Periwinkle (or Perriwinkle), subs. (old).—1. A wig. [A corruption of periwig]. Fr. une panoufle, un gazon, and (thieves') un boubane.—B. E. (1696).
2. (venery).—The female pudendum: see Monosyllable.
Perks, subs. (vulgar).—Perquisites.
1887. Fun, 30 March, 138. The perks, etc., attached to this useful office are not what they were in the 'good old times.'
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Sep., 2, 2. How incorrigible the City Corporation is, to be sure, in a matter of its perks.
1890. Traill, Saturday Songs, 68. The position ain't high, and the perks isn't weighty.
1897. Sporting Times, 13 Mar., 1, 2. She's of value in a thousand ways, she never looks for perks, Even when she takes a holiday she stops at home and works.
To perk up, verb. phr. (old colloquial).—1. To plume oneself; to adorn.
1601. Shakspeare, Henry VIII., ii. 3. 'Tis better to be lowly born . . . Than to be perked up in a glistering grief, And wear a golden sorrow.
2. (colloquial).—To recover from sickness.—B. E. (c.1696).
Board of Perks, subs. phr. (common).—Board of Works.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 Sep. Provincial boards of perks. [Title.]
Perkin, subs. (old).—1. Weak cider
or perry.—Grose (1785).
2. (obsolete).—Beer. [From Barclay, Perkin & Co.]
Perking, subs. (old).—See quot.
c. 1696: as adj. = peering; inquisitive.
c. 1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Perking, the late D of M. Also any pert, forward, silly Fellow.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, iv. He is a tall, thin, bony man with . . . little restless, perking eyes.
Pernel. See Panel.
Pernicated, adj. (American).—Swaggering;
full of side (q.v.).
Pernickity (or Pernicketty), adj.
(Scots').—Fastidious; over-particular.—Jamieson.
1886. Pop. Sci. Monthly, xxvi. 52. This I say for the benefit of those who otherwise might not understand what pernickity creatures astronomers are.
1888. Harper's Mag., Eng. ed. viii. 875. Any white man . . . grows lame and impatient at such confining and pernickety work.
Perpendicular, subs. (common).—1.
A stand-up lunch; an evening
party where the majority of
the guests stand; an upright
position.
1888. Sporting Life, 10 Dec. He soon resumed the perpendicular, and went for his antagonist, who evaded him easily.
1882. Edna Lyall, Donovan, ix. I duly attended my mother to three fashionable crowds, perpendiculars is the best name for them, for there is seldom more than standing room.
2. (venery).—Coition taken standing: cf. horizontal. Also upright and knee-trembler.
Persimmon, subs. (American colloquial).—[A
species of wild plum;
in America as common, south of
latitude 42°, as is the blackberry
in England. Its fruit and hard
wood are much esteemed. The
huckleberry is akin to the whortleberry.]
Among popular phrases
are: To rake up the persimmons
= to pocket the stakes or
spoils, to rake (or pull) in
the pieces (q.v.); the longest
