1864. Athenæum. When an Eton boy says that anything is ‘a beastly
chouse,’ he means that it is a great shame; and when an Eton
peripatetic tradesman is playful enough to call his customer ‘a
little chouser,’ he means that a leaf has been taken out of his own
book by one on whom he has practised.
1883. Brinsley Richards, Seven Years at Eton. The boy ... was told
that what he had done was an awful chouse.
Verb (colloquial).—To cheat. [For suggested derivation, see subs.,
sense 1.] Synonyms will be found under Stick.
1659. Shirley, Honoria and Mam., II., iii. We are in a fair way to
be ridiculous.... Chiaus’d by a scholar! [m.]
1663. Pepys, Diary, May 15. The Portugalls have choused us, it
seems, in the Island of Bombay, in the East Indys.
1708. Centlivre, Busie Body, Act iii. You and my most conscionable
Guardian here ... plotted and agreed, to chouse a very civil,
honest, honourable gentleman, out of a Hundred Pound.
1742–4. Roger North, Lives of the Norths, I., 90. The judge held
them to it, and they were choused of the treble value.
1823. Hints for Oxford, p. 26. Everything in common use at Oxford,
with the exception, perhaps, of books, is charged at an exorbitant
rate; and, what is worse ... you are often having yourself choused
with abominable trash.
1890. Academy, Feb. 22, p. 125, col. 1. Susan Burnay’s letters,
with charming naïveté, confess that, in the expectation of an early
visit from the delightful mimic, she for four mornings was up at
seven o’clock, only to find herself, borrowing the slang phrases of
the day, ‘choused, for he nick’d us entirely, and never came at
all.’
So also choused, ppl. adj., chousing, verbal subs., and chouser, subs.
Chout, subs. (East London).—An entertainment.—Hotten.
Chovey, subs. (costermongers’).—A shop. A shopman is known amongst the
fraternity as a man-chovey, and a shop-woman as ann-chovey.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (2 ed.), 444. A shop—Chovey.
French Synonyms. Une boutogue (thieves’); une boutanche (thieves’); un
boucard (thieves’); un rade or radeau (thieves’); also primarily, a
till.
German Synonym. Chenwene (a market stall, the stock itself, or a box
full of goods; Chenwener, the owner of such a place—a merchant or
shop-keeper).
Chow, subs. (theatrical).—Talk; ‘lip’; jaw; e.g., to have ‘plenty of
chow’ = to have a good deal to say.
Verb (theatrical).—To talk incessantly; to grumble. A variant is to
chip. [Chow is apparently a form of ‘chew,’ now fallen into desuetude.]
Chowder-Headed, adj. (American).—Stupid. [The term though only
dialectical in England is pretty general in U.S.A. It is given by
Murray as a variant of cholter-headed, which in turn is another form
for jolt or jolter-headed. Chowder is properly a kind of hotch-potch,
and applied to the intellectuals would imply ‘confusedness,’ and hence
idiocy.]
1819. Scott, Lett., 15 April, in Lockhart. I hesitate a little
about Raeburn ... [he] has twice already made a very chowder-headed
person of me.
1851. H. Melville, Whale, xv., 73. What’s that stultifying saying
about chowder-headed people? [m.]
18(?). S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Launch of the Steamer ‘Capital.’
The Showman ... grabbed the orchestra and shook him up, and says, ‘That
lets you out, you chowder-headed old clam.’
Christen, verb (thieves’)—1. To erase the markings from a watch, and
substitute a fictitious inscription, with a view to preventing
identification. An Old Cant variant was to church (q.v.), the
derivation being analogous. French thieves, in speaking of a Christened
watch or other ‘faked’ silver, use couvert.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 74. This alteration is
called christening, and the watch thus transformed faces the world
without fear of detection.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. To alter the maker’s
name in a watch—to christen a yack.
1868. Doran, Saint and Sinn., II., 290. The pietist thieves ...
christen daily as soon as they have stolen a watch. This thieves’
christening consists in erasing the maker’s name and supplying
another. [m.]
1872. Standard, ‘Middlesex Sessions Report.’ William Miller, the
detective officer in the case, being called upon by the judge to
state what he knew of the prisoner, said he knew him by his trade
as a baker, but he mixed up with watch thieves and housebreakers,
and the tools found in his possession he used for christening
stolen watches and putting new bows to them.
2. (colloquial).—To mix water with wine; to mix liquors generally. Fr.,
Maquiller le vitriol = to adulterate brandy; monter sur le tonneau
(vinters’ = to add water to a cask of wine). A Spanish equivalent is
exactly translated bautizar el vino. To drown the miller (q.v.), = to
add too much water.
1824. Scott, Redgauntlet, let. xiii. We’ll christen him with the
brewer (here he added a little small beer to his beverage).