Chapter XV: Part 15

1759. Goldsmith, The Bee, No. 1. One writer, for instance, excels
at a plan or a title-page, another works away the body of the book,
and a third is a dab at an index.

1838. Comic Almanack, p. 148. Such a dab to get up a commission.

1849. J. D. Lewis, in Whibley, p. 231. When Hicks, who’s no dab,
with his oar cuts a crab, And our coxswain he swears like the
devil.

1860. Dickens, Great Expectations, ch. xlii., p. 200. He was a
smooth one to talk, and was a dab at the ways of gentlefolks.

2. (common).—A bed. For synonyms, see Bug-walk and Kip.

1823. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Mace:...
Vhen ve’ve had the liqvor, ve’ll kick up a reel, and all go to our
dabs.

3. (river-side thieves’).—The drowned corpse of an outcast woman.

4. (old).—A trifle.

1745. Walpole to Mann, ii., 53. The Count may have procured for her
some dirty dab of a negotiation about some acre of territory more
for Hanover.

Adj. (colloquial).—1. Clever; skilled; expert.—See subs., sense 1. Fr., avoir le ponce long, or rond, i.e., ‘to have a long or round thumb.’

2. (back slang).—Bad. A dabheno, a bad market, day, or sale, Doogheno = a good day, etc.; dab tros = a bad sort.

1877. Diprose, London Life. I’ve been doing awful dab with my tol
(lot) or stock, have’nt made a yennep (penny).

Rum-dabe, subs. (old).—The same as dab, subs., sense 1. [Rum (q.v.) is Old Cant for ‘good.’]

Dab down, verbal phr. (common).—To pay; hand over; to ‘post’ or ‘shell out’ (q.v. for synonyms).

To dab it up [with a woman], verbal phr. (old).—To pair off; to agree to cohabitation.

Dabster, subs. (colloquial).—An expert or dab (q.v.).

1877. J. Greenwood, Dick Temple, ch. iii. ‘Not in the least like
the performance of an amateur dabster,’ remarked Jack Mallet,
admiringly. ‘Much more like the work of an old master for style and
finish.’

Dace, subs. (old).—Two-pence; in America, two cents. [From ‘deuce.’]

Dacha-Saltee, subs. (thieves’ and vagrants’).—A franc; or tenpence English. [From the Italian dieci soldi.]—See Saltee.

1861. Reade, Cloister and Hearth, ch. lv. What with my crippledom
and thy piety, a wheeling of thy poor old dad, we’ll bleed the
bumpkins of a dacha-saltee.

Dad-Binged (also -Blamed, -Fetched), -Gasted, -Goned, -Rotted, or -Snatched, ppl. adj. (American).—Half veiled oaths; ‘whips to beat the devil round the stump.’ [Dad is a corrupted form of ‘God,’ which, with other forms, (Dod-, Dog-, etc.), is found in various combinations, as above.] For synonyms, see Oaths.

1887. Scribner’s Magazine. ‘Dadgum ye!’ cried Jeff, irritably,
‘whut—by grabs, hit’s a human critter!’

1888. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
p. 122. A chile er two, mo ’er less, warn’t no consekens to
Sollermun, dad-fetch him. Ibid. ‘Why, Mars Tom, I doan want no
rats. Dey’s de dad-blamedest creturs to ’sturb a body ... I ever
see.’

Dad-Dad, Mum-Mum or Daddy-Mammy, subs. phr. (military).—A beginner’s practice on the drum.

Daddle, subs. (common).—The hand; or fist. To tip the daddle, to shake hands. For synonyms, see Bunch of fives, to which may be added the following lists:—

English Synonyms. Chalk-farm; claw; clutch; cornstealer; duke; fam; famble; feeler; fin; flapper; flipper; forceps; forefoot; fork; grappling-iron or hook; goll (old); oar; paddle; palette; paw; plier; shaker; wing; Yarmouth mitten.

French Synonyms. Les abatis or abattis (popular: a term applied to both hands and feet; properly giblets); l’agrafe (common; hook or clasp); la croche (thieves’: properly a quaver; possibly influenced by croc = hook, grapnel, or drag; an allusion to the hooked appearance of the musical note); la cuiller (popular: literally a spoon); les brancards (popular: this expression, like abatis, is also used of the feet; properly = shafts, as of a cart); l’arguemine (thieves’); le battoir (popular: properly a washerwoman’s ‘bat’); un gigot (popular: a large, thick hand, a ‘mutton fist’); le grappin; les harpions (also = feet).

Italian Synonym. Gramoso (properly ‘a wretch’); cerra.

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

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143, s.v.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Mem. to Cong., p. 23. From this to the
finish, ’twas all fiddle-faddle, Poor Georgy, at last, could scarce
hold up his daddle. Ibid. With daddles high uprais’d, and nob held
back, In awful prescience of th’ impending thwack.

1827. Scott, Two Drovers, ch. ii. Ah, this comes of living so long
with kilts and bonnets—men forget the use of their daddles.

1842. Punch, vol. III, p. 136. And her daddle link’d in his’n gone
to roam as lovers use.

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. v. ‘Tip us your daddle, my
boy,’ said the second speaker.

Daddy, subs. (general).—1. The superintendent of a casual ward; generally an old pauper.

2. (theatrical).—A stage manager.—See quot.

1886. Graphic, 10 April, p. 399. The manager himself is sometimes
known as the ‘gorger,’ and daddy is the stage-manager.

3. (common).—A confederate of ‘workers’ of mock raffles, lotteries, etc.; generally the person selected to receive the prize.

Daddyism, subs. (American).—Pride of birth.

1871. Kate Field, in Harper’s Bazaar, Aug. An Eastern man
commending the services of a young Philadelphian to a Chicago
tradesman, said: ‘He comes of a very good family; his grandfather
was a distinguished man.’ ‘Was he?’ replied the man of Chicago.
‘That’s of no account with us. There’s less daddyism here than any
part of the United States. What’s he himself.’

Daffy or Daffy’s Elixir, subs. (common).—Gin. [From a popular medicine sold as early as the beginning of the eighteenth century: see advertisements (1709), in Ashton’s Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, i., pp. 7, 8: now known as ‘Tincture of Senna.’] For synonyms, see Drinks.

1821. The Fancy, vol. I., p. 304. While carrying on his new
vocation of publican, Jack did not deny himself the use of drops of
daffy.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 2. Take some
daffy to the back parlour.

1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 430. When I goes in
where they are a havin’ their daffies—that’s drops o’ gin, sir.

1871. London Figaro, 15 April. [If the baby] should bawl
persistently ... he would ... thoroughly dose it with daffy.

1882. Punch, vol. LXXXII., 193. They had low foreheads, and wore
big buttonholes, for so they termed the flowers, it was ‘the thing’
to wear. A good many of them, too, had been partaking freely of
daffy.

