Chapter XVIII: Part 18

1854. Conybeare, Church Parties, 74. Its adherents [of the High
Church] are fallen from their high estate, and are contemptuously
denominated the high and dry, just as the parallel development of
the Low Church is nicknamed ‘low and slow.’

1857. Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, ch. liii. Who belongs to
the high and dry church, the High Church as it was some fifty years
since, before tracts were written and young clergymen took upon
themselves the highly meritorious duty of cleaning churches?

1886. Graphic, 10 Apr., 399. In the Church have we not the three
schools of High and Dry, Low and Slow, and Broad and Shallow?

High and dry, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Stranded; abandoned; irrecoverable.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 18 Oct., 6, 1. It seems to me that Mr.
Chamberlain must really look out or he will find himself, as the
result of that insidious ‘mellowing process’ to which Mr. Matthews
has testified, landed high and dry in a Toryism compared to which
Sir Walter Barttelot will show in Radical colours.

High and mighty, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Arrogant; imperious; proud; ‘on the high horse,’ or the ‘high ropes’ (q.v.); full of side (q.v.).

1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 121. None of your high and mighty
games with me.

1892. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, i., 2. Ye need na be sae
high and mighty onyway.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 49. ‘Mighty high
some people are, ain’t they?’ the man observed loudly,
straightening himself, and ordering a nobbler for himself.

Too high for one’s nut, adv. phr. (American).—Out of one’s reach; beyond one’s capacity; over one’s bend (q.v.).

You can’t get high enough, verb. phr. (common).—A derisive comment on any kind of failure. [Probably obscene in origin.]

How is that for high? phr. (American).—‘What do you think of it?’ [Once a tag universal; common wear now.]

1860. Bartlett, Americanisms, s.v. High. For when he slapped my
broad-brim off, and asked, How’s that for high? It roused the Adam
in me, and I smote him hip and thigh!

1872. Clemens (Mark Twain), Roughing It, 334. We are going to get
it up regardless of expense. [He] was always nifty himself, and so
you bet his funeral ain’t going to be no slouch,—solid silver
door-plate on his coffin, six plumes on the hearse, and a nigger on
the box in a biled shirt and a plug hat,—how’s that for high?

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Sep., p. 2, c. 1. ‘Cricket’ stories are
the thing just now. How is this for high?

High-bellied (or High in the Belly), adj. phr. (colloquial).—Far gone in pregnancy. Also High-waisted.

Highbinder, subs. (American).—1. A Chinese blackmailer.

2. (political American).—A political conspirator.—Norton.

High-bloke, subs. (American).—1. A judge.

2. (American).—A well-dressed man; a splawger (q.v.).—Matsell.

Higher-malthusianism, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Sodomy.

Highfalute, verb. (American).—To use fine words. Also to yarn (q.v.). See Highfaluting. Fr., faire l’étroite.

Highfaluting, subs. (formerly American: now general).—Bombast; rant.

1865. Orchestra. We should not think of using high-falutin on
ordinary serious occasions, and that we never shall use it in
future, unless we happen to speak of the Porcupine critic.

1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 May, 6, 2. A glib master of frothy fustian,
of flatulent high-falutin’, and of oratorical bombast.

Adj. (general).—Bombastic; fustian; thrasonical.

1870. Friswell, Modern Men of Letters. A driveller of tipsy,
high-flown, and high-falutin’ nonsense.

1884. Echo, 17 Mar., p. 1, c. 4. It is the boast of high-falutin’
Americans that theirs is a country ‘where every man can do as he
darn pleases.’

High-feather. In high feather, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In luck; on good terms with oneself and the world.

High-fly. To be on the high-fly, verb. phr. (thieves’).—Specifically, to practise the begging-letter imposture, but (generally) to tramp the country as a beggar.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, 163. The
High-fly—beggars, with letters, pretending to be broken-down
gentlemen, captains, etc.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, (3rd ed.), p. 445. Begging
letters—the highfly.

Highflyer, subs. (old).—1. Anything or anybody out of the common, in opinion, pretension, attire, and so forth: as a prostitute (high-priced and well-dressed); an adventurer (superb in impudence and luck). 2. A dandy, male or female, of the first water. 3. A fast coach.

1690. Dryden. Prol. to Mistakes in Wks., p. 473 (Globe). He’s no
high-flyer—he makes no sky-rockets, His squibs are only levelled at
your pockets.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. High-flyers, Impudent, Forward,
Loose, Light Women. Also, bold adventurers.

1693. Congreve, Old Bachelor, i., 1. Well, as high a flyer as you
are, I have a lure may make you stoop.

1706. R. Estcourt, Fair Example, Act i., p. 10. You may keep
company with the highest flyer of ’em all.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, i. Mail-coach races against
mail-coach, and high-flyer against high-flyer, through the most
remote districts of Britain.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, v. As you have your high-fliers at
Almack’s, at the West End, we have also some ‘choice creatures’ at
our All Max in the East.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. High-flyers—women of the town, in
keeping, who job a coach, or keep a couple of saddle-horses at
least.

1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, (Ed. 1854) p. 75. Howsomever, the
high-flyers doesn’t like him; and when he takes people’s money, he
need not be quite so cross about it!

1860. Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller, xxii., p. 131. The old room
on the ground floor where the passengers of the High-flyers used to
dine.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, i., 5. Mrs. Boffin, Wegg ... is a
’ighflyer at fashion.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 40. Foller yer leader, ... all
who can carry sufficient skyscrapers to keep in the ’unt, with that
’ighflyer ’Arry.

4. (thieves’).—A beggar with a certain style; a begging-letter writer; a broken swell.

1851–61. H. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, vol. I., p. 268.
While pursuing the course of a high-flyer (genteel beggar).

1858. A. Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. iii., p. 268. He
was a high-flier, a genteel beggar.

1887. Standard, 20 June, p. 5, c. 2. The pretended noblemen and
knights who ‘say they have suffered by war, fire, or captivity, or
have been driven away, and lost all they had,’ are still
represented by the high-flyers or broken-down gentlemen.

5. (circus).—A swing fixed in rows in a frame much in vogue at fairs.

High-flying, subs. (old).—1. Extravagance in opinion, pretension or conduct.

1689. Dryden, Epil. to Lee’s Princess of Cleves, 6. I railed at
wild young sparks; but without lying Never was man worse thought on
for high-flying.

2. (thieves’).—Begging; the high-fly (q.v.); stilling (q.v.).

High-gag, subs. (American).—A whisperer.—Matsell.

The high-gag, subs. phr. (American).—Telling secrets.—Matsell.

High-game, subs. (thieves’).—See quot.

1889. C. T. Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson, Police, p. 321. A
mansion ... a high game.

High-gig. In High-gig, adv. phr. (old).—In good fettle; lively. Cf., Gig.

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 15. Rather sprightly—the Bear in
high-gig.

