Hunt-counter, subs. (old).—A beggar.
1623. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., i., 2. You hunt-counter, hence!
Avaunt!
Hunters. Pitching the hunters, verb. phr. (costermongers’). See quot.
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, i., 390. Pitching the
hunters is the three sticks a penny, with the snuff-boxes stuck
upon sticks; if you throw your stick, and they fall out of the
hole, you are entitled to what you knock off.
1876. Hindley, Cheap Jack, p. 235. When ... there was no cattle
jobbing to be done, he would pitch the hunters, that is, put up the
‘three sticks a penny’ business.
Hurly-Burly, subs. (old: now colloquial).—A commotion; a bustle; an
uproar.
c. 1509–1547. Lusty Juventus (Dodsley), [Old Plays, 4th ed., 1874,
ii., 85]. What a hurly-burly is here! Smick smack, and all this
gear!
1539. Tavernier, Garden of Wysdom, E. ii. verso. Thys kynge [Gelo]
on a tyme exacted money of hys comons, whome when he perceuyed in a
hurly burly for the same, and ready to make an insurrection, he
thus sodaynly appeased.
1542. Udall, Apophthegms of Erasmus [1877], p. 115. the meaning of
the Philosophier was, that princes for the ambition of honour, rule
and dominion, being in continuall strife, and hurlee burlee, are in
very deede persons full of miserie and wo.
1551. More, Utopia, (Pitt Press ed., 1884, i., 52, 5). Whereby so
many nations for his sake should be broughte into a troublesome
hurlei-burley.
1567. Fenton, Tragical Dicsourses, f. 104. They heard a great noyse
and hurleyburley in the street of the Guard and chief officers of
the Watch.
1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse (Grosart, Works, ii., 53). Not
trouble our peaceable Paradise with their private hurlie-burlies
about strumpets.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v., 293). Put them in
feare where no feare is, and make a hurlie-burlie in the realm.
1606. Shakspeare, Macbeth, i., 1. When the hurley-burley’s done,
When the battle’s lost and won.
1619. T. North’s Diall of Princes (1557), corrected, p. 703, c. 1.
Two or three dayes before you shall see such resort of persons,
such hurly burly, such flying this way, such sending that way, some
occupyed in telling the cookes how many sorts of meates they will
have....
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (ed. 1890, p. 185). As for the
lawyer he waited below till the hurly-burly was over, and then he
stole softly to his own chamber.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. J. and H. Smith, Horace in London, pp. 18–25, Ode ii.,
‘Hurly-burly’ (Title).
1886. Max Adeler, Out of the Hurly-Burly. Title.
1893. St. James’s Gazette, xxvii., 4076, p. 4. While all London was
making holiday, Paris was engaged in a hurly-burly of a very
different kind.
Hurra’s-nest, subs. (nautical).—The utmost confusion; everything
topsy-turvy. For synonyms, see Sixes and Sevens.
1840. R. H. Dana, Two Years Before the Mast, ch. ii. Everything was
pitched about in grand confusion. There was a complete hurrah’s
nest, as the sailors say, ‘everything on top and nothing at hand.’
1869. Mrs. Stowe, Old Townsfolks, ch. iv. You’ve got our clock all
to pieces, and have been keeping up a perfect hurrah’s nest in our
kitchen for three days. Do either put that clock together or let it
alone.
Hurrah in Hell. Not to care a single hurrah in hell, verb. phr.
(American).—To be absolutely indifferent.
1893. Harold Frederic, National Observer, IX., 1 Apr., p. 493, col.
2. I don’t care a single hurrah in sheol.
Hurry, subs. (musical).—A quick passage on the violin, or a roll on the
drum, leading to a climax in the representation.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 66. The wrongful heir comes in
to two bars of quick music (technically called a hurry).
Hurry-curry, subs. (obsolete).—See quot.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, Works, v. 267). The ... was so
in his humps upon it ... that he had thought to have tumbled his
hurrie currie, or ... can, into the sea.
Hurry-durry, adj. (old).—Rough; boisterous; impatient of counsel or
control.
1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, i., 1. ’Tis a hurrydurry blade.
Hurrygraph, subs. (American).—A hastily written letter.
1861. Independent, 31 July. I must close this hurrygraph, which I
have no time to review.
Hurry-whore, subs. (old).—A walking strumpet.
1630. Taylor, Wks. And I doe wish with all my heart, that the
superfluous number of all our hyreling hackney carryknaves, and
hurry-whores, with their makers and maintainers, were there, where
they might never want continuall imployment.
Husband’s-boat, subs. (common).—The Saturday boat to Margate during the
summer season.
c. 1867. Vance, Broadside Ballad. ‘The Husband’s Boat.’
