Chapter III: Part 3

2. A character; an odd fish; an eccentric; generally coupled with such adjectives as ‘knowing,’ ‘old,’ ‘queer,’ ‘downy,’ ‘rum,’ etc. [Apparently derived from the card-table, such expressions as a ‘sure card,’ a ‘sound card,’ being of very ancient use. Osric tells Hamlet that Laertes is the card and calendar of gentry.—(Hamlet, v., 2.)]

1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 264. Mr. Thomas Potter, whose great
aim it was to be considered as a knowing card.

1852. Dickens, Bleak House, ch. xx., p. 173. ‘Such an old card as
this; so deep, so sly, and secret.’

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. ii. Frank Hardingstone
was, to use their favourite word, ‘a great card’ amongst all the
associates of his age and standing.

1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xii. A quaint boy at
Eton, cool hand at Oxford, a deep card in the regiment, man or
woman never yet had the best of ‘Uppy.’

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. i. ‘You’re one of
the Patriarchs; you’re a shaky old card; and you can’t be in love
with this Lizzie.’

3. (common).—The ‘ticket’; the ‘figure’; the correct thing. [Possibly from the k’rect card (q.v.) of racing.]

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., p. 47. I’ve got
10s. often for a great coat, and higher and lower, oftener lower in
course; but 10s. is about the card for a good thing.

Verb.—Also carding, subs. (Irish Nationalist). A peculiar form of torture, which consists in the application of the card, a spiked or toothed implement used in the preparation of flax and wool, to the naked shoulders, &c., and is commonly reserved for ‘unpatriotic’ girls and women.

1889. The Scots Observer. ‘They never told the ramping crowd to
card a woman’s hide.’

To give one cards, phr. (American).—To give one an advantage. The English equivalent, ‘to give points,’ is derived from the billiard saloon. An analogous French phrase is faire un bœuf.

1888. Grip (Toronto), May. You know that Artie found a Chinaman out
in ’Frisco who could give him cards and spades and beat him out.

On the cards, phr. (common).—Within the range of probability. [Dickens popularised the expression, which appears to mean ‘possible to turn up,’ as anything in the game when the cards are turned up. Still, it is not unlikely that the phrase originated with cartomancy, at a time when cards were frequently consulted as to the issue of enterprises.] See N. and Q., 7 s. iv., 507; v. 14, 77, 495.

1740. Smollett, Translation of Gil Blas. I showed them tricks which
they did not know to be on the cards, and yet acknowledged to be
better than their own.

1813. Sir R. Wilson, Diary, II., 40. It is not out of the cards
that we might do more. [m.]

1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, I., p. 219. By way of going in
for anything that might be on the cards, petition to the House of
Commons, etc.

1868. W. Collins, Moonstone, I., p. 149. It’s quite on the cards,
sir, that you have put the clue into our hands.

1874. Saturday Review, April, p. 488. When they discovered that a
Restoration was not at present on the cards, they became
Conservatives.

1890. H. D. Traill, A Bulgarian Appeal. ‘Saturday Songs,’ p. 43.
I’ll be shot if I do, though it’s equally true That it’s quite on
the cards I’ll be shot if I don’t.

To pack, stock, or put up, the cards, phr. (Western American).—To prepare cards for cheating purposes.—See Concaves, Pack, and Stock broads.

To speak by the card, phr. (general).—To speak with precision; or with the utmost accuracy. [An allusion to the card of the mariner’s compass.]

1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, v., 1, 149. We must speak by the card, or
equivocation will undo us.

1867. Yates, Forlorn Hope, i., p. 23. ‘Are you speaking by the
card?’ said Count Bulow, with the slightest foreign accent.

1879. Trollope, Thackeray [in ‘English men of Letters’ series], p.
186. Henry Esmond ... however, is not made to speak altogether by
the card, or he would be unnatural.

Cardinal, subs. (old).—1. A red cloak worn by ladies circa 1740 and later. [From the colour and shape which suggested a cardinal’s vestment.]

1755. Connoisseur, No. 62. That fashionable cloak ... which indeed
is with great propriety styled the cardinal.

1755. The World, No. 127. I have made no objection to their (the
ladies) wearing the cardinal, though it be a habit of popish
etymology, and was, I am afraid, first invented to hide the
sluttishness of French dishabille.

1881. Besant and Rice, Chap. of the Fleet, pt. 1, ch. iv. In the
windows of which were hoods, cardinals, sashes, pinners, and
shawls.

2. (general).—Mulled red wine.

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xv. He goes up, and finds
the remains of the supper, Tankards full of egg-flip and cardinal,
and a party playing at vingt-un.

3. in plural (street).—Shoeblacks. [In allusion to the red tunics of some London brigades. That stationed in the City is now better known as the City Reds.]

1889. T. Mackay [on ‘Shoeblacks’], in Time, Aug., p. 132. From that
hour the Shoeblack Brigade has been firmly established in London
... costermongers called them cardinals.

4. (American).—A lobster; from its colour when cooked. Jules Janin once made a curious blunder and called the lobster le cardinal de la mer. Cardinal hash = a lobster salad.

5. (common).—A new [1890] variety of red.

Care. Not to care or be worth a [fig, pin, rap, button, cent, straw, rush, or hang, etc.], phr. (colloquial).—Similes of indifference; to care about a matter not even so much as to the value of a fig, a pin, or a straw. Fr. s’en battre l’œil.—See Not worth a Fig.

1590. Spenser, Fairie Queene, I., ii., 12. He ... cared not for God
or man a point. [m.]

1633. Marmyon, Fine Compan., II., i., 68. I do not care a pin for
her. [m.]

1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 50. I do not care a farthing for you.
[m.]

1760. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, xlvi. Not that I care three
damns what figure I may cut.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ed. 1846, vol. I., ch. iii., p. 13.
You told him you did not care a fig for him.

1848–62. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers. ‘Don’t fire,’ sez Joe, ‘it
ain’t no use, Thet Deacon Peleg’s tame wil-’goose’; Seys Isrel, ‘I
don’t care a cent, I’ve sighted an’ I’ll let her went.’

1871. London Figaro, May 13, p. 4, col. 2. Coster Ballads, ‘Found
Drowned.’ ‘Well, sir, to cut it short, she ’ad the chap—’Twos cruel
’ard on me—I don’t believe he cared for ’er a rap, But so it wos,
yer see.’

1889. Answers, June 22, p. 49, col. 1. ‘Is it for sale?’ demanded
the visitor, excitedly. ‘If it is I want it. I don’t care a snap
what it costs.’

