Dictionary of Americanisms, by John Russell Bartlett. (NY: Bartlett and Welford, 1848)
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RED DOG MONEY. A term applied, in the State of New York, to certain bank notes which have on their back a large red stamp.
The late General Banking law of the State of New York, which was applied to all new banks, as well as to those the charters of which were renewed, obliged the parties or individuals associated to deposit securities with the Comptroller, and receive from him blank notes of various denominations, signed or hearing the certificate of the Comptroller or officer authorized by him. These notes bore a red stamp on their backs.
So free a system of banking induced many persons, both individually and collectively, to organize banks of issue; and, as a natural consequence, a considerable portion of the circulating medium soon consisted of the notes of the free banks, bearing the red stamp. The community, generally, did not consider these notes as safe as those issued by the old banks, and stigmatized them as red dogs, and the currency as red dog money. Since the passage of the act, however, the charters of most of the banks in the State having expired, they have been renewed under the "General Banking Law;" and, of course, the odium which existed against the first banks no longer exists. In Michigan, they apply the term blue pup money to bank notes having a blue stamp on their backs.
REDEMPTIONER. One who redeems himself or purchases his release from debt or obligation to the master of a ship by his services; or one whose services are sold to pay the expenses of his passage to America.--Webster.
RED LANE. A vulgar name for the throat, chiefly used by tipplers.
I was ridin' in my shirt sleeves, and a thinkin' how slick a mint julep would travel down red land, if I had it.--Sam slick in England, ch. 22.
RED-ROOT. A shrub found upon the prairies near the Rocky Mountains, highly esteemed as a substitute for tea. It resembles the tea of commerce, and affords an excellent beverage.--Scenes in the Rocky Mountains, p. 26.
REGENT. In the State of New York, the member of a cor-
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porate body which is invested with the superintendence of all the colleges, academies, and schools in the State. This board consists of twenty-one members, who are called "the regents of the University of the State of New York." They are appointed and removable by the legislature. They have power to grant acts of incorporation for colleges; to visit and inspect all colleges, academies, and schools; and to make regulations for governing the same.--Statutes of New York.
TO RE-INSURE. To insure the same property a second time by other underwriters.--Webster.
It is common with underwriters or insurance companies, when they find they have too large a sum insured on one ship, or in a particular district, to re-insure a part elsewhere.
The insurer may cause the property insured to be re-insured by other persons.--Walsh, French Com. Code.
TO RE-LOAN. To loan again; to lend what has been lent and repaid.--Webster.
TO RE-INVESTIGATE. To investigate again.--Webster.
TO RE-LAND. To go on shore after having embarked.--Webster.
REMOVABILITY. The capacity of being removed from an office or station; capacity of being displaced.--Webster.
RENCH. A vulgar pronunciation of the word rinse.
RENEWEDLY. Again; once more.--Webster.
This adverb is often heard from our pulpits.--Pickering.
TO RE-OPEN. To open again.--Webster. This word is much used. The theatre re-opens for the season. The schools re-open after their vacations.
REORGANIZATION. The act of organizing anew; as, repeated organization of the troops.--Webster.
REPETITIOUS. Repeating; containing repetition.--Webster. Mr. Pickering notices this word, which he thinks is peculiar to the writer from whom the following extract is taken:
The observation which you have quoted from the Abbé Raynal, which has been written off in a succession not much less repetitious, or protracted, than that in which school-boys of former times wrote.--Remarks on the Rev. of Inchiquin's Letters, Boston, 1815.
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TO RE-SHIP. To ship again; to ship what has been conveyed by water or imported.--Webster.
Much used in all our commercial cities.
RESOLVE. Legal or official determination; legislative act concerning a private person or corporation, or concerning some private business. Public acts of a legislature respect the State; and to give them validity, the bills for such acts must pass through all the legislative forms. Resolves are usually private acts, and are often passed with less formality.--Webster.
TO RESULT. To decide or decree, as an ecclesiastical council.--Pickering.
According to Dr. Milner, the Council of Nice resulted, in opposition to the views of Arius, that the Son was peculiarly of the Father, &c.--Bible News, Rev. N. Worcester.
RESULT. The decision or determination of a council or deliberative assembly; as, 'the result of an ecclesiastical council.' Peculiar to New England.--Webster.
RETIRACY. Sufficiency; competency. It is said, in New England, of a person who has retired from business with a fortune, that he has a retiracy; i. e. a sufficient fortune to retire with.
TO RETIRE. To withdraw; to take away; to make to retire.--Johnson. This transitive use of the verb, which had become obsolete, is now reviving in this country. Of the many examples from good old writers given by Johnson, we will quote only one from Shakspeare:
And driven into despair an enemy's hate.--Richard II.
With us it is used by military men of withdrawing troops.
General Rosa insisted on the blockade being removed before he retired his troops from the Banda Oriental.--Newspaper.
And by merchants of paying their notes.
The French houses are retiring their notes due next mouth, in advance, anticipating commercial difficulties.--Newspaper.
RETORTIVE. Containing retort.--Webster.
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TO RETROSPECT. To look back; to affect what is passed.--Webster.
Mr. Pickering has the following illustration:
To give a correct idea of the circumstances which have gradually produced this conviction, it may be useful to retrospect to an early period.--Letter from Alex. Hamilton to John Adams.
This word cannot be said to be much used. The writings of Gen. Hamilton abound in peculiar expressions.
REVERENT. Strong; as, reverent whisky, i. e. not diluted.--Sherwood's Georgia.
RICH. Luscious, i. e. entertaining; amusing in the highest degree.
Mr. Richardson is rich on rabbits; and divides them into four races.--London Athenæum, Dec. 1847.
Thar we was settin' on our horses, rollin' with laughin' and liquor, and thought the thing was rich [alluding to a dog-fight].--Porter's South-western Tales, p. 57.
About as rich an instance of official idleness, self-conceit, and incivility, as we have seen, fell under our notice yesterday.--N. Y. Com. Adv.
The New York Tribune, in speaking of General Cass's book, "France; its King, Court, and Government," says
Mark how smoothly he glosses over the despotion of Louis Philippe--how adroitly he insinuates that all the agitation and plotting for his overthrow were impelled by atheism, thirst of blood, and an appetite for destroying and plundering. It would be rich indeed if the parasite should vault to the heights of power just one year after the despot he served was cast down to contempt and exile.--N. Y. Tribune, June 2, 1848.
TO RIDE. The use of the word ride, both as a verb and a noun, in the sense of being conveyed in a carriage, has been regarded as an Americanism. Nevertheless, it was formerly so used in England, as appears from the following example:
He made him to ride in the chariot.--Gen. xlii. 43
English writers of the present day, however, consider it as correct to use it only of conveyance on horseback, or some other motive power; but of conveyance in a carriage, they use the verb to drive, as in the following extract from Cowper:
Sometimes I get into a neighbor's chaise, but generally ride [i. e. on horseback].
TO RIDE. To carry. In the city of New York this word is
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used by carmen as well as merchants, when speaking of carting or carrying merchandise on a cart. Thus, 'to ride a box or bale of goods,' is to carry it. I heard a witness in a court-room testify that he had "rode some hogs from the wharf to the store," by which he meant that he carried a load of dead hogs on his cart.
RIFLE. A whetstone for sharpening scythes.--Todd. Worcester. This old English word is retained by the farmers of New England.
