Part 27

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act iii., Sc. 3. Bob. Very vell, two pound, vith a pickled cowcumber, and a pen’orth o’ ketchup.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxv. In case there should be such a thing as a cowcumber in the house will you be so kind as bring it, for I’m rayther partial to ’em myself, and they does a world of good in a sick room.

Cow- (also Bushel- and Sluice-) Cunted, adj. phr. (venery).—term of opprobrium applied to women deformed by parturition or debauchery.

Cow-Grease or Cow-Oil, subs. (common).—Butter. For synonyms, see Cart-grease.

Cow-Juice, subs. (popular).—Milk. Cf., Bung-juice and Cow-grease. For synonyms, see Sky-blue.

Cow-Lick, subs. (common).—A peculiar lock of hair, greased, curled, brought forward from the ear, and plastered on the cheek. Once common amongst costermongers and tramps. For synonyms, see Aggerawators.

Cow-Oil.—See Cow-grease.

Cow-Puncher, subs. (American).—A cowboy or herdsman.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 21 July. He was a cowboy, or, in Western parlance, a cow-puncher.

Cow-Quake, subs. (Irish).—The roar of a bull.

Cows-and-Kisses, subs. (rhyming slang).—The ‘missus,’ or mistress; also women generally.

1887. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. Come, cows-and-kisses, put the battle of the Nile on your Barnet fair, and a rogue and villain in your sky-rocket.

Cow’s-Baby or Babe, subs. (common).—A calf. In Old Cant bleating-cheat (q.v.). For synonyms, see Mooer; Cf., Cow-juice and Cow’s-spouse. Also a poltroon; Fr., un fouinard, un fouetteux de chats, un fouailleur, un foie, un flemard or flaquadin, or un frileux.

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

Cow-Shooter, subs. (Winchester College).—A ‘deerstalker’ hat: only worn by præfects and ‘candle-keepers.’

Cow’s-Spouse, subs. (old).—A bull.—Grose [1785].

Cow With the Iron Tail, subs. phr. (general).—A pump; the source of the ‘cooling medium’ for ‘regulating’ milk. Thus, Dr. Wendell Holmes, in The Professor at the Breakfast Table (1860):—It is a common saying of a jockey that he is all horse, and I have often fancied that milkmen get a stiff upright carriage, and an angular movement that reminds one of a pump and the working of a handle. Also black-cow; one-armed man; and Simpson’s cow (q.v.).

1867. Punch. The Rinderpest does not affect the cow with the iron tail.

1872. Standard, 25 Dec. Simpson ... is, however, universally accepted as the title for that combined product of the Cow natural, and the cow with the iron tail.

1876. Once a Week, 23 August. Every drop of milk brought into Paris is tested at the barriers by the lactometer, to see if the iron tailed cow has been guilty of diluting it; if so, the whole of it is remorselessly thrown into the gutter—the Paris milk is very pure in consequence.

Coxy, adj. (public schools’).—Stuck up; conceited; impudent.

1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 202. He’s the coxiest young blackguard in the house—I always told you so. Ibid, p. 214. ‘Confoundly coxy those young rascals will get if we don’t mind,’ was the general feeling.

1882. F. Anstey, Vice Versâ, ch. iv. ‘Now then young Bultitude, you used to be a decent fellow enough last term, though you were coxy. So, before we go any further—what do you mean by this sort of thing?’

Coyduck, verb (old).—To decoy. [An ingenious blend of conduct and decoy.]

1829. A Laconic Narrative of the Life and Death of James Wilson. That awful monster, William Burke. Like Reynard sneaking on the lurk, Coyducked his prey into his den And then the woeful work began.

Coyote, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Cozza, subs. (cheap Jacks’).—See quot.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack. p. 28. Mo ... declared he would never eat another bit of cozza, i.e., pork, as long as he lived.

Crab, subs. (auction).—The same as bonnet (q.v.), subs., sense 1.

Verb (thieves’).—To expose; to inform; to offend or insult; and especially to interrupt, to get in the way of, to spoil. [Properly to render harsh, sour, or peevish; to make crabbed.] Also used adjectively. For synonyms, see Peach and Rile, respectively.

1825. The English Spy, vol. I., p. 179. Liveryman, Eglantine. What coming crabb over us, old fellow? Very well, I shall bolt and try Randall, and that’s all about it.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 232. If a patterer has been crabbed, that is offended at any of the ‘cribs’ (houses), he mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. Ibid, vol. II., p. 568. ‘We don’t crab one another when we are sweeping; if we was to crab one another, we’d get to fighting and giving slaps of the jaw to one another.’

