Chapter VII: Part 7

1871. Times, 30 Jan. Critique on London, etc. The principal was
acquitted, and though his accomplices were hung in Pall Mall at the
scene of their act, they died game.

To get against the game, verb. phr. (American).—To take a risk; to chance it. [From the game of poker].

To play the game, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To do a thing properly; to do what is right and proper.

1889. Geoffrey Drage, Cyril, ch. vii. I really think he is ... not
playing the game.

The first game ever played, subs. phr. (venery).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

Gamecock, adj. (old).—Hectoring; angry; valiant out of place.

1838. Lever, Handy Andy. Smoke and fire is my desire, So blaze away
my gamecock squire.

Gameness, subs. (colloquial).—Pluck; endurance; the mixture of spirit and bottom.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xxiv. There was no doubt
about his gameness.

1884. Referee, 23 March, p. 1, c. 4. Carter fought with great
gameness, but he never had a look in.

Gamester, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1598. Shakspeare, All’s Well, v. 3. She’s impudent, my lord, and
was a common gamester to the camp.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, ii. 1. Ay, ay, gamesters, mocke a
plain soft wench of the suburbs, do.

1620. Percy, Folio MSS., p. 404. Be not att ffirst to nice nor coye
when gamsters you are courtinge.

2. (old).—A ruffler; a gallant; a wencher; a man fit and ready for anything; also a player.

1639–61. Rump, i., 253, ‘A Medley.’ Room for a gamester that flies
at all he sees.

1676. Etheredge, Man of Mode, v., 1. Live it also like a frank
gamester, on the square.

Gamey, adj. (colloquial).—1. High-smelling; offensive to the nose; half-rotten.

2. (colloquial).—Frisky; plucky.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xi. There’s something gamey
in it, young ladies, ain’t there.

1869. S. Bowles, Our New West, p. 275. Horses are fresh and fat and
gamey.

Gaminess, subs. (colloquial).—The malodorousness proceeding from decay and—by implication—filthiness.

Gaming-house, subs. (old).—A house of ill-repute—hell, tavern, or stews.

1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie, Berlan, a common tippling house, a
house of gaming, or of any other disorder.

Gammer, subs. (old).—An old wife; a familiar address; the correlative of gaffer (q.v.).

1551. Gammer Gurton’s Needle (Title).

1706. Hudibras Redivivus, Part VI. And monkey faces, yawns, and
stammers, Delude the pious dames and gammers To think their
mumbling guides precation So full of heavenly inspiration.

1842. Tennyson, The Goose. Ran Gaffer, stumbled gammer.

Gamming, subs. (nautical).—A whaleman’s term for the visits paid by crews to each other at sea.

1884. G. A. Sala, in Illus. Lon. News, July 19, p. 51, c. 2. When
two or more American whalers meet in mid-ocean, and there are no
whales in sight, it is customary to tack topsails and exchange
visits. This social intercourse the whalemen call gamming ... I
cannot help fancying that ‘gam’ is in greater probability an
abbreviation of the Danish ‘gammen,’ sport, or that it has
something to do with the nautical ‘gammoning,’ the lasting by which
the bowsprit is bound firmly down to the cutwater.

1890. Century, Aug. To gam means to gossip. The word occurs again
and again in the log-books of the old whalers.

Gammon, subs. (colloquial).—1. Nonsense; humbug; deceit. Sometimes gammon and spinach. No gammon = no error, no lies.

[Skeat says from Mid. Eng. Gamen = a game; but R. Sherwood (Eng. Dict., 1660), gives ‘a beggar or seller of gammons of Bacon; and in Cotgrave (1611), jambonnier = a beggar, also a seller of bacon, or gammons of bacon.’]

c. 1363. Chester Plays, i. 102. This gammon shall begin.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I. 208. I thought myself pretty
much a master of gammon, but the Billingsgate eloquence of Mrs. P.
... exceeded me.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Gamon. What rum gamon the old file
pitched to the flat.

1823. Mod. Flash Dict. gammon—Falsehood and bombast.

1823–45. Hood, Poems (ed. 1846), vi., p. 96, Behold yon servitor of
God and Mammon, Who, binding up his Bible with his ledger, Blends
Gospel texts with trading gammon.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xxvii. Lord bless their little hearts,
they thinks its all right, and don’t know no better, but they’re
the wictims o’ gammon, Samivel, they’re the wictims o’ gammon.

1837. Barham, I. L., Blasphemer’s Warning. When each tries to
humbug his dear Royal Brother, in Hopes by such gammon to take one
another in.

1839. Comic Almanack, Jan. But if you wish to save your bacon, Give
us less gammon.

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. ‘Oh, my
goodness, how polite we are!’ exclaimed Miss Mowcher.... ‘What a
world of gammon and spinnage it is!’

1890. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 92. I’m real grit and no gammon.

2. (thieves’).—A confederate whose duty is to engage the attention of a victim during robbery; a bonnet (q.v.) or cover (q.v.).

Verb (colloquial).—1. To humbug: to deceive; to take in with fibs; to kid (q.v.).

1700. Step to the Bath, quoted in Ashton’s Soc. Life in Reign of
Queen Anne, v. ii., p. 111. We went to the Groom Porter’s ... there
was Palming, Hodging, Loaded Dice, Levant, and gammoning, with all
the Speed imaginable.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 6. Vile I can get fifteen bob
a day by gammoning a maim, the devil may vork for me.

1825. Buckstone, The Bear Hunters, ii. There! that’s just the way
she gammons me at home.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. Why, my lad, we shall
see to-morrow morning; but you gammons so bad about the rhino that
we must prove you a bit; so Kate, my dear,—to the pretty girl who
had let me in.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xiii. So then they pours him out a
glass o’ wine, and gammons him about his driving, and gets him into
a reg’lar good humour.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Misadventures at Margate.’ And
’cause he gammons so the flats, ve calls him Veeping Bill!

1840. Hood, Tale of a Trumpet. Lord Bacon couldn’t have gammoned
her better.

1890. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 70. Oh, don’t try to gammon me, you
cunning young school-miss.