All our sports and recreations, if we use them well, must be to our body, or mind, as the mower's whetstone, or rifle, is to his scythe, to sharpen it when it grows dull.--Whately, Redemption of Time (1634), p. 11.
TO RIGHTS. Directly; soon. Peculiar to America.--Webster.
If folks will do what I tell 'em, things will go strait enough to rights.--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 5.
So to rights the express got back, and brought a letter.--Ibid. p. 129.
RIGHT AWAY, or RIGHT OFF. Directly; immediately.
RILE. See Roil.
RISING, or RISING OF. More than; upwards of; as, There were rising of a thousand men killed at the battle of Buena Vista.'
RISKY. Dangerous; hazardous.
RIVER. Mr. Pickering observes that the Americans, in speaking of rivers, commonly put the name before the word river, thus, Connecticut river, Charles river, Merrimack river, Hudson river, Susquehanna river; whereas the English would place the name after it, and say, the river Hudson, the river Merrimack, &c. There are some exceptions, however, when speaking of the largest rivers; for we usually say, the river Mississippi, the river St. Lawrence.
RIVER DRIVER. A term used by lumbermen in Maine, for a man whose business it is to conduct logs down rilnuing streams, to prevent them from lodging upon shoals or remaining in eddies.
ROARER. One who roars; a noisy man.--Worcester.
Ben was an old Mississippi roarer--none of your half and half, but just
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ROBE. A dressed skin; only applied to that of the buffalo. A pack of robes, is ten skins, tied in a pack, which is the manner in which they are brought from the far West to market. For the skins of other wild animals, we always use the term skin, as deer-skin, beaver-skin, muskrat-skin, etc., but never buffalo-skin.
ROCK. A piece of money. A slang term peculiar to the South.
Spare my feelings, Squire, and don't ask me to tell any more. Here I am in town without a rock in my pocket, without a skirt to my coat, or crown to my hat.--Pickings from the New Orleans Picayune.
ROCK. A stone. In the Southern and Western States, stones of any size are absurdly called rocks.
Brother S---- came home in a mighty bad way, with a cold and cough; so I put a hot rock to his feet and gave him a bowl of catmint tea, which put him in a mighty fine sweat, &c.--Georgia Scenes, p. 193.
Mr. M---- was almost dead with the consumption, and had to carry rocks in his pocket to keep the wind from blowin' him away.--Maj. Jones's Travels.
TO ROCK. To throw stones at; to stone. This supremely ridiculous expression is derived from the preceding.
They commenced rocking the Clay Club House in June, on more occasions than one, and on one occasion, threw a rock in at the window, hitting Mr. Clem on the shoulder; and afterwards, on the Whigs leaving the Club House, the heads of Messrs. Clem and Brown were badly cut with rocks! A few nights before the recent election, Mr. Brown was struck with a rock, as the Whig procession was returning from the west end of town, the rock coming either from Chester's tavern, or the Office of the Sentinel.--Jonesborough, Tennessee, Whig.
TO ROIL. 1. To render turbid by stirring up the sediment; 2. To make angry. Provincial in England and colloquial in the United States.--Worcester. In both countries it is now commonly pronounced and written rile.
John was a-dry, and soon cried out--
Goon git some beer we 'ool!
He'd so to wait, it made him riled,
The booths were all shock full.--J. Noakes and Mary Styles.
I won't say your country or my country, and then it won't rile nobody.--Sam Slick in England.
I hope you won't be riled at what I say.--Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 63.
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I tell you what, I was monstrous riled t'other day when I got a letter from Crockett, calling me hard names and abusin' me.--Ibid. p. 90.
No doubt existed in the minds of Mr. Dobbs's fellow-boarders, that the well of his good spirits had been riled.--Neat's Charcole Sketches.
ROILY, or RILY. 1. Turbid; 2. Excited to resentment; vexed.
The boys and gals were laughin' at my scrape and the pickle I was in, that I gin to get riley--Robb, Squatter Life, p. 64.
ROKEAGE, or YOKEAGE. Indian corn parched, pulverized, and mixed with sugar.
ROLLICKING. A peculiar gait of a horse.
Mounted by a rider that is as much a part of him as his hide, he [the mustang pony] goes rollicking ahead.--Thorpe's Backwoods, p. 13.
ROLLING. Undulating; varied by small hills and valleys, as land; so used in the Western States.--Worcester.
TO ROOM. To occupy a room; to lodge.--Worcester.
ROOSTER. The male of the domestic fowl; the cock.
As if the flourish of the quill were the crowing of a rooster.--Neal's Charcoal Sketches.
A huge turkey gobbling in the road, a rooster crowing on the fence, and ducks quacking in the ditches.--Margaret, p. 187.
TO ROPE IN. To take or sweep in collectively; an expression much used in colloquial language at the West. It originated in a common practice of drawing in hay with a rope. The hay is at first heaped in wind-rows. A rope, with a horse attached to each end, is swept like a net around the end of the row, which is thus brought together and dragged to any part of the field.
HIGH ROPES. 'Upon the high ropes;' i. e. elated; in high spirits.--Grose, Prov. Dict.
ROPING IN. Cheating. A very common expression in the South-western States.
ROSS. The rough scaly matter on the surface of the bark of certain trees. A term much used in New England.--Webster.
ROUND. 'To come or get round one,' in popular language, is to gain advantage over one by flattery or deception.--Webster.
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ROUSING. Very great; commonly applied to a fire.--Craven Glossary.
I may find a rousing fire.--Clare's Poems.
ROUND-RIMMERS. Hats with a round rim; hence, those who wear them. In the city of New York, a name applied to a large class of dissipated young men, by others called Bowery boys and Soap-locks.
All over the region of East Bowery is spread--holding it in close subjection--the powerful class of round-rimmers; a fraternity of gentlemen, who, in round crape-bound hats, metal-mounted blue coats, tallow-smoothed locks, &c., carry dismay and terror wherever they move.--C. Mathews, Puffer Hopkins, p. 261.
ROWDY. A riotous, turbulent fellow.
TO ROW UP. To punish with words; to rebuke. It is an essential Westernism, and derived from the practice of making refractory slaves or servants row up the heavy keelboats of early navigation on the Western rivers, against the current, without being frequently relieved. It was thus regarded as a punishment.
We should really like, of all things, to row up the majority of Congress as it deserves in regard to the practice.--N. Y. Tribune, Dec. 10, 1845.
The most spicy part of the proceedings in the Senate was the rowing up which Mr. Hannegan gave Mr. Ritchie of the Union newspaper.--N. Y. Tribune, Jan. 30, 1846.
TO ROW UP SALT RIVER, is a common phrase, used generally to signify political defeat. The distance to which a party is rowed up Salt river depends entirely upon the magnitude of the majority against its candidates. If the defeat is particularly overwhelming, the unsuccessful party is rowed up to the very head waters of Salt river.
It is occasionally used as nearly synonymous with to row up, as in the following example, but this application is rare:
Judge Clayton made a speech that fairly made the tumblers hop. He rowed the Tories up and over Salt river.--Crockett, Tour Down East, p. 46.
To row up Salt river has its origin in the fact that there is a small stream of that name in Kentucky, the passage of which is made difficult and laborious as well by its tortuous course as by the abundance of shallows and bars. The real
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application of the phrase is to the unhappy wight who has the task of propelling the boat up the stream; but in political or slang usage it is to those who are rowed up--the passengers, not the oarsman. [J. Inman.]
