High-roller, subs. (American).—A goer (q.v.); a fast liver; a heavy
gambler; a highflyer (q.v.).
1887. Francis, Saddle and Moccasin, He’s a high-roller, by gum!
High-ropes. To be on the high ropes, verb. phr. (common).—To be angry
or excited. Also to put on airs; to stand on one’s dignity; to ride the
high-horse (q.v.).
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. To be on the high ropes, to be in
a passion.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
1866. Yates, Land at Last, ii. He’s on the high ropes, is Master
Charley! Some of you fellows have been lending him half a-crown, or
that fool Caniche has bought one of his pictures for seven-and-six!
High-seasoned (or Highly-spiced), adj. (colloquial).—Obscene. For
synonyms, see Spicy.
High- (or clouted-) shoon, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see
Joskin.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
High-sniffing, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Pretentious; supercilious; very
obviously better than one’s company; high-nosed (q.v.).
High-stepper, subs. (common).—An exemplar, male or female, of what is
fashionable in conversation, conduct, or attire; a swell (q.v.). Also,
a person of spirit. Whence, adj., high-stepping (or high-pacing) =
conspicuously elegant or gallant in dress, speech, manner, conduct,
anything.
1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, ch. ix. From her actions and
style I’m pretty certain she’s English and a high-stepper.
High-stomached, adj. (colloquial).—Proud; disdainful; very valiant.
High-strikes, subs. (common).—A corruption of ‘hysterics.’
1838. Selby, Jacques Strop, ii., 4. Capital! ... didn’t I do the
high-strikes famously.
1860. Miss Wetherell, Say and Seal, ch. vii. She wants you to come.
I’m free to confess she’s got the high-strikes wonderful.
High-tea, subs. (colloquial).—A tea with meat, etc. In Lancashire
Bagging (q.v.).
1888. Sporting Life, 15 Dec. Following run there will be high tea
and a grand smoking concert, to which visitors are cordially
invited.
High-ti, subs. (American: Williams Coll.).—A showy recitation; at
Harvard = a squirt (q.v.).
High-tide (or water) subs. (colloquial).—Rich for the moment; The state
of being flush (q.v.). For synonyms, see Well Ballasted.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. high tide when the Pocket is
full of Money.
1725. New Cant. Dict.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. High-tide—plenty of the possibles;
whilst ‘low-water’ implies empty clies.
Up to high-water mark, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In good condition; a
general expression of approval.
High-toby. See High Pad.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. Oh! the game of
High-Toby for ever.
High-toned, adj. (American).—Aristocratic; also, morally and
intellectually endowed; spiritually beyond the common. High-souled =
cultured; fashionable. High-toned nigger = a negro who has raised
himself in social position. [Once literary; now utterly discredited and
never used, save in ignorance or derision.] Stokes, the maniac who shot
Garfield, described himself as a ‘High-Toned Lawyer.’
1884. Phillips Woolley, Trottings of a Tender Foot. I never saw any
so-called high-toned niggers.
1893. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 1 Feb., p. 389, 1. One day a
fashionably-dressed young man, giving an address in a high-toned
suburb, called upon Messrs. Glitter.
Highty-tighty (or Hoity-toity), subs. (old).—A wanton.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hightetity, a Ramp, or Rude
Girl.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
Adj. (colloquial).—Peremptory; waspish; quarrelsome.
1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xviii. La, William, don’t be so
highty-tighty with us. We’re not men.
High Wood. To live in high wood, verb. phr. (common).—To hide; to
dissemble of purpose; to lie low and keep quiet.
Higulcion-flips, subs. (Texas).—An imaginary ailment.
Hike, verb. (old).—To move about. Also to carry off; to arrest.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hike. To hike off; to run away.
1884. Daily Telegraph, 2 Feb., p. 3, c. 1. We three, not having any
regler homes nor a steady job of work to stick to, hike about for a
living, and we live in the cellar of a empty house.
Hilding, subs. (old).—A jade; a wanton; a disreputable slut.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii., 1. For shame thou
hilding of a devilish spirit.
1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. Hildings and harlots.
