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
Glasgow Magistrate, subs. phr. (common).—A herring, fresh or salted, of
the finest. [From the practice of sending samples to the Baillie of the
River for approval.] Also Glasgow Baillie.
1855. Strang, Glasgow and its City Clubs. This club ... better
known by the title of the Tinkler’s club, particularly when the
brotherhood changed the hour of meeting ... and when the steak was
exchanged for a ‘Welsh rabbit’ or Glasgow magistrate.
English Synonyms. (for herrings generally).—Atlantic ranger;
Californian; Cornish duck; Digby chicken; Dunbar wether; gendarme;
Gourock ham; magistrate; pheasant (or Billingsgate pheasant); reds;
sea-rover; soldier; Taunton turkey; two-eye’d steak; Yarmouth capon.
Fr.: gendarme.
Glass, subs. (American thieves’).—An hour. [An abbreviation of
‘hour-glass.’]
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. The badger piped his Moll about a
glass and a half before she cribbed the flat.
There’s a deal of glass about, phr. (common).—1. Applied to vulgar
display = ‘It’s the thing’ (q.v.).
2. (common).—Said in answer to an achievement in assertion. A memory of
the proverb, ‘People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.’
Who’s to pay for the broken glass? verb. phr. (colloquial).—See Stand
the Racket.
Been looking through a glass, adv. phr. (common).—Drunk. For synonyms,
see Drinks and Screwed.
Glass-eyes, subs. (old).—A man wearing spectacles; four-eyes (q.v.);
gig-lamps (q.v.).
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Glass-house. To live in a glass house, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To lay
oneself open to attack or adverse criticism.
Glass-work, subs. (card-sharpers’).—An obsolete method of cheating at
cards. A convex mirror the size of a small coin was fastened with
shellac to the lower corner of the left palm opposite the thumb,
enabling the dealer to ascertain by reflection the value of the cards
he dealt.
Glaze, subs. (old),—A window.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4th ed.), p. 12. Glaze, a Window.
1754. Discoveries of John Poulter, p. 43. Undub the Jeger and jump
the glaze.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3rd ed.), p. 445. A window, glaze.
c. 1830. Finish to Tom and Jerry [1872], p. 82. A random shot
milling the glaze.
Verb (old).—To cheat at cards. See quot. and Glass-work.
1821. P. Egan, Real Life, I., 297. If you take the broads in hand
in their company, you are sure to be work’d, either by glazing,
that is, putting you in front of a looking glass, by which means
your hand is discovered by your antagonist, or by private signals
from the pal.
To mill (or star a glaze), verb. phr. (old).—To break a window.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, iii., 2. Jerry. What are you about,
Tom? Tom. I’m going to mill the glaze—I’ll——(Is about to break the
glass, when Kate and Sue appear as the Miss Trifles.).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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