Dictionary of Americanisms - T-Z



T.
TO SUIT TO A T. To suit or fit exactly. This old English phrase is often
used by ourselves in colloquial language.

TO TACKLE. To attack. Provincial in England.--Halliwell.

Well, I tell you what, it tuck a feller mighty wide hetween the eyes to
tackle that tree, for it was a whopper.--Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 53.

I shook the two fellows off my trunks monstrous quick, and was going to
takle the chaps what had my carpet-bag.--Maj. Jones's Travels.

TACKLE. A horse's harness. Provincial in various parts of England.

TO TACKLE. To tackle a horse, is to harness him.

TAFFY. A kind of candy made of molasses, flour, and butter, baked in a
pan. New York.

TO TAG AFTER. To follow closely after.--Forby.

TAIL-RACE. The water course leading from a mill after it has passed the
water-wheel.

'TAINT. A corrupt abbreviation for it is not.

"Wonder what time it is?" said Miss Mary. "Oh, taint late," says he. "Is
there going to be any preaching here to-morrow?"--Maj. Jones's Courtship,
p. 69.

TAKING. Distress of mind.--Johnson.

What a taking was he in, when your husband asked who was in the basket?--
Shakspeare.

What! alack!
Yours is the last year's almanack!
And so the day you made mistake in?
The king is in a dreadful taking!--Reynard the Fox, p. 60.

I told you I was goin' to get things to rights and when I got here, I
found them in a terrible taking.--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 18.

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TO TAKE ON. To grieve; to fret at a misfortune or disappointinent.

"Why, Polly, what's the matter, gal," inquired he; "what in thunder makes
you take on so? Come, out with the cause, or I shall get a blubberin'
too."--Robb, Squatter Life[.]

TO TAKE TO DO. To take to task; to reprove.

TO TAKE THE SHINE OFF. To surpass; excel.

Dublin is worth seein'; it takes the shine off most cities.--Sam Slick, 3d
Senes.

TALENTED. Furnished with talents; possessing skill or talents.--Webster.
This word is not noticed by any English lexicographer except Knowles.

The London Monthly Magazine (Sept. 1831) blames Mr. Stanley for using this
word. "Sir Robert Peel referred it to his American associations, and
prayed him never to employ it again, with all the strenuousness of Oxonian
adjuration." The Philadelphia Nat. Gaz., in speaking of the above, adds,
"Sir Robert was right in protesting against the word, but wrong in his
reference. It is of London cockney derivation, and still more employed in
Great Britain than in America."
Mr. Bulwer is not yet 'talented,' a pseudo-participle, which no one wili
use who is not ripe for any atrocity; but he 'progresses' at a fearful
rate.--Edinburgh Rev., Vol. LXV. p. 240.

TALKING-IRON. A comical name for a gun or rifle; called also a shooting-
iron.

I hops out of bed, feels for my trunk, and outs with my talkin'-iron, that
was all ready loaded.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 2.

TALL. Sturdy; lusty; hold; spirited; courageous.--Johnson.

Spoke like a tall fellow, that respects his reputation.--Richard III.
They, leaping overboard amidst the billows,
We pluck'd her up, unsunke, like stout tall fellows.--Taylor's Works, 1630.

In the United States, and especially at the South, the word is often used
in the analogous sense of great; excellent; fine.
Stump straightened up and started at a pace that would have staggered
Capt. Barclay, Ellsworth, or the greatest pedestrian mentioned in the
annals of tall walking.'--Kendall's Santa Fé Expedition, Vol. I. p. 393.

A pretty tall excitement came off at Coney Island on Saturday--N. Y.
Tribune.

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TALL, as an adv. Finely; exceedingly highly; very much. Western.

I will walk tall into varmint and Indian: it's a way I've got, and it
comes as natural as grinning to a hyena. I'm a regular tornado, tough as
hickory, and long-winded as a nor'-wester.--Thorpe's Backwoods, p. 131.

I seed Jess warn't pleased, hut I didn't estimate him very tall, so I kept
on dancin' with Sally, and ended by kissin' her good bye, and making him
jealous as a pet pinter.--Robb Squatter Life.

TANTRUM. Affected airs; insolences; whims.----Halliwell.

I thought where your tantrums would end.--Jamieson's Popular Ballads.

A scolding woman, in one of her tantrums, told an old parson, that she
could preach as well as he could, and he might select the text.--Crockett,
Tour down East, p. 83.

TO TAP. To add a new sole or heel to a shoe. Hertfordshire, England.--
Worcester.

TAPIOCA. A substance much nsed in the United States for puddings and other
culinary purposes. It is extracted froin the manioc (gatropha manihot), a
shrub indigenous to tropical America, and now cultivated from Florida to
Magellan. It is said that an acre of manioc will nourish more persons than
six acres of wheat. Its roots attain the size of the thigh. Every part of
the plant is filled with a milky juice, which is a very violent and
dangerous poison, producing death in a few minutes, when swallowed; yet
human ingenuity has converted its roots into an article of food. This is
done by grinding them in wooden mills, after which the paste is put into
sacks, and exposed to the action of a powerful press. The poisonous juice
is thereby extracted, and the residue is the substance known as cassava,
or mandioca, a nutritious flour, preferred by the natives to that from
wheat. When kept from moisture, this flour will keep good for fifteen or
twenty years. The tapioca is made by separating from the fibrous part of
the roots a small quantity of the pulp, after the juice is extracted, and
working it by hand till a thick white cream appears on the surface. This,
being scraped off and washed in water, gradually subsides to the bottom.
After the water is poured off, the remaining moisture is dissipated by a
slow fire, and the substance being constantly stirred,

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gradually forms into grains about as large as those of sago. This is the
purest and most wholesome part of the manioc.--Encyc. Americana.

TO BE ON ONE'S TAPS, is to be always ready on one's feet, literally on
one's shoes; a metaphor borrowed from the shoemaker, taps being a cant
word for shoes among the fraternity.

Your editor, when times are dull, must be 'on his taps,' as the saying is.
When the mail comes through and brings news enough to make things look
lively, why then he must work, and cut, and paste, as though the world
depended on him.--N. Y. Tribune.

TARBOGGIN. In Canada, a light sleigh.

TARNATION. A common oath.--Halliwell. In vulgar use; in New England.

Poor honest John! 'tis plain he know'd

But liddle of live's range,
Or he'd a know'd, gals oft, at fust,

Have ways tarnation strange.--Essex Dialect, p. 11.

TARRING AND FEATHERING. A punishment sometimes inflicted by indignantly
virtuous mobs in Southern and Western States, on persons who have
committed an offence of which they fear the law will not take cognizance,
by daubing them all over with tar, and afterwards covering them with
feathers. "A practice," says Grose, "lately inflicted by the good people
of Boston, in America, on any person convicted or suspected of loyalty."

TAUTAUG. The name of the Blackfish caught in the waters of Rhode Island.
It is an Indian word, and may be found in Roger Williams's Key to the
Indian Language, where, however, he calls it the Sheepshead, an entirely
different fish. In New York it is called Black Fish. Dr. Mitchell gave the
generic name of Tautoga to it, which name it retains among naturalists;
see Storer, Cuvier, and De Kay.

TO TAX. To charge; as, 'What will you tax me a vard for this cloth?' i. e.
what will you charge for it, or what is the price of it?

TEETER. To see-saw on a balanced plank, as children for amusement.--
Worcester. The English pronunciation is titter.

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TEETER-TAWTER. The act of see sawing. In England pronounced titter-
totter.--Halliwell.

TEE-TOTAL. Entirey; total. A modern cant word, formed by reduplication,
the syllable tee being used for the letter t.--Worcester.

Reading books is enough to ruin anybody. There ought to be tee-total
societies against it.--J. C. Neal, Peter Ploddy, p. 15.

He lodged at a strictly teetotal house,
That he might not be shocked with hilarity,
And found among other teetotalisms,
A total exclusion of charity.--The Devil's New Walk.

The Preston (Eng.) chronicle gives an account of the funeral of Richard
Turner, who, it says, was the originator of the term tee-totaller, as
applied to those who abstain from intoxicating drinks.

The deceased had been upwards of fourteen years a member of the Temperance
Society, having signed the pledge in October, 1832, while in a state of
intoxication. It may not be generally known (says the Chronicle) how the
term "tee-totallers" became first adopted by the members of the Total
Abstinence Society, but we may inform our readers that Dickey, (that being
the name by which Mr. Turner was familiarly called,) in one of his
speeches, which were generally characterized by an equal nuxture of wit
and blunders, being at a loss for a woid which would convey to the
audience that he was an out-and-out total abstinence man, said, "I have
signed the tee, tee-total pledge."

This speech was delivered in the Cockpit, at the latter end of the year
1833. The word, being short and expressive, was immediately adopted by the
abstainers of Lancashire, and ultimately throughout England--nay, we may
say throughout the world, for both in America and India the term is
adopted by those who are pledged to abstain from all intoxicating liquors.

TEE-TOTALLER. A thorough temperance man, who avoids every kind of ardent
spirits, wine, and beer.

A stump orator in Michigan, in his appeal to the electors, uses the
following language:
I'm a man that will never refuse to take a glass of grog with a fellow-

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citizen because he wears a ragged coat. Liberty and equality, I say. Three
cheers for liberty and equality, and down with the tee-totallers!--Mrs.
Clavers's Forest Life, Vol. II. p 39.

Candidates for office ain't never near-sighted; they sees every body;
there ain't no tee-totallers among them neither, for they treat every
body.--N. O. Delta.

TEE-TOTALLY. Entirely; totally.

The meetin' houses on one side of the water, how tee-totally different
they be!--Sam Slick in England, ch. 12.

Stranger, I'm powerful sorry, but we're tee-totally out; he took every bit
of food with him.--Carlton's New Purchase, Vol. II. p. 245.

Things weren't going on right; so I pretty nearly gave myself up tee-
totally to the good of the republic.--J. C. Neal, Peter Brush.

TELL. A saying; generally, however, a good one, or a complimentary one. A
young lady will say to another, "I've a tell for you," i. e. I've a
compliment for you, or I have heard some one speak highly of you. Not
elegant.

In his dealings with the other sex, he is a little twistical according to
their tell.--Humphreys, The Yankee in England.

TO TELL ON. To tell of; to tell about.

"Well," says the Gineral, "I am glad I didn't understand him, for now it
stumps me considerable. Major, who was that?" "Why," says I, "Gineral, he
is the son of a man I've heard you tell on a thousand times."--Maj.
Downing's Letters, 29.

