1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 140. Mr. Wilkins kept company
with Jemima Evans.
To keep a pig, verb. phr. (Oxford University).—To have a lodger. [The
pig (q.v.) is usually a freshman who, the college being full, is
quartered on a student whose rooms include two bedchambers.]
To keep a stiff upper lip (or one’s pecker up), verb. phr.
(general).—To stand firm; to keep up a heart; to chuck out one’s chest.
To keep the doctor, verb. phr. (common).—To retail adulterated drinks:
Cf. Doctor.
To keep chapel, verb. phr. (University).—See quot. 1852.
1850. Household Words, ii. p. 161. ‘As you have failed to make up
your number of chapels the last two weeks,’ such were the very
words of the Dean, ‘you will, if you please, keep every chapel till
the end of the term.’
1852. Bristed, Five Years etc., 32. The undergraduate is expected
to go to Chapel eight times, or, in academic parlance, to keep
eight chapels a week.
To keep cave, verb. phr. (Eton College).—To watch and give warning on a
tutor’s approach.
1883. Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton, ch. iv. Another had
to mount guard in the passage, or on the staircase, to keep cave.
To keep down the census, verb. phr. (common.)—To procure abortion; to
masturbate. Fr. taper un môme.
To keep dark (or it dark), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To keep secret.
1868. Reade and Boucicault, Foul Play, vii. I always thought it was
a pity she kept it so dark.
1888. J. Runciman, The Chequers, p. 120. I’ll keep dark.
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xii. It’ll give us all
we know to keep dark when this thing gets into the papers.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 33. ‘Never mind,
Moll, I’ll keep the next time dark, you bet.’
To keep sloom, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To keep quiet.
To keep it up, verb. phr. (common).—To continue anything vigorously;
specifically to prolong a debauch.
1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, iii. 1. ‘He mistook you for
the barmaid, Madam!’ ‘Did he? Then, as I live, I am resolved to
keep up the delusion.’
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, i. 1. Their regular hours stupefy me—not a
fiddle nor a card after eleven! However Mr. Faulkland’s gentleman
and I keep it up a little in private parties.
1788. G. A. Stevens, Adv. of a Speculist, ii. 52. Yet they were
keeping it up, as they called it; singing, though they wanted
spirits.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v. We kept it up finely last night: metaphor
drawn from the game of shuttlecock.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick [ed. 1857] p. 443. We were keeping it up
pretty tolerably at the stump last night.
1857–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii. 57. We keeps it up
for half an hour, or an hour ... if the browns tumble in well.
1879. Athenæum, July 5, p. 13, col. 2. He puts some excellent
remarks on the question of keeping it up into a conversation among
some of his Roman artists.
To keep dry, verb. phr. (American).—To hold one’s tongue; to keep dark
(q.v.).
1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin, p. 295. Never let them get a
chance at your sentiment; keep that dry.
To keep one back and belly, verb. phr. (common).—To feed and clothe.
For keeps, phr. (schoolboys’).—To keep for good.
1886. The Advance, 9 Dec. We, the undersigned, promise not to play
marbles for keeps, nor bet nor gamble in any way.
To keep the door, verb. phr. (old).—To play the bawd.
To keep the pot boiling, (colloquial).—To go on with anything; to ‘keep
the game alive’.
To keep (or hold) one’s hair on. See Hair.
To keep open house, verb. phr. (tramps’).—To sleep in the open air; to
do a star pitch. For synonyms see Hedge-square.
To keep up to the collar, verb. phr. (common).—To keep hard at work.
1861. T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ii. ii. Hardy kept him pretty
well up to the collar.
To keep sheep by moonlight, verb. phr. (old).—To hang in chains.
As long as i can buy milk i shall not keep a cow, phr. (venery).—See
keep, verb. sense 3.
1680. Bunyan, Life and Death of Mr. Badman [ed. 1696], p. 208. When
... asked the reason he would make this answer. ‘Who would keep a
cow of their own that can have a quart of milk for a penny?’
Meaning, who would be at the charge to have a wife that can have a
whore when he listeth?
He can’t keep a hotel, phr. (American).—A phrase intimating lack of
administrative capacity.
Keeping-cully, subs. (old).—A man who keeps (q.v. verb. sense 3).—B. E.
(1690); New Cant. Dict. (1725); Grose (1785); Lex. Bal. (1811).