English Synonyms.—To bam; to bamblustercate; to bamboozle; to bambosh; to barney; to be on the job; to best; to bilk; to blarney; to blow; to bosh; to bounce; to cob; to cod; to cog; to chaff; to come over (or the artful, or Paddy, or the old soldier over) one; to cram; to do; to do brown; to doctor; to do Taffy; to fake the kidment; to flare up; to flam; to flummox; to get at (round, or to windward of) one; to gild the pill; to give a cock’s egg; to gravel; to gull; to haze; to jimmify; to jaw; to jockey; to jolly; to kid; to make believe the moon is made of green cheese (Cotgrave); to mogue; to palm off on; to pickle; to plant; to plum; to poke bogey (or fun) at; to promoss; to put the kibosh on; to put in the chair, cart, or basket; to pull the leg; to queer; to quiz; to roast; to roorback; to run a bluff, or the shenanigan; to sell; to send for pigeon’s milk; to sit upon; to send for oil of strappum, etc.; to shave; to slum, or slumguzzle; to smoke; to snack; to soap, soft soap, sawder, or soft sawder; to spoof; to stick; to stall; to string, or get on a string; to stuff; to sawdust, or get on sawdust and treacle; to suck; to suck up; to sugar; to swap off; to take a rise out of; to rot; to tommy-rot; to take in, or down; to take to town; to take to the fair; to tip the traveller; to try it on; to throw dust in the eyes; to throw a tub to a whale; to pepper; to throw pepper in the eyes; to use the pepper box; to whiffle; to work the poppycock racket (Irish-American). [Note.—Many of the foregoing are used substantively, e.g., a bam, a barney, a sell, bambosh = nonsense; deceit; a hoax, etc.]

French Synonyms.—Donner un pont à faucher (also, thieves’ = to lay a trap); dindonner (popular: from dindon = a gull, a gobbler); battre à la Parisienne (thieves’: = to cheat; to come the cockney); se ficher de la fiole, or de la bobine, de quelqu’un (popular: to get on with it, i.e., to try to fool); envoyer chercher le parapluie de l’escouade (military: parapluie de l’escouade = the squad’s umbrella: to send on a fool’s errand; cf., to send for pigeon’s milk, etc.); la faire à quelqu’un (popular); faucher (thieves’ = to best); enfoncer (familiar: to let in: also to surpass); cabasser (popular); monter des couleurs, le Job, or un schtosse (= to do up brown); faire le coup, or monter le coup, à quelqu’un (popular: = to take a rise); bouffer la botte (military: = to sell (q.v.) or bilk, as a woman refusing congress after receiving the socket-money (q.v.) in advance); bouler (popular: also to whop (q.v.)); être l’autre (popular: = to get left (q.v.)); mettre dans le sac (thieves’: = to bag, i.e., to trap); coller or poser un lapin (popular: = to make a hare of (q.v.); also more generally, to bilk (q.v.)); emblémer (thieves’: = to stick); faire voir le tour (popular: = to show how it’s done; connaitre le tour = to know the game); faire la queue à quelqu’un (popular: = to pull one’s leg); tirer la carotte (thieves’); canarder (popular: = to bring down); empaler (popular: = to stick); passer des curettes (popular: = to befool); monter une gaffe (popular: gaffe = a joke, a hoax); jobarder (popular: job = simpleton, and is the same as jobelin); mener en bateau un pante pour le refaire (thieves’: = to take a man on); monter un bateau (popular); promener quelqu’un (popular: cf., to take to town); compter des mistoufles (fam.: mistoufle = a scurvy trick); gourrer (popular: = to bosh); affluer (from flouer = to cheat, to diddle); rouster (popular and thieves’); affûter (thieves’ = to run down, also to make unlawful profits); bouler (popular); juiffer (popular = to Jew); pigeonner (popular to pluck a pigeon (q.v.)); flancher (popular = to kid (q.v.)); faire la barbe (popular = to shave (q.v.)); monter or hisser un gandin (thieves’ = literally to hoist a swell); fourrer or mettre dedans (popular = to take in and do for); planter un chou (fam.); être marron (popular); interver dans les vannes (= to let oneself be sucked-up); monter un godan à quelqu’un (popular); griller quelqu’un (popular = to cuckold); passer en lunette (popular); goujonner (i.e., to hook like a gudgeon); fourguer (thieves’ = also to fence (q.v.)); pousser une blague (popular = to cram); paqueliner (thieves’); se baucher (thieves’); balancer (popular).

German Synonyms.—Zinkennen an Almoni peloni (= to send one after Cheeks the Marine [q.v.]. Almoni and peloni are used mockingly in combination and also singly for a non-existent person); anbeulen (= to fool); jemanden arbeiten (= to haze, to cram); bekaspern, or bekaschpern, or beschwatzen (= to fool: from Heb. kosaw = to cheat).

Spanish Synonyms.—Disparar (= also to talk nonsense; to blunder); hacer á uno su dominguillo, or hacer su dominguillo de uno (colloquial: dominguillo = a figure made of straw and used at bull fights to enrage the bulls); freirsela á alguno (freir = to fry: to deceive: Cf., to roast, or have one on toast); pegar una tostada á alguno (= to put one on toast: more generally to play a practical joke); echar de baranda (= to embroider (q.v.)); bola (subs. = humbug; a hoax); borrufalla (subs. = bombast); chicolear (= to jest in gallantry); engatusar (= to rob, or hurt; also to trick without intention); candonguear (also = to jeer); abrir á chasco (also to jeer); encantar (= to enchant).

Italian Synonyms. Ganezzarre; dar la stolfa; traversare (cf., to come over); scamuffare (= to disguise oneself).

2. (thieves’).—To act as bonnet (q.v.) or cover (q.v.) to a thief.

Intj. (colloquial).—Nonsense; Skittles! (q.v.).

1827. R. B. Peake, Comfortable Lodgings, i., 3. Sir H. (aside).
Gammon!

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. vii. Gammon, tell that to
the marines: you’re a spy, messmate.

1854. Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring, p. 100. Ha! said the king,
you dare to say gammon to your sovereign.

1861. A. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, ch. iv. Gammon, said Mr.
Gowerby; and as he said it he looked with a kind of derisive smile
into the clergyman’s face.

Gammon and Patter, subs. phr. (thieves’).—1. (old).—The language used by thieves; 2. (modern).—A meeting; a palaver. (q.v.). 3. Commonplace talk of any kind.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 150. Gammon and Patter is the
language of cant, spoke among themselves: when one of them speaks
well, another says he gammons well.

1811. Lex. Bal. s.v. Gammon and Patter. Commonplace talk of any
kind.

To give (or keep) in gammon. verb. phr. (thieves’).—To engage a person’s attention while a confederate is robbing him.

1719. Capt. Alex. Smith, Thieves’ Grammar, s.v.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 51. Bagrie called the woman of the house,
kept her in gammon in the back room, while I returned and brought
off the till. Ibid., p. 68. I whidded to the Doctor and he gave me
gammon.

To Gammon Lushy (or queer, etc.). verb. phr. (thieves’).—To feign drunkenness, sickness, etc.

To Gammon the Twelve. verb. phr. (thieves’).—To deceive the jury.

1819. Vaux, Life. A man who has been tried by a criminal court and
by a plausible defence has induced the jury to acquit him, or to
banish the capital part of the charge and so to save his life, is
said by his associates to have gammoned the twelve in prime twig,
alluding to the number of jurymen.

Gammoner, subs. (old).—1. One who gammons (q.v.); a nonsense-monger. Fr., bonisseur de loffitudes; blagueur; mangeur de frimes.

1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry i. Fly to the gammoners, and awake
to everything that’s going on.

