SING SMALL, to lessen one’s boasting, and turn arrogance into humility.
SINKERS, bad money.
SINKS, a throw of fives at dice. _French_, CINQS.
SIR HARRY, a close stool.
SISERARA, a hard blow.—_Suffolk._ Moor derives it from the story of
Sisera in the Old Testament, but it is more probably a corruption of
CERTIORARI, a Chancery writ reciting a complaint of hard usage.
SIT UNDER, a term employed in Dissenters’ meeting houses, to denote
attendance on the ministry of any particular preacher.
SITTING PAD, sitting on the pavement in a begging position.
SIT-UPONS, trousers.—_See_ INEXPRESSIBLES.
SIVVY, “’pon my SIVVY,” _i.e._, upon my soul or honour. Corruption of
_asseveration_, like DAVY, which is an abridgment of _affidavit_.
SIXES AND SEVENS, articles in confusion are said to be all SIXES and
SEVENS. The Deity is mentioned in the Towneley Mysteries as He that
“sett all on seven,” _i.e._, set or appointed everything in seven days.
A similar phrase at this early date implied confusion and disorder,
and from these, _Halliwell_ thinks, has been derived the phrase “to be
at SIXES AND SEVENS.” A Scotch correspondent, however, states that the
phrase probably came from the workshop, and that amongst needle makers
when the points and eyes are “heads and tails” (“heeds and thraws”),
or in confusion, they are said to be SIXES AND SEVENS, because those
numbers are the sizes most generally used, and in the course of
manufacture have frequently to be distinguished.
SIXTY, “to go along like SIXTY,” _i.e._, at a good rate, briskly.
SIZE, to order extras over and above the usual commons at the dinner
in college halls. Soup, pastry, &c., are SIZINGS, and are paid for
at a certain specified rate _per_ SIZE, or portion, to the college
cook.—_Peculiar to Cambridge._ _Minsheu_ says, “SIZE, a farthing which
schollers in Cambridge have at the buttery, noted with the letter _s_.”
SIZERS, or SIZARS, are certain poor scholars at Cambridge, annually
elected, who get their dinners (including _sizings_) from what is left
at the upper, or Fellows’ table, free, or nearly so. They pay rent of
rooms, and some other fees, on a lower scale than the “Pensioners” or
ordinary students, and answer to the “battlers” and “servitors” at
Oxford.
SIZINGS, _see_ SIZE.
SKATES LURK, a begging impostor dressed as a sailor.
SKID, a sovereign. Fashionable slang.
SKIE, to throw upwards, to toss “coppers.”—_See_ ODD MAN.