Part 21

Coffee-Milling, subs. phr. (common).—1. Grinding; working hard. Cf., To cock snooks (see Snooks) or ‘take a sight’ by putting the thumb of one hand to the nose and grinding the little finger with the other, as if you worked an imaginary coffee mill.

1837. Dickens, Pickwick, p. 249.

1854. Aytoun and Martin, The Bon Gaultier Ballads. ‘The Lay of the Lovelorn.’ When I went the pace so wildly, caring little what might come, Coffee-milling care and sorrow, with a nose-adapted thumb.

Coffins, subs. (Stock Exchange).—The Funeral Furnishing Company’s Shares.

Another nail in one’s coffin.—See Nail.

Cog, subs. (American thieves’).—A tooth.—Matsell [1859]. Cf., Coffee-mill.

Coke. Go and Eat Coke, verb. phr. (vulgar).—A phrase indicative of contempt. A corollary is ‘and evacuate, or s—t cinders.’

Coker, subs. (old).—A lie.—Grose [1785]. For synonyms, see Whopper.

Colchester Clocks, subs. (streets’).—A breed of large oysters.

1865. Daily Telegraph, 13 Sep. For the big, uncompromising Colchester clock, which we see on stalls and shudder at, with unlimited vinegar and pepper, the East-ender willingly gives his penny.

Cold. To have a bad cold, verbal phr. (common).—Said of one who keeps his door closed against all comers for fear of duns; also of one who has ‘shot the moon.’ Also of one that has taken clap.

1863. Chambers’ Journal, vol. XX., p. 5. ‘It’s no good your ringing,’ remarked the book-boy, when I had discovered that fact for myself; ‘Mr. Cranium ain’t at home, he ain’t. He’s got a werry bad cold.’ After a few minutes, however, and many genial impertinences, I discovered that having a bad cold means, in Camden Town, being in debt, while a very bad cold implies that the sufferer has taken clandestine departure from his lodgings.

To leave out in the cold, verbal phr.—To neglect; shut out, or abandon.

1861. New York Tribune, July, The ‘Assents’ continue to come in freely at the Erie Railroad office; and the appearances are that at the closing of the books ... there will be few shares or bonds left out in the cold.

Cold Blood, subs. (licensed victuallers’).—A house licensed for the sale of beer ‘not to be drunk on the premises.’

Cold Coffee, subs. phr. (Oxford University).—1. A sell; a hoax; a trumpery affair.

2. (common).—Misfortune; ill-luck. A variant is cold gruel; also to have one’s comb cut; in French, to experience a run of ill-luck is expressed by être abonné au guignon; literally ‘to become a subscriber to ill-luck’; in Spanish, dar al traste con los negocios, signifies, colloquially, ‘to fail’ or ‘to be unfortunate in business.’

3. (familiar).—An unpleasant return or snub for a proffered kindness.

Cold Comfort, subs. phr. (trade).—An expression used of articles sent out on approval and returned. [Merely an extension of the literal meaning i.e., what is barren of consolation: a usage dating from the sixteenth century.

Cold Cook, subs. (popular).—An undertaker. [Literally one who has to deal with cold meat, i.e., the lifeless human body.] Cf., Cold meat and its derivatives.

English Synonyms. Carrion hunter; body snatcher; death hunter; black worker (see Black work).

French Synonyms. Un emballeur de refroidis (thieves’: an undertaker’s man; literally ‘a packer of cold meat’).

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

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

Cold Cookshop, subs. phr. (popular).—An undertaker’s premises.—See Cold cook.

Cold Cream.—See Cream of the valley.

Cold Deck, subs. (American thieves’).—A prepared pack of cards. Cf., Concaves and convexes and Stock broads. More politely a good hand obtained on first dealing and without drawing fresh cards.

1880. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Screamers. I never have gambled from that day to this—never once—without a cold deck in my pocket. I cannot even tell who is going to lose in games that are being played unless I deal myself.

Cold Gruel.—See Cold coffee, sense 2.

Cold Meat, subs. (common).—A corpse. [The human carcass is compared to butchers’ wares.] For synonyms, see Dead Meat. Among medical students the term cold meat or pickles (q.v.) = specimens direct from the subject.

1819. Thos. Moore, Tom Crib’s Mem. to Con., p. 25. In the Twelfth and Last Round Sandy fetched him a downer, That left him all’s one as cold meat for the Crowner.

To make cold meat of one, verbal phr. (common).—To kill. For synonyms, see Cook one’s goose.