2. (thieves’).—A confederate who covers the action of his chief; a bonnet, a cover, a stall, all which see.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 66. The Doctor played the part of the
gammoner so well that I made my escape without being observed.

Gammy, subs. (tramps’).—1. Cant.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Do you stoll the gammy? Do you
understand cant?

2. (common).—A nickname for a lameter; a Hopping Jesus; (q.v.).

3. (Australian).—A fool.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 191. Well, of all
the gammies you are the gammiest, Slowboy, to go and string
yourself to a woman, when you might have had the pick of Melbourne.

Adj. (tramps’).—1. Bad; impossible. Applied to householders of whom it is known that nothing can be got. See Beggars’ Marks. Gammy-vial = a town in which the police will not allow unlicensed hawking. (Vial = Fr., Ville).

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, Glossary, s.v.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i., 466. No villages that are in any
way gammy are ever mentioned in these papers. Ibid., i., 404. These
are left by one of the school at the houses of the gentry, a mark
being placed on the door post of such as are bone or gammy, in
order to inform the rest of ‘the school’ where to call, and what
houses to avoid.

2. Forged; false; spurious: as a gammy-moneker = a forged signature; gammy-lour = counterfeit money, etc.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, s.v.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3rd. ed.), p. 445. Spurious
medicine, gammy stuff, bad coin, gammy lower, p. 446.

1889. C. T. Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson, Police, p. 321. Bad
money (coin).... Gammy lower.

3. (theatrical).—Old; ugly.

4. (common).—Same as Game, sense 3: e.g., a gammy arm = an arm in dock. Gammy-eyed = blind; sore-eyed; or afflicted with ecchymosis in the region of the eyes. Gammy-leg = a lame leg. Also (subs.) a term of derision for the halt and the maimed.

Gamp, subs. (common).—1. A monthly nurse; a fingersmith (q.v.). [After Mrs. Sarah Gamp, a character in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843).] Also applied to a fussy and gossiping busybody.

1864. Sun, 28 Dec. A regular gamp ... a fat old dowdy of a monthly
nurse.

1868. Brewer, Phr. and Fab. (quoted from Daily Telegraph). Mr.
Gathorne Hardy is to look after the gamps and Harrises of the
Strand.

2. (common).—An umbrella; specifically, one large and loosely-tied; a lettuce (q.v.). [The original Sarah always carried one of this said pattern.] Sometimes a Sarah Gamp. For synonyms, see Rain-napper.

1870. Lond. Figaro, 15 June. Though—shattered, baggy, shivered
gamp!

1883. G. R. Sims, Life Boat. He donned his goloshes and shouldered
his gamp.

1890. Daily Chron., 5 Mar. Sainte-Beuve insisted that though he was
prepared to stand fire he was under no obligation to catch cold,
and with his gamp over his head he exchanged four shots with his
adversary.

1892 Ally Sloper, 2 Apr., p. 106, c. 3. I never had a brand new
tile, a glossy silk or swagger brown, But I left home without a
gamp, And rain or hail or snow came down.

3. (journalists’).—The Standard.

Adj. (common).—Bulging. Also Gampish.

1864. Derby Day, p. 18. I wasn’t joking, there is an air of
long-suffering about you, as if you had been mortifying the flesh
by carrying a gampish umbrella up Piccadilly, and back again.

1881. Mac. Mag., Nov., p. 62. Grasping his gamp umbrella at the
middle.

Gamut, subs. (artists’).—Tone; general scheme; swim (q.v.). Thus in the gamut = a picture, a detail, or a shade of colour, in tone with its environment.

Gan (also Gane), subs. (old).—The mouth. [A.S., ganian = to yawn.] Occasionally = throat, lip. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

1512–13. Douglas, Virgil, 250, 29. To behald his ouglie ene twane,
His teribill vissage, and his grislie gane.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 64. Gan, a mouth.

1610. Rowland, Martin Mark-all, p. 38. (H. Club’s Rept., 1874).
Gan, a mouth. Ibid. A gere peck in thy gan.

1656. Broome, A Jovial Crew, Act ii. This bowse is better than
rombowse, it sets the gan a giggling.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, Pt. I., ch. v., p. 49. (1874.) Gan, a
lip.

1690. B. E., Cant. Crew. Ganns, the lips.

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

1881. New York Slang Dict., s.v.

Gander, subs. (colloquial).—A married man; in America one not living with his wife; a grass-widower (q.v.).

Verb. (old).—To ramble; to waddle (as a goose). Also, to go in quest of women; to grouse (q.v.).

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoff. Hamblyn, ch. x. Nell might come gandering
back in one of her tantrums.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xlvii. She gandered upstairs to
the dressing-room again.

Gone Gander.—See Gone Coon.

To see how the gander hops, verb. phr. (American.)—To watch events. A variant of To see how the cat jumps.

1847. Porter, Big Bear, p. 96. Seein’ how the gander hopped I
jumped up and hollered, Git out, Tromp, you old raskel!

What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, phr. (common).—A plea for consistency.

Gander-month, subs. (common).—The month after confinement; when a certain license (or so it was held) is excusable in the male. Also Gander-moon, the husband at such a period being called a Gander-mooner. Cf., Buck-hutch and Goose-month.

1617. Middleton, A Faire Quarrell, iv., 4. Wondering
gander-mooners.

1653. Brome, English Moor in Fiue New Playes. I’le keep her at the
least this gander-month, while my fair wife lies-in.

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Gander-party, subs. (common).—A gathering of men; a stag-party (q.v.); also Bull-dance, Gander-gang, etc. Cf., Hen-party = an assembly of women.

Gander-pulling. See Goose-riding.

Gander’s Wool, subs. phr. (common.)—Feathers.

Gang, subs. (old: now recognised).—A troop; a company.

1639–61. Rump, i., 228. ‘The Scotch War.’ With his gay gang of
Blue-caps all. Ibid., ii., 104, ‘The Gang; or, the Nine Worthies,
etc.’

1690. B. E., Cant. Crew, s.v. Gang, an ill knot or crew of thieves,
pickpockets or miscreants; also a society of porters under a
regulation.

1704. Cibber, Careless Husband, i., 1. Sir C. Who was that other?
More. One of Lord Foppington’s gang.

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. i., c. 14. What then have I to
do in the pursuit of greatness, but to employ a gang, and to make
the use of this gang centre in myself? Idem. bk. iii., c. 14. But
in an illegal society or gang, as this of ours, it is otherwise.

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

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. Gang, company, squad, mob.

Ganger, subs. (old: now recognised).—An overseer or foreman of a gang of workmen; one who superintends. For synonyms, see Governor.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii., 487. The ganger, or head of the
working gang, who receives his orders from the inspector, and
directs the men accordingly.

1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 614, The mother and boy do the work,
while the father constitutes himself contractor for and ganger over
their labour.

