1690. B.E. Dict. Cant. Crew. s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
Innards, subs. (vulgar).—The
stomach; the guts (q.v.). Also
Inwards.
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, ii. 1. The thought whereof Doth like a poisonous mineral gnaw my inwards.
1653. Brome, Five New Plays, 347. Bestow steeping thy skin in perfumes to kill the stink of thy paintings and rotten inwards.
d. 1674. Milton [quoted in Johnson, Ed. 1755]. There sacrificing laid, The inwards and their fat. . . . on the cleft wood.
1870. White, Words and their Uses, 387. The simple English word (guts) for which some New England females elegantly substitute in'ards, would shock many.
1871. London Figaro, 17 March. The usual answer given to William's enquiry as to what was found in the shark is, 'his innards'.
To fill one's innards, verb. phr. (common).—To eat.
Inner-man, subs. (common).—The
appetite.
1889. Sporting Life, 30 Jan. Having satisfied the inner-man.
Innings, subs. (colloquial).—A turn;
a spell; a chance: from the game
of cricket
1836. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, (ed. 1857) p. 103. The friends of Horatio Fizkin Esq., having had their innings, a little choleric pink-faced man stood forward to propose another fit and proper person to represent the electors of Eatanswill in Parliament.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, xx. The opposition wag is furious that he cannot get an innings.
1883. James Payn, Naturalness, in Longman's Mag., May, p. 67. And others consent to listen to him upon the understanding that they are presently o have their innings.
To have a good innings, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be fortunate, especially in money matters.
To have a long innings, verb. phr. (colloquial). To die in the fulness of years.
Innocent, subs. (old).—1. A simpleton; an idiot.
1598. Shakespeare, All's well, etc. iv. 3. A dumb innocent that could not say him nay.
1605. Jonson, Chapman, &c., Eastward Hoe (Dodsley, Old Plays, iv. 209). Again, if you be a cuckold, and know it not, you are an innocent; if you know it and endure it, a true martyr.
1609. Jonson, Epicœne, iii. 4. Do you think you had married some innocent out of the hospital, that would stand with her hands thus, and a playse mouth, and look upon you.
1634. Beaumont & Fletcher, Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. I. She answered me So far from what she was, so childishly, So sillily, as if she were a fool, an innocent.
1639. Beaumont & Fletcher, Wit without Money, ii. There be three kinds of fools, mark this note, gentlemen, Mark it, and understand it. . . . An innocent, a knave fool, a fool politic.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Innocents, one of the innocents, a weak or simple person, man or woman.
1811. Lex. Bal., s.v.
2. (American).—A corpse; a stiff (q.v.).
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
3. (American). A convict.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
The murder (slaughter, or massacre) of the Innocents, subs. phr. (parliamentary). The abandonment, towards the end of a session, of measures whether introduced by the Government or by private members, when they would have no chance of passing.
