1607. Dekker and Webster, Westward Ho, v. 1. How say you, wenches? Have I set the saddle on the right horse?
c. 1616. Court and Times James I. [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 70. We see set the saddle on the right horse . . .].
1668. Dryden, All for Love, Preface. A wiser part to set the saddle on the right horse.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversation, ii. Ld. Smart. Why, he us'd to go very fine, when he was here in Town. Sir John. Ay; and it became him, as a Saddle becomes a Sow.
1744. North, Lord Guildford, 1. 314. His . . . lordship had done well to have shown . . . what was so added, and then the saddle would have fallen on the right horse.
1837. Carlyle, Diamond Necklace, i. Roland . . . was saddle-sick, calumniated, constipated.
Saddleback, subs. (common).—A
louse: see Chates.
Sadly, adv. (colloquial).—Indifferent
in health.
1866. Eliot, Felix Holt, xxvii. Mr. Holt, miss, wants to know if you'll give him leave to come in. I told him you was sadly.
Safe, adj. (occasionally colloquial).—Trustworthy;
certain: e.g.,
'So-and-so's safe enough' = 'He
is certain to meet his engagements';
safe to be hanged = sure
of the gallows; safe as houses
(the bellows, coons, the
Bank—anything) = perfectly
sure; a safe-card = a wide-*awake
fellow; A safe-un = a
horse not meant to run, nor,
if he runs, to win; also stiff-'un
(q.v.), dead-'un (q.v.), or
stumer (q.v.): with such an
entry a bookmaker can safely
operate.
1624. Middleton, Game at Chess, ii. 1. To sell away all the powder in a kingdom To prevent blowing up: that's safe.
1851. Mayhew, London Lab., 11. 154. If you was caught up and brought afore the Lord Mayor, he'd give you fourteen days on it, as safe as the bellows.
1854. Whyte-Melville, General Bounce, xiii. But here we are at Tattersall's; . . . so now for good information, long odds, a safe man, and a shot at the favourite!
1864. Derby-day, 51. We're all ruined as safe as coons.
1864. Yates, Broken to Harness, x. I shall be county-courted, as safe as houses. Ibid. (1866), Land at Last, 1. 173. One or two more of the same sort are safe to make him an associate.
1867. London Herald, 23 Mar., 221, 3. We're safe to nab him; safe as houses.
1871. "Hawk's-eye," Turf Notes, 11. Most assuredly it is the bookmakers that profit by the safe uns, or "stiff uns," as, in their own language, horses that have no chance of winning are called.
1890. Allen, Tents of Shem, xxviii. You may make your forgery itself as safe as houses.
1894. Moore, Esther Waters, xxx. I overlaid my book against Wheatear; I'd heard that she was as safe as 'ouses.
Sails, subs. (naval).—A sailmaker.
1835. Dana, Two Years Before Mast, xxviii. Poor 'Chips' could eat no supper . . . Sails tried to comfort him, and told him he was a bloody fool.
Phrases.—To sail in = to put in an appearance, or take part in a matter; to take the wind out of one's sails = to run foul of, to spoil sport; to sail near (close to, or too near the wind) = (1) to run risks, (2) to act with caution, (3) to live closely to one's income, and (4) to verge upon obscenity; 'How you sail about' (B. E.) = How you saunter about.'
1860. Thackeray, Lovel the Widower. Lady B. sailed in . . . many brooches, bangles, and other gimcracks ornamenting her plenteous person.