TO TELL. To have effect.--Worcester.

President Everett's letter read at the Tabernacle, at the meeting in favor
of Pope Pius IX, contained good counsels of a telling character.--N. Y.
Express, Dec. 1, 1847.

The admirable pamphlet of Mr. Gallatin on the Mexican War, has told in
every part of the country.--Newspaper.

In this vicinity we are all perfectly satisfied with the nominations of
Taylor and Fillmore. I think that we can beat the free trade party with
ease, having old Rough and Ready as a leader. With the Germans he is a
great favorite, and their votes tell in Pennsylvania.--N. Y. Com. Adv.

TELL APART. To distinguish; as, 'Their resemblance was so striking, that I
could not tell them apart.' We also use the phrase, 'To know apart,' in
the same sense.--Hurd's Corrector.

TELL'D, for told. Provincial in England.--Halliwell.

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Now I guess you'd better stayed at hum with mother, next time. She tell'd
you about the perils of the salt sea.--Humphreys, The Yankee in England.

DO TELL. See page 119.

TENDSOME. Requiring much attendance; as, 'a tendsome child.'--Webster.
This word is used in Connecticut.

TENN. The abbreviation for Tennessee.

TEND, for attend.

Most of the passengers in the cars were preachers what had been up to
Augusta to tend the convention.--Maj. Jones's Travels.

TERRAPIN. A name given to a species of tide-water tortoise.--Webster.

TERAWCHY. This word is evidently of Dutch origin, though I cannot discover
its derivation. It is a very common word in the nursery, and is always
accompanied by a peculiar motion of the fingers, with the palm of the hand
presented to the child. It is as well known among the old English families
of New York as among those of Dutch descent.

THICK. Intimate; familiar. 'They are very thick just now.' Provincial in
the North of England, and in Yorkshire.--Craven Glossary and Brockett.

It was lucky I leet of a man that want to school wi' me when I was a lile
lad; we were devlish thick.--Westm. and Cumb. Dialect, p. 127.

THICK. The midst, i. e. of a crowd.

I met a large concourse of people at Louisville. I had no idea of
attracting so much attention; but there I was in the thick of them.--
Crockett, Tour, p. 159.

THIMBLE BERRY. The Black Raspberry, so called by many.

THIMBLE WEED. (Lat. Rudbeckia.) A tall plant six or eight feet high,
resembling the sunflower. It is one of the herbs prepared by the Shakers,
and is used in medicine for its diuretic and tonic properties.

THIS HERE, and THAT THERE. These vulgar pleonasms are often heard in this
country as well as in England.

THOROUGHWORT. (Lat. eupatorium perfoliatum.) A plant used in medicine for
its tonic properties.--Bigelow, Medical Botany.

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LIKE A THOUSAND OF BRICK. A queer simile very often heard. It means, of
course, very heavily; and tben, vigorously; vehemently.

A huge negro woman threw herself convulsively from her feet, and fell like
a thousand of brick across a diminutive old man.--Simon Suggs.

The new "Yankee Doodle," by George P. Morris, created an immense noise.
Nobody could sit still; hands and feet came into the chorus of their own
accord, and the house was down "like a thousand of brick."--New York
Paper.

I see he was gettin riled some, and I thought he'd bile over. You see
that's the way with us Western folks. If folks is sassy, we walk right
into 'em like a thousand of brick.--Mrs. Clavers, Forest Life, Vol. I. p.
109.

THUNDERING. Very; exceedingly. A vulgar word used with pretty much the
same latitude as the English devilish.

I was told that Fanenil Hall was called the "cradle of liberty." I reckon
old King George thought they were thundering fine children that were
rocked in it, and a good many of them.--Crockett, Tour down East, p. 61.

If a chap only comes from the North, and has got a crop of hair and
whiskers, and a coat different from everybody else, and a thunderin' great
big gold chain about his neck, he's the poplerest man among the ladies.--
Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 82.

TICK. A ticket; score; debt; trust; credit.--Worcester. This word, says
Dr. Johnson, seems contracted from ticket, a tally on which debts are
scored. Mr. Halliwell says it signifies a tradesman's bill, formerly
written on a card or ticket.

You may swim in twentie of their boates over the water upon ticket.--
Decker's Gull's Horn Book.

Taking up arms and ammunition from the States united, with whom they went
on ticket, and long days of payment, for want of ready money for their
satisfaction.--Heylin, Hist. of the Presbyterians (1670), p. 437.

To buy on tick, to go on tick, are the common phrases wherein this now
vulgar word is heard. Like many other words once used in good society and
by learned men, 'tick' has almost had its day, and is fast sinking into
obscurity.

When the money is got into hands that have bought all that they have need
of, whoever needs anything else must go on tick or barter for it.--Locke.

Wild. Play on tick and lose the Indies, I'll discharge it all to-morrow.--
Dryden, An Evening's Love, Act 3.

They call this the age of inventions; but why does not some fellow take

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out a patent for providing drinks on tick--he would be a benefactor to his
species.--N. O. Delta.

TICKLER. A common name among merchants and bankers for a book in which a
register of notes or debts is kept, for reference.

TIE. The state produced by an equal number of votes on two opposite
sides.--Worcester. I have not found this very common use of the word in
any other dictionary or glossary, English or American.

TIGHT. Close; parsimonious; saving; as, 'a man tight in his dealings.'
Close; hard; as, 'a tight bargain.'--Webster. To these American uses of
the word is to be added another similar to the last. When money is
difficult to be procured by discounting, &c., business men say, 'the money-
market is tight,' or 'money is tight.' In this sense it is the opposite of
easy, which see.

The money market, except on the best stocks, is getting tight, and there
is a general caling in of loans upon the "fancies."--N. Y. Tribune.

TIGHT MATCH. A close or even match, as of two persons wrestling or running
together; and hence a dimculty. 'The Loco-focos may succeed in electing
Cass, but they will have a tight match to do it.'

TIGHT SCROUGING, i. e. hard squeezing. Said of anything dificult to
accomplish.--Sherwood's Georgia.

TILT-UP, or TIP-UP. The popular name of the Sand-piper. See Peet-weet.

TIME, for hour, in the phrase, 'What time are you?' meaning, What o'clock
is it?

TIMOTHY GRASS. (Phleum pratense.) The common name for the Herd's Grass;
said to be derived from Timothy Hanson, one of its early propagators.--
Bigelow's Flora Bostoniensis.

TIN. A slang word for money. 'Kelter,' 'dimes,' 'dough,' rocks,' and many
other words are used in the same manner.

TINKER. Small mackerel. New England.

TO TIP OVER. To turn over; to capsize.--Worcester.

TO TIP UP. To raise up one end, as of a cart, so that the

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contents may pass out.--Worcester. Both this and the preceding expressions
are used in England, although not in the dictionaries.

TIP-TOP. An expression often used in common conversation, denoting the
utmost degree, excellence or perfection.--Todd's Johnson.

If you love operas those will be the most splendid in Italy; four tip-top
voices; a new theatre.--Gray to West, Let. (1741).

Had I come a few minutes sooner, I might have heard Geeho Dobbin sung in a
tip-top manner by the pimple-nosed spirit at the President's right elbow.--
Goldsmith, Essays, p. 114.

Knowing as I'm a man of tip-top breeding,
That great folks drink no healths whilst they are feeding.--Peter Pindar,
Bozzy and Piozzi.

At the Democratic meeting, held in New York, June 12th, 1848, to ratify
the nomination of Gen. Cass for the Presidency, Gen. Houston, who
addressed the meeting closed as follows:
I am, fellow citizens, exceedingly obliged to you for the notice you have
extended to me, and am happy on turning round, to touch upon my friend
Senator Bright, who is proud of being from Kentucky, proud of Virginia,
and proud of New York. He is a tip-top half-horse, half-alligator, from
Kentucky, and I recommended him to your keeping.--Report in N. Y. Herald,
June 13, 1848.

To crown his accomplishments, Simon was tip-top at the game of 'old
sledge,' which was the fashionable game of that era.--Simon Suggs, p. 14.

He allowed the gentleman to be right good company, and he did not mistrust
but what we'd have a tip-top time of it.--Hoffman, Winter in the West,
Let. 33.

This day is a tip-topper, and it's the last we'll see of the kind 'till we
get back to America again.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 3.

TO TITIVATE. To dress up. 'To titivate oneself,' is to make one's toilet.
Provincial in various parts of England.

Well, I'll arrive in time for dinner; I'll titivate myself up, and down to
drawin'-room.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 23.

TIT FOR TAT. The phrase "tit for tat, if you kill my dog I'll kill your
cat," is among the provincialisms of Hants, and means, that I shall treat
you as you treat me.--Holloway. In the United States this phrase is very
common.

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"Ah, me! your reverence's sister,
Ten times I carnaly have--kissed her."
"All's fair," returns the reverend brother;
"I've done the samer with your mother
Three times as aft; and sae for that
We're on a level, tit for tat."--Allan Ramsay, Poems.

TITHING-MAN. In New England, a parish officer appointed to preserve order
at public worship, and enforce the proper observance of the Sabbath.--
Worcester.

TITTER. An eruption on the skin. This is merely another pronunciation of
tetter, used in New England, and, according to Forby, provincial in
England.

TO, for at or in, is an exceedingly common vulgarism in the Northern
States. We often hear such vile expressiuns as, 'He was not to home,' 'He
lives to York;' and the opposite mistake of in for into (see Appendix) is
hardly less frequent.

I have forgot what little I learnt to night school; and, in fact, I never
was any great shakes at it.--Sam Slick.

TOBACCO. (Span. tabaco.) An American plant; the dried leaves of the plant
used for smoking, chewing, and for making snuff. The name is supposed to
be derived from Tabaco, a province of Yucatan, where it was first found by
the Spaniards.--Worcester. According to Gilii, it is the name of an
instrument which the Indians used for smoking.--Storia Americana.

Among the host of names given to the weed according to the various modes
in which it is prepared for chewing are, Pig-tail, Ladies' twist,
Cavendish, Honey-dew, Negro-head (pron. Nigger-head), Long cut, Short cut,
Bull's eye, Plug, Oronoko leaf, Nail-rod or 32's, Roll, Fine spun, Pound,
&c. &c. There is besides smoking tobacco put up in papers of various
kinds, as Canaster, Kite-foot, Cut-stems, &c. In the form of snuff, there
are also many terms for it, as Maccoboy, Rappee (American and foreign,
named after the places it is manufactured in), American gentleman,
Demigros, Pure Virginia, Copenhgen, Nactchitoches, Bourbon, St. Domingo,
Scotch of various qualities in bladders, High toast, Irish blackguard,
Irish High toast, &c. &c.

