1633.Ford,’TisPity She’s a Whore, ii., 1. There is no way but to clap up a marriagein hugger-mugger.1639–61.Rump Songs, i. [1662], 54. They brought me Gold and Plate inHuggar-Muggar.1663.Butler,Hudibras, i., 3. Where’er th’ inhugger-muggerlurk,I’llmake them rue their handy-work.1762.Churchill,The Ghost, bk. iii., line 27. It must not, as the Vulgar say, Be donein Hugger Muggerway.1815.Mirror for Mag., p. 457. For most that most things knew,in hugger-muggerutter’d what they durst.Hugging,subs.(common).—Garotting(q.v.).Hugsome,adj.(colloquial).—Carnally attractive;Fuckable(q.v.).Hulk(Hulky, orHulkingFellow),subs.(colloquial).—A fat person; a big lout. Generally, ‘great hulk of a fellow.’d.1631.Drayton,The Mooncalf(Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, iv., 126). Wallowing she lay, like to a boist’roushulkDropsied with humours.1698.Ward,London Spy, Pt. xiv., p. 324. Up in the Chimney Corner sat a greathulkingFellow.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hulk(s.) … also a lazy, dronish fellow.[376]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hulkey, orHulking, a greathulkeyfellow, an overgrown clumsy lout, or fellow.1858.G. Eliot,Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ch. ii. When you’ve got … some greathulkyfellow for a husband, who swears at you and kicks your children.1870.Chambers’s Journal, 9 July, p 447. He sees a slouching, shambling,hulkof a fellow standing listlessly in a doorway.1871.G. Eliot,Middlemarch, ch. lvi. I want to go first and have a round with thathulkyfellow who turned to challenge me.1883.A. Dobson,Old-World Idylls, p. 164. I’d like to give thathulkingbrute a hit—Beating his horse in such a shameful way!1893.National Observer, 29 July, p. 267, col. 2. The absolute ascendancy exercised by a small but brilliant member … over ahulkingJunior.Verb(colloquial).—To hang about; tomooch(q.v.).Hull between Wind and Water,verb. phr.(venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Hull-cheese,subs.(Old Cant).—Seequot. For synonyms,seeSwipes.1622.Taylor,A Very Merry Wherry-Ferry(Hindley,Works, 1872), 19. Give mehull-cheese, and welcome and good cheer.Ibid.Hull-cheese, is much like a loafe out of a brewers basket, it is composed of two simples, mault and water, in one compound, and is cousin germane to the mightiest ale in England.Hulverhead,subs., andHulver-headed,adj.(old).—Seequots. For synonyms,seeBuffleandCabbage-head.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hulver-head, a silly Foolish fellow.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hulver Headed, silly, puzzle-pated.Hum,subs.(Old Cant).—1. A kind of strong liquor: probably a mixture of beer and spirits, butseequot. 1690. Alsohum-cap.1616.Ben Jonson,Devil’s an Ass, i., 1. Carmen Are got into the yellow starch, and chimney sweepers To their tobacco, and strong waters,hum, Meath, and Obarni.1619.Fletcher,Wild Goose Chase,ii., 3. Lord, what should I ail? What a cold I have over my stomach; would I’d somehum.1622.Fletcher,Beggars’ Bush, ii., 1. Except you do provide mehumenough, And lour to bouze with.d.1645.Heywood,Drunkard, p. 48 [Gifford]. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of wines, yet there be stills and limbecks going, swetting out aqua vitæ and strong waters, deriving their names from cinnamon, balm, and aniseed, such as stomach-water,humm, etc.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hum-cap, old, mellow and very strong Beer.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. (common).—A trick; a delusion; a cheat. Also a lie.1756.The World, No. 164. Now if this be only ahum(as I suppose it is) upon our country apes, it being blown in theWorldwill put an end to it.d.1764.Lloyd,Poems(1774), ‘A Tale.’ There, my good critics, lies thehum.1806.Lamb,LettersinWks.(Ed. 1852), ch. v., p. 81. I daresay all this ishum!1820.Reynolds(P. Corcoran),The Fancy, ‘King Tims the First.’ You or your son have told a bouncinghum.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hum—a whispered lie.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Row in an Omnibus Box.’ It’s ‘No Go!’—it’s ‘Gammon!’—it’s ‘all aHum!’1848.Punch, vol. XIV., p. 37. ‘Ye Frenche Goe Uppe to London.’ That ye French threats were all bouncing, That ye muster was ahum, And they’d never dare to come.1885.T. E. Brown,The Doctor, p. 49. Ahumand a huff, And none o’ the real stuff.1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 76. Married life may be ticketed honey, but I know it’s more of ahum.[377]3. (old).—Seequot.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg.Tongue, s.v.Hums, persons at church; there is a great number ofhumsin the autem, there is a great congregation in the church.Verb(old).—1. To cheat; to bamboozle;to quiz(q.v.).1762.Goldsmith,Life of Nash, inWks., p. 552 (Globe). Here Nash, if I may be permitted the use of a polite and fashionable phrase, washumm’d.1764–1817.J. G. Holman,Abroad and at Home, i., 3.Ser.It is queer enough that his father, Sir Simon Flourish, should behummedso as to think he is going the tour of Europe, when, all the while, he never got a step farther than St. George’s Fields.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1811.Poole,Hamlet Travestied, iii., 1. Go seek him there: I fear he’s onlyhumming.1819.Moore,Tom Crib, p. 4. While youhumthe poor spoonies with speeches so pretty.d.1840.Mad. D’Arblay,Diary, ii., 153 [ed. 1842]. I don’t mean to cajole you hither with the expectation of amusement or entertainment; you and I know better than tohumor behummedin that manner.1856.Elliott,Carolina Sports, p. 122. Ihummedhim, my stripping was all a feint.2. (old).—To mumble.d.1842.Maginn,Vidocq Versified. To hear Old Cottonhumminghis pray.To hum and haw,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To hesitate, to raise objections.1469.Paston Letters, II., 347 (Ed. Gairdner). He wold have gotyn it aweye byhumysand byhays, but I wold not so be answeryd.1594.Nashe,Unf. Traveller(Grosart,Wks., v., 96). Hee made no morehummingorhaulting, but in despite of her husbandes kinsfolkes, gaue her herNunc dimittis.1610.Jonson,Alchemist, iii., 2. You may be anything, and leave off to make Long-winded exercises; or suck up Yourha!andhum!in a tune.1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, i., 1. A sober-drawn exhortation of six hours, whose better part was thehum-ha-hum.1620.Massinger,Fatal Dowry, iv., 1. Do you standHummingandhahingnow?d.1680.Butler,Remains(1759), ii., 103. Hehums and hahs.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hum and Haw, to Hesitate in Speech; also to delay, or difficultly to be brought to Consent.1706.Mrs. Centlivre,Love at a Venture, iv., 2,Wks.(1872), i., 304. That was the first excuse that came at my tongue’s end—and you know there is nohumming and hawingwith my old master, sir.1729.Swift,Intelligencer, No. 14, p. 165 (2nd Ed.). If any person … shall presume to exceed six minutes in a story, tohum or haw, use hyphens between his words, or digressions.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. vi. Lord Ascothummed and hawed, and told him to tell his father he had been a good boy.To make things hum,verb. phr.(American).—To force the pace; to keep moving.1888.San Francisco Weekly Exam., 23 Feb. Ever since he has taken the newspaper reins in San Francisco he hasmade things hum.1890.Punch, 22 Feb. If I was flush of the ochre, I tell you I’d make the thinghum.1891.Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Aug., p. 2, c. 3. With their advent things begin tohum.1893.W. T. Stead,Review of Reviews, p. 152. In the opinion of both foes and friends we make thingshum.To hum around,verb. phr.(American).—To call to account;to call over the coals(q.v.).Human,subs.(old: now American).—A human being. [AlsoHuman Boar]. For synonyms,seeCove.[378]1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 332. Mongsthumansby Court dunning.1783–5.Cowper,Task, ii., line 105. And agonies ofhumanand of brute.1835.Haliburton,Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxviii. They have little hovels for their cattle … and a house forthe humansas grand as Noah’s Ark.1882.Daily Telegraph, 13 Dec., p. 2, c. 2. In the opening pages Mr. Matthew Arnold mourns in verse over the death of ‘Poor Matthias,’ who is nota humanbut a canary.1888.Denver Republican.He was only a dog … but was much more useful to society than manyhumans.Humber-keels.SeeBilly-Boy.Humble Pie.To eat humble pie,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To submit; to apologise; to knock under. For synonyms,seeCave In.1862.Thackeray,Philip, xxvii. If this old chief had to eathumble pie, his brave adversaries were anxious that he should gobble up his portion as quickly as possible, and turned away their honest old heads as he swallowed it.1887.Manville Fenn,This Man’s Wife, ch. ii., 4. Our savings are gone and we musteat humble piefor the future.Hum-Box,subs.(common).—1. A pulpit.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1827.Lytton,Pelham, p. 302 [Ed. 1862]. Well, you parish bull prig, are you for lushing Jacky, or pattering in thehum-box?1858.A.Mayhew,Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. ix., p. 309. He was nicknamed the ‘Amen bawler’ (parson) and recommended to take to thehum-box(pulpit) as better suited to him than cadging.English Synonyms:—Autem; cackle tub; clack loft; cowards’ castle; gospel mill (also a church); wood.2. (American).—An auctioneer’s rostrum.Humbox Patterer,subs.(common).—A parson. For synonyms,seeDevil DodgerandSky Pilot.1839.G. W. M. Reynolds,Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. Though thehumbox patterertalked of hell.Humbug,subs.(old: now recognised).—1. A hoax; an imposture; a swindle.1735–40.Killigrew,The Universal Jester; or a pocket companion for the Wits: being a choice collection of merry conceits, facetious drolleries, &c., clenchers, closers, closures, bon-mots, andHumbugs. [Title].1754.Connoisseur.No. 14. Single words, indeed, now and then broke forth; such as—odious, horrible, detestable, shocking,humbug. This last new-coined expression, which is only to be found in the nonsensical vocabulary, sounds absurd and disagreeable whenever it is pronounced.1762.Churchill,The Ghost, bk. I., line 72. And that Great Saint, we Whitefield call, Keeps up theHumbugSpiritual.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1828.Webster,Eng. Dict., s.v.2. Deceit; pretence; affectation.1837.R. H. Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. (Ed. 1862). p. 239. That sort of address which the British callhumbugand Frenchmen ‘Finesse.’ (It’s ‘Blarney’ in Irish—I don’t know the Scotch.)1842.Douglas Jerrold,Bubbles of the Day, i. Never sayhumbug; it’s coarse.Sir P.And not respectable.Smoke.Pardon me, my lord; itwascoarse. But the fact is,humbughas received such high patronage, that now it’s quite classic.3. A cheat; an impostor; a pretender. Also (old),hummer.d.1783.Henry Brooke,Poems(1776). ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers’English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Ourhummersin state, physic, learning, and law.[379]1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, s.v.Hum. He is ahumbugthat has recourse to the meanness. He wishes to be a bugaboo, or most exalted fool.1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xxx. ‘You’re ahumbug, sir.’ ‘A what?’ said Mr. Winkle, starting. ‘Ahumbug, sir. I will speak plainer, if you wish it. An imposter, sir.’Verb.To hoax; to swindle; to cajole.1751.Smollett,Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxv. He who seemed to be most afflicted of the two taking his departure with an exclamation of ‘Humbugged, egad!’1785.Grose,Vulg.Tongue, s.v.1826.The Fancy, ii., 77. We would not have the reader believe we mean tohumbughim—not for a moment.1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. xliii. She was always ready to help him, provided, as she told him, ‘he didn’thumbug.’HenceHumbugging= hoaxing, swindling, orHumbugable= gullible.Humbuggery= deception; imposture.Humbugger= a cheat, a hoaxer.d.1763.Henry Brooke,Poems(1778), ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Of all trades or arts in repute or possessionhumbuggingis held the most ancient profession.Idem.To you, … thehumbuggersof hearts.1822.Scott,Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xviii. The species of wit which has been long a favourite in the city, under the names of cross-biting, giving the dor, bamboozling, cramming, hoaxing,humbugging, and quizzing.1825.Southey,Letters, iii., 488 [ed. Warter, 1856]. My charity does not extend so far as to believe that any reasonable man (humbuggableas the animal is) can have been so humbugged.1826.The Fancy, ii., 29. A contemporary writer of eminence some years ago termed such exhibitionshumbugging.1840.Thackeray,Paris Sketch Book, p. 31. Do you not laugh, O Pharos of Bungay, at the continuance of a humbug such as this?—at thehumbugginganniversary of a humbug?1852.Judson,Myst., etc., of New York,ch. iv. Oh, blast yourhumbuggery—talk plain English to me.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. v. When the old lady was gone, Mr. Hobson had no need of any morehumbugging, but took his pleasure freely.1883.Mark Twain,Life on the Mississippi, ch. xl., p. 369. Traces of its inflated language and other windyhumbuggeriessurvive along with it.Humdrum,subs.(old: now recognised).—1. A tiresome dullard; a steady-going, common-place person.Seealso quot. 1725.1596.Jonson,Every Man in His Humour, i., 1. By gads-lid I scorn it, I, so I do, to be a consort for everyhumdrum.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.Hum-DrumsorHums, a Society of Gentlemen, who meet near theCharter-House, or at theKing’s Headin St.John’s Street. Less of mystery, and more of Pleasantry than theFree Masons.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. Monotony; tameness; dullness.1823.Hints for Oxford, p. 63. Men of spirit must ever dislike the unleavenedhumdrumof its monkish constitution.1893.The Nation, 13 July, p. 32, col. 1. We go so far with the adorers of home andhumdrum.3. (old).—The same asHumbug(q.v.).1596.Nashe,Saffron Walden(Grosart,Works, iii., 14). Whereof generous Dick (withouthumdrumbe it spoken) I utterly despair of them.4. (old).—A wife; also a husband.Adj.Dull; tame; commonplace; monotonous.1702.Vanbrugh,False Friend, ii. A veryhumdrummarriage this.1705.Ward,Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. ii., p. 6. Tho’ it is theirhumdrumfashion To hate all musical precation.[380]1730.Jas. Miller,Humours of Oxford, Act I., p. 7 (2nd Ed.). Your fellows of colleges are a parcel of sad, muzzy,humdrum, lazy, ignorant old caterpillars.d.1764.Lloyd,Poems(1774), ‘A Familiar Epistle.’ So frothy, vapid, stale,humdrum.1765.C. Smart,Fables, xv., line 5. Content inhumdrummood t’adjust Her matters to disperse the dust.1774.Foote,Cozeners, i., 1. Not one, madam, of thehumdrum, drawling, long winded tribe.1775.Sheridan,Rivals, ii., 1. Yet am I by no means certain that she would take me with the impediment of our friends’ consent, a regularhumdrumwedding, and the reversion of a good fortune on my side.d.1823.Bloomfield,Poems, ‘Richard and Kate’ (1825), p. 89. Come, Goody, stop yourhumdrumwheel.1825.Harriet Wilson,Memoirs, iii., 237. You are, in fact, too constant for Paris. One has enough of all thathum-drumstuff in England.1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. lxi. The most fervent Liberals, when out of power, becomehumdrumConservatives, or downright tyrants or despots in office.1863.Alex. Smith,Dreamthorpe, p. 23. Giddy people may think the life I lead here staid andhumdrum, but they are mistaken.1893.Standard, 8 Aug., p. 4, col. 6. The thing, in his view, is to rattle off something pretentious, and avoid thehumdrumand tiresome methods which statesmanship of the pre-Home-Rule period used to respect.Humdurgeon,subs.(old).—1. An imaginary illness.—Grose.2. (common).—Needless noise; ado about nothing.1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xxiii. I would never be making ahumdudgeonabout a scart on the pow.Humdurgeoned,adj.(old).—Annoyed.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford. Don’t behumdurgeonedbut knock down a gemman.Humguffin(common).—A hobgoblin. Also a derisive address.Humgumptious,adj.(obsolete).—Seequot.1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, s.v.Hum. A knowing sort of humbug ishumgumptious.Hummer,subs.(old).—1.Seequot.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hummer, a loud Lie, a Rapper.1725.New Cant. Dict.,s.v.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hummer(s.) a great, monstrous, or notorious lie.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. (American).—A man or woman of notable parts; ahigh stepper(q.v.); agood goer(q.v.).Cf.,Rustler.1889.Ally Sloper, 6 July. If Tootsie is anything as lively as the ‘Gaiety Girls,’ she must be ahummer.1891.Gunter,Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. I just wanted toseemy Tillie dance once. She’s a societyhummernow.3. (obsolete).—SeeHumbug, sense 3.Humming,adj.(old). Strong—applied to drink; brisk—applied to trade; hard—applied to blows.Humming October= the specially strong brew from the new season’s hops;stingo(q.v.).1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew.HummingLiquor, Double Ale, Stout, Pharoah.1701.Farquhar,Sir Harry Wildair, iv., 2. The wine washummingstrong.1736.Fielding,Don Quixote, iii., 4. Landlord, how fares it? You seem to drive ahummingtrade here.1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, ch. vii. Let us fortify our stomachs with a slice or two of hung beef, and a horn or so ofhummingstingo.1822.Scott,Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Ahummingdouble pot of ale.[381]1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Wedding Day.’ A mighty magnificent tub Of what men, in our hemisphere, term ‘HummingBub,’ But which gods—who, it seems, use a different lingo, From mortals, are wont to denominate ‘Stingo.’1864.Dickens,Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. vii. Wegg, in coming to the ground, had received ahummingknock on the back of his devoted head.Hump,verb.(common).—1. To spoil; to botch; to do for.1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 252. Tohumpin street parlance, is equivalent to ‘botch,’ in more genteel colloquialism.2. (colonial).