To cuff Anthony, phr.—See Anthony.
To beat or cuff Jonas, phr. = To beat the Booby or goose (q.v. under
Beat).
Cuffen.—See Cuffin.
Cuffer, subs. (military).—1. A lie; an exaggerated and improbable
story.—See quot., under to spin cuffers, and for synonyms, see Whopper.
2. (American thieves’).—A man; also cuffir. [Cf., Cofe, Cove, and
Cuffin, from one of which the American form is doubtless derived.]
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
To spin cuffers, phr.—To tell extremely improbable stories; to yarn; to
draw the long bow (q.v.).
1888. Colonies and India, 14 Nov. The Australian youth can develop
the art of spinning cuffers very successfully on his own account,
without any adventitious assistance from a passing Minister of
Public Instruction.
Cuffin, Cuffen, or Cuffing, subs. (Old Cant).—A man.
1567. Harman, Caveat, s.v.
1857. Punch, 31 Jan., p. 49. ‘Dear Bill, this Stone-jug.’ In the
day-rooms the cuffins [warders] we queer at our ease, And at
Darkmans we run the rig just as we please.
Queer-cuffin, subs. (old).—A magistrate. [From queer, an old canting
term for bad, + cuffin, a man; literally a bad man—from a rogue’s point
of view. Some of the old canting terms are curious enough: e.g., ‘quyer
crampringes’ = bolts or fetters; ‘quyer kyn’ = a prison house.] For
synonyms, see Beak, sense 2.
1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candle-light [ed. Gros., III., p. 203].
To the quier cuffing we bing.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, p. 71. The gentry cove will be romboyld by
his dam said a third gypsy. ‘Queer cuffin’ [magistrate or queer
man] will be the word if we don’t tour.
Cuff-Shooter, subs. (theatrical).—A beginner; one who gives himself
‘airs’; literally one who shoots his cuffs: having a greater regard for
the display of his linen than for his work as an actor.
Cule, Cull, Culing, Culling, verb and verbal subs. (thieves’).—To
purloin from the seats of carriages; the act of snatching handbags and
other impedimenta therefrom. [Either an abbreviation and corruption of
reticule, or from cull, to gather.]
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. Snatching reticules
from a carriage—culing.
Cull or Cully, subs. (old).—A man; companion; partner. Specifically, a
fool; one tricked or imposed upon. Grose seems to make a distinction,
for he quotes cull = ‘a man honest or otherwise,’ and cully = ‘a fop,
fool, or dupe to women,’ in which sense it was current in the
seventeenth century. Thus Rochester (in Satire on the Times), ‘But
pimp-fed Ratcliffe’s not a greater cully.’—See also quot., 1771.
[Probably a contraction of cullion (Fr., couillon; It., coglione); but
derived by Annandale from the Sp. Gypsy chulai, a man; Turkish Gypsy,
khulai, a gentleman.]
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). Culle:
a sap-headed fellow.
1676. A Warning for Housekeepers. As we walk along the street, We
bite the cullly of his cole.
1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Act iii., Sc. 1. Man was by nature
woman’s cully made: We never are but by ourselves betrayed.
1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. i. I won’t let
him make me over, by deed and indenture, as his lawful cully.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Cull (s.): a cant word for a
man, either good or bad, but generally means one that a wench has
picked up for some naughty purpose.
1760. Johnston, Chrysal, ii., 17. Your secret, grave, old, rich
culls, just fit to do business with.
1771. Henry Mackenzie, The Man of Feeling, vol. I., ch. xxvi.
Harley ... sallied forth with a blush of triumph on his face,
without taking notice of the sneer of the waiter who, twirling the
watch in his hand, made him a profound bow at the door, and
whispered to a girl who stood in the passage something in which the
word cully was honoured with a particular emphasis.
1823. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. xxx. ‘Na, Na,’ answered the boy:
‘he is a queer auld cull, he disna frequent wi’ other folk.’
1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 75 (ed. 1854). A famous cull
is my friend Attie—an old soldier—has seen the world, and knows
what is what.
1839. W. H. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 14. Capital trick
of the cull in the cloak to make another person’s brain stand the
brunt for his own—capital!
1889. Puck’s Library, April, p. 18. Showman: Look-a-here, cully,
yer don’t ’xpect ter git a lecture on nat’l history ’n’a free
ticket ter the antipoads fer a quarter, do yer?
Rum cull, subs. (theatrical).—The manager of a theatre; also called a
cully-gorger.
