Part 35

German Synonyms. Mittelaile (midnight); Choschech, Chauschech, or Koschech (from the Hebrew choschach = a moonless night); Eref (specifically the eve of a Sabbath or festival); Fichte (literally a fir-tree); Ratt (Gypsy); Schwärze = (the black ’un); Zofon or Zofen (from Hebrew zophan = to hide).

Italian Synonyms. Bruna or brunora (Fr. brune); materna (properly = the maternal).

Spanish Synonym. Sorna.

Portuguese Synonym. Zona.

Darkman’s Budge, subs. phr. (old).—A housebreaker’s confederate, who slips into a house during the day, hides there, and opens the door at night.—[Grose, 1785.]

Darky, or Darkey, subs. (old).—1. A dark lantern; a bull’s eye.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. Stow the darkee and bolt, the cove of the cub is fly.

2. (old).—The night; the twilight. Also (nautical) darks.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 124. Bless your eyes and limbs, lay out a mag with poor Chirruping Joe. I don’t come here every darkey.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 216. We could average our ‘duey bionk peroon a darkey,’ or two shillings each, in the night.

1878. C. Hindley, Life and Times of Jas. Catnach. The cleanest angler on the pad in daylight or the darkey.

3. (common).—A negro. [From his complexion.] For synonyms, see Snowball.

1840. Dana, Two Years before the Mast, ch. xvii. Tom Cringle says that no one can fathom a negro’s affection for a pig; and I believe he is right, for it almost broke our poor darky’s heart when he heard that Bess was to be taken ashore.

1870. Negro Hymn. Walk in, darkies, troo de gate; Hark, de kullered angels holler; Go ’way, white fokes, ye’re too late, We’s de winnin’ kuller! Wait, Till de trumwet blow to foller!

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 594. I wish de legislatur’ would set dis darkie free, Oh! what a happy place den de darkie land would be; We’d have a darkie Parliament An’ darkie codes of law, An’ darkie judges on the bench, Darkie barristers and aw’.

Darn, Darned, verb and ppl. adj. (colloquial).—Euphemistic forms of ‘damn’ and ‘damned’; used to avoid ‘cussing bar’-foot.’ Also darnation, dangnation, darn burn it, and darn or dash my buttons or wig.—See Dadbinged and Oaths for synonyms.

c. 1840. West of England Ballad [quoted in Literary World, 11 Apr., 1890, p. 347, col. 1]. But if he’d know’d he’d got so much money He darned his buttons if he’d gi’ed ’un the shillin’.

1880. G. R. Sims, Zeph and other Stories, p. 87. I shall bring you to your senses, Bess, now, my girl, and you won’t be so darned fast refusin’ a good offer.

1888. Harper’s Magazine. My experience has taught me that in Colorado the man who tells the first story has a darned poor show.

Dart, subs. (pugilistic).—A straight-armed blow.

D.A.’s, subs. (general).—The menstrual flux. [An abbreviation of domestic afflictions (q.v.) and for synonyms see Flag-up.]

Dash, subs. (old).—1. A tavern waiter.

2. (common).—A small quantity; a ‘drink’; a ‘go’ (q.v. for synonyms). Also a small quantity of one fluid to give a flavour to another, e.g., a lemon and a dash = a bottle of lemonade with just a suggestion of bitter beer in it.

Verb (brewers’).—1. To adulterate.

1871. Times, 4 April. ‘Leader on Licensing Bill.’ The brewers are careless of the characters of their tenants; they compel them to take all their beer from themselves, and too often at such prices that they are driven to adulterate or dash the liquor.

2. Also dash it! or dash my buttons, wig, timbers, etc., intj. phr. (common).—Colloquial expletives; also employed euphemistically = ‘to damn.’—See Buttons and Oaths.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress p. 46. Except light oaths, to grace his speeches, Like ‘Dash my wig!’ or ‘burn my breeches!’

1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 22. You may try, but dash my timbers if you’ll ever cross the Thames to-night!

1842. Punch, vol. II., p. 20, col. 2. Yet henceforth—dash my wig! I’ll live with thee, with thee I’ll hop the twig!

1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. iv. Gunpowder is your true leveller—dash physical strength! A boy’s a man with a musket in his hand, my chap!

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. IV., ch. iii. And if you hadn’t come round to me to-night, dash my wig if I wouldn’t have come round to you to-morrow.

1880. G. R. Sims, Three Brass Balls, pledge ii. ‘Dash it all!’ said the police-surgeon, ‘that’s two fatal cases I’ve had to-day.’

Cut a Dash.—See Cut.