Daffy-Down-Dilly, subs. (old).—A dandy; one ‘got up regardless.’ For synonyms, see Dandy.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 2. Bob: I’m
here, my daffy-down-dilly!

Dagen, subs. (old).—An ‘artful member.’ [From dagen, a sword or dagger.] For synonyms, see Downy cove. Dagger = the penis.

Dagger-Cheap, adj. phr. (old).—‘Dirt’ cheap. [From an ordinary of low repute in Holborn, notorious for the coarseness of its entertainment.—See Jonson’s Alchemist, v., 2, and Devil is an Ass, i., 1.]

1631. Bishop Andrewes, Sermons (posthumous). We set our wares at a
very easy price; he (the devil) may buy us even dagger-cheap, as we
say.

Dags, subs. (common).—A feat; a performance or work, e.g., I’ll do your dags = an incitement to emulation. [From dag, the old Saxon form of ‘day.’ Darg for a day’s work is common in Scotland. A love-darg is a day’s free help given to a farmer by his neighbours.]

1879. Notes and Queries, 5 S., xii., 15 Aug., p. 128. ‘I’ll do you
(or your) dags.’ An expression used by children of young, and
sometimes of older, growth, meaning, ‘I’ll do something that you
cannot do.’

1886. Fun. He was very fond of what, in schoolboy days, we used to
call doing dags.

Daily Levy, subs. (journalistic).—The Daily Telegraph. [This London daily was established by Mr. Edward Levy Lawson.]

Dairy, subs. (common).—The paps. To air the dairy = to expose the breast.

English Synonyms. Bubs or bubbies; charlies; blubber; butter-boxes; butter-bags; berkeleys; cat-heads; diddies; globes; dugs; milk-walk; milk-shop; milky way; dumplings; udder (Browning); ‘Nature’s founts’; feeding bottles; ‘charms’; hemispheres; apple-dumpling shop; meat market; poonts; titties; cabman’s rests (rhyming); baby’s bottom.

French Synonyms. Les avantages (familiar); l’avant-cœur (popular = the fore-heart; as l’avant-bras = the fore-arm); l’avant-main; les avant-scènes (properly that goes before; the front of a stage); les avant-postes (literally, the outposts); l’oranger (popular = the orange-tree. Cf., des oranges sur l’étagère); les nénais or nénets (popular); deux œufs sur le plat (common); le monzu or mouzu (Old Cant); des blagues à tabac (popular = tobacco-pouches); des bessons (common = twins); une étagère or un étal (properly a butcher’s stall; étalage = goods exposed for sale; Cf., étaler sa marchandise = to wear a low-necked dress); la doublure de la pièce (popular); devant de gilet (popular: un gilet à la mode = well-developed paps); une livraison de bois devant sa porte (popular); le ragoût de la poitrine (ragoût = pleasure, poitrine = breast); la mappe-monde (popular: literally a map of the two hemispheres); les nichons (familiar); il y a du monde au balcon (said of one with large paps); les bossoirs (sailors’; gabarit sans bossoirs = thin or withered paps); les calebasses (= gourds); les éclaireurs (popular: scouts); des gibasses (popular: skinny paps); des œufs sur la place d’armes (popular).

German Synonym. Gleishaus (i.e., milk-house; Gleis = milk).

Italian Synonym. Tetta.

Spanish Synonyms. Balso-peto (m; properly = a large pouch carried near the breast); chiche or chichi (f; a Mexican vulgarism); pechera (f; also = a stomacher or frill on the bosom of a shirt).

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Daisies, subs. (general).—Boots. Cf., Daisy-roots, and for synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 503. While waiting for my
pal I had my daisies cleaned.

To turn up one’s toes to the daisies.—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft and Hop the twig.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Babes in the Wood). Be kind to
those dear little folks When our toes are turned up to the daisies.

Daisy, subs. (American).—A man or thing first-rate of a kind. Also equivalent to Dandy, subs., sense 4.

c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, ‘Mrs. Brady’s Daughter.’ She’s such a
daisy, she sets me crazy.

1888. Denver Republican, May. Jack Dempsey is beyond compare a
pugilistic daisy.

1890. Rudyard Kipling, Fuzzy Wuzzy, in Scots Observer, iv., p. 439,
col. 1. ’E’s a daisy, ’e’s a ducky, ’e’s a lamb.

Adj. (American).—First-rate; A1.

1889. Puck’s Library, April, p. 7. Big scene of boats ascending
Nile cataracts—new sensation, never done before—and chance for
daisy effects in the desert.

Daisy Beat.—See under Beat.

Daisy-Beaters.—See Creepers.

Daisy-Cutter, subs. (common).—1. A horse whether good or bad. Also daisy-kicker. Fr., un rase-tapis.

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

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. iii. I should like to try that
daisy-cutter of yours upon a piece of level road (barring canter)
for a quart of claret at the next inn.

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood. Song, ‘The Game of High Toby.’ But
what daisy-cutter can match that black tit.

1866. C. Reade, Griffith Gaunt, ch. i. Others galloped uselessly
about pounding the earth, for daisy-cutters were few in those days.

2. (cricket).—A ball which travels more than half the ‘pitch’ along the ground without rising; a ‘sneak.’ Wykehamicè, ‘a ramrod.’—See Grub.

Daisy-Kicker, subs. (old).—1. A horse. Cf., Daisy-cutter and Grogham. For synonyms, see Prad.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 48. The hostler then says,
‘He has a choice nag or daisy-kicker to sell or swap.’

2. (old).—An ostler. [By implication from sense 1.]

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 39. Daisy-kickers are
Hostlers belonging to large inns; and are known to each other by
this name.

Daisy-Roots (rhyming slang).—Boots. Also daisies. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases. Fr., des salaires.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. I piped [saw] three
or four pair of daisy-roots (boots).

To pick a daisy, verbal phr. (common).—To evacuate in the open air; also, to retire to make water.

Daisyville, subs. (thieves’).—The country. Also deuseaville.

English Synonym. Monkery.

French Synonyms. La camplouse; la cambrouse; le pasclin or pasquelin.

Italian Synonyms. Longa (literally = an expanse); polverosa (literally = dusty); graziosa (literally = graceful).

1622. Head and Kirkman, ‘Canting Song.’ This Doxie Dell can cut
bien whids, And drill well for a win; And prig and cloy so
benshiply, All the deusea-vile within.

Dakma, verb (thieves’).—To silence.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

1881. New York Slang Dict. I had to dakma the bloke to cly the
swag.

Dam. Not to care or be worth a dam, phr. (common).—To care or be worth nothing. [The dam or dawm is an Indian coin worth barely the fortieth part of a rupee.] Cf., Care and Fig.

Damage, subs. (colloquial).—The cost of anything; the sum total in the sense of recompense. ‘What’s the damage?’ ‘what’s to pay?’ also What’s the swindle? (q.v.). [An allusion to damages at law.]

b. 1788, d. 1824. Byron [quoted in Annandale]. Many thanks, but I
must pay the damage and will thank you to tell me the amount of the
engraving.

