To make ducks and drakes of one’s money, verb. phr. (common).—To
squander money as lavishly as stones are squandered at ‘ducks and
drakes.’ [In allusion to the childish game. Lemprière (Art. Scipio
Africanus the Younger) refers to Scipio and Lælius taking to ‘ducks and
drakes’ as a supplementary recreation to shell-gathering, and an early
notice of the game occurs in Minucius Felix (Octavius cap. iii.):—From
the beach they choose a shell, thin and polished by the waves; they
hold it in a horizontal position, and then whirl it along as near the
surface of the sea as possible, so as to make it skim the surge in its
even motion, or spring up and bound from time to time out of the water.
That boy is conqueror whose shell both runs out farthest and bounds
oftenest.] Variants are To Blue One’s Pile; to Sweat (q.v.). Fr.,
galvauder; manger sa légitime.
1605. Chapman, etc., Eastward Hoe! Act i. Do nothing, be like a
gentleman, be idle ... make ducks and drakes with shillings.
1664. H. Peacham, Worth of a Penny, in Arber’s Garner, vol. VI., p.
259. I remember, in Queen Elizabeth’s time, a wealthy citizen of
London left his son a mighty estate in money; who, imagining he
should never be able to spend it, would usually make ‘ducks and
drakes’ in the Thames, with Twelve pences [= 5/– now], as boys are
wont to do with tile sherds and oyster shells.
d. 1680. S. Butler, Character of a Miser, in Remains, vol. II., p. 343
(ed. 1759). And he that made Ducks and Drakes with his Money enjoyed it
every way as much.
1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. xvi., p. 372. They hook in the old fool
again to make ducks and drakes with his money.
1700. Gentleman Instructed, p. 18. I would neither fawn on money
for money’s sake, nor duck and drake it away for a frolick.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lviii. We’ve tied up the property,
so that he can’t make ducks and drakes with it.
1858. Marian Evans (G. Eliot), Janet’s Repentance, ch. xxv. They
say Mrs. Dempster will have as good as six hundred a year at
least.... It’s well if she doesn’t make ducks and drakes of it
somehow.
Duck’s-Bill, subs. (printers’).—A tongue cut in a piece of stout paper
and pasted on at the bottom of the tympan sheet. [From the shape.]
Ducky or Duck of Diamonds.—See Duck, sense 4.
Dudder, Dudsman, or Duffer, subs. (old).—A pedlar of so-called smuggled
wares—gown-pieces, silk waistcoats, etc. The term and practice are both
obsolete, though in a few seaports, London especially, they survived
till recently in a modified form. [From duds (q.v.) = clothes.] Fr., un
marottier (thieves’). See also Whispering Dudder and Barrow-man.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 160. A dudder happened some
time ago to meet a countryman in a dark lane, and sold him a
waistcoat-piece for two guineas and a half, which stood himself in
only four-and-sixpence.
Dude, subs. (American).—A swell; fop; ‘masher.’ For synonyms, see
Dandy. [From Scots duds = clothes; Cf., quot., 1870.] Derivatives are
Dudette and Dudinette = a young girl affecting the airs of a belle;
Dudine = a female masher.
1870. Putnam’s Magazine, Feb. Think of her? I think she is dressed
like a dud; can’t say how she would look in the costume of the
present century.
1883. Graphic, 31 March, p. 319, col. 1. The one object for which
the dude exists is to tone down the eccentricities of fashion....
The silent, subfuse, subdued ‘dude’ hands down the traditions of
good form.
1889. Puck’s Library, April, p. 3. For the front rows two styles
are recommended—dude, No. 16, and Bald-headed Man, No. 41—both
original in design and exquisite in finish.
Dude Hamfatter, subs. phr. (American).—A wealthy pig-jobber. [From
Dude, a swell + Hamfatter, in allusion to occupation.]
1888. New York National Police Gazette. It seems that the dude
hamfatters, after trying various games to skip unseen, conceived
the idea of making up as a couple of well-dressed women.
Duds, subs. (colloquial).—Clothes; sometimes old clothes or rags.
[Scots dud, Dutch todde, a rag; O.E. dudde = cloth. Duddery = a
clothiers’ booth (De Foe’s Tour of Gt. Brit., p. 125).] In America
applied to any kind of portable property (Cf., quots., 1622, 1780, and
1884). To angle for duds, see Anglers; To sweat duds = to pawn (see
Sweat).
1440. Prompt. Parv., ed. Way, i, 134. Dudde, cloth.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 86. When we byng back to the
deuseauyel, we wyll fylche some duddes of the Ruffemans.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
Dudes, clothes.
1622. Head and Kirkman, English Rogue. ‘Canting Song.’ For all your
duds [goods] are binged avast.