To have a dash on, verbal phr. (turf).—To speculate largely or wildly; ‘to go it strong.’

Dasher, subs. (old).—1. A showy prostitute. (Cf., sense 2).

1790. C. Dibdin, Sea Songs, ‘Old Cunwell the Pilot.’ My Poll, once a dasher, now turned to a nurse.

2. (colloquial).—An ostentatious or extravagant man or woman; an impetuous person; a ‘clipper’; also latterly,—the word has shown progress towards literary English throughout—a man or woman of fashion; a person of brilliant qualities, mental or physical. Fr., genreux-se; une femme catapulteuse (a fine woman, as also une cocodète). Spanish equivalents are damaza and sibila, while tiene garabato is said of women who ‘hook’ men by their manner and grace (garabato = a meat-hook).

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxix., p. 289. ‘Why, you look smarter by day,’ said Poll, ‘than you do by candlelight. I never see such a tight young dasher.’

1856. Miss Edgeworth, Almeria, p. 292. She was astonished to find in high life a degree of vulgarity of which her country companions would have been ashamed: but all such things in high life go under the general term dashing. These young ladies were dashers.

Daub, subs. (common).—1. An artist. Verb.—See Dawb.

2. A bad picture.

David, subs. (common).—1.—See Davy, sense 1.

2. (American).—A torpedo.

1872. Morning Advertiser, 3 April.

David Jones or David Jones’s Locker.—See under Davy.

David’s Sow. Drunk as David’s, or Davy’s sow, adv. phr. (old).—Beastly drunk. [For a somewhat far-fetched derivation, see Grose’s Dict. Vulg. Tongue.]

c. 1720. Gay, New Song of New Similes. Though as drunk as David’s sow.

1733. Bailey, Erasmus, p. 127. When he comes home, after I have been waiting for him till I do not know what time at night, as drunk as David’s sow, he does nothing but lie snoring all night long by my side.

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xiv. Fellows who have no respect for the articles of war, and who get as drunk as David’s sow.

Davy, subs. (colloquial).—1. An affidavit. Synonymous, by implication, with ‘God,’ in so help, or s’welp me davy, or Alfred Davy (q.v.). Fr., Je t’en fous mon billet or mon petit turlututu = I’ll take my davy on it.

1764. O’Hara, Midas, II., iv. And I with my davy will back it, I’ll swear.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxii. ‘I’ll take my davy,’ says the captain, ‘it’s some Yankee trick.’

1842. Punch, vol. III., p. 136. Tell me on thy davy; whether thou dost dear thy Colin hold.

1884. Daily Telegraph, 4 Sept., p. 2, col. 2. You may take your davy I didn’t care anything about that.

2. (nautical).—Also old Davy and Davy Jones (q.v.).

Davy Jones, Davy, or old Davy, subs. phr. (nautical).—The spirit of the sea; specifically the sailors’ devil. [For suggested derivation, see Davy Jones’s locker, and for synonyms, Skipper.]

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xiii. This same Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep.

1790. C. Dibdin, Sea Songs. And if to old Davy I should go, friend Poll, Why you will ne’er hear of me more.

c. 1800. C. Dibdin, The Birthday, Act I., Sc. 2. June. When your back’s turn’d she’s for ... sending you in a gale to old Davy.

Davy Jones’ (or Davy’s) locker, subs. phr. (nautical).—The ocean; specifically, the grave of them that perish at sea. The popular derivation (= a corruption of ‘Jonah’s locker,’ i.e., the place where Jonah was kept and confined, and by implication the grave of all gone to the bottom, drowned or dead) is conjectural. The following, however, may be an additional link in the chain of evidence.

1628. Bishop Andrewes, Ninety-six Sermons, p. 515 (fol.) Of any, that hath beene in extreme perill, we use to say: he hath beene where Ionas was; by Iona’s going downe the Whales throat, by Him againe comming forth of the Whales mouth, we expresse, we even point out, the greatest extremity, and the greatest deliverence that can be.

[Cf., quots. under Davy Jones.]

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

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xxvii. By de holy poker, Massa Easy, but that terrible sort of gale the other day, anyhow. I tink one time we all go to Davy Jones’s locker.

1842. Comic Almanack, p. 324. There is no reason right why Jones’s kid Should be consign’d to Davy Jones’s locker.

1851. Notes and Queries, 1 S., iii., p. 478. If a sailor is killed in a sea-skirmish, or falls overboard and is drowned, or any other fatality occurs which necessitates the consignment of his remains to the ‘great deep,’ his surviving messmates speak of him as one who has been sent to Davy Jones’ locker.

Davy putting on the coppers for the parsons, phr. (nautical).—The indications of a coming storm.

