1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, 1. Col. I am like a Rabbit, fat and lean in Four-and-twenty Hours. Ibid. Lady Smart. . . . The Man and his Wife are coupled like Rabbets, a fat and a lean; he's as fat as a Porpus, and she's one of Pharaoh's lean kine.
1825. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, ii. xv. Keep a civil tongue in your head; or you'll buy the rabbits. Ibid., xviii. If that air invoice aint ready soon, thee'll buy the rabbit, I guess.
Rabrit-pie shifter, subs. phr.
(streets').—A policeman: see
Beak.
c.1870. Music Hall Song [S. J. & C.]. Never to take notice of vulgar nicknames, such as "slop," "copper," rabbit-pie shifter, "peeler."
Rabbit-skin (or Cat-skin), subs.
phr. (University).—An academical
hood. Hence, to get one's
rabbit-skin = to win the B.A.
degree. [The trimming is of
rabbit's fur.]
Rabitter, subs. (Winchester
College).—A blow with the side
of the hand, on the back of the
neck: as in killing a rabbit.
Rabble, subs., adj. and verb. (once
and still literary).—Generic for
confusion.—B. E. (c.1696).
Rabid-beast, subs. phr. (American
cadets').—A new-comer who
sets up against the authority of
his elders: cf. Reptile.
Rabshakle, subs. (old).—A profligate.
Rachel, verb. (obsolete).—To renovate;
to make young again.
[From Madame Rachel, the
"beautiful for ever" swindler.]
Rack, subs. (Winchester).—1. A
chop from the neck or loin.
[Rack (Halliwell) = the neck
of mutton or pork; (Johnson) =
a neck of mutton cut for the
table.]
2. (slaughterers').—See quot.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i. 189. The bones (called racks by the knackers) are chopped up and boiled.
Phrases.—To live at rack and manger = to live on the best gratis: to lie at rack and manger = (1) 'to live hard' (B. E. c.1696), and (2) 'to be in great disorder' (Grose, 1785); to go to rack and ruin = to go utterly wrong; on the rack = (1) in a state of tension, and (2) on the move, shinning round (Amer. spec. for money); to rack off = (1) to relate, to tell, and (2) to piss (q.v.).
1586-1606. Warner, Albion's England, viii. 4, 200. A queane corrival with a queene! Nay kept at rack and manger.
1599. Nashe, Leuten Stuffe [Harl. Misc., vi. 165]. The herring is such a choleric food that whoso ties himself to rack and manger to it shall have a child that will be a soldier before he loses his first teeth.
1605. Chapman, All Fools [Reed, Old Plays (17..) iv. 136]. To lie at rack and manger with your wedlock, And brother.
1628. Life of Robin Goodfellow [Halliwell]. When Vertue was a country maide, And had no skill to set up trade, She came up with a carriers jade, And lay at racke and manger.
1690. Pagan Prince [Nares]. The Palatine . . . lay at rack and manger.
1700. Congreve, Way of the World, ii. 1. I wou'd have him ever to continue upon the rack of Feare and Jealousy.
d.1703. Pepys, Diary [Century]. We fell to talk largely of the want of some persons understanding to look after the business, but all goes to rack.
1722. Steele, Conscious Lovers, iv. 1. Hand and Heart are on the rack about my son.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 197. I wrote down in my pocket-*book such anecdotes as I meant to rack off in the course of the day.
