1875. Notes and Queries, 5 S., iii. 298. Taking a sight.—Pictorial illustrations of this gesture prior to the time of the Georges, are, I believe, not very common.
1886. Household Words, 2 Oct. 453. [This] peculiar action has, I believe, almost invariably been described as taking A sight. A solicitor, however, in a recent police case at Manchester, described it as pulling bacon.
To put out of sight, verb. phr. (common).—To eat; to consume.
Sign. Here may be arranged two
or three obsolete colloquialisms—sign
of a house to let = a
widow's weeds (Grose); the sign
of the feathers = a woman's
best good graces; at the sign
of the horn = in cuckoldom;
the sign of the prancer = the
Nag's Head; the sign of the
three balls = a pawnbroker's;
sign of the five (ten or
fifteen) shillings = The
Crown (The Two Crowns, or The
Three Crowns).—Grose (1785);
to live at the sign of the
cats' foot = to be hen-pecked.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), 85. A bene mort hereby at the sign of the prauncer.
Signboard, subs. (common).—The
face: see Dial.
Sign-manual, subs. phr. (old).—The
mark of a blow.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xxiii. I bear some marks of the parson about me . . . The man of God bears my sign-manual too, but the Duke made us friends again.
Sikes. See Bill Sikes.
Sil. See Silver-beggar.
Silence, verb. (old: now recognised).—To
knock down; to
stun; to kill (Grose). Whence
silencer = a knock-down or
stunning blow.
Silence in the court, the cat is pissing, phr. (old).—'A gird upon anyone requiring silence unnecessarily' (Grose).
Silent-beard, subs. phr. (venery).—The
female pubic hair: see
Fleece.
d.1704. Brown, Works, ii. 202. It is not fit the silent beard should know how much it has been abus'd . . . for, if it did, it would . . . make it open its sluice to the drowning of the low countries in an inundation of salt-water.
Silent-flute. See Flute.
Silk, subs. (common).—1. A King's
Counsel; also silk-gown. [The
canonical K.C.'s robe is of silk;
that of a Junior Counsel of stuff.]
Hence to take silk = to attain
the rank of King's (or Queen's)
Counsel. 2. (clerical) = a bishop:
the apron is of silk.
1838. Jerrold, Men of Character (John Applejohn), viii. The finest lawn [bishop] makes common cause with any linen bands—the silken apron shrinks not from poor prunella.
1853. Dickens, Bleak House, i. Mr. Blowers, the eminent silk-gown.
1872. Standard, 16 Aug., Second Leader. Mr. J. P. Benjamin (an American gentleman) has, in the professional phrase, received silk; in other words has been raised to the rank of Queen's Counsel at the English Bar.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 Nov., 6, 1. Some time ago the presence of a learned silk was required in court at eleven o'clock.
1890. Globe, 6 May, 6, 1. Mr. Reid's rise has been steady and sure. Called at the age of twenty-five, he took silk only eleven years later, and is now a Bencher of his Inn at the age of forty-four.
To carry (or sport) silk, verb. phr. (racing).—To run (or ride) in a race.
1884. Hawley Smart, Post to Finish, 219. One thing he was clear about—that there could be no hope of his passing unrecognised if he wore silk on the Town Moor.
