honey hole
A highly productive or profitable area
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honey moon
The first month after marriage. A poor honey; a harmless, foolish, goodnatured fellow. It is all honey or a t--d with them; said of persons who are either in the extremity of friendship or enmity, either kissing or fighting.
honey trap
A tempting situation that conceals a hidden danger or problem
Hong Merchants
Those Chinese merchants who, under licence from the government of China, held the monopoly of trade with Europeans until 1842, when the restriction was
honk
To vomit.
honk off
To annoy.
honkers
Drunk.
honking
Having a bad smell.
honor in the breach
A rule or law is more often disobeyed than obeyed
honorable mention
A recognition of achievement, but not the top award
honour bright
An asseveration which means literally, "by my honour, which is bright and unsullied." It is often still further curtailed to "HONOUR!" only.
honours of war
The privilege allowed to an enemy, on capitulation, of being permitted to retain his offensive arms. This is the highest honour a victor can pay a vanquished foe. Sometimes the troops so treated are allowed to march with all their arms, drums beating, and colours flying.
hood-winked
Blindfolded by a handkerchief, or other ligature, bound over the eyes.
hoodie
A young person wearing such a sweatshirt, usually a male, stereotypically associated with antisocial behaviour.
hoof
To beat the hoof; to travel on foot. He hoofed it or beat the hoof, every step of the way from Chester to London.
hoof it
To walk, especially when as a result of regular transportation being unavailable.
hoofology
dancing
hook
An expression at Oxford, implying doubt, either connected with Hookey Walker, or with a note of interrogation (?) "Yes, with a HOOK at the end of it!" i.e., with some reservation, generally that of doubt, by the speaker.
hook and eye
a small metal fastener
hook and loop
a type of fastener with two parts
hook and snivey, with nix the buffer
This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is carried on thus: Three men, one of who pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house: the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.
hook it
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hook it
"get out of the way," or "be off about your business;" generally varied by "take your HOOK." "To HOOK it," to run away, to decamp; "on one’s own HOOK," dependent upon one’s own exertions. Originally connected with the preceding, but now perfectly "on its own HOOK."
hook or by crook
By fair means or foul—in allusion to the hook with which footpads used to steal from open windows, &c., and from which HOOK, to take or steal, has been derived. Mentioned in Hudibras as a cant term.
hook um snivey
(formerly "HOOK and SNIVEY"), a low expression, meaning to cheat by feigning sickness or other means. Also a piece of thick iron wire crooked at one end, and fastened into a wooden handle, for the purpose of undoing from the outside the wooden bolt of a door. Sometimes used as an irrelevant answer by street boys. As, "who did that?"—"HOOK UM SNIVEY"—actually no one.
hook up
to connect or meet someone, often romantically
hooked
Over-reached, tricked, caught: a simile taken from fishing. **** hooks; fingers.
hookee walker
An expression signifying that the story is not true, or that the thing will not occour.
hooks
"dropped off the HOOKS," said of a deceased person—possibly derived from the ancient practice of suspending on hooks the quarters of a traitor or felon sentenced by the old law to be hung, drawn, and quartered, which dropped off the hooks as they decayed.
hookshop
A brothel.
hoon
A worthless person; a hooligan or lout.
hoop
To run the hoop; an ancient marine custom. Four or more boys having their left hands tied fast to an iron hoop, and each of them a rope, called a nettle, in their right, being naked to the waist, wait the signal to begin: this being made by a stroke with a cat of nine tails, given by the boatswain to one of the boys, he strikes the boy before him, and every one does the same: at first the blows are but gently administered; but each irritated by the strokes from the boy behind him, at length lays
Hooped Pots
Drinking pots at one time were marked with bands, or hoops, set at equal distances, so that when two or more drank from the same tankard no one should take more than his share.
hoops
Basketball.
hoosegow
A jail.
hoot and holler
to shout and cheer loudly
hoot owl shift
a late-night work shift
hooted
Drunk.
hoover flag
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hoovered
Drunk.
hop
A dance.—Fashionable slang.
hop off
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hop o’ my thumb
An undersized person. From the story of that name. Portion of a set of phrases established for the benefit of the small, in which Tomtit, Little Breeches, Daniel Lambert, Sixfoot, Twentystun, &c., play a prominent part.
hop the wag
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hop up
to get up or rise quickly
hop-o-my-thumb
A diminutive person, man or woman. She was such a-hop-o-my thumb, that a pigeon, sitting on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a-se.
hope against hope
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
Hope for the best — prepare for the Worst
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
hope for the best, and prepare for the worst
Be optimistic but also prepare for a bad outcome
hope for the best, but prepare for the worst
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
Hope is a good breakfast, but it is a bad supper. (Francis Bacon)
English proverb; full definition pending editorial review.
hope springs eternal
People never lose hope, no matter how unlikely something is
hopkins
Mr. Hopkins; a ludicrous address to a lame or limping man, being a pun on the word hop.
hopper-arsed
Having large projecting buttocks: from their resemblance to a small basket, called a hopper or hoppet, worn by husbandmen for containing seed corn, when they sow the land.
hopping giles
A jeering appellation given to any person who limps, or is lame; St. Giles was the patron of cripples, lepers, &c. Churches dedicated to that saint commonly stand out of town, many of them having been chapels to hospitals. See GYLES.
hopping mad
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
hoppo
Custom-house officer, or custom-house. Almost anything connected with custom-house business.—Anglo-Chinese.
Horace and Virgil
Nicholas Rowe so called the Earl of Halifax on his installation to the Order of the Garter (1714).
Horace of England
George, Duke of Buckingham, preposterously declared Cowley to be the Pindar, Horace, and Virgil of England. Ben Jonson was nicknamed Horace by Dekker in the so-called "War of the Theatres.
hori
A Māori.
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