1698. Farquhar, Love and a Bottle [Old Dram. 492]. [He will] palm letters on you.
1700. Step to the Bath [Ashton, Soc. Life in Reign of Q. Anne, ii. 111]. . . . There was Palming, Lodging, Loaded Dice, Levant, and Gammoning, with all the Speed imaginable.
1704. Swift, Tale of a Tub, Sect. vi. A rogue that . . . . palmed his damned crusts upon us for mutton.
1711. Spectator, No. 117. She . . . has made the country ring with several imaginary exploits which are palmed upon her. Ibid., 130. He found his pocket was picked; that being a kind of palmistry at which this race of vermin [gypsies] are very dexterous.
1714. Lucas, Gamesters, 27. Palming the die; that is, having the box in hand, he nimbly takes up both dice as thrown within the hollow of his hand, puts but one into the box, reserving the other in the palm, and observing with quick eye what side was upward, he accordingly conforms the next throw to his purpose, delivering that in the box, and the other in his hand smoothly together.
1755. Connoisseur, No. 68. The dexterity . . . to palm an ace, or cog a die.
1811. Austen, Sense and S., xx. Don't palm all your abuses . . . upon me.
1818. Scott, Rob Roy, xxxvii. A foundered blood-mare, which he wished to palm upon a Manchester merchant.
1826. Lamb, Elia (Popular Fallacies, xi.). A horse-giver, no more than a horse-seller, has a right to palm his spavined article upon us for good ware.
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 445. Robbing in shops by two—Palming.
1877. Five Years' Penal, ii. 119. The warder . . . watches that the prisoner does not palm anything—in other words, practise some legerdemain trick to conceal any contraband article.
To bear the palm, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To excel; to be first or best. [The Romans gave branches of palm to a victorious gladiator.]
Palm-acid (or Oil) subs. phr.
(schoolboys').—1. A caning: on
the hand.
2. See Palm, verb. 1.
Palmer, subs. (Durham School).—1. A shy fellow.
2. See Palm, sense 2.
Palmerston, subs. (pugilists').—See
quot.
1865. Field. Feb. Bottle-Holder . . . Slang term for Lord Palmerston. . . . He described himself as acting the part of a judicious bottle-holder among the foreign Powers. A lately-invented instrument to hold a bottle has thus received the name of a palmerston.
Palmetto State, subs. phr.
(American).—South Carolina.
[From the arms of the State: a
variety of dwarf palm or palmetto
is abundant therein.] Whence
Palmetto Flag, Palmetto
City, and Palmetto Boys.
1861. Charleston Mercury, 'War Song.' March, march on, brave Palmetto Boys, Sumter and Lafayette, forward in order.
Palm-oil.—See Palm, and Palm-acid.
Palsy, subs, (old colloquial).—1.
Generic for weakness. Palsy
in the hand (old) = the habit
of dicing.
1608. Yorkshire Tragedy, i. 4. What is there . . . to make a man . . . with the gentleman's palsy in the hand shake out his posterity, thieves or beggars?
1623. Massinger, Duke of Milan, iv. 3. Lock up thine own wife, fool, that must take physic From her young doctor, physic upon her back, Because thou hast the palsy in that part That makes her active.
Paltock's Inn, subs. phr. (old).—A
poverty-stricken place.
1579. Gosson, School of Abuse, 52. Comming to Chenas, a blind village, in comparison of Athens a Paltockes Inne, he found one Miso well governing his house.