1852. H. B. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. xiv. Well, now, my good
fellow, what’s the damage, as they say in Kentucky; in short,
what’s to be paid out for this business.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 576. When he wishes to know what he
has to pay, he asks, What’s the damage? or not so charitably,
What’s the swindle?

Damaged, ppl. adj. (common).—Drunk; screwed (q.v. for synonyms).—See Drinks.

Damber, subs. (old).—A man, cove, or cull belonging to the fraternity of vagabonds. For synonyms, see Cove.

Damme, Dammy or Dammy-Boy, subs. (old).—A sixteenth and seventeenth century roysterer; a blustering fellow. [So called from the excess to which swearing was carried by the rakes of the day.]

1654. Witts, Recreations. To valiant dammee. Dam-me, thy brain is
valiant, ’tis confest; Thou more, that with it every day dar’st
jest Thy self into fresh braules; but call’d upon, With swearing
dam-me, answer’st every one. Keep thy self there, and think thy
valour right, He that dares damne himself, dares more than fight.

1687. Cleveland, Works. Depriver of those solid joys, Which sack
creates; author of noise Among the roaring punks and dammy-boys.

Dam Nasty Oath, subs. phr. (American).—A corruption of amnesty oath. [Southerners, at the close of the Civil War, were required, as an outward sign of submission to the Union, to subscribe to certain conditions, upon which a free pardon was granted. The terms were deemed unpalatable—hence dam nasty oath.]

Damned-Soul, subs. (old).—A Customs House clearing clerk. [Because to avoid perjury he was alleged to have taken a general oath never to swear truly in making ‘declarations.’] [Lexicon Balatronicum, 1811.]

Damp (Generally, something damp), subs. phr. (common).—A drink; or ‘go’ (q.v. for synonyms).

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxvii., p. 228. ‘So we’ll just give
ourselves a damp, Sammy.’ Saying this, Mr. Weller mixed two glasses
of spirits and water, and produced a couple of pipes.

Damper, subs. (thieves’).—1. A till or ‘lob.’ Drawing a damper = robbing a till, i.e., ‘lob-sneaking.’

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 445, s.v.

2. (tailors’).—A sweater; one who takes as much as possible out of workmen for a minimum of pay.

3. (colloquial).—He or that which damps, chills, or discourages.

4. (old).—Ale or stout after spirits and water.—See Cooler.

5. (old).—A snack between meals.—See senses 6 and 7.

6. (schoolboys’).—A suet pudding served before meat. Cf., senses 4 and 5.

7. (Australian).—Unleavened bread made of flour and water and baked in thin cakes, in a frying pan or on a flat stone in wood ashes.

1885. G. A. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, 3 Sept., p. 5, col. 5. They
got enough flour from Sydney to make their dampers.

1886. G. Sutherland, Australia, p. 77. They must at least receive a
‘pannikin’ of flour and be allowed to bake it up into a piece of
damper at the cooking fire.

Damp One’s Mug, verbal phr. (common).—To drink. For synonyms, see Lush.

Damp-Pot, subs. (tailors’).—The sea; specifically the Atlantic. For synonyms, see Briny and Puddle.

Damp the Sawdust, verbal phr. (licensed victuallers’).—To ‘crack a bottle’ with friends ‘for luck’ on starting a new ‘house.’

Damson-Pie, subs. (Black Country).—A Birmingham and ‘black country’ term for ‘Billingsgatry.’

1888. W. Black, Strange Adv. of House Boat, ch. viii. Even if you
were to hear some of the Birmingham lads giving each other a dose
of damson-pie ... you wouldn’t understand a single sentence.

Dance, subs. (thieves’).—A staircase or flight of steps. A contraction of the older form—dancers. [Ducange Anglicus, 1857.]

Verb (old).—1. To be hanged. Also to dance upon nothing and to dance the Paddington frisk. Fr., danser une danse où il n’y a pas d’plancher and faire la bénédiction du pied en l’air. For synonyms, see Ladder.

1839. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, ch. xxxi. ‘My limbs feel so
light, now that my irons are removed,’ he observed with a smile,
‘that I am half inclined to dance.’ ‘You’ll dance upon nothing,
presently,’ rejoined Jonathan, brutally.

1840. Hood, Miss Kilmansegg. Just as the felon condemned to die,
With a very natural loathing, Leaving the sheriff to dream of
ropes, From his gloomy cell in a vision elopes To a caper on sunny
greens and slopes Instead of the dance upon nothing.

1864. Daily News, 2 Dec. Another synonym for being hanged is
dancing on nothing in a hempen cravat.

2. (printers’).—Type dances if letters drop out when the forme is lifted.

To dance Barnaby.—See Barnaby.

Dance of Death, subs. phr. (old).—Hanging. Cf., Dance, verb, sense 1.

Dancers, subs. (thieves’).—1. Stairs; a flight of steps. Fr., les grimpants.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 52 (1874). Track
up the dancers, go up the stayres.

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

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. II., ch. vii. ‘Bob, track the dancers.
Up like a lark—and down like a dump.’ Bob grinned ... and scampered
up the stairs.

1858. Lytton, What will he do with it? bk. III., ch. xvi. Come, my
Hebe, track the dancers, that is, go up the stairs.

2. sing. (thieves’).—Also dancing master. A thief whose speciality is prowling about the roofs of houses and effecting an entrance through attic and upper storey windows; a garreteer (q.v.). [In allusion to dexterity of walk.] For synonyms, see Area-sneak.

Dancing-Master, subs. (old).—1. A species of Mohock or dandy, temp. Queen Anne. [Who made his victims caper by running his sword through the legs; for detailed description, see Spectator (1712), No. 324.] For list of synonyms, see Dandy.

2. (thieves’).—See Dancers, sense 2.

3. (old).—The hangman; Jack Ketch.—See Dance, verb, sense 1.

D and D, phr. (police).—‘Drunk and disorderly’ (in connection with charge sheet cases). A synonym is Lushy and Stropolus.

1889. Answers, 2 March, p. 218, col. 1. Last New Year’s Day he took
over 14s. to my certain knowledge, for the old man was up for d and
d, trying to break a window with his broom.

Dander, subs. (colloquial).—Anger. To raise one’s dander or Get one’s dander up or riz = to make or get angry. [Derivation uncertain; provincial in several English counties.]

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxi., p. 223. I do my duty;
and I raise the dander of my feller critters, as I wish to serve;
... they rile up rough, along of my objecting to their selling Eden
off too cheap.

1848–62. J. Russell Lowell, Biglow Papers. Wut’ll make ye act like
freemen? Wut’ll git your dander riz?

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xliii. Don’t talk to me about
daring to do this thing or t’other, or when my dander is up, it’s
the very thing to urge me on.

1863. Punch, 7 Feb. If John Bull had riz our dander, Settin’ foot
on yonder shore, Then we should have holler’d grander Than the
broad Atlantic’s roar.

