chalks
"to walk one’s CHALKS," to move off, or run away. An ordeal for drunkenness used on board ship, to see whether the suspected person can walk on a chalked line without overstepping it on either side.
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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.
chancery
A pugilistic phrase for difficulties; "to get a man’s head into CHANCERY," i.e., to get an opponent’s head firmly under one’s arm, where it can be pommelled with immense power, and without any possibility of immediate extrication. From the helplessness of a suitor in Chancery. This opportunity was of very rare occurrence when the combatants were at all evenly matched.
change
Small money. The overplus returned after paying for a thing in a round sum. Hence a slang expression used when a person receives a "settler" in the shape of either a repartee or a blow—"Take your CHANGE out of that!"
chap
A fellow; An odd chap; A strange fellow.
chap
A fellow, a boy; "a low CHAP," a low fellow—abbreviation of CHAPMAN, a huckster. Used by Byron in his Critical Remarks.
chapel
A printers’ assembly, held for the purpose of discussing differences between employer and workmen, trade regulations, or other matters. The term is scarcely slang, but some "comps" ask its insertion in this work.
chapel-of-ease
French, CABINET D’AISANCE, a house of office.
chaperon
The cicisbeo, or gentleman usher to a lady; from the French.
characterisms
Or the Modern Age Displayed; being an Attempt to Expose the Pretended Virtues of Both Sexes, 12mo (part i., Ladies; part ii., Gentlemen), E. Owen. 1750.
chariot-buzzing
Picking pockets in an omnibus.
charley
A watchman, a beadle. Almost obsolete now.
charley lancaster
A handkercher,—vulgar pronunciation of handkerchief.
charley-pitcher
A low, cheating gambler.
charlies
A woman’s breasts. Also called dairies and bubbies.
charren
The smoke of Charren.--His eyes water from the smoke of Charren; a man of that place coming out of his house weeping, because his wife had beat him, told his neighbours the smoke had made his eyes water.
chats
Lice, or body vermin. Prov., any small things of the same kind.
chatter box
One whose tongue runs twelve score to the dozen, a chattering man or woman.
chatter broth
Tea. See CAT LAP and SCANDAL BROTH.
chatter-basket
Common term for a prattling child amongst nurses.
chatter-box
An incessant talker or chatterer.
chatts
Lice: perhaps an abbreviation of chattels, lice being the chief live stock of chattels of beggars, gypsies, and the rest of the canting crew. CANT.--Also, according to the canting academy, the gallows.
chatty
A filthy person, one whose clothes are not free from vermin; CHATTY DOSS, a lousy bed. A CHATTY DOSSER or a CRUMMY DOSSER is a filthy tramp or houseless wanderer.
chaunt
To sing the contents of any paper in the streets. CANT, as applied to vulgar language, may have been derived from CHAUNT.
chaunter culls
Grub-street writers, who compose songs, carrols, &c. for ballad-singers. CANT.
chaunters
Those street sellers of ballads, last copies of verses, and other broadsheets, who sang or bawled the contents of their papers. They often termed themselves PAPER WORKERS. Cheap evening papers and private executions have together combined to improve these folks’ occupations off the face of the earth. See HORSE-CHAUNTERS.
chaw
To chew; CHAW UP, to get the better of one, finish him up; CHAWED UP, utterly done for.
chaw bacon
A countryman. A stupid fellow.
chaw over
To repeat one’s words with a view to ridicule.
chaw-bacon
A rustic. Derived from the popular idea that a countryman lives entirely on bread and fat bacon. A country clown, a joskin, a yokel, a clodcrusher. These terms are all exchangeable.
cheap
"doing it on the CHEAP," living economically, or keeping up a showy appearance with very little means.
cheap jacks
Or JOHNS, oratorical hucksters and patterers of hardware, who put an article up at a high price, and then cheapen it by degrees, indulging all the time in volleys of coarse wit, until it becomes to all appearance a bargain, and as such it is bought by one of the crowd. The popular idea is that the inverse method of auctioneering saves them paying for the auction licence.—See DUTCH AUCTION.
cheapside
He came at it by way of Cheapside; he gave little or nothing for it, he bought it cheap.
cheats
Sham sleeves to put over a dirty shift or shirt. See SHAMS.
