to jib
To start aside, to back out; a "jibbing horse'* is one that is easily startled. It is probably from the sea-term, to gybe, i.e. to change tacks by bearing away before the wind.
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to job
To reprove or reprehend. CAMBRIDGE TERM.
to jockey
To deceive in trade; to cheat, to indulge in sharp practice. miraculously healed.
to join issue
To take opposite views of a question, or opposite sides in a suit.
to join issues
To leave a suit to the decision of the court because the parties interested cannot agree.
to jump a claim
An expression from the miners' camps, meaning to seize somebody else's "claim," i.e. his diggings, in his absence and work it oneself; or, to take his mine by force; hence, to annex property by stealing a inarch on the owner.
to jump down a person's throat
To interrupt and affront him, suddenly, sharply, and decisively.
to jump over the broomstick
To marry in an informal way. A "brom" is the bit of a bridle; to "jump the brom" is to skip over the marriage restraint, and "broomstick" is a mere corrup- tion.
to jump the gun
To start ahead of time, as a nervous competitor in a race, who starts before the gun is fired.
to keep
To inhabit. Lord, where do you keep? i.e. where are your rooms? ACADEMICAL PHRASE. Mother, your tit won't keep; your daughter will not preserve her virginity.
to keep a stiff upper lip
To preserve a resolute appearance; not to give way to grief.
to keep at arm's length
To prevent another from being too familiar. To keep body and soul together. See BODY.
to keep company with
A phrase formerly commonly used to describe a friendship preliminary to courtship.
to keep down
To prevent another from rising to an independent position; to keep in subjection; also to keep expenses low.
to keep good hours
To return home early every night; to go to bed betimes. Also, to be punctual in attending to one's work.
to keep house
To maintain an establish- ment. "To go into housekeeping" is to start a private establishment.
to keep in
To repress, to restrain; also, to confine boys in the classroom after school hours as a punishment.
to keep in countenance
To encourage, or prevent someone losing his countenance or feeling dismayed.
to keep in with
To continue to maintain friendly relations with. To keep It dark. See DARK.
to keep it dark
To keep it a dead secret; to refuse to enlighten anyone about the matter.
to keep one's countenance
To refrain from smiling or expressing one's thoughts by the face.
to keep one's terms
To reside in college, attend the Inns of Court, etc., during the recognized term times.
to keep open account
Merchants are said to keep open account when they agree to honour each other's bills of exchange.
to keep open house
To give free entertain- ment to all who choose to come. To throw the house out of the windows.
to keep tab
To keep a record or note. To keep touch. See TOUCH.
to keep the ball a-rolling
To continue without intermission. To keep the fun, or the conversation, etc., alive; to keep the matter going. A metaphor taken from several games played with balls.
to keep the peace
To refrain from disturb- ing the public peace or doing anything that might result in strife or commotion. Wrong- doers are sometimes bound over to keep the peace for a certain time by a magistrate; a specified sum of money is deposited, and if the man commits a breach of the peace during that time he is not only arrested but his deposit is forfeit.
to keep the pot a-boiling
To gp on paying one's way and making enough to live on; also, to keep things going briskly, to see that the interest does not flag.
to keep the weather of
To get round, or get the better of, A phrase from the seaman's vocabulary.
to keep up
To continue, as, "to keep up a discussion'*; to maintain, as, "to keep up one's courage," "to keep up appearances"; to continue part passu, as "Keep up with the rest.
to kick against the pricks
To protest when all the odds are against one; to struggle against overwhelming opposition.
to kick over the traces
Not to follow the leader, but to act independently; as a horse refusing to run in harness kicks over the traces.
to kick the beam
To be of light weight; to be of inferior consequence. When one pan of a pair of scales is lighter than the other, it flies upwards and "kicks the beam" of the scales.
to kick the bucket
To die. Bucket here is a beam or yoke (O.Fr. buquet^ Fr. trebuchet, a balance), and in East Anglia the big frame in which a newly slaughtered pig is suspended by the beds is still called a "bucket." An alternative theory is offered that the bucket was a pail kicked away by a suicide, who stood on it the better to hang himself.
to kid
To coax or wheedle. To inveigle. To amuse a man or divert his attention while another robs him. The sneaksman kidded the cove of the ken, while his pall frisked the panney; the thief amused the master of the house, while his companion robbed the house.
to kill the fatted calf
To welcome with the best of everything. The phrase is taken from the parable of the prodigal son (Luke xv, 30).
to kiss hands
To kiss the hand of the sovereign either on accepting or retiring from office.
To kiss the Blarney Stone
In the wall of the castle at Blarney, about twenty feet from the top and difficult of access, is a triangular stone containing this inscription: "Cormac Mac Carthy fortis me fieri fecit, A.D. 1446." Tradition says that to whomsoever can kiss this is given the power of being able to obtain all his desires by cajolery.
to kiss the book
To kiss the Bible, or the New Testament, after taking an oath ; the kiss of confirmation or promise to act in accordance with the words of the oath and a public acknowledgment that you adore and fear to offend, by breaking your oath, the God whose book you reverence.
to kiss the dust
To be completely overwhelmed or humiliated; to be slain.
to kiss the gunner's daughter
See GUNNER. To kiss the hare's foot See HARE. To kiss the rod. See ROD.
to kiss the hare's foot
To be too late for anything, to be a day after the fair. The hare has gone by, and left its footprint for you to salute. A similar phrase is To kiss the post.
to kiss the mistress
To make a good hit, to shoot right into the eye of the target; in bowls to graze another bowl with your own; the Jack used to be called the "mistress," and when one ball just touches another it is said "to kiss it.
to kiss the rod
To submit to punishment or misfortune meekly and without murmuring.
to knock about
To wander about itown "seeing life" and enjoying oneself.
to knock anthony
Said of an in-kneed person, or one whose knees knock together; to cuff Jonas. See JONAS.
to knock out of time
To settle one's hash for him, double him up. The phrase is from pugilism, and refers to disabling an opponent so that he is unable to respond when the referee calls "Time.
to knock spots off one
To excel him completely in something; originally an Americanism.
to knock under
To acknowledge oneself defeated, in argument or otherwise, to knuckle under. Perhaps from the old custom of a disputant who gets the worst of it tapping the under side of the table or from the habit, in hard-drinking days, of subsiding under the table.
to know life
To be well versed in the niceties of social intercourse, good breeding, manners, etc.; to be up to all the dodges by which one may be imposed upon.
to know one's book
To know one's own interest; to know on which side one's bread is buttered. Also, to have made up one's mind.
to know the ropes
To be up to all the tricks and dodges ; to know exactly what is the proper thing to do.
to know where the shoe pinches. (14th century)
to know someone's problem or difficulty
to knuckle down to it
To work away at it, heart and soul ; to do one's best.
to knuckle one's wipe
To steal his handkerchief.
to lag
To drop behind, to keep back. Lag last; the last of a company.
to laugh at a man's beard
To attempt to make a fool of him — to deceive by ridiculous exaggeration.
to laugh in one's beard
To laugh up one's sleeve, that is, surreptitiously.
to laugh in one's sleeve
See SLEEVE. To laugh on the wrong, or the other side of one's mouth. To be made to feel vexation and annoyance after mirth or satisfaction; to be bitterly disappointed; to cry.
to laugh out of court
To cover with ridicule and so treat as not worth considering.
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