Part 11

18(?). R. M. Jephson, Girl He Left Behind Him, ch. i. Dolly himself was occupied in nursing a tuft of hair on his chin termed, grandiloquently, an imperial, familiarly, a Charley.

3. (hunting).—A fox. Fourbesque, graniera.

1857. Hughes, Tom Brown’s Schooldays, ch. i., p. 8. A nice little gorse or spinney where abideth poor Charley, having no other cover to which to betake himself for miles and miles, when pushed out some fine November morning by the old Berkshire.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxviii. ‘And all after a poor little fox!’ ‘You don’t know Charley, I can see,’ said Halbert; ‘poor little fox indeed.’

4. (American thieves’).—A watch. [Possibly a pun upon Charley, sense 1, a watch or watchman.] For synonyms, see Ticker.

5. (tailors’).—The nap on faced on glossy-surfaced cloth.

6. (tailors’).—A round-shouldered figure.

Charley Bates’ Farm, or Garden.—See Bates’ farm.

Charley-Lancaster, subs. (rhyming slang).—A ‘handkercher.’

Charley-Pitcher, subs. (thieves’).—A prowling sharper who entices greenhorns to take a hand in thimble-rigging, the three-card trick, prick the garter, etc.

1859. G. A. Sala, Twice Round the Clock (2 p.m., par. 10), p. 160. Even at remote country race-courses, you may find remnants of the whilom swarming tribe of Charley-pitchers, the knavish gentry who pursue the games of ‘under seven or over seven,’ ... or inveigle the unwary with ‘three little thimbles and one small pea.’

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 32, note. A Charley-pitcher seems to be one who pitches to the Ceorla or countryman, and hence is equivalent to the term Yokel-hunter.

1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, pt. I., ch. ix. With them marched the Charley-pitchers, who gained an honourable livelihood with the thimble and the pea.

Charley-Prescot, subs. (rhyming slang).—A waistcoat. For synonyms, see Fan.

Charley-Wag. To play the charley-wag (school-slang).—1. To absent oneself from school without leave; to play truant. Variants are To mouch; To wag; Fr., tailler or caler l’école; Spanish, hacer novillos, and andar á la tuna.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 57. Nothing could be done with him at school ... Joe being, in spite of all entreaties, the greatest rapscallion and ringleader of all mischief, and at all times readier to play the charley Wag than to be the first in any prominent position in his class or form.

2. (common).—To disappear [figurative].

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip to all Cross Coves. It’s up the spout and Charley-wag With wipes and tickers and what not. Until the squeezer nips your scrag, Booze and the blowens cop the lot.

Charlie.—See Charley.

Charlies, subs. (popular).—1. The paps. For synonyms, see Dairy.

2. (Winchester College).—Thick gloves made of twine. [Introduced by a Mr. Charles Griffith; hence the name.] Obsolete.

Charm, subs. (old).—1. A picklock.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1881. New York Slang Dict., s.v.

Charms, subs. (old).—The paps. Fr., les appas. Once in literary use, but now impossible except as slang. Flashing her Charms = showing her paps.

2. (American).—A generic term for money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

1875. American English, in Cham. Journal, 25 Sept., p. 610. Money has forty or fifty different names; such singular terms as ... shadscales, and charms figuring in the list.

Charter the Bar or Grocery, verbal phr. (American).—To buy up the whole of the liquor at a bar and stand drinks all round as long as it lasts. This freak is not infrequent in the West. In Australia a similar expression is shouting oneself hoarse. (q.v.).

18(?). J. G. Baldwin, David Bolus, Esq. Bolus was no niggard. He would as soon treat a regiment, or charter the grocery for the day, as any other way.

Chasing, verbal subs. (workmens’). See quot.

1884. Rae, Cont. Socialism, 361. This is shown ... in their prohibition of chasing ... i.e., of a workman exceeding a given average standard of production. [m.]