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, pp. 5–6. Others, however, would be what we termed crabbed.

1880. Millikin, Punch’s Almanack. Crab your enemies,—I’ve got a many, You can pot ’em proper for a penny.

To catch a crab; also to cut a crab; to catch or cut a cancer or lobster, verbal phr. (common).—There are various ways of catching a crab, as, for example, (1) to turn the blade of the oar or ‘feather’ under water at the end of the stroke, and thus be unable to recover; (2) to lose control of the oar at the middle of the stroke by ‘digging’ too deeply; or (3) to miss the water altogether.

Crab Louse, subs. (old).—The pulex pubis, the male whereof is called a cock, the female a hen.—Grose [1785].

Crabs, subs. (thieves’).—1. The feet. [A punning comparison of the feet and ten toes to the ten-footed, short-tailed crustaceans popularly known as ‘crabs.’] For synonyms, see Creepers. In Haggart (see Glossary, 1821) crabs = shoes.

2. (old).—Lice. For synonyms, see Chates, sense 2.

3. (gaming).—A pair of aces, or deuce-ace—the lowest throw at hazard.

1768. Lord Carlisle, in Jesse’s Selwyn, II., 238 (1882). I hope you have left off hazard. If you are still so foolish, and will play, the best thing I can wish you is, that you may win and never throw crabs.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Hard Times), p. 4, ed. 1851. Well, we know in these cases Your crabs and ‘Deuce Aces’ Are wont to promote frequent changes of places.

1874. G. A. Lawrence, Hagarene, ch. iii. ‘My annuity drops with me; and if this throw comes off crabs, there won’t be enough to bury me, unless I die a defaulter.’

To turn out crabs or a case of crabs, verbal phr. (common).—A matter turns out crabs when it is brought to a disagreeable conclusion. [Cf., Crab, verb, in the sense of to interrupt; to get in the way of; to spoil.]

Crabshells, subs. (popular).—Shoes. [From crabs, subs., sense 1 (q.v.), + shells, an outer covering.] For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

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

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 210, ‘Now these ’ere shoes,’ he said ... ‘even now, with a little mending, they’ll make a tidy pair of crab-shells again.’

1889. Answers, July 20, p. 121, col. 2. The state of my crabshells, or boots, pointed to the fact that I had come down in the world.

Crack, subs. (old).—A crazy person, or soft-head. [From crack = to impair, or to be impaired.] For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, in wks. (Grosart) III., 212. A Foyst nor a Nip shall not walke into a Fayre or a Play-house, but euerie cracke will cry looke to your purses.

b. 1672, d. 1719. Addison (quoted in Annandale). I cannot get the Parliament to listen to me, who look upon me as a crack.

2. (old).—A prostitute, see sense 4. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle, Act v., Sc. 3. You imagine I have got your whore, cousin, your crack.

1705–7. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. II., pt. II., p. 27. Old Leachers, Harridans, and Cracks.

1715. Vanbrugh, Country House, II., v. For you must know my sister was with me, and it seems he took her for a crack, and I being a forward boy he fancied I was going to make love to her under a hedge, ha, ha.

1748. T. Dyce, Dictionary (5 ed.), s.v.

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

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

3. (old).—A lie. Cf., Cracker (the modern form), and for synonyms, see Whopper.

1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act ii. Miss N. There’s something generous in my cousin’s manner. He falls out before faces to be forgiven in private. Tony. That’s a damned confounded crack.

4. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

5. (thieves’).—A burglary. Cf., Crack a crib, and for synonyms, see Panny. [The term originated about the beginning of the present century. Fr., une fraction.]

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood p. 120 (ed. 1864). We’ll overhaul the swag here, when the speak is spoken over. This crack may make us all for life.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, p. 124. The crack failed, said Toby, faintly.

1841. G. W. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, ch. xxvi. But should the traps be on the sly, For a change we’ll have a crack.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 5. Come on, then! A sweet ride of a dozen miles, just to cool one’s head, then for the crack; and then back to London.

1889. Answers, 13 April, p. 313. Such inscriptions as ‘Poor Joe from the Dials in for a crack,’ meaning ‘Poor Joe from Seven Dials in for a burglary,’ are numerous.

6. (thieves’).—A burglar. [See sense 5, and cf., Cracksman.]

1749. Life of Bampfylde-Moore Carew. Suffer none, from far or near, With their rights to interfere; No strange Abram, ruffler crack.

