blunder); hacer á uno su dominguillo, or hacer su dominguillo de uno (colloquial: dominguillo = a figure made of straw and used at bull fights to enrage the bulls); freirsela á alguno (freir = to fry: to deceive: Cf., to roast, or have one on toast); pegar una tostada á alguno (= to put one on toast: more generally to play a practical joke); echar de baranda (= to embroider (q.v.)); bola (subs. = humbug; a hoax); borrufalla (subs. = bombast); chicolear (= to jest in gallantry); engatusar (= to rob, or hurt; also to trick without intention); candonguear (also = to jeer); abrir á chasco (also to jeer); encantar (= to enchant).
Italian Synonyms. Ganezzarre; dar la stolfa; traversare (cf., to come over); scamuffare = to disguise oneself).
2. (thieves').—To act as bonnet (q.v.) or cover (q.v.) to a thief.
Intj. (colloquial).—Nonsense; Skittles! (q.v.).
1827. R. B. Peake, Comfortable Lodgings, i., 3. Sir H. (aside). Gammon!
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle's Log, ch. vii. Gammon, tell that to the marines: you're a spy, messmate.
1854. Thackeray, The Rose and the Ring, p. 100. Ha! said the king, you dare to say gammon to your sovereign.
1861. A. Trollope, Framley Parsonage, ch. iv. Gammon, said Mr. Gowerby; and as he said it he looked with a kind of derisive smile into the clergyman's face.
Gammon and Patter, subs. phr. (thieves').—1. (old).—The language used by thieves; 2. (modern).—A meeting; a palaver. (q.v.). 3. Commonplace talk of any kind.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, p. 150. Gammon and Patter is the language of cant, spoke among themselves: when one of them speaks well, another says he gammons well.
1811. Lex. Bal. s.v. Gammon and Patter. Commonplace talk of any kind.
To give (or keep) in gammon. verb. phr. (thieves').—To engage a person's attention while a confederate is robbing him.
1719. Capt. Alex. Smith, Thieves' Grammar, s.v.
1821. Haggart, Life, p. 51. Bagrie called the woman of the house, kept her in gammon in the back room, while I returned and brought off the till. Ibid., p. 68. I whidded to the Doctor and he gave me gammon.
To Gammon Lushy (or queer, etc.). verb. phr. (thieves').—To feign drunkenness, sickness, etc.
To Gammon the Twelve. verb. phr. (thieves').—To deceive the jury.
1819. Vaux, Life. A man who has been tried by a criminal court and by a plausible defence has induced the jury to acquit him, or to banish the capital part of the charge and so to save his life, is said by his associates to have gammoned the twelve in prime twig, alluding to the number of jurymen.
Gammoner, subs. (old).—1. One
who gammons (q.v.); a nonsense-monger.
Fr., bonisseur de
loffitudes; blagueur; mangeur de
frimes.
1823. Moncrieff, Tom and Jerry i. Fly to the gammoners, and awake to everything that's going on.
2. (thieves').—A confederate who covers the action of his chief; a bonnet, a cover, a stall, all which see.
