To sluice one’s dominoes, verb. phr. (common).—To drink.—See quot.,
1823 ante.
Domino-thumper, subs. (common).—A pianist.
Dommerar, Dommerer, or Dummerer, subs. (old).—A beggar feigning to be
deaf and dumb; also, a madman.
1567. Harman, Caveat, p. 57. These Dommerars are leud and most
subtyll people: the moste part of these are Walch men, and wyll
neuer speake, vnlesse they haue extreame punishment, but wyll gape,
and with a maruelous force wyll hold downe their toungs doubled,
groning for your charyty, and holding vp their handes full
pitiously, so that with their deepe dissimulation they get very
much.
1621. Burton, Anat. of Mel., I., II., IV., vi., 233 (1836). It
compels some miserable wretches to counterfeit several diseases, to
dismember, make themselves blind, lame, to have a more plausible
cause to beg ... we have dummerers, Abraham men, etc.
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v. (Repr. 1874), p. 49.
Dommerar, a Madman.
1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Dommeror, a Madman.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. Dommerer, a fellow that pretends to be
deaf and dumb.
Don, subs. (colloquial).—An adept; a swell; also a man that ‘puts on
side.’ At the Universities a fellow or officer of a college; whence the
vulgar usage. [From Latin, dominus, a lord, through the Spanish title.]
1665. Dryden, Indian Emperor, Epilogue, 21. For the great dons of
wit—Phœbus gives them full privilege alone, To damn all others, and
cry up their own.
1698–1700. Ward, London Spy, pt. xiii., p. 299. Like the Great Old
Dons of the Law, when they dance the Measures in an Inns-of-Court
Hall upon the first day of Christmas.
1730. Jas. Miller, Humours of Oxford, Act I., p. 7 (2 ed.) The old
dons ... will come cringing, cap in hand, to offer to show the
ladies the curiosities of the college.
1826. Reynolds (‘Peter Corcoran’), Song on the Fancy. Dull
innocence! Twaddle on, Thy weary worshipper—and fain Would give
thee up, to be a don, And beat the watch in Drury Lane.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xi. Does not go much into society,
except ... once or twice to the houses of great country dons who
dwell near him in the country.
c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, sung by Jenny Hill. ‘’Arry, ’Arry, There
you are now, ’Arry, I say, ’Arry, by Jove, you are a Don.’