1592. Shakspeare, Mid. Night's Dream, iii. 2. 325. She was a vixen when she went to school; And, though she be but little, she is fierce.
d.1677. Barrow, Sermons, 1. xvii. These fiery vixens . . . really do themselves embroil things, and raise miserable combustions in the world. Ibid., Pope's Supremacy. A vixenly pope.
1709. Congreve, Ovid's Art of Love. I hate a vixon, that her Maid assails, And scratches with her Bodkin, or her Nails.
1816. Scott, Antiquary, xxii. His vixen brawls, and breaking God's peace and the King's.
1837. Dickens, Pickwick, xiv. So Tom Smart and his clay-coloured gig with the red wheels, and the vixenish mare with the fast pace, went on together.
1849-61. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. 'That may be very honourable in you,' said the pertinacious vixen.
1850. Hawthorne, Scarlet Letter, Int. p. 4. Vixenly as she looks many people are seeking . . . to shelter themselves under the wing of the federal eagle.
1866. Eliot, Felix Holt, xi. The shrill biting talk of a vixenish wife.
Vocab, subs. (Charterhouse).—A
dictionary, 'vocabulary.'
Vocalier, subs. (American).—A
singer.
1876. Besant and Rice, Golden Butterfly. Let things alone, and presently that young lady discovers that she is not likely to get cracked up as a vocalier.
Vol, adj. (Harrow School).—Voluntary:
e.g. Vol-gym.
Volant, subs. (old).—A Jack-of-both-sides,
a trimmer. As adj.
= giddy, flighty.
1740. North, Examen, 63. And so they kept the volant a good while, and did not declare on which side they would fall. Ibid., 474. The Dutch had acted the volant, and done enough on the one side or the other to have kept the fire alive.
1753. Richardson, Grandison, i. 274. Yes, my volant, my self-conducted quill, begin with the sister.
1801. Poetry of Anti-Jacobin, 129. The eddying smoke, quick flame, and volant spark.
Voluntary, subs. (Winchester).—A
copy of verses written occasionally
by some in Sixth Book and
Senior Part ex proprio motu
(Mansfield, c. 1840).
Voucher, subs. (Old Cant).—A
man or woman 'that passes off
False Money for sham coyners'
(B. E.); a snide-pitcher
(q.v.).
c.1680. 'Black Procession' [Farmer, Musa Pedestris)]. The first was a Coiner, that stampt in a mould; The second a Voucher, to put off his gold.
Vowel, verb. (common).—To give
an I.O.U.: e.g. to vowel a
debt.
Vowel-mauler, subs. phr. (common).—An
indistinct speaker.
Voyage. Hobbe's-voyage, subs.
phr. (venery).—The act of kind,
copulation: see Greens and
Ride.
1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, v. 3. Bel. Matrimony's the spot where I expect you. Heart. 'Tis enough, I'll not fail. (Aside) So now I am in for Hobbe's voyage; a great leap in the dark.
Vrow-case, subs. phr. (old).—A
brothel: see Nanny-shop.
Vulgus, subs. (Winchester: obsolete).—A
Latin epigram: four
or six lines long. Hence vulgus-book
= a crib (q.v.). [See
Farmer, Public School Wordbook.]
1856. Hughes, Tom Brown's School-*days, 11. iii. The vulgus (commonly supposed to have been established by William of Wykeham at Winchester, and