1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 148 (ed. 1857). ‘You mustn’t handle your piece in that ’ere way, when you come to have the charge in it, sir,’ said the tall gamekeeper, gruffly, ‘or I’m damned if you won’t make cold meat of some of us!’

Cold-Meat Box, subs. phr. (common).—A coffin. [From cold-meat, a corpse, + box, a receptacle.] For synonyms, see Eternity box.

1889. Sporting Times, 3 Aug., p. 1, col. 3. ‘Well, s’pose I perched first?’ ‘Well,’ replied Pitcher, ‘I should just come in where you were lying in the cold-meat box, and I should whisper in your ear,’ etc.

Cold-Meat Cart, subs. phr. (common).—A hearse. [From cold-meat, a corpse, + cart.] Fr., mannequin à refroidis. Cf., Cold-meat train.

1820. Reynolds (‘Peter Corcoran’), The Fancy, p. 46. He’s gone—how very muddy some folks die!—He’s for the cold-meat cart, and so am I.

Cold-Meat Train, subs. phr. (popular).—Generally, the funeral trains to Brookwood, Kensal Green, and other cemeteries. Specifically, the last train at night per S.W.R., by which officers can reach Aldershot in time for their morning duties. It starts about 2 a.m. from Nine Elms, and is properly a goods train, but a carriage is attached which is known as the ‘Larky Subaltern.’ [It is an error to suppose that this particular train received its nickname for taking corpses to Woking Cemetery. It carries nothing more dreadful than a portion of the beef and mutton for the morning ration to the troops in camp; and, as before stated, a few belated officers.]

1876. R. M. Jephson, Girl He Left Behind Him, ch. xi. The train by which Dorrien journeyed to Aldershot was that one known as the cold-meat.

Cold Pig. To give cold pig, verbal phr. (common).—To waken a sleeper either by sluicing him with cold water, or by suddenly stripping him of his bed-clothes.

1818. J. R. Planché, Amoroso, King of Little Britain. For if the Queen should come this way, As sure as fate and quarter day, cold pig will be your fare.

1837. Comic Almanack, June. I’ve given him strap,—a thick rope’s end,—cold pig! In vain!—There lies the stupid clown, As if the Night Mare held him down.

1846. Thackeray, Jeames’s Diary (in Punch, vol. II., p. 72). ‘What was it I red there? What was it that made me spring outabed as if sumbady had given me cold pig?—I red Rewin in that share list—the Pannick was in full hoporation.’

1869. W. Bradwood, The O. V. H., ch. xxxv. Then he came back rosy and hungry, and revenged himself by an administration of cold pig to the still slumbering Ralph.

Subs. (thieves’).—1. A person robbed of his clothing. Cf., sense 2.

2. (thieves’).—A corpse. For synonyms, see Dead meat.

3. (commercial travellers’).—The ‘empty returns’ sent back by rail to wholesale houses.

Cold Shivers, subs. phr. (common).—A figure of speech describing the effect of illness, intense fear or any violent emotion. An American equivalent is a ‘cold shake,’ which may refer alike to a period of cold weather, and an attack of fever and ague.

1864. Derby Day, p. 50. ‘There’s our friend the Littl’un,’ he resumed; ‘he’s all shivery shakey as if he got the staggers or the cold shivers, and was going wurra, wurra, wurra, between his teeth, as if he couldn’t help himself.’

Cold Shoulder. To give, show, or turn the cold shoulder, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To treat a person with studied coldness, neglect, or contempt; to ‘cut,’ in a modified form. The phrase appears to have been first used by Scott in the Antiquary, in the glossary to which it is explained as ‘to appear cold and reserved.’ Jamieson localizes it in the South of Scotland.

1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxxiii. The countess’s dislike didna gang farther at first than just showing o’ the cauld shouther.

1840. Dickens, Old Curiosity Shop, ch. lxvi. He gives me the cold shoulder on this very matter, as if he had had nothing to do with it, instead of being the first to propose it.

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge iii. They were not received everywhere with open arms. He was, of course, but the wife was occasionally cold shouldered.

c. 1882. Broadside Ballad, ‘Where’s the Cat?’ She gave him the cold shoulder, and quickly told him to depart.

Cold Slaw.—See Cabbage, sense 1.

Cold Tea, subs. (common).—Brandy—a seventeenth and eighteenth century colloquialism. For synonyms, see Drinks.

1690. Dict. Cant. Crew. Cold tea: brandy.

1693. Remonstrance of the Batchelors, in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), IV., 505. Since their sex has been so familiar with brandy (blasphemed by the name of cold tea).

