c.1790. Kilmainham Minit [Ireland Sixty Years Ago, 88]. If dat de slang you run sly, De scrag-boy may yet be outwitted, And I scout again on de lay.
c.1866. Vance, Chickaleary Cove. How to do a cross-fan for a super or slang.
1877. Horsley, Jottings from Jail. Fullied for a clock and slang.
1900. Major Arthur Griffiths, Fast and Loose, xxxiii. If I am caught it'll mean a 'bashing' and the slangs.
1901. Walker, In the Blood, 138. A watch and chain, or in thieves' language "white lot" and thimble and slang.
4. (old).—False weights and measures (e.g., a slang quart = 1½ pts.). As verb. = to cheat by short weight or measure: also 'to defraud a person of any part of his due' (Grose and Vaux). Slanging-dues (see quot. 1785).
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Slanging-dues. When a man suspects that he has been curtailed of any portion of his just right, he will say, There has been slanging-dues concerned.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., ii. 104. Some of the street weights, a good many of them, are slangs.
5. (old).—A beggar's pass; a hawker's license: any official instrument. On the slang = begging or peddling. Hence (6) a pursuit; a lay (q.v.); a lurk (q.v.).
1789. Parker, Variegated Characters. How do you work now? Oh, upon the old slang and sometimes a little bully-prigging.
7. (showmen's).—(a) A travelling show; a cheap-jack's van; and (b) a performance; a turn (q.v.): e.g., the first, second, or third slang = the first, second, or third house (q.v.), when more than one performance is given during the evening. Also The slangs = (1) a collection of shows, and (2) the showman's profession; slanging and slang-cull (see quot. 1789); slang-and-pitcher shop = (1) a cheap-jack's van, and (2) a wholesale dealer in cheap-jack wares; slang-tree = (1) a stage, and (2) a trapeze: hence to climb up the slang tree = (1) to perform, and (2) to make an exhibition of oneself.
1789. Parker, Var. Characters. To exhibit anything in a fair or market, such as a tall man, or a cow with two heads, that's called slanging, and the exhibitor is called a slang-cull.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i. 353. The slang-coves (the showmen) have . . . been refused.
1887. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip, 2. Pad with a slang, or chuck a fag.
1888. Hood, Comic Annual, 52. There were all kinds of fakes on the slangs . . . amongst others some Chinese acrobatic work.
To slang the mauleys, verb. phr. (streets').—To shake hands. [That is to sling (q.v.)].
Slangrill (or Slangam), subs.
(old).—A lout.
1592. Greene, Quip for Upstart Courtier [Harl. Misc., v. 407]. The third was a long leane, olde, slavering slan-grill.
1611. Cotgrave, Dict., s.v. Longis. A tall and dull slangam, that hath no making to his height, nor wit to his making; also one that being sent on an errand is long in returning.
Slant, subs. (colloquial).—1. An
opportunity; a chance. [Originally
nautical = a favourable wind:
e.g., 'a slant across the Bay.']
2. (American).—A side blow (Bartlett).
Verb. (thieves').—1. To run away: see Bolt.
2. (colloquial).—To exaggerate; to 'draw the long bow' (q.v.).
3. (racing).—To wager: see Lay.
