To gee with, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To agree with; to fit; to be
congenial; to go on all fours with; to do.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, Gears, s.v. ... It won’t gee,
it won’t hit or go.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. gee, it won’t gee, it won’t hit or do,
it does not suit or fit.
1850. Seaworthy, Nag’s Head, ch. v., p. 35. It don’t seem to Gee!
said Isaac, as he was trying to adjust the stove.
1888. Missouri Repub., 8 April. He and Mrs. Barnay did not gee.
Gee-gee (or Gee).—subs. (common).—1. A horse. See Gee, verb. in all
senses. For synonyms, see Prad.
1888. Referee, 15 April, 1/2. In nearly all other races they see
most of the gees do a canter on their way up the course.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 April. He knows as much about gee-gee’s as
a professional trainer.
1890. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 8 Feb. The gees were all broken to the
stable.
2. (colloquial).—The nickname among journalists (of the interviewer,
type) of Mr. G(eorge) G(rossmith), better known, perhaps, as the
Society Clown.
Gee-gee Dodge, subs. phr. (trade).—Selling horseflesh for beef.
1884. Greenwood, Veiled Mysteries. The gee-gee dodge ... was seldom
or ever practised ... it was impossible ... to bargain for a
regular supply.
Geekie, subs. (Scots thieves’).—A police-station.
Geeloot. See Galoot.
Geese, All his geese are swans, phr. (colloquial).—He habitually
exaggerates, or embroiders (q.v.); or, He is always wrong in his
estimates of persons and things.
The old woman’s picking her geese (proverbial).—Said of a snowstorm.
[The other leg of the couplet (schoolboys’) runs: ‘And selling the
feathers a penny a piece.’]
Like geese on a common (colloquial).—Wandering in a body, aggressive
and at large: e.g., as faddists (q.v.) in pursuit of a fad; or members
of Parliament in recess, when both sides go about to say the thing
which is in them.
Geewhilikens! intj. (Western American).—An exclamation of surprise;
also jeewhilikens.
1888. Detroit Free Press. It is on time? No? Three hours late?
Geewhilikens!
Geezer, subs. (popular).—An appellation, sometimes, but not
necessarily, of derision and contempt; applied to both sexes, but
generally to women. Usually, old geezer. For synonyms, see Witch.
1885. Truth about the Stage, p. 16. If we wake up the old geezers
we shall get notice to quit without compensation.
1886. Broadside Ballad, ‘Her Mother’s Got the Hump.’ This
frizzle-headed old geezer had a chin on her as rough—well, as rough
as her family, and they’re rough ’uns.
1890. A. Chevalier, ‘Knocked ’Em in the Old Kent Road.’ Nice old
geezer with a nasty cough.
1892. Anstey, Voces Populi, p. 82. Our old geeser’s perdoocin’ the
custimary amount o’ sensation.
Gelding, subs. (old).—A eunuch.
1380. Wycliffe, Trans. of the Bible, Acts viii. 39. ... the spirit
of the Lord ravysched Filip, and the geldynge say him no more.
1659. Torriano, Vocabolario, s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
to enter for the geldings’ stakes, verb. phr. (old).—To castrate a man;
also used to describe a eunuch.
Gelt, subs. (old).—Money; gilt (q.v.). Also gelter.—(Duncombe, 1848).
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v. There is no gelt to be
got, Trading is very dull.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Gemini! (or Geminy! or Jiminy!) intj. (common).—An exclamation of
surprise; a mild oath. [Generally referred to the Lat.: Gemini = the
Twins (i.e., Castor and Pollux, the objects of an old Roman oath); but
Palmer (Folk Etymology), traces the interjection to the German, O
Gemine!; Dutch, Jemy Jemini!; both abbreviated from the Latin, O Jesu
Domine!; or merely from Jesu meus!; Italian, Giesu mio! It seems to
have come in at the Restoration.] Also O Jimminy!; O Jimminy Figs!; O
Jimminy Gig! etc.: for the phrase has pleased the cockney mind, and
been vulgarised accordingly.
1672. Dryden, The Assignation, Act ii., Sc. 3. Ben. O gemini! is it
you, sir?
1704. Steele, Lying Lover, Act iv., Sc. 3. Sim. I stay with you? Oh
gemini! Indeed, I can’t.
1731. Fielding, The Lottery, Sc. 2. Lord Lace! Oh gemini! who’s
that?
1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, iv., 2. Oh gemini! beg
the petticoat’s pardon.
1797. M. G. Lewis, Castle Spectre, iii., 3. Oh gemini! what would
he use with me, lady?
1798. Morton, Secrets Worth Knowing, i., 1. A parcel of lazy chaps,
I dare say—but I’ll make them stir their stumps. Well, here we are
at last.—Oh gemini gig how my poor bones do ache!
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. i. ‘Gemini! what is that
now?’ quoth Tip again.
1863. Reade, Hard Cash, I., 125. O, jiminy! This polite ejaculation
was drawn out by the speaker’s sudden recognition of Alfred.
