heels,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To follow close or hard after; to pursue.1596.Shakspeare,Hamlet, iv., 7. One woe dothtread upon another’s heels.To go heels over head,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To turn a somersault; to be hasty; to fall violently. AlsoTop over Tail.1540.Lyndsay,Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, 3744. This fals warld is turnittop ouir taill.To have(orget)the heels of,verb. phr.(old).—To outrun; to get an advantage.1748.Smollett,Roderick Random. Thou hastgot the heelsof me already.Down(orout)at heel,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Slipshod; shabby; in decay.1605.Shakspeare,King Lear, ii., 2. A good man’s future may growout at heels.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1851–6.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 122. He was a littledown at heel.Heeled,adj.(American).—Armed. [From the steel spur used in cock-fighting.]Heeler,subs.(American).—1. Followers or henchmen of a politician or a party.1888.Denver Republican, 29 Feb. Theheelersand strikers, bummers and stuffers, otherwise known as practical[298]politicians, who do the work at the Democratic polls, and manipulate the primaries and local conventions.1888.New York Herald, 4 Nov. A band succeeded them and preceded a lot of wardheelersand floaters.2. (American).—A bar, or other loafer; anyone on the look-out for shady work.3. (American thieves’)—An accomplice in the pocket-bookracket(q.v.). [TheHeelerdraws attention, by touching the victim’s heels, to a pocket-book containing counterfeit money which has been let drop by a companion, with a view to inducing the victim to part with genuine coin for a division of the find.]4. (Winchester College).—A plunge, feet foremost, into water. Fr.,une chandelle.Heel-taps,subs.(common).—1. Liquor in the bottom of a glass.Bumpers round and no heel taps= Fill full, and drain dry!SeeDaylight. Fr.,la musique.1795.Gent. Mag., p. 118. Briskly pushed towards me the decanter containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll buzz you: come,no heel-taps!’1836.Dickens,Pickwick(Ed. 1857), p. 10.No heel-taps, and he emptied the glass.1838.Dickens,Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xxxii. There was a proper objection to drinking her inheeltaps.1841.Punch, i., 117. Empty themheeltaps, Jack, and fill out with a fresh jug.1844.Buckstone,The Maid with the Milking Pail. Added to which, she’s a termagant, and imbibes all theheeltaps.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xiv. The relics of yesterday’s feast—the emptied bottles … the wretchedheel-tapsthat have been lying exposed all night to the air.2. (common).—A dance peculiar to London dustmen.Heifer,subs.(common).—A woman;old heifer(in Western America) = a term of endearment. For synonyms,seePetticoat.18(?).In the Back Woods, p. 71. Now, git out, I says, or the ol’heifer’ll show you whar the carpenter left a hole for you to mosey.Heifer-paddock,subs.(Australian).—A ladies’ school.1885.Mrs. Campbell-Praed,Australian Life. The cattle (women) hereabouts are too scattered.… Next year I shall look over aheifer-paddockin Sydney, and take my pick.Heigh-ho,subs.(thieves’).—Stolen yarn. [From the expression used to apprise the fence that the speaker had stolen yarn to sell.]Heights.To scale the heights of connubial bliss,verb. phr.(venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Helbat,subs.(back).—A table.Hell,subs.(old).—1. Generic for a place of confinement, as in some games (Sydney), or a cell in a prison: specifically, a place under the Exchequer Chamber, where the king’s debtors were confined.1593.Shakspeare,Comedy of Errors, iv., 2. A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well, One that before the judgement, carries poor souls tohell.1658.Counter-Rat.In Wood Street’s hole, or counter’shell.1598.Florio,Worlde of Wordes, s.v.Secreta.… Also the name of a place in Venice where all their secret records and ancient evidences be kept, ashellis in Westminster Hall.[299]2. (old).—A workman’s receptacle for stolen or refuse pieces, as cloth, type, etc.;one’seye. AlsoHell-holeandHell-box.SeeCabbage.Hell-matter= (printers’) old and battered type.(?).Newest Academy of Compliments.When taylors forget to throw cabbage inhell, And shorten their bills, that all may be well.1589.Nashe,Martins Months Minde(Grosart), i. 185. Remember the shreddes that fall into the Tailorshell, neuer come backe to couer your backe.1592.Defence of Conny Catching, inGreene’sWks., xi., 96. Thishelis a place that the tailors haue vnder their shopboord, wher al their stolne shreds is thrust.1606.Day,Ile of Gulls. That fellowes pocket is like a tailorshell, it eats up part of every mans due; ’tis an executioner, and makes away more innocent petitions in one yeere, than a red-headed hangman cuts ropes in an age.1625.Jonson,Staple of News, i., 1. That jest Has gain’d thy pardon, thou hadst lived Condemn’d To thine ownhell.1663.T. Killegrew,Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5., in Dodsley,O.P.(1780) xi., 452.Careless[addressing a tailor]. Why then, thou art damned. Go, go home, and throw thyself into thine ownhell; it is the next way to the other.1663–1712.King,Art of Cookery. In Covent Garden did a taylor dwell, Who might deserve a place in his ownhell.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hell, the Place where the Taylers lay up their Cabbage, or Remnants, which are sometimes very large.1698.Money Masters All Things, p. 56. The Cheating Knave some of the clues does throw Into hishell-hole; and then lets her know That he her web cannot work out o’ th’ Loom.1704.Swift,Tale of a Tub, Sec. iii. The tailor’shellis the type of a critic’s common-place book.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1814.C. Lamb,Melancholy of TailorsinPoems, etc. (Ed. Ainger), p. 333. The tailor sitting over a cave or hollow place, in the cabalistic language of his order, is said to have certain melancholy regions always open under his feet.1853.Notes and Queries, 1 S., viii., 315, c. 2. The term cabbage, by which tailors designate the cribbed pieces of cloth, is said to be derived from an old word ‘cablesh,’i.e., wind-fallen wood. And theirhellwhere they store the cabbage, fromhelan, to hide.3. (common).—A gambling house. [WhenceSilver-hell= a gambling house where only silver is played for;Dancing-hell= an unchartered hall; and so forth.]1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, ii., 4.Jerry.Ahell, Tom? I’m at fault again!Log.A gambling house, Jerry!1841.Comic Almanack, p. 280. A man at ahell, Playing the part of aBonnetterwell.1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. xxxix. He plays still; he is in ahellevery night almost.1890.Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, c. 2. These privatehellsnevertheless exist, and as all money found on the premises is seized by the police, the players have to resort to all kinds of subterfuge when the three loud knocks are heard which indicate the presence of thecommissaire.4. (venery).—The femalepudendum;cf.,Heaven. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable. [SeeBoccaccio,Decameron.]Heaven, Hell and Purgatory,subs. phr.(old).—Three ale-houses formerly situated near Westminster Hall.1610.Jonson,Alchemist, v., 2. He must not break his fast In Heaven orHell.Hell broke loose,subs. phr.(common).—Extreme disorder; anarchy.1632.Hausted,Rivall Friends, v., 10. Fye, fye,hell is broke looseupon me.1672.Marvell,Rehearsal(Grosart), iii, 212. War broke out, and then to be surehell’s broke loose.1703.Farquhar,Inconstant, iv., 4.Hell broke looseupon me, and all the furies fluttered about my ears.[300]1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 96. Tho’hell’s broke loose, and the Devils roar abroad.Hell of a(lark,goer,row, and so forth),adj. phr.(common).—Very much of a ——; a popular intensitive.All to hell(orgone to hell),adj. phr.(colloquial).—Utterly ruined.To hope(orwish)to hell,verb. phr.(common).—To desire intensely.1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 229. Ihope to h——the horse will break his neck and his rider’s too.To play(orkick up)hell and tommy,verb. phr.(common).—To ruin utterly. Also,to play hell and break things;to raise hell;to make hell’s delight.1837–40.Haliburton,The Clockmaker, p. 287 (Ed. 1862). And in the mean time rob ’em, plunder ’em, and tax’em; hang their priests, seize their galls, andplay hell and tommywith them, and all because they speak French.1859.De Quincey,Wks.(14 vol., ed. vi., 336). About a hundred years earlier Lord Baconplayed h—— and tommywhen casually raised to the supreme seat in the Council by the brief absence in Edinburgh of the King and the Duke of Buckingham.1867.Lahore Chronicle, 20 May. The Sepoys are burning down the houses, andplaying h—— and tommywith the station.1879.Justin M’Carthy,Donna Quixote, ch. xxxii. We’ll have a fine bit of fun, I tell you. I’veplayed hell-and-tommyalready with the lot of them.To lead apes in hell,verb. phr.(old).—To die an old maid. [From a popular superstition.]1599.Henry Porter,The Two Angry Women of Abingdon. (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 294–5). For women that are wise will notlead apes in hell.… Therefore, come husband: maidenhead adieu.1600.Shakspeare,Much Ado about Nothing, ii., 1. He that is more than youth is not for me, and he that is less than man I am not for him; therefore I will … evenleadhisapes into hell.1605.London Prodigal, ii. But ’tis an old proverb, and you know it well, that women, dying maids,lead apes in hell.1611.Chapman,May-day, v. 2. I am beholden to her; she was loth to have melead apes in hell.1659.The London Chanticleers, i., 2. I’ll always live a virgin! What! andlead apes in hell?1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 179. Celladon at that began To talk ofapes in hell.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Bloudie Jacke.’ They say she is nowleading apes… And mends Bachelors’ small clothes below.To put the devil into hell,verb. phr.(old).—To copulate.—Boccaccio.