1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. The way through Wandsworth is
quite a hasty pudding.
Hat, subs. (Cambridge Univ.).—1. A gentleman commoner. [Who is
permitted to wear a hat instead of the regulation mortar-board.] Also
Gold Hatband.
1628. Earle, Microcosmographie. ‘Young Gentleman of the
Universitie’ (ed., Arber, 1868). His companion is ordinarily some
stale fellow that has beene notorious for an ingle to gold
hatbands, whom hee admires at first, afterwards scornes.
1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam. Hat Commoner; the son of a Nobleman,
who wears the gown of a Fellow Commoner with a hat.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. xxxii. I knew intimately all the
hats in the University.
1841. Lytton, Night and Morning, bk. I., ch. i. He had certainly
nourished the belief that some one of the hats or tinsel
gowns—i.e., young lords or fellow-commoners, with whom he was on
such excellent terms ... would do something for him in the way of a
living.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum. Generally Old Hat. For synonyms, see
Monosyllable.
1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, i., 6 (note). I shall conclude this
learned note with remarking that the term old hat is used by the
vulgar in no very honourable sense.
1760. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, ch. cxxvi. A chapter of
chambermaids, green gowns, and old hats.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. [‘Because often felt.’] See also
Top Diver.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
3. (Scots’).—A prostitute of long standing. For synonyms, see
Barrack-Hack and Tart.
To eat one’s hat (or head), verb. phr. (common).—Generally, I’ll eat my
hat. Used in strong emphasis. See Eat.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, xlii., 367. ‘If I knew as little of life
as that, I’d eat my hat and swallow the buckle whole,’ said the
clerical gentleman.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xiv. Even admitting the
possibility of scientific improvements being ever brought to that
pass which will enable a man to eat his own head, Mr. Grimwig’s
head was such a particularly large one that the most sanguine man
alive could hardly entertain a hope of being able to get through it
at a sitting.
1844. J. B. Buckstone, The Maid with the Milking Pail. If you are
not as astonished as I was, I’ll eat old Rowley’s hat.
1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 216. I’ll eat my hat.
1887. E. E. Money, Little Dutch Maiden, II., viii., 148. And if you
don’t run up against him next day in Bond Street, you may eat your
hat!
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 38. If some of the swells didn’t
ditto, I’ll eat my old hat, which it’s tough.
To get a hat, verb. phr. (cricketers’).—See Hat-trick.
To get into the hat, verb. phr. (common).—To get into trouble.
To have a brick in one’s hat, verb. phr. (American).—To be top-heavy
with drink. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.
To hang up one’s hat.—See Hang.
To pass (or send) round the hat, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make a
collection.
To talk through one’s hat, verb. phr. (American).—To rag; to huff; to
bluster.
1888. New York World, 13 May. Dis is only a bluff dey’re
makin’—see! Dey’re talkin’ tru deir hats.
All round my hat, phr. (streets).—A derisive retort. [From a Broadside
Ballad, popular c. 1830: ‘All round my hat I wears a green willow, All
round my hat for a twelvemonth and a day, And if any one should ask you
the reason why I wear it, Tell them my true love is gone far away’;
sung to a tune adapted from a number in Zampa.] Also, as in quot. = all
over; completely; generally.
1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 54. I’m a ’ot un, mate, all round
my ’at.
Shoot that hat! phr. (streets).—A derisive retort. Also I’ll have your
hat! Both circa 1860–72.
Well, you can take my hat! phr. (American) = ‘Well, that beats me,’
i.e., ‘that is past belief.’
1873. A Yankee in a Planter’s House. ‘What’s yer name?’ ‘Name
Grief, manssa.’ ‘Name what?’ ‘Name Grief.’ ‘Get out! Yew’re jokin’!
What’s yer name, anyhow?’ ‘Name Grief manssa.’ ‘Wal, yew kin take
my hat.’
What a shocking bad hat, phr. (streets).—[Said to have originated with
a candidate for parliamentary honours, who made the remark to his
poorer constituents, and promised them new head-gear.]
1892. Anstey, Model Music Hall, 140. Lord B. Regular bounder!
Shocking bad hat! Ver. Not so bad as his boots, and they are not so
bad as his face.
Hatch, verb. (common).—To be brought to bed with child; to bust up
(q.v.).
To be under hatches, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be in a state of
trouble, poverty or depression. Also dead.
1606. Marston, The Fawne, iv. Remember hee got his elder brother’s
wife with child ... that will stow him under hatches, I warrant
you.
1632–1704. Locke [quoted in Ency. Dict.]. He assures us how this
fatherhood continued its course, till the captivity in Egypt, and
then the poor fatherhood was under hatches.
1639–1661. Rump Songs, i. [1662], 260. And all her orphans bestowed
under hatches.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Under the Hatches, in Trouble,
or Prison.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Under the Hatches, in Trouble, or
Prison.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Under the hatches, in trouble,
distress, or debt.
1789. Dibdin, Tom Bowling, For though his body’s under hatches his
soul has gone aloft.
1835. Buckstone, Dream at Sea. iii., 3. Good-bye, dame, cheer up;
you may not always be under hatches.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
Hatchet, subs. (tailors’).—1. An ill-favoured woman. For general
synonyms, see Ugly Mug.
2. (American).—A bribe received by Customs officers in New York for
permitting imported dutiable goods to remain on the wharf when they
ought to go to the general store-house.
To bury (or dig up) the hatchet.—See Bury.
To throw (or sling) the hatchet, verb. phr. (common).—1. To tell lies,
to yarn; to draw the long bow (q.v.). Hence hatchet flinging (or
throwing) = lying or yarning.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 94. This is a fault, which
many of good understanding may fall into, who, from giving way too
much to the desire of telling anecdotes, adventures, and the like,
habituate themselves by degrees to a mode of the hatchet-flinging
extreme.
1821. P. Egan, Life in London, p. 217. There is nothing creeping or
throwing the hatchet about this description.
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, ch. xx. We had to call her mother,
and, if anyone stopped, she’d sling the hatchet to them, and tell
them she was a poor lone widow left with five children.