Ape-leader, subs. (old).—An old maid. Leading apes in hell was the
employment jocularly assigned to those who neglected to assume marital
functions while living.
1581. Lyly, Euphucs (Arb.), 87. Rather thou shouldest leade a lyfe
to thine owne lyking in earthe, than ... leade apes in hell. [M.]
1605. Lond. Prodigal, I., 2. ’Tes an old proverb, and you know it
well, that women dying maids lead apes in hell.
1717. Mrs. Centlivre, Bold Stroke, II., 1. Poor girl; she must
certainly lead apes, as the saying is.
1830. General P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), I., 198. Joining with
other old women, in leading their apes in Tartarus. [M.]
There are several proverbial sayings in which the ape plays an
important part. To say an ape’s paternoster is to chatter with cold;
this corresponds with the French, dire des patenôtres de singe. To put
an ape into one’s hood or cap, to make a fool of one, etc.
Apes, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Atlantic and North-Western Railway first
mortgage bonds.
Apostles, or The Twelve Apostles, subs. phr. (Cambridge
Univ.).—Formerly, when the Poll, or ordinary B.A. degree list was
arranged in order of merit, the last twelve were nicknamed The Twelve
Apostles. They were also called The Chosen Twelve, and the last, St.
Poll or St. Paul—a punning allusion to 1 Cor. xv., 9, ‘For I am the
least of the Apostles, that am not meet to be called an Apostle.’ The
list is now arranged alphabetically and in classes. Hotten suggests
that Apostles is a corruption of post alios, i.e., ‘after the others.’
It may perhaps also be mentioned that in one American University at
least, Columbia College, D.C., the last twelve on the B.A. list
actually receive the personal names of the Apostles.
1795. Gentleman’s Magazine, Jan., p. 19. [The last twelve names on
the Cambridge list are here called The Twelve Apostles.]
Manœuvering the Apostles, a variant of the familiar expression, ‘to rob
Peter to pay Paul’; i.e., to borrow from one person to pay another.
Apostle’s Grove, subs. (common).—The London district known as St.
John’s Wood. Also called grove of the evangelist. Both names are
applied sarcastically in allusion to the large numbers of the
demi-monde who live in that quarter of town.
Apothecary. To talk like an apothecary, verb phr. (old).—To talk
nonsense; from the pseudo gravity and affectation of knowledge often
assumed by these gentlemen at a time when their status was not legally
held under examination and license of the Apothecaries’ Company.
Apothecaries’ bill, subs. (old).—A long bill.
Apothecaries’, or raw Latin, subs. (old).—Now called dog-Latin (q.v.).
Apple Cart, subs. (common). 1. The human body. A slang term similar to
‘potato trap,’ ‘bread-basket,’ ‘bellows,’ ‘blue plumb,’ ‘bacon,’ and
‘beer-barrel’ (all of which see). There are numerous variations in
usage; e.g., if two men are quarrelling, and a friend of one interferes
saying ‘I will upset his apple cart’ it means, ‘while you are parleying
with the enemy I will knock him down.’ Again, if a child falls down,
says W. W. Skeat (referring to his early Kentish remembrance of the
word), you first enquire if he is much hurt. If he is merely a little
frightened you say, ‘Well, never mind, then; you’ve only upset your
apple cart and spilt the gooseberries.’ The child laughs and all is
well again.
2. Also employed in a figurative sense. To upset an apple cart
sometimes means, not so much to knock a man down, as to prevent him
from doing what he wants to do by the upsetting as it were, of an
imaginary apple cart; i.e., to thwart; to disarrange; to overthrow; to
ruin an undertaking. Sometimes the expression is varied by to upset the
old woman’s apple cart. Barrère’s reference of the genesis of the
phrase to the costermonger’s imaginative powers is ‘all conjecture and
fancy’; as also is his American derivation of the expression in its
more figurative sense. In the first place apple carts are perfectly
familiar objects in all country districts; and, in the second, the
phrase is too old a provincialism to need deriving from the peripatetic
vendors in question. Further, though to upset his apple cart and spill
the peaches may be an American variation for the second sense, as it
appears to have been so used, dialectically, throughout England, the
weight of assumption must be given to its English origin, and
subsequent transference to America.
English Synonyms. Beer-barrel; bacon.
French Synonyms. Acabit (literally, quality); cylindre (popular: lit.
‘a cylinder,’ or ‘barrel.’ Cf. with English ‘beer barrel’); grosse
caisse (popular: lit. ‘a large case,’ or ‘box’); paillasse (popular:
lit. ‘a straw mattress’); also place d’armes; casaquin.
Apple Dumpling Shop, subs. phr. (common).—A woman’s bosom. For
synonyms, see Dairies.
Apple-Monger.—The same as apple-squire (q.v.).
