1837. Barham, I. L. Blasphemer's Warning. When each tries to humbug his dear Royal Brother, in Hopes by such gammon to take one another in.
1839. Comic Almanack, Jan. But if you wish to save your bacon, Give us less gammon.
1849. Dickens, David Copperfield, ch. xxii., p. 199. 'Oh, my goodness, how polite we are!' exclaimed Miss Mowcher. . . . 'What a world of gammon and spinnage it is!'
1890. Hume Nisbet, Bail up! p. 92. I'm real grit and no gammon.
2. (thieves').—A confederate whose duty is to engage the attention of a victim during robbery; a bonnet (q.v.) or cover (q.v.).
Verb (colloquial).—1. To humbug: to deceive; to take in with fibs; to kid (q.v.).
1700. Step to the Bath, quoted in Ashton's Soc. Life in Reign of Queen Anne, v. ii., p. 111. We went to the Groom Porter.s . . . there was Palming, Hodging, Loaded Dice, Levant, and Gammoning, with all the Speed imaginable.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry, ii., 6. Vile I can get fifteen bob a day by gammoning a maim, the devil may vork for me.
1825. Buckstone, The Bear Hunters, ii. There! that's just the way she gammons me at home.
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle's Log, ch. ii. Why, my lad, we shall see tomorrow morning; but you gammons so bad about the rhino that we must prove you a bit; so Kate, my dear,—to the pretty girl who had let me in.
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xiii. So then they pours him out a glass o' wine, and gammons him about his driving, and gets him into a reg'lar good humour.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsly Legends, 'Misadventures at Margate.' And 'cause he gammons so the flats, ve calls him Veeping Bill!
1840. Hood, Tale of a Trumpet. Lord Bacon couldn't have gammoned her better.
1890. Hume Nisbet, Bail Up! p. 70. Oh, don't try to gammon me, you cunning young school-miss.
English Synonyms.—To bam; to bamblustercate; to bamboozle; to bambosh; to barney; to be on the job; to best; to bilk; to blarney; to blow; to bosh; to bounce; to cob; to cod; to cog; to chaff; to come over (or the artful, or Paddy, or the old soldier over) one; to cram; to do; to do brown; to doctor; to do Taffy; to fake the kidment; to flare up; to flam; to flummox; to get at (round, or to windward of) one; to gild the pill; to give a cock's egg; to gravel; to gull; to haze: to jimmify; to jaw; to jockey; to jolly; to kid; to make believe the moon is made of green cheese (Cotgrave); to mogue; to palm off on; to pickle; to plant; to plum; to poke bogey (or fun) at; to promoss; to put the kibosh on; to put in the chair, cart, or basket; to pull the leg; to queer; to quiz; to roast; to roorback; to run a bluff, or the shenanigan; to sell; to send for pigeon's milk; to sit upon; to send for oil of strappum, etc.; to shave; to slum, or slumguzzle; to smoke; to snack; to soap, soft soap, sawder, or soft sawder; to spoof; to stick; to stall; to string, or get on a string; to stuff; to sawdust, or get on sawdust and treacle; to suck; to suck up; to sugar; to swap off; to take a rise out of; to rot; to tommy-rot; to take in, or down; to take to town; to take to the fair; to tip the traveller; to try it on; to throw dust in the eyes; to throw a tub to a whale; to pepper; to throw pepper in the eyes; to use the pepper box; to whiffle; to work the poppycock racket (Irish-American). [Note.—Many of the foregoing are used substantively, e.g., a bam, a barney, a