Keffel, subs. (old).—A horse. For synonyms see Prad.—B. E. (1690); New
Cant. Dict. (1725); Grose (1785); Matsell (1859).
Keg, subs. (American).—The stomach. For synonyms see Victualling
Office.
1887. Francis, Saddle and Mocassin, p. 270. We’d been having a time
and my keg was pretty full too.
Kegmeg, subs. (common).—See quot.
1883. Payn, Thicker than Water, xii. It was not unusual for Mrs.
Beckett to seek half an hour’s intimate talk with her young
companion, which she playfully termed a keg-meg.
Keifer, subs. (venery).—Generic for Mutton (q.v.). For synonyms see
Monosyllable.
Ke-keya, subs. (American thieves’).—The devil.—Matsell (1859). For
synonyms see Skipper.
Kelder, subs. (old).—The belly. See Hans-in-kelder and
Jack-in-the-cellar.
1658. Brome, New Academy, p. 29. By this good tongue, no more than
the unbegotten Hans I mean to clap into thy kelder.
Kelp, subs. (old).—A hat. For synonyms see Golgotha. To kelp = to raise
one’s hat in salutation.
1754. Discoveries of John Poulter, p. 30. We jostle him, and one
knocks his kelp off.
1819. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v. Kelp.
Kelso-boots, subs. (Old Scots’).—Heavy shackles put on the legs of
prisoners; by some supposed to be a sort of stocks.—Jamieson.
Kelter (or Kilter), subs. (old).—1. Order; condition; form (q.v.).
1630–50. Bradford, Plymouth Plantation, 235. Ye very sight of one
(a gun) though out of kilter, was a terrour unto them.
1687. Barrow, Sermons, i. Ser. 6. If the organs of prayer are out
of kelter, or out of time, how can we pray?
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Out of Kelter, out of sorts.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1754. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2nd ed., s.v.
1785. Grose. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
1889. C. F. Woolson, Jupiter Lights, xviii. I’m a failure because I
always see double, like a stereoscope out of kilter.
2. (old).—Money. For synonyms see Actual and Gilt. [Also provincial
Yorkshire (Halliwell); and Scots’ (Jamieson)].
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143, s.v.
Keltie (or Kelty), subs. (Scots’).—A bumper, imposed as a fine, on
those who do not drink fair. [Said to be so called from a famous
champion drinker in Kinrosshire.]
Kemesa. See Camesa.
Ken, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A house; a place: generally in combination;
e.g. Boozing-Ken = drinking house; a bob-ken or bowman-ken = a
well-furnished house; etc. To bite, or crack, a ken = to rob a house.
English synonyms. Carsey (or case); castle; cat-and-mouse; crack;
diggings; hang-out; rootee; roost; shop; panny.
Italian synonyms. Canucha; tugurio.
1567. Harman, Caveat Man, p. 86. Stowe your bene, cofe, and cut
benat whydds, and byng we to rome vyle, to nyp a bong; so shall we
haue lowre for the bousing ken, and when we byng back to the
deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans, or myll
the ken for a bagge of dudes.
1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight. If we niggle or mill a
bousing-ken.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 39 (H. Club’s Repr. 1874). Ken,
an house. Stawling ken, a house to receive stolne goods, or a
dwelling house.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. 1., ch. vi., p. 54 (1874). We
straight betook ourselves to the boozing ken; and having bubb’d
rumly, we concluded an everlasting friendship.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Ken. A bob ken, or a
bowman-ken, a good or well Furnished House, full of booty, worth
robbing; also a House that Harbours Rogues and Thieves. Biting the
ken, Robbing the House.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Ken. When we entered the ken we leapt
up the Dancers and fagotted all there ... ’tis a bob-ken, Brush
upon the sneak.
1748. Dyche, Dictionary, (5th ed.). Ken (S.) a cant name for a
dwelling house of any sort, but more particularly cottages.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, iv. Out of my Ken, you cur of the
mange.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, p. 260. The bar of the ken is filled
with traps.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, 1., p. 336. The old
woman (who kept the ken), when any female, old or young, who had no
tin, came into the kitchen, made up a match for her with some men.
1856. C. Reade, Never Too Late, xlvii. We won’t all go together ...
you two meet me at Jonathan’s ken in an hour.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
1889. Answers, 27 July, p. 136, col. 1. My associations in the
fourpenny lodging ken were such as would have degenerated a
stronger character than mine.
