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
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. 16. Let’s have a glim ... or we
shall go breaking our necks.
1837. Lytton, Ernest Maltravers, Bk. I., ch. 10. ‘Hush, Jack!’
whispered one; ‘hang out the glim and let’s look about us.’
1852. Judson, Myst., etc., of New York, ch. iv. Old Jack bade
Harriet trim the glim.
1883. R. L. Stevenson, Treasure Island, p. 89. Sure enough, they
left their glim here.
1884. Henley and Stevenson, Admiral Guinea, ii., 6. Now here is my
little glim; it aint for me because I’m blind.
2. (old).—A sham account of a fire as sold by flying stationers (q.v.).
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 233. His papers
certify any and every ‘ill that flesh is heir to’.... Loss by fire
is a glim.
3. in. pl. (common).—The eyes.
English Synonyms.—Blinkers; daylights; deadlights; glaziers; lights;
lamps; ogles; optics; orbs; peepers; sees; squinters; toplights;
windows; winkers.
French Synonyms.—Les quinquets (popular = bright eyes, Vidocq); les
mirettes (popular and thieves’; Italian: mira = sight); les reluits
(thieves’: also daymans—or lightmans [q.v.]); les calots (thieves’ =
marbles); les châsses or les châssis (popular = hunters’); les lampions
(thieves’ = lamps (q.v.); Italian: lanterna and lampante); les apics
(thieves’); les ardents (thieves’ = piercers); les œillets (popular =
eyelets); les lanternes de cabriolet (popular = giglamps); les clignots
(popular = winkers); les carreaux (thieves’ = windows); les clairs
(thieves’ = shiners); les coquards (thieves’).
Italian Synonyms.—Lanterna (= a lamp); calchi; balchi; brunotti (=
brownies); lampante.
Spanish Synonyms.—Fanal (= lantern); lanterna (= idem); visantes
(vulgar); vistosos (vulgar).
German Synonyms.—Dierling (from stieren = to stare); Linzer; Scheinling
(from Schein = daylights (q.v.)).
1824. P. Egan, Boxiana, iv., 417. His glims I’ve made look like a
couple of rainbows.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 47 [ed. 1854]. Queer my glims, if
that ben’t little Paul!
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, II., 339. Harold escaped with the
loss of a glim.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 56. A pooty gal, gentle, or
simple, as carn’t use her glims is a flat.
4. in. pl. (common).—A pair of spectacles. For synonyms, see Barnacles.
5. (common).—Gonorrhœa or clap (q.v.). [From sense 1 = fire.]
Verb (old).—To brand or burn in the hand.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v. As the cull was Glimm’d,
he gangs to the Nubb, c., if the Fellow has been Burnt in the Hand,
he’ll be Hang’d now.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall, p. 15. Profligate women are glimm’d for
that villany, for which, rather than leave it, they could freely
die martyrs.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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