Chasse, verb (society).—To dismiss. [From the French chasser.]

1847. Thackeray, Lords and Liv., III. He was chassÉd on the spot. [m.]

1868. Yates, Rock Ahead, I., p. 185. If Lord Ticehurst married, more than half Gilbert Lloyd’s influence would be gone, if indeed the turf were not abandoned, and the confederate chassÉd.

Chat, subs. (thieves’).—1. A house. For synonyms, see Diggings.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. I piped a slavey (servant) come out of a chat (house).

2. (common).—The female pudendum. [From French chat, a cat, and by implication the ‘pussy.’]

3. (common).—The truth; the real state of a case; the proper words to use; the ‘correct card.’

1819. Thomas Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 6. And, setting in case there should come such a rumpus, As some mode of settling the chat we must compass, With which the tag-rag will have nothing to do, What think you, great swells, of a royal set-to?

1862. Trollope, Orley Farm, ch. vi. Has the gentleman any right to be in this room at all, or has he not? Is he commercial, or is he—miscellaneous? That’s the chat as I take it.

4. (low).—Gabble; chatter; impudence; e.g., None of your chat, or I’ll give you a shove in the eye.

Verb.—To hang.—See Chates, sense 1. [This reading, however, is problematical.]

1513. G. Douglas, Æneis, viii., Prol. 126. Quod. I, churle, ga chat the, and chide with ane vthir.

Chates, subs. (old).—1. The gallows, (Also Chattes and Chats.) [Doubtful as to derivation, see quot. 1610.] For synonyms, see Nubbing-cheat.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. Chattes: the gallowes.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37, (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). Chates, the Gallowes: here he [Harman, author of a Caveat for Cursitors-date, c. 1570, reprinted as The Belman of London, containing list of cant words] mistakes both the simple word, because he so found it printed, not knowing the true originall thereof, and also in the compound; as for Chates it should be Cheates, which word is vsed generally for things, as Tip me that Cheate, Give me that thing: so that if you will make a word for the Gallous, you must put thereto this word, Treyning, which signifies hanging; and so Treyning Cheate is as much to say, hanging things, or the Gallous, and not Chates.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). Chats: the gallows.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict., s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1881. New York Slang Dict., s.v.

2. (old).—Lice. (Also chats and chatts.) [Grose suggests that chatts is an abbreviation of chattels in the sense of cattle—lice being the chief live-stock of beggars, gipsies, and the rest of the canting crew; the history of the word ‘chattel’ appears to bear out his contention. The Norman catel passed later into cattell, and these forms were in the sixteenth century restricted to live-stock, chattell passing from legal French into general use for the wider sense—article of property.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s.v.

1864. Hotten, Slang Dict., s.v.

English Synonyms. Active citizens; crabs; crumbs; friends in need; back friends; grey backs; black cattle; Scots Greys; gentleman’s companions; creepers; gold-backed ’uns; German ducks; dicky-birds; familiars; saddle-backs; Yorkshire Greys.

French Synonyms. Les espagnols (popular: formerly lice were called ‘Spanish bugs,’ poux espagnols, to distinguish them from the cimex lectuarius, or common bed bug); un coquillon (popular: also ‘a pilgrim’); les goux (thieves’); le garnison (pop. = garrison); un loupate (= poux, disguised); un habitant (= a householder or ‘citizen’); un grenadier (popular); un got (thieves’); un mousquetaire gris (pop. = a grey musketeer).

