Heading
1880. G. R. Sims, How the Poor Live, p. 11. The little boys look up half with awe and half with admiration at the burly Sikes with his flash style, and delight in gossip concerning his talents as a crib-cracker, and his adventures as a pickpocket.
Crib-Cracking, verbal subs.
(thieves').—Housebreaking.
1852. Punch, vol. XXIII., p. 161. With higher ambition Bill Sykes he burned, And becoming experter as he grew older, From cly-faking to crib-cracking turned.
Cries.—See Street cries.
Crikey! Cracky! Cry! intj.
(common).—Formerly, 'a profane
oath'; now a mere expression
of astonishment. [A corruption
of 'Christ.']
1837. R. H. Barham, The Ingoldsby Legends (ed. 1862), p. 276. It would make you exclaim, 'twould so forcibly strike ye, If a Frenchman Superbe!—if an Englishman crikey!
1841. Comic Almanack, p. 275. Oh! crikey, Bill; vot a conch that lady's got!
1853. Diogenes, II., 54. O, crikey! the switching I got, At the hand of the cruel old miser.
1888. W. E. Henley. 'Culture in the Slums.' 'O crikey, Bill!' she says to me, she ses. 'Look sharp,' ses she, 'with them there sossiges.'
Crimini, Criminey, or Crimes!—See
Crikey. [Possibly the latter
usage has been influenced by
crimen meum, my fault. ]
1700. Farquhar, Constant Couple, Act iv., Sc. 1. Murder'd my brother! O crimini!
1816. Scott, Antiquary, ch. xvi. A monument of a knight-templar on each side of a Grecian porch, and a Madonna on the top of it!—O crimini!
1841. The Comic Almanack, p. 280. 'A Lament for Bartlemy Fair.' Oh! lawk; oh! dear; oh! crimeny me; what a downright sin and a shame.
Crimson. To make things look
crimson, verbal phr. (American).—To
indulge in a drunken frolic;
to paint the town red (q.v.)
Crimson Chitterling, subs. phr.
(old).—The penis. Used by
Urquhart. For synonyms, see
Creamstick.
Crincle-Pouch, subs. (old).—A
sixpence. For synonyms, see
Bender.
1593. (Bacchus' Bountie,' Harl. Misc., II., p. 270 [ed. 1808-11]. See then the goodnes of this so gracious a god, al yee, which in the driest drought of summer, had rather shroude your throates with a handfull of hemp, than with the expence of an odde crinclepouch, wash yourselues within and without, and make yourselues as mery as dawes.
Crinkum-Crankum, subs. (old).—The
female pudendum. [Properly
a winding way.] For synonyms,
see Monosyllable.
Crinkums, subs. (old).—A venereal
disease. Cf., Crinkum-crankum.
For synonyms, see
Ladies' fever.
Crinoline, subs. (common).—A
woman. For synonyms, see
Petticoat.
Cripple, subs. (old).—1. A 'snid'
(Scots) or sixpence.—[See quots.,
1785 and 1885.] For synonyms,
see Bender.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. Cripple: six pence, that piece being commonly much bent and distorted.
1789. Geo. Parker, Life's Painter, p. 178, s.v.
1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial, p. 25, n. A bandy or cripple, a sixpence.
1885. Household Words, 20 June, p. 155. The sixpence is a coin more liable to bend than most others, so it is not surpris-
