1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 448. I have seen cheeks (a
flash name for an accomplice).
Cheeks and Ears.—A fantastic name for a kind of head-dress, of
temporary fashion.
(?) Lond. Prod., iv., 3, Suppl. to Sh., II., 511. Fr. O then thou
canst tell how to help me to cheeks and ears. L. Yes, mistress,
very well. Fl. S. Cheeks and ears! why, mistress Frances, want you
cheeks and ears? methinks you have very fair ones. Fr. Thou art a
fool indeed, Tom, thou knowest what I mean. Civ. Ay, ay, Kester;
’tis such as they wear a’ their heads.
Cheeks the Marine, subs. phr. (nautical).—Mr. Nobody. An imaginary
personage on board ship created and popularised by Captain Marryat. The
epithet has, likewise, passed into a byword as a sarcastic rejoinder to
a foolish or incredible story—‘tell that to Cheeks the marine.’
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple (ed. 1846), vol. I., ch. vii., p. 36. I
enquired who, and he said Cheeks the marine.
1878–80. Justin McCarthy, History of Our Own Times, II., ch. xiii.,
p. 15 (1848). Cheeks the Marine was a personage very familiar at
that time to the readers of Captain Marryat’s sea stories, and the
name of that mythical hero appeared with bewildering iteration in
the petition.
1883. Clark Russell, Sailors’ Language. Cheeks the marine: an
imaginary being in a man-of-war.
Cheeky, adj. (colloquial).—Coolly presumptuous; impudent or saucy. Fr.,
insolpé.
1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxvi. ‘You will find, Sir,’
said Lee, ‘that these men in this here hut are a rougher lot than
you think for; very like they’ll be cheeky.’
1860. Punch, vol. XXXIX., p. 30. ‘The Volunteer on July
fourteenth.’ But that Ass Snivens—a coming it as cheeky as could
be.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 8 Nov., p. 2, col. 3. The cheeky boy, with
the natural ingratitude of youth, often makes a long nose at his
master, even when showing off all that the master has taught him.
Cheese. The cheese, phr. (common).—1. Anything first-rate or highly
becoming; the expression runs up and down the whole gamut of ‘cheese
nomenclature’ from the Stilton, Double Gloster, to the pure Limburger.
[It has been variously traced to the Anglo-Saxon ceosan, to choose;
German, kiesen; French, chose; Persian, chiz; Hindu, cheez, thing.
Summing up the evidence, the expression—(barring a solitary reference
in the London Guide of 1818, where it is referred to a bald translation
of c’est une autre chose, i.e., that is another cheese, subsequently
coming to signify that is the real thing)—appears to have come into
general vogue about 1840. This contention is borne out in some measure
by a correspondent to Notes and Queries (1853, 1 S., viii., p. 89), who
speaks of it as about ‘ten or twelve years old,’ a calculation which
carries it back to the date when it appears to have started in
literature. Yule, writing much later, says the expression was common
among young Anglo-Indians, e.g., ‘my new Arab is the real chiz,’ i.e.,
‘the real thing,’ a fact which points to a Persian origin.] For
synonyms, see a1.
1835. Haliburton (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. xiv.
Whatever is the go in Europe will soon be the cheese here.
1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, p. 418. Cries Rigmaree,
rubbing her hands, ‘that will please—My “Conjuring cap”—it’s the
thing;—it’s the cheese.’
1842. Punch, vol. III., p. 33. ‘I hopes my love will excuse me if
I’m not quite—quite—’ ‘Comme il faut, George.’ ‘I don’t mean that,
love—not quite the cheese.’
1860. Punch, vol. XXXIX., p. 97. Were the custom [of putting
mottoes on garments, temp. Rich. II.] now revived we can conceive
what stupid mottoes would be sported by the Œntish who always mock
and maul the fashion of their betters:—‘I wish my gal to please: O,
aint I just the cheese’ would doubtless be a popular device for a
new shirt front.
1863. Chas. Reade, Hard Cash, II., 186. ‘Who ever heard [said Mrs.
Dodd] of a young lady being married without something to be married
in?’ ‘Well [said Edward], I’ve heard Nudity is not the cheese on
public occasions.’
2. subs. (schools and University).—An adept; one who ‘takes the shine
out of another’ at anything; at Cambridge an overdressed dandy is
called a howling cheese. [An extended usage based on sense 1.]
1864. Eton School-days. ‘Do you know Homer, Purefoy?’ asked
Chudleigh. ‘No, I have not looked at the lesson yet.’ ‘I am sure I
don’t know why you ever do; you are such a cheese. I want you to
give me a construe.’
Hard cheese, phr. (common).—What is barely endurable; hard lines; bad
luck.
Tip-cheese.—Probably the same as Tip-cat (q.v.).
1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 282 (ed. 1857). All is gloom
and silence in the house; even the voice of the child is hushed;
his infant sports are disregarded when his mother weeps; his ‘alley
tors’ and his ‘commoneys’ are alike neglected; he forgets the long
familiar cry of ‘knuckle down,’ and at tip-cheese, or odd and even,
his hand is out.
Cheese it! phr. (thieves’).—Leave off! Have done! Be off! [Thought to
be a corruption of ‘cease it!’]. For synonyms, see Stow it!
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, Cheese it, the coves are fly; be
silent, the people understand our discourse.
1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxviii. Two or three
‘hallos!’ and ‘now thens!’ accompanied by a strong recommendation
to cheese it (i.e., act of cessation), causes these trifling
annoyances to cease.
1864. Times, 7 December. He shouted ‘Murder!’ as well as he could,
and the cries he made bringing assistance, he heard one of the men
just before they let go of him call out ‘Cheese it, cheese it,’
which a policeman said meant make off.
1871. London Figaro, May 13, p. 3, col. 3. ‘Cheese that,’ cried
Bill. ‘The genelman’s agoin’ to read, and I am agoin’ to listen.’
Cheese-Boxes, subs. (American).—A Confederate nickname for vessels of
the ‘Monitor’ type; first applied during the Civil War [1860–65]. Cf.,
tinclads (q.v.).
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 335. The great inventor has not
made it known what induced him to choose the name [‘Monitor’]:
hence etymologists have evolved it out of their inner consciousness
that he must have borrowed it from Gray’s Monitor Dracæna, a large
lizard covered with impenetrable armour. Irreverent Confederates
called the hideous-looking vessels cheese-boxes, and apparently one
designation is, etymologically, though not æsthetically, as good as
the other.
Cheesecutter, subs. (common).—1. A prominent, aquiline nose. For
synonyms, see Conk.
2. (common).—A large, square peak to a cap; the abat-jour of the
Zouaves.