3. (racing) = to pick out, to choose, to chance upon: e.g., to spot the winner.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., I. 484. At length he became spotted. The police got to know him, and he was apprehended, tried, and convicted.
1857. M. Chron., 22 June. Having met with tolerable success in spotting the winners.
1861. Holmes, Elsie Venner, xxi. The Widow Leech . . . rang three times . . . but all in vain; the inside Widow having spotted the outside one through the blinds.
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, i. 33. The officer spotted him directly, and . . . would mark him for the attention of someone else.
1885. Field, 4 Ap. The hounds spotted him, and he became food and trophy two minutes later.
1896. Farjeon, John Fordham, III. 279. The minute I saw 'm I spotted wot they wos up to.
1898. Whiteing, John St., v. I've spotted her many a time when she didn't think I was lookin'.
1902. Free Lance, 19 July, 377, 1. To hear you laugh is as good as spotting a winner.
1903. Punch's Almanack, 12, 1. B. P. gives a thrilling example of experiment on this line. Got up a tree and watched how many passers-by spotted him.
4. (common).—To gamble.
Phrases and Combinations.—A soft spot = an easy, comfortable, or desirable berth, thing, or circumstance: see Hunt; to knock spots out of (see Knock); on (or off) the spot = alert, dead certain; in spots = by snatches; to have a vacant spot = to be crazy.
1887. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip. Palm and be always on the spot.
Spotted-dog, subs. phr. (common).—1.
A plum or currant dumpling:
spotted donkey = plum pudding;
and 2. (military) a sausage
or saveloy.
Spotted mystery, subs. phr.
(military).—Tinned beef.
Spout, subs. (common).—1. A
pawnbroker's shoot or lift from
shop to store-room; whence (2)
a pawnbroker's. As verb.
to pawn; up the spout (or spouted) = pawned: in America 'gone where the woodbine (q.v.) twineth' (Grose and Bee). Also up the spout = imprisoned, in hospital (Bee).
English Synonyms.—To blue; to bullock's-horn (rhyming = pawn); to flue (or put up the flue); to lay up in lavender; to lug; to lumber; to moskeneer (q.v.); to put away; to send to uncle's; to soak; to spout; to sweat; to vamp; to warehouse.
French Synonyms.—Accrocher chez sa tante (= uncle, q.v.); enclouer; guinaliser.
1837 Barham, Ingoldsby Leg., II. 16. His pockets, no doubt, Being turned inside out, That his mouchoir and gloves may be put up the spout.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford, II. i. The dons are going to spout the college plate.
1864. Art. Ward, Among the Mormons [Works, 257]. Even if she [the Goddess of Liberty] don't have to spout the gold stars in her head band.
1887. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip. It's up the spout and Charley-wag.
1889. Notes and Queries, 7 S, vii. 56. Pawnbrokers . . . before spouts were adopted, used a hook to lift the articles.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 71. He asked her if she'd seen his watch about; She said . . . 'It may be half-way up the giddy spout.'
Verb. (old).—To talk, speechify, or declaim for effect (Grose, Vaux, and Bee). Hence spouter = (1) a mouthing talker; whence (2) a fourth-rate speaker or actor. To spout Billy = to earn a living
