1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Frisk the dummee of the screens =
take all the bank notes out of the pocket book: Ding the dummee,
and bolt, they sing out beef = Throw away the pocket book, and run
off, as they call out ‘stop thief.’
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. He is caught—he must
‘stand and deliver’; Then out with the dummy, and off with the bit
[money].
1878. Charles Hindley, Life and Times of James Catnach.
(Chorus)—Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, And finely hunt the
dummy.
[Other colloquial usages are: (1) = dumb-waiter; (2) = a locomotive
furnished with condensing engines, and hence without the noise of
escaping steam; (3) = a fireman’s term for a jet from the main or chief
water pipe; (4) = a hatter’s pressing iron: Cf., tailor’s Goose; (5) =
a piece of cloth rolled tight and saturated with oil, for rubbing hard
places to be cut; (6) = an actor or actress who has nothing to say,
etc.]
Dummy-Daddle Dodge, subs. phr. (thieves’).—Picking pockets under cover
of a sham hand or daddle (q.v.).
1883. Greenwood, in Daily Telegraph. Asked by the friendly warder
what he thought of the dummy-daddle dodge, Mr. Mobbs said he rather
thought that game was played out. A woman, he proceeded to explain,
can work with a dummy-daddle in an omnibus or a railway carriage
much better than a man, because, without appearing conspicuous, she
can wear any kind of loose shawl or cloak as concealment for her
real hand.
Dummy-hunter, subs. (old).—A pickpocket who confined his operations to
pocket-books. [From dummy (q.v.) = a pocket book + hunter.]
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood [ed. 1884] p. 89. No dummy hunter had
forks so fly, No knuckler so deftly could fake a cly.
1843. Punch, vol. IV., p. 129. While ears are cramm’d with humbug,
boys! The dummy-hunters ply An easy trade.
Dump, subs. (old).—A metal counter.
Verb (colloquial).—1. To throw down so as to produce a heavy noise:
e.g., to dump down coals.
2. (Winchester College).—To put out. ‘Dump the tolly!’ = Extinguish the
candle!
Dump Fencer, subs. (old).—A button-merchant.
Dumpies, subs. (military).—The Nineteenth Hussars. [From the diminutive
size of the men when the regiment was first raised.] Obsolete. Dumpy =
squat or undersized.
Dumpling-depôt, subs. (common).—The stomach. For synonyms, see
Bread-basket.
Dumpling-Shop, subs. (common).—The paps. For synonyms, see Dairy.
Dumps, subs. (common).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Sir Rupert). May I venture to say
when a gentleman jumps In the river at midnight for want of the
dumps He rarely puts on his knee-breeches and pumps.
In the dumps, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Cast down; ill at ease;
unpleasantly situate.
1592. Greene, Groatsworth of Wit, in wks. xii., 115. Whence spring
these dumps?
1596. Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, III., iii. How now, Master
Knowell, in dumps, in dumps! Come, this becomes not.
1600. Shakspeare, Much Ado about Nothing, ii., 3. Sing no more
ditties, sing no mo Of dumps so dull and heavy.
1711. Spectator, No. 176. When I come home she is in the dumps,
because she says she is sure I came so soon only because I think
her handsome.
1717. Mrs. Centlivre, Bold Stroke for a Wife, v., 1. What art thou
in the dumps for?
1771. Foote, Maid of Bath, II. She seems got quite i’ the dumps.
1847. W. B. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, p. 19. My happiness is
chang’d to doleful dumps, Whilst, merry Michael, all thy cards were
trumps.
1855. Trench, English, Past and Present (2nd ed.), p. 131. In the
great ballad of Chevy-Chase a noble warrior, whose legs are hewn
off, is described as being in doleful dumps. Holland’s translation
of Livy represents the Romans as being in the dumps after the
battle of Cannæ. It was in elegant use then.
1885. Daily Telegraph, 19 Jan., p. 5, col. 2. Everybody who suffers
now and then from a fit of the dumps is counselled to read amusing
books.
Dun, subs. and verb (originally slang: now recognised).—An importunate
creditor; to persist in demanding payment. [A.S. dynian = to clamour,
to din; possibly influenced by the memory of a certain Joe Dunn, a
famous English bailiff, temp. Henry VII.] Fr., un loup (= wolf); un
Anglais (= an Englishman). Also dunner and dunning.
1663. T. Killegrew, Parson’s Wedding, III., v., in Dodsley, O.P.
(1780), xi., 452. We shall have the sport, and be revenged upon the
rogue for dunning a gentleman in a tavern.
1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, I., in wks. (1713), 136. The most
insatiable sorts of duns, that invade our lodgings in a morning.
1677. Wycherley, Plain Dealer, Act V., Sc. ii. Man. No, no. Those
you have obliged most, most certainly avoid you, when you can
oblige ’em no longer; and they take your visits like so many duns.
