Dipstick, subs. (old).—A gauger.
Dirk, subs. (Scots’).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.
Dirt, subs. (American).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.
To eat dirt, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To submit to insult; to eat
broiled crow, or humble pie (q.v.); to retract.
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. x. Though they bow before
a calf, is it not a golden one? though they ‘eat dirt,’ is it not
dressed by a French cook?
1861. New York Evening Post, 4 Jan. After eating so much dirt, are
we asked to swallow free soil?
To fling dirt or mud, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To abuse; to vituperate.
1689. Selden, Table Talk, p. 104 (Arber’s ed.). One that writes
against his Adversary, and throws all the dirt he can in his Face.
1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. ii., p. 11.
Scurrility’s a useful trick, Approv’d by the most politick; Fling
dirt enough, and some will stick.
1875. Ouida, Signa, vol. I., ch. xv., p. 358. A wicked old tongue
that could throw dirt with any man’s or woman’s either.
1885. J. S. Winter, Bootles’ Baby, p. 66. I suppose he wants to
daub Bootles with some of his own mud. Thinks if he only throws
enough some of it’s sure to stick.
To cut dirt.—See Cut.
Dirt-Baillie, subs. (Scots’).—An inspector of nuisances.
Dirt-scraper subs. (American).—An advocate who rakes up unpleasant
facts in a witness’s past.
Dirty-Dishes, subs. (common).—Poor relations.
Dirty Half-Hundred, subs. phr. (military).—The Fiftieth Foot. [From the
fact that, in action, during the Peninsular War, the men wiped their
faces with their black facings.] Also nicknamed the Blind Half-Hundred.
1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. xciv. A kind of neutral tint
between green and yellow, like nothing I know of except the facings
of the ‘dirty half-hundred.’
Dirty-Puzzle, subs. (old).—A slut.—Grose [1785].
Dirty Shirt March, subs. phr. (vulgar).—On Sunday mornings the male
population of Drury Lane, Whitechapel, and other crowded districts loaf
about the streets, before attiring themselves in their Sunday clothes.
This promenade is called a ‘dirty shirt march.’
Dirty-Shirts, subs. (military).—The Hundred and First Foot. [They
fought in their shirt-sleeves at Delhi in 1857.]
1887. Daily News, 11 July. As the old Bengal European Regiment ...
they [the 2nd Munster Fusiliers] had won their honourable sobriquet
of the dirty shirts, half-a-century earlier.
Disgruntled, adj. (old).—Offended: still colloquial in U.S.A.
Undisgruntled = unoffended.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1869. Springfield Republican, 20 Nov. Rev. Dr. Newman Hall, of
London, tells how when he was journeying to Chicago, an
apple-peddling boy, on the cars, without any preliminaries took
hold of and immediately examined his breast-pin. Nevertheless the
reverend gentleman, quite undisgruntled, remarked, ‘Was it not
there to be seen? Was he not a man and a brother?’
1877. Providence Journal, 1 March. We have had enough exercise of
extraordinary power, and this continual grasping after authority
for the purpose of meeting the individual case of some disgruntled
persons should receive the stamp of this committee’s
disapprobation.
Disguised, adj. (old).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.
1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, III., iii. Harp. I am a prince
disguised. Hir. Disguised! How? Drunk!
1625. Jonson, Staple of News, IV. Come, I will shew you the way
home, if drink Or too full diet have disguised you.
1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act I. Fail. Will not ale serve the
turn, Will? Bib. I had too much of that last night; I was a little
disguised, as they say.
1704. Steele, Lying Lover, Act IV., Sc. i. Sim. You are a little
disguis’d in Drink tho’ Mr. John.
1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act IV. A damned up and
down hand, as if it was disguised in liquor.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xvi. I met a third mate
I knew, slightly disguised in liquor.
Dish, verb (common).—To cheat; to circumvent; to disappoint; to ruin.
1798. Monthly Mag. [quoted in N. and Q., 1 S., iv., p. 313. In the
Monthly Mag., in 1798, is a paper on peculiarities of expression
among which are ... ‘done up,’ dish’d, etc.
1811. E. Nares, Thinks I to Myself, i., 208. He was completely
dished—he could never have appeared again.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 26.... Could old Nap himself,
in his glory, have wish’d To show up a fat Gemman more handsomely
dish’d?
1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, i. 7. No, I’m out of spirits
because I have been dished and doodled out of forty pounds to-day.
1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xvi. I oughtn’t to show
a youngster like you any sympathy in this job of dishing a parent’s
hopes.
Dish-Clout, subs. (common).—A dirty, slatternly woman.
To make a napkin of one’s dish-clout, verb. phr. (old).—To marry one’s
cook; to contract a mésalliance.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Dished, ppl. adj. (printers’).—Said of electrotypes when the centre of
a letter is lower than its edges.
Dismal-ditty, subs. (old).—See quot.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Dismal Ditty ... also a cant
expression for a psalm sung by a criminal at the gallows (s.v.
Ditty).
Dispar, subs. (Winchester College).—See Cat’s-head.
Dispatches, subs. (old).—False dice; so contrived as always to throw a
nick.—See Doctor.
1811. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v.
