English Synonyms.—Add to those under Actual:—Charms; checks; cole or
coal; coliander seeds; corn in Egypt; crap; darby; dots; ducats;
gingerbread; kelter; lowie; lurries; moss; oil of palms; palm-oil;
peck; plums; rhino; rivets; salt; sawdust; scad; screen; scuds; shigs;
soap; spoon; steven; sugar; tea-spoons; tinie.
French Synonyms.—Le galtos (popular); l’odeur de gousset (obsolete);
l’onguent (= palm grease, Sp., unguento; the simile is common to most
languages); le morlingue (thieves’); la menouille (popular); le michon
(thieves’: from miche, a loaf, cf., Loaver); les monacos (popular); le
monarque (prostitutes’: primarily a five franc piece); le blé (= corn
or loaver); les étoffes (thieves’).
Spanish Synonyms.—La lana (= wool); la morusa (colloquial); la mosca (=
the flies); lo numerario; la pelusa (= down); lo zurraco (colloquial);
lo unguento de Mejico (= Mexican Grease); a’ toca teja (colloquial:
ready money); caire.
Italian Synonyms.—Cucchi; cuchieri; cucchielli; lugani.
German Synonyms.—Fuchs (= fox: an allusion to the ruddy hue of gold
pieces); fuxig or fuxern = golden, red; fuchsmelochener (= goldsmith);
gips or gyps (Viennese thieves’, from the Latin, gypsum); hora (=
ready-money: from the Hebrew heren); kall (Han: especially small
change: from Heb. kal = lowly light); kis, kies, kiss (applied both to
money in general and the receptacle or purse in which it is carried);
lowe, love (Han.); mepaie (from the Fr., payer) mesumme, linke mesumme
(= counterfeit money); moos (from Heb., mëo = a little stone); pich,
picht, or pech; staub (= dust).
1599. Shakspeare, Henry V., Act ii. Chorus. These corrupted men ...
have for the gilt of France (O guilt, indeed) Confirmed conspiracy.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4th ed.), p. 9. And from thence
conducted (provided he has gilt) over the way to Hell.
1885. Daily News, 25 May, p. 3, c. 1. Disputatious like mobs
grouped together to discuss whether Charrington or Crowder had the
most gilt.
2. subs. (old).—A thief; a pick-lock; also gilt- or rum-dubber, gilter,
etc.
1669. Nicker Nicked in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 108 (given in
list of names of thieves).
1673. Character of a Quack Astrologer. For that purpose he
maintains as strict a correspondence with gilts and lifters.
1676. Warning for Housekeepers, p. 3. The gilter is one that hath
all sorts of picklocks and false keys.
1680. Cotton, Complete Gamester, p. 333. Shoals of muffs, hectors,
setters, gilts, pads, biters, etc. ... may all pass under the
general appellation of snobs.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1882. McCabe, New York, ch. xxxiv., 509. Gilt-dubber, a hotel
thief.
3. (thieves’).—Formerly a pick-lock or skeleton key; now a crow-bar.
For synonyms, see Jemmy.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, Pt. 1, ch. v., p. 50 (1874). Gilt, a
pick-lock.
1724. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Gilt, c. a pick-lock.
1839. W. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard, p. 183 (ed. 1840). We shall
have the whole village upon us while you’re striking the jigger.
Use the gilt, man!
To take the gilt off the gingerbread, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To
destroy an illusion; to discount heavily.
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 171. You see we had a
rattling good year all round last, bar the Dancing Master. He took
the gilt off the gingerbread considerably.
Gilt-dubber, see gilt, sense 2.
Gilt-edged, adj. (American).—First-class; the best of its kind; a
latter-day superlative. For synonyms, see A1 and Fizzing.
c. 1889. Chicago Tribune (quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant). He’s
a gilt-edged idiot to play the game.
1891. Standard, 18 June, p. 2, c. 1. ‘Gilt-edged mutton’ is the
latest of glorified and ‘boomed’ American products.
1891. Tit Bits, 8 Aug., p. 286, c. 2. Another accomplishment,
peculiar to the gilt-edged academy, is learning to eat asparagus,
oranges, grapes, etc.
Gilter, see gilt, sense 2.
Gilt-tick, subs. (costermongers’). Gold.
Gimbal- (or gimber-) Jawed, adj. (common).—Loquacious; talking nineteen
to the dozen (q.v.). [Gimbals are a combination of rings for free
suspension; hence applied to persons the joints of whose jaws are loose
in speech.]
Gimcrack (Gincrack, or Jimcrack), subs. (old).—1. A showy simpleton,
male or female; a dandy (q.v.).
1618. Beaumont and Fletcher, Loyal Subject, iv., 3. These are fine
gimcracks; hey, here comes another, a flagon full of wine in his
hand.
1637. Fletcher, Elder Brother, iii., 3. You are a handsome and a
sweet young lady, And ought to have a handsome man yoked to ye. An
understanding too; this is a gimcrack That can get nothing but new
fashions on you.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Canting Crew. Gimcrack, a spruce wench.
1706. Mrs. Centlivre, Basset Table, II., Works (1872), i., 122. The
philosophical gimcrack.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
2. (colloquial).—A showy trifle; anything pretty to look at but of very
little worth.
1632. Chapman and Shirley, The Ball, Act iv. Lu. There remains, To
take away one sample. Wi. Another gimcrack?
1678. Butler, Hudibras, pt. 3, ch. i. Rifled all his pokes and
fobs. Cf., gimcracks, whims, and jiggumbobs.
1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. 7, p. 148. I suppose there being
little else to lose except scenes, machines, or some such
jim-cracks.
1843. Thackeray, Irish Sketch Book, ch. i. There was the harp of
Brian Boru, and the sword of some one else, and other cheap old
gimcracks with their corollary of lies.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 63. Such rum-looking gimcracks,
my pippin.