Hill. Not worth a hill of beans, phr. (American).—Absolutely worthless.
Hills, subs. (Winchester Coll.).—1. St. Catharine’s Hill.
1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 28. Some of his principal duties
were to take the boys ‘on to hills,’ call names there, etc.
2. (Cambridge Univ.).—The Gogmagog Hills; a common morning’s ride.
Gradus ad Cantab.
Hilly, adj. (colloquial).—Difficult: e.g., hilly reading = hard to
read; hilly going = not easy to do; etc.
Hilt. Loose in the hilt, adv. phr. (old).—Unsteady; rocky (q.v.); lax
in the bowels.
1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘Bum-fodder,’ ii., 56. If they stay longer,
they will us beguilt With a Government that is loose in the hilt.
Hind-boot, subs. (common).—The breech. For synonyms, see Monocular
Eyeglass.
Hind-coachwheel, subs. (common).—A five shilling piece. Fr., roue de
derrière, thune, or palet, = a five-franc piece. For synonyms, see
Caroon.
Hinder-blast, subs. (old).—Crepitation.
1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaitis [in Bannatyne MSS., Hunterian Club,
ed., (1879–88), p. 511] line 1429–30. Scho hes sic rumling in her
wame, That all the nycht my hairt ouercastis With bokking and with
hinder blastis.
Hinder-end, subs. phr. (common).—The breech. Also, hinder-parts and
hinder-world.
Hinder-entrance, subs. phr. (common).—The fundament.
Hind-leg. To kick out a hind leg, verb. phr. (old).—To lout; to make a
rustic bow.
To talk the hind leg off a horse (or dog). See Talk.
To sit upon one’s hind legs and howl, verb. phr. (American).—To bemoan
one’s fate; to make a hullabaloo.
Hindoo, subs. (American).—See Know Nothing.
Hindoo Punishment, subs. phr. (circus).—See quot.
1875. Frost, Circus Life, ch. xviii. The Hindoo Punishment is what
is more often called the muscle grind, a rather painful exercise
upon the bar, in which the arms are turned backward to embrace the
bar, and then brought forward upon the chest, in which position the
performer revolves.
Hind-shifters, subs. (old).—The feet. For synonyms, see Creepers.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Wks., (Ed. 1852), p. 311. They would show as fair
a pair of hind-shifters as the expertest loco-motor in the colony.
Hinges. Off the hinges, adv. phr. (common)—In confusion; out of sorts;
‘not quite the thing.’
Hinterland, subs. (old).—The breech.
Hip, (in. pl.), subs. (colloquial).—Conventional—as in the proverb,
‘Free of her lips; free of her hips’—for the buttocks. Hence, to walk
with the hips = to make play with the posteriors in walking; long in
the hips; and hips to sell = broad in the beam; nimble-hipped = active
in copulation.
c. 1508. Dunbar. Poems, ‘Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer’ (1836),
i., 119. His hippis gaff mony a hiddouss cry. Ibid. i., 124. ‘Of
Ane Blak-moir.’... Sall cum behind and kiss hir hippis.
1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 3227. My craig will wit quhat
weyis my hippis. Ibid., line 4424. Ye wald not stick to preise my
graith With hobbling of your hippis.
c. 1580. Collier of Croydon, iv., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed.,
1875, 459). I keep her lips and her hips for my own use.
d. 1607. Montgomerie, Poems, ‘Polwart and Montgomerie’s Flyting,’
p. 85, line 779 (Scottish Text Soc., 1885–6). Kailly lippes, kiss
my hips.
To have (get, or catch) on the hip, verb. phr. (old).—To have (or get)
an advantage. [From wrestling.]
1591. Harington, Orlando Furioso, bk. xlvi., st. 117. In fine he
doth apply one speciall drift, Which was to get the pagan on the
hip, And having caught him right, he doth him lift By nimble
sleight, and in such wise doth trip That down he threw him.
1598. Shakspeare, Merchant of Venice, i. 3. If I can catch him once
upon the hip. I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
1605. Marston, Dutch Courtezan. iii., 1. He said he had you a the
hyp.
