Slang and its analogues past and present, volume 3 [of 7] : $b A dictionary, historical and comparative, of the heterodox speech of all classes of society for more than three hundred years. With synonyms in English, French, German, Italian, etc.Henley, William Ernest
History
Slang and its analogues past and present, volume 3 [of 7] : $b A dictionary, historical and comparative, of the heterodox speech of all classes of society for more than three hundred years. With synonyms in English, French, German, Italian, etc.
Henley, William Ernest
English language -- Slang -- Dictionaries; Slang -- Dictionaries
Galoptious or Galuptious, adj. (popular).—Delightful; a general
superlative.
1887. Judy, 21 Sept., p. 140. Four young ladies represented the
galopshus sum of 20,000,000 dollars.
Galore (also gallore and golore), adv. (old; now recognised).—In
abundance; plenty. [Irish and Gaelic go leor = in plenty.]
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p 14. Galore of alcohol to
ratify the trade.
1856. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. lx. He found rogues galore, and
envious spirits that wished the friends ill.
1891. Licensed Vic. Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 1, c. 1. Of chit-chat this
week we have galore, and the difficulty is how to sift the wheat
from the chaff.
Galumph, verb. (American).—To bump along (Onomatopœia).
1888. New York World, 13 May. The young man tackled the driver of a
green bobtail car that galumphed through Lewis Street at a high
rate of speed.
Galvanised Yankee, subs. phr. (American Civil War).—A Grey-back (q.v.)
who took the oath to the North and served in its armies.
Gam, subs. (thieves’).—1. Pluck; gameness.
1888. Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 8 Dec., p. 260. I’m not so sure
about his lack of cunnin’, speed, or gam.
2. (American thieves’).—Stealing (Matsell, 1859).
Verb. (American thieves’).—1. To steal.
2. (American).—To engage in social intercourse; to make a call; to have
a chat. See Gamming.
Gamaliel, subs. (colloquial).—A pedant; a person curious of the letter
and the form: e.g., ‘these Gamaliels of the theory’ = these
ultra-puritans, to whom the spirit is nothing.
Gamaruche, subs. (venery).—See Cunnilingist and Cock-Teaser. Verb
(venery).—To irrumate; to Bag-pipe (q.v.). Also to cunnilinge (q.v.).
Fr., gamahucher.
Gamb (or Gam), subs. (old).—A leg. In use also in this sense as an
heraldic term. [It., gambe; Fr., jambe; probably through Lingua
Franca.] For synonyms, see Drumsticks and Pins.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143. If a man has bow legs,
he has queer gams, gams being cant for legs.
1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v.
1819. Moore, Memorial, p. 61. Back to his home, with tottering
gams.
1887. Henley, Villon’s Good Night. At you I merely lift my gam.
[To flutter a gam = to dance; to lift a gam = to break wind; to gam
it = to walk; to run away; to leg it (q.v.)].
Gamble, subs. (colloquial).—A venture: a flutter (q.v.).
1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 250. And you
know the Flying Scud was the biggest gamble of the crowd.
Gambler, subs. (old, now recognised). See quots.
1778. Bailey, Eng. Dict. Gambler, a guinea-dropper; one class of
sharpers.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. Gambler, a sharper; a tricking gamester.
1816. Johnson, Eng. Dict. (11th ed.). Gambler, a cant word, I
suppose. A knave whose practice it is to invite the unwary to game
and cheat them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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