Chapter XVII: Part 17

1890. Polytechnic Magazine; 21 March. ‘Boxing Brutalities.’ Now if
there is a rule that no competitor may strike another with a force
greater than a fixed number of pounds, it will be easy to
disqualify a man whose opponent’s dial shows a greater amount of
punishment.

Dials, subs. (prison).—Convicts and thieves hailing from Seven Dials.

Diamond-Cracking, subs. (Australian thieves’).—1. Stonebreaking.

1885. Australian Printers Keepsake. He caught a month, and had to
white it out at diamond-cracking in Castieu’s Hotel [Melbourne
Gaol].

2. (English miners’).—Working in a coal mine. Cf., Black Diamonds.

Dibble, subs. (common).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Dibs or Dibbs, subs. (common).—Generic for money. [Said to be a corruption of diobs, i.e., diobolus, a classic coin = 2½d. Another derivation is from the hucklebones of sheep, popularly dibbs, used for gambling; Scots ‘chuckies.’] For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt. To brush with the dibs = to abscond with the cash; To tip over the dibs = to pay down or ‘shell out’; To flash the dibs = to show money, etc.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Dead Drummer). One of their drummers, and one
Sergeant Matcham, Had brush’d with the dibs, and they never could
catch ’em.

1842. Comic Almanack, p. 313. Governor,—Science can’t be purchased
without dibbs. When we want subjects we must shell out.

1862. Penny Newspaper. The other informed him that if he did not
tip over the dibs he would blow his —— brains out.

1880. Punch’s Almanack, p. 7. Time to think about my outing. No
dibs yet, though, so it’s no use shouting.

1887. W. E. Henley, Villon’s Straight Tip. The merry little dibbs
you’ll bag.

Dice. To box the Dice, verb. phr. (legal).—To carry a point by tricking or swindling.

Dick, subs. (common).—1. A dictionary; a Richard (q.v.); also, by implication, fine language or long words.—See Swallow the Dick.

1860. Haliburton (‘Sam. Slick’), The Season Ticket, No. xii. Ah,
now you are talking ‘dic.,’ exclaimed Peabody, and I can’t follow
you. When I talk —— You use the vulgar tongue, retorted the
Senator.

2. (coachman’s).—A riding whip.

3. (military).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

4. (common).—An affidavit.

1861. Dutton Cook, Paul Foster’s Daughter, ch. xxvi. No. I’d take
my dying dick he hasn’t got a writ in his pocket, or he couldn’t
move along so easy as that.

5. (American).—An Irish Catholic—See Crawthumper.

Verb (thieves’).—To look; to pipe (q.v.); e.g., the bulky’s dicking = the policeman is watching you. [From the gypsy dikk.] Fr., gaffer. For synonyms, see Pipe.

Dick in the green, phr. (thieves’).—Weak; inferior. Cf., Dicky.

1812. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v.

In the reign of Queen Dick, adv. phr. (common).—Never; ‘when two Sundays come in a week.’ For synonyms, see Greek Kalends.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

1864. Standard, 13 Dec., Rev. of Sl. Dicy. Moreover ... a few days
since, a ‘bus driver in altercation with his conductor, who
threatened him with paying off soon, replied, ‘Oh yes, in the reign
of queen dick,’ which, on inquiry we found to be synonymous with
‘Never,’ or ‘Tib’s eve.’’

To swallow the Dick, verb. phr. (common).—To use long words without knowledge of their meaning; to high falute (American).

Up to Dick, adv. phr. (common).—Not to be ‘taken in’; ‘artful’; ‘fly’; wide-awake. For synonyms, see Downy. Also = up to the mark, i.e., perfectly satisfactory.

1877. J. Greenwood, Under the Blue Blanket. ‘Ain’t that up to dick,
my biffin?’ ‘I never said it warn’t.’

1887. Walford’s Antiquarian, April, p. 251. Betwixt you and me I
think you’ll agree That of course I look ‘up to Dick.’

Dickens, subs. (old).—The devil (q.v.) or deuce (q.v.); used interchangeably. [A corruption of nick (q.v.).] For synonyms, see Skipper.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III., Sc. ii. I
cannot tell what the dickens his name is.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, bk. I., prol. (Bohn), vol. I., p. 99. But
hearken, joltheads, you vie-dayes, or dickens take ye.

1727. John Gay, Beggar’s Opera, Act I. Sc. 1. Peach. What a dickens
is the woman always whimpering about murder for! No gentleman is
ever looked upon the worse for killing a man in his own defence.

1754. Foote, Knights, Act II. Mally Pengrouse! Who the dickens is
she?

1824. R. B. Peake, Americans Abroad, i., 1. Oh! the dickens—I’m
stunded.

1880. G. R. Sims, Zeph. ch. xv. ‘Inez is fretting after Pedro,’ he
said to himself, ‘but what the dickens is Totty blubbering about?’

1889. C. Haddon Chambers, Ne’er-do-Well, ‘In Australian Wilds.’
What the dickens could I do? I believe I swore a little at first,
and then I flourished my whip.

Dicker, subs. and verb: also Dickering, subs. (American).—Barter; swap (q.v.): generally applied to trade in small articles.

1830. Cobbett, in Rural Rides, I., 199 (1886). It is barter, truck,
change, dicker, as the Yankees call it, but, as our horse-jockeys
call it, swap, or chop.

1831–90. Whittier, Poems. For peddling dicker, not for honest
sales.

1888. New York Weekly Times, 28 March. He had perhaps been
considering the advisability of making a dicker with his old
political opponents in the hope of bettering his condition.

1888. Denver Republican, 7 April. After some dickering a style of
coffin was selected and a price decided upon.

Dickey, subs. (old).—1. A woman’s under petticoat.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

2. (common).—A donkey.

b. 1766, d. 1823. Bloomfield, Richard and Kate. But now, as at some
nobler places Amongst the leaders ’twas decreed Time to begin the
dicky races, More famed for laughter than for speed.

1841. John Mills, Old Eng. Gentleman, ch. vii., p. 60 (3rd ed.). A
young dickey, in the full kick of youth, mistook some sweet briar
for a thistle.

3. (common).—A sham shirt front, formerly a worn-out shirt. Cf., sense 4. [Hotten: originally tommy (from the Greek, τομη, a section), a word once used in Trinity College, Dublin.] Also, by implication, any sham contrivance; see quots.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 82, note. Dickey: cant for a
worn-out shirt.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. A sham shirt.

1835–40. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. ix. She made frill,
shirt-collar, and Dicky fly like snow.

1836. Willis Gayford Clarke, The Olla Podriana Papers. For a
handkerchief I had flourished a common dickey, the strings whereof
fell to my feet.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xx. Those wretched Beaux
Tibbs’s of society, who sport a lace dickey, and nothing besides.

