Part 37

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4th ed.), p. 12, s.v.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 276. ‘Give him a deuce’ (2d.).

3. (gamesters’).—The two at dice or cards.

To play the deuce or devil with, verb. phr. (common).—To send, or be sent, to rack and ruin.

1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. i. I have a presentiment that the cooking will play the deuce with my digestion.

1885. Indoor Paupers, p. 89. Her drinking played the deuce with the shop.

The deuce to pay, phr. (common).—Unpleasant or awkward consequences to be faced; see Devil to pay.

1854. Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring, p. 69. There has been such a row, and disturbance, and quarrelling, and fighting, and chopping of heads off, and the deuce to pay, that I’m inclined to go back to Cumtartary.

1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xxxiii. One or both of ’em ... report me for negligence! I get a curt telegram to come to town, and here’s the deuce to pay!

Deuced, adj. (common).—Devilish; excessive; confounded. Also adverbially. [From deuce (q.v.), + ed.]

1836. Michael Scott, The Cruise of the Midge, vol. I. [ed. 1860], p. 160. Quacco all this while was twisting and turning himself, and, although evidently in a deuced quandary, trying to laugh the affair off as a joke.

Deusea-ville, subs. (old).—The Country.—See Daisyville.

Deusea-ville Stampers, subs. phr. (old).—Country carriers.

Devil, subs. (common).—1. Formerly a barrister who devils, or ‘gets up,’ a case for a leader; as in A Tale of Two Cities, Sydney Carton for Mr. Stryver. Now common for anyone hacking for another.—(See quots., 1889.)

1872. Echo, 14 Nov. Mr. Archibald, the Attorney-General’s devil is to be made a judge. Well, other devils have been made judges of. Sir James Hannen, we are told, was a devil once.

1873. Daily Telegraph, 12 Feb. It will not be possible even to send a telegram to a French journal during a sitting. Not a word must be printed until the President’s devil has distributed the Officiel to the different office boys who will henceforth, etc.

1889. Telegram. M— 84, B— Street, London, E.C. Strange letter received. Will you please see devil at my chambers? R—. [In original telegram the word ‘devil’ was queried by the P.O. authorities!]

1889. George R. Sims, The Author’s Ghost. ‘Who are you?’ I asked in dismay. ‘I’m a devil....’ ‘A what!’ I exclaimed with a start. ‘A devil.... I give plots and incidents to popular authors, sir, write poetry for them, drop in situations, jokes, work up their rough material: in short, sir, I devil for them.’

1890. Speaker, 22 Feb., p. 211, col. 2. No one who is not in the swim can have any conception of the amount of work and worry that devolves upon a counsel in leading practice at the criminal bar.... He has to do the best he can, with the assistance of juniors and devils.

2. (printers’).—An errand boy or young apprentice; in the early days of the craft, the boy who took the printed sheets as they came from the press. Fr., un attrape-science.

1754. Connoisseur, No. 9. Our publisher, printer, corrector, devil, or any other employed in our service.

1757. Foote, Author, Act I. A printer’s prime minister, called a devil.

1859. Punch, vol. XXXVI, p. 82. ‘An author’s paradise.’ A place where there are no printers’ devils.

1863. Alex. Smith, Dreamthorp, p. 211. He wrote in a leisurely world, when there was plenty of time for writing and reading; long before the advent of the printer’s devil or of Mr. Mudie.

3. (nautical).—See quot.

1883. Illustrated London News, 16 June, p. 603, col. 2. It is proposed to prevent the use of the devil, a kind of sharpened anchor, at the bows of a trawler for cutting the nets of drifters in the North Sea.

4. (old).—A firework.

1742. Fielding, Joseph Andrews, bk. III., ch. vii. The captain, perceiving an opportunity, pinned a cracker or devil to the cassock, and then lighted it.

5. (licensed victuallers’).—Gin seasoned with capsicums. Cf., following sense.

1828. G. Smeaton, Doings in London. The extract of Capsicums or extract of Grains of Paradise is known in the gin-selling trade by the appellation of the devil. They are manufactured by putting a quantity of small East India chillies into a bottle of spirits of wine and keeping it closely stopped for about a month.

6. (common).—A grilled bone seasoned with mustard and cayenne. Cf., Attorney.

7. (military).—A sand-storm.

1889. Daily News, 8 July. ‘The Camp at Wimbledon.’ They raised also clouds of dust that went whirling across the common in spiral cones like desert devils.

8. (common).—A species of firewood soaked in resin.