German Synonyms. Huttererg’ sell’n (perhaps the nearest German equivalent to the English ‘gentleman’s companion,’ the German word signifying ‘skin-society’); Jokel, or Jokelche, Jokelcher, Juckel, Juckeler (sing.: also = a postillion, ‘one who rides,’ the latter, however, being more commonly rendered Post-Juckel. Ave-Lallement derives it from Jäckel or Jockel, diminutives of Jacob, but there are the German words, Jucken, ‘to itch,’ and Juckler, ‘one who itches.’ It is quite possible that the two last are later, historically. In connection, see next example); Hans Walter (in Luther’s Liber Vagatorum [1529]. Hanz literally means Jack, or John [Cf., preceding Jokel], the old word Hansa refers to a multitude; old German Hanse, a society; Hans, a companion); Kinne, pl. Kinnim (of purely Hebrew origin; Kinnimachler = a ‘dirty, filthy fellow,’ or ‘an avaricious man,’ literally ‘a lice-eater’; Kinnimer, a man full of lice. The Fieselsprache has Kineh and Kinehbruder to signify ‘an intimate companion,’ or ‘chum’; Marschirer or die stillen Marschirer (Viennese thieves’ for lice; literally ‘the silent walkers’); Sand (used for vermin in general and lice in particular; sandig sein, to be lousy).

Italian Synonyms. Grisaldi; grisanti; guallino.

Spanish Synonym. Cancano, (m; a low term).

Chat-Hole, subs. (prison).—A hole made by convicts in a wall, to carry on a conversation. [From chat, an abbreviation of chatter, + hole.]

Chats, subs. (old).—1. See Chates.

2. (thieves’).—See quot.

1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, p. 171. Chats, seals.

3. (Stock Exchange).—London, Chatham and Dover Railway Stock.

Chatter-Basket, subs. (common).—A prattling child. Originally dialectical, chatter-basket being the Lancashire form; while in West Somerset they say chatter-bag. Cf., Chatterbox.

Chatter-bones, Chatter-cart, and Chatter-bladder, subs. (common).—Variants of chatterbox (q.v.). For synonyms, see Clack-box.

1842. Dickens, American Notes, ch. xi., p. 94. That little girl of fifteen with the loquacious chin: who, to do her justice, acts up to it ... for of all the small chatterbones that ever invaded the repose of drowsy ladies’ cabin, she is the first and foremost.

Chatterbox, subs. (colloquial).—An incessant talker; used contemptuously of adults and playfully of children. [From chatter, gabble + box, a receptacle; metaphorically, a box full of chatter. Cf., Bag of bones.] A variant is chatterbones (q.v.). For synonyms, see Clack-box.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Chatter Box, one whose tongue runs twelve score to the dozen; a chattering man or woman.

1840. C. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop [C. D. ed.], p. 93. A set of idle chatterboxes.

1878. E. Jenkins, Haverholme, p. 52. A mere political chatterbox.

Chatter-Broth, subs. (old).—Tea; the beverage and the party. A Yorkshire equivalent is chatter-water. Quoted by Grose [1785]. Variants are cat-lap and scandal-broth (q.v.).

Chatterer, subs. (pugilistic).—A heavy blow upon the mouth; or, says Peter Corcoran, ‘a blow that tells.’ For synonyms see Dig.

1827. Reynolds (‘Peter Corcoran’), Sonnet on The Fancy. I’ve left the Fives-Court rush,—the flash—the rally. The noise of ‘Go it, Jack’—the stop—the blow—The shout—the chattering hit—the check—the sally.

Chatterers, subs. (common).—The teeth. For synonyms, see Grinders.

Chattery, subs. (thieves’).—See quot.

1821. D. Haggart, Life, Glossary, p. 171. Chattery, cotton, or linen goods.

Chatty, subs. (old).—A filthy man. [From chat (q.v.), a louse, + y.] English variants are chatty-dosser, crummy-dosser. Amongst French equivalents may be mentioned un bifteck à maquart (Maquart is the name of a well-known knacker); un sale pâtissier (literally a dirty pastry-cook); un kroumir; un gorgniat; un pégocier.

Adj. (common).—Filthy; lousy. [For derivation, see subs.] A French equivalent is graphiqué—itself a very ‘telling,’ ‘speaking,’ or ‘chatty’ expression; also malastiqué.

1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dictionary. Chatty: lousy.