1872. Chamb. Journal, 14 Dec., p. 791. They knew he’d never find
out who did it, for he was in such an awful dander.

Dandered, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Angry; ‘mad.’

1890. H. D. Traill, Saturday Songs, ‘The Precipitate Grandmother,’
p. 30. Whose way of tackling dandered snakes Is to perpitiate the
critters With hominy an’ buckwheat cakes And pumpkin-squash an’
apple fritters.

Dando, subs. (common).—A great eater; a glutton; specifically a sharper who subsists at the expense of hotels, restaurants, or oyster bars. [From one dando, a ‘bouncing, seedy swell,’ hero of a hundred ballads, notorious for being ‘charged’ at least twice a month with bilking.]

18(?). Thackeray, The Professor. ‘What a flat you are,’ shouted he
in a voice of thunder, ‘to think I’m agoing to pay! Pay! I never
pay—I’m Dando.’

1850. Macaulay, Journal in Life, by Trevelyan, ch. xii., p. 539
(1884), April 27.—To Westbourne Terrace, and passed an hour in
playing with Alice.... I was dando at a pastry cook’s and then at
an oyster shop.

1885. Ill. London News, 15 Aug., p. 154, col. 3. One day we are
told that the couplet should be:—Oysters, you’ll find, are best by
far In every month which ends with an r. Next day this is
pooh-poohed, and we are to read, instead:—Oysters, you’ll find, are
best by far In every month which contains an r. Spiritualists might
be kind enough to consult dando, who would, no doubt, have the true
version at his finger’s ends, so as to rap it out on the instant.

Dandy, subs. (formerly slang, now recognized).—1. A fop; a coxcomb; a man who pays excessive attention to dress. The feminine forms, ‘dandilly’ and ‘dandizette,’ did not ‘catch on.’ Dandy was first applied half in admiration, half in derision to a fop about the year 1816. John Bee (Slang Dict., 1823) says that Lord Petersham was the chief of these successors to the departed Macaronis, and gives, as their peculiarities, ‘French gait, lispings, wrinkled foreheads, killing king’s English, wearing immense plaited pantaloons, coat cut away, small waistcoat, cravat and chitterlings immense, hat small, hair frizzled and protruding.’ In common English dandy has come to be applied to such as are neat and careful in dressing according to fashion. [From dandy-pratt (q.v.).]

English Synonyms. Beau; blade; blood; buck; chappie; corinthian; count; court-card; cheese; daffy-down-dilly; dancing-master; dude; dundreary; exquisite; flasher; fop; gallant; gommy; gorger; Jemmy Jessamy; Johnny; lounger; macaroni; masher; mohawk; nerve; nicker; nizzie; nob; oatmeal; scourer; smart; spark; sweater; swell; toff; tip-topper; tumbler; yum-yun.

French Synonyms. Un gandin (popular = a frequenter of the old Boulevard de Gand); un gommeux; un mouchard; un mouget; un petit maître; un talon-rouge (from the red heels worn in the seventeenth century); un incroyable (a ‘swell’ of the Directoire period, as also un merveilleux); un mirliflore (an allusion to millefleurs, a favourite perfume); un muscadin; un élégant; un dandy; un lion; un fashionable; un cocodès; un crevé; un petit crevé; un col-cassé; un luisant; un poisseux; un boudiné; un pschutteux; un exhumé; un gratiné; un faucheur; un bécarre; un daim; un excellent bon; un fade; un fadard; un gilet en cœur; un muguet (properly lily of the valley. Cf., daffy-down-dilly).

Spanish Synonyms. Don guindo; hopeo; pisaverde.

1818. Carlyle, in Early Letters (Norton), vol. I., p. 158. When I
walk along the streets, I see fair women ... and fops (dandies as
they are called in current slang), shaped like an
hour-glass—creatures whose life and death, as Crispin pithily
observes, ‘I esteem of like importance, and decline to speak of
either.’

1821. Coombe, Syntax, Wife, c. iv. I met just now, upon the stairs,
A dandy in his highest airs.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. viii. Great dandy was Mr.
Bobbin; he looked just as if he had come out of the tailors’ hands.

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, pt. I., ch. i. What is now the dandy was
then [1780] the Buck.

1866. W. D. Howells, Venetian Life, ch. xx. He is a dandy, of
course,—all Italians are dandies,—but his vanity is perfectly
harmless, and his heart is not bad.

1890. Lord Lamington, The Days of the Dandies [Title].

2. (thieves’).—A bad gold coin. [In allusion to its careful make and composition, this coin containing a certain proportion of pure gold.]

1883. Jas. Greenwood, Tag, Rag, and Co., p. 24. It is not in paltry
pewter ‘sours’ with which the young woman has dealings, but in
dandys, which, rendered into intelligible English, means imitation
gold coin—half-sovereigns and whole ones.

3. (Irish).—A ‘small whiskey.’

1838. Blackwood’s Mag., May, ‘Father Tom and the Pope.’ ‘Dimidium
cyathi vero apud Metropolitanos Hibernicos dicitur dandy.’

1883. Hawley Smart, Hawkins, ch. vi. It’s beautiful punch—ah, well,
as you’re so pressing, I’ll just take another dandy.

4. (American).—Anything first-rate; a daisy (q.v.). Also used adjectively.

1888. Superior Inter-Ocean. Dr. H. Conner has invested in a fine
piece of horse-flesh. The animal was purchased in Oshkosh, and has
a record of 3′37. It is said to be a dandy.

1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, 21 Jan. My box ain’t no good
mister, but I know a feller over dere dat’s got de dandy one.

1888. Missouri Republican, 2 Feb. I’m a terror from Philadelphia,
and I can lick any man in the world. I’m a dandy from away back;
the farther back they come the dandier they are, and I come from
the furthest back.

The dandy, adv. phr. (common).—All right; ‘your sort’; ‘the ticket.’ Cf., Dandy, sense 4. A north-country song has the line, ‘The South Shields lasses are The Dandy O!’

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxvi. I guess our great
nation may be stumped to produce more eleganter liquor than this
here. It’s the dandy, that’s a fact.

1884. Notes and Queries, 6 S., ix., p. 35. I not long since heard a
carpenter whose saw did not cut, wanting, as he expressed it, ‘to
be sharpn’d,’ and who took up another in better condition, say,
‘Ah! that’s the dandy.’

Dandy-Master, subs. (thieves’).—The head of a gang of counterfeiters; who makes the coin, but does not himself attempt to pass it. [From dandy, subs., sense 2, + master.]

1883. Greenwood, Tag, Rag, and Co. The spirits obtained being
mostly bottled and labelled, and unopened, find a ready sale at
public-houses known to the dandy-master, so that no serious loss is
experienced in that direction.

