Agony Piler, subs. (theatrical).--An actor who performs blood-curdling parts in sensational plays.
Aground, adv. (common).--Stuck
fast; stopped; at a loss; ruined;
like a boat or vessel aground.
Ain't, sometimes a'n't, verb. phr.
(vulgar).--A corruption for (1)
'am not'; (2) 'are not'; (3)
'is not.' This vulgarism appears
to be of much older standing
than set down in the New
English Dictionary, where the
earliest example is dated 1778.
1710. Swift, Journal to Stella, 24 Nov., Letter ix. I ain't vexed at this puppy business of the bishops, although I was a little at first.
1800. Coleridge, Piccolomini, II., xiii. Ter. Where's the hurry? Come, one other composing draught. ... Goetz. Excuse me--ain't able. Ter. A thimble-full! Goetz. Excuse me.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 275. 'You are a clever fellow, Tottle, ain't you?'
Air and Exercise, subs. phr. (old).--To
have had air and exercise,
signified that one had undergone
a whipping at the cart's
tail. About the beginning of
the present century the same
operation was termed shoving
the tumbler (q.v.). Among
thieves at the present time, air
and exercise means penal servitude;
in America it is only
applied to a short term of imprisonment.
Airing, subs. (racing).--When it is
not intended that a horse shall
win a race for which it is brought
to the starting post, it is said to
be out for an airing.
1889. Evening Standard, June 25 (Sir Chas. Russell's speech in Durham-Chetwynd case).--What he (Sir C. Russell) meant was that Sir G. Chetwynd never did anything so gross and vulgar as that [tell the jockey to 'pull' horses], and that if horses were pulled, that was not the way in which in any class of turf society instructions were given. A wink was as good as a nod, and trainers and jockeys, from various trivial circumstances, very easily gathered whether a particular horse was only out for an airing, or whether it was on the job.
Air Line, or Air Line Road (American).--To
take the air line;
to go direct, and by the shortest
route; idiomatically, to avoid
circumlocution. The origin of
this expression is to be found in
the straight lines of railway,
without expensive detours and
grades, which in the New World
are rendered possible by the
vast expanses of unbroken level.
These lines of railway are called
air line roads, or straight
shoots (q.v). De Vere remarks
that since the number of such
roads has increased in the more
thickly settled parts of the
Union, the advantages of direct
lines between two great centres
over others which meander from
town to town have become very
manifest, and for a few years a
tendency to build such air lines
has agitated Legislatures, from
whom and from financial circles
in the States and abroad help is
asked. These lines not unfrequently
run for long distances
by the side of older lines.
1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, Jan. 24. The obese style once admired is now disliked. Many old English authors had too much rhetoric for our age. Of one thing we are profoundly convicted, that we have no time to spare for superfluities. An author must take the air line or we will not travel.
1888. Florida Times Union Advertisement, Feb. 11. Ask for tickets viâ Augusta or Atlanta and the Piedmont air line.