1892. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, Tab. ii, Sc. 1, p. 24. I
had to look into a ken to-night about the captain.
Ken-cracker (or Miller), subs. (old).—A housebreaker. B. E. (1690); New
Cant. Dict. (1725); Grose (1785); Matsell (1859).
Ken-crack-lay, subs. (thieves’).—Housebreaking. See Ken, Crack, and
Lay.
Kennedy, subs. (common). See quot. To give kennedy = to lay in with a
poker.
1864. Athenæum, 29 Oct., p. 559. St. Giles’s perpetuates the memory
of a ... man ... who was killed by a poker by calling that
instrument a kennedy.
1887. Henley, Villon’s Good Night. Paste ’em, and larrup ’em, and
lam; Give kennedy and make ’em crawl.
Kennel, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. For synonyms see
Monosyllable. [Cf. Kennel, O. F. canal = a gutter or watercourse].
1647–80. Rochester, Bath Intrigues. Twelve times I scoured the
kennel ’twixt her thighs.
Kennel-raker, subs. (old).—A scavenger; one fit only for low, dirty
jobs.
1647. Fletcher, Prophetess, iii. 1. Give your petitions in seemly
sort, and keep your hat off decently, a fine periphrasis of a
kennel-raker.
1655. Comicall History of Francion [quoted by Nares]. They heard
behind them so great a hooping and hallowing of men and boys, and
an outcry of women, that they were inforced to look back, and
presently they discovered a young man, who had nothing but his
shirt on his back, and not so much as shoes on his feet, who was
followed by a number of the kennelrakers, who made a perpetual
shout.
d. 1735. Arbuthnot, Wks. (1751). I. 49. You did not love cruelty,
you kennel-raker, you gibbet-carrier.
Kennurd, adj. (back slang).—Drunk. For synonyms see Drinks and Screwed.
Kent (or Kent-rag, Kent-clout etc.) subs. (common).—A colored cotton
handkerchief.
Kentish-fire, subs. (colloquial).—A prolonged and ordered salvo of
applause. [From the cheers bestowed in Kent upon the No-Popery orators
in 1828–9].
1865. J. H. Buckstone in letter to Morning Post, 22 March. During
the overture that peculiar beating of the feet known to a Dublin
audience as the Kentish fire was heard.
Kent-street Ejectment, subs. phr. (old).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. To take away the street door, a
method practised by the landlords in Kent-st., Southwark, when
their tenants are above a fortnight’s rent in arrear.
Kerbstone-broker, subs. (common).—A stock-broker doing business outside
the Stock-Exchange; a guttersnipe (q.v.). Fr. un courtier marron, and
(collectively) les coulissiers.
Kerflop, intj. (American).—Onomatopœic: in imitation of the sound of a
body falling flat or into water.
Variants: Cachunk (q.v.); Kerslap; Kesouse; Keslosh; Keswosh; Kewosh;
Keswollop; Kerchunk; Kerplunk; Kerthump; Kershaw; Kerslash; Kerslosh;
Kerswosh, etc.
1843. Major Jones’s Courtship, i. Kerslash! I went rite over Miss
Stallinses spinnin’ wheel onto the floor.
1848. Jones, Sketches of Travel, p. 64. Kerslosh went the water all
over my feet.
b. 1852. Traits of American Humour, p. 59. The first thing I
knowed, I went kerswash into the drink.
d. 1867. Brown (‘Artemus Ward’), The Shakers. Shakers were all
goin’ kerslap to the Promist Land.
1887. Francis, Saddle & Mocassin. He at last brought the whole
tautological string down kerflop, full and fairly, upon the devoted
crown of his auditor.
1888. Fostorio Democrat, 8 March. The fence broke down, and
kerchunk! I went right through the ice all over.
1888. Century Mag. [quoted in Americanisms]. Kerthump! head over
heels.
Kerry-security, subs. (old).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Kerry-security, bond, pledge, oath,
and keep the money.
Ketch, subs. (old).—A hangman; Jack Ketch (q.v.).
Verb. (American thieves’).—To hang.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Ketch, I’ll ketch you; I’ll hang
you.
Kettle, subs. (thieves’).—1. A watch: red-kettle = gold watch.