silent!—Grose (1785), Bee (1823); 'to make full use of one's potato-trap = to scold roundly.
English synonyms.—Beak; blabber; blubber; bone-box; box of dominoes (or wories); chaffer; chirper; chops; clacker (or clack-box); clams (or clam-*shells); coffee-mill; coffer; dining-room; domino-box; dribbler; dubber; East-and-south (rhyming); flatter-trap; fly-trap; gab; gan; gash; gig; gills; gin-lane (or trap); gob; gobbler; gob-box; grave-yard; grog-shop; grub-trap (-shop, or -box); grubbery; hatchway; hopper; ivory-box; jug; kisser; kissing-trap; lung-box; maw; mizzard; moey; mouse (or mouse-trap); mug; muns; mush; muzzle; neb; prater; prattler; prattle-box; rattler; rattle-trap; rat-trap; respirator; sauce-box; sewer; sink; sluice-house (or -mill); sluicery; trumpeter; yob (or yop).
French synonyms.—Abajoues (= the chops); angoulême (thieves': engouler = to swallow. se caresser l'angoulême = to eat and drink); babines (popular); babouines (also = little hussy); badigoinces (popular); barres (popular); bavarde (= the prater or blab-box); bécot; caisse d'épargne (also = Savings-bank); cassolette (= the stinkpot); couloir (popular); crachoir (also = spittoon); égout (= the sewer); gargoine (formerly gargamelle = the gargler); gaviot (popular); gargouille (gargouine, or gargue); goule; goulot; guadeloupe; menteuse; mornos; moule à blagues (= chaffer); mouloir; pampine (specficially a thick-lipped coarse mouth); pantière (= bread-basket, which in English = stomach); plomb; respirante (bâche ta respirante = Shut up!); ruette (popular); salle à manger (= dining-room); tinette; triangle (artists'); trompette (= trumpeter); trou aux pommes de terre (= potato-trap).
1791. Darblay, Diary, v. 209. 'Hold you your potato-jaw, my dear,' cried the Duke, patting her.
1836. M. Scott, Cruise of the Midge, xv. Hold your tongue, and give your potato-trap a holiday.
1853. Dodgson, Verdant Green, 11. iv. That'll damage your potato-trap.
1856. Mayhew, World of London, 6, note. Fanciful metaphors contribute largely to the formation of slang. It is upon this principle that the mouth has come to be styled the 'tater-trap'; the teeth, dominoes.
Pot-belly (or -Guts).—See Pot,
subs.
Pot-Boiler, subs. phr. (artists').—1.
A piece of work done for
money: i.e., to boil the pot
(q.v.); also as adj. Hence, pot-boiling,
and to pot-boil.
1870. Daily Telegraph, 10 Feb. Even those who buy pictures and art-objects merely out of vanity would prefer good work for their gold if they only knew how to choose it; and consequently Professor Ruskin cast upon the artists the great responsibility for the eccentric, superficial, or pot-boiling qualities which degrade much of what is manufactured and sold.
1879. Lindsay, Mind in the Lower Animals, i. 20. What are vulgarly known as pot-boiler books or articles.
1880. Howells, Undiscovered Country, xx. They write for pleasure and from duty. I am sorry to say that my work is mostly for the pay it brings. . . . I write and sell my work. It's what they call pot-boiling.
1882. Athenæum, 1 April. A mere pot-boiler, though it is marked by much of the ability of the artist. Ibid. (1883), 17 Mar., 340, 2. "The Captain's Room" is, in fact, a pot-boiler.