—To shoulder and carry.E.g.,To hump one’s swag= to shoulder one’s kit.1886.Daily Telegraph, 1 Jan. Ladies whom I have methumpingtheir own drums.1887.All the Year Round, 30 July, p. 66. A large blanket rolled up which contains the personal luggage of the man who carries orhumpsit.1887.G. A.SalainIllus. Lon. News, 12 Mar., 282/2. All kinds of luggage, generally speaking, which are manually carried, are at present said to behumped. I have had tohumpmine many a time and oft.1888.Rolf Boldrewood,Robbery Under Arms, ch. xxii. Wehumpedour saddles and swags ourselves.1890.Family Herald, 8 Feb., p. 227. I was just debating whether I had betterhumpmy drum.3. (old).—Seequot. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hump, tohump. Once a fashionable word for copulation.To hump oneself,verb. phr.(American).—To stir; to prepare for attack; to fancy oneself.1847.Porter,Quarter Race, etc. p. 177. Ef thar are anything hehumpshisself on besides ugly, it is his manners among the fimmales.1847.Porter,Big Bear, etc., p. 126. He was breathin’ sorter hard, his eye set on the Governor,humpin’himself on politics.To get(orhave)the hump,verb. phr.(common).—To be despondent, hurt, put out,down in the mouth(q.v.). also,to have the hump uporon. For synonyms,seeSnaggy.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v., 267). Soin his humpsabout it … that he had thought to have tumbled his hurrie-currie … into the sea.1885.Punch, 10 Jan., p. 24. I hadgot the ’ump, and no error, along o’ Bill B. and that gal.1892.Anstey,Model Music-Hall, 43. The company consume what will be elegantly referred to as ‘a bit of booze.’ Aunt Snappergets the ’ump.1886.Jerome,Idle Thoughts, p. 14. ’Arry refers to the heavings of his wayward heart by confiding to Jimee that he hasgot the blooming hump!Humpey,subs.(Australian).—Seequot.1893.Gilbert Parker,Pierre and his People, p. 135. McGann was lying on his back on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain hut. Australians would call it ahumpey.Humphrey,subs.(American thieves’).—A coat with pocket holes but no pockets.—Matsell.To dine with Duke Humphrey.SeeDine,Sir Thomas Gresham, andKnights.1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse[Grosart], ii., 18. I … retired me to Paules,to seeke my dinner with Duke Humfrey.1843.Moncrieff,The Scamps of London, i., 1.Dinesoftenerwith Duke Humphreythan anybody else, I believe.Humpty-dumpty,subs.(colloquial).—1. A short and thick-set person; agrundy(q.v.); a hunch-back. For synonyms,seeForty Guts.[382]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. (old).—Seequot. 1690.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Humptey Dumptey, Ale boild with Brandy.1698.M. Sorbière’sJourney to London in the Year 1698, p.135, quoted inNotes and Queries, 6 S., xii., 167. He answer’d me that he had a thousand such sort of liquors, asHumtie Dumtie, Three Threads.…1786.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1837.Disraeli,Venetia, i., 14. As for the beverage they drankhumpty-dumpty, which is ale boiled with brandy.Adj.andadv.(colloquial).—Short and thick; all of a heap; all together.Hum-strum,subs.(old).—Seequot.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Humstrum, a musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some pack-thread, thence also called bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called ahumstrum; sometimes instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.Hunch,verb.(old: now colloquial).—To jostle; to shove; to squeeze. For synonyms,seeRamp.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunch, to justle, or thrust.1712.Arbuthnot,Hist. of John Bull, Pt. III., App., ch. iii. Then Jack’s friends began tohunchand push one another.1738.Swift,Polite Convers., Dial. 1. I washunchedup in a hackney-coach with three country acquaintance.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1847.Porter,Quarter Race, etc., p. 163. I hadn’t fairly got to sleep before the old ’omanhunchedme.Hung.SeeWell-hung.To be hung up,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To come to a standstill; to be in a fix.1891.Fun, 10 June, p. 237. ‘Ah! by Bendigo, I forgot! Grimmy’shung up!’‘What, Grimmy? Never!’Hungarian,subs.(Old Cant).—1. A hungry man; arare pecker(q.v.).1608.Dodsley,Merry Devil of Edmonton[Old Plays, v. 267]. Away, I have knights and colonels at my house, and must tend thehungarians.1632.Lupton,London[‘Harl. Misc.’], ix., 314. The middle aile [of St. Paul’s] is much frequented at noon with a company ofhungarians, not walking so much for recreation as need.2. (Old Cant).—A freebooter.1608.Merry Devil of Edmonton[Dodsley,Old Plays, v. 285]. Come, yeHungarianpilchers, we are once more come under the zona torrida of the forest.1893.National Observer, ‘Spoliation,’ ix., 357. But, after all, it is only another note in the gamut of spoliation, whereof Mr. Gladstone’shungarians(a good old word that!) would have the mastery.Hunk.To be(orget)hunkorall hunk,verb. phr.(American).—1. To hit a mark; to achieve an object; to be safe. Also (2) to scheme. [From Dutchhonk= goal or home.]1847.Darley,Drama in Pokerville, p. 50. I’ll allow you’re justhunkthis time.1893.Detroit Free Press, June 23, ‘He Threatens to go back,’ p. 3. I propose to have some of it, or I’llget hunk.Hunker(orOld Hunker),subs.(American).—In New York (1844) a Conservative Democrat, as opposed to the Young Democracy orBarn-Burners(q.v.). Hence, an anti-progressive in politics.Hunks,subs.(old).—A miser; a mean, sordid fellow; a curmudgeon. For synonyms,seeSnide.[383]1602.Dekker,Satiro-Mastix, inWks.(1873), i., 201.Blun.Nay prethee deare Tucca, come you shall shake—Tuc.Not hands with greatHunkesthere, not hands, but Ile shake the gull-groper out of his tan’d skinne.1602.Campion,English Poesy(Works,Bullen, 1889, p. 247). But it drinks up all: thathunksdetestable.1647–80.Rochester,Wks.; p. 11. There was an old coveteoushunksin the neighbourhood, who had notwithstanding his age, got a very pretty young wife.1677.Wycherley,Plain Dealer, v., 2. Make a very pretty show in the world, let me tell you; nay, a better than your closehunks.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunks, a covetous Creature, a miserable Wretch.1712.Spectator, No. 264. Irus has … given all the intimations he skilfully could of being a closehunkswith money.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1837.Marryat,Snarley-yow, ch. 12. So while they cut their raw salt junks, With dainties you’ll be cramm’d. Here’s once for all my mind,old hunks, Port Admiral, you be dammed!1839.Buckstone,Brother Tom(Dick’sed., p. 15). One calls him anold hunks, another a selfish brute.1840.Dickens,Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 35. That you become the sole inheritor of the wealth of this rich oldhunks.1846.Melville,Moby Dick, 75 (ed. 1892). Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being an incorrigible oldhunks.1857.A. Trollope,Three Clerks, ch. iii. I am sure he is a cross oldhunks, though Mamma says he’s not.1893.Theodore Martin,Roman Elegies, ii. (Goethe Society Trans., 1891–2, p. 72). Joys that he stints not his gold like the closehunxesof Rome.Hunky,adj.(American).—Good; jolly; a general superlative. AlsoHunkidorum.d.1867.Browne, ‘Artemus Ward,’The Shakers(Railway ed.), p. 43. ‘Hunkyboy! Go it my gay and festive cuss!’1873.Justin McCarthy,Fair Saxon, ch. xxxviii. The guard dies, but never surrenders! Fine, isn’t it? But thehunky-boy that said that surrendered all the same.1888.Texas Siftings, 20 Oct. Robert is allhunky, but he had a mighty close call the week before last.Hunt,verb.(old).—To decoy apigeon(q.v.) to the tables. Hencehunting= card-sharping.Flat-catching(q.v.).1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunting(c.), decoying or drawing others into Play.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.To hunt for soft spots,verb. phr.(American).—To make oneself comfortable; to seek one’s ease.1888.San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 Mar. It was demnition hot, and I commenced tohunt for soft spotsin my saddle.To hunt grass,verb. phr.(pugilists’).—To be knocked down;to be grassed(q.v.). Also, to be puzzled; to be dumfoundered.1869.Clemens[Mark Twain],Innocents at Home, ch. ii. Ihunt grassevery time.To hunt leather,verb. phr.(cricketers’).—To field at cricket.1892.Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 21 Sep. p. 13, c. 2. For nearly ten years I earned a living—and a good one—by ‘wielding the willow’ andhunting the leather.To hunt the dummy,verb. phr.(thieves’).—To steal pocket books.1878.Charles Hindley,Life and Times of James Catnach, p. 171. (Chorus)—Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, And finelyhunt the dummy.To hunt the squirrel,verb. phr.(old).—Seequot.[384]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hunting the Squirrel, an amusement practised by post boys, and stage coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman, or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to behunted.In, orout of,the hunt,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Having a chance, or none;inorout of the swim(q.v.). Admitted to, or outside, a circle or society.Hunt-about,subs.(colloquial).—1. A prying gossip.2. (common).—A walking whore.Hunt-counter,subs.(old).—A beggar.1623.Shakspeare, 2Henry IV., i., 2. Youhunt-counter, hence! Avaunt!Hunters.Pitching the hunters,verb. phr.(costermongers’).Seequot.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 390.Pitching the huntersis the three sticks a penny, with the snuff-boxes stuck upon sticks; if you throw your stick, and they fall out of the hole, you are entitled to what you knock off.1876.Hindley,Cheap Jack, p. 235. When … there was no cattle jobbing to be done, he wouldpitch the hunters, that is, put up the ‘three sticks a penny’ business.Hurly-Burly,subs.(old: now colloquial).—A commotion; a bustle; an uproar.c.1509–1547.Lusty Juventus(Dodsley), [Old Plays, 4th ed., 1874, ii., 85]. What ahurly-burlyis here! Smick smack, and all this gear!1539.Tavernier,Garden of Wysdom, E. ii. verso. Thys kynge [Gelo] on a tyme exacted money of hys comons, whome when he perceuyed in ahurly burlyfor the same, and ready to make an insurrection, he thus sodaynly appeased.1542.Udall,Apophthegms of Erasmus[1877], p. 115. the meaning of the Philosophier was, that princes for the ambition of honour, rule and dominion, being in continuall strife, andhurlee burlee, are in very deede persons full of miserie and wo.1551.More,Utopia, (Pitt Press ed., 1884, i., 52, 5). Whereby so many nations for his sake should be broughte into a troublesomehurlei-burley.1567.Fenton,Tragical Dicsourses, f. 104. They heard a great noyse andhurleyburleyin the street of the Guard and chief officers of the Watch.1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse(Grosart,Works, ii., 53). Not trouble our peaceable Paradise with their privatehurlie-burliesabout strumpets.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v., 293). Put them in feare where no feare is, and make ahurlie-burliein the realm.1606.Shakspeare,Macbeth, i., 1. When thehurley-burley’sdone, When the battle’s lost and won.1619.T. North’sDiall of Princes(1557), corrected, p. 703, c. 1. Two or three dayes before you shall see such resort of persons, suchhurly burly, such flying this way,such sending that way, some occupyed in telling the cookes how many sorts of meates they will have.…1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1771.Smollett,Humphrey Clinker(ed. 1890, p. 185). As for the lawyer he waited below till thehurly-burlywas over, and then he stole softly to his own chamber.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1811. J. and H.Smith,Horace in London, pp. 18–25, Ode ii., ‘Hurly-burly’ (Title).1886.Max Adeler,Out of theHurly-Burly. Title.[385]1893.St. James’s Gazette, xxvii., 4076, p. 4. While all London was making holiday, Paris was engaged in ahurly-burlyof a very different kind.Hurra’s-nest,subs.(nautical).—The utmost confusion; everything topsy-turvy. For synonyms,seeSixes and Sevens.1840.R. H. Dana,Two Years Before the Mast, ch. ii. Everything was pitched about in grand confusion. There was a completehurrah’s nest, as the sailors say, ‘everything on top and nothing at hand.’1869.Mrs. Stowe,Old Townsfolks, ch. iv. You’ve got our clock all to pieces, and have been keeping up a perfecthurrah’s nestin our kitchen for three days. Do either put that clock together or let it alone.Hurrah in Hell.Not to care a single hurrah in hell,verb. phr.(American).—To be absolutely indifferent.1893.Harold Frederic,National Observer, IX., 1 Apr., p. 493, col. 2. I don’t care a singlehurrah in sheol.Hurry,subs.(musical).—A quick passage on the violin, or a roll on the drum, leading to a climax in the representation.1835.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 66. The wrongful heir comes in to two bars of quick music (technically called ahurry).Hurry-curry,subs.(obsolete).—Seequot.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v. 267). The … was so in his humps upon it … that he had thought to have tumbled hishurrie currie, or … can, into the sea.Hurry-durry,adj.(old).—Rough; boisterous; impatient of counsel or control.1677.Wycherley,Plain Dealer, i., 1. ’Tis ahurrydurryblade.Hurrygraph,subs.(American).—A hastily written letter.1861.Independent, 31 July. I must close thishurrygraph, which I have no time to review.Hurry-whore,subs.(old).—A walking strumpet.1630.Taylor,Wks.And I doe wish with all my heart, that the superfluous number of all our hyreling hackney carryknaves, andhurry-whores, with their makers and maintainers, were there, where they might never want continuall imployment.Husband’s-boat,subs.(common).—The Saturday boat to Margate during the summer season.c.1867.Vance,Broadside Ballad.‘TheHusband’s Boat.’1887.Murray, inNew Eng. Dict., Pt. III., p. 956, c. 3. Waiting at Margate Pier for thehusband’s boaton Saturday afternoon.Husband’s-supper.To warm the husband’s supper,verb. phr.(common).—To sit before the fire with lifted skirts. Fr.,faire chapelle.Husband’s-tea,subs.(common).—Weak tea;water bewitched(q.v.).Hush,verb.(old).—To kill.—Grose.Hush-money,subs.(old: now recognised).—Money paid for silence, to quash a case, or stay a witness; a bribe; blackmail.1709.Steele,Tatler, No. 26. I expecthush-moneyto be regularly sent for every folly or vice any one commits in this whole town.1713.Guardian, No. 26. A poor chambermaid has sent in ten shillings out of herhush-money, to expiate her guilt of being in her mistress’s secret.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.[386]1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.), s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1852.Dickens,Bleak House, ch. xxxvii. To allow Ada to be made a bribe andhush-moneyof, is not the way to bring it out.1884.Spectator, p. 530. They were disappointed of theirhush-money, but he gave them an easy revenge.Hush-shop(or-crib),subs.(common).—An unlicensed tavern.1872.Globe, 18 Sep. At Barrow-in-Furness the new Licensing Act has had the effect of calling numeroushush shopsinto existence.Husky,subs.(Winchester College).—Gooseberry fool with the husks in it, obsolete. [Notions.]1870.Mansfield,School Life, p. 145. There were two kinds [Gooseberry fool]Huskyand non-husky.Adj.(American).—Stout; well built.Husky-lour,subs.(Old Cant).—A guinea; ajob(q.v.). For synonyms,seeCanary.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hussy,subs.(colloquial).—A corruption ofhousewife(q.v.).Hustle,verb.(venery).—1. To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.2. (American).—To bestir oneself; to go to work with vigour and energy. Also tohustle around.Hustler,subs.(American).—An active, busy man or woman. Ahummer(q.v.); arustler(q.v.).1890.Harold Frederic,Lawton Girl. A whimsical query as to whether this calamitous boy had also been named Benjamin Franklin crossed his confused mind, and then … whether the child if so named, would be ahustleror not.Hutch,subs.(common).—A place of residence or employment; one’sdiggings(q.v.).Hutter.SeeHatter.Huxter,subs.(common).—Money. AlsoHoxter. For synonyms,seeActualandGilt.c.186(?).Broadside Ballad.These seven long years I’ve been serving, and Seven I’ve got for to stay, All for meeting a bloke down our alley And a-taking hishuxtersaway.Huzzy(orHuzzie),subs.(old).—A case of needles, pins, scissors, bodkins, etc.; ahousewife’scompanion.Hymeneal-Sweets,subs.(venery).—Copulation.1604.Marston,Malcontent, i., 3. True to her sheetes, nay, diets strong his blood, To give her height ofhymeneall sweetes.Hypernese,subs.(Winchester College).—Seequot.Ziph(q.v.).1864.The Press, 12 Nov. p. 1098. This dialect of school cryptoëpy was known in our youth asHypernese. When spoken fast it defies an outsider’s curiosity. If two consonants commence a syllable, the former is dropped, and W substituted: thus breeches would bewareechepes. If P commences a syllable, G is interpolated: thus penny would bepegennepy.… That Ziph and its cognate languages are well known beyond the boundaries of Winchester is certain. Bishop Wilkins described it, without mentioning it as a novelty, a couple of centuries ago.Hyphenated American,subs.(American).—A naturalised citizen, as German-Americans, Irish-Americans, and the like. [Nortons.][387]Hypocrite,subs.(American).—A pillow slip or ‘sham.’Hypogastric-cranny,subs.(venery).—The femalepudendum.—Urquhart.For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Hyps(orHypo),subs.(old).—TheBlue Devils(q.v.).1710.Swift,Tatler, No. 230. Will Hazard has got thehipps, having lost to the tune of five hund’rd pound.1729.Swift,Poems(Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, xi., 486). And the doctor was plaguilydown in the hips.1738.Swift’sPolite Conversation, Dial.1. Her ladyship was plaguily bamb’d; I warrant it put her into thehipps.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1830.C. Lamb,Pawnbroker’s Daughter, i., 2. The drops so like to tears did drip, They gave my infant nerves thehyp.1854.Haliburton,Americans at Home, i., 176. The old man would give up to thehypo, and keep his bed for weeks. During this time, he wouldn’t say a word, but ‘I’m not long for this world.’End of Vol. III.[388]