1887. Murray, in New Eng. Dict., Pt. III., p. 956, c. 3. Waiting at
Margate Pier for the husband’s boat on Saturday afternoon.
Husband’s-supper. To warm the husband’s supper, verb. phr. (common).—To
sit before the fire with lifted skirts. Fr., faire chapelle.
Husband’s-tea, subs. (common).—Weak tea; water bewitched (q.v.).
Hush, verb. (old).—To kill.—Grose.
Hush-money, subs. (old: now recognised).—Money paid for silence, to
quash a case, or stay a witness; a bribe; blackmail.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 26. I expect hush-money to be regularly
sent for every folly or vice any one commits in this whole town.
1713. Guardian, No. 26. A poor chambermaid has sent in ten
shillings out of her hush-money, to expiate her guilt of being in
her mistress’s secret.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th Ed.), s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxxvii. To allow Ada to be made a
bribe and hush-money of, is not the way to bring it out.
1884. Spectator, p. 530. They were disappointed of their
hush-money, but he gave them an easy revenge.
Hush-shop (or -crib), subs. (common).—An unlicensed tavern.
1872. Globe, 18 Sep. At Barrow-in-Furness the new Licensing Act has
had the effect of calling numerous hush shops into existence.
Husky, subs. (Winchester College).—Gooseberry fool with the husks in
it, obsolete. [Notions.]
1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 145. There were two kinds
[Gooseberry fool] Husky and non-husky.
Adj. (American).—Stout; well built.
Husky-lour, subs. (Old Cant).—A guinea; a job (q.v.). For synonyms, see
Canary.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew., s.v.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Hussy, subs. (colloquial).—A corruption of housewife (q.v.).
Hustle, verb. (venery).—1. To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and
Ride.
2. (American).—To bestir oneself; to go to work with vigour and energy.
Also to hustle around.
Hustler, subs. (American).—An active, busy man or woman. A hummer
(q.v.); a rustler (q.v.).
1890. Harold Frederic, Lawton Girl. A whimsical query as to whether
this calamitous boy had also been named Benjamin Franklin crossed
his confused mind, and then ... whether the child if so named,
would be a hustler or not.
Hutch, subs. (common).—A place of residence or employment; one’s
diggings (q.v.).
Hutter. See Hatter.
Huxter, subs. (common).—Money. Also Hoxter. For synonyms, see Actual
and Gilt.
c. 186(?). Broadside Ballad. These seven long years I’ve been
serving, and Seven I’ve got for to stay, All for meeting a bloke
down our alley And a-taking his huxters away.
Huzzy (or Huzzie), subs. (old).—A case of needles, pins, scissors,
bodkins, etc.; a housewife’s companion.
Hymeneal-Sweets, subs. (venery).—Copulation.
1604. Marston, Malcontent, i., 3. True to her sheetes, nay, diets
strong his blood, To give her height of hymeneall sweetes.
Hypernese, subs. (Winchester College).—See quot. Ziph (q.v.).
1864. The Press, 12 Nov. p. 1098. This dialect of school cryptoëpy
was known in our youth as Hypernese. When spoken fast it defies an
outsider’s curiosity. If two consonants commence a syllable, the
former is dropped, and W substituted: thus breeches would be
wareechepes. If P commences a syllable, G is interpolated: thus
penny would be pegennepy.... That Ziph and its cognate languages
are well known beyond the boundaries of Winchester is certain.
Bishop Wilkins described it, without mentioning it as a novelty, a
couple of centuries ago.
Hyphenated American, subs. (American).—A naturalised citizen, as
German-Americans, Irish-Americans, and the like. [Nortons.]
Hypocrite, subs. (American).—A pillow slip or ‘sham.’
Hypogastric-cranny, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum.—Urquhart. For
synonyms, see Monosyllable.
Hyps (or Hypo), subs. (old).—The Blue Devils (q.v.).
1710. Swift, Tatler, No. 230. Will Hazard has got the hipps, having
lost to the tune of five hund’rd pound.
1729. Swift, Poems (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 486). And
the doctor was plaguily down in the hips.
1738. Swift’s Polite Conversation, Dial. 1. Her ladyship was
plaguily bamb’d; I warrant it put her into the hipps.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1830. C. Lamb, Pawnbroker’s Daughter, i., 2. The drops so like to
tears did drip, They gave my infant nerves the hyp.
1854. Haliburton, Americans at Home, i., 176. The old man would
give up to the hypo, and keep his bed for weeks. During this time,
he wouldn’t say a word, but ‘I’m not long for this world.’
End of Vol. III.
LONDON
HARRISON AND SONS, PRINTERS,
ST. MARTIN’S LANE.