1889. Answers, 9 Feb. The scavenger's daughter was a broad hoop of iron, consisting of two parts, fastened by a hinge. The prisoner knelt on the pavement, and the executioner having introduced the hoop under his legs, compressed the victim, till he was able to fasten the extremities over the small of the back. The time allotted was an hour and a half, it commonly happened that the blood started from the nostrils; sometimes, it was believed, from the extremities of the hands and feet.
Scew. See Skew.
Scellum, subs. (Old Cant).—A
thief: cf. Skellum.
1630. Taylor, Works, ii. 123. None holds him, but all cry, Lope, scellum, lope!
Scene, subs. (colloquial).—An exhibition
of feeling or temper.
1847. Bronte, Jane Eyre, xxvii. You have no desire to expostulate, to upbraid, to make a scene.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, xxvii. Hush! hush!. . . she must be kept quiet. . . . There must be no more scenes, my fine fellow.
Behind the scenes, phr. (colloquial).—Having access to information not open to the general public; in the know (q.v.).
Scene-rat, subs. phr. (theatrical).—An
"extra" in ballet or
pantomime.
Sceptre, subs. (venery).—The
penis: see Prick. Also Cyprian
sceptre.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. xi. One of them would call it her fiddle-diddle, her staff of love . . . her Cyprian sceptre.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 47. Now night came on, The thund'rer led His helpmate to her wicker bed; There they agreed, and where's the wonder, His sceptre rais'd she soon knock'd under.
Scheme, subs. (Winchester).—See
quot.—Mansfield (c. 1840).
1891. Wrench, Word Book, s.v. Scheme. . . . The candle on reaching a measured point ignites paper, which by burning a string releases a weight; this falls on the head of the boy to be waked.
Schism-shop, subs. phr. (old).—A
dissenting meeting-house;
schism-monger = a dissenting
parson (Grose): amongst Catholics
any Protestant church or
chapel.
1840. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 3 S., iv. "Stickin' a subscription paper into a very strait-laced man, even for building a schism-shop for his own folks, is like stickin' a needle behind an ox's ear, it kills him dead on the spot."
1852. Shirley Brooks, Miss Violet and her Offers, vi. "The tenants-at-will who vote for church candidates ." "By the tenants-at-won't, who go in for the schism-shop"—dashed in the smart barrister.
Schitt, subs. (Winchester).—A
goal: at football: see Gowner.
[Wrench: This was the word
in general use till 1860, when it
was superseded by 'goal.']
Schliver, subs. (old).—A clasp-knife
(Bee).
Schol, subs. (Harrow).—1. A
scholar; and (2) a scholarship.
School, subs. (old).—'A party of
persons met together for the
purpose of gambling' (Grose,
Vaux). Also (modern) any small
band of associates, as thieves or
beggars working together, a set
of passengers travelling regularly
by the same train, &c. Hence
schoolman = a companion, a
mate.
1851-61. Mayhew, London Lab., i. 234. Some classes of patterers, I may here observe, work in schools or 'mobs' of two, three, or four.
1866. London Miscellany, 3 Mar., 57. We don't want no one took in that's on the square. The governor's promised the school as strangers shant use the house.
