1886. Ulster Echo, 31 July, p. 4. The inspector of nuisances said
the meat was known as croaker, or the flesh of an animal which had
died a natural death.
6. (prison).—A doctor [connected with crocus, but influenced by
croaker, subs., senses 2, 3, and 4.]
1889. Evening News [quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant]. One man who
had put his name for the ‘butcher’ or croaker, would suddenly find
that he had three ounces of bread less to receive, and then a scene
would ensue.
7. (common).—A person, male or female, who sees everything en noir, and
whose conversation is likened to that of the raven, which is a bird of
ill-omen.—See Goldsmith’s Good Natured Man. Fr., un glas = also a
passing bell.
Croakumshire, subs. (old).—Northumberland. [Grose: ‘from the particular
croaking in the pronunciation of the people of that county, especially
about Newcastle and Morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr
in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter “r”.’]
Crock, subs. (common).—A worthless animal; a fool; said of a horse it
signifies a good-for-nothing brute; of a man or woman, a duffer, a
‘rotter.’ [Most likely from the Scots crock = an old sheep.]
1887. Sporting Times, 12 March, p. 2, col. 5. The wretched crocks
that now go to the post will be relegated to more appropriate work.
1889. Bird o’ Freedom, 7 Aug., p. 3. For five minutes that crock
went about twice as fast as it had ever done.
1889. Illustrated Bits, 13 July. ‘I say,’ said the Lumberer to the
Old Hermit, as they stood at the mouth of the Cave listening to the
song birds, ‘you are getting a bit of a crock—failing fast, I
should say.’
Crocketts, subs. (Winchester College).—A kind of bastard cricket,
sometimes called ‘small crochetts.’ Five stumps are used and a fives
ball, with a bat of plain deal about two inches broad, or a broomstick.
1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 122. The
more noisily disposed would indulge in ... playing Hicockolorum, or
Crocketts.
To get crocketts, verbal phr.—To fail to score at cricket; to make a
duck’s egg.
Crocodile, subs. (University).—A girl’s school walking two and two.
Crocus, Crocus-Metallorum or Croakus, subs. (common).—A doctor;
specifically, a quack. [Conjecturally, a derivative of croak = to die.
Cf., quot. 1781, under Crocussing rig.]
English Synonyms. Pill; squirt; butcher; croaker; corpse-provider;
bolus; clyster; gallipot. [Several of these terms also = an
apothecary.]
French Synonyms. Un dragueur (popular: literally a dredging machine);
un cliabeau (a doctor at St. Lazare); un bénévole (popular: a young
doctor, especially one walking the hospitals); un marchand de morts
subites (common: literally ‘a dealer in sudden death.’ Cf., Corpse
provider).
German Synonym. Rofe or Raufe (from the Hebrew).
Italian Synonyms. Maggio (signifying God, king, lord, and pope);
posteggiatore (literally ‘he that places’; used of any charlatan, but
particularly of a quack doctor); dragon di farda.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Crocus or crocus metallorum: a
nickname for the surgeons of the army and navy.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 231
(quoted in list of patterer’s words).
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed. p. 444, s.v.
Crocus-Chovey (vagrants’ and thieves’).—A doctor’s shop. From [crocus =
doctor + chovey, a shop.]
Crocus-Pitcher, subs. (vagrants’ and thieves’).—A quack ambulant. [From
crocus (q.v.), a doctor, + pitcher, one that stands in the street to
hold forth concerning his business.]
Crocussing-Rig, subs. (old).—Travelling from place to place, as a quack
doctor. [From crocus (q.v.), a doctor, + ing + rig, a performance or
trick.]
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 171. Crocussing Rig is
performed by men and women, who travel as Doctors or Doctoresses.
Crone, subs. (showmen’s).—A clown or buffoon.
Crook, subs. (old).—1. A sixpence. [An abbreviation of crookback
(q.v.).]
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178. s.v.
2. (general).—A thief; swindler; one who gets things on the crook
(q.v.).
1887. Orange Journal, 16 April. Strange as the statement may seem,
the public know nothing of the work of a really clever crook, and
the police themselves know very little more. The explanation of
this ignorance is a very simple one. A crook whose methods are
exposed is a second-rate crook.
On the crook, adv. phr. (thieves’).—The antithesis of on the straight
(q.v.). Cf., On the cross.
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 503. Which he had bought
on the crook (dishonestly).
To crook (or cock) the elbow, or the little finger, verbal phr.
(popular).—To drink. [A French colloquialism, identical in meaning, is
lever le coude; a hard drinker is un adroit du coude.] For synonyms,
see Lush.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms. To crook the elbow, is one of the many
slang terms for drinking.
1877. Besant and Rice, With Harp and Crown, ch. xix. The secretary
... might have done great things in literature but for his
unfortunate crook of the elbow. As he only crooks it at night, it
does not matter to the hospital.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 3 May, p. 4, col. 1. I’ll ... ask him to
take a drink, chat with him while he crooks his elbow.
Crook-Back, subs. (old).—A sixpenny piece, many of the slang names of
which suggest a bashed and battered appearance; e.g., ‘bender,’
‘cripple,’ ‘crook,’ crookback, etc. Quoted by Grose [1785]. For
synonyms, see Bender.
Crooked, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Disappointing; the reverse of straight
(q.v.); pertaining to the habits, ways, and customs of thieves.—See On
the crook. So also, mutatis mutandis, crookedness = rascality of every
kind.