1678. C. Cotton, Scarronides, bk. i., p. 43 (ed. 1725). Have what
you want, nor will I dun ye, But pay me when you can get mony.
1707. Farquhar, Beaux Stratagem, Act III., Sc. iii. I remember the
good days when we could dun our masters for our wages, and if they
refused to pay us, we could have a warrant to carry ’em before a
Justice.
1712. Spectator, No. 454. Though they never buy, they are ever
talking of new silks, laces, and ribbons, and serve the owners, in
getting them customers as their common dunners do in making them
pay.
1731. Daily Journal, 9 Jan. [‘List of the officers established in
the most notorious gaming-houses.’] 9th.: A dunner, who goes about
to recover money lost at play.
1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. III., ch. iii. Poverty and
distress, with their horrid train of duns, attorneys, bailiffs,
haunted me day and night.
1777. Sheridan, Trip to Scarborough, Act I., Sc. ii. What, hast
spent all, eh? And art thou come to dun his lordship for
assistance?
1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xv. I refused him admittance as
flatly, Blount, as you would refuse a penny to a blind beggar; as
obstinately, Tracy, as thou didst ever deny access to a dun.
1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. ix., p. 66. To fetch three
new boys, and dun the relations of two old ones for the balance of
a small account.
1888. C. J. Dunphie, The Chameleon, p. 6. Dunning for payment which
may not be convenient to them, and which would in no sense conduce
to the honour of the dunners.
Dunaker, subs. (old).—A cattle-lifter.
16(?). Poem of 17th Century (quoted by Nares). The seventeenth a
dun-aker, that maketh his vows To go i’ the country and steal all
their cows.
1693. Herrick (‘Poor Robin’). Mercury is in a conjunction with
Venus, and when such conjunctions happen, it signifies a most
plentiful crop that year, of hectors ... donnakers, cross-biters,
etc.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Dunderhead, subs. (old).—A fool. For synonyms, see Buffle and
Cabbage-head.
Dundreary, subs. and adj. (colloquial).—Specifically, a stammering,
foolish, and long-whiskered fop—the Lord Dundreary of Our American
Cousin (1858)—generally, a foppish fool. Cf., Jubilee Juggins.
1876. Jas. Grant, One of the Six Hundred, ch. iii. His whole air
had the ‘used up’ bearing of those miserable dundrearys who affect
to act as if youth, wealth, and luxury were the greatest calamities
that flesh is heir to, and that life itself was a bore.
Dundrearies, subs. (colloquial).—A pair of whiskers cut sideways from
the chin, and grown as long as possible. A fashion (now obsolete)
suggested by Sothern’s make-up in Our American Cousin.
1882. F. Anstey, Vice-Versâ, ch. xvii. Bushy black whiskers, more
like the antiquated dundreary type than modern fashion permits.
Dung, subs. (workmen’s).—An operative working for less than ‘society’
wages. Formerly, according to Grose, ‘a journeyman taylor who submits
to the law for regulating journey-men’s taylors’ wages, therefore
deemed by the flints (q.v.) a coward.’
Dung-Fork (also Dung-Cart), subs. (colloquial).—A country bumpkin. For
synonyms, see Joskin.
Dun-in-the-Mire, subs. phr. (obsolete).—An antiquated game.
1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, i., 4. Mercutio. If thou art
dun we’ll draw thee from the mire Of this (save reverence) love,
wherein thou stick’st Up to the ears.
Dunnage, subs. (nautical).—Baggage; clothes. Cf., Duds. [Properly wood
or loose fagots laid across the hold of a vessel, or stuffed between
packages to keep cargo from damage by water or shifting.]
1849. J. F. Cooper, The Sea Lions, ch. v. Not only was the chest
more than half empty, but the articles it did contain were of the
coarsest materials.... ‘There is little here to pay a man for
crossing from the Vineyard,’ observed Roswell Gardiner.... ‘What is
to be done with all this dunnage, deacon?’
1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. i., p. 262. If
they can meet with ... the young ladies, they ‘put it on them for
dunnage’ (beg a stock of general clothing.)
Dunnakin or Dunnyken, subs. (old).—A privy; in U.S.A., a chamber-pot.
For synonyms, see Bury and Mrs. Jones.—[Grose—1785.]
Dunop, subs. (back-slang).—A pound.
Dup, verb (old).—To open.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. To dup ye gyger, to open the
dore.
1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iv. And dupped the chamber door.
1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight. If we ... dup but the
gigger of a country-cove’s ken, from thence at the chats we trine
in the Lightmans.
1665. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 49 (1874), s.v.
1691. Academia, quoted in Notes and Queries, 6 S., xii., 416.
Beside, it cost me twopence more, To one that sits to dup a dore.
1724. E. Coles, Eng. Dict. Dup = enter (the house).
Durham-Man, subs. (old).—A knock-kneed man.
Duria, subs. (old).—Fire.