ROWEN. In New England, the second growth of grass in a season. We never apply the word to a field, as in England, nor to the growth of corn after harvest.--Webster.
RUGGED. Hardy; robust; healthy. Colloquial in the United States.--Worcester.
RUINATIOUS. A vulgar substitute for ruinous.
The war was very ruinatious to our profession (said the barber).--Margaret, p. 210.
RULLICHIES. (Dutch.) Chopped meat stuffed into small bags of tripe, which are then cut into slices and fried. An old and favorite dish among the descendants of the Dutch in New York.
RUM-BUD. A grog blossom; the popular name of a redness occasioned by the detestable practice of excessive drinking. Rum-buds usually appear first on the nose, and gradually extend over the face. This term seems to have reference to the disease technically defined to be unsuppurative papule, stationary, confluent, red, mottled with purple, chiefly affecting the face, sometimes produced and always aggravated by the use of alcoholic liquors, by exposure to heat, &c.--Rush.
RUN. A small stream or rivulet; a word common in the Southern and Western States, though sometimes heard at the North.
There is no house in the main road between this and the run; and the run is so high, from the freshes, that you will not be able to find it.--Davis's Travels in the United States in 1797.
TO RUN. To press with jokes, sarcasm, or ridicule.--Webster.
RUN. Joke; ridicule. 'To get the run upon one,' is to make a butt of him; turn him into ridicule.
He bade him not to be discouraged at this run upon him for though they had got the laughter upon their side, yet mere wit and raillery could not hold it out long against a work of so much learning.--Warburton on Pope.
TO RUN ONE'S FACE. To make use of one's credit. 'To run one's face for a thing,' is to get it on tick.
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Any one who can run his face for a card of pens, a quire of paper, and a pair of scissors, may set up for an editor; and by loud, incessant bragging, may secure a considerable patronage.--N. Y. Tribune.
RUN OF STONES. A pair of mill-stones is called a run of stones when in operation or placed in a mill. The Rochester flouring mills have ten or twenty run of stones.
RUNGS. A very common name in New England for the rounds or steps of a ladder. The braces or rounds of common chairs are also vulgarly called rungs. This has generally been considered as a mere corruption of rounds; and people of education use only this latter word.--Pickering's Vocabulary. It is provincial in the north of England. In New York it is applied to four upright staves fixed in a cart for supporting the load.
RUSTY DAB. (Gent's, platessa. Cuvier.) The popular name of the Rusty Flat-fish, a fish found on the coast of Massachusetts and New York in deep water.--Storer, Fishes of Mass.
S.
SAFE. An iron box, frequently built into the wall, and used by merchants as a place of deposit for their books and papers. They are now generally made fire proof; and some of these are called 'salamander safes.'
TO SAG. To sink in the middle when supported at both ends; as a long pole.--Worcester. Provincial in England, but in common use with us.
SAGAMORE. The title of a chief or ruler among some of the American tribes of Indians; a sachem.--Worcester.
SADYING. A simple and unaffected mode of dancing, practised by novices in the art.
It would do you good to see our boys and girls dancing. None of your stradling, mincing, sadying; but a regular sifter, cut-the-buckle, chicken-flutter set-to.--Crockett, Tour.
S. C. The common abbreviation for South Carolina.
SALMAGUNDI. A Dutch dish common in New York. It is made of pickled or smoked shad cut into thin slices or shreds,
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and sliced onions. The whole is then acidulated with vinegar. This dish is generally used at tea.
SALT-LICK. A saline spring, where animals resort for drink. See Lick.
SALT-WATER VEGETABLES. In New York, a cant term for oysters and clams.
SAMP. (Indian, nasaump.) Roger Williams describes nasaump as "a kind of meale pottage unparched; from this the English call their samp, which is Indian corn, beaten and boiled, and eaten hot or cold with milke or butter, which are mercies beyond the natives' plaine water, and which is a dish exceedingly wholesome for the English bodies."--Key to the Indian Language, p. 33. For other dishes made of corn, see Hominy, Mush, Suppawn, Suckatash.
Blue corn is light of digestion, and the English make a kind of loblolly of it, to eat with milk, which they call sampe; they beat it in a mortar, and sifte the flower out of it.--Josselyn's New England Rarities, 1672.
SANG. An abbreviation of ginseng. It is or was also used in Virginia as a verb; to go a sanging, is to be engaged in gathering ginseng.
SANGAREE. (Span. sangre, blood.) A drink made of red wine, water, and sugar, with nutmeg grated over it. This word, now very common throughout the United States, was introduced from the West Indies.
SAND-FLEA, or BEACH-FLEA. (Genus, orchestra. Leach.) A small crustacea common along the shores of Long Island, and other sandy places, digging holes wherein they conceal themselves, and living upon dead animal substances.--Nat. Hist. of New York.
SANCTIMONIOUSLYFIED. This queer word explains itself.
I recollect an old sanctimoniouslyfied fellow, who made his negroes whistle while they were picking cherries, for fear they should eat some.--Crockett, Tour down East.
SAPHEAD. A blockhead; a stupid fellow.--Craven Dialect.
SAPPY. Young; not firm; weak.--Johnson. Weak in intellect.--Webster. Used only in familiar language.
SAPSUCKER. A small wood-pecker (the dentrocopus of orni-
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thologists), so called from a common belief that it sucks the sap of trees.--Nat. Hist. of New York.
SARTIN, for certain. A vulgar pronunciation heard in many parts of England and the United States.
SASS-TEA. A decoction of sassafras.
In the morning, Hoss Allen became dreadful poorly. The matron of the house boiled him sass-tea, which the old man said revived him mightily.--Robb, Squatter Life, p. 72.
SATINET. A twilled cloth made of cotton and wool.
SAUCE. (Vulgarly pronounced sass.) Culinary vegetables and roots eaten with flesh.--Webster. This word is provincial in various parts of England in the same sense. Forby defines it as "any sort of vegetable eaten with flesh-meat."--Norfolk Glossary. Garden-stuff, and garden-ware, are the usual terms in England.
Roots, herbs, vine-fruits, and salad-flowers--they dish up in various ways, and find them very delicious sauce to their meats, both roasted and boiled, fresh and salt.--Beverly's Hist. of Virginia.
SAVAGE AS A MEAT AXE. Exceedingly hungry. This vulgar simile is often used in the Northern and Western States.
"Why, you don't eat nothing!" he exclaimed; "ridin' don't agree with you, I guess! Now, for my part, it makes me as savage as a meat axe."--Mrs. Clavers's Forest Life, Vol. I. p. 103.
It would be a charity to give the pious brother some such feed as chicken fixins and doins, for he looks half-starved, and as savage as a meat axe.--Carlton's New Purchase.
SAVAGEROUS. Furious. A low word.
Well, Capting, they were mighty savagerous after liquor; they'd been fightin' the whisky barrel.--Porter's Tales of the South-west.
SAVANNA. (W. Ind. savana.) An open plain, or meadow without wood.
He that rides past through a country may tell how, in general, the parts lie: here a morass, and there a river; woodland in one part, and savannas in another.--Locke.
Plains immense,
And vast savannas, where the wand'ring eye,
Unfix't, is in a verdant ocean lost.--Thomson, Summer.
SAVEY, or SABBY. (Corrupted from the Spanish saber, to know.) To know; to comprehend. A word of very exten-
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sive use wherever a Lingua Franca has been formed of the Spanish or Portuguese language in Asia, Africa, and America. It is used by the negroes in some of the Southern States.