Davy Jones’ natural children, subs. phr. (nautical).—Smugglers; sea-rovers; pirates.

Davy’s Dust, subs. phr. (common).—Gunpowder. [Davy (q.v.) = the devil.]

1864. G. W. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, ch. xxvi. Let Davy’s dust and a well-faked claw, For fancy coves be the only law.

Dawb or Daub, verb (old).—To bribe.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v. The cull was scragged because he could not dawb.

Daylight, subs. (University).—A glass that is not a bumper; also Skylight (q.v.). Obsolete.

To burn daylight, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To use artificial light before it is really dark; to waste time.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act i., 4. Mercutio. Come, we burn daylight.

To let or knock daylight into one, into the victualling department, or into the luncheon reservoir, phr. (common).—To stab in the stomach (or breadbasket); in the bread-room, potato-store, or giblet-pie, etc., and by implication to kill. Fr., bayafer. For synonyms, see Cook one’s goose.

1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 101, col. 2. A gentleman in a blue uniform has thrown himself into an attitude à la Crib, with the facetious intention of letting daylight into the wittling department.

Daylights, subs. (common).—1. The eyes. Cf., quots. under Darken the Daylights. For synonyms, see Glims.

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

1823. Bee, Sl. Dict. [quoted in]. The hero (Achilles) in his tent they found, His day-lights fixed upon the cold, cold ground.

2. (general).—The space in a glass between liquor and brim: inadmissible in bumpers at toasts: the toast-master cries ‘no daylights nor heeltaps!’

To darken one’s daylights, verbal phr. (pugilistic).—1. To give a black-eye; ‘to sew up one’s sees.’

1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. I., ch. x. If the lady says such another word to me, d—n me, I will darken her daylights.

1786. The Microcosm, No. 2. The nobility and gentry were taught theoretically as well as practically, to bruise the bodies, and (to use a technical term) darken the daylights of each other, with the vigour of a Hercules, tempered with the grace of an Apollo.

1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 3. If the Fine Arts Of fibbing and boring be dear to your hearts; If to level, to punish, to ruffian mankind, And to darken their daylights, be pleasures refin’d.

1822. David Carey, Life in Paris, p. 200. So here’s at darkening his daylights for the advantage of his mummer.

Deacon, verb (American).—To pack fruit, vegetables, etc., the finest on the top. [Either derived by inversion, or in allusion to the Yankee proverb—‘All deacons are good, but there is odds in deacons.’]

1868. Miss Alcott, Little Women, ch. xi. The blanc-mange was lumpy, and the strawberries not as ripe as they looked, having been skilfully deaconed.

To deacon a calf, verbal phr. (American).—To kill.

To deacon land, verbal phr. (American).—To filch land by removing one’s fences into the highway or other common property.

To deacon off, verbal phr. (American).—To give the cue; to lead in debate. [From a custom, once universal but now almost extinct, in the New England Congregational churches. An important function of the deacon’s office was to read aloud the hymns given out by the minister one line at a time, the congregation singing each line as soon as read. This was called deaconing off.]

1848. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers. To funk right out o’ p’lit’cal strife ain’t thought to be the thing, Without you deacon off the tune you want your folks should sing.

1890. H. D. Traill, Saturday Songs, p. 7. We grieve, too, that of all men you, Your own great Union’s stout defender Should deacon off the craven crew, Who here are clamouring for surrender.

Deacon-Seat, subs. (American lumberers’).—In log cabins the sleeping apartment is partitioned off by poles. The bed is mother earth, the pillow is a log, the foot-board a long pole six feet from the fire and in the centre of the cabin. The deacon seat is a plank fixed over and running parallel with the footboard so as to form a kind of settee in front of the fire. [Probably in allusion to the seats round a pulpit, facing the congregation, reserved for deacons.]

Deacon’s Hiding Place, subs. phr. (American).—A private compartment in oyster saloons and cafés; the Fr. cabinet particulier.

Dead, subs. (turf).—An abbreviation of ‘dead certainty.’—See Cert.

1889. Bailey’s Magazine [quoted in S. J. & C.]. ‘Dealers in the dead’ did well then.

Adj. (various).—Stagnant; ‘quiet’ (of trade); ‘flat’ (as of beer or aërated waters after exposure); cold (Am., see quot., 1888); good; thorough; complete (Cf., subs., sense). Also as an adv. as in dead beat, dead best, dead drunk, dead rolled (or flummoxed), dead nuts, dead bitched, etc.

