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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
Or SIZARS, certain poor scholars at Cambridge, annually elected, who got their dinners (including "sizings") from what was left at the upper, or Fellows’ table, free, or nearly so. They paid rent of rooms, and some other fees, on a lower scale than the "Pensioners" or ordinary students, and were equal with the "battlers" and "servitors" at Oxford.
To go off in a hurry. The American war introduced this new and amusing word. A Northerner who retreated "retired upon his supports," but a Southerner was said to SKEDADDLE. The Times remarked on the word, and Lord Hill wrote to prove that it was excellent Scotch. The Americans only misapply the word, which means, in Dumfries, "to spill"—milkmaids, for example, saying, "You are SKEDADDLING all that milk." The Yankees therefore adopted the term, and altered the application.
A cup, or beggar's wooden dish.
A sovereign. Fashionable slang. Occasionally SKIV.
Or SKYED, thrown upwards, as "coppers" in tossing.
Prison gruel. Also sailors’ soup of many ingredients. The term is occasionally used in London workhouses.
Abbreviation of SKILLIGOLEE.
St. Mary Hall, Oxford.—University.
In a bad skin; out of temper, in an ill humour. Thin-skinned: touchy, peevish.
A purse. This term is mostly in use among thieves.
An avaricious man or woman,
A game at cards, a very expressive corruption of the term "lansquenet," also a racing term. When a non-favourite wins a race, bookmakers are said to SKIN THE LAMB, under the supposition that they win all their bets, no person having backed the winner. This has been corrupted into SKINNER.
An old and popular simile for a "close-fisted," stingy person. Sternberg, in his Northamptonshire Glossary, says the Eastern languages have the same expression. Abdul-Malek, one of the Ommeyade Khaliphs, noted for his extreme avarice, was surnamed Raschal-Hegiarah, literally, "the SKINNER of a FLINT."
To skink, is to wait on the company, ring the bell, stir the fire, and snuff the candles; the duty of the youngest officer in the military mess. See BOOTS.
A term among bookmakers. "May we have a SKINNER," i.e., may we SKIN THE LAMB, which see.
Youngsters that ride horses on sale, horse-dealers boys. Also a plaything made for children with the breast bone of a goose.
A barn. CANT.--Also the captain of a Dutch vessel.
The master of a vessel. Germ., SCHIFFER, from SCHIFF, a ship; sometimes used as synonymous with "governor."
Or KEYHOLE-WHISTLERS, persons who sleep in barns or outhouses from necessity or in preference to sleeping in lodging-houses.
To sleep in the open air, or in a rough way.
A joke. A satirical hint.
A joke, a squib. Term generally used in reference to any pungent or pointed political allusion.
A game similar to that of Ten Pins, which, when interdicted by the Government, was altered to Nine Pins, or SKITTLES. The pins are set up in an alley, and thrown (not bowled) at with a round piece of hard wood, shaped like a small flat cheese. The costers used to consider themselves the best players in London, but they have been frequently undeceived. SKITTLES has within the past few years received an awful blow—quite a floorer—from "the powers that be."
A fellow who loiters about the premises of any one willing to support him, and who objects to the necessity of working for his living; a rogue, a rascal. Common in Melbourne, Australia.
To push or squeeze.—North.
A soldier who by feigned sickness, or other pretences, evades his duty; a sailor who keeps below in time of danger; in the civil line, one who keeps out of the way, when any work is to be done. To skulk; to hide one's self, to avoid labour or duty.
A straw-bonnet-maker,—sometimes called "a bonnet-BUILDER."
A mean or paltry fellow, one whose name stinks.
A disagreeable person, an enemy.—Westminster School. The word derived its origin from a corruption of the last syllable of the word "VOLSCI:" Westminster boys being of course understood to be the Romans.
Cheats who pretend they were farmers in the isle of Sky, or some other remote place, and were ruined by a flood, hurricane, or some such public calamity: or else called sky farmers from their farms being IN NUBIBUS, 'in the clouds.'
The garret, or upper story.
London milk much diluted with water, or from which the cream has been too closely skimmed.
A tall man; "Are you cold up there, old SKY-SCRAPER?" Properly a sea-term. The light sails, which some adventurous skippers set above the royals in calm latitudes, are termed SKY-SCRAPERS and MOON-RAKERS.
Unsteady frolicking.—Norfolk.
Thick, as gruel, porridge, &c.
A parson or lawyer's band.
"to hold on the SLACK," to skulk; a slack rope not requiring to be held.—Sea.
A slack-mettled fellow, one not ready to resent an affront.
A trick; also a game at whist lost without scoring one. To slam to a door; to shut it with violence.
A term at the game of whist. When two partners gain the whole thirteen tricks, they win a SLAM, which is considered equal to a rubber.
A female sloven, one whose clothes seem hung on with a pitch-fork, a careless trapes.
A slattern or awkward person.—West, and Norfolk.
A fetter. Double slanged; double ironed. Now double slanged into the cells for a crop he is knocked down; he is double ironed in the condemned cells, and ordered to be hanged.
To cheat, to abuse in foul language.
A long-winded speaker.—Parliamentary.
Flashy, vulgar; loud in dress, manner, and conversation.
Oblique, awry,—as opposed to PERPENDICULAR. Originally an Americanism, now a part of the vocabulary of London "high life below stairs."
Paint for the face, rouge.
Suddenly, violently. From the strike of a ball being felt before the report reaches the ear,—the SLAP first, the BANG afterwards.
Originally low eating-houses where the ready-money was paid down with a SLAP-BANG.—Grose. A SLAP-BANG-SHOP is now a very pretentious eating-house.
Immediately, or quickly; at a great rate.
First-rate, excellent, very good.
Immediately, instantly, suddenly.
A bullying, riotous fellow. IRISH.
A powerful roysterer, a game and clever pugilist.
The Twenty-eighth Regiment of Foot in the British army.
"he has a SLATE loose," i.e., he is slightly crazy.
The gaol at Kingston in Jamaica: Slater is the deputy Provost-marshal.
A woman sluttishly negligent in her dress.
A Dutchman. Probably a corruption of the Dutch, ja, mynheer; or German, ja, mein Herr.—Sea.