1857. Hood, Pen and Pencil Pictures, p. 206. Do not take off that
article of apparel which Fanny Fern distinguishes by a name which,
on this side the Atlantic, is the familiar for a youthful Richard.
Spare it, we say ... although it may be (and we guess, from the
absence of cuffs and sleeves, it is) an imitation, a sham, a
make-shift!

1872. Public Opinion, 24 Feb., p. 241. ‘Inside Newgate.’ What is
she here for? I asked, pointing to a florid-looking girl who was
taking a deep professional interest in ironing a dickey.

1876. Jas. Greenwood, Low Life Deeps. ‘I saw a laden waggon bearing
the name of one of the cheap advertising firms you speak of.’...
‘Ah, bearing the name ... you saw a waggon wearing a dicky, you
mean—a false front-plate with a name on it which slips on and off
like them on the wans that the pianoforte-makers borrow.’

1883. Jas. Greenwood, ‘Veteran of Vauxhall,’ in Odd People in Odd
Places, p. 38. Besides these articles there was a pair of what had
once been white linen cuffs, a dickey of the same dubious
complexion, and a white tie.

4. (American: New England).—A shirt collar. De Vere. Cf., sense 3.

5. (nautical).—A ship’s officer or mate; generally, second dickey, i.e., second mate.

6. (London).—A swell. For synonyms, see Dandy.

7. (schoolboys’).—The penis.

Adj. (common).—1. Sorry; inferior; paltry and poor in quality. Dickey domus (theatrical) = a poor ‘house.’

2. (London).—Smart. A corruption of up to dick (q.v.). Cf., subs., sense 6.

All dickey with [one], adv. phr. (common).—Queer; gone wrong; ‘all up with.’

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied, III., vi. O, Hamlet! ’tis all
dickey with us both You’ve done my business by a blow, ’tis true;
But I—Oh! I—have done the same for you.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 21. ’Twas all dicky with
Georgy, his mug hung so dead.

1837. Thackeray, in Fraser’s Magazine, 10 Oct. Sam, the stable boy
[who from living chiefly among the hosses and things has got a sad
low way of talking], said it was all dicky, and bid us drive on to
the nex’ page.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Brothers of Birchington). Here a monk, whose
teeth funk and concern made to chatter, Sobs out as he points to
the corpse on the floor, ‘’Tis all dickey with poor Father
Dick—he’s no more.’

1882. Daily Telegraph, 3 Oct., p. 2, col. 2. I was coolly told that
‘anyhow, all the actual meat there was in, say half a pound of
cheap German sausage, couldn’t do any one much harm if it was ever
so dicky.’

Dickey-bird, subs. (common).—1. A louse. For synonyms, see Chates.

2. pl. (theatrical)—Professional singers of all grades.

3. (venery).—A prostitute; generally naughty dicky-bird. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and tart.

c. 1830. Broadside Ballad, George Barnwell. When he had put the
shutters up He went to see his dickey-bird, And when he came back
next morning, Blowed if he could speak a word.

Dickey-diaper, subs. (old).—A linendraper.

Dickey-dido, subs. (popular).—An idiot. For synonyms, see Buffle and Cabbage-head.

Dickey-Lagger, subs. (common).—A bird catcher. [From dickey, a pet name for a bird + lagger, one who lays hold of.]

1881. W. Black, Beautiful Wretch, ch. xviii. ‘They’re starved out
in this weather, Miss; and then the boys come out wi’ their guns;
and the dicky-laggers are after them too.’ ‘The what?’ ‘The
bird-catchers, Miss.’

Dickey-Sam, subs. phr. (common).—A native of Liverpool.

1870. Athenæum, 10 Sept. We cannot even guess why a Liverpool man
is called a Dickey Sam.

1884. Book Lore, Dec., p. 27. The natives of Liverpool call
themselves, or are called by others, Dicky Sams.

Dicky, subs. (Scots’).—1. The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

2. See Dick in all senses.

Diddies, subs. (common).—The paps. For synonyms, see Dairy.

Diddle, subs. (old).—1. Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks. In America, liquor generally.

1858. H. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. iii., ch. i, p. 252. And
there’s a first-rate ‘diddle cove’ (publican) keeps a gin-shop
there.

2. (schoolboys’).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

3. (common).—A swindle or ‘do.’—See verb, sense 1.

1885. Punch, 5 Sept., p. 110. And something whispered me—in diction
chaste—It’s all a diddle!

Verb (common).—1. To cheat. For synonyms, see Stick.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestied.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, 1. Diddling your subjects, and
gutting their fobs.

1825. Scott, St. Ronan’s Well, ch. v. And Jack is diddled, said the
Baronet.

1841. Comic Almanack, p. 266. Thus, while pig and tail the
villagers diddle, My tale’s in the middle, my tale’s in the middle!

1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, ch. xv. He had me, and no
mistake. Done, yes, diddled; and I thought I had rather an
easy-going lawyer to deal with.

1887. Lic. Vict. Gazette, 2 Dec., 362, 1. You have been done,
regularly diddled, by that fellow.

2. (venery).—To copulate. Cf., Diddle, subs., sense 2. For synonyms, see Ride.

3. (Scots’ colloquial).—To shake.

Diddle-Cove, subs. (American).—A landlord. Cf., Diddler.

1859. Matsell, Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

Diddler, subs. (common).—A cheat; a dodger. [From diddle (q.v.) + er.] For synonyms, see Rook.—See Jeremy Diddler (Kenny’s Raising the Wind). Also a chronic borrower. Diddling = cheating; also borrowing.

Diddly-pout, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Didoes, subs. (American).—Pranks; tricks; fantastic proceedings.—See Cut Didoes, and Cut Capers.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xvii. I met a man this
mornin’ ... frum Halifax, a real conceited lookin’ critter as you
e’enamost ever seed, all shines and didoes.

1851. New York Tribune, 10 April, Had the Free States been manly
enough, true enough, to enact the Wilmot Proviso as to all present
or future territories of the Union, we should have had just the
same didoes cut up by the chivalry that we have witnessed, and with
no more damage to the Union.

Die or Dee, subs. (American thieves’).—A pocket-book. Matsell’s Vocabulum [1859]. For synonyms, see Leather.

Die-by-the-Hedge, subs. phr. (provincial).—The flesh of animals deceased by accident or of disease; by implication, inferior meat.

Die-Hards, subs. (military).—The Fifty-Seventh Foot. [From the rallying call at Albuera (1811) its Colonel (Inglis) calling to the men, ‘Die hard, my men, die hard,’ when it had thirty bullets through the King’s Colour, and only had one officer out of twenty-four, and one hundred and sixty-eight men out of five hundred and eighty-four, when left standing.]

Die in One’s Boots or Shoes, verb. phr. (old).—1. To be hanged. For synonyms, see Ladder.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais.

