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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
The principal clique amongst the members of the Society of Antiquaries, who virtually decide whether any person proposed shall be admitted or not. The term comes from the "cocked-hat" placed before the president at the sittings. There was another cocked-hat club in London not many years back, which had nothing peculiar about it beyond the fact that every member wore during club sittings, a "fore-and-aft" cocked-hat. Otherwise the proceedings were of the most ordinary kind.
Shapeless: Anything which has been altered beyond recognition, or any man who has been put completely hors de combat, is said to have been knocked into a COCKED-HAT.
One fond of the diversion of cock-fighting.
Wanton, forward. A cockish wench; a forward coming girl.
To cry cockles; to be hanged: perhaps from the noise made whilst strangling. CANT.--This will rejoice the cockles of one's heart; a saying in praise of wine, ale, or spirituous liquors.
"to rejoice the COCKLES of one’s heart," a vulgar phrase implying great pleasure. Also, to "warm one’s COCKLES," said of any hot, well-spiced drink, taken in cold weather. COCKLES altogether seem to be an imaginary portion—of great importance—in the internal economy of the human frame.
Fictitious narratives, in verse or prose, of murders, fires, and terrible accidents, sold in the streets as true accounts. The man who hawks them, a patterer, often changes the scene of the awful event to suit the taste of the neighbourhood he is trying to delude. Possibly a corruption of cook, a cooked statement, or maybe "the story of a cock and a bull" may have had something to do with the term.
The evening, when fowls go to roost.
A game at fairs and races, where trinkets are set upon sticks, and for one penny three throws at them are accorded, the thrower keeping whatever he knocks off. From the ancient game of throwing or "shying" at live cocks. Any prominent person abused in the newspapers is said to be a common COCKSHY.
The head. A pugilistic term. Also, when anything is explained to a man for the first time, it is not unusual for him to say, "Ah, that accounts for the milk in the cocoa-nut"—a remark which has its origin in a clever but not very moral story.
Shrewdness, ability, luck; "Jack’s got COCUM, he’s safe to get on, he is,"—viz., he starts under favourable circumstances; "to fight COCUM" is to be wily and cautious. Allied perhaps to the Scottish KEEK, German, GUCKEN, to peep or pry into.
A cod of money: a good sum of money.
To hoax, to take a "rise" out of one. Used as a noun, a fool.
The fore flap of a man's breeches. Do they bite, master? where, in the cod piece or collar?--a jocular attack on a patient angler by watermen, &c.
A public-house game, much affected by medical students and cabmen, generally three on each side. The game is "simplicity itself," but requires a great amount of low cunning and peculiar mental ingenuity. It consists in guessing in which of the six hands displayed on the table, a small piece of marked money lies hid. If the guesser "brings it home," his side takes the "piece," and the centre man "works" it. If the guess is wrong, a chalk is taken to the holders, who again secrete the coin.
Persons employed by the gardeners to gather peas.
The "poor brethren" of the Charter House. In The Newcomes, Thackeray writes, "The Cistercian lads call these old gentlemen CODDS; I know not wherefore." A probable abbreviation of CODGER.
An old codger: an old fellow.
Or COGER, an old man; "a rum old CODGER," a curious old fellow. CODGER is sometimes used as synonymous with CADGER, and then signifies a person who gets his living in a questionable manner. "COGERS," the name of a debating society, formerly held in Shoe Lane, Fleet Street, and still in existence. The term is probably a corruption of COGITATORS.
The scrotum. Also a nick name for a curate: a rude fellow meeting a curate, mistook him for the rector, and accosted him with the vulgar appellation of Bol--ks the rector, No, Sir, answered he; only Cods the curate, at your service.
A necessary house. To make a coffee-house of a woman's ****; to go in and out and spend nothing.
A watercloset, or house of office.
The money, or whatsoever the sweeteners drop to draw in a bubble.
To cheat at dice.—Shakspeare. Also, to agree with, as one cog-wheel does with another, to crib from another’s book, as schoolboys often do. This is called "cogging over."
Loaded like false dice. Any one who has been hocussed or cheated is sometimes said to have been COGGED.
A dram of any spirituous liquor.