checks
Counters used in games at cards. In the Pacific States of America a man who is dead is said to have handed (or passed) in his checks. The gamblers there are responsible for many of the colloquialisms current.
chee-chee
This word is used in a rather offensive manner to denote Eurasians, or children by an English father and native mother. It takes its origin in a very common expression of half-caste females, "CHEE-CHEE," equivalent to our Oh, fie!—Nonsense!—For shame!—Anglo-Indian.
cheek
Share or portion; "where’s my CHEEK?" where is my allowance? "All to his own CHEEK," all to himself.
cheeks
Ask cheeks near cunnyborough; the repartee of a St. Gilse's fair one, who bids you ask her backside, anglice her a-se. A like answer is current in France: any one asking the road or distance to Macon, a city near Lyons, would be answered by a French lady of easy virtue, 'Mettez votre nez dans mon cul, & vous serrez dans les Fauxbourgs.'
cheese
Anything good, first-rate in quality, genuine, pleasant, or advantageous, is termed the CHEESE. The London Guide, 1818, says it was from some young fellows translating "c’est une autre CHOSE" into "that is another CHEESE." But the expression CHEESE may be found in the Gipsy vocabulary, and in the Hindostanee and Persian languages. In the last CHIZ means a thing—that is the thing, i.e., the CHEESE.
cheesecutter
A prominent and aquiline nose. Also a large square peak to a cap. Caps fitted with square peaks are called cheesecutter caps.
cheesemongers
Once a popular name for the First Lifeguards. Until the Peninsular War the First Lifeguards, from their almost exclusive service at home, were nicknamed CHEESEMONGERS. This term then fell into desuetude; but at Waterloo the commanding officer of the regiment had not forgotten it, and when leading his men to the charge, called out, "Come on, you damned CHEESEMONGERS!" an invitation complied with so readily, that the title was restored, with the difference that it was no longer a word of reproach.
cheeser
A strong smelling fart.
cheesy
Fine or showy. The opposite of "dusty."
chelsea
A village near London, famous for the military hospital. To get Chelsea; to obtain the benefit of that hospital. Dead Chelsea, by G-d! an exclamation uttered by a grenadier at Fontenoy, on having his leg carried away by a cannon-ball.
cherry-bums
Or CHERUBIMS, a nickname given to the 11th Hussars, from their crimson trousers.
cherry-colour
Either red or black, as you wish; a term used in a cheating trick at cards. When the cards are being dealt, a knowing one offers to bet that he will tell the colour of the turn-up card. "Done!" says Mr. Green. The sum being named, Mr. Sharp affirms that it will be CHERRY-COLOUR; and as cherries are either black or red, he wins, leaving his victim a wiser man, it is to be hoped, and not a better for the future.
cherry-coloured cat
A black cat, there being black cherries as well as red.
cherry-merry
A present of money. CHERRY-MERRY-BAMBOO, a beating.—Anglo-Indian.
cherubims
Peevish children, because cherubims and seraphims continually do cry.
cherubs
Or still more vulgarly, CHERUBIMS, the chorister boys who chaunt in the services at the abbeys and cathedrals. Possibly because in some places their heads alone are visible.
cheshire cat
He grins like a Cheshire cat; said of anyone who shews his teeth and gums in laughing.
chest of tools
A shoe-black's brush and wig, &c. Irish.
chi-ike
To hail in a rough though friendly manner; to support by means of vociferation.
chick-a-biddy
A chicken, so called to and by little children.
chicken
A term applied to anything young, small, or insignificant; CHICKEN STAKES, small paltry stakes; "she’s no CHICKEN," said of an old maid.
chicken nabob
One returned from the East Indies with but a moderate fortune of fifty or sixty thousand pounds, a diminutive nabob: a term borrowed from the chicken turtle.
chicken-breasted
Said of a woman with scarce any breasts.
chicken-hammed
Persons whose legs and thighs are bent or archward outwards.
chicken-hearted
Cowardly, fearful. With about the amount of pluck a chicken in a fright might be supposed to possess.
child
To eat a child; to partake of a treat given to the parish officers, in part of commutation for a bastard child the common price was formerly ten pounds and a greasy chin. See GREASY CHIN.
children’s shoes
(to make), to be made nought of.—See SHOES.