1893. Nineteenth Century, July, 6. A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse; and there are certain understandings, in public as well as in private life, which it is better for all parties not to put into writing.
On the nod, phr. (common).—On credit.
1882. The Rag, 30 Sept. [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 163.] A pay-on-the nod, An always-in-quod young man.
1889. Bird o' Freedom. 7 Aug., 1. The next book you make, take a Gentile's advice, It's safer to bet on the nod.
1889. Daily Telegraph, 23 Oct., 5, 5. The defendant deposed that he lost over £30 by taking the bank, and that then the players agreed that he might go on the nod, which meant that he might owe what he lost.
1891. Standard. 25 Aug., 3, 6. When Witness asked where he got them from; he said, on the nod, meaning that he did not intend to pay for them.
1894. Moore, Esther Waters, xxxi. He didn't suppose the guv'nor would take him on the nod, but he had a nice watch which ought to be good for three ten.
1897. Daily Telegraph, 15 March, 8, 4. The old idea of the law was that betting on credit—or, as it is vulgarly called, betting on the nod—was not illegal.
Nodcock, subs. (old).—A simpleton:
see Buffle and Cabbage-head.
Noddipol. See Noddy.
Noddle, subs. (old).—The head:
see Crumpet. B. E. (c. 1696);
New Cant. Dict. (1725); Grose
(1785).
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, i. 1. Doubt not her cares should be to comb your noddle with a three-legg'd stool, And paint your face, and use you like a fool.
1596. Nashe, Saffron Walden, in Works, iii. 149. No roofe had he to hide his noddle in.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Occipute, the hinder part of the head, the nape of the necke, the noddle.
1611. Barry, Ram Alley, iv. 1. You say very right, Sir Oliver, very right; I have't in my noddle i' faith.
1620. Shelton, Don Quixote, iii. iii. 21. Let every Man looke how he speakes or writes of Men, and set not downe each thing that comes into his noddle in a mingle-mangle.
1645. Howell, Letters, ii. 43. I could tell you how, not long before her Death, the late Queen of Spain took off one of her Chapines, and clowted Olivares about the noddle with it.
1662. Rump Songs, i. iii. God blesse Ruperte and Maurice withall, Tha' gave the Roundheads a great downfall, And knockt their noddles 'gainst Worcester wall.
1663. Butler, Hudibras, i. iii. 123. He'l lay on Gifts with hands, and place On dullest noddle light and grace.
1675. Cotton, Scoffer Scofft, in Wks. (1725), 164. And could I in ingenuous Noddle, Have chosen out a fitter Model.
1683. Earl of Dorset, A Faithful Catalogue. O sacred James! may thy dread noddle be As free from danger, as from wit 'tis free,
1690. Mundus Muliebris [Nares]. Behind the noddle every baggage, Wears bundle 'choux,' in English cabbage.
1692. L'Estrange, Æsop., Come, master, I have a project in my noddle.
1705. Ward, Works (ed. 1717), ii. 3. When ready we adjourned to an Ale-*house . . . And there I made the Bumkin fuddle Till muddy ale had seized his noddle.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 178. These reflections, in the writers of the transactions of the times, seize the noddles of such as were not born to have thoughts of their own.
1719. Durfey, Pills to Purge Melancholy, i. 154. The New with false, sham storys of which each noddle was full.
1749. Robertson of Struan, Poems, 'The Wheel of Life.' Then fill about a Bumper to the Brim, Till all repeat it round, and ev'ry noddle swim.
1825. The English Spy, i. 188. Old dowagers, their fubsy face, Painted to eclipse the Grace, By their noddles out In some old family affair That's neither chariot, coach, or chair, Well known at every rout.
