4. (music-hall).—One of a gang frequenting the stage doors of
music-halls to blackmail the singers. If money be refused them, they go
into the auditorium and hoot, hiss, and groan at the performer. [Cf.,
Chirrup, quot., 1888.]
1889. Daily News, 2 July, p. 2. Singularly enough the Canterbury
Music-hall ... was mentioned in one of the night-charges, two men
known as chirpers or chirripers being brought before Mr. Biron.
Chirpy, adj. (colloquial).—Cheerful; lively. [From chirp = babble of
birds, + y.]
1837. J. Bates, in Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., III., 332. It makes
me chirpy to think of Roseland.
1879. Justin McCarthy, Donna Quixote, ch. xxxv. To Charlton this
appeared gravely ominous ... Paulina, on the other hand, was what
she would herself have called chirpy.
1882. Besant, All Sorts and Conditions of Men, ch. xx., p. 146. Her
ladyship put quite a chirpy face upon it.
Chirrup, verb (music-hall).—To cheer or applaud under a system of
blackmail. [The term appears to have come into vogue in the early part
of 1888.—See quots, under Chirruper; also Cf., Chirper, sense 4, and
Chirruping.]
Chirruper.—See Chirper, senses 1 and 4, Fr., un intime.
1888. Pall Mall Gazette, 6 Mar., p. 4, col. 2. A chirruper ...
excused himself at the Lambeth Police Court yesterday by alleging
that ‘he thought there was no harm in it.’
1888. J. Payn, in Illustrated London News, 17 Mar., p. 268. The ...
singers in music-halls cannot ... do without him (the chirruper).
[m.]
Chirruping, verbal subs. (music-hall).—Hanging about stage doors to
intercept the ‘artistes,’ and extort money with a statement that the
performer who ‘parts’ will be applauded. [For suggested, but very
dubious, derivation, see quot., and Cf., Chirper, sense 4.]
1888. Pall Mall Gazette, 9 March, p. 14. Chirruping. Mr. Rintoul
Mitchell writing from the Savage Club [asks] to add a hint as to
the etymology of the word. It is not remote. The French argot for
blackmail is chantage. Such paltry operations as those reported
from the Lambeth music-hall do not merit the description of
singing—they are simply twittering or chirruping.
Chisel, Chizzle, or Chuzzle, verb (common).—To cheat. [Possibly an
extension of the orthodox meaning of the verb in the sense of ‘to cut,
shave, or pare with a chisel to an excessive degree.’ Jamieson (1808)
gives chisel as to cheat, or act deceitfully. Current during the first
half of the present century, it seems first to have appeared in
literature about 1840. Cf., Gouge, Shave, Skin, and other words of a
kindred type.] For synonyms, see Stick.
1844. Illustrated London News, 25 May. ‘The Derby.’ They have
chiseled the peaman and no mistake about that.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 78.
When we got home at night we shared 2s. a piece. There was five of
us altogether; but I think they chisselled me.
1858. Savannah Republican, 17 May. When the books were overhauled
by the Committee, it was found that ... the stockholders would be
chiselled out of a pretty considerable sum.
1865. Saturday Review, April. Mr. Hotten has given the supposed
classical originals of ‘Dickey’ and of ‘Skedaddle.’ He might have
traced the slang verb to chisel to the Latin deascio and deruncino.
1865. G. A. Sala, Trip to Barbary, ch. xx. To ‘carrotter’ any one,
say an uncle or a creditor, is to chizzle or ‘chouse’ or ‘do’ him
out of his property amidst assurances of high-flown benevolence and
exalted integrity.
To go full chisel, phr. (American).—To go at full speed or ‘full
drive’; to show intense earnestness; to use great force; to go off
brilliantly.
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker (1862), 95. The long shanks of a
bittern ... a drivin’ away like mad, full chisel arter a frog.
1878. Mrs. Stowe, Poganuc P., ix., 76. Then he’d turn and run up
the narrow way, full chisel. [m.]
