Heading
Cracksman, subs. (popular).—1. A housebreaker. [From crack, verb, sense 2, + man; literally one who cracks or forces his way into a house.] For synonyms, see Thieves.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum. The kiddy is a clever cracksman.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, p. 298, ed. 1854. I have no idea of a gentleman turning cracksman.
1837. Dickens, Oliver Twist, p. 123. You'll be a fine young cracksman afore the old file now.
1837. Barham, I. L. (Lay of St. Aloys). Your cracksman, for instance, thinks night-time the best To break open a door or the lid of a chest.
1839. Ainsworth, Jack Sheppard (1889), p. 70. I'll turn cracksman, like my father.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 21 Nov., p. 6, col 1. The latest dodge among cracksmen is to personate an electric-light man.
2. (common).—The penis.—See Crack, subs., sense 4.
Cradle, Altar, and Tomb
Column, subs. phr. (American).—The
births, marriages, and
deaths column in newspaper. An
English equivalent is hatch,
match, and dispatch column.
Crag.—See Scrag.
Cram, subs. (popular).—1. A lie;
oftentimes crammer. [The idea
is that of stuffing with nonsense.]
For synonyms, see Whopper.
1842. Punch, vol. II., p. 21, col. 2. It soundeth somewhat like a cram: but our honour is at stake, and we repeat the 'mile.'
1864. Le Fanu, Uncle Silas, ch. xxxviii. 'It is awful, an old un like that elling such crams as she do!'
1864. Quiver, 4 June. By some delicate distinction the falsehood presented itself under the guise of a cram, and not of a naked lie.
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon's Good Night. You magsmen bold that work the cram.
2. (colloquial).—Hard, forced study. Resulting rather in a test of memory than of capacity.
1872. Morning Post, Oct. 15. Poor Toots, the head boy of Dr. Blimber's academy . . . bloomed early and had by cram been enabled to answer any given set of questions, and to work any papers at an 'exam.'
1872. Daily Telegraph, July 25. 'Speech Day at King's College School.' Dr. Maclear also said a few words on the advantage of boys going up straight from school to college without any interval of cram.
1878. Jas. Payn, By Proxy, ch. xii. They have gained their position by cram of the philosophic kind.
3. (colloquial).—One who prepares another for an examination; a coach; a 'grindstone.'
1861. Dutton Cook, Paul Foster's Daughter, ch. ix. 'I shall go to a coach, a cram, a grindstone.'
4. (University).—An adventitious aid to study; a translation; a 'crib.' For synonyms, see Pony.
1853. Rev. E. Bradley ['C. Bede'), Verdant Green, pt. II., p. 68. The infatuated Mr. Bouncer madly persisted . . . in going into the school clad in his examination coat, and padded over with a host of crams.
Verb (colloquial).—1. To study at high pressure for an examination. Also to prepare one for examination. Cf., Dig and Coach.
1803. Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, s.v.
1825-27. Hone, Every-day Book, Feb. 22. Shutting my room door, as if I was 'sported in' and cramming Euc
1836. Dickens, Pickwick, chap. li., p. 446. 'He crammed for it, to use a technical but expressive term; he read up for the subject, at my desire, in the Encyclopædia Britannica.'