High-go, subs. (common).—A drinking bout; a frolic.

High-heeled Shoes. To have high-heeled shoes on, verb. phr. (American).—To set up as a person of consequence; to do the grand (q.v.).

High Horse. To be (or get) on (or ride) the high horse, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To give oneself airs; to stand on one’s dignity; to take offence. [Fr. monter sur ses grands chevaux. The simile is common to most languages.]

1716. Addison, Freeholder, 5 Mar. He told me, he did not know what
travelling was good for, but to teach a man to ride the great
horse, to jabber French, and to talk against passive obedience.

1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xii. He was determined to ride
the high horse—and that there should be no Equality Jack in future.

1842. Comic Almanack, p. 327. Yet Dublin deems the foul extortion
fair, And swears that, as he’s ridden the high horse, So long and
well, she now will make him mayor.

1864. Times, 5 July. Mr. Gladstone in the Dano-German Debate. The
right hon. gentleman then got on what I may call his high horse,
and he would not give us the slightest opinion upon any matter of
substantive policy, because that, he said, would be accepting
office upon conditions.

1868. Wilkie Collins, The Moonstone, 2nd Period, 3rd Narr., ch. ii.
Miss Rachael has her faults—‘I’ve never denied it,’ he began. ‘And
riding the high horse now and then is one of them.’

High-jinks, subs. (old).—1. An old game variously played. [Most frequently dice were thrown by the company, and those upon whom the lot fell were obliged to assume and maintain for a time a certain fictitious character, or to repeat a certain number of fescennine verses in a particular order. If they departed from the characters assigned ... they incurred forfeits, which were compounded for by swallowing an additional bumper.—Guy Mannering, 1836. Note to ch. xxxii.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Highjinks, a Play at Dice who
Drinks.

1780. Ramsay, Maggy Johnston, i., 25. The queff or cup is filled to
the brim, then one of the company takes a pair of dice, and after
crying Hy-jinks, he throws them out; the number he casts out points
out the person that must drink; he who threw beginning at himself
number one, and so round till the number of the person agree with
that of the dice (which may fall upon himself if the number be
within twelve); then he sets the dice to him, or bids him take
them; he on whom they fall is obliged to drink, or pay a small
forfeiture in money, then throws, and so on. But if he forgets to
cry ‘Hy-jinks’ he pays a forfeiture into the bank. Now, he on whom
it falls to drink (if there be anything in the bank worth drawing)
gets it all if he drinks; then with a great deal of caution he
empties his cup, sweeps up the money, and orders the cup to be
filled again, and then throws; for if he errs in the articles he
loses the privilege of drawing the money. The articles are—(1)
Drink, (2) Draw, (3) Fill, (4) Cry ‘Hy-jinks,’ (5) Count just, (6)
Chuse your doublet, man—viz., when two equal numbers of the dice is
thrown, the person whom you chuse must pay a double of the common
forfeiture, and so must you when the dice is in his hand (sic).

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. xxxvi. The frolicsome company had
begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of high
jinks.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, lv. He had made an engagement to
drive Lord Saltire, the next morning, up to Wargrave in a
pony-chaise, to look at Barrymore House, and the place where the
theatre stood, and where the game of high jinks had been played so
bravely fifty years before.

2. See quot., and cf. sense 1.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue. A gambler at dice, who, having a strong
head, drinks to intoxicate his adversary, or pigeon. Under this
head are also classed those fellows who keep little goes, take in
insurances; also, attendants at the races, and at the E O tables;
chaps always on the look out to rob unwary countrymen at cards,
etc.

3. (common).—A frolic; a row. [From sense 1.]

1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, i. All sorts of high jinks go on
on the grass plot.

1872. Daily Telegraph, 13 Sept. ‘Filey the Retired.’ Frisky Filey
cannot assuredly be called. There are no high jinks on her jetty;
and, besides, she hasn’t got a jetty, only a ‘Brigg.’

1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 July, 4, 2. Yesterday and to-day there
have been high jinks in Petworth Park, rich and poor for miles
round being invited, and right royally feasted on the coming of age
of Lord and Lady Leconfield’s eldest son.

1891. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 3 Apr. While Bank Holiday was being
celebrated with such éclat at Kempton, they were carrying on high
jinks over hurdles and fences at Manchester.

1892. Sala’s Journal, 2 July, p. 223. High jinks with the telephone
have been the order of the day at Warwick Castle; taps and wires
have been turned on and off, and floods of melody of various kinds
have delighted listening ears.

1893. National Observer, 25 Feb., ix., 357. Time was when there
were high jinks in that vast quadrangle.

To be at his high jinks, phr. (common).—To be stilted and arrogant in manner; to ride the high horse (q.v.). Fr., faire sa merde or sa poire.

High-kicker, subs. (colloquial).—Specifically, a dancer whose speciality is the high kick or the porte d’armes; whence, by metaphor, any desperate spreester (q.v.), male or female.

High-kilted, adj. (Scots’).—Obscene or thereabouts; full flavoured (q.v.).

Highland-bail, subs. (Scots’).—The right of the strongest; force majeure.

1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xxix. The mute eloquence of the miller
and smith, which was vested in their clenched fists, was prepared
to give Highland bail for their arbiter.

High-lawyer, subs. (old).—A highwayman. For synonyms, see Road Agent.

1592. John Day, Blind Beggar, p. 21 (Ed. Bullen). He wo’d be your
prigger, your prancer, your high-lawyer.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 50 (H. Club’s Rept., 1874). He
first gaue termes to robbers by the high-way, that such as robbe on
horse-backe were called high lawyers, and those who robbed on
foote, he called Padders.

High-liver, subs. (old).—A garretteer; a thief housed in an attic. Hence, High-living = lodging in a garret.—Lex. Bal.

High-men, subs. (old).—Dice loaded to show high numbers. Also, High-runners. See Fulhams and Low-men.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Traveller in Wks. [Grosart], v., 27. The dice of
late are growen as melancholy as a dog, high men and low men both
prosper alike.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, i., 3. Let vultures gripe thy guts!
for gourd and fullam holds, And high and low beguiles the rich and
poor.

1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes. Pise, false dice, high men or low
men.

1605. London Prodigal, i., 1. I bequeath two bale of false dice,
videlicet, high men and low men, fullams, stop-catertraies, and
other bones of function.

1615. Harington, Epigrams, i., 79. Your high And low men are but
trifles.

1657–1733. John Dennis, Letters, ii., 407. Shadwell is of opinion,
that your bully, with his box and his false dice, is an honester
fellow than the rhetorical author, who makes use of his tropes and
figures, which are his high and his low runners, to cheat us at
once of our money and of our intellectuals.

1822. Scott, Fort. of Nigel, ch. xxiii. Men talk of high and low
dice.

High-nosed, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Very proud in look and in fact; supercilious in bearing and speech; superior (q.v.).