TODDY. Originally a tree in the East Indies; afterwards, a

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liquor extracted from it; and latterly a kind of punch made of rum, water,
sugar, and nutmeg.--Todd.

The toddy tree is not unlike the date or palm.--Sir T. Herbert, Travels.

The wine, or toddy, is got by piercing the tree, and putting a jar or
pitcher under, so as the liquor may distil into it.--Ibid. p. 29.

TO TOLL. To entice; to lead on. Western.

TOMAHAWK. Common to several Indian languages of the Atlantic coast of the
United States. Micmac, tomehagen; Abenakis, temahigen; Mohegan,
tumnahegan; Delaware, tamoihecan. An Indian hatchet, or axe.-- Gallatin's
Synopsis.

It was and is the custom of the Indians to go through the ceremony of
burying the tomahawk when they made peace when they went to war, they dug
it up again. Hence the phrases 'to bury the tomahawk,' and 'to dig up the
tomahawk,' are sometimes used by political speakers and writers with
reference to the healing up of past disputes or the breaking out of new
ones. See Hatchet.

TOMCOD. (Gentis, Morrhua. Cuvier.) A small fish common to our coast, but
which become very abundant after the first frost; hence the name of Frost
Fish by which it is also known.--Storer, Fishes of Massachusetts.

Dr. J. V. C. Smith believes the tomcod to be the same as a fish known in
Europe as the tacaud of Cuvier, and that tom-cod is a corruption of tbe
Indian name, tacaud, i. e. plenty fish, as this little fish was well known
to our aborigines.

TONGS. A name for pantaloons and roundabouts formerly in use in New
England.

Children were playing on the green, the boys dressed in tongs; some in
skirt-coats. &c.--Margaret, p. 34.

TOO BIG FOR HIS BREECHES, is said of a man who is above his business;
arrogant; haughty.

Gentlemen, I was one of the first to fire a gun under Andrew Jackson. I
helped to give him all his glory. I liked him well once; but when a man
gets too big for his breeches, I say good bye.--Crockett, Tour, p. 152.

TOOTHACHE GRASS. (Lat. monocera aromatica.) A singular kind of grass which
grows in Florida, with a naked stalk four feet high. It affects the breath
and milk of cows, which eat it when young and tender. The root affects the
salivary glands.--Williams's Florida.

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TOOTIES. A common term in nursery language for the feet. A corruption of
footies, i. e. feet. Used in England as well as with us.

One luckless day last week the poet met
A maid of such perfection, such a face,
Such form, such limbs, such more than mortal grace,
Such dark expressive eyes, such curls of jet,
Arched brows, straight nose, round chil, and lips a prince
Might sue to kiss--in brief, so many beauties,
Such hands, such waist, such ankles--O such tooties!
He really has not ben his own man since:
Rum-punch will not restore his appetite,
Nor rarebits even make him sleep at night!--Am. Rev., July 1848.

TOPPER. Anything superior; a clever or extraordinary person; but generally
in an irontcal sense.--Brockett's North County Words.

The king's meade a bit of a speech,
And gentlefolk says it's a topper.--Poems in Westm. and Cumb.

TOPPING. Fine; gallant; proud; assuming superiority.--Johnson. Webster. In
New England much used among the common people.

Doolittle. Why! what's a ladyship more than any other woman? and wherein
lies the odds?

Newman. Odds! It lies in everything. They are often very odd.

Doolittle. As how, in this particular case?

Newman. She's lofty--topping--has her highs sometimes.--D. Humphreyw, The
Yankee in England.

TORE. The dead kind of grass that remains on the ground in winter. This
word is used in New England.--Ash.

TORE. The place where one stands to shoot marbles from. Used by the boys
of New York.

TORY. The name of a political party. It originated in Ireland, and is
derived from toraigham--to pursue for plunder. (Lingard, Hist. England,
XI. 135.) It imported a leaning towards popery and despotism and was first
applied to the natives of Ireland, who having been deprived of their
estates, supported themselves by depredations on the English settlers.--
Wade's British History, p. 237.

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TO TOTE. To carry. A queer word of unknown origin, much used in the
Southern States. It has been--absurdly enough--derived from the Latin
tollit.

The militia had everlastin great long swords as much as they could tote.--
Maj. Jones's Courtship, p. 39.

Here a boy was ferociously cutting wood--there one toting wood.--Carlton,
The New Purchase, Vol. I. p. 167.

My gun here totes fifteen buckshot and a ball, and slings 'em to kill.--
Chron. of Pineville, p. 169.

"Goodness gracious!" said old Miss Stallins; "white servants! Well, the
Lord knows I wouldn't have none on 'em about me; I could never bear to see
a white gall toatin my child about, and waitin' on me like a nigger; it
would hurt my conscience."--Maj. Jones's Travels.

And its oh! she was so neat a maid,
That her stockings and her shoes
She toted in her lily white hands,
For to keep them from the dews.--Ohio Boatman's Song.

Tom was liberal [with his hooney], and supplied us all with more than we
wanted, and toted his share to his own home.--Thorpe's Backwoods.

The watchman arrested Mr. Wimple for disturbing the peace, and toted him
off to the calaboose.--Pickings from the N. O. Pickayune, p. 120.

STONE TOTER. The most singular fish in this part of the world [the
Southern States] is called the stone-toter, whose brow is surmounted with
several little sharp horns, by the aid of which he totes small flat stones
from one part of the brook to another more quiet, in order to make a snug
little inclosure, for his lady to lie in in safety.-Paulding, Lett. from
the South.

TOUCH. No touch to it, i. e. not to compare with it. A common expression
in vulgar language.

The children of Israel, going out of Egypt, with their flocks and their
little ones, is no touch to it [i. e. the first day of May in New York].--
Maj. Downing, p. 30.

TOUCH-ME-NOT. (Lat. impatiens noli tangere.) A plant found about brooks,
and in moist places.--Michaux, Sylva. A popular name for the common
balsam, so named from the bursting of the capsules when touched with the
fingers.

TOUSE. A noise, or disturbance.--Halliwell.

The Loch Katrin, they [the Scotch] make such a touss about, is jest about
equal to a good sizeable duck-pond in our country.--Sam Slick in England,
ch. 30.

TRACK-SPRINKLER. A contrivance recently invented in Providence, R. I. and
now in use on the railroads in that State, for sprinkling railroad tracks.
A tank of 2OOO gnllons has been found sufficient to sprinkle a track or
railway of 47 miles, the train going at the rate of 20 miles an hour.

TRAIL. Scent left by a track; track followed by the hunter; an Indian
footpath.--Worcester.

It was the policy of the President of Texas to open a direct road to Santa
Fé by a route much nearer than the great Missouri trail.--Kendall's Santa
Fé Expedition, Vol. I. p. 14.

It is suggested that the respective locations for the Indians might be
made, apart from the great Northern and Southern trails, thoroughfares of
migration, and the settlements limited within certain prescribed
boundaries, where the government might protect them from the encroachments
of white men.--Report of the Philadelphia Committee at a meeting in behalf
of the Indians, March 31, 1848.

TO TRAIL. 'Not worth shucks to trail,' is a Southern phrase, meaning that
anything is of little value, not fit to draw home shucks; and probably
equivalent to the classical expression, 'not fit to carry guts to a bear.'

They have three or four hounds, and one great big yellow one, what wasn't
worth shucks to trail.--Maj. Jones's Courtship.

TRAIN. (Fr. traineau.) A peculiar kind of sleigh used for the
transportation of merchandise, wood, &c., in Canada.

TRAINERS. The militia when asseiubled for exercise.

The gentler sex partake, by sympathy at least, in the excitement, by
running after the trainers.--Mrs. Clavers's Western Clearings, p. 28.

TRAINING-DAY. The day when the militia are called out to be reviewed.

TO TRAIPSE. To wqlk in a careless or sluttish manner.--Johnson. It is
almost exclusively a woman's word.

Two slip-shod nurses traipse along,
In lofty madness meditating song,
With tresses staring from poetic dreams,
And never wash'd, but in Castalia's streams.--Pope, Dunciad.

TO TRAMPOUS. To walk; to lounge or wander about; to tramp. The origin of
this word is doubtful; there is nothing analogous to it in the English
provincial glossaries.

p. 363

I felt as lonely as a catamount, and as dull as a bachelor beaver, so I
trampousses off to the stable.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 2.

So we trampoused along down the edge of the swamp, till we came to a
track.--Porter's Tales of the South-west, p. 44.

When I get hum, I guess that my narration
Will make some little stir among the nation.
Some years ago, I landed near to Dover,
And seed strange sights, trampoosing England over.--D. Humphreys, The
Yankee in England.

So away goes lunch, and off goes you and the "Sir" a trampousin' and a
trapsein' over the wet grass agin.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 23.

TRANSCENDENTALISM. The state or quality of being transcendental; a
transcendental notion or system; transcendental philosophy.--Worcester.
This word and most of the following are used by English writers, but
having been but lately introduced into the language, they have not yet
found a place in the dictionaries.

TRANSCENDENTALIST. One who adheres to transcendentalism.--Worcester.

TRANSCENDENTALITY. The quality of being transcendental.--Worcester.

TRANSCENDENTALLY. In a transcendent manner.--Webster.

TO TRANSMOGRIFY. To change; to alter; to metamorphose. A low word. It is
provincial in the North of England, and in Craven Districts.--Glossaries
of Carr and Brockett.

Some friends of John's, who at him now
Had tuk a squint, they cried,
"Sen' John's kep comp'ny with that gal,
He's quite tranmogrified."--Essex Dialect, Noakes and Styles.

See social life and glee sit down

All joyous and unthinking,
Till quite transmogrifed the're grown,
Debauchery and drinking.--Burns.

I went to the calaboose to see my friend, Joe Head, and found him
transmogrified into Mounsheer Tate.--Crockett, Tour, p. 146.

TRAPS. Goods; household stuff, baggage. English and American.

