grief
"to come to GRIEF," to meet with an accident, to be ruined.
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Expressions you’ll hear in Britain and Ireland — distinctly British usage first, then widespread staples.
griffin
In India, a newly-arrived cadet; general for an inexperienced youngster.
grig
A farthing. A merry grig; a fellow as merry as a grig: an allusion to the apparent liveliness of a grig, or young eel.
grim
Old Mr. Grim; death.
grimalkin
A cat: mawkin signifies a hare in Scotland.
grin
To grin in a glass case; to be anatomized for murder: the skeletons of many criminals are preserved in glass cases, at Surgeons' hall.
grinagog, the cat's uncle
A foolish grinning fellow, one who grins without reason.
grind
"to take a GRIND," i.e., a walk, or constitutional. The daily grind is a term representing employment containing much routine. At Oxford college sports are called sometimes the GRIND.
grinder
Private tutor, a coach.—University.
grinders
Teeth. Gooseberry grinder; the breech. Ask bogey, the gooseberry grinder; ask mine a-se.
grindoff
A miller. From The Miller and his Men.
gripes
The stomach-ache. See TRIPES.
grizzle
To fret or cry continuously.
groats
To save his groats; to come off handsomely: at the universities, nine groats are deposited in the hands of an academic officer, by every person standing for a degree; which if the depositor obtains with honour, the groats are returned to him.
grog
Rum and water. Grog was first introduced into the navy about the year 1740, by Admiral Vernon, to prevent the sailors intoxicating themselves with their allowance of rum, or spirits. Groggy, or groggified; drunk.
grog blossoms
Pimples on the face, caused by hard drinking. Of such a person it is often said, "He bears his blushing honours thick upon him."
grog-blossom
A carbuncle, or pimple in the face, caused by drinking.
grog-fight
A drinking party.—Military.
grogged
A grogged horse; a foundered horse.
groggy
Tipsy; when a prize-fighter becomes "weak on his pins," and nearly beaten, he is said to be GROGGY. The same term is applied to horses that are overworked and unsteady. From similarity of appearance to the peculiarity of gait consequent on imbibing too much GROG.
gropers
Blind men; also midwives.
grose’s
(Francis, generally styled Captain) Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 8vo. 178-.
ground squirrel
A hog, or pig. SEA TERM.
growler
A four-wheeled cab. It is generally supposed that drivers of these vehicles take a less favourable view of life than do their Hansom brethren.
grub
Victuals. To grub; to dine.
grub street
A street near Moorfields, formerly the supposed habitation of many persons who wrote for the booksellers: hence a Grub-street writer means a hackney author, who manufactures booss for the booksellers.
grubby
Musty, or old-fashioned.—Devonshire.
gruel
"to give a person his GRUEL," to kill him. An expression in all probability derived from the report of a trial for poisoning, or from the easiest manner of administering a dose of poison. In the old days a similar phrase was "to drug a posset." Compare "to settle his hash," and "cook his goose."
grumble
To grumble in the gizzard; to murmur or repine. He grumbled like a bear with a sore head.
grumbletonian
A discontented person; one who is always railing at the times or ministry.
grunter
A hog; to grunt; to groan, or complain of sickness.
grunter's gig
A smoaked hog's face.
grunting peck
Pork, bacon, or any kind of hog's flesh.
gudgeon
One easily imposed on. To gudgeon; to swallow the bait, or fall into a trap: from the fish of that name, which is easily taken.
guinea pigs
Habitual directors of public companies; special jurymen; and engineer officers doing civil duty at the War Office, and paid a GUINEA per diem.
guinea to a goose
A sporting phrase, meaning long odds in favour of, or against, anything under notice. In the City this state of things is represented by the phrase, Lombard Street to a China orange. There are also other colloquialisms on this subject, but their power is, as a rule, mainly dependent upon their indecency.
gull
A simple credulous fellow, easily cheated.
gull
To cheat, to deceive; also one easily cheated. From the easy manner in which the bird of that name is deceived.
gulled
Deceived, cheated, imposed on.
gullgropers
Usurers who lend money to the gamesters.
gully rakers
Cattle thieves in Australia, the cattle being stolen out of almost inaccessible valleys, there termed GULLIES.
gullyfluff
The waste—coagulated dust, crumbs, and hair—which accumulates imperceptibly in the pockets of schoolboys.
gulpin
A weak, credulous fellow, who will GULP down anything.
gum
Abusive language. Come, let us have no more of your gum.
gummy
Clumsy: particularly applied to the ancles of men or women, and the legs of horses.
gummy
Thick, fat—generally applied to a woman’s ankles, or to a man whose flabby person betokens him a drunkard.
gumption
Or RUMGUMPTION, comprehension, capacity. From GAUM, to comprehend; "I canna gauge it, and I canna GAUM it," as a Yorkshire exciseman said of a hedgehog.
gun
He is in the gun; he is drunk: perhaps from an allusion to a vessel called a gun, used for ale in the universities.
gun
A magsman or street thief. Diminutive of gonnuf or gunnof. A GUN’S practice is known as GUNOVING.
gundiguts
A fat, pursy fellow.
gunner's daughter
a device for punishing sailors
gup
Gossip.—Anglo-Indian.
gurrawaun
A coachman, a native Indian corruption of the English word coachman. For another curious corruption of a similar kind, see SIMPKIN.—Anglo-Indian.
gusher
One overflowing with sentiment, a rhapsodizer. Romance-reading young ladies are generally described as GUSHING, and of late years the word GUSH has done duty as representing the newspaper work necessary for a continuance of the "largest circulation."
guts
My great guts are ready to eat my little ones; my guts begin to think my throat's cut; my guts curse my teeth: all expressions signifying the party is extremely hungry.
guts and garbage
A very fat man or woman. More guts than brains; a silly fellow. He has plenty of guts, but no bowels: said of a hard, merciless, unfeeling person.
gutter blood
A low or vulgar man.—Scotch.
gutter lane
The throat, the swallow, the red lane. See RED LANE.
gutting a quart pot
Taking out the lining of it: i. e. drinking it off. Gutting an oyster; eating it. Gutting a house; clearing it of its furniture. See POULTERER.
guy
A dark lanthorn: an allusion to Guy Faux, the principal actor in the gunpowder plot. Stow the guy: conceal the lanthorn.
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