Hammering-trade, subs. (pugilistic).—Pugilism.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 49. The other, vast, gigantic, as if
made, express, by Nature for the hammering trade.
Hammersmith. To go to Hammersmith, verb. phr. (common).—To get a sound
drubbing.
Hampered, adj. (old: now recognised).—Let or hindered; perplexed;
entangled. [From Old. Eng., hamper = a fetter: see quot. 1613].
1613. Browne, Britannia’s Pastorals, bk. i., s. 7. Shackles,
shacklockes, hampers, gives and chaines.
1690. B. E., Cant. Crew, s.v.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
Hampstead Donkey, subs. phr. (common).—See quot. For synonyms, see
Chates.
c. 1870. Daily Paper. The witness testified to the filthy state of
the linen which she wore, and also the state of the sheets. Was
told not to get into bed until she had looked for the Hampstead
donkeys. ‘Did you know what that meant?’—‘No sir, not until I
looked on the pillow and saw three’ (loud laughter). ‘Do you mean
lice?’—‘Yes, sir, I do.’
Hampstead-heath, subs. phr. (rhyming).—The teeth. For synonyms, see
Grinders.
1887. Referee, 7 Nov., p. 7, c. 3. She’d a Grecian ‘I suppose,’ And
of Hampstead Heath two rows, In her ‘Sunny South’ that glistened
Like two pretty strings of pearls.
Hampstead-heath Sailor, subs. phr. (common).—A landlubber (q.v.); a
freshwater sailor (q.v.). Fr., un marin d’eau douce or un amiral Suisse
(= a Swiss admiral: Switzerland having no seaboard).
Hanced, adj. (old).—In liquor. [From Hance = ‘to elevate.’] For
synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.
1630. Taylor, Works. I doe finde my selfe sufficiently hanced, and
that henceforth I shall acknowledge it; and that whensoever I shall
offer to bee hanced again, I shall arme my selfe with the craft of
a fox, the manners of a hogge, the wisdom of an asse, mixt with the
civility of a beare.
Hand, subs. (colloquial).—Properly a seaman; now a labourer, a workman,
an agent.
1658. Phillips, New World of Words, s.v. Hand ... a Word us’d among
Mariners ... when Men are wanted to do any Labour they usually Call
for more hands.
1632–1704. Locke, Wks. A dictionary containing a natural history
requires too many hands, as well as too much time.
1711. Spectator, No. 232. The reduction of the prices of our
manufactures by the addition of so many new hands, would be no
inconvenience to any man.
1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, i, 14. The mercantile part of the
world, therefore, wisely use the term ‘employing hands,’ and esteem
each other as they employ more or fewer.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. We lost a hand, we lost a sailor.
1871. Chambers’ Miscellany, No. 113, p. 3. He was admitted as a
hand in an establishment already numbering three hundred active
workers.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 70. The hands has all bloomin’
well struck.
1892. National Observer, 22 Oct., vol. viii., p. 571. The dispute
in the South-East Lancashire cotton trade is like to result in the
stoppage of fourteen or fifteen million spindles which will take
employment from sixty thousand hands, a fifth of them women and
children.
1893. Fortnightly Review, Jan., p. 62. The wages paid to the
operatives in our woollen industry are, to a marked extent, lower
than those received by the hands employed in our cotton mills.