1602. Shakspeare, Othello, ii., 2. Why, he drinks you, with facility, your Dane dead-drunk.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress p. 36. As dead hands at a mill as they, and quite as ready after it.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xvii., p. 187. ‘I wish you would pull off my boots for me,’ said Martin, dropping into one of the chairs, ‘I am quite knocked up. Dead beat, Mark.’

1845. Punch, vol. IX., p. 163. The general opinion is that the Premier is dead beat.

1860. Punch, vol. XXXIX., p. 37. A dead take-in is swipes too thin.

1864. Punch. Veal is as dead as mutton.

1872. Derby Mercury, 1 May. ‘Freemasonry in New Zealand.’ He was not dead, but only dead drunk.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. vii. So surely do I intend to try my dead best—all that I know—to win Florence’s love and possess her as a wife.

1888. Puck’s Library, May, p. 27. Hungry Guest. Please bring me some clam fritters. Count (in disguise). Live ’r dead? Hungry Guest. Why, dead, of course! (And he got them stone-cold.)

Dead as a door-nail, mutton, a herring, a tent-peg, Julius Cæsar, etc., adv. phr. (common).—Utterly, completely dead. Dead as a door-nail is found in Langland’s Piers Plowman [1362]; all other forms are modern. [The door-nail is the striking-plate of the knocker. Herrings die sooner after capture than most fish.]

1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Super., in wks. II., 71. If you will needes strike it as dead as a dore naile.

1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in wks. III., 182. Wee’l strike it as dead as a doore-naile.

1598. Shakspeare, II. King Henry IV., iii. Falstaff. What! is the old king dead? Pistol. As nail in door.

1608. Armin, Nest of Ninnies. But now the thought of the new come foole so much moved him, that he was as dead as a doore-nayle, standing on tip-toe, looking toward the door to behold arivall.

1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, Act iv., Sc. 1. He’s as dead as a door-nail; for I gave him seven knocks on the head with a hammer.

1790. Rhodes, Bombastes Furioso, Ay, dead as herrings—herrings that are red.

1843. C. Dickens, Christmas Carol, s.v.

1864. D. W. Thompson, Daydreams of a Schoolmaster, p. 230. The boat of Charon will push a difficult furrow through innumerable bodies, brick-bat laden, of purrless, soul-less dead-as-door-nail cats. Poor pussies.

1878. Besant and Rice, By Celia’s Arbour, ch. xlviii. Quite dead he was, dead as a door-nail.

In dead earnest, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Without doubt; in very truth.

1880. E. Bellamy, Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process, p. 11. I am sure that you never had a more sincere, more dead-in-earnest convert than I was.

Dead Against, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Decidedly opposed to.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. vii. You know I was always dead agin your tariff bill.

Dead-Alive or Dead-and-Alive, adj. (colloquial).—Dull; stupid; mopish; formerly deadly-lively.

1884. H. D. Traill, in Eng. Ill. Mag., I., 541. The city has greatly revived of late ... it has ceased to belong to the category of the dead-alive, and has entered that of the lively.

Dead-Amiss, adv. phr. (turf).—Incapacitated through illness from competing in a race; said of horses.

Dead-Beat, subs. (American).—1. A sponger; loafer; sharper. Cf., Dead-head and Beat, subs., sense 1.

1865. Glasgow Herald, 25 Dec. ‘Trial Swanborough v. Sotheran.’ I returned the whole of the receipts, and about £4 16s. for dead beats—free admissions who took advantage of the occasion and got paid—which caused great discontent.

1884. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p. 284. These uncles of your’n ain’t no uncles at all; they’re a couple of frauds—regular dead-beats.

1888. Bulletin, 24 Nov. All the dead-beats and suspected hen-snatchers plead when before the Bench that they were ‘only mouching round to find out whether the family neglected its religious dooties, yer washup.’

2. (American).—A pick-me-up compounded of ginger, soda, and whiskey.

Verb (American).—To sponge; loaf; cheat. Cf., Beat, verb, and Dead-head.

1880. Boston Journal. No party can dead-beat his way on me these hard times.

Adj.—Exhausted; e.g., Billy romped in as ‘fresh as paint,’ but the rest were dead-beat.

1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 34. Logic was at length not only so dead-beat, as to be compelled to cry for quarter, but to seek a temporary retirement, in order to renovate his constitution.

Dead Broke, adv. phr. (general).—Utterly penniless; ruined. Also Flat or stone broke; used verbally, to dead-break.

1866. Cincinnatti Enquirer, 1 June. When he left the gambling-house, he was observed to turn toward a friend with the words, dead-broke! and then to disappear round the corner.