The or a devil of [a thing], adj. and adv. (colloquial).—An indefinite intensitive: e.g., devil of a mess, of a woman, of a row, etc.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, ii., 3. The devil, a puritan that he is, or anything constantly.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge [ed. 1860], p. 102. a devil of a good fight he made of it.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge [ed. 1860], p. 298. The devil a thing was there in sight, not even a small white speck of a sail.

American devil, subs. phr. (workmen’s).—A steam whistle or ‘hooter’; used in place of a bell for summoning to work.

1872. Manchester Guardian, 24 Sept. Mr. Powell’s Bill contains abundant powers for suppressing the vile nuisance known as the American devil, and should any man suffer from it in future he will have nobody to thank but himself.

Blue devils.—See ante.

Little (or young) devil, subs. phr. (common).—A half playful, half sarcastic, address; a term of endearment; e.g., you little devil. Cf., you young tinker.

1841. R. B. Peake, Court and City, Act i., Sc. 1. My wife was such an unreasonable little devil, as to ask me forty questions about my staying out so late.

Verb (common).—1. To act as a devil (q.v., subs.); to perform routine or detail work for another.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 30 Nov. Letter, ‘Called to the Bar.’ Then I took legislative rambles in the Courts, so that I might see practice, and that practitioners might see me; and then I devilled and reported a little.

1883. Graphic, 12 May, p. 478, col. 2. The practice prevailing among eminent counsel of undertaking more cases than they can possibly manage, and handing over some to the juniors who devil for them.

2. (American cadet).—To victimize.

What, Who, When, Where, or How the Devil, phr. (common).—An expletive of wonder, vexation, etc.

b. 1688, d. 1744. Pope [quoted in Annandale]. The things we know are neither rich nor rare; But wonder how the devil they got there.

1776. David Garrick, Bon Ton, or High Life Above Stairs, Act ii., Sc. 1. Sir T. Why, what the devil do you make one at these masqueradings.

1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, Act i., Sc. 3. Har. Who the devil could have foreseen that?

1827. R. B. Peake, Comfortable Lodgings, Act i, Sc. 3. What the devil is all this about?

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge [Ry. ed. 1860], p. 134. How the devil can you get anything out of an empty vessel?

To play the devil with, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To ruin or molest.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, p. 46. The passions, as I’ve said, are far from evil, But if not well confined they play the devil.

To pull the devil by the tail, phr. (colloquial).—To go to ruin headlong; also to be reduced to one’s last shift. Cf., To play the devil with.

1890. European Mail, 2 Aug., p. 30, col. 2. The immense disproportion between the solid assets and the liabilities of the enterprise made experienced Parisian financiers say from the first that the company was pulling the devil by the tail, and a perusal of M. Monchicourt’s report must confirm this view.

To whip the devil round the stump, verb. phr. (American).—To enjoy the sweets of wickedness and yet escape the penalty.

1857. New York Evening Post. While Mr. Jones is describing his wants in the money line, and telling the president how near through he is, that officer is carrying on a mental addition it may be after this manner: Jones, you’re a clever fellow, but Smith tells me you are engaged in a coal-stock operation. I have heard also that you have been dabbling in Erie. There is a want of candor now, I perceive, in the statement of your affairs. There, you are now whipping the devil around the stump: I see his foot.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 187. Nor is the slang phrase: to whip the devil around the stump to be traced very clearly to the backwoods.

1872. Haldeman, Pennsylvania Dutch. I whipped the devil round the stump, And gave a cut at every jump.

Haul devil, pull baker, phr. (colloquial).—To contend with varying fortunes. In the sense of endeavouring to overreach, a variant is diamond cut diamond.

1889. Cornhill Mag., July, p. 99. I can’t get proper accounts from her; and it’s a regular case of pull devil, pull baker, whenever I want to look at the trades-people’s books.

And the devil knows what or who, phr. (colloquial).—A term used vaguely and indefinitely to include details not specifically mentioned or known.

1717. Mrs. Centlivre, A Bold Stroke for a Wife, Act iii., Sc. 1. Per. Why, what a pack of trumpery has this rogue picked up! His pagod, poluflosboio, his zonos moros musphonons, and the devil knows what.

To go to the devil, phr. (colloquial).—To go to rack and ruin. Go to the devil! = begone! A summary form of dismissal with no heed as to what may become of the person who is sent about his business.

1801. T. Dibdin, The Birthday, Act i., Sc. 2. Capt. Hold your tongue, Junk; you are a libellous rascal. You, and your box, too, may go to the devil.

