1890. Spectator, 3 May, Rev. of 'Slang and its Analogues.' . . . The extraordinary 'bouncer' that a very common request at Lockhart's coffee-houses in London is for 'a doorstep and a sea-rover.'
1899. Whiteing, John St., xi. At the words 'doorsteps and sea-rover,' the man at the bar produces a slice of bread and a herring.
1899. Hyne, Furth. Adv. Captain Cuttle, v. Robinson's a sea-lawyer, is he? Courts, he talks about.
1901. Referee, 7 Ap., 1, 2. Great care should be exercised so as to minimise chances of their being able to take two chances for their money, one in the game and the other by 'sea-lawyering.'
1901. Army and Navy Gaz., 13 July, 683, 2. Whether these sea-gallopers—to use Lord Spencer's historical designation—in the battleships will be able to see much of the fun is, we should imagine, doubtful.
Seal, subs. (clerical).—1. See quot,
1853. Dean Conybeare [Edin. Rev., Oct, 295, note]. A preacher is said in this phraseology to be owned when he makes many converts, and his converts are called his seals.
2. (American).—See quot.
1850-1. Stansbury, Salt Lake Exp., 136. In Mormon phraseology, all wives taken after the first are called spiritual wives, and are said to be sealed to the husband . . . under the solemn sanction of the church, and in all respects, in the same relation to the man as the wife that was first married.
3. (venery).—In pl. = the testes: see Cods.
Verb. (venery).—To impregnate; to sew up (q.v.).
Sealer, subs. (old).—'One that
gives Bonds and Judgments for
Goods and Money' (B. E.,
Grose): see Squeeze-wax.
Seam. See White-seam.
Sear, subs. (old).—The female pudendum:
see Monosyllable, &c.
[Properly the touch-hole of a pistol.]
Hence light (or tickle)
of the sere = wanton; fond of
bawdy laughter (Halliwell).
[?] Commune Secretary and Jalowsye [Halliwell]. She that is fayre, lusty, and yonge, And can comon in termes wyth fyled tonge, And wyll abyde whysperynge in the eare, Thynke ye her tayle is not lyghte of the seare.
1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, ii. 2, 336. The clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle of the sere.
1620. Howard Defensative [Douce, ii. 230]. Moods and humours of the vulgar sort . . . loose and tickle of the seare.
Season, verb. (venery).—See quot.,
Greens and Ride.
1559. Eliote, Dict. Admissura, Seasoning of a cow, and coverynge of a mare.
Seat. See Back-seat.
Seat-of-Honour (Shame or
Vengeance), subs. phr. (common).—The
posteriors.
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 225. A question . . . the most honourable part of a man? One . . . made answer . . . the . . . part we sit upon; . . . when every one cried out that was absurd, he backed it with this reason, that he was commonly accounted the most honourable that was first seated, and that this honour was commonly done to the part that he spoke of.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge], 169. My seat of vengeance was firked most unmercifully.
d.1796. Wolcot, Pair of Lyric Epistles [Works (Dublin, 1795), ii. 424]. Behold him seiz'd, his seat of honour bare.
1821. Coombe, Syntax, iii. 2. While with his spade the conqueror plied, Stroke after stroke, the seat of shame, Which blushing Muses never name.
1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, xviii. The bullet having passed through his seat of honour, from his having presented his broadside as a target to the boatswain.
1856 Punch, xxxi. 213, 2. Now I can vouch that, from the earliest ages to . . . those of the present head-master, they have, one and all, appealed to the very seat of honor.
Secesh. See Blue Bellies.
