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1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xix. The padrone informed them that he should like to see the colour of their money before they went on board.
Coloured on the card, phr. (racing).—Having the colours in which a jockey is to ride inserted on the card of the race.
Off colour, adv. phr. (common).—Exhausted; run down; 'seedy.'
c. 1876. Broadside Ballad, 'That's Where The Money Goes.' London's Police will be made up of men, Cold Rabbit Pie will be off colour then.
Colour One's Meerschaum, verbal
phr. (common).—To get
brandy-faced; to drink one's nose
into a state of pimples and scarlet.
Colquarron, subs. (old)—The
neck. For synonyms, see Scrag.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. colquarron: a man's neck (cant), his colquarron is just about to be twisted, he is just going to be hanged.
1830. Sir E. B. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 5 (ed. 1854). Tis a rum business, and puzzles I! but mum's the word, for my own little colquarren.'
Colt, subs. (popular).—1. A person
new to office, or, to the exercise
of any art; e.g., a professional
cricketer during his first season; a
first-time juryman; a thief
in his novitiate. [Properly a
colt is a young male horse.]
1785 Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1885. Daily News, 28 August, p. 3, col. 7. A match arranged for the benefit of the young players of the county was commenced yesterday at Manchester, when the Lancashire Eleven were opposed to Twenty-six colts.
2. (nautical).—See quots.
1830. Marryat, King's Own, ch. viii. He always carried in his pocket a colt (i.e., a foot and a half of rope, knotted at one end, and whipped at the other), for the benefit of the youngsters, to whom he was a most inordinate tyrant.
1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xii. 'He knocked me down—and when I got up again he told me that I could stand a little more—and then he took out his colt, and said he was determined to ride the high horse.'
3. (thieves').—A thief's weapon; otherwise known as a billy (q.v.). For synonyms, see Neddy.
4. (thieves').—A man who hires horses to burglars. In America he is called a colt-man. [Quoted by Grose, 1785.]
5. (legal).—See quot.
1887. Sir F. Pollock, Pers. Remembr., vol. I., p. 212. In April I accompanied the newly-made Chief Baron [of Exchequer] as his colt (the so-called attendant on a serjeant at his making) to the Lord Chancellor's private room at Westminster.
Verb (nautical).—1. To thrash; [From colt, sense 2.] Cf., Baste, and for synonyms, see Tan.
1836. Marryat, Midshipman Easy, ch. xii. 'Then he colted me for half-an-hour, and that's all.'
2. (common).—To cause a person to stand treat by way of being 'made free' of a new place; to make one 'pay one's footing.' Cf., subs., sense 1.
Coltage, subs. (old).—The footing
paid by colts (q.v., subs.,
sense 1) on their first appearance.
COLTING, verbal subs. (common).—A
thrashing. For general synonyms,
see Tanning and Baste.
Colt-Man.—See Colt, subs.,
sense 4.