Ganymede, subs. (old).—1. A sodomist. For synonyms, see Usher.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Catamito, a ganimed, an ingle, a
boie hired to sinne against nature. [And in Cotgrave (1611) under
Ganymedes; Any boy that’s loved for carnal abuse, an Ingle.]

1598. Marston, Satyres, ii. But Ho! What ganimede is it doth grace
The gallant’s heels.

2. (popular).—A pot-boy (i.e., a cup-bearer). The masculine of hebe (q.v.).

1659. Florio-Torriano, Vocabolario. Mescitore, a skinker or filler
of wine; also a mingler, a ganimede.

1841. Punch I., p. 101, c. 1. Lo! Ganymede appears with a foaming
tankard of ale.

Gaol-bird, subs. (old: now recognised).—A person who has been often in gaol; an incorrigible rogue. Fr., un chevronné. For synonyms, see Wrong ’Un.

1680. Hist. of Edward II., p. 146. It is the piety and the true
valour of an army, which gives them heart and victory; which how it
can be expected out of ruffians and gaol-birds, I leave to your
consideration.

1701. Defoe, True Born Englishman, part II. In print my panegyrics
fill the street, And hired gaol-birds, their huzzas repeat.

1762. Smollett, L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. ix. He is become a
blackguard gaol-bird.

1857. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. xi. The gaol-birds who piped
this tune were without a single exception the desperate cases of
this moral hospital; they were old offenders.

1882. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 Oct. Liberating the gaol-birds in
Alexandria.

Gaoler’s Coach, subs. phr. (old).—A hurdle to the place of execution.

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Gap, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum: also Sportsman’s gap and water-gap (q.v.). For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

d. 1746. Robertson of Struan, Poems, p. 84. O gracious Hymen! Cure
this dire Mishap, Sew up this mighty rent, or fill the gap.

To blow the gap, verb. phr. (old).—The same as to blow the gaff (q.v.).

1821. Egan, Real Life, etc., i., 557. He should like to smack the
bit without blowing the gap.

Gaper, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Also, Gaper (and Gape) over the Garter. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Gapes, subs. (colloquial).—A fit of yawning; also the open mouth of astonishment.

1818. Austen, Persuasion. Another hour of music was to give delight
or the gapes.

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker (ed. 1862), p. 373. But what gave me
the gapes was the scenes (at the theatre).

Gapeseed, subs. (common).—1. A cause of astonishment; anything provoking the ignorant to stare with open mouth. Also to seek a gape’s nest.

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Ansanare ... to go idly loytring vp
and downe as we say, to go seeking for a halfepenie worth of gaping
seede.

1600. Nashe, Summer’s Last Will, in wks. (Grosart), vi., 144. That
if a fellow licensed to beg, Should all his life time go from faire
to faire, And buy gapeseede, having no businesse there.

1690. B. E., Cant. Crew. Gapeseed, whatever the gazing crowd idly
stares and gapes after; as Puppet-shows, Rope-dancers, Monsters and
Mountebanks, anything to feed the eye.

1694. Poor Robin. ’Tis plainly clear, They for their gapes-seed do
pay dear.

1856. N. and Q., 2 S 1., 362. Plenty of persons were sowing
gapeseed.

1870. B. F. Clark, Mirthfulness p. 24. Do you wish to buy some
gapeseed?

1884. Daily News, 8 Oct. Title (at head of sporting column).

2. (common).—An open-mouthed loiterer.

1885. Sportsman, June 23, p. 2, c. 4. The yearlings bred by Messrs.
Graham were offered to a rather select audience of buyers, though
the ring was surrounded by a fairly strong crowd of gapeseeds.

Gapped, ppl. adj. (old).—Worsted; floored (q.v. for synonyms).

1753. Richardson, Sir Chas. Grandison. I will never meet at
hard-edge with her; if I did ... I should be confoundedly gapped.

Gap-Stopper, subs. (old).—1. A whoremaster. For synonyms, see Molrower.

2. (venery).—The penis. [Gap = female pudendum]. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Gar. See by gar!

Garble, to garble the coinage, verb. phr. (old).—See quot. [Garble = to pick and choose.]

1875. Jevons, Money, etc., p. 81. A practice amongst money-lenders
of picking out the newest coins of full weight for export or
re-melting, and passing the light ones into circulation.

Garden, subs. (various).—1. (greengrocers’, fruiterers’, etc.) = Covent Garden Market; 2. (theatrical) = Covent Garden Theatre; 3. (diamond merchants’) = Hatton Garden. Cf., House, Lane, etc.

[The Garden (= Covent Garden) was frequently used for the whole
neighbourhood, which was notorious as a place of strumpets and
stews. Thus, Garden-house = a brothel; Garden-goddess = a woman of
pleasure; Garden-gout = the pox or clap; Garden-whore = a low
prostitute, etc.]

1733. Bailey, Erasmus. When young men by whoring, as it commonly
falls out, get the pox, which, by the way of extenuation, they call
the Common Garden-gout.

1782. Geo. Parker, Humorous Sketches, p. 90 No more the Garden
female orgies view.

1851–61. W. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. I., p. 85. Not
only is the Garden itself all bustle and activity, but the buyers
and sellers stream to and from it in all directions, filling every
street in the vicinity.

1884. Jas. Payn, in Cornhill Mag., Mar., p. 257. She [Miss O’Neill]
talked of the Garden and ‘the Lane,’ and was very fond of
recitation.

1890. Tit-Bits, 29 Mar., p. 389, c. 1. Let me describe the Garden.
A long, straight street, stretching almost due north and south,
from Holborn Circus to Clerkenwell Road. Ibid. c. 2. The cut stones
are chiefly sold to the large dealers in the Garden.

2. (venery).—The female pudendum. [The simile is common to all nations, ancient and modern. Shakspeare, in Sonnet 16, seems to play upon this double meaning; e.g., Now stand you on the top of happy hours; And many maiden-gardens, yet unset, With virtuous wish would bear you living flowers.] Also garden of eden. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

To put one in the garden, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To defraud a confederate; to keep back part of the Regulars (q.v.), or Swag (q.v.).

Gardener, subs. (common).—1. An awkward coachman. [In allusion to the gardener who on occasion drives the carriage.] Cf., Tea-kettle Coachman.

1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock. Noon: Par. I. He can drive
neither to the right nor to the left, nor backwards nor
forwards.... A sarcastic saloon omnibus driver behind jeeringly
bids him keep moving, accompanying the behest by the aggressive
taunt of gard’ner.

2. (venery).—The penis. Garden (q.v.) = female pudendum. Also Garden-engine. For synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.

Garden-gate, subs. phr. (rhyming).—1. A magistrate. For synonyms, see Beak.

2. (venery).—The labia minora. [Garden-hedge = the pubic hair.]

Garden-Latin, subs. (colloquial).—Barbarous or sham Latin. Also Apothecaries’, Bog, Dog, and Kitchen-Latin.

