1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. v. But when you do make a
hit, drop your man if possible; it settles him and frightens the
rest.
To drop anchor, verb. phr. (racing).—To pull up a horse.
To drop one’s anchor, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To sit (or settle) down.
To drop a cog.—See Drop-game.
To drop one’s flag (colloquial).—To salute; also to submit; to lower
one’s colours.
To drop, hang, slip, or walk into, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attack.
Cf., Drop on to.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xxiv., p. 217. He’s welcome to drop
into me, right and left, if he likes.
1884. Punch, 10 May, p. 217, col. 2. If I ever drop into tune, I
deserve to be dropped into by the critics afterwards.
To drop off the hooks, verb. phr. (common).—To die. For synonyms, see
Aloft and Hop the twig.
1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
To drop one’s leaf, verb. phr. (common).—To die. [From the ‘fall of the
leaf’ in nature.] For synonyms see Aloft and Hop the twig.
To drop on one, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To accuse or call to account
without warning. Also = to thrash. Cf., To drop into.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 268. During the
weeks or months that the siege is going on, and the plans are
working, do the police ever drop upon the parties and frustrate
their plans?
To drop the scabs in, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To work buttonholes.
To drop one’s wax, or to drop a turd (vulgar).—to evacuate or ‘rear.’
To get or have the drop on, verb. phr. (American).—To hold at
disadvantage; to forestall.
1888. Troy Daily Times, 8 Feb. I also kept my revolver handy and
did not propose that he should get the drop on me. When he found
that I was prepared for him, he did not try to shoot me.
1888. Texas Siftings, Aug. At any rate, we will not let Arcturus
get the drop on the reading public.
To have a drop in the eye, verb. phr. (common).—To be slightly drunk.
For synonyms, see Screwed.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation. O faith, Colonel, you must own
you had a drop in your eye, for when I left you you were half-seas
over.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
Drop it! phr. (colloquial).—Cease! Cut it! Cheese it (q.v. sense 2).
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xxvi. A jackdaw on the
roof brings their hearts into their mouths; were it not for the
case-bottle they would drop it even now.
1859. Dickens, Tale of Two Cities, bk. II., ch. xix. You might as
well flop as meditate. You may as well go again me one way as
another. Drop it altogether.
1872. Public Opinion, 24 Feb., p. 241. ‘Inside Newgate.’ Do you
know Newgate? I said to a cabman whom I hailed in Piccadilly on
Saturday afternoon. He looked at me angrily, and briefly answered,
drop it.
Drop-game, subs. (old).—A variety of the confidence trick:—The thief
picks out his victim, gets in front of him, and pretends to pick up
(say) a pocket-book, (snide) which he induces the greenhorn to buy for
cash. The object is a Cog, and the operator a Dropper or Drop-cove.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
Dropped on, adv. phr. (tailors’).—Disappointed.
Dropper, subs. (old).—A specialist in the drop-game (q.v.). Also
drop-cove.
1669. Nicker Nicked, in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii. 108. [In list
of names of thieves.]
Dropping, verb. subs. (old Royal Military Academy).—A beating; ‘I’ll
give you a good dropping’ i.e., I’ll thrash you severely. For synonyms,
see Tanning.
Dropping-member, subs. (old).—The penis; specifically one affected with
gonorrhœa.
Droppings, subs. (vulgar).—The excrement of horses and sheep.
Drown the Miller.—See Miller.
Drudge, subs. (American).—Whiskey in its raw state, as used in the
manufacture of alcohol. For synonyms, see Drinks.
1869. S. S. Haldeman, Pennsylvania Dutch. Drudge, another name for
raw whiskey, originating in the Eastern States. I doubt whether the
word drudge is thirty years old.
Drug, verb (colloquial).—To administer a narcotic.
A drug in the market, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Anything so common as to
be not vendible.
Drum, subs. (old).—1. An entertainment; now a tea before dinner; a
kettle-drum (q.v.).
1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVII., ch. vi. A drum, then, is an
assembly of well-dressed persons of both sexes, most of whom play
at cards and the rest do nothing at all, while the mistress of the
house performs the part of the landlady at an inn.
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. i. We recollect it well,
not so many years ago, lit up for one of those great solemnities
which novelists call ‘a rout,’ but which people in real life,
equally martially as well as metaphorically designate ‘a drum.’
2. (thieves’).—A road, street, or highway. [From the Gr. δρομός through
the Gypsy drom.]
English Synonyms. Drag; toby; high or main toby; pad; donbite; finger
and thumb (rhyming).
French Synonyms. La trime (thieves’); le Général Macadam (popular, also
= the public).
Spanish Synonym. Calca.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. i., p. 231. We
... slink into the crib (house) in the back drum (street).