1617. Andrewes, Sermons (‘Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology’), Vol.
IV., p. 365. If he have us at the advantage, on the hip as we say,
it is no great matter then to get service at our hands.
1635. D. Dike, Michael and the Dragon, in Wks., p. 328. The Divell
hath them on the hip, he may easily bring them to anything.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Upon the Hip ... at an
Advantage in Wrestling, or Business.
1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, iv., 1. My lord, she has had him upon the
hip these seven years.
1812. Johnson, Eng. Dict. Hip, s.v., A low phrase.
1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 226. ‘Ha! ha! I have
you on the hip now, my master,’ shouted Peter.
Hipe, subs. (wrestling).—A throw over the hip. Hence Hipe, verb = to
get across the hip before the throw.
Hip-hop, verb (old).—To skip or move on one leg; to hop. ‘A cant word
framed by the reduplication of hop.’—Johnson, 1812.
1670–1729. Congreve [Quoted in Johnson’s Eng. Dict.]. Like Volscius
hip-hop in a single boot.
Hip-inside, subs. (thieves’).—An inner pocket. Hip-outside = an outer
ditto.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3rd Ed.), p. 445, s.v.
Hipped (or Hippish), adj. (common).—Bored; melancholical; out of sorts.
[From hypochondria.]
1710. Gay, Wine in Wks. (1811) p. 348. By cares depress’d, in
pensive hippish mood.
1712. Spectator, No. 284. I cannot forbear writing to you, to tell
you I have been to the last degree hipped since I saw you.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Babes in the Wood.’ The wicked
old Uncle, they say, In spite of his riot and revel, Was hippish
and qualmish all day, And dreamt all night long of the devil.
1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. x. ‘You are a
little hipped, dear fellow,’ said Eugene; ‘you have been too
sedentary. Come and enjoy the pleasures of the chase.’
Hippen, subs. (Scots’: colloquial).—A baby’s napkin (i.e., hipping
cloth). Also (theatrical), the green curtain.
Hiren, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. [A corruption of ‘Irene,’ the
heroine in Poole’s play: see quot. 1584.] For synonyms, see
Barrack-hack and Tart.
1584. Poole, The Turkish Mahomet and Hyren the Fair Greek. Note. In
Italian called a courtezan; in Spaine a margarite; in English ... a
punk.
1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., ii., 4. Have we not Hiren here?
1615. Adams, Spiritual Navigator. There be sirens in the sea of the
world. Syrens? Hirens, as they are now called. What a number of
these sirens [Hirens], cockatrices, courteghians, in plain English,
harlots, swimme amongst us!
d. 1618. Sylvester, Trans. Du Bartas’ Week of Creation, ii., 2, pt.
3. Of charming sin the deep-inchaunting syrens, The snares of
virtue, valour-softening hyrens.
2. (old).—A sword. Also a roaring bully; a fighting hector. [From Irene
= the Goddess of Peace, a lucus a non lucendo.]
Hishee-hashee. See Soap-and-bullion.
His Nibs (or Nabs). See Nibs.
Hiss. The hiss, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—The signal of a
master’s approach.
Historical- (Wrought, or Illustrated-) Shirt, subs. (old).—A shirt or
shift worked or woven with pictures or texts.
1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour; iv., 6. I wonder he
speaks not of his wrought-shirt.
1639. Mayne, City Match, ii., 2. My smock sleeves have such holy
imbroideries, And are so learned that I fear in time, All my
apparel will be quoted by Some pure instructor.
1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Custom of the County, ii., 1. Having a
mistress, sure you should not be Without a neat historical-shirt.
1848. Punch, XIV., 226. He never broke a bank, He shuns
cross-barred trousers, His linen is not illustrated, but
beautifully clean.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 51. Colored, or
illustrated shirts, as they are called, are especially objected to
by the men.
1889. Puck’s Library, Apr., p. 12. Being an educated man, I feel
ten thousand woes, Cavorting for the populace In illustrated
clothes.
History of the Four Kings. See Four Kings.
Hit, subs. (common).—A success; e.g., To make a hit = to score; to
profit; to excel.