1633.Ford,’TisPity She’s a Whore, ii., 1. There is no way but to clap up a marriagein hugger-mugger.1639–61.Rump Songs, i. [1662], 54. They brought me Gold and Plate inHuggar-Muggar.1663.Butler,Hudibras, i., 3. Where’er th’ inhugger-muggerlurk,I’llmake them rue their handy-work.1762.Churchill,The Ghost, bk. iii., line 27. It must not, as the Vulgar say, Be donein Hugger Muggerway.1815.Mirror for Mag., p. 457. For most that most things knew,in hugger-muggerutter’d what they durst.Hugging,subs.(common).—Garotting(q.v.).Hugsome,adj.(colloquial).—Carnally attractive;Fuckable(q.v.).Hulk(Hulky, orHulkingFellow),subs.(colloquial).—A fat person; a big lout. Generally, ‘great hulk of a fellow.’d.1631.Drayton,The Mooncalf(Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, iv., 126). Wallowing she lay, like to a boist’roushulkDropsied with humours.1698.Ward,London Spy, Pt. xiv., p. 324. Up in the Chimney Corner sat a greathulkingFellow.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hulk(s.) … also a lazy, dronish fellow.[376]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hulkey, orHulking, a greathulkeyfellow, an overgrown clumsy lout, or fellow.1858.G. Eliot,Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ch. ii. When you’ve got … some greathulkyfellow for a husband, who swears at you and kicks your children.1870.Chambers’s Journal, 9 July, p 447. He sees a slouching, shambling,hulkof a fellow standing listlessly in a doorway.1871.G. Eliot,Middlemarch, ch. lvi. I want to go first and have a round with thathulkyfellow who turned to challenge me.1883.A. Dobson,Old-World Idylls, p. 164. I’d like to give thathulkingbrute a hit—Beating his horse in such a shameful way!1893.National Observer, 29 July, p. 267, col. 2. The absolute ascendancy exercised by a small but brilliant member … over ahulkingJunior.Verb(colloquial).—To hang about; tomooch(q.v.).Hull between Wind and Water,verb. phr.(venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Hull-cheese,subs.(Old Cant).—Seequot. For synonyms,seeSwipes.1622.Taylor,A Very Merry Wherry-Ferry(Hindley,Works, 1872), 19. Give mehull-cheese, and welcome and good cheer.Ibid.Hull-cheese, is much like a loafe out of a brewers basket, it is composed of two simples, mault and water, in one compound, and is cousin germane to the mightiest ale in England.Hulverhead,subs., andHulver-headed,adj.(old).—Seequots. For synonyms,seeBuffleandCabbage-head.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hulver-head, a silly Foolish fellow.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hulver Headed, silly, puzzle-pated.Hum,subs.(Old Cant).—1. A kind of strong liquor: probably a mixture of beer and spirits, butseequot. 1690. Alsohum-cap.1616.Ben Jonson,Devil’s an Ass, i., 1. Carmen Are got into the yellow starch, and chimney sweepers To their tobacco, and strong waters,hum, Meath, and Obarni.1619.Fletcher,Wild Goose Chase,ii., 3. Lord, what should I ail? What a cold I have over my stomach; would I’d somehum.1622.Fletcher,Beggars’ Bush, ii., 1. Except you do provide mehumenough, And lour to bouze with.d.1645.Heywood,Drunkard, p. 48 [Gifford]. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of wines, yet there be stills and limbecks going, swetting out aqua vitæ and strong waters, deriving their names from cinnamon, balm, and aniseed, such as stomach-water,humm, etc.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hum-cap, old, mellow and very strong Beer.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. (common).—A trick; a delusion; a cheat. Also a lie.1756.The World, No. 164. Now if this be only ahum(as I suppose it is) upon our country apes, it being blown in theWorldwill put an end to it.d.1764.Lloyd,Poems(1774), ‘A Tale.’ There, my good critics, lies thehum.1806.Lamb,LettersinWks.(Ed. 1852), ch. v., p. 81. I daresay all this ishum!1820.Reynolds(P. Corcoran),The Fancy, ‘King Tims the First.’ You or your son have told a bouncinghum.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hum—a whispered lie.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Row in an Omnibus Box.’ It’s ‘No Go!’—it’s ‘Gammon!’—it’s ‘all aHum!’1848.Punch, vol. XIV., p. 37. ‘Ye Frenche Goe Uppe to London.’ That ye French threats were all bouncing, That ye muster was ahum, And they’d never dare to come.1885.T. E. Brown,The Doctor, p. 49. Ahumand a huff, And none o’ the real stuff.1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 76. Married life may be ticketed honey, but I know it’s more of ahum.[377]3. (old).—Seequot.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg.Tongue, s.v.Hums, persons at church; there is a great number ofhumsin the autem, there is a great congregation in the church.Verb(old).—1. To cheat; to bamboozle;to quiz(q.v.).1762.Goldsmith,Life of Nash, inWks., p. 552 (Globe). Here Nash, if I may be permitted the use of a polite and fashionable phrase, washumm’d.1764–1817.J. G. Holman,Abroad and at Home, i., 3.Ser.It is queer enough that his father, Sir Simon Flourish, should behummedso as to think he is going the tour of Europe, when, all the while, he never got a step farther than St. George’s Fields.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1811.Poole,Hamlet Travestied, iii., 1. Go seek him there: I fear he’s onlyhumming.1819.Moore,Tom Crib, p. 4. While youhumthe poor spoonies with speeches so pretty.d.1840.Mad. D’Arblay,Diary, ii., 153 [ed. 1842]. I don’t mean to cajole you hither with the expectation of amusement or entertainment; you and I know better than tohumor behummedin that manner.1856.Elliott,Carolina Sports, p. 122. Ihummedhim, my stripping was all a feint.2. (old).—To mumble.d.1842.Maginn,Vidocq Versified. To hear Old Cottonhumminghis pray.To hum and haw,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To hesitate, to raise objections.1469.Paston Letters, II., 347 (Ed. Gairdner). He wold have gotyn it aweye byhumysand byhays, but I wold not so be answeryd.1594.Nashe,Unf. Traveller(Grosart,Wks., v., 96). Hee made no morehummingorhaulting, but in despite of her husbandes kinsfolkes, gaue her herNunc dimittis.1610.Jonson,Alchemist, iii., 2. You may be anything, and leave off to make Long-winded exercises; or suck up Yourha!andhum!in a tune.1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, i., 1. A sober-drawn exhortation of six hours, whose better part was thehum-ha-hum.1620.Massinger,Fatal Dowry, iv., 1. Do you standHummingandhahingnow?d.1680.Butler,Remains(1759), ii., 103. Hehums and hahs.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hum and Haw, to Hesitate in Speech; also to delay, or difficultly to be brought to Consent.1706.Mrs. Centlivre,Love at a Venture, iv., 2,Wks.(1872), i., 304. That was the first excuse that came at my tongue’s end—and you know there is nohumming and hawingwith my old master, sir.1729.Swift,Intelligencer, No. 14, p. 165 (2nd Ed.). If any person … shall presume to exceed six minutes in a story, tohum or haw, use hyphens between his words, or digressions.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. vi. Lord Ascothummed and hawed, and told him to tell his father he had been a good boy.To make things hum,verb. phr.(American).—To force the pace; to keep moving.1888.San Francisco Weekly Exam., 23 Feb. Ever since he has taken the newspaper reins in San Francisco he hasmade things hum.1890.Punch, 22 Feb. If I was flush of the ochre, I tell you I’d make the thinghum.1891.Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Aug., p. 2, c. 3. With their advent things begin tohum.1893.W. T. Stead,Review of Reviews, p. 152. In the opinion of both foes and friends we make thingshum.To hum around,verb. phr.(American).—To call to account;to call over the coals(q.v.).Human,subs.(old: now American).—A human being. [AlsoHuman Boar]. For synonyms,seeCove.[378]1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 332. Mongsthumansby Court dunning.1783–5.Cowper,Task, ii., line 105. And agonies ofhumanand of brute.1835.Haliburton,Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxviii. They have little hovels for their cattle … and a house forthe humansas grand as Noah’s Ark.1882.Daily Telegraph, 13 Dec., p. 2, c. 2. In the opening pages Mr. Matthew Arnold mourns in verse over the death of ‘Poor Matthias,’ who is nota humanbut a canary.1888.Denver Republican.He was only a dog … but was much more useful to society than manyhumans.Humber-keels.SeeBilly-Boy.Humble Pie.To eat humble pie,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To submit; to apologise; to knock under. For synonyms,seeCave In.1862.Thackeray,Philip, xxvii. If this old chief had to eathumble pie, his brave adversaries were anxious that he should gobble up his portion as quickly as possible, and turned away their honest old heads as he swallowed it.1887.Manville Fenn,This Man’s Wife, ch. ii., 4. Our savings are gone and we musteat humble piefor the future.Hum-Box,subs.(common).—1. A pulpit.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1827.Lytton,Pelham, p. 302 [Ed. 1862]. Well, you parish bull prig, are you for lushing Jacky, or pattering in thehum-box?1858.A.Mayhew,Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. ix., p. 309. He was nicknamed the ‘Amen bawler’ (parson) and recommended to take to thehum-box(pulpit) as better suited to him than cadging.English Synonyms:—Autem; cackle tub; clack loft; cowards’ castle; gospel mill (also a church); wood.2. (American).—An auctioneer’s rostrum.Humbox Patterer,subs.(common).—A parson. For synonyms,seeDevil DodgerandSky Pilot.1839.G. W. M. Reynolds,Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. Though thehumbox patterertalked of hell.Humbug,subs.(old: now recognised).—1. A hoax; an imposture; a swindle.1735–40.Killigrew,The Universal Jester; or a pocket companion for the Wits: being a choice collection of merry conceits, facetious drolleries, &c., clenchers, closers, closures, bon-mots, andHumbugs. [Title].1754.Connoisseur.No. 14. Single words, indeed, now and then broke forth; such as—odious, horrible, detestable, shocking,humbug. This last new-coined expression, which is only to be found in the nonsensical vocabulary, sounds absurd and disagreeable whenever it is pronounced.1762.Churchill,The Ghost, bk. I., line 72. And that Great Saint, we Whitefield call, Keeps up theHumbugSpiritual.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1828.Webster,Eng. Dict., s.v.2. Deceit; pretence; affectation.1837.R. H. Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. (Ed. 1862). p. 239. That sort of address which the British callhumbugand Frenchmen ‘Finesse.’ (It’s ‘Blarney’ in Irish—I don’t know the Scotch.)1842.Douglas Jerrold,Bubbles of the Day, i. Never sayhumbug; it’s coarse.Sir P.And not respectable.Smoke.Pardon me, my lord; itwascoarse. But the fact is,humbughas received such high patronage, that now it’s quite classic.3. A cheat; an impostor; a pretender. Also (old),hummer.d.1783.Henry Brooke,Poems(1776). ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers’English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Ourhummersin state, physic, learning, and law.[379]1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, s.v.Hum. He is ahumbugthat has recourse to the meanness. He wishes to be a bugaboo, or most exalted fool.1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xxx. ‘You’re ahumbug, sir.’ ‘A what?’ said Mr. Winkle, starting. ‘Ahumbug, sir. I will speak plainer, if you wish it. An imposter, sir.’Verb.To hoax; to swindle; to cajole.1751.Smollett,Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxv. He who seemed to be most afflicted of the two taking his departure with an exclamation of ‘Humbugged, egad!’1785.Grose,Vulg.Tongue, s.v.1826.The Fancy, ii., 77. We would not have the reader believe we mean tohumbughim—not for a moment.1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. xliii. She was always ready to help him, provided, as she told him, ‘he didn’thumbug.’HenceHumbugging= hoaxing, swindling, orHumbugable= gullible.Humbuggery= deception; imposture.Humbugger= a cheat, a hoaxer.d.1763.Henry Brooke,Poems(1778), ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Of all trades or arts in repute or possessionhumbuggingis held the most ancient profession.Idem.To you, … thehumbuggersof hearts.1822.Scott,Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xviii. The species of wit which has been long a favourite in the city, under the names of cross-biting, giving the dor, bamboozling, cramming, hoaxing,humbugging, and quizzing.1825.Southey,Letters, iii., 488 [ed. Warter, 1856]. My charity does not extend so far as to believe that any reasonable man (humbuggableas the animal is) can have been so humbugged.1826.The Fancy, ii., 29. A contemporary writer of eminence some years ago termed such exhibitionshumbugging.1840.Thackeray,Paris Sketch Book, p. 31. Do you not laugh, O Pharos of Bungay, at the continuance of a humbug such as this?—at thehumbugginganniversary of a humbug?1852.Judson,Myst., etc., of New York,ch. iv. Oh, blast yourhumbuggery—talk plain English to me.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. v. When the old lady was gone, Mr. Hobson had no need of any morehumbugging, but took his pleasure freely.1883.Mark Twain,Life on the Mississippi, ch. xl., p. 369. Traces of its inflated language and other windyhumbuggeriessurvive along with it.Humdrum,subs.(old: now recognised).—1. A tiresome dullard; a steady-going, common-place person.Seealso quot. 1725.1596.Jonson,Every Man in His Humour, i., 1. By gads-lid I scorn it, I, so I do, to be a consort for everyhumdrum.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.Hum-DrumsorHums, a Society of Gentlemen, who meet near theCharter-House, or at theKing’s Headin St.John’s Street. Less of mystery, and more of Pleasantry than theFree Masons.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. Monotony; tameness; dullness.1823.Hints for Oxford, p. 63. Men of spirit must ever dislike the unleavenedhumdrumof its monkish constitution.1893.The Nation, 13 July, p. 32, col. 1. We go so far with the adorers of home andhumdrum.3. (old).—The same asHumbug(q.v.).1596.Nashe,Saffron Walden(Grosart,Works, iii., 14). Whereof generous Dick (withouthumdrumbe it spoken) I utterly despair of them.4. (old).—A wife; also a husband.Adj.Dull; tame; commonplace; monotonous.1702.Vanbrugh,False Friend, ii. A veryhumdrummarriage this.1705.Ward,Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. ii., p. 6. Tho’ it is theirhumdrumfashion To hate all musical precation.[380]1730.Jas. Miller,Humours of Oxford, Act I., p. 7 (2nd Ed.). Your fellows of colleges are a parcel of sad, muzzy,humdrum, lazy, ignorant old caterpillars.d.1764.Lloyd,Poems(1774), ‘A Familiar Epistle.’ So frothy, vapid, stale,humdrum.1765.C. Smart,Fables, xv., line 5. Content inhumdrummood t’adjust Her matters to disperse the dust.1774.Foote,Cozeners, i., 1. Not one, madam, of thehumdrum, drawling, long winded tribe.1775.Sheridan,Rivals, ii., 1. Yet am I by no means certain that she would take me with the impediment of our friends’ consent, a regularhumdrumwedding, and the reversion of a good fortune on my side.d.1823.Bloomfield,Poems, ‘Richard and Kate’ (1825), p. 89. Come, Goody, stop yourhumdrumwheel.1825.Harriet Wilson,Memoirs, iii., 237. You are, in fact, too constant for Paris. One has enough of all thathum-drumstuff in England.1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. lxi. The most fervent Liberals, when out of power, becomehumdrumConservatives, or downright tyrants or despots in office.1863.Alex. Smith,Dreamthorpe, p. 23. Giddy people may think the life I lead here staid andhumdrum, but they are mistaken.1893.Standard, 8 Aug., p. 4, col. 6. The thing, in his view, is to rattle off something pretentious, and avoid thehumdrumand tiresome methods which statesmanship of the pre-Home-Rule period used to respect.Humdurgeon,subs.(old).—1. An imaginary illness.—Grose.2. (common).—Needless noise; ado about nothing.1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xxiii. I would never be making ahumdudgeonabout a scart on the pow.Humdurgeoned,adj.(old).—Annoyed.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford. Don’t behumdurgeonedbut knock down a gemman.Humguffin(common).—A hobgoblin. Also a derisive address.Humgumptious,adj.(obsolete).—Seequot.1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, s.v.Hum. A knowing sort of humbug ishumgumptious.Hummer,subs.(old).—1.Seequot.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hummer, a loud Lie, a Rapper.1725.New Cant. Dict.,s.v.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hummer(s.) a great, monstrous, or notorious lie.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. (American).—A man or woman of notable parts; ahigh stepper(q.v.); agood goer(q.v.).Cf.,Rustler.1889.Ally Sloper, 6 July. If Tootsie is anything as lively as the ‘Gaiety Girls,’ she must be ahummer.1891.Gunter,Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. I just wanted toseemy Tillie dance once. She’s a societyhummernow.3. (obsolete).—SeeHumbug, sense 3.Humming,adj.(old). Strong—applied to drink; brisk—applied to trade; hard—applied to blows.Humming October= the specially strong brew from the new season’s hops;stingo(q.v.).1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew.HummingLiquor, Double Ale, Stout, Pharoah.1701.Farquhar,Sir Harry Wildair, iv., 2. The wine washummingstrong.1736.Fielding,Don Quixote, iii., 4. Landlord, how fares it? You seem to drive ahummingtrade here.1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, ch. vii. Let us fortify our stomachs with a slice or two of hung beef, and a horn or so ofhummingstingo.1822.Scott,Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Ahummingdouble pot of ale.[381]1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Wedding Day.’ A mighty magnificent tub Of what men, in our hemisphere, term ‘HummingBub,’ But which gods—who, it seems, use a different lingo, From mortals, are wont to denominate ‘Stingo.’1864.Dickens,Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. vii. Wegg, in coming to the ground, had received ahummingknock on the back of his devoted head.Hump,verb.(common).—1. To spoil; to botch; to do for.1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 252. Tohumpin street parlance, is equivalent to ‘botch,’ in more genteel colloquialism.2. (colonial).—To shoulder and carry.E.g.,To hump one’s swag= to shoulder one’s kit.1886.Daily Telegraph, 1 Jan. Ladies whom I have methumpingtheir own drums.1887.All the Year Round, 30 July, p. 66. A large blanket rolled up which contains the personal luggage of the man who carries orhumpsit.1887.G. A.SalainIllus. Lon. News, 12 Mar., 282/2. All kinds of luggage, generally speaking, which are manually carried, are at present said to behumped. I have had tohumpmine many a time and oft.1888.Rolf Boldrewood,Robbery Under Arms, ch. xxii. Wehumpedour saddles and swags ourselves.1890.Family Herald, 8 Feb., p. 227. I was just debating whether I had betterhumpmy drum.3. (old).