When I read these stories, the negroes looked delighted, and said: "We savey dat well, misses."--Carmichael's West Indies.
TO SAW. To hoax; to play a joke upon one. A western term. In the State of Maine, to saw means to scold.
SAWYER. This may truly be called an American word; for no country without a Mississippi and Missouri could produce a sawyer.
Sawyers are formed by trees, which, growing on the banks of the river, become undermined by the current, and fall into the stream. They are then swept away by the current, with the branches partly above water, rising and falling with the waves; whence the name of sawyer. They are extremely dangerous to steamboats, which sometimes run foul of them, and are either disabled or sunk to the bottom.
SAW-WHET. The popular name, in some of the Northern States, for the Little Owl, or Acadian Owl of Audubon. "It has a sharp note like the filing of a saw, and another like the tinkling of a bell."--Nat. Hist. of New York.
SAY. A speech; what one has to say.--Johnson.
He no sooner said out his say, but up rises a cunning snap.--L'Estrange.
Gentlemen of the jury--I have as yet said nothing on the important subject engaging your attention, and I now propose to have my say.--True Sun.
Having said our say in the first instance, and now given place to our correspondent's replication verbatim, we presume we may here very fairly take leave of the matter.--N. Y. Com. Adv.
SCACE, for scarce. A vulgarism in the interior of the country.
SCALY. Mean; stingy.--Halliwell.
SCALAWAG. A favorite epithet in western New York for a mean fellow; a scape-grace.
SCAMP. A worthless fellow.
SCAPE-GALLOWS. One who has escaped, though deserving of the gallows. It seems to be synonymous with Cotgrave's pendard, which he defines, "a rake-hell, crack-rope, gallow-
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clapper; one for whom the gallows longeth.'--Carr's Craven Dialect.
SCAPE-GRACE. A term of reproach; a graceless fellow.--Brockett.
About this time of year, we notice that three young scape-graces infest the city, who get up their wild freaks at night, and continue them till after day--N. Y. Express
SCARLETINA. A common name for scarlet fever.--Brande.
SCHNAPS. Schedam gin, a kind of Hollands. A Dutch term still preserved in New York.
SCHOOL OF FISH. (Ang. Sax. sceol. Dutch, school.) An other pronunciation of the word shoal, and applied to a large number of fish swimming together. The expression is also provincial in England.
SCHOOL-DISTRICT. A division of a city or State for establishing schools. The State of New York is divided into more than ten thousand such partitions or school-districts.
SCHOOL-MA'AM. A school-mistress. This word is peculiar to New England.
SCHOONER. Both Webster and Todd derive this word from the German schoner, which means the same; but on examining the German dictionaries we find the word written schooner, schoner, and schuner, and characterized as English. The following story has a circumstantiality about it that gives it an air of truth:
"The first vessel of the kind is said to have been built at Gloucester, Mass., by Capt. Andrew Robinson, about the year 1714. The name was given to it from the following circumstance: Capt. R. had constructed a vessel, which he masted and rigged in the manner that schooners now are, and on her going off the stocks into the water, a bystander cried out, 'Oh how she schoons!' R. instantly replied, 'A schooner let her be;' and from that time, this class of vessels has gone by that name. Previously, vessels of this description were unknown either in this country or Europe."--Essex, Mass. Memorial, 1836, p. 100.
What is meant by to schoon, I cannot say.
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SCONCE. The head; pate. An old English vulgarism.
A hyst is of itself bad enough--your sconce gets a crack; then you see all sorts of stars.--J. C. Neal, Dilly Jones.
SCOW. (Dutch, schouw.) A large flat-bottomed boat, generally used as a ferry boat, or as a lighter for loading and unloading vessels when they cannot approach the wharf. On Lake Ontario they are sometimes rigged like a schooner or sloop, with a lee-board or sliding keel, when they make tolerably fast sailers. The word is used in Scotland. A mud-scow (Dutch, modder-schouw) is a vessel of this description, used in New York for cleaning out the docks.
SCRANCH. (Dutch, schransen.) To crunch, crack, or break any hard thing between the teeth.--Phillips's World of Words. This word is in vulgar use in the United States.
Some were coming up the hill, goreing and scranching the crust [of the snow] with their iron corks.--Margaret, p. 172.
SCRAP-BOOK. A blank book for the preservation of short pieces of poetry or other extracts from books and papers.--Webster.
SCRAPS. The dry, husky, and skinny residuum of melted fat.--Forby's Vocabulary. The common word in New England for the same.
SCRATCH. No great scratch. A vulgar, though common phrase, implying not worth much--no great shakes.
There are a good many Joneses in Georgia, and I know some myself that ain't no great scratches.--Maj. Jones's Courtship. p. 136.
SCRATCH. To come to the scratch. To come to the encounter, begin a fight.
When the landlords and tenants in New York fairly come to the scratch [about the first of May], they make hot work of it.--Maj. Downing, May-day in New York, p. 30.
SCRAWL. In New England, a ragged, broken branch of a tree, or other brushwood; brush.--Webster.
SCREAMER. A bouncing fellow or girl. This, like the word roarer, is one of the many terms transferred from animals to men by the hunters of the West.
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If he's a specimen of the Choctaws that live in these parts, they are screamers.--Thorpe's Backwoods.
Mary is a screamer of a girl; I'd rather have her than all the rest.--Mrs. Clavers's Western Clearings.
What's the matter with that woman? said the recorder. Policeman.--That's the way she was carryin' on last night when I arrested her--she's a screamer, your honor, I tell you --Pickings from the Picayune.
SCREW. One who squeezes all he can out of those with whom he has any dealings; an extortioner; miser. Colloquial here as in England.
TO SCREW. To exact upon one in a bargain or reckoning.--Grose. Ex. 'He screwed me down to a very low price.'
SCRIMP. Short; scanty.--Webster.
SCRIMP. A pinching miser; a niggard; a close-fisted person.--Webster.
TO SCRIMP. To contract; to shorten; to make too small or short; to limit or straiten; as, 'to scrimp the pattern of a coat.' This, as well as the previous words, are in common use in New England.--Webster. Used in the north of England.--Brockett.
TO SCROUGE. To crowd; to squeeze. A word provincial in England and in this country. It is used in the Southern States, and among children at the North.
The ladies were obliged to stand up and he scrouged until chairs could be brought.--Drama in Pokerville.
After hard scrouging each way some hundred yards, we came together and held a council.--Carlton, New Purchase, Vol. II. p. 59.
Them boys that's a scrouging each other, will find plenty of room this way.--Peter Cram, Knick. Mag.
SCROUGER. A bouncing fellow or girl. A Western vulgarism.
Tom, the engineer, was a roaring, tearing, bar State scrouge--could chaw up any specimen of the human race, any quantity of tobacco, and drink steam without flinching.--Robb, Squatter Life.
Some of the families in them diggins had about twenty in number; and the gals among them warn't any on your pigeon creatures, that a fellow dassent tech for fear of spilin 'em, but real scrougers; any of 'em could lick a bar easy.--Ibid.
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SCRUMPTIOUS. Nice, particular, fastidious; also, nice, excellent. Probably a corruption of scrupulous. A vulgarism.
I dont want to be scrumptious, judge; but I do want to be a man.--Margaret, p. 304.
SCULLCAP. (Lat. scutellaria.) A medicinal plant; its properties tonic and sudorific.