Chatty-Feeder, subs. (old).—A spoon. [A vague reference to the mouth as the place of ‘chat’ or ‘chatter.’] For synonyms see Wedge-feeder.

1881. New York Slang Dictionary. ‘And where the swag so bleakly pinched, A hundred stretches hence?... The chips, the fawneys, chatty-feeders.’

Chaunt, subs. (old).—A song.—See Chant, subs., sense 1.

Verb (vagrants’).—To sing ballads, etc., in the streets.—See Chant, verb, sense 1.

To Chaunt the play, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To explain the tricks and manœuvres of thieves.

Chaunted, ppl. adj. (streets’).—Sung of, and celebrated, in street ballads. [From chaunt, to sing street ballads, + ed.]—See Chanting, subs., sense 2.

1827. Reynolds (‘Peter Corcoran’). Lines to Philip Samson in The Fancy. ‘Be content that you’ve beat Dolly Smith, and been chaunted, And trained—stripped—and petted, and hit off your legs!’

Chaunter, subs. (vagrants’).—1. A street singer of ballads, dying speeches, etc. Rarely heard now except in the poorest neighbourhoods. His practice is peculiar. One man gets as far as he can, and when his voice cracks his companion takes things up. For this reason the business is conducted by a brace of men, by a man and woman, or by a woman and child.—See quot. 1851. [From chaunt, to sing, + er.] Also called a paper-worker (q.v.); and Death-hunter (q.v.). French Synonyms are un chanteur à la balade or au baladage; un goualeur or une goualeuse (see Eugene Sue Mystères de Paris); une cigale (popular: a female street-singer); and un braillard. Fourbesque, granchetto (a term also applied to one who speaks gibberish or thieves’ lingo).

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 229. The chaunters, or those who do not cry, but (if one may so far stretch the English language) sing the contents of the ‘papers’ they vend. Ibid, p. 240. The running patterer ... is accompanied generally by a chaunter.... The chaunter not only sings, but fiddles.

2. (common).—See Chanter, sense 1.

Chaunter-Cove, subs. (thieves’).—A reporter. [From chaunt, to ‘crack’ or ‘cry up,’ + er + cove, a man.]

Chaunter-Cull, subs. (old).—A writer of ballads and street literature for the use of chaunters or ‘street patterers.’ They haunted certain well-known public-houses in London and Birmingham, and were open to write ballads ‘to order’ on any subject, the rate of remuneration varying from half-a-crown to seven-and-sixpence. The chaunter having practically disappeared, his poet has gone with him.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 58. [Named and described in.]

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Chaunter-culls: Grub Street writers, who compose songs, carrols, etc., for ballad singers.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch. vi. I trust, whenever the chanter-culls and last-speech scribblers get hold of me, they’ll at least put no cursed nonsense into my mouth.

Chaunter upon the Leer, phr. (old).—An advertiser.

Chaunting.—See Chanting.

Chauvering Donna or Moll, subs. (old).—A prostitute. [From chauvering, sexual intercourse. + donna (q.v.), a woman, or moll (q.v.), a loose female.] For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

Chaw, subs. (common).—1. A countryman; a yokel; a bumpkin. [A contraction of chaw-bacon (q.v.). In common use at Harrow School.]

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. I., ch. i. There’s nothing like the old country-side for me, and no music like the twang of the real old Saxon tongue, as one gets it fresh from the veritable chaw in the White Horse Vale.

2. (vulgar).—A mouthful; a ‘gobbet’; in the mouth at once; e.g., a quid of tobacco; a dram of spirits, etc. [From chaw, verb, q.v.]

1749. ‘Humours of the Fleet,’ quoted in Ashton’s The Fleet, p. 286. And in his nether jaw Was stuff’d an elemosynary chaw.

1772. Gentleman’s Magazine, XLII., 191. The tars ... Took their chaws, hitched their trousers, and grinn’d in our faces. [m.]

