To chaw over, verbal phr. (common).—To create ridicule by repeating
one’s words.
To chaw up, phr. (American).—To get the better of; to demolish; ‘do
for’; smash or finish. Chawed up: utterly done for.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvi., p. 162, ‘Here’s full
particulars of the patriotic loco-foco movement yesterday, in which
the Whigs was so chawed up.’
1862. C. F. Browne, Artemus Ward: His Book, p. 66. We chawed ’em
up, that’s what we did.
To chaw up one’s words, phr. (American).—To retract an assertion; ‘to
eat one’s words.’
Chaw-Bacon, subs. (colloquial).—A country bumpkin. [From chaw, a vulgar
form of chew, to masticate or chew, + bacon, the staple food of
agricultural labourers.] Other nicknames for a countryman are
bacon-slicer; clod-hopper; barn-door savage; clod-pole; cart-horse;
Johnny; cabbage-gelder; turnip-sucker; joskin; jolterhead; yokel;
clod-crusher, etc.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Chaw Bacon. A countryman. A stupid
fellow.
1822. Blackwood’s Magazine, XII., 379. You live cheap with
chaw-bacons and see a fine, flat country. [m.]
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. v. ‘Give me the pail, you
lop-eared buffoon—do you call that the way to feed a pig?’ and the
General, seizing the bucket from an astonished chaw-bacon, who
stood aghast, as if he thought his master was mad, managed to spill
the greater part of the contents over his own person and gaiters.
Chaws, subs. (venery).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens.
Cheap. On the cheap, adv. phr. (colloquial).—At a low rate [of money];
economically; keeping up a showy appearance on small means.
1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 614. His being’s end and aim, both by
day and night, is to obtain as much drink as possible on the cheap.
Cheap and nasty, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Said of articles which, though
pleasing to the eye, are ‘shoddy’ in fact. For special application, see
quot.
1864. Athenæum, Oct. 29. Cheap and nasty, or, in a local form,
‘cheap and nasty, like Short’s in the Strand,’ a proverb applied to
the deceased founder of cheap dinners.
To feel cheap, verb. phr. (common).—To ‘have a mouth on;’ to be
suffering from a night’s debauch.
Dirt cheap or dog cheap, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Inexpensive; as cheap
as may be. Dog cheap is the earliest form in which this colloquialism
appears in English literature, dirt cheap not being found earlier than
1837.
1577. Holinshed, Chron. Descr. Irel., iii. They afourded their
wares so dogge cheape, that etc. [m.]
1837. C. Dickens, Oliver Twist, xxxvii. ‘I sold myself,’ said Mr.
Bumble ... ‘I went very reasonable. Cheap, dirt cheap!’
Cheapside. He came home by way of cheapside, phr. (old).—That is ‘he
gave little or nothing for it’; ‘he got it cheap.’
Cheat, subs. (old).—A general name for any object. [From Anglo-Saxon
ceat, a thing. Cf., quot., 1608.] A term which, with a descriptive
adjective, appears in a variety of forms in Old Cant. The cheat par
excellence was the gallows, also known as the nubbing, topping, or
treyning-cheat. The word is variously spelt—chet, chete, cheate, cheit,
chate, cheat. The following combinations will serve to illustrate its
use.
Belly-chete = An Apron.
Bleting-chete = A sheep or calf.
Cackling-chete = A fowl.
Crashing-cheats = The teeth.
Grunting-chete = A pig.
Hearing-chetes = The ears.
Low’ing-chete = A cow.
Lullaby-chete = An infant.
Mofling-chete = A napkin.
Nubbing-cheat = The gallows.
Prattling-chete = The tongue.
Quacking-chete = A duck.
Smelling-chete = The nose.
Topping-cheat = The gallows.
Treyning-cheat = The gallows.
Trundling-cheat = A cart or coach.
All of which see.
1567. Harman, Caveat [ed. 1869], p. 86. Now we have well bous’d,
let vs strike some chete [that is], now we have well dronke, let us
steale some thinge.
1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 117. The
Cheating Law or the Art of winning money by false dyce. Those that
practise this studie call themselues Cheators, the dyce Cheaters,
and the money which they purchase Cheates: borrowing the tearme
from our common Lawyers, with whome all casuals as fall to the Lord
at the holding of his Leetes, as Waifes, Strayes, and such like,
are said to be Escheated to the Lord’s use, and are called Cheates.
1611. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, iv., 2, 28. With dye and drab, I
purchas’d this Caparison, and my Reuennew is the silly Cheate.
Gallowes, and Knocke, are too powerfull on the Highway.
1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. IV., ch. ii. See what your
laziness is come to; to the cheat, for thither will you go now,
that’s infallible.
Cheats, subs. (old).—Sham cuffs or wristbands. Cf., Dicky and
Shams.—See also quot., 1688.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III., p. 96, col. 1. A ... kind of
Waistcoats are called Chates, because they are to be seen rich and
gaudy before, when all the back part is no such thing. Ibid, III.,
p. 258, col. 1. Such Gallants weare not Cheats or half Sleeves, but
... their Waistcoats are the same clear throughout. [m.]