SCUP. (Indian, shcup-pauog. Roger Williams.) A fish abounding in the waters of New York and New England. In Rhode Island they are called scup; in New York, paugies, or porgies. In speaking of this fish, which Roger William calls the breame, he says, "there is a great abundance which the natives drie in the sunne and smoake; and some English begin to salt. Both waves they keepe all the yeere; and it is hoped it may be as well accepted as cod at a market, and better if once knowne."--Key to the Indian Lang., p. 103. See Porgy.
SCUP. (Dutch, schop.) A swing. A New York word.
TO SCUP. (Dutch, schoppen.) To swing. Common in New York.
SCUSS, for scarce. So pronounced by the backwoodsmen of the West.
The unfortunate traveler urged in vain [for food for his horse]. Hay was scuss, and potatoes were scusser.--Mrs. Clavers's Western Clearings.
SEDGE. In New England, a species of coarse grass. In England it is a small kind of flag. In New England 'a tussock of sedge, is a bunch or tuft of coarse grass, common in swampy meadows.
Margaret was bounding through a wet bog, springing from one tussock of sedge to another.--Margaret, p. 25
SEALER. In New England, an officer appointed by the town or other proper authority, to examine and try weights and measures, and set a stamp on such as are according to the standards established by the State; also an officer who inspects leather, and stamps stick as good. These are called sealers of weights and measures, and scalers of leather.--Webster.
SEARCHING. Piercing; keen; as, 'A searching wind.'--Carr's Craven Dialect.
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SEAWAN. An Indian word meaning the same as wampum, formerly in use among the early colonists of New York.
A quantity of Dutch commodities was purchased on this occasion by the New Plymouth people; especially seawan or wampum, which the English found to be afterwards very beneficial in their trade with the natives.--O'Callaghan, Hist. New Netherland, p. 108.
SECTION. A distinct part of a city, town, country or people; a part of a territory separated by geographical lines, or of a people considered as distinct. Thus we say, the Northern and Eastern section of the United States, the Middle section, the Southern or Western section.--Webster.
The newly surveyed government lands at the West are laid out or divided into squares of 320 acres, which are called sections. These are again divided into four parts of eighty acres each, called quarter sections.
SECTIONAL. Pertaining to a section or distinct part of a larger body or territory.
All sectional interests or party feelings, it is hoped, will hereafter yield to schemes of ambition.--Judge Story.
SEE, for saw (preterite of to see.) I see him yesterday, for I saw him. This corruption is common among the illiterate in New England. I have heard old people use the word seed; as, 'I seed him.' Pegge says this is a common vulgarism in London, "and passes currently with the common people, both for our perfect tense saw, and our participle seen."--Anecdotes of the Eng. Lang.
To think that true which he both heard and see.--Fairfax's Tasso.
O rare! he doth it as like one of these hartolry players as I ever see.--Shakspeare, First Part Henry IV., II. 4.
Mr. M---- was almost dead with the consumption, and had to carry rocks in his pocket to keep the wind from blowing him away. Well, he's a sound and well man, and looks as if he mought live to be a hundred years old. I never seed such an alteration in any body in my life.--Maj. Jones's Sketches.
TO SEE.}
TO SEE ABOUT.} To attend to; to consider.
TO SEE HOW THE CAT JUMPS. A metaphorical expression meaning, to discover the secrets or designs of others.
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We also say, in the same sense, to see which way the wind blows. Both phrases are used in England.
I see how the cat jumps: here's a little tid bit of an extortion now; but you wont find that no go.--Sam Slick in England.
He has written to get up a petition in old Tammany; and then you'll see how the cat will jump.--Maj. Downing.
I know what I knows, I've seen how the cat has been jumpin'.--Margaret, p. 141.
TO SEE THE ELEPHANT, is a South-western phrase, and means, generally, to undergo any disappointment of high-raised expectations. It is in fact nearly or quite synonymous with the ancient "go out for wool and come back shorn." For instance, men who have volunteered for the Mexican war, expecting to reap lots of glory and enjoyment, but instead have found only sickness, fatigue, privations, and suffering, are currently said to have 'seen the elephant.' I do not remember having ever fallen in with a good origin for the term in this employment of it. [Inman.]
A man, being brought before the Recorder in New Orleans, charged with being found drunk the previous night, after appealing to the court, closed with the following remarks:
Spare my feelings, Squire, and don't ask me to tell any more. Here I am in town without a rock in my pocket, without a skirt to my coat or crown to my hat; but, Squire, I'll say no more, I've seen the elephant." The Recorder let him off on condition that he would leave town, as he confessed he had seen the elephant.--Pickings from the Picayune.
Although the merchants from the South and west may buy goods in Philadelphia, all find their way to New York to spend their pocket-money, buy brass watches at the mock auctions, and see the elephant generally.--Phila. Cor. of the N. Y. Tribune.
SEEN. For saw. Ex. I seen him before;' 'I seen her yesterday.' This corruption is common in various parts of the country.
Peter Cram's fits is awful, and go ahead of anything we ever seen.--Knickerbocker Mag., Vol. XVII
SELECTMAN. A magistrate annually elected by the freemen of a town or township in New England, to superintend and manage the affairs and government of the town. The number is commonly from three to five.--Worcester.
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SENATE. In the United States, senate denotes the higher branch or house of a legislature. Such is the Senate of the United States, or upper house of the Congress; and in most of the States, the higher and least numerous branch of the legislature is called the Senate. In the United States, the Senate is an elective body.--Webster.
SERIOUS. Particularly attentive to religious concerns or one's own religious state.--Webster.
Serious has [in New England] the cant acceptation of religious.--Kendall's Travels.
TO SERVE UP. To expose to ridicule; to expose.
SERVICE-BERRY. A wild fruit common to the British provinces in America, described by Sir Geo. Simpson as "a sort of cross between the cranberry and the black currant." It is a good article of food, and is sometimes mixed with pemican. The Indian name is mis-as-quitomine.
Among the usual fruit-bearing shrubs and bushes, I here notice the service-berry.--Scenes in the Rocky Mountains, p. 114.
SESSIONS, in some of the States, is particularly used for a court of justice, held for granting licenses to innkeepers or taverners, for laying out new highways, or altering old ones, and the like.--Webster.
SET. Fixed in opinion; firm.--Webster. 'He is very set in his ways.'
A DEAD SET. A concerted scheme to defraud a person by gaming.--Grose, Slang Dict. This phrase seems to be taken from the lifeless attitude of a pointer in marking his game. We sometimes hear the phrase applied as in the expression, 'He made a dead set at the young lady,' i. e. a determined effort to win her favor.
TO SET BY.}
TO SET MUCH BY.} To regard; to esteem.--Johnson. Norfolk and Craven
Glossaries. These are very old expressions, and were once in good use
in England; they are now classed among provincialisms, and are only heard in
familiar language.
David behaved himself more wisely than all, so that his name was much set by.--1 Samuel., xviii. 30.
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TO SET STORE BY. To set value upon; to appreciate. Ex. 'These things we set great store by.' Used only in familiar language. It is provincial in Yorkshire and in Norfolk.--Forby's Glossary.
He [the Ohio boatman] observed very feelingly, that he set more store to this song than to all the rest.--Hall, Letters from the West, Let. 4.
SET-TO. A scientific pugilistic combat; and figuratively, an argument, debate, contest in words. Both senses are English.
