Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/100

1758. A. Murphy, The Upholsterer, Act i. An old crazy fool—axing your pardon, ma'am, for calling your father so.

1763. Foote, Mayor of Garratt, Act ii., Sc. 2. Mrs. Sneak. Where is the puppy? Sneak. Yes, yes, she is axing for me.

1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. vi. 'I axed her would she like to live in the great house, and she said no.'

1883. Echo, Jan. 25, p. 2, col. 3. To axe, considered but a vulgarism, for to ask, is good Saxon.

Axe. An axe to grind, phr. (American).—A much-used phrase of political origin. Men are said to have axes to grind when suspected of selfish or interested motives. From politics the expression has passed into use among all classes of society. The Chicago Daily Inter-Ocean (Feb. 1888) spoke of certain politicians as 'men with axes to grind.' What we believe is right is more often so because it grinds our axe than otherwise.

1871. (From Hoppe's Conversations Lexicon). Miner. 'Who'll turn the grindstones?' When I see a merchant over-polite to his customers, begging them to taste a little brandy, and throwing half his goods on the counter, thinks I, that man has an axe to grind.

1888. Detroit Free Press, Sept. 22. William Black, the novelist, says the only ax a novelist has to grind is the climax.

Axe-My-Eye! subs. (cheap jacks').—One who is up to every trick; a cute fellow.

1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 232.

Stow your gab and gauflery,
To every fakement I'm a fly;
I never takes no fluffery,
For I'm a regular axe-my-eye.

Ayrshires, subs. (Stock Exchange).—Glasgow and South-Western Railway Stock.