Culls, subs. (old).—The testes.
b. 1574, d. 1637. Ben Jonson. Claw a churl by the culls, and he’ll
shite in your fist.
Cully-Gorger, subs. (theatrical).—The manager of a theatre; a companion
or brother actor. [Cully (q.v.) = a man + gorger (q.v.), a swell,
employer, or boss; literally a well-dressed man.]
Cully-Shangy, subs. (common).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens.
18(?). Carey, Life in Paris, p. 276, s.v.
Culminate, verb (University: obsolete).—To mount a coach-box.
1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.
Culty-Gun, subs. (venery).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.
Cum-Annexis, subs. (West Indian).—One’s belongings; specially applied
to one’s wife and children. [In allusion to a legal locution connected
with land transfer in Demerara. The outlying farms of estates come
under this general description; e.g., Belair, (a well-known property)
cum annexis includes, amongst others, estates formerly known as La
Penitence, Turkeyen, Cuming’s Lodge, Industry, etc., and in official
documents this congeries of estates is spoken of as Belair cum
annexis.]
Cummer, subs. (common).—An intimate. For synonyms, see Chum.
Cundum, subs. (old).—An obsolete appliance worn in the act of coition,
to prevent infection: so-called from the name of its inventor, a
colonel in the Guards, temp., Charles II.: the modern equivalent is
known as a French letter (q.v.).
1767. Rochester, Roscommon, and Dorset, A Panegyric upon Cundum, p.
208. Happy the man who in his pocket keeps, Whether with green or
scarlet riband bound, A well-made cundum.
Cunnilinge, verb (venery).—To tongue a woman. [Latin cunnilingus, a
form which occurs in Martial, from cunnus = the female pudendum +
lingo. Cf., Tip the velvet.]
Cunnilingist, subs. (venery).—A man (or woman) addicted to the practice
of tonguing the female pudendum.
Cunny-haunted, adj. phr. (popular).—Lecherous.
Cunny-Thumbed, adj. (old).—1. Said of a person who doubles the fist
with the thumb turned inwards.
2. (schoolboys’).—Said of one who shoots his marble—as at ring-taw or
shoot hole—with the first phalange of the thumb from the second of the
forefinger, instead of with the knuckle of the thumb from the first of
the forefinger.
Cunt, subs. (common).—The female pudendum; Latin cunnus. A language
word, but vulgar in usage. Diminutives of varying degrees are cunnicle,
cunnikin, cuntkin, cuntlet, cunny. Derivatives, the result of an
obvious play upon words (old), are cunny-catcher and cunny-burrow
ferret (Urquhart), for which see Cream-stick; cunny-hunter = a
whoremonger; and Cunny-skin (Durfey), for which see Fleece. For
synonyms, see Monosyllable.
1383. Chauce, The Miller’s Tale. Full prively he caught her by the
queint, And sayde Ywis but if I have my will, For derne love of
thee, lemman, I spill.
1622. Fletcher, Spanish Curate. They write sunt with a C, which is
abominable.
1647–80. Rochester, The Royal Angler. However weak and slender in
the string, Bait it with cunt, and it will hold a king.
1768. Sterne, The Sentimental Journey. So that, when I stretched
out my hand, I caught hold of the fille-de-chambre’s ——.
Cunt-Pensioner, subs. (vulgar).—A male keep; one who lives by the
prostitution of a wife, a mistress, a daughter, or any other female
connection.
Cunt-Struck, adj. (vulgar).—Enamoured of women: who may, in turn, be
either Cock-smitten or Prick-struck (q.v.).
Cup-and-Saucer Player, subs. phr. (theatrical).—A term of derision
applied to the players associated with the late T. W. Robertson’s
comedies.
Cupboard Love, subs. phr. (popular).—Interested affection: a variant of
the saw that ‘the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.’ Cf.,
Rice-Christian.
c. 1661. Poor Robin [Herrick]. A cupboard love is seldom true, A
love sincere is found in few.
1787. Miss Seward, Letters [ed. 1811], vol. II., p. 103. This last
and long-enduring passion [of Dr. Johnson] for Mrs. Thrale was,
however, composed perhaps of cupboard love, Platonic love, and
vanity tickled and gratified.
1885. Girl’s Own Paper, VI., 830. When tea-time comes and milk,
she’s not above Increasing her caresses, till we hear A whisper now
and then of cupboard love.
Cupid.—See Fancy Joseph.
Cups. In one’s cups, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Drunk. Cf., Cup-shot, and
for synonyms, see Screwed.
