Sweet-scented Hole, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum: see Monosyllable.
1690. Motteux, Rabelais, v. xxx. With his nervous horn he removed all the infection that might be lurking in some blind cranny of the . . . sweet-scented hole.
Sweet-tooth, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A liking for sweet things or sweetmeats.
Swell, subs. (old).—1. See quots. 1785 and 1890. Hence, as adj. (also swellish) = (1) elegant, stylish, dandified; and (2) first-rate, TIP-TOP (q.v.). Also derivatives and combinations such as swelldom = the world of fashion; to live in Swell-street = to reside in the West End; a swell hung in chains = a bejewelled man or woman; A HOWLING SWELL (see HOWLING); SWELL-HEAD (or BLOCK) = a vain coxcomb (Amer.).
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Swell, a gentleman; but any well-dressed person is emphatically termed a swell, or a rank swell. A family man who appears to have plenty of money, and makes a genteel figure, is said by his associates to be in Swell street. Any thing remarkable for its beauty or elegance, is called a swell article; so a swell crib is a genteel house; a swell mollisher, an elegantly-dressed woman, etc. Sometimes, in alluding to a particular gentleman, whose name is not requisite, he is styled, the swell, meaning the person who is the object of your discourse, or attention; and whether he is called the swell, the cove, or the gory, is immaterial, as in the following (in addition to many other) examples:—I was turned up at China-street, because the swell would not appear; meaning, of course, the prosecutor: again, speaking of a person whom you were on the point of robbing, but who has taken the alarm, and is therefore on his guard, you will say to your pall, It's of no use, the cove is as down as a hammer; or, We may as well stow it, the gory's leary.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. Cadge the swells, beg of the gentlemen.
1819. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial. . . . What madness could impel So rum a flat to face so prime a swell.
1823. Bee, Diet. Turf, s.v. Nob. A . . . nob . . . differs from swell, inasmuch as the latter makes a show of his finery; whereas the nob, relying upon intrinsic worth, or bonâ-fide property, or intellectual ability, is clad in plainness.
1823. Byron, Don Juan, xi. 17. Poor Tom was once a kiddy upon town, A thorough varmint and a real swell. Ibid., xi. 19. So prime, so swell, so nutty, and so knowing.
1835. Hook, Gilbert Gurney, III. ii. At the ball, my eldest girl danced with the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and found him very chatty, though a bit of a SWELL.
1840-45. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (1862), 70. No! no!—The Abbey may do very well For a feudal nob, or poetical 'SWELL.'
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., 1. 341. Not one swell in a score would view it in any light than a ream concern.
1854. Thackeray [Leech's Pictures in Quarterly Review, No. 191]. Corinthian, it appears, was the phrase applied to men of fashion and ton . . . they were the brilliant predecessors of the swell of the present period. Ibid. (1855), Newcomes, xliii. This isn't the moment, when all swelldom is at her feet, for me to come forward. Ibid. (1862), Philip, xxiii. The lady in the swell carriage, the mother of the young swell with the flower in his buttonhole.
c. 1864. Vance, Chickaleary Cove. My tailor serves you well, from a perger to a swell.
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, iii. 244. It was the swell's russia—a russia, you know, is a pocket-book.
1888. Runciman, Chequers, 38. She's a screamer, she's a real swell.
1890. T. R. Oliphant, Eton College. It is very hard to define exactly what is meant by a swell at Eton; but it usually implies a boy who, brought into notice either by athletic prowess or scholarship, or high standing in the school, by this peans becomes acquainted with the leading members of the school, and is found on acquaintance to develop considerable social qualities, which make him hand and glove with all the Eton magnates.
