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To act hypo- critically; to try to attain your object by appearing to be other than you are. The term is a nautical one, and refers to the practice of pirates approaching their unsuspecting prey with false colours at the mast.
To introduce pieces of ore, etc., into the workings so as to delude pros- pective purchasers or shareholders into the idea that a worthless mine is in reality a profitable investment.
To season, intermix. Folly sauced with discretion. — Troilus and Ores- sida, i, 2.
To save oneself from injury ; to escape loss. The allusion may be to the care taken by our forefathers to save from the numerous dogs that frequented their houses the bacon which was laid up for winter. But here I say the Turks were much mistaken, Who, hating hogs, yet wished to save their bacon. BYRON: Don Juan, vii, 42.
Narrowly to avoid almost inevitable disgrace, disaster, or discomfiture.
To get off with one's life. To sell the skin before you have caught the bear. To count your chickens before they are hatched.
To endorse somebody else's expressed opinion.
Recognized English idiom; full definition pending editorial review.
To grumble; to rail at providence. To whip the devil round the stump. An American phrase meaning to enjoy the fruits of evil-doing without having to suffer the penalty; to dodge a difficulty dishonestly but successfully.
To run away hastily.
See BULL'S-EYE. To take the bull by the horns. To attack or encounter a threatened danger fearlessly; to go forth boldly to meet a difficulty.
To be put into fetters: to be imprisoned. The allusion is obvious.
To get along in the world with difficulty, finding it hard to "make both ends meet.
To pass an examination, etc., "by the skin of one's teeth," just to escape failure.
To copulate. A female screw; a common prostitute. To screw one up; to exact upon one in a bargain or reckoning.
To force oneself to face it, etc.; to get oneself into the right frame of mind for doing some unpleasant or difficult job.
To be of precisely the same opinion; to think both alike.
To "knock about" town, where life may be seen at its fullest; to move in smart or fast society.
To give way to excessive passion or anger; to be violently moved, run amok.
To be aware of approach- ing disaster. The phrase comes from the rail- way-signal, where the red light signifies danger.
To dispose of his goods by order of the court because he cannot pay his debts, the proceeds going to his creditors.
A species of sale by auction. A pin is thrust through a candle about an inch from the top, and bidding goes on till the candle is burnt down to the pin; when the pin drops into the candlestick the last bidder is declared the purchaser.
A Stock Exchange phrase meaning to sell stock that one does not at the moment possess on the chance that before the date of delivery the price will have fallen; the same as "selling for a fall," or "selling a bear.
To teach your grandmother how to suck eggs, to instruct one Spade
To daze with puzzles. Dulce Domum (dtil' si do' mum). A school holiday song: the words mean — not, as often supposed, "sweet home," but — "the sweet (sound of the word) 'home'.
To dismiss him sum- marily and without ceremony.
To take no notice of him; to make him feel that he is in disgrace by having no dealings with him. Cp.
To make a collec- tion. This is from the custom of street musicians, acrobats, etc^of sending a cap round among the onlookers to collect their pennies.
To deliver into the hands of the person concerned a legal writ.
To be appropriate^— the right thing in the right place; often said of something that only barely meets its require- ments.
To hold an office or appointment for the full period allowed; to go through one's apprenticeship; also, to serve one's sentence in prison.
To be at his beck and call; to be his slave.
To retaliate; to give as good as you take; to serve in the same manner.
To display a thing in its best light, put the best construction on it. Perhaps a phrase from the jewellers' craft.
So to provide for a man that he is able to earn his living without further help.
To give one the horrors; to induce a tingling or grating sensation in one's teeth, as from acids or harsh noises.
See THAMES. We do not fire first, gentlemen. According to tradition this very chivalrous reply was made to Lord Charles Hay (in command of the Guards) at the opening of the battle of Fontenoy (1745) by the French Marquis d'Auteroche after the former had advanced from the British lines and invited the French commander to order his men to fire.
To knock down or stun any one. We settled the cull by a stroke on his nob; we stunned the fellow by a blow on the head.
A case, almost in- variably involving damages, which is settled by the respective litigants' solicitors, before it is called to court, agreeing on a sum to be paid by the litigant who admits himself to be in the wrong.
To follow about like a shadow, especially as a detective, with the object of spying out all one's doings.
To salute by giving a hand received into your own a shake; to bid adieu. Fortune and Antony part here; even here Do we shake hands.
To be convulsed with laughter; cp. Milton's "Laughter holding both his sides" (L?
To pretend sickness.
To walk awkwardly. Shamble-legged: one that walks wide, and shuffles about his feet.
To get a number of people, etc., together promiscuously, without consideration of their fitness.
A draper's expression for charging more for an article than it is worth; because, so it is said, when the manager sees a chance of doing this he strokes his chin as a sign to the assistant that he may fleece the customer all he can.
To attempt to extort the uttermost farthing; to "skin a flint"
to show false or insincere sadness
To guard and guide carefully as a shepherd does his flock; in colloquial use, to follow and spy on as a detective.
To evade or disappoint: to sherk one's duty.
To run away: sherry off.
To try a different plan; to change one's argument or the basis of one's reasoning.
To fasten the shutter over the cabin window to keep out the sea when a gale is expected.
To engage in a silly and fruitless task.
To appropriate moneys committed to one's trust.
To cover the flukes of an anchor with a broad triangular piece of plank, in order that the anchor may have a stronger hold in soft ground.
To give a quick peculiar movement with the front foot in sliding.
To fritter away one's time on unnecessary work; to play about, trifle.
To exact a fine called "footing" from a newcomer, who is called the "colt." Colt is a common synonym for a green- horn, or a youth not broken in. Thus Shake- speare says — aAy, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of his horse" (Mer- chant of Venice, i, 2.).
To go skulking about.