1857. Punch, 31 Jan. (from slang song). That long over Newgit their Worships may rule, As the High-toby, mob, crack, and screeve model school.

7. (colloquial).—An approach to perfection. Cf., sense 8.

1825. English Spy, p. 255. Most noble cracks and worthy cousin trumps, permit me to introduce a brother of the togati.

1864. Glasgow Herald, 5 April. ‘Report of R. N. Y. Club.’ This vessel (one of Fyfe’s cracks) being almost new, and coppered, will be free from the objectionable fouling which is so great a drawback to the use of iron yachts.

1871. London Figaro, 17 Oct. Does it mean that the crack is a thing of the past, and that the learned author is no longer to be considered as a crack?

1889. Answers, March 23, p. 265, col. 3. Warders are not, thank goodness, first-rate shots, but even a crack would find it difficult to hit a man’s head appearing for only a moment or two in probably a heavy fog.

8. (turf).—A racehorse eminent for speed. Hunting: a famous ‘mount.’ [An extension of the usage in sense 7.]

1853. Diogenes, II., 271. ‘The Betting Boy’s Lament.’ Cesarewitch, Cambridgeshire now No longer for me have a charm; the cracks may be ranged in a row, But for me they’ve no fear nor alarm.

1864. Derby Day, p. 38. Sir Bridges Sinclair would not scratch a horse—no, not if it was ever so, let alone a Derby crack.

1871. Standard, 6 Nov. Unlimited gossip as to the welfare and chances of forthcoming cracks.

1883. The Echo, Feb. 7, p. 3, col. 6. I give below a few of the probable starters for the Waterloo Cup, including all the cracks.

1884. Hawley Smart, From Post to Finish, p. 155. Of course he was au courant with all the rumours concerning the Panton Lodge crack.

9. (vagrants’).—Dry firewood.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 358. The next process is to look for some crack (some dry wood to light a fire).

Adj. (colloquial).—Approaching perfection; used in a multitude or combinations. A crack hand is an adept or ‘dabster’; a crack corps, a brilliant regiment; a crack whip, a good coachman; etc. As a connecting link between the adjective and the earlier use of crack, cf., The crack.

1836. W. H. Smith, The Individual, 13 Nov. ‘The Thieves’ Chaunt.’ Her duds are bob—she’s a kinchin crack, and I hopes as how she’ll never back.

1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots (July). And such a crack-shot myself, that fellows were shy of insulting me.

1859. Whitty, Political Portraits, p. 106. But he [the Earl of Shaftesbury] has insisted on a recognition of the facts of our appalling civilisation, and that was a good deal to do, which none other than a Peer and crack Christian could hope to do. Ibid, p. 288. The whippers-in will never receive instructions to find the addresses of the brilliances of Union debating clubs, bar messes, and crack newspapers.

1865. M. E. Braddon, Henry Dunbar, ch. xx. Who was moreover a crack shot, a reckless cross-country-going rider, and a very tolerable amateur artist.

Verb (old).—1. To talk to; to boast. [The verb was once good English, and in the sense of to talk or gossip is still good Scots. The modern form to crack-up, is well within the borderland between literary and colloquial English. The following quots., together with those under crack-up, form an unbroken series].

1597. G. Harvey, Trimming of Nashe, in wks. (Grosart) III., 31. So you may cracke your selfe abroad, and get to be reported the man you are not.

1621. Burton, Anat. of Mel., I., II., III., xiv., 199, (1876). Your very tradesmen, if they be excellent, will crack and brag, and show their folly in excess.

1654. Witts, Recreations. And let them that crack In the praises of sack, Know malt is of mickle might.

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

2. (thieves’).—To force open; to commit a burglary. [A shorter form of crack a crib (q.v.)]

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xix. The crib’s barred up at night like a jail; but there’s one part we can crack, safe and softly.

3. (American thieves’).—To forge or utter worthless paper. [An extension by analogy of ‘to crack,’ i.e., ‘to force,’ and ‘cracksman,’ a burglar.]

4. (colloquial).—To fall to ruin; to be impaired. Cf., subs., sense 1.

b. 1631. d. 1701. Dryden [quoted in Annandale]. The credit of the exchequer cracks when little comes in and much goes out.

5. (thieves’).—To inform; to peach (q.v. for synonyms).

c. 1850, but date uncertain. Broadside Ballad, ‘Bates’ Farm.’ I mean to crack a crib to-night, but pals don’t crack on me.

To crack a bottle or a quart, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To drink. Analogous and equally old is ‘to crush a cup.’ Fr., étouffer une négresse or un enfant de chœur. For synonyms, see Lush.

