CLOVER, happiness, or luck.
CLUMP, to strike.
CLY, a pocket.—_Old cant_ for to steal. A correspondent derives this
word from the _Old English_, CLEYES, claws; _Anglo Saxon_, CLEA. This
pronunciation is still retained in Norfolk; thus, to CLY would mean to
pounce upon, snatch.—_See_ FRISK.
CLY-FAKER, a pickpocket.
COACH, a Cambridge term for a private tutor.
COACH WHEEL, or TUSHEROON, a crown piece, or five shillings.
COALS, “to call (or pull) over the COALS,” to take to task, to scold.
COCK, or more frequently now a days, COCK-E-E, a vulgar street
salutation—corruption of COCK-EYE. The latter is frequently heard as a
shout or street cry after a man or boy.
COCK AND A BULL STORY, a long, rambling anecdote.—_See Notes and
Queries_, vol. iv., p. 313.
COCKCHAFER, the treadmill.
COCK-EYE, one that squints.
COCKLES, “to rejoice the COCKLES of one’s heart,” a vulgar phrase
implying great pleasure.—_See_ PLUCK.
COCKNEY, a native of London. Originally, a spoilt or effeminate boy,
derived from COCKERING, or foolishly petting a person, rendering them
of soft or luxurious manners. Halliwell states, in his admirable essay
upon the word, that “some writers trace the word with much probability
to the imaginary land of COCKAYGNE, the lubber land of the olden
times.” _Grose_ gives Minsheu’s absurd but comical derivation:—A
citizen of London being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh,
exclaimed, “_Lord! how that horse laughs_.” A bystander informed him
that that noise was called neighing. The next morning, when the cock
crowed, the citizen, to show that he had not forgotten what was told
him, cried out, “_do you hear how the_ COCK NEIGHS?”
COCK OF THE WALK, a master spirit, head of a party. Places where
poultry are fed are called WALKS, and the barn-door cocks invariably
fight for the supremacy till one has obtained it.
COCKS, fictitious narratives, in verse or prose, of murders, fires, and
terrible accidents, sold in the streets as true accounts. The man who
hawks them, a patterer, often changes the scene of the awful event to
suit the taste of the neighbourhood he is trying to delude. Possibly
a corruption of _cook_, a cooked statement, or, as a correspondent
suggests, the COCK LANE Ghost may have given rise to the term. This had
a great run, and was a rich harvest to the running stationers.
COCK ONE’S TOES, to die.
COCK ROBIN SHOP, a small printer’s office, where low wages are paid to
journeymen who have never served a regular apprenticeship.
COCKSHY, a game at fairs and races, where trinkets are set upon sticks,
and for one penny three throws at them are accorded, the thrower
keeping whatever he knocks off. From the ancient game of throwing or
“shying” at live cocks.
COCKSURE, certain.
COCKY, pert, saucy.
COCKYOLY BIRDS, little birds, frequently called “dickey
birds.”—_Kingsley’s Two Years Ago._
COCK, “to COCK your eye,” to shut or wink one eye.
COCUM, advantage, luck, cunning, or sly, “to fight COCUM,” to be wily
and cautious.
CODDS, the “poor brethren” of the Charter house. At p. 133 of the
_Newcomes_, Mr. Thackeray writes, “The Cistercian lads call these old
gentlemen CODDS, I know not wherefore.” An abbreviation of CODGER.
CODGER, an old man; “a rum old CODGER,” a curious old fellow. CODGER is
sometimes used synonymous with CADGER, and then signifies a person who
gets his living in a questionable manner. CAGER, or GAGER, was the old
cant term for a man.
COFFEE-SHOP, a water-closet, or house of office.
COG, to cheat at dice.—_Shakespere._ Also, to agree with, as one
cog-wheel does with another.
COLD BLOOD, a house licensed for the sale of beer “NOT to be drunk on
the premises.”
COLD COOK, an undertaker.
COLD MEAT, a corpse.
COLD SHOULDER, “to show or give any one the COLD SHOULDER,” to
assume a distant manner towards them, to evince a desire to cease
acquaintanceship. Sometimes it is termed “cold shoulder of _mutton_.”
COLLAR, “out of COLLAR,” _i.e._, out of place, no work.
COLLAR, to seize, to lay hold of.
COLLY-WOBBLES, a stomach ache, a person’s bowels,—supposed by many
of the lower orders to be the seat of feeling and nutrition; an idea
either borrowed from, or transmitted by, the ancients.—_Devonshire._
COLT’S TOOTH, elderly persons of juvenile tastes are said to have a
colt’s tooth.
COMB-CUT, mortified, disgraced, “down on one’s luck.”—_See_ CUT.
COME, a slang verb used in many phrases; “A’nt he COMING IT?” _i.e._,
is he not proceeding at a great rate? “Don’t COME TRICKS here,” “don’t
COME THE OLD SOLDIER over me,” _i.e._, we are aware of your practices,
and “twig” your manœuvre. COMING IT STRONG, exaggerating, going a-head,
the opposite of “_drawing it mild_.” COMING IT also means informing or
disclosing.
COME DOWN, to pay down.
COMMISSION, a shirt.—_Ancient cant._ _Italian_, CAMICIA.
COMMISTER, a chaplain or clergyman.
COMMON SEWER, a DRAIN, or drink.
COMMONS, rations, because eaten _in common_.—_University._ SHORT
COMMONS (derived from the University slang term), a scanty meal, a
scarcity.
CONK, a nose; CONKY, having a projecting or remarkable nose. The Duke
of Wellington was frequently termed “Old CONKY” in satirical papers and
caricatures.
CONSTABLE, “to overrun the CONSTABLE,” to exceed one’s income, get deep
in debt.
CONVEY, to steal; “CONVEY, the wise it call.”
CONVEYANCER, a pick-pocket. _Shakespere_ uses the cant expression,
CONVEYER, a thief. The same term is also _French slang_.
COOK, a term well known in the Bankruptcy Courts, referring to accounts
that have been meddled with, or COOKED, by the bankrupt; also the
forming a balance sheet from general trade inferences; stated by a
correspondent to have been first used in reference to the celebrated
alteration of the accounts of the Eastern Counties Railway, by George
Hudson, the Railway King.