Garden-Rake, subs. phr. (common).—A tooth-comb. Also scratching-rake or rake.

Gardy-Loo, subs. (old Scots).—A warning cry; ‘take care!’ [Fr. gardez’ (vous de) l’eau! Used before emptying slops out of window into the street. Hence the act of emptying slops itself, as in quotation dated 1818.]

1771. Smollet, Humphry Clinker, (British Novelists), xxxi., p. 57.
At ten o’clock the whole cargo is flung out of a back windore that
looks into some street or lane, and the maid calls gardy-loo to the
passengers, which signifies ‘Lord have mercy on you!’

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxvii. She had made the
gardy-loo out of the wrong window.

Gargle, subs. (formerly medical students’, now common).—A drink; also generic. Cf., Lotion, and for synonyms, see Go.

1889. Sporting Times, 3 Aug., p. 3, c. 1. We’re just going to have
a gargle—will you join us?

Verb. (common).—To drink; to ‘liquor up.’ For synonyms, see Drinks and Lush.

1889. Sporting Times, 3 Aug., p. 5. c. 5. We gargled....

1891. Morning Advertiser, 2 Mar. It’s my birthday; let’s gargle.

Gargle-Factory, subs. (common).—A public house. For synonyms, see Lush Crib.

Garn, intj. (vulgar).—A corruption of Go on! Get away with you!

1888. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 80. Garn, you farthin’ face! She
your neck.

1892. Ally Sloper, 19 Mar., p. 90, c. 3. Gar’n, you men ain’t got
no sense.

1892. National Observer, 6 Feb. p. 307, c. 2. And so simple is the
dictum, so redolent of the unlettered Arry that we long to add
garn, oo’re you gettin’ at?

Garnish, subs. (old).—1. A fee or footing (q.v.); specifically one exacted by gaolers and old prisoners from a newcomer. The practice was forbidden by 4 Geo. IV., c. 43, sec. 12. Also Garnish-Money.

1592. Greene, Quip, in works, xi., 256. Let a poore man be arrested
into one of the counters [prisons] ... he shall be almost at an
angel’s charge, what with garnish [etc.].

1606. T. Dekker, Seven Deadly Sinnes, p. 28 (Arber’s ed.). So that
the Counters are cheated of Prisoners, to the great dammage of
those that shoulde have their morning’s draught out of the garnish.

1632. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, v. 6. You are content with the ten
thousand pounds Defalking the four hundred garnish-money?

1704. Steele, Lying Lover, Act iv., Sc. iv. But there is always
some little trifle given to prisoners, they call garnish.

1752. Fielding, Amelia, Bk. I., ch. iii. Mr. Booth ... was no
sooner arrived in the prison, than a number of persons gathered
round him, all demanding garnish.

1759. Goldsmith, The Bee, No. 5, p. 385 (Globe ed.). There are
numberless faulty expenses among the workmen—clubs, garnishes,
freedoms, and such like impositions.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xliv. [Jailor loq.] Thirty
shillings a week for lodgings, and a guinea for garnish.

2. (thieves’).—Fetters; handcuffs. For synonyms, see Darbies.

Verb. (thieves’).—To fit with fetters: to handcuff.

Garret, subs. (common).—1. The head; cockloft (q.v.); or upper storey (q.v.). For synonyms, see crumpet.

1625. Bacon, Apothgm, No. 17. My Lord St. Albans said that wise
Nature did Never put her precious jewels into a garret four stories
high, and therefore that exceeding tall men had ever very empty
heads.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1837. Barham, Ingold. Leg. What’s called the claret Flew over the
garret.

2. (old).—The fob-pocket.

To have one’s garret unfurnished, verb. phr. (common). To be crazy, stupid, lumpish. For synonyms, see Apartments and Balmy.

Garreteer, subs. (thieves’). A thief whose speciality is to rob houses by entering skylights or garret-windows. Also dancer and dancing-master. For synonyms, see thieves.

2. (journalists’).—An impecunious author; a literary hack.

1849–61. Macaulay, Hist. of Eng., ch. xxv. Garreteers, who were
never weary of calling the cousin of the Earls of Manchester and
Sandwich an upstart.

1886. Shelley (quoted in Dowden’s Life), i., 47. Show them that we
are no Grub-street garreteers.

1892. National Observer, 18 Mar., p. 453. Has proclaimed urbi et
orbi that governments have no business to manufacture specious
sentiment by greasing the palms of ignorant and greedy garreteers.

Garret-master, subs. (trade).—A cabinet-maker who works on his own account, selling his manufacture to the dealers direct.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii., p. 376. These trading operatives
are known by different names in different trades. In the shoe
trade, for instance, they are called ‘chamber-masters,’ in the
cabinet trade garret-masters, and in the cooper’s trade the name
for them is ‘small trading-masters.’

Garrison-hack, subs. (common).—1. A woman given to indiscriminate flirtation with officers at a garrison.

1889. Daily Telegraph, 14 Feb. Lord Normantower, Philip’s dearest
friend, to whom she, when a garrison-hack, had been engaged, and
whom she had thrown over simply because he was poor and
prospectless.

1890. Athenæum, 8 Feb., p. 176, c. 1. The heroine is a
garrison-hack, but the hero is an Australian.

2. (common).—A prostitute; a soldier’s trull. For synonyms, see Barrack Hack and Tart.

Garrotte, subs. (common).—A form of strangulation (see verb). [From the Spanish la garrota = a method of capital punishment, which consists in strangulation by means of an iron collar.]

Verb. (common).—1. A method of robbery with violence, much practised some years ago. The victims were generally old or feeble men and women. Three hands were engaged: the front-stall who looked out in that quarter, the back-stall at the rear, and the ugly or nasty-man who did the work by passing his arm round his subject’s neck from behind, and so throttling him to insensibility.

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of Lond. Committed for trial for
garrotting and nearly murdering a gentleman.

1873. Trollope, Phineas Redux, ch. xlvi. In those days there had
been much garrotting in the streets.

2. (cards).—To cheat by concealing certain cards at the back of the neck.

Garrotter, subs. (common).—A practitioner of garrotting (under verb, sense 1.)

1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London, p. 201. The delectable
epistle was written by garrotter Bill to his brother.

Garrotting. 1. See Garrotte (verb, sense 1).

2. (gamblers’).—Hiding a part of one’s hand at the back of the neck for purposes of cheating.

Garter, subs. (nautical).—1. in. pl. the irons, or bilboes. For synonyms, see Darbies.

To get over the Garter, verb. phr. (venery).—To take liberties with a woman.

To Fly or Prick the Garter. See Prick the Garter.

Garvies, subs. (Scots’).—1. Sprats. Sometimes Garvie-Herring.

1845. P. Alloa, Statis. Acc., viii., 597. They are often very
successful in taking the smaller fish, such as herrings, garvies or
sprats, sparlings or smelts.