1598. Shakspeare, II. Henry IV., v., 3, 66. Shal. By the mass, you’ll crack a quart together.

1711. Spectator. No. 234. He hems after him in the public street, and they must crack a bottle at the next tavern.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VIII., ch. vii. ‘What,’ says the wife, ‘you have been tippling with the gentleman! I see.’ ‘Yes,’ answered the husband, ‘we have cracked a bottle together.’

1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. viii. ‘You have cracked my silver-mounted cocoa-nut of sack, and tell me that you cannot sing!’

1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. xvii., p. 221. ‘I chose to invite the landlords of the ‘Bell’ and the ‘Lion’ to crack a bottle with me.’

To crack a crib, swag, or ken, verbal phr. (thieves’).—To commit a burglary; to break into a house. [From crack, to force open, + crib, a house.]

English Synonyms. To stamp a ken or crib; to work a panny; to jump a house (also applied to simple robbery without burglary); to do a crack; to practice the black art; to screw; to bust a crib; to flimp; to buz; to tool; to wire; to do a ken-crack-lay.

French Synonyms. Faire un cassement de porte (thieves’); faire une condition (thieves’); faire copeaux (thieves’: in allusion to the splinters from a forced door); écorner une boutanche or un boucard (thieves’ = to enter shops burglariously); faire un vol à l’esquinte (thieves’); maquiller une cambriole (thieves’: maquiller = to do, to ‘fake’—an almost universal verb of action); faire fric-frac; nettoyer un bocart (thieves’).

German Synonyms. Aufnollen (to ‘burgle’ with skeleton keys); aufplatzen (literally ‘to wrench’ or ‘break open’); aufschränken (schränken [from Schranke, O.H.G. screnchan, M.H.G. schranne, schrange, schrand] = a burglary with violence. Schränker = burglar. Up to the middle of the present century burglars used to be called Schränker a zierlicher; Schränkmassematten = a burglary with violence; Schränkzeug, Schränkschaure, Schränkschurrich = burglars’ tools); blaupfeifen (Viennese thieves’); Cassne handeln or melochenen (to commit burglary with open violence); einen Massematten handeln (Massematten is a word whose Hebraic components very nearly correspond to the English ‘debit and credit’; it signifies commerce and activity—of the kind that pertains to cracksmanship; e.g., einen Massematten baldowern, to make an opportunity for theft; einen Massematten stehen haben, to have ‘dead-lurked’ a crib, or prepared a burglary; Massematten bekoach, a burglary with violence.)

1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 297, ed. 1854. And you ‘members as now I met Harry and you—there, and I vas all afeard at you—cause vy? I had never seen you afore and ve vas a going to crack a swell’s crib.’

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. 5. Jer. Now comes the grand spec; we go to crack a ken; Kit’s in, so’s the captain. Steady’s the word; I go first, you all follow.

1871. Standard, 26 Dec. If their pals outside, the gentry who hocus Jack ashore in the east, pick the pockets of Lord Dundreary in the west, and crack cribs in the lonely outskirts could only realise how miserable the Christmas-day was for them, we might look out for a needful retrenchment in the estimates of penal expenditure.

1871. Morning Advertiser, 11 May. ‘Leader.’ He took to burglary, employing professional burglars to assist him, whenever it became necessary to crack a crib.

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip. Dead-lurk a crib, or do a crack.

To crack a judy (or her tea cup), verb. phr. (common).—To deflower a maid.

To crack a crust, phr. (common).—To rub along in the world. A superlative for doing very well is, To crack a tidy crust.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 445. I am now just managing to crack an honest crust; and while I can do that I will never thieve more.

To crack a ken, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To commit a burglary; to crack a crib (q.v.).—[See Crack, verb, sense 2 and Ken.]

To crack a whid, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To talk. [Whid (q.v.) = a word: Old Cant.] Cf., Cut, verb, sense 1. For synonyms, see Patter.

1876. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 22. The whids as the words or set phrases used by Cheap Johns in disposing of their articles are called are very much alike ... many little circumstances occur when they (the whids) are being cracked which are lost to a reader.

To crack on, verb. phr. (common).—To ‘put on speed’; increase one’s pace.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xi. ‘I shot a wild goose at River Philip last year, with the rice of Varginny fresh in his crop; he must have cracked on near about as fast as them other geese, the British travellers.’

1876. Broadside Ballad [quoted in C. G. Leland’s Captain Jonas]. We carried away the royal yards, and the stuns’le boom was gone. Says the skipper, ‘they may go or stand, I’m darned if I don’t crack on.’

