hobbled
Committed for trial; properly said of animals fed by the wayside, with their forelegs fastened together. Hence people who gather burdens about them are said to get into HOBBLES.
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
hobbledygee
A pace between a walk and a run, a dog-trot.
hobby
Sir Posthumous's hobby; one nice or whimsical in his clothes.
hobby horse
A man's favourite amusement, or study, is called his hobby horse. It also means a particular kind of small Irish horse: and also a wooden one, such as is given to children.
hobby horsical
A man who is a great keeper or rider of hobby horses; one that is apt to be strongly attached to his systems of amusement.
hobnail
A country clodhopper: from the shoes of country farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full of hob-nails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron. The Devil ran over his face with hobnails in his shoes; said of one pitted With the small pox.
hobson's choice
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hockey
Drunk with strong stale beer, called old hock. See HICKEY.
hocks
Vulgar appellation for the feet. You have left the marks of your dirty hocks on my clean stairs; a frequent complaint from a mop squeezer to a footman.
hocks
The feet and ankles; CURBY HOCKS, round or clumsy feet and ankles. Term originating with horsey men.
hocus
To drug a person for purposes of robbery. The potion generally consists of snuff and beer among rogues of the lowest class, and is by them called "snuffing a bloke;" or sometimes, when the drug is administered to a woman for purposes other than those of robbery, "snuffing a blowen."
hocus pocus
Nonsensical words used by jugglers, previous to their deceptions, as a kind of charm, or incantation. A celebrated writer supposes it to be a ludicrous corruption of the words hoc est corpus, used by the popish priests in consecrating the host. Also Hell Hocus is used to express drunkenness: as, he is quite hocus; he is quite drunk.
hod
Brother Hod; a familiar name for a bricklayer's labourer: from the hod which is used for carrying bricks and mortar.
hoddy doddy, all a-se and no body
A short clumsy person, either male or female.
hodge
An abbreviation of Roger: a general name for a country booby.
hodge
A countryman or provincial clown. Most country districts in England have one or more families in the name of HODGE; indeed, GILES and HODGE appear to be the favourite hobnail nomenclature. HODGE is said to be simply an abbreviation of Roger.
hodge podge
An irregular mixture of numerous things.
hodmandods
Snails in their shells.
hog
A shilling. To drive one's hogs; to snore: the noise made by some persons in snoring, being not much unlike the notes of that animal. He has brought his hogs to a fine market; a saying of any one who has been remarkably successful in his affairs, and is spoken ironically to signify the contrary. A hog in armour; an awkward or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed, is said to look like a hog in armour.
hog
A shilling.—Old Cant.
hog grubber
A mean stingy fellow.
hoga
Do. "That wont HOGA," i.e., that wont do, is one of the very commonest of the Anglo-Indian slang phrases.
hoggish
Rude, unmannerly, filthy.
hogmagundy
The process by which the population is increased.
hogmany night
New Year’s Eve, when presents are solicited by the young folk.—Scotch.
hogo
Corruption of haut goust, high taste, or flavour; commonly said of flesh somewhat tainted. It has a confounded hogo; it stinks confoundedly.
hogo
A tremendous stench. From haut goût. Now often pronounced FOGO.
hoist
To go upon the hoist; to get into windows accidentally left open: this is done by the assistance of a confederate, called the hoist, who leans his head against the wall, making his back a kind of step or ascent.
hoity-toity
A hoity-toity wench; a giddy, thoughtless, romping girl.
holborn hill
To ride backwards up Holborn hill; to go to the gallows: the way to Tyburn, the place of execution for criminals condemned in London, was up that hill. Criminals going to suffer, always ride backwards, as some conceive to increase the ignominy, but more probably to prevent them being shocked with a distant view of the gallows; as, in amputations, surgeons conceal the instruments with which they are going to operate.
hold hard
to wait or stop for a moment
holiday
A holiday bowler; a bad bowler. Blind man's holiday; darkness, night. A holiday is any part of a ship's bottom, left uncovered in paying it. SEA TERM. It is all holiday; See ALL HOLIDAY.
hollow
It was quiet a hollow thing; i.e. a certainty, or decided business.
hollow
"to beat HOLLOW," to excel.
holy father
A butcher's boy of St. Patrick's Market, Dublin, or other Irish blackguard; among whom the exclamation, or oath, by the Holy Father (meaning the Pope), is common.