1593. Nashe, Christ’s Teares, in wks. IV., 228 (Grosart). Those
whom the Sunne sees not in a month together, I nowe see in their
cuppes and their jolitie.
1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, III., in wks. (1720), iv., 64. I
shall take my leave: you are in your cups: you will wish you had
heard me.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, x. 288. Which in his cups the bowsy poet
sings.
1712. Arbuthnot, History of John Bull, pt. II., ch. iv. She used to
come home in her cups, and break the china and the locking-glasses.
1837. Barham, I. L. (Brothers of Birchington). Gets tipsy whenever
he dines or he sups, And is wont to come quarrelsome home in his
cups.
1864. Mark Lemon, Jest Book, p. 185 [of one remarkable at once for
Bacchanalian devotion and large and startling eyes]. ‘I always know
when he has been in his cups by the state of his saucers.’
Cup-Shot, adj. (old).—Drunk.
1639. Fuller, Holy War, bk. III., ch. xvi. The spring-tide of their
mirth so drowned their souls that the Turks coming in upon them cut
every one of their throats, to the number of twenty thousand, and
quickly they were stabbed with the sword that were cup-shot before.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Cup-Tosser, subs. (common).—See quot.
1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. Cup Tosser: a juggler (French
joueur de gobelet). The old symbol for a juggler was a goblet. The
phrase and symbol are derived from the practice of jugglers who
toss in the air, twist on a stick, and play all sorts of tricks
with goblets or cups.
Curate, subs. (common).—A small poker, or tickler (q.v.), used to save
a better one; also a pocket-handkerchief in actual use as against one
worn for show. The better article is called a rector. Similarly when a
tea-cake is split and buttered, the bottom half, which gets the more
butter, is called the rector, and the other, the curate.
Curb, verb (old).—To steal. For synonyms, see Prig.
1615. Greene, Thieves Falling Out (Harl. Misc., VIII., 389). Though
you can foyst, nip, prig, lift, curbe, and use the black art, yet
you cannot crossbite without the helpe of a woman.
Curbstone-Broker, subs.—See Gutter-snipe.
Curbstone-Sailor, subs. (popular).—A prostitute. For synonyms, see
Barrack-hack and Tart, and cf., Cruiser, sense 2.
Cure, subs. (common).—An eccentric; a fool; also a funny fellow.
Originally applied in many connections, see quot.
1856. Punch, vol. XXXI., p. 201.
What’s a Cure.
Punch has no mission to repeat
The Slang he hears along the street,
But when a curious phrase he seizes,
Punch does—as always—what he pleases.
He finds then in the following word
No merit save that it’s absurd,
But as it’s likely to endure
He asks a question, ‘What’s a cure’?
He heard upon a river boat
The steersman told to move his coat,
The fellow grunted like a boor,
The captain said, ‘Well you’re a cure,’
The mud was thick, the crossing clean—
A well-dressed man, genteel of mien—
Walked through the first (he might be poor)—
The sweeper muttered ‘He’s a cure.’
Two youths talked ‘chaff’ (in phrase polite),
Each asked where ‘tother slept last night,’
‘Me? Up a spout.’ ‘Me? Down a sewer.’
The first: ‘Ain’t you a precious cure.’
A child more apt to eat than spell
Espied his little sweetheart Nell:
Embraced her with affection pure,
And cried, ‘You darling little cure.’
Before a shop stood maidens two
Where fine mock diamonds mocked their view:
‘Oh, Julia! That’s the Koh-i-noor.’
‘That!’ Julia said, ‘You silly cure.’
Lastly, he heard the word applied
To Lord Mayor Finnis in his pride;
A female shouted, ‘Well I’m sure!
Call him a mayor—he looks a cure.’
Thus having heard the word he mentions
Spoken with seven distinctions,
Punch doth the slangy world adjure
To state whence derivation ‘cure.’
Curious. To do curious, verbal phr. (common).—To act strangely.
Curl. Out of curl, adv. phr. (common).—Out of sorts; out of condition.
To curl up, verbal phr. (familiar).—To be silent; to ‘shut up.’
To curl one’s hair, verb. phr. (common).—To administer chastisement; to
‘go for’ one.
To curl one’s liver or to have one’s liver curled, verbal phr.
(common).—To make one feel intensely. Cf., Turn the liver (q.v.).
1877. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Life on the Mississippi, pp.
414–415. This is sport that makes the body’s very liver curl with
enjoyment.
Curle, subs. (old).—Clippings of money.—Grose.