[Hell= femalepudendum.] For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.To give hell,verb. phr.(common).—To trounce; abuse; or punish severely. Also (American),to make one smell hell(ora damn particular smell).Hell-for-leather,adv. phr.(common).—With the utmost energy and desperation.1892.R. Kipling,Barrack Room Ballads. When we rodehell-for-leather, Both squadrons together, Not caring much whether we lived or we died.Like hell,adv. phr.(common).—Desperately; with all one’s might.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xxix. I tried every place, everything; went to Ems, to Wiesbaden, to Hombourg, and playedlike hell.Go to hell!phr.(Common).—An emphatic dismissal: the full phrase is, ‘Go to hell and help the devil to make your mother into a bitch pie.’ [A variant is,[301]‘Go to hell and pump thunder.’] Foranalogousphrases,seeOaths.1836.Michael Scott,Cruise of the Midge, p. 72. So, good men,go to hellall of you—do—very mosh go to hell—do.1889.Daily News, 21 Dec., p. 7, c. 1. He was asked to see somebody about his evidence, and told himto go to hell.1892.Kipling,Barrack Room Ballads. ‘Ford o’ Kabul River.’ Kabul town’llgo to hell.Hell and Scissors!intj.(American).—An ejaculation of surprise and ridicule. In England,Scissors!Hell-bender,subs.(American).—A drunken frolic; a tremendous row. AlsoHell-a-poppingandHell’s delight.Hell-broth,subs.(common).—Bad liquor. For synonyms,seeDrinks.Hell-cat(-hag,-hound,-kite, etc.),subs.(old: now recognised).—A man or woman of hellish disposition; a lewdster of either sex;cf.,Hallion.1606.Shakspeare,Macbeth, v., 7.Macd.Turn,hell-hound, turn!Macb.Of all men else I have avoided thee.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hell-driver,subs.(old).—A coachman.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.Hellite,subs.(gaming).—A professional gambler.—Ducange.1838.Grant,Sketches in London. Prosecuting thehellitesfor assault.Hellophone,subs.(American).—The telephone. [FromHalloo!+phone.]Help,subs.(colloquial: once literary).—A hired assistant.Lady-help= a woman acting as a companion, and undertaking the lighter domestic duties with or without wages.1824.Peake,Americans Abroad, i., 1. Have you seen myhelp—my nigger.1839.De Quincey,Murder as one of the Fine Arts, ii. For domestichelpsare pretty generally in a state of transition.1848.Burton,Waggeries, p. 77. A bevy of readyhelpsrushed upon him and tore him from the seat of honour.1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. vi. ‘Well, you’ve had a pretty good day of it,’ said Tom, who had been hugely amused; ‘but I should feel nervous about thehelp, if I were you.’So help(ors’elpors’welp)me God(Bob,never, orsay-so, etc.),phr.(common).—An emphatic asseveration.1888.J. Runciman,The Chequers, p. 86. I’ll pay it back,s’elp me Gord.1892.A. Chevalier, ‘Mrs. ’Enery ’Awkins.’Selp me BobI’m crazy, Liza, you’re a daisy.1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 62.’Selp me never, old pal, it’s a scorcher.1893.Emerson,Signor Lippo, ch. xiv. Well,so help my blessed tater, if this isn’t our old Jose turned up again.Helpa,subs.(back).—An apple.Helpless,adj.(colloquial).—Drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.Hemispheres,subs.(venery).—The paps. For synonyms,seeDairy.Hemp(orHemp-seed,Stretch-Hemp,Hemp-string, orHempy),subs.(old).—1. A rogue; a candidate fit for the gallows. Frequently used jocularly. Acrack-halter(q.v.). Fr.,une graine de bagne.[302]1532.Sir T. More,Wks.[1557], folio 715. [He] feareth [not] to mocke the Sacrament, the blessed body of God, and ful like astretch hempe, call it but cake, bred, or starch.1566.Gascoigne,Supposes, iv., 3. If I come near you,hempstring, I will teach you to sing sol fa.1598.Shakspeare,2 Henry IV., ii., 1. Do, do, thou rogue, thouhemp-seed.1606.Chapman,Mons. D’Olive, Act v., p. 135. (Plays, 1874).Van.A perfect younghempstring.Va.Peace, least he overhear you.1659.Lady Alimony, iv., 6. (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., p. 350). Now, youhempstrings, had you no other time to nim us but when we were upon our visits?1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hemp,young-hemp, An appellation for a graceless boy.1817.Scott,Rob Roy, ch. xxxiv. She’s under lawful authority now; and full time, for she was a dafthempie.1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard, [Ed. 1840], p. 139. ‘We’ll see that, younghempseed,’ replied Sharples.2. (old).—A halter.1754.Fielding,Jonathan Wild, iv, 14. Laudanum, therefore, being unable to stop the health of our hero, which the fruit ofhempseed, and not the spirit of poppy-seed, was to overcome.…Verb(American).—To choke or strangle.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, s.v.To wag hemp in the wind,verb. phr.(old).—To be hanged.SeeHempen FeverandLadder.1532.Sir T. More,Wks.[1557], folio 715. Tindall calleth blessing and crossynge but wagging of folkes fingers in the æyre, and feareth not (like one yt would at lengthwagge hempe in the winde) to mocke at all such miracles.Hempen-bridle,subs.(old).—A ship’s rope or rigging.SeeHorseandTree.Hempen Collar(candle,circle,cravat,croak,garter,necktie, orhabeas),subs.(old).—The hangman’s noose; a halter. AlsoHemp, and theHearty-choke.Cf.,Anodyne neck-lace.Seequot. 1595.1530–95.Turbervile,Of Two Desperate Men. A man in deepe despaire, withhempein hand, Went out in haste to ende his wretched dayes.c.1586.Marlowe,Jew of Malta, iv., 4. When the hangman had put on hishempen.1594.Shakspeare,2 Henry VI., iv., 7. Ye shall have ahempen candlethen, and the pap of a hatchet.c.1785.Wolcot[P. Pindar],Rights of Kings, Ode xviii. Yourhemp cravats, your pray’r, your Tyburn miser.1819.Scott,Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xvi. I wad wager twa and a plack thathempplaits hiscravatyet.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hempen Habeas.He will get over it by ahempen habeas.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. iv. If ever I know as how you makes a flat of my Paul, blow me tight, but I’ll weave you ahempen collar:I’llhang you, you dog, I will.1886.Miss Braddon,Mohawks, ch. xxviii. A full confession were perhaps too much to expect. Nothing but the immediate prospect of ahempen necklacewould extort that.Hempen Fever.To die of a hempen fever,verb. phr.(old).—To be hanged. For synonyms,seeLadder.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hempen Fever, a man who was hanged, is said to havedied of a hempen fever; and in Dorsetshire to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard[1889], p. 76. She had been married four times; three of her husbands died ofhempen fevers.Hempen-fortune,subs.(old).—Bad luck; a term for the gallows.[303]1705.Vanbrugh,The Confederacy, v., 1. If ever I see one glance of yourhempen fortuneagain, I’m off your partnership for ever.Hempen-squincy,subs.(old).—Hanging. For synonyms,seeLadder.1646.Randolph’sJealous Lovers. Hear you, tutour, Shall not we be suspected for the murder, And choke with ahempen squincy.Hempen-widow,subs.(old).—A woman widowed by the gallows.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hempen Widow, One whose Husband was Hanged.1725.New Cant.Dict., s.v.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hempen-Widow(s.), a woman whose husband was hanged.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1834.Harrison Ainsworth,Rookwood, p. 89. In a box of the stone-jug I was born, Of ahempen-widowthe kid forlorn Fake away.Hen,subs.(common).—1. A woman. Specifically, a wife or mistress. For synonyms,seePetticoat.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hen.In Black-boy Alley I’ve a ken, A tyke and fighting cock; A saucy tip-slang moon-eyedhen, Who is oft mill-doll at block.2. (common).—Drink money.SeeHen drinking.1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 20. Whenever there’shenson the crow, ’Arry’s good for a hinnings,—no fear!Verb(Scots’).—To funk; to turn tail;to hen on= to fear to attempt.Cock and hen club,subs. phr.(common).—A club composed of men and women.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.Hens and Chickens,subs. phr.(thieves’).—Pewter measures; quarts and pints.Cf.,Cat and Kittens.1851.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. i., p. 276. Thehens and chickensof the roguish low lodging-houses are the publicans’ pewter measures; the bigger vessels are ‘hens,’ the smaller are ‘chickens.’Hen-drinking,subs.(provincial).—Seequot.1859.Notes and Queries, 2 S. viii., 239. There is yet another [Yorkshire marriage-custom], viz., thehen-drinking. On the evening of the wedding day the young men of the village call upon the bridegroom for a hen—meaning money for refreshments … should the hen be refused, the inmates may expect some ugly trick to the house ere the festivities terminate.Hen Frigate,subs.(nautical).—A ship commanded by the captain’s wife.Cf.,Hen-pecked.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1883.Clark Russell,Sailors’Language, s.v.Hen-fruit,subs.(American).—Eggs.Hen(orChicken)-hearted,adj.(old: now recognised).—Timorous; cowardly.d.1529.Skelton,Why Come Ye not to Courte. They kepe them in their holdes Lykehen-heartedcuckoldes.1506–56.Udal,James I.He is reconed a lowte and ahenne-heartedrascall.1639–61.Rump Songs, i., [1662] 319. Let thehen-heartedCit drink whey.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hen-hearted, of a cowardly, fearful, or timorous disposition.1754.B. Martin,Eng. Dict.(2nd Ed.), s.v. ‘Poltron.’ A coward, orhen-heartedfellow.1762.Foote,Liar, iii., 2. Why, what a dastardly,hen-hearted——But come, Papillion, this shall be your last campaign.[304]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Hen-hearted… a low word.1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. Are you turnedhen-hearted, Jack?Hen-house,subs.(old).—Seequot.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hen-house, a house where the woman rules, called also a she-house.Hen of the game.SeeGame.Hen-party(Convention-orTea-),subs.(common).—An assemblage of women for political or social purposes.Cf.,BullorStag-party. Also,Bitch-,Tabby-, andCat-party.Hen-pecked,adj.