Part 29

Creepers, subs. (common).—1. The feet.

English Synonyms. Dew-beaters; beetle-crushers; understandings; trotters; tootsies; stumps (also the legs); everlasting shoes; hocks; boot-trees; pasterns; ards (Old Cant: now used as an adjective, = ‘hot’); double-breasters; daisy-beaters; kickers; crabs; trampers; hockles; hoofs; pudseys.

French Synonyms. Les trottins (popular: trottiner, to go a jog-trot; aller chercher les pardons de Saint-Trottin, to take a walk instead of going to church); les reposoirs (common: properly [in sing.] a resting place or pause; also an altar set up in the streets for a procession); les ripatons (popular); les palerons (thieves’: properly, in sing., a shoulder-blade); les paturons (thieves’: properly pasterns); les harpions (thieves’: also hands). Cotgrave has harpe d’un chien = a dog’s claw or paw; also, Il mania très bien ses harpes, He stirred his fingers very nimbly. [Cf., ‘pickers and stealers’ = fingers]; les mains courantes (popular: literally running hands).

German Synonyms. Tretter (Cf., English ‘trotter’); Trittling, or Trittchen (Hanoverian = shoe, boot, foot, or staircase); Trittlingspflanzer or Trittlingsmelochner (the shoemaker).

Italian Synonyms. Calcioso; pisante; bottiero; mazzo.

2. (general).—Lice. For synonyms, see Chates.

Creeps, subs. (common).—The peculiar thrill resulting from an undefinable sense of dread. [Literally a ‘crawling’ of the flesh as with fear.] Also known as goose-flesh, cold shivers, and cold water down the back.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers. I wants to make yer flesh creep.

1864. E. Yates, Broken to Harness, ch. xiii. [Late Autumn.] Dreary down in the old country mansions ... where the servants, town-bred, commence to be colded, sniffy, to have shivers and creeps.

1870. London Figaro, 27 June. ‘A River Romance.’ Talking about bodies, I could give you the creeps with what I’ve seen.

1883. The Lute, 15 Jan., p. 18, col. 2. We see the great tragedian holding on to a chair, and giving his audience creeps with the ‘Dream of Eugene Aram.’

1890. Globe, 22 May, p. 1, col. 4. Miss Gertrude is the sister of Mrs. Chanler-Rives (better known as Amélie, or still better as the writer of The Quick or the Dead, by which many ladylike persons have been given ‘the creeps’).

Crevecœur.—See Heart-breaker.

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

Cri, subs. (popular).—The Criterion, theatre and restaurant, at Piccadilly Circus.

c. 1886. Broadside Ballad, ‘Another Fellah’s.’ Round into the cri ev’ry evening I slip, And deep in the pale sparkling bitter I dip.

Crib, subs. (old).—1. The stomach. Cf., Cribbing, sense 1. [A transferred sense of crib = a manger, rack, or feeding place. Cf., Isaiah i., 3, ‘The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib.’] For synonyms, see Bread-basket and Victualling office.

1656. Brome, Jovial Crew, Act. ii. Here’s pannum and lap, and good poplars of Yarrum, To fill up the crib, and to comfort the quarron.

2. (colloquial).—A house; place of abode; apartments; lodgings; shop; warehouse; ‘den,’ ‘diggings,’ or ‘snuggery.’ For synonyms, see Diggings. [From A.S., crib, or cribb a small habitation.]

1598. Shakspeare, King Henry IV. Why, rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Than in the perfumed chambers of the great?

1830. Bulwer Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 80 (ed. 1854). Now, now in the crib, where a ruffler may lie, Without fear that the traps should distress him.

1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xix. The crib’s barred up at night like a jail.

1847. Illus. London News, 22 May. The burglar has his crib in Clerkenwell.

1860. Chambers’ Journal, vol. XIII., p. 212. He said he was awful flattered like by the honour of seeing two such gents at his crib.