Curl Paper, subs. (common).—Paper for the W.C.; toilet paper;
‘wipe-bummatory’ (Urquhart), or ‘sanitary’ paper; bum-fodder; bumf;
ammunition.
Curlycues or Carlicues, subs. (common).—Fantastic ornaments worn on the
person or used in architecture; also, by implication, a strange line of
conduct. Used by Burns in The Merry Muses.
1858. Home Journal, 24 July. Architects have a wonderful
predilection for all manner of curlycues and breaks in your roof.
Currants and Plums, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—A threepenny bit; or
thrums (q.v.).
Currency, subs. (Australian).—A colonist born in Australia, those of
English birth being sterling (q.v.). [In allusion to the colonial and
home mintages, which, identical in value, present one or two strongly
marked points of difference.]
1856. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. lxxxv. When gold was found in
Victoria he crossed over to that port and robbed. One day he robbed
the tent of an old man, a native of the colony, who was digging
there with his son, a lad of fifteen. Now these currency lads are
very sharp and determined.
Curse. Not to care or be worth a curse, phr. (common).—To care or be
worth little—or nothing at all. [Curse may either = (1) the wild
cherry; or (2) a corruption of A.S. cerse, watercress. Cf., Continental
(q.v.).
1362. William Langland, Vision of Piers Ploughman. Wisdom and witt
nowe is not worth a kerse, But if it be carded with cootis as
clothers Kemble their woole.
1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. xvi., p. 124. With regard to
such questions ... which one can’t be expected to care a curse
about.
187(?). G. R. Sims, Dagonet Ballads (In the Workhouse). I care not a
curse for the guardians.
Curse of God, subs. phr. (old).—A cockade.—Lexicon Balatronicum [1811].
Curse of Scotland, subs. phr. (popular).—The nine of diamonds. [The
suggested derivations are inconclusive. The locution has nothing to do
with Culloden and the Duke of Cumberland, for the card was nicknamed
the justice-clerk, in allusion to the Lord Justice-Clerk Ormistone,
who, for his severity in suppressing the Rebellion of 1715, was called
the Curse of Scotland. Other suggestions are: (1) That it is derived
from the game of Pope Joan, the nine of diamonds there being called the
‘pope,’ of whom the Scotch have always stood in horror. (2) The word
‘curse’ is a corruption of cross, and the nine of diamonds is so
arranged as to form a St. Andrew’s Cross. (3) That it refers to the
arms of Dalrymple, Earl of Stair (viz., or, on a saltire azure, nine
lozenges of the field), who was held in abhorrence for the Massacre of
Glencoe; or to Colonel Packer, who attended Charles I. on the scaffold,
and had for his arms nine lozenges conjoined, or in the heraldic
language, Gules, a cross of lozenges. These conflicting views were
discussed at length in Notes and Queries, 1 S., i., 61, 90; iii., 22,
253, 423, 483; v., 619; 3 S., xii., 24, 96; 4 S., vi., 194, 289; also,
see Chambers’ Encyclopædia.]
1791. Gent. Mag., vol. LXI., p. 141. The Queen of Clubs is ...
called Queen Bess ... The Nine of Diamonds, the curse of Scotland.
Cursitor or Cursetor, subs. (old).—A low tramp or vagabond. [Properly,
a cursitor (unde Cursitor Street, in Chancery Lane) was a clerk in the
Court of Chancery, whose business was to make out original writs; also
a courier or runner. From the Latin.]
Curtain-Raiser, subs. (theatrical).—A short ‘piece’ to bring up the
curtain and play in the house. Fr., lever de rideau.
1889. Daily News, 2 Sept., p. 3, col. 4. Miss Grace Hawthorne is
about to try an original experiment in what are known as
curtain-raisers.
Curtall or Curtail, subs. (old).—A vagabond and thief.—See quots.
1560. John Awdeley, Fraternitye of Vacabondes (1869. English
Dialect Society’s Reprint), p. 4. A curtall is much like to the
Vpright man, but hys authority is not fully so great. He vseth
commonly to go with a short cloke, like to grey Friers, and his
woman with him in like liuery, which he calleth his altham if she
be hys.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Curtails: thieves who cut off
pieces of stuff hanging out of shop windows; the tails of women’s
gowns, etc.; also thieves wearing short jackets.
Verb (old).—To cut off. Originally a cant word—vide Hudibras, and
Bacchus and Venus, 1737.
Cuse, subs. (Winchester College).—A book in which a record is kept of
the ‘marks’ in each division: its name to dons is ‘classicus paper’;
also used for the weekly order.
