1709[?]. Ward, Terræfilius, iii. 22. Her most Topping School is among the Meeting-House Allies in Moorfields . . . that the Saints may kill Two Birds with one Stone, and tumble out of the School of Piety into that of Debauchery.
1774. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 180. Thus swimmingly the knave went on, And killed two birds with every stone.
Stone-bee. See Bee.
Stone-broke (Stoney or Stony-broke),
adj. phr. (common).—Penniless;
hard-up (q.v.);
pebble-beached (q.v.).
1891. Harry Fludyer, 122. Pat said he was stoney or broke or something but he gave me a sov., which was ripping of him.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 106. Full of fixes, assets 'nixes,' Stoney-broke, and hence these tears. Ibid., 120. On his right a stoney-broke-er In bad financial health.
1899. Whiteing, John St., xxviii. You're a toff, stone-broke—that's what you are.
1901. Walker, In the Blood, 159. 'Twon't be a bad lay fer us when we're stoney broke down 'ere.
Stone-doublet (-jug, -pitcher,
or -tavern), subs. phr. (old).—A
prison: spec. Newgate (B. E.,
Grose, and Vaux). Also jug
(q.v.).
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, IV. xii. In danger of miserably rotting within a stone doublet, as if he had struck the King.
d. 1704. Brown, Works, ii. 300. Once more . . . observe . . . for I am not at leisure to trifle any longer with you: otherwise a stone doublet is the word.
1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood, 'Jerry Juniper's Chant.' In a box of the stone-jug I was born.
1836. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 'Prisoner's Van.' Six weeks and labour . . . and that's better than the stone jug anyhow. Ibid. (1838), Oliver Twist, viii. "Was you never on the mill?" "What mill?" enquired Oliver. "What mill? why the mill—the mill as takes up so little room that it'll work inside a stone-jug."
1856. Reade, Never too Late to Mend. I will sell the bed from under your wife's back, and send you to the stone-jug.
Stone-fence, subs. phr. (common).—Brandy
and ale; breaky-*leg
(q.v.).
1862. E. MacDermott, Pop. Guide to Int. Exhib., 1862, 185. An American bar where visitors may indulge in . . . eye-openers, stone fences, and a variety of similar beverages.
Stone-wall, subs. (Australian).—1.
Parliamentary obstruction:
also as verb. Hence (2) verb. =
to obstruct business at any meeting,
chiefly by long-winded
speeches; and (3) to play a slow
game at cricket, blocking balls
rather than making runs.
1876. Victorian Hansard, Jan., xxii. 1387. Mr. G. Paton Smith wished to ask the honourable member for Geelong West whether the six members sitting beside him (Mr. Berry) constituted the 'stone wall' that had been spoken of? Did they constitute the stone wall which was to oppose all progress.
1884. G. W. Rusden, History of Australia, iii. 405. Abusing the heroic words of Stonewall Jackson, the Opposition applied to themselves the epithet made famous by the gallant Confederate General.
1885. Campbell Praed, Head Station, 35. He is great at stone-walling tactics, and can talk against time by the hour.
1894. Argus, 26 Jan., 3, 5. The Tasmanians [sc. cricketers] do not as a rule stonewall.
As able to see as far through a stone wall as anyone, phr. (common).—As capable of understanding—a retort on depreciation or doubt of one's abilities.
1900. Kennard, Right Sort, xxii. I lay claim to no such exalted pretensions . . . although I flatter myself I can see through a stone wall as clearly as most people. Still that's not saying much.
