Drumstick-Cases, subs. (common).—Trousers. [From drumstick = a leg +
case, a cover.] For synonyms, see Bags and Kicks.
Drumsticks, subs. (common).—1. The legs—especially of birds.
English Synonyms. Cheese-cutters (bandy legs); stumps; cabbage-stumps;
pins; gams; notches; shanks; stems; stumps; clubs; marrow-bones;
cat-sticks; trap-sticks; dripping sticks; trams; trespassers; pegs;
knights of the garter.
French Synonyms. Les brancards (popular, les brancards de laine = weak
or lame legs); des baguettes de tambour (popular = thin legs; properly
drumsticks); un bâton de tremplin (mountebanks’ = a leg; tremplin is
properly a spring-board); des cotrets (popular: ‘a fagot’; jus de
cotret = stirrup-oil, a ‘lathering’); des flûtes or flûtes à café
(popular); des flageolets (popular); des gambettes (popular: from O. F.
gambe = leg; des gambilles is of similar derivation); des fumerons
(popular); des fuseaux (popular: also = a spindle or distaff); des
jambes en manche de reste (popular = bandy-legs; des jambes de coq =
spindle-shanks; des jambes de coton = weak legs); numéro onze (popular
= Shank’s mare); des guibes, guiboles, guibolles, or guibonnes (popular
and thieves’); des merlins (popular); des fourchettes (popular,
literally, forks; fourchettes d’Adam = fingers); les chevaux à double
semelles (popular. Cf., English Shank’s mare).
Italian Synonyms. Ramo (literally, ‘a branch’); calcha; colonna
(literally, ‘a column’).
Spanish Synonym. Gamba (Cf., O. F. Gambe).
1770. Foote, Lame Lover, I. What, d’ye think I would change with
Bill Spindle for one of his drumsticks.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby, ‘Lay of St. Nicholas.’ He helped his guest
to a bit of the breast, And he sent the drumsticks down to be
grilled.