1882. Daily News, 5 Oct., p. 5, col. 2. To manage escapes from prison successfully is only an application of the principles which enable the burglar to crack the rural crib and appropriate the swag of her Majesty’s peaceful subjects.

3. (popular).—A situation, ‘place,’ or ‘berth.’ [The transition from subs., sense 2, is easy and natural.]

4. (school and University).—A literal translation surreptitiously used by students; also a theft of any kind; specifically, anything copied without acknowledgment.—[See verb., sense 2.] For synonyms, see Pony.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 185. He has with a prudent forethought stuffed his cribs inside his double-breasted waistcoat.

1853. C. Bede, Verdant Green, pt. I., p. 64.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxii. I wish I had read Greek a little more at school ... when we return I think I shall try and read it with cribs.

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. vi. Tom, I want you to give up using vulgus books and cribs.

1889. Globe, 12 Oct., p. 1, col. 4. Always, it seems likely, there will be men ‘going up’ for examinations; and every now and again, no doubt, there will be among them a wily ‘Heathen Pass-ee’ like him of whom Mr. Hilton speaks—who had cribs up his sleeve, and notes on his cuff.

5. (thieves’).—A bed.—[See subs., senses 2 and 3.]

1827. Maginn, from Vidocq. Lend me a lift in the family way. You may have a crib to stow in.

Verb (colloquial).—1. To steal or pilfer; used specifically of petty thefts. For synonyms, see Prig.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Crib (v.): to with-hold, keep back, pinch, or thieve a part out of money given to lay out for necessaries.

1772. Foote Nabob, Act i. There are a brace of birds and a hare, that I cribbed this morning out of a basket of game.

1846. T. Hood, Ode to Rae Wilson, Esqr., wks., vol. IV., p. 224. Yet sure of Heaven themselves, as if they’d cribb’d Th’ impression of St. Peter’s keys in wax.

1855. Robert Browning, Men and Women. Fra Lippo Lippi, ed. 1863, p. 351. Black and white I drew From good old gossips waiting to confess Their cribs of barrel-droppings, candle-ends.

1889. Answers, 27 July, page 141, col. 1. He knew that if the manuscript got about the Yankees would think it a smart thing to crib it.

2. (school and University).—To use a translation; to cheat at an examination; to plagiarise.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 177. Cribbing his answers from a tiny manual of knowledge, two inches by one-and-a-half in size, which he hides under his blotting-paper.

1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown’s School-days, pt. II., ch. iii. Finishing up with two highly moral lines extra, making ten in all, which he cribbed entire from one of his books.

To crack a crib.—See under Crack.

Cribbage-Face and Cribbage-Faced, subs. and adj. phr. (common).—Pock-marked and like a cribbage-board. Otherwise colander-faced, crumpet-faced, pikelet-faced, and mockered (q.v.).

French Synonyms. Avoir un grenier à lentilles (popular: a cock-loft, granary, or garret, for the storage of lentils); ne pas s’être assuré contre la grêle (popular: grêle = hail); un morceau de gruyère (popular: that cheese being honeycombed with holes); avoir un moule à gaufres (popular: moule = mould; gaufre = a cake); une écumoire (familiar: properly a skimmer); poèle à châtaignes (poèle = frying pan and châtaignes = chestnuts; the colander-like shovel for roasting chestnuts).

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cribbage-faced: marked with the small-pox, the pits bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a cribbage-board.

Cribber, subs. (military).—A grumbler. [A horse that gnaws his crib or manger.] Cf., Crib-biter, and for synonyms, see Rusty-guts.

Cribbeys or Cribby-Islands, subs. (old).—Blind alleys, courts, and bye-ways; Fr., culs-de-sac.

Cribbing, verbal subs. (old).—1. Food and Drink. Cf., Crib, sense 1.

1656. R. Brome, A Jovial Crew. For all this ben cribbing and Peck let us then, Bowse a health to the gentry cofe of the ken.

