Dead Unit for [or against], adv. phr. (colloquial).—Collective advocacy
of (or opposition to) a subject, principle, or line of action. Cf., to
go the whole hog.
1888. The Solid Muldoon (Ouray, Colorado). The Eastern Press is a
dead unit against the passage of the Postal Telegraph Bill.
Dead-wood Earnest, adv. phr. (American).—Quite earnest; ‘dead on.’ Cf.,
in dead earnest.
1876. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Tom Sawyer. No! oh, good licks,
are you in real dead-wood earnest?
Dead Wrong ’Un.—See Wrong ’un.
Deady (modern American, Dead-Eye), subs. (old).—Gin; a special brand of
full proof spirit, also known as Stark-naked (q.v.). [From Deady, a
well-known gin-spinner.] For synonyms, see Drinks.
1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 35. As we’d
been summon’d thus, to quaff our deady o’er some state affairs.
1834. Southey, The Doctor, inter-chapter xvi. Some of the
whole-hoggery in the House of Commons he would designate by Deady,
or Wet and Heavy; some by Weak Tea, others by Blue-Ruin.
Deal. There’s a deal of glass about, phr. (common).—Said of men and
things; used as a compliment = showy, ‘its the thing.’
To wet the deal, verb. phr. (common).—To ratify a bargain by drinking;
to ‘shake.’
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 268. I
shall be back again shortly, when we will wet the deal.
To do a deal, verb. phr. (common).—To conclude a bargain.
Deal-Suit, subs. (common).—A coffin; especially one supplied by the
parish. [In allusion to the wood of which cheap coffins are made.] For
synonyms, see Eternity Box.
Dean, subs. (Winchester College).—A small piece of wood bound round a
Bill-Brighter (q.v.); that securing a fagot is called a Bishop.
Deaner, subs. (thieves’).—A shilling. [Origin uncertain; possibly
related to Latin denarius. In the 16th and 17th centuries, denier = a
coin—vide Nashe, Shakspeare, Johnson, etc. Others trace it to (a) the
Cornish dinair; (b) Yiddish dinoh, a coin; (c) Gypsy deanee, a pound;
(d) Lingua Franca dinarly.] For synonyms, see Blow.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3rd ed., p. 444. Shilling, Deaner,
also twelver.
1864. Times, 12 October, p. 11, col. 6. One woman said where’s the
deaner?
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl., 501. I had been down three
or four days running, and could not buy anything to earn a deaner
(shilling) out of.
Dearest Member.—The penis.
Death. To be death on, verb. phr. (common).—Very fond of, or thoroughly
master of—a metaphor of completeness; the same as dead on, a mark on,
or some pumpkins on. Cf., nuts on. [Literally to prosecute or pursue
any course of action to the death.]
To dress to death (colloquial).—To attire oneself in the very extreme
of fashion. In America to dress within an inch of one’s life; to dress
up drunk and to dress to kill. An old Cornish proverb has dressed to
death like sally hatch (N. and Q., 3 ser., vi., 6). [Apparently a pun
on killing (q.v.).]
1869. Newfoundland Fisheries [quoted in De Vere]. The next day I
met Davis and Nye, my two chums, on board the Little Rhody, dressed
to death and trunk empty, as they said of themselves.
Death-Hunter, subs. (common).—1. A vendor of the last dying speeches,
or confessions of criminals; a running patterer or stationer.
1738. [From J. W. Jarvis and Son: Cat. No. 40, p. 38]. Ramble
through London, containing observations on Beggars, Pedlars,
Petticoat Pensioners, death hunters, Humours of the Exchange, etc.,
by a True-born Englishman [Title].
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., 228. The
latter include the ‘running patterers,’ or death-hunters; being men
(no women) engaged in vending last dying speeches and confessions.