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A word of doubtful origin much used in N.W. Europe m World War II. It denoted taking a vehicle off for a drive for one's own amusement when off duty. It came to be applied to any apparently aimless move- ments, e.g. one who drove his tank about without apparent purpose might be described as "swanning about the battlefield.
To swear to any falsehood no matter how patent it is.
To indulge in very strong blasphemy or profanity. — " 'Our armies swore terribly in Flanders,' cried my Uncle Toby" (Sterne: Tristram Shandy, II, xi).
To clear off all the stakes. See above. To deck is to decorate or adorn. (Dut. dekken, to cover; perhaps connected with A.S. theccan, to thatch.
To win and carry off all the stakes in a game of cards, or all the prizes at some meeting.
To allow one's actions and principles to be guided solely by the force of public opinion.
To be hanged. He will swing for it; he will be hanged for it.
To withdraw from a position one has occupied or attempted to occupy; to retire into obscurity, usually as a confession of failure.
A euphemism for taking what the drinker chooses to call by that term. It may be anything from a sip to a Dutchman's draught.
To take a constitutional; to cram into the smallest space the greatest amount of physical exercise. This is the physical grind. The literary grind is a turn at hard study.
An obsolete gesture of obloquy and insult, performed by applying the left thumb to the nose and revolving the right hand round it, as if working a hand-organ or coffee-mill; done when someone had tried to practise on your credulity, or to impose upon your good faith.
To play a part, especially in a game of cards, etc.
To have a strong resemblance to, physically, mentally, etc. "Doesn't little Johnny take after his father?" "Most of Law- rence's paintings seem to take after Romney.
To withdraw them, to recant. To take down a peg. See PEG.
To cease for a little time from some exertion in order to recover from exhaustion of breath.
To seize by a sudden and irresistible attack; a military term used figuratively, as of one who becomes suddenly famous or popular; an actor, suddenly springing to fame, "takes the town by storm.
Originally this meant to pull someone's leg or make him the butt of a joke, but it has become a gangster euphemism for murder. The victim is induced or forced to enter a car with one or more companions who, in the course of the ride, murder him. Under the Nazi regime in Germany high officials, generals, etc. (e.g.
To take without asking leave or giving any equivalent ; also, to leave a party, house, or neighbourhood with- out bidding good-bye to anyone; to slip away unnoticed. This kind of backhanded compli- ment to our neighbours used to be very common (cp. "French gout" for venereal disease), and many objectionable things or practices have been called "French.
To take courage because of favour or indulgence shown.
To deceive, gull. Hence, a regular take-in, a hoax, swindle.
To "take up" a person given in charge; to take upon oneself the responsibility of something; to make an arrest.
To undertake to do some- thing; to take the charge of. To take something off one's hands. To relieve one of something troublesome.
To conceive the notion that . . .; to resolve to do so and so.
To exact satisfac- tion, to get one's own back; or, of oneself, to become thoroughly exhausted, as "Working after midnight does take it out of me.
To make oneself responsible (perhaps unwarrantably) to assume control.
To mimic or ridicule; also to start, especially of an aeroplane or of one in an athletic contest, as jumping or racing.
To be upset or considerably affected. In the U.S.A., to assume, or adopt.
To take the conceit out of a braggart or pretentious person. The allusion here is not to peg-tankards, but to a ship's colours, which used to be raised and lowered by pegs; the higher the colours are raised the greater the honour, and to take them down a peg would be to award less honour. Trepanned your party with intrigue, And took your grandees down a peg.
To patronize and protect. The allusion is to a hen gathering her chicks under her wing.
To assume the management, control, or ownership.
To assist; to participate. But Lilia pleased me, for she took no part In our dispute.
To take offence. The French have a similar locution, La moutarde lui monte au nez.
To become per- manently or firmly established.
To set out on a voyage, to embark on board ship.
A hunting term, signifying that the deer has taken to the water. Soil here is the Fr, souille, mire in which a wild boar wallows.
To ascertain how one's business stands by taking an inventory of all goods and so on in hand, balancing one's books, etc.; hence, to survey one's position and prospects.
To ascertain the relative position of some object. Bearnais, Le. Henry IV of France (1553-1610); so called from Le Beam, his native province.
To carry off the prize. The reference is to the negro cake walk, the prize for which was a cake. It consists of walking round the prize cake in pairs, while umpires decide which pair walk the most gracefully. From this a dance developed which was popular in the early part of the 20th century before the serious introduction of Jazz.
To become the chairman or president of a public meeting. The chairman is placed in some conspicuous place, like the Speaker of the House of Commons, and his decision is absolutely final in all points of doubt. Usually the persons present nominate and elect their own chairman; but in some cases there is an ex officio chairman.
To make the opening moves in a campaign; to move the army pre- paratory to battle.
To bind oneself by a solemn undertaking to abstain from intoxicat- ing liquors; the pledge being the guarantee or security — one's pledged word.
To take the place of honour. I will take the wall of any man or maid of Monta- gue's.— Romeo and Juliet, i, 1.
To get or keep the upper hand. Bacon uses the phrase. To have the wind of a ship is to be to the windward of it.
To feel deeply pained at something which has occurred; to appreciate fully the implications of.
To run off. Hampers all round, and no heel-taps. The bumpers are to be drained to the bottom of the glass.
To become bush- rangers, like runaway convicts, who live by plunder. See BUSH, below.
To take into custody, arrest; also used of patronizing people and getting them introductions into good society, etc.
To maintain an argument or position. To fight, as with a cudgel, for one's own way.
To fly away; to depart without warning. Oh, God! it is a fearful thing To see the human soul take wing.
To slang; to use foul, abusive language; to scold in a vulgar, coarse style.
To talk at a tremendous rate, or with excessive vehemence. D.P. The House of Lords (Lat. Domits Procerum). Also Displaced Persons (#.v.).
To talk about one's affairs or business; to draw allusions from one's business, as when Ollapod, the apothecary in Colman's Poor Gentleman, talks of a uniform with rhubarb-coloured facings.
To show signs of extreme anguish, grief, or vexation.
To utter abroad affairs not meant for the public ear.
for the purpose of achieving something
To the backbone, entirely. To turn one's back on another. To leave, forsake, or neglect one. To leave him by going away.
completely or thoroughly
On the wrong side of the account; in arrears.
See BITTER. West end, East end. The quarter or part of a town west or east of the central part. In Lon- don, and many other large towns, the West End is the fashionable quarter and the East End the part where the population lives that do the work.
until the end of a struggle or dispute