High- [or gay-] old (time, game, liar, etc.), adj. phr. (common).—A general intensitive: e.g., high old time = a very merry time indeed; high old liar = a liar of might; high old drunk = an uncommon booze (q.v.).

1883. Referee, 11 Mar., p. 3, c. 2. All the children who have been
engaged in the Drury Lane pantomime took tea on the stage, and had
a high old time (while it lasted).

1888. J. McCarthy and Mrs. Campbell-Praed, Ladies’ Gallery, ch.
xxxv. I went down to Melbourne, intending to have a high old time.

1891. Murray’s Mag., Aug., p. 202. There will be a Want of
Confidence Motion, and a high old debate.

1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 7. You are a big fraud and a
high old liar.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 35. We’d the highest old game.

1892. F. Anstey, Voces Populi, ‘The Riding Class,’ p. 108. We’ve
bin having a gay old time in ’ere.

High-pad (or Toby, or High-toby-splice), subs. (old).—1. The highway. Also, high-splice toby. For synonyms, see Drum.

1567. Harman, Caveat, p, 86. Roge, Nowe bynge we a waste to the
hygh pad, the ruffmanes is by.

c. 1819. Slang Song (quoted in notes to Don Juan, x., 19). On the
high-toby-splice flash the muzzle In spite of each gallows old
scout.

1836. H. M. Milner, Turpin’s Ride to York, i., sc. 2. Come, lads a
stirrup-cup at parting, and then hurrah for the game of high-toby.

1876. Hindley, Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 4. Halting for a few
hours at mid-day during the heat in the high spice-toby, as we used
to call the main road.

2. (old).—A highwayman. Also, high-tobyman (or -gloak). For synonyms, see Road Agent.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. High Pad, a Highwayman, Highway
Robber well Mounted and Armed.

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

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. High toby-gloak, a highway robber well
mounted.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. IV., ch i. Tom King, a noted
high-toby gloak of his time.

1857. Punch, 31 Jan. (from slang song). That long over Newgit their
Worships may rule, As the High-toby, mob, crack, and screeve model
school.

3. (old).—Highway robbery.

1819, Vaux, Cant. Dict. High-toby, the game of highway robbery,
that is exclusively on horseback.

High-pooped, adj. (colloquial).—Heavily buttocked.

High-rented, adj. (popular).—1. Hot.

2. (thieves’).—Very well known to the police; hot (q.v.).

High-roller, subs. (American).—A goer (q.v.); a fast liver; a heavy gambler; a highflyer (q.v.).

1887. Francis, Saddle and Moccasin, He’s a high-roller, by gum!

High-ropes. To be on the high ropes, verb. phr. (common).—To be angry or excited. Also to put on airs; to stand on one’s dignity; to ride the high-horse (q.v.).

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. To be on the high ropes, to be in
a passion.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

1866. Yates, Land at Last, ii. He’s on the high ropes, is Master
Charley! Some of you fellows have been lending him half a-crown, or
that fool Caniche has bought one of his pictures for seven-and-six!

High-seasoned (or Highly-spiced), adj. (colloquial).—Obscene. For synonyms, see Spicy.

High- (or clouted-) shoon, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

High-sniffing, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Pretentious; supercilious; very obviously better than one’s company; high-nosed (q.v.).

High-stepper, subs. (common).—An exemplar, male or female, of what is fashionable in conversation, conduct, or attire; a swell (q.v.). Also, a person of spirit. Whence, adj., high-stepping (or high-pacing) = conspicuously elegant or gallant in dress, speech, manner, conduct, anything.

1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, ch. ix. From her actions and
style I’m pretty certain she’s English and a high-stepper.

High-stomached, adj. (colloquial).—Proud; disdainful; very valiant.

High-strikes, subs. (common).—A corruption of ‘hysterics.’

1838. Selby, Jacques Strop, ii., 4. Capital! ... didn’t I do the
high-strikes famously.

1860. Miss Wetherell, Say and Seal, ch. vii. She wants you to come.
I’m free to confess she’s got the high-strikes wonderful.

High-tea, subs. (colloquial).—A tea with meat, etc. In Lancashire Bagging (q.v.).

1888. Sporting Life, 15 Dec. Following run there will be high tea
and a grand smoking concert, to which visitors are cordially
invited.

High-ti, subs. (American: Williams Coll.).—A showy recitation; at Harvard = a squirt (q.v.).

High-tide (or water) subs. (colloquial).—Rich for the moment; The state of being flush (q.v.). For synonyms, see Well Ballasted.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. high tide when the Pocket is
full of Money.

1725. New Cant. Dict.

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

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. High-tide—plenty of the possibles;
whilst ‘low-water’ implies empty clies.

Up to high-water mark, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In good condition; a general expression of approval.

High-toby. See High Pad.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, bk. III., ch. v. Oh! the game of
High-Toby for ever.

High-toned, adj. (American).—Aristocratic; also, morally and intellectually endowed; spiritually beyond the common. High-souled = cultured; fashionable. High-toned nigger = a negro who has raised himself in social position. [Once literary; now utterly discredited and never used, save in ignorance or derision.] Stokes, the maniac who shot Garfield, described himself as a ‘High-Toned Lawyer.’

1884. Phillips Woolley, Trottings of a Tender Foot. I never saw any
so-called high-toned niggers.

1893. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., 1 Feb., p. 389, 1. One day a
fashionably-dressed young man, giving an address in a high-toned
suburb, called upon Messrs. Glitter.

Highty-tighty (or Hoity-toity), subs. (old).—A wanton.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hightetity, a Ramp, or Rude
Girl.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

Adj. (colloquial).—Peremptory; waspish; quarrelsome.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. xviii. La, William, don’t be so
highty-tighty with us. We’re not men.

High Wood. To live in high wood, verb. phr. (common).—To hide; to dissemble of purpose; to lie low and keep quiet.

Higulcion-flips, subs. (Texas).—An imaginary ailment.

Hike, verb. (old).—To move about. Also to carry off; to arrest.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hike. To hike off; to run away.

1884. Daily Telegraph, 2 Feb., p. 3, c. 1. We three, not having any
regler homes nor a steady job of work to stick to, hike about for a
living, and we live in the cellar of a empty house.

Hilding, subs. (old).—A jade; a wanton; a disreputable slut.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, ii., 1. For shame thou
hilding of a devilish spirit.

1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, ii., 4. Hildings and harlots.

Hill. Not worth a hill of beans, phr. (American).—Absolutely worthless.

Hills, subs. (Winchester Coll.).—1. St. Catharine’s Hill.

1870. Mansfield, School Life, p. 28. Some of his principal duties
were to take the boys ‘on to hills,’ call names there, etc.

2. (Cambridge Univ.).—The Gogmagog Hills; a common morning’s ride. Gradus ad Cantab.

