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