Apple-Pie Bed, subs. phr. (common).—A practical joke, which consists in
making up a bed with the sheets doubled half way up, so as to prevent a
person from stretching out at full length, and filling the bag thus
formed with brushes, soap-dishes, etc. So called, either from the
apple-turnover, in which the ‘paste’ is turned over the apples, or from
the French, à plis, folded.
1811. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), i., 466. After
squeezing myself up, and making a sort of apple-pye bed with the
beginning of my sheet.
1883. Saturday Review, Nov. 3, p. 566, col. 2. Some ‘evil-disposed
persons’ have already visited his room, made his bed into an
apple-pie, plentifully strewn with hair-brushes and razors.
The French have an analogous phrase, ‘mettre un lit en portefeuille.’
Apple-Pie Day, subs. phr. (Winchester Coll.)—The day on which
Six-and-Six (q.v.) is played. It is the Thursday after the first
Tuesday in December. So called because hot apple-pies were served on
gomers (q.v.) in College for dinner.
Apple Pie Order, subs. phr. (familiar).—Exact or perfect order.
Etymologists have long puzzled themselves concerning this expression,
and many derivations have been put forward in explanation. Some have
found in it an allusion to the regular order in which the component
parts of some varieties of that toothsome delicacy, apple pie, were
formerly laid one on the top of, or side by side with each other.
Others, on the contrary, scout such a homely origin, and suggest that
apple pie order is cap à pied order. The authorities who incline to
this view point out that cap à pied in the sense of ‘perfectly
appointed’ occurs in one of the scenes of Hamlet. Though
orthographically the transition from one to the other, at first sight,
would appear to be somewhat lame and halting, yet phonetically the
difference is much less marked. It has further been suggested that
apple pie order is a corruption of ‘Alpha-beta’ i.e., alphabetical
order, but this would seem rather far-fetched, as also is the reference
of it to the nursery rhyme of ‘A was an apple pie; B bit it; C cut it;
D divided it,’ and so on, the allusion being to the regular order in
which the letters of the alphabet occur. Probably the weight of
evidence is on the side of the derivation from cap à pied, more
especially as that phrase was once very familiar.
1813. Scott in Lochart, Life, IV. (1839), 131. The children’s
garden is in apple pie order.
1835. Marryat, Jacob Faithful, viii., 29. Put the craft a little
into apple pie order.
1837. Barham, I. L. (Old Woman in Grey).
I am just in the order which some folks—though why,
I am sure I can’t tell you—would call apple pie.
Apples. How we apples swim! phr. (common).—i.e., ‘What a good time we
are having.’ This expression, a very old one, is synonymous with
pleasureable experience coupled with brisk action.
1697–1764. Hogarth (Works by J. Ireland and J. Nichols, London,
1873), III., p. 29. And even this, little as it is, gives him so
much importance in his own eyes, that he assumes a consequential
air, sets his arms akimbo, and strutting among the historical
artists cries, ‘how we apples swim.’
1860. Cornhill Mag. (D. Mallett, Tyburn), Dec., p. 737. While
tumbling down the turbid stream, Lord, love us, how we apples swim.
Apples and Pears, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—A pair of stairs.
Apple-Squire, subs. (old).—A harlot’s attendant, or fancy man (q.v.);
these gentry are now commonly called ‘bullies’ (q.v.). Nares gives
‘squire of the body’ as a synonymous term; also apron-squire.
1500. (circa) Way to Spyttel Hous, 832 in Hazl. E. P. P., iv., 60.
[Here given as applesquyers.]
[1580–1654] Taylor, Discourse by Sea (works II., 21).
Are whoremasters decai’d, are bawds all dead,
Are pandars, pimps, and apple-squires all fled? [N.]
1738. Poor Robin.... Little truth will be found amongst cut-purses,
liars, bawds, whores, pimps, pandars, and apple-squires; only the
pimp pretends to something more of truth than the other, for if he
promise to help you to a whore, he will be sure that she shall not
be an honest woman. [N.]
For synonyms, ancient and modern, and also foreign equivalents, see
Fancy man.
Apron. Green apron, subs. (old).—A contemptuous term for a lay
preacher.—See Bible-pounder.
1654. Warren, Unbelievers, 145. It more befits a green-apron
preacher, than such a Gamaliel. [M.]
1705. Hickeringill, Priestcraft I. (1721). 21. Unbeneficed Noncons.
(that live by Alms and no Paternoster, no Penny, say the
green-aprons). [M.]
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II., 451. The gifted priestess amongst the
Quakers is known by her green apron. [M.]
Aproneer, subs. (old).—A shop-keeper; a tradesman. Murray states that
the term was used contemptuously of the Parliamentary party during the
Civil Wars.
1659. Gauden, Tears of Church, 238. Some prating sequestrator, or
some surly aproneer.
1690. D’urfey, Collin’s Walk, c. iii., p. 107. But every sturdy
aproneer, arm’d with battoon, did straight appear.
