To have a dose of the balmy, verbal phr. (common).—To ‘do a sleep.’—See
Balmy and Doss.
To take a grown man’s dose, verb. phr. (common).—To take a very large
quantity of liquor.
Doss or Dorse, subs. (vagrants’).—A bed, or lodging; also a sleep, or
lib (q.v.). [Origin uncertain.] For synonyms, see Kip and Balmy.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 165. Dorsed. The place where
a person sleeps, or a bed. ‘I dorsed there last darkey.’
1858. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, p. 118. Into this branch curtained
retreat, the lads crept on all fours, one after another, to enjoy
their doss, as, in their slang, they called sleep.
1883. Daily News, 3 April, p. 3, col. 5. He replied that he had
only come there to have a doss (sleep).
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 9 Sep., p. 3, col. 2. If you want a doss,
a doss is provided. A wooden framework, about as wide as the widest
part of a coffin, and a wooden pillow and a blanket of leather.
Verb (vagrants’).—To sleep. For synonyms, see Balmy and infra. Also
Dorse.
English Synonyms.—To go to the arms of Murphy (q.v.); to have forty
winks; to go to Bedfordshire; to take a little (or do a dose) of the
balmy; to chuck (or do) a doss; to snooze; to go to by-by; to read the
paper; to shut one’s eyes to think; to retire to the land of Nod.
French Synonyms.—Battre la couverte (military); se foutre un coup de
traversin (= to have a little turn up with the bolster); se bâcher,
pagnotter or percher (to roost); se mettre dans la bâche; se bourser
(popular); éteindre son gaz (popular: to put out one’s light; = also to
die); entrer aux quinze-vingts (Les Quinze-vingts = a government
hospital for the blind); dormir en chien de fusil (i.e., to sleep
sitting, the head between the knees); dormir en gendarme (popular: ‘to
sleep with one eye round the corner’); fermer les châssis (to put up
shutters or ‘peepers’); se coller dans le pieu (popular).
Spanish Synonyms.—Acostarse con las gallinas (= to go to bed by
cock-light); encamarse; tomarle á uno el sueño; tumbar (literally, to
tumble down).
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v. To dorse with a woman
signifies to sleep with her.
1846. Punch, vol. XI., p. 165. Then silent flowed the tears of
those maidens as perforce, Each saw her favourite champion sent, as
Bell’s Life says, dorse.
1850. Lloyd’s Weekly, 3 Feb., ‘Low Lodging House of London.’ One
said, Mate, how long have you been knocking about; where did you
doss? I didn’t know what they meant, and when they’d told me, they
meant, where did I sleep?
Dosser, subs. (vagrants’).—One who frequents a doss house (q.v.).
’Appy-dossers, subs. (vagrants’).—Houseless vagrants who creep in,
sleep on stairs, in passages, and in empty cellars.
1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 43. A ’appy dosser can make
himself comfortable anywhere. I heard of one who used to crawl into
the dust-bin, and pull the lid down.
1883. Referee, 15 July, p. 7, col. 2. The Lazaruses of to-day don’t
lie exactly at Dives’s front door—the police are too active to
allow such happy dossing as that.
The dosser, subs.—The father of a family.
Doss-house or Dossing-crib or Ken, subs. (vagrants’).—A common
lodging-house. [From doss, to sleep + crib, or ken, a place of abode.]
Fr., un bastengue and un garno. English variants: Libken,
two-penny-rope, padding-ken, and kidden (all of which see). Doss-money
= the price of a night’s lodging.
1838. Comic Almanack, April. The hulks is now my bowsing-crib, the
hold my dossing-ken.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 150.
When their funds are insufficient to defray the charge of a bed, or
a part of one, at a country dossing-crib (his lodging-house).
1885. Daily Telegraph, 22 August, p. 2. col. 1. Her’s is no common
dossing-crib, with a squalid kitchen, common to all comers.
1889. Globe, 29 Aug., p. 2, col. 2. Various other smart people who
are at present residing in the doss-houses of London.
1890. Speaker, 22 Feb., p. 211, col. 1. Equally bad doss-houses
exist in Notting Hill and near Drury Lane.
Dossy, adj. (common).—Elegant, ‘spiff’ (q.v.).
Dot, subs. (old).—A ribbon. Dot-drag = a watch ribbon.
1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, p. 171, s.v.
Dot-and-Carry-, or Go-one, subs. phr. (common).—1. Properly, a man with
a wooden leg; by implication, a hopping-giles or limping jesus (q.v.).
Fr., un (or une) banban. Cf., verbal sense.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1822. Scott, The Fortunes of Nigel, ch. v. That was his father....
You old dotard. Dot-and-carry-one that you are.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Lay of S. Nicholas). How he rose
with the sun, limping dot and go one.
1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 4. Kit. Of all
the rummy chaps I ever did see, that dot-and-carry-one-of-old
poetry is the queerest; he’s as green as a babby, and as deep as a
wooden spoon.