To crack up, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To praise; eulogize. A superlative is to crack up to the nines. Fr., faire l’article, (commercial travellers’) and faire son boniment or son petit boniment (cheap jacks’ and showmen’s).

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit. Ch. 33 ... We must be cracked up, said Mr. Chollop, darkly.

1856. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, p. 139. Then don’t object to my cracking up the old school house, Rugby.

1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ch. i. ‘We find them cracking up the country they belong to, no matter how absurd may be the boast.’

The crack, or all the crack, phr. (general).—The go (q.v.); ‘the thing’; the ‘kick’; the general craze of the moment.

In a crack, phr. (colloquial).—Instantaneously; in the twinkling of an eye. For synonyms, see Bedpost.

1725. Ramsay, Gentle Shepherd, Act i. I trow, when that she saw, within a crack, She came with a right thieveless errand back.

1763. Foote, Mayor of Garrett, Act i. Nic Goose, the taylor, from Putney, they say, will be here in a crack.

1819. Byron, Don Juan, ch. i., st. 135. ‘They’re on the stair just now, and in a crack will all be here.’

1842. Punch, vol. III., p. 136. In a crack the youth and maiden To a flowery bank did come.

Cracked or Cracked-Up, ppl. adj. phr. (colloquial).—1. Ruined; ‘bust up’; ‘gone to smash’ or to ‘pot.’ For synonyms, see Dead broke.

1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 2 [also pp. 24, 47]. If a Catholic coster,—there’s only a very few of them—is cracked up (penniless) he’s often started again, and the others have a notion that it’s through some chapel fund. Ibid, p. 22. ‘If we’re cracked up, that is, if we’re forced to go into the Union.’

1870. Britannia, June. ‘Speculation in 1870.’ Of these there only remain now 122 companies, with a capital of a hundred and eighty millions, the rest having one and all cracked up, as the Americans would say.

2. (common).—Crazy. For synonyms, see Apartments and Tile Loose.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 3 Sept. ‘Police Court Report.’ Mr. Bushby: Is her head affected? The Prisoner: Am I cracked? Of course—in the nut. You’ll be to-morrow.

3. (common).—Deflowered. Also Cracked in the Ring.

Cracker, subs. (common).—Anything approaching perfection. Used in both a good and bad sense; e.g., a rattling pace, a large sum of money, a bad fall, an enormous lie, a dandy (male or female) of the first magnitude, and so forth. [Cf., Crack, subs.; senses 3 and 7, adj., and verb, sense 1.]

1861. Whyte Melville, Good for Nothing, ch. vi. ‘I remember ... Belphegor’s year. What a cracker I stood to win on him and the Rejected!’

1863. C. Reade, Hard Cash, I., 28. You know the University was in a manner beaten, and he took the blame. He never cried; that was a cracker of those fellows.

1869. Daily News, Nov. 8. ‘Leader.’ Now he’s gone a cracker over head and ears.

1871. Daily News, Nov. 1. ‘Prince of Wales’ Visit to Scarborough.’ The shooting party, mounting their forest ponies, came up the straight a cracker, Lord Carrington finishing a good first.

1883. Graphic, March 24, p, 303, col. 1. He [the Oxford stroke] could also depend on his own men for not falling to pieces through being taken off at a cracker.

Crackey.—See Crikey.

Crack-Halter, or Crack-Rope, subs. (old).—A vagabond; an old equivalent of jail-bird. Cf., Hemp-seed.

1566. Gascoigne, Supposes, i., 4. You crackhalter, if I catch you by the ears, I’ll make you answer directly.

1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, IV., i. Featherstone’s boy, like an honest crack-halter, laid open all to one of my prentices.

1639. Massinger, Unnatural Combat, II., ii. Peace, you crack-rope!

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. ‘Hark ye, ye crack-rope padder, born-beggar, and hedge-thief,’ replied the hag.

Crack-Hunter, or Haunter, subs. (venery).—The penis. Cf., Crack, subs., sense 4. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Cracking, verbal subs. (thieves’).—House-breaking. [From crack, verb, sense 2.]

1862. Cornhill Mag., vol. VI., 651. We are going a-flimping, buzzing, cracking, tooling, etc.

Crackish, adj. (old).—Wanton, said only of women. [From crack, subs., sense 4.] Cf., Coming.

Crack-Jaw Words, Names, etc., subs. (colloquial).—Long words difficult to pronounce. [From crack, to break, + jaw, speech.] Variants are half-crown words, jaw-breakers, and cramp words.