1825. Universal Songster, i. ('The Dog's-Meat Man'). He soon saw which way the cat did jump, And his company he offered plump.
1827. Scott, in Croker Pap. (1884), i. xi. 319. Had I time, I believe I would come to London merely to see how the cat jumped.
1841. Thackeray, Great Hoggarty Diamond, xiii. Is not Gus Hoskins, my brother-in-law, partner with his excellent father in the leather way?
1853. Bulwer Lytton, My Novel, iv. 228. 'But I rely equally on your friendly promise.' 'Promise! No—I don't promise. I must first see how the cat jumps.'
1855. Haliburton, Human Nature, 3 S. vii. Jist so, jist so, stranger: you are just about half right, and there's no two ways about it.
1856. Hoffman, Winter in the West [Bartlett]. There's no two ways about that, sir; but ar'n't you surprised to see such a fine population?
1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, iii. 229. You'll see with half an eye how the cat jumps.
1874. Sat. Rev., 139. This dismays the humble Liberal of the faint Southern type, who thinks that there are subjects as to which the heads of his party need not wait to see how the cat jumps.
1887. 'Pol. Slang,' in Cornhill Mag., June, 626. Those who sit on the fence—men with impartial minds, who wait to see, as another pretty phrase has it, how the cat will jump.
1867. All the Year Round, 13 July, 56. The tramp who knows his way about knows what to do.
1892. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 36. Knows her way about well, I can tell yer.
Way-bit (Weabit or Webit),
subs. (provincial).—A considerable
though indefinite addition
to a mile; a bittock (q.v.).
1611. Cotgrave, Dict., s.v. Huquée. It n'y a qu'vne huquée (Much like our Northern wee-bit) You have but a little (saies the clown, when you have a great) way thither.
1617-30. Howell, Letters, iv. 28. In the North parts . . . there is a wea-bit to every mile.
1662. Fuller, Worthies, 'Yorkshire,' ii. 494. 'An Yorkshire Way-bit.' That is, an Over-plus not accounted in the reckoning, which sometimes proveth as much as all the rest. Ibid., ii. 535. General Leslie, with his Scottish, ran away more than a Yorkshire mile and a Wee bit.
1692. Hacket, Life of Williams, i. 59. I have heard him prefer divers, and very seriously, before himself, who came short a mile and a way-bit.
Way-goose, subs. phr. (old).—An
entertainment given by an apprentice
to his fellow-workmen:
spec. (printers') an annual
dinner; cf. beanfeast (q.v.).
[A corruption of wayz-goose =
stubble goose, a favourite dish
at such festivals: nowadays,
among printers, the funds are
collected by stewards appointed
by the Chapel (q.v.)]
1677-9. Moxon, Mechanic Exercises. The Master Printer gives them a Way-goose; that is, he makes them a good feast.
1839. C. H. Timperley, Printers and Printing, 516. The way-gooses were always kept about Bartholomew-tide; and till the master-printer have given this way-goose the journeymen do not use to work by candle-light.
Weak-brother (or -sister), subs. phr. (religious cant).—An unreliable man (or woman). Cf. also (colloquial) weakling (a diminutive), which, as adj. = puny, weak; weak-kneed = uncertain, vacillating, purposeless.
1595. Shakspeare, 3 Henry VI., v. 1. 37. Thou art no Atlas for so great a weight: And, weakling, Warwick takes his gift again.
1740. North, Plutarch, 700. He was but weakling and very tender.
1847. Bronté, Jane Eyre, xxxiv. Jane is not such a weakling as you would make her.