1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. ‘The Execution’ (ed. 1862),
p. 196. And there is McFuze And Lieutenant Tregooze, And there is
Sir Carnaby Jenks of the Blues All come to see a man die in his
shoes.

1888. Denver Republican, 9 April. When in liquor he was quarrelsome
and the prediction was commonly made that he would die with his
boots on.

2. (American).—To ‘die standing’: at work, ‘in harness,’ in full possession of one’s faculties.

1887. Scribner’s Magazine. These stiff prairie plants never
wilt—they die in their boots.

1888. Cincinnatti Enquirer, Title: died with his boots on. The
killing of the notorious Desperado Leo Renfro.

Die with One’s Ears Stuffed with Cotton.—See Cotton.

Dig, subs. (colloquial).—1. A blow, thrust, punch, or poke; in pugilism = a ‘straight left-hander’ delivered under the guard on the ‘mark.’

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 51. While ribbers rung from
each resounding frame, and divers digs, and many a ponderous pelt.

1876. C. W. Wall, trans. Molière, vol. i., p. 80. The digs in the
ribs I gave you with such hearty good will.

English Synonyms.—Auctioneer; biff; bang; buck-horse; buster; chatterer; chin-chopper; chopper; clip; click; clinker; clout; cock; cork; comber; cuff; cant; corker; dab; downer; douser; ding; domino; floorer; ferricadouzer; fibbing; facer; flush-hit; finisher; gooser; hot ’un; jaw-breaker; lick; mendoza; muzzler; noser; nobbler; nose-ender; nope; oner; punch; stock-dollager; stotor; spank; topper; twister; whack; wipe.

French Synonyms.—Un coup d’encensoir (popular: a tap on the nose; ‘one on the smeller’); un coup de tampon (pop.: tampon = buffer); un coup de Garibaldi (thieves’: a butt in the stomach); un moule de gant (popular: ‘a mould for a glove’); une mornifle (colloquial: ‘a wipe in the jaw’); une mandole (popular); une gnole (popular: from torgnole); un coup de gilquin (popular); un cataplasme de Venise (popular); un gnon (popular); une dariole (pop.: also, a cream-cake); une beugne (popular); une dandine (popular: ‘a twister’); une baffre (popular); des castagnettes (military: punches); une châtaigne (popular); une couleur (popular); une bouffe (popular: bouffée = gust or blast); un cabochon (popular); un estaffion (popular); une estaphe (popular); une accolade; une balle de coton (thieves’).—See also Tan, verb.

German Synonym. Azkes malaikes (Viennese thieves’: = a blow with the fist on the throat. The derivation may be: azke from Heb. osak, to quarrel + malaikes from Heb. melocho, work).

Spanish Synonyms.—Duros (whip-strokes; also = harsh, merciless); tapaboca (a ‘corker’: also any action or observation which cuts one short); pasagonzalo (a quick hit); capon (generally colloquial); chamorrada (a butt with the head); mojada (a stab); zumbido or zumbo (literally, a humming or buzzing); tantarantin (a thwack; also = beat of a drum); tarja (also = a target).

Italian Synonym. Ramenghi d’alta foia (blows with a stick).

2. (American).—A diligent student. [By implication from the verb (q.v.); also study; e.g., To have a dig at Cæsar or Livy.

Verb (American)—To work hard; especially to study.

1876. Miss Alcott, Little Wives, ch. ix. He ... turned studious,
and gave out that he was going to dig, intending to graduate in a
blaze of glory.

Dig a day under the skin, verb. phr. (common).—To make a shave serve for two days.

To dig up the hatchet.—See Bury.

Digester.—See Patent Digester.

Digged.—See Jigged.

Diggers, subs. (common).—1. Spurs; ‘persuaders.’

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 173, s.v.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

2. (cards’).—The spades suit; also Diggums. Big digger = ace of spades.

3. (vulgar).—The finger nails.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

1881. New York Slang Dict. ‘On the Trail.’ ‘If you do,’ returned
Bill, ‘I will fix my diggers in your dial-plate and turn it up with
red.’

Diggers’-Delight, subs. (New Zealand).—A wide-brimmed felt hat. For synonyms, see Golgotha.

Diggings, subs. (common).—A place of residence or employment. [First used at the Western lead mines in the U.S.A. to denote whence ore was dug.]

English Synonyms.—Birk; box; case; crib; chat; den; dry-lodgings; drum; place; pig-sty; pew; cabin; castle; chaffing-crib; caboose; sky-parlour; shop; ken; dossing-ken; hole; rookery; hutch; hang-out.

French Synonyms.—Une bagnole (pop.: from bagne = hulks); un bazar (military: also, a brothel); un bocal (pop.: also = stomach); une baraque (common: in disparagement); une baite (thieves’); une case (thieves’); une carrée (thieves’); une cambriole (thieves’); une cambuse (popular); une condition (thieves’); un creux (thieves’); une piole or piolle (thieves’).

German Synonym.—Bes, Beth, or Bajis.

Italian Synonyms.—Bacchia; clocchia or cloccia (also = a bell); coschetto delle Fantasime.

Spanish Synonyms.—Caverna (‘a cavern’; cf., English den); aduana (also = a brothel, and thieves’ resort); nido (‘a nest’; nido de ladrones, a ‘cross-drum’; a thieves’ resort); percha (‘a perch’).

1838. J. C. Neal, Charcoal Sketches, II., 119. Look here, Ned, I
reckon it’s about time we should go to our diggings; I am dead
beat.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 171. The miner in California and
Nevada has been known, in times of a rush, to speak of a place
where he could stand leaning against a stout post, as his diggings
for the night.

1883. Referee, 1 July, p. 3, col. 2. Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft are
changing their diggings, and clearing out of Cavendish-square.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. viii. Oh, he lives round
the corner. You may see his diggings from your daughter’s bedroom
window, sir.

1888. C. J. Dunphie, The Chameleon, p. 86. ‘Diggings’ I call my
dwelling, according to the prevalent slang.

Diggums, subs. (provincial).—1. A gardener.

2. (gamesters’).—The suit of spades; also diggers (q.v.).

Dilberries, subs. (common).—Fæcal and seminal deposits in the hair of the anus and the female pudendum; clinkers.

Dilberry-bush, subs. (common).—The hair about the female pudendum or the anus.—See Dilberries.

Dildo, subs. (old).—An instrument (of wax, horn, leather, india-rubber, gutta-percha, etc., and other soft material), shaped like, and used by women as a substitute for, the penis. Now called a broom-handle or broomstick, the pudendum in this connection = broom (q.v.). [Bailey: from It., diletto, a woman’s delight or from dally = to toy.] In Lombardy, passo tempo.

c. 1672. Butler, Dildoides (Occasioned by Burning a hogshead of
dildoes at Stocks Market).