Chiselling, verbal subs. Cheating. [Cf. Chisel, verb.] Variants are
bamming; biting; besting; gouging, etc.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 298. Other efforts at cheating are
designated as chisselling—not as some have believed from the
practice of chiselling, that is, opening by means of cold chisels
the safes of banks and merchants, since the term is much older than
the introduction of safes.
Chit, subs. (Anglo-Indian).—1. A letter; corruption of a Hindoo word.
1785. In Seton-Karr, I., 114. [They] may know his terms by sending
a chit. [m.]
1887. Chamb. Jour., 25 June, p. 411. He had brought a note or
chitti, as they call it in those parts [Bengal].
2. (society).—An order for drinks in clubs, etc. [Obviously an extended
use of sense 1. In India the practice of writing chits or notes on the
smallest provocation has always been carried to excess.]
3. (common).—A girl, under age and undersized. For general synonyms,
see Titter.
4. subs. (Scots). Food eaten in the hand: as a thumber (q.v.), a
workman’s lunch, and a child’s piece (q.v.).
Chitterlings, subs. (old).—The shirt frills once fashionable. [Properly
the entrails of a pig, to which they are supposed to bear some
resemblance.]
Chitty, subs. (tailors’).—An assistant cutter or trimmer.
Chitty-Faced, adj. (old).—Thin; weazened; baby-faced. Cf., Chit, sense
3.
1601. Munday, Downf. R. Earl of Huntingdon, I., iii. You
halfe-fac’t groat, you thick [? thin] cheekt chitti-face. [m.]
1621. Burton, Anat. of Melan., [2nd ed.], p. 519. A thin, lean,
chitty-face.
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew.
1725. New Cant. Dict.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum.
1859. Hotten, Slang Dict.
Chiv.—See Chive.
Chivalry, subs. (old).—Coition. [From the Lingua Franca or O. F.
chevaulcher.] For synonyms, see Greens and Cf., Ride.
Chive or Chiv, subs. (thieves’).—1. A knife. [The Gypsy has chive, to
stab.]
English Synonyms. Arkansas toothpick (a bowie knife); cabbage-bleeder;
whittle; gully; jocteleg (a clasp knife: a corruption of Jacques de
Liége); snickersnee (nautical); cuttle; cuttle-bung; pig-sticker.
French Synonyms. Un bince (thieves’); un coupe-lard (popular: literary
‘a bacon slicer,’ lard being used as the English ‘bacon’ for the human
body); un coupe-sifflet (thieves’: couper le sifflet à quelqu’un = ‘to
cut any one’s throat’); un lingre or lingue (thieves’: from Langres, a
manufacturing town); un trente-deux or un vingt-deux (thieves’:
originally terms used by Dutch and Flemish thieves’); un chourin or
surin (thieves’: possibly from the Gypsy churi, ‘a knife’); un pliant
(thieves’); une petite flambe (thieves’: also a sword, said by Michel
to be derived from Flamberge, the name of the sword of Renaud de
Montauban. Mettre flamberge au vent = ‘to draw’).
German Synonyms. Hechtling; Kaut (possibly connected with the English
‘cut’); Mandel or Mandle: (Viennese thieves’: in the Gaunersprache = ‘a
man,’ especially a little one); Sackin, Sackem, Sackum, Zackin, Zacken
(from the Hebrew sochan); Schorin or Schorie (from the Gypsy churi,
which in Hanover appears as Czuri).
Italian Synonym. Bacchetto.
Portuguese Synonym. Sarda.
1674. R. Head, Canting Academy, 12. He takes his chive and cuts us
down.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Chieve, knife.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, p. 26. Some of these accomplices
also carry a chiv, or knife.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, ch. xiv. ‘Berwnu,’ he shouted, ‘gibela
chiv for the gentry cove.’
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 503. So we had a fight,
and he put the chive (knife) into me.