—Seequot. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hump, tohump. Once a fashionable word for copulation.To hump oneself,verb. phr.(American).—To stir; to prepare for attack; to fancy oneself.1847.Porter,Quarter Race, etc. p. 177. Ef thar are anything hehumpshisself on besides ugly, it is his manners among the fimmales.1847.Porter,Big Bear, etc., p. 126. He was breathin’ sorter hard, his eye set on the Governor,humpin’himself on politics.To get(orhave)the hump,verb. phr.(common).—To be despondent, hurt, put out,down in the mouth(q.v.). also,to have the hump uporon. For synonyms,seeSnaggy.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v., 267). Soin his humpsabout it … that he had thought to have tumbled his hurrie-currie … into the sea.1885.Punch, 10 Jan., p. 24. I hadgot the ’ump, and no error, along o’ Bill B. and that gal.1892.Anstey,Model Music-Hall, 43. The company consume what will be elegantly referred to as ‘a bit of booze.’ Aunt Snappergets the ’ump.1886.Jerome,Idle Thoughts, p. 14. ’Arry refers to the heavings of his wayward heart by confiding to Jimee that he hasgot the blooming hump!Humpey,subs.(Australian).—Seequot.1893.Gilbert Parker,Pierre and his People, p. 135. McGann was lying on his back on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain hut. Australians would call it ahumpey.Humphrey,subs.(American thieves’).—A coat with pocket holes but no pockets.—Matsell.To dine with Duke Humphrey.SeeDine,Sir Thomas Gresham, andKnights.1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse[Grosart], ii., 18. I … retired me to Paules,to seeke my dinner with Duke Humfrey.1843.Moncrieff,The Scamps of London, i., 1.Dinesoftenerwith Duke Humphreythan anybody else, I believe.Humpty-dumpty,subs.(colloquial).—1. A short and thick-set person; agrundy(q.v.); a hunch-back. For synonyms,seeForty Guts.[382]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. (old).—Seequot. 1690.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Humptey Dumptey, Ale boild with Brandy.1698.M. Sorbière’sJourney to London in the Year 1698, p.135, quoted inNotes and Queries, 6 S., xii., 167. He answer’d me that he had a thousand such sort of liquors, asHumtie Dumtie, Three Threads.…1786.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1837.Disraeli,Venetia, i., 14. As for the beverage they drankhumpty-dumpty, which is ale boiled with brandy.Adj.andadv.(colloquial).—Short and thick; all of a heap; all together.Hum-strum,subs.(old).—Seequot.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Humstrum, a musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some pack-thread, thence also called bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called ahumstrum; sometimes instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.Hunch,verb.(old: now colloquial).—To jostle; to shove; to squeeze. For synonyms,seeRamp.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunch, to justle, or thrust.1712.Arbuthnot,Hist. of John Bull, Pt. III., App., ch. iii. Then Jack’s friends began tohunchand push one another.1738.Swift,Polite Convers., Dial. 1. I washunchedup in a hackney-coach with three country acquaintance.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1847.Porter,Quarter Race, etc., p. 163. I hadn’t fairly got to sleep before the old ’omanhunchedme.Hung.SeeWell-hung.To be hung up,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To come to a standstill; to be in a fix.1891.Fun, 10 June, p. 237. ‘Ah! by Bendigo, I forgot! Grimmy’shung up!’‘What, Grimmy? Never!’Hungarian,subs.(Old Cant).—1. A hungry man; arare pecker(q.v.).1608.Dodsley,Merry Devil of Edmonton[Old Plays, v. 267]. Away, I have knights and colonels at my house, and must tend thehungarians.1632.Lupton,London[‘Harl. Misc.’], ix., 314. The middle aile [of St. Paul’s] is much frequented at noon with a company ofhungarians, not walking so much for recreation as need.2. (Old Cant).—A freebooter.1608.Merry Devil of Edmonton[Dodsley,Old Plays, v. 285]. Come, yeHungarianpilchers, we are once more come under the zona torrida of the forest.1893.National Observer, ‘Spoliation,’ ix., 357. But, after all, it is only another note in the gamut of spoliation, whereof Mr. Gladstone’shungarians(a good old word that!) would have the mastery.Hunk.To be(orget)hunkorall hunk,verb. phr.(American).—1. To hit a mark; to achieve an object; to be safe. Also (2) to scheme. [From Dutchhonk= goal or home.]1847.Darley,Drama in Pokerville, p. 50. I’ll allow you’re justhunkthis time.1893.Detroit Free Press, June 23, ‘He Threatens to go back,’ p. 3. I propose to have some of it, or I’llget hunk.Hunker(orOld Hunker),subs.(American).—In New York (1844) a Conservative Democrat, as opposed to the Young Democracy orBarn-Burners(q.v.). Hence, an anti-progressive in politics.Hunks,subs.(old).—A miser; a mean, sordid fellow; a curmudgeon. For synonyms,seeSnide.[383]1602.Dekker,Satiro-Mastix, inWks.(1873), i., 201.Blun.Nay prethee deare Tucca, come you shall shake—Tuc.Not hands with greatHunkesthere, not hands, but Ile shake the gull-groper out of his tan’d skinne.1602.Campion,English Poesy(Works,Bullen, 1889, p. 247). But it drinks up all: thathunksdetestable.1647–80.Rochester,Wks.; p. 11. There was an old coveteoushunksin the neighbourhood, who had notwithstanding his age, got a very pretty young wife.1677.Wycherley,Plain Dealer, v., 2. Make a very pretty show in the world, let me tell you; nay, a better than your closehunks.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunks, a covetous Creature, a miserable Wretch.1712.Spectator, No. 264. Irus has … given all the intimations he skilfully could of being a closehunkswith money.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1837.Marryat,Snarley-yow, ch. 12. So while they cut their raw salt junks, With dainties you’ll be cramm’d. Here’s once for all my mind,old hunks, Port Admiral, you be dammed!1839.Buckstone,Brother Tom(Dick’sed., p. 15). One calls him anold hunks, another a selfish brute.1840.Dickens,Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 35. That you become the sole inheritor of the wealth of this rich oldhunks.1846.Melville,Moby Dick, 75 (ed. 1892). Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being an incorrigible oldhunks.1857.A. Trollope,Three Clerks, ch. iii. I am sure he is a cross oldhunks, though Mamma says he’s not.1893.Theodore Martin,Roman Elegies, ii. (Goethe Society Trans., 1891–2, p. 72). Joys that he stints not his gold like the closehunxesof Rome.Hunky,adj.(American).—Good; jolly; a general superlative. AlsoHunkidorum.d.1867.Browne, ‘Artemus Ward,’The Shakers(Railway ed.), p. 43. ‘Hunkyboy! Go it my gay and festive cuss!’1873.Justin McCarthy,Fair Saxon, ch. xxxviii. The guard dies, but never surrenders! Fine, isn’t it? But thehunky-boy that said that surrendered all the same.1888.Texas Siftings, 20 Oct. Robert is allhunky, but he had a mighty close call the week before last.Hunt,verb.(old).—To decoy apigeon(q.v.) to the tables. Hencehunting= card-sharping.Flat-catching(q.v.).1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunting(c.), decoying or drawing others into Play.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.To hunt for soft spots,verb. phr.(American).—To make oneself comfortable; to seek one’s ease.1888.San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 Mar. It was demnition hot, and I commenced tohunt for soft spotsin my saddle.To hunt grass,verb. phr.(pugilists’).—To be knocked down;to be grassed(q.v.). Also, to be puzzled; to be dumfoundered.1869.Clemens[Mark Twain],Innocents at Home, ch. ii. Ihunt grassevery time.To hunt leather,verb. phr.(cricketers’).—To field at cricket.1892.Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 21 Sep. p. 13, c. 2. For nearly ten years I earned a living—and a good one—by ‘wielding the willow’ andhunting the leather.To hunt the dummy,verb. phr.(thieves’).—To steal pocket books.1878.Charles Hindley,Life and Times of James Catnach, p. 171. (Chorus)—Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, And finelyhunt the dummy.To hunt the squirrel,verb. phr.(old).—Seequot.[384]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hunting the Squirrel, an amusement practised by post boys, and stage coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman, or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to behunted.In, orout of,the hunt,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Having a chance, or none;inorout of the swim(q.v.). Admitted to, or outside, a circle or society.Hunt-about,subs.(colloquial).—1. A prying gossip.2. (common).—A walking whore.Hunt-counter,subs.(old).—A beggar.1623.Shakspeare, 2Henry IV., i., 2. Youhunt-counter, hence! Avaunt!Hunters.Pitching the hunters,verb. phr.(costermongers’).Seequot.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 390.Pitching the huntersis the three sticks a penny, with the snuff-boxes stuck upon sticks; if you throw your stick, and they fall out of the hole, you are entitled to what you knock off.1876.Hindley,Cheap Jack, p. 235. When … there was no cattle jobbing to be done, he wouldpitch the hunters, that is, put up the ‘three sticks a penny’ business.Hurly-Burly,subs.(old: now colloquial).—A commotion; a bustle; an uproar.c.1509–1547.Lusty Juventus(Dodsley), [Old Plays, 4th ed., 1874, ii., 85]. What ahurly-burlyis here! Smick smack, and all this gear!1539.Tavernier,Garden of Wysdom, E. ii. verso. Thys kynge [Gelo] on a tyme exacted money of hys comons, whome when he perceuyed in ahurly burlyfor the same, and ready to make an insurrection, he thus sodaynly appeased.1542.Udall,Apophthegms of Erasmus[1877], p. 115. the meaning of the Philosophier was, that princes for the ambition of honour, rule and dominion, being in continuall strife, andhurlee burlee, are in very deede persons full of miserie and wo.1551.More,Utopia, (Pitt Press ed., 1884, i., 52, 5). Whereby so many nations for his sake should be broughte into a troublesomehurlei-burley.1567.Fenton,Tragical Dicsourses, f. 104. They heard a great noyse andhurleyburleyin the street of the Guard and chief officers of the Watch.1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse(Grosart,Works, ii., 53). Not trouble our peaceable Paradise with their privatehurlie-burliesabout strumpets.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v., 293). Put them in feare where no feare is, and make ahurlie-burliein the realm.1606.Shakspeare,Macbeth, i., 1. When thehurley-burley’sdone, When the battle’s lost and won.1619.T. North’sDiall of Princes(1557), corrected, p. 703, c. 1. Two or three dayes before you shall see such resort of persons, suchhurly burly, such flying this way,such sending that way, some occupyed in telling the cookes how many sorts of meates they will have.…1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1771.Smollett,Humphrey Clinker(ed. 1890, p. 185). As for the lawyer he waited below till thehurly-burlywas over, and then he stole softly to his own chamber.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1811. J. and H.Smith,Horace in London, pp. 18–25, Ode ii., ‘Hurly-burly’ (Title).1886.Max Adeler,Out of theHurly-Burly. Title.[385]1893.St. James’s Gazette, xxvii., 4076, p. 4. While all London was making holiday, Paris was engaged in ahurly-burlyof a very different kind.Hurra’s-nest,subs.(nautical).—The utmost confusion; everything topsy-turvy. For synonyms,seeSixes and Sevens.1840.R. H. Dana,Two Years Before the Mast, ch. ii. Everything was pitched about in grand confusion. There was a completehurrah’s nest, as the sailors say, ‘everything on top and nothing at hand.’1869.Mrs. Stowe,Old Townsfolks, ch. iv. You’ve got our clock all to pieces, and have been keeping up a perfecthurrah’s nestin our kitchen for three days. Do either put that clock together or let it alone.Hurrah in Hell.Not to care a single hurrah in hell,verb. phr.(American).—To be absolutely indifferent.1893.Harold Frederic,National Observer, IX., 1 Apr., p. 493, col. 2. I don’t care a singlehurrah in sheol.Hurry,subs.(musical).—A quick passage on the violin, or a roll on the drum, leading to a climax in the representation.1835.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 66. The wrongful heir comes in to two bars of quick music (technically called ahurry).Hurry-curry,subs.(obsolete).—Seequot.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v. 267). The … was so in his humps upon it … that he had thought to have tumbled hishurrie currie, or … can, into the sea.Hurry-durry,adj.(old).—Rough; boisterous; impatient of counsel or control.1677.Wycherley,Plain Dealer, i., 1. ’Tis ahurrydurryblade.Hurrygraph,subs.(American).—A hastily written letter.1861.Independent, 31 July. I must close thishurrygraph, which I have no time to review.Hurry-whore,subs.(old).—A walking strumpet.1630.Taylor,Wks.And I doe wish with all my heart, that the superfluous number of all our hyreling hackney carryknaves, andhurry-whores, with their makers and maintainers, were there, where they might never want continuall imployment.Husband’s-boat,subs.(common).—The Saturday boat to Margate during the summer season.c.1867.Vance,Broadside Ballad.‘TheHusband’s Boat.’1887.Murray, inNew Eng. Dict., Pt. III., p. 956, c. 3. Waiting at Margate Pier for thehusband’s boaton Saturday afternoon.Husband’s-supper.To warm the husband’s supper,verb. phr.(common).—To sit before the fire with lifted skirts. Fr.,faire chapelle.Husband’s-tea,subs.(common).—Weak tea;water bewitched(q.v.).Hush,verb.(old).—To kill.—Grose.Hush-money,subs.(old: now recognised).—Money paid for silence, to quash a case, or stay a witness; a bribe; blackmail.1709.Steele,Tatler, No. 26. I expecthush-moneyto be regularly sent for every folly or vice any one commits in this whole town.1713.Guardian, No. 26. A poor chambermaid has sent in ten shillings out of herhush-money, to expiate her guilt of being in her mistress’s secret.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.[386]1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.), s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1852.Dickens,Bleak House, ch. xxxvii. To allow Ada to be made a bribe andhush-moneyof, is not the way to bring it out.1884.Spectator, p. 530. They were disappointed of theirhush-money, but he gave them an easy revenge.Hush-shop(or-crib),subs.(common).—An unlicensed tavern.1872.Globe, 18 Sep. At Barrow-in-Furness the new Licensing Act has had the effect of calling numeroushush shopsinto existence.Husky,subs.(Winchester College).—Gooseberry fool with the husks in it, obsolete. [Notions.]1870.Mansfield,School Life, p. 145. There were two kinds [Gooseberry fool]Huskyand non-husky.Adj.(American).—Stout; well built.Husky-lour,subs.(Old Cant).—A guinea; ajob(q.v.). For synonyms,seeCanary.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hussy,subs.(colloquial).—A corruption ofhousewife(q.v.).Hustle,verb.(venery).—1. To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.2. (American).—To bestir oneself; to go to work with vigour and energy. Also tohustle around.Hustler,subs.(American).—An active, busy man or woman. Ahummer(q.v.); arustler(q.v.).1890.Harold Frederic,Lawton Girl. A whimsical query as to whether this calamitous boy had also been named Benjamin Franklin crossed his confused mind, and then … whether the child if so named, would be ahustleror not.Hutch,subs.(common).—A place of residence or employment; one’sdiggings(q.v.).Hutter.SeeHatter.Huxter,subs.(common).—Money. AlsoHoxter. For synonyms,seeActualandGilt.c.186(?).Broadside Ballad.These seven long years I’ve been serving, and Seven I’ve got for to stay, All for meeting a bloke down our alley And a-taking hishuxtersaway.Huzzy(orHuzzie),subs.(old).—A case of needles, pins, scissors, bodkins, etc.; ahousewife’scompanion.Hymeneal-Sweets,subs.(venery).—Copulation.1604.Marston,Malcontent, i., 3. True to her sheetes, nay, diets strong his blood, To give her height ofhymeneall sweetes.Hypernese,subs.(Winchester College).—Seequot.Ziph(q.v.).1864.The Press, 12 Nov. p. 1098. This dialect of school cryptoëpy was known in our youth asHypernese. When spoken fast it defies an outsider’s curiosity. If two consonants commence a syllable, the former is dropped, and W substituted: thus breeches would bewareechepes. If P commences a syllable, G is interpolated: thus penny would bepegennepy.… That Ziph and its cognate languages are well known beyond the boundaries of Winchester is certain. Bishop Wilkins described it, without mentioning it as a novelty, a couple of centuries ago.Hyphenated American,subs.(American).—A naturalised citizen, as German-Americans, Irish-Americans, and the like. [Nortons.][387]Hypocrite,subs.(American).—A pillow slip or ‘sham.’Hypogastric-cranny,subs.(venery).—The femalepudendum.—Urquhart.For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Hyps(orHypo),subs.(old).—TheBlue Devils(q.v.).1710.Swift,Tatler, No. 230. Will Hazard has got thehipps, having lost to the tune of five hund’rd pound.1729.Swift,Poems(Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, xi., 486). And the doctor was plaguilydown in the hips.1738.Swift’sPolite Conversation, Dial.1. Her ladyship was plaguily bamb’d; I warrant it put her into thehipps.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1830.C. Lamb,Pawnbroker’s Daughter, i., 2. The drops so like to tears did drip, They gave my infant nerves thehyp.1854.Haliburton,Americans at Home, i., 176. The old man would give up to thehypo, and keep his bed for weeks. During this time, he wouldn’t say a word, but ‘I’m not long for this world.’End of Vol. III.[388]