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, xiv. The boy was made to open his mouth, while the chaw of tobacco was extracted.

1838. Glascock, Land Sharks and Sea Gulls, II., 123. ‘I’m blest if I’m fit for work, ’thout a raw chaw.’

1864. Daily Telegraph, 26 July. The gentleman have often ‘that within that passeth show,’ to wit, a chaw of tobacco: this is not very conducive to volubility in conversation.

3. (University).—A trick; device; or ‘sell.’

Verb (vulgar).—1. To eat or chew noisily and roughly. To bite (see quot., 1890). Once literary; now degenerate, and vulgarly applied; specifically ‘to chew tobacco.’

1890. The Oont, Rudyard Kipling in Scots Observer, ... We socks him with a stretcher-pole, and ’eads him off in front, And when we saves his bloomin’ life, he chaws our bloomin’ arm.

2. (University).—To deceive, trick, ‘sell,’ or impose upon one.

To chaw over, verbal phr. (common).—To create ridicule by repeating one’s words.

To chaw up, phr. (American).—To get the better of; to demolish; ‘do for’; smash or finish. Chawed up: utterly done for.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvi., p. 162, ‘Here’s full particulars of the patriotic loco-foco movement yesterday, in which the Whigs was so chawed up.’

1862. C. F. Browne, Artemus Ward: His Book, p. 66. We chawed ’em up, that’s what we did.

To chaw up one’s words, phr. (American).—To retract an assertion; ‘to eat one’s words.’

Chaw-Bacon, subs. (colloquial).—A country bumpkin. [From chaw, a vulgar form of chew, to masticate or chew, + bacon, the staple food of agricultural labourers.] Other nicknames for a countryman are bacon-slicer; clod-hopper; barn-door savage; clod-pole; cart-horse; Johnny; cabbage-gelder; turnip-sucker; joskin; jolterhead; yokel; clod-crusher, etc.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Chaw Bacon. A countryman. A stupid fellow.

1822. Blackwood’s Magazine, XII., 379. You live cheap with chaw-bacons and see a fine, flat country. [m.]

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. v. ‘Give me the pail, you lop-eared buffoon—do you call that the way to feed a pig?’ and the General, seizing the bucket from an astonished chaw-bacon, who stood aghast, as if he thought his master was mad, managed to spill the greater part of the contents over his own person and gaiters.

Chaws, subs. (venery).—Copulation. For synonyms, see Greens.

Cheap. On the cheap, adv. phr. (colloquial).—At a low rate [of money]; economically; keeping up a showy appearance on small means.

1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 614. His being’s end and aim, both by day and night, is to obtain as much drink as possible on the cheap.

Cheap and nasty, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Said of articles which, though pleasing to the eye, are ‘shoddy’ in fact. For special application, see quot.

1864. Athenæum, Oct. 29. Cheap and nasty, or, in a local form, ‘cheap and nasty, like Short’s in the Strand,’ a proverb applied to the deceased founder of cheap dinners.

To feel cheap, verb. phr. (common).—To ‘have a mouth on;’ to be suffering from a night’s debauch.

Dirt cheap or dog cheap, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Inexpensive; as cheap as may be. Dog cheap is the earliest form in which this colloquialism appears in English literature, dirt cheap not being found earlier than 1837.

1577. Holinshed, Chron. Descr. Irel., iii. They afourded their wares so dogge cheape, that etc. [m.]

1837. C. Dickens, Oliver Twist, xxxvii. ‘I sold myself,’ said Mr. Bumble ... ‘I went very reasonable. Cheap, dirt cheap!’

Cheapside. He came home by way of cheapside, phr. (old).—That is ‘he gave little or nothing for it’; ‘he got it cheap.’