I don’t care if I do, phr. (American).—A street phrase, meaning nothing in particular. Also a form of accepting an invitation to drink: ‘Will you peg?’ ‘I don’t care if I do.’

1888. New York Tribune. Volapuk will never be popular in Kentucky.
It contains no sentence to take the place of that classic phrase, I
don’t care if I do.

Care-Grinder, subs. (thieves’).—More usually the vertical care-grinder.—See quot. For synonyms, see Wheel of life.

1883. Echo, Jan. 25, p. 2, col 4. The treadmill again, is more
politely called ... the wheel of life, or the vertical
care-grinder.

Cargo, subs. (Winchester College).—A hamper from home. The word is still in use.

1870. Mansfield, School Life at Winchester College, p. 77. The
boys, eager for breakfast, tumultuously rushed out from
school-court ... to see if Poole, the porter, had letters, or, what
was even more delightful, a cargo (a hamper of game or eatables
from home).

1883. Every-day Life in our Public Schools. Scholars may supplement
their fare with jam, potted meats ... or, better still, from the
contents of cargoes, i.e., hampers from home.

Carler, subs. (New York thieves’).—A clerk. For synonyms, see Quill-driver.

Carlicues.—See Curlycues.

Carney or Carny, subs. (colloquial).—Soothing and seductive flattery; language covering a design. [The origin is unknown, though some have conjectured the word to be of Irish derivation. As a verb it first appears as a dialecticism, and is now mostly in use as a ppl. adj.—carneying (q.v.). The word, however, seems to be fast making its way into respectable usage, and is even now largely in literary use.]

Verb, tr. and intrans.—To wheedle; coax or insinuate oneself; to act in a cajoling manner.—See Carneying.

Carneying, ppl. adj. (common).—In a wheedling, coaxing, or insinuating manner. Cf., Carney.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. II., p. 566.
When I tried to turn ’em off they’d say, in a carnying way, ‘Oh,
let us stay on,’ so I never took no heed of ’em.

1869. H. J. Byron, Not such a Fool as He Looks [French’s Acting
ed.], p. 12. Sharp old skinflint, downy old robber as he is, he’s
under Jane Mould’s thumb, and well he knows it. (In carnying voice)
With many thanks, sir, for your kind attention to my case.

1871. Daily Telegraph, 15 May, ‘Critique on Mr. H. J. Byron’s Play
of An English Gentleman.’ Rachel does not like Brandon’s carnying
ways.

1884. R. L. Stevenson in Eng. Illustr. Mag., Feb., p. 305. The
female dog, that mass of carnying affectations.

1885. Clement Scott, in Ill. Lon. News, 3 Oct., p. 339, 2. The
change from the carnying, wheedling sneak to the cowardly bully, is
extremely clever.

Carnish, subs. (thieves’).—Meat. [From the Italian carne, flesh, through the Lingua Franca. Carne, in French argot, signifies tough meat.]

French Synonyms. La crie, crigne, or crignolle (thieves’: Old Cant; Greek, κρίας; Fourbesque, crea, creata, creatura, criulfa; Germania, crioja); la criolle (thieves’); la niorte (thieves’); la barbaque or bidoche (popular); le choléra (popular = bad meat); le mastic (= bread or meat).

German Synonyms. Kärner (this is the same as carnish and comes from the Italian carne; Kärnerfetzer = a butcher).

Italian Synonyms. Bronco (specially applied to beef); slavigna; crea (see remarks under crie in French synonyms).

Carnish-Ken, subs. (thieves’).—A thieves’ eating house, or prog-shop. [From carnish, meat, through the Italian carne, + ken, a house or dwelling.] A French equivalent for the proprietor of such a place is un fripier, a term which also means a cook, a ‘dripping’ or old clothes’ man.

Carny.—See Carney.

Caroon, subs. (costermongers’).—A five shilling piece. [Hotten and Barrère trace it to the French couronne, Spanish and Italian corona; it is in all probability a mispronunciation of the English word ‘crown.’]

English Synonyms. Bull, or bull’s-eye; cartwheel, coach-wheel, or simply wheel; tusheroon; dollar; thick ’un (obsolete, the term being now applied to a sovereign); case; caser; decus.

The nearest French equivalent, a five franc piece, is called un roue de derrière (literally ‘a hind wheel,’ and corresponding pretty closely to the English wheel, cartwheel, and coachwheel); un bouton de guêtre; un blafard de cinq balles; une drille or dringue; une croix (the old six franc piece, in allusion to the cross inscribed on it); une chatte (a piece of six francs: very old; and formerly prostitutes’); une médaille or médaille de St. Hubert (popular); un monarque (popular); un œil de bœuf (= an ox’s eye); un noble étrangère (literary: = a distinguished stranger).

1859. G. W. Matsell, Vocabulum, or the Rogue’s Lexicon. Kersey-mere
kicksies, any colour, built very slap with the artful dodge, from
three caroon.

Carpet, verb (colloquial).—To reprimand. Equivalents are to ‘call over the coals,’ to ‘give a wigging’ or ‘earwigging,’ etc. The phrase sometimes runs ‘to walk the carpet.’ so also carpeting; for synonyms, see Wig.

1823. Galt, Entail, III., xxix., 278. Making ... her servants walk
the carpet. [m.]

1840. H. Cockton, Valentine Vox, xli. They had done nothing! Why
were they carpeted?

1871. Chester Chronicle, 11 Feb. ‘Report of Affiliation Case at
Hawarden Petty Sessions.’ [The plaintiff, Louisa Jackson, said]
neither did Lunt, the page, say that night if her master knew of
her coming home in that state she would be carpeted for it.

1877. Hawley Smart, Bound to Win, ch. xxx. There is no hurry; but,
before the race, I think Mr. Luxmoore will have to carpet Sam.

To bring on the carpet. To bring up or forward. A slang rendering of mettre sur le tapis.

Carpet-Bag, subs. used attributively as adj. (American).—See Carpet-bagger for explanation of such phrases as carpet-bag rule, carpet-bag adventurers, carpet-bag government, etc.

1872. New York Herald, 22 Aug. Hundreds of millions have been taken
from the pockets of the people since the beginning of the war by
dishonest contractors, unjust claimants, county robbers, and city
plunderers, and Carpet-bag State Governments. Ibid. The Tammany
robberies, although trifling in comparison with the old revenue
robberies, and the present wholesale plunder of the Carpet-bag
Governments in the South, etc.

1888. Chicago Record. The head of the ticket is one of the most
vulnerable men who figured in Southern politics in the carpet-bag
era. No man of that period left a blacker record.