(old: now recognised).—Petticoat government; ruled by a woman.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.HenpecktFriggat, whose Commander and Officers are absolutely sway’d by their Wives.Ibid.HenpecktHusband, whose Wife wears the Breeches.1695.Congreve,Love for Love, iv., 13. I believe he that marries you will go to sea in ahen-pecked frigate.1712.Arbuthnot,History of John Bull, Pt. I., ch. v. He had a termagant wife, and, as the neighbours said, was playinghenpecked!1712.Spectator, No. 479. Socrates, who is by all accounts the undoubted head of the sect of thehen-pecked.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hen-pecked, a man that is over-awed by his wife, and dares do nothing disagreeable to her inclinations.1771.Smollett,Humphry Clinker, l. 27. I shall never presume to despise or censure any poor man for suffering himself to behenpecked, conscious how I myself am obliged to truckle to a domestic demon.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1837.Dickens,Oliver Twist, ch. xxxvii. He had fallen from all the height and pomp of beadleship, to the lowest depth of the most snubbedhen-peckery.1857.A. Trollope,Barchester Towers, ch. iii. But Mrs. Proudie is not satisfied with such home dominion, and stretches her power over all his movements, and will not even abstain from things spiritual. In fact, the bishop ishen-pecked.Hen’s-arsehole.—SeeMouth.Hen-snatcher,subs.(American).—A chicken thief.1888.Bulletin, 24 Nov. All the dead-beats and suspectedhen-snatchersplead when before the Bench that they were only ‘mouching round,’ etc.Hens’-rights,subs.(American).—Women’s rights.Hen-toed,adj. phr.(common).—To turn the toes in walking like a fowl.Here.Here’s to you(at you,unto you,now, orluck),phr.(common).—An invitation to drink; here’s a health to you. For synonyms,seeDrinks.1651.Cartwright,Royal Slave.Here’s to thee, Leocrates.1717.Ned Ward,Wks.ii., 71. Then we were fain To use Hertfordshire kindness,here’s to youagain.1853.Diogenesii., 46. Each a pot in his hand.… Observed in a style of remarkable ease, ‘Old Buckhere’s luck,’ And then at the pewter proceeded to suck.Here’s luck,phr.(tailors’).—I don’t believe you.I am not here,phr.(tailors’).—‘I don’t feel inclined to work’; ‘I wish to be left alone.’Here’s to it,phr.(common).—An obscene toast.SeeIt, sense 2.Here-and-Thereian,subs. phr.(old).—A rolling stone; a person with no permanent address.Lex. Bal., 1811.[305]Hereford,adj.(American cowboy). White. [Herefords are white-faced.]Herefordshire-weed,subs.(old).—An oak.Her Majesty’s Carriage,subs. phr.(common).—A prison van; the Queen’s ’bus.SeeBlack Maria. Fr.,l’omnibus à pègres.Her Majesty’s Tobacco Pipe,subs.(common).—The furnace where the forfeited tobacco from the Customs House is burnt. [Now a thing of the past: the tobacco being distributed to workhouses, etc.]1871.Echo, 27 Jan. All that was not sold will be burnt, according to custom, inher majesty’s tobacco pipe. We cannot think such waste justifiable.Hermit(orBaldheaded Hermit),subs.(venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.Herod.To out-herod Herod,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To out-do; specifically (theatrical) to excel in rant.1596.Shakspeare,Hamlet, iii., 2. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, perriwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings … itout-herods Herod.Herring.Neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring,phr.(old).—Neither one thing nor the other.1682.Dryden,Duke of Guise, Epil.(6th line from end). Neuters in their middleway of fleering, Areneither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.To throw a sprat to catch a herring(orwhale),verb. phr.(old).—To forego an advantage in the hope of greater profit.1826.Buckstone,Luke the Labourer, i., 2. I give dat likethrowing away a sprat to catch a herring, though I hope on this occasion to catch a bigger fish.1890.Grant Allen,Tents of Shem, ch. xix. He’scasting a sprat to catch a whale.Dead as a herring(orshotten herring),adv. phr.(old).—Quite dead. [Herrings die sooner on leaving the water than most fish.]SeeDead.1596.Shakspeare,Merry Wives of Windsor, ii., 3. By gar deherring is no deadas I vill kill him.1785.Burns,Death and Dr. Hornbook. I’ll nail the self-conceited sotAs dead’s a herrin’.1790.Rhodes,Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 4. Ay,dead as herrings—herrings that are red.Like herrings in a barrel,adv. phr.(common).—Very crowded.1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 117. People jammed inside likeherrings in a barrel.The devil a barrel the better herring,phr.(old).—All bad alike.—Lex. Bal.In modern American, all alike; indistinguishable.Cf.,Sardine.Herring-gutted,adj.(old).—Lanky; thin.—Grose.Herring-pond,subs.(common).—The sea; specifically, the North Atlantic Ocean.SeeBrinyandPuddle.To be sent across the herring-pond= to be transported.1722.England’s Path to Wealth.’Tis odds but a finer country, cheaper and better food and raiment, wholesomer air, easier rents and taxes, will tempt many of your countrymen to cross theherring-pond.1729.Gay,Polly, i., 1. Bless us all! how little are our customs known on this side theherring pond![306]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, etc., s.v.Herring-pond—the sea, the Atlantic; and he who is gone across it is said to be lagged, or gone a Botanizing.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 256, ed. 1854. You’re too old a hand for theherring-pond.1864.M. E. Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. xxv. You’re not going to run away? You’re not going to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and make an early expedition across theherring-pond—eh?1884.Phillipps-Woolley,Trottings of a Tenderfoot. Everyone nowadays has read as much as he or she cares to about the voyage across theherring-pond.1889.Notes and Queries, 7 S., vii., p. 36, c. 2. Terms which have lived in America, and again crossed theherring-pondwith modern traffic.1890.Punch, 6 Feb.Saturday.—My connection with war ended. Calculate I start to-morrow with the Show across theherring-pond, to wake up the Crowned Heads of Europe!1891.Gunter,Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. If so, I’ll—I’ll cut him, when I cross the—er—herrin’ pond.1892.Hume Nisbet,Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 119. I guess we have ruined one or two well-known authors, on the other side of theherring pond.Hertfordshire-kindness,subs.(old).—An acknowledgment, or return, in kind, of favours received. (Butseequots., 1662, 1690, and 1738).1662.Fuller,Worthies. This is generally taken in a good and grateful sense, for the mutual return of favours received: it being (belike) observed that the people in this county at entertainments drink back to them who drank to them.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hertfordshire-kindness, Drinking to the same Man again.1717.Ned Ward,Wks., ii., 7. Then we were fain To useHertfordshire-kindness, Here’s to you again.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1738.Swift,Polite Conversations.Neverout.My Lord, this moment I did myself the honour to drink to your Lordship.Lord Smart.Why then that’sHertfordshire Kindness.Neverout.Faith, my Lord, I pledged myself: for I drank twice together without thinking.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hertfordshire Kindness, drinking twice to the same person.Hewgag.The Hewgag,subs.(American).—A name for an undeterminate, unknown, mythical creature.—Slang, Jargon, and Cant.Hey-gammer-cook.To play at Hey-gammer-cook,verb. phr.(venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.1720.C. Johnson,Highwaymen and Pyrates, ‘Margaret Simpson’ (q.v.).Hiccius Doccius,subs. phr.(Old Cant).—A juggler; also a shifty fellow or trickster.1676.Shadwell,Virtuoso, ii., p. 19. I shall stand here till one of them has whipt away my Mistris about business, with aHixius Doxius, with the force of Repartee, and this, and that, and Everything in the world.1678.Butler,Hudibras, iii., 3, 579. At Westminster, and Hickses-Hall, AndHiccius Dockiusplay’d in all.1688.Wycherley,Country Wife, iii. That burlesque is a Hocus-pocus trick they have got, which by the virtue ofHictius doctius, topsey-turvey, etc.1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Hiccius doccius… a cant word for a juggler; one that plays fast and loose.Adj.(old).—Drunk; slovenly. Also,Hickey(q.v.). For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.1733.North,Examen, i., 3, 137 (1740). The author with hisHiccius-doxiusdelivery.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hicksius Doxius, Drunk.[307]Hic Jacet,subs. phr.(common).—A tombstone; also a memorial inscription. [From the opening words.]1598.Shakspeare,All’s Well, etc., iii., 6. The merit of service is seldom attributed to the true … performer. I would have that drum … orhic jacet.1858–59.Tennyson,Idylls of the King(‘Vivien’). Among the coldhic jacetsof the dead.Hick,subs.(Old Cant).—I. A man; specifically a countryman; a booby. Also (American thieves’)HickjopandHicksam. For synonyms,seeJoskin.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hick, any Person of whom any Prey can be made, or Booty taken from; also a silly Country Fellow.1720.Smith,Lives of Highwaymen and Pyrates, ii., 39. Among whom was a country farmer … which was not missed at all by the CountryHick.1725.New Cant. Dict.Song 3. ‘The Thief-catcher’s Prophesy.’ The Eighth is a Bulk, that can bulk anyHick.1754.Scoundrel’s Dict.The fourteenth, a gamester, if he sees theHicksweet He presently drops down a cog in the street.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hickety-split,adj.(American).—With all one’s might; at top speed;hammer and tongs(q.v.);full chisel(q.v.).Hickey,adj.(old).—Seequot.1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, s.v.Hickey, Tipsy; not quite drunk; elated.Hickory-shirt,subs.(American).—A checked shirt, cotton or woollen.Hide,subs.(common).—The human skin. Once literary; now colloquial and vulgar.1568.BannatyneMSS., ‘When Flora, etc.’ (Hunterian Club, 1879–88). Sche is so brycht ofhydand hew, I lufe bot hir allane I wene.1607.Marston,What You Will, ii., I. A skubbing railer, whose course harden’d fortune, Grating hishide, gauling his starued ribs, Sittes hauling at Deserts more battle fate.1731.C. Coffey,The Devil to Pay, Sc. 5. Come, and spin, you drab, or I’ll tan yourhidefor you.1892.Kipling,Barrack-Room Ballads. ‘Gunga-Din.’ An’ for all ’is dirty’ide’e was white, clear white, inside.Verb(common).—To flog. For synonyms,seeTan.1868.Cassell’s Mag., May, p. 80. This was carried across the yard to Jacky as a regular challenge, and some said that Kavanagh and his friends were coming over tohideJacky after dinner.1885.Punch, 29 Aug. p. 98. And the silver-topped rattan with which the boys I used tohide.Hidebound,adj.(old: now recognised).—Barren; intractable; niggardly; pedantic; utterly immovable.1606.Return from Parnassus, ii., 4 (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 125). Any of thehideboundbrethren of Oxford or Cambridge.1672.Wycherley,Love in a Wood, i., 2. I am as barren andhideboundas one of your scribbling poets, who are sots in company for all their wit.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hidebound Horse, whose Skin sticks very close, and tite like a Pudding Bag, usually when very Fat.Ibid.Hidebound Muse, Stiff, hard of Delivery, Sir J. Suckling call’d Ben Johnson’s so.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1893.Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Feb. ‘High Time to Get Up.’ The most dragging inertness and the mosthide-boundcelerity.Hiding,subs.(common).—A thrashing. For synonyms,seeTanning.1853.Bradley,Verdant Green, ii., p. 23. May the Gown give the Town a jolly goodhiding.[308]1864.Mark Lemon,Jest Book, p. 236. Some people have a notion that villany ought to be exposed, though we must confess we think it a thing that deserves ahiding.1871.All the Year Round, 18 Feb. p. 288. Served me right if I’d got ahiding.1883.Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Apr., p. 7, c. 2. They should stone all boys they met who were not members of the society, or in default themselves receive a goodhiding.1888.Sportsman, 22 Dec. The chairman told Deakin he could scarcely expect anything but ahidingfor being connected with such a scurrilous publication.1891.Licensed Vict. Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 7, c. 1. Before Paddock could claim the victory, which cost the Redditch fighter one of the severesthidingshe ever had to put up with.Higgledy-piggledy,adj.(Old Cant: now recognised).—In confusion; topsy-turvy; at sixes and sevens.1598.Florio,Worlde of Wordes, s.v.Alla rappa, snatchingly,higledi-pigledie, shiftingly, rap and run.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Higglede-piggledy, all together, as Hoggs and Piggs lie Nose in Arse.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1758.A. Murphy,The Upholsterer, ii. Ambassadors and Hair-Cutters, allhiggledy-piggledytogether.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Higgledy-piggledy, a cant word, corrupted fromhiggle, which denotes any confused mass, as higglers carry a huddle of provisions together.1849.Dickens,David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. His name’s got all the letters in it,higgledy-piggledy.1873.Miss Broughton,Nancy, ch. ii. We are allhiggledy-piggledy—at sixes and sevens!1876.M. E. Braddon,Joshua Haggard, ch. xvi. ‘If some of you will sit down,’ remonstrated Judith, ‘I’ll pour out the tea. But I don’t feel as if anybody wanted it while you’re standing abouthiggledy-piggledy.’Higgler,subs.(old).—A hawker.High,adj.(American).—Drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.2. (colloquial).—Stinking;gamey(q.v.).; whence, by implication, diseased (as a prostitute); obscene in intention and effect.The high and dry,subs. phr.(clerical).—The High Church or Anglo-Catholic party in the Establishment, as opposed to thelow and slow(q.v.), or Evangelical section.Cf.,Broad and Shallow.1854.Conybeare,Church Parties, 74. Its adherents [of the High Church] are fallen from their high estate, and are contemptuously denominatedthe high and dry, just as the parallel development of the Low Church is nicknamed ‘low and slow.’1857.Anthony Trollope,Barchester Towers, ch. liii. Who belongs tothe high and drychurch, the High Church as it was some fifty years since, before tracts were written and young clergymen took upon themselves the highly meritorious duty of cleaning churches?1886.Graphic, 10 Apr., 399. In the Church have we not the three schools ofHigh and Dry, Low and Slow, and Broad and Shallow?High and dry,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Stranded; abandoned; irrecoverable.1889.Pall Mall Gaz., 18 Oct., 6, 1. It seems to me that Mr. Chamberlain must really look out or he will find himself, as the result of that insidious ‘mellowing process’ to which Mr. Matthews has testified, landedhigh and dryin a Toryism compared to which Sir Walter Barttelot will show in Radical colours.High and mighty,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Arrogant; imperious; proud; ‘on the high horse,’ or the ‘high ropes’ (q.v.); full ofside(q.v.).[309]1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 121. None of yourhighandmightygames with me.1892.HenleyandStevenson,Deacon Brodie, i., 2. Ye need na be saehigh and mightyonyway.1892.Hume Nisbet,Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 49. ‘Mighty highsome people are, ain’t they?’ the man observed loudly, straightening himself, and ordering a nobbler for himself.Too high for one’s nut,adv. phr.(American).—Out of one’s reach; beyond one’s capacity;over one’s bend(q.v.).You can’t get high enough,verb. phr.(common).—A derisive comment on any kind of failure. [Probably obscene in origin.]How is that for high?phr.(American).—‘What do you think of it?’ [Once a tag universal; common wear now.]1860.Bartlett,Americanisms, s.v.High.For when he slapped my broad-brim off, and asked,How’s that for high?It roused the Adam in me, and I smote him hip and thigh!1872.Clemens(Mark Twain),Roughing It, 334. We are going to get it up regardless of expense. [He] was always nifty himself, and so you bet his funeral ain’t going to be no slouch,—solid silver door-plate on his coffin, six plumes on the hearse, and a nigger on the box in a biled shirt and a plug hat,—how’s that for high?1889.Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Sep., p. 2, c. 1. ‘Cricket’ stories are the thing just now.How is this for high?High-bellied(orHigh in the Belly),adj. phr.(colloquial).—Far gone in pregnancy. AlsoHigh-waisted.Highbinder,subs.(American).—1. A Chinese blackmailer.2. (political American).—A political conspirator.—Norton.High-bloke,subs.(American).—1. A judge.2. (American).—A well-dressed man; asplawger(q.v.).—Matsell.Higher-malthusianism,subs. phr.(colloquial).—Sodomy.Highfalute,verb.(American).—To use fine words. Alsoto yarn(q.v.).SeeHighfaluting. Fr.,faire l’étroite.Highfaluting,subs.(formerly American: now general).—Bombast; rant.1865.Orchestra.We should not think of usinghigh-falutinon ordinary serious occasions, and that we never shall use it in future, unless we happen to speak of thePorcupinecritic.1886.Pall Mall Gaz., 3 May, 6, 2. A glib master of frothy fustian, of flatulenthigh-falutin’, and of oratorical bombast.Adj.(general).—Bombastic; fustian; thrasonical.1870.Friswell,Modern Men of Letters. A driveller of tipsy, high-flown, andhigh-falutin’nonsense.1884.Echo, 17 Mar., p. 1, c. 4. It is the boast ofhigh-falutin’Americans that theirs is a country ‘where every man can do as he darn pleases.’High-feather.In high feather,adv. phr.(colloquial).—In luck; on good terms with oneself and the world.High-fly.To be on the high-fly,verb. phr.(thieves’).—Specifically, to practise the begging-letter imposture, but (generally) to tramp the country as a beggar.1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, 163. TheHigh-fly—beggars, with letters, pretending to be broken-down gentlemen, captains, etc.[310]
1673.Wycherley,Gentleman Dancing Master, iv., 1. They ne’er think of the poor watchful chambermaid, who sitsknocking her heels in the cold, for want of better exercise, in some melancholy lobby or entry.
1752.Fielding,Amelia. In this parlour Ameliacooled her heels, as the phrase is, near a quarter of an hour.
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford[Ed. 1854], p.22. He expected all whokicked their heelsat his house would behave decent and polite to young Mr. Dot.
1833.Marryat,Peter Simple, ch. xiii. Tell him that I’ll trouble him to forget to go to sleep again as he did last time, and leave me herekicking my heelscontrary to the rules of the service.[297]
1879.Sala,Paris Herself Again, i. Wecooled our heelsduring the ordinary an intolerable half hour.
1888.Lynch,Mountain Mystery, ch. xlvi. That young gentleman, who had beencooling his heelsfor what seemed like half the night.
To lay by the heels,verb. phr.(common).—To confine; to fetter; to jail.
1601.Shakspeare,Henry VIII., v., 4. If the king blame me for it, I’lllayye allBy the heels, and suddenly.
1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, iii. Sir, if you be not quiet the quicklier,I’llhave youclapp’dfairlyby the heels, for disturbing the Fair.
1663–1678.Butler,Hudibras, i., 3. Th’ one half of man, his mind, Is,sui juris, unconfined, And cannot belaid by the heels.
1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1886.R. L. Stevenson,Kidnapped, p. 184. If theylay me by the heels, Alan, it’s then that you’ll be needing the money.
To lift one’s heels,verb. phr.(venery).—To lie down for copulation; tospread(q.v.).
To turn(ortopple)up the heels(ortoes),verb. phr.(old).—To die. For synonyms,seeAloft.
1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse[Grosart], ii., 77. Our trust is … you willtourne up their heelesone of these yeares together, and prouide them of such vnthrifts to their heires, as shall spend in one weeke … what they got … all their lifetime.
1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe. Leaven thousand and fifty peopletoppled up their heels.