1837. Comic Almanack, p. 94. Things have gone very crooked.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 126. The prisoner’s
friend was also a ‘fly’ man, and he immediately saw how he could
thoroughly pay off the crooked officer.
1884. Daily Telegraph, 22 Jan., p. 3, col. 1. My time was up the
same day as that of two lads of the crooked school; it was through
them that I took to thieving.
1884. Echo, 28 Jan., p. 4, col. 1. Last season will be long
remembered in the racing world for the crookedness of some owners.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 3 Nov. ‘What are you trying to get out of
me?’ ‘I am going to see that to-night you are better lodged to
begin with. I may decide to do more, but that will depend pretty
much on yourself.’ ‘Nothing crooked, is it?’ asked the other,
suspiciously!
Crooked as a Virginia (or snake) fence, phr. (American).—Uneven;
zig-zag; said of matters or persons difficult to keep ‘straight.’ To
make a Virginia fence is to walk unsteadily, as a drunkard. The
Virginia fences zigzag with the soil.
Crooky, verb (common).—To hang on to; to lead; to walk arm-in-arm; to
court or pay addresses to a girl. For synonyms, see Trot out.
Crop.—See Crap, sense 1.
Cropped, ppl. adj. (old).—Hanged. For synonyms, see Ladder and Topped.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 30. Sentencing some more to
be crapped (sic) [hanged].
Cropper, subs. (common).—A heavy fall or failure of any kind; generally
‘to come a cropper.’ [Originally hunting.] Analagous French phrases are
avoir une discussion avec le pavé (literally ‘to argue with the
pavement’); prendre un billet de parterre (a punning play upon words:
the pit of a theatre is parterre; par terre = on the ground: hence to
take a ticket for the pit); se lithographier (popular). For synonyms in
a metaphorical sense, see Go to pot.
1868. Echoes from the Clubs, 23 Dec. ‘Pleasures of the Hunting
Field.’ In short, it is fox-hunting which ... induces the belief
that life is a mistake without occasional croppers.
1869. H. J. Byron, Not such a Fool as He Looks (French’s Acting
ed.), p. 8. Mr. Topham Sawyer missed his own tip as well as his
wictim’s, and came down a cropper on a convenient doorstep.
1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. lxvii. Talking to his
father he could not quite venture to ask what might happen if he
were to come a cropper.
1883. Daily News, 24 Jan., p. 5, col. 3. Ouida treads ‘alone,
aloft, sublime’ where Astræa might fear to pass, and though she
comes what men call croppers over a thousand details, she is
sublimely unconscious of her blunders.
Croppie or Croppy, subs. (old).—Originally applied to criminals cropped
as to their ears and their noses by the public executioner;
subsequently, to convicts, in allusion to their close cropped hair;
hence to any person whose hair was cut close to the head; e.g., the
Puritans and the Irish Rebels of 1789.
1870. Sir G. C. Lewis, Letters, p. 410. Wearing the hair short and
without powder was, at this time, considered a mark of French
principles. Hair so worn was called a ‘crop.’ Hence Lord
Melbourne’s phrase, ‘crop-imitating wig’ [Poetry of Anti-Jacobin,
p. 41]. This is the origin of croppies, as applied to the Irish
rebels of 1789.
1877–79. Green, Short Hist. Eng. People, ch. x., The croppies, as
the Irish insurgents were called in derision from their short-cut
hair.
Croppled. To be croppled, verbal phr. (Winchester College).—To fail in
an examination; to be sent down at a lesson.
Croppy.—See Croppie.
Crops, verbal phr.—To go and look at the crops = to leave the room for
the purpose of consulting Mrs. Jones (q.v.).
Cross, subs. (thieves’).—1. A pre-arranged swindle. In its special
sporting signification a cross is an arrangement to lose on the part of
one of the principals in a fight, or any kind of match. When both
principals conspire that one shall win, it is called a double cross
(q.v.). [Obviously a shortened form of cross-bite (q.v., verbal
sense).]
1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood. Two milling coves, each vide
avake, Vere backed to fight for heavy stake; But in the mean time,
so it vos, Both kids agreed to play a cross.
1864. Derby Day, p. 39. ‘As sure as the sun shines, Askpart ’ll
lick ’em; if so be,’ he added significantly, ‘as there ain’t no
cross.’
1867. A. Trollope, Claverings, ch. xxx. I always suppose every
horse will run to win; and though there may be a cross now and
again, that’s the surest line to go upon.
2. (thieves’).—A thief; also cross-man, cross-cove, cross-chap, squire,
knight, or lad, of the cross, etc. [Literally a man on the cross
(q.v.).] For synonyms, see Thieves.
1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 72, ed. 1854. There is an
excellent fellow near here, who keeps a public-house, and is a firm
ally and generous patron of the lads of the cross. Ibid, p. 140.
Gentlemen of the Road, the Street, the Theatre and the Shop! Prigs,
Toby-men, and squires of the cross!
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch. ii. Never a cross cove
of us all can throw off so prime a chant as yourself.
1864. Cornhill Magazine, II., 336. In the following verse, taken
from a pet flash song, you have a comic specimen of this sort of
guilty chivalry:—‘A cross cove is in the street for me, And I a
poor girl of low degree; If I was as rich as I am poor, Ye never
should go on the cross no more.’
Verb.—1. To play false in a match of any kind.
1887. W. E. Henley and R. L. Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, Act iv., Sc.
3. What made you cross the fight and play booty with your own man?