Heading
1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. They were gentlemen-sharpers, and not vulgar cracksmen and Clyfakers.
1839. Harrison Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 14. 'Oh, I see!' replied Blueskin, winking significantly. . . . 'Now! slip the purse into my hand. Bravo! the best cly-faker of 'em all; couldn't have done it better.'
1852. Punch, vol. XXIII., p. 161.
1864. Hotten, Slang Dict., p. 103. Cly-faker: a pickpocket.
Cly-faking, subs. (thieves').—Pocket-picking.
For synonyms,
see Push.
1851. Borrow, Lavengro, ch. xxxi., p. 112 (1888). 'What do you mean by cly-faking?' 'Lor, dear! no harm; only taking a handkerchief now and then.'
1861. H. Kingsley, Ravenshoe, ch. lx. Well, sir, I won't deny that the young woman is Bess, and perhaps she may be on the cross, and I don't go to say that what with flimping, and with cly-faking, and such-like, she mayn't be wanted.
Cly-Off, verb (old).—To carry off.
Cf., Cly, verb, sense 1.
1656. Brome, Jovial Crew. Act ii. Here safe in our skipper Let's cly off our peck, And bowse in defiance O' th' Harman-beck.
Clyster-pipe, subs. (old).—An apothecary.
[From clyster = an
injection for costiveness.] Fr.,
un flûtencul, a play upon words.
For synonyms, see Gallipot.
1785. Grose, Dic. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
Cly the Gerke or Jerk, verbal
phr. (old).—See quots.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 66. To cly the gerke, to get a whipping! Cf., to cop a hiding.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club's Repr., 1874), s.v.
1706. E. Coles, Eng. Dic., s.v.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, ch. lxxxii. You deserve to cly the jerk for your patter.
Coach, subs. (formerly University
and public schools'; now common).—A
private tutor; and in a
transferred sense one who trains
another in mental or physical
acquirements, e.g., in Sanskrit,
Shakspeare, cricket, or rowing.
Analogous terms are crammer,
feeder, and grinder.
1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, ch. xxix., p. 240. Besides the regular college tutor, I secured the assistance of what, in the slang of the day, we irreverently termed a coach.
1853. C. Bede, Verdant Green, pt. I., pp. 63-4. 'That man is Cram, the patent safety. He's the first coach in Oxford.' 'A coach,' said our freshman in some wonder. 'Oh, I forgot you didn't know college slang. I suppose a royal mail is the only gentleman coach you know of. Why, in Oxford a coach means a private tutor you must know; and those who can't afford a coach, get a cab alias a crib alias translation.
1864. Eton School-days, ch. ix., p. 103. Lord Fitzwinton, one of the smallest and best coaches—in aquatics—in the school.
1871. Times. 'Report of the Debate in House of Lords on University Test Bill.' The test proposed would be wholly ineffective . . . while it would apply to the college tutors, who had little influence over the young men, it would not affect the coaches, who had the chief direction of their studies.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 29 Nov., p. 1, col. 3. The schoolmaster is concerned with the education of boys up to eighteen; all beyond that falls either to the coach or the professor.
Verb (common).—To prepare for an examination by private instruction; to train: in general use both by coacher and coachee.
1846. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, ch. v. The superb Cuff himself . . . helped him on with his Latin verses, coached him in play-hours.
1870. London Figaro, June 10. 'Quadrille Conversation.' It is, we fear, Quixotic to hope that ladies and gentlemen invited to the same ball would coach with the same master.