Hilly, adj. (colloquial).—Difficult: e.g., hilly reading = hard to read; hilly going = not easy to do; etc.

Hilt. Loose in the hilt, adv. phr. (old).—Unsteady; rocky (q.v.); lax in the bowels.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘Bum-fodder,’ ii., 56. If they stay longer,
they will us beguilt With a Government that is loose in the hilt.

Hind-boot, subs. (common).—The breech. For synonyms, see Monocular Eyeglass.

Hind-coachwheel, subs. (common).—A five shilling piece. Fr., roue de derrière, thune, or palet, = a five-franc piece. For synonyms, see Caroon.

Hinder-blast, subs. (old).—Crepitation.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaitis [in Bannatyne MSS., Hunterian Club,
ed., (1879–88), p. 511] line 1429–30. Scho hes sic rumling in her
wame, That all the nycht my hairt ouercastis With bokking and with
hinder blastis.

Hinder-end, subs. phr. (common).—The breech. Also, hinder-parts and hinder-world.

Hinder-entrance, subs. phr. (common).—The fundament.

Hind-leg. To kick out a hind leg, verb. phr. (old).—To lout; to make a rustic bow.

To talk the hind leg off a horse (or dog). See Talk.

To sit upon one’s hind legs and howl, verb. phr. (American).—To bemoan one’s fate; to make a hullabaloo.

Hindoo, subs. (American).—See Know Nothing.

Hindoo Punishment, subs. phr. (circus).—See quot.

1875. Frost, Circus Life, ch. xviii. The Hindoo Punishment is what
is more often called the muscle grind, a rather painful exercise
upon the bar, in which the arms are turned backward to embrace the
bar, and then brought forward upon the chest, in which position the
performer revolves.

Hind-shifters, subs. (old).—The feet. For synonyms, see Creepers.

1823. Lamb, Elia, Wks., (Ed. 1852), p. 311. They would show as fair
a pair of hind-shifters as the expertest loco-motor in the colony.

Hinges. Off the hinges, adv. phr. (common)—In confusion; out of sorts; ‘not quite the thing.’

Hinterland, subs. (old).—The breech.

Hip, (in. pl.), subs. (colloquial).—Conventional—as in the proverb, ‘Free of her lips; free of her hips’—for the buttocks. Hence, to walk with the hips = to make play with the posteriors in walking; long in the hips; and hips to sell = broad in the beam; nimble-hipped = active in copulation.

c. 1508. Dunbar. Poems, ‘Of a Dance in the Quenis Chalmer’ (1836),
i., 119. His hippis gaff mony a hiddouss cry. Ibid. i., 124. ‘Of
Ane Blak-moir.’... Sall cum behind and kiss hir hippis.

1540. Lindsay, Thrie Estaits, line 3227. My craig will wit quhat
weyis my hippis. Ibid., line 4424. Ye wald not stick to preise my
graith With hobbling of your hippis.

c. 1580. Collier of Croydon, iv., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed.,
1875, 459). I keep her lips and her hips for my own use.

d. 1607. Montgomerie, Poems, ‘Polwart and Montgomerie’s Flyting,’
p. 85, line 779 (Scottish Text Soc., 1885–6). Kailly lippes, kiss
my hips.

To have (get, or catch) on the hip, verb. phr. (old).—To have (or get) an advantage. [From wrestling.]

1591. Harington, Orlando Furioso, bk. xlvi., st. 117. In fine he
doth apply one speciall drift, Which was to get the pagan on the
hip, And having caught him right, he doth him lift By nimble
sleight, and in such wise doth trip That down he threw him.

1598. Shakspeare, Merchant of Venice, i. 3. If I can catch him once
upon the hip. I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.

1605. Marston, Dutch Courtezan. iii., 1. He said he had you a the
hyp.

1617. Andrewes, Sermons (‘Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology’), Vol.
IV., p. 365. If he have us at the advantage, on the hip as we say,
it is no great matter then to get service at our hands.

1635. D. Dike, Michael and the Dragon, in Wks., p. 328. The Divell
hath them on the hip, he may easily bring them to anything.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Upon the Hip ... at an
Advantage in Wrestling, or Business.

1697. Vanbrugh, Relapse, iv., 1. My lord, she has had him upon the
hip these seven years.

1812. Johnson, Eng. Dict. Hip, s.v., A low phrase.

1836. Michael Scott, Cruise of the Midge, p. 226. ‘Ha! ha! I have
you on the hip now, my master,’ shouted Peter.

Hipe, subs. (wrestling).—A throw over the hip. Hence Hipe, verb = to get across the hip before the throw.

Hip-hop, verb (old).—To skip or move on one leg; to hop. ‘A cant word framed by the reduplication of hop.’—Johnson, 1812.

1670–1729. Congreve [Quoted in Johnson’s Eng. Dict.]. Like Volscius
hip-hop in a single boot.

Hip-inside, subs. (thieves’).—An inner pocket. Hip-outside = an outer ditto.

1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3rd Ed.), p. 445, s.v.

Hipped (or Hippish), adj. (common).—Bored; melancholical; out of sorts. [From hypochondria.]

1710. Gay, Wine in Wks. (1811) p. 348. By cares depress’d, in
pensive hippish mood.

1712. Spectator, No. 284. I cannot forbear writing to you, to tell
you I have been to the last degree hipped since I saw you.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Babes in the Wood.’ The wicked
old Uncle, they say, In spite of his riot and revel, Was hippish
and qualmish all day, And dreamt all night long of the devil.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. III., ch. x. ‘You are a
little hipped, dear fellow,’ said Eugene; ‘you have been too
sedentary. Come and enjoy the pleasures of the chase.’

Hippen, subs. (Scots’: colloquial).—A baby’s napkin (i.e., hipping cloth). Also (theatrical), the green curtain.

Hiren, subs. (old).—1. A prostitute. [A corruption of ‘Irene,’ the heroine in Poole’s play: see quot. 1584.] For synonyms, see Barrack-hack and Tart.

1584. Poole, The Turkish Mahomet and Hyren the Fair Greek. Note. In
Italian called a courtezan; in Spaine a margarite; in English ... a
punk.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Henry IV., ii., 4. Have we not Hiren here?

1615. Adams, Spiritual Navigator. There be sirens in the sea of the
world. Syrens? Hirens, as they are now called. What a number of
these sirens [Hirens], cockatrices, courteghians, in plain English,
harlots, swimme amongst us!

d. 1618. Sylvester, Trans. Du Bartas’ Week of Creation, ii., 2, pt.
3. Of charming sin the deep-inchaunting syrens, The snares of
virtue, valour-softening hyrens.

2. (old).—A sword. Also a roaring bully; a fighting hector. [From Irene = the Goddess of Peace, a lucus a non lucendo.]

Hishee-hashee. See Soap-and-bullion.