2. (schools’ and University and general).—Stealing; purloining; using a translation. Cf., Crib, subs., sense 4.

1862. Farrar, St. Winifred’s, ch. xxxv. They would not call it stealing but bagging a thing, or, at the worst, cribbing it—concealing the villainy under a new name.

Crib-Biter, subs. (common).—An inveterate grumbler. [Properly a horse that worries his crib, rack, manger, or groom, and at the same time draws in his breath so as to make the peculiar noise called wind-sucking.] French equivalents are un gourgousseur; un rême; un renâcleur; and un renaudeur.—See Cribber.

Crib-Cracker, subs. (general).—A housebreaker.

1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 11. The little boys look up half with awe and half with admiration at the burly Sikes with his flash style, and delight in gossip concerning his talents as a crib-cracker, and his adventures as a pickpocket.

Crib-Cracking, verbal subs. (thieves’).—Housebreaking.

1852. Punch, vol. XXIII., p. 161. With higher ambition Bill Sykes he burned, And becoming experter as he grew older, From cly-faking to crib-cracking turned.

Cries.—See Street cries.

Crikey! Cracky! Cry! intj. (common).—Formerly, ‘a profane oath’; now a mere expression of astonishment. [A corruption of ‘Christ.’]

1837. R. H. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 276. It would make you exclaim, ’twould so forcibly strike ye, If a Frenchman Superbe!—if an Englishman crikey!

1841. Comic Almanack, p. 275. Oh! crikey, Bill; vot a conch that lady’s got!

1853. Diogenes, II., 54. O, crikey! the switching I got, At the hand of the cruel old miser.

1888. W. E. Henley. ‘Culture in the Slums.’ ‘O crikey, Bill!’ she says to me, she ses. ‘Look sharp,’ ses she, ‘with them there sossiges.’

Crimini, Criminey, or Crimes!—See Crikey. [Possibly the latter usage has been influenced by crimen meum, my fault.]

1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, Act iv., Sc. 1. Murder’d my brother! O crimini!

1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xvi. ‘A monument of a knight-templar on each side of a Grecian porch, and a Madonna on the top of it!—O crimini!’

1841. The Comic Almanack, p. 280. ‘A Lament for Bartlemy Fair.’ Oh! lawk; oh! dear; oh! crimeny me; what a downright sin and a shame.

Crimson. To make things look crimson, verbal phr. (American).—To indulge in a drunken frolic; to paint the town red (q.v.)

Crimson Chitterling, subs. phr. (old).—The penis. Used by Urquhart. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Crincle-Pouch, subs. (old).—A sixpence. For synonyms, see Bender.

1593. ‘Bacchus’ Bountie,’ Harl. Misc., II., p. 270 [ed. 1808–11]. See then the goodnes of this so gracious a god, al yee, which in the driest drought of summer, had rather shroude your throates with a handfull of hemp, than with the expence of an odde crinclepouch, wash yourselues within and without, and make yourselues as mery as dawes.

Crinkum-Crankum, subs. (old).—The female pudendum. [Properly a winding way.] For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Crinkums, subs. (old).—A venereal disease. Cf., Crinkum-crankum. For synonyms, see Ladies’ fever.

Crinoline, subs. (common).—A woman. For synonyms, see Petticoat.

Cripple, subs. (old).—1. A ‘snid’ (Scots) or sixpence.—[See quots., 1785 and 1885.] For synonyms, see Bender.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cripple: six pence, that piece being commonly much bent and distorted.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178, s.v.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 25, n. A bandy or cripple, a sixpence.

1885. Household Words, 20 June, p. 155. The sixpence is a coin more liable to bend than most others, so it is not surprising to find that several of its popular names have reference to this weakness. It is called a bandy, a ‘bender,’ a cripple.

2. (common).—An awkward oaf; also a dullard. Fr., malapatte (popular: properly mal à la patte). [Figurative for one that creeps, limps, or halts—whether physically or mentally.] Cf., sense 3, and Go it, you cripples.