SETTING-POLE. A pole pointed with iron, used for propelling vessels or boats up rivers, in shoal water.
TO SETTLE. To be ordained or installed over a parish, church, or congregation. A. B. was invited to settle in the first society at New Haven. N. D. settled in the ministry very young.--Webster.
TO SETTLE. To liquidate an account; to pay a debt. A sense of the word not given in the English dictionaries, but very common among our merchants and traders. On board our steamboats it is customary, soon after leaving the wharf, for one of the waiters to go about ringing a bell and crying out, 'Passengers what hain't paid their fare, will please step up to the Captain's office and settle.'
TO SETTLE ONE'S HASH. To properly punish one. We also say, 'to settle his business;' 'to fix his flint.'
Brave Prudhoe triumphant shall skim the wide main,
The hash of the Yankees he'll settle;
And ages hereafter shalll serve to proclaim
A Northumberland free o' Newcastle.--Song, Northumberlands [sic] free of Newcastle, Brockett.
SHACK. A vagabond; a low fellow. Ex. 'He's a poor shack of a fellow.' It is provincial in England, and applied in the same way as here.--Craven and Shropshire Glossaries.
SHACKLY. Loose; rickety; as, 'What a shackly old carriage!'
SHAFT. A handle; as, a whip-shaft, the handle of a whip.--Jamieson, Scottish Dictionary.
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SHAGBARKS. A common name in New England for a sort of Walnuts.
SHAKER. One of a religious denomination, styled the 'United Society,' which first rose in Lancashire, England, in the year 1747. In the account which the Shakers give of themselves, they mention the Quakers in the time of Oliver Cromwell, and the French prophets of a later date, as being the first who had a peculiar testimony from the Lord to deliver to the Christian world. But they complain that the former degenerated, losing that desire of love and power with which they first set out; and the latter being of short continuance, their extraordinary communications have long ago ceased. This testimony was revived in the persons of James Wardley, a tailor by trade, and Jane his wife, who wrought at the same occupation! They had belonged to the society of Shakers, but receiving the spirit of the French prophets, and a further degree of light and power, by which they were separated from that community, they continued for several years disconnected from every denomination. During this time their testimony, according to what they saw by vision and revelation from God, was, "That the second appearing of Christ was at hand, and that the church was rising in her full and transcendant glory, which would effect the final downfall of Anti-Christ."
From the shaking of their bodies in religious exercises, they were called Shakers, and some gave them the name of Shaking Quarkers. [sic]
In 1757, Ann Lee joined the Society by confessing her sins to Jane Wardley. In 1772 she professed to have received a revelation from God to repair to America. Accordingly, as many as firmly believed in her testimony, and could settle their temporal concerns, and could furnish necessaries for the voyage, concluded to follow her. They arrived in New York in 1774, and in 1776 removed to Watervliet, eight miles from Albany, where a society was established, which still exists, and where they now possess 2000 acres of good land. From this society have grown several communities; one at New Lebanon, N. Y., which consists of 600 members. Others
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have been founded in Wayne county, N. Y., at Enfield, Connecticut, two in Ohio (one of the latter of which contains 600 members), two in Kentucky having about 500 members each, and one in Indiana. In 1828, the number of societies was sixteen; the number of preachers about forty-five; members gathered into their societies, about 4500; those not received, 900; making in all about 5400.--Evans's Hist. of Religions, Am. Ed. Rapp's Religious Denominations in the United States.
THE SHAKES. The fever and ague.
SHAKING QUAKER. A member of the religious sect called Shakers, which see.
SHAKES. No great shakes. Of no great value; little worth. Common in England and the United States.
I had my hands full, and my head too, just then [when he wrote to Marino Faliero], so it can be no great shakes.--Lord Byron to Murray.
Yit, if they their inquirations make,
In winter time some will
Condemn that place as no great shakes
Where folks ha' the cold chill.--Noakes and Styles, Essex Dialect.
Cousin Pete allowed he knowed he wasn't no great shakes all the time, and was makin' more noise than anybody else.--Maj. Jones's Courtship.
I have forgot what little Latin I learnt to night-school; and, in fact, I never was any great shakes at it.--Sam Slick, 3d Ser. ch. VII.
TO SHAKE A STICK AT. A ridiculous phrase very often heard in low language. When a man is puzzled to give one an idea of a very great number, he calls it 'more than you can shake a stick at.'
New York is an everlastin' great concern, and, as you may well suppose, there's about as many people in it as you could shake a stick at.--Maj. Downing, May-day in New York.
I've been licked fifty times, and got more black eyes and bloody noses than you could shake a stick at, for the purity of our illegal rights.--J. C. Neal, Peter Brush.
We got a little dry or so and wanted a horn; but this was a temperance house, and there was nothing to treat a friend to that was worth shaking a stick at.--Crockett, Tour, p. 87.
SHAKY. A term applied by lumbermen, dealers in timber,
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and carpenters, to boards which are inclined to split from defects in the log from which they have been sawed.
SHANTY. A hut, or mean dwelling.
SHARP SET. Hungry. A colloquial expression much itself in the United States as well as in England.
And so I thinke that if anie were so sharpe set as to eat fried flies, buttered bees, stued snailes, either on Fridaie or Sundaie, he could not there-fore be indicted for haulte treason.--Stanihurst's Ireland, 1596, p. 19.
I'm considerable sharp-set afer waiting five hours and a quarter for breakfast.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 2.
SHARP STICK. 'He's after him with a sharp stick;' i. e. he's determined to have satisfaction, or revenge. Western.
SHAVER. One that is close in bargains, or a sharp dealer.--Webster.
To shave, is to cut off a portion of the outside; hence to strip, deprive, take away unjustly, as a robber or hard dealer one who does this is a shaver. This word, in the United States, is applied to money brokers, who purchase notes at more than legal interest. Banks, when they resort to any means to obtain a large discount, are also called shavers, or shaving banks. Many such are known, but they evade the penalty of the usury laws by discounting at legal interest, and giving the proceeds of the note so discounted, in a draft on some distant place, or in uncurrent money; which are again purchased by the bank or its agents at a discount.
They fell into the hands of the cruel mountain-people, living for the most part by theft, and waiting for wrecks, as hawks for their prey; by these shavers the Turks were stripp'd of all they had.--Knolles's History of the Turks.
To sell our notes, at a great loss, to brokers, or, in other words, to get them unmercifully shaved, was what we wished to avoid.--Perils of Pearl Street, p. 123.
SHAVER. A shaver is a boy, a lad, one just beginning to shave; or else, on the lucus a non lucendo principle, one who does not shave, but would if he could! Comp. Skin-flint. The term is often humorously applied here, as in England, to boys who ape the behavior of men.
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SHECOONERY. A whimsical corruption of the word chicanery, used at the South.
This town's got a monstrous bad name for meanery and shecoonery of all sorts.--Chronicles of Pineville, p. 47.
Among other topics, he dwelt upon the verdancy of his neighbors, and the shecoonery which had been practised upon them.--Ibid. p. 48.
TO SHELL OUT, means to hand over money.
Witness the testimony of Major Noah and others in New York, who prove that the office-holders had to shell out a part of their salary, to support Jacksonism.--Crockett, Tour, p. 163.
The rich folks have pretty much all the money; but as we can out-vote them, they ought to shell out.--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 98.
If I could shell out ideas as easy as you do words, I could soon write another book.--Crockett, Tour down East, p. 5.
