Heading
care who you are, tho' before you spoke I took you for a brewer because you travel with your cooler by your side.'
2. (American thieves').—A prison. For synonyms, see Cage.
3. (common).—Ale or stout after spirits and water. Sometimes called 'putting the beggar on the gentleman'; also damper (q.v.).
- 1821. P. Egan, Tom and Jerry (ed.
1890), p. 76. Many persons . . . in order to allay the heat or thirst arising from the pernicious use of such quantities of ardent spirits, frequently take a glass of porter, which is termed a cooler, 'a damper,' etc.
Cool-Kick, subs. (Eton College).
—When a behind (q.v.) or
'back' gets a kick with no one
up to him.
Cool-Lady, subs, (old).—A female
follower of the camp who sells
brandy.—Grose [1785].
Cool-Nantz, subs, (old).—Brandy.
For synonyms, see Drinks.
Cool one's Coppers, verbal phr. (popular).—To allay the morning's thirst after a night of drink. Cf., Hot-coppers and Dry as a LIME BASKET.
- 1861. T. Hughes, Tom Brown at
Oxford, ch. iii. We were playing Van John in Blake's rooms till three last night, and he gave us devilled bones and mulled port. A fellow can't enjoy his breakfast after that without something to cool his coppers.
1870. Sportsman, 17 Dec. 'A Chapel Meeting.' Bring me a mouthful, George, shouted a grasping Typo one day to his chum, who, at the trough in the furthest corner of the room, was cooling his coppers with cold water.
Coon, subs. (American).—1. A
man. [Coon, a curtailment of
'racoon' (Procyon lotor), is thought
to be of Indian origin (Algonquin,
aroughcun, the scratcher), though
some trace it to the French raton.
The contraction dates from about
1840, when the racoon was used
as a kind of political totem.]
- 1860. Punch, vol. XXXIX., p. 227.
'The Baby in the House.' I sign him, said the Curate Howe, O'er Samuel Burbott George Bethune, Then baby kicked up such a row As terrified that reverend coon.#
2. (American).—A nigger, e.g., a coons' bawdy house = a house where none are kept but girls of colour.
Gone coon, subs. phr.
(American).—One in a serious or
hopeless difficulty. A Scots
equivalent is gone Corbie, i.e.,
a dead crow. Cf., Gone goose.
[The explanation generally given
is that during the American War
a spy dressed in racoon skins
ensconced himself in a tree. An
English rifleman (the nationalities
are reversible) levelled his piece
at him, whereupon the American
exclaimed: 'Don't shoot, I'll
come down. I know I am a
GONE COON.']
- 1845. Mr. Giddings, in Congress
(quoted in De Vere). Besides the acquisition of Canada, which is put down on all sides as a gone coon.
1857, Dickens, Lying Awake, in Reprinted Pieces, p. 192. I must think of something else as I lie awake; or, like that sagacious animal in the United States who recognised the colonel who was such a dead shot, I am a gone coon.
1864. Derby Day, p. 51. We shan't get to your advice till the crack's hocussed and done for, and we're all ruined as SAFE AS COONS.
1867. London Herald, 23 March, p. 221, col. 3. 'We're safe to nab him; safe as houses. He's a gone coon, sir.'
1883. Calverley, Fly Leaves, p. 83. 'On the Brink.' She stood so calm, so like a ghost, Betwixt me and that magic moon. That I already was almost A finished coon.
