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, A Worlde of Wordes. Onger i stivali, to grease ones
bootes, id est, to flatter or cog with, to faune vpon one.
3. (old).—To gull; to cheat; to do.
To grease a fat sow in the arse, verb. phr. (old).—To bribe a rich
man.—Grose.
To grease one’s gills, verb. phr. (common).—To make a good or luxurious
meal.
Greased Lightning, subs. phr. (American).—An express train.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 359. The usual Express Train is not
half fast enough for the impatient traveller; he must have his
Lightning Express Train, and in the Far West improves still farther
by calling it greased lightning, after a favourite Yankee term.
Like Greased Lightning, adv. phr. (American).—Very quick. See Bed-post.
1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, p. 72. Quicker than greased
lightnin’, My covies, I was dead.
1890. Globe, 27 Aug., p. 2, c. 5. He is drawn along at a rapid
rate, or, as the correspondent puts it, he is whisked all over town
like greased lightning.
1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 98. He measured again, and
then off went his coat like greased lightning, and we all followed
suit.
Greaser, subs. (American).—1. A Mexican in general; also a Spanish
American: see quots. 1848 and 1888. The term originated during the
Mexican war.
1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 3. Note. The Mexicans are
called Spaniards or greasers (from their greasy appearance) by the
Western people.
1855. Marryat, Mountains and Mole Hills, p. 236. The Americans call
the Mexicans greasers, which is scarcely a complimentary
soubriquet; although the term greaser camp as applied to a Mexican
encampment is truthfully suggestive of filth and squalor.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, Prologue i. Behind the
leaders followed a little troop of three, consisting of one English
servant and two greasers.
1883. Bret Harte, In the Carquinez Woods, footnote to ch. vii.
Greasers, Californian slang for a mixed race of Mexicans and
Indians.
1888. Century Mag., October. To avenge the murder of one of their
number the cowboys gathered from the country round about, and
fairly stormed the greaser—that is, Mexican—village where the
murder had been committed, killing four of the inhabitants.
1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody, ch. 2. Don’t let the greaser git his
fingers in your ha’r.
2. in. pl. (Royal Military Academy).—Fried potatoes, as distinguished
from boilers = boiled potatoes.
To give one greaser, verb. phr. (Winchester College).—To rub the back
of the hand hard with the knuckles.
Grease-spot, subs. (common).—The imaginary result of a passage at arms,
physical or intellectual.
1844. Haliburton, The Attaché, ch. xvi. If he hadn’t a had the
clear grit in him, and showed his teeth and claws, they’d a
nullified him so you wouldn’t see a grease-spot of him no more.
Greasy-chin, subs. (old).—A dinner.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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