out, pulled off his gown, and received from the hands of one deputed by the 'prefect of hall,' and armed with a tough, pliant, ground-ash stick, a severe beating.
c. 1890. Punch ['Confession by a Wykehamist']. I like to be tunded twice a day, And swished three times a week.
Tune, verb. (old).—To beat: also
to tune up: e.g. 'The old man
tuned him up delightfully' = He
got a good thrashing: cf. 'I'll
make you sing another tune' =
a threat of corporal punishment.
(Grose).
The tune the cow (or old cow) died of, phr. (old).—1. A grotesque or unpleasant noise; (2) a homily instead of alms. [From an old ballad.]
Colloquialisms.—To the tune of = to the sum, amount, or measure of [a stated figure, etc.]; to change one's tune (or note) = to alter one's way of talking, manner, or demand; to change from laughter to tears; to sing another tune (see Sing); to tune up = to commence.
1578. Scot. Poems 16th Cent. (1801), ii. 185. Priestes change your tune.
1604. Motteux, Rabelais, v. ix. I'll make him change his note presently.
1709. Steele, Tatler, 31. You look as if you were Don Diego'd to the tune of a thousand pounds. Ibid., 230. Will Hazard has got the hipps, having lost to the tune of five hundr'd pounds.
Tunker, subs. (common).—A
street-preacher. [? Dunker: see
Tumbler, 9.]
Tunnel, subs. (old).—A nostril.
1596. Jonson, Ev. Man in Humour, i. 3. It would do a man good to see the fume come forth at's tunnels.
Tunnel-grunter, subs. phr.—Usually
in pl. = potatoes.
Tup, verb. (venery).—To copulate:
see Ride (B. E. and Grose).
[Spec. of a ram.] Hence as subs.
(or a stray tup on the loose)
= (1) a man questing for a
woman; and (2) = a cuckold
(Grose).
1602. Shakspeare, Othello, i. 1. 89. Even now, now, very now, an old black ram Is tupping your white ewe.
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, v. 3. Come on, you ewe, you have matched most sweetly, have you not? Did not I say, I would never have you tupped But by a dubbed boy.
1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 2. Latona's son, that red-fac'd tup. Ibid., 34. Before our chief could tup her . . . send home the dame As good a virgin as she came.
2. (provincial).—To salute in drinking.
Venison out of Tup-park, subs. phr. (old).—Mutton (B. E.).
Tuppence (or Tuppenny). See
Twopenny.
Tup-running, subs. phr. (old).—A
'A rural sport practised at wakes
and fairs in Derbyshire; a ram
whose tail is well soaped and
greased, is turned out to the
multitude; anyone that can take
him by the tail, and hold him
fast, is to have him for his own'
(Grose).
Tu Quoque, subs. phr. (venery).—The
female pudendum; 'the
mother of all saints' (Grose):
see Monosyllable.
Turd, subs. (old literary: now
vulgar).—1. A lump of excrement;
and (2) a contemptuous
address: cf. Shit. Frequently
in combination: e.g. not worth
a turd = the maximum of worth-