Well, when we alighted, and got the baggage off, away starts the guide
with the Judges traps to a settler's.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 9.

p. 364

TRASH. The leaves of the sugar cane, in the West Indies, stript from the
cane to permit it to ripen. These leaves are laid upon the ground, to
prevent the sun's influence on the earth, that every moisture possible may
be retained for the nourishment of the plant. Trash is also used for
foddering cattle and thatching houses.--Carmichael's West Indies.

TO TRASH. To trash the cane, is to strip off the dry leaves.

TRAVELLER'S JOY. (Lat. clematis.) The popular name of a hardy climbing
vine, common in low grounds. When in fruit, the long feathery tails of the
seeds appear like tufts of wool.--Bigelow's Plants of Boston.

TO TREE. To take refuge in a tree, said of a wild animal; to force to take
refuge in a tree, drive to a tree, said of the hunter. To tree oneself, is
to conceal oneself behind a tree, as in hunting or fighting. This hunter's
word is purely American.

Besides treeing, the wild cat will take advantage of some hole in the
ground, and disappear as suddenly as ghosts at cock-crowing.--Thorpe's
Backwoods, p. 180.

TRICKLY. Tricklish; practising tricks.--Forby. Halliwell. Provincial in
England and colloquial in the United States.

TO TRIG A WHEEL. To stop a wheel so as to prevent its going backwards or
forwards.--Bailey. Still used in New England in the same sense.

I remember when Hash driving a cart up a hill, I used to trig the wheels,
that is, put under a stone.--Margaret, p. 455.

TRIMMINGS. Bread and butter and other necessary eatables for the tea-
table.

A cup of tea with trimmings, is always in season; and is considered as the
orthodox mode of welcoming any guest.--Mrs. Clavers, A New Home.

The party luxuriated at Florence's [eating house] on lobster and
trimings.--Knickerbocker Mag., Aug. 1845.

TO TROLL. A method of fishing, by a long line attached to the stern of a
boat, which is set in motion by sails or muffled oars. A piece of tin, or
a strip of red and white cloth, is attached to the hook, which, passing
rapidly along the sur-

p. 365

face of the water, is seized by the fish. Bass are generally caught in
this way.

TO TROUNCE. To beat.--Halliwell. Colloquial in England and the United
States.

The Lord trounced Sisera, and all his chariots.--Mathews' Trans. of the
Bible, 1537. Judges, v. 15.

Sit down and eat your supper, or I'll trounce you in two minutes.--Maj.
Downing, p. 165.

TRUCK. Medicine.--Sherwood's Georgia.

TRUCK. Produce; cloth, or almost anything.--Ibid.

They purchased homespun, calico, salt, rum, tobacco, and such other truck
as their necessaries called for.--Chronicles of Pineville, p. 40.

The fact is, if the people of Georgia don't take to makin' homespun and
sick truck for themselves, and quit their everlastin' fuss about the
tariff and free trade, the first they'll know, the best part of their
population will be gone to the new States.--Maj. Jones's Travels.

Now they passed down into Punkatees Neck; and in their march they found a
large wigwam full of Indian truck, which the soldiers were for loading
themselves with.--Church's Indian War, 1716.

"What do the doctors givo [sic] for the fever and ague?"
"Oh, they give abundance o' truck."--Georgia Scenes, p. 192.

TRUCK. A two-wheeled vehicle drawn by a horse, and used for carrying
merchandise; a cart.

TRUCKMAN. The driver of a truck.

TRUCKAGE. The charges for carrying on a truck; the cartage. These words
are commonly used in New England instead of cart, carman, and cartage,
elsewhere employed.

TO TRY. To purify; to refine.--Johnson. Webster. A common use of this word
in the United States, and the only one connected with purifying, is in
connection with tallow: 'To try out tallow or lard,' is to melt it down,
for the purpose of purifying. It is provincial in England in the same
sense.--Forby. Halliwell.

TUK, for took. A vulgar pronunciation, common to the North and South.

TO TUCK. To gather into a narrow compass; to crush together; to hinder
from spreading.--Johnson.

p. 366

In the United States we use the phrase, to tuck on, in two different
senses or applications. It means in the first place to lay on; as, 'having
caught the thief, he tucked it on to him without mercy.' 'How you tuck ihe
price on these goods,' i. e. how dear they are. It also means, to force a
bad article on a person in buying or exchanging; as, 'We swapped horses,
and I got this miserable old animal tucked on to me.'

TUCKAHOE. (Lucoperdon solidu. Clayton, Flora Virginica.) The Virginia
truffle. A curious vegetable, sometimes called by the name of Indian
Bread, or Indian Loaf, found in the Southern States, bordering on the
Atlantic. It is a natural production, the origin of which has greatly
perplexed naturalists, as it is commonly found several feet under the
surface, and, like the truffle of Europe, has apparently no stem or leafy
appendage connecting it with the external atmosphere. They are generally
found through the instrumentality of hogs, whose acute sense of smelling
enables them to fix upon the Spot where they lie buried. They are usually
of a globular or flattened oval shape, and rather regular surface, the
large ones resembling somewhat a brown loaf of coarse bread. The size
varies from an acorn to the bigness of a man's head. Its name tuckahoe is
Indian, and is said to designate bread when examined with a microscope, it
exhibits no fibres or pores, or any other indications of organization, so
easily detected in roots and other vegetable productions of ordinary
growth. The Southern botanists regard the tuckahoe as a fungus.--Farmer's
Encyclopedia.

The term tuckahoe is often applied to an inhabitant of Lower Virginia, and
to the poor land in that section of the State.

TUCKERED OUT. Tired out; fatigued. Used in New York and New England.

I guess the Queen don't do her eating very airly; for we sot and sot, and
waited for her, till we got eenamost tuckered out.--N. Y. Family Comp.

TO TUMP. Probably an Indian word. It means to draw a deer or other animal
home through the woods, after he has

p. 367

been killed. Ex. 'We tumped the deer to our cabin.' Used in Maine.

TUMPLINE. A strap placed across ihe forehead to assist a man in carrying a
pack on his back. Used in Maine, where the custom was borrowed from the
Indians.

TUM-TUM. A favorite dish in the West Indies, made by heating the boiled
plantain quite soft in a wooden mortar. It is eaten like a potato pudding,
or made into round cakes and fried.--Carmichael's West Indies, Vol. I. p.
183.

TO TURN IN. To go to bed. Originally a seaman's phrase, but now common on
land.

TUSSLE. The verb to touse is given by both Johnson and Webster, to pull;
to tear; to haul. Both have also the word tussle, a struggle; a conflict,
which they call a vulgar word.

Thus Envy, the vile hag, attacks my rhymes,
Swearing they shall not peep on distant times;
But violent indeed indeed shall be the tussel.--P. Pinder, Royal Tour,
Proem.

In New York the tussle is all about the price of rents; the landlords want
to get them up higher, and the tenants want to get them down lower.--Maj.
Downing, May-day in New York, p. 30.

I'll give the old dog a tussel when it comes to my turn.--Simon Suggs.
'TWA'N'T, for it was not. New England.

TO TWIG. To observe. A flash word common to England and the United States.

Your responsibility men want no endorsers, do you twig?--Sam Slick.

I'm a regular patriot--look at my coat. I'm all for the public good--twig
the holes in my trowsers.--Neal's Sketches.

TWISTICAL. Tortuous; unfair; not quite moral. Used in New England.

He may be straight going, farzino, manwards; but in his declines with
t'other sex, he is a leetle twistical, according to their tell. I wouldn't
make a town talk of it.--D. Humphreys, The Yankee in England.

TO TWITCH. To draw timber along the ground by a chain. Used by lumbermen
in Maine.

TYKE. In Scotland and the North of England, a dog; and hence a
contemptible person.

p. 368

Base tyke, call'st me host? now
By this hand, I swear I scorn the term.--Shakspeare.

I ever had but six months' schooling in all my life, and I consider myself
but a poor tyke to be here addressing the most intelligent people in the
world.--Crockett's Speech, Tour, p. 82.



U.
UGLY. Ill-tempered; bad. New England. Ex. 'He is an ugly fellow,' i. e. of
a bad disposition; wicked. The compound ugly-tempered is also used. They
are both heard only among the illiterate.--Pickering.

UGLY CUSTOMER. A disagreeable or troublesome companion.

Capt. H.----, whom we met at St. Francisco, carried a number of horses,
rather ugly customers, for the occasion, in an undecked vessel, from
California to Woahoo.--Simpson's Overland Journey, Vol. I. p. 224.

UMBRELLA TREE. (Lat. magnolia tripetala.) The popular name of this tree in
the Southern States.

UNBEKNOWN. Unknown. Various dialects of England.--Halliwell. This is a
very common word in familiar language in New England. It is regularly
formed from the Ang. Sax. be-knowen, to know; to recognise; to
acknowledge; pret. bi-knewe; past part. bi-known; all of which are used bv
Piers Ploughman.

And though it hadde costned me catel
Bi-knowen it I nolde.--Piers Ploughman, Vision, l. 407.

For I am bi-knowen,
Ther konnynge clerkes
Shul clokke bi-hynde.--Ibid. l. 1422.

The sooty wretches [chimney sweeps] stole four good flitches of bacon, as
was up the kitchen chimbly, quite unbeknown to me.--T. Hood, The Pagsley
Paper.

UNCLE SAM. The cant or vulgar name of the United States Government;
sometimes called Brother Jonathan. It is used as John Bull is in England.
Mr. Frost, in his Naval History of the United States, gives the following
account of the origin of the name

p. 369

"Immediately after the last declaration of war with England, Elbert
Anderson of New York, then a contractor, visited Troy, on the Hudson;
where was concentrated, and where he purchased, a large quantity of
provisions, beef, pork, &c. The inspectors of these articles at that place
were Messrs. Ebenezer and Samuel Wilson. The latter gentleman (invariably
known as 'Uncle Sam') generally superintended in person a large number of
workmen, who, on this occasion, were employed in overhauling the
provisions purchased by the contractor for the army. The casks were marked
'E. A.--U. S.' This work fell to the lot of a facetious fellow in the
employ of the Messrs. Wilson, who, on being asked by some of his fellow-
workmen the meaning of the mark (for the letters U. S. for United States,
were then almost entirely new to them), said, 'he did not know, unless it
meant Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam'--alluding exclusively, then, to the
said 'Uncle Sam' Wilson. The joke took among the workmen, and passed
currently; and 'Uncle Sam' himself being present, was occasionally rallied
by them on the increasing extent of his possessions." P. 297.

