Care. Not to care or be worth a [fig, pin, rap, button, cent, straw,
rush, or hang, etc.], phr. (colloquial).—Similes of indifference; to
care about a matter not even so much as to the value of a fig, a pin,
or a straw. Fr. s’en battre l’œil.—See Not worth a Fig.
1590. Spenser, Fairie Queene, I., ii., 12. He ... cared not for God
or man a point. [m.]
1633. Marmyon, Fine Compan., II., i., 68. I do not care a pin for
her. [m.]
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 50. I do not care a farthing for you.
[m.]
1760. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, xlvi. Not that I care three
damns what figure I may cut.
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ed. 1846, vol. I., ch. iii., p. 13.
You told him you did not care a fig for him.
1848–62. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers. ‘Don’t fire,’ sez Joe, ‘it
ain’t no use, Thet Deacon Peleg’s tame wil-’goose’; Seys Isrel, ‘I
don’t care a cent, I’ve sighted an’ I’ll let her went.’
1871. London Figaro, May 13, p. 4, col. 2. Coster Ballads, ‘Found
Drowned.’ ‘Well, sir, to cut it short, she ’ad the chap—’Twos cruel
’ard on me—I don’t believe he cared for ’er a rap, But so it wos,
yer see.’
1889. Answers, June 22, p. 49, col. 1. ‘Is it for sale?’ demanded
the visitor, excitedly. ‘If it is I want it. I don’t care a snap
what it costs.’
I don’t care if I do, phr. (American).—A street phrase, meaning nothing
in particular. Also a form of accepting an invitation to drink: ‘Will
you peg?’ ‘I don’t care if I do.’
1888. New York Tribune. Volapuk will never be popular in Kentucky.
It contains no sentence to take the place of that classic phrase, I
don’t care if I do.
Care-Grinder, subs. (thieves’).—More usually the vertical
care-grinder.—See quot. For synonyms, see Wheel of life.
1883. Echo, Jan. 25, p. 2, col 4. The treadmill again, is more
politely called ... the wheel of life, or the vertical
care-grinder.
Cargo, subs. (Winchester College).—A hamper from home. The word is
still in use.
1870. Mansfield, School Life at Winchester College, p. 77. The
boys, eager for breakfast, tumultuously rushed out from
school-court ... to see if Poole, the porter, had letters, or, what
was even more delightful, a cargo (a hamper of game or eatables
from home).
1883. Every-day Life in our Public Schools. Scholars may supplement
their fare with jam, potted meats ... or, better still, from the
contents of cargoes, i.e., hampers from home.
Carler, subs. (New York thieves’).—A clerk. For synonyms, see
Quill-driver.
Carlicues.—See Curlycues.
Carney or Carny, subs. (colloquial).—Soothing and seductive flattery;
language covering a design. [The origin is unknown, though some have
conjectured the word to be of Irish derivation. As a verb it first
appears as a dialecticism, and is now mostly in use as a ppl.
adj.—carneying (q.v.). The word, however, seems to be fast making its
way into respectable usage, and is even now largely in literary use.]
Verb, tr. and intrans.—To wheedle; coax or insinuate oneself; to act in
a cajoling manner.—See Carneying.
Carneying, ppl. adj. (common).—In a wheedling, coaxing, or insinuating
manner. Cf., Carney.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 566.
When I tried to turn ’em off they’d say, in a carnying way, ‘Oh,
let us stay on,’ so I never took no heed of ’em.
1869. H. J. Byron, Not such a Fool as He Looks [French’s Acting
ed.], p. 12. Sharp old skinflint, downy old robber as he is, he’s
under Jane Mould’s thumb, and well he knows it. (In carnying voice)
With many thanks, sir, for your kind attention to my case.
1871. Daily Telegraph, 15 May, ‘Critique on Mr. H. J. Byron’s Play
of An English Gentleman.’ Rachel does not like Brandon’s carnying
ways.
1884. R. L. Stevenson in Eng. Illustr. Mag., Feb., p. 305. The
female dog, that mass of carnying affectations.
1885. Clement Scott, in Ill. Lon. News, 3 Oct., p. 339, 2. The
change from the carnying, wheedling sneak to the cowardly bully, is
extremely clever.
Carnish, subs. (thieves’).—Meat. [From the Italian carne, flesh,
through the Lingua Franca. Carne, in French argot, signifies tough
meat.]
French Synonyms. La crie, crigne, or crignolle (thieves’: Old Cant;
Greek, κρίας; Fourbesque, crea, creata, creatura, criulfa; Germania,
crioja); la criolle (thieves’); la niorte (thieves’); la barbaque or
bidoche (popular); le choléra (popular = bad meat); le mastic (= bread
or meat).
German Synonyms. Kärner (this is the same as carnish and comes from the
Italian carne; Kärnerfetzer = a butcher).
Italian Synonyms. Bronco (specially applied to beef); slavigna; crea
(see remarks under crie in French synonyms).
Carnish-Ken, subs. (thieves’).—A thieves’ eating house, or prog-shop.
[From carnish, meat, through the Italian carne, + ken, a house or
dwelling.] A French equivalent for the proprietor of such a place is un
fripier, a term which also means a cook, a ‘dripping’ or old clothes’
man.
Carny.—See Carney.
Caroon, subs. (costermongers’).—A five shilling piece. [Hotten and
Barrère trace it to the French couronne, Spanish and Italian corona; it
is in all probability a mispronunciation of the English word ‘crown.’]
English Synonyms. Bull, or bull’s-eye; cartwheel, coach-wheel, or
simply wheel; tusheroon; dollar; thick ’un (obsolete, the term being
now applied to a sovereign); case; caser; decus.