1857. Notes and Queries, 2 S., iii., p. 59, s.v.

1888. C. J. Dunphie, The Chameleon, p. 235. It is worthy of remark that cold tea was a slang name for Brandy in the 18th century.

Cold Water Army, subs. phr. (colloquial).—The general body of total abstainers.

Cold Without, subs. phr. (common).—Spirits and cold water without sugar. Cf., Cider and; also Hot with.

1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, p. 156 (ed. 1862). On the fire, too, she pops some nice mutton-chops, And she mixes a stiff glass of cold without.

1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel. I laugh at fame. Fame, sir! not worth a glass of cold without.

Cole or Coal, subs. (popular).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 52 (1874). Tip the cole to Adam Tyler, give what money you pocket-pickt to the next party, presently.

1676. A Warning for Housekeepers (canting song). But when that we come not agen, As we walk along the street, We bite the Culley of his cole.

1688. Shadwell, Sq. of Alsatia, I., in wks. (1720) IV., 16. Cheat. My lusty rustick, learn, and be instructed. Cole is, in the language of the witty, money; the ready, the rhino.

16(?). Song of Seventeenth Century, (quoted in Halliwell and Wright’s ed. of Nares’ Glossary). The twelfth a trapan, if a cull he doth meet, He naps all his cole, and turns him i’ th’ street.

1741. Walpole, ballad in Letters to Mann, i., 22. This our captain no sooner had finger’d the cole, But he hies him aboard with his good Madam Vole.

1837. R. H. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 398. Moreover—the whole Of the said cash or cole; Shall be spent for the good of the said Old Woman’s soul!

1844. Puck, p. 146. Thank you for the offer of your bill; but I can wait until you can finger the cole, when I shan’t stand on ceremony about taking a cool hundred or two....

To post or tip the cole, phr. (common).—To hand over money; to ‘shell’ or ‘fork out.’—See 1671 quot., subs. sense.

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 13. ‘Will he post the cole? Will he come down with the dues? Ask him that,’ cried Blueskin. Ibid. If he don’t tip the cole without more ado, give him a taste of the pump, that’s all.

1883. G. A. S[ala], in Ill. L. News, Nov. 10, p. 451, col. 3. The lamented J. B. Buckstone, at a Theatrical Fund Dinner, once entreated the guests present to post the cole, i.e., to be prompt with their subscriptions and donations.

Colfabias or Colfabis.—See quot.

1864. Hotten, Slang Dict. Colfabias, a Latinized Irish phrase signifying the closet of decency, applied as a slang term to a place of resort in Trinity College, Dublin.

Coliander or Coliander-Seeds, subs. (old).—Money.—Grose [1785]. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

Collar, verb (common).—To seize: appropriate; steal; e.g., ‘collar his dragons,’ i.e., steal his sovereigns. [Properly ‘to seize by the collar’; hence, by transition, ‘to lay hold of anything forcibly.’] For synonyms, see Nab and Prig.

1841. Leman Rede, Song, ‘Kit Clayton,’ in Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 3. Ve collar’d the blunt, started off for town, With the dashy, splashy, leary, little stringer, Horses knock’d up, men knocked down—Phililoo!

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. lvii., p. 476. Look well after your own money, for they are dead certain to collar it, if they can.

1866. London Miscellany, March 3, p. 58. I slept in Holborn Workhouse. While I was asleep the other coves tore every rag up and collar’d my toke.

1866. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 242. Old Sir John Collywobbles had six black horses, six white horses, and six pied horses. So I recommended my father-which-is-in-law to collar the lot.

1884. W. Besant, Julia, ch. iv. Your grandmother tells me you’ve plucked up spirit at last and won’t let her collar more than half the wages.

To Collar the Bun, Cake, Banbury, or Confectioner’s Shop, verb. phr. (common).—To be easily first; to surpass.—See Cake.

Out of Collar, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Out of work; out of cash; not in training. Conversely, in collar = in work; in comfortable circumstances; and, as regards training, ‘fit’ or ‘in form.’ [Simile taken from the stable, in allusion to a horse, i.e., with his collar on or off.]

French Synonyms. Balloter (tailors’ = ‘to be out of work’); caler (popular and nautical = ‘to sink’); envoyer à la comédie (popular: to dismiss a workman for want of work to give him. Cf., remporter une veste); être à la comédie (‘to be out of work’); un panas (popular: ‘one out of work’); un inspecteur des pavés (literally ‘an inspector of the pavement’); avoir de la laine (to be in work).

1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue. A decent allowance made to seedy swells, head robbers, and flunkeys out of collar.