1886. Burton, The Thousand Nights and a Night, vol. x, p. 239. Of
the penis succedaneus, that imitation of the Arbor-vitæ, or
Sotor-Kosmou, which the Latins called phallus and fascinum, the
French godemiché, and the Italians passatempo and diletto (whence
our dildo), every kind abounds, varying from a stuffed ‘French
Letter’ to a cone of ribbed horn, which looks like an instrument of
torture.

Verb (old).—To wanton with a woman. Cf., subs., sense. For synonyms, see Firkytoodle.

Dilly, subs. (common).—A night cart; formerly a coach. [From Fr., diligence.]

17(?). The Anti-Jacobin. So down thy hill, romantic Ashbourne
glides, The Derby Dilly having four inside.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. ix. One which they called a dilly.

Dilly-bag, subs. (Australian).—A wallet; or scran-bag.

1880. A. C. Grant. Their own dilly-bags have nothing of value or
interest in them.

Dilly-dally, verb (colloquial).—To loiter; hesitate; trifle. [A duplication of dally.]

1740. Richardson, Pamela, i., 275. What you do, sir, do; don’t
stand dilly-dallying.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. XVIII., ch. xii. But if I had
suffered her to stand shill I shall I, dilly dally, you might not
have had that honour yet awhile.

1869. W. S. Gilbert, The Bohemian Girl. When at a pinch you should
never dilly-dally.

Dimber, adj. (old).—Pretty, neat, lively. Variants are scrumptious; natty. Fr., batif (thieves’); fignole (thieves’); girofle (thieves’).

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874), s.v.

1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dict., s.v.

Dimber Cove = a sprightly man, a gentleman: Dimber Mort = a pretty girl. Fr., une largue girofle. Cf., Dimber-damber.

1837. Disraeli, Venetia, book I., ch. xiv. ’Tis a dimber cove,
whispered one of the younger men to a companion: Ibid, Tip me the
clank like a dimber mort.

Dimber-damber, subs. (old).—A captain of thieves or vagrants. [From dimber (q.v.), skilful, etc., + damber (q.v.), a chief or head man.]

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I, ch. v., p. 48 (1874).

1724. E. Coles, Eng. Dict.

1749. Life of Bampfylde-Moore Carew, ‘Oath of the Canting Crew.’...
No dimber damber, angler, dancer, prig of cackler, prig of prancer.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. No; no refusal,
exclaimed a chorus of voices. Dick Turpin must be one of us. He
shall be our dimber damber.

Dimmock, subs. (common).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch. i. ‘I have ... pocketed
the dimmock’ (‘here ’tis,’ continued he, parenthetically slapping
his pockets).

Dinahs, subs. (Stock-Exchange).—Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway Ordinary Stock.

Dinarly or Dinali, subs. (theatrical).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt. Nantee or Nanti Dinarly = no money. Sp., dinero; Lingua Franca, niente dinaro = not a penny.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 149.
‘I have got no money’ is, ‘My nabs has nanti dinali’ [among
strolling actors].

1870. South London Press, 8 Oct., Advt. So don’t forget when you’ve
the tin To here spend your ‘Dinarley.’

Dine-out, verb. phr. (common).—To go dinnerless, to dine with Duke Humphrey (q.v.). Variants: to take a Spitalfields’ breakfast (q.v.), or an Irishman’s dinner (q.v.), also to go out and count the railings (q.v.). Fr., Se coucher bredouille = to go to bed supperless; aller voir défiler les dragons = to go and watch the dragoons march past; diner en ville = to dine in town, i.e., to munch a roll in the street or to eat nothing; lire le journal.

1888. All the Year Round, 9 June. p. 542. To ‘dine with Duke
Humphrey,’ or, as it is now sometimes more shortly phrased, to
‘dine out,’ in both cases meaning not to dine at all.

Dine with Duke Humphrey, verb. phr. (old).—To go dinnerless; to dine out (q.v.).—[Origin uncertain; supposed, however, to refer to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, the youngest son of Henry the Fourth, who, though really buried at St. Alban’s, was reputed to have a monument in Old St. Paul’s, from which one part of the church was termed Duke Humphrey’s Walk. Old Paul’s was a regular promenade, especially for lackeys out of livery, and ruffians and sea-captains out of luck. Thus Falstaff explains of Bardolph that he ‘got him in Paul’s,’ while Jonson actually lays the scene of Every Man Out of His Humour (1599), in ‘The Middle Aisle of St. Paul’s,’ to introduce his cavaliero Shift. Shift and Bardolph, in fact, were what is now called ‘inspectors of public buildings’; they walked in Paul’s on the chance of a pick-up, and they dined by looking at the monuments. The Bodleian Library was founded by the same Duke Humphrey, and the Gentleman’s Mag. (1794, p. 529) records that when a student stayed on during the dinner hour, at which time it used to be closed, he was said to dine with Duke Humphrey. An alternative traces the saying to the report that Duke Humphrey was starved to death. Chambers, in his Historical Sketch of St. Giles’s Cathedral, Edinburgh, records a similar pleasantry concerning the tomb of the Earl of Murray, and quotes a Scots poet, one Sempill (16th cent.), who makes a hungry idler say: I dined with saints and gentlemen, E’en sweet St. Giles and the Earl of Murray. See Wharton, Hist. of Eng. Poetry (ed. 1824), vol. IV., p. 361.

1592. Nashe, Pierce Penilesse, in wks., ii., 18. I ... retired me
to Paules, to seeke my dinner with Duke Humfrey.

1592. Gab. Harvey, Four Letters. To seek his dinner in Poules with
Duke Humphrey.

1608. The Penniless Parliament of Threadbare Poets. And if I prove
not that a mince-pie is the better weapon, let me dine twice a week
at Duke Humphry’s table.

1664. H. Peacham, Worth of a Penny, in Arber’s Garner, vol. VI., p.
273. Who, having been troubled with over much money, afterward, in
no long time, have been fain, after ‘a long dinner with Duke
Humphrey,’ to take a nap on ‘penniless bench,’ only to verify the
old proverb, ‘A fool and his money is soon parted.’

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. lv. My mistress and her mother
must have dined with Duke Humphrey, had I not exerted myself in
their behalf.

1884. Daily Telegraph, 22 Jan., p. 5, col. 3. In future, not even
the most impecunious of diners-out must accept an invitation from
Duke Humphrey.

Ding, verb (Old Cant, in some senses).—Used as a colloquialism (as in Scott) it signifies to knock, to strike down, to pound or (as in quot., 1786) to give way: while in slang it means to get rid of; to pass to a confederate; ‘to steal by a single effort.’ To ding a castor = to snatch a hat and run with it: the booty being dinged if it has to be thrown away. Going upon the ding = to go on the prowl. Ding the tot! = Run away with the lot!

c. 1340. Hampole, Pricke of Conscience, 7015 (ed. Morris). Right
swa pe devels salle ay dyng, on pe synfulle, withouten styntyng.