English Synonyms. Wound up; settled; coopered; smashed up; under a cloud; cleaned out; cracked up; done up; on one’s back; floored; on one’s beam ends; gone to pot; broken-backed; all U. P.; in the wrong box; stumped; feathered; squeezed; dry; gutted; burnt one’s fingers; dished; in a bad way; gone up; gone by the board; made mince meat of; broziered; willowed; not to have a feather to fly with; burst; fleeced; stony; pebble-beached; in Queer Street; stripped; rooked; hard up; broke; hooped-up; strapped; gruelled.

French Synonyms. Enfoncé (familiar: also—done brown); centré (popular); désossé (popular: properly = boned); eréné (popular); atigé (thieves’); panné (= in Queer Street); see also Beat.

Italian Synonym.—Ferrare (to be ruined; also = to spoil or corrupt).

Dead-Cargo, subs. (thieves’).—Booty of a disappointing character.

Dead Certainty, subs. phr. (colloquial).—That which is sure to occur; usually contracted to Dead or Cert, both of which see.

18(?). Aytoun. The Dreepdaily Burghs, p. 4. Everybody is realising; the banks won’t discount; and when your bills become due, they will be, to a dead certainty, protested.

Dead cut.—See Cut.

Dead Duck, subs. phr. (American).—That which has depreciated to the verge of worthlessness.

1888. New York Clipper. Long Branch is said to be a dead duck. But for the investments made at Elberon the Branch proper would probably have been abandoned long ago.

Deader, subs. (military).—1. A funeral; a black-job (q.v.).

2. (common).—A corpse.

Dead Frost, subs. (theatrical).—A fiasco; a columbus (q.v.). Fr., un four noir.

Dead-Give-Away.—See Give dead-away.

Dead Gone, adv. phr. (colloquial). Utterly collapsed.

Dead-Head, Dead-Beat or Dead-Hand, subs. (American).—One who obtains something of commercial value without special payment or charge; a person who travels by rail, visits theatres, etc., by means of free passes (cf., Paper); a sponge (q.v.). Also a loafing sharper.—See Beat and Dead-beat.

1861. Morning Post, ‘New York Correspondence.’ The editor had evidently been travelling as a dead-hand, as it is called, and paid his bill by a laudatory notice.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms. The dead-head receives his newspapers without subscribing, travels free of charge on steamboat, railroad, and stage, walks into theatres and shows of every kind unmolested, and even drinks at the bar and lives at the hotel without charge.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 21 May, p. 3, col. 1. ‘Lucia di Lammermoor’ is stale enough to warrant the most confirmed deadhead in declining to help make a house.

Also to dead-head, dead-headism, etc.

1871. New York Tribune, March. Elder Knapp, the noted revivalist, advertised that he would furnish a free pass to glory, but very few of the unrighteous population seemed anxious to be dead-headed on this train.

1888. Portland Transcript, 14 March. Unless we count those which had to do with the stage business and went dead-head.

Dead-Heat, subs. (colloquial).—A race with an equal finish. Formerly dead.

1635. Quarles, Emblems, Epig. 10. Mammon well follow’d, Cupid bravely led; Both touchers; equal fortune makes a dead; No reed can measure where the conquest lies; Take my advice; compound, and share the prize.

1828–45. T. Hood, Poems, vol. I., p. 170 (ed. 1846). Away! Away! she could ride a dead heat With the Dead who rides so fast and fleet.

1884. Ill. London News, 18 Oct., p. 362, col. 3. St. Gatien, the horse that ran a dead-heat for the Derby.

Dead-Horse, subs. (common).—1. Work, the wages for which have been paid in advance; by implication, distasteful, or thankless labor. Fr., la bijouterie. To pull the dead horse = to work for wages already paid. [Seamen, on signing articles, sometimes get pay in advance, and they celebrate the term of the period thus paid for by dragging a canvas horse, stuffed with straw, round the deck and dropping him into the sea amidst cheers.] Fr., manger du salé (to eat salt pork.)

1651. Cartwright, Siedge. Ply. Now you’l wish I know, you ne’r might wear Foul linnen more, never be lowzy agen, Nor ly perdue with the fat sutler’s wife In the provoking vertue of dead horse, Your dear delights, and rare camp pleasures.

1669. Nicker Nicked, in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 110. Sir Humphry Foster had lost the greatest part of his estate, and then (playing, as it is said, for a dead horse) did, by happy fortune, recover it again.

1824. T. Fielding, Proverbs, etc. (Familiar Phrases), p. 148, s.v.

1857. Notes and Queries, 2 S., iv., p. 192. A workman ‘horses’ it when he charges for more in his week’s work than he has really done. Of course he has so much unprofitable work to get through in the ensuing week, which is called dead horse.