1678. Cotton, Virgil Travestie (1770), 91. Who means to conquer Italy, Must with his Work go thorough stitches And not be running after Bitches.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgrims Prog., ii. 148. I promise you, said he, you have gone a good stitch: you may well be aweary; sit down.
Verb. (venery).—To copulate (Dorset): cf. sew up = to get with child, needle = penis; and needle-case = female pudendum: see Greens, Prick, Monosyllable, and Ride.
Stitch-back, subs. phr. (B. E.).—Very
strong ale; stingo (q.v.).
Stitch-louse, subs. phr. (common).—A
tailor: also prick-*louse.
See Trades.
1838. Beckett, Paradise Lost, 59. Why can't we with fig-leaves make breeches?. . . Who's the best stitch-louse.
Stive, verb. (old).—To crowd, to
make hot in a sultry atmosphere.
Stived up = stifled.
1865. Downing, Mayday in New York. "Oh, marcy on us," said a fat lady, who was looking for a house, "this'll never do for my family at all. There's no convenience about it, only one little stived-up closet. . . . And the bed-rooms,—she would as soon sleep in a pig-pen, and done with it, as to get into such little, mean, stived-up places as them."
1870. Judd, Margaret, ii. 8. 'Things are a good deal stived up,' answered the Deacon.
1876. Eliot, Daniel Deronda, liv. I shall go out in a boat . . . instead of stiving in a damnable hotel.
Verb. (American).—To run; to move off [Bartlett: 'a low word used in the Northern States'].
See Stew.
Stiver (Steever, Stinner, &c.),
subs. (old).—1. A Dutch coin
value 1d.; hence (2) a small
standard of value, a straw, a fig
(q.v.); and (3) generic for money.
Hence stiver-cramped = needy
(Grose).
1535. Joy, Apology to Tyndale, 22 [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 472. The Dutch coin steever appears].
1630. Taylor, Works, ii. 3. Through thy protection they are monstrous thrivers, Not like the Dutchmen in base doyts and stivers.
c. 1630. Broadside Ballad [Bagford (Brit. Mus.), i. 88]. He . . . paid . . . the shot Without ever a stiver of money.
1693. Dampier, Voyages. They will not budge under a stiver.
1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, i. 1. I there had a Dutch whore for five stivers.
1853. Lytton, My Novel, ix. 3. Entre nous, mon cher, I care not a stiver for popularity.
d. 1891. Lowell, Fitz Adam's Story. 'There's fourteen foot and over,' says the driver. 'Worth twenty dollars ef it's worth a stiver.'
1892. Zangwill, Children of the Ghetto. A shtibbur for a blind man.
1902. Lawson, Children of the Bush, 94. I ain't got a lonely steever on me.
Stizzle, verb. (Tonbridge School).—To
hurt.
Stock, subs. (old).—1. Cheek;
impudence; brass (q.v.).
2. (old).—Anything inert: hence = (1) a fool, a blockhead (q.v.), and (2) in contempt: spec. in compounds (mostly recognised) such as laughing-stock, jesting-stock, courting-stock, &c. Whence stockish = silly, lumpish; stockishness = stupidity.
1593. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, i. 1, 31. Let's be no stoics nor no stocks. Ibid. (1598), Merchant of Venice, v. 1, 81. Nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage.
1607. Beaumont and Fletcher, Woman Hater, iii. 3. All accounted dull, and common jesting-stocks for your gallants.
