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
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, xii. A quaint boy at Eton,
cool hand at Oxford, a deep card in the regiment, man or woman
never yet had the best of ‘Uppy.’
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, i., p. 33. The new man, the
green hand, takes little or no heed of the entrance of the
officers.... Not so the old hand.
1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 195. Ye’re a grand hand at the
sleeping!
1892. W. E. Gladstone, Times ‘Report.’... This old Parliamentary
hand.
1892. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, i., 7, p. 18. You always
was a neat hand with the bones.
A hand like a foot, phr. (common).—A large, coarse hand. Also a vulgar
or uneducated handwriting.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, i. Col. Whoe’er writ it with a
hand like a foot.
A hand like a fist, phr. (gamesters’).—A hand full of trumps. Also (in
derision) a hand there’s no playing.
To take a hand with the outside music, verb. phr. (American).—See quot.
1892. J. L. Sullivan, A 19th Century Gladiator, iii. After
thirty-seven rounds in fifty-five minutes, the umpires and seconds
got into a fight, and Sullivan felt fresh enough to take a hand in
the outside music.
To get a hand on, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To suspect; to be distrustful.
To get one’s hand in, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To practise with a view
to proficiency.
To get one’s hand on it, verb. phr. (venery).—To grope a woman.
To bear a hand, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Bear a hand, make haste.
To bring up by hand, verb. phr. (venery).—To procure erection manually.
To bring down (or off) by hand, verb. phr. (venery).—To masturbate. For
synonyms, see Frig.
To stand one’s hand, verb. phr. (Australian).—To Treat (q.v.); to Stand
Sam (q.v.).
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 58. I used to see
her at some of the public-houses frequented by Mrs. Condon,
standing her hand liberally to all who happened to be in the bar,
and therefore being made much of by the thirsty loafers whom she
treated.
To hand in one’s chips (or checks).—See Cash one’s Checks.
To have (or get) the upper hand, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To have at an
advantage; to get to windward (q.v.).
1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 173. I was growing impatient
to get back and have the upper hand of my uncle.
To hand up, verb. (Winchester College).—To give information against; to
betray.—Notions.
Hands up! intj. (common).—An injunction to desist; stow it! (q.v.).
Also (police) = a command to surrender. Bail up (q.v.).
1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 120. Hands up! Jerry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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