Dandypratt or Dandipratt, subs. (old).—Primarily a dwarf; a page; by implication a jackanapes. In all likelihood, the etymon of the modern ‘dandy,’ erroneously derived from the French dandin = a fool, as in Molière, Georges Dandin. [From dandipratt, a half farthing of the time of Henry VII.]

1580. Lingua, or the Five Senses, O. Pl., v., 172. This Heuresis,
this invention, is the proudest Jackanapes, the pertest,
self-conceited boy that ever breathed; because, forsooth, some odd
poet, or some such fantastic fellows, make much on him, there’s no
ho with him; the vile dandiprat will overlook the proudest of his
acquaintance.

1622. Massinger, Virgin-Martyr, II., i. The smug dandiprat smells
us out, whatsoever we are doing.

1657. Middleton, More Dissembler besides Women, Anc. Dr., IV., 372.
There’s no good fellowship in this dandiprat, this divedapper
[didapper], as in other pages.

1706. R. Estcourt, Fair Example, Act iii., Sc. 3, p. 40. Boy. A
candle, sir! ’tis broad daylight yet. Whims. What then, you little
dandiprat? If we have a mind to a candle we will have a candle.

1821. Scott, Kenilwortht, ch. xxvi. It is even so, my little
dandiprat, but who the devil could teach it thee.

Dang it! phr. (provincial).—A euphemism for ‘damn it!’ Also Dang my buttons! and Dang me!

Danglers, subs. (thieves’).—A bunch of seals.

1859. Matsell, Rogues Lexicon, p. 124. And where the swag, so
bleakly pinched, A hundred stretches hence? The thimbles, slang,
and danglers filched, A hundred stretches hence?

Dan Tucker, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—Butter. For synonyms, see Cart-grease.

Darbies, subs. (common).—1. Handcuffs. [Origin uncertain. Father Derby’s name (he is supposed to have been a noted usurer) was already proverbial in 1576, but that is all now known of him.]

English Synonyms. Black-bracelets; buckles; Father derbie’s bands; ruffles; wife; snitchers; clinkers; government securities; twisters; darbies and joans (= fetters coupling two persons).

French Synonyms. Les alliances (popular = wedding rings); une bride (thieves’ = a convicts’ chain); le bouclage (thieves’: also = imprisonment); une cadenne (thieves’: applied to a neck-chain); un cabriolet (thieves’ = a small rope or strap); une guirlande (a chain for two).

Italian Synonym. Trionfo (literally = triumph).

Spanish Synonym. Calceta (properly = understocking).

1576. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, I., 787. To binde such babes in father
derbie’s bands.

1592. Greene, Quip for an Upstart Courtier (Harl. Misc., V., 405).
Then hath my broker an usurer at hand, as ill as himself, and he
brings the money; but they tie the poor soul in such darbies’ bands
[i.e., bonds], what with receiving ill commodities [i.e., goods in
lieu of cash], and forfeitures upon the bond, that they dub him
‘Sir John had Land,’ before they leave him; and share, like wolves,
the poor novice’s wealth betwixt them as a prey.

1602. Carew, Survey of Cornwall, p. 15 (ed. 1769). [Speaking of the
hard dealings and usurious tricks of the marchant Londoners in
their dealings with the Cornish tinners of his day, this writer
tells the wiles by which the poor wretches became bound ‘in
darbye’s bonds.’]

1676. Canting Song, ‘A Warning for Housekeepers.’ But when that we
come to the Whitt, Our darbies to behold.

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

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress p. 77. Thus a new
set of darbies, when first they are worn, Makes the jail-bird
uneasy, though splendid their ray.

1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. lvii. We may as well put on the darbies,
continued he, producing a pair of handcuffs.

1890. Standard, 7 April, p. 6, col. 3. (Addressing the officer):
Didn’t you take me by the scruff of the neck, and hold me whilst
others put the darbies on me?—I did not.

2. (common).—Sausages. Also bags of mystery and chambers of horrors (q.v.).

Darble, subs. (old).—The devil. [A corruption of French diable.]

Darby, subs. (old).—Ready money. [One Derby is supposed to have been a noted sixteenth century usurer.—See quots. under Darbies, sense 1.] For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

1688. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia (list of cant words), s.v.

c. 1712. R. Estcourt, Prunella, Act i., p. 4. Come nimbly lay down
darby; Come, pray sir, don’t be tardy.

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Darby Allen, subs. phr. (Lancashire).—Cajolery; ‘chaff’; ‘gammon.’

Darby-Roll, subs. (old).—A gait peculiar to felons of long standing: the result of long shackles-wearing. Cf., Baker-kneed.

Darby’s-Dyke, subs. (old).—The grave; also death.

Darby’s-Fair, subs. (old).—The day of removal from one prison to another for trial.

Dard, subs. (old).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Dark. To get the dark, verbal phr. (prison).—To be confined in the punishment cell.

Dark-Cull or Cully, subs. (old).—A married man with a secret mistress.—[Grose, 1785.]

Dark-Horse or Dark’un, subs. (turf).—A horse whose pace is unknown to the backers; figuratively, a candidate about whom little is known.

1831. Disraeli, Young Duke, ch. v., p. 66 (ed. 1866). All the
ten-to-oners were in the rear, and a dark horse, which had never
been thought of, and which the careless St. James had never even
observed in the list, rushed past the grand stand in sweeping
triumph.

1853. Diogenes, vol. II., p. 271. Farewell! oh, farewell to the
lists On whose varying prices I’ve hung; I care nought for the
dark-horse that lives Unknown, who shall put me all right.

1884. Hawley Smart, Post to Finish, ch. i. He had beaten everything
that was going to oppose him, with the exception of some two or
three dark colts, of which little was expected.

Dark-House, subs. (old).—A mad-house. Shakspeare (All’s Well, etc., ii., 3) used it to denote the seat of gloom and discontent.

Darkmans, Darks, Darky, subs. (old).—The night; also twilight.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 84. Bene Lightmans to thy
quarromes, in what lipken hast thou lypped in this darkemans,
whether in a lybbege or in the strummell?

1667. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight. ‘Canting Rithmes.’
Enough—with bowsy Cove Maund Nace, Tour the Parting Coue in the
darkeman’s Case.

1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict., s.v.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxviii. I think we should be down
upon the fellow, one of these darkmans, and let him get it well.

1857. Punch, 31 Jan. ‘Dear Bill, this Stone Jug.’ And at darkmans
we run the rig just as we please.

English Synonyms. Blackmans; blind; blindman’s holiday (twilight).

French Synonym. La sorgue, or sorne.

German Synonyms. Mittelaile (midnight); Choschech, Chauschech, or Koschech (from the Hebrew choschach = a moonless night); Eref (specifically the eve of a Sabbath or festival); Fichte (literally a fir-tree); Ratt (Gypsy); Schwärze = (the black ’un); Zofon or Zofen (from Hebrew zophan = to hide).

Italian Synonyms. Bruna or brunora (Fr. brune); materna (properly = the maternal).