Carpet-Bagger, subs. (American political).—A political adventurer. [After the Civil War, numbers of Northerners went South. Honest or not, they were looked upon with suspicion by the Southerners, and, as they were generally Republican in politics and joined with the freedmen at the polls, the nickname carpet-bagger came to have, and still retains, a political significance. It was unjustly applied to many well-meaning men, but at the same time it fitted the horde of corrupt adventurers who infested the South, and whose only ‘property qualification’ was contained in the carpet bag with which they had arrived from the North. Originally, however, a carpet-bagger was a ‘wild-cat banker’ out West: a banker, that is, who had no local abiding place, his worldly possessions being contained in a carpet bag.] Applied to politics the term has become of general application.—Cf., Scalawag.

1868. Daily News, Sept. 18. All carpet-baggers and ‘scalawags’ are
whites. The carpet-baggers are immigrants from the North who have
thrown themselves into local politics, and through their influence
with the negroes obtained office.

1871. New York Post, April. ‘The general drift of public sentiment
is, that the carpet-baggers, scalawags, ex-slaves, ex-slaveholders,
rebels reconstructed, rebels unreconstructed, and Southern
loyalists should be left, for a brief period at least, to fight out
their own battles, in their own way; and that if the nation is ever
again to become a party to their quarrels, it shall be on no slight
pretext and for no trivial purpose.’

1877. Temple Bar, May, p. 107. At the same moment a swarm of
adventurers settled in the conquered states, and became governors,
judges, tax-collectors, and so on. These are the carpet-baggers of
history. They came with two shirts, got salaries of (on an average)
four thousand dollars per annum, and made fortunes of a million in
four years!

Carpet-Bag Recruit, subs. phr. (military).—A recruit of better than the ordinary standing; one with more than he stands upright in.

Carpet-Swab, subs. (common).—A carpet-bag.

1837. Barham, I.L. (Misadv. at Margate). A little gallows-looking
chap—dear me! what could he mean? With a carpet-swab and mucking
togs, and a hat turned up with green.

Carrier, subs. (old).—See quot., and Cf., Carrier-pigeon.

1725. New Cant. Dict. Carriers: a sett of Rogues ... employ’d to
look out, and watch upon the Roads, at Inns, etc., in order to
carry Information to their respective Gangs, of a booty in
Prospect.

Carrier-Pigeon, subs. (old).—1. A cheat—especially one who victimised lottery office keepers. Cf., Carrier.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 64 [named and described in].

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Carrier Pigeons;
sharpers who attend the drawing of the lottery in Guildhall, and as
soon as a number or two are drawn, write them on a card, and run
with them to a confederate, who is waiting near at hand, ready
mounted; with these numbers he rides full speed to some distant
insurance office before fixed on, where there is another of the
gang, commonly a decent-looking woman, who takes care to be at the
office before the hour of drawing; to her he secretly gives the
number, which she insures for a considerable sum, thus biting the
biter.

2. (racing).—One that runs from place to place with ‘commissions’; a kind of tout.

Carrion, subs. (venery).—1. A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and tart.

2. (common).—The human body; formerly a corpse.

Carrion Case, subs. (common).—A shirt or chemise. [From carrion, the human body, + case, a covering.] For synonyms, see Flesh bag.

Carrion Hunter, subs. (old).—An undertaker. [Carrion was formerly general to signify a corpse]. For synonyms, see Cold cook.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Carrion Hunter: an
undertaker, etc.

Carrots, subs. (popular).—Red hair. Used attributively, and also as a proper name. The adjectival form is carrotty. An analogous colloquialism is Ginger-hackled, which see for synonyms.

1685. S. Wesley, Maggots, 57. The Ancients ... Pure carrots call’d
pure threads of beaten gold. [m.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Carrots: Red hair’d People.

1703. T. Baker, Tunbridge Walks, quoted in Ashton’s Social Life in
Reign of Q. Anne, I., 129. Jenny Trapes! What that Carrot-pated
Jade.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xiv. Not to appear before Mr.
Cringer till I had parted with my carroty locks.

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. vii. ‘Blanche, with her radish
of a nose, and her carrots of ringlets.’

1855. Newcomes, ch. xxii. ‘Tom is here with a fine carroty beard.’

1864. Mark Lemon, Jest Book, p. 205. Carrots Classically
Considered. Why scorn red hair? The Greeks, we know (I note it here
in charity) Had taste in beauty, and with them The graces were all
Χαριται.

1882. Daily Telegraph, Oct. 6, p. 2, col. 1. The two elder of the
party were a boy and a girl of unmistakably Irish parentage, and
with unkempt and carrotty heads of hair.

Take a carrot! (common).—A vulgar insult; equivalent to calling one a fool, or telling one to ‘go to hell.’ The phrase was originally obscene [Cf., Et ta sœur! aime-t-elle les radis?] and applied to women only.

Carry Boodle, verbal phr. (American).—See Boodle.

Carry Coals, verbal phr. (obsolete).—To put up with insults; to endure an affront or injury.

1593. G. Harvey, Pierces Supererog., in wks. II., 32. Because
Silence may seeme suspicious to many: Patience contemptible to some
... a knowne forbearer of Libellers, a continuall bearer of coales.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, i., 1. Gregory o’ my word,
we’ll not carry coals.

1638. H. Shirley, Martyr’d Souldier, Act ii., Sc. 1. Hub. I can
carry anything but Blowes, Coles, my Drink, and—the tongue of a
Scould.

Carry Corn, verbal phr. (common).—To bear success well and equably. It is said of a man who breaks down under a sudden access of wealth—as successful racing men and unexpected legatees often do—or who becomes affected and intolerant, that ‘he doesn’t carry corn well.’

Carryings On, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Frolicsome or questionable proceedings; a course of conduct that attracts attention.—See Carry on.

1663. Butler, Hudibras, I., ii., 556. Is this the end to which
these carryings on did tend?

1859. Sala, Gaslight and Daylight, ch. xxi. Many have heard her
stern demands for rent, and her shrill denunciation of the
carryings on of her tenants.

1876. M. S. Braddon, Joshua Haggard, ch., iv. ‘And what about the
rest of the time when he wasn’t with you? Fine carryings on indeed
for a grocer’s daughter!’

Carry-Knave, subs. (old).—A common prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1630. Taylor’s Workes. And I doe wish with all my heart that the
superflous number of all our hyreling hackney carry-knaves, and
hurry-whores, with their makers and maintainers were there.