His Nibs (or Nabs). See Nibs.

Hiss. The hiss, subs. phr. (Winchester College).—The signal of a master’s approach.

Historical- (Wrought, or Illustrated-) Shirt, subs. (old).—A shirt or shift worked or woven with pictures or texts.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour; iv., 6. I wonder he
speaks not of his wrought-shirt.

1639. Mayne, City Match, ii., 2. My smock sleeves have such holy
imbroideries, And are so learned that I fear in time, All my
apparel will be quoted by Some pure instructor.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Custom of the County, ii., 1. Having a
mistress, sure you should not be Without a neat historical-shirt.

1848. Punch, XIV., 226. He never broke a bank, He shuns
cross-barred trousers, His linen is not illustrated, but
beautifully clean.

1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, I., 51. Colored, or
illustrated shirts, as they are called, are especially objected to
by the men.

1889. Puck’s Library, Apr., p. 12. Being an educated man, I feel
ten thousand woes, Cavorting for the populace In illustrated
clothes.

History of the Four Kings. See Four Kings.

Hit, subs. (common).—A success; e.g., To make a hit = to score; to profit; to excel.

1602. Marston, Antonio and Mellida. Induction. When use hath taught
me action to hit the right point of a ladie’s part.

1700. Congreve, Way of the World, ii., 5. A hit, a hit! a palpable
hit! I confess it.

1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry, bk. I., ch. i. Teach me to make a hit of
so Kean a quality that it may not only ‘tell,’ but be long
remembered in the metropolis.

1822–36. Jno. Wilson, Noctes Amb., Wks. II., 210. Mr. Peel seems to
have made a hit in the chief character of Shiel’s play, The
Apostate.

1828–45. T. Hood, Poems, v., p. 197, (Ed. 1846). Nor yet did the
heiress herself omit The arts that help to make a hit.

1870. Figaro, 10 June. To make a great hit is, after all, more a
matter of chance than merit.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 July. Madam Melba makes an especial hit in
the valse from Roméo et Juliette.

1889. Referee, 6 Jan. Quite a hit has been made by the clever
juvenile, La Petite Bertoto.

Adj. (Old Bailey).—Convicted.

Hard-hit, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Sore beset; hard-up (q.v.). Also deep in love (or grief, or anger).

1890. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 7 Nov. It was pretty generally known
that he had been hard hit during the season.

Verb (American).—To arrive at; to light upon.

1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. Professor Rose, who hit this town
last spring, is around calling us a fugitive from justice.

To hit it, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attain an object; to light on a device; to guess a secret.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv., 1. Thou cans’t not hit
it, hit it, hit it, Thou can’st not hit it, my good man.

1596. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, iii., 2. I can never hit one’s name.

1773. O. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer. Ecod, I have hit it.
It’s here. Your hands. Yours and yours, my poor sulky! My boots
there, ho! Meet me two hours hence at the bottom of the garden.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. lii. He dressed himself
in ten minutes, and joined the party as they had finished their
fish. ‘I am awfully sorry,’ he said, rushing up to his father, ‘but
I thought that I should just hit it.’

To hit off, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To agree together; to fit; to describe with accuracy and precision.

1857. A. Trollope, Barchester Towers, ch. xxxiv. It is not always
the case that the master, or warden, or provost, or principal can
hit it off exactly with his tutor. A tutor is by no means
indisposed to have a will of his own.

1880. A. Trollope, The Duke’s Children, ch. xxxvi. ‘One gentleman
with another, you mean?’ ‘Put it so. It don’t quite hit it off, but
put it so.’

1886. J. S. Winter, Army Society. ‘Sidelight,’ ch. xiv. ‘Hey!’ said
Orford. ‘Didn’t you and he hit it off?’

1889. Daily News, 22 Oct., p. 5. The nations that quarrel are the
nations that do not hit it off on some point of feeling or taste.

To hit the flat, verb. phr. (American cowboy).—To go out on the prairie.

To hit the pipe, verb. phr. (American).—To smoke opium.

To hit one where he lives, verb. phr. (American).—To touch in a tender part; to hurt the feelings; to touch on the raw (q.v.).

Hit (or struck) with, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Taken; enamoured; prepossessed. Also, hit up with.

1891. Tales from Town Topics. ‘Count Candawles,’ p. 28. She is very
amusing, but the Count cannot be really hit with such a little
mountebank.

Hit on the tail, verb. phr. (old venery).—To copulate. For synonyms, see Greens and Ride.

d. 1529. Skelton, Bowge of Courte. How oft he hit Jonet on the
tayle.

Hit in the teeth, verb. phr. (old).—To reproach; to taunt; to fling in one’s face.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, ii., 6 (Dodsley, Old Plays,
4th ed., 1875, xiv., 431). They are always hitting me in the teeth
with a man of my coat.

Hitch, verb (American).—1. To marry. Hitched = married.

1867. Browne, Artemus Ward’s Courtship, People’s ed., p. 23. If you
mean getting hitched, I’m in.

1883. L. Oliphant, Altiora Peto, II., xxix., 156. ‘How long is it
since we parted, Ned?’ ‘A matter of five years; and it wasn’t my
fault if we didn’t stay hitched till now.’

1892. Tit-Bits, 17 Sept., p. 419, c. 1. ‘We’ve come to get
hitched,’ said the man, bashfully.

2. (American).—To agree. Also to hitch horses.

To hitch one’s team to the fence, verb. phr. (American).—To settle down.

Hittite, subs. (pugilists’).—A prize fighter.

English synonyms.—Basher; bruiser; dukester; fistite; knight of the fist; gemman of the fancy; milling-cove; pug; puncher; scrapper; slasher; slogger; slugger; sparring-bloke.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hittites—boxers and ring-goers
assembled.

1860. The Druid, Post and Paddock. ‘The Fight for the Belt.’ And
the Sherwood Ranger, bold Bendigo, Is on training no more intent;
But the trout full well that ex-Hittite know On a Summer’s eve in
the Trent.

Hive, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum. Cf. Honey. Hence, verbally, to hive it = to effect intromission.

Verb (American cadet).—To steal. For synonyms, see Prig.

To get hived, verb. phr. (American Cadets’ and popular).—1. To be caught out in a scrape. Also, to be hidden. To be hived perfectly frigid = to be caught in flagrante delicto.

Hiver, subs. (Western American).—A travelling bawd.

Hivite, subs. (school).—A student of St. Bees’ (Cumberland).

1865. John Bull, 11 Nov. To be a Hivite has long been considered a
little worse than a ‘literate’.... Of the value of some St. Bees
testimonials we may form an estimate, etc., etc.

Hoaky. By the hoaky, intj. (nautical).—A popular form of adjuration.

Hoax, subs. (old: now recognised).—A jest; a practical joke; a Take-in. Originally (Grose) University cant. [Probably from Hocus (q.v.).]