"Many of these workmen, being of a character denominated 'food for powder,'
were found, shortly after, following the recruiting drum, and pushing
toward the frontier lines, for the double purpose of meeting the enemy,
and of eating the provisions they had lately labored to put in good order.
Their old jokes accompanied them, and before the first campaign ended,
this identical one first appeared in print; it gained favor rapidly, till
it penetrated and was recognised in every part of the country, and will,
no doubt, continue so while the United States remain a nation." Ibid.

UNCOMMON. Exceedingly; very.

It struck me with astonishment to hear people huzzaing for me; and took me
so uncommon unexpected, as I had no idea of attracting attention.--
Crockett, Tour down East. p. 17.

UNCONSCIONABLE. Enormous; vast. A low word.--Johnson. Used adverbially at
the West, as in the following example:

"That's an unconscionable slick gal of your'n," says I; and it did tickle

p. 370

his fancy to have her cracked up, 'cause he thought her creation's
finishin' touch--so did I!--Robb's Squatter Life.

UNDERDONE. Cooked rare. A very common word with us. Used in the London
Quarterly Review, but not noticed by Johnson or Todd.

TO UNDERPIN. To place something for support or foundation; to prop; to
support.--Worcester.

UNDERPINNING. Act of supporting something placed under; stone-work or
masonry on which a building rests.--Worcester.

TO UNIFY. To form into one; to reduce to unity.

Supposing, which requires some confidence, the reader to be able to
collect and unify these discursive remarks, we will refer to the previous
question.--Am. Review, Vol. I. N. S. p. 583.

UP-A-DAY. A fondling expression of a nurse to a child, when she takes it
up in her arms, or lifts it over some obstacle. The author is informed by
a friend, that he heard it used on the same occasions, by nurse-maids in
Normandy. It may come from the Anglo-Saxon up-adon, to lift up; but is
more probably a mere contraction for the equally common phrase up-a-daisy.

UPPISH. Proud; insolent.--Halliwell. Colloquial in England and the United
States.

You pretend to think everybody alike; but when it comes to the pint,
you're a sight more uppish than the ra'al quality at home.--Mrs. Clavers's
Western Clearings.

UPPER CRUST. The aristocracy; the higher circles.

I want you to see Peel, Stanley, Graham, Shiel, Russell, Macauley, old
Joe, and so on. They are all upper crust here.--Sam Slick in England.

THE UPPER TEN THOUSAND, and contracted, THE UPPER TEN. The aristocracy;
the upper circles of our large cities. A phrase invented by N. P. Willis.

The Biscaccianti troupe commence their season of Italian Opera at the
Chestnut to-morrow night. The seats for the first night are already many
of them engaged; and engaged, too, by the very cream of our upper ten;"
while the moderate democratic prices of admission which have been wisely
adopted, will invite large slices of the honest and hearty masses.--Letter
from Philad. N. Y. Herald.

UPPER STORY. The brain; as, 'He's not right in his

p. 371

upper story.'--Carr's Craven Dialect. This same expression is sometimes
heard in the United States, to denote a person who is deranged. I have
never heard it applied in any other way.

UP TO. To be up to a thing,' is to understand it. A common English and
American vulgarism.

Have you ever tried faro? whispered Spifflekins; there's considerable fun
at faro, when you are up to it.--J. C. Neal, P. Ploddy, p. 50.

UP TO THE HUB. To the extreme point. The figure is that of a vehicle sunk
in the mud up to the hub of the wheels, which is as far as it can go.

Newman. I am sorry not to have your good opinion. I don't doubt your
courage.

Doolittle. No, you ought not. I've been up to the hub, and didn't flinch.
No, nor won't back out now. I'll tell you what, Mister! if we Yankees come
to loggerheads, we'll show whose heads are hardest.--D. Humphreys, The
Yankee in England, p. 33.

"You've hearn tell of the bank and tarriff questions?"
"Yes," replied the new editor of the Eagle newspaper.
"Well, hoss, we expect you to be right co-chuck up to the hub on them thar
questions, and pour it into the enemy in slashergaff style."--Robb,
Squatter Life, p. 31.

UP TO SNUFF. To be flash; to be shrewd. Up to snuff and a pinch above it,
is a common cant phrase.--Grose. Both these expressions are familiar in
the United States.

"Oh, you remember me, I suppose?" said Mr. Pickwick. "I should think so,"
replied Sam. "Queer start that 'ere, but he was one too many for you,
wasn't he? Up to snuff and a pinch or two over--eh?"--Pickwick Papers.

A Blue Nose or a John Bull, are a primitive, unsuspectin' sort of folks
not exactly up to snuff.--Sam Slick, 3d Ser., p. 121.

Then putting his fingers to his nose, says he, "Mr. Slick, I see you are
up to snuff."--Ibid., ch. 7.

I'm up to snuff, I can tell ye. The master 'll have to kiss the cook this
time; he han't enough left for the cat to lick.--Margaret, p. 305.

The editor of the Herald has commenced several libel suits against Major
Noah. We learn that the Major is up to snuff, and announces his intention
of bringing' thirty or forty suits against Bennett.--N. Y. Tribune.

UP TO TRAP. Knowing; shrewd. English and American.

Phrenology is a little bit dangerous. It is only fit for an old hand like
me, that's up to trap.--Sam Slick.

p. 372

Mr. Richardson is evidently a man who has lived among foxes and rabbits--
who has seen warrens, knows weazles, associates with terriers, and is
perfectly "up to trap."--London Athenæum, Dec. 4, 1848.

TO UPSET. To overturn; to overthrow; to overset.--Todd. Webster. This word
is now so universal both in England and America, that it may appear
unnecessary to give it a place. Its use, however, is quite modern, as it
is not in any of the English dictionaries before Todd, who calls it a low
word.

UPSET PRICE. At public auctions an article is sometimes 'set up,' or
'started,' by the auctioneer at the lowest price at which it can be sold.
This is called the upset price.

TO USE. To frequent a place. This word is employed in the following sense
among the hunters of the West: 'I can see where the deer used,' i. e.
where the deer have been, or where they have fed. The sense intended to be
conveyed, is that the deer has left tracks and other marks on the ground
used by him. This term is also noticed by Mr. Sherwood as provincial in
Georgia; as, 'The sheep used in that field.'

TO USE UP. To discomfit; destroy. Grose has this word, which he calls a
military one, meaning killed.

I have promised to write the life of the magician of the North [Mr. Van
Buren], and I'll do it; and if, when you read it, you don't say I've used
him up, I'm mistaken, that's all.--Crockett, Tour, p. 234.

Moving on the first day of May in New York, has used me up worse than
building forty acres of stone wall.--Maj. Downing, May-day in New York.

In 1836, New York went Loco-foco by 26,000 majority, and the Whig party
was thought, by its adversaries, to be used up for some years.--N. Y.
Tribune, Nov. 1, 1845.

USED TO COULD. A vulgarism used in the Southern States for could formerly;
as, 'I cannot do it now, but I used to could.'--Sherwood's Georgia. We had
set this down as a native vulgarism, until we discovered it in the poem
called John Noakes and Mary Styles, illustrating the Essex dialect of
England.
I don't think I cud clime it now,
Altho' I uster could;
I should't warsley loike to try,
For guelch cum down I should.



p. 373

V.
VACHER. (French.) The stock or cattle keeper on the prairies of the South-
west. His duty is also to break wild horses, to run cattle, and to brand
calves.

TO VAMOS. A Spanish word signifying let us go. Fr. allons! This and other
Spanish expressions have lately become familiar to us through the letters
of soldiers and officers from Mexico in the public prints.

I couldn't stand more than this stanza, coming from a street voice
compared with which the notes of a hand-saw are positively dulcet, and I
accordingly vamosed.--N. Y. Mirror, May, 1848.

Yankee Sullivan's house, corner of Frankfort and Chatham streets, is in a
dangerous condition; its foundation walls having been partially under-
mined for the purpose of excavating a cellar. Its occupants received some
very ominous premonitions of a downfall, early yesterday morning, and
forthwith vamosed with their baggage.--Journ. of Com., June, 1848.

Madame Anna Bishop gave, on Monday evening last, a spirited exhibition,
and not exactly of the vocal powers, for which she is celebrated, but of
the woman's temper of which she has undoubtedly her due portion. The
saloon was duly lighted up, and very soon after the doors were opened a
respectable number of ladies and gentlemen took their seats. But the
Madame appears to have been dissatisfied at the number, and before waiting
to see if others would assemble, the audience was unceremoniously
dismissed, the lights blown out in a huff; and Madame and Monsieur,
fiddles, harps, rosin, catgut and all, vamosed.--Vicksburgh Sentinel, May,
1848.

On Sunday our city was thrown into a state of intense excitement. Between
seventy and eighty slaves had disappeared. Several negroes who had made
arrangements to vamose, were left behind, and, to be revenged, they gave
the alarm.--Washington Paper.

And flinging down a dollar on the table, he seized his white bell-top from
the hand of the trembling waiter, and vamosed. Down Washington and State
streets, he streaked it like a comet, and never slackened his pace till he
pulled up on board the Kennebec.

"Cap'n," said he to the commander, "cast off your lines jest as quick as
you're a mind to--and ef you catch me wanting to see Boston again, jest
take me by the slack and throw me right into that ere biler, boots and
all. by gravy!"--Sunday Atlas.

VARMINT. A corrupt pronunciation of the word vermin. Applied to noxious
wild beasts of any kind.

p. 374

I shot tolerably well, and was satistied the fault would be mine if the
varmints did not suffer.--Crockett, Tour, p. 125.

The idea of a man's keeping two varmints in a grass, when he might shoot a
dozen by going a little way into the woods. These varmints were two
beautiful deer.--Thorpe's Backwoods, p. 156.

VENDUE. (French vendre, to sell, vendu, sold.) Auction; a public sale of
anything by outcry to the highest bidder.--Webster. This word is in use in
the United States and the West Indies; but it is not common in England,
though it is found in the recent English dictionaries of Knowles, Oswald,
and Smart.

VEST. A waistcoat, or garment worn under a coat. We almost always use this
word instead of waistcoat, which we rarely apply to anything but an under
garment, as 'a flannel waistcoat.'

VETO. A prohibition; negative. A word frequently transferred from
political to ordinary life.

The cold, miserable, rainy, unseasonable weather yesterday, put a veto on
all out-door operations.--N. Y. Paper.