Cushion, verb (thieves’).—To hide or conceal. Variants are, stall off;
stow; slum. Sp., Hacer la agachadiza = to hide oneself.
To deserve the cushion, verbal phr. (old).—On the birth of a child a
man was said to deserve the cushion; i.e., the symbol of rest from
labour.
Cushion-Smiter or -Thumper, subs. (common).—A clergyman. [Derivation
obvious.] For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.
1843. Thackeray, Irish Sketch Book, ch. xx. For what a number of
such loud nothings, windy, emphatic tropes and metaphors, spoken,
not for God’s glory, but the preacher’s, will many a
cushion-thumper have to answer!
1849. Thackeray, in Scribn. Mag., June, 1887, p. 686.
Cushion-thumpers and High and Low Church extatics.
1889. Modern Society, 19 Oct., p. 1294, col. 1. On a recent
occasion a cushion-thumper received a challenge from the miserable
sinner whom he so volubly denounced.
Cuss, subs. (American).—A man, cove, or cull. Generally, but not
necessarily, disparaging. [Of uncertain derivation: may be either from
‘curse’ or from ‘customer.’] For synonyms, see Cove. Also see specific
use in quot., 1883.
1883. Daily Telegraph, 25 July, p. 2, col. 1. I’ll give Tom his
due, and say of him that for flumoxing a cuss (Custom House
Officer) or working the weed, I don’t know any one he couldn’t give
a chalk to and beat ’em.
1888. F. R. Stockton, Rudder Grange, ch. xii. The man that lives up
this lane is a mean, stingy cuss, with a wicked dog, and it’s no
good to go there.
Cussedness, subs. (American).—Generally in such phrases as ‘pure
cussedness,’ the ‘cussedness of things,’ etc. Mischievousness, or
resolution, or courage may be implied; but in the Coventry plays
cursydnesse signified sheer wickedness and malignity.
18(?). Col. John Hay, Song of the Prairie Belle. Through the hot,
black breath of the burnin’ boat Jim Bludsoe’s voice was heard, And
they all had trust in his cussedness, And knowed he would keep his
word.
1886. Detroit Free Press, Aug. A more mischievous boy never came
under my observation. Pure cussedness was spread out all over him.
1888. ... Mr. Potter of Texas (Ry. ed.), p. 122. The extraordinary
belief he had of transatlantic blood-thirstiness, scalping, and
general cussedness engendered by these books.
1890. Notes and Queries, 7 S., ix., 29 Mar., p. 244. To swear at
something when ‘the cussedness of things’ manifests itself in any
specially exasperating shape seems to be recognised as a necessity
by a large majority of the adult male population of the globe.
1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 22 May, p. 4, col. 2. The cause of the
difficulty is the pestilent cussedness of the working man.
Cuss Out, verb (common).—To talk down, to flummox by the lip (q.v.).
1881. New York Times, 18 Dec. [quoted in N. and Q., 6 S., v., 65].
He cussed that fellow out, i.e., he annihilated him verbally.
Customer, subs. (common).—A man; fellow; cove; cuss; or chap; with a
certain qualification, e.g. An ‘ugly customer’ = a dangerous opponent;
a queer customer = a suspicious person, one to be suspected; a ‘rum
customer’ = an odd fish. For synonyms, see Cove.
1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, I., 19. Here ... many an ugly customer has
met with his match, and been frightened in his turn.
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. vi. Some of these
good-looking young gentlemen are ‘ugly customers’ enough when their
blood is up.
1870. London Figaro, 8 Oct. Customers would then know the kind of
‘customers’ of tradesmen with whom they had to deal.
Customhouse-Officer, subs. (common).—An aperient pill. [Because it
effects a clearance.] Cf., Chimney-sweep.
Cut, subs. (common).—1. A stage or degree.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 183. It looked so knowing, with
the front garden, and the green railings, and the brass knocker,
and all that—I really thought it was a cut above me.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. iv., p. 29. Any other man in
the wide world, I am equal to; but Sylme is, I frankly confess, a
great many cuts above me.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, vol. II., p. 123. He’s
a cut above me a precious sight.
2. (popular).—A refusal to acknowledge acquaintance, or to associate,
with another person.—See verbal sense. A cut direct or dead cut is a
conspicuous non-acknowledgment of an acquaintance.
1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 55. His acquaintances
were numerous, but they seldom lasted longer than a few days, when
he made no hesitation in giving them the cut-direct.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. lii. He was a noted duellist, had killed
his three or four men, and a cut direct from any person was, with
him, sufficient ground for sending a friend.