holy lamb
A thorough-paced villain. IRISH.
holy water
He loves him as the Devil loves holy water, i.e. hates him mortally. Holy water, according to the Roman Catholics, having the virtue to chase away the Devil and his imps.
homo
A man. Lingua Franca; but see OMEE, the more usual Cockney pronunciation.
hondey
A Manchester name for an omnibus, and the abbreviation of HONDEYBUSH, the original Lancashire pronunciation of the word.
honest man
A term frequently used by superiors to inferiors. As honest a man as any in the cards when all the kings are out; i.e. a knave. I dare not call thee rogue for fear of the law, said a quaker to an attorney; but I wil give thee five pounds, if thou canst find any creditable person who wilt say thou art an honest man.
honest shilling
A shilling earned by a process actually immoral, but not positively illegal. The money earned by a prostitute is said to be honest, as distinguished from that obtained by a thief. Probably from the story of the converted burglar, who determined to sin no more himself, and who lectured against dishonesty, but sent his wife out regularly every evening with instructions to earn an HONEST SHILLING.
honest woman
To marry a woman with whom one has cohabitated as a mistress, is termed, making an honest woman of her.
honey blobs
A Scotch term for large ripe, yellow gooseberries.
honey moon
The first month after marriage. A poor honey; a harmless, foolish, goodnatured fellow. It is all honey or a t--d with them; said of persons who are either in the extremity of friendship or enmity, either kissing or fighting.
honour bright
An asseveration which means literally, "by my honour, which is bright and unsullied." It is often still further curtailed to "HONOUR!" only.
hood-winked
Blindfolded by a handkerchief, or other ligature, bound over the eyes.
hoof
To beat the hoof; to travel on foot. He hoofed it or beat the hoof, every step of the way from Chester to London.
hook
An expression at Oxford, implying doubt, either connected with Hookey Walker, or with a note of interrogation (?) "Yes, with a HOOK at the end of it!" i.e., with some reservation, generally that of doubt, by the speaker.
hook and snivey, with nix the buffer
This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is carried on thus: Three men, one of who pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house: the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.
hook it
"get out of the way," or "be off about your business;" generally varied by "take your HOOK." "To HOOK it," to run away, to decamp; "on one’s own HOOK," dependent upon one’s own exertions. Originally connected with the preceding, but now perfectly "on its own HOOK."
hook or by crook
By fair means or foul—in allusion to the hook with which footpads used to steal from open windows, &c., and from which HOOK, to take or steal, has been derived. Mentioned in Hudibras as a cant term.
hook um snivey
(formerly "HOOK and SNIVEY"), a low expression, meaning to cheat by feigning sickness or other means. Also a piece of thick iron wire crooked at one end, and fastened into a wooden handle, for the purpose of undoing from the outside the wooden bolt of a door. Sometimes used as an irrelevant answer by street boys. As, "who did that?"—"HOOK UM SNIVEY"—actually no one.
hooked
Over-reached, tricked, caught: a simile taken from fishing. **** hooks; fingers.
hookee walker
An expression signifying that the story is not true, or that the thing will not occour.
hooks
"dropped off the HOOKS," said of a deceased person—possibly derived from the ancient practice of suspending on hooks the quarters of a traitor or felon sentenced by the old law to be hung, drawn, and quartered, which dropped off the hooks as they decayed.
hoop
To run the hoop; an ancient marine custom. Four or more boys having their left hands tied fast to an iron hoop, and each of them a rope, called a nettle, in their right, being naked to the waist, wait the signal to begin: this being made by a stroke with a cat of nine tails, given by the boatswain to one of the boys, he strikes the boy before him, and every one does the same: at first the blows are but gently administered; but each irritated by the strokes from the boy behind him, at length lays
hop
A dance.—Fashionable slang.
hop o’ my thumb
An undersized person. From the story of that name. Portion of a set of phrases established for the benefit of the small, in which Tomtit, Little Breeches, Daniel Lambert, Sixfoot, Twentystun, &c., play a prominent part.
hop-o-my-thumb
A diminutive person, man or woman. She was such a-hop-o-my thumb, that a pigeon, sitting on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a-se.
hopkins
Mr. Hopkins; a ludicrous address to a lame or limping man, being a pun on the word hop.