To take to(orshow)a pair of heels,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To take to flight; to run away. For synonyms,seeAmputate.
1593.Shakspeare,Comedy of Errors. Nay … Sir, I’lltake my heels.
1864.Chambers’ Journal, Dec. Once before he had ‘found meanes yet at length to deceive his keepers, andtook him to his heels’to the sea coast.
His heels,verb. phr.(gaming).—The knave of trumps at cribbage or all-fours. Hence ‘two for his heels’ = two points scored (at cribbage) for turning up this card.
1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
To tread upon(orto be atorupon)the heels,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To follow close or hard after; to pursue.
1596.Shakspeare,Hamlet, iv., 7. One woe dothtread upon another’s heels.
To go heels over head,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To turn a somersault; to be hasty; to fall violently. AlsoTop over Tail.
1540.Lyndsay,Satyre of the Thrie Estaitis, 3744. This fals warld is turnittop ouir taill.
To have(orget)the heels of,verb. phr.(old).—To outrun; to get an advantage.
1748.Smollett,Roderick Random. Thou hastgot the heelsof me already.
Down(orout)at heel,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Slipshod; shabby; in decay.
1605.Shakspeare,King Lear, ii., 2. A good man’s future may growout at heels.
1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1851–6.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 122. He was a littledown at heel.
Heeled,adj.(American).—Armed. [From the steel spur used in cock-fighting.]
Heeler,subs.(American).—1. Followers or henchmen of a politician or a party.
1888.Denver Republican, 29 Feb. Theheelersand strikers, bummers and stuffers, otherwise known as practical[298]politicians, who do the work at the Democratic polls, and manipulate the primaries and local conventions.
1888.New York Herald, 4 Nov. A band succeeded them and preceded a lot of wardheelersand floaters.
2. (American).—A bar, or other loafer; anyone on the look-out for shady work.
3. (American thieves’)—An accomplice in the pocket-bookracket(q.v.). [TheHeelerdraws attention, by touching the victim’s heels, to a pocket-book containing counterfeit money which has been let drop by a companion, with a view to inducing the victim to part with genuine coin for a division of the find.]
4. (Winchester College).—A plunge, feet foremost, into water. Fr.,une chandelle.
Heel-taps,subs.(common).—1. Liquor in the bottom of a glass.Bumpers round and no heel taps= Fill full, and drain dry!SeeDaylight. Fr.,la musique.
1795.Gent. Mag., p. 118. Briskly pushed towards me the decanter containing a tolerable bumper, and exclaimed, ‘Sir, I’ll buzz you: come,no heel-taps!’
1836.Dickens,Pickwick(Ed. 1857), p. 10.No heel-taps, and he emptied the glass.
1838.Dickens,Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xxxii. There was a proper objection to drinking her inheeltaps.
1841.Punch, i., 117. Empty themheeltaps, Jack, and fill out with a fresh jug.
1844.Buckstone,The Maid with the Milking Pail. Added to which, she’s a termagant, and imbibes all theheeltaps.
1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xiv. The relics of yesterday’s feast—the emptied bottles … the wretchedheel-tapsthat have been lying exposed all night to the air.
2. (common).—A dance peculiar to London dustmen.
Heifer,subs.(common).—A woman;old heifer(in Western America) = a term of endearment. For synonyms,seePetticoat.
18(?).In the Back Woods, p. 71. Now, git out, I says, or the ol’heifer’ll show you whar the carpenter left a hole for you to mosey.
Heifer-paddock,subs.(Australian).—A ladies’ school.
1885.Mrs. Campbell-Praed,Australian Life. The cattle (women) hereabouts are too scattered.… Next year I shall look over aheifer-paddockin Sydney, and take my pick.
Heigh-ho,subs.(thieves’).—Stolen yarn. [From the expression used to apprise the fence that the speaker had stolen yarn to sell.]
Heights.To scale the heights of connubial bliss,verb. phr.(venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.
Helbat,subs.(back).—A table.
Hell,subs.(old).—1. Generic for a place of confinement, as in some games (Sydney), or a cell in a prison: specifically, a place under the Exchequer Chamber, where the king’s debtors were confined.
1593.Shakspeare,Comedy of Errors, iv., 2. A hound that runs counter, and yet draws dry-foot well, One that before the judgement, carries poor souls tohell.
1658.Counter-Rat.In Wood Street’s hole, or counter’shell.
1598.Florio,Worlde of Wordes, s.v.Secreta.… Also the name of a place in Venice where all their secret records and ancient evidences be kept, ashellis in Westminster Hall.[299]
2. (old).—A workman’s receptacle for stolen or refuse pieces, as cloth, type, etc.;one’seye. AlsoHell-holeandHell-box.SeeCabbage.Hell-matter= (printers’) old and battered type.
(?).Newest Academy of Compliments.When taylors forget to throw cabbage inhell, And shorten their bills, that all may be well.
1589.Nashe,Martins Months Minde(Grosart), i. 185. Remember the shreddes that fall into the Tailorshell, neuer come backe to couer your backe.
1592.Defence of Conny Catching, inGreene’sWks., xi., 96. Thishelis a place that the tailors haue vnder their shopboord, wher al their stolne shreds is thrust.
1606.Day,Ile of Gulls. That fellowes pocket is like a tailorshell, it eats up part of every mans due; ’tis an executioner, and makes away more innocent petitions in one yeere, than a red-headed hangman cuts ropes in an age.
1625.Jonson,Staple of News, i., 1. That jest Has gain’d thy pardon, thou hadst lived Condemn’d To thine ownhell.
1663.T. Killegrew,Parson’s Wedding, iii., 5., in Dodsley,O.P.(1780) xi., 452.Careless[addressing a tailor]. Why then, thou art damned. Go, go home, and throw thyself into thine ownhell; it is the next way to the other.
1663–1712.King,Art of Cookery. In Covent Garden did a taylor dwell, Who might deserve a place in his ownhell.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hell, the Place where the Taylers lay up their Cabbage, or Remnants, which are sometimes very large.
1698.Money Masters All Things, p. 56. The Cheating Knave some of the clues does throw Into hishell-hole; and then lets her know That he her web cannot work out o’ th’ Loom.
1704.Swift,Tale of a Tub, Sec. iii. The tailor’shellis the type of a critic’s common-place book.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1814.C. Lamb,Melancholy of TailorsinPoems, etc. (Ed. Ainger), p. 333. The tailor sitting over a cave or hollow place, in the cabalistic language of his order, is said to have certain melancholy regions always open under his feet.
1853.Notes and Queries, 1 S., viii., 315, c. 2. The term cabbage, by which tailors designate the cribbed pieces of cloth, is said to be derived from an old word ‘cablesh,’i.e., wind-fallen wood. And theirhellwhere they store the cabbage, fromhelan, to hide.
3. (common).—A gambling house. [WhenceSilver-hell= a gambling house where only silver is played for;Dancing-hell= an unchartered hall; and so forth.]
1823.Moncrieff,Tom and Jerry, ii., 4.Jerry.Ahell, Tom? I’m at fault again!Log.A gambling house, Jerry!
1841.Comic Almanack, p. 280. A man at ahell, Playing the part of aBonnetterwell.
1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. xxxix. He plays still; he is in ahellevery night almost.
1890.Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, c. 2. These privatehellsnevertheless exist, and as all money found on the premises is seized by the police, the players have to resort to all kinds of subterfuge when the three loud knocks are heard which indicate the presence of thecommissaire.
4. (venery).—The femalepudendum;cf.,Heaven. For synonyms,seeMonosyllable. [SeeBoccaccio,Decameron.]
Heaven, Hell and Purgatory,subs. phr.(old).—Three ale-houses formerly situated near Westminster Hall.
1610.Jonson,Alchemist, v., 2. He must not break his fast In Heaven orHell.
Hell broke loose,subs. phr.(common).—Extreme disorder; anarchy.
1632.Hausted,Rivall Friends, v., 10. Fye, fye,hell is broke looseupon me.
1672.Marvell,Rehearsal(Grosart), iii, 212. War broke out, and then to be surehell’s broke loose.
1703.Farquhar,Inconstant, iv., 4.Hell broke looseupon me, and all the furies fluttered about my ears.[300]
1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 96. Tho’hell’s broke loose, and the Devils roar abroad.
Hell of a(lark,goer,row, and so forth),adj. phr.(common).—Very much of a ——; a popular intensitive.
All to hell(orgone to hell),adj. phr.(colloquial).—Utterly ruined.
To hope(orwish)to hell,verb. phr.(common).—To desire intensely.
1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 229. Ihope to h——the horse will break his neck and his rider’s too.
To play(orkick up)hell and tommy,verb. phr.(common).—To ruin utterly. Also,to play hell and break things;to raise hell;to make hell’s delight.
1837–40.Haliburton,The Clockmaker, p. 287 (Ed. 1862). And in the mean time rob ’em, plunder ’em, and tax’em; hang their priests, seize their galls, andplay hell and tommywith them, and all because they speak French.
1859.De Quincey,Wks.(14 vol., ed. vi., 336). About a hundred years earlier Lord Baconplayed h—— and tommywhen casually raised to the supreme seat in the Council by the brief absence in Edinburgh of the King and the Duke of Buckingham.
1867.Lahore Chronicle, 20 May. The Sepoys are burning down the houses, andplaying h—— and tommywith the station.
1879.Justin M’Carthy,Donna Quixote, ch. xxxii. We’ll have a fine bit of fun, I tell you. I’veplayed hell-and-tommyalready with the lot of them.
To lead apes in hell,verb. phr.(old).—To die an old maid. [From a popular superstition.]
1599.Henry Porter,The Two Angry Women of Abingdon. (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, vii., 294–5). For women that are wise will notlead apes in hell.… Therefore, come husband: maidenhead adieu.
1600.Shakspeare,Much Ado about Nothing, ii., 1. He that is more than youth is not for me, and he that is less than man I am not for him; therefore I will … evenleadhisapes into hell.