1600. Sir John Oldcastle, Act III., Sc. ii. For the credit of
Dunstable, ding down the money to-morrow.

1610. Jonson, Alchemist, V., iii. Sur. [without]. Down with the
door. Kas. [without]. ’Slight, ding it open.

1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act II. If I’m to have
any good, let it come of itself; not to keep dinging it, dinging it
into one so.

1786. Burns, A Dream. But facts are chiels that winna ding.

1821. Pierce Egan, Tom and Jerry [ed. 1890], p. 78. Oh I took him
such a lick of his mummer, and dinged his rattle clean out of his
hand.

b. 1793, d. 1872. Dean Ramsey. Our meenister’s dinged the guts out of twa Bibles.

1846. Dickens, Dombey, ch. ix., p. 74. These were succeeded by
anchor and chain-cable forges, where sledge hammers were dinging
upon iron all day long.

Ding-Bat, subs. (American).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

Ding-Boy, subs. (old).—A rogue; a bully.

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

Ding-Dong. To go at it, or to it, ding-dong, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To tackle with vigor, or in right good earnest. Formerly, helter-skelter, (Grose, 1785).

1887. H. Smart, Saddle and Sabre, ch. xx. For the next hundred
yards it was a ding-dong struggle between them.

Dinge, subs. (Royal Military Academy).—A picture or painting.

Dinged, adj. (American).—A euphemism for ‘darned’ = dammed. Sometimes Ding-goned.—See Oaths.

Dinger, subs. (old).—1. A thief who throws away his booty to escape detection. [From ding (q.v.), to throw away + er.]

2. in pl. (conjurers’).—Cups and balls; Fr., gobelets et muscades.

Ding-fury, subs. (provincial).—Huff; anger.

Ding-goned.—See Dinged.

Dingle, adj. (old).—Hackneyed; used up.

1786. The Microcosm, No. 3. Your Mic is dead-lounge—dissipates
insufferable ennui of tea-table,—fills boring intervals of
conversazione,... By the by, in your next propose some new
lounge.—They are all so dingle at present, they are quite a bore.

Dining-Room, subs. (common).—The mouth. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

Dining-room chairs, subs. phr. (common).—The teeth; also dinner-set (q.v.). For synonyms, see Grinders.

Dining-Room Post, subs. phr. (old).—Petty pilfering done from houses by sham postmen.

Dink, adj. (Scots’ colloquial).—Dainty; trim.

1794. Burns, My Lady’s Gown. My lady’s dink, my lady’s drest.

Dinner-set, subs. (common).—The teeth. ‘Your dinner-set wants looking to’ = you need to go to the dentist. For synonyms, see Grinders.

Dip, subs. (thieves’).—1. A pickpocket; also dipper and dipping-bloke. For synonyms, see Stook-Hauler.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, p. 26, s.v.

1866. Vance, The Chickaleary Cove. Off to Paris I shall go to show
a thing or two To the dipping-blokes wot hangs about the cafés.

1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat. A dip touched the Canadian sheriff
for his watch and massive chain while he was reading the Riot Act.

2. (American).—A stolen kiss, especially one in the dark.

3. (Westminster School).—A pocket inkstand.

4. (colloquial).—A candle made by dipping the wick in tallow.

1837. Barham, I. L. (Ingoldsby Penance.) None of your rascally
dips, but sound, Best superfine wax-wicks, four to the pound.

Verb (thieves’).—1. To pick pockets. To dip a lob = to rob a till. Also to go on the dipe = to go pocket-picking. For synonyms, see Frisk.

1817. Sporting Mag. Defence of Groves at Bristol Assizes. I have
dipped into 150 ... pockets and not found a shilling.

2. (old).—To pawn; mortgage.

1693. Dryden, Persius, vi., 160. Put out the principal in trusty
hands: Live of the use; and never dip thy lands.

1711. Spectator, No. 114. What gives the unhappy man this
peevishness of spirit is, that his estate is dipped, and is eating
out with usury; and yet he has not the heart to sell any part of
it.

1860. Thackeray, Philip, ch. xiv. You have but one son, and he has
a fortune of his own, as I happen to know. You haven’t dipped it,
Master Philip?

3. (thieves’).—To be convicted; to get into trouble.

To dip one’s beak, verb. phr. (common).—To drink. For synonyms, see Lush.

Dipe.—See Dip, verb, sense 1.

1877. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’) Life on the Mississippi, p. 460.
i felt very rough and was thinking i would have to go on the dipe
again.

Dipped in Wing, adv. phr. (popular).—Worsted.

Dipper, subs. (old).—1. A baptist.—[Grose, 1785.]

2. See Dip, subs., sense 1.

Dipping-bloke.—See Dip, subs., sense 1.

Dips, subs. (nautical).—1. The purser’s boy.

2. (colloquial).—A grocer.

Dipstick, subs. (old).—A gauger.

Dirk, subs. (Scots’).—The penis. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Dirt, subs. (American).—Money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.

To eat dirt, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To submit to insult; to eat broiled crow, or humble pie (q.v.); to retract.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. x. Though they bow before
a calf, is it not a golden one? though they ‘eat dirt,’ is it not
dressed by a French cook?

1861. New York Evening Post, 4 Jan. After eating so much dirt, are
we asked to swallow free soil?

To fling dirt or mud, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To abuse; to vituperate.

1689. Selden, Table Talk, p. 104 (Arber’s ed.). One that writes
against his Adversary, and throws all the dirt he can in his Face.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. ii., p. 11.
Scurrility’s a useful trick, Approv’d by the most politick; Fling
dirt enough, and some will stick.

1875. Ouida, Signa, vol. I., ch. xv., p. 358. A wicked old tongue
that could throw dirt with any man’s or woman’s either.

1885. J. S. Winter, Bootles’ Baby, p. 66. I suppose he wants to
daub Bootles with some of his own mud. Thinks if he only throws
enough some of it’s sure to stick.

To cut dirt.—See Cut.

Dirt-Baillie, subs. (Scots’).—An inspector of nuisances.

Dirt-scraper subs. (American).—An advocate who rakes up unpleasant facts in a witness’s past.

Dirty-Dishes, subs. (common).—Poor relations.

Dirty Half-Hundred, subs. phr. (military).—The Fiftieth Foot. [From the fact that, in action, during the Peninsular War, the men wiped their faces with their black facings.] Also nicknamed the Blind Half-Hundred.

1841. Lever, Charles O’Malley, ch. xciv. A kind of neutral tint
between green and yellow, like nothing I know of except the facings
of the ‘dirty half-hundred.’

Dirty-Puzzle, subs. (old).—A slut.—Grose [1785].

Dirty Shirt March, subs. phr. (vulgar).—On Sunday mornings the male population of Drury Lane, Whitechapel, and other crowded districts loaf about the streets, before attiring themselves in their Sunday clothes. This promenade is called a ‘dirty shirt march.’