SHERRYVALLIES. (Fr. chevalier.) Pantaloons made of thick velvet or leather, buttoned on the outside of each leg, and generally worn over other pantaloons. They are now chiefly worn by teamsters. Many years ago, when the facilities for traveling were not as great as now, and when journeys were made on horseback, sherryvallies were indispensable to the traveller.
SHET. A vulgar pronunciation of shut; also used in England.
Fro him that they ben schet withoute.--Gower, MS. quoted by Halliwell.
Hey, mister! said a shop-boy at last, I want to get shut of you, cause we're goin' to shet up.--Neal's Sketches.
SHEEPSKIN. The parchment diploma received by students for taking their degree at college. In the back settlements are many clergymen who have not had the advantages of a liberal education, and who consequently have no diploma. Some of these look upon their more favored brethren with a little envy. A clergyman is said to have a sheepskin, or to be a sheepskin, when educated at college.
This apostle of ourn never rubbed his back agin a college, nor toted about no sheepskins--no, never ..... How you'd a perished in your sins, if the first preachers had stayed till they got sheepskins.--Carlton's New Purchase.
I can say as well as the best on them sheepskins, if you don't get religion
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SHEER. Applied in the United States to fabrics of cotton or silk; as, sheer muslin; meaning very thin, clear, or transparent.
SHEW, (pron. like shoe,) for showed. Ex. 'I shew him the difference between black and white.' This corruption is so common among all classes in the "American Athens," as to form a sort of shibboleth for distinguishing a Bostonian.
Several years ago this corrupt preterite was very common in New England; but it is now much less used than formerly. Mr. Pegge, in his ironical defence of know'd for knew, mentions the following singular instances of irregular preterite verbs ending in ew or ow: "The modern past tense, I knew, seems to have been imported from the north of England, where the expressions are, 'I sew (instead of I sow'd), my corn;' 'I mew (that is, I mow'd) my hay;' and, 'it snew,' for it snowed."--Pickering.
TO SHIN. To borrow money. A word well understood in New York in times when money is scarce. The author of the amusing work, entitled "Perils of Pearl Street," page 123, thus describes it:
"By shinning, in mercantile phrase, is meant running about to one's acquaintance, to borrow money to meet the emergency of a note at bank. It is doubtless so called, because in the great hurry of picking up cash to meet the hour of three, which perchance is just at hand, the borrower, not having the fear of wheelbarrows, boxes, barrels, piles of brick, &c. before his eyes, is very apt to run furiously against them with his shins, the bark whereof is apt to he grievously battered off by the contact ..... So fares it with the poor merchant, while he is looking out for an acquaintance of whom he may ask, Anything over? This is an expression used by shinners, on applying to their acquaintances for the needful; and means, Have you any money over and above the sum requisite for discharging your own notes? If so, it is of course expected, that, in the way of mercantile courtesy or of a friendly reciprocity, you will
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oblige the shinner so far as to hand it over to him. It is a common way, amongst those who have business in banks, of obliging one another. If they have anything over, they do not withhold it from their neighbor, lest in turn he should do the same towards them.
"Shinners may be divided into two classes: those who shin from necessity, and those who shin from profit. The latter may be called professional shinners; and they consist of merchants of some standing, who make it their business to find out, and get into the good graces of those who are just starting in trade. Correctly judging that these last will have no notes to pay under six months, and that they will take in considerable money in that time, they borrow their surplus cash, promising in their turn to lend whenever the other shall stand in need. But when the time comes, these cunning old shinners take especial care to have nothing over; then coldly turn their back upon the young merchant, and commence a new shinning account with some fresh dupe, who, in like manner, is to be abandoned whenever he requires an interchange of the favor."
The Senator was shinning around, to get gold for the rascally bank-rags, which he was obliged to take.--N. Y. Com. Adv., Dec. 13, 1845
SHINDY. A row; a spree.
If this 'cre isn't that are singing chap agin. He's on a shindy somewhere or other every night.--J. C. Neal, P. Ploddy, p. 18.
TO SHINE. In the Southern States the deer is often hunted by torch-light. The custom is thus described in the 'cracker' dialect of Georgia: "You see the way we does to shine the deer's eyes is this--we holds the pan of fire so, on the left shoulder, and carries the gun at a trail in the right hand. Well, when I wants to look for eyes, I turns round slow, and looks right at the edge of my shadder, what's made by the light behind me in the pan, and if there's a deer in gun-shot of me, his eyes'll shine 'zactly like two balls of fire."--Chronicles of Pineville, p. 169.
He often urged me to accompany him to see how slick he could shine a buck's eyes.--Ibid, p. 162.
SHINE. To take the shine off, is to surpass in beauty or excellence.
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Cousin P--, with his dandy cut trousers, and big whiskers, tried to take the shine off everybody else.--Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 111.
I'm sorry he didn't bring his pitch-pipe with him, jest to take the shine off them 'are singers.--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 37.
SHINE. To take a shine to a person, is to take a fancy to him or her.
SHINE. To cut or make a shine, is to make a great display.
All the boys and gals were going to camp-meetin'; so, to make a shine with Sally, I took her a new parasol.--Robb, Squatter Life.
SHINER. (Genus, Leuciscus.) The popular name of the fish known to naturalists as the Dace. In different parts of the country, however, other small fish are called shiners, from their glittering or shining appearance. In New York a small fish of the genus stilbe, is known to naturalists as the New York Shiner. It is also found in the adjoining States.--Nat. Hist. of New York.
SHINGLE. A jocose term for a sign-board, placed over a shop-door or office.
Doctors and dentists from the United States have stuck up their shingles in Mexico.--N. Y. Com. Adv., Dec. 24, 1848.
Several made bold to peep inside, in spite of the "No Admittance!" which frowned from a shingle over the door.--Drama at Pokerville.
SHINPLASTER. A cant term for a bank-note, or any paper money. It probably came into use in 1837, when the banks suspended specie payment, and when paper money became depreciated in value.
The people may whistle for protection, and put up with what shinplaster rags they can get.--N. Y. Tribune, Dec. 3, 1845.
TO SHIRK. To procure by mean tricks; to steal.--Todd. To live by one's wits; also to shirk off, to sneak away.
Tell me, you that never heard the call of any vocation, that are free of no other company hut your idle companions, that shirke living from others, but time from yourselves.--Bp. Rainbow, Sermons (1635), p. 40.
SHIRTING. A fabric of cotton or linen of a suitable width for making shirts. Goods which are a yard or more wide are called sheeting; when less than a yard, skirting.
TO SHOAL. To lounge about lazily.
You hurled up to the counter as if you were shoaling through the mar-
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SHOEMAKE. A common name for the sumach-tree.
SHOO! A word commonly used to drive away fowls.--Brocketi.
SHOOT, or SHUTE. A passage-way on the side of a steep hill or mountain down which wood and timber are thrown or slid. There are many such on the Hudson and Mohawk rivers. In the West the term is applied to places where a river is artificially contracted in order to increase the depth of water. In Lower Canada a shoot is a place where the stream, being confined by rocks which appear above water, is shot through the aperture with great force.--Cartwright's Labrador, p. 14. In the West, 'to take a shoot after,' is to take a fancy to.
That gal was the prettyest creatur I ever took a shute after; her eyes jest floated about in her head like a star's shadow on a Mississippi wave.--Robb, Squatter Life.