2. (military).—The Ninety-fourth Foot. [From the small stature of the earlier recruits.]

1869. Notes and Queries, 4 S. iii., p. 349. Garvie. The soubriquet
points to the low average height of the recruits in the Fifeshire
regiments, which, however, may not now be the case, since
recruiting has become less local.

Gas, subs. (common).—Empty talk; bounce; bombast.

1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 120. The boys said that was
all gas to scare them off.

1867. Chambers’ Jour., 29 June. I’ve piped off Sabbath gas in my
time I don’t deny, but under the woods we mostly tell the truth.

1868. Chambers’ Jour., 15 Feb., p. 110. I don’t, an’ never could
splice ends with them as blow off gas about gold-digging—saying
it’s plunder easy come an’ easy gone, seeking the root of evil, an’
other granny talk which hasn’t no meaning.

a. 1871. Emerson (quoted in De Vere’s Amer.). ’Tis odd that our
people should have not water on the brain, but a little gas there.

1889. Globe, 31 Oct., p. 4, c. 4. It went on to state that the
petitioner’s talk about a divorce was all gas, and made a further
appointment.

Verb. (common).—1. To talk idly; to brag; to bounce; to talk for talking’s sake. Fr., faire son cheval de corbillard (in American ‘to be on the tall grass.’) See Long Bow.

1872. Lond. Figaro, 14 Dec. There is no good to be got out of
gassing about rallying around standards, uniting as one man to
resist, etc.

1875. ‘American English’ in Chambers’ Jour., 25 Sept., p. 610. To
gas is to talk only for the purpose of prolonging a debate.

1885. Society, 7 Feb., p. 7. Agitators and place-seekers may gas as
much as they please, but they cannot make black appear white.

2. (common).—To impose on by ‘gas’; to pill (q.v.); to splash (q.v.). For synonyms, see Gammon.

To take the gas out of one, verb. phr. (common).—To take the conceit out of; to take down a peg.

To turn on the gas, verb. phr. (common).—To begin bouncing; also to Gas (q.v.).

To turn off the gas, verb. phr. (common).—To cease, or cause to cease, from bouncing, vapouring, or Gas (q.v.).

To gas round, verb. phr. (common).—To seek information on the sly; also to Gas (q.v.).

Gas-Bag, subs. (common).—A man of words or gas (q.v.); a gasconader. Also gasometer. For synonyms, see Mouth Almighty.

1889. Referee, 6 Jan. That great gas-bag of modern days.

Gash, subs. (American).—1. The mouth. For synonyms, see potato-trap.

1878. H. B. Stowe, Poganuc People, ch. xiv., p. 122. Ef Zeph
Higgins would jest shet up his gash in town-meetin’, that air
school-house could be moved fast enough.

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

Gashly, adj. (common).—A vulgarism for ghastly.

Gaskins, subs. (old).—Wide hose; wide breeches. [From Galligaskins. Johnson says, ‘an old ludicrous word.’]

Gasp, subs. (common).—A dram of spirits. For synonyms, see Go.

Verb. (common).—To drink a dram, e.g., ‘Will you gasp?’ = Will you take something neat.

Gaspipe, subs. (nautical).—1. An iron steamer, whose length is nine or ten times her beam. [At one time a ship’s length but rarely exceeded four and a half to five times the beam.]

2. (printers’).—Bad rollers.

3. (common).—A rifle; specifically the Snider.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 9 July, p. 5, col. 7. The old Snider—the
despair-breeding gas-pipe of our Volunteers—continues to be used in
many of the competitions.

Gaspipe-crawler, subs. phr. (common).—A thin man. Cf., Lamp-post.

Gasser, subs. (common).—A braggart. For synonyms, see Mouth Almighty.

Gassy (or Gaseous), adj. (common).—1. Likely to take umbrage or to flare-up.

1863. North American Review, cxliii., p. 220. Gassy politicians in
Congress.

2. (colloquial).—Full of empty talk or gas (q.v.).

1872. Whitney, Life and Growth of Lang., p. 17. As when we call an
empty and sophistical but ready talker gassy.

Gaster, subs. (nonce-word).—A fine and curious eater (Thackeray). In Rabelais = the belly and the needs thereof: a coinage adopted by Urquhart.

Gat, subs. (schoolboys’).—A quantity; e.g., a gat of grub = plenty to eat. Also gats.

1803. Every-day Life in our Public Schools. They are called up in
gats of three at a time.

Gate, subs. (colloquial).—1. The attendance at a race or athletic meeting, held in enclosed grounds; the number of persons who pass the gate.

1883. Sportsman, 20 Dec. The Birmingham man, on account of the
large gate that would be secured, wanted the affair to be brought
off in that town, whereas Regan favoured Wolverhampton.

2. Money paid for admission to athletic sports, race course, etc.; the same as gate-money (q.v.).

1891. Telegraph, 21 Mar. The leading clubs are now commercial
corporations, dependent for revenue on the gates at the matches.

3. in. pl. (University).—The being forbidden to pass outside the gate of a college. See verb, sense 1.

18(?). Bradley, Tales of College Life, p. 19. That’s the ticket;
that will just land me in time for gates.

1881. Lang, xxxii Ballades, ‘Of Midsummer Term.’ When freshmen are
careless of gates.
Verb. (University).—To confine wholly or during certain hours within
the college gate for some infraction of discipline.

1835. The Snobiad (Whibley, Cap and Gown, p. 141). Two proctors
kindly holding either arm Staunch the dark blood and gate him for
the term.

1853. Bradley, Verd. Green, I., ch. xii. He won’t hurt you much,
Giglamps! Gate and chapel you!

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xii. Now you’ll both be
gated probably, and the whole crew will be thrown out of gear.

1865. Cornhill Mag., p. 227. He is requested to confine himself to
college after a specified hour, which is familiarly termed being
gated.

1870. Morning Advertiser, 23 May. The two least culpable of the
party have been gated.

The gate, subs. phr. (various).—Among fishmongers, Billingsgate; among thieves, Newgate. Cf., Lane, Row, Garden, etc.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. i., p. 5. The ‘steel,’ a
slang name of the large metropolitan prisons, as the gate is for
Newgate.

To break gates, verb. phr.—(University).—To stay out of college after hours.

To be at Gates, verb. phr. (Winchester College).—To assemble in Seventh Chamber passage, preparatory to going to Hills or Cathedral.

1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 149. Soon after morning chapel on
a holiday or a remedy all the boys assembled at gates.

On the gate, adv. phr. (thieves’).—On remand.

Gate-Bill, subs. (University).—The record of an undergraduate’s failure to be within the precincts of his college at, or before, a specified time at night.

1803. Gradus ad Cant., p. 128. To avoid gate-bills he will be out
at night as late as he pleases ... climb over the college wall, and
fee his gyp well.