3. (Wellington College).—A dolt; literally one without a leg to stand on. Cf., sense 2, and Go it, you cripples.

Go it, you cripples! phr. (general).—A sarcastic comment on strenuous effort; frequently used without much sense of fitness; e.g., when the person addressed is a capable athlete. Wooden legs are cheap is sometimes added as an intensitive.

1840. Thackeray, Cox’s Diary. ‘Striking a balance,’ p. 229. ‘O! come along,’ said Lord Lollypop, ‘come along this way, ma’am! Go it, ye cripples.’

Crisp, subs. (popular).—A banknote. For synonyms, see Soft.

Crispin, subs. (common).—A shoemaker. [From Saints Crispin and Crispianus, the patrons of the ‘gentle craft,’ i.e., shoemaking.]

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

1861. Punch, vol. XLI., p. 246. Crispin, everybody knows to be a name for a shoemaker.

St. Crispin’s Lance, subs. phr. (old).—An awl. [From Crispin (q.v.) + lance, a weapon.] Fr., une lance.

Crispin’s Holiday, subs. phr. (old).—Every Monday throughout the year, but most particularly the 25th of October, being the anniversary of Crispinus and Crispianus.

Croak, subs. (thieves’).—A dying speech, especially the confession of a murderer. Also the same as printed for sale in the streets by a ‘flying stationer.’ [From the verbal sense (q.v.).]

1887. A. Barrère, Argot and Slang, p. 272. The criminal ... would perhaps utter for the edification of the crowd his ‘tops, or croaks,’ that is, his last dying speech.

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip. Go crying croaks, or flash the drag.

Verb.—To die. For synonyms, see Aloft.

Croaker, subs. (old).—1. A sixpence. For synonyms, see Bender.

2. (old).—A beggar.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444, s.v.

3. (common).—A dying person.—See Croak, verbal sense.

4. (common).—A corpse. [From croak, verb. sense, through croaker, senses 2 and 3.] For synonyms, see Dead-meat.

5. (provincial).—See quot.

1886. Ulster Echo, 31 July, p. 4. The inspector of nuisances said the meat was known as croaker, or the flesh of an animal which had died a natural death.

6. (prison).—A doctor [connected with crocus, but influenced by croaker, subs., senses 2, 3, and 4.]

1889. Evening News [quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant]. One man who had put his name for the ‘butcher’ or croaker, would suddenly find that he had three ounces of bread less to receive, and then a scene would ensue.

7. (common).—A person, male or female, who sees everything en noir, and whose conversation is likened to that of the raven, which is a bird of ill-omen.—See Goldsmith’s Good Natured Man. Fr., un glas = also a passing bell.

Croakumshire, subs. (old).—Northumberland. [Grose: ‘from the particular croaking in the pronunciation of the people of that county, especially about Newcastle and Morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter “r”.’]

Crock, subs. (common).—A worthless animal; a fool; said of a horse it signifies a good-for-nothing brute; of a man or woman, a duffer, a ‘rotter.’ [Most likely from the Scots crock = an old sheep.]

1887. Sporting Times, 12 March, p. 2, col. 5. The wretched crocks that now go to the post will be relegated to more appropriate work.

1889. Bird o’ Freedom, 7 Aug., p. 3. For five minutes that crock went about twice as fast as it had ever done.

1889. Illustrated Bits, 13 July. ‘I say,’ said the Lumberer to the Old Hermit, as they stood at the mouth of the Cave listening to the song birds, ‘you are getting a bit of a crock—failing fast, I should say.’

Crocketts, subs. (Winchester College).—A kind of bastard cricket, sometimes called ‘small crochetts.’ Five stumps are used and a fives ball, with a bat of plain deal about two inches broad, or a broomstick.