1867. Scottish Journal, p. 39, col. 1. There is nothing that so materially and frequently effects the well-being and social position of a working man as the circumstances arising from being, in his own phrase, ‘out of collar’—that is, his being unable to obtain work when he is able to do it and anxious to get it to do. Ibid. A workman on tramp will, if he is tolerably well known in the trade, and if he have, when in collar, shown a disposition to assist those who were out, often be kept among his former shopmates.

1880. Millikin, Punch’s Almanack. Now October! Back again to collar, Funds run low, reduced to last ’alf dollar.

c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘Why Did She Leave her Jeremiah?’ When I was in collar I loved a fair maid, With eyes of a sweet dark blue.

Against collar, adv. phr. (common).—Uphill; working against difficulties, or against the grain.

To be put to the pin of the collar, verbal phr. (common).—To be driven to extremities; to come to the end of one’s resources.

To wear the collar, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To be subject to control not altogether to one’s liking. The antithesis of ‘to have the whip hand’ and ‘to wear the breeches’; etc.

Collar and Elbow, subs. phr. (wrestling).—A term for a peculiar style of wrestling—the Cornwall and Devon style.

Collar-Day, subs. (old).—Hanging day. [In allusion to the hangman’s noose.] Also Wry-neck-day (q.v.); Fr., jour de la St. Jean Baptiste.

Collared. To be collared, verbal phr. (gaming).—To be unable to play one’s usual game owing to temper, ‘funk,’ or other causes.

Collared Up, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Kept close to business. Cf., Out of collar.

Collar or Get the Big Bird.—See Big Bird, and for synonyms, Goosed.

Collar Work, subs. phr. (colloquial). Laborious work.—See Against Collar.

1883. Daily Telegraph, July 3, p. 2, col. 1. The bald patches on their shoulders testified to their intimate acquaintance with collar work and tugging on stoney roads with heavy loads behind them.

1888. Ant. Trollope, What I Remember. And when Lucca was reached there were still fourteen miles, nearly all collar work, between that and the baths.

Collector, subs. (old).—A highwayman or footpad.

College, subs. (thieves’).—A prison; the inmates are called collegians or collegiates (q.v.); Newgate was formerly called ‘the City College.’ The Spanish Germania has colegio and collège is found in the argot of French thieves.

1703. Title, ‘The History of Whittington’s Colledge otherwise (vulgarly) called Newgate. London, Printed in the Year 1703.’

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. College, Newgate, or any other prison.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers (about 1827), p. 370 (ed. 1857). ‘Mornin’, gen’l’mem’, said Sam, entering at the moment with the shoes and gaiters; ‘avay vith melancholly, as the little boy said ven his schoolmissus died. Velcome to the college, gen’l’mem.’

1859. Matsell, Vacabulum, or Rogue’s Lexicon, p. 20. College: a State prison.

1889. Answers, 8 June, p. 25. I have since met several men whom I knew in prison at one time or other, and most of them have recognised me; but only one other has stopped me to remind me that we were at ‘college’ together.

College Chum.—See Collegiate.

Colleger, subs. (University and public schools’).—A square cap, otherwise known as a mortar-board. For general synonyms, see Golgotha.

Collegian.—See Collegiate.

Collegiate, Collegian or College Chum, subs. (thieves’).—The inmate of a prison.—[See College.]

1743. North, Life of Lord Guildford, I., 123. His beginnings were debauched, and his study and first practice in the gaol. For having been one of the fiercest town-rakes and spent more than he had of his own, his case forced him upon that expedient for a lodging, and there he ... busied himself with the cases of his fellow-collegiates.

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

1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers (about 1827), p. 369 (ed. 1857). ‘I say—do you expect anybody this morning? Three men—devilish gentlemanly fellows—have been asking after you downstairs, and knocking at every door on the hall flight: for which they’ve been most infernally blown up by the collegians that had the trouble of opening ’em.’

1859. G. W. Matsell, Vocabulum, or the Rogues Lexicon, College Chum: a fellow-prisoner.

1884. Dickens. [Quoted in Supplement to Annandale’s ed. of Ogilvie’s Imperial Dict.] It became a not unusual circumstance for letters to be put under his door at night enclosing half-a-crown ... for the father of the Marshalsea, ‘with the compliments of a collegian taking leave.’

Ladies’ College, subs. (general).—A brothel. For synonyms, see Nanny-shop.

Collogue, verb (colloquial).—To confer confidentially and secretly; to conspire; to wheedle; or flatter. The term is also used in a humorous sense. [From Lat. col, together + Lat. loquor, to speak, influenced probably by ‘colleague’ and ‘colloquy.’]

