gills
The cheeks. To look rosy about the gills; to have a fresh complexion. To look merry about the gills: to appear cheerful.
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
gills
The lower part of the face.—Bacon. "To grease one’s GILLS," "to have a good feed," or make a hearty meal. A man suffering from the effects of a previous night’s debauch, is said to "look queer about the gills."
gilly gaupus
A Scotch term for a tall awkward fellow.
gilt
Money. German, GELD; Dutch, GELT.
gimblet-eyed
Squinting, either in man or woman.
gimcrack
A bijou, a slim piece of mechanism. Old slang for "a spruce wench."—New Bailey. Any things which are gaudy and easily breakable, are known now as GIMCRACKS.
gin-spinner
A distiller, or rectifier of gin.
gingambobs
Toys, bawbles; also a man's privities. See THINGAMBOBS.
ginger
A showy, fast horse—as if he had been figged with GINGER under his tail; a red-haired man. Term commonly used in depreciation of a person’s appearance.
ginger hackled
Having flaxen, light yellow hair. Term originally used to describe a certain colour or colours in game-cocks.—See HACKLE.
gingerbread
A cake made of treacle, flour, and grated ginger; also money. He has the gingerbread; he is rich.
gingerbread work
Gilding and carving: these terms are particularly applied by seamen on board Newcastle colliers, to the decorations of the sterns and quarters of West-Indiamen, which they have the greatest joy in defacing.
gingerly
Softly, gently, tenderly. To go gingerly to work: to attempt a thing gently, or cautiously.
gingerly
To do anything with great care.—Cotgrave.
gingham
An umbrella. Term very common in London.
ginny
An instrument to lift up a great, in order to steal what is in the window. CANT.
girds
Quips, taunts, severe or biting reflections.
girl and boy
A saveloy,—a penny sausage.
give
To strike, to scold; "I’ll GIVE it to you," i.e., I will thrash you. To lead to, in the sense of directions. Thus, in one of the Christmas numbers of All the Year Round we are told that "a side portal and a passage, dark at noon, GAVE upon Paradise Alley." This usage of the word, from the French idiomatic use of donner, is becoming by no means uncommon.
give in
To admit oneself defeated, to "throw up the sponge," or "strike one’s flag."
gizzard
To grumble in the gizzard; to be secretly displeased.
gladstone
Cheap claret. GLADSTONE reduced the duty on French wines.
glass eyes
A nick name for one wearing spectacles.
glaymore
A Highland broad-sword; from the Erse GLAY, or GLAIVE, a sword; and MORE, great.
glaze
Glass; generally applied to windows. To "star the GLAZE" is to break a window.
glazier
One who breaks windows and shew-glasses, to steal goods exposed for sale. Glaziers; eyes. CANT.--Is your father a glazier; a question asked of a lad or young man, who stands between the speaker and the candle, or fire. If it is answered in the negative, the rejoinder is--I wish he was, that he might make a window through your body, to enable us to see the fire or light.
glib
Smooth, slippery. Glib tongued; talkative.
glib
A tongue; "slacken your GLIB," i.e., "loosen your tongue."
glim
A candle, or dark lantern, used in housebreaking; also fire. To glim; to burn in the hand. CANT.
glim
A light, a lamp; "dowse the GLIM," put out the candle. Sea and Old Cant. GLIMS, spectacles. Gaelic, GLINN, light. German (provincial), GLIMM, a spark.
glim lurk
A begging paper, giving a circumstantial account of a dreadful fire—which never happened.
glimflashy
Angry, or in a passion. CANT.
glimmerers
Persons begging with sham licences, pretending losses by fire.
glimstick
A candlestick. CANT.
gloak
A man. Term much used in old thieves’ cant.
glossaries
Of County Dialects. V. D.
gloves
To give any one a pair of gloves; to make them a present or bribe. To win a pair of gloves; to kiss a man whilst he sleeps: for this a pair of gloves is due to any lady who will thus earn them.
gluepot
A parson: from joining men and women together in matrimony.
glum
Sulky, stem; "to look GLUM," to appear annoyed or disconcerted.
glumpish
Of a stubborn, sulky temper.
glutton
A term used by bruisers to signify a man who will bear a great deal of beating.
gnarler
A little dog that by his barking alarms the family when any person is breaking into the house.
go by the ground
A little short person, man or woman.
go due north
To become bankrupt, to go to Whitecross Street.—Nearly obsolete.
go in
To enter for, to apply oneself in pursuit of. Men at the Universities are said to GO IN for honours, aquatics, or whatever their chief desire or employment may be. The expression is now general.
go it
A term of encouragement, implying, "keep it up!" Sometimes amplified to "GO IT, ye cripples;" said to have been a facetious rendering of the last line of Virgil’s Eclogues—
go over
In clerical slang, signifies to join the Church of Rome.
go shop
The Queen's Head in Duke's court, Bow street, Covent Garden; frequented by the under players: where gin and water was sold in three-halfpenny bowls, called Goes; the gin was called Arrack. The go, the fashion; as, large hats are all the go.
go, the
The dash. The mode. He is quite the go, he is quite varment, he is prime, he is bang up, are synonimous expressions.
goads
Those who wheedle in chapmen for horse-dealers.
goat
A lascivious person. Goats jigg; making the beast with two backs, copulation.
gob
The mouth; also a bit or morsel: whence gobbets. Gift of the gob; wide-mouthed, or one who speaks fluently, or sings well.
gob
Or GOBBET, a portion. Generally applied to meat by schoolboys.
god bless the duke of argyle!
A Scottish insinuation made when one shrugs his shoulders, of its being caused by parasites or cutaneous affections.—See SCOTCH FIDDLE, SCOTCH GREYS. It is said to have been originally the thankful exclamation of the Glasgow folk, at finding a certain row of iron posts, erected by his grace in that city to mark the division of his property, very convenient to rub against.
godfather
He who pays the reckoning, or answers for the rest of the company: as, Will you stand godfather, and we will take care of the brat; i.e. repay you another time. Jurymen are also called godfathers, because they name the crime the prisoner before them has been guilty of, whether felony, petit larceny, &c.
gods
The people in the upper gallery of a theatre; "up amongst the GODS," a seat amongst the persons in the gallery—so named from the high position of that part, and the blue sky generally painted on the ceiling of the theatre; termed by the French, "paradis."
gog
All-a-gog; impatient, anxious, or desirous of a thing.
gog and magog
Two giants, whose effigies stand on each side of the clock in Guildhall, London; of whom there is a tradition, that, when they hear the clock strike one, on the first of April, they will walk down from their places.
goggles
Eyes: see OGLES. Goggle eyes; large prominent eyes. To goggle; to stare.
going upon the dub
Going out to break open, or pick the locks of, houses.