1605.London Prodigal, ii. But ’tis an old proverb, and you know it well, that women, dying maids,lead apes in hell.
1611.Chapman,May-day, v. 2. I am beholden to her; she was loth to have melead apes in hell.
1659.The London Chanticleers, i., 2. I’ll always live a virgin! What! andlead apes in hell?
1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., i., 179. Celladon at that began To talk ofapes in hell.
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Bloudie Jacke.’ They say she is nowleading apes… And mends Bachelors’ small clothes below.
To put the devil into hell,verb. phr.(old).—To copulate.—Boccaccio.[Hell= femalepudendum.] For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.
To give hell,verb. phr.(common).—To trounce; abuse; or punish severely. Also (American),to make one smell hell(ora damn particular smell).
Hell-for-leather,adv. phr.(common).—With the utmost energy and desperation.
1892.R. Kipling,Barrack Room Ballads. When we rodehell-for-leather, Both squadrons together, Not caring much whether we lived or we died.
Like hell,adv. phr.(common).—Desperately; with all one’s might.
1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. xxix. I tried every place, everything; went to Ems, to Wiesbaden, to Hombourg, and playedlike hell.
Go to hell!phr.(Common).—An emphatic dismissal: the full phrase is, ‘Go to hell and help the devil to make your mother into a bitch pie.’ [A variant is,[301]‘Go to hell and pump thunder.’] Foranalogousphrases,seeOaths.
1836.Michael Scott,Cruise of the Midge, p. 72. So, good men,go to hellall of you—do—very mosh go to hell—do.
1889.Daily News, 21 Dec., p. 7, c. 1. He was asked to see somebody about his evidence, and told himto go to hell.
1892.Kipling,Barrack Room Ballads. ‘Ford o’ Kabul River.’ Kabul town’llgo to hell.
Hell and Scissors!intj.(American).—An ejaculation of surprise and ridicule. In England,Scissors!
Hell-bender,subs.(American).—A drunken frolic; a tremendous row. AlsoHell-a-poppingandHell’s delight.
Hell-broth,subs.(common).—Bad liquor. For synonyms,seeDrinks.
Hell-cat(-hag,-hound,-kite, etc.),subs.(old: now recognised).—A man or woman of hellish disposition; a lewdster of either sex;cf.,Hallion.
1606.Shakspeare,Macbeth, v., 7.Macd.Turn,hell-hound, turn!Macb.Of all men else I have avoided thee.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Hell-driver,subs.(old).—A coachman.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
Hellite,subs.(gaming).—A professional gambler.—Ducange.
1838.Grant,Sketches in London. Prosecuting thehellitesfor assault.
Hellophone,subs.(American).—The telephone. [FromHalloo!+phone.]
Help,subs.(colloquial: once literary).—A hired assistant.Lady-help= a woman acting as a companion, and undertaking the lighter domestic duties with or without wages.
1824.Peake,Americans Abroad, i., 1. Have you seen myhelp—my nigger.
1839.De Quincey,Murder as one of the Fine Arts, ii. For domestichelpsare pretty generally in a state of transition.
1848.Burton,Waggeries, p. 77. A bevy of readyhelpsrushed upon him and tore him from the seat of honour.
1861.Hughes,Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. vi. ‘Well, you’ve had a pretty good day of it,’ said Tom, who had been hugely amused; ‘but I should feel nervous about thehelp, if I were you.’
So help(ors’elpors’welp)me God(Bob,never, orsay-so, etc.),phr.(common).—An emphatic asseveration.
1888.J. Runciman,The Chequers, p. 86. I’ll pay it back,s’elp me Gord.
1892.A. Chevalier, ‘Mrs. ’Enery ’Awkins.’Selp me BobI’m crazy, Liza, you’re a daisy.
1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 62.’Selp me never, old pal, it’s a scorcher.
1893.Emerson,Signor Lippo, ch. xiv. Well,so help my blessed tater, if this isn’t our old Jose turned up again.
Helpa,subs.(back).—An apple.
Helpless,adj.(colloquial).—Drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.
Hemispheres,subs.(venery).—The paps. For synonyms,seeDairy.
Hemp(orHemp-seed,Stretch-Hemp,Hemp-string, orHempy),subs.(old).—1. A rogue; a candidate fit for the gallows. Frequently used jocularly. Acrack-halter(q.v.). Fr.,une graine de bagne.[302]
1532.Sir T. More,Wks.[1557], folio 715. [He] feareth [not] to mocke the Sacrament, the blessed body of God, and ful like astretch hempe, call it but cake, bred, or starch.
1566.Gascoigne,Supposes, iv., 3. If I come near you,hempstring, I will teach you to sing sol fa.
1598.Shakspeare,2 Henry IV., ii., 1. Do, do, thou rogue, thouhemp-seed.
1606.Chapman,Mons. D’Olive, Act v., p. 135. (Plays, 1874).Van.A perfect younghempstring.Va.Peace, least he overhear you.
1659.Lady Alimony, iv., 6. (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., p. 350). Now, youhempstrings, had you no other time to nim us but when we were upon our visits?
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hemp,young-hemp, An appellation for a graceless boy.
1817.Scott,Rob Roy, ch. xxxiv. She’s under lawful authority now; and full time, for she was a dafthempie.
1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard, [Ed. 1840], p. 139. ‘We’ll see that, younghempseed,’ replied Sharples.
2. (old).—A halter.
1754.Fielding,Jonathan Wild, iv, 14. Laudanum, therefore, being unable to stop the health of our hero, which the fruit ofhempseed, and not the spirit of poppy-seed, was to overcome.…
Verb(American).—To choke or strangle.
1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, s.v.
To wag hemp in the wind,verb. phr.(old).—To be hanged.SeeHempen FeverandLadder.
1532.Sir T. More,Wks.[1557], folio 715. Tindall calleth blessing and crossynge but wagging of folkes fingers in the æyre, and feareth not (like one yt would at lengthwagge hempe in the winde) to mocke at all such miracles.
Hempen-bridle,subs.(old).—A ship’s rope or rigging.SeeHorseandTree.
Hempen Collar(candle,circle,cravat,croak,garter,necktie, orhabeas),subs.(old).—The hangman’s noose; a halter. AlsoHemp, and theHearty-choke.Cf.,Anodyne neck-lace.Seequot. 1595.
1530–95.Turbervile,Of Two Desperate Men. A man in deepe despaire, withhempein hand, Went out in haste to ende his wretched dayes.
c.1586.Marlowe,Jew of Malta, iv., 4. When the hangman had put on hishempen.
1594.Shakspeare,2 Henry VI., iv., 7. Ye shall have ahempen candlethen, and the pap of a hatchet.
c.1785.Wolcot[P. Pindar],Rights of Kings, Ode xviii. Yourhemp cravats, your pray’r, your Tyburn miser.
1819.Scott,Bride of Lammermoor, ch. xvi. I wad wager twa and a plack thathempplaits hiscravatyet.
1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hempen Habeas.He will get over it by ahempen habeas.
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, ch. iv. If ever I know as how you makes a flat of my Paul, blow me tight, but I’ll weave you ahempen collar:I’llhang you, you dog, I will.
1886.Miss Braddon,Mohawks, ch. xxviii. A full confession were perhaps too much to expect. Nothing but the immediate prospect of ahempen necklacewould extort that.
Hempen Fever.To die of a hempen fever,verb. phr.(old).—To be hanged. For synonyms,seeLadder.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hempen Fever, a man who was hanged, is said to havedied of a hempen fever; and in Dorsetshire to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.
1839.Ainsworth,Jack Sheppard[1889], p. 76. She had been married four times; three of her husbands died ofhempen fevers.
Hempen-fortune,subs.(old).—Bad luck; a term for the gallows.[303]
1705.Vanbrugh,The Confederacy, v., 1. If ever I see one glance of yourhempen fortuneagain, I’m off your partnership for ever.
Hempen-squincy,subs.(old).—Hanging. For synonyms,seeLadder.
1646.Randolph’sJealous Lovers. Hear you, tutour, Shall not we be suspected for the murder, And choke with ahempen squincy.
Hempen-widow,subs.(old).—A woman widowed by the gallows.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hempen Widow, One whose Husband was Hanged.
1725.New Cant.Dict., s.v.
1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hempen-Widow(s.), a woman whose husband was hanged.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1834.Harrison Ainsworth,Rookwood, p. 89. In a box of the stone-jug I was born, Of ahempen-widowthe kid forlorn Fake away.
Hen,subs.(common).—1. A woman. Specifically, a wife or mistress. For synonyms,seePetticoat.
1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hen.In Black-boy Alley I’ve a ken, A tyke and fighting cock; A saucy tip-slang moon-eyedhen, Who is oft mill-doll at block.
2. (common).—Drink money.SeeHen drinking.
1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 20. Whenever there’shenson the crow, ’Arry’s good for a hinnings,—no fear!
Verb(Scots’).—To funk; to turn tail;to hen on= to fear to attempt.
Cock and hen club,subs. phr.(common).—A club composed of men and women.
1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Hens and Chickens,subs. phr.(thieves’).—Pewter measures; quarts and pints.Cf.,Cat and Kittens.
1851.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. i., p. 276. Thehens and chickensof the roguish low lodging-houses are the publicans’ pewter measures; the bigger vessels are ‘hens,’ the smaller are ‘chickens.’
Hen-drinking,subs.(provincial).—Seequot.
1859.Notes and Queries, 2 S. viii., 239. There is yet another [Yorkshire marriage-custom], viz., thehen-drinking. On the evening of the wedding day the young men of the village call upon the bridegroom for a hen—meaning money for refreshments … should the hen be refused, the inmates may expect some ugly trick to the house ere the festivities terminate.
