currants and plums
Thrums,—slang for threepence.
English · UK & Ireland 17968
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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.
currency
Persons born in Australia are there termed CURRENCY, while natives of England are termed STERLING. The allusion is to the difference between colonial and imperial moneys, which it may be as well to remark have no difference so far as actual value is concerned.
curry
To curry favour; to obtain the favour of a person be coaxing or servility. To curry any one's hide; to beat him.
curse
Anything worthless. Corruption of the Old English word KERSE, a small sour wild cherry; French, CERISE; German, KIRSCH. Vision of Piers Ploughman:—
cursitors
Broken petty-fogging attornies, or Newgate solicitors. CANT.
curtail
To cut off. Originally a Cant word—vide Hudibras, and Bacchus and Venus, 1737. Evidently derived from the French court tailler.
curtails
Thieves who cut off pieces of stuff hanging out of shop windows, the tails of women's gowns, &c.; also, thieves wearing short jackets.
curtain lecture
A woman who scolds her husband when in bed, is said to read him a curtain lecture.
cushion
He has deserved the cushion; a saying of one whose wife is brought to bed of a boy: implying, that having done his business effectually, he may now indulge or repose himself.
cushion-smiter
Polite rendering of tub-thumper, a clergyman, a preacher.
cushmawaunee
Never mind. Sailors and soldiers who have been in India frequently say—
custard cap
The cap worn by the sword-bearer of the city of London, made hollow at the top like a custard.
custom-house goods
The stock in trade of a prostitute, because fairly entered.
customer
Synonymous with CHAP, a fellow; "a rum CUSTOMER," i.e., a man likely to turn the tables on any one who attacked him, and therefore better be let alone, or very warily proceeded with; an "odd fish," or curious person.—Shakspeare.
cut
Drunk. A little cut over the head; slightly intoxicated. To cut; to leave a person or company. To cut up well; to die rich.
cut
To take cards from a pack, with a view to decide by comparison which persons shall be partners, or which players shall deal. Not less than four cards must be picked up by the cutter, and the bottom one is the CUT. When cutting for a "turn-up," the residuum is called the CUT.
cut-throat
A butcher, a cattle-slaughterer; a ruffian.
cute
Sharp, cunning. Abbreviation of ACUTE.
cutter
A ruffian, a cut-purse. Of Robin Hood it was said—
cutting-shop
A place where cheap rough goods are sold.
cutty-pipe
A short clay pipe. Scotch, CUTTY, short.
cutty-sark
A short chemise.—Scotch. A scantily-draped lady is so called by Burns.
d.t
A popular abbreviation of delirium tremens; sometimes written and pronounced del. trem. D.T. also often represents the Daily Telegraph.
dab
An adept; a dab at any feat or exercise. Dab, quoth Dawkins, when he hit his wife on the a-se with a pound of butter.
dab
Or DABSTER, an expert person. Most probably derived from the Latin adeptus.
dabheno
A bad one, sometimes a bad market. See DOOGHENO.
dace
Two pence. Tip me a dace; lend me two pence. CANT.
dacha-saltee
Tenpence. Probably from the Lingua Franca. Modern Greek, δέκα; Italian, DIECI SOLDI, tenpence; Gipsy, DIK, ten. So also DACHA-ONE (oney), i.e., dieci uno, elevenpence.—See SALTEE.
daddle
The hand; "tip us your DADDLE," i.e., shake hands.
daddles
Hands. Tip us your daddle; give me your hand. CANT.
daddy
Father. Old daddy; a familiar address to an old man. To beat daddy mammy; the first rudiments of drum beating, being the elements of the roll.
daddy
A stage manager.—Theatrical. Also the person who gives away the bride at a wedding.
daffy
Gin. A term with monthly nurses, who are always extolling the virtues of Daffy’s Elixir, and who occasionally comfort themselves with a stronger medicine under Daffy’s name. Of late years the term has been altered to "soothing syrup."
daggers
They are at daggers drawing; i.e. at enmity, ready to fight.
dags
Feat or performance; "I’ll do your DAGS," i.e., I will do something that you cannot do. Corruption of DARINGS.
dairies
A woman’s breasts, which are also called CHARLIES.
dairy
A woman's breasts, particularly one that gives suck. She sported her dairy; she pulled out her breast.
daisy kickers
Ostlers at great inns.
daisy-cutter
A horse that trots or gallops without lifting its feet much from the ground.
daisy-kicker
The name ostlers at large inns used to give each other, now nearly obsolete. DAISY-KICKER, or GROGHAM, was likewise the cant term for a horse. The DAISY-KICKERS were sad rogues in the old posting days; frequently the landlords rented the stables to them, as the only plan to make them return a profit.
dam
A small Indian coin, mentioned in the Gentoo code of laws: hence etymologists may, if they please, derive the common expression, I do not care a dam, i.e. I do not care half a farthing for it.
damage
In the sense of recompense; "what’s the DAMAGE?" i.e., what is to pay? or actually, what is the DAMAGE to my pocket?
damber
A rascal. See DIMBER.
damme boy
A roaring, mad, blustering fellow, a scourer of the streets, or kicker up of a breeze.
damned soul
A clerk in a counting house, whose sole business it is to clear or swear off merchandise at the custom-house; and who, it is said, guards against the crime of perjury, by taking a previous oath, never to swear truly on those occasions.
damper
A luncheon, or snap before dinner: so called from its damping, or allaying, the appetite; eating and drinking, being, as the proverb wisely observes, apt to take away the appetite.
damper
A shop till; to DRAW A DAMPER, i.e., rob a till. A till is more modernly called a "lob," and stealing from tills is known as "lob-sneaking."
dander
Passion or temper; "to get one’s DANDER up," to rouse his passion.—Old, but now much used in America.
dando
A great eater, who cheats at hotels, eating shops, oyster-cellars, &c., from a person of that name who lived many years ago, and who was an enormous oyster-eater. According to the stories related of him, Dando would visit an oyster-room, devour an almost fabulous quantity of bivalves, with porter and bread and butter to match, and then calmly state that he had no money.
dandy
That's the dandy; i.e. the ton, the clever thing; an expression of similar import to "That's the barber." See BARBER.
dandy
A small glass of whisky.—Irish. "Dimidium cyathi vero apud Metropolitanos Hibernicos dicitur DANDY."—Father Tom and the Pope, in Blackwood’s Magazine for May 1838.
dandy grey russet
A dirty brown. His coat's dandy grey russet, the colour of the Devil's nutting bag.
dandy prat
An insignificant or trifling fellow.
dandypratt
A funny little fellow, a mannikin; originally a half-farthing of the time of Henry VII.
dangler
One who follows women in general, without any particular attachment
danna
Human ordure; DANNA DRAG, a nightman’s or dustman’s cart; hence DUNNA-KEN, which see.
dapper fellow
A smart, well-made, little man.
darbies
Handcuffs.—Old Cant.—See JOHNNY DARBIES. Sir Walter Scott mentions these, in the sense of fetters, in his Peveril of the Peak—
darble
The devil. French, DIABLE.
dark
"keep it DARK," i.e., secret. A DARK horse is, in racing phraseology, a horse of whom nothing positive is known, but who is generally supposed to have claims to the consideration of all interested, whether bookmakers or backers.
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