1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Caravan: a good round sum of money
about a man, and him that is cheated of it.
3. (pugilistic).—A railway train, especially a train expressly
chartered to convey people to a prize fight. [Early in the present
century caravan, now shortened to ‘van,’ was applied to a third class
covered railway carriage; now a pleasure party is so described; also a
gypsy’s cart; also the wheeled cages of a travelling menagerie.]
Caravansera, subs. (pugilistic).—A railway station. As thus: ‘The
scratch must be toed at sharp five, so the caravan will start at four
from the caravansera.’—Hotten. See Caravan, sense 3.
Card, subs. (common).—1. A device; expedient; or undertaking; that
which is likely to attain its object, or through which success is sure.
Thus we have such expressions as a ‘good card,’ a ‘strong card,’ a
‘safe card,’ a ‘likely, or a doubtful card.’ [Figurative; from card
playing.] That’s a sure card sounds modern, but as Lowell has pointed
out it is to be found in the old interlude of ‘Thursytes’ (1537).
1690. b. e., Dic. Cant. Crew. A sure card, a trusty Tool, or
Confiding Man.
1763. Fr. Brooke, Lady J. Mandeville, in Barbauld Brit. Novelists
(1820) xxvii., 23. Poor fellow! I pity him; but marriage is his
only card. [m.]
1826. Scott, Woodstock, III., xiv., 358. No card seemed to turn up
favourable to the royal cause.
2. A character; an odd fish; an eccentric; generally coupled with such
adjectives as ‘knowing,’ ‘old,’ ‘queer,’ ‘downy,’ ‘rum,’ etc.
[Apparently derived from the card-table, such expressions as a ‘sure
card,’ a ‘sound card,’ being of very ancient use. Osric tells Hamlet
that Laertes is the card and calendar of gentry.—(Hamlet, v., 2.)]
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 264. Mr. Thomas Potter, whose great
aim it was to be considered as a knowing card.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xx., p. 173. ‘Such an old card as
this; so deep, so sly, and secret.’
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. ii. Frank Hardingstone
was, to use their favourite word, ‘a great card’ amongst all the
associates of his age and standing.
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xii. A quaint boy at
Eton, cool hand at Oxford, a deep card in the regiment, man or
woman never yet had the best of ‘Uppy.’
1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. i. ‘You’re one of
the Patriarchs; you’re a shaky old card; and you can’t be in love
with this Lizzie.’
3. (common).—The ‘ticket’; the ‘figure’; the correct thing. [Possibly
from the k’rect card (q.v.) of racing.]
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., p. 47. I’ve got
10s. often for a great coat, and higher and lower, oftener lower in
course; but 10s. is about the card for a good thing.
Verb.—Also carding, subs. (Irish Nationalist). A peculiar form of
torture, which consists in the application of the card, a spiked or
toothed implement used in the preparation of flax and wool, to the
naked shoulders, &c., and is commonly reserved for ‘unpatriotic’ girls
and women.
1889. The Scots Observer. ‘They never told the ramping crowd to
card a woman’s hide.’
To give one cards, phr. (American).—To give one an advantage. The
English equivalent, ‘to give points,’ is derived from the billiard
saloon. An analogous French phrase is faire un bœuf.
1888. Grip (Toronto), May. You know that Artie found a Chinaman out
in ’Frisco who could give him cards and spades and beat him out.
On the cards, phr. (common).—Within the range of probability. [Dickens
popularised the expression, which appears to mean ‘possible to turn
up,’ as anything in the game when the cards are turned up. Still, it is
not unlikely that the phrase originated with cartomancy, at a time when
cards were frequently consulted as to the issue of enterprises.] See N.
and Q., 7 s. iv., 507; v. 14, 77, 495.
1740. Smollett, Translation of Gil Blas. I showed them tricks which
they did not know to be on the cards, and yet acknowledged to be
better than their own.
1813. Sir R. Wilson, Diary, II., 40. It is not out of the cards
that we might do more. [m.]
1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, I., p. 219. By way of going in
for anything that might be on the cards, petition to the House of
Commons, etc.
1868. W. Collins, Moonstone, I., p. 149. It’s quite on the cards,
sir, that you have put the clue into our hands.
1874. Saturday Review, April, p. 488. When they discovered that a
Restoration was not at present on the cards, they became
Conservatives.
1890. H. D. Traill, A Bulgarian Appeal. ‘Saturday Songs,’ p. 43.
I’ll be shot if I do, though it’s equally true That it’s quite on
the cards I’ll be shot if I don’t.
To pack, stock, or put up, the cards, phr. (Western American).—To
prepare cards for cheating purposes.—See Concaves, Pack, and Stock
broads.
To speak by the card, phr. (general).—To speak with precision; or with
the utmost accuracy. [An allusion to the card of the mariner’s
compass.]
1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, v., 1, 149. We must speak by the card, or
equivocation will undo us.
1867. Yates, Forlorn Hope, i., p. 23. ‘Are you speaking by the
card?’ said Count Bulow, with the slightest foreign accent.
1879. Trollope, Thackeray [in ‘English men of Letters’ series], p.
186. Henry Esmond ... however, is not made to speak altogether by
the card, or he would be unnatural.
Cardinal, subs. (old).—1. A red cloak worn by ladies circa 1740 and
later. [From the colour and shape which suggested a cardinal’s
vestment.]
1755. Connoisseur, No. 62. That fashionable cloak ... which indeed
is with great propriety styled the cardinal.
1755. The World, No. 127. I have made no objection to their (the
ladies) wearing the cardinal, though it be a habit of popish
etymology, and was, I am afraid, first invented to hide the
sluttishness of French dishabille.
1881. Besant and Rice, Chap. of the Fleet, pt. 1, ch. iv. In the
windows of which were hoods, cardinals, sashes, pinners, and
shawls.