1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.), Cly (s.): the cant name for
money, a purse, or a pocket.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, Cly: money.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Verb (old).—1. To take; have; receive; pocket: in fact, ‘to cop.’
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. The ruffian cly thee, the deuil
take thee.
1609. Dekker, a Gypsy song, in Lanthorne and Candlelight, etc. The
Ruffin cly the nab of the Harman beck. If we mawnd Pannam, lap or
Ruff-peck.
Cly-Faker, subs. (thieves’).—A pickpocket. [From cly, a pocket, + fake,
to steal. + er.] For synonyms, see Stookhauler.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. They were gentlemen-sharpers, and
not vulgar cracksmen and clyfakers.
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 14. ‘Oh, I see!’
replied Blueskin, winking significantly.... ‘Now! slip the purse
into my hand. Bravo! the best cly-faker of ’em all; couldn’t have
done it better.’
1852. Punch, vol. XXIII., p. 161.
1864. Hotten, Slang Dict., p. 103. Cly-faker: a pickpocket.
Cly-faking, subs. (thieves’).—Pocket-picking. For synonyms, see Push.
1851. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. xxxi., p. 112 (1888). ‘What do you mean
by cly-faking?’ ‘Lor, dear! no harm; only taking a handkerchief now
and then.’
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. lx. Well, sir, I won’t deny that
the young woman is Bess, and perhaps she may be on the cross, and I
don’t go to say that what with flimping, and with cly-faking, and
such-like, she mayn’t be wanted.
Cly-Off, verb (old).—To carry off. Cf., Cly, verb, sense 1.
1656. Brome, Jovial Crew. Act ii. Here safe in our skipper Let’s
cly off our peck, And bowse in defiance O’ th’ Harman-beck.
Clyster-pipe, subs. (old).—An apothecary. [From clyster = an injection
for costiveness.] Fr., un flûtencul, a play upon words. For synonyms,
see Gallipot.
1785. Grose, Dic. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Cly the Gerke or Jerk, verbal phr. (old).—See quots.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. To cly the gerke, to get a
whipping. Cf., to cop a hiding.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874),
s.v.
1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dic., s.v.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. You deserve to cly the jerk for
your patter.
Coach, subs. (formerly University and public schools’; now common).—A
private tutor; and in a transferred sense one who trains another in
mental or physical acquirements, e.g., in Sanskrit, Shakspeare,
cricket, or rowing. Analogous terms are crammer, feeder, and grinder.
1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, ch. xxix., p. 240. Besides
the regular college tutor, I secured the assistance of what, in the
slang of the day, we irreverently termed a coach.
1853. C. Bede, Verdant Green, pt. I., pp. 63–4. ‘That man is Cram,
the patent safety. He’s the first coach in Oxford.’ ‘A coach,’ said
our freshman in some wonder. ‘Oh, I forgot you didn’t know college
slang. I suppose a royal mail is the only gentleman coach you know
of. Why, in Oxford a coach means a private tutor you must know; and
those who can’t afford a coach, get a cab alias a crib alias
translation.’
1864. Eton School-days, ch. ix., p. 103. Lord Fitzwinton, one of
the smallest and best coaches—in aquatics—in the school.
1871. Times. ‘Report of the Debate in House of Lords on University
Test Bill.’ The test proposed would be wholly ineffective ... while
it would apply to the college tutors, who had little influence over
the young men, it would not affect the coaches, who had the chief
direction of their studies.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 29 Nov., p. 1, col. 3. The schoolmaster is
concerned with the education of boys up to eighteen; all beyond
that falls either to the coach or the professor.
Verb (common).—To prepare for an examination by private instruction; to
train: in general use both by coacher and coachee.
1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. v. The superb Cuff himself ...
helped him on with his Latin verses, coached him in play-hours.
1870. London Figaro, June 10. ‘Quadrille Conversation.’ It is, we
fear, Quixotic to hope that ladies and gentlemen invited to the
same ball would coach with the same master.
Coachee, subs. (colloquial).—A coachman. Cf., Cabby.
1819. Thos. Moore, Tom Crib’s Mem. Cong., p. 79. This song ... in
which the language and sentiments of Coachee are transferred so
ingeniously.
1825. English Spy, I., pp. 134–5.
Coaching, verbal subs. (common).—1. Instruction; training, etc.—See
Coach, subs. French students call it la barbe.
1836. Pluck Examination Papers for Candidates at Oxford and
Cambridge, by Scriblerus Redivivus [Oxford]. The system of coaching
pupils considerably improved by the examiners becoming pupils.