Carry Me Out and Bury Me Decently, phr. (general).—An exclamation or objurgation generally called forth by an incredible story, or by something displeasing to the auditor; varied by ‘let me die!’ ‘good night!’ etc., as also by ‘carry me home!’ ‘carry me upstairs!’ ‘carry me out and leave me in the gutter!’ A writer in Notes and Queries [2 S., iii., 387] states it to have been in use circa 1780. [The origin is obscure, but some derive it from the Nunc dimittis (Luke ii. 29).]

1857. Notes and Queries, 16 May, p. 387, col. 2. Carry me out and
bury me decently. Do any of your correspondents recollect to have
heard this phrase?

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. xlv. And so the president
comes out to see the St. Ambrose boat row? Seldom misses two nights
running. Then ‘carry me out, and bury me decently’ ... Don’t be
afraid. I am ready for anything you like to tell me.

1864. The Reader, Nov. 12. Mr. Hotten has carry me out. Well the
equivalent ‘Federal’ is ‘D’you tell?’

Carry On, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To make oneself conspicuous by a certain line of behaviour; to conduct oneself wildly or recklessly; to joke or frolic; also in a special sense applied to open flirtation on the part of both sexes.

French equivalents are canarder (based on canard = a ‘take in,’ an extravagant or absurd story); faire du jardin (popular).

1856. Whyte Melville, Kate Coventry, ch. iii. With lynx-eyes she
notes how Lady Carmine’s eldest girl is carrying on with young
Thriftless.

1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, ch. xxxv. ‘She and I
carried on for a whole season. People talked.’

1884. M. Twain, Huckleberry Finn, ch. xxii., 222. And all the time
that clown carried on so it most killed the people.

Carry one’s real estate about one, verbal phr. (American).—To neglect the finger nails till they show a black rim; to go so unwashed as to display a considerable amount of what Palmerston called ‘matter in the wrong place.’

1877. Joseph Hatton, in Belgravia, April, p. 221. We looked at the
hands of several of the gamblers, and found that they carried their
real estate with them.

Carry Out One’s Bat.—See Bat.

Carry the Stick, verbal phr. (Scotch thieves’).—To rob in the manner described in quotation.—See also Tripping up.

1870. Times. 21 Sept [Marlborough Street Police Court Report.]
Police Sergeant Cole said the prisoner’s plan was for the woman to
go up to well-dressed elderly or drunken men, to get them into
conversation, and rob them. The male prisoner would then come up,
and, pretending to be a detective, make a disturbance, so as to
enable the woman to escape. The practice was called in London
‘tripping up,’ and in Scotland, where it is also practised,
carrying the stick.

Carsey, subs. (thieves’).—A house, den, or crib. [From the Lingua Franca casa = a house.] For synonyms, see Ken.

Cart, verb (University).—To defeat: in a match, a fight, an examination, a race, &c. We carted them home = we gave them an awful licking.

In the cart, or carted, phr. (racing).—1. An employee is said to put an owner in the cart when, by some trick or fraud, his horse is prevented from winning. Also in the box.

1889. Evening Standard, 25 June. [Sir Chas. Russell’s speech in
Durham-Chetwynd case.] It was alleged that in two races run by
Fullerton in 1887, Sir George Chetwynd—to use a vulgarism—had been
put in the cart by his Jockey.

2. (common).—‘In the know’; ‘in the hunt.’

1883. Referee, 1 April, p. 1, col. 1. No one, not even the
previously most authoritative—and most in the cart—seems at all
astonished at the success of Knight of Burghley.

3. (gaming).—The lowest scorer at any point is said to be in the cart; sometimes on the tailboard.

To walk the cart, phr. (racing).—To walk over the course.

To cart off or out, or away, phr. (colloquial).—To remove.

Cart-Grease, subs. (common).—Butter; in the first instance bad butter.

English Synonyms. Cow-grease; Thames mud; cow-oil; spread; scrape; smear; ointment; sluter.

French Synonym. Le fondant.

German Synonyms. Schmierling (Schmier is properly ‘grease,’ especially ‘wheel-grease,’ also ‘ointment.’ The term is, therefore, practically identical with cart-grease); Schmunk (used by knackers. Schmünkig signifies ‘fat’ of any kind, but especially that of horses).

Carts, subs. (common).—A pair of shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

Cart-Wheel, subs. (popular)—1. A five-shilling piece. A variant is coach-wheel, and both forms are often contracted into wheel. For synonyms, see Caroon.

1871. London Figaro, 15 Feb. ‘Mornings at Mutton’s.’ The coin of
the realm in question was the largest that we have known in the
present century—so large, that, in the slang language of thieves
and costermongers, it is called a cart-wheel, ‘coach-wheel’ and
‘thick-’un.’ It was, in fact, a crown-piece.

2. (popular).—A broad hint.

3. (popular).—A continuous series of somersaults in which the hands and feet alternately touch the ground, the appearance produced being similar to the spokes of a cart wheel in motion. Otherwise called a Catharine wheel.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., p. 562. We either
do the cat’unwheel (Sic) or else we keep before the gentleman and
lady, turning head-over-heels. Ib., p. 564: at night I go along
with the others tumbling. I does the cat’enwheel. (Sic.)

1864. Sala, in Daily Telegraph, Dec. 23. I saw a little ...
blackguard boy turning cartwheels in front of the Clifton House.

Carver and Gilder, subs. phr. (common).—A match maker. Cf., Fingersmith, a midwife.

Casa.—See Case.

Cascade, subs. (Australian).—1. In Tasmania beer is called cascade because manufactured from ‘cascade’ water. Cf., Artesian. For synonyms, see Swipes and Drinks.

2. (theatrical).—Explained by quotation. Another name for the same effect is hang out.

1851. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, III., p. 156. The principal
distinction between pantomimes and ballets is that there are more
cascades, and trips, and valleys in pantomimes, and none in
ballets. A trip is a dance between Harlequin and the Columbine, and
cascades and valleys are trundling and gymnastic performances, such
as tumbling across the stage on wheels, and catching hold of hands
and twirling round.

Verb (old).—To vomit. For synonyms, see Accounts.

1771. Smollet, Humphry Clinker, III., Oct. 4, iii. She cascaded in
his urn.

1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. I daresay five hundred
rank and file, at the fewest, were all cascading at one and the
same moment.

Case, subs. (colloquial).—1. A certainty in fact, an accentuated or abnormal instance in character. When two persons fall in love, or are engaged to marry, it is said to be a case with them. An eccentric person is likewise a case. [As a designation for persons, case probably had its origin in Journalese and Police-court English; e.g., a case of larceny.]

1848. Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms. Case: a character, a
queer one; as ‘That Sol Haddock is a case.’ ‘What a hard case he
is,’ meaning a reckless scapegrace, mauvais sujet.

