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
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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