To hold a light or candle to, or burn a candle before, the devil, phr. (colloquial).—To propitiate through fear; to assist or wink at wrong doing. Shakspeare (Merchant of Venice, Act ii., Sc. 6), employs ‘What! must I hold a candle to my shame,’ in much the same sense. [From the practice of burning candles before the images of saints, etc.]. Not fit to hold a candle to the devil = a simile of inferiority. To hold a candle to another = to assist in, occupy a subordinate position, or (see quot., 1859) to compare to another.

c. 1461. In Paston Letters, II., 73 (ed. Gairdner). For it is a common proverbe, ‘A man must sumtyme set a candel befor the Devyle;’ and therefor thow it be not alder most mede and profytabyl, yet if ij harmys the leste is to be take.

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, p. 148. Though not for hope of good, Yet for the feare of euill, Thou maist find ease so proffering up a candell to the deuill.

1672. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, I., i., wks. (1713), 346. You cannot hold a candle to the devil.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. III., p. 17. To hold a candle to the devil, Is not the means to stop this evil.

1828. Scott, Fair Maid of Perth, ii., 213. Here have I been holding a candle to the devil, to show him the way to mischief.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xxxii. A Frenchman is conceited enough, but, by George, he can’t hold a candle to a Scotchman.

The devil, or the devil and all to pay, phr. (colloquial).—A simile of fruitless effort; awkward consequences to be faced. [Nautical: originally, ‘There’s the devil to pay and no pitch hot’; the ‘devil’ being any seam in a vessel, awkward to caulk, or in sailors’ language ‘to pay.’ Hence by confusion the deuce to pay (q.v.).]

1711. Swift, Journal to Stella, 28 Sept. Letter 31. And then there will be the devil and all to pay.

1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, III., in wks. (1777), i., 69. There’s the devil to pay in meddling with them.

1762. Foote, Liar, iii., 3. Sir, here has been the devil to pay within.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge. [Ry. ed. 1860], p. 127. Here was the devil to pay with a vengeance.

1837. R. H. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends. The Execution (ed. 1862), p. 198. Hollo! Hollo! Here’s a rum go. Why, Captain!—My Lord!—Here’s the devil to pay!—The fellow’s been cut down and taken away!

1866. G. Eliot, Felix Holt, ch. xxi. He made a fool of himself with marrying at Vesoul; and there was the devil to pay with the girl’s relations.

Talk of the devil and you’ll see his horns or tail, phr. (colloquial).—Said of a person who, being the subject of conversation, unexpectedly makes an appearance. Fr., parlez des anges et vous en voyez les ailes.

b. 1664, d. 1721. M. Prior. Hans Carvel. Since therefore ’tis to combat evil, ’Tis lawful to employ the Devil, Forthwith the Devil did appear, For name him and he’s always near.

Devil-may-care, adj. (colloquial).—Rollicking; reckless; rash.

1822–36. Jno. Wilson, Noctes Amb. I., 274. [The shepherd has thrown back to the fire a live coal.] Belyve the blisters’ll be rising like foam-bells; but deil may care.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xlix., p. 428. He was a mighty free and easy, roving, devil-may-care sort of person, was my Uncle, gentlemen.

1839. Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ch. xii. There was also a certain devil-may-care recklessness about the self-satisfied swagger of his gait.

1849. Albert Smith, in Gabarni in London (Acrobats). Unsettled, wandering, and devil-may-care as his disposition may be, he cannot be called idle.

1863. Hon. Mrs. Norton, Lost and Saved, p. 33. Treherne had a hot twinge of doubt, in spite of his devil-may-care style of writing, whether Lewellyn would answer him at all.

1865. Punch, vol. XLVIII., p. 106. Fechter’s acting [as Robert Macaire] in The Roadside Inn may be described as the devil-may-care style.

Devil take, or fetch, or send, or snatch, or fly away with, you, me, him! etc., phr. (colloquial).—An imprecation of impatience. Fr., le boulanger t’entrolle en son pasclin.

1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 339. Don’t use naughty words, in the next place, and ne’er in your language adopt a bad habit of swearin’. Never say, ‘Devil take me,’ or ‘shake me,’ or ‘bake me,’ or such-like expressions. Remember Old Nick, To take folks at their word, is remarkably quick.

There’s the devil among the tailors, phr. (common).—A row is going on. [Edwards:—Originating in a riot at the Haymarket when Dowton announced the performance for his benefit, of a burlesque entitled ‘The Tailors: a Tragedy for Warm Weather.’ Many thousands of journeymen tailors congregated, and interrupted the performances. Thirty-three were brought up at Bow Street next day.—See Biographica Dramatica under ‘Tailors.’]

When the devil is blind, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Never, i.e., in a month of Sundays; said of anything unlikely to happen. For synonyms, see Greek Kalends.