1633.Ford,’TisPity She’s a Whore, ii., 1. There is no way but to clap up a marriagein hugger-mugger.1639–61.Rump Songs, i. [1662], 54. They brought me Gold and Plate inHuggar-Muggar.1663.Butler,Hudibras, i., 3. Where’er th’ inhugger-muggerlurk,I’llmake them rue their handy-work.1762.Churchill,The Ghost, bk. iii., line 27. It must not, as the Vulgar say, Be donein Hugger Muggerway.1815.Mirror for Mag., p. 457. For most that most things knew,in hugger-muggerutter’d what they durst.Hugging,subs.(common).—Garotting(q.v.).Hugsome,adj.(colloquial).—Carnally attractive;Fuckable(q.v.).Hulk(Hulky, orHulkingFellow),subs.(colloquial).—A fat person; a big lout. Generally, ‘great hulk of a fellow.’d.1631.Drayton,The Mooncalf(Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, iv., 126). Wallowing she lay, like to a boist’roushulkDropsied with humours.1698.Ward,London Spy, Pt. xiv., p. 324. Up in the Chimney Corner sat a greathulkingFellow.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hulk(s.) … also a lazy, dronish fellow.[376]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hulkey, orHulking, a greathulkeyfellow, an overgrown clumsy lout, or fellow.1858.G. Eliot,Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ch. ii. When you’ve got … some greathulkyfellow for a husband, who swears at you and kicks your children.1870.Chambers’s Journal, 9 July, p 447. He sees a slouching, shambling,hulkof a fellow standing listlessly in a doorway.1871.G. Eliot,Middlemarch, ch. lvi. I want to go first and have a round with thathulkyfellow who turned to challenge me.1883.A. Dobson,Old-World Idylls, p. 164. I’d like to give thathulkingbrute a hit—Beating his horse in such a shameful way!1893.National Observer, 29 July, p. 267, col. 2. The absolute ascendancy exercised by a small but brilliant member … over ahulkingJunior.Verb(colloquial).—To hang about; tomooch(q.v.).Hull between Wind and Water,verb. phr.(venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.Hull-cheese,subs.(Old Cant).—Seequot. For synonyms,seeSwipes.1622.Taylor,A Very Merry Wherry-Ferry(Hindley,Works, 1872), 19. Give mehull-cheese, and welcome and good cheer.Ibid.Hull-cheese, is much like a loafe out of a brewers basket, it is composed of two simples, mault and water, in one compound, and is cousin germane to the mightiest ale in England.Hulverhead,subs., andHulver-headed,adj.(old).—Seequots. For synonyms,seeBuffleandCabbage-head.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hulver-head, a silly Foolish fellow.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hulver Headed, silly, puzzle-pated.Hum,subs.(Old Cant).—1. A kind of strong liquor: probably a mixture of beer and spirits, butseequot. 1690. Alsohum-cap.1616.Ben Jonson,Devil’s an Ass, i., 1. Carmen Are got into the yellow starch, and chimney sweepers To their tobacco, and strong waters,hum, Meath, and Obarni.1619.Fletcher,Wild Goose Chase,ii., 3. Lord, what should I ail? What a cold I have over my stomach; would I’d somehum.1622.Fletcher,Beggars’ Bush, ii., 1. Except you do provide mehumenough, And lour to bouze with.d.1645.Heywood,Drunkard, p. 48 [Gifford]. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of wines, yet there be stills and limbecks going, swetting out aqua vitæ and strong waters, deriving their names from cinnamon, balm, and aniseed, such as stomach-water,humm, etc.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hum-cap, old, mellow and very strong Beer.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. (common).—A trick; a delusion; a cheat. Also a lie.1756.The World, No. 164. Now if this be only ahum(as I suppose it is) upon our country apes, it being blown in theWorldwill put an end to it.d.1764.Lloyd,Poems(1774), ‘A Tale.’ There, my good critics, lies thehum.1806.Lamb,LettersinWks.(Ed. 1852), ch. v., p. 81. I daresay all this ishum!1820.Reynolds(P. Corcoran),The Fancy, ‘King Tims the First.’ You or your son have told a bouncinghum.1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hum—a whispered lie.1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Row in an Omnibus Box.’ It’s ‘No Go!’—it’s ‘Gammon!’—it’s ‘all aHum!’1848.Punch, vol. XIV., p. 37. ‘Ye Frenche Goe Uppe to London.’ That ye French threats were all bouncing, That ye muster was ahum, And they’d never dare to come.1885.T. E. Brown,The Doctor, p. 49. Ahumand a huff, And none o’ the real stuff.1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 76. Married life may be ticketed honey, but I know it’s more of ahum.[377]3. (old).—Seequot.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg.Tongue, s.v.Hums, persons at church; there is a great number ofhumsin the autem, there is a great congregation in the church.Verb(old).—1. To cheat; to bamboozle;to quiz(q.v.).1762.Goldsmith,Life of Nash, inWks., p. 552 (Globe). Here Nash, if I may be permitted the use of a polite and fashionable phrase, washumm’d.1764–1817.J. G. Holman,Abroad and at Home, i., 3.Ser.It is queer enough that his father, Sir Simon Flourish, should behummedso as to think he is going the tour of Europe, when, all the while, he never got a step farther than St. George’s Fields.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1811.Poole,Hamlet Travestied, iii., 1. Go seek him there: I fear he’s onlyhumming.1819.Moore,Tom Crib, p. 4. While youhumthe poor spoonies with speeches so pretty.d.1840.Mad. D’Arblay,Diary, ii., 153 [ed. 1842]. I don’t mean to cajole you hither with the expectation of amusement or entertainment; you and I know better than tohumor behummedin that manner.1856.Elliott,Carolina Sports, p. 122. Ihummedhim, my stripping was all a feint.2. (old).—To mumble.d.1842.Maginn,Vidocq Versified. To hear Old Cottonhumminghis pray.To hum and haw,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To hesitate, to raise objections.1469.Paston Letters, II., 347 (Ed. Gairdner). He wold have gotyn it aweye byhumysand byhays, but I wold not so be answeryd.1594.Nashe,Unf. Traveller(Grosart,Wks., v., 96). Hee made no morehummingorhaulting, but in despite of her husbandes kinsfolkes, gaue her herNunc dimittis.1610.Jonson,Alchemist, iii., 2. You may be anything, and leave off to make Long-winded exercises; or suck up Yourha!andhum!in a tune.1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, i., 1. A sober-drawn exhortation of six hours, whose better part was thehum-ha-hum.1620.Massinger,Fatal Dowry, iv., 1. Do you standHummingandhahingnow?d.1680.Butler,Remains(1759), ii., 103. Hehums and hahs.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hum and Haw, to Hesitate in Speech; also to delay, or difficultly to be brought to Consent.1706.Mrs. Centlivre,Love at a Venture, iv., 2,Wks.(1872), i., 304. That was the first excuse that came at my tongue’s end—and you know there is nohumming and hawingwith my old master, sir.1729.Swift,Intelligencer, No. 14, p. 165 (2nd Ed.). If any person … shall presume to exceed six minutes in a story, tohum or haw, use hyphens between his words, or digressions.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. vi. Lord Ascothummed and hawed, and told him to tell his father he had been a good boy.To make things hum,verb. phr.(American).—To force the pace; to keep moving.1888.San Francisco Weekly Exam., 23 Feb. Ever since he has taken the newspaper reins in San Francisco he hasmade things hum.1890.Punch, 22 Feb. If I was flush of the ochre, I tell you I’d make the thinghum.1891.Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Aug., p. 2, c. 3. With their advent things begin tohum.1893.W. T. Stead,Review of Reviews, p. 152. In the opinion of both foes and friends we make thingshum.To hum around,verb. phr.(American).—To call to account;to call over the coals(q.v.).Human,subs.(old: now American).—A human being. [AlsoHuman Boar]. For synonyms,seeCove.[378]1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 332. Mongsthumansby Court dunning.1783–5.Cowper,Task, ii., line 105. And agonies ofhumanand of brute.1835.Haliburton,Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxviii. They have little hovels for their cattle … and a house forthe humansas grand as Noah’s Ark.1882.Daily Telegraph, 13 Dec., p. 2, c. 2. In the opening pages Mr. Matthew Arnold mourns in verse over the death of ‘Poor Matthias,’ who is nota humanbut a canary.1888.Denver Republican.He was only a dog … but was much more useful to society than manyhumans.Humber-keels.SeeBilly-Boy.Humble Pie.To eat humble pie,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To submit; to apologise; to knock under. For synonyms,seeCave In.1862.Thackeray,Philip, xxvii. If this old chief had to eathumble pie, his brave adversaries were anxious that he should gobble up his portion as quickly as possible, and turned away their honest old heads as he swallowed it.1887.Manville Fenn,This Man’s Wife, ch. ii., 4. Our savings are gone and we musteat humble piefor the future.Hum-Box,subs.(common).—1. A pulpit.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1827.Lytton,Pelham, p. 302 [Ed. 1862]. Well, you parish bull prig, are you for lushing Jacky, or pattering in thehum-box?1858.A.Mayhew,Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. ix., p. 309. He was nicknamed the ‘Amen bawler’ (parson) and recommended to take to thehum-box(pulpit) as better suited to him than cadging.English Synonyms:—Autem; cackle tub; clack loft; cowards’ castle; gospel mill (also a church); wood.2. (American).—An auctioneer’s rostrum.Humbox Patterer,subs.(common).—A parson. For synonyms,seeDevil DodgerandSky Pilot.1839.G. W. M. Reynolds,Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. Though thehumbox patterertalked of hell.Humbug,subs.(old: now recognised).—1. A hoax; an imposture; a swindle.1735–40.Killigrew,The Universal Jester; or a pocket companion for the Wits: being a choice collection of merry conceits, facetious drolleries, &c., clenchers, closers, closures, bon-mots, andHumbugs. [Title].1754.Connoisseur.No. 14. Single words, indeed, now and then broke forth; such as—odious, horrible, detestable, shocking,humbug. This last new-coined expression, which is only to be found in the nonsensical vocabulary, sounds absurd and disagreeable whenever it is pronounced.1762.Churchill,The Ghost, bk. I., line 72. And that Great Saint, we Whitefield call, Keeps up theHumbugSpiritual.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1828.Webster,Eng. Dict., s.v.2. Deceit; pretence; affectation.1837.R. H. Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. (Ed. 1862). p. 239. That sort of address which the British callhumbugand Frenchmen ‘Finesse.’ (It’s ‘Blarney’ in Irish—I don’t know the Scotch.)1842.Douglas Jerrold,Bubbles of the Day, i. Never sayhumbug; it’s coarse.Sir P.And not respectable.Smoke.Pardon me, my lord; itwascoarse. But the fact is,humbughas received such high patronage, that now it’s quite classic.3. A cheat; an impostor; a pretender. Also (old),hummer.d.1783.Henry Brooke,Poems(1776). ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers’English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Ourhummersin state, physic, learning, and law.[379]1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, s.v.Hum. He is ahumbugthat has recourse to the meanness. He wishes to be a bugaboo, or most exalted fool.1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xxx. ‘You’re ahumbug, sir.’ ‘A what?’ said Mr. Winkle, starting. ‘Ahumbug, sir. I will speak plainer, if you wish it. An imposter, sir.’Verb.To hoax; to swindle; to cajole.1751.Smollett,Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxv. He who seemed to be most afflicted of the two taking his departure with an exclamation of ‘Humbugged, egad!’1785.Grose,Vulg.Tongue, s.v.1826.The Fancy, ii., 77. We would not have the reader believe we mean tohumbughim—not for a moment.1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. xliii. She was always ready to help him, provided, as she told him, ‘he didn’thumbug.’HenceHumbugging= hoaxing, swindling, orHumbugable= gullible.Humbuggery= deception; imposture.Humbugger= a cheat, a hoaxer.d.1763.Henry Brooke,Poems(1778), ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Of all trades or arts in repute or possessionhumbuggingis held the most ancient profession.Idem.To you, … thehumbuggersof hearts.1822.Scott,Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xviii. The species of wit which has been long a favourite in the city, under the names of cross-biting, giving the dor, bamboozling, cramming, hoaxing,humbugging, and quizzing.1825.Southey,Letters, iii., 488 [ed. Warter, 1856]. My charity does not extend so far as to believe that any reasonable man (humbuggableas the animal is) can have been so humbugged.1826.The Fancy, ii., 29. A contemporary writer of eminence some years ago termed such exhibitionshumbugging.1840.Thackeray,Paris Sketch Book, p. 31. Do you not laugh, O Pharos of Bungay, at the continuance of a humbug such as this?—at thehumbugginganniversary of a humbug?1852.Judson,Myst., etc., of New York,ch. iv. Oh, blast yourhumbuggery—talk plain English to me.1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. v. When the old lady was gone, Mr. Hobson had no need of any morehumbugging, but took his pleasure freely.1883.Mark Twain,Life on the Mississippi, ch. xl., p. 369. Traces of its inflated language and other windyhumbuggeriessurvive along with it.Humdrum,subs.(old: now recognised).—1. A tiresome dullard; a steady-going, common-place person.Seealso quot. 1725.1596.Jonson,Every Man in His Humour, i., 1. By gads-lid I scorn it, I, so I do, to be a consort for everyhumdrum.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.Hum-DrumsorHums, a Society of Gentlemen, who meet near theCharter-House, or at theKing’s Headin St.John’s Street. Less of mystery, and more of Pleasantry than theFree Masons.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. Monotony; tameness; dullness.1823.Hints for Oxford, p. 63. Men of spirit must ever dislike the unleavenedhumdrumof its monkish constitution.1893.The Nation, 13 July, p. 32, col. 1. We go so far with the adorers of home andhumdrum.3. (old).—The same asHumbug(q.v.).1596.Nashe,Saffron Walden(Grosart,Works, iii., 14). Whereof generous Dick (withouthumdrumbe it spoken) I utterly despair of them.4. (old).—A wife; also a husband.Adj.Dull; tame; commonplace; monotonous.1702.Vanbrugh,False Friend, ii. A veryhumdrummarriage this.1705.Ward,Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. ii., p. 6. Tho’ it is theirhumdrumfashion To hate all musical precation.[380]1730.Jas. Miller,Humours of Oxford, Act I., p. 7 (2nd Ed.). Your fellows of colleges are a parcel of sad, muzzy,humdrum, lazy, ignorant old caterpillars.d.1764.Lloyd,Poems(1774), ‘A Familiar Epistle.’ So frothy, vapid, stale,humdrum.1765.C. Smart,Fables, xv., line 5. Content inhumdrummood t’adjust Her matters to disperse the dust.1774.Foote,Cozeners, i., 1. Not one, madam, of thehumdrum, drawling, long winded tribe.1775.Sheridan,Rivals, ii., 1. Yet am I by no means certain that she would take me with the impediment of our friends’ consent, a regularhumdrumwedding, and the reversion of a good fortune on my side.d.1823.Bloomfield,Poems, ‘Richard and Kate’ (1825), p. 89. Come, Goody, stop yourhumdrumwheel.1825.Harriet Wilson,Memoirs, iii., 237. You are, in fact, too constant for Paris. One has enough of all thathum-drumstuff in England.1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. lxi. The most fervent Liberals, when out of power, becomehumdrumConservatives, or downright tyrants or despots in office.1863.Alex. Smith,Dreamthorpe, p. 23. Giddy people may think the life I lead here staid andhumdrum, but they are mistaken.1893.Standard, 8 Aug., p. 4, col. 6. The thing, in his view, is to rattle off something pretentious, and avoid thehumdrumand tiresome methods which statesmanship of the pre-Home-Rule period used to respect.Humdurgeon,subs.(old).—1. An imaginary illness.—Grose.2. (common).—Needless noise; ado about nothing.1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xxiii. I would never be making ahumdudgeonabout a scart on the pow.Humdurgeoned,adj.(old).—Annoyed.1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford. Don’t behumdurgeonedbut knock down a gemman.Humguffin(common).—A hobgoblin. Also a derisive address.Humgumptious,adj.(obsolete).—Seequot.1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, s.v.Hum. A knowing sort of humbug ishumgumptious.Hummer,subs.(old).—1.Seequot.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hummer, a loud Lie, a Rapper.1725.New Cant. Dict.,s.v.1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hummer(s.) a great, monstrous, or notorious lie.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. (American).—A man or woman of notable parts; ahigh stepper(q.v.); agood goer(q.v.).Cf.,Rustler.1889.Ally Sloper, 6 July. If Tootsie is anything as lively as the ‘Gaiety Girls,’ she must be ahummer.1891.Gunter,Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. I just wanted toseemy Tillie dance once. She’s a societyhummernow.3. (obsolete).—SeeHumbug, sense 3.Humming,adj.(old). Strong—applied to drink; brisk—applied to trade; hard—applied to blows.Humming October= the specially strong brew from the new season’s hops;stingo(q.v.).1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew.HummingLiquor, Double Ale, Stout, Pharoah.1701.Farquhar,Sir Harry Wildair, iv., 2. The wine washummingstrong.1736.Fielding,Don Quixote, iii., 4. Landlord, how fares it? You seem to drive ahummingtrade here.1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, ch. vii. Let us fortify our stomachs with a slice or two of hung beef, and a horn or so ofhummingstingo.1822.Scott,Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Ahummingdouble pot of ale.[381]1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Wedding Day.’ A mighty magnificent tub Of what men, in our hemisphere, term ‘HummingBub,’ But which gods—who, it seems, use a different lingo, From mortals, are wont to denominate ‘Stingo.’1864.Dickens,Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. vii. Wegg, in coming to the ground, had received ahummingknock on the back of his devoted head.Hump,verb.(common).—1. To spoil; to botch; to do for.1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 252. Tohumpin street parlance, is equivalent to ‘botch,’ in more genteel colloquialism.2. (colonial).—To shoulder and carry.E.g.,To hump one’s swag= to shoulder one’s kit.1886.Daily Telegraph, 1 Jan. Ladies whom I have methumpingtheir own drums.1887.All the Year Round, 30 July, p. 66. A large blanket rolled up which contains the personal luggage of the man who carries orhumpsit.1887.G. A.SalainIllus. Lon. News, 12 Mar., 282/2. All kinds of luggage, generally speaking, which are manually carried, are at present said to behumped. I have had tohumpmine many a time and oft.1888.Rolf Boldrewood,Robbery Under Arms, ch. xxii. Wehumpedour saddles and swags ourselves.1890.Family Herald, 8 Feb., p. 227. I was just debating whether I had betterhumpmy drum.3. (old).—Seequot. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hump, tohump. Once a fashionable word for copulation.To hump oneself,verb. phr.(American).—To stir; to prepare for attack; to fancy oneself.1847.Porter,Quarter Race, etc. p. 177. Ef thar are anything hehumpshisself on besides ugly, it is his manners among the fimmales.1847.Porter,Big Bear, etc., p. 126. He was breathin’ sorter hard, his eye set on the Governor,humpin’himself on politics.To get(orhave)the hump,verb. phr.