TO SHOOT ONE'S GRANDMOTHER, is a common though vulgar phrase in New England, and means to be mistaken, or to be disappointed; to imagine oneself the discoverer of something in which he is deceived. The common phrase is, 'You've shot your granny.' It is, in fact, synonymous with 'You've found a mare's nest.'
SHOOTING IRON. A common Western term for a rifle, or fowling piece.
SHOPPING. The act of frequenting shops.--Jodrell's Philology. This very useful word is not noticed by Dr. Johnson; and Mr. Todd calls it a cant word of modern origin.
For those the hour of retirement is three, which gives, till noon the day, nine hours tor rest; and after that sufficient time for a ride, auctions, or shopping, before the dinner hour.--Hawkins, Life of Johnson, p. 261.
What between shopping, and morning visits with mamma, &c., I contrive to amuse myself tolerably.--Cœlebs, Vol. I. p. 356.
Mr. Smoothiy was the very prince of retailers. His store was the great shopping mart--or perhaps the great shopping theatre; for the goods were rather exhibited than sold. The ladies, too, while examining the merchandise, had a chance of exhibiting themselves to the lounging beaux, and thus under pretence of shopping, might possibly make a market for themselves.--Perils of Pearl Street, p. 26.
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SHOPPER. One who frequents shops.
It is a most provoking thing to have anythug to do with professed shoppers. They require more attention, without offering an equivalent, than any other class of people in the World.--Ibid. p. 27.
SHORT-COMINGS. Defective performance; deficiency as to duty.--Worcester.
Here is proof that very little was known of the life of St. Clair by the author; and the question instantly arises, has he any excuse for such short-comings?--Review of Headley's Washington, Literary World.
We are willing to receive the rebukes, and suffer the exhortations of our brethren in view of our short-comings.--Princeton Rev., July, 1847.
SHORTS. The bran and coarse part of meal, in mixture.
SHORTS. Small-clothes; breeches.--Webster.
SHOT. Another pronunciation of the word scot, a reckoning.
Far hence be the sad, the lewd fop, and the sot.--B. Jonson.
I called for oysters and whisky, and waited for him to come back and pay his share of the shot.--Sam Slick, 3d Series, ch. 9.
SHOT IN THE NECK. Drunk. A Southern phrase.
SHOTE. A young hog; a pig partially grown. This old English word is written in different forms in several of the counties of England. Cotgrave (1611) spells it shote, shoat, and shoot, and defines it, "a hog that is a year or under a year old." Bailey, Martin, and Johnson, spell it shoot; Ainsworth, shote; Lemon, shot; Moor and Forby, shot and shoat; Holloway, shoot and sheet; Ray, sheat, shote, and shoot; and Ray remarks, that "In Essex they call it a shote." In this country the common form is shote, used for a young hog.--Worcester.
SHOTE. An idle, worthless man. 'A poor shote.' It is also provincial in England in this sense.
SHRINKAGE. A shrinking or contraction into a less compass. 'Make an allowance for the shrinkage of grain in drying.'--Webster.
A new carriage-wheel has been invented, the spokes of which, should they become loose through wear or shrinkage, are made tight by a few turns with a wrench.--N. Y. Tribune.
SHUCK. The outer husk or shell of the walnut, chestnut, &c.; or the husk of Indian corn. In England, the word is
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applied to pods as well as husks; as, pea-shucks. Not worth shucks, is a Southern expression meaning good for nothing.
If them thar is all he's got to offer, he aint worth shucks; and if you don't lick him, you aint worth shucks, neither.--Robb, Squatter Life.
They had three or four hounds, and one great big yellow cow, what wasn't worth schuks to trail.--Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 48.
SHUT. Quit; rid. To be shut of, or to get shut of, signifies to be or to get rid of. We also say, to be or get shot of. The expression is common in England.
Do you call those houzen--those things that have stoops to them?" as he saw here and there a log cabin or unpainted hut, such as abound in the sparsely settled regions of the South. "They pass for houses hereabouts," replied Mr. S----, "though the original owners have generally contrived to get shut of them and gone coon-hunting to the Mississippi."--Letter in N. Y. Journal of Commerce.
TO SHUT UP. To hold one's tongue. A vulgar expression.
Jones was singing, "'Tis the Star Spangled Banner;" but was soon made to shut up, and Leviller's name was called.--Pickings from the Picayune.
Did you ever see a marmaid? Well, then, I reckon you'd best shut up; 'cause I have--and marmen too, and marmisses.--Burton, Waggeries.
I order you again to shut up, said the watchman. There aint no two ways about it--you must either shut up yourself, or I'll shut you up in a winking.--N. O. Picayune, p. 119.
SHY. A fling.
Lord Brougham could not lay the first stone to University College Hospital without having a fling at Oxford and Cambridge. If his Lordship gets a stone in his hand, he must, it seems, have a shy at somebody.--London Punch.
TO SHY. To throw a light substance, as a flat stone, or a shell, with a careless jerk.
Just to make matters lively, I headed up alongside of Molly, and shyed a few soft things at her, such as asking how she liked bar steaks cooked, and if Jim warn't equal in the elbow to a mad panter's tail, and such amusin' conversation.--Robb, Squatter's Life.
TO SHY. To turn aside, or start, as a horse; to sheer.--Forby.
This horse don't shy, does he? inquired Mr. Pickwick. Shy, sir? He wouldn't shy, if he was to meet a vaggin load of monkeys with their tails burnt off.--Pickwick Papers, Ch. V.
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They drove to his assistance, but the horses shyed off at the terrific conduct of the bull.--Knickerbocker Mag., Vol. VI. p. 550.
TO SHY. To hang about.
I was kind of shying round and looking at the everlastin' sight of books, when he came in.--Maj. Downing, May-day in New York, p. 1.
SICK AS A HORSE. 'I'm as sick as a horse,' is a vulgar phrase which is used when a person is exceedingly sick. As a horse is larger than a man, it is customary to use it by way of comparison to denote largeness or excess either in a serious or ludicrous way, as horse-chestnut, horse-leech, horse-laugh, &c. We also say, as sick as a dog.
SIDE-SADDLE FLOWER. (Lat. Sarracenia.) A plant, as well as its whole genus, of very singular structure. It grows in swamps and meadows.--Bigelow's Plants of Boston.
SIGHT. A great many.--Brockett, Glossary. A sight of people, is a great multitude. A sight of things, a great many. The same expressions are used in Yorkshire, England, where they also say, a 'vast of folks,' which is hardly more elegant than our Western phrase, 'a heap of folks.' Sight is used in most of the Northern and Eastern, and heap in the Southern and Western States.
SIGHT. In North Carolina the distance that can be seen on a road is called a sight.
TO SIGNALIZE. To communicate information by means of signals or telegraph. A new and absurd use of the word.
The ship was signalized about eight o'clock this morning, and came up the harbor in fine style.--N. Y. Com. Adv., Jan. 17, 1848.
SILVER FOX. A black fox, with white king-hairs interspersed on the back of it.--Cartwright's Labrador. Like the crossfox, this variety is rare. They are found in the United States and Canada. Their skins are used for ladies' muffs, and bring a high price.
SIMON PURE. 'The real Simon Pure,' is a phrase meaning the genuine article; the real thing; as, 'This whisky is the real Simon Pure.'
SIRS. This plural is adopted by many persons in commercial correspondence in beginning their letters. Instead of the word gentlemen, addressed to a firm, they write, Dear Sirs.