1859. H. Kingsley, Geoffrey Hamlyn, ch. xlii. Tossed from workhouse
to prison, from prison to hulk—every man’s hand against him—an Arab
of society. As hopeless a case, my lord judge, as you ever had to
deal with.

1868. O. W. Holmes, Guardian Angel, ch. iv., p. 35 (Rose Lib.). ‘It
was a devilish hard case,’ he said, ‘that old Malachi had left his
money as he did.’

1872. Miss Braddon, To the Bitter End, ch. xlviii. They have only
been engaged three weeks; but from the day we first met Lord
Stanmore at a hunting breakfast at Stoneleigh, the business was
settled. It was a case, as you fast young men say.

1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners, ch. xxiv. He saw people began
to make way for him when she was concerned; in short, that they
looked upon it as a case.

1887. Cassell’s Mag., Dec, p. 26. It isn’t Mr. and Mrs. Cardewe he
comes to see! It’s Miss Amy.... They have met before; and in my
opinion it’s a case!

2. (thieves’)—A bad five-shilling piece; half a case, a bad half-crown. Cf., caser. In America a dollar, good or bad. [There are two sources, either of which may have contributed this slang term. (1.) Caser, the Hebrew word for a crown; (2.) silver coin is frequently counterfeited by coating or casing pewter or iron imitations with silver.—Hotten.]

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. Bad five
shillings—case.

3. (old).—A house, respectable or otherwise. Subsequently restricted to a brothel, and, by derivation, a ‘water-closet.’ [Presumably from the Italian casa, a house, through the Lingua Franca. It is found in various forms, casa, case, caser, carser, carsey, the last a phonetic rendering of the usual pronunciation of casa.] For synonyms, see Ken.

1678. Marvell, wks. (1875) III., 497. A net ... That Charles
himself might chase To Caresbrook’s narrow case. [m.]

1690. b. e., Dict. Cant. Crew. Case: a House, Shop, or Ware-house.

1785. Grose, Dict. of Vul. Tongue. Case: a house, perhaps from the
Italian casa. In the canting lingo it meant store or warehouse, as
well as dwelling house. Tout that case: mark or observe that house.
It is all bob, now let’s dub the gigg of the case: now the coast is
clear, let us break open the door of the house.

1883. Echo, Jan. 25, p. 2, col. 3. From the Italian we get the
thieves’ slang term casa for house.

4. (Westminster School).—The discussion by Seniors and Upper Election preceding a tanning (q.v.), and the tanning itself.

A case of Crabs, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A failure.

A case of Pickles, subs. phr. (colloquial).—An incident; a bad break-down; a break up.

A case of Stump, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Said of one absolutely guiltless of the possession of coin.

Caseine, subs. (rare).—The correct thing. A variant of the cheese (q.v.) Cf., Cassan.

1856. C. Kingsley, Letter, May. Horn minnow looks like a gudgeon,
which is the pure caseine.

Caser, subs. (thieves’).—Five shillings.—See Case and Caroon.

1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., XL., 501. One morning I found I
did not have more than a caser (5s.).

Case-Vrow, subs. (old).—A prostitute in residence in a particular brothel; now called a dress-lodger (q.v.). [From case (q.v.), a house, + Dutch vrouw, a woman.]

Casey, subs. (thieves’).—Cheese.—See Cassan.

Cash.—See Cassan.

Equal to cash.—Of unquestionable merit. In allusion to the fact that paper currency is largely a medium of exchange.

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., chap. xvi. Though I say it,
that shouldn’t say it, they [the U.S. Americans] fairly take the
shine off creation—they are actilly equal to cash.

To cash a Prescription, subs. phr. (colloquial).—To get a prescription made up.

1890. The Scots Observer, p. 399, col. 2. The Socialist, with an
ear for Ibsen, and an eye for Wagner, and a prescription in his
pocket that only needs to be cashed for the world to forget its
past, and belie its present, and bedevil its future.

Cashels, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Great Southern and Western of Ireland Railway Stock. [Said to be derived from the fact that the line originally had no station at Cashel.]

Cash or Pass in One’s Checks. verbal phr. (American). To die. Derived from the game of poker, where counters or checks, purchased at certain fixed rates, are equivalent to coin. The euphemism is drawn from the analogy between settling one’s earthly accounts, and paying in dues at the end of the game.

18(?). John Hay, Jim Bludsoe of the Prairie Belle. ‘How Jimmy
Bludsoe pass’d in his checks The night of the Prairie Belle.’

1870. Bret Harte, Outcasts Poker Flat. Beneath this tree lies the
body of J. O. who ... handed in his checks on the 7th December,
1850.

1872. S. L. Clemens (‘Mark Twain’), Roughing It, p. 332. ‘You see,’
said the miner, ‘one of the boys has passed in his checks, and we
want to give him a good send off.’

1882. Dodge, Plains of the Great West. As close a shave as I ever
made to passing in my checks was from a buffalo stampede.

1888. New York Sun. Well, I owned the mule for several years after
that, and when he finally passed in his checks I gave him as decent
a burial as any pioneer ever got.

Cash-Up, verb (colloquial).—To liquidate a debt by the transfer of money, i.e., cash, or its equivalent. For synonyms, see Shell out.

1837. Barham, I. L. (M. of Venice). And Antonio grew In a deuce of
a stew, For he could not cash up, spite of all he could do.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, I., p. 213. ‘When my father’s
executors cash up’ he used strange expressions now and then, but
that was his way.—‘Cash up’s a very good expression’ observed
Martin, ‘when other people don’t apply it to you.’

1861. Sala, Seven Sons of Mammon, II., p. 197. ‘But they may cash
up.’ ‘Cash up! They’ll never cash up a farthing piece.’

Cask, subs. (popular).—A brougham; otherwise a pill-box (q.v.). A French equivalent is une bagniole.

Cass.—See Cassan.

Cassan, subs. (thieves’).—Old Cant for cheese. Also cass, casson, cassam, cassom, and casey. The oldest form is cassan, which is found in Harman’s Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors, the first known dictionary of English cant [1567]. Cass, chiefly American thieves, is a latter corruption probably influenced by the Dutch kaas, or the M. Dutch kâse, Lat. caseus. [For suggested derivation, which corresponds to that given in the N.E.D., see second quot.]

English Synonyms. Caz; sweaty-toe; choke-dog.

French Synonyms. Le renâché (thieves’ term); une côtelette de menuisier, de perruquier, or de vâche (popular terms for a portion of Brie; literally a cabinet-maker’s, hair-dresser’s, or cow-cutlet); le dûreme (thieves’); une boussole de réfroidi or de singe (popular = a Dutch Cheese.)

