cheesecutter
A prominent and aquiline nose. Also a large square peak to a cap. Caps fitted with square peaks are called cheesecutter caps.
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cheesed off
Extremely annoyed or irritated
cheesemongers
Once a popular name for the First Lifeguards. Until the Peninsular War the First Lifeguards, from their almost exclusive service at home, were nicknamed CHEESEMONGERS. This term then fell into desuetude; but at Waterloo the commanding officer of the regiment had not forgotten it, and when leading his men to the charge, called out, "Come on, you damned CHEESEMONGERS!" an invitation complied with so readily, that the title was restored, with the difference that it was no longer a word of reproach.
cheeser
A strong smelling fart.
cheesy
Fine or showy. The opposite of "dusty."
cheez
cheese
chelsea
A village near London, famous for the military hospital. To get Chelsea; to obtain the benefit of that hospital. Dead Chelsea, by G-d! an exclamation uttered by a grenadier at Fontenoy, on having his leg carried away by a cannon-ball.
chemise lifter
A lesbian.
cherries and berries
The police.
cherry fairs
The old counterpart of the modern tea-gardens; cherry-orchards where sales of fruit were held, such gatherings frequently developing into boisterous scenes. From their temporary character they came to be used as typifications of the evanescence of life; thus Gower says of this world, "Alle is but a cherye-fayre," a phrase frequently met with.
cherry on top
An additional pleasure or benefit that makes a good situation even better
cherry-bums
Or CHERUBIMS, a nickname given to the 11th Hussars, from their crimson trousers.
cherry-colour
Either red or black, as you wish; a term used in a cheating trick at cards. When the cards are being dealt, a knowing one offers to bet that he will tell the colour of the turn-up card. "Done!" says Mr. Green. The sum being named, Mr. Sharp affirms that it will be CHERRY-COLOUR; and as cherries are either black or red, he wins, leaving his victim a wiser man, it is to be hoped, and not a better for the future.
cherry-coloured cat
A black cat, there being black cherries as well as red.
cherry-merry
A present of money. CHERRY-MERRY-BAMBOO, a beating.—Anglo-Indian.
cherubims
Peevish children, because cherubims and seraphims continually do cry.
cherubs
Or still more vulgarly, CHERUBIMS, the chorister boys who chaunt in the services at the abbeys and cathedrals. Possibly because in some places their heads alone are visible.
cheshire cat
He grins like a Cheshire cat; said of anyone who shews his teeth and gums in laughing.
cheshire cat
See To GRIN LIKE A CHESHIRE CAT below. Dick Whittington and his cat.
chess piece
A person used to achieve someone's goal
chest of tools
A shoe-black's brush and wig, &c. Irish.
chesterfield rugby
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
Chestnut Sunday
A Sunday in spring, generally that immediately before or after Ascension Day, is so called in the London district, because about that time the chestnut avenue at Hampton Court bursts into bloom. Cheval (she val) (Fr., a horse).
cheval de frise
An apparatus consisting of a bar carrying rows of pointed stakes, set up so that the bar can revolve. It was used in warfare as a defence against enemy cavalry, and is so called because first employed by the Frisians — who had few or no horses — in the siege of Groningen, Friesland, in 1594. A somewhat similar engine had been used before, but was not called by the same name. In German it is "a Spanish horseman" (ein Spanischer Reiter).
cheval glass
A large, swinging mirror, long enough to reflect the whole of the figure; so called from the "horse," or framework, which supports it.
chevalier d'industrie
A man who lives by his wits and calls himself a gentleman; an adventurer, swindler.
chevy chase
The face.
Chevy Chase
There had long been a rivalry between the families of Percy and Douglas, which showed itself by incessant raids into each other's territory. Percy of Northumberland one day vowed he would hunt for three days in the Scottish border, without condescending to ask leave of Earl Douglas. The Scots warden said in his anger, "Tell this vaunter he shall find one day more than sufficient.
chew off
take on more responsibility than one can handle
chew on
to think carefully about something
chew the meat and spit out the bones
To accept the useful parts and reject the useless parts of something
chew the scenery
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
chew up
to use or waste something, especially time or resources
cheyenne chief
In 1883 he organized his Wild West show, which he brought to Europe for the first time in 1887. He paid various visits after this and toured the Continent in 1910. He died at Denver. It is no exaggera- tion to say that his show, with its Indians, cowboys, sharp-shooters and rough-riders has never been surpassed.
chi
Chicago
chi-ike
To hail in a rough though friendly manner; to support by means of vociferation.
Chi-Town
Chicago.
chibuli
beer
chicago overcoat
Synonym of concrete overcoat or cement shoes.
chick-a-biddy
A chicken, so called to and by little children.
chicken
A coward.
chicken
A term applied to anything young, small, or insignificant; CHICKEN STAKES, small paltry stakes; "she’s no CHICKEN," said of an old maid.
chicken and dumplings
A comforting food, often associated with feeling better when sick.
chicken feed
A very small amount of money
chicken liver
A coward.
chicken nabob
One returned from the East Indies with but a moderate fortune of fifty or sixty thousand pounds, a diminutive nabob: a term borrowed from the chicken turtle.
Chicken of St Nicholas
So the Pied- montese call our "ladybird," the little red beetle with spots of black. The Russians know it as "God's little cow," and the Germans, who say it is sent as a messenger of love, "God's little horse.
chicken out
To withdraw or back down from a situation due to fear
chicken scratch
poor or illegible handwriting
chicken-breasted
Said of a woman with scarce any breasts.
chicken-hammed
Persons whose legs and thighs are bent or archward outwards.
chicken-hearted
Cowardly, fearful. With about the amount of pluck a chicken in a fright might be supposed to possess.
chickenshit
Petty; contemptibly unimportant. (Compare bullshit.)
chickie
A woman.
chiefie
A chief.
child
To eat a child; to partake of a treat given to the parish officers, in part of commutation for a bastard child the common price was formerly ten pounds and a greasy chin. See GREASY CHIN.
Child of God
In the Anglican and Catholic Church, one who has been baptized; others consider the phrase to mean one con- verted by special grace and adopted into the holy family of God*s Church.
child's play
a task that is very easy to do
Childe Harold
Byron's poem depicts a man sated of the world, who roams from place to place to flee from himself. The "Childe" is, in fact, Lord Byron himself, who was only twenty-one when he began, and twenty-eight when he finished the poem. In canto i (1809), he visited Portugal and Spain; in canto ii (1810), Turkey in Europe; in canto iii (1816), Belgium and Switzerland; and in canto iv (1817), Venice, Rome, and Florence.
Childe Roland
Youngest brother of the "fair burd Helen" in the old Scottish ballad. Guided by Merlin, he undertook to bring his sister from Elf-land, whither the fairies had carried her, and succeeded in his perilous ex- ploit.
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