1866. Times, 27 Nov.
Dissecting-job, subs. (tailors’).—Garments requiring extensive
alteration.
Distiller, subs. (Australian thieves’).—A man easily vexed, and unable
to dissemble his condition.
Ditto-blues, subs. (Winchester College).—A suit of clothes all of blue
cloth. Cf., Dittoes.
Ditto Brother, or Sister, Smut.—See Brother Smut.
Dittoes, subs. (colloquial).—A complete suit of clothes of the same
material. Fr., un complet. Occasionally applied to trousers only.
1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, ch. x. A slight, dark man, of
middle height, clad in an ordinary suit of dittoes, entered the
room.
1882. James Payn, Thicker than Water, ch. ix. His attire, though
quite as faultless and more equable—he was never seen in dittos
even in September—was not so splendid as of some members of the
Aglaia.
Ditty-Bag, subs. (common).—A handy bag, used by sailors as a ‘huswife.’
[From deft, dight = neat, active, handy.]
Dive, subs. (American).—A drinking-saloon; also a brothel.
1888. Troy Daily Times, 7 Feb. A plot to entrap young women for the
dives of Northern Wisconsin has been discovered at Eau Claire, Wis.
1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, 27 Feb. Even fallen women, when the
rose is gone from their cheeks, are pushed aside, and from a gilded
house to the lowest dive is the last and quickest step of all.
Verb (old).—To pick pockets. Cf., dip, and for synonyms, see Frisk.
Also diving = picking pockets.
1631. Ben Jonson, Metam. Gipsies. Or using your nimbles [fingers],
in diving the pockets.
1712. Gay, Trivia, bk. III., l., 80. Guard well thy pocket; for
these sirens stand To aid the labours of the diving hand.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Dive (v.) ... and in the
Canting Language, to pick pockets in a crowd, church, etc.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
A dive in the dark, subs. phr. (venery).—The ‘act of kind.’
To dive into one’s sky, verb. phr. (common).—To put one’s hands into
one’s pockets.
To dive into the woods, verb. phr. (American).—To conceal oneself.
Diver, or Dive [see quot., 1608], subs. (old).—A pickpocket (as Jenny
Diver in ‘The Beggar’s Opera’); a dip (q.v.). For synonyms, see
Stook-Hauler.
1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart), III., 140. [One
who steals from houses by putting a boy in through a window to hand
out to him the plunder—is called a Diver.]
c. 1626. Dick of Devonshire, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii., 40. Your
horse and weapons I will take, but no pilferage. I am no pocketeer,
no diver into slopps.
1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. i., p. 24 (2nd ed.).
So expert divers call aloud, Pray mind your pockets, to the crowd.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Diver (s.) ... also a cant
name for a pick-pocket.
1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, p. 56. Thieves frequently go
well-dressed, especially pickpockets; good toggery being considered
a necessary qualification for his calling, without which the
divercould not possibly mix in genteel company nor approach such in
the streets.
1887. Baumann, Londismen, V. Smashers and divers and noble
contrivers.
Divers, subs. (common).—The fingers. For synonyms, see Forks.
Divide the House with One’s Wife, verb. phr. (old).—To turn her out of
doors.
Diving-bell, subs. (common).—A cellar-tavern. Cf., Dive. For synonyms,
see Lush-crib.
Do, subs. (colloquial).—1. A fraud.
1812. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 17. I thought it was a do, to
get me out of the house.
1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862.), p. 418. I should
like to see you Try to sauter le coup With this chap at short whist
or unlimited loo, By the Pope you’d soon find it a regular do.
1846. Punch, vol. XI., p. 114. What is the meaning of the rise? I’m
sure I cannot tell—can you? Yes, fame with hundred tongues replies,
’Tis in one word A Do! a Do!
2. (colloquial).—One’s duty; a success; performance; what one has to
do; once literary.
1663–78. Butler, Hudibras. No sooner does he peep into the world
but he has done his doe.
1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 162. Well, I
heard how a man ... was making a fortune at the hot-eel and
pea-soup line.... So I thought I’d have a touch at the same thing.
But you see I never could rise money enough to make a do of it.
Verb (colloquial).—1. To cheat. For synonyms, see Gammon.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually
looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the broads, that
is, cards.
1803. Kenney, Raising the Wind, I., i. I wasn’t born two hundred
miles north of Lunnun, to be done by Mr. Diddler, I know.
1831. Disraeli, The Young Duke, bk. iv., ch. vi., p. 220 (ed.
1866). There was the juvenile Lord Dice, who boasted of having done
his brothers out of their miserable £5,000.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 265. I should have a much better
opinion of an individual if he’d say at once, in an honourable and
gentlemanly manner, as he’d done everybody he possibly could.
1843. Comic Almanack, p. 373. England expects every man to do his
duty, a strong recommendation to every man ‘to do’ the authorities
who collect the duty at the Custom-house.
1871. Public Opinion, 4 Feb. Do you suppose that you can do the
landlord in the ‘Lady of Lyons?’ asked a theatrical manager of a
seedy actor in quest of an engagement. If I can’t do him, was the
reply, he will be the first landlord I ever had anything to do with
that wasn’t done by me.
1889. Answers, 9 Feb. The regular hotel thieves are constantly
inventing new dodges to do us.