German Synonyms. Fendrich (Old Cant appearing in the Liber Vagatorum [1529] as Wenderich or Wendrich; subsequently modified into Fähndrich. The derivation is referable, perhaps, to an old practice, prevalent in North Germany, of using as a board sign [Fahne, a flag, standard, banner] with three cheeses pictured); Gewine (from the Hebrew gewino); Karnet or Kornet; Kawine (a variant of Gewine); Stinkefix (from the O.H.G. Stinchan, to smell, to stink; this is especially applied to old cheese).

Italian Synonyms. Tenerosa (cream cheese); mascherpo; stifello (literally a kind of flute, in allusion to the holes in some kinds of cheese, notably Gruyère).

Spanish Synonym. Formage (evidently a corruption of the French fromage).

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 86. She hath a Cacking chete, a
grunting chete, ruff Pecke, cassan, and popplarr of yarum.

1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, in wks. (Grosart) III.,
195. Cassan is cheese, and is a worde barbarously coynd out of the
substantive caseus, which also signifies a cheese.

1656. Broome, Jovial Crew, Act ii. Here’s ruffpeck and cassan, and
all of the best, And scraps of the dainties of gentry cofe’s feast.

1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Casum: cheese.

1881. New York Slang Dictionary. Cass: cheese.

Castell, verb (old).—To see or look. [It is uncertain as to whether this word is slang or not. It is not included in the N.E.D.] For synonyms, see Pipe.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874). To
Castell: to see or looke.

Caster, subs. (old).—1. A cloak. [Cf., Castor, a hat; there seems to be no historical improbability for a similar derivation].

Another Old Cant term for a cloak was calle (q.v.), and the French have un bleu, whilst the Italian Fourbesque has toppo and manto, the latter probably meaning ‘a long black veil’; Calaõ. tralha. The Germania renders cloak by noche (literally ‘night,’ and signifying also in a canting sense ‘sadness’ and ‘sentence of death’); nube (literally a ‘cloud’); pelosa (specially applied to a cloak worn in the morning; literally ‘shaggy’ or ‘hairy’); bellosa or vellosa (a sailor’s cloak).

1567. Harman, Caveat [E. E. Text Soc., 1869], p. 77. He walketh in
softly a nights, when they be at their rest, and plucketh of as
many garmentes as be ought worth that he may come by, ... and
maketh porte sale at some conuenient place of theirs, that some be
soone ready in the morning, for want of their Casters and Togemans.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club’s Repr., 1874).
Caster: a Clocke.

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [s.v.].

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum [s.v.].

2. (colloquial).—A cast-off or rejected person or thing. [From cast, thrown, + er.]

1859. Lang, Wand. India, p. 144. The horse which drew the buggy had
been a caster ... a horse considered no longer fit for the cavalry
or horse artillery, and sold by public auction, after being branded
with the letter R on the near shoulder. [m.]

Castieu’s Hotel, subs. phr. (Australian thieves’).—The Melbourne gaol, so called from Mr. J. B. Castieu. For list of nicknames of this description, see Cage.

18(?). Australian Printers Keepsake. He caught a month, and had to
white it out at diamond-cracking in Castieu’s Hotel.

Castle-Rag, subs. (rhyming slang).—A flag or fourpenny piece. For synonyms, see Joey.

Cast-Offs, subs. (nautical).—1. Landsmen’s clothes. For synonyms, see Togs.

2. In singular (general).—A discarded mistress.

Castor, subs. (old).—A hat. [From Latin castor, a beaver, hats having formerly been made of beaver’s fur.] For synonyms, see Golgotha.

1640. Entick, London, II., 175. Beaver hats, Demi-casters. [m.]

1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict., 2 ed. Castor: lat., 1, a beaver, a
beast like an otter. 2, a fine hat made of its fur.

1821. W. T. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, Act ii., Sc. 5. Jerry. (Walks
about, and, by mistake, takes Logic’s hat, which he puts on.) Damn
the cards! Log. (Following Jerry, and rescuing castor.) Don’t
nibble the felt, Jerry!

1857. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. viii. The
last effort of decayed fortune is expended in smoothing its
dilapidated castor. The hat is the ultimum morieus of
‘respectability.’

1860. Morning Post, Jan. 30. Such as tin for money, castor for hat,
brick for good fellow, gemman for gentleman.

Cast Sheep’s Eyes, verbal phr. (common).—To ogle; to leer or ‘make eyes’ at; formerly to look modestly and with diffidence, but always with longing or affection. [Probably in allusion to the quiet, gentle gaze of sheep.] The phrase has been varied by to cast lamb’s eyes. Fr. ginginer; lancer son prospectus, and un oeil en tirelire = an eye full of amorous expression.

1590. Greene, Francesco’s Fortunes, in wks. VIII., 191. That
casting a sheepe’s eye at hir, away he goes; and euer since he lies
by himselfe and pines away.

1614. Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, V., iii. Who chances to come by but
fair Nero in a sculler; And seeing Leander’s naked leg and goodly
calf, Cast at him from the boat a sheep’s eye an’ a half.

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, ch. xvi. There was a young lady in the
room, and she threw ... many sheep’s eyes at a certain person whom
I shall not name.

1864. G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, ch. vii. He would stand for
some time casting lamb’s-eyes at the object of his affections—to
the amorous audacity of the full-grown sheep he never soared.

1881. Hawley Smart, Gt. Tontine, ch. xi. It isn’t to be expected a
well-bred lass like this is going to knock under the minute a young
fellow makes sheep’s-eyes at her.

Cast Up Accounts.—See Accounts, to which may be added the following.

French Synonyms. Jeter du cœur—or son lest—sur carreau (general: literally to ‘throw hearts or diamonds’ or ‘throw one’s heart,’ here meaning the stomach, ‘on the floor’); compter ses chemises (popular); débecqueter (popular); deborder (popular); lâcher son goujon (general); lâcher une fusée (popular).

1607. Dekker, Westward Ho, Act v., Sc. 1. Mist. Wafer. I would not
have ’em cast up their accounts here, for more than they mean to be
drunk this twelve-month.

1808. R. Anderson, Cumbrld. Ball, 26. The breyde she kest up her
accounts in Rachel’s lap. [m.]

Cat, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. For synonyms, see Barrack-hack.

[1401. Pol. Poems, II., 113. Be ware of Cristis curse, and of
cattis tailis.] [m.]

