Verb. (American thieves’).—1. To steal.
2. (American).—To engage in social intercourse; to make a call; to have
a chat. See Gamming.
Gamaliel, subs. (colloquial).—A pedant; a person curious of the letter
and the form: e.g., ‘these Gamaliels of the theory’ = these
ultra-puritans, to whom the spirit is nothing.
Gamaruche, subs. (venery).—See Cunnilingist and Cock-Teaser. Verb
(venery).—To irrumate; to Bag-pipe (q.v.). Also to cunnilinge (q.v.).
Fr., gamahucher.
Gamb (or Gam), subs. (old).—A leg. In use also in this sense as an
heraldic term. [It., gambe; Fr., jambe; probably through Lingua
Franca.] For synonyms, see Drumsticks and Pins.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 143. If a man has bow legs,
he has queer gams, gams being cant for legs.
1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v.
1819. Moore, Memorial, p. 61. Back to his home, with tottering
gams.
1887. Henley, Villon’s Good Night. At you I merely lift my gam.
[To flutter a gam = to dance; to lift a gam = to break wind; to gam
it = to walk; to run away; to leg it (q.v.)].
Gamble, subs. (colloquial).—A venture: a flutter (q.v.).
1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 250. And you
know the Flying Scud was the biggest gamble of the crowd.
Gambler, subs. (old, now recognised). See quots.
1778. Bailey, Eng. Dict. Gambler, a guinea-dropper; one class of
sharpers.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. Gambler, a sharper; a tricking gamester.
1816. Johnson, Eng. Dict. (11th ed.). Gambler, a cant word, I
suppose. A knave whose practice it is to invite the unwary to game
and cheat them.
1890. Cassell’s Enc. Dict. Gambler, one given to playing for a
stake.
Gambol, subs. (booking clerks’).—A railway ticket.
1882. Daily News, 6 Sept., p. 2, c. 5. ... Mr. Chance [the
magistrate] asked what gambols meant. The inspector said doubtless
the railway tickets.
Gam-cases, subs. (old). Stockings (Parker, Life’s Painter). [From gam =
leg + case.]
Game, subs. (old).—1. The proceeds of a robbery; swag (q.v.).
1676. Warning for Housekeepers. Song. When that we have bit the
bloe, we carry away the game.
2. (old).—A company of whores. A game-pullet = a young prostitute, or a
girl inclined to lechery; cf., adj., sense 8.
1690. B. E., New Dictionary, s.v. ... also a Bawdy house, lewd
women.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. game ... Mother, have you any game,
Mother, have you any girls?
3. (old).—A gull; a simpleton. For synonyms, see Buffle and
Cabbage-head.
1690. B. E., New Dictionary. Game, c. Bubbles drawn in to be
cheated.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
4. (thieves’).—Specifically, the game = thieving; also (nautical),
slave trading; and (venery), the practice of copulation (e.g., good at
the game = an expert and vigorous bedfellow. Cf., Shakspeare, Troilus,
iv., 5, ‘Spoils of opportunity, daughters of the game’). In quot.
(1639) it would seem that hen of the game = a shrew, a fighting woman.
1639–61. Rump, ii., 185. ‘Free Parliament Litany.’ From a dunghill
Cock and a Hen of the Game.
1640. Ladies’ Parliament. Stamford she is for the game, She saies
her husband is to blame, For her part she loves a foole, If he hath
a good toole.
1668. Etheredge, She Would if She Could, i., 1. A gentleman should
not have gone out of his chambers but some civil officer of the
game or other would have ... given him notice where he might have
had a course or two in the afternoon.
17(?). Burns, Merry Muses, ‘Jenny Macraw’ (old song). Jenny Macraw
was a bird of the game.
1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, Glossary. On the
game—thieving.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 263. Whether the
game got stale, or Peter became honest, is beyond the purport of my
communication to settle.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assist. (3rd ed.), p. 444, s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v. The particular
line of rascality the rogue is engaged in; thieving; cheating.
1860. Chambers’ Journal, Vol. 13, p. 281. I asked him if he meant
by a trading voyage, the game.
5. (colloquial).—A source of amusement; a lark (q.v.); a barney (q.v.);
as, e.g., It was such a game!
6. (colloquial).—A design; trick; object; line of conduct: e.g., What’s
your little game = What are you after? Also, None of your little games!
= None of your tricks! See High Old Game.
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. ix. Honesty, indeed! if
honesty’s the game, you’ve a right to your share, what Mrs.
Kettering intended you should have.
1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulg. Tongue, p. 9. Game n. Intention.
‘What’s your game?’ or, ‘What are you up to?’ (very generally
used).
1870. Standard, 27 Sept. If we accept the meaner game which the
Times indicates for us, it can only be by deliberate choice.
1879. Justin McCarthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xiii. Come, what’s your
little game?
1883. Edw. E. Morris, in Longman’s Mag., June, p. 176. A youth, who
left England, and then carried on the same game in Australia.
1889. Standard, 1 May, p. 5, c. 1. The ‘game of law and order’ is
not up, in Paris.
1890. Punch, 30 Aug., p. 97. Mug’s game! They’ll soon find as the
Marsters ain’t going to be worried and welched.
1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 46. She knew how to work the
game of fascination right.
1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 349, ‘It was
the thing in your times, that’s right enough; but you’re old now,
and the game’s up.’
Adj. (old).—1. Plucky; enduring; full of spirit and bottom (q.v.).
[Cock-pit and pugilists’. The word may be said to have passed into the
language with the rise to renown of Harry Pearce, surnamed the Game
Chicken.]
1747. Capt. Godfrey, Science of Defence, p. 64. Smallwood (a boxer)
is thorough game, with judgment equal to any, and superior to most.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 57. Pitying raised from earth
the game old man.
1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry (ed. 1891), p. 38. Tom, however, was
too game to acknowledge any sort of alarm at this slight
visitation.
1823. E. Kent, Mod. Flash Dict. Game, s.v. Sturdy, hardy, hardened.
1827. Reynolds, Peter Corcoran, The Fancy. ‘The Field of Tothill.’
The highest in the fancy—all the game ones, Who are not very much
beneath her weight.
1855. A. Trollope, The Warden, ch. viii. He was a most courageous
lad, game to the backbone.
1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 19 June, p. 395. The round had lasted
sixteen minutes, and no one present had ever seen gamer or more
determined fighting.
2. (common).—Ready; willing; prepared. [Also from cock-fighting. See
sense 1].
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, p. 99, (ed. 1857). ‘All alive to-day, I
suppose?’ ‘Regular game, sir.’
1856. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. xxi. I’m game to try.
1865. Bentley, p. 182, ‘The Excursion Train.’ Again to London back
we came The day the excursion ticket said, And really both of us
felt game To travel round the world instead.
1880. Punch’s Almanack. Got three quid; have cried a go with Fan,
Game to spend my money like a man.
1891. Farjeon, The Mystery of M. Felix, p. 103. ‘I’m game,’ said
Sophy, to whom any task of this kind was especially inviting.
1891. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 51. ‘Yes, I am gamey, you bet!’
exclaimed the Chinaman, softly.
1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 121. It is nearly midnight. I
am game for another hour, are you?