(common).—To be despondent, hurt, put out,down in the mouth(q.v.). also,to have the hump uporon. For synonyms,seeSnaggy.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v., 267). Soin his humpsabout it … that he had thought to have tumbled his hurrie-currie … into the sea.1885.Punch, 10 Jan., p. 24. I hadgot the ’ump, and no error, along o’ Bill B. and that gal.1892.Anstey,Model Music-Hall, 43. The company consume what will be elegantly referred to as ‘a bit of booze.’ Aunt Snappergets the ’ump.1886.Jerome,Idle Thoughts, p. 14. ’Arry refers to the heavings of his wayward heart by confiding to Jimee that he hasgot the blooming hump!Humpey,subs.(Australian).—Seequot.1893.Gilbert Parker,Pierre and his People, p. 135. McGann was lying on his back on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain hut. Australians would call it ahumpey.Humphrey,subs.(American thieves’).—A coat with pocket holes but no pockets.—Matsell.To dine with Duke Humphrey.SeeDine,Sir Thomas Gresham, andKnights.1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse[Grosart], ii., 18. I … retired me to Paules,to seeke my dinner with Duke Humfrey.1843.Moncrieff,The Scamps of London, i., 1.Dinesoftenerwith Duke Humphreythan anybody else, I believe.Humpty-dumpty,subs.(colloquial).—1. A short and thick-set person; agrundy(q.v.); a hunch-back. For synonyms,seeForty Guts.[382]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.2. (old).—Seequot. 1690.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Humptey Dumptey, Ale boild with Brandy.1698.M. Sorbière’sJourney to London in the Year 1698, p.135, quoted inNotes and Queries, 6 S., xii., 167. He answer’d me that he had a thousand such sort of liquors, asHumtie Dumtie, Three Threads.…1786.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1837.Disraeli,Venetia, i., 14. As for the beverage they drankhumpty-dumpty, which is ale boiled with brandy.Adj.andadv.(colloquial).—Short and thick; all of a heap; all together.Hum-strum,subs.(old).—Seequot.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Humstrum, a musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some pack-thread, thence also called bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called ahumstrum; sometimes instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.Hunch,verb.(old: now colloquial).—To jostle; to shove; to squeeze. For synonyms,seeRamp.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunch, to justle, or thrust.1712.Arbuthnot,Hist. of John Bull, Pt. III., App., ch. iii. Then Jack’s friends began tohunchand push one another.1738.Swift,Polite Convers., Dial. 1. I washunchedup in a hackney-coach with three country acquaintance.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1847.Porter,Quarter Race, etc., p. 163. I hadn’t fairly got to sleep before the old ’omanhunchedme.Hung.SeeWell-hung.To be hung up,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To come to a standstill; to be in a fix.1891.Fun, 10 June, p. 237. ‘Ah! by Bendigo, I forgot! Grimmy’shung up!’‘What, Grimmy? Never!’Hungarian,subs.(Old Cant).—1. A hungry man; arare pecker(q.v.).1608.Dodsley,Merry Devil of Edmonton[Old Plays, v. 267]. Away, I have knights and colonels at my house, and must tend thehungarians.1632.Lupton,London[‘Harl. Misc.’], ix., 314. The middle aile [of St. Paul’s] is much frequented at noon with a company ofhungarians, not walking so much for recreation as need.2. (Old Cant).—A freebooter.1608.Merry Devil of Edmonton[Dodsley,Old Plays, v. 285]. Come, yeHungarianpilchers, we are once more come under the zona torrida of the forest.1893.National Observer, ‘Spoliation,’ ix., 357. But, after all, it is only another note in the gamut of spoliation, whereof Mr. Gladstone’shungarians(a good old word that!) would have the mastery.Hunk.To be(orget)hunkorall hunk,verb. phr.(American).—1. To hit a mark; to achieve an object; to be safe. Also (2) to scheme. [From Dutchhonk= goal or home.]1847.Darley,Drama in Pokerville, p. 50. I’ll allow you’re justhunkthis time.1893.Detroit Free Press, June 23, ‘He Threatens to go back,’ p. 3. I propose to have some of it, or I’llget hunk.Hunker(orOld Hunker),subs.(American).—In New York (1844) a Conservative Democrat, as opposed to the Young Democracy orBarn-Burners(q.v.). Hence, an anti-progressive in politics.Hunks,subs.(old).—A miser; a mean, sordid fellow; a curmudgeon. For synonyms,seeSnide.[383]1602.Dekker,Satiro-Mastix, inWks.(1873), i., 201.Blun.Nay prethee deare Tucca, come you shall shake—Tuc.Not hands with greatHunkesthere, not hands, but Ile shake the gull-groper out of his tan’d skinne.1602.Campion,English Poesy(Works,Bullen, 1889, p. 247). But it drinks up all: thathunksdetestable.1647–80.Rochester,Wks.; p. 11. There was an old coveteoushunksin the neighbourhood, who had notwithstanding his age, got a very pretty young wife.1677.Wycherley,Plain Dealer, v., 2. Make a very pretty show in the world, let me tell you; nay, a better than your closehunks.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunks, a covetous Creature, a miserable Wretch.1712.Spectator, No. 264. Irus has … given all the intimations he skilfully could of being a closehunkswith money.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1837.Marryat,Snarley-yow, ch. 12. So while they cut their raw salt junks, With dainties you’ll be cramm’d. Here’s once for all my mind,old hunks, Port Admiral, you be dammed!1839.Buckstone,Brother Tom(Dick’sed., p. 15). One calls him anold hunks, another a selfish brute.1840.Dickens,Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 35. That you become the sole inheritor of the wealth of this rich oldhunks.1846.Melville,Moby Dick, 75 (ed. 1892). Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being an incorrigible oldhunks.1857.A. Trollope,Three Clerks, ch. iii. I am sure he is a cross oldhunks, though Mamma says he’s not.1893.Theodore Martin,Roman Elegies, ii. (Goethe Society Trans., 1891–2, p. 72). Joys that he stints not his gold like the closehunxesof Rome.Hunky,adj.(American).—Good; jolly; a general superlative. AlsoHunkidorum.d.1867.Browne, ‘Artemus Ward,’The Shakers(Railway ed.), p. 43. ‘Hunkyboy! Go it my gay and festive cuss!’1873.Justin McCarthy,Fair Saxon, ch. xxxviii. The guard dies, but never surrenders! Fine, isn’t it? But thehunky-boy that said that surrendered all the same.1888.Texas Siftings, 20 Oct. Robert is allhunky, but he had a mighty close call the week before last.Hunt,verb.(old).—To decoy apigeon(q.v.) to the tables. Hencehunting= card-sharping.Flat-catching(q.v.).1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunting(c.), decoying or drawing others into Play.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.To hunt for soft spots,verb. phr.(American).—To make oneself comfortable; to seek one’s ease.1888.San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 Mar. It was demnition hot, and I commenced tohunt for soft spotsin my saddle.To hunt grass,verb. phr.(pugilists’).—To be knocked down;to be grassed(q.v.). Also, to be puzzled; to be dumfoundered.1869.Clemens[Mark Twain],Innocents at Home, ch. ii. Ihunt grassevery time.To hunt leather,verb. phr.(cricketers’).—To field at cricket.1892.Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 21 Sep. p. 13, c. 2. For nearly ten years I earned a living—and a good one—by ‘wielding the willow’ andhunting the leather.To hunt the dummy,verb. phr.(thieves’).—To steal pocket books.1878.Charles Hindley,Life and Times of James Catnach, p. 171. (Chorus)—Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, And finelyhunt the dummy.To hunt the squirrel,verb. phr.(old).—Seequot.[384]1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hunting the Squirrel, an amusement practised by post boys, and stage coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman, or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to behunted.In, orout of,the hunt,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Having a chance, or none;inorout of the swim(q.v.). Admitted to, or outside, a circle or society.Hunt-about,subs.(colloquial).—1. A prying gossip.2. (common).—A walking whore.Hunt-counter,subs.(old).—A beggar.1623.Shakspeare, 2Henry IV., i., 2. Youhunt-counter, hence! Avaunt!Hunters.Pitching the hunters,verb. phr.(costermongers’).Seequot.1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 390.Pitching the huntersis the three sticks a penny, with the snuff-boxes stuck upon sticks; if you throw your stick, and they fall out of the hole, you are entitled to what you knock off.1876.Hindley,Cheap Jack, p. 235. When … there was no cattle jobbing to be done, he wouldpitch the hunters, that is, put up the ‘three sticks a penny’ business.Hurly-Burly,subs.(old: now colloquial).—A commotion; a bustle; an uproar.c.1509–1547.Lusty Juventus(Dodsley), [Old Plays, 4th ed., 1874, ii., 85]. What ahurly-burlyis here! Smick smack, and all this gear!1539.Tavernier,Garden of Wysdom, E. ii. verso. Thys kynge [Gelo] on a tyme exacted money of hys comons, whome when he perceuyed in ahurly burlyfor the same, and ready to make an insurrection, he thus sodaynly appeased.1542.Udall,Apophthegms of Erasmus[1877], p. 115. the meaning of the Philosophier was, that princes for the ambition of honour, rule and dominion, being in continuall strife, andhurlee burlee, are in very deede persons full of miserie and wo.1551.More,Utopia, (Pitt Press ed., 1884, i., 52, 5). Whereby so many nations for his sake should be broughte into a troublesomehurlei-burley.1567.Fenton,Tragical Dicsourses, f. 104. They heard a great noyse andhurleyburleyin the street of the Guard and chief officers of the Watch.1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse(Grosart,Works, ii., 53). Not trouble our peaceable Paradise with their privatehurlie-burliesabout strumpets.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v., 293). Put them in feare where no feare is, and make ahurlie-burliein the realm.1606.Shakspeare,Macbeth, i., 1. When thehurley-burley’sdone, When the battle’s lost and won.1619.T. North’sDiall of Princes(1557), corrected, p. 703, c. 1. Two or three dayes before you shall see such resort of persons, suchhurly burly, such flying this way,such sending that way, some occupyed in telling the cookes how many sorts of meates they will have.…1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1771.Smollett,Humphrey Clinker(ed. 1890, p. 185). As for the lawyer he waited below till thehurly-burlywas over, and then he stole softly to his own chamber.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1811. J. and H.Smith,Horace in London, pp. 18–25, Ode ii., ‘Hurly-burly’ (Title).1886.Max Adeler,Out of theHurly-Burly. Title.[385]1893.St. James’s Gazette, xxvii., 4076, p. 4. While all London was making holiday, Paris was engaged in ahurly-burlyof a very different kind.Hurra’s-nest,subs.(nautical).—The utmost confusion; everything topsy-turvy. For synonyms,seeSixes and Sevens.1840.R. H. Dana,Two Years Before the Mast, ch. ii. Everything was pitched about in grand confusion. There was a completehurrah’s nest, as the sailors say, ‘everything on top and nothing at hand.’1869.Mrs. Stowe,Old Townsfolks, ch. iv. You’ve got our clock all to pieces, and have been keeping up a perfecthurrah’s nestin our kitchen for three days. Do either put that clock together or let it alone.Hurrah in Hell.Not to care a single hurrah in hell,verb. phr.(American).—To be absolutely indifferent.1893.Harold Frederic,National Observer, IX., 1 Apr., p. 493, col. 2. I don’t care a singlehurrah in sheol.Hurry,subs.(musical).—A quick passage on the violin, or a roll on the drum, leading to a climax in the representation.1835.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 66. The wrongful heir comes in to two bars of quick music (technically called ahurry).Hurry-curry,subs.(obsolete).—Seequot.1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v. 267). The … was so in his humps upon it … that he had thought to have tumbled hishurrie currie, or … can, into the sea.Hurry-durry,adj.(old).—Rough; boisterous; impatient of counsel or control.1677.Wycherley,Plain Dealer, i., 1. ’Tis ahurrydurryblade.Hurrygraph,subs.(American).—A hastily written letter.1861.Independent, 31 July. I must close thishurrygraph, which I have no time to review.Hurry-whore,subs.(old).—A walking strumpet.1630.Taylor,Wks.And I doe wish with all my heart, that the superfluous number of all our hyreling hackney carryknaves, andhurry-whores, with their makers and maintainers, were there, where they might never want continuall imployment.Husband’s-boat,subs.(common).—The Saturday boat to Margate during the summer season.c.1867.Vance,Broadside Ballad.‘TheHusband’s Boat.’1887.Murray, inNew Eng. Dict., Pt. III., p. 956, c. 3. Waiting at Margate Pier for thehusband’s boaton Saturday afternoon.Husband’s-supper.To warm the husband’s supper,verb. phr.(common).—To sit before the fire with lifted skirts. Fr.,faire chapelle.Husband’s-tea,subs.(common).—Weak tea;water bewitched(q.v.).Hush,verb.(old).—To kill.—Grose.Hush-money,subs.(old: now recognised).—Money paid for silence, to quash a case, or stay a witness; a bribe; blackmail.1709.Steele,Tatler, No. 26. I expecthush-moneyto be regularly sent for every folly or vice any one commits in this whole town.1713.Guardian, No. 26. A poor chambermaid has sent in ten shillings out of herhush-money, to expiate her guilt of being in her mistress’s secret.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.[386]1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.), s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.1852.Dickens,Bleak House, ch. xxxvii. To allow Ada to be made a bribe andhush-moneyof, is not the way to bring it out.1884.Spectator, p. 530. They were disappointed of theirhush-money, but he gave them an easy revenge.Hush-shop(or-crib),subs.(common).—An unlicensed tavern.1872.Globe, 18 Sep. At Barrow-in-Furness the new Licensing Act has had the effect of calling numeroushush shopsinto existence.Husky,subs.(Winchester College).—Gooseberry fool with the husks in it, obsolete. [Notions.]1870.Mansfield,School Life, p. 145. There were two kinds [Gooseberry fool]Huskyand non-husky.Adj.(American).—Stout; well built.Husky-lour,subs.(Old Cant).—A guinea; ajob(q.v.). For synonyms,seeCanary.1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v.1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hussy,subs.(colloquial).—A corruption ofhousewife(q.v.).Hustle,verb.(venery).—1. To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.2. (American).—To bestir oneself; to go to work with vigour and energy. Also tohustle around.Hustler,subs.(American).—An active, busy man or woman. Ahummer(q.v.); arustler(q.v.).1890.Harold Frederic,Lawton Girl. A whimsical query as to whether this calamitous boy had also been named Benjamin Franklin crossed his confused mind, and then … whether the child if so named, would be ahustleror not.Hutch,subs.(common).—A place of residence or employment; one’sdiggings(q.v.).Hutter.SeeHatter.Huxter,subs.(common).—Money. AlsoHoxter. For synonyms,seeActualandGilt.c.186(?).Broadside Ballad.These seven long years I’ve been serving, and Seven I’ve got for to stay, All for meeting a bloke down our alley And a-taking hishuxtersaway.Huzzy(orHuzzie),subs.(old).—A case of needles, pins, scissors, bodkins, etc.; ahousewife’scompanion.Hymeneal-Sweets,subs.(venery).—Copulation.1604.Marston,Malcontent, i., 3. True to her sheetes, nay, diets strong his blood, To give her height ofhymeneall sweetes.Hypernese,subs.(Winchester College).—Seequot.Ziph(q.v.).1864.The Press, 12 Nov. p. 1098. This dialect of school cryptoëpy was known in our youth asHypernese. When spoken fast it defies an outsider’s curiosity. If two consonants commence a syllable, the former is dropped, and W substituted: thus breeches would bewareechepes. If P commences a syllable, G is interpolated: thus penny would bepegennepy.… That Ziph and its cognate languages are well known beyond the boundaries of Winchester is certain. Bishop Wilkins described it, without mentioning it as a novelty, a couple of centuries ago.Hyphenated American,subs.(American).—A naturalised citizen, as German-Americans, Irish-Americans, and the like. [Nortons.][387]Hypocrite,subs.(American).—A pillow slip or ‘sham.’Hypogastric-cranny,subs.(venery).—The femalepudendum.—Urquhart.For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.Hyps(orHypo),subs.(old).—TheBlue Devils(q.v.).1710.Swift,Tatler, No. 230. Will Hazard has got thehipps, having lost to the tune of five hund’rd pound.1729.Swift,Poems(Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, xi., 486). And the doctor was plaguilydown in the hips.1738.Swift’sPolite Conversation, Dial.1. Her ladyship was plaguily bamb’d; I warrant it put her into thehipps.1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.1830.C. Lamb,Pawnbroker’s Daughter, i., 2. The drops so like to tears did drip, They gave my infant nerves thehyp.1854.Haliburton,Americans at Home, i., 176. The old man would give up to thehypo, and keep his bed for weeks. During this time, he wouldn’t say a word, but ‘I’m not long for this world.’End of Vol. III.[388]
1633.Ford,’TisPity She’s a Whore, ii., 1. There is no way but to clap up a marriagein hugger-mugger.
1639–61.Rump Songs, i. [1662], 54. They brought me Gold and Plate inHuggar-Muggar.
1663.Butler,Hudibras, i., 3. Where’er th’ inhugger-muggerlurk,I’llmake them rue their handy-work.
1762.Churchill,The Ghost, bk. iii., line 27. It must not, as the Vulgar say, Be donein Hugger Muggerway.
1815.Mirror for Mag., p. 457. For most that most things knew,in hugger-muggerutter’d what they durst.
Hugging,subs.(common).—Garotting(q.v.).
Hugsome,adj.(colloquial).—Carnally attractive;Fuckable(q.v.).
Hulk(Hulky, orHulkingFellow),subs.(colloquial).—A fat person; a big lout. Generally, ‘great hulk of a fellow.’
d.1631.Drayton,The Mooncalf(Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, iv., 126). Wallowing she lay, like to a boist’roushulkDropsied with humours.
1698.Ward,London Spy, Pt. xiv., p. 324. Up in the Chimney Corner sat a greathulkingFellow.
1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hulk(s.) … also a lazy, dronish fellow.[376]
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hulkey, orHulking, a greathulkeyfellow, an overgrown clumsy lout, or fellow.
1858.G. Eliot,Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ch. ii. When you’ve got … some greathulkyfellow for a husband, who swears at you and kicks your children.
