1592. Shakspeare, I. Hen. VI., i., 3. Since Henry’s death, I fear
there is conveyance.
1712. Spectator, No. 305. Provided the conveyance was clean and
unsuspected, a youth might afterwards boast of it.
Conveyancer, subs. (old).—A thief. [From convey, to steal. In law, one
whose occupation is to draw conveyances or transfers of property,
deeds, etc.]—See Conveyer.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3 ed.), p. 445. To pick pockets: to
buzz, buzzmen, clyfakers, conveyancers.
Conveyancing, verbal subs. (common).—Thieving. [In law, the act or
practice of drawing up deeds, leases, etc., for transferring the title
to property from one person to another. Cf., Convey, to steal.]
1865. Mr. Smollett, in House of Commons, 14 March. ‘Speech on the
Nawab of the Carnatic.’ Pickpockets in London, when they
appropriated purses or watches, called the transaction
conveyancing.
1889. Modern Society (quoted in S., J. and C.), p. 269. The green
youth who attempted to decamp with ——’s watch ... was properly
punished for his verdancy in the art of conveyancing.
Conveyer, subs. (old).—A thief. [One who conveys or steals.] Fr.,
emposteur.
1597. Shakspeare, Richard II., iv., sub. fin. O good convey!
Conveyers are you all, That rise thus nimbly by a true king’s fall.
Cony or Tom Cony, subs. (old).—A simpleton. [From the proverbial
simplicity of the rabbit or cony.]—See Cony-catch, verb, and for
synonyms, Buffle-head and Cabbage-head.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vul. Tongue, s.v.
Cony-Catch, verb (old).—To cheat; deceive; trick; or ‘bite’ (q.v.).
[Literally ‘to catch conies.’] Dekker, in his English Villainies,
describes the system which is obviously the equivalent of the modern
confidence trick (q.v.). A society of sharpers of this type was called
‘a warren,’ and their dupes ‘rabbit-suckers’ (that is, baby rabbits),
or conies. At other times the gang were ‘bird-catchers,’ and their
quarry was ‘a gull,’ etc. For synonyms, see Stick.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, v., 1. Take heed, signor
Baptista, lest you be conny-catched in this business.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 158. Hereby hee thought
to conny-catch the simple world.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., in wks. (1873) II., 12. Why, sister, do
you thinke He conny-catch you, when you are my cozen?
Cony Catcher, subs. (old).—A cheat; sharper; or trickster. [From
cony-catch, verb (q.v.), + er.] For synonyms, see Rook.
1592. John Day, Blind Beggar, Act iii., Sc. 3, p. 57. We’ll go seek
out those cony-catchers; and ere I catch them, I’ll make them pay
soundly all for their roguery.
1599. Minshew, Dict., s.v. A conie-catcher: a name given to
deceivers, by a metaphor, taken from those that rob warrens, and
conie-grounds, using all means, sleights, and cunning to deceive
them, as pitching of haies before their holes, fetching them in by
tumblers, etc.
1602. Rowlands, Greene’s Ghost, p. 3. (Hunterian Club’s Repr.) And
the name of conicatchers is so odious, that now a dayes it is had
vp, and vsed for an opprobrious name for euerie one that sheweth
the least occasion for deceit.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Marry, thou hast me on
the hip there, thou old miserly cony-catcher!
Cony-Catching, verbal subs. (old).—Cheating; trickery; swindling after
the manner of cony-catchers (q.v.). Shakspeare, says Nares, has once
used it to express harmless roguery, playing jocular tricks, and no
more [see quot., 1593]. For synonyms, see Sell.
1592. Greene, Groundwork of Conny-Catching, p. 2. ... this booke,
wherein thou shalt find the ground-worke of Conny-catching.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, iv., 1. Come, you are so
full of conycatching.
1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch the Old One, III., iv. Thou hast
more cony-catching devices than all London.
1703. Ward, London Spy, pt. XI., p. 260. And being almost Drunk,
their Brains ran on coney-catching.
1884. Daily News, Jan. 5, p. 5, col. 2. Coney-catching, or its
modern equivalent, the confidence trick.
Ppl. adj. (old).—Mutatis mutandis, the same as the substantive (q.v.).
1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, i., 1. Marry, sir, I have
matter in my head against you; and against your Coney-catching
rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol.
1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, iii., 1. Whoreson
coney-catching rascal! I could eat the very hilts for anger.
Coo-e-e-e, or Coo-ey, subs. (Australian).—A signal cry of the
Australian blackfellow, adopted by the invading whites. The final ‘e’
is a very high note, a sort of prolonged screech, that resounds for
miles through the bush, and thus enables parties that have lost each
other to ascertain their relative positions.
1883. Graphic, July 7, p. 6, col. 3. Coo-e-e is the Australian cry
for help. When the two hands are used, and the coo properly
pitched, it can be heard a wonderful distance. Whenever a coo-e-e
is heard in the bush it is a matter of conscience to answer it and
see what is amiss.
1887. G. L. Apperson, in All the Year Round, 30 July, p. 67, col.
1. A common mode of expression is to be ‘within cooey’ of a place.
Originally, no doubt, this meant to be within the distance at which
the well-known cooey or bush cry, could be heard; now it simply
means within easy reach of a place. To be ‘within cooey’ of Sydney
is to be at the distance of an easy journey therefrom.
1889. E. S. Rawson, In Australian Wilds. ‘A Queensland Mystery.’ It
is solely on this, or the mad theory, that one could account for
the startling effects of Jim’s cooee or otherwise to the belated
wanderer it would have been a revelation of joy and rescue.
Cook, verb (colloquial).—1. To tamper with, garble, or falsify.
Accounts are cooked when so altered as to look better than they are.
Pictures are cooked when dodged-up for sale. Painters say that a
picture will not cook when it is so excellent as to be beyond
imitation.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xcviii. Some falsified
printed accounts, artfully cooked up, on purpose to mislead and
deceive.
1856. Punch, vol. XXXI., p. 189. ‘Advertisement of Bubble Bank
Book-keeping,’ by Prof. McDooall. It is remarkable especially for
the facilities it offers for cooking the accounts, as it entirely
prevents any possibility of checking them.
1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, II., p. 19. When A has been looking up
to B for thirty years, he cannot look down on him all of a sudden,
just because he catches him falsifying accounts. Why, man is a
cooking animal; commercial man especially.
1871. The Athenæum, 4 Feb. The great work of art of Ivan Turgeneff,
the Notes by a Sportsman had been what is vulgarly called cooked
for the French markets.
1872. Spencer, Study of Sociology, ch. vi., p. 119 (9 ed.). The
dishonesty implied in the adulterations of tradesmen and
manufacturers ... in cooking of railway accounts and financial
prospectuses.
1888. Grant Allen, This Mortal Coil, ch. v. Where Warren Relf was
seated cooking a sky in one of his hasty seaside sketches.
1890. Saturday Review, 1 Feb., p. 134, col. 1. We referred, in our
last article upon this [gambling] subject, to the Paris Mutuels,
and explained their working. Now money has to be found somehow for
the poorer classes to get to the Mutuel and back their fancies, and
the clerk cooks his books, and the shop-boy ‘fingers the till.’