The nearest French equivalent, a five franc piece, is called un roue de
derrière (literally ‘a hind wheel,’ and corresponding pretty closely to
the English wheel, cartwheel, and coachwheel); un bouton de guêtre; un
blafard de cinq balles; une drille or dringue; une croix (the old six
franc piece, in allusion to the cross inscribed on it); une chatte (a
piece of six francs: very old; and formerly prostitutes’); une médaille
or médaille de St. Hubert (popular); un monarque (popular); un œil de
bœuf (= an ox’s eye); un noble étrangère (literary: = a distinguished
stranger).
1859. G. W. Matsell, Vocabulum, or the Rogue’s Lexicon. Kersey-mere
kicksies, any colour, built very slap with the artful dodge, from
three caroon.
Carpet, verb (colloquial).—To reprimand. Equivalents are to ‘call over
the coals,’ to ‘give a wigging’ or ‘earwigging,’ etc. The phrase
sometimes runs ‘to walk the carpet.’ so also carpeting; for synonyms,
see Wig.
1823. Galt, Entail, III., xxix., 278. Making ... her servants walk
the carpet. [m.]
1840. H. Cockton, Valentine Vox, xli. They had done nothing! Why
were they carpeted?
1871. Chester Chronicle, 11 Feb. ‘Report of Affiliation Case at
Hawarden Petty Sessions.’ [The plaintiff, Louisa Jackson, said]
neither did Lunt, the page, say that night if her master knew of
her coming home in that state she would be carpeted for it.
1877. Hawley Smart, Bound to Win, ch. xxx. There is no hurry; but,
before the race, I think Mr. Luxmoore will have to carpet Sam.
To bring on the carpet. To bring up or forward. A slang rendering of
mettre sur le tapis.
Carpet-Bag, subs. used attributively as adj. (American).—See
Carpet-bagger for explanation of such phrases as carpet-bag rule,
carpet-bag adventurers, carpet-bag government, etc.
1872. New York Herald, 22 Aug. Hundreds of millions have been taken
from the pockets of the people since the beginning of the war by
dishonest contractors, unjust claimants, county robbers, and city
plunderers, and Carpet-bag State Governments. Ibid. The Tammany
robberies, although trifling in comparison with the old revenue
robberies, and the present wholesale plunder of the Carpet-bag
Governments in the South, etc.
1888. Chicago Record. The head of the ticket is one of the most
vulnerable men who figured in Southern politics in the carpet-bag
era. No man of that period left a blacker record.
Carpet-Bagger, subs. (American political).—A political adventurer.
[After the Civil War, numbers of Northerners went South. Honest or not,
they were looked upon with suspicion by the Southerners, and, as they
were generally Republican in politics and joined with the freedmen at
the polls, the nickname carpet-bagger came to have, and still retains,
a political significance. It was unjustly applied to many well-meaning
men, but at the same time it fitted the horde of corrupt adventurers
who infested the South, and whose only ‘property qualification’ was
contained in the carpet bag with which they had arrived from the North.
Originally, however, a carpet-bagger was a ‘wild-cat banker’ out West:
a banker, that is, who had no local abiding place, his worldly
possessions being contained in a carpet bag.] Applied to politics the
term has become of general application.—Cf., Scalawag.
1868. Daily News, Sept. 18. All carpet-baggers and ‘scalawags’ are
whites. The carpet-baggers are immigrants from the North who have
thrown themselves into local politics, and through their influence
with the negroes obtained office.
1871. New York Post, April. ‘The general drift of public sentiment
is, that the carpet-baggers, scalawags, ex-slaves, ex-slaveholders,
rebels reconstructed, rebels unreconstructed, and Southern
loyalists should be left, for a brief period at least, to fight out
their own battles, in their own way; and that if the nation is ever
again to become a party to their quarrels, it shall be on no slight
pretext and for no trivial purpose.’
1877. Temple Bar, May, p. 107. At the same moment a swarm of
adventurers settled in the conquered states, and became governors,
judges, tax-collectors, and so on. These are the carpet-baggers of
history. They came with two shirts, got salaries of (on an average)
four thousand dollars per annum, and made fortunes of a million in
four years!
Carpet-Bag Recruit, subs. phr. (military).—A recruit of better than the
ordinary standing; one with more than he stands upright in.
Carpet-Swab, subs. (common).—A carpet-bag.
1837. Barham, I.L. (Misadv. at Margate). A little gallows-looking
chap—dear me! what could he mean? With a carpet-swab and mucking
togs, and a hat turned up with green.
Carrier, subs. (old).—See quot., and Cf., Carrier-pigeon.
1725. New Cant. Dict. Carriers: a sett of Rogues ... employ’d to
look out, and watch upon the Roads, at Inns, etc., in order to
carry Information to their respective Gangs, of a booty in
Prospect.
Carrier-Pigeon, subs. (old).—1. A cheat—especially one who victimised
lottery office keepers. Cf., Carrier.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 64 [named and described in].
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Carrier Pigeons;
sharpers who attend the drawing of the lottery in Guildhall, and as
soon as a number or two are drawn, write them on a card, and run
with them to a confederate, who is waiting near at hand, ready
mounted; with these numbers he rides full speed to some distant
insurance office before fixed on, where there is another of the
gang, commonly a decent-looking woman, who takes care to be at the
office before the hour of drawing; to her he secretly gives the
number, which she insures for a considerable sum, thus biting the
biter.
2. (racing).—One that runs from place to place with ‘commissions’; a
kind of tout.
Carrion, subs. (venery).—1. A prostitute. For synonyms, see
Barrack-hack and tart.