VINE-FRETTER. (Lat. aphis puceron.) An insect very destructive to vines,
rose bushes, cabbages, &c. in the Southern States. There are said to be
150 species. On every plant they vary in form and color. They have many
enemies, among them the caterpillar which will destroy about a hundred in
an hour.--Williams's Florida.

VOYAGEUR. (French.) A Canadian boatman.--Worcester.

VT. The common abbreviation for Vermont.

I VUM! An exclamation often heard in New England.

"I vum," said he, "I'm sorry; what's the matter?"--Margaret, p. 86.



W.
TO WABBLE. In the Western States, to make free use of one's tongue; to be
a ready speaker.

TO WABBLE. To move from side to side; to vacillate. A low and barbarous
word, says Dr. Johnson. It is provincial in England.--Forby's Glossary.

p. 375

The sleighs wabbled and warped from side to side, the riders screamed and
hooted at each other.--Margaret, p. 174.

WABBLING. Moving from side to side; vacillation; oscillation.

Leverrier's calculations gave the mass of the unknown planet, by which the
"wabblings" of Herschell were to be set right, at so much; but the mass of
the known planet proves to be loss than a quarter of what Leverrier
figured out; and the result is, in short, that yet another and much larger
planet must be found to make Leverrier's theory good. Here's a pretty
kettle of fish!--N. Y. Com. Adv.

WAFFLE. (Dutch wafel.) A wafer; a soft indented cake baked in an iron
utensil on coals.

WAFFLE-IRON. (Dutch wafelyzen.) A wafer-iron; a utensil for baking
waffles.

TO WALK THE CHALK. To walk straight.

"The Tallapoosa volunteers," said Capt. Suggs; "so let every body look out
and walk the chalk."--Simom Suggs, p. 89.

TO WALK INTO. To get the upper hand of; to take advantage of; to punish. A
common vulgarism.

To walk into a down-east land-jobber, requires great skill, and a very
considerable knowledge of human nature.--Sam Slick, 3d series, p. 122.

Senator Benton's speech at St. Louis will amply reward a perusal. The way
it walks into Tyler and Calhoun for the Texas iniquity fully atones for
all its nonsense about the surrender of Texas in 1819.--New York Tribune,
May 24, 1847.

I went into the dining room, and sot down afore a plate that had my name
writ on a card onto it, and I did walk into the beef, and taters, and
things, about east.--Hiram Bigelow's Lett. in Family Comp.

WALKING TICKET.}
WALKING PAPERS.} Orders to leave; a dismissal. When a person is appointed
to a public office, or receives a commission, he receives papers or
documents investing him with authority; so when he is discharged it is
said in familiar language that 'he has received his walking papers, or his
walking ticket.'

It is probable, that "walking papers" will be forwarded to a large
proportion of the corps diplomatique during the session of Congress. B----
and B---- are already admonished to return, and the invitation will be
pretty general.--N. Y. Herald, Letter from Washington.

We can announce with certainty that the Hon. Mr. D---- has received

p. 376

his walking ticket, accompanied with some correspondence with his
Excellency that has given him offence.--Kingston, Canada, Whig, Dec. 1843.

Mr. Duane was ordered to remove the deposits. He answered that his duty
did not require it. In a few hours he got his walking tickett that his
services were no longer wanted.--Crockett, Tour down East, p. 30.

TO WALK THE PLANK. This is an expression borrowed from the horrible
practice of pirates, who, when they determine to destroy those on board a
captured vessel, place a plank projecting over the side, and force the
unfortunate wretches to walk out on it till they slip off into the water.

WALL, for well, is a common vulgarism in the Northern States.

TO WALLOP. To beat. Provincial in England and colloquial in the United
States.

For sic an infair I've been at
As he's but seldom been,
Whar was see wallopin' and wark
As verra few hev seen.--Poems, Cumberland Dialect, p. 133.

I grabs right hold of the cow's tail, and yelled and screamed like mad,
and wallopped away at her like anything.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 18.

There's nothing like walloping for taking the conceit out of fellows who
think they know more than their betters.--J. C. Neal, Orson Dabbs.

All I know was walloped into me. I took larnin' through the skin.--Neal's
Charcoal Sketches.

WALT. Crank. A ship is said to be walt, when she has not her due ballast,
that is, not enough to enable her to bear her sails, and keep her stiff.
Hubbard in his History of New England, speaking of Lamberton's ill-fated
ship, says, that "she was ill-built, very walt-sided."--Rev. Alex Young,
note, Chron. of Massachusetts.

The next year brought a Flemish fly-boat of about 140 tons, which being
unfit for a fishing voyage, and wanting lodging for the men, they added
unto her another deck, by which means she was carried so high that she
proved walt and unable to bear sail.--White, The Planter's Plea, 1630,
p. 1.

In the North of England walt means to totter; to overthrow.--Halliwell.

WAMBLE-CROPPED. Sick at the stomach; and figuratively, wretched;
humiliated. New England.

There stood Capt. Jumper, shaking General Taylor's hand when he came

p. 377

on board the "Two Pollys," trying to get a start in the address, but could
not; and then I tried it. I never saw Capt. Jumper so melted down before--
and that made me feel so wamblecrapt I could not say a word.--Maj.
Downing, Letter from Baton Rouge, June 15, 1848.

WAMPUM. (A term in the Massachusetts Indian language signifying white, the
color of the shells most frequent in wampum belts.) Shells, or strings of
shells, used by the American Indians as money. These when united form a
broad belt, which is worn as an ornament or girdle. It is sometimes called
wampumpeage, or wampeage, of which wampum seems to be a contraction.--
Encyc. Americana.

A Sagamore with a humberd in his care for a pendant, a black hawk on his
occipit for a plume, good store of wampompeage begirting his loynes, his
bow in hand, his quiver at his back, with six naked Indian spatterlashes
at his heels for his guard, thinks he is all one with King Charles.--
Wood's New England, 1634, p. 66.

WANGAN. (Indian.) In Maine, a boat for carrying provisions.

WASHY. Weak, not firm or hardy.--Webster. Used in New England in various
senses. A washy horse is one that sweats easily and profusely with labor.
An insipid discourse, &c. is often termed by us, as in England, wishy-
washy.

"Let the dog alone," he replied, speaking in a blubbering washy manner.
"You'll spoil him; would you make a goslin of him?"--Margaret, p. 275.

TO WAP. To throw quickly; to flap.--Jamieson. See Whap.

Day is dawen, and cocks hae crawen.
And wappit their wings sae wide.--Jamieson, Pop. Ballads, I. 95.

WAY-BILL. A list of the passengers in a stage-coach, railroad car,
steamboat, or other public conveyance.

WAYS AND MEANS. The committee of 'ways and means,' in legislation, is a
committee to whom is intrusted the consideration of the affairs relating
to the revenue or finances of a country. Worcester.

WAYS, for way, distance, space. A very common vulgarism.

It's only a little ways down to the village.--Margaret, p. 123.

THERE'S NO TWO WAYS ABOUT IT, i. e. the fact is just so, and not
otherwise. A vulgarism of recent origin, equivalent to the common phrase,
'there's no mistake about it,' or 'the fact is so and so, and no mistake.'

p. 378

Jist so, jist so, stranger; you are just about half right and there's no
two ways about it.--Sam Slick, 3d ser. ch. 7.

There's no two ways about that, sir; but arn't you surprised to see such a
fine population?--Hoffman, Winter in the West.

WEATHER-BREEDER. A cloudless sky, after a succession of rainy weather,
denotes rain, and is said to be a weatherbreeder.--Carr's Craven Dialect.
This expression is frequently applied by seafaring men to certain
appearances in the heavens which denote an approaching storm.

WEED. A common term for tobacco; as, 'Do you use the weed? meaning, 'Do
you chew tobacco?'

Those who were not dancing, were seated around the room, some smoking,
others chewing the weed, still others drinking.--Mysteries of New York,
p. 89.

WEEDY-WEEDY. A plant resembling spinach, much used in the West Indies.--
Carmichael's West Indies.

WELL-TO-DO. In a state of ease as to pecuniary circumstances; well off.--
Holloway.

In speaking of the emigration from Stockholm to the United States, the
Liverpool Times (June 19, 1846> says:
The greater part of the emigrants are artisans and agriculturists, and
many of them are tolerably well-to-do in the world.

Each sectary, well-to-do, in Persia or India, leaves a portion of his
wealth to the mosques of Kerbela, that his body may be received there.--
London Athenæum, 1845, p. 1246.

By all accounts you are considerable well-to-do, and have made an
everlastin' sight of money among the Blue Noses of Nova Scotia.--Sam
SlickL.

The old lady being now well-to-do, in a spiritual sense.--Boston Times.

WELL TO LIVE. To be in easy circumstances; to live comfortably.

I wanted to see how these Northerners could buy our cotton, carry it home,
manufacture it, bring it back, and sell it for half nothing; and, in the
mean time, be well-to-live, and make money besides.--Crockett, Tour.

WENCH. In the United States, this word is only applied to black females.

WHANG. Sinews of the buffalo or other animal, or small strips of thin deer-
skin, used by the dwellers and hunters of the prairies for sewing.

WHALING. A lashing; a beating.

p. 379

But it is possible that we may, at some future time, go to war with
England--her writers and speakers having spoken disparagingly of us, while
her actors, half-pay officers and other travelling gentry carry their
heads rather high in passing through our country--for which "arrogant"
demeanor we are bound to give her a whaling!--N. Y. Tribune, Aug. 1847.

WHALER. A big, strapping fellow.

He's a whaler! said Rory; but his face is mighty little for his body and
legs.--Georgia Scenes, p. 184.

WHAP. A quick and smart stroke.--Jamieson.

He hit him on the wame ane wap,
It buft lyke ony bledder.--Chr. Kirk, st. 12.

WHAP! An interjection expressive of a sudden blow, like whack! slap! bang!
&c.

But a day of payment is coming; and if the money ain't forthcoming, out
comes a Randolph writ, and whap goes your money and liberty.--Crockett's
Speech, Tour, p. 109.

I began to think smokin' warn't so bad alter all, when whap went my cigar
right out of my mouth into my bosom.--Sam Slick in England, ch. 2.

TO WHAP OVER. To turn over. (New England.)

WHAPPER.}
WHOPPER. Anything uncommonly large; as, 'That's a whopper,' meaning a
monstrous lie. 'In angling to-day, I caught a whopper,' i. e. a very large
fish. This word is provincial in various parts of England, and is a common
one here. In his paper on the ancient words in Yorkshire, Dr. Willan
observes that, "in many other instances, our forefathers seem to have
estimated weights and magnitudes by the force of their blows. To us, they
employed in gradation, the terms slapper, smacker, banger, thumper,
twacker, swinger, and rattler. The word bumper, concerning which much has
been said and surmised, is not of a more exalted origin than that which is
here stated."--Archæologia, Vol. XVII. p. 162.

