Gownsman (also Gown), subs. (university).—A student.
1800. C. K. Sharpe, in Correspondence (1888), i., 96. A battle between the gownsmen and townspeople . . . in spite of the Vice-Chancellor and Proctors.
1850. F. E. Smedley, Frank Fairleigh, ch. xxv. The ancient town of Cambridge, no longer animated by the countless throngs of gownsmen, frowned in its unaccustomed solitude.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford. The townsmen . . . were met by the gownsmen with settled steady pluck.
Grab, subs. (vulgar).—1. A sudden clutch.
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1st S., ch. viii. He makes a grab at me, and I shuts the door right to on his wrist.
2. (American).—A robbery; a STEAL (q.v.). Cf., GRAB-GAINS.
3. (old).—A body-stealer; a resurrectionist.
1830. S. Warren, Diary of a Late Physician, ch. xvi. Sir 's dressers and myself, with an experienced grab—that is to say, a professional resurrectionist—were to set off from the Borough.
4. (gamesters').—A boisterous game at cards.
Verb (vulgar).—1. To Pinch (q.v.); to seize; to apprehend; to snatch or steal. Grabbed = arrested.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. The pigs grabbed the kiddy for a crack.
1818. Maginn, Vidocq's Song. Tramp it, tramp it, my jolly blowen, Or be grabbed by the beaks we may.
1837. Lytton, Ernest Maltravers, Wk. I., ch. x. There, man, grab the money, it's on the table.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, ch. xiii. Do you want to be grabbed, stupid?
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard [1889], p. 39. Don't muddle your brains with any more of that Pharaoh. You'll need all your strength to grab him.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 396. I was grabbed for an attempt on a gentleman's pocket.
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 236. I watched a movement, till one of the servant girls had brought another load of grub out, and as she turned her back and went into the house I grabbed the key, and so they couldn't lock it nohow.
1886. Baring Gould, Golden Feather, p. 23 (S.P.C.K.). There are some folks . . . so grasping that if they touch a farthing will grab a pound.
2. (thieves').—To hold on; to get along; to live.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. and Lond. Poor, iii., 149. I do manage to grab on somehow.
Grab-all, subs. (colloquial).—1. An avaricious person; a greedy-guts (q.v.).
1872. Sunday Times, 18 Aug. This gentleman, it is well known, has worked with indomitable energy on behalf of the millions, and has succeeded in wresting from the mean and contemptible grab-alls of that government which professes to study the people's interest those portions of the Embankment which the public money has paid for.
2. (colloquial).—A bag to carry odds and ends, parcels, books, and so forth.
Grabber, subs. (common).—In. pl., the hands. For synonyms, see Daddle and Mauley.
Grabble, verb. (old).—1. To seize: a frequent form of grab (q.v.).
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. To grabble the bit; to seize any one's money.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum. You grabble the goose-cap and I'll frisk his pokes.
2. (venery).—To grope; to fumble; TO FAM (q.v.).
1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., 193. When Nelly, though he teized her, And grabbled her and squeezed her.