1870. Mansfield, School-Life at Winchester College, p. 122. The more noisily disposed would indulge in ... playing Hicockolorum, or Crocketts.

To get crocketts, verbal phr.—To fail to score at cricket; to make a duck’s egg.

Crocodile, subs. (University).—A girl’s school walking two and two.

Crocus, Crocus-Metallorum or Croakus, subs. (common).—A doctor; specifically, a quack. [Conjecturally, a derivative of croak = to die. Cf., quot. 1781, under Crocussing rig.]

English Synonyms. Pill; squirt; butcher; croaker; corpse-provider; bolus; clyster; gallipot. [Several of these terms also = an apothecary.]

French Synonyms. Un dragueur (popular: literally a dredging machine); un cliabeau (a doctor at St. Lazare); un bénévole (popular: a young doctor, especially one walking the hospitals); un marchand de morts subites (common: literally ‘a dealer in sudden death.’ Cf., Corpse provider).

German Synonym. Rofe or Raufe (from the Hebrew).

Italian Synonyms. Maggio (signifying God, king, lord, and pope); posteggiatore (literally ‘he that places’; used of any charlatan, but particularly of a quack doctor); dragon di farda.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Crocus or crocus metallorum: a nickname for the surgeons of the army and navy.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 231 (quoted in list of patterer’s words).

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed. p. 444, s.v.

Crocus-Chovey (vagrants’ and thieves’).—A doctor’s shop. From [crocus = doctor + chovey, a shop.]

Crocus-Pitcher, subs. (vagrants’ and thieves’).—A quack ambulant. [From crocus (q.v.), a doctor, + pitcher, one that stands in the street to hold forth concerning his business.]

Crocussing-Rig, subs. (old).—Travelling from place to place, as a quack doctor. [From crocus (q.v.), a doctor, + ing + rig, a performance or trick.]

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 171. Crocussing Rig is performed by men and women, who travel as Doctors or Doctoresses.

Crone, subs. (showmen’s).—A clown or buffoon.

Crook, subs. (old).—1. A sixpence. [An abbreviation of crookback (q.v.).]

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 178. s.v.

2. (general).—A thief; swindler; one who gets things on the crook (q.v.).

1887. Orange Journal, 16 April. Strange as the statement may seem, the public know nothing of the work of a really clever crook, and the police themselves know very little more. The explanation of this ignorance is a very simple one. A crook whose methods are exposed is a second-rate crook.

On the crook, adv. phr. (thieves’).—The antithesis of on the straight (q.v.). Cf., On the cross.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 503. Which he had bought on the crook (dishonestly).

To crook (or cock) the elbow, or the little finger, verbal phr. (popular).—To drink. [A French colloquialism, identical in meaning, is lever le coude; a hard drinker is un adroit du coude.] For synonyms, see Lush.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms. To crook the elbow, is one of the many slang terms for drinking.

1877. Besant and Rice, With Harp and Crown, ch. xix. The secretary ... might have done great things in literature but for his unfortunate crook of the elbow. As he only crooks it at night, it does not matter to the hospital.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 3 May, p. 4, col. 1. I’ll ... ask him to take a drink, chat with him while he crooks his elbow.

Crook-Back, subs. (old).—A sixpenny piece, many of the slang names of which suggest a bashed and battered appearance; e.g., ‘bender,’ ‘cripple,’ ‘crook,’ crookback, etc. Quoted by Grose [1785]. For synonyms, see Bender.

Crooked, ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Disappointing; the reverse of straight (q.v.); pertaining to the habits, ways, and customs of thieves.—See On the crook. So also, mutatis mutandis, crookedness = rascality of every kind.

1837. Comic Almanack, p. 94. Things have gone very crooked.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 126. The prisoner’s friend was also a ‘fly’ man, and he immediately saw how he could thoroughly pay off the crooked officer.

1884. Daily Telegraph, 22 Jan., p. 3, col. 1. My time was up the same day as that of two lads of the crooked school; it was through them that I took to thieving.