WHAPPING. Very large.

We've got only one crib, and that's a whappin' one too.--Maj. Downing's
Letters, p. 67.

A whappin' big pan of mush stood in the centre of the table, and a large
pan of milk beside it, with lots of corn-bread and butter.--Robb, Squatter
Life, p. 61.

WHARVES, plur. of wharf. Mr. Pickering notices this form of the plural of
wharf, as peculiar to Americans. The

p. 380

English say wharfs. In the Colony and Province Laws of Massachusetts, Mr.
Pickering says he has observed the plural wharfs (or wharfes) as late as
the year 1735; but after that period the form wharves is used.

WHAT NOT. In New York a piece of furniture usually placed in a parlor,
consisting of several shelves, upon which are placed articles of vertu,
porcelain, small bronzes, etc.

WHAT'S WHAT. 'To know what's what,' is to know the nature of things, or as
we classically express it, 'to be up to a thing or two.'

I know what's what. I know on which side my bread is buttered.--Ford, The
Lady's Trial, II. 1.

I knew the time would come when they would say I knew what was what.--Maj.
Downing's Letters, p. 190.

A tame, vacant, doll-faced, idle gall. What a fate for a man who knows
what's what.--Sam Slick, 2d series.

Why, Mr. Bott, if I wasn't a married man, I'd soon know who's who and
what's what.--C. Mathews, The Motley Book, p. 13.

TO WHEAL. To swell.

The father discovered a gainsome expression of face. ... His cheeks
whealed and puffed, and through his lips his laughter exposod his white
teeth.--Margaret, p. 10.

WHEEL-HORSE. An intimate friend; one's right hand man. Western.

WHELK. An old name for a pustule, a pimple. The word is not much used in
America.

White cohush will bring out the whelk in less than no time; and brook lime
will break any fever.--Margaret, p. 375.

We have authority for this word from Shakspeare, Henry V.:
His face is all bobukies and whelks, and knobs, and flames of fire.

WHELKY. Protuberant; rounded.--Todd. Still heard sometimes in New England.

Ne ought the whelky pearls esteemeth he,
Which are from Indian seas brought far away.--Spenser, Virg. Gnat.

Pluck, unchilled by the coolness of the drench, stood, sunk to his chin in
the snow, his shining bald pate and whelky red face streaming with
moisture.--Margaret, p. 167.

WHIG AND TORY. Names of political parties. The history

p. 381

of the origin of these names is thus given by Cooke: "According to Roger
North, the country party were the first to brand their opponents with the
name by which they were afterwards to be designated. The Duke of York
naturally affected the society of those whose religion was the same as his
own, and the Catholic Irish were, therefore, in great favor with him. This
circumstance occasioned the popular party to call all the opponents of the
Exclusion Bill, Irishmen. The hatred the majority of the English bore to
popery, rendered this an opprobrious term; but it required to be
strengthened before it could express the animosity of a hostile party. The
epithet became successively "Wild Irish," and "Bog-trotter;" but it was
yet imperfect until some zealous member of the opposition found invective
and euphony united in the word Tory, a name applied to a set of ruffians
in the disturbed districts of Ireland--according to North, to the most
despicable savages among the wild Irish. The word Whig is of Scotch
origin. It was, say some writers, used in that country for the curd into
which milk was reduced previous to being converted into cheese; it was
thence deemed applicable to the sour and curdled tempers of the persecuted
Covenanters. The rebellion of that ill-used sect, of course, rendered them
an object of the greatest abhorrence to the high church and high
monarchical Tories, and they bestowed this name upon their opponents in
England as the most reproachful they could discover.

"Bishop Burnet, however, gives another derivation of this word. He dates
it from the year 1648, when the Scotch people, excited by their ministers,
rose and marched to Edinburgh to oppose the prosecution of Duke Hamilton's
attempt in favor of the captive king. The south-west counties of Scotland,
producing little corn, were obliged to send to Leith for stores of that
article, which were supplied by the superior facilities of the northern
counties. The carriers who repaired to Leith for this purpose were then
called Whiggamors, from the word wiggam, which they used in driving their
cattle. The inhabitants of Leith and Edinburgh very naturally extended
this epithet to the whole of the inhabi-

p. 382

tants of the counties whence these men came; and as the insurgents who
occupied Edinburgh sprang chiefly from the West, that circumstance was
called the Whiggamors' inroad. The name was afterwards applied to the
whole body of Covenanters, gradually shortened into Whig, and thence, as
already mentioned, the word was introduced into England."--Cooke's Hist.
of Parties, Vol. I. p.138.

Let such men quit all pretence to civility and breeding,--they are ruder
than Tories, and wild Americas; and were they treated according to their
deserts from mankind, they would meet evervwhere with chains and
strappadoes.--Glanville, Sermons, 4.

During the war of the American Revolution, the terms Whig and Tory were
applied--the former to those who supported the revolutionary movement; the
latter to the royalists, or those who adhered to the British government.
Tory was then a stigma of the most reproachful kind.

WHIGS AND DEMOCRATS. It is very difficult to give a precise, accurate, and
satisfactory definition of the principles distinctively held by the two
great political parties into which the population of the American Union is
divided--one popularly styling itself the Democratic, the other the Whig
party. In point of fact, the satirical definition of the outs and the ins
would not be very far out of the way; for the doctrines of government and
legislation theoretically advanced by the Democratic party, when out of
power, are not so radically diverse from those of the Whigs, in the same
condition, as are the practices of either when in power, from ther
professions. As times change and circumstances, the demands or wishes of
these parties change also; so that what was Whig doctrine in 1830, may be
Democratic doctrine in 1850, and vice versa.

The nominal distinctions, some years ago, were, on the Whig side, a
Protective Tariff, a National Bank, Division of the Proceeds of the Public
Lands among all the States, and the duty of the General Government to
carry on works of Public Improvement, such as Canals, Roads, &c. &c.

The Democrats were for Free Trade, no connection of the Government with
Banking, Distribution of the Proceeds of

p. 383

the Public Lands among the States in which the lands lie, and Non-
interference by the Government with Internal Improvements.

But all these questions have rarely been brought to the practical test.
Absolute free trade has ever been impracticable, because it would deprive
the Government of the revenue derived from imposts. The Government has
always been obliged to carry on some kind of financial operations,
differing more in name than in reality from a system of banking considered
as a means of supplying a currency. The public lands have rarely yielded
any proceeds beyond the wants of the Government. And the only real
question, fairly at issue, has been that of improvement in public works.

The Democrats popularly charge upon the Whigs a desire to strengthen and
centralize the National Government--declaring themselves to be in favor
rather of strengthening the local Governments of the several States, and
of limiting, as far as constitutionally possible, the agency of the
National Government, or Government of the Union; but in practice the
Democratic party is ready enough to assume power for the General
Government, when anything is to be gained by so doing; and in this, as in
most other instances, the difference between the two parties lies rather
in words than in deeds.

The Whigs, on the other hand, popularly charge upon the Democrats an undue
degree of subserviency to the Executive, especially since the elevation of
General Jackson to the Presidency, in 1829; and this charge seems to have
more foundation in truth. It is certain, at all events, that the three
Democratic Presidents, Jackson, Van Buren, and Polk, have found a more
zealous and unscrupulous support in questionable measures than was ever
given to a Whig President, or indeed to any of their predecessors.

Perhaps, on the whole, it may be truly said, that the main practical
difference between the Whigs and Democrats lies in the fact that the
latter give a more unhesitating and thorough-going support to all measures
which involve the question of party-measures, which become, by any means,

p. 384

party tests, whether emanating from the Executive or adopted by him under
impulse from his adherents. [J. Inman.]

WHIGGISM.}
WHIGGERY.} Whig principles; the doctrines of the Whig party. These words
have, in the United States, lost their original opprobious meaning, and
are now frequently used by the Whigs theniselves in speaking of their
doctrines.

The Whigs in Boston see by the movement in New York, and by accounts from
Ohio, that there is a chance, at least, of General Taylor being vigorously
opposed by some men of undoubted Whiggery in influential States.--Let.
from Boston, in N. Y. Herald, June 21, 1848.

Professor Amasa Walker here came forward, and said they all stood together
upon the same platform, and he had heard too much of Whiggery ahout their
proceedings already and as they stood upon a broad platform, he as a
Democrat protested against their throwing in so much Whiggery, and
entertaining them abunt Gen. Taylor's white horse.--Rep. of a Freesoil
Convention at Worcester, Mass, June 28, 1848.

WHILE, for till. 'Stay while I come,' instead of stay till I come. Used in
the Southern States.--Sherwood's Georgia.

WHIM-WHAM. A toy; a freak; a strange fancy.--Jodrell's Philology.

Another gentleman declares that if we make them and their whim-whams the
subject at any more essays, he shall he under the necessity of applying
for satisfaction.--Paulding, Salmagundi, Vol. I. p. 283.

WHIFFLE-TREE.}
WHIPPLE-TREE.} The bar to which the traces of a carriage are fastened for
draught.--Webster. Whipple-tree is the form used in England.--Halliwell.

WHISTLE. The throat. It is never used in this sense except in the phrase
to 'wet one's whistle,' to take a draught of liquor. It is a corruption of
weesle; an old term for the weasand, or windpipe.--Craven Dialect.

So was hire joly whistle wel ywette.--Chaucer, Reeve's Tale.

Let's turn to the fire, drink the other cup to wet our whistles.--Izaak
Walton.

Youn' John seem'd nut at all to be
A chip ov the old block;
To see some wet their whistles so,

It oft gave him a shock.--John Noakes, Essex Dialect, p. 7.

p. 385

I can talk all day, and most of the night, only stopping to wet my
whistle.--J. C. Neal, Peter Brush.

TO WHISTLE. To whistle before you are out of the woods, i. e. to exult
before you are out of danger.

But let not the Pennsylvanians rejoice--let them not whistle before they
are out of the woods. The duties on iron will have to come down too.--N.
Y. Tribune.

WHOLE. Made out of whole cloth, i. e. altogether an invention.

Isn't this entire story about your Jersey grandmother made out of whole
cloth--spun on your own wheel, with your tongue for the spindle?--C.
Mathews, The Motley Book, p. 68.

