To grease a fat sow in the arse, verb. phr. (old).—To bribe a rich man.—Grose.
To grease one's gills, verb. phr. (common).—To make a good or luxurious meal.
Greased Lightning, subs. phr.
(American).—An express train.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 359. The usual Express Train is not half fast enough for the impatient traveller; he must have his Lightning Express Train, and in the Far West improves still farther by calling it greased lightning, after a favourite Yankee term.
Like Greased Lightning, adv. phr. (American).—Very quick. See Bed-post.
1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, p. 72. Quicker than greased lightnin', My covies, I was dead.
1890. Globe, 27 Aug., p. 2, c. 5. He is drawn along at a rapid rate, or, as the correspondent puts it, he is whisked all over town like greased lightning.
1891. J. Newman, Scamping Tricks, p. 98. He measured again, and then off went his coat like greased lightning, and we all followed suit.
Greaser, subs. (American).—1.
A Mexican in general; also
a Spanish American: see
quots. 1848 and 1888. The term
originated during the Mexican
war.
1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 3. Note. The Mexicans are called Spaniards or greasers (from their greasy appearance) by the Western people.
1855. Marryat, Mountains and Mole Hills, p. 236. The Americans call the Mexicans greasers, which is scarcely a complimentary soubriquet; although the term greaser camp as applied to a Mexican encampment is truthfully suggestive of filth and squalor.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly, Prologue i. Behind the leaders followed a little troop of three, consisting of one English servant and two greasers.
1883. Bret Harte, In the Carquinez Woods, footnote to ch. vii. Greasers, Californian slang for a mixed race of Mexicans and Indians.
1888. Century Mag., October. To avenge the murder of one of their number the cowboys gathered from the country round about, and fairly stormed the greaser—that is, Mexican—village where the murder had been committed, killing four of the inhabitants.
1891. Gunter, Miss Nobody, ch. 2. Don't let the greaser git his fingers in your ha'r.
2. in. pl. (Royal Military Academy).—Fried potatoes, as distinguished from boilers = boiled potatoes.
To give one greaser, verb. phr. (Winchester College).—To rub the back of the hand hard with the knuckles.
Grease-spot, subs. (common).—The
imaginary result of a passage
at arms, physical or intellectual.
1844. Haliburton, The Attaché, ch. xvi. If he hadn't a had the clear grit in him, and showed his teeth and claws, they'd a nullified him so you wouldn't see a grease-spot of him no more.
Greasy-chin, subs. (old).—A
dinner.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 'Lay of St. Gengulphus.' And to every guest his card had express'd 'Half past' as the hour for a greasy chin.
Great Cry and Little Wool.—See
Cry.
Great Go (or Greats), subs.
(Cambridge University).—The
final examination for the B.A.
degree; cf., Little-go. At
Oxford, greater.
1841. Prince of the New-made Baccalere, Oxford. Great-go is passed.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, ch. x. Both small and great are sufficiently distant to be altogether ignored, if we are that way inclined.