1884. Echo, 28 Jan., p. 4, col. 1. Last season will be long remembered in the racing world for the crookedness of some owners.

1888. Detroit Free Press, 3 Nov. ‘What are you trying to get out of me?’ ‘I am going to see that to-night you are better lodged to begin with. I may decide to do more, but that will depend pretty much on yourself.’ ‘Nothing crooked, is it?’ asked the other, suspiciously!

Crooked as a Virginia (or snake) fence, phr. (American).—Uneven; zig-zag; said of matters or persons difficult to keep ‘straight.’ To make a Virginia fence is to walk unsteadily, as a drunkard. The Virginia fences zigzag with the soil.

Crooky, verb (common).—To hang on to; to lead; to walk arm-in-arm; to court or pay addresses to a girl. For synonyms, see Trot out.

Crop.—See Crap, sense 1.

Cropped, ppl. adj. (old).—Hanged. For synonyms, see Ladder and Topped.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 30. Sentencing some more to be crapped (sic) [hanged].

Cropper, subs. (common).—A heavy fall or failure of any kind; generally ‘to come a cropper.’ [Originally hunting.] Analagous French phrases are avoir une discussion avec le pavé (literally ‘to argue with the pavement’); prendre un billet de parterre (a punning play upon words: the pit of a theatre is parterre; par terre = on the ground: hence to take a ticket for the pit); se lithographier (popular). For synonyms in a metaphorical sense, see Go to pot.

1868. Echoes from the Clubs, 23 Dec. ‘Pleasures of the Hunting Field.’ In short, it is fox-hunting which ... induces the belief that life is a mistake without occasional croppers.

1869. H. J. Byron, Not such a Fool as He Looks (French’s Acting ed.), p. 8. Mr. Topham Sawyer missed his own tip as well as his wictim’s, and came down a cropper on a convenient doorstep.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. lxvii. Talking to his father he could not quite venture to ask what might happen if he were to come a cropper.

1883. Daily News, 24 Jan., p. 5, col. 3. Ouida treads ‘alone, aloft, sublime’ where Astræa might fear to pass, and though she comes what men call croppers over a thousand details, she is sublimely unconscious of her blunders.

Croppie or Croppy, subs. (old).—Originally applied to criminals cropped as to their ears and their noses by the public executioner; subsequently, to convicts, in allusion to their close cropped hair; hence to any person whose hair was cut close to the head; e.g., the Puritans and the Irish Rebels of 1789.

1870. Sir G. C. Lewis, Letters, p. 410. Wearing the hair short and without powder was, at this time, considered a mark of French principles. Hair so worn was called a ‘crop.’ Hence Lord Melbourne’s phrase, ‘crop-imitating wig’ [Poetry of Anti-Jacobin, p. 41]. This is the origin of croppies, as applied to the Irish rebels of 1789.

1877–79. Green, Short Hist. Eng. People, ch. x., The croppies, as the Irish insurgents were called in derision from their short-cut hair.

Croppled. To be croppled, verbal phr. (Winchester College).—To fail in an examination; to be sent down at a lesson.

Croppy.—See Croppie.

Crops, verbal phr.—To go and look at the crops = to leave the room for the purpose of consulting Mrs. Jones (q.v.).

Cross, subs. (thieves’).—1. A pre-arranged swindle. In its special sporting signification a cross is an arrangement to lose on the part of one of the principals in a fight, or any kind of match. When both principals conspire that one shall win, it is called a double cross (q.v.). [Obviously a shortened form of cross-bite (q.v., verbal sense).]

1834. W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood. Two milling coves, each vide avake, Vere backed to fight for heavy stake; But in the mean time, so it vos, Both kids agreed to play a cross.

1864. Derby Day, p. 39. ‘As sure as the sun shines, Askpart ’ll lick ’em; if so be,’ he added significantly, ‘as there ain’t no cross.’