Newmarket meeting bawl about the lists of horses.
1874. Mrs. H. Wood, Johnny Ludlow, 1 S., No. iii., p. 37. 'I must request you to be a little more careful in your language. You have come amidst gentlemen here, not blackguards.'
Adj.—Of or pertaining to a blackguard; to the scum or refuse of society; vile; vicious.
1760. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, vol. II., ch. ix. He is become a blackguard gaol-bird.
1803. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), I., 178. His friends were ill-natured, and behaved like black-*guard beasts.
Verb.—To act like a ruffian; to use filthy, scurrilous language; to play the vagabond or scoundrel.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. xxix. 'I have been called names, and blackguarded quite sufficiently for one sitting.'
So also with other derivatives and compounds—blackguardism, blackguardize, balckguardly, blackguardy.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, I., 124. The talent of common blackguardism.
1849. C. Kingsley, Alton Locke, ch. v. I was awakened by being shoved through the folding-doors of a gin-shop, into a glare of light and hubbub of blackguardism.
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. xxvi. 'I beg your pardon, sir, for saying that; I said it in a hurry. It was blackguardly.'
1883. William Morris, reported in Illust. London News, March 10, p. 243, col. 3. Almost all ordinary wares now made by man were shabbily and pretentiously ugly . . . Not even the pine-trees and gardens could make the rich men's houses at Bournemouth tolerable. They were simply blackguardly; and even as he spoke they were being built by the mile.
Black Hole, subs. (Anglo-Indian).—Cheltenham,
from the number
of retired Anglo-Indians
who live there. Cf., Asia
Minor.
1878. Notes and Queries, 5 S., x., p. 234, col. 1. Gained for Cheltenham the . . . title of The Black Hole.
Black Horse, subs. (military).—A
nickname of the Seventh
Dragoon Guards, so called from
the regimental facings, black
on scarlet. Occasionally the
epithet is shortened into The
Blacks. During the reign of
George II., the corps was
known as The Virgin Mary's
Guard, and is now often called
Strawboots (q.v.).
Black House, subs. (trade).—A
place of business where hours
are long, and wages at starvation
rates; a sweating house.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, III., p. 234. I have mentioned that the black houses or linen-drapers at the west end of London, were principally supplied from the east end.
Black Indies, subs. (old).—Newcastle-on-Tyne,
from its wealth
in coal. The term is now
obsolete, but it was in common
use at the latter part of the
eighteenth century.
Black Jack, subs. (Winchester
College).—A large leathern jug
for beer, holding two gallons.
The term was not peculiar to
Winchester; in olden times
Jacks were common everywhere.
(?) Simon the Cellarer. But oh, oh, oh! his nose doth show, How oft the Black Jack to his lips doth go.
Black job, subs. (common).—A
funeral. Mr. H. J. Byron, in
his annotated copy of the
Slang Dictionary states 'it was
