quite usual, in turns with the parents of their scholars. Itinerating preachers also were, by the initiated, included in this category.
1888. St. James's Gazette, 2 May. Mr. Hugh Haliburton dilates upon the custom of 'whipping the cat'—i.e. working for people at their houses, as was once the wont of Scottish tailors. A minister who fills another's pulpit (for a consideration) is equally said to 'flog pouss.'
3. (modern).—To idle on Monday; to keep St. Monday.
3. (common).—(a) To get tipsy: see Screwed: also to whip (jerk or shoot the cat, or to cat): also (b) = to vomit. Hence whipcat, adj. = drunken (Florio), whipcan (which see) = a toper: cf. verb. sense 3.
1582. Stanyhurst, Ænid, iii. 367. With whipcat bowling they kept a myrry carousing.
1609. Armin, Maids of More-cl. (1880), 70. He baste their bellies and their lippes till we haue ierk't the cat with our three whippes.
1630. Taylor, Brood Cormor [Works, iii. 5. 1]. You may not say hee's drunke . . . For though he be as drunke as any rat He hath but catcht a fox, or whipt the cat.
1830. Marryat, Kings Own, xxxii. I'm cursedly inclined to shoot the cat.
4. (old).—To indulge in practical jokes: spec. (B. E. and Grose) 'a trick often practised on ignorant country fellows, vain of their strength; by laying a wager with them, that they may be pulled through a pond by a cat; the bet being made, a rope is fixed round the waist of the party to be catted, and the end thrown across the pond, to which the cat is also fastened by a pack-thread, and three or four sturdy fellows are appointed to lead and whip the cat; these, on a signal given, seize the end of the cord, and pretending to whip the cat, haul the astonished booby through the water.'
1614. Jonson, Barthol. Fair, i. 4. I'll be drawn with a good gib cat through the great pond at home.
To whip the devil round the stump, verb. phr. (American).—To make false excuses to one's self and others for doing what one likes, to equivocate, to say, pretend, or do one thing, and mean, or act differently.
1857. New York Evening Post [Bartlett]. Jones, you're a clever fellow, but . . . there is a want of candor now, I perceive, in the statement of your affairs . . . you are whipping the devil around the stump: I see his foot.
Whip-arse, subs. phr. (old).—A
schoolmaster: cf. Bum-brusher.
1611. Cotgrave, Dict., s.v. Fesse-*cul, a pedantical whip-arse.
Whip-belly, subs. phr. (provincial).—Thin
weak liquor: spec.
bad beer, swipes (q.v.): also
whip-belly-vengeance: cf.
Rot-gut.
1709-10. Swift, Pol. Conv., ii. I believe the brewer forgot the malt, or the river was too near him. Faith, it's meer whip-belly-vengeance.
Whip-broth, subs. phr. (old).—A
beating: cf. Hazel-oil,
Thimble-pie, etc.
1630. Taylor, Works [Nares]. Where I was ill thought of by my friends, scorned by my foes, and in conclusion, in a greater puzzell then the blinde beare in the midst of all her whip-broth.
Whipcan, subs. (old).—A toper,
tippler, boon-companion: in
orig. of quot. fesse-pinte. See
Whip the cat, 3.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, i. viii. He would prove an especial good fellow, and singular whipcan.
