would discover the deficiency, and take measures to prevent future depredation. To weed the swag is to embezzle part of the booty, unknown to your palls, before a division takes place, a temptation against which very few of the family are proof, if they can find an opportunity. A flash-cove, on discovering a deficiency in his purse or property, which he cannot account for, will declare that he (or it, naming the article) has been wedded to the ruffian' (Grose). Hence weeding-dues: in speaking of any person, place, or property that has been weeded, it is said weeding dues have been concerned.
Wee-jee, subs. phr. (old).—1. A
chimney-pot. Hence (2) a hat:
see Golgotha.
3. (common).—Anything superlatively good of its kind: spec. a clever invention: e.g. 'That's a regular wee-jee.'
Week. Phrases, etc.: A week
of Sundays = an indefinite time:
spec. seven Sundays, hence seven
weeks: also month of Sundays;
the inside of a week = from
Monday till Saturday; a parson's
week = from Saturday to Monday;
to knock one into the
middle of next week = to
punish severely, knock out of
time, do for (q.v.); an attack
month's) end = impecuniosity,
hard-uppishness; when two
Sundays come in a week =
never: a left-handed assent.
1800. Price, Life of H. F. Carey, i. 144. Get my duty done for a Sunday, so that I may be out a Parson's week.
1850. Southern Sketches [Bartlett]. Arch would fetch him a side-wipe on the head, and knock him into the middle of next week.
1850. Kingsley, Alton Locke, xxvii. I haven't heard more fluent or passionate English this month of Sundays.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xl. 'I ain't been out of this blessed hole,' he says, ' for a month of Sundays.'
1892. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, Sc. 2. p. 7. A month of Sundays.
Weekender, subs. (common).—1.
A week-end mistress, a Saturday-to-Monday
girl.
2. (common).—A week-end holiday.
Weenie, intj. (telegraph clerks').—A
warning that an inspector is
coming.
Weeper, subs. (colloquial).—A
conventional badge of mourning:
e.g. a white border of linen or
muslin worn at the end of a
sleeve, a long crape hatband as
worn by men at a funeral, or the
long veil of widows'-weeds
(q.v.).
1759-62. Goldsmith, Citizen of the World, xcv. Mourners clap bits of muslin on their sleeves, and these are called weepers. Weeping muslin; alas, alas, very sorrowful truly! These weepers then it seems are to bear the whole burthen of the distress.
1760-62. Smollett, Sir L. Greaves, iii. The young squire was even then very handsome, and looked remarkably well in his weepers.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, ii. It is a funereal street . . . the carriages which drive there ought to have feathers on the roof, and the butlers who open the doors should wear weepers. Ibid., Bluebeard's Ghost. She had her beautiful hair confined in crimped caps, and her weepers came over her elbows.