Spanish Synonym. Sorna.

Portuguese Synonym. Zona.

Darkman’s Budge, subs. phr. (old).—A housebreaker’s confederate, who slips into a house during the day, hides there, and opens the door at night.—[Grose, 1785.]

Darky, or Darkey, subs. (old).—1. A dark lantern; a bull’s eye.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Stow the darkee and bolt, the cove of
the cub is fly.

2. (old).—The night; the twilight. Also (nautical) darks.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 124. Bless your eyes and
limbs, lay out a mag with poor Chirruping Joe. I don’t come here
every darkey.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 216.
We could average our ‘duey bionk peroon a darkey,’ or two shillings
each, in the night.

1878. C. Hindley, Life and Times of Jas. Catnach. The cleanest
angler on the pad in daylight or the darkey.

3. (common).—A negro. [From his complexion.] For synonyms, see Snowball.

1840. Dana, Two Years before the Mast, ch. xvii. Tom Cringle says
that no one can fathom a negro’s affection for a pig; and I believe
he is right, for it almost broke our poor darky’s heart when he
heard that Bess was to be taken ashore.

1870. Negro Hymn. Walk in, darkies, troo de gate; Hark, de kullered
angels holler; Go ’way, white fokes, ye’re too late, We’s de
winnin’ kuller! Wait, Till de trumwet blow to foller!

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 594. I wish de legislatur’ would
set dis darkie free, Oh! what a happy place den de darkie land
would be; We’d have a darkie Parliament An’ darkie codes of law,
An’ darkie judges on the bench, Darkie barristers and aw’.

Darn, Darned, verb and ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Euphemistic forms of ‘damn’ and ‘damned’; used to avoid ‘cussing bar’-foot.’ Also darnation, dangnation, darn burn it, and darn or dash my buttons or wig.—See Dadbinged and Oaths for synonyms.

c. 1840. West of England Ballad [quoted in Literary World, 11 Apr.,
1890, p. 347, col. 1]. But if he’d know’d he’d got so much money He
darned his buttons if he’d gi’ed ’un the shillin’.

1880. G. R. Sims, Zeph and other Stories, p. 87. I shall bring you
to your senses, Bess, now, my girl, and you won’t be so darned fast
refusin’ a good offer.

1888. Harper’s Magazine. My experience has taught me that in
Colorado the man who tells the first story has a darned poor show.

Dart, subs. (pugilistic).—A straight-armed blow.

D.A.’s, subs. (general).—The menstrual flux. [An abbreviation of domestic afflictions (q.v.) and for synonyms see Flag-up.]

Dash, subs. (old).—1. A tavern waiter.

2. (common).—A small quantity; a ‘drink’; a ‘go’ (q.v. for synonyms). Also a small quantity of one fluid to give a flavour to another, e.g., a lemon and a dash = a bottle of lemonade with just a suggestion of bitter beer in it.

Verb (brewers’).—1. To adulterate.

1871. Times, 4 April. ‘Leader on Licensing Bill.’ The brewers are
careless of the characters of their tenants; they compel them to
take all their beer from themselves, and too often at such prices
that they are driven to adulterate or dash the liquor.

2. Also dash it! or dash my buttons, wig, timbers, etc., intj. phr. (common).—Colloquial expletives; also employed euphemistically = ‘to damn.’—See Buttons and Oaths.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress p. 46. Except light
oaths, to grace his speeches, Like ‘Dash my wig!’ or ‘burn my
breeches!’

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 22. You may try,
but dash my timbers if you’ll ever cross the Thames to-night!

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

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. iv. Gunpowder is your true
leveller—dash physical strength! A boy’s a man with a musket in his
hand, my chap!

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. IV., ch. iii. And if you
hadn’t come round to me to-night, dash my wig if I wouldn’t have
come round to you to-morrow.

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge ii. ‘Dash it all!’ said
the police-surgeon, ‘that’s two fatal cases I’ve had to-day.’

Cut a Dash.—See Cut.

To have a dash on, verbal phr. (turf).—To speculate largely or wildly; ‘to go it strong.’

Dasher, subs. (old).—1. A showy prostitute. (Cf., sense 2).

1790. C. Dibdin, Sea Songs, ‘Old Cunwell the Pilot.’ My Poll, once
a dasher, now turned to a nurse.

2. (colloquial).—An ostentatious or extravagant man or woman; an impetuous person; a ‘clipper’; also latterly,—the word has shown progress towards literary English throughout—a man or woman of fashion; a person of brilliant qualities, mental or physical. Fr., genreux-se; une femme catapulteuse (a fine woman, as also une cocodète). Spanish equivalents are damaza and sibila, while tiene garabato is said of women who ‘hook’ men by their manner and grace (garabato = a meat-hook).

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxix., p. 289. ‘Why, you look
smarter by day,’ said Poll, ‘than you do by candlelight. I never
see such a tight young dasher.’

1856. Miss Edgeworth, Almeria, p. 292. She was astonished to find
in high life a degree of vulgarity of which her country companions
would have been ashamed: but all such things in high life go under
the general term dashing. These young ladies were dashers.

Daub, subs. (common).—1. An artist. Verb.—See Dawb.

2. A bad picture.

David, subs. (common).—1.—See Davy, sense 1.

2. (American).—A torpedo.

1872. Morning Advertiser, 3 April.

David Jones or David Jones’s Locker.—See under Davy.

David’s Sow. Drunk as David’s, or Davy’s sow, adv. phr. (old).—Beastly drunk. [For a somewhat far-fetched derivation, see Grose’s Dict. Vulg. Tongue.]

c. 1720. Gay, New Song of New Similes. Though as drunk as David’s
sow.

1733. Bailey, Erasmus, p. 127. When he comes home, after I have
been waiting for him till I do not know what time at night, as
drunk as David’s sow, he does nothing but lie snoring all night
long by my side.

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xiv. Fellows who have no
respect for the articles of war, and who get as drunk as David’s
sow.

Davy, subs. (colloquial).—1. An affidavit. Synonymous, by implication, with ‘God,’ in so help, or s’welp me davy, or Alfred Davy (q.v.). Fr., Je t’en fous mon billet or mon petit turlututu = I’ll take my davy on it.

1764. O’Hara, Midas, II., iv. And I with my davy will back it, I’ll
swear.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxii. ‘I’ll take my davy,’
says the captain, ‘it’s some Yankee trick.’

1842. Punch, vol. III., p. 136. Tell me on thy davy; whether thou
dost dear thy Colin hold.

1884. Daily Telegraph, 4 Sept., p. 2, col. 2. You may take your
davy I didn’t care anything about that.

2. (nautical).—Also old Davy and Davy Jones (q.v.).

Davy Jones, Davy, or old Davy, subs. phr. (nautical).—The spirit of the sea; specifically the sailors’ devil. [For suggested derivation, see Davy Jones’s locker, and for synonyms, Skipper.]

