Adj. (old).—1. Foppish; affected; and (2) see quot. 1742. Also
macaronian and macaronical.
1596. Nashe, Have With You [Grosart, iii. 47]. One Dick Litchfield
... who hath translated my Piers Pennilesse into the macaronicall
tongue.
1742. Cambridge, The Scribleriad, b. ii. note 16. The macaronian is
a kind of burlesque poetry, consisting of a jumble of words of
different languages, with words of the vulgar tongue latinized, and
latin words modernized.
1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Epil. Ye travelled tribe,
ye macaroni train.
1806. J. Dallaway, Obs. Eng. Arch., 222. Travellers who have seen
... will look on the architecture of Bath as belonging to the
macaronick order.
Macaroni-stake, subs. (old).—A race ridden by a gentleman-jock
(q.v.).—Bee (1823).
Macaroon, subs. (old).—An affected blockhead.
1650. Elegy on Donne [Nares]. A macaroon, And no way fit to speak
to clouted shoon.
1662. Donne, Satires, Sat. 4. 116, 117. I sigh and sweat To hear
this makaron talke, in vaine.
Mace, subs. (old).—See quots.
1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Mace, the mace is a rogue assuming
the character of a gentleman, or opulent tradesman, who under that
appearance defrauds workmen, by borrowing a watch or other piece of
goods, till one he bespeaks is done.
1821. Egan, Life in London, 287. Mace ... which is a slang term for
imposition or robbery.
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip, ii. Fiddle, or fence, or
mace, or mack.
Verb. (common).—To defraud. See quot. 1868. Also on the mace, and to
strike the mace. To mace the rattler = to travel by rail without paying
the fare.
1821. Egan, Life in London, p. 320. He laughed heartily at their
being maced.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, lxxxiii. To swindle a gentleman did not sound
a crime when it was called macing a swell.
1830. W. T. Moncrieff, The Heart of London, ii. 1. He’s been
working on the mace.
1868. Temple Bar, xxiv. 535. Macing means taking an office, getting
goods sent to it, and then bolting with them; or getting goods sent
to your lodgings and then removing.
1885. Daily Telegraph, 18 Aug., p. 3, col. 2. Fancy him being so
soft as to give that jay a quid back out of the ten he’d maced him
of!
On the mace, adv. phr. (common).—1. See verb.; and (2) on credit; on
tick (q.v.).
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, 100. Letting ’em have the super and
slang on mace, for he gets to know their account, and he puts the
pot on ’em settling day.
Maceman (Mace-cove, Mace-gloak, or Macer), subs. (thieves’).—A general
swindler. But see quots. 1879 and 1884.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, ii. 34, s.v.
1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Mace. The mace-cove is he who
will cheat, take in, or swindle as often as may be.
1828. G. Smeeton, Doings in London, p. 39. It is a game in very
great vogue among the macers, who congregate nightly at the
flash-houses.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
1861. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 2 p.m. Par. 10. The turf has its
blacklegs and touts; the nightside of London is fruitful in
macemen, ‘mouchers’, and ‘go-alongs’.
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl. 502. The following people
used to go in there—toy-getters (watch-stealers) ... men at the
mace (sham loan offices).
1883. G. A. S[ala], in Illustr. L. News, 28 April, p. 407, col. 2.
The lovely and loving spouse of an abandoned macer, named Brabazon
Sikes—to further whose villainous ends she consents to ‘nobble’
Damozel in his stable.
1884. Daily News, 5 Jan., p. 5, col. 2. The victim appears to have
entered an omnibus and to have been at once pounced upon by two
macemen, otherwise ‘swell mobsmen’.
Machine, subs. (venery).—1. The female pudendum. For synonyms see
Monosyllable. (2) The penis. For synonyms see Creamstick and Prick.
3. (common).—A bicycle or tricycle; a carriage; (Scots’) and (in
America) a fire-engine.
d. 1797. Walpole, Letters, iv. 12. Will set out tomorrow morning in
the machine that goes from the Queen’s Head in the Gray’s Inn Lane.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 325. A special kind of rowdy known
only in America is the b’hoy that runs wid de machine ... the
fire-engine.
1884. Field, 6 Dec. As we proceeded the machine became more of an
encumbrance.