1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed.), s.v.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Hoaxing. Bantering, ridiculing.
Hoaxing a quiz; joking an odd fellow.—University wit.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, ch. iii. Whose humble efforts at
jocularity were chiefly confined to what were then called bites and
bams, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes.

1835–7. Richardson, Dict. Eng. Lang., s.v. Hoax. Malone considers
the modern slang hoax as derived from hocus, and Archdeacon Nares
agrees with him.

Verb. To play a practical joke; to ‘take-in’; to bite (q.v.). See subs. sense. For synonyms, see Gammon.

1812. Combe, Syntax, Picturesque, xix. An arch young sprig, a
banker’s clerk, Resolv’d to hoax the rev’rend spark.

1854. F. E. Smedley, Harry Coverdale, ch. viii. I thought you were
hoaxing us, and I sat down to play the duet for the amiable purpose
of exposing your ignorance.

Hob (or Hobbinol), subs. (old).—A clown.—Grose.

Hob and Nob (or Hob Nob), verb. (old).—1. To invite to drink; to clink glasses.

1756. Foote, Englishman from Paris, i. With, perhaps, an occasional
interruption of ‘Here’s to you, friends,’ ‘Hob or nob,’ ‘Your love
and mine.’

1759. Townley, High Life Below Stairs, ii. Duke. Lady Charlotte,
hob or nob. Lady Char. Done, my lord; in Burgundy, if you please.

1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, bk. VIII., ch. xxi. (new Ed.,
1808). Having drunk hob or nob with a young lady in whose eyes he
wished to appear a man of consequence, he hurried out into the
summer-house.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hob nob—two persons pledging each other
in a glass.

1836. Horace Smith, Tin Trumpet, ‘Address to a Mummy.’ Perchance
that very hand now pinioned flat, Has hob-and-nobbed with Pharoah
glass for glass.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. xxx. He would have liked to hob and
nob with celebrated pick-pockets, or drink a pot of ale with a
company of burglars and cracksmen.

1886. R. L. Stevenson, Kidnapped, p. 68. So the pair sat down and
hob-a-nobbed.

2. (old).—To give or take; to hit or miss at random. [Saxon, habban, to have; nabban, not to have.]

1577–87. Holinshed, Chroncles of Englande, Scotlande, and Irelande
(1807) p. 317. The citizens in their rage shot habbe or nabbe (hit
or miss) at random.

1602. Shakspeare, Twelfth Night, iii., 4. Hob-nob is his word, give
’t or take ’t.

1615. Harington, Epigrams, iv. Not of Jack Straw, with his
rebellious crew, That set king, realm, and laws, at hab or nab.

1673. Quack Astrologer. He writes of the weather hab nab, and as
the toy takes him, chequers the year with foul and fair.

3. (colloquial).—To be on terms of close intimacy; to consort familiarly together.

1870. Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad, ch. i. They were to hob-nob
with nobility and hold friendly converse with kings and princes.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger’s Sweetheart, p. 109. I had
hob-nobbed for the last two hours with the most notorious
bushranger in the colony.

1892. A. K. Green, Cynthia Wakeham’s Money, p. 5. Each tree looks
like a spectre hob-nobbing with its neighbour.

Hobbes’s-voyage, subs. (old).—A leap in the dark.

1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, v., 6. So, now, I am in for Hobbes’s
voyage; a great leap in the dark.

Hobbinol, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1663. Killigrew, The Parson’s Wedding, ii., 3 (Dodsley, Old Plays,
4th ed., 1875, xiv., 396). Who, Master Jeffrey? Hobbinol the
second! By this life, ’tis a very veal, and licks his nose like
one.

Hobble. In a hobble (or Hobbled), adv. phr. (colloquial).—In trouble; hampered; puzzled. Also (thieves), committed for trial. Fr., tomber dans la mélasse (= to come a cropper), and faitré (= booked (q.v.)). Hobbled upon the legs = transported, or on the hulks.

1777. Foote, Trip to Calais (1795), ii., p. 39. But take care what
you say! you see what a hobble we had like to have got into.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 163. A term when any of the
gang is taken up and committed for trial, to say, such a one is
hobbled.

1811. Poole, Hamlet Travestie, iii., 5. Horatio, I am sorry for
this squabble; I fear ’twill get me in a precious hobble.

1819. Vaux, Cant. Dict., s.v. Hobbled, taken up, or in custody; to
hobble a plant, is to spring it.

1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2nd S., ch. xvii. A body has to be
cautious if he don’t want to get into the centre of a hobble.

1849. Punch, Fortune-Tellers’ Almanack. To dream that you are lame
is a token that you will get into a hobble.

1892. Milliken, ’Arry Ballads, p. 44. I got into a ’obble.

Verb (venery).—See quot.

1688. Sempill, ‘Crissell Sandilands’ in Bannatyne MSS. (Hunterian
Club, 1879–88), p. 354, lines 21–2. Had scho bene undir, and he
hobland above, That were a perellous play for to suspect them.

Hobbledehoy, subs. (old, now colloquial).—A growing gawk: as in the folk-rhyme, ‘Hobbledehoy, neither man nor boy.’ [For derivation, see Notes and Queries, 1 S., v., 468, vii., 572; 4 S., ii., 297, viii., 451, ix., 147; 7 S., iv., 523, and v., 58.]

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, ch. 60, st 3, p. 138 (E. D. S.). The
first seuen yeers bring vp as a childe, The next to learning, for
waxing too wilde. The next keepe vnder sir hobbard de hoy, The next
a man no longer a boy.

1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial 1. Why, he is a mere
hobbledehoy, neither a man nor a boy.

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

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Aunt Fanny.’ At the epoch I speak
about, I was between a man and a boy, A hobble-de-hoy, A fat,
little, punchy concern of sixteen.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. iv. He remembered perfectly well
being thrashed by Joseph Sedley, when the latter was a big,
swaggering, hobbadyhoy, and George an impudent urchin of ten years
old.

Hence Hobbledehoyish and Hobbledehoyhood.

1812. Colman, Poetical Vagaries, p. 12 (2nd Ed.). When Master Daw
full fourteen years had told, He grew, as it is term’d,
hobbedyhoyish; For Cupidons and Fairies much too old, For Calibans
and Devils much too boyish.

1839. Thackeray, Fatal Boots, Apr. From boyhood until
hobbadyhoyhood (which I take to be about the sixteenth year of the
life of a young man).

1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, ch. xlii. A half-grown, or
hobbadehoyish footman, so to speak, walked after them.

Hobbledejee, subs. (old).—A pace between a walk and a run; a jog-trot.

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Hobbler, subs. (nautical).—A coast-man, half smuggler, half handyman; an unlicensed pilot. Also a landsman acting as tow-Jack.—Smyth. Also (Isle of Man), a boatman.

