1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Humptey Dumptey, Ale boild with
Brandy.
1698. M. Sorbière’s Journey to London in the Year 1698, p. 135,
quoted in Notes and Queries, 6 S., xii., 167. He answer’d me that
he had a thousand such sort of liquors, as Humtie Dumtie, Three
Threads....
1786. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, i., 14. As for the beverage they drank
humpty-dumpty, which is ale boiled with brandy.
Adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Short and thick; all of a heap; all
together.
Hum-strum, subs. (old).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Humstrum, a musical instrument made
of a mopstick, a bladder, and some pack-thread, thence also called
bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin,
which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum; sometimes instead
of a bladder, a tin canister is used.
Hunch, verb. (old: now colloquial).—To jostle; to shove; to squeeze.
For synonyms, see Ramp.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hunch, to justle, or thrust.
1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, Pt. III., App., ch. iii. Then
Jack’s friends began to hunch and push one another.
1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial. 1. I was hunched up in a
hackney-coach with three country acquaintance.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1847. Porter, Quarter Race, etc., p. 163. I hadn’t fairly got to
sleep before the old ’oman hunched me.
Hung. See Well-hung.
To be hung up, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To come to a standstill; to be
in a fix.
1891. Fun, 10 June, p. 237. ‘Ah! by Bendigo, I forgot! Grimmy’s
hung up!’ ‘What, Grimmy? Never!’
Hungarian, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A hungry man; a rare pecker (q.v.).
1608. Dodsley, Merry Devil of Edmonton [Old Plays, v. 267]. Away, I
have knights and colonels at my house, and must tend the
hungarians.
1632. Lupton, London [‘Harl. Misc.’], ix., 314. The middle aile [of
St. Paul’s] is much frequented at noon with a company of
hungarians, not walking so much for recreation as need.