= the party nominations, representing the official programme; split ticket = a divided policy, a ticket containing the names of candidates representing several differing interests or divisions; scratched-ticket = a list of candidates from which names have been erased; mixed ticket = a list in which the nominations of different interests or parties have been blended. To run ahead of the (or one's ticket), see quot. 1899.
1883. Nation, 6 Sep., 200. If he can elect such a ticket even in Virginia alone, he will take the field after election as a striker.
1885. D. Teleg., 17 Oct. To vote solidly the Parnell ticket.
1899. Century Dict., s.v. Ticket. To run ahead of the ticket, in U.S. politics, to receive a larger vote than the average vote polled by one's associates on the same electoral ticket. Similarly to run behind the ticket is to receive less than such an average vote.
A hard ticket, subs. phr. (American).—An unscrupulous man; a 'hard nut to crack.'
To work the ticket, verb. phr. (military).—To procure discharge by being pronounced medically unfit.
1899. Wyndham, Queen's Service, xxxiii. There is still a good deal of malingering in the Service . . . it is a comparatively easy matter for a discontented man to work his ticket.
Tickle, adj. and adv. (old and
venery).—1. Wanton. Also as
verb = (a) to grope; to firkytoodle
(q.v.); (b) to frig (q.v.);
and (c) to copulate. Hence
tickle-tail = (a) a wanton
and (b) the penis: also tickler,
tickle-Thomas (= female
privity), tickle-piece, tickle-gizzard,
tickle-faggot and
tickle-toby; tail-tickling =
(1) copulation; (2) masturbation;
tickle o' the sere = fond of
bawdy laughter (Halliwell.)
1363. Langland, Piers Plowman, 1619. For she is tikel of hire tail . . . As commune as a cartway.
[?]. Coventry Myst., 134. Of hire tayle oftetyme be lyght, And rygh tekyl.
1593. Greene, Gwydonius [Halliwell]. Yet if she were so tickle, as ye would take no stand, so ramage as she would be reclaimed with no lure.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes. Fricciare . . . to frig, to wriggle, to tickle.
1602. Shakspeare, Hamlet, ii. 2. 336. The clown shall make those laugh whose lungs are tickle of the sere. Ibid. (1602), Troilus and Cressida, v. 2. 57. How the devil Luxury, with his fat rump and potato-finger, tickles these together! Fry, lechery, fry!
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 2. Sub. My bird o' the night! we'll tickle it at the Pigeons, When we have all . . . [They kiss].
1612. Chapman, Widow's Tears, ii. 2. Tha. Hast thou been admitted? Ars. . . . ay, into her heart . . . I have set her heart upon as tickle a pin . . . that will never . . . rest till it be in the right position.
1620. Howard, Defensative [Druce, ii. 238]. Moods and humours of the vulgar sort . . . loose and tickle of the seare.
1652. Shirley, Brothers, ii. 1. But these wives, sir, are such tickle Things, not one hardly staid amongst a thousand.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, i. xi. He had already begun to exercise the tools . . . One . . . would call it her pillicock, her fiddle-diddle, her staff-of-love, her tickle-gizzard.
1656. Fletcher, Martiall, xi. 30. Thus Phillis rub me up, thus tickle me.
1672. Cotton, Virgil Travestie, 60. To Puss and to good company: And he that will not . . . name the words as I do barely, I do pronounce him to be no man, And may he never tickle woman.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xlv. For, now I hope To see some brawny, juicy rump Well tickled with my carnal stump.