1887. T. E. Brown, The Doctor, p. 226. An’ the hobblers there was
terr’ble divarted.

Hobby, subs. (old).—A hackney; a horse in common use.

1606. Return from Parnassus, ii., 6 (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed.,
1875, ix., 151). An’t please you, your hobby will meet you at the
lane’s end. Idem (p. 154). Is not my master an absolute villain
that loves his hawk, his hobby, and his greyhound more than any
mortal creature? Idem (p. 145). Sirrah, boy, hath the groom saddled
my hunting hobby?

2. (university).—A translation. To ride hobbies = to use Cribs (q.v.).

Sir Posthumous Hobby, subs. phr. (old).—One nice or whimsical in his clothes.

Hobby-horse, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A whim; a fancy; a favourite pursuit. Hence Hobbyhorsical = strongly attached to a particular fad.

1759. Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1793), ch. vii., p. 18. Have they
not had their hobby-horses?

d. 1768. Sterne, Letters (1793), letter 19, p. 65. ’Tis in fact my
hobby-horse.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hobby Horse, a man’s favourite
amusement, or study, is called his hobby horse.

1893. Westminster Gaz., 15 Mar., p. 9, c. 1. We quarrel a bit—he is
so hobby-horsical, you can’t avoid it—and then we make friends
again.

2. (colloquial).—A rantipole girl; a wench; a wanton.

1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iii., 1. Call’st thou my
love hobby-horse? Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt,
and your love, perhaps a hackney.

1604. Shakspeare, Winter’s Tale, 1., 2. They say my wife’s a
hobby-horse.

3. (old).—A witless and unmannerly lout.

1609. Jonson, Epicœne, iv., 2. Daw. Here be in presence have tasted
of her favors. Cler. What a neighing hobby-horse is this!

Verb (old).—To romp.

Hob-collingwood, subs. phr. (North Country).—The four of hearts, considered an unlucky card.

Hob-jobber, subs. (streets).—A man or boy on the look out for small jobs—holding horses, carrying parcels, and the like.

Hob-nail, subs. (old).—A countryman. For synonyms, see Joskin.

1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Women Pleased, ii., 6. The hob-nail
thy husband’s as fitly out o’ th’ way now.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hobnail, a country clodhopper, from
the shoes of country farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck
full of hobnails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron.

Hobnailed, adj. (colloquial).—Boorish; clumsy; coarse; ill-done.

1599. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour. Sog. A wretched
hobnailed chuff.

Hobson’s-choice, subs. (common).—That or none: i.e., there is no alternative. [Popularly derived from the name of a Cambridge livery stable keeper, whose rule was that each customer must take the horse next the door, or have no horse at all. That old Hobson existed is clear from Milton’s epitaph, but Bellenden Ker (Archæology of Popular Phrases) affirms the story to be a Cambridge hoax, and maintains the proverb to be identical in sound and sense as the Low Saxon, Op soens schie ho eysche = when he had a kiss he wanted something else.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hobson’s Choice, that or None.

1710. Ward, England’s Reformation, ch. iv. ’Tis Hobson’s Choice,
take that or none.

1712. Steele, Spectator, No. 509, p. 191. I shall conclude this
discourse with an explanation of a proverb [Hobson’s choice], which
by vulgar error is taken and used when a man is reduced to an
extremity, whereas the propriety of the maxim is to use it when you
would say there is plenty, but you must make such a choice as not
to hurt another who is to come after you. Ibid. He [Hobson] kept a
stable of forty good cattle, always ready and fit for travelling;
but when a man came for a horse he was led into the stable, where
there was great choice, but was obliged to take the horse which
stood nearest to the stable-door; so that every customer was alike
well served, according to his chance, and every horse ridden with
the same justice.

1717. Cibber, Non-Juror, i. Can any woman think herself happy
that’s obliged to marry only with a Hobson’s choice?

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

1820. Reynolds [Peter Corcoran], The Fancy. Black men now are
Hobson’s choice.

1851. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. liii. ‘When shall we go?’
inquired Laura. ‘Why, it’s a case of Hobson’s choice,’ returned
Leicester.

1854. Notes and Queries, 21 Jan., p. 51. It was clear a choice had
been given to him, but it was a Hobson’s choice.

Hock, subs. (American).—1. The last card in the dealer’s box at faro. [From soda (q.v.) to hock = from beginning to end.]

2. In. pl. (common).—The feet. Curby hocks = clumsy feet. For synonyms, see Creepers. [From the stable.]

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hocks ... you have left the marks
of your dirty hocks on my clean stairs.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

Old hock, subs. phr. (common).—Stale beer; swipes (q.v.). See Hockey.

In hock, adv. phr. (general).—Laid by the heels; fleeced; bested (q.v.).; and (thieves’), in prison.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. ‘If the cove should be caught in the hock
he won’t snickle,’ if the fellow should be caught in the act, he
would not tell.

Hock-dockies, subs. (old).—Shoes. For synonyms, see Trotter-cases.

1789. Geo. Parker, Life’s Painter, p. 173. Shoes. Hockey-dockeys.

Hockey, adj. (old).—Drunk, especially on stale beer. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1796. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd Ed.), s.v.

Hocus, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A cheat; an imposter. [An abbreviation of hocus-pocus (q.v.).]

1654. Witts Recreations. Here Hocas lyes with his tricks and his
knocks, Whom death hath made sure as a juglers box; Who many hath
cozen’d by his leiger-demain, Is presto convey’d and here
underlain. Thus Hocas he’s here, and here he is not, While death
plaid the Hocas, and brought him to th’ pot.

2. (old: now recognised).—Drugged liquor.

1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Hocus or Hocus Pocus.... A deleterious
drug mixed with wine, etc., which enfeebles the person acted upon.

Adj. (old).—See quots. For synonyms, see Drinks and Screwed.

1725. New. Cant. Dict., s.v. Hocus, disguised in Liquor; drunk.

1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Hocus Pocus, he is quite hocus, he
is quite drunk.

Verb (old: now recognised).—1. To cheat; to impose upon.

2. (old: now recognised).—To drug; to snuff (q.v.).

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xiii., p. 104. ‘What do you mean by
hocussing brandy and water?’ inquired Mr. Pickwick. ‘Puttin’
laund’num in it,’ replied Sam.

1836. Comic Almanack, p. 1. For that we hocuss’d first his drink.

1848. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, II., ch. xxix. Mr. Frederick Pigeon
avers that it was at her house at Lausanne that he was hocussed at
supper and lost eight hundred pounds to Major Loder and the
Honourable Mr. Deucease.

1854. De Quincey, Murder as one of the Fine Arts, Wks., xiii., 119.
Him they intended to disable by a trick then newly introduced
amongst robbers, and termed hocussing, i.e., clandestinely drugging
the liquor of the victim with laudanum.