Gate-money, subs. (colloquial).—The charge for admission to a race-meeting. See Gate, subs., sense 1.

1885. Daily News, 25 May, p. 3, c. 2. The truth of the matter is,
that so far as sport goes, open meetings like those at Bath and
Salisbury cannot stand up against gate-money meetings such as
Manchester.

1888. Sporting Life, 10 Dec. The comfort that is brought home at
our great gate-money meetings gatherings to every visitor.

Gate-of-Horn, subs. phr. (venery). The female pudendum. Cf., Horn, and for synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Gate-of-Life, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Also Gate-of-Horn. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Gater, subs. (Winchester College).—A plunge head foremost into a pot (q.v.).

Gate-race (or -meeting), subs. (sporting).—Formerly, a contest not got up for sport but entrance money; now a race or athletic meeting to which admission is by payment.

1881. Daily News, 14 July. Few of these athletics care to compete
at gate-meetings.

Gath, subs. (colloquial).—A city or district in Philistia (q.v.); often used, like Askelon (q.v.) for Philistia itself. Hence, to be mighty in gath = to be a Philistine (q.v.) of the first magnitude; to prevail against gath = to smite the Philistines hip and thigh, as becomes a valiant companion of the Davidsbund; and so forth.

Tell it not in Gath, verb. phr. (colloquial).—An interjection of derision, signifying that the person exclaimed against has done something the knowledge of which would bring on him the wrath, or the amazement, of his friends.

Gather. To gather up, verb. phr. (American).—To lead away.

1847. Chronicles of Pineville, p. 182. ‘Gather him up, boys,’ said
the judge, ‘the sentence of the law must be executed.’

To gather the taxes, verb. phr. (tailor’s).—To go from workshop to workshop seeking employment. Hence, Tax-gatherer = a man out of work and looking for a job. Cf., Inspector of public buildings.

Out of gathers, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In distress. Cf., Out at elbows.

Gatherings. See Gags.

Gatter, subs. (common).—Beer; also liquor generally. Shant of gatter = a pot of beer. Fr., la moussante. For synonyms, see Drinks.

1818. Maginn, Vidocq Versified. Lots of gatter, says she, is
flowing. Lend me a lift in the family way.

1841. Punch, I., p. 243, Gatter is but threepence a pot, and that’s
the price of a reasonable ’pike ticket.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, Vol. i., p. 232.
They have a ‘shant of gatter’ (pot of beer) at the nearest
‘boozing-ken’ (alehouse).

Gaudeamus, subs. (colloquial).—A feast; a drinking bout; any sort of merry-making. [German students’, but now general and popular.] From the first word of the mediæval (students’) ditty. For synonyms, see Jamboree.

Gaudy (or Gaudy-day), subs. (common).—A feast or entertainment: specifically the annual dinner of the fellows of a college in memory of founders or benefactors; or a festival of the Inns of Court. (Lat. gaudere = to rejoice.)

1724. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Gaudy days, college or Inns of Court
festivals.

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2nd ed. Gaudies, double commons, such
as they have on gaudy or grand days in colleges.

1760. Foote, Minor, Act i. Dine at twelve, and regale, upon a gaudy
day, with buns and beer at Islington.

1803. Gradus ad Cantab., p. 122. Cut lectures ... give gaudies and
spreads.

1820. Lamb, Elia (Oxford in the Vacation). Methought I a little
grudged at the coalition of the better Jude with Simon—clubbing (as
it were) their sanctities together, to make up one poor gaudy-day
between them.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. We had a carouse to your
honour ... we fought, too, to finish off the gaudy.

1878. Besant and Rice, By Celia’s Arbour, ch. xxxiii. Champagne ...
goes equally well with a simple luncheon of cold chicken, and with
the most elaborate gaudy.

Adj. (colloquial).—Good; frolicsome; festive. Cf., Shakspeare’s ‘Let’s have one other gaudy night.’—Ant. and Cleo., iii, 13.

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 176. ‘Yes,’ answered
the trainer, slowly, ‘he’s right enough; but a Leger’s a Leger, and
I don’t think they are likely to give him a very gaudy chance.’

Neat but not gaudy, as the devil said when he painted his bottom pink, and tied up his tail with pea-green, phr. (common).—A locution used to ancient ladies dressed in flaming colours.

Gauge. See Gage.

To get the gauge of, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To divine an intention; to read a character; to size, (or reckon) up (q.v.). Hence, That’s about the gauge of it = That’s a fair description.

Gauley. See by golly.

Gawf, subs. (costers’).—A red-skinned apple.

1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i., 63. A cheap red-skinned fruit,
known to costers as gawfs, is rubbed hard, to look bright and feel
soft, and is mixed with apples of a superior description. Gawfs are
sweet and sour at once, I was told, and fit for nothing but mixing.

Gawk, subs. (colloquial).—A simpleton, especially an awkward one, whether male or female. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head. [Scots Gowk = a cuckoo; a fool; whence, to gowk = to, play the fool. As in the ‘Derision of Wanton Women’ (Bannatyne, MS., 1567), ‘To gar them ga in gucking’ = to make them play the fool.]

1837. H. Martineau, Soc. in America, i., 299. They proved such
gawks that they were unable to learn.

1882. McCabe, New York, p. 217. I wasn’t half as awkward as some of
the gawks about me.

1887. H. Frederic, Seth’s Brother’s Wife, ch. iv. Girls brought up
to be awkward gawks, without a chance in life.

Verb. (colloquial).—To loiter round; to play the goat. [The same verb is used by Jonson (Magnetic Lady, iii., 4, 1632) in the sense of amazed, or bamboozled, i.e., absolutely befooled: Nay, look how the man stands, as he were gowked!]

1888. F. R. Stockton, Rudder Grange, ch. xvi. That afternoon we
gawked around, a-lookin’ at all the outside shows, for Jone said
he’d have to be pretty careful of his money now.

Gawkiness, subs. (colloquial).—Awkwardness; silliness; greenness (q.v.).

1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, ch. xxxvii. The crude gawkiness of the
raw girl he has drifted into marrying.

Gawking, subs. (colloquial).—Loitering and staring; gathering hayseed (q.v.).

Gawky, subs. (colloquial).—An awkward booby; a fool. ‘Now squire gawky’ = a challenge to a clumsy lout. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

1686–1758. Ramsay, Poems, ii., 299. Or, gentle born ye be; but
youths in love you’re but a gawky.

1777. Sheridan, School for Scandal, Act ii., Sc. 2. Crab. Yes, and
she is a curious being to pretend to be censorious—an awkward
gawky, without any one good point under heaven.

1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, ii., ch. 18. Great, long, slab-sided
gawkys from the country.

1878. C. H. Wall, tr. Molière, ii., 197. Our big gawky of a
viscount.

Adj. (colloquial).—Lanky; awkward; stupid.

