3. In. pl. (venery).—The sex—or that part of it which is given to
unchastity—in general; hence the girls = lechery.
After the girls. He’s been after the girls, verb. phr. (common).—Said
of one with clap or pox.
Girl and Boy, subs. phr. (rhyming). A saveloy.
Girlery, subs. (colloquial).—A brothel. Also a theatre for burlesque
and comic opera.
Girl-getter, subs. (colloquial).—A mincing, womanish male.
Girling. To go Girling, verb. phr. (venery).—To quest for women; to go
on the loose (q.v.).
Girlometer, subs. (venery).—The penis. Also, Girl-catcher. For
synonyms, see Creamstick and Prick.
Girl-shop, subs. phr. (common).—A brothel.
Girl-show, subs. phr. (common).—A ballet, a burlesque, a leg-piece
(q.v.).
Girl Street. In Hair Court, Girl Street, subs. phr. (common).—Generic
for fornication. Also the female pudendum.
Girl-trap, subs. phr. (common).—A seducer; a mutton-monger (q.v.).
Git! (or You Git!), intj. (American).—Be off with you! An injunction to
immediate departure; walker! (q.v.). Sometimes a contraction of get
out! Also get out and dust!
1851. Seaworthy, Bertie, p. 78. Thrue as the tin commandhers! Git
aout!
To have no git up and git, phr. (American).—To be weak, vain, mean, or
slow—generally deprecatory.
Give, verb. (vulgar).—1. To lead to; to conduct; to open upon: e.g.,
‘The door gave upon the street.’ Cf. the idiomatic use, in French, of
donner.
2. (American).—An all-round auxiliary to active verbs: e.g., to give on
praying = to excel at prayer; to give on the make = to be clever at
making money, etc.
To give it to, verb. phr. (old).—1. To rob; to defraud.—Grose.
2. (common).—To scold; to thrash. Also to give what for; to give it
hot; to give something for oneself; to give one in the eye, etc. Fr.,
aller en donner. For synonyms, see Wig and Tan respectively.
1612. Chapman, Widow’s Tears, Act i., p. 312 (Plays, 1874). This
braving wooer hath the success expected; the favour I obtained made
me witness to the sport, and let his confidence be sure, I’ll give
it him home.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 134. ‘Take that,’ exclaimed Mr.
Samuel Wilkins.... ‘Give it him,’ said the waistcoat.... Miss
J’mima Ivins’s beau and the friend’s young man lay gasping on the
gravel, and the waistcoat and whiskers were seen no more.
1889. J. M. Barrie in Time, Aug. p. 148. When he said he would tell
everybody in the street about there being a baby, I gave him one in
the eye. Ibid. If it’s true what Symons Tertius says, that Cocky
has gone and stolen my reminiscences about Albert’s curls, putting
it into his reminiscences like as if it was his own, I’ll give him
it hot.
To give in (or out), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To admit defeat; to
yield; to be exhausted; to throw up the sponge. See Floored and Cave
in.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xviii. Strap, after having
received three falls on the hard stones, gave out, and allowed the
blacksmith to be the better man.
1760–1. Smollett, L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. viii. By this time the
doctor had given out, and allowed the brewer to be the better man.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 25. Poor Georgy gave in.
1837. Lytton, Ernest Maltravers, bk. IV., ch. ix. Your time is up
... you have had your swing, and a long one it seems to have
been—you must now give in.
1847. Robb, Squatter Life, p. 99. Jest about then both on our
pusses gin out.
1850. Buffum, Six Months in the Gold Mines, p. 73. After working
three days with the machine, the earth we had been washing began to
give out.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxiv., p. 217. I am surprised to
hear a man of your energy talk of giving in.
To give away, verb. phr. (American).—To betray or expose inadvertently;
to blow upon (q.v.): to peach (q.v. for synonyms). Also to give dead
away. Largely used in combination: e.g., give-away = an exposure;
give-away cue = an underhand revelation of secrets.
1883. F. M. Crawford, Doctor Claudius, ch. vi., p. 100. It always
amused him to see sanguine people angry. They looked so
uncomfortable, and gave themselves away so recklessly.