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 136. For once before I had bin so cousend by his colloging, though personally we neuer met face to face.

1676. Earl of Rochester, Hist. of Insipids, st. 9. When to give Money he can’t cologue ’um, He doth with Scorn prorogue, prorogue ’um.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). collogue (v.): to treat with a person underhandedly, to cheat, flatter, coax, or sooth a person in order to get a secret out of him.

1818. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. xxxvii. It was hardly possible two such d—d rascals should collogue together without mischief to honest people.

1857. Barham, I. L. (House-warming). Miss Alice, in short, was supposed to collogue—I Don’t much like the word—with the subtle old rogue, I’ve heard call’d by so many names,—one of them’s Bogy.

1858. G. Eliot, Mr. Gilfil’s Love-Story, ch. iv. ‘We shall be poisoned wi’ lime an’ plaster, and hev the house full o’ workmen collogeing wi’ the maids, an’ makin’ no end o’ mischief.’

1861. G. Eliot, Silas Marner, ch. ix. ‘And how long have you been so thick with Dunsey that you must collogue with him to embezzle my money?’

Colly-Molly, adj. and adv. (old).—Melancholy. [A jocular corruption of the word. Cf., Solemoncholy and (in Dr. Marigold’s Prescriptions) lemon-jolly.]

17(?). Decl. of Pop. Imp. sign. Q. 3. (quoted in Nares). The devil was a little colli-mollie and would not come off.

Colly Wobbles, subs. (common).—The stomach-ache; also the rumblings of flatulency; figuratively, the stomach.

English Synonyms. Wiffle-waffles; gripes; mulligrubs.

French Synonyms. Mal au bréchet; also gargouillade.

1853. Cuthbert Bede, Verdant Green, pt. I., ch. viii. ‘Peakyish you feel, don’t you, now, with a touch of the mulligrubs in your collywobbles?’

c. 1880. Broadside Ballad, ‘Complaints’ or ‘The Ills of Life.’ Then I’ve had the colic, spasms, dizziness, and swimmings, Mullygrubs and collywobbles, with delicious trimmings.

Colour, subs. (sporting).—1. The handkerchief worn as a badge by prize-fighters and other professional athletes. Each man chooses his own, and it was once a practice to sell them to backers to be worn at the ring-side. The present rules of the Ring provide as follows:—‘That every man shall be provided with a handkerchief of a colour suitable to his own fancy, and that the seconds proceed to entwine these handkerchiefs at the upper end of one of the centre stakes of the ring; that these handkerchiefs shall be called the colours, and that the winner of the battle at its conclusion shall be entitled to their possession as the trophy of victory.’ For a description of various ‘fancies,’ see Billy. In racing circles the colours are the owner’s and are shown in the jockeys’ caps and jackets.

1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, vol. I., p. 170. The Chicken now sported the blue-spotted silk handkerchief, as the champion’s colour.

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. II., ch. xii., p. 189. Each of the men had, previous to the fight, done a little profitable business by selling pocket-handkerchiefs, which they called their colours.

2. (popular).—Used of money; e.g., ‘I have not seen the colour of his money’ = I have not received payment.—See quots.

1736. Fielding, Don Quixote, I., iii. If I have seen the colour of gold this fortnight, may I never see Teresa Pancha again.

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xix. The padrone informed them that he should like to see the colour of their money before they went on board.

Coloured on the card, phr. (racing).—Having the colours in which a jockey is to ride inserted on the card of the race.

Off colour, adv. phr. (common).—Exhausted; run down; ‘seedy.’

c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, ‘That’s Where The Money Goes.’ London’s Police will be made up of men, Cold Rabbit Pie will be off colour then.

Colour One’s Meerschaum, verbal phr. (common).—To get brandy-faced; to drink one’s nose into a state of pimples and scarlet.

Colquarron, subs. (old)—The neck. For synonyms, see Scrag.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. colquarron: a man’s neck (cant), his colquarron is just about to be twisted, he is just going to be hanged.

1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 5 (ed. 1854). ‘’Tis a rum business, and puzzles I! but mum’s the word, for my own little colquarren.’

Colt, subs. (popular).—1. A person new to office, or, to the exercise of any art; e.g., a professional cricketer during his first season; a first-time juryman; a thief in his novitiate. [Properly a colt is a young male horse.]

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

1885. Daily News, 28 August, p. 3, col. 7. A match arranged for the benefit of the young players of the county was commenced yesterday at Manchester, when the Lancashire Eleven were opposed to Twenty-six colts.

2. (nautical).—See quots.