1602. Marston, Antonio and Mellida. Induction. When use hath taught
me action to hit the right point of a ladie’s part.
1700. Congreve, Way of the World, ii., 5. A hit, a hit! a palpable
hit! I confess it.
1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, bk. I., ch. i. Teach me to make a hit of
so Kean a quality that it may not only ‘tell,’ but be long
remembered in the metropolis.
1822–36. Jno. Wilson, Noctes Amb., Wks. II., 210. Mr. Peel seems to
have made a hit in the chief character of Shiel’s play, The
Apostate.
1828–45. T. Hood, Poems, v., p. 197, (Ed. 1846). Nor yet did the
heiress herself omit The arts that help to make a hit.
1870. Figaro, 10 June. To make a great hit is, after all, more a
matter of chance than merit.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 July. Madam Melba makes an especial hit in
the valse from Roméo et Juliette.
1889. Referee, 6 Jan. Quite a hit has been made by the clever
juvenile, La Petite Bertoto.
Adj. (Old Bailey).—Convicted.
Hard-hit, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Sore beset; hard-up (q.v.). Also deep
in love (or grief, or anger).
1890. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 7 Nov. It was pretty generally known
that he had been hard hit during the season.
Verb (American).—To arrive at; to light upon.
1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. Professor Rose, who hit this town
last spring, is around calling us a fugitive from justice.
To hit it, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attain an object; to light on a
device; to guess a secret.
1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv., 1. Thou cans’t not hit
it, hit it, hit it, Thou can’st not hit it, my good man.
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, iii., 2. I can never hit one’s name.
1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer. Ecod, I have hit it.
It’s here. Your hands. Yours and yours, my poor sulky! My boots
there, ho! Meet me two hours hence at the bottom of the garden.
1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. lii. He dressed himself
in ten minutes, and joined the party as they had finished their
fish. ‘I am awfully sorry,’ he said, rushing up to his father, ‘but
I thought that I should just hit it.’
To hit off, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To agree together; to fit; to
describe with accuracy and precision.
1857. A. Trollope, Barchester Towers, ch. xxxiv. It is not always
the case that the master, or warden, or provost, or principal can
hit it off exactly with his tutor. A tutor is by no means
indisposed to have a will of his own.
1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xxxvi. ‘One gentleman
with another, you mean?’ ‘Put it so. It don’t quite hit it off, but
put it so.’
1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society. ‘Sidelight,’ ch. xiv. ‘Hey!’ said
Orford. ‘Didn’t you and he hit it off?’
1889. Daily News, 22 Oct., p. 5. The nations that quarrel are the
nations that do not hit it off on some point of feeling or taste.
To hit the flat, verb. phr. (American cowboy).—To go out on the
prairie.
To hit the pipe, verb. phr. (American).—To smoke opium.
To hit one where he lives, verb. phr. (American).—To touch in a tender
part; to hurt the feelings; to touch on the raw (q.v.).
Hit (or struck) with, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Taken; enamoured;
prepossessed. Also, hit up with.
1891. Tales from Town Topics. ‘Count Candawles,’ p. 28. She is very
amusing, but the Count cannot be really hit with such a little
mountebank.
Hit on the tail, verb. phr. (old venery).—To copulate. For synonyms,
see Greens and Ride.
d. 1529. Skelton, Bowge of Courte. How oft he hit Jonet on the
tayle.
Hit in the teeth, verb. phr. (old).—To reproach; to taunt; to fling in
one’s face.
1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, ii., 6 (Dodsley, Old Plays,
4th ed., 1875, xiv., 431). They are always hitting me in the teeth
with a man of my coat.
Hitch, verb (American).—1. To marry. Hitched = married.
1867. Browne, Artemus Ward’s Courtship, People’s ed., p. 23. If you
mean getting hitched, I’m in.
1883. L. Oliphant, Altiora Peto, II., xxix., 156. ‘How long is it
since we parted, Ned?’ ‘A matter of five years; and it wasn’t my
fault if we didn’t stay hitched till now.’
1892. Tit-Bits, 17 Sept., p. 419, c. 1. ‘We’ve come to get
hitched,’ said the man, bashfully.