Devil Dodger, subs. (common).—A clergyman. Also, by implication, anyone of a religious turn of mind.

English Synonyms.—Devil catcher, driver, pitcher, or scolder; snub devil; bible pounder; duck that grinds the gospel mill; commister; camister; sky-pilot; chimney-sweep; rat; rum (Johnson); pantiler; cushion smiter, duster, or thumper; couple, or buckle, beggar; rook; gospel grinder; earwig; one-in-ten (tramps’ = a tithe-monger); finger-post; parish prig; parish bull; holy Joe; green apron; black cattle (collectively); crow; the cloth (collectively); white choker; patrico; black coat; black fly; glue pot; gospel postillion; prunella; pudding-sleeves; puzzle-text; schism-monger; cod; Black Brunswicker; spiritual flesh-broker; head-clerk of the Doxology Works; Lady Green; fire-escape; gospel sharp; padre (Anglo-Indian); pound-text.

French Synonyms.—Un radicon (thieves’); un otage (popular: = hostage, in allusion to events under the Commune of 1871); un radis noir (familiar: also a police officer. In allusion to ‘the cloth’); un ratichon (pop. from ratissé, rasé = shaved); un sanglier (thieves’: a wild boar, but also a play upon words sans without, + glier, the infernal regions); un raze or razi (thieves’); un rochet (thieves’: a surplice); un pante en robe (thieves’: ‘a cove in a gown,’ also a judge); un chasublard (popular); une calotte (fam.: le régiment de la calotte = the skull-cap brigade, i.e., the company of the Society of Jesus); un corbeau (pop.: = crow); un couac (popular); un babillard (thieves’: especially a confessor, a ‘blab-monger’); un bichot (a bishop); une enseigne de cimetière (‘a cemetery signpost.’ Cf., sky-pilot and finger-post); un bâton de réglisse (thieves’: = a stick of liquorice. Also a police-officer); un barbichon (popular: a preaching friar. From barbe = beard, in allusion to the long beard characteristic of the order).

German Synonyms.—Herrle (especially applied to Catholic priests). Lefranz or Lefrenz (a transposition of Franzle or Fränzle = the Franciscan. Liber Vagatorum Lefrenzin, = a priest’s harlot, still popular in N. Germany); Schocherer (from Hebrew schochar = black. Cf., analogous English terms); Schwarzfärber (Schwarz = black; Färber = a dyer).

Italian Synonyms.—Chiodrino; capellano rosso (a cardinal; ‘a red chaplain’); farfoio (= a monk; farfoia, a nun); rossignolo (= ‘a nightingale’); pisto or pistolfo (Michel: ‘parce qu’il suit le condamné à la piste’).

Spanish Synonym.—Cleriguillo (= a little cleric: both insult and endearment).

1791. Lackington, Memoirs, Letter vi. [ed. 1803]. These devil-dodgers happened to be so very powerful (that is, noisy) that they soon sent John home, crying out he should be damn’d.

1889. Cornhill Mag., Jan., p. 50. He’s just a kind of a fine-haired cuss—a gambler, or a devil-dodger. I reckon ... I’m open ter bet he’s a preacher.

Devil-Drawer, subs. (old).—An indifferent artist.

Devilish, adv. (colloquial).—Used intensitively. Cf., Awfully, and Beastly.

1755. The World, No. 140. How arbitrary is language! and how does the custom of mankind join words, that reason has put asunder. Thus we often hear of hell-fire cold, of devilish handsome, and the like.

1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle’s Stratagem, iii., 1. I tell you, sir, that, for all that, she’s dev’lish sensible.

1871. Sir M. Lopez, Speech on Army Bill, H. of C., 3 July. It was devilish hard—he meant very hard—to lay it.

Devil’s Bed-posts, or Devil’s Four-poster, subs. phr. (cards’).—The four of clubs; held as an unlucky ‘turn-up.’

1879. J. C. J., in N. and Q., 5 S., xii., 473. In London I have always heard the four of clubs called the devil’s bedpost, and also that it is the worst turn-up one could have.

Devil’s-Bones, subs. (old).—Dice; also Devil’s teeth. Cf., Devil’s books.

1664. Etherege, Comical Revenge, II., iii., in wks. (1704), 27. I do not understand dice: I understand good pasture and drink—hang the devil’s bones.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxiii. A gamester, one who deals with the devil’s bones and the doctors.

Devil’s-Books, subs. (common).—Cards. [Of Presbyterian origin; in reproof of a synonymous term—King’s Books, or more fully, The History of the Four Kings (Fr., livre des quatre rois).] Also Books of Briefs (Fr., la cartouchière à portées).