WHOLE HEAP. Many; several; much; a large congregation. An expression
peculiar to certain parts of the South and West.--Sherwood's Georgia.

WICKET. A place of shelter, or camp made of the boughs of trees, used by
lumbermen in Maine.

WIDE AWAKE. On the alert; ready; prepared.

The Captain was wide awake, but said nothing.--Simon Suggs, p. 37.

WIGWAM. An Indian cabin or hut, usually made of skins. The word is
Algonkin, and occurs in variously modified forms in the languages of that
family. See Gallatin's Synopsis, p. 322.

WILD CAT BANK. One of the various terms applied at the West to some of the
irresponsible banks of the country. A bank in Michigan had a large
vignette on its notes representing a panther, which animal is familiarly
called there a Wild cat. This bank failed, having a large amount of its
notes in circulation, which notes were afterwards denominated Wild cat
money, and the banks issuing them, Wild cat Banks. Other banks were
compelled to stop payment soon after, in consequence of the want of
confidence in them; and the term became general in Michigan, to denote
banking institutions of an unsound character. The term Blue-pup money had
a similar origin, as distinguished from Red Dog, which see.

We had to sell some of our land to pay taxes on the rest--and then took
our pay in Wild-cat money, that turned to waste paper before we could get
it off our hands.--Mrs. Clavers's Forest Life, Vol. I. p. 91.

p. 386

TO WILT. To droop; to wither, as plants or flowers cut or plucked off.--
Holloway. A word common in the United States, and provincial in England,
where welk and welt are used in the same sense.--Worcester.

Miss Amy pinned a flower to her breast; and when she died, she held the
wilted fragments close in her hand.--Margaret, p. 213.

Some cotton fellar here bid sixty dollrs [for the slave], and she wilted
right down.--Robb, Squatter Life.

TO WIND UP. To close up; to give the quietus to an antagonist in a debate;
to effectually demolish.

John Bell, of Tennessee, that unmistakable Whig, has rung out a clear and
far-sounding note of alarm concerning this Mexican war. He is as serious
as a preacher, and as downright as a sailor in the delivery of his
sentiments. A lively dialogue, constituting a kind of interlude to his
speech, sprang up between him and Mr. Cass, in which he pretty effectually
'wound up' the Senator from Michigan.--N. Y. Com. Adv.

WINKLE-HAWK. (Dutch winkel-haak.) A rent in the shape of the letter L,
frequently made in cloth. It is also called a winkel-hole. A New York
term.

WINSOME. (Ang. Sax. winsum.) Lively; cheerful; gay. Provincial in the
North of England.--Brockett.

The curls that overhang her face
In clusters rich and winsome grace.--American Anthology.

WIRE-PULLERS. A term denoting those who, by their secret plots and
intrigues, control the movements of the puppets on the political stage.

Baltimore is now the great Babel of Loco-Focoism. All the officeholders,
office-seekers, hangers-on, and wire-pullers of that craft are here. What
a happy country this would be if Baltimore should sink, or swim off
somewhere! I have no doubt that some righteous would perish, but there
would be so much demagogueism swamped with them, that the political
atmosphere would be renovated for half a century!--N. Y. Tribune.

The coming contest is to decide whether the people have the privilege of
electing a chief magistrate of their own selection, or only the privilege
of electing one of two candidates whom self-elected cliques of nominators
choose to designate. The Philadelphia Convention will assemble on
Wednesday; already that city is filled with wire-pullers, pubic opinion
manufacturers, embryo cabinet officers, future ambassadors, and the whole
brood of political make-shifts, who contrive to live out of the public
purse, by abusing public credulity.--N. Y. Mirror, June 5, 1848.

p. 376

WITCH-HAZEL. The popular name of the Hamamelis, so called from its reputed
power of bending towards water, when a forked branch is held in the hands.

WITNESS-TREES. In newly settled countries at the West, every mile square
is marked by "blazed" trees, and the corners especially distinguished by
stakes whose place is pointed out by trees called witness-trees.--Mrs.
Clavers's Western Clearings, p. 3.

WOLFISH. Savage; savagely hungry. A Western word.

You must fight or play; so take your choice, for I feel most wolfish and
savagerous.--Sam Slick, 3d ser. p. 117.

They'd been fightin' the barrel of whiskey mightily comin' up, and were
perfectly wolfish arter some har of the dog.--Porter's Tales of the South-
west, p. 121.

WONDERMENT. Astonishment; amazement. Wonderful appearance. Not in use
except in low or sarcastic language.--Johnson. Examples of the use of this
word may he found in many of the old authors.

When my pen would write her titles true,
It ravish'd is with fancy's wonderment.--Spenser.

Those things which I here set down, do naturally take the sense, and not
respect petty wonderments.--Bacon.

The neighbors made a wonderment of it, and asked him what he meant.--
L'Estrange.

All was wonderment and curiosity, and Jim for once experienced the
inadequacy of the human capacity for such extraordinary occasions.--
Chronicles of Pineville, p. 12.

WONT. A common contraction for will not. In New England, generally
pronounced wunt.

TO WOOD. To supply or get supplies of wood.--Webster. The boats on the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers, in their long voyages, are obliged to make
frequent stops for supplies of wood. The common phrase is to wood up.

The process of wooding-up is one of the first the passenger is made
acquainted with. The steamer approaches a dreary shore, without any thing
to indicate that civilized man has ever set his foot upon it for many
miles above or below, save the wood-pile and a small cabin of the rudest
description. The terms are usually agreed upon before the boat touches the
bank; and when it does, fifteen or twenty hands throw on board from

p. 388

twenty to fifty cords, at a price varying from $2 to $3, for which the
woodman pockets his money and seems a happy man, although cut off from the
world.--N. Y. Tribune, 1848.

WOODING-PLACE. A station on the banks of a river where the steamboats stop
to take in supplies of wood.

WOODCHUCK. In New England, the popular name of a rodent mammal, a species
of the marmot tribe of animals, the Arctomys monax. The ground hog. It
burrows and is dormant in winter.--Webster.

Yea, verily, this is like a woodchuck in clover.--Margaret, p. 48.

WORM-FENCE. A rail fence laid up in a zig-zag manner.

Mr. Haskell, one of the delegates from Tennessee, told a story about a man
in his "diggins," who was once struck by "Joe Larkins," by which he was
knocked at least forty rods. He fell against a worm-fence, and carried
away about forty panels, rail-riders and all.--N. Y. Mirror.

WORRY. Perplexity; trouble. In familiar language, this word is often used
with us; and, although it does not appear in any of the English
glossaries, it is also employed colloqnially in England. We say, 'the
worry of business;' 'the worry of politics,' &c.

I am in the midst of the bustle attending the opening of the session [of
Parliament]. ..... But the excitement and worry are more than I can stand
in the present state of my health.--Lord Sydenham, Memoirs.

WORSER, instead of worse, is often heard among the vulgar. It is common in
the dialect of London, and like other words enlarged from the comparative
degree, is supported by eminent writers.--Pegge, Anecdotes of the English
Lang.

Let the worser spirit tempt me again.--Shakspeare, King Lear.

Changed to a worser shape thou canst not be.--Ibid. King Henry VI.

WRATH. Like all wrath, i. e. violently; vehemently; angrily. A Southern
simile.

There ain't much to interest the traveller on the railroad from Hamburg to
Charleston. Most of the passengers in the car were preachers what had been
up to Augusta to attend the convention. They was the dryest set of old
codgers I ever met with, till the jolting of the cars shook up their ideas
a little, and then they fell to disputin' like all wrath.--Maj. Jones's
Travels.

WRATHY. Very angry. A colloquial word.--Webster.

Oh! you're wrathy, ain't ye? Why, I didn't mean nothin' but what was
civil!--Mrs. Clavers's Forest Life, Vol. I. p. 103.

p. 389

The General was as wrathy as thunder; and when he gets his dander up, it's
no joke.--Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 34.

WRINKLE. An idea; notion; fancy. Colloquial in England and America.

Such was, after a little experience, the wrinkle adopted by Mr. Lear.--
Quarterly Rev., Vol. LXXXI. p.462.

WRAPPER. A loose dress or gown.

Her dress was a blue-striped linen short-gown, wrapper, or long-short, a
coarse petticoat, checked apron, &c.--Margaret, p. 14.
Y.
TO YANK. To twitch or jerk powerfully; a term used in New England.

YARN. A story. A word chiefly used by seamen. To spin a long yarn, is to
tell a long or tedious story.

YEATH, for earth. A vulgar pronunciation among the illiterate at the
South.

"Why you don't look like the same man. I never should have know'd you.
What upon yeath has brung you out so?"--Maj. Jones's Sketches.

YEATHQUAKE, for earthquake. A Southern vulgarism like the previous word.

The Girard College is all solid brick and marble. Fire can't get hold of
wood enough to raise a blaze, and the walls are so thick and strong that
nothin' short of Florida lightnin' or a South American yeathquake couldn't
knock it down.--Maj. Jones's Sketches.

YELLOW-HAMMER. (Picus auratus. Wilson, Ornith.) The popular name of the
Golden-winged Woodpecker, the most beautiful of the genus. It is known by
other names in different parts of the country, as High-hole, Yacker,
Clape, &c.

YELLOWS, often pronounced yallers. A disease of horses and cattle, which
is indicated by a yellow appearance of the eyes, inside of the lips, &c.--
Farrier's Dict. This word is old and is used by Shakspeare:

His horse sped with spavins and raied with the yellows.--Taming of the
Shrew.

p. 390

Ask the widder if she can cure the yallers in Bright [the ox].--Margaret,
p. 17.

YOU DON'T! for you don't say so; really! indeed! as, 'Mr. A threw a back
somerset out of a three-story window. Ans. Now, you don't!'

YOUNG DEMOCRACY. See Barnburners.

YOURN. This is a contraction of your own, or a change in the termination
of the pronoun yours, in conformity with mine, and which is much used by
the illiterate and vulgar. It is also used in London, and in the West of
England. "The cockney," says Mr. Pegge, "considers such words as our own
and your own as pronouns possessive, a little too much expanded; and,
therefore, thinks it proper to curtail them, and to compress them into the
words ourn and yourn, for common daily use."--Anecdotes of the English
Lang., p. 193.

He might have added hisn, as in the famous distich:
Him as prigs vot isn't hisn,
Ven he's cotch'd 'il go to pris'n.