2. (old).—'A brisk old fellow.' Grose (1785); Lex. Bal. (1811).
Old Tom, subs. phr. (common).—Gin: see White Satin.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v.
1832. Egan, Book of Sports, 268. When Love turns his back, and old friendships are failing, And the spirits are sinking therefrom—The only receipt, that is ne'er unavailing, Is a jolly stiff glass of old tom.
1837. Lytton, Ernest Maltravers, iv. i. Old Tom, he is the best of gin: Drink him once, and you'll drink him agin!
1851-61. Mayhew, London Lab. ii. p. 256. Rum he preferred to gin, only it was dearer, but most of the scavengers, he thought, liked old tom (gin) best.
1854. Punch, xxxvii. 75. Mr. Stuggers was promptly thrust into a cell into which five of his companions followed him, and their united consolations, and those of a bottle of the ancient thomas Vintage which was speedily produced, restored the Varmint to something of his habitual placidity.
1868. Brewer, Phrase and Fable, s.v. Old Tom. Thomas Norris, one of the men employed in Messrs. Hodges' distillery, opened a gin palace in Great Russell Street, Covent Garden, and called the gin concocted by Thomas Chamberlain, one of the firm of Hodges, old Tom, in compliment to his former master.
1892. Sydney Watson, Wops the Waif, i. 2. And a-slides along from 'shampain' to brandy, and from that to old tom.
Old Toughs, subs. phr. (military).—The One Hundred and Third Foot, now the 2nd Batt. Royal Dublin Fusiliers. [For long and arduous service in India].
Old trot. See Trot.
Old 'un. See Old one.
Old whale, subs. phr. (nautical).—A sailor.
Old woman, subs. phr. (venery).—1. The female pudendum: see Monosyllable.
2. (prison).—A prisoner who, unfit for physical hard work, is set to knitting stockings.
3. (common).—A man with the character and habits of a woman. Also, old wife.
4. (colloquial).—A wife or mother: cf. old man. See Dutch.
1892. Idler, June, p. 550. As we was a-comin' 'ome I says to the old gal, Let's pop into the Broker's Arms and 'ave a drop o' beer.
Olive-branches, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Children. [In allusion to Psalm cxxviii. 4, in Book of Common Prayer].
1688. Prior, The Mice. May you ne'er meet with Tends or Babble, May olive-branches crown your Table.
1888. Harper's Mag., lxxvi. 791. There were hardly quarter's enough for the bachelors, let alone those blessed with wife and olive branches.
Oliver, subs. (old).—The moon; the sky-lantern. Oliver whiddles (or is up) = the moon shines; Oliver is in town = the nights are moonlight.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II. 133, note. Oliver don't widdle. The Moon not up.
1819. Vaux, Memoirs, ii. 193, s.v.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, iii. v. Now oliver puts his black nightcap on And every star its glim is hiding. Ibid. iv. vi. Oliver whiddles—the tatler old! Telling what best had been left untold, Oliver ne'er was a friend of mine; All glims I hate that so brightly shine. Give me a night black as hell, and then See what I'll show to you, my merry men.
1837. Lytton, Ernest Maltravers, iv. i. In half an hour oliver puts on his nightcap, and we must then be off.