1886. A. Lang, Longman’s Mag., VII., 321. I know not whether the
American phrase, to give a person away, to give yourself away,
meaning to reveal your own or another’s secret, is of provincial
English origin. Did it cross over with the Pilgrim Fathers in the
May Flower, or is it a recent bit of slang? ‘Who giveth this woman
away?’ asked the rural American parson in the wedding service. ‘I
could,’ came the voice of a young man from the gallery, ‘but I’d
never be so mean.’
1888. Detroit Free Press, Aug. Careful what we say, for it will
give us dead away.
1889. Answers, 20 Apr., p. 326. My closely cropped hair, however,
gave me away.
1892. R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, The Wrecker, p. 195. For the
sake of the joke I’ll give myself away.
To give one best, verb. phr. (schoolboys’).—1. To acknowledge one’s
inferiority, a defeat. Also (thieves’) to leave, to cut (q.v.).
1887. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. But after a time I gave him best
(left him), because he used to want to bite my ear (borrow) too
often.
To give the collar, verb. phr. (American).—To seize; to arrest; to
collar (q.v.). For synonyms, see Nab.
To give the bullet (sack, bag, kick-out, pike, road, etc.), verb. phr.
(common).—To discharge from an employ.
Give us a rest! phr. (American).—Cease talking! An injunction upon a
bore.
To give nature a fillip, verb. phr. (old).—To indulge in wine or
women.—B. E. (1690).
To give way, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To permit the sexual embrace: by
women only.
1870. Weekly Times, 1 May. She was sorry to say, she gave way to
him. (Laughter.) Mr. Maude remarked she was a foolish woman, and,
being a widow, ought to have known what giving way would come
to.—Complainant said of course she did, but she thought he meant to
marry her.
[Other combinations will be found under the following: auctioneer;
back cap; bag; bail; baste; beans; beef; biff; black eye; bone;
bucket; bullet; bull’s feather; clinch; double; fig; gas; go by;
gravy; hoist; hot beef; jesse; kennedy; key of the street; land;
leg up; lip; miller; mitten; mouth; needle; office; points; pussy;
rub of the thumb; sack; sky-high; slip; tail; taste of cream;
turnips; weight; white alley; word.]
Giver, subs. (pugilistic).—A good boxer; an artist in punishment
(q.v.).
1824. Reynolds, (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy, p. 73. She knew a
smart blow from a handsome giver Would darken lights.
Gixie, subs. (obsolete).—A wanton wench; a strumpet; an affected
mincing woman.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Faina, a mincing, coie, nice,
puling, squeamish woman, an idle huswife, a flurt, a gixgi. Also as
Foina [i.e., ‘a pole-cat’; while Foirare = ‘to lust for beastly
leacherie, to be salt as a bitch.’]
1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie, s.v. Gadrouillette, a minx, gigle,
flirt, callet gixie: (a fained word applyable to any such cattell).
[See further, gadriller (a wench) = ‘to rump or play the rig’].
Gizzard, to fret one’s gizzard, verb. phr. (common).—To worry oneself.
See Fret.
To stick in one’s gizzard, verb. phr. (common).—To remain as something
unpleasant, distasteful or offensive; to be hard of digestion; to be
disagreeable or unpalatable.
c. 1830. Finish of Tom and Jerry, p. 241. It had always stuck in
his gizzard to think as how he had been werry cruelly used.
To grumble in the gizzard, verb. phr. (common).—To be secretly
displeased. Hence, grumble-gizzard (q.v.).
Gladstone, subs. (common)—1. Cheap claret. [Mr. Gladstone, when in
office in 1869, reduced the duty on French wines.] See Drinks.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. ix. Claret certainly
good, too—none of your Gladstone tap; sherry probably rather
coarse.
1885. A. Birrell, Obiter Dicta, p. 86. To make him unbosom himself
over a bottle of Gladstone claret in a tavern in Leicester Square.
2. (colloquial).—A travelling bag. [So named in honour of Mr.
Gladstone.]
Gladstonize, verb. (colloquial).—To talk about and round; to evade or
prevaricate; to speak much and mean nothing.
Glanthorne, subs. (old).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.
