Gilguy, subs. (nautical).—Anything which happens to have slipped the memory; equivalent to what's-his-name or thingamytight.
Gilkes, subs. (old).—Skeleton
keys.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 (H. Club's Rept., 1874). Gilkes or the Gigger, false keyes for the doore or picklockes.
Gill (or Jill), subs. (old).—1.
A girl; (2) a sweetheart: e.g.,
'every Jack must have his
Gill'; (3) a wanton, a strumpet
(an abbreviation of gillian).
For synonyms, see Jomer and
Titter.
1586-1606. Warner, Albion's England, bk. vii., ch. 37. The simplest gill or knave.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, Palandrina, a common queane, a harlot, a strumpet, a gill.
1620. Percy, Folio MSS., p. 104. There is neuer a Jacke for gill.
1659. Torriano, Vocabolario, sv.
2. (common).—a drink; a go (q.v.).
1785. Burns, Scots Drink. Haill breeks, a scone, and whisky gill.
3. in. pl. 'g' hard (colloquial).—The mouth or jaws; the face. See Potato-trap and Dial.
1622. Bacon, Historia Naturalis. Redness about the cheeks and gills.
1632. Jonson, Magnetic Lady, i. He . . . draws all the parish wills, Designs the legacies, and strokes the gills of the chief mourners.
b. 1738. Wolcot, Pindar's Works (1809), i., 8. Whether you look all rosy round the gills, Or hatchet-fac'd like starving cats so lean.
1820. Lamb, Elia (Two Races of Men). What a careless, even deportment hath your borrower! what rosy gills!
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. viii. Binnie, as brisk and rosy about the gills as chanticleer, broke out in a morning salutation.
1884. Punch. He went a bit red in the gills.
4. in. pl. (common).—A very large shirt collar; also stick-ups and sideboards. Fr.: cache-bonbon-à-liqueur = a stick-up.
1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 6 p., in Part 7. With a red face, shaven to the superlative degree of shininess, with gills white and tremendous, with a noble white waistcoat.
1884. Daily Telegraph, July 8, p. 5, c. 4. Lord Macaulay wore, to the close of his life, 'stick-ups, or gills.
To grease the gills.—verb phr. (common).—To have a good meal; to wolf (q.v.).
To look blue (or queer, or green) about the gills, verb. phr. (common).—To be downcast or dejected; also to suffer from the effects of a debauch. Hence, conversely, to be rosy about the gills = to be cheerful.
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle's Log, ch. ii. Most of them were very white and blue in the gills when we sat down, and others of a dingy sort of whitey-brown, while they ogled the viands in a most suspicious manner.
1892. G. Manville Fenn, Witness to the Deed, ch. ii. You look precious seedy. White about the gills.
A cant (or dig) in the gills, phr. (pugilists').—A punch in the face. See Bang.
Gill-flirt, subs. (old).—A wanton;
a flirt. For synonyms, see
Barrack Hack and Tart.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes
1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie. Gaultiere, a whore, punke, drab, queane, gill flirt.
