1673. Wycherly, Gentleman Dancing Master, iv., 1. What, hussy, would you not do as he'd have you?
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, iv., 3. When I was of your age, hussy, I would have held fifty to one I could have drawn my own picture.
1697. Vanbrugh, Æsop, i., 1. Hark you hussy. You can give yourself airs sometimes, you know you can.
1708. Mrs. Centlivre, The Busy-Body, iv., 2. I'll charm you, housewife. Here lies the charm that conjured this fellow in.
1708. Prior, Poems (Aldine ed. ii., 270), 'The Insatiable Priest.' To suppress all his carnal desires in their birth At all hours a lusty young hussy is near.
1720. Swift, Poems, 'A Portrait' (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 448). A housewife in bed, at table a slattern.
1728. Swift, Poems, 'My Lady's Lamentations' (Chalmers, English Poets, 1810, xi., 460). Consider before You come to threescore, How the hussies will fleer Whene'er you appear.
1731. C. Coffey, The Devil to Pay, i. Don't you know, hussy, that I am king in my own house.
1732. Henry Fielding, The Mock Doctor, i. Ay, hussy, a regular education; first at the charity-school where I learned to read.
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, c. xviii. He supposed the object of his love was some paltry hussy, whom he had picked up when he was a boy at school.
d. 1764. Lloyd, Poems (1774), 'Chit-Chat.' Lud! I could beat the hussey down, She's poured it all upon my gown.
1768. Goldsmith, Good Natured Man, ii. And you have but too well succeeded, you little hussy, you.
1771. Smollett, Humphrey Clinker (ed. 1800, p. 43). And I have been twice in the bath with mistress and na'r a smock upon our backs, hussy.
1782. Cowley, Bold Stroke for a Husband, i., 2. Don C. Now, hussy, what do you expect?
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1786. Burns, The Inventory. Frae this time forth I do declare, I'se ne'er ride horse nor hizzie mair.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xxii. Say nothing of that, housewife, . . . or I will beat thee—beat thee with my staff.
1829. C. A. Somerset, The Day After the Fair, i. Oh, you hussy! so you were Madame Maypole!
1893. R. Le Gallienne, Intro. Liber Amoris, p. xliv. To think of poor Hazlitt gravely lavishing his choice Elizabethan quotations on the hussey.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
Housey, adj. (Christ's Hospital).—Belonging
to the Hospital.
Housle, verb. (Winchester College).—To
hustle.
Hoveller, subs. (nautical).—A
beach-thief.
How. How came you so?
phr. (old).—Drunk. For synonyms,
see Drinks and Screwed.
1824. T. Hook, Sayings and Doings, 1st S. Merton, ch. xiii. Ould Mrs. Etherington was a right bad one; she used to be Lord, how come you so! every night, as regular as she went to bed.
How much? phr. (common).—'What do you say?' 'What do you mean?' What price?—a general request for explanations.
1852. F. E. Smedley, Lewis Arundel, ch. xxxiv. 'Then my answer must mainly depend on the exact height of the principles.' 'On the how much? inquired Frere, considerably mystified.
How are you off for soap, phr. (old).—A street catch.
1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. iv. Well, Reefer, how are you off for soap?
1842. Punch, ii., 94, c. 2. Walker! how are you off for soap?
How the blazes. See Blazes.
How is that for high. See High.
How's your poor feet, phr. (streets').—A street catch, of no particular meaning. See Street Cries.