"to post the COIN"—sometimes "post the coal"—a sporting phrase meaning to make a deposit of money for a match of any kind.
The fool in the play of Bartholomew Fair: perhaps a contraction of the word COXCOMB.
Potatoes and cabbage pounded together in a mortar, and then stewed with butter: an Irish dish.
You will catch cold at that; a vulgar threat or advice to desist from an attempt. He caught cold by lying in bed barefoot; a saying of any one extremely tender or careful of himself.
A house licensed for the sale of beer "NOT to be drunk on the premises."
A punishment inflicted by private soldiers on their comrades for trifling offences, or breach of their mess laws; it is administered in the following manner: The prisoner is set against the wall, with the arm which is to be burned tied as high above his head as possible.
A bad omen.
This is said to settle one's love.
Money. Post the cole: pay down the money.
A Latinized Irish phrase signifying the closet of decency, applied as a slang term to a place of resort in Trinity College, Dublin.
"out of COLLAR," i.e., out of place, no work. Probably a variation of the metaphorical expressions, "in, or out of harness," i.e., in or out of work—the horse being in collar when harnessed for his work. COLLAR work is any very hard work, from the expression among drivers. Any uphill journey is said to be all "COLLAR work" for the horses.
A term for a peculiar style of wrestling—the Cornwall and Devon style.
The College examinations at the end of each term, when undergraduates wear white ties and bands, and are trotted through the subjects of the term’s lecture. These are the occasions when the dons administer reproof or advice on the conduct of each individual undergrad.—Oxford University.
Newgate or any other prison. New College: the Royal Exchange. King's College: the King's Bench prison. He has been educated at the steel, and took his last degree at college; he has received his education at the house of correction, and was hanged at Newgate.
The College cove has numbered him, and if he is knocked down he'll be twisted; the turnkey of Newgate has told the judge how many times the prisoner has been tried before and therefore if he is found guilty, he certainly will be hanged.
Prisoners of the one, and shopkeepers of the other of those places.
To conspire, talk mysteriously together in low tones, plot mischief. Connected with "colloquy" or "colleague." Maybe mixture of both.
The stomach-ache, a person’s bowels,—supposed by many to be the seat of feeling and nutrition.—Devonshire.
Complexion, tint; "I’ve not seen the COLOUR of his money," i.e., he has never paid me any. In fortune-telling by cards, a diamond colour is the fairest; heart-colour, fair, but not so fair as the last; club colour, rather dark; spade colour, an extremely swarthy complexion.
A man's neck. His colquarron is just about to be twisted; he is just going to be hanged. CANT.
One who lets horses to highwaymen; also a boy newly initiated into roguery; a grand or petty juryman on his first assize. CANT.
A murderous weapon, formed by slinging a small shot to the end of a rather stiff piece of rope. It is the original of the misnamed "life-preserver."
Laid short of the jack by a colt bowler, i.e. a person raw or unexperienced in the art of bowling.
Coarse red veal, more like the flesh of a colt than that of a calf.
An old fellow who marries or keeps a young girl, is said to have a colt's tooth in his head.
A fine or beverage paid by colts on their first entering into their offices.
To comb one's head; to clapperclaw, or scold any one: a woman who lectures her husband, is said to comb his head. She combed his head with a joint stool; she threw a stool at him.
Mortified, disgraced, "down on one’s luck."—See CUT.
To come; to lend. Has he come it; has he lent it? To come over any one; to cheat or over reach him. Coming wench; a forward wench, also a breeding woman.
A slang verb used in many phrases; "Aint he COMING IT?" i.e., is he not proceeding at a great rate? "Don’t COME TRICKS here," "don’t COME THE OLD SOLDIER over me," i.e., we are aware of your practices, and "twig" your manœuvre. COMING IT STRONG, exaggerating, going ahead, the opposite of "drawing it mild." COMING IT also means informing or disclosing.
The end of Lent term at Oxford, when honorary degrees are conferred and certain prizes given, and when men have friends "up."
A shirt.—Ancient Cant. Italian, CAMICIA.
A chaplain or clergyman.—Originally Old Cant.
A woman's head dress.