daisy cutter
A well-struck ground ball.
English · UK & Ireland 846
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Where will you be? Anywhere UK & IrelandUnited StatesOnline slangBusiness jargon
Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
dead horse
Tomato sauce.
devil's bed-posts
The four of clubs.
devil's delight
A riot; a row.
devil's dust
Any type of powder or dustlike substance whose use or effect is considered to be harmful or malevolent.
devil's teeth
Dice used for gambling.
Dickey Sam
A Liverpudlian.
dine out
To have dinner away from one's house, usually at a restaurant.
dog in a blanket
Synonym of roly-poly (“a kind of steamed pudding”).
dog's body
Pease pudding.
double up
To double the quantity, amount or duration of something
drive at
To mean, signify; to get at, to aim or tend to a point.
drop down
To sail, move, or row down a coast, or down a river to the sea.
Drury Lane vestal
A prostitute.
dry nurse
An inferior officer who carries on the duty on board ship, due to the captain's ignorance of seamanship.
Dutch concert
A performance in which all the musicians play different songs at the same time.
Dutch courage
Bravery induced by drinking alcohol.
d.t
A popular abbreviation of delirium tremens; sometimes written and pronounced del. trem. D.T. also often represents the Daily Telegraph.
dab
An adept; a dab at any feat or exercise. Dab, quoth Dawkins, when he hit his wife on the a-se with a pound of butter.
dab
Or DABSTER, an expert person. Most probably derived from the Latin adeptus.
dabheno
A bad one, sometimes a bad market. See DOOGHENO.
dace
Two pence. Tip me a dace; lend me two pence. CANT.
dacha-saltee
Tenpence. Probably from the Lingua Franca. Modern Greek, δέκα; Italian, DIECI SOLDI, tenpence; Gipsy, DIK, ten. So also DACHA-ONE (oney), i.e., dieci uno, elevenpence.—See SALTEE.
daddle
The hand; "tip us your DADDLE," i.e., shake hands.
daddles
Hands. Tip us your daddle; give me your hand. CANT.
daddy
Father. Old daddy; a familiar address to an old man. To beat daddy mammy; the first rudiments of drum beating, being the elements of the roll.
daddy
A stage manager.—Theatrical. Also the person who gives away the bride at a wedding.
daffy
Gin. A term with monthly nurses, who are always extolling the virtues of Daffy’s Elixir, and who occasionally comfort themselves with a stronger medicine under Daffy’s name. Of late years the term has been altered to "soothing syrup."
daggers
They are at daggers drawing; i.e. at enmity, ready to fight.
dags
Feat or performance; "I’ll do your DAGS," i.e., I will do something that you cannot do. Corruption of DARINGS.
dairies
A woman’s breasts, which are also called CHARLIES.
dairy
A woman's breasts, particularly one that gives suck. She sported her dairy; she pulled out her breast.
daisy kickers
Ostlers at great inns.
daisy-cutter
A horse that trots or gallops without lifting its feet much from the ground.
daisy-kicker
The name ostlers at large inns used to give each other, now nearly obsolete. DAISY-KICKER, or GROGHAM, was likewise the cant term for a horse. The DAISY-KICKERS were sad rogues in the old posting days; frequently the landlords rented the stables to them, as the only plan to make them return a profit.
dam
A small Indian coin, mentioned in the Gentoo code of laws: hence etymologists may, if they please, derive the common expression, I do not care a dam, i.e. I do not care half a farthing for it.
damage
In the sense of recompense; "what’s the DAMAGE?" i.e., what is to pay? or actually, what is the DAMAGE to my pocket?
damber
A rascal. See DIMBER.
damme boy
A roaring, mad, blustering fellow, a scourer of the streets, or kicker up of a breeze.
damned soul
A clerk in a counting house, whose sole business it is to clear or swear off merchandise at the custom-house; and who, it is said, guards against the crime of perjury, by taking a previous oath, never to swear truly on those occasions.
damper
A luncheon, or snap before dinner: so called from its damping, or allaying, the appetite; eating and drinking, being, as the proverb wisely observes, apt to take away the appetite.
damper
A shop till; to DRAW A DAMPER, i.e., rob a till. A till is more modernly called a "lob," and stealing from tills is known as "lob-sneaking."
dander
Passion or temper; "to get one’s DANDER up," to rouse his passion.—Old, but now much used in America.
dando
A great eater, who cheats at hotels, eating shops, oyster-cellars, &c., from a person of that name who lived many years ago, and who was an enormous oyster-eater. According to the stories related of him, Dando would visit an oyster-room, devour an almost fabulous quantity of bivalves, with porter and bread and butter to match, and then calmly state that he had no money.
dandy
That's the dandy; i.e. the ton, the clever thing; an expression of similar import to "That's the barber." See BARBER.
dandy
A small glass of whisky.—Irish. "Dimidium cyathi vero apud Metropolitanos Hibernicos dicitur DANDY."—Father Tom and the Pope, in Blackwood’s Magazine for May 1838.
dandy grey russet
A dirty brown. His coat's dandy grey russet, the colour of the Devil's nutting bag.
dandy prat
An insignificant or trifling fellow.
dandypratt
A funny little fellow, a mannikin; originally a half-farthing of the time of Henry VII.
dangler
One who follows women in general, without any particular attachment
danna
Human ordure; DANNA DRAG, a nightman’s or dustman’s cart; hence DUNNA-KEN, which see.
dapper fellow
A smart, well-made, little man.
darbies
Handcuffs.—Old Cant.—See JOHNNY DARBIES. Sir Walter Scott mentions these, in the sense of fetters, in his Peveril of the Peak—
darble
The devil. French, DIABLE.
dark
"keep it DARK," i.e., secret. A DARK horse is, in racing phraseology, a horse of whom nothing positive is known, but who is generally supposed to have claims to the consideration of all interested, whether bookmakers or backers.
dark cully
A married man that keeps a mistress, whom he visits only at night, for fear of discovery.
darkee
A dark lanthorn used by housebreakers. Stow the darkee, and bolt, the cove of the crib is fly; hide the dark lanthorn, and run away, the master of the house knows that we are here.
darkman's budge
One that slides into a house in the dark of the evening, and hides himself, in order to let some of the gang in at night to rob it.
darky
Twilight; also a negro. DARKMANS, the night.
darn
Vulgar corruption of DAMN.—American.