Heading
better lodged to begin with. I may decide to do more, but that will depend pretty much on yourself.' 'Nothing crooked, is it?' asked the other, suspiciously!
Crooked as a Virginia (or snake) fence, phr. (American).—Uneven; zig-zag; said of matters or persons difficult to keep 'straight.' To make a Virginia fence is to walk unsteadily, as a drunkard. The Virginia fences zigzag with the soil.
Crooky, verb (common).—To
hang on to; to lead; to walk
arm-in-arm; to court or pay addresses
to a girl. For synonyms,
see Trot out.
Crop.—See Crap, sense 1.
Cropped, ppl. adj. (old).—Hanged. For synonyms, see Ladder and Topped.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 30. Sentencing some more to be crapped (sic) [hanged].
Cropper, subs. (common).—A heavy fall or failure of any kind; generally 'to come a cropper.' [Originally hunting.] Analagous French phrases are avoir une discussion avec le pavé (literally 'to argue with the pavement'); prendre un billet de parterre (a punning play upon words: the pit of a theatre is parterre; par terre = on the ground: hence to take a ticket for the pit); se lithographier (popular). For synonyms in a metaphorical sense, see Go to pot.
1868. Echoes from the Clubs, 23 Dec. 'Pleasures of the Hunting Field.' In short, it is fox-hunting which . . . induces the belief that life is a mistake without occasional croppers.
1869. H. J. Byron, Not such a Fool as He Looks (French's Acting ed.], p. 8. Mr. Topham Sawyer missed his own tip as well as his wictim's, and came down a cropper on a convenient doorstep.
1880. A. Trollope, The Duke's Children, ch. lxvii. Talking to his father he could not quite venture to ask what might happen if he were to come a cropper.
1883. Daily News, 24 Jan., p. 5, col. 3. Ouida treads 'alone, aloft, sublime' where Astræa might fear to pass, and though she comes what men call croppers over a thousand details, she is sublimely unconscious of her blunders.
Croppie or Croppy, subs. (old).—Originally
applied to criminals
cropped as to their ears and
their noses by the public executioner;
subsequently, to convicts,
in allusion to their close
cropped hair; hence to any
person whose hair was cut close
to the head; e.g., the Puritans
and the Irish Rebels of 1789.
1870. Sir G. C. Lewis, Letters, p. 410. Wearing the hair short and without powder was, at this time, considered a mark of French principles. Hair so worn was called a 'crop.' Hence Lord Melbourne's phrase, 'crop-imitating wig' [Poetry of Anti-Jacobin, p. 41]. This is the origin of croppies, as applied to the Irish rebels of 1789.
1877-79. Green, Short Hist. Eng. People, ch. x., The croppies, as the Irish insurgents were called in derision from their short-cut hair.
Croppled. To be croppled,
verbal phr. (Winchester College).—To
fail in an examination; to
be sent down at a lesson.
Croppy.—See Croppie.
Crops, verbal phr.—To go and
look at the crops = to leave
the room for the purpose of
consulting Mrs. Jones [q.v.).
Cross, subs. (thieves').—1. A
pre-arranged swindle. In its
special sporting signification a
