1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Lay of St. Gengulphus.’ Pig,
pudding, and soup. The electrified groups, Pop under the sofa.
Elegant, adj. (colloquial).—Excellent.
Elegant-Extracts, subs. (military).—1. The Eighty-Fifth Foot. [This
regiment was remodelled in 1812, after a long sequence of
court-martials: when the officers were removed, and others set in their
room.]
1871. Chambers’ Journal, 23 Dec., p. 803. ‘Elegant Extracts’ was
the name given to the 85th on its being reformed with officers
picked out from those of other regiments.
2. (Cambridge University).—Students who, though ‘plucked,’ were still
given their degrees. A line was drawn below the poll-list, and those
allowed to pass were nicknamed the elegant extracts. [There was a
similar limbo in the honour-list, called the Gulf: for ‘Between them
(in the poll) and us (in the honour lists) there is a great gulf
fixed.’]
Elephant, subs. (American thieves’).—A wealthy victim. Cf., To see the
Elephant.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.
To see the Elephant, verb. phr. (American).—1. To see the world; to ‘go
out for wool and come home shorn’; by implication, to ‘go on the
loose.’ Sometimes, To see the King.
b. 1533, d. 1592. Montaigne, Arrien. Hist. Ind., ch. 17. Aux Indes
Orientales la chasteté y estant en singulière recommandation,
l’usage pourtant souffroit qu’une femme mariée se peust abandonner
à qui luy presentoit un ÉlÉphant, et cela avec quelque gloire
d’avoir esté estimée à si hault prix.
1841. Kendall, Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition, i., p.
109. When a man is disappointed in any thing he undertakes, when he
has seen enough, when he gets tired and sick of any job he may have
set himself about, he has seen the elephant.
1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, pt. ii., p. 39. So had Mr. Wog, who
went up to town to see what he called the elephant,—an American
expression, signifying ‘to gain experience of the world.’
1872. Besant and Rice, R. M. Mortiboy, ch. xxxiv. Just like the
Americans, when they go to see a great sight, say they are going to
see the elephant.
1888. Boston Globe, 4 March. It was in a Hanover Street dispensary,
where the tillers of the soil love to congregate, when they are
down to Bosting, inspecting the Athenian white elephant.
1889. Puck’s Library, Ap., p. 25. Forepaugh says that elephants
have a natural liking for whiskey. We have often wondered, when a
man went out to see the elephant, why he always brought back such a
strange odour with him. This seems to explain it.
2. (common).—To be seduced; Fr., avoir vu le loup. For synonyms, see
Leg.
Elephant-dance.—See Cellar-flap and Double-Shuffle.
Elephant’s-trunk, subs. (rhyming slang).—Drunk. For synonyms, see
Drinks and Screwed.
Elevate, verb (colloquial).—To make or become slightly drunk.—See
Elevated.
Elevated, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Slightly drunk. For synonyms, see
Drinks and Screwed.
1664. Etherege, Comical Revenge, IV., iii. in wks. (1704), 51. The
wine makes the rogue witty.... I will keep him thus elevated ’till
he has married Grace.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xvii. The liquor mounted up to our
heads, and made us all extremely frolicsome. I, in particular, was
much elevated.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Elevated (a.) ... sometime
spoke of a person that has drank a little too freely.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. l., p. 434. Except when he’s elevated,
Bob’s the quietest creature breathing.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, p. 274.
Elevation, subs. (colloquial).—1. A phase of drunkenness.—See Elevated.
1823. Scott, Peveril, ch. iii. The unwonted agitation of her voice
attracted the attention of the refractory steward, notwithstanding
his present state of elevation.