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v. Hocus ... ‘Hocus the bloke’s lush,
and then frisk his sacks,’ put something into the fellow’s drink
that will stupify him, and then search his pockets.

1859. The Bulletin, 21 May. An offence which goes by the name of
hocussing, and which consists of an evil doer furtively introducing
laudanum or some other narcotic into beer or spirits, which the
victim drinks and, becoming stupified thereby, is then easily
robbed.

1864. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, bk. II., ch. xii. I will not say
a hocussed wine, but fur from a wine as was ’elthy for the mind.

Hocus-pocus, subs. (old: now recognised).—1. A juggler’s phrase. Hence a juggler’s (or impostor’s) stock in trade. Also Hocus-trade.

1639–61. Rump Songs. ‘Vanity of Vanities.’ A hocus-pocus, juggling
Knight.

1639–61. Rump Songs, ii., 156. ‘The Rump Ululant.’ Religion we made
free of hocus trade.

1646. Randolph, Jealous Lovers, If I do not think women were got
with riddling, whip me! Hocas Pocas, here you shall have me, and
there you shall have me.

1654. Gayton, Test. Notes Don. Quix., 46. This old fellow had not
the Hocas Pocas of Astrology.

1675. Wycherley, Country Wife, iii., 2. That burlesque is a
hocus-pocus trick they have got.

d. 1680. Butler, Remains (1759), ii., 122. With a little heaving
and straining, would turn it into Latin, as Mille hoco-pokiana, and
a thousand such.

1689. Marvell, Historical Poem, line 90. With hocus-pocus.... They
gain on tender consciences at night.

c. 1755. Adey, Candle in the Dark, p. 29. At the playing of every
trick he used to say, hocus-pocus, tontus, talontus, vade celeriter
jubeo.

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

1824–28. Landor, Imaginary Conversations [2nd Ed., ii., 275].
Torke. What think you, for instance, of Hocus! Pocus! Johnson. Sir,
those are exclamations of conjurors, as they call themselves.

1883. Daily Telegraph, 26 Mar., p. 5, c. 3. The lock of hair, the
dragon’s blood, and the stolen flour were only the hocus-pocus of
her sham witchcraft like the transfixed waxen puppets of the
sorcerers of the past.

2. (old).—A trickster; a juggler; an impostor.

1625. Jonson, Staple of News, ii. That was the old way, gossip,
when Iniquity came in [on the stage] like Hokos Pokos, in a
juggler’s jerkin, with false skirts, like the knave of clubs.

1634. Hocus Pocus Junior, The Anatomie of Leger de main. [Title].

1656. Blount, Glossographia, s.v. Hocus Pocus, a juggler, one that
shows tricks by sleight of hand.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hocus-pocus, a Juggler that
shews Tricks by Slight of Hand.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

3. (old).—A cheat; an imposition; a juggler’s trick.

1713. Bentley, Free Thinking, 12. Our author is playing hocus-pocus
in the very similitude he takes from that juggler.

4. (old).—See Hocus, sense 2.

Adj. (old).—Cheating; fraudulent.

1715. Addison, The Drummer. If thou hast any hocus-pocus tricks to
play, why can’st not do them here?

1725–29. Mason, Horace, iv., 8. Such hocus-pocus tricks, I own,
Belong to Gallic bards alone.

1759. Macklin, Love à la Mode, ii., 1. The law is a sort of
hocus-pocus science that smiles in yer face while it picks your
pocket.

Verb (old).—To cheat; to trick.

Hod (or Brother Hod), subs. (common).—A bricklayer’s labourer.

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

1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.

Hod of Mortar, subs. phr. (rhyming).—A pot of porter.

Hoddy-Doddy (or Hoddie-doddie), subs. (old).—A short thick-set man or woman. The full expression is ‘Hoddy Doddy, all arse and no body.’—Grose. For synonyms, see Forty-guts. Also a fool.

c. 1534. Udall, Roister Doister, i., I. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th
ed., 1875, iii., 58). Sometimes I hang on Hankyn hoddy-doddy’s
sleeve.

1596. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, iv., 8. Well, good wife
bawd, Cob’s wife, and you, That make your husband such a
hoddy-doddy.

1639–61. Rump Songs, ii. [1662], 55. Every noddy ... will ... cry
hoddy-doddy Here’s a Parliament all arse and no body.

1723. Swift, Mary the Cookmaid’s Letter (Chalmers, Eng. Poets,
1810, xi., 433). My master is a personable man, and not a
spindle-shanked Hoddy-doddy.

Hoddy-peak (or -Peke), subs. (old).—A fool; a cuckold.

d. 1529. Skelton, Poems, ‘Duke of Albany.’ Gyue it up, And cry
creke Lyke an huddy peke.

1551. W. Still, Gammer Gurton, O. P., ii., 45. Art here again, thou
hoddypeke?

1554. Christopherson, Exh. ag. Rebel. They counte peace to be cause
of ydelnes, and that it maketh men hodi-pekes and cowardes.

d. 1555. Latimer, Sermons, fol. 44, b. What, ye brainsicke fooles,
ye hoddy-peakes, ye doddy poules.

1560. Nice Wanton (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, ii., 164).
Yea, marry, I warrant you, master hoddy-peak.

1589. Nashe, Anatomie of Absurdities, b. Who, under her husband’s
that hoddy-peke’s nose, Must have all the destilling dew of his
delicate rose.

1594. Nashe, Unf. Trav., 106 [Chiswick Press, 1891.] No other apte
meanes had this poore shee captived Cicely to worke her hoddy peake
husband a proportionable plague to his jealousy.

Hodge, subs. (colloquial).—A farm labourer; a rustic.

1589. Greene, Menaphon, p. 58 [ed. Arber, 1880]. These Arcadians
are giuen to take the benefit of euerie Hodge.

1675. A. Marvel, Satire. Hodge’s Vision from the Monument. [Title.]

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Hodge, a Country Clown, also
Roger.

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

1791. Smart, Fables, xiii., 27. Is that the care (quoth Hodge)? O
rare!

1880. Richard Jefferies, Hodge and his Masters. [Title.]

1884. Mrs. Craik, in Eng. Ill. Mag., Mar., p. 356. Quite different
from the bovine, agricultural Hodge of the midland counties.

1893. National Observer, 25 Feb., ix., 358. ‘Pay me an
infinitesimal sum,’ Lord Winchilsea says (in effect) to Hodge, ‘and
you shall have a weekly newspaper for nothing.’

Hodge-podge (or Hotch-potch), subs. (old: now recognised).—A mixture; a medley. Sp., commistrajo. See Hotch-potch.

1553–99. Spenser, State of Ireland. They have made our English
tongue a galimaufrey, or hodgepodge of all other speeches.

1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., i., 199. Some Collier-like Saint, ...
Had rak’d a hodg podg for the Devil.