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xiii. This same Davy Jones,
according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides
over all the evil spirits of the deep.

1790. C. Dibdin, Sea Songs. And if to old Davy I should go, friend
Poll, Why you will ne’er hear of me more.

c. 1800. C. Dibdin, The Birthday, Act I., Sc. 2. June. When your
back’s turn’d she’s for ... sending you in a gale to old Davy.

Davy Jones’ (or Davy’s) locker, subs. phr. (nautical).—The ocean; specifically, the grave of them that perish at sea. The popular derivation (= a corruption of ‘Jonah’s locker,’ i.e., the place where Jonah was kept and confined, and by implication the grave of all gone to the bottom, drowned or dead) is conjectural. The following, however, may be an additional link in the chain of evidence.

1628. Bishop Andrewes, Ninety-six Sermons, p. 515 (fol.) Of any,
that hath beene in extreme perill, we use to say: he hath beene
where Ionas was; by Iona’s going downe the Whales throat, by Him
againe comming forth of the Whales mouth, we expresse, we even
point out, the greatest extremity, and the greatest deliverence
that can be.

[Cf., quots. under Davy Jones.]

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

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xxvii. By de holy poker, Massa
Easy, but that terrible sort of gale the other day, anyhow. I tink
one time we all go to Davy Jones’s locker.

1842. Comic Almanack, p. 324. There is no reason right why Jones’s
kid Should be consign’d to Davy Jones’s locker.

1851. Notes and Queries, 1 S., iii., p. 478. If a sailor is killed
in a sea-skirmish, or falls overboard and is drowned, or any other
fatality occurs which necessitates the consignment of his remains
to the ‘great deep,’ his surviving messmates speak of him as one
who has been sent to Davy Jones’ locker.

Davy putting on the coppers for the parsons, phr. (nautical).—The indications of a coming storm.

Davy Jones’ natural children, subs. phr. (nautical).—Smugglers; sea-rovers; pirates.

Davy’s Dust, subs. phr. (common).—Gunpowder. [Davy (q.v.) = the devil.]

1864. G. W. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, ch. xxvi. Let Davy’s dust
and a well-faked claw, For fancy coves be the only law.

Dawb or Daub, verb (old).—To bribe.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v. The cull was scragged because
he could not dawb.

Daylight, subs. (University).—A glass that is not a bumper; also Skylight (q.v.). Obsolete.

To burn daylight, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To use artificial light before it is really dark; to waste time.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act i., 4. Mercutio. Come, we
burn daylight.

To let or knock daylight into one, into the victualling department, or into the luncheon reservoir, phr. (common).—To stab in the stomach (or breadbasket); in the bread-room, potato-store, or giblet-pie, etc., and by implication to kill. Fr., bayafer. For synonyms, see Cook one’s goose.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 101, col. 2. A gentleman in a blue uniform
has thrown himself into an attitude à la Crib, with the facetious
intention of letting daylight into the wittling department.

Daylights, subs. (common).—1. The eyes. Cf., quots. under Darken the Daylights. For synonyms, see Glims.

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

1823. Bee, Sl. Dict. [quoted in]. The hero (Achilles) in his tent
they found, His day-lights fixed upon the cold, cold ground.

2. (general).—The space in a glass between liquor and brim: inadmissible in bumpers at toasts: the toast-master cries ‘no daylights nor heeltaps!’

To darken one’s daylights, verbal phr. (pugilistic).—1. To give a black-eye; ‘to sew up one’s sees.’

1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. I., ch. x. If the lady says such
another word to me, d—n me, I will darken her daylights.

1786. The Microcosm, No. 2. The nobility and gentry were taught
theoretically as well as practically, to bruise the bodies, and (to
use a technical term) darken the daylights of each other, with the
vigour of a Hercules, tempered with the grace of an Apollo.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 3. If the Fine Arts Of
fibbing and boring be dear to your hearts; If to level, to punish,
to ruffian mankind, And to darken their daylights, be pleasures
refin’d.

1822. David Carey, Life in Paris, p. 200. So here’s at darkening
his daylights for the advantage of his mummer.

Deacon, verb (American).—To pack fruit, vegetables, etc., the finest on the top. [Either derived by inversion, or in allusion to the Yankee proverb—‘All deacons are good, but there is odds in deacons.’]

1868. Miss Alcott, Little Women, ch. xi. The blanc-mange was lumpy,
and the strawberries not as ripe as they looked, having been
skilfully deaconed.

To deacon a calf, verbal phr. (American).—To kill.

To deacon land, verbal phr. (American).—To filch land by removing one’s fences into the highway or other common property.

To deacon off, verbal phr. (American).—To give the cue; to lead in debate. [From a custom, once universal but now almost extinct, in the New England Congregational churches. An important function of the deacon’s office was to read aloud the hymns given out by the minister one line at a time, the congregation singing each line as soon as read. This was called deaconing off.]

1848. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers. To funk right out o’ p’lit’cal
strife ain’t thought to be the thing, Without you deacon off the
tune you want your folks should sing.

1890. H. D. Traill, Saturday Songs, p. 7. We grieve, too, that of
all men you, Your own great Union’s stout defender Should deacon
off the craven crew, Who here are clamouring for surrender.

Deacon-Seat, subs. (American lumberers’).—In log cabins the sleeping apartment is partitioned off by poles. The bed is mother earth, the pillow is a log, the foot-board a long pole six feet from the fire and in the centre of the cabin. The deacon seat is a plank fixed over and running parallel with the footboard so as to form a kind of settee in front of the fire. [Probably in allusion to the seats round a pulpit, facing the congregation, reserved for deacons.]

Deacon’s Hiding Place, subs. phr. (American).—A private compartment in oyster saloons and cafés; the Fr. cabinet particulier.

Dead, subs. (turf).—An abbreviation of ‘dead certainty.’—See Cert.

1889. Bailey’s Magazine [quoted in S. J. & C.]. ‘Dealers in the
dead’ did well then.

Adj. (various).—Stagnant; ‘quiet’ (of trade); ‘flat’ (as of beer or aërated waters after exposure); cold (Am., see quot., 1888); good; thorough; complete (Cf., subs., sense). Also as an adv. as in dead beat, dead best, dead drunk, dead rolled (or flummoxed), dead nuts, dead bitched, etc.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, ii., 2. Why, he drinks you, with
facility, your Dane dead-drunk.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress p. 36. As dead hands
at a mill as they, and quite as ready after it.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvii., p. 187. ‘I wish you
would pull off my boots for me,’ said Martin, dropping into one of
the chairs, ‘I am quite knocked up. Dead beat, Mark.’

1845. Punch, vol. IX., p. 163. The general opinion is that the
Premier is dead beat.

1860. Punch, vol. XXXIX., p. 37. A dead take-in is swipes too thin.

1864. Punch. Veal is as dead as mutton.

1872. Derby Mercury, 1 May. ‘Freemasonry in New Zealand.’ He was
not dead, but only dead drunk.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. vii. So surely do I
intend to try my dead best—all that I know—to win Florence’s love
and possess her as a wife.