Hen Frigate,subs.(nautical).—A ship commanded by the captain’s wife.Cf.,Hen-pecked.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1883.Clark Russell,Sailors’Language, s.v.
Hen-fruit,subs.(American).—Eggs.
Hen(orChicken)-hearted,adj.(old: now recognised).—Timorous; cowardly.
d.1529.Skelton,Why Come Ye not to Courte. They kepe them in their holdes Lykehen-heartedcuckoldes.
1506–56.Udal,James I.He is reconed a lowte and ahenne-heartedrascall.
1639–61.Rump Songs, i., [1662] 319. Let thehen-heartedCit drink whey.
1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hen-hearted, of a cowardly, fearful, or timorous disposition.
1754.B. Martin,Eng. Dict.(2nd Ed.), s.v. ‘Poltron.’ A coward, orhen-heartedfellow.
1762.Foote,Liar, iii., 2. Why, what a dastardly,hen-hearted——But come, Papillion, this shall be your last campaign.[304]
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Hen-hearted… a low word.
1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. Are you turnedhen-hearted, Jack?
Hen-house,subs.(old).—Seequot.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hen-house, a house where the woman rules, called also a she-house.
Hen of the game.SeeGame.
Hen-party(Convention-orTea-),subs.(common).—An assemblage of women for political or social purposes.Cf.,BullorStag-party. Also,Bitch-,Tabby-, andCat-party.
Hen-pecked,adj.(old: now recognised).—Petticoat government; ruled by a woman.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.HenpecktFriggat, whose Commander and Officers are absolutely sway’d by their Wives.Ibid.HenpecktHusband, whose Wife wears the Breeches.
1695.Congreve,Love for Love, iv., 13. I believe he that marries you will go to sea in ahen-pecked frigate.
1712.Arbuthnot,History of John Bull, Pt. I., ch. v. He had a termagant wife, and, as the neighbours said, was playinghenpecked!
1712.Spectator, No. 479. Socrates, who is by all accounts the undoubted head of the sect of thehen-pecked.
1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hen-pecked, a man that is over-awed by his wife, and dares do nothing disagreeable to her inclinations.
1771.Smollett,Humphry Clinker, l. 27. I shall never presume to despise or censure any poor man for suffering himself to behenpecked, conscious how I myself am obliged to truckle to a domestic demon.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1837.Dickens,Oliver Twist, ch. xxxvii. He had fallen from all the height and pomp of beadleship, to the lowest depth of the most snubbedhen-peckery.
1857.A. Trollope,Barchester Towers, ch. iii. But Mrs. Proudie is not satisfied with such home dominion, and stretches her power over all his movements, and will not even abstain from things spiritual. In fact, the bishop ishen-pecked.
Hen’s-arsehole.—SeeMouth.
Hen-snatcher,subs.(American).—A chicken thief.
1888.Bulletin, 24 Nov. All the dead-beats and suspectedhen-snatchersplead when before the Bench that they were only ‘mouching round,’ etc.
Hens’-rights,subs.(American).—Women’s rights.
Hen-toed,adj. phr.(common).—To turn the toes in walking like a fowl.
Here.Here’s to you(at you,unto you,now, orluck),phr.(common).—An invitation to drink; here’s a health to you. For synonyms,seeDrinks.
1651.Cartwright,Royal Slave.Here’s to thee, Leocrates.
1717.Ned Ward,Wks.ii., 71. Then we were fain To use Hertfordshire kindness,here’s to youagain.
1853.Diogenesii., 46. Each a pot in his hand.… Observed in a style of remarkable ease, ‘Old Buckhere’s luck,’ And then at the pewter proceeded to suck.
Here’s luck,phr.(tailors’).—I don’t believe you.
I am not here,phr.(tailors’).—‘I don’t feel inclined to work’; ‘I wish to be left alone.’
Here’s to it,phr.(common).—An obscene toast.SeeIt, sense 2.
Here-and-Thereian,subs. phr.(old).—A rolling stone; a person with no permanent address.Lex. Bal., 1811.[305]
Hereford,adj.(American cowboy). White. [Herefords are white-faced.]
Herefordshire-weed,subs.(old).—An oak.
Her Majesty’s Carriage,subs. phr.(common).—A prison van; the Queen’s ’bus.SeeBlack Maria. Fr.,l’omnibus à pègres.
Her Majesty’s Tobacco Pipe,subs.(common).—The furnace where the forfeited tobacco from the Customs House is burnt. [Now a thing of the past: the tobacco being distributed to workhouses, etc.]
1871.Echo, 27 Jan. All that was not sold will be burnt, according to custom, inher majesty’s tobacco pipe. We cannot think such waste justifiable.
Hermit(orBaldheaded Hermit),subs.(venery).—Thepenis. For synonyms,seeCreamstickandPrick.
Herod.To out-herod Herod,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To out-do; specifically (theatrical) to excel in rant.
1596.Shakspeare,Hamlet, iii., 2. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, perriwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings … itout-herods Herod.
Herring.Neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring,phr.(old).—Neither one thing nor the other.
1682.Dryden,Duke of Guise, Epil.(6th line from end). Neuters in their middleway of fleering, Areneither fish, nor flesh, nor good red herring.
To throw a sprat to catch a herring(orwhale),verb. phr.(old).—To forego an advantage in the hope of greater profit.
1826.Buckstone,Luke the Labourer, i., 2. I give dat likethrowing away a sprat to catch a herring, though I hope on this occasion to catch a bigger fish.
1890.Grant Allen,Tents of Shem, ch. xix. He’scasting a sprat to catch a whale.
Dead as a herring(orshotten herring),adv. phr.(old).—Quite dead. [Herrings die sooner on leaving the water than most fish.]SeeDead.
1596.Shakspeare,Merry Wives of Windsor, ii., 3. By gar deherring is no deadas I vill kill him.
1785.Burns,Death and Dr. Hornbook. I’ll nail the self-conceited sotAs dead’s a herrin’.
1790.Rhodes,Bombastes Furioso, Sc. 4. Ay,dead as herrings—herrings that are red.
Like herrings in a barrel,adv. phr.(common).—Very crowded.
1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 117. People jammed inside likeherrings in a barrel.
The devil a barrel the better herring,phr.(old).—All bad alike.—Lex. Bal.In modern American, all alike; indistinguishable.Cf.,Sardine.
Herring-gutted,adj.(old).—Lanky; thin.—Grose.
Herring-pond,subs.(common).—The sea; specifically, the North Atlantic Ocean.SeeBrinyandPuddle.To be sent across the herring-pond= to be transported.
1722.England’s Path to Wealth.’Tis odds but a finer country, cheaper and better food and raiment, wholesomer air, easier rents and taxes, will tempt many of your countrymen to cross theherring-pond.
1729.Gay,Polly, i., 1. Bless us all! how little are our customs known on this side theherring pond![306]
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, etc., s.v.Herring-pond—the sea, the Atlantic; and he who is gone across it is said to be lagged, or gone a Botanizing.
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford, p. 256, ed. 1854. You’re too old a hand for theherring-pond.
1864.M. E. Braddon,Henry Dunbar, ch. xxv. You’re not going to run away? You’re not going to renounce the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and make an early expedition across theherring-pond—eh?
1884.Phillipps-Woolley,Trottings of a Tenderfoot. Everyone nowadays has read as much as he or she cares to about the voyage across theherring-pond.
1889.Notes and Queries, 7 S., vii., p. 36, c. 2. Terms which have lived in America, and again crossed theherring-pondwith modern traffic.
1890.Punch, 6 Feb.Saturday.—My connection with war ended. Calculate I start to-morrow with the Show across theherring-pond, to wake up the Crowned Heads of Europe!
1891.Gunter,Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. If so, I’ll—I’ll cut him, when I cross the—er—herrin’ pond.
1892.Hume Nisbet,Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 119. I guess we have ruined one or two well-known authors, on the other side of theherring pond.
Hertfordshire-kindness,subs.(old).—An acknowledgment, or return, in kind, of favours received. (Butseequots., 1662, 1690, and 1738).
1662.Fuller,Worthies. This is generally taken in a good and grateful sense, for the mutual return of favours received: it being (belike) observed that the people in this county at entertainments drink back to them who drank to them.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hertfordshire-kindness, Drinking to the same Man again.
1717.Ned Ward,Wks., ii., 7. Then we were fain To useHertfordshire-kindness, Here’s to you again.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1738.Swift,Polite Conversations.Neverout.My Lord, this moment I did myself the honour to drink to your Lordship.Lord Smart.Why then that’sHertfordshire Kindness.Neverout.Faith, my Lord, I pledged myself: for I drank twice together without thinking.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hertfordshire Kindness, drinking twice to the same person.
Hewgag.The Hewgag,subs.(American).—A name for an undeterminate, unknown, mythical creature.—Slang, Jargon, and Cant.
Hey-gammer-cook.To play at Hey-gammer-cook,verb. phr.(venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.
1720.C. Johnson,Highwaymen and Pyrates, ‘Margaret Simpson’ (q.v.).
Hiccius Doccius,subs. phr.(Old Cant).—A juggler; also a shifty fellow or trickster.
1676.Shadwell,Virtuoso, ii., p. 19. I shall stand here till one of them has whipt away my Mistris about business, with aHixius Doxius, with the force of Repartee, and this, and that, and Everything in the world.
1678.Butler,Hudibras, iii., 3, 579. At Westminster, and Hickses-Hall, AndHiccius Dockiusplay’d in all.
1688.Wycherley,Country Wife, iii. That burlesque is a Hocus-pocus trick they have got, which by the virtue ofHictius doctius, topsey-turvey, etc.
1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Hiccius doccius… a cant word for a juggler; one that plays fast and loose.
Adj.(old).—Drunk; slovenly. Also,Hickey(q.v.). For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.