Dirty-Shirts, subs. (military).—The Hundred and First Foot. [They fought in their shirt-sleeves at Delhi in 1857.]

1887. Daily News, 11 July. As the old Bengal European Regiment ...
they [the 2nd Munster Fusiliers] had won their honourable sobriquet
of the dirty shirts, half-a-century earlier.

Disgruntled, adj. (old).—Offended: still colloquial in U.S.A. Undisgruntled = unoffended.

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

1869. Springfield Republican, 20 Nov. Rev. Dr. Newman Hall, of
London, tells how when he was journeying to Chicago, an
apple-peddling boy, on the cars, without any preliminaries took
hold of and immediately examined his breast-pin. Nevertheless the
reverend gentleman, quite undisgruntled, remarked, ‘Was it not
there to be seen? Was he not a man and a brother?’

1877. Providence Journal, 1 March. We have had enough exercise of
extraordinary power, and this continual grasping after authority
for the purpose of meeting the individual case of some disgruntled
persons should receive the stamp of this committee’s
disapprobation.

Disguised, adj. (old).—Drunk. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1622. Massinger, Virgin Martyr, III., iii. Harp. I am a prince
disguised. Hir. Disguised! How? Drunk!

1625. Jonson, Staple of News, IV. Come, I will shew you the way
home, if drink Or too full diet have disguised you.

1663. Dryden, Wild Gallant, Act I. Fail. Will not ale serve the
turn, Will? Bib. I had too much of that last night; I was a little
disguised, as they say.

1704. Steele, Lying Lover, Act IV., Sc. i. Sim. You are a little
disguis’d in Drink tho’ Mr. John.

1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, Act IV. A damned up and
down hand, as if it was disguised in liquor.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xvi. I met a third mate
I knew, slightly disguised in liquor.

Dish, verb (common).—To cheat; to circumvent; to disappoint; to ruin.

1798. Monthly Mag. [quoted in N. and Q., 1 S., iv., p. 313. In the
Monthly Mag., in 1798, is a paper on peculiarities of expression
among which are ... ‘done up,’ dish’d, etc.

1811. E. Nares, Thinks I to Myself, i., 208. He was completely
dished—he could never have appeared again.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib’s Memorial, p. 26.... Could old Nap himself,
in his glory, have wish’d To show up a fat Gemman more handsomely
dish’d?

1821. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, i. 7. No, I’m out of spirits
because I have been dished and doodled out of forty pounds to-day.

1884. W. C. Russell, Jack’s Courtship, ch. xvi. I oughtn’t to show
a youngster like you any sympathy in this job of dishing a parent’s
hopes.

Dish-Clout, subs. (common).—A dirty, slatternly woman.

To make a napkin of one’s dish-clout, verb. phr. (old).—To marry one’s cook; to contract a mésalliance.

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

Dished, ppl. adj. (printers’).—Said of electrotypes when the centre of a letter is lower than its edges.

Dismal-ditty, subs. (old).—See quot.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Dismal Ditty ... also a cant
expression for a psalm sung by a criminal at the gallows (s.v.
Ditty).

Dispar, subs. (Winchester College).—See Cat’s-head.

Dispatches, subs. (old).—False dice; so contrived as always to throw a nick.—See Doctor.

1811. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v.

1866. Times, 27 Nov.

Dissecting-job, subs. (tailors’).—Garments requiring extensive alteration.

Distiller, subs. (Australian thieves’).—A man easily vexed, and unable to dissemble his condition.

Ditto-blues, subs. (Winchester College).—A suit of clothes all of blue cloth. Cf., Dittoes.

Ditto Brother, or Sister, Smut.—See Brother Smut.

Dittoes, subs. (colloquial).—A complete suit of clothes of the same material. Fr., un complet. Occasionally applied to trousers only.

1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, ch. x. A slight, dark man, of
middle height, clad in an ordinary suit of dittoes, entered the
room.

1882. James Payn, Thicker than Water, ch. ix. His attire, though
quite as faultless and more equable—he was never seen in dittos
even in September—was not so splendid as of some members of the
Aglaia.

Ditty-Bag, subs. (common).—A handy bag, used by sailors as a ‘huswife.’ [From deft, dight = neat, active, handy.]

Dive, subs. (American).—A drinking-saloon; also a brothel.

1888. Troy Daily Times, 7 Feb. A plot to entrap young women for the
dives of Northern Wisconsin has been discovered at Eau Claire, Wis.

1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, 27 Feb. Even fallen women, when the
rose is gone from their cheeks, are pushed aside, and from a gilded
house to the lowest dive is the last and quickest step of all.

Verb (old).—To pick pockets. Cf., dip, and for synonyms, see Frisk. Also diving = picking pockets.

1631. Ben Jonson, Metam. Gipsies. Or using your nimbles [fingers],
in diving the pockets.

1712. Gay, Trivia, bk. III., l., 80. Guard well thy pocket; for
these sirens stand To aid the labours of the diving hand.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Dive (v.) ... and in the
Canting Language, to pick pockets in a crowd, church, etc.

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

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or The Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

A dive in the dark, subs. phr. (venery).—The ‘act of kind.’

To dive into one’s sky, verb. phr. (common).—To put one’s hands into one’s pockets.

To dive into the woods, verb. phr. (American).—To conceal oneself.

Diver, or Dive [see quot., 1608], subs. (old).—A pickpocket (as Jenny Diver in ‘The Beggar’s Opera’); a dip (q.v.). For synonyms, see Stook-Hauler.

1608. Dekker, Belman of London, in wks. (Grosart), III., 140. [One
who steals from houses by putting a boy in through a window to hand
out to him the plunder—is called a Diver.]

c. 1626. Dick of Devonshire, in Bullen’s Old Plays, ii., 40. Your
horse and weapons I will take, but no pilferage. I am no pocketeer,
no diver into slopps.

1705. Ward, Hudibras Redivivus, vol. I., pt. i., p. 24 (2nd ed.).
So expert divers call aloud, Pray mind your pockets, to the crowd.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Diver (s.) ... also a cant
name for a pick-pocket.

1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, p. 56. Thieves frequently go
well-dressed, especially pickpockets; good toggery being considered
a necessary qualification for his calling, without which the
divercould not possibly mix in genteel company nor approach such in
the streets.

1887. Baumann, Londismen, V. Smashers and divers and noble
contrivers.

Divers, subs. (common).—The fingers. For synonyms, see Forks.

Divide the House with One’s Wife, verb. phr. (old).—To turn her out of doors.

Diving-bell, subs. (common).—A cellar-tavern. Cf., Dive. For synonyms, see Lush-crib.

Do, subs. (colloquial).—1. A fraud.

1812. Vaux, Memoirs, s.v.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 17. I thought it was a do, to
get me out of the house.