1690. B. E., Dictionary Canting Crew. Cheats ... also Wristbands or
sham Sleeves worn for true, or whole ones.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. } Sham sleeves to put over a dirty
} shift or shirt.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. }
Checks, subs. (American).—Money in general; cash. [A term derived from
poker, in which game counters or checks, bought at certain fixed rates,
are equivalent to current coin.] For synonyms, see Actual and Cf.,
Chips.
To pass or hand in one’s checks, phr. (American).—See ante, To cash (or
pass in) one’s checks. To die. For synonyms, see Aloft and Cf., Chips.
Cheek, subs. (colloquial).—1. Insolence; jaw; e.g., ‘none of your
cheek’ or ‘chat’ and ‘none of your jaw.’ Equivalents are lip, chat,
imperance, mouth, chin, chirrup, and nine shillings; the last a
corruption of ‘nonchalance!’ Among foreign equivalents may be mentioned
the French avoir un toupet de bœuf; and the Spanish adjectives
cariraido (‘impudent’) and desollado (from desollar, ‘to skin, flay’);
desuellacaras (m.; an impudent, shameless person); paparrucha (f.
impertinence).
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxii. The man, who was a sulky, saucy
sort of chap ... gives cheek.
1848. J. Mitchell, Jail Jrnl., July 20. I once asked ... what fault
a man had committed who was flogged.... ‘For giving cheek, sir.’
[m.]
1884. G. Moore, Mummer’s Wife (1887), p. 133. If he gives me any of
his cheek I’ll knock him down.
2. Audacity; confidence; impudence; ‘brass’; ‘face.’ Formerly ‘brow’
was used in the same sense.—(See quot., 1642.)
1642. Fuller, Holy State, bk. IV., ch. xi. They were men of more
brow than brain, being so ambitious to be known, that they had
rather be hissed down than not come upon the stage.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 471. They [the
Crocusses] ’d actually have the cheek to put a blister on a cork
leg. Ibid, p. 404 (provided with) a noggin o’ rum to ‘give him
cheek,’ and make him speak up to his victims.
1882. Daily News, Oct. 10, p. 5, col. 6. Of this fact, I know no
more signal instance than the seizing of the Citadel of Cairo. As I
stood on the spot the other day I realised for the first time
the—if you will pardon me the use of a vulgar but expressive
colloquialism—astounding cheek of the feat.
1889. Answers, p. 59, col. 2. The whole suggestion savoured so much
of what our Transatlantic brothers call monumental cheek, that the
Duke hardly knew what to say, or what emotions to express.
1890. Athenæum, Feb. 22, p. 253, col. 2. In various disguises Miss
Palmer sings, dances, and exhibits her powers of coquetry and
cheek.
Verb.—To address a person saucily.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 452. (They)
persuaded me to go and beg with them, but I couldn’t cheek it.
1857. Dickens, Our Vestry, in Reprinted Pieces, p. 292. Dogginson
... informed another gentleman ... that if he cheek’d him he would
resort to the extreme measure of knocking his blessed head off.
1890. Saturday Review, Feb. 1, p. 151, col. 1. Not only was Dick
always ready to cheek his employer, and by his own account usually
capable of getting the better of him, but he was on the same sort
of terms with his pupils.
To one’s own cheek, phr. (colloquial).—To one’s own share; all to
oneself. Sometimes used in the sense of allowance, i.e., ‘Where’s my
cheek?’
1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. lxxxviii. And though he consumed
something like a prize on to his own cheek, he at length had to
call for cheese.
1855. Punch, vol. XXVIII., p. 10. [From day to day, for near a
week,] ‘I had a boiled salt round of beef On Monday all to my own
cheek Whereon my hunger sought relief.’
To cheek up, verbal phr. (colloquial).— = cheek, to answer saucily.—See
Cheek verb.
1867. North Briton, June 5. ‘Royal Dramatic College.’ We shall not
soon forget seeing, during our visit to the Fair last July, a
number of ladies dressed up as jockeys, confined, like so many
chattering monkeys, in a cage, cheeking up to gentlemen, selling
them ‘k’rect cards,’ etc.
Cheek-Ache. To have the cheek-ache, phr. (common).—To be made to blush;
to be abashed. [From cheek, the face, + ache, a metaphorical
exaggeration of the pain of blushing.]
Cheekiness, subs. (colloquial).—Impudence; effrontery; cool audacity.
1847. Illustrated London News, 28 Aug. p. 142, col. 1. They were
beat ... by their slow, loggy stroke, and by their cheekiness. [m.]
1854. Martin and Aytoun, Bon Gualtier Ballads, ‘Francesca da
Rimini.’ There’s wont to be at conscious times like these. An
affectation of a bright-eyed ease,—A crispy-cheekiness, if so I
dare, Describe the swaling of a jaunty air.
1857. A. Trollope, Three Clerks, ch. xliv. He lived but on the
cheekiness of his gait and habits; he had become member of
Parliament, Government official, railway director, and club
aristocrat, merely by dint of cheek.
Cheekish, adj. (colloquial).—Audacious; impudent; saucy. [From cheek +
ish.]
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, I., p. 248. Being
cheekish (saucy) to the beadle.
Cheeks, subs. (old).—1. The posteriors. For synonyms, see Blind-cheeks:
to which may be added toby; stern; catastrophe; latter-end;
jacksy-pardo; and juff.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar Tongue.