1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 27. Hungry Guest. Please bring me
some clam fritters. Count (in disguise). Live ’r dead? Hungry
Guest. Why, dead, of course! (And he got them stone-cold.)

Dead as a door-nail, mutton, a herring, a tent-peg, Julius Cæsar, etc., adv. phr. (common).—Utterly, completely dead. Dead as a door-nail is found in Langland’s Piers Plowman [1362]; all other forms are modern. [The door-nail is the striking-plate of the knocker. Herrings die sooner after capture than most fish.]

1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., in wks. II., 71. If you will
needes strike it as dead as a dore naile.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 182. Wee’l strike it as
dead as a doore-naile.

1598. Shakspeare, II. King Henry IV., iii. Falstaff. What! is the
old king dead? Pistol. As nail in door.

1608. Armin, Nest of Ninnies. But now the thought of the new come
foole so much moved him, that he was as dead as a doore-nayle,
standing on tip-toe, looking toward the door to behold arivall.

1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, Act iv., Sc. 1. He’s as dead as a
door-nail; for I gave him seven knocks on the head with a hammer.

1790. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, Ay, dead as herrings—herrings that
are red.

1843. C. Dickens, Christmas Carol, s.v.

1864. D. W. Thompson, Daydreams of a Schoolmaster, p. 230. The boat
of Charon will push a difficult furrow through innumerable bodies,
brick-bat laden, of purrless, soul-less dead-as-door-nail cats.
Poor pussies.

1878. Besant and Rice, By Celia’s Arbour, ch. xlviii. Quite dead he
was, dead as a door-nail.

In dead earnest, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Without doubt; in very truth.

1880. E. Bellamy, Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process, p. 11. I am sure that
you never had a more sincere, more dead-in-earnest convert than I
was.

Dead Against, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Decidedly opposed to.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. vii. You know I was always
dead agin your tariff bill.

Dead-Alive or Dead-and-Alive, adj. (colloquial).—Dull; stupid; mopish; formerly deadly-lively.

1884. H. D. Traill, in Eng. Ill. Mag., I., 541. The city has
greatly revived of late ... it has ceased to belong to the category
of the dead-alive, and has entered that of the lively.

Dead-Amiss, adv. phr. (turf).—Incapacitated through illness from competing in a race; said of horses.

Dead-Beat, subs. (American).—1. A sponger; loafer; sharper. Cf., Dead-head and Beat, subs., sense 1.

1865. Glasgow Herald, 25 Dec. ‘Trial Swanborough v. Sotheran.’ I
returned the whole of the receipts, and about £4 16s. for dead
beats—free admissions who took advantage of the occasion and got
paid—which caused great discontent.

1884. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn, p. 284. These uncles of your’n ain’t no uncles at all;
they’re a couple of frauds—regular dead-beats.

1888. Bulletin, 24 Nov. All the dead-beats and suspected
hen-snatchers plead when before the Bench that they were ‘only
mouching round to find out whether the family neglected its
religious dooties, yer washup.’

2. (American).—A pick-me-up compounded of ginger, soda, and whiskey.

Verb (American).—To sponge; loaf; cheat. Cf., Beat, verb, and Dead-head.

1880. Boston Journal. No party can dead-beat his way on me these
hard times.

Adj.—Exhausted; e.g., Billy romped in as ‘fresh as paint,’ but the rest were dead-beat.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 34. Logic was at length
not only so dead-beat, as to be compelled to cry for quarter, but
to seek a temporary retirement, in order to renovate his
constitution.

Dead Broke, adv. phr. (general).—Utterly penniless; ruined. Also Flat or stone broke; used verbally, to dead-break.

1866. Cincinnatti Enquirer, 1 June. When he left the
gambling-house, he was observed to turn toward a friend with the
words, dead-broke! and then to disappear round the corner.

English Synonyms. Wound up; settled; coopered; smashed up; under a cloud; cleaned out; cracked up; done up; on one’s back; floored; on one’s beam ends; gone to pot; broken-backed; all U. P.; in the wrong box; stumped; feathered; squeezed; dry; gutted; burnt one’s fingers; dished; in a bad way; gone up; gone by the board; made mince meat of; broziered; willowed; not to have a feather to fly with; burst; fleeced; stony; pebble-beached; in Queer Street; stripped; rooked; hard up; broke; hooped-up; strapped; gruelled.

French Synonyms. Enfoncé (familiar: also—done brown); centré (popular); désossé (popular: properly = boned); eréné (popular); atigé (thieves’); panné (= in Queer Street); see also Beat.

Italian Synonym.—Ferrare (to be ruined; also = to spoil or corrupt).

Dead-Cargo, subs. (thieves’).—Booty of a disappointing character.

Dead Certainty, subs. phr. (colloquial).—That which is sure to occur; usually contracted to Dead or Cert, both of which see.

18(?). Aytoun. The Dreepdaily Burghs, p. 4. Everybody is realising;
the banks won’t discount; and when your bills become due, they will
be, to a dead certainty, protested.

Dead cut.—See Cut.

Dead Duck, subs. phr. (American).—That which has depreciated to the verge of worthlessness.

1888. New York Clipper. Long Branch is said to be a dead duck. But
for the investments made at Elberon the Branch proper would
probably have been abandoned long ago.

Deader, subs. (military).—1. A funeral; a black-job (q.v.).

2. (common).—A corpse.

Dead Frost, subs. (theatrical).—A fiasco; a columbus (q.v.). Fr., un four noir.

Dead-Give-Away.—See Give dead-away.

Dead Gone, adv. phr. (colloquial). Utterly collapsed.

Dead-Head, Dead-Beat or Dead-Hand, subs. (American).—One who obtains something of commercial value without special payment or charge; a person who travels by rail, visits theatres, etc., by means of free passes (cf., Paper); a sponge (q.v.). Also a loafing sharper.—See Beat and Dead-beat.

1861. Morning Post, ‘New York Correspondence.’ The editor had
evidently been travelling as a dead-hand, as it is called, and paid
his bill by a laudatory notice.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms. The dead-head receives his newspapers
without subscribing, travels free of charge on steamboat, railroad,
and stage, walks into theatres and shows of every kind unmolested,
and even drinks at the bar and lives at the hotel without charge.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 21 May, p. 3, col. 1. ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’
is stale enough to warrant the most confirmed deadhead in declining
to help make a house.

Also to dead-head, dead-headism, etc.

1871. New York Tribune, March. Elder Knapp, the noted revivalist,
advertised that he would furnish a free pass to glory, but very few
of the unrighteous population seemed anxious to be dead-headed on
this train.

1888. Portland Transcript, 14 March. Unless we count those which
had to do with the stage business and went dead-head.

Dead-Heat, subs. (colloquial).—A race with an equal finish. Formerly dead.