DUBSMAN, or SCREW, a turnkey.
DUCKS AND DRAKES, “to make DUCKS AND DRAKES of one’s money,” to throw
it away childishly,—derived from children “shying” flat stones on the
surface of a pool, which they call DUCKS AND DRAKES, according to the
number of skips they make.
DUDDERS, or DUDSMEN, persons who formerly travelled the country as
pedlars, selling gown-pieces, silk waistcoats, &c., to countrymen. In
selling a waistcoat-piece for thirty shillings or two pounds, which
cost them perhaps five shillings, they would show great fear of the
revenue officer, and beg of the purchasing clodhopper _to kneel down
in a puddle of water, crook his arm, and swear that it might never
become straight if he told an exciseman, or even his own wife_. The
term and practice are nearly obsolete. In Liverpool, however, and at
the east end of London, men dressed up as sailors, with pretended silk
handkerchiefs and cigars “only just smuggled from the Indies,” are
still to be plentifully found.
DUDDS, clothes, or personal property. _Gaelic_, DUD; _Ancient cant_;
also _Dutch_.