1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862.), p. 418. I should
like to see you Try to sauter le coup With this chap at short whist
or unlimited loo, By the Pope you’d soon find it a regular do.

1846. Punch, vol. XI., p. 114. What is the meaning of the rise? I’m
sure I cannot tell—can you? Yes, fame with hundred tongues replies,
’Tis in one word A Do! a Do!

2. (colloquial).—One’s duty; a success; performance; what one has to do; once literary.

1663–78. Butler, Hudibras. No sooner does he peep into the world
but he has done his doe.

1851. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 162. Well, I
heard how a man ... was making a fortune at the hot-eel and
pea-soup line.... So I thought I’d have a touch at the same thing.
But you see I never could rise money enough to make a do of it.

Verb (colloquial).—1. To cheat. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 142. Who are continually
looking out for flats, in order to do them upon the broads, that
is, cards.

1803. Kenney, Raising the Wind, I., i. I wasn’t born two hundred
miles north of Lunnun, to be done by Mr. Diddler, I know.

1831. Disraeli, The Young Duke, bk. iv., ch. vi., p. 220 (ed.
1866). There was the juvenile Lord Dice, who boasted of having done
his brothers out of their miserable £5,000.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 265. I should have a much better
opinion of an individual if he’d say at once, in an honourable and
gentlemanly manner, as he’d done everybody he possibly could.

1843. Comic Almanack, p. 373. England expects every man to do his
duty, a strong recommendation to every man ‘to do’ the authorities
who collect the duty at the Custom-house.

1871. Public Opinion, 4 Feb. Do you suppose that you can do the
landlord in the ‘Lady of Lyons?’ asked a theatrical manager of a
seedy actor in quest of an engagement. If I can’t do him, was the
reply, he will be the first landlord I ever had anything to do with
that wasn’t done by me.

1889. Answers, 9 Feb. The regular hotel thieves are constantly
inventing new dodges to do us.

2. (pugilistic).—To ‘punish.’

3. (common).—To visit a place; e.g., ‘to do Italy,’ ‘to do the Row,’ ‘to do the High’ (at Oxford), etc. Early quots. are given; latterly the phrase is common enough. The Fr., faire is used in the same sense; faire ses Acacias, i.e., to walk or drive in the Allée des Acacias.

1857. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. xxxii. We did Venice
very severely, with the exception of Forrester, who ... declined
seeing anything more than what he could view from his gondola.

1858. Shirley Brooks, The Gordian Knot, p. 53. You have been in
Egypt? asked Margaret, with much interest. I did Egypt, as they
say, about two years back, [said Philip].

4. (colloquial).—To perform; to ‘come’; e.g., to do the polite = to be polite; to do a book = to write one; to do the heavy, the grand, or the genteel = to put on airs.

1767. Colman, Eng. Merchant, I., in wks. (1777), ii. 17. I compose
pamphlets on all subjects, compile magazines, and do newspapers.

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 224. He used to talk politics to
papas, flatter the vanity of mammas, do the amiable to their
daughters.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xv., p. 125. There was the young lady
who did the poetry in the Eatanswill Gazette, in the garb of a
sultana.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxiv. A great number of the
descriptions in Cook’s Voyages, for instance, were notoriously
invented by Dr. Hawkesworth, who did the book.

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. iii. A vision of John
doing the polite, and laughing as he ceremoniously introduced
Captain Lovell and Miss Coventry.

1864. Glasgow Citizen, 29 Nov. Is not the exhilarating short-length
of being known beyond our own Queen Street that it is not
registered here? And we miss the rag trade whose worthy members do
the above-named goes.

1880. Milliken, Punch’s Almanack. Nobby button ’oler very well,
When one wants to do the ’eavy swell.

5. (counterfeiters’).—To utter base coin or queer (q.v.).

Do as I do, phr. (common).—An invitation to drink.—See Drinks.

To do a beer, or a bitter, or a drink, or a drop, verb. phr. (common).—To take a drink.

1853. Bradley (‘Cuthbert Bede’), Verdant Green, ch. x. To do
bitters, as Mr. Bouncer phrased the act of drinking bitter beer.

1880. Milliken, Punch’s Almanack. Got the doldrums dreadful, that
is clear, Two d left!—must go and do a beer.

To do a bilk.—See Bilk.

To do a bill, verb. phr. (commercial).—To utter an acceptance or bill of exchange. Cf., to fly paper or kites.

1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends [ed. 1862], p. 257. Now,
then, old sinner, let’s hear what you’ll say As to doing a bill at
three months from to-day.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lxii. Sir Francis Clavering ... had
managed to sign his respectable name to a piece of stamped paper,
which ... Mr. Moss Abrams had carried off, promising to have the
bill done by a party with whose intimacy Mr. Abrams was favoured.

To do a bishop, verb. phr. (military).—To parade at short notice.

To do a bit, verb. phr. (common).—To eat something. Cf., to do a beer. Also (venery), to have a woman.

To do a bunk or shift, verb. phr. (vulgar).—To ease nature.—See Bury a quaker and Mrs. Jones. Also (colloquial), to go away.

To do a crib, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To break into a house, to burgle. Fr., maquiller une cambriole. For synonyms, see Crack a Crib.

To do a guy, verb. phr. (thieves’).—1. To run away; to make an escape. [From do, verb of action + guy, an escape.] For synonyms, see Amputate and Skedaddle.

1889. Answers, 6 April, p. 297. They all dispersed at once—to put
it in their own language, they did a guy.

2. (workman’s).—To absent oneself when supposed to be at work.

To do a nob, verb. phr. (circus and showmen’s).—To make a collection.

To do a pitch.—See Pitch.

To do a rush.—See Rush.

To do a Snatch.—See Snatch.

To do a star pitch, verb. phr. (theatrical).—To sleep in the open air. Fr., loger à la belle étoile. For synonyms, see Hedge Square.

To do a brown.—See under Brown; also Bamboozle. Also to do brown and to do it up brown.

To do for, verb. phr. (common).—1. To ruin. Also, to kill, in which sense, cf., quots., 1650 and 1877. For synonyms, see Dead broke and Cook one’s Goose respectively.

1650. Howell, Familiar Letters. The Emperor, who, rather than becom
captif to the base Tartar, burnt his castle, and did away himself,
his thirty wives, and children.

1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. vi., ch. iv. He said something, too,
about my master ... he said he would do for him, I am sure he said
that; and other wicked, bad words, too, if I could but think of
them.

1811. Jane Austen, Sense and S., ch. xli. He has done for himself
completely! shut himself out for ever from all decent society!

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 233. He called out,
He’s done for me; he’s done for me; send at once for Doctor Howell.

2. (common).—To attend on (as landladies on lodgers).

3. (thieves’).—To convict; to sentence. Done for = convicted.

To do a grind, a mount, a tread, etc., verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate.