1870.Chambers’s Journal, 9 July, p 447. He sees a slouching, shambling,hulkof a fellow standing listlessly in a doorway.
1871.G. Eliot,Middlemarch, ch. lvi. I want to go first and have a round with thathulkyfellow who turned to challenge me.
1883.A. Dobson,Old-World Idylls, p. 164. I’d like to give thathulkingbrute a hit—Beating his horse in such a shameful way!
1893.National Observer, 29 July, p. 267, col. 2. The absolute ascendancy exercised by a small but brilliant member … over ahulkingJunior.
Verb(colloquial).—To hang about; tomooch(q.v.).
Hull between Wind and Water,verb. phr.(venery).—To possess a woman. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.
Hull-cheese,subs.(Old Cant).—Seequot. For synonyms,seeSwipes.
1622.Taylor,A Very Merry Wherry-Ferry(Hindley,Works, 1872), 19. Give mehull-cheese, and welcome and good cheer.Ibid.Hull-cheese, is much like a loafe out of a brewers basket, it is composed of two simples, mault and water, in one compound, and is cousin germane to the mightiest ale in England.
Hulverhead,subs., andHulver-headed,adj.(old).—Seequots. For synonyms,seeBuffleandCabbage-head.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hulver-head, a silly Foolish fellow.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hulver Headed, silly, puzzle-pated.
Hum,subs.(Old Cant).—1. A kind of strong liquor: probably a mixture of beer and spirits, butseequot. 1690. Alsohum-cap.
1616.Ben Jonson,Devil’s an Ass, i., 1. Carmen Are got into the yellow starch, and chimney sweepers To their tobacco, and strong waters,hum, Meath, and Obarni.
1619.Fletcher,Wild Goose Chase,ii., 3. Lord, what should I ail? What a cold I have over my stomach; would I’d somehum.
1622.Fletcher,Beggars’ Bush, ii., 1. Except you do provide mehumenough, And lour to bouze with.
d.1645.Heywood,Drunkard, p. 48 [Gifford]. Notwithstanding the multiplicity of wines, yet there be stills and limbecks going, swetting out aqua vitæ and strong waters, deriving their names from cinnamon, balm, and aniseed, such as stomach-water,humm, etc.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hum-cap, old, mellow and very strong Beer.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
2. (common).—A trick; a delusion; a cheat. Also a lie.
1756.The World, No. 164. Now if this be only ahum(as I suppose it is) upon our country apes, it being blown in theWorldwill put an end to it.
d.1764.Lloyd,Poems(1774), ‘A Tale.’ There, my good critics, lies thehum.
1806.Lamb,LettersinWks.(Ed. 1852), ch. v., p. 81. I daresay all this ishum!
1820.Reynolds(P. Corcoran),The Fancy, ‘King Tims the First.’ You or your son have told a bouncinghum.
1823.Bee,Dict. Turf, s.v.Hum—a whispered lie.
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Row in an Omnibus Box.’ It’s ‘No Go!’—it’s ‘Gammon!’—it’s ‘all aHum!’
1848.Punch, vol. XIV., p. 37. ‘Ye Frenche Goe Uppe to London.’ That ye French threats were all bouncing, That ye muster was ahum, And they’d never dare to come.
1885.T. E. Brown,The Doctor, p. 49. Ahumand a huff, And none o’ the real stuff.
1892.Milliken,’Arry Ballads, p. 76. Married life may be ticketed honey, but I know it’s more of ahum.[377]
3. (old).—Seequot.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785.Grose,Vulg.Tongue, s.v.Hums, persons at church; there is a great number ofhumsin the autem, there is a great congregation in the church.
Verb(old).—1. To cheat; to bamboozle;to quiz(q.v.).
1762.Goldsmith,Life of Nash, inWks., p. 552 (Globe). Here Nash, if I may be permitted the use of a polite and fashionable phrase, washumm’d.
1764–1817.J. G. Holman,Abroad and at Home, i., 3.Ser.It is queer enough that his father, Sir Simon Flourish, should behummedso as to think he is going the tour of Europe, when, all the while, he never got a step farther than St. George’s Fields.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811.Poole,Hamlet Travestied, iii., 1. Go seek him there: I fear he’s onlyhumming.
1819.Moore,Tom Crib, p. 4. While youhumthe poor spoonies with speeches so pretty.
d.1840.Mad. D’Arblay,Diary, ii., 153 [ed. 1842]. I don’t mean to cajole you hither with the expectation of amusement or entertainment; you and I know better than tohumor behummedin that manner.
1856.Elliott,Carolina Sports, p. 122. Ihummedhim, my stripping was all a feint.
2. (old).—To mumble.
d.1842.Maginn,Vidocq Versified. To hear Old Cottonhumminghis pray.
To hum and haw,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To hesitate, to raise objections.
1469.Paston Letters, II., 347 (Ed. Gairdner). He wold have gotyn it aweye byhumysand byhays, but I wold not so be answeryd.
1594.Nashe,Unf. Traveller(Grosart,Wks., v., 96). Hee made no morehummingorhaulting, but in despite of her husbandes kinsfolkes, gaue her herNunc dimittis.
1610.Jonson,Alchemist, iii., 2. You may be anything, and leave off to make Long-winded exercises; or suck up Yourha!andhum!in a tune.
1614.Jonson,Bartholomew Fair, i., 1. A sober-drawn exhortation of six hours, whose better part was thehum-ha-hum.
1620.Massinger,Fatal Dowry, iv., 1. Do you standHummingandhahingnow?
d.1680.Butler,Remains(1759), ii., 103. Hehums and hahs.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hum and Haw, to Hesitate in Speech; also to delay, or difficultly to be brought to Consent.
1706.Mrs. Centlivre,Love at a Venture, iv., 2,Wks.(1872), i., 304. That was the first excuse that came at my tongue’s end—and you know there is nohumming and hawingwith my old master, sir.
1729.Swift,Intelligencer, No. 14, p. 165 (2nd Ed.). If any person … shall presume to exceed six minutes in a story, tohum or haw, use hyphens between his words, or digressions.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. vi. Lord Ascothummed and hawed, and told him to tell his father he had been a good boy.
To make things hum,verb. phr.(American).—To force the pace; to keep moving.
1888.San Francisco Weekly Exam., 23 Feb. Ever since he has taken the newspaper reins in San Francisco he hasmade things hum.
1890.Punch, 22 Feb. If I was flush of the ochre, I tell you I’d make the thinghum.
1891.Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Aug., p. 2, c. 3. With their advent things begin tohum.
1893.W. T. Stead,Review of Reviews, p. 152. In the opinion of both foes and friends we make thingshum.
To hum around,verb. phr.(American).—To call to account;to call over the coals(q.v.).
Human,subs.(old: now American).—A human being. [AlsoHuman Boar]. For synonyms,seeCove.[378]
1719.Durfey,Pills, etc., ii., 332. Mongsthumansby Court dunning.
1783–5.Cowper,Task, ii., line 105. And agonies ofhumanand of brute.
1835.Haliburton,Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxviii. They have little hovels for their cattle … and a house forthe humansas grand as Noah’s Ark.
1882.Daily Telegraph, 13 Dec., p. 2, c. 2. In the opening pages Mr. Matthew Arnold mourns in verse over the death of ‘Poor Matthias,’ who is nota humanbut a canary.
1888.Denver Republican.He was only a dog … but was much more useful to society than manyhumans.
Humber-keels.SeeBilly-Boy.
Humble Pie.To eat humble pie,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To submit; to apologise; to knock under. For synonyms,seeCave In.
1862.Thackeray,Philip, xxvii. If this old chief had to eathumble pie, his brave adversaries were anxious that he should gobble up his portion as quickly as possible, and turned away their honest old heads as he swallowed it.
1887.Manville Fenn,This Man’s Wife, ch. ii., 4. Our savings are gone and we musteat humble piefor the future.
Hum-Box,subs.(common).—1. A pulpit.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1827.Lytton,Pelham, p. 302 [Ed. 1862]. Well, you parish bull prig, are you for lushing Jacky, or pattering in thehum-box?
1858.A.Mayhew,Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. ix., p. 309. He was nicknamed the ‘Amen bawler’ (parson) and recommended to take to thehum-box(pulpit) as better suited to him than cadging.
English Synonyms:—Autem; cackle tub; clack loft; cowards’ castle; gospel mill (also a church); wood.
2. (American).—An auctioneer’s rostrum.
Humbox Patterer,subs.(common).—A parson. For synonyms,seeDevil DodgerandSky Pilot.
1839.G. W. M. Reynolds,Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. Though thehumbox patterertalked of hell.
Humbug,subs.(old: now recognised).—1. A hoax; an imposture; a swindle.
1735–40.Killigrew,The Universal Jester; or a pocket companion for the Wits: being a choice collection of merry conceits, facetious drolleries, &c., clenchers, closers, closures, bon-mots, andHumbugs. [Title].
1754.Connoisseur.No. 14. Single words, indeed, now and then broke forth; such as—odious, horrible, detestable, shocking,humbug. This last new-coined expression, which is only to be found in the nonsensical vocabulary, sounds absurd and disagreeable whenever it is pronounced.
1762.Churchill,The Ghost, bk. I., line 72. And that Great Saint, we Whitefield call, Keeps up theHumbugSpiritual.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1828.Webster,Eng. Dict., s.v.
2. Deceit; pretence; affectation.
1837.R. H. Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. (Ed. 1862). p. 239. That sort of address which the British callhumbugand Frenchmen ‘Finesse.’ (It’s ‘Blarney’ in Irish—I don’t know the Scotch.)
1842.Douglas Jerrold,Bubbles of the Day, i. Never sayhumbug; it’s coarse.Sir P.And not respectable.Smoke.Pardon me, my lord; itwascoarse. But the fact is,humbughas received such high patronage, that now it’s quite classic.
3. A cheat; an impostor; a pretender. Also (old),hummer.
d.1783.Henry Brooke,Poems(1776). ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers’English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Ourhummersin state, physic, learning, and law.[379]
1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, s.v.Hum. He is ahumbugthat has recourse to the meanness. He wishes to be a bugaboo, or most exalted fool.
1836.Dickens,Pickwick, ch. xxx. ‘You’re ahumbug, sir.’ ‘A what?’ said Mr. Winkle, starting. ‘Ahumbug, sir. I will speak plainer, if you wish it. An imposter, sir.’
Verb.To hoax; to swindle; to cajole.
1751.Smollett,Peregrine Pickle, ch. lxxxv. He who seemed to be most afflicted of the two taking his departure with an exclamation of ‘Humbugged, egad!’
1785.Grose,Vulg.Tongue, s.v.
1826.The Fancy, ii., 77. We would not have the reader believe we mean tohumbughim—not for a moment.
1861.H. Kingsley,Ravenshoe, ch. xliii. She was always ready to help him, provided, as she told him, ‘he didn’thumbug.’
HenceHumbugging= hoaxing, swindling, orHumbugable= gullible.Humbuggery= deception; imposture.Humbugger= a cheat, a hoaxer.
d.1763.Henry Brooke,Poems(1778), ‘On Humbugging.’ (Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Of all trades or arts in repute or possessionhumbuggingis held the most ancient profession.Idem.To you, … thehumbuggersof hearts.
1822.Scott,Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xviii. The species of wit which has been long a favourite in the city, under the names of cross-biting, giving the dor, bamboozling, cramming, hoaxing,humbugging, and quizzing.
1825.Southey,Letters, iii., 488 [ed. Warter, 1856]. My charity does not extend so far as to believe that any reasonable man (humbuggableas the animal is) can have been so humbugged.
1826.The Fancy, ii., 29. A contemporary writer of eminence some years ago termed such exhibitionshumbugging.
1840.Thackeray,Paris Sketch Book, p. 31. Do you not laugh, O Pharos of Bungay, at the continuance of a humbug such as this?—at thehumbugginganniversary of a humbug?
1852.Judson,Myst., etc., of New York,ch. iv. Oh, blast yourhumbuggery—talk plain English to me.
1855.Thackeray,Newcomes, ch. v. When the old lady was gone, Mr. Hobson had no need of any morehumbugging, but took his pleasure freely.
1883.Mark Twain,Life on the Mississippi, ch. xl., p. 369. Traces of its inflated language and other windyhumbuggeriessurvive along with it.
Humdrum,subs.(old: now recognised).—1. A tiresome dullard; a steady-going, common-place person.Seealso quot. 1725.
1596.Jonson,Every Man in His Humour, i., 1. By gads-lid I scorn it, I, so I do, to be a consort for everyhumdrum.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.Hum-DrumsorHums, a Society of Gentlemen, who meet near theCharter-House, or at theKing’s Headin St.John’s Street. Less of mystery, and more of Pleasantry than theFree Masons.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
2. Monotony; tameness; dullness.
1823.Hints for Oxford, p. 63. Men of spirit must ever dislike the unleavenedhumdrumof its monkish constitution.
1893.The Nation, 13 July, p. 32, col. 1. We go so far with the adorers of home andhumdrum.
3. (old).—The same asHumbug(q.v.).
1596.Nashe,Saffron Walden(Grosart,Works, iii., 14). Whereof generous Dick (withouthumdrumbe it spoken) I utterly despair of them.
4. (old).—A wife; also a husband.
Adj.Dull; tame; commonplace; monotonous.
1702.Vanbrugh,False Friend, ii. A veryhumdrummarriage this.
1705.Ward,Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. ii., p. 6. Tho’ it is theirhumdrumfashion To hate all musical precation.[380]
1730.Jas. Miller,Humours of Oxford, Act I., p. 7 (2nd Ed.). Your fellows of colleges are a parcel of sad, muzzy,humdrum, lazy, ignorant old caterpillars.
d.1764.Lloyd,Poems(1774), ‘A Familiar Epistle.’ So frothy, vapid, stale,humdrum.
1765.C. Smart,Fables, xv., line 5. Content inhumdrummood t’adjust Her matters to disperse the dust.
1774.Foote,Cozeners, i., 1. Not one, madam, of thehumdrum, drawling, long winded tribe.
1775.Sheridan,Rivals, ii., 1. Yet am I by no means certain that she would take me with the impediment of our friends’ consent, a regularhumdrumwedding, and the reversion of a good fortune on my side.
d.1823.Bloomfield,Poems, ‘Richard and Kate’ (1825), p. 89. Come, Goody, stop yourhumdrumwheel.
1825.Harriet Wilson,Memoirs, iii., 237. You are, in fact, too constant for Paris. One has enough of all thathum-drumstuff in England.
1849.Thackeray,Pendennis, ch. lxi. The most fervent Liberals, when out of power, becomehumdrumConservatives, or downright tyrants or despots in office.
1863.Alex. Smith,Dreamthorpe, p. 23. Giddy people may think the life I lead here staid andhumdrum, but they are mistaken.
1893.Standard, 8 Aug., p. 4, col. 6. The thing, in his view, is to rattle off something pretentious, and avoid thehumdrumand tiresome methods which statesmanship of the pre-Home-Rule period used to respect.
Humdurgeon,subs.(old).—1. An imaginary illness.—Grose.
2. (common).—Needless noise; ado about nothing.
1815.Scott,Guy Mannering, ch. xxiii. I would never be making ahumdudgeonabout a scart on the pow.
Humdurgeoned,adj.(old).—Annoyed.
1830.Lytton,Paul Clifford. Don’t behumdurgeonedbut knock down a gemman.
Humguffin(common).—A hobgoblin. Also a derisive address.
Humgumptious,adj.(obsolete).—Seequot.
1823.Bee,Dict. of the Turf, s.v.Hum. A knowing sort of humbug ishumgumptious.
Hummer,subs.(old).—1.Seequot.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hummer, a loud Lie, a Rapper.
1725.New Cant. Dict.,s.v.
1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.).Hummer(s.) a great, monstrous, or notorious lie.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
2. (American).—A man or woman of notable parts; ahigh stepper(q.v.); agood goer(q.v.).Cf.,Rustler.
1889.Ally Sloper, 6 July. If Tootsie is anything as lively as the ‘Gaiety Girls,’ she must be ahummer.
1891.Gunter,Miss Nobody, ch. xvii. I just wanted toseemy Tillie dance once. She’s a societyhummernow.
3. (obsolete).—SeeHumbug, sense 3.
Humming,adj.(old). Strong—applied to drink; brisk—applied to trade; hard—applied to blows.Humming October= the specially strong brew from the new season’s hops;stingo(q.v.).
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew.HummingLiquor, Double Ale, Stout, Pharoah.
1701.Farquhar,Sir Harry Wildair, iv., 2. The wine washummingstrong.
1736.Fielding,Don Quixote, iii., 4. Landlord, how fares it? You seem to drive ahummingtrade here.
1821.Egan,Tom and Jerry, ch. vii. Let us fortify our stomachs with a slice or two of hung beef, and a horn or so ofhummingstingo.
1822.Scott,Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Ahummingdouble pot of ale.[381]
1837.Barham,Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Wedding Day.’ A mighty magnificent tub Of what men, in our hemisphere, term ‘HummingBub,’ But which gods—who, it seems, use a different lingo, From mortals, are wont to denominate ‘Stingo.’
1864.Dickens,Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. vii. Wegg, in coming to the ground, had received ahummingknock on the back of his devoted head.
Hump,verb.(common).—1. To spoil; to botch; to do for.
1851–61.H. Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 252. Tohumpin street parlance, is equivalent to ‘botch,’ in more genteel colloquialism.
2. (colonial).—To shoulder and carry.E.g.,To hump one’s swag= to shoulder one’s kit.
1886.Daily Telegraph, 1 Jan. Ladies whom I have methumpingtheir own drums.
1887.All the Year Round, 30 July, p. 66. A large blanket rolled up which contains the personal luggage of the man who carries orhumpsit.
1887.G. A.SalainIllus. Lon. News, 12 Mar., 282/2. All kinds of luggage, generally speaking, which are manually carried, are at present said to behumped. I have had tohumpmine many a time and oft.
1888.Rolf Boldrewood,Robbery Under Arms, ch. xxii. Wehumpedour saddles and swags ourselves.
1890.Family Herald, 8 Feb., p. 227. I was just debating whether I had betterhumpmy drum.
