- monde who live in that quarter
of town.
Apothecary. To talk like an
apothecary, verb phr. (old).--To
talk nonsense; from the
pseudo gravity and affectation
of knowledge often assumed by
these gentlemen at a time when
their status was not legally held
under examination and license
of the Apothecaries' Company.
Apothecaries' bill, subs. (old).--A long bill.
Apothecaries', or raw Latin, subs. (old).--Now called dog-Latin (q.v.).
Apple Cart, subs. (common). 1.
The human body. A slang term
similar to 'potato trap,' 'bread-*basket,'
'bellows,' 'blue
plumb,' 'bacon,' and 'beer-barrel'
(all of which see). There
are numerous variations in
usage; e.g., if two men are
quarrelling[**P2: "quarreling"?], and a friend of one
interferes saying 'I will upset
his apple cart' it means, 'while
you are parleying with the enemy
I will knock him down.' Again,
if a child falls down, says W.
W. Skeat (referring to his early
Kentish remembrance of the
word), you first enquire if he is
much hurt. If he is merely a
little frightened you say, 'Well,
never mind, then; you've only
upset your apple cart and spilt
the gooseberries.' The child
laughs and all is well again.
2. Also employed in a figurative sense. To upset an apple cart sometimes means, not so much to knock a man down, as to prevent him from doing what he wants to do by the upsetting as it were, of an imaginary apple cart; i.e., to thwart; to disarrange; to overthrow; to ruin an undertaking. Sometimes the expression is varied by To upset the old woman's apple cart. Barrère's reference of the genesis of the phrase to the costermonger's imaginative powers is 'all conjecture and fancy'; as also is his American derivation of the expression in its more figurative sense. In the first place apple carts are perfectly familiar objects in all country districts; and, in the second,the phrase is too old a provincialism to need deriving from the peripatetic vendors in question. Further, though to upset is apple cart and spill the peaches may be an American variation for the second sense, as it appears to have been so used, dialectically, throughout England, the weight of assumption must be given to its English origin, and subsequent transference to America.
English Synonyms. Beer-barrel; bacon.
French Synonyms. Acabit (literally, quality); cylindre (popular: lit. 'a cylinder,' or 'barrel.' Cf. with English 'beer barrel'); grosse caisse (popular: lit. 'a large case,' or 'box'); paillasse (popular: lit. 'a straw mattress'); also place d'armes; casaquin.
Apple Dumpling Shop, subs. phr.
(common).--A woman's bosom.
For synonyms, see Dairies.
Apple-Monger.--The same as
apple-squire (q.v.).
Apple-Pie Bed, subs. phr. (common).--A
practical joke, which consists
in making up a bed with
the sheets doubled half way