1729. Swift, Intelligencer, No. 4, p. 43 (2nd ed.). Cards are the devil’s own invention, for which reason, time out of mind, they are and have been called the devil’s books.

18(?). Thackeray, Character Sketches (Capt. Rook and Mr. Pigeon). I often think that the devil’s books, as cards are called, are let out to us from Old Nick’s circulating library.

Devil’s-Claws, subs. (thieves’).—The broad arrow on convicts’ uniforms.

Devil’s-Colours or Livery, subs. (common).—Black and yellow.

Devil’s-Daughter, subs. (common).—A shrew.

Devil’s-Delight. To kick up the devil’s delight, verbal phr. (common).—To make a disturbance.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xv. His wives, five or six on ’em, was yowlin’, and cryin’, and kickin’ up the devil’s delight.

1863. Chas. Reade, Hard Cash, I., 278. Well then, speak quick, both of you, said Sharpe, or I’ll lay ye both by the heels. Ye black scoundrels, what business have you in the Captain’s cabin, kicking up the devil’s delight?

Devil’s-Dozen, subs. (old).—Thirteen; the original baker’s-dozen (q.v.). [From the number of witches supposed to sit down together at a ‘Sabbath.’ In Fr. le boulanger (the baker) = the devil.]

Devil’s-Dung, subs. (old).—Asafœtida: the old pharmaceutical name. [From the smell.] Now recognised.

1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., in wks. (1873), ii. 40. Fust. The divel’s dung in thy teeth: I’ll be welcome whether thou wilt or no.

1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy, vol. VIII., ch. xi. ’Tis all pepper, garlic, staragen, salt, and devil’s dung.

1804. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), i. 203. I devoured loads of devil’s dung rounded into pills.

Devil’s-dust, subs. (trade).—1. Old cloth shredded for re-manufacture. [In allusion both to the swindle and to the ‘dust’ or ‘flock’ produced by the disintegrating machine which is called a ‘devil.’ The practice and the name are old. Latimer, in one of his sermons before Edward the Sixth, treating of trade rascality, remarked that manufacturers could stretch cloth seventeen yards long, into a length of seven-and-twenty yards: ‘When they have brought him to that perfection,’ he continues, ‘they have a pretty feat to thick him again. He makes me a powder for it, and plays the pothicary. They call it flock-powder, they do so incorporate it to the cloth, that it is wonderful to consider; truly a good invention. Oh that so goodly wits should be so applied; they may well deceive the people, but they cannot deceive God. They were wont to make beds of flocks, and it was a good bed too. Now they have turned their flocks into powder, to play the false thieves with it.’ Popularised by Mr. Ferrand in a speech before the House of Commons, March 4, 1842 (Hansard, 3 S, lxi., p. 140) when he tore a piece of cloth made from devil’s dust, into shreds to prove its worthlessness.] Also Shoddy (q.v.).

1840. Carlyle, Misc., iv., 239. Does it beseem thee to weave cloth of devil’s dust instead of true wool, and cut and sew it as if those wert not a tailor but the fraction of a very tailor?

1851. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, II., p. 30.

1864. Times, 2 Nov. It is not many years since Mr. Ferrand denounced the devil’s dust of the Yorkshire woollen manufacturers; this devil’s dust arises from the grand translation of old cloth into new.

2. (military)—Gunpowder.

1883. Hawley Smart, Hard Lines, ch. i. One looks up at the snow-white walls ... and then remembers grimly what a mess the devil’s dust, as used by modern artillery, would make of them in these days.

Devil’s Guts, subs. (old).—A surveyor’s chain.

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

Devil’s Own, subs. (military).—1. The Eighty-Eight Foot. [A contraction of the devil’s own Connaught boys, a name given by General Picton for their gallantry in action and their irregularity in quarters during the Peninsular War, 1809–14.]

2. (volunteer)—The Inns of Court Volunteers [in allusion to the legal personnel].

1864. Mark Lemon, Jest Book, p. 211. At a review of the volunteers, when the half-drowned heroes were defiling by all the best ways, the devil’s own walked straight through. This being reported to Lord B——, he remarked, ‘that the lawyers always went through thick and thin.’

1872. Daily Telegraph, 28 Nov. In Richmond Park the Inns of Court Rifle Volunteers, more familiarly known as the Devil’s Own, were inspected by Colonel Daubeney.

Devil’s-Paternoster. To say the Devil’s Paternoster, verb. phr. (old).—To grumble.

1614. Terence, in English. D. What devills pater noster is this he is saying? what would he? what saist thou honest man?