1581. Lilly, Euphues, 109. Philantus determined habnab to send his
letters.
Verb (old).—To drink with; giving health for health.
1836. Horace Smith, The Tin Trumpet. ‘Address to a Mummy.’
Perchance that very hand now pinioned flat Has hob-and-nobbed with
Pharaoh glass for glass.
Hack (or Hackney), subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A person or thing
let out for promiscuous use: e.g., a horse, a whore, a literary drudge.
Whence (2) a coach that plies for hire; (3) (stables’) a horse for
everyday use, as offered to one for a special purpose—hunting, racing,
polo. (4) (Cambridge Univ.), see quot. 1803. Also Hackster.
1383. Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, 16,027. His Hakeney, which that
was a pomele gris.
1540. Lyndsay, Satyre of the thrie Estaits, 3237. I may finde the
Earle of Rothus best hacknay.
1582. Hakluyt, Voyages, i., 400. There they use to put out their
women to hire as we do here hackney horses.
1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iii., 1. The hobby-horse is
but a colt, and your love perhaps a hackney.
1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller, 101 (Chiswick Press, 1890). Out whore,
strumpet, sixpenny hackster, away with her to prison!
1672. Ray, Proverbs. Hackney mistress, hackney maid.
1678. Butler, Hudibras, pt. iii., c. 1. That is no more than every
lover Does from his hackney-lady suffer.
1690. B. E., Cant. Crew, s.v. Hacks, or Hackneys, Hirelings. Ibid.,
Hackney Horses. Ibid., Hackney Scribblers. Ibid., Hackney Whores,
Common Prostitutes.
1738. Pope, Ep. to Sat. Shall each spurgall’d hackney of the day,
Or each new pension’d sycophant, pretend To break my windows?
1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, iv., 14. With wonderful alacrity he
had ended almost in an instant, and conveyed himself into a place
of safety in a hackney-coach.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hackney-writer, one who writes for
attornies or booksellers.
1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam. Hacks. Hack Preachers; the common
exhibitioners at St. Mary’s, employed in the service of defaulters,
and absentees.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib. I first was hired to peg a hack.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, i., 7. A rattler is a rumbler,
otherwise a Jarvy! Better known, perhaps, by the name of a hack.
1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen String Jack, ii., 3. I’ll get a hack, be
off in a crack.
Verb (colloquial, football).—To kick shins. Hacking = the practice of
kicking shins at football.
1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. i. I saw, too, more than
one player limp out of his path disconsolately, trying vainly to
dissemble the pain of a vicious hack.
1869. Spencer, Study of Sociology, ch. viii. p. 186 (9th ed.). And
thus, perhaps, the ‘education of a gentleman’ may rightly include
giving and receiving hacking of the shins at foot-ball.
1872. The Echo, 3 Nov. Some of the modern foot ball players have
the tips of their shoes tipped with iron, and others wear a kind of
armour or iron plate under their knicker-bockers to avoid ... what
is called hacking.
Hackle, subs. (common).—Pluck; spirit; bottom (q.v.). To show hackle =
to show fight. [Hackle = a long shining feather on a cock’s neck.] Fr.,
avoir du foie; n’avoir pas le flubart, or avoir du poil au ciel.
Hackslaver, verb. (old).—To stammer; to splutter; to hesitate in
speech.
Hackum (or Captain Hackum, or Hackster), subs. (old).—A bully; a bravo.
For synonyms, see Furioso.
1657. Lady Alimony, 1, 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv.,
p. 282). Vowing, like a desperate haxter that he has express
command to seize upon all our properties.
1690. B. E., Cant. Crew, s.v. Hackam, Fighting Fellow.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hackum, Captain Hackum, a bravo, a
slasher.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. Hackum, a bravado, a slasher, ‘Capt.
Hackum,’ a fellow who slashes with a bowie-knife.
Had.—See Have.
Haddock, subs. (common).—1. A purse. Haddock of Beans = a purse of
money. [Haddock = cod: O. Sw., Rudde; Ic., Koddi = a small bag. Cf.,
Codpiece.] For synonyms, see Poge.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Melrusio, the fish we call a
hadock, or a cod. Ibid. Metter la faua nel bacello, to put the
beane into the cod.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. xiii. ‘What’s here?’
cried he, searching the attorney’s pockets ... ‘a haddock, stuffed
with nothing, I’m thinking.’