cow itch
The product of a sort of bean, which excites an insufferable itching, used chiefly for playing tricks.
English · UK & Ireland 1488
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
cow's thumb
Done to a cow's thumb; done exactly.
cow-cow
To be very angry, to scold or reprimand violently.—Anglo-Chinese.
cow-hocked
Clumsy about the ankles; with large or awkward feet.
cow-lick
The term given to the lock of hair which costermongers and tramps usually twist forward from the ear; a large greasy curl upon the cheek, seemingly licked into shape. These locks are also called NUMBER SIXES, from their usual shape. The opposite of NEWGATE-KNOCKER, which see.
cowan
A sneak, an inquisitive or prying person. Greek, κύων, a dog. Term given by Freemasons to all uninitiated persons. Used in Anderson’s Constitutions, edit. 1769, p. 97. If derived from κύων, its use was probably suggested by such passages in the N. T. as Matt. vii. 6, and Phil. iii. 2. The Moslems apply dog in a similar manner. It is probably Oriental.
cows and kisses
Mistress or missus—referring to the ladies.
coxcomb
Anciently, a fool. Fools, in great families, wore a cap with bells, on the top of which was a piece of red cloth, in the shape of a cock's comb. At present, coxcomb signifies a fop, or vain self-conceited fellow.
coxy-loxy
Good-tempered, drunk.—Norfolk.
crab
To catch a crab; to fall backwards by missing one's stroke in rowing.
crab
A disagreeable old person. Name of a wild and sour fruit.
crab louse
A species of louse peculiar to the human body; the male is denominated a cock, the female a hen.
crabbed
Sour, ill-tempered, difficult.
crabs
A losing throw to the main at hazard.
crabs
In dicing, a pair of aces.
crabshells
Or TROTTER-CASES, shoes.—See CARTS.
crack
The favourite horse in a race. Steeplechase and hunting CRACKS have been made the subjects of well-known pictures, and "the gallops of the CRACKS" is a prominent line in the sporting papers.
crack a bottle
To drink. Shakspeare uses CRUSH in the same slang sense.
crack up
to laugh loudly or become amused
cracker
Crust, sea biscuit, or ammunition loaf; also the backside. Farting crackers; breeches.
cracking a crust
Rubbing along in the world. CRACKING A TIDY CRUST, means doing very well. This is a very common expression among the lower orders.
cracking tools
Implements of house-breaking, such as a crow, a center bit, false keys, &c.
crackle
Or CRACKLING, the scored rind on a roast leg or loin of pork; hence applied to the velvet bars on the gowns of the students at St. John’s College, Cambridge, long called "Hogs," and the covered bridge which connects one of the courts with the grounds, Isthmus of Suez (SUES, Lat. SUS, a swine).
crackmans
Hedges. The cull thought to have loped by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw; the man thought to have escaped by breaking through the hedge, but we brought him back by a great blow on the head, which laid him speechless.
cracksman
A house-breaker. The kiddy is a clever cracksman; the young fellow is a very expert house-breaker.
cracksman
A burglar, i.e., the man who CRACKS.
cram
To lie or deceive, implying to fill up or CRAM a person with false stories; to impart or acquire learning quickly, to "grind" or prepare for an examination.
crammer
One skilled in rapidly preparing others for an examination. One in the habit of telling lies.
cramp rings
Bolts, shackles, or fetters. CANT.
cramp words
Sentence of death passed on a criminal by a judge. He has just undergone the cramp word; sentence has just been passed on him. CANT.
crank
Gin and water; also, brisk, pert.
cranky
Foolish, idiotic, rickety, capricious (not confined to persons). Ancient cant, CRANKE, simulated sickness. German, KRANK, sickly. A CRANK or CRANKY vessel is one which pitches very much.
crap
To ease oneself by evacuation.
crapping case
Or KEN, the water-closet. Generally called CRAPPING-CASTLE.
craw thumper
A Roman Catholic. Compare BRISKET-BEATER.
craw thumpers
Roman catholics, so called from their beating their breasts in the confession of their sins. See BRISKET BEATER, and BREAST FLEET.
crawler
A mean, contemptible, sycophantic fellow. Also a cab which is driven slowly along while its driver looks out for a fare. Crawling is by recent statute a punishable offence.
crawly mawly
In an ailing, weakly, or sickly state.
cream of the valley
gin
cream-pot love
Such as young fellows pretend to dairymaids, to get cream and other good things from them.
creepers
Gentlemen's companions, lice.
crew
A knot or gang; also a boat or ship's company. The canting crew are thus divided into twenty-three orders, which see under the different words:
crib
A house. To crack a crib: to break open a house.
crib
House, public or otherwise; lodgings, apartments; a situation. Very general in the latter sense.
crib biter
An inveterate grumbler; properly said of a horse which has this habit, a sign of its bad digestion.
cribbage-faced
Marked with the small pox, the pits bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a cribbage-board.
cribbage-faced
Marked with the small-pox, full of holes like a cribbage-board. Otherwise crumpet-face.
crikey
Profane exclamation of astonishment; "Oh, CRIKEY, you don’t say so!" corruption of "O Christ!" Sometimes varied by "O crimes!"
crim
CON. MONEY. Damages directed by a jury to be paid by a convicted adulterer to the injured husband, for criminal conversation with his wife.
crimp
A broker or factor, as a coal crimp, who disposes of the cargoes of the Newcastle coal ships; also persons employed to trapan or kidnap recruits for the East Indian and African companies. To crimp, or play crimp; to play foul or booty: also a cruel manner of cutting up fish alive, practised by the London fishmongers, in order to make it eat firm; cod, and other crimped fish, being a favourite dish among voluptuaries and epicures.
crinkum crankum
A woman's commodity. See SPECTATOR.
crinkums
The foul or venereal disease.
cripple
Sixpence; that piece being commonly much bent and distorted.
cripple
An awkward or clumsy person. Also one of dull wits.
crispin's holiday
Every Monday throughout the year, but most particularly the 25th of October, being the anniversary of Crispinus and Crispianus.
croak
To die—from the gurgling sound a person makes when the breath of life is departing.
croaker
One who is always foretelling some accident or misfortune: an allusion to the croaking of a raven, supposed ominous.
croaker
One who takes a desponding view of everything, a misanthrope; an alarmist. From the croaking of a raven.—Ben Jonson.
croakers
Forestallers, called also Kidders and Tranters.
croaks
Last dying speeches, and murderers’ confessions.