Apron-Rogue, subs. (old).—A labourer; a mechanic.
1663. Killegrew, Parson’s Wedding in Dodsley’s Old Plays (1780),
XI., 382. Apron-rogues with horn hands. [M.]
Apron-Squire.—See Apple-squire.
Apron-String Hold or Tenure, subs. phr. (familiar).—An estate held by a
man during his wife’s life; or by virtue of her right.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 67. Apron-string tenure is very weak.
[M.]
1753. Richardson, Grandison, iv., 23. He cursed the apron-string
tenure, by which he said he held his peace. [d.]
1804. Mrs. Barbauld, Richardson I., 160. All her fortune in her own
power—a very apron-string tenure.
Apron-Strings. To be tied to or always at a woman’s apron-strings,
verb. phr. (common).—Under petticoat government; to dangle after a
woman. Formerly said only of children; later of all who follow a woman
subserviently.
1712. Spectator, No. 506. The fair sex are so conscious to
themselves, that they have nothing in them which can deserve
entirely to ingross the whole man, that they heartily despise one,
who, to use their own expression, is always hanging at their
apron-strings.
1834. Miss Edgeworth, Helen, ch. viii. A homebred lordling, who,
from the moment he slipped his mother’s apron-strings, had fallen
into folly.
1849. Macaulay, History of England, II., 649. He could not submit
to be tied to the apron-strings even of the best of wives.
Aqua, subs. (American thieves’).—Water. From the Latin.
Aqua Pompaginis, subs. phr. (old).—Pump water [Dog-Latin; from L.,
aqua, water + English, pump + simulated Latin termination, aginis].
1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Aqua Pompaginis....
Apothecaries’ Latin.
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 13. ‘Exactly my
sentiments,’ rejoined Blueskin. ‘I wouldn’t force him for the
world; but if he don’t tip the stivers, may I be cursed if he don’t
get a taste of the aqua pompaginis. Let’s have a look at the
kinchen that ought to have been throttled,’ added he, snatching the
child from Wood. ‘My stars! here’s a pretty lullaby-cheat to make a
fuss about—ho ho!’
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 15. ‘He shall go
through the whole course,’ replied Blueskin, with a ferocious grin,
‘unless he comes down to the last grig. We’ll lather him with mud,
shave him with a rusty razor, and drench him with aqua pompaginis.’
For synonyms, see Adam’s ale.
Aquatics, subs. (Eton college).—The particular game of cricket in which
men in the boats play.
Aqua-Vitæ, subs. (old).—Formerly an alchemic term; but, after a while,
popularly received as a generic name for ardent spirits, such as
brandy, whiskey, etc. [From L. = water of life. Cf., French eau-de-vie,
and Irish usquebaugh.]
Arabs, subs. (common).—Nicknames for young street vagrants are
numerous. They are ‘Bedouins,’ ‘Street Arabs,’ and ‘Juvenile Roughs’ in
London; they are ‘Gamins’ in Paris; ‘Bowery Boys’ in New York;
‘Hoodlums’ in San Francisco; and ‘Larrikins’ in Melbourne. This last
phrase is an Irish constable’s broad pronunciation of ‘larking,’
applied to the nightly street performances of these young scamps,
there, as elsewhere, a real social pestilence.—See Street Arab.
1848. Guthrie, Plea for Ragged Schools. [In this work the homeless
wanderers and children of the streets were spoken of as Arabs of
the City, and City Arabs.]
Arbor Vitæ, subs. (old).—The penis. [Latin; = the Tree of Life]. For
synonyms, see Creamstick.
Arch.—See Ark.
Arch-Cove or Arch-Rogue, subs. (thieves’).—The chief or leader of a
gang of thieves. [From Greek, archo to be first, to command, to rule +
cove, a slang term for a man.] Formerly also dimber damber, upright
man.—See Cove and Area sneak.
Archdeacon, subs. (Oxford Univ.).—Merton strong ale.
Arch-Dell or Arch-Doxy, subs. (old).—The wife or female companion of an
arch-cove.—See Dell.
Archduke, subs. (old slang).—A buffoon; an eccentric person.
Arch Gonnof.—See Dimber damber.
Ard, adj. (American thieves’).—Hot; a corrupted form of ‘ardent.’
Formerly ‘a foot.’—See Creepers.
Area-Sneak, subs. (common).—A thief who lurks about areas for the
purposes of theft.
1838. Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, ch. lix., p. 480. ‘Why wasn’t I a
thief, swindler, housebreaker, area-sneak, robber of pence out of
the trays of blind man’s dogs?’
1869. English Mechanic, 14 May, p. 181, col. 1. [They] would
invariably become pickpockets or area-sneaks.
1883. Daily Telegraph, June 13, p. 7, col. 3. The area-sneak, too,
may find his occupation partially gone through the strictness of
the rules which encompass the trade of the second-hand dealer.