Housey, adj. (Christ’s Hospital).—Belonging to the Hospital.
Housle, verb. (Winchester College).—To hustle.
Hoveller, subs. (nautical).—A beach-thief.
How. How came you so? phr. (old).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and
Screwed.
1824. T. Hook, Sayings and Doings, 1st S. Merton, ch. xiii. Ould
Mrs. Etherington was a right bad one; she used to be Lord, how come
you so! every night, as regular as she went to bed.
How much? phr. (common).—‘What do you say?’ ‘What do you mean?’ What
price?—a general request for explanations.
1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxxiv. ‘Then my answer must
mainly depend on the exact height of the principles.’ ‘On the how
much?’ inquired Frere, considerably mystified.
How are you off for soap, phr. (old).—A street catch.
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. iv. Well, Reefer, how are you off
for soap?
1842. Punch, ii., 94, c. 2. Walker! how are you off for soap?
How the blazes. See Blazes.
How is that for high. See High.
How’s your poor feet, phr. (streets’).—A street catch, of no particular
meaning. See Street Cries.
1863. All the Year Round, x., 180. How’s your poor feet? a year ago
cheated half the natives of Cockaigne into the belief that they
were gifted with a special genius for repartee.
1863. G. A. Sala, Breakfast in Bed, p. 163 (1864). But how would
you like a screeching multitude, fifty thousand strong, and with
not one of whom, to the best of your knowledge, you had even a
bowing acquaintance, to vociferate in your track—in the public
street, mind—‘Ya-a-a-h! how are your poor feet?’
1890. Town and Country (Sydney), 11 Jan., p. 19, c. 4. Henry
Irving’s revival of ‘The Dead Heart’ has revived a bit of slang....
When the play was brought out originally, where one of the
characters says, ‘My heart is dead, dead, dead!’ a voice from the
gallery nearly broke up the drama with How are your poor feet? The
phrase lived.
How’ll you have it, phr. (common).—An invitation to drink. For
synonyms, see Drinks.
How we apples swim (sometimes amplified by Quoth the horse-turd)! verb.
phr. (old).—Said in derision of a parvenu; of a person in better
company than he (or she) has any right to keep; or of a pretender to
honour or credit he (or she) does not deserve.
1670. Ray, Proverbs, s.v.
1697–1764. Hogarth (Works by J. Ireland and J. Nichols, London,
1873) III., p. 29. And even this, little as it is, gives him so
much importance in his own eyes, that he assumes a consequential
air, sets his arms akimbo, and strutting among the historical
artists cries, how we apples swim.
1860. Cornhill Mag. (D. Mallett, Tyburn), Dec., p. 737. While
tumbling down the turbid stream, Lord, love us, how we apples swim.
Howard’s Garbage, subs. phr. (military).—The Nineteenth Foot. Also
Green Howards.
Howard’s Greens, subs. phr. (military).—The Twenty-fourth Foot. [From
its facings and its Colonel’s name, 1717–37.]
How-do-you-do, subs. (colloquial).—A ‘to do’; a ‘kettle of fish’; a
‘pass.’
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxvi. Thinks I, here’s a
pretty how do you do; I’m in for it now, that’s a fact.
Howler, subs. (common).—An unblushing falsehood; an enormous blunder; a
serious accident; and so forth. To come (or go) a howler = to come to
grief; to run amuck.
1885. Daily News, 16 May, p. 4, c. 8. Now, to speak respectfully of
old scholars that were before us, the translators of the Bible
constantly made what undergraduates call howlers, or grievously
impossible blunders.
1886. Stephens and Yardley, Little Jack Sheppard, p. 34. Jack. My
dears, you’re late. Bess. Our hansom came a howler.
1888. Indoor Paupers, p. 24. As to how we are to spend the eight
hours, or thereabouts, that remain after meals, church, and howlers
are disposed of, nobody, except ourselves and a few private friends
outside, cares in the least.
1891. Moonshine, 14 Mar. Oh, I saw some piece in which a Johnnie
smoked some cigarettes, and at last came a howler, and wanted to
commit suicide.
1891. Pall Mall Gaz., 12 Sep., p. 2, c. 3. We wondered yesterday
how many of our classical readers would see the howler—or the joke.
Howling, adj. (common).—A general intensitive. E.g., Howling-swell = a
man in the extreme of fashion; howling-lie = a gross falsehood;
howling-bags = trousers extravagant in cut or pattern; howling-cad,
etc.
1865. G. A. Sala, Trip to Barbary, ch. vii. The hotel at Marseilles
was full of our countrymen of the order known at Lane’s and
Limmer’s as howling swells.
1887. Household Words, 11 June, 116. Let’s hook it; that Jenny
Morris is such an howling swell that she won’t wait for any one.
1889. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 8 Feb. The Hon. Juggins was what is
popularly known as a howling swell.
1892. Anstey, Model Music-Hall, 146. And all the while your heart
was given to a howling cad.
Hoxter, subs. (old).—1. An inside pocket.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood bk. III., ch. v. No slour’d hoxter my
snipes could stay.
2. (Royal Military Academy).—Extra drill. [Corruption of extra.] Fr.,
le bal.
1887. Barrère, Argot and Slang. The hoxter consists in the painful
ordeal of being compelled to turn out of bed at an early hour, and
march up and down under the watchful eye of a corporal.
Hoys. See Hoist.
Hoyt. See Hoit.
Hub, subs. (American).—1. Boston. Also, Hub of the Universe. [The
description is Oliver Wendell Holmes’s.] Since extended to other
centres or chief cities (see quot. 1876).
1869. Boston Herald, Dec. He is to have a quintette club of
amateurs with him, from the Hub.
1872. Daily Telegraph, 4 July. Boston claims to be the Hub of the
universe; but New York grandiloquently asserts itself to be the
universal wheel itself.
1872. Daily Telegraph, Dec. The wealth of the Hub of the Universe,
as Bostonians delight to call their city, is very great.
1876. Daily News, 18 Jan. Calcutta ... swaggers as if it were the
hub of the Universe.
1888. Boston Daily Globe. The typical girl of the Hub has been much
written about in the novels of the period, and without doubt she is
worth all the attention bestowed upon her.