1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., ii., 332. Mongst humans by Court dunning.
1783-5. Cowper, Task, ii., line 105. And agonies of human and of brute.
1835. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 1 S., ch. xxviii. They have little hovels for their cattle . . . and a house for the humans as grand as Noah's Ark.
1882. Daily Telegraph, 13 Dec., p. 2, c. 2. In the opening pages Mr. Matthew Arnold mourns in verse over the death of 'Poor Matthias,' who is not a human but a canary.
1888. Denver Republican. He was only a dog . . . but was much more useful to society than many humans.
Humber-keels. See Billy-Boy.
Humble Pie. To eat humble
pie, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To
submit; to apologise; to knock
under. For synonyms, see Cave
In.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, xxvii. If this old chief had to eat humble pie, his brave adversaries were anxious that he should gobble up his portion as quickly as possible, and turned away their honest old heads as he swallowed it.
1887. Manville Fenn, This Man's Wife, ch. ii., 4. Our savings are gone and we must eat humble pie for the future.
Hum-Box, subs. (common).—1. A
pulpit.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, p. 302 [Ed. 1862]. Well, you parish bull prig, are you for lushing Jacky, or pattering in the hum-box?
1858. A Mayhew, Paved with Gold, bk. III., ch. ix., p. 309. He was nick-*named the 'Amen bawler' (parson) and recommended to take to the hum-box (pulpit) as better suited to him than cadging.
English Synonyms:—Autem; cackle tub; clack loft; cowards' castle; gospel mill (also a church); wood.
2. (American).—An auctioneer's rostrum.
Humbox Patterer, subs. (common).—A
parson. For synonyms,
see Devil Dodger and Sky
Pilot.
1839. G. W. M. Reynolds, Pickwick Abroad, p. 223. Though the humbox patterer talked of hell.
Humbug, subs. (old: now recognised).—1.
A hoax; an imposture;
a swindle.
1735-40. Killigrew, The Universal Jester; or a pocket companion for the Wits: being a choice collection of merry conceits, facetious drolleries, &c., clenchers, closers, closures, bon-mots, and Humbugs. [Title].
1754. Connoisseur. No. 14. Single words, indeed, now and then broke forth; such as—odious, horrible, detestable, shocking, humbug. This last new-coined expression, which is only to be found in the nonsensical vocabulary, sounds absurd and disagreeable whenever it is pronounced.
1762. Churchill, The Ghost, bk. I., line 72. And that Great Saint, we Whitefield call, Keeps up the Humbug Spiritual.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1828. Webster, Eng. Dict, s.v.
2. Deceit; pretence; affectation.
1837. R. H. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. (Ed. 1862). p. 239. That sort of address which the British call humbug and Frenchmen 'Finesse.' (It's 'Blarney' in Irish—I don't know the Scotch.)
1842. Douglas Jerrold, Bubbles of the Day, i. Never say humbug; it's coarse. Sir P. And not respectable. Smoke. Pardon me, my lord; it was coarse. But the fact is, humbug has received such high patronage, that now it's quite classic.
3. A cheat; an impostor; a pretender. Also (old), hummer.
d. 1783. Henry Brooke, Poems (1776). 'On Humbugging.' (Chalmers' English Poets, 1810, xvii., 428). Our hummers in state, physic, learning, and law.