Gemman, subs. (vulgar).—A contraction of gentleman.
1550. Docteur Double-All (the word occurs in this play).
c. 1551. L. Shepherd, John Bon in Arber’s Garner, iv., 107. Ye be
the jolliest gemman that I ever saw in my life.
1767. Colman, Oxonian in Town, I., i. I am glad to see your
honour’s well. I hope you left all the gemmin well at Oxford.
1818. Byron, Beppo, st. 86. At home our Bow-street gemmen keep the
laws.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. iii., ch. v. ... but knock down a
gemman.
1851. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. 26. Here the gipsy gemman see.
Gen, subs. (costers’).—A shilling. Back slang, but cf. Fr., argent. For
synonyms, see Blow.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. i., p. 19. I’ll
try you a gen (shilling) said a coster.
1887. Saturday Review, 14 May, p. 700. The difficulty of inverting
the word shilling accounts for ‘generalize.’ from which the
abbreviation to gen is natural as well as affectionate.
Gender, verb. (old).—To copulate. [An abbreviation of Engender.] For
synonyms, see Greens and Ride.
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, iv., 2. A cistern for foul toads To knot
and gender in.
1659. Torriano, Vocabolario, s.v.
1778. Bailey, Eng. Dict., s.v.
1816. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v.
1892. Bible, Lev. xix., 19. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender
with a diverse kind.
Feminine Gender, subs. phr. (schoolboys’).—The female pudendum. [As in
the old (schoolboys’) rhyme: Amo, amas, I loved a lass, And she was
tall and slender, Amas, amat, I laid her flat, And tickled her feminine
gender. Quoted (with modifications) by Marryat in Jacob Faithful,
1835.]
Generalize, subs. (costers’). A shilling. See Gen.
Generating Place, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum.
Generation Tool, subs. phr. (venery).—The penis. For synonyms, see
Creamstick and Prick.
Geneva Print, subs. phr. (old).—Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks and
Satin.
1584–1640. Massinger (quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant). And if
you meet an Officer preaching of sobriety, Unless he read it in
Geneva Print, Lay him by the heels.
Gen-net, subs. phr. (back slang).—Ten shillings.
Gennitraf, subs. (back slang).—A farthing.
Genol, adj. (back slang).—Long.
Gent, subs. (once literary: now vulgar).—1. A showily-dressed
vulgarian. [A contraction of ‘gentleman.’]
1635. [Glapthorne], Lady Mother, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii., 114.
Hees not a gent that cannot parlee. I must invent some new and
polite phrases.
1785. Burns, Epistle to J. Lapraite, st. 11. Do ye envy the city
gent, Behint a kist to lie and sklent?
1843. Thackeray, Irish Sketch Book, ch. viii. The crowd of
swaggering gents (I don’t know the corresponding phrase in the
Anglo-Irish vocabulary to express a shabby dandy), awaiting the
Cork mail.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, bk. IV., ch. ii. ‘Ah, not in business!
Hem! professional?’ ‘No,’ said Coningsby, ‘I am nothing.’—‘Ah! an
independent gent; hem! and a very pleasant thing too.’
1846. Sunday Paper, 24 May. Mr. Rawlinson (Magistrate at Marylebone
Police Court). What do you mean by gent? There is no such word in
our language. I hold a man who is called a gent to be the greatest
blackguard there is.
1848. Punch, vol. XIV., p. 226. His aversion for a gent is softened
by pity.
1869. Blue Budget. The gent indicates a being who apes the
gentility without the faintest shadow of a claim to it.
2. (Old Cant).—Money. [From Fr., argent.] For synonyms, see Actual and
Gilt.
1864. Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 Sept., p. 470. Les voleurs anglais
disent gent pour ‘argent.’
3. (colloquial).—A sweetheart, a mistress: e.g., My gent = my
particular friend.
Adj. (old literary).—Elegant; comely; genteel.
1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales. ‘Miller’s Tale.’ [Skeat, 1878, i.,
194]. As any wesil her body gent and small.
1553–99. Spenser. He loved as was his lot, a lady gent. Idem. A
knight had wrought against a lady gent.
1704. Mad. Knight’s Jour., p. 44. Law you, sais she, it’s right
gent, do you take it—’tis dreadfull pretty.
Gentile, subs. (colloquial). Any sort of stranger, native or foreign;
among the Mormons, any person not professing the Gospel according to
Joe Smith. Hence, In the Land of the Gentiles = (1) in foreign parts;
and (2) in strange neighbourhoods or alien society.
Gentle, subs. (anglers’).—A maggot; vulgarly, Gentile.
1811. Songs of the Chase. ‘The Jolly Anglers.’ We have gentles in
our horns.
Gentle Craft, subs. (old).—1. The trade of shoemaking. [From the
romance of Prince Crispin, who is said to have made shoes.]
1662. Rump Songs. ‘A Hymn to the Gentle Craft,’ etc., ii. 152.
Crispin and he were nere akin: The gentle craft hath a noble kin.