To do or play gooseberry.—See Gooseberry.

To do gospel, verb. phr. (common).—To go to church.

To do the handsome or the handsome thing, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To behave extremely well to one.

To do it away, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To dispose of stolen goods. Also To do the swag (q.v.); to fence (q.v.).

To do it on the B. H., verb. phr. (common).—To perform with ease. [B = bloody; H = head].

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 221. ‘What’s yer
dose?’ Looking on to my badge, ‘Five, oh, you can do that little
lot on yer ’ed easy.’

To do it up, verb. phr. (old).—To accomplish an object in view; to obtain one’s quest. To do it up in good twig = to live an easy life by one’s wits.

To do one proud, phr. (colloquial).—To flatter: e.g., ‘Will you drink?’ ‘You do me proud.’

1836. W. G. Clark, Ollapodriana Papers. To this damsel I addressed
myself, and solicited her hand in the dance. She assented; and with
my brain reeling with fancies of wine and women, I really thought,
for the moment, that ‘she did me proud.’

1887. Sidney Luska, Land of Love, in ‘Lippincott’s Mag.,’ p. 241.
Ah? So? The frank confession does you proud.

To do out, verb. phr. (American thieves’).—To plead guilty and exonerate an accomplice.

To do over, verb. phr. (common).—1. To knock down; to persuade; to cheat; to ruin.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 50. Who could, at any time,
do him over, as they phrased it, for half-a-crown or half-a-guinea.

1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 326 (ed. 1857). Well, said
Sam, he’s in a horrid state o’ love; reg’larly comfoozled, and done
over with it.

2. (thieves’).—To search a victim’s pockets without his knowing it. Cf., run the rule over.

3. (venery).—To seduce; also to copulate. For synonyms, see Dock and Ride respectively.

To do polly, verb. phr. (American prison).—To pick oakum in gaol.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or the Rogue’s Lexicon, s.v.

To do one’s business, verb. phr. (common).—To kill. For synonyms, see Cook one’s Goose. Cf., Business. Also (vulgar), to evacuate; and (venery), to serve a woman.

1750. Fielding, Tom Jones, bk. VIII., ch. x. He concluded he had
pretty well done their business, for both of them, as they ran off,
cried out with bitter oaths, that they were dead men.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xii. Then he took down his
venerable and murderous duelling-pistols, with flint locks, that
had done the business of many a pretty fellow in Dublin.

1856. C. Reade, Never Too Late, ch. xvi. She was stronger than he
was for a moment or two, and that moment would have done his
business. She meant killing.

To do the downy, verb. phr. (common).—To lie in bed. Downy flea pasture = a bed. Cf., Balmy.

1841. Leman Rede, Sixteen-String Jack, Act i., Sc. vi. Jer. The
family’s gone to downy nap this half-hour. Why don’t the captain
give the signal.

1853. C. Bede, Verdant Green, pt. ii., p. 59. This’ll never do,
Giglamps! Cutting chapel to do the downy.

To do the swag, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To sell stolen property, Fr., laver la camelote or les fourgueroles. Cf., To do clobber.

To do the trick, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To accomplish one’s object; specifically (venery), to do the ‘act of kind’ effectually, and (for woman), to get rid of one’s maidenhead.

1864. Derby Day, p. 38. If the little ’un don’t do the trick me an’
him’ll fall out.

1870–2. Gallery of Comicalities. Star of the stable! Ostler Dick,
Still in your calling wide awake; I warrant you can do the trick—A
cunning cove, and no mistake.

18(?). W. C. Russell, Representative Actors, p. 476. Edmund Kean then whispered in his son’s ear ‘Charlie, we are doing the trick.’

To do time, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To serve a term of imprisonment.

1871. Times, Dec. Both ... fled to New York to save doing time on
the treadmill.

1884. Cornhill Mag., June, p. 614. He has repeatedly done time for
drunks and disorderlies, and for assaults upon the police.

1888. Referee, 15 April, 3, 1. The robbers-in-chief, who had done
time before, were sentenced to five years’ penal servitude.

To do to death, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To repeat ad nauseam.

To do to tie to, verb. phr. (American).—To be fit to associate with; to be trustworthy.

To do up, verb. phr. (common).—To use up; finish; or quiet. Done up = tired out; ruined; ‘sold up.’ For synonyms, see Floored.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller, in wks. v., 170. I was cleane spent
and done, there was no hope of me.

1667. Dryden, Ann. Mir., st. 70. Not so the Holland fleet, who,
tired and done, Stretch’d on their decks like weary oxen lie.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxiv. ‘How did he get back from
India?’ ‘Why, how should I know? The house there was done up, and
that gave us a shake at Middleburgh.’

1831. Disraeli, The Young Duke, bk. iv., ch. xii., p. 245 (ed.
1866), ‘The Universe’ and ‘The New World’ announced that the young
duke was done up.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. III., p. 264. A
man’s done up at fifty, and seldom lives long after, if he has to
keep on at coal-portering.

1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, pt. iii., p. 130. I am awfully done,
said Spiffy. I never went to bed at all last night.

[For the rest, do, like chuck and cop, is a verb-of-all-work, and is used in every possible and impossible connection. Thus, to do reason and to do right = to honour a toast; to do a bit of stiff = to draw a bill; to do a chuck = to eject, or to go away; to do a rub-up = to masturbate; to do a sip (back slang) = to make water; to do a cat = to vomit; to do a hall or a theatre = to visit a music hall or a playhouse; to do a fluff (theatrical) = to forget one’s part; to do a pitch (showman’s or street artists’) = to go through a performance; to do a mouch or a mike = to go on the prowl; to do a grouse = to go questing for women; to do a doss = to go to sleep; to do a cadge = to go begging; to do a tumble or a spread = to lie down to a man; to do a perpendicular or knee-trembler = to copulate standing; to do a scrap = to engage in combat; to do a rural = to ‘rear’ by the wayside; to do a dive in the dark = to copulate; etc.

Doash, subs. (Old Cant).—A cloak. For synonyms, see Capella.

Dobbin, subs. (old).—Ribbon. Dobbin Rig = stealing ribbon.

Dock, subs. (printers’).—1. The weekly work bill or pole (q.v.).

2. (popular).—The hospital.

Verb (old).—1. To deflower; hence, by implication, to possess; [Gypsy dūkker, to ravish]. Feminine analogues are to have done the trick; to have had it; to have done it at last; to be cracked in the ring; to have broken her tea-cup; to have had it there; to have gone star-gazing on her back; to have given her pussy a taste of cream; to have let the pony over the dyke (Scots’); to have broken her knees or her leg; to have sprained her ankle. Fr., avoir vu le loup; laisser aller le chat au fromage; and avoir vu la lune; whilst l’avoir encore and avoir encore l’avoine is said of maids. Sp., desvirgar = to deflower: Docked = possessed.