1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. Crashing chetes: appels,
peares, or any other fruit.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874),
Crashing cheates: apples.
Crater, Cratur, or Creature, subs. (old).—Formerly, any kind of liquor,
but now, Irish whiskey. [Fuller speaks of water as ‘a creature so
common and needful,’ and Bacon describes light as ‘God’s first
creature.’ Transition is easy.] The skin of the creature = the bottle.
For synonyms, see Drinks.
1598. Shakspeare, II. King Henry IV., ii. 2. My appetite was not
princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor
creature, small beer.
1663. Howard, The Committee, Act iv. Mrs. Day. Oh fie upon’t! who
would have believ’d that we should have liv’d to have seen Obadiah
overcome with the creature.
1683. S. B. Anacreon done into English out of the original Greek.
Oxford. There goes a very pleasant Story of him, that once having
took a Cup too much of Creature, he came staggering homewards
through the Market Place, etc;
1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. VII., ch. ii. You will never
be able to hold out as Mr. Whitfield does. He seems to like a bit
of the good cretur as well as other folks.
1816. Scott, Old Mortality, I., p. ... I do most humbly request ...
that ... thou wilt take off this measure, called by the profane a
gill, of the comfortable creature, which the carnal do denominate
brandy.
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. xiv. He produced two bottles
of brandy ... so we passed the creature round, and tried all we
could to while away the tedious night.
1842. Punch, vol. II., p. 23. And reaching home refresh myself with
a ‘kervartern of the cretur!’
1864. Good Words, p. 952. Well as an Irishman—who had already paid
for one pot of porter and a drop of the crater besides—I was not
going to hear anything against ould Ireland.
Crawl, subs. (tailors’).—A workman who curries favour with a foreman or
employer; a ‘lickspittle’ or ‘bum-sucker.’
Crawler, subs. (common).—1. A cab that leaves the rank and ‘crawls’ the
street in search of fares.
1860. Daily News. It is said the question of making increased
provisions for cab-stands, with a view to the restriction of the
wandering cabs called crawlers, is now under the consideration of
the Chief Commissioner of Police.
1885. Daily News, August 7, p. 5, col. 1. How often does the driver
of the crawler increase his pace just as he sees some one venturing
to attempt a crossing.
2. (common).—A contemptible person, especially a ‘bum-sucker’ or
‘lickspittle.’ For Synonyms, see Snide.
1885. Evening News, 21 Sept., p. 4, col. 1. The complainant called
her father a liar, a bester, and a crawlers.
Crawthumpers, subs. (old).—1. Roman Catholics, ‘the Pope’s cockrels’
(1629). Also called brisket-beaters and, collectively, the
breast-fleet. In America a crawthumper = an Irishman or dick, i.e., an
Irish Catholic.
1782. Wolcot, Lyric Odes, No. 7; in wks. (1809) I., 69. We are no
crawthumpers, no devotees.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Craw Thumpers: Roman Catholics, so
called from their beating their breasts in the confession of their
sins.
1889. Philadelphia Public Ledger [quoted in S. J. & C., p. 279].
Wanted a servant-maid. No pulings or crawthumpers need apply.
Cream, subs. (venery).—The seminal fluid; Marlowe’s ‘thrice decocted
blood’; the ‘white-blow’ and the ‘father-stuff’ of Whitman. A single
drop is called a snowball (q.v.).
English Synonyms. Butter; buttermilk; fuck; white honey; jelly;
baby-juice; homebrewed; jam; ‘delicious jam’ (Whitman); lather; ‘lewd
infusion’; love-liquor; milk; milt; ointment; the oyster; roe; seed;
soap; spendings; sperm; spermatic juice (Rochester); spume; spunk;
starch; stuff; the tread.—See Come.
Portuguese Synonyms. Leite (= milk); esporra; langouha (= a kind of
thick gum).
Cream Cheese. To make one believe the moon is made of cream (or green)
cheese, verbal phr. (popular).—To humbug; to deceive; to impose upon.
For synonyms, see Bamboozle and Jockey.
Cream Fancy.—See Billy, subs., sense 1.
Cream Jugs, subs. (Stock Exchange).—1. Charkof-Krementschug Railway
Bonds.
1887. Atkin, House Scraps. Oh! supposing our cream-jugs were
broken, Or ‘Beetles’ were souring the ‘Babies.’