1733.North,Examen, i., 3, 137 (1740). The author with hisHiccius-doxiusdelivery.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hicksius Doxius, Drunk.[307]
Hic Jacet,subs. phr.(common).—A tombstone; also a memorial inscription. [From the opening words.]
1598.Shakspeare,All’s Well, etc., iii., 6. The merit of service is seldom attributed to the true … performer. I would have that drum … orhic jacet.
1858–59.Tennyson,Idylls of the King(‘Vivien’). Among the coldhic jacetsof the dead.
Hick,subs.(Old Cant).—I. A man; specifically a countryman; a booby. Also (American thieves’)HickjopandHicksam. For synonyms,seeJoskin.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hick, any Person of whom any Prey can be made, or Booty taken from; also a silly Country Fellow.
1720.Smith,Lives of Highwaymen and Pyrates, ii., 39. Among whom was a country farmer … which was not missed at all by the CountryHick.
1725.New Cant. Dict.Song 3. ‘The Thief-catcher’s Prophesy.’ The Eighth is a Bulk, that can bulk anyHick.
1754.Scoundrel’s Dict.The fourteenth, a gamester, if he sees theHicksweet He presently drops down a cog in the street.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Hickety-split,adj.(American).—With all one’s might; at top speed;hammer and tongs(q.v.);full chisel(q.v.).
Hickey,adj.(old).—Seequot.
1859.Matsell,Vocabulum, s.v.Hickey, Tipsy; not quite drunk; elated.
Hickory-shirt,subs.(American).—A checked shirt, cotton or woollen.
Hide,subs.(common).—The human skin. Once literary; now colloquial and vulgar.
1568.BannatyneMSS., ‘When Flora, etc.’ (Hunterian Club, 1879–88). Sche is so brycht ofhydand hew, I lufe bot hir allane I wene.
1607.Marston,What You Will, ii., I. A skubbing railer, whose course harden’d fortune, Grating hishide, gauling his starued ribs, Sittes hauling at Deserts more battle fate.
1731.C. Coffey,The Devil to Pay, Sc. 5. Come, and spin, you drab, or I’ll tan yourhidefor you.
1892.Kipling,Barrack-Room Ballads. ‘Gunga-Din.’ An’ for all ’is dirty’ide’e was white, clear white, inside.
Verb(common).—To flog. For synonyms,seeTan.
1868.Cassell’s Mag., May, p. 80. This was carried across the yard to Jacky as a regular challenge, and some said that Kavanagh and his friends were coming over tohideJacky after dinner.
1885.Punch, 29 Aug. p. 98. And the silver-topped rattan with which the boys I used tohide.
Hidebound,adj.(old: now recognised).—Barren; intractable; niggardly; pedantic; utterly immovable.
1606.Return from Parnassus, ii., 4 (Dodsley,Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ix., 125). Any of thehideboundbrethren of Oxford or Cambridge.
1672.Wycherley,Love in a Wood, i., 2. I am as barren andhideboundas one of your scribbling poets, who are sots in company for all their wit.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hidebound Horse, whose Skin sticks very close, and tite like a Pudding Bag, usually when very Fat.Ibid.Hidebound Muse, Stiff, hard of Delivery, Sir J. Suckling call’d Ben Johnson’s so.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1893.Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Feb. ‘High Time to Get Up.’ The most dragging inertness and the mosthide-boundcelerity.
Hiding,subs.(common).—A thrashing. For synonyms,seeTanning.
1853.Bradley,Verdant Green, ii., p. 23. May the Gown give the Town a jolly goodhiding.[308]
1864.Mark Lemon,Jest Book, p. 236. Some people have a notion that villany ought to be exposed, though we must confess we think it a thing that deserves ahiding.
1871.All the Year Round, 18 Feb. p. 288. Served me right if I’d got ahiding.
1883.Pall Mall Gaz., 16 Apr., p. 7, c. 2. They should stone all boys they met who were not members of the society, or in default themselves receive a goodhiding.
1888.Sportsman, 22 Dec. The chairman told Deakin he could scarcely expect anything but ahidingfor being connected with such a scurrilous publication.
1891.Licensed Vict. Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 7, c. 1. Before Paddock could claim the victory, which cost the Redditch fighter one of the severesthidingshe ever had to put up with.
Higgledy-piggledy,adj.(Old Cant: now recognised).—In confusion; topsy-turvy; at sixes and sevens.
1598.Florio,Worlde of Wordes, s.v.Alla rappa, snatchingly,higledi-pigledie, shiftingly, rap and run.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Higglede-piggledy, all together, as Hoggs and Piggs lie Nose in Arse.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1758.A. Murphy,The Upholsterer, ii. Ambassadors and Hair-Cutters, allhiggledy-piggledytogether.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1812.Johnson,Eng. Dict., s.v.Higgledy-piggledy, a cant word, corrupted fromhiggle, which denotes any confused mass, as higglers carry a huddle of provisions together.
1849.Dickens,David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. His name’s got all the letters in it,higgledy-piggledy.
1873.Miss Broughton,Nancy, ch. ii. We are allhiggledy-piggledy—at sixes and sevens!
1876.M. E. Braddon,Joshua Haggard, ch. xvi. ‘If some of you will sit down,’ remonstrated Judith, ‘I’ll pour out the tea. But I don’t feel as if anybody wanted it while you’re standing abouthiggledy-piggledy.’
Higgler,subs.(old).—A hawker.
High,adj.(American).—Drunk. For synonyms,seeDrinksandScrewed.
2. (colloquial).—Stinking;gamey(q.v.).; whence, by implication, diseased (as a prostitute); obscene in intention and effect.
The high and dry,subs. phr.(clerical).—The High Church or Anglo-Catholic party in the Establishment, as opposed to thelow and slow(q.v.), or Evangelical section.Cf.,Broad and Shallow.
1854.Conybeare,Church Parties, 74. Its adherents [of the High Church] are fallen from their high estate, and are contemptuously denominatedthe high and dry, just as the parallel development of the Low Church is nicknamed ‘low and slow.’
1857.Anthony Trollope,Barchester Towers, ch. liii. Who belongs tothe high and drychurch, the High Church as it was some fifty years since, before tracts were written and young clergymen took upon themselves the highly meritorious duty of cleaning churches?
1886.Graphic, 10 Apr., 399. In the Church have we not the three schools ofHigh and Dry, Low and Slow, and Broad and Shallow?
High and dry,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Stranded; abandoned; irrecoverable.
1889.Pall Mall Gaz., 18 Oct., 6, 1. It seems to me that Mr. Chamberlain must really look out or he will find himself, as the result of that insidious ‘mellowing process’ to which Mr. Matthews has testified, landedhigh and dryin a Toryism compared to which Sir Walter Barttelot will show in Radical colours.
High and mighty,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Arrogant; imperious; proud; ‘on the high horse,’ or the ‘high ropes’ (q.v.); full ofside(q.v.).[309]
1891.N. Gould,Double Event, p. 121. None of yourhighandmightygames with me.
1892.HenleyandStevenson,Deacon Brodie, i., 2. Ye need na be saehigh and mightyonyway.
1892.Hume Nisbet,Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 49. ‘Mighty highsome people are, ain’t they?’ the man observed loudly, straightening himself, and ordering a nobbler for himself.
Too high for one’s nut,adv. phr.(American).—Out of one’s reach; beyond one’s capacity;over one’s bend(q.v.).
You can’t get high enough,verb. phr.(common).—A derisive comment on any kind of failure. [Probably obscene in origin.]
How is that for high?phr.(American).—‘What do you think of it?’ [Once a tag universal; common wear now.]
1860.Bartlett,Americanisms, s.v.High.For when he slapped my broad-brim off, and asked,How’s that for high?It roused the Adam in me, and I smote him hip and thigh!
1872.Clemens(Mark Twain),Roughing It, 334. We are going to get it up regardless of expense. [He] was always nifty himself, and so you bet his funeral ain’t going to be no slouch,—solid silver door-plate on his coffin, six plumes on the hearse, and a nigger on the box in a biled shirt and a plug hat,—how’s that for high?
1889.Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Sep., p. 2, c. 1. ‘Cricket’ stories are the thing just now.How is this for high?
High-bellied(orHigh in the Belly),adj. phr.(colloquial).—Far gone in pregnancy. AlsoHigh-waisted.
Highbinder,subs.(American).—1. A Chinese blackmailer.
2. (political American).—A political conspirator.—Norton.
High-bloke,subs.(American).—1. A judge.
2. (American).—A well-dressed man; asplawger(q.v.).—Matsell.
Higher-malthusianism,subs. phr.(colloquial).—Sodomy.
Highfalute,verb.(American).—To use fine words. Alsoto yarn(q.v.).SeeHighfaluting. Fr.,faire l’étroite.
Highfaluting,subs.(formerly American: now general).—Bombast; rant.
1865.Orchestra.We should not think of usinghigh-falutinon ordinary serious occasions, and that we never shall use it in future, unless we happen to speak of thePorcupinecritic.
1886.Pall Mall Gaz., 3 May, 6, 2. A glib master of frothy fustian, of flatulenthigh-falutin’, and of oratorical bombast.
Adj.(general).—Bombastic; fustian; thrasonical.
1870.Friswell,Modern Men of Letters. A driveller of tipsy, high-flown, andhigh-falutin’nonsense.
1884.Echo, 17 Mar., p. 1, c. 4. It is the boast ofhigh-falutin’Americans that theirs is a country ‘where every man can do as he darn pleases.’
High-feather.In high feather,adv. phr.(colloquial).—In luck; on good terms with oneself and the world.
High-fly.To be on the high-fly,verb. phr.(thieves’).—Specifically, to practise the begging-letter imposture, but (generally) to tramp the country as a beggar.
1839.Brandon,Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, 163. TheHigh-fly—beggars, with letters, pretending to be broken-down gentlemen, captains, etc.[310]