3. (old).—Seequot. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hump, tohump. Once a fashionable word for copulation.
To hump oneself,verb. phr.(American).—To stir; to prepare for attack; to fancy oneself.
1847.Porter,Quarter Race, etc. p. 177. Ef thar are anything hehumpshisself on besides ugly, it is his manners among the fimmales.
1847.Porter,Big Bear, etc., p. 126. He was breathin’ sorter hard, his eye set on the Governor,humpin’himself on politics.
To get(orhave)the hump,verb. phr.(common).—To be despondent, hurt, put out,down in the mouth(q.v.). also,to have the hump uporon. For synonyms,seeSnaggy.
1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v., 267). Soin his humpsabout it … that he had thought to have tumbled his hurrie-currie … into the sea.
1885.Punch, 10 Jan., p. 24. I hadgot the ’ump, and no error, along o’ Bill B. and that gal.
1892.Anstey,Model Music-Hall, 43. The company consume what will be elegantly referred to as ‘a bit of booze.’ Aunt Snappergets the ’ump.
1886.Jerome,Idle Thoughts, p. 14. ’Arry refers to the heavings of his wayward heart by confiding to Jimee that he hasgot the blooming hump!
Humpey,subs.(Australian).—Seequot.
1893.Gilbert Parker,Pierre and his People, p. 135. McGann was lying on his back on a pile of buffalo robes in a mountain hut. Australians would call it ahumpey.
Humphrey,subs.(American thieves’).—A coat with pocket holes but no pockets.—Matsell.
To dine with Duke Humphrey.SeeDine,Sir Thomas Gresham, andKnights.
1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse[Grosart], ii., 18. I … retired me to Paules,to seeke my dinner with Duke Humfrey.
1843.Moncrieff,The Scamps of London, i., 1.Dinesoftenerwith Duke Humphreythan anybody else, I believe.
Humpty-dumpty,subs.(colloquial).—1. A short and thick-set person; agrundy(q.v.); a hunch-back. For synonyms,seeForty Guts.[382]
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
2. (old).—Seequot. 1690.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Humptey Dumptey, Ale boild with Brandy.
1698.M. Sorbière’sJourney to London in the Year 1698, p.135, quoted inNotes and Queries, 6 S., xii., 167. He answer’d me that he had a thousand such sort of liquors, asHumtie Dumtie, Three Threads.…
1786.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1837.Disraeli,Venetia, i., 14. As for the beverage they drankhumpty-dumpty, which is ale boiled with brandy.
Adj.andadv.(colloquial).—Short and thick; all of a heap; all together.
Hum-strum,subs.(old).—Seequot.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Humstrum, a musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some pack-thread, thence also called bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called ahumstrum; sometimes instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.
Hunch,verb.(old: now colloquial).—To jostle; to shove; to squeeze. For synonyms,seeRamp.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunch, to justle, or thrust.
1712.Arbuthnot,Hist. of John Bull, Pt. III., App., ch. iii. Then Jack’s friends began tohunchand push one another.
1738.Swift,Polite Convers., Dial. 1. I washunchedup in a hackney-coach with three country acquaintance.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1847.Porter,Quarter Race, etc., p. 163. I hadn’t fairly got to sleep before the old ’omanhunchedme.
Hung.SeeWell-hung.
To be hung up,verb. phr.(colloquial).—To come to a standstill; to be in a fix.
1891.Fun, 10 June, p. 237. ‘Ah! by Bendigo, I forgot! Grimmy’shung up!’‘What, Grimmy? Never!’
Hungarian,subs.(Old Cant).—1. A hungry man; arare pecker(q.v.).
1608.Dodsley,Merry Devil of Edmonton[Old Plays, v. 267]. Away, I have knights and colonels at my house, and must tend thehungarians.
1632.Lupton,London[‘Harl. Misc.’], ix., 314. The middle aile [of St. Paul’s] is much frequented at noon with a company ofhungarians, not walking so much for recreation as need.
2. (Old Cant).—A freebooter.
1608.Merry Devil of Edmonton[Dodsley,Old Plays, v. 285]. Come, yeHungarianpilchers, we are once more come under the zona torrida of the forest.
1893.National Observer, ‘Spoliation,’ ix., 357. But, after all, it is only another note in the gamut of spoliation, whereof Mr. Gladstone’shungarians(a good old word that!) would have the mastery.
Hunk.To be(orget)hunkorall hunk,verb. phr.(American).—1. To hit a mark; to achieve an object; to be safe. Also (2) to scheme. [From Dutchhonk= goal or home.]
1847.Darley,Drama in Pokerville, p. 50. I’ll allow you’re justhunkthis time.
1893.Detroit Free Press, June 23, ‘He Threatens to go back,’ p. 3. I propose to have some of it, or I’llget hunk.
Hunker(orOld Hunker),subs.(American).—In New York (1844) a Conservative Democrat, as opposed to the Young Democracy orBarn-Burners(q.v.). Hence, an anti-progressive in politics.
Hunks,subs.(old).—A miser; a mean, sordid fellow; a curmudgeon. For synonyms,seeSnide.[383]
1602.Dekker,Satiro-Mastix, inWks.(1873), i., 201.Blun.Nay prethee deare Tucca, come you shall shake—Tuc.Not hands with greatHunkesthere, not hands, but Ile shake the gull-groper out of his tan’d skinne.
1602.Campion,English Poesy(Works,Bullen, 1889, p. 247). But it drinks up all: thathunksdetestable.
1647–80.Rochester,Wks.; p. 11. There was an old coveteoushunksin the neighbourhood, who had notwithstanding his age, got a very pretty young wife.
1677.Wycherley,Plain Dealer, v., 2. Make a very pretty show in the world, let me tell you; nay, a better than your closehunks.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunks, a covetous Creature, a miserable Wretch.
1712.Spectator, No. 264. Irus has … given all the intimations he skilfully could of being a closehunkswith money.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1837.Marryat,Snarley-yow, ch. 12. So while they cut their raw salt junks, With dainties you’ll be cramm’d. Here’s once for all my mind,old hunks, Port Admiral, you be dammed!
1839.Buckstone,Brother Tom(Dick’sed., p. 15). One calls him anold hunks, another a selfish brute.
1840.Dickens,Old Curiosity Shop, ch. vii., p. 35. That you become the sole inheritor of the wealth of this rich oldhunks.
1846.Melville,Moby Dick, 75 (ed. 1892). Bildad, I am sorry to say, had the reputation of being an incorrigible oldhunks.
1857.A. Trollope,Three Clerks, ch. iii. I am sure he is a cross oldhunks, though Mamma says he’s not.
1893.Theodore Martin,Roman Elegies, ii. (Goethe Society Trans., 1891–2, p. 72). Joys that he stints not his gold like the closehunxesof Rome.
Hunky,adj.(American).—Good; jolly; a general superlative. AlsoHunkidorum.
d.1867.Browne, ‘Artemus Ward,’The Shakers(Railway ed.), p. 43. ‘Hunkyboy! Go it my gay and festive cuss!’
1873.Justin McCarthy,Fair Saxon, ch. xxxviii. The guard dies, but never surrenders! Fine, isn’t it? But thehunky-boy that said that surrendered all the same.
1888.Texas Siftings, 20 Oct. Robert is allhunky, but he had a mighty close call the week before last.
Hunt,verb.(old).—To decoy apigeon(q.v.) to the tables. Hencehunting= card-sharping.Flat-catching(q.v.).
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.Hunting(c.), decoying or drawing others into Play.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
To hunt for soft spots,verb. phr.(American).—To make oneself comfortable; to seek one’s ease.
1888.San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 Mar. It was demnition hot, and I commenced tohunt for soft spotsin my saddle.
To hunt grass,verb. phr.(pugilists’).—To be knocked down;to be grassed(q.v.). Also, to be puzzled; to be dumfoundered.
1869.Clemens[Mark Twain],Innocents at Home, ch. ii. Ihunt grassevery time.
To hunt leather,verb. phr.(cricketers’).—To field at cricket.
1892.Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 21 Sep. p. 13, c. 2. For nearly ten years I earned a living—and a good one—by ‘wielding the willow’ andhunting the leather.
To hunt the dummy,verb. phr.(thieves’).—To steal pocket books.
1878.Charles Hindley,Life and Times of James Catnach, p. 171. (Chorus)—Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, And finelyhunt the dummy.
To hunt the squirrel,verb. phr.(old).—Seequot.[384]
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.Hunting the Squirrel, an amusement practised by post boys, and stage coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman, or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to behunted.
In, orout of,the hunt,adv. phr.(colloquial).—Having a chance, or none;inorout of the swim(q.v.). Admitted to, or outside, a circle or society.
Hunt-about,subs.(colloquial).—1. A prying gossip.
2. (common).—A walking whore.
Hunt-counter,subs.(old).—A beggar.
1623.Shakspeare, 2Henry IV., i., 2. Youhunt-counter, hence! Avaunt!
Hunters.Pitching the hunters,verb. phr.(costermongers’).Seequot.
1851–61.Mayhew,Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 390.Pitching the huntersis the three sticks a penny, with the snuff-boxes stuck upon sticks; if you throw your stick, and they fall out of the hole, you are entitled to what you knock off.
1876.Hindley,Cheap Jack, p. 235. When … there was no cattle jobbing to be done, he wouldpitch the hunters, that is, put up the ‘three sticks a penny’ business.
Hurly-Burly,subs.(old: now colloquial).—A commotion; a bustle; an uproar.
c.1509–1547.Lusty Juventus(Dodsley), [Old Plays, 4th ed., 1874, ii., 85]. What ahurly-burlyis here! Smick smack, and all this gear!
1539.Tavernier,Garden of Wysdom, E. ii. verso. Thys kynge [Gelo] on a tyme exacted money of hys comons, whome when he perceuyed in ahurly burlyfor the same, and ready to make an insurrection, he thus sodaynly appeased.
1542.Udall,Apophthegms of Erasmus[1877], p. 115. the meaning of the Philosophier was, that princes for the ambition of honour, rule and dominion, being in continuall strife, andhurlee burlee, are in very deede persons full of miserie and wo.
1551.More,Utopia, (Pitt Press ed., 1884, i., 52, 5). Whereby so many nations for his sake should be broughte into a troublesomehurlei-burley.
1567.Fenton,Tragical Dicsourses, f. 104. They heard a great noyse andhurleyburleyin the street of the Guard and chief officers of the Watch.
1592.Nashe,Pierce Penilesse(Grosart,Works, ii., 53). Not trouble our peaceable Paradise with their privatehurlie-burliesabout strumpets.
1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v., 293). Put them in feare where no feare is, and make ahurlie-burliein the realm.
1606.Shakspeare,Macbeth, i., 1. When thehurley-burley’sdone, When the battle’s lost and won.
1619.T. North’sDiall of Princes(1557), corrected, p. 703, c. 1. Two or three dayes before you shall see such resort of persons, suchhurly burly, such flying this way,such sending that way, some occupyed in telling the cookes how many sorts of meates they will have.…
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1771.Smollett,Humphrey Clinker(ed. 1890, p. 185). As for the lawyer he waited below till thehurly-burlywas over, and then he stole softly to his own chamber.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. J. and H.Smith,Horace in London, pp. 18–25, Ode ii., ‘Hurly-burly’ (Title).
1886.Max Adeler,Out of theHurly-Burly. Title.[385]
1893.St. James’s Gazette, xxvii., 4076, p. 4. While all London was making holiday, Paris was engaged in ahurly-burlyof a very different kind.
Hurra’s-nest,subs.(nautical).—The utmost confusion; everything topsy-turvy. For synonyms,seeSixes and Sevens.
1840.R. H. Dana,Two Years Before the Mast, ch. ii. Everything was pitched about in grand confusion. There was a completehurrah’s nest, as the sailors say, ‘everything on top and nothing at hand.’
1869.Mrs. Stowe,Old Townsfolks, ch. iv. You’ve got our clock all to pieces, and have been keeping up a perfecthurrah’s nestin our kitchen for three days. Do either put that clock together or let it alone.
Hurrah in Hell.Not to care a single hurrah in hell,verb. phr.(American).—To be absolutely indifferent.
1893.Harold Frederic,National Observer, IX., 1 Apr., p. 493, col. 2. I don’t care a singlehurrah in sheol.
Hurry,subs.(musical).—A quick passage on the violin, or a roll on the drum, leading to a climax in the representation.
1835.Dickens,Sketches by Boz, p. 66. The wrongful heir comes in to two bars of quick music (technically called ahurry).
Hurry-curry,subs.(obsolete).—Seequot.
1599.Nashe,Lenten Stuffe(Grosart,Works, v. 267). The … was so in his humps upon it … that he had thought to have tumbled hishurrie currie, or … can, into the sea.
Hurry-durry,adj.(old).—Rough; boisterous; impatient of counsel or control.
1677.Wycherley,Plain Dealer, i., 1. ’Tis ahurrydurryblade.
Hurrygraph,subs.(American).—A hastily written letter.
1861.Independent, 31 July. I must close thishurrygraph, which I have no time to review.
Hurry-whore,subs.(old).—A walking strumpet.
1630.Taylor,Wks.And I doe wish with all my heart, that the superfluous number of all our hyreling hackney carryknaves, andhurry-whores, with their makers and maintainers, were there, where they might never want continuall imployment.
Husband’s-boat,subs.(common).—The Saturday boat to Margate during the summer season.
c.1867.Vance,Broadside Ballad.‘TheHusband’s Boat.’
1887.Murray, inNew Eng. Dict., Pt. III., p. 956, c. 3. Waiting at Margate Pier for thehusband’s boaton Saturday afternoon.
Husband’s-supper.To warm the husband’s supper,verb. phr.(common).—To sit before the fire with lifted skirts. Fr.,faire chapelle.
Husband’s-tea,subs.(common).—Weak tea;water bewitched(q.v.).
Hush,verb.(old).—To kill.—Grose.
Hush-money,subs.(old: now recognised).—Money paid for silence, to quash a case, or stay a witness; a bribe; blackmail.
1709.Steele,Tatler, No. 26. I expecthush-moneyto be regularly sent for every folly or vice any one commits in this whole town.
1713.Guardian, No. 26. A poor chambermaid has sent in ten shillings out of herhush-money, to expiate her guilt of being in her mistress’s secret.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.[386]
1748.T. Dyche,Dictionary(5th Ed.), s.v.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1852.Dickens,Bleak House, ch. xxxvii. To allow Ada to be made a bribe andhush-moneyof, is not the way to bring it out.
1884.Spectator, p. 530. They were disappointed of theirhush-money, but he gave them an easy revenge.
Hush-shop(or-crib),subs.(common).—An unlicensed tavern.
1872.Globe, 18 Sep. At Barrow-in-Furness the new Licensing Act has had the effect of calling numeroushush shopsinto existence.
Husky,subs.(Winchester College).—Gooseberry fool with the husks in it, obsolete. [Notions.]
1870.Mansfield,School Life, p. 145. There were two kinds [Gooseberry fool]Huskyand non-husky.
Adj.(American).—Stout; well built.
Husky-lour,subs.(Old Cant).—A guinea; ajob(q.v.). For synonyms,seeCanary.
1690. B. E.,Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v.
1725.New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785.Grose,Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Hussy,subs.(colloquial).—A corruption ofhousewife(q.v.).
Hustle,verb.(venery).—1. To copulate. For synonyms,seeGreensandRide.
2. (American).—To bestir oneself; to go to work with vigour and energy. Also tohustle around.
Hustler,subs.(American).—An active, busy man or woman. Ahummer(q.v.); arustler(q.v.).
1890.Harold Frederic,Lawton Girl. A whimsical query as to whether this calamitous boy had also been named Benjamin Franklin crossed his confused mind, and then … whether the child if so named, would be ahustleror not.
Hutch,subs.(common).—A place of residence or employment; one’sdiggings(q.v.).
Hutter.SeeHatter.
Huxter,subs.(common).—Money. AlsoHoxter. For synonyms,seeActualandGilt.
c.186(?).Broadside Ballad.These seven long years I’ve been serving, and Seven I’ve got for to stay, All for meeting a bloke down our alley And a-taking hishuxtersaway.
Huzzy(orHuzzie),subs.(old).—A case of needles, pins, scissors, bodkins, etc.; ahousewife’scompanion.
Hymeneal-Sweets,subs.(venery).—Copulation.
1604.Marston,Malcontent, i., 3. True to her sheetes, nay, diets strong his blood, To give her height ofhymeneall sweetes.
Hypernese,subs.(Winchester College).—Seequot.Ziph(q.v.).
1864.The Press, 12 Nov. p. 1098. This dialect of school cryptoëpy was known in our youth asHypernese. When spoken fast it defies an outsider’s curiosity. If two consonants commence a syllable, the former is dropped, and W substituted: thus breeches would bewareechepes. If P commences a syllable, G is interpolated: thus penny would bepegennepy.… That Ziph and its cognate languages are well known beyond the boundaries of Winchester is certain. Bishop Wilkins described it, without mentioning it as a novelty, a couple of centuries ago.
Hyphenated American,subs.(American).—A naturalised citizen, as German-Americans, Irish-Americans, and the like. [Nortons.][387]
Hypocrite,subs.(American).—A pillow slip or ‘sham.’
Hypogastric-cranny,subs.(venery).—The femalepudendum.—Urquhart.For synonyms,seeMonosyllable.
Hyps(orHypo),subs.(old).—TheBlue Devils(q.v.).
1710.Swift,Tatler, No. 230. Will Hazard has got thehipps, having lost to the tune of five hund’rd pound.
1729.Swift,Poems(Chalmers,English Poets, 1810, xi., 486). And the doctor was plaguilydown in the hips.
1738.Swift’sPolite Conversation, Dial.1. Her ladyship was plaguily bamb’d; I warrant it put her into thehipps.
1811.Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1830.C. Lamb,Pawnbroker’s Daughter, i., 2. The drops so like to tears did drip, They gave my infant nerves thehyp.
1854.Haliburton,Americans at Home, i., 176. The old man would give up to thehypo, and keep his bed for weeks. During this time, he wouldn’t say a word, but ‘I’m not long for this world.’
End of Vol. III.
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