1535. Lyndesay, Satyre, 468. Wantonnes. Hay! as one brydlit cat, I
brank. [m.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew. Cat: a common Whore.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Cat (s.) ... also a cant word
for a lewd, whorish woman, or street-walker.

2. (popular).—A shortened form of cat-o’-nine-tails (q.v.).

1788. Falconbridge, Afr. Slave Tr., 40. A cat (an instrument of
correction, which consists of a handle or stem, made of a rope
three inches and a half in circumference, and about eighteen inches
in length, at one end of which are fastened nine branches, or
tails, composed of log line, with three or more knots upon each
branch). [m.]

1870. London Figaro, 23 Dec. We are delighted to learn that Mr.
Baron Bramwell, at the Warwick Assizes, on Saturday, sentenced a
batch of street thieves to hard labour for eighteen months, and
twenty lashes each, with an instrument called the cat.

1889. Globe, 26 Oct., p. 7, col. 3. The ‘Cat.’ A companion of the
prisoner was convicted last session of being concerned in the
assault and robbery, and was sentenced to eighteen months’ hard
labour and to receive twenty-five lashes.

3. (thieves’).—A lady’s muff. [Muff = female pudendum. See sense 4.]

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. To steal a muff—To
free a cat.

4. (popular).—The female pudendum; otherwise a pussy; French, le chat.

5. (thieves’).—A quart pot. Pint pots are called kittens. Stealing these pots is termed cat and kitten sneaking.

1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., p. 118. The
mistress of a lodging-house, who had conveniences for the melting
of pewter-pots (called cats and kittens by the young thieves
according to the size of the vessels). Ibid. I., p. 460. At this
lodging-house cats and kittens are melted down.... A quart pot is a
cat, and pints and half-pints are kittens.

6. (popular).—See Tame cat.

7. (common).—A monster infesting lodging houses, and assimilating, with equal readiness, cold meat and coals, spirits and paraffin, etc., etc.

1827. R. B. Peake, Comfortable Lodgings, Act I., Sc. iii. I wonder
whether the cat ever comes in here, and knocks anything over? Sir
Hippington Miff, here’s your health!—Ladies, yours! (Drinks.) Bless
my soul! the cup’s empty! I’ll turn it over, and lay the fault at
pussy’s door.

1871. Figaro, 2 July. ‘My Landlady.’ Who on my viands waxes
fat?—Who keeps a most voracious cat!—Who often listens on my mat?
My Landlady.

Flying cat, subs. (old).—An owl.

1690. B. E., Dictionary Canting Crew, s.v. Flutter. An owl is a
Flying-Cat.

To jerk, shoot, or whip the cat; or simply, to cat. To vomit; generally from over indulgence in drink.—See Accounts and Cast up Accounts.

1609. Armin, Maids of More-cl. (1880), 70. Ile baste their bellies
and their lippes till we haue ierk’t the cat with our three
whippes. [m.]

1630. J. Taylor (‘Water P.’), Brood Cormor, wks. III., p. 5, col.
1. You may not say hee’s drunke.... For though he be as drunke as
any rat He hath but catcht a fox, or whipt the cat.

1830. Marryat, Kings Own, ch. xxxii. I’m cursedly inclined to shoot
the cat.

To whip the cat, otherwise to draw through the water with a cat, phr. (old).—1. To indulge in practical jokes. [For suggested origin, see quotation 1785.]

1614. B. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, I., iv. [n.]. I’ll be drawn with a
good gib cat through the great pond at home. [m.]

1690. B. E., Dictionary Canting Crew. Catting: drawing a Fellow
through a Pond with a cat.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cat-whipping or whipping the cat:
a trick often practised on ignorant country fellows, vain of their
strength; by laying a wager with them, that they may be pulled
through a pond by a cat; the bet being made, a rope is fixed round
the waist of the party to be catted, and the end thrown across the
pond, to which the cat is also fastened by a pack-thread, and three
or four sturdy fellows are appointed to lead and whip the cat;
these, on a signal given, seize the end of the cord, and pretending
to whip the cat, haul the astonished booby through the water.

2. (tailors’, etc.).—To work at private houses. In America the term is also used by carpenters and other itinerants, especially schoolmasters who ‘board round.’ At one time it was more convenient to pay in kind than in currency; and, in rural New England, a school-teacher would be ‘boarded round’ amongst his pupils’ parents as a part of his remuneration. (See Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow.) This was called whipping the cat.

1871. De Vere, Americanisms, 648. Whipping the cat: an old English
phrase, used only by tailors and carpenters, has maintained its
existence in New England, Pennsylvania, and a few other States,
where it denotes the annual visit of a tailor to repair the clothes
of a household. It is said to have originated in a very rough
practical joke, which bears the same name in Hampshire, England,
and of which, it is surmised, the tailor may have been the victim
(J. R. Lowell). The simple tailors of former days liked thus to go
from house to house in the rural districts, providing the families
with clothing. The chief romance for the happy ‘Schneider’ was in
the abundant and wholesome cheer of the farmer who employed him,
and as his annual visits fell in the pudding and sausage season, he
was usually crammed with that kind of ‘vegetables,’ as he
facetiously called them, to his heart’s content. The only objection
made to catwhipping, was that it afforded no opportunity to
‘cabbage,’ and in former days this was a serious grievance. The
introduction of large manufacturing establishments, low-priced
ready-made clothing, and the advent of the sewing-machine, have now
nearly made an end to this itinerant occupation. The terms
catwhipper and catwhipping were often facetiously, and sometimes
very irreverently, applied to other itinerant professions: even
‘schoolmasters’—there were no ‘teachers,’ much less ‘educators,’ in
those benighted days—were called catwhippers, when they boarded, as
was quite usual, in turns with the parents of their scholars.
Itinerating preachers also were, by the initiated, included in this
category.

To see how the cat will jump, phr. (common).—To watch the course of events. An American equivalent is to sit on the fence.—See Fence and Jumping Cat.

1827. Scott, in Croker Pap. (1884), I., xi., 319. Had I time, I
believe I would come to London merely to see how the cat jumped.
[m.]

1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel, IV., p. 228. ‘But I rely equally on
your friendly promise.’ ‘Promise! No—I don’t promise. I must first
see how the cat jumps.’

1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, III., 229. You’ll see with half an eye
how the cat jumps.

1874. Sat. Rev., p. 139. This dismays the humble Liberal of the
faint Southern type, who thinks that there are subjects as to which
the heads of his party need not wait to see how the cat jumps.

1887. ‘Pol. Slang,’ in Cornhill Mag., June, p. 626. Those who sit
on the fence—men with impartial minds, who wait to see, as another
pretty phrase has it, how the cat will jump.