1789. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 42. Drop the glanthorne = part
with money.
Glasgow Greys, subs. phr. (military).—The 70th Foot. [Which in the
beginning was largely recruited in Glasgow.]
1886. Tinsley’s Mag., Apr., p. 321. The 70th were long known as the
Glasgow Greys.
Glasgow Magistrate, subs. phr. (common).—A herring, fresh or salted, of
the finest. [From the practice of sending samples to the Baillie of the
River for approval.] Also Glasgow Baillie.
1855. Strang, Glasgow and its City Clubs. This club ... better
known by the title of the Tinkler’s club, particularly when the
brotherhood changed the hour of meeting ... and when the steak was
exchanged for a ‘Welsh rabbit’ or Glasgow magistrate.
English Synonyms. (for herrings generally).—Atlantic ranger;
Californian; Cornish duck; Digby chicken; Dunbar wether; gendarme;
Gourock ham; magistrate; pheasant (or Billingsgate pheasant); reds;
sea-rover; soldier; Taunton turkey; two-eye’d steak; Yarmouth capon.
Fr.: gendarme.
Glass, subs. (American thieves’).—An hour. [An abbreviation of
‘hour-glass.’]
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. The badger piped his Moll about a
glass and a half before she cribbed the flat.
There’s a deal of glass about, phr. (common).—1. Applied to vulgar
display = ‘It’s the thing’ (q.v.).
2. (common).—Said in answer to an achievement in assertion. A memory of
the proverb, ‘People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.’
Who’s to pay for the broken glass? verb. phr. (colloquial).—See Stand
the Racket.
Been looking through a glass, adv. phr. (common).—Drunk. For synonyms,
see Drinks and Screwed.
Glass-eyes, subs. (old).—A man wearing spectacles; four-eyes (q.v.);
gig-lamps (q.v.).
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Glass-house. To live in a glass house, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To lay
oneself open to attack or adverse criticism.
Glass-work, subs. (card-sharpers’).—An obsolete method of cheating at
cards. A convex mirror the size of a small coin was fastened with
shellac to the lower corner of the left palm opposite the thumb,
enabling the dealer to ascertain by reflection the value of the cards
he dealt.
Glaze, subs. (old),—A window.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4th ed.), p. 12. Glaze, a Window.
1754. Discoveries of John Poulter, p. 43. Undub the Jeger and jump
the glaze.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3rd ed.), p. 445. A window, glaze.
c. 1830. Finish to Tom and Jerry [1872], p. 82. A random shot
milling the glaze.
Verb (old).—To cheat at cards. See quot. and Glass-work.
1821. P. Egan, Real Life, I., 297. If you take the broads in hand
in their company, you are sure to be work’d, either by glazing,
that is, putting you in front of a looking glass, by which means
your hand is discovered by your antagonist, or by private signals
from the pal.
To mill (or star a glaze), verb. phr. (old).—To break a window.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, iii., 2. Jerry. What are you about,
Tom? Tom. I’m going to mill the glaze—I’ll——(Is about to break the
glass, when Kate and Sue appear as the Miss Trifles.).
1823. Jon Bee, Dict. of the Turf. Glaze, s.v., to mill the glaze,
the miller may adopt a stick or otherwise, as seems most
convenient.
On the glaze, adv. phr. (thieves’).—Robbing jewellers’ shops by
smashing the windows. See Glazier.
1724–34. C. Johnson, Highwaymen and Pyrates, q.v.
1889. Ally Sloper, 4 May. Getting a reprieve he went to Dublin on
the glaze.
Glazier, subs., in. pl. (old).—1. The eyes. For synonyms, see Glims.
Fr.: les ardents.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 64. Glasyers, eyes.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874).
Glasiers, eyes.
1611. Middleton and Dekker, Roaring Girl, v., 1. These glasiers of
mine, mine eyes.
1656. Brome, Jovial Crew, ii. You’re out with your glaziers.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew, s.v. The cove has rum
glaziers, c. that Rogue has excellent Eyes, or an Eye like a Cat.
1724. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Glaziers, c. eyes.
1725. New Canting Dict. ‘Song.’ Her glaziers, too, are quite
benighted.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue s.v.