Cheat, subs. (old).—A general name for any object. [From Anglo-Saxon ceat, a thing. Cf., quot., 1608.] A term which, with a descriptive adjective, appears in a variety of forms in Old Cant. The cheat par excellence was the gallows, also known as the nubbing, topping, or treyning-cheat. The word is variously spelt—chet, chete, cheate, cheit, chate, cheat. The following combinations will serve to illustrate its use.

Belly-chete = An Apron. Bleting-chete = A sheep or calf. Cackling-chete = A fowl. Crashing-cheats = The teeth. Grunting-chete = A pig. Hearing-chetes = The ears. Low’ing-chete = A cow. Lullaby-chete = An infant. Mofling-chete = A napkin. Nubbing-cheat = The gallows. Prattling-chete = The tongue. Quacking-chete = A duck. Smelling-chete = The nose. Topping-cheat = The gallows. Treyning-cheat = The gallows. Trundling-cheat = A cart or coach.

All of which see.

1567. Harman, Caveat [ed. 1869], p. 86. Now we have well bous’d, let vs strike some chete [that is], now we have well dronke, let us steale some thinge.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart) III., 117. The Cheating Law or the Art of winning money by false dyce. Those that practise this studie call themselues Cheators, the dyce Cheaters, and the money which they purchase Cheates: borrowing the tearme from our common Lawyers, with whome all casuals as fall to the Lord at the holding of his Leetes, as Waifes, Strayes, and such like, are said to be Escheated to the Lord’s use, and are called Cheates.

1611. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, iv., 2, 28. With dye and drab, I purchas’d this Caparison, and my Reuennew is the silly Cheate. Gallowes, and Knocke, are too powerfull on the Highway.

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. IV., ch. ii. See what your laziness is come to; to the cheat, for thither will you go now, that’s infallible.

Cheats, subs. (old).—Sham cuffs or wristbands. Cf., Dicky and Shams.—See also quot., 1688.

1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III., p. 96, col. 1. A ... kind of Waistcoats are called Chates, because they are to be seen rich and gaudy before, when all the back part is no such thing. Ibid, III., p. 258, col. 1. Such Gallants weare not Cheats or half Sleeves, but ... their Waistcoats are the same clear throughout. [m.]

1690. B. E., Dictionary Canting Crew. Cheats ... also Wristbands or sham Sleeves worn for true, or whole ones.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. } Sham sleeves to put over a dirty } shift or shirt. 1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. }

Checks, subs. (American).—Money in general; cash. [A term derived from poker, in which game counters or checks, bought at certain fixed rates, are equivalent to current coin.] For synonyms, see Actual and Cf., Chips.

To pass or hand in one’s checks, phr. (American).—See ante, To cash (or pass in) one’s checks. To die. For synonyms, see Aloft and Cf., Chips.

Cheek, subs. (colloquial).—1. Insolence; jaw; e.g., ‘none of your cheek’ or ‘chat’ and ‘none of your jaw.’ Equivalents are lip, chat, imperance, mouth, chin, chirrup, and nine shillings; the last a corruption of ‘nonchalance!’ Among foreign equivalents may be mentioned the French avoir un toupet de bœuf; and the Spanish adjectives cariraido (‘impudent’) and desollado (from desollar, ‘to skin, flay’); desuellacaras (m.; an impudent, shameless person); paparrucha (f. impertinence).

1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xxii. The man, who was a sulky, saucy sort of chap ... gives cheek.

1848. J. Mitchell, Jail Jrnl., July 20. I once asked ... what fault a man had committed who was flogged.... ‘For giving cheek, sir.’ [m.]

1884. G. Moore, Mummer’s Wife (1887), p. 133. If he gives me any of his cheek I’ll knock him down.

2. Audacity; confidence; impudence; ‘brass’; ‘face.’ Formerly ‘brow’ was used in the same sense.—(See quot., 1642.)

1642. Fuller, Holy State, bk. IV., ch. xi. They were men of more brow than brain, being so ambitious to be known, that they had rather be hissed down than not come upon the stage.