You kill my cat and I’ll kill your dog, phr. (common). ‘Ca’ me, ‘ca’ thee; an exchange in the matter of ‘scratching backs’—in Fr. passez moi la casse, et je t’enverrai la senne.

To let the cat out of the bag, phr. (common).—To reveal a secret; a variant with a slightly modified sense is to put one’s foot in it. [This and the kindred phrase ‘to buy a pig in a poke,’ are said to have had their origin in the bumpkin’s trick of substituting a cat for a young pig and bringing it to market in a bag. If the customer were wary the cat was let out of the bag, and there was no deal.]

1760. Lond. Mag., XXIX., p.224. We could have wished that the
author ... had not let the cat out of the bag. [m.]

1782. Wolcot (‘P. Pindar’), Pair of Lyric Epistles To the Reader.
But, to use a sublime phrase, as it would be letting the cat out of
the bag, I have fortune.

1811. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), I., 475. She has let
a wicked cat out of the bag to G. M. respecting his mother.

1855. Mrs. Gaskell, North and South, ch. xliv. You needn’t look so
frightened because you have let the cat out of the bag to a
faithful old hermit like me. I shall never name his having been in
England.

1888. Macdermott [on the case of Crawford v. Dilke]. This noble
representative of everything good in Chelsea, He let the cat, the
naughty cat, right out of the Gladstone bag.

Who ate or stole the cat? phr. (common).—A gentleman whose larder was frequently broken by bargees, had a cat cooked and placed as a decoy. It was taken and eaten, and became a standing jest against the pilferers.

To lead a cat and dog life phr. (popular).—To quarrel night and day. Said of married (or unmarried) couples.

To turn cat in the pan, phr. (old).—To ‘rat’; to reverse one’s position through self-interest; to play the turncoat. [The derivation is absolutely unknown. The one generally received—that ‘cat’ is a corruption of ‘cate’ or ‘cake’—is historically untenable.]

c. 1559. Old Play, ‘Marriage of Witt and Wisdome.’ Sc. 3. Now am I
true araid like a phesitien; I am as very a turncote as the
wethercoke of Poles; For now I will calle my name Due Disporte. So,
so, finely I can turne the catt in the pane.

1593. 4 Lett. Conf., in wks. (Grosart) II., 286. If it bee a home
booke at his first conception, let it be a home booke still, and
turne not cat in the panne.

1625. Bacon, Essays (of Cunning), p. 441 (Arber). There is a
Cunning, which we in England call, The Turning of the Cat in the
Pan, which is, when that which a Man says to another, he laies it,
as if Another had said it to him.

c. 1720. Song, ‘The Vicar of Bray.’ ‘When George in pudding time
came in, And moderate men looked big, sir, He turned a cat-in-pan
once more, And so became a Whig, sir.’

1816. Scott, Old Mortality, ch. xxxv. ‘O, this precious Basil will
turn cat in pan with any man!’ replied Claverhouse.

To feel as though a cat had kittened in one’s mouth, phr. (popular).—To ‘have a mouth’ after drunkenness.

Many other phrases and proverbial sayings might, more or less justifiably, be classed as slang in this connection; e.g., to fight like Kilkenny cats; to grin like a Cheshire cat; not room enough to swing a cat; able to make a cat speak, and a man dumb; who shot the cat (the last a reproach addressed to volunteers), etc.

Catamaran, subs. (colloquial).—A vixenish old woman; also a cross-grained person of either sex. [Cf., Catamount. Probably associated with the colloquial use of cat, a quarrelsome, vicious woman]. For synonyms, see Geezer.

1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. vi. The cursed drunken old
catamaran, cried he, I’ll go and cut her down by the head.

1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. lxxv. ‘What a woman that Mrs.
Mackenzie is!’ cries F. B. ‘What an infernal tartar and catamaran!’

1861. Macmillan’s Magazine, June, p. 113. She was such an obstinate
old catamaran.

Catamount, Catamountain, or Cat O’Mountain, subs. (American).—A shrew. [Cf., Catamaran and Beaumont and Fletcher’s use of the word for a wild man from the mountains, itself a transferred sense of catamount = a leopard or panther.]

1616. Fletcher, Cust. of Country, I., i. The rude claws of such a
cat o’ mountain!

1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch., xii. She was a dreadful
cross-grained woman, a real catamount, as savage as a she-bear that
has cubs.

Cat and Mouse, subs., phr. (rhyming slang).—A house.

Catastrophe, subs. (old).—The tail or latter end. Cf., the Falstaffism ‘I’ll tickle your catastrophe.’

Catawampous, Catawamptiously, adj. and adv. (popular).—With avidity; fiercely; eagerly; or violently destructive. See Catawampus.

1843. Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, ch., xxi., 216. There air some
catawampous chawers in the small way too, as graze upon a human
pretty strong.

1853. Lytton, My Novel, bk. X., ch. xx. If a man like me ... is to
be catawampously champed up by a mercenary selfish cormorant of a
capitalist.

18(?). F. Burnand, The White Cat. Don’t hurt me; spare a poor unhappy pup, Or I’ll be catawampously chawed up.

Catawampus, subs.—Vermin, especially those that sting and bite. [Apparently formed from Catawampous (q.v.).]

1880. Mortimer Collins, Thoughts in My Garden, vol. I., p. 244.
Look at their [spiders’] value in destroying wasps and
blue-bottles, gnats, midges, and all manner of catawampuses, as the
ladies call them.

Catch, subs. (colloquial).—A man or woman matrimonially desirable; formerly in a canting sense, a prize or booty [see quot. 1877]. A woman who is ‘no great catch’ is in French argot termed une grognotte.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, Act ii., Sc. 1, 333. Bap.
The gain I seek is—quiet in the match. Gre. No doubt but he hath
got a quiet catch.

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.) Catch (s.) ... also a cant word
for a prize, booty, etc.

1842. Comic Almanack, p. 333. Angelina Ampletin was one of the
prettiest girls in Pimlico, and if there was any truth in rumour,
very far from one of the worst catches.

1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 244. Well, as it
was her catch, I thought as I’d consult along of her whether we
should take the £200.

Catch or Cut a Crab, verbal phr. (common).—There are various ways of catching a crab, as for example, (1) to turn the blade of the oar or ‘feather’ under water at the end of the stroke, and thus be unable to recover; (2) to lose control of the oar at the middle of the stroke by ‘digging’ too deeply; or (3) to miss the water altogether. An English variant is to ‘capture a cancer,’ an American form being ‘to catch a lobster.’—See Lobster.