1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, i., 1. Under the form of a
gawky country boy I will be an eye-witness of my servants’
behaviour.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xlviii. Even for his cousin Samuel
Newcome, a gawky youth with an eruptive countenance, Barnes had
appropriate words of conversation.

Gawney (or Goney), subs. (common).—A fool. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

Gay, adj. (colloquial).—1. Dissipated; specifically, given to venery: As in the French, avoir la cuisse gaie = to be addicted to the use of men. Hence gay woman, or girl, or bit = a strumpet; gay house = a brothel; to be gay = to be incontinent; gay in the legs, in the groin, in the arse = short-heeled (q.v.); gaying instrument = the penis [Lexicon Balatronicum, 1811, s.v.]; gay man = a wencher; gay ladie (old) = a mistress; gaying it = copulating.

1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 3767. What eyeleth you? Some gay
girl, God it wot, Hath brough you thus upon the very trot.

1754. Adventurer, No. 124. The old gentleman, whose character I
cannot better express than in the fashionable phrase which has been
contrived to palliate false principles and dissolute manners, had
been a gay man, and was well acquainted with the town.

1854. Leech, Pictures of Life and Character. How long have you been
gay?

1857. J. E. Ritchie, Night Side of London, p. 40. Here in
Catherine-street vice is a monster of a hideous mien. The gay
women, as they are termed, are worse off than American slaves.

1868. Sunday Times, 19 July. As soon as ever a woman has ostensibly
lost her reputation, we, with a grim inappositeness, call her gay.

2. (common).—In drink. For synonyms, see Screwed.

All Gay (or All so Gay). adv. phr. (common).—All right; first-rate; all serene (q.v.).

To feel gay. verb. phr. (colloquial).—Inclined for sport, venereal or other; To feel naughty (q.v.).

Gay Tyke Boy, subs. phr. (old).—A dog fancier.

1848. Duncombe, Sinks of London, s.v.

Gazebo, subs. (old).—A summer-house commanding an extensive view. [Dog-Latin, gazebo = I will gaze.]

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Geach, subs. (thieves’).—A thief. For synonyms, see Thieves.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 56. He was a tolerable geach.

Verb. (thieves’).—To steal. For synonyms, see Prig.

1821. Haggart, Life, p. 73. A small dross scout ... which I knew
had been geached.

Gear, subs. (venery).—1. The private parts, both male and female. [‘Geere, besognes; aussi les parties honteuses’ (Robert Sherwood’s Dictionarie, English and French, appended to Cotgrave, 1660). ‘Besongner ... also to do or leacher with’ (Cotgrave). Anglo-Saxon: gearwe (strong feminine plural) ornaments. Skeat says original sense of gear was ‘preparation.’]

1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, Mozza, a wench, a lasse, a girle.
Also a woman’s geare or cunnie.

1620. Percy, Folio MSS. ‘Ffryar and Boye.’ I sweare, by night nor
day thy geare is not to borrow.

1659. Torriano, Vocabulario, s.v.

2. (obsolete).—Work, business (q.v.). Thus: Here’s goodly gear = Here’s fine doings; Here’s a pretty kettle of fish. As in Romeo and Juliet (ii., 2, 106).

Gee, subs. (colloquial).—See Gee-gee.

Verb. (colloquial).—1. To go or turn to the off-side; used as a direction to horses. Cf.: It.: gio = Get on!

1480. Dialogus Creaturum. Et cum sic gloriaretur, et cogitaret cum
quanta gloria duceretur ad illum virum super equum, dicendo, ‘Gio!
Gio!’ cepit pede percutere terram quasi pungeret equum calcaribus.

2. (colloquial).—To move faster: as a teemster to his horses, ‘Gee up!’

1824. Blackwood’s Mag., Oct. Mr. Babb ge-hupped in vain, and strove
to jerk the rein, Nobbs felt he had his option to work or play.

3. (colloquial).—To stop: as ‘Gee whoa!’

To gee with, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To agree with; to fit; to be congenial; to go on all fours with; to do.

1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, Gears, s.v. ... It won’t gee,
it won’t hit or go.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. gee, it won’t gee, it won’t hit or do,
it does not suit or fit.

1850. Seaworthy, Nag’s Head, ch. v., p. 35. It don’t seem to Gee!
said Isaac, as he was trying to adjust the stove.

1888. Missouri Repub., 8 April. He and Mrs. Barnay did not gee.

Gee-gee (or Gee).—subs. (common).—1. A horse. See Gee, verb. in all senses. For synonyms, see Prad.

1888. Referee, 15 April, 1/2. In nearly all other races they see
most of the gees do a canter on their way up the course.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 April. He knows as much about gee-gee’s as
a professional trainer.

1890. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 8 Feb. The gees were all broken to the
stable.

2. (colloquial).—The nickname among journalists (of the interviewer, type) of Mr. G(eorge) G(rossmith), better known, perhaps, as the Society Clown.

Gee-gee Dodge, subs. phr. (trade).—Selling horseflesh for beef.

1884. Greenwood, Veiled Mysteries. The gee-gee dodge ... was seldom
or ever practised ... it was impossible ... to bargain for a
regular supply.

Geekie, subs. (Scots thieves’).—A police-station.

Geeloot. See Galoot.

Geese, All his geese are swans, phr. (colloquial).—He habitually exaggerates, or embroiders (q.v.); or, He is always wrong in his estimates of persons and things.

The old woman’s picking her geese (proverbial).—Said of a snowstorm. [The other leg of the couplet (schoolboys’) runs: ‘And selling the feathers a penny a piece.’]

Like geese on a common (colloquial).—Wandering in a body, aggressive and at large: e.g., as faddists (q.v.) in pursuit of a fad; or members of Parliament in recess, when both sides go about to say the thing which is in them.

Geewhilikens! intj. (Western American).—An exclamation of surprise; also jeewhilikens.

1888. Detroit Free Press. It is on time? No? Three hours late?
Geewhilikens!

Geezer, subs. (popular).—An appellation, sometimes, but not necessarily, of derision and contempt; applied to both sexes, but generally to women. Usually, old geezer. For synonyms, see Witch.

1885. Truth about the Stage, p. 16. If we wake up the old geezers
we shall get notice to quit without compensation.

1886. Broadside Ballad, ‘Her Mother’s Got the Hump.’ This
frizzle-headed old geezer had a chin on her as rough—well, as rough
as her family, and they’re rough ’uns.

1890. A. Chevalier, ‘Knocked ’Em in the Old Kent Road.’ Nice old
geezer with a nasty cough.

1892. Anstey, Voces Populi, p. 82. Our old geeser’s perdoocin’ the
custimary amount o’ sensation.

Gelding, subs. (old).—A eunuch.

1380. Wycliffe, Trans. of the Bible, Acts viii. 39. ... the spirit
of the Lord ravysched Filip, and the geldynge say him no more.

1659. Torriano, Vocabolario, s.v.

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.