hopper-arsed
Having large projecting buttocks: from their resemblance to a small basket, called a hopper or hoppet, worn by husbandmen for containing seed corn, when they sow the land.
English · UK & Ireland 963
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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.
hopping giles
A jeering appellation given to any person who limps, or is lame; St. Giles was the patron of cripples, lepers, &c. Churches dedicated to that saint commonly stand out of town, many of them having been chapels to hospitals. See GYLES.
hoppo
Custom-house officer, or custom-house. Almost anything connected with custom-house business.—Anglo-Chinese.
horn colic
A temporary priapism.
horn mad
A person extremely jealous of his wife, is said to be horn mad. Also a cuckold, who does not cut or breed his horns easily.
horns
To draw in one's horns; to retract an assertion through fear: metaphor borrowed from a snail, who on the apprehension of danger, draws in his horns, and retires to his shell.
hornswoggle
Nonsense, humbug. Believed to be of American origin.
horrors
The low spirits, or "blue devils," which follow intoxication. Incipient del. trem.
horse
Contraction of Horsemonger-Lane Gaol, also a slang term for a five-pound note.
horse buss
A kiss with a loud smack; also a bite.
horse chaunter
A dealer who takes worthless horses to country fairs and disposes of them by artifice. He is generally an unprincipled fellow, and will put in a glass eye, fill a beast with shot, plug him with ginger, or in fact do anything so that he sells to advantage. See COPER.
horse coser
A dealer in horses: vulgarly and corruptly pronounced HORSE COURSER. The verb TO COSE was used by the Scots, in the sense of bartering or exchanging.
horse godmother
A large masculine woman, a gentlemanlike kind of a lady.
horse ladder
A piece of Wiltshire wit, which consists in sending some raw lad, or simpleton, to a neighbouring farm house, to borrow a horse ladder, in order to get up the horses, to finish a hay-mow.
horse nails
At the game of cribbage, when a player finds it his policy to keep his antagonist back, rather than push himself forward, and plays accordingly, he is sometimes said "to feed his opponent on HORSE NAILS."
horse's meal
A meal without drinking.
horsey
Like a groom or jockey. Applied also to persons who affect the turf in dress or conversation.
horse’s nightcap
A halter; "to die in a HORSE’S NIGHTCAP," to be hanged.
hot coppers
The feverish sensations experienced in the morning by those who have been drunk over-night.
hot pot
Ale and brandy made hot.
hot stomach
He has so hot a stomach, that he burns all the clothes off his back; said of one who pawns his clothes to purchase liquor.
hot tiger
An Oxford mixture of hot-spiced ale and sherry.
household words
No. 183, September 24.
houses
"safe as HOUSES," an expression to satisfy a doubting person; "Oh! it’s as safe as HOUSES," i.e., perfectly safe, apparently in allusion to the paying character of house property as an investment. It is said the phrase originated when the railway bubbles began to burst, and when people began to turn their attention to the more ancient forms of speculation, which though slow were sure.
housewarming
The first friendly gathering in a new or freshly-occupied house.
how’s your poor feet?
An idiotic street cry with no meaning, much in vogue a few years back.
hoxter
An inside pocket.—Old English, OXTER. Probably the low slang word HUXTER, money, is derived from this. OXTER is, among the Irish, an armpit.
hubble bubble
The Indian pipe termed a hookah is thus designated, from the noise it makes when being smoked.
hubble de shuff
Confusedly. To fire hubble de shuff, to fire quick and irregularly. OLD MILITARY TERM.
hubble-bubble
Confusion. A hubble-bubble fellow; a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle. Also an instrument used for smoaking through water in the East Indies, called likewise a caloon, and hooker.
hubbub
A noise, riot, or disturbance.
huckle my buff
Beer, egg, and brandy, made hot.
hucksters
Itinerant retailers of provisions. He is in hucksters hands; he is in a bad way.
huey
A town or village.—Tramps’ term.
huff
A dodge or trick; "don’t try that HUFF on me," or "that HUFF wont do." Also a term in the game of draughts,—the penalty for failing to take an opponent’s piece when an opportunity occurs.
hug
To hug brown bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier. He hugs it as the Devil hugs a witch: said of one who holds any thing as if he was afraid of losing it.
hugger mugger
By stealth, privately, without making an appearance. They spent their money in a hugger mugger way.
hugger-mugger
Underhand, sneaking. Also, "in a state of HUGGER-MUGGER" means to be muddled.
hugotontheonbiquiffinarians
A society existing in 1748.
hulk
To hang about in hopes of an invitation. See MOOCH.
hulky
Extra-sized.—Shropshire. From this and from hulk we probably get our adjective HULKING, as applied to the great lazy ruffians who infest low neighbourhoods.
hulver-headed
Having a hard impenetrable head; hulver, in the Norfolk dialect, signifying holly, a hard and solid wood.
hum and haw
To hesitate or avoid making a decision
hum cap
Very old and strong beer, called also stingo. See STINGO.
hum drum
A hum drum fellow; a dull tedious narrator, a bore; also a set of gentlemen, who (Bailey says) used to meet near the Charter House, or at the King's Head in St. John's-street, who had more of pleasantry, and less of mystery, than the free masons.
hum durgeon
An imaginary illness. He has got the humdurgeon, the thickest part of his thigh is nearest his a-se; i.e. nothing ails him except low spirits.
hum trum
A musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some packthread, thence also called a bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum; sometimes, instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.
hum-box
A pulpit. This is a very old term.
humble pie
to apologize or admit fault, often in a humiliating way
humbugs
The brethren of the venerable society of humbugs was held at brother Hallam's, in Goodman's Fields.
humdrum
Monotonous, tedious, tiresome, boring; "a society of gentlemen who used to meet near the Charter House, and at the King’s Head, St. John’s Street, Clerkenwell. They were characterized by less mystery and more pleasantry than the Freemasons."—Bacchus and Venus, 1737. In the West the term applies to a low cart.
hummer
A great lye, a rapper. See RAPPER.
humming
Strong as applied to drink. Extra strong ale is often characterized as "HUMMING October." Maybe from its effect on heads not quite so strong.
humming liquor
Double ale, stout pharaoh. See PHARAOH.
hummums
A bagnio, or bathing house.
hump
To hump; once a fashionable word for copulation.
hump
Low spirits. A costermonger who was annoyed or distressed about anything would describe himself as having "the HUMP."
hump up
"to have one’s HUMP UP," to be cross or ill-tempered—like a cat with its back set up. See BACK and MONKEY.
humpty dumpty
A little humpty dumpty man or woman; a short clumsy person of either sex: also ale boiled with brandy.
humpty-dumpty
Short and thick; all of a heap; all together, like an egg.