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.’]