1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
Durrynacker, subs. (thieves’).—A female hawker of lace; generally
practised as an introduction to fortune-telling. Also Durrynacking.
[Described in H. Mayhew’s London Labor and London Poor, vol. i., p.
472, 1851.]
Dust, subs. (common).—Money. [Said to be from ‘gold-dust,’ but this is
a mere guess.]
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., vi., 299. My lord, quoth the king,
presently deposit your hundred pounds in gold, or else no going
hence all the daies of your life.... The abbot down with his dust;
and glad he escaped so, returned to Reading.
1671. Eachard, Observations. If they did intend to trade with
Christ they must down with the dust instantly, for to his knowledge
the Papists did offer a vast sum of money for England’s Christ.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Dust ... also a cant name for
money, as down with your dust, put, pay, or lay down your money,
etc.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. xiii. You have thrown
away a second chance. Play or pay, all the world over.... Down with
the dust.
1840. Comic Almanack. ‘The Dust about the Gold Dust,’ p. 217. She
cried, ‘Come, down, now, with your dust!’
1890. Welfare, March, p. 5, col. 1. ‘Strange Sermons.’ It is
related of Dean Swift that, preaching of charity, he comprised his
sermon within a single short sentence. His text was from Proverbs
xix., 17: ‘He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.’
His treatment of the subject consisted of the words: ‘If you
approve the security, down with your dust!’
To dust one’s jacket, cassock, or coat, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To
thrash; metaphorically, to criticise severely.—See quot., 1557, and
cf., Baste.
1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. 49, st. b., p. 107 (E.D.S.). What
fault deserves a brushed cote.
1612. Passenger of Benvenuto. Observe, my English gentleman, that
blowes have a wonderfull prerogative in the feminine sex; for if
shee be a bad woman, there is no more proper plaister to mend her,
then this: but if (which is a rare chance) she be good, to dust her
often hath in it a singular, unknowne, and as it were an
inscrutable vertue to make her much better, and to reduce her, if
possible, to perfection.
1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, Act v., Sc. ii. Tell me
presently where your master is, sirrah, or I’ll dust the secret out
of your jacket.
1771. Smollet, Humphry Clinker, l. 26. Prankley, shaking his cane,
bid him hold his tongue, otherwise he would dust his cassock for
him.
1837. Barham, I. L. (M. of Venice). Old Shylock was making a
racket, and threatening how well he’d dust every man’s jacket,
Who’d help’d her in getting aboard of the packet.
1865. Saturday Review, Ap. If he will turn to Theocritus, v., 119,
he will learn that there is a good and respectable Greek ancestry
for the cant phrase, to dust one’s jacket:—ὅκα μάνποκα τεῖδέτυδάσας
Εὐμάριδας ἐκάθηρε, where ἐκάθηρε means, ‘purgavit te,’ ‘dressed
you,’ ‘gave you a dressing,’ dusted your jacket. So great is the
similarity of ideas in all nations and languages, of which, indeed,
there is abundant illustration in other passages of Theocritus.
1872. Fun, Sept. The difference is I dusts his [coat] off his back,
and he dusts mine on my back.
To get up and dust, or To dust out of, verb. phr. (American).—To move
quickly; to leave hurriedly. For synonyms, see Absquatulate.
To have dust in the eyes, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be sleepy; to
draw straws (q.v.). Said mainly of children: e.g., ‘The dustman is
coming.’
To kick up, or raise a dust, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To make a
disturbance, or much ado.
1759. Smollett, Letter to Wilkes, quoted in D. Hannay’s Smollett
(1887), p. 132. If the affair cannot be compromised, we intend to
kick up a dust, and die hard.
1766. H. Brooke, Fool of Quality, ii., 41. Our lay and
ecclesiastical champions for arbitrary power ... have raised such a
dust, and kept such a coil about the divine, hereditary, and
indefeasible right of kings.
1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiii. ‘Is there not a strong room
up yonder in the old castle?’ ‘Ay, is there, sir; my uncle the
constable once kept a man there for three days in Auld Ellangowan’s
time. But there was an unco-dust about it—it was tried in the
Inner-house afore the feifteen.’
To throw dust in the eyes, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To mislead; to
dupe.—See Bamboozle.
To bite the dust, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To knock under; to be
mortified, or shamed.
Dust-bin, subs. (common).—A grave.
Dusted, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Drubbed; severely criticised.—See Dust
one’s jacket and Tanning.
Duster, subs. (tailors’)—A sweetheart. For synonyms, see Jomer.
Dust-hole, subs. (theatrical).—1. The late Prince of Wales’ Theatre in
Tottenham Court Road. [From the fact that, fifty years ago, under the
management of Mr. Glossop, the sweepings of the house were deposited
and suffered to accumulate under the pit.]
1886. John Coleman, in Temple Bar, Feb., p. 225. During his
management of the dusthole (since known as ‘The Prince of
Wales’s’), in Tottenham Court Road.