cold day in Hell
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
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cold fish
A person who is unemotional or unresponsive
cold hand
Someone who is unlucky or brings bad luck
cold hands, warm heart
Someone with a cold or unfriendly exterior has a kind interior
cold hard cash
Actual money, not credit or other forms of payment
cold iron
A bad omen.
cold meat box
A coffin.
cold meat cart
A hearse.
cold one
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
cold pudding
This is said to settle one's love.
cold snap
A short period of cold weather
cold treatment
Deliberately ignoring or showing indifference to someone
cold turkey
to stop doing something suddenly and completely
cold without
An elliptical expression, meaning spirits mixed with cold water without sugar.
Cold-Bath Fields
A district of Clerkenwell, London, so called from the baths established there, in 1697, for the cure of rheumatism, convulsions, and other nervous disorders.
cold-blooded animals
As a rule, all invertebrate animals, and all fishes and reptiles, are cold-blooded, the temperature of their blood being about equal to the medium in which they live.
cold-drawn oil
Oil that is extracted or expressed without the use of heat. To have cold feet is to be timorous or cowardly. An expression originating in the U.S.A. in the 1890s.
cold-water ordeal
An ancient method of testing guilt or innocence. The accused, being tied under the arms, was thrown into a river.
Coldstream Guards
The second of the five regiments of Foot Guards.
cole
Money. Post the cole: pay down the money.
colfabias
A Latinized Irish phrase signifying the closet of decency, applied as a slang term to a place of resort in Trinity College, Dublin.
colgate
toothpaste
Colin Clout
A name which Spenser assumes in The Shepherd's Calendar, and in the pastoral entitled Colin Cloufs Come Home Again, which represents his return from a visit to Sir Walter Raleigh, "the Shepherd of the Ocean.'* Skelton had previously (about 1520) used the name as the title of a satire directed against the abuses of the Church ; he says :— And if ye stande in doute Who brought this ryme aboute, My name is Colyn Qoute.
Colin Tampon
The old nickname of a Swiss, as John Bull is of an Englishman, Brother Jonathan of a North American, and Monsieur Crapaud of a Frenchman.
collar
"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.
collar and elbow
A term for a peculiar style of wrestling—the Cornwall and Devon style.
Collar of SS
A decoration restricted to the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord Mayor of London, the Kings-of-Arms, the Heralds, the Sergeant-at-Arms, and the Sergeant Trum- peter. It is composed of a series of golden S's joined together, and was originally the badge of the adherents of the House of Lancaster.
collect dust
To be unused or forgotten for a long time
collect one's thoughts
to calm down and organize one's mind
collections
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.
college
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.
college cap
A trencher like the caps worn at the English Universities by students and bachelors of art, doctors of divinity, etc.
college cove
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.
college port
The vintage port laid down in university college cellars for the special use of the senior Common Room. The excellence of this is often a source of college pride.
collegiates
Prisoners of the one, and shopkeepers of the other of those places.
collogue
To conspire, talk mysteriously together in low tones, plot mischief. Connected with "colloquy" or "colleague." Maybe mixture of both.
colly-wobbles
The stomach-ache, a person’s bowels,—supposed by many to be the seat of feeling and nutrition.—Devonshire.
Colonel Achilles Kirkpatrick
The Rose Gar- den is Strachey's garden at Shooter's Hill, and the Duenna is Mrs. Strachey.
Colonel Bogy
A name given in golf to an imaginary player whose score for each hole is settled by the committee of the particular club and is supposed to be the lowest that a good average player could do it in. Beating Bogy or the Colonel, is playing the hole in a less number of strokes.
colorado beetle
This beetle, which is the terror of the potato-grower, for it will devas- tate.whole fields, was first observed in the Rocky Mountain regions in 1 859. It has since spread over large areas of America and has made its way at times into Europe, despite the most stringent precautions taken by the govern- ments of the countries threatened.
colour
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.
colour sergeant
Originally the senior non-commissioned officer of a military unit, who had charge of the regimental colours in the field. It is now a rank, bearing a sergeant's chevrons but carrying with it extra pay, and is awarded for special responsibilities greater than those of a sergeant but not sufficient to deserve warrant officer's rank. The equivalent in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, which, does not bear colours, is staff sergeant.
colquarron
A man's neck. His colquarron is just about to be twisted; he is just going to be hanged. CANT.
colt
One who lets horses to highwaymen; also a boy newly initiated into roguery; a grand or petty juryman on his first assize. CANT.
colt
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."
colt bowl
Laid short of the jack by a colt bowler, i.e. a person raw or unexperienced in the art of bowling.
colt veal
Coarse red veal, more like the flesh of a colt than that of a calf.
colt's tooth
An old fellow who marries or keeps a young girl, is said to have a colt's tooth in his head.
coltage
A fine or beverage paid by colts on their first entering into their offices.
comb
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.
comb through
Examine carefully and thoroughly
comb-cut
Mortified, disgraced, "down on one’s luck."—See CUT.
come
Semen.
come
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.
come
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.
come a long way
to make significant progress or improvement
come across
To find or encounter something by chance
come across somebody
Meet or encounter someone by chance
come again
Say that again, I didn't hear or understand.
come alive
become more interesting or exciting
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