1780. R. Tomlinson, Slang Pastoral, IX. No duds in my pocket, no
sea-coal to burn.
1787. Grose, Prov. Glossary. Dudds, rags. Also clothes.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 20. Doubled him up, like a bag
of old duds!
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. v. A ragged rascal, every dud
upon whose back was bidding good-day to the other.
1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, ii. 3. Crissy, odsbuds! I’ll
on with my duds.
1871. New York Tribune, 23 Jan. The three [railway] Commissioners,
in whose appointment you had no choice, decide that you must get
out, leave your house, bundle out your duds, and be off.
1881. A. Trollope, Marian Fay, ch. iii. To see her children washed
and put in and out of their duds was perhaps the greatest pleasure
of her life.
1884. Athenæum, 19 July, p. 74, col. 2. A writer in 1784 [in Gent.
Mag., Gomme, vol. II.] says, for instance, that duds signifies
rags, tatters, and that it comes from the Celtic. We do not believe
in the derivation, but will not at present endeavour to refute it;
we are sure the meaning is given wrongly, though it has the
authority of Halliwell and Wedgwood in recent times. Duds, in the
northern dialects means small things, or things of little account,
whether articles of clothing, trade, or merchandise. We have
frequently heard the word applied to workmen’s tools; and in an
unprinted churchwarden’s account of an eastern shire we find in the
year 1501 mention of ‘clocke-dudes.’ From the context it is evident
that the small wheels belonging to the town clock are meant.
Dudsman.—See Dudder.
Dues, subs. (old).—Money. To tip the dues = to pay; to hand over a
share. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt. [A colloquial extension of
due = toll, tribute, fee, etc.]
1812. Vaux, Flash Dict. So a thief, requiring his share of booty
from his palls, will desire them to bring the dues to light.
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 13. Will he come
down with the dues.
Duff, verb (thieves’).—1. Specifically, to sell flashy goods as
pretended contraband or stolen; hence to cheat. Duffers, or Men at the
duff = pedlars of flash. (Cf., Dudder). Duffing = the practice; used as
an adjective = spurious.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 158. ‘The Duff’ [smuggled
goods, so named and described in.]
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Duffers: cheats who pretend to deal in
smuggled goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think
they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling them
Spital-fields goods at double their current price.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 23.
They have been regularly ‘duffed’ out of the streets, so much cheap
rubbish is made to sell.
1888. G. R. Sims, in Cass. Sat. Journal, 31 March, p. 7. The man at
the duff palms off false jewellery as real.
2. (common).—To rub up the nap of old clothes so as to make them look
almost as good as new.
Duffer = one who performs this operation, whilst the article operated
upon is also a duffer by virtue of the fact itself. Cf., Duffer.
Duffer, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A pedlar; specifically a hawker
of Brummagem (q.v.), and so-called smuggled goods (hence senses 2 and
3). In the population returns of 1831 duffer = one who gets a living by
cheating pawnbrokers.—See Dudder and Duff.
1796. Colquhoun, Police of the Metropolis, p. 176. A class of
sharpers who are known by the name of duffers, who go about from
house to house, and attend public-houses, inns, and fairs,
pretending to sell smuggled goods.
1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxxvii., p. 361. Nor did it
mark him out as the prey of ring droppers, pea and thimble-riggers,
duffers, touters, or any of those bloodless sharpers, who are,
perhaps, a little better known to the police.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lx. Now it is a fact that Colonel
Altamont had made a purchase of cigars and French silks from some
duffers in Fleet Street about this period.
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 413. An
intelligent street-seller, versed in all the arts and mysteries of
this trade, told me that he understood by a duffer, a man who sold
goods under false pretences, making out that they were smuggled, or
even stolen, so as to enhance the idea of their cheapness.
2. (colloquial).—Anything (or person) worthless; anything sham. [From
sense 1.]
d. 1845. Hood [quoted in Annandale]. Duffers (if I may use a slang
term which has now become classical, and which has no exact
equivalent in English proper) are generally methodical and old.
Fosset certainly was a duffer.
1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xi. Don’t you think, Hamish,
he must have been a great duffer to go and marry before he knew how
he could keep a wife?
1872. Standard, 12 Sept. ‘Who is to blame?’ we ask, in the
interests of our government, and natural curiosity. ‘That duffer in
feathers’ is the curt reply, pointing with the finger of scorn at
one hero whom we had mistaken for something little short of a field
marshal.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iv., p. 264. I’d several
sovs.—good ones—with me, and also a whole lot of duffers.
1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 10. He made no bones
about calling her stupid, and was more apt to call her a little
duffer than to sympathise with her when she got into trouble.
1889. Answers, 29 June, p. 66, col. 1. If the note is a genuine one
the water-mark will then stand out plainly. If a duffer it will
almost disappear.