1897. Marshall, Pomes, 88. Their jokelets more spicy than witty.
3. (venery).—Juicy (q.v.): of women.
Spiddock-pot legs, subs. phr.
(old).—Large awkward legs
(Halliwell).
Spider, subs. (common).—Claret
and lemonade.
To swallow a spider, verb. phr. (old).—To go bankrupt (Ray).
Spider-catcher, subs. phr. (B.
E.).—'A Spindle of a Man.'
Also (Halliwell) = a monkey.
Spider-claw, verb. phr. (venery).—To
grasp and roke the testes
in the palm and fingers.
Spider-shanked, adj. phr. (old).—Long
legged (Grose). Spider-shanks
= a lanky fellow: see
Lamp-post.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, lxxxii. The tallest of the set, who bore the euphonious appellation of spider-shanks.
Spider-web, subs. phr. (B. E.).—'The
subtilties of Logic, which,
tho' artificial to sight, were yet of
no Use.'
Spidireen, subs. (nautical).—An
imaginary vessel figuring in an
unwilling reply: 'What ship do
you belong to?' 'The spidireen
frigate, with nine decks, and ne'er
a bottom.'
Spiel. See Spieler.
Spierize, verb. (Oxf. Univ. Cant).—To
have one's hair cut and
dressed. [Spiers was a barber in
The High.]
Spiffing, adj. (common).—A generic intensitive: of pleasure or admiration: used for anything or anybody out of the common: e.g., a spiffing time or girl; awfully spiff; 'How spiff you look'; 'How are you?' 'Pretty spiff'; and so forth. Also spiff, subs. = a swell.
1891. Harry Fludyer, 119. Pat of course looked as if he had just walked out of a ban-box, and the Mater and the girls looked spiffing.
2. (drapers').—In pl. = a percentage on the sale of old or 'dead' stock.
Spiffed, adj. (common).—Drunk:
see Screwed.
Spiflicate (Spifflicate, or
Smifligate), verb. (common).—To
confound; to crush; to smash
(q.v.). Hence spiflication =
confusion; annihilation (Grose).
See quot. 1823.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Spiflicate. To spiflicate a thief is to spill him, or betray the subject of his roguery.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Leg. So out with your whinger at once And scrag Jane, while I spiflicate Johnny.
1856. R. F. Burton, El. Medinah, I. 264. Whose blood he vowed to drink—the Oriental form of threatening spiflication.
1873. Brit. Quart. Rev., lvii. 276. The way in which the learned, racy old Hector smashes and spiflicates scientific idiots . . . is delicious.
1899. Hyne, Furth. Adv. Captain Kettle, ix. 'Very well. Den we shall spiflicate you until you do.' 'I wonder what spiflication is,' mused Kettle.
1901. Walker, In the Blood, 170. Then they threatened to spifligate him if he stirred, and made off.
Spigot, subs. (venery).—The penis:
see Prick.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, I. iii. Honest widows may without danger play at the close-buttock game with might and main for the . . . first two months. . . . If the devil would not have them to bag, he must wring hard the spigot, and stop the bung-hole.
