1824. Gradus ad Cantab., s.v. Sizar. The distinction between pensioners and sizers is by no means considerable. . . . Nothing is more common than to see pensioners and sizers taking sweet counsel together, and walking arm-in-arm to St. Mary's as friends.
1848. Thackeray, Book of Snobs, xiii. The unlucky boys who have no tassels to their caps are called sizars—servitors [sic] at Oxford. . . . A distinction is made in their clothes because they are poor; for which reason they wear a badge of poverty, and are not allowed to take their meals with their fellow students.
185 . Macaulay, Oliver Goldsmith. The sizars paid nothing for food and tuition, and very little for lodging; but they had to perform some menial services from which they have long been relieved. They swept the court; they carved up the dinner to the fellows' table, and changed the plates, and poured out the ale of the rulers of the society.
1851. Bristed, Eng. Univ., 20. 'Go through a regular second course instead of the sizings.' Ibid., 19. Soup, pastry and cheese can be sized for.
18. . . . Peirce, Hist. Harvard Univ., 219. We were allowed at dinner a cue of beer, which was a half-pint, and a sizing of bread, which I cannot describe to you. It was quite sufficient for one dinner.
1861. O'Curry, Ancient Irish, 1. iv. Public schools where the sons of the lower classes waited on the sons of the upper classes, and received certain benefits (in food, clothes, and instruction) from them in return. In fact the sizar-ships in our modern colleges appear to be a modified continuation of this ancient system.
1864. Hotten, Slang Dict., s.v. Sizer. Poor scholars at Cambridge, annually elected, who got their dinners (including sizings) from what was left at the upper, or Fellows' table, free, or nearly so. They paid rent of rooms, and some other fees, on a lower scale than the "Pensioners" or ordinary students, and were equal with the "battlers" and "servitors" at Oxford.
1889. Cambridge Univ. Cal., 5. Sizars are generally Students of limited means. They usually have their commons free, and receive various employments.
2. (old).—Half-a-pint (Grose).
3. (colloquial).—Result; state; fact.
1861. Braddon, Trail of the Serpent, iv, vii. "Dead?" said Richard . . . "That's about the size of it, sir," replied Mr. Peters.
1889. Lic. Vict. Gaz., 8 Feb. They don't like to see a man's figure-head battered, that's about the size of it.
1891. Gould, Double Event, 295. 'That's about the size of it,' said Jack, 'and I don't think you could do better.'
1893. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 22. That's the size of it, Charlie.
1902. Headon Hill, Caged, xviii. That's about the size of it. . . . I could have got away.
Verb. (colloquial).—To measure; to gauge; to reckon up: also to size up.
1380. Mirk, Inst. Parish Priests [E. E. T. S.], 39. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 106. The old noun syse is used for measure; hence our to size men on parade.]
1847. Porter, Big Bear, 94. You see, Mr. Porter, I thot I'd size her pile.
1889. Puck's Library, 25 Ap. If you want to know just how thoroughly the community has sized you up, and to get the exact dimensions, ask for the best part in the amateur theatricals.
1891. Marriott-Watson, Web of Spider, xi. I haven't seen your little girl's face yet. . . . It was dark . . . and I hadn't time to size her.
1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, i. The two . . . had sized up the other guests as not worth . . . powder.
Skary. See Skeer.
Skedaddle, subs. and verb. (common).—As
subs. = hasty flight:
also skedaddling. As verb. =
to scamper off; to scatter; to
spill. For synomyns see Bunk.
1861. New York Tribune [Bartlett]. With the South-east clear and General Price retiring into Arkansas in the South-west, we may expect to witness such a grand skedaddle of Secesh and its colored property as was never seen before.
1861. Missouri Democrat, Aug. No sooner did the traitors discover their approach than they skedaddled, a phrase the Union boys up here apply to the good use the Seceshers make of their legs in time of danger.
