Heading
Cuffer, subs. (military).—1. A lie; an exaggerated and improbable story.—See quot., under to spin cuffers, and for synonyms, see Whopper.
2. (American thieves').—A man; also cuffir. [Cf., Cofe, Cove, and Cuffin, from one of which the American form is doubtless derived.]
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue's Lexicon, s.v.
To spin cuffers, phr.—To tell extremely improbable stories; to yarn; to draw the long bow (q.v.).
1888. Colonies and India, 14 Nov. The Australian youth can develop the art of spinning cuffers very successfully on his own account, without any adventitious assistance from a passing Minister of Public Instruction.
Cuffin, Cuffen, or Cuffing, subs. (Old Cant).—A man.
1567. Harman, Caveat, s.v.
1857. Punch, 31 Jan., p. 49. 'Dear Bill, this Stone-jug.' In the day-rooms the cuffins [warders] we queer at our ease, And at Darkmans we run the rig just as we please.
Queer-cuffin, Subs. (old).—A magistrate. [From queer, an old canting term for bad, + cuffin, a man; literally a bad man—from a rogue's point of view. Some of the old canting terms are curious enough: e.g., 'quyer crampringes' = bolts or fetters; 'quyer kyn' = a prison house.] For synonyms, see Beak, sense 2.
1609. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candle-light [ed. Gros., III., p. 203]. To the quier cuffing we bing.
1837. Disraeli, Venetia, p. 71. The gentry cove will be romboyld by his dam said a third gypsy. 'Queer cuffin' (magistrate or queer man] will be the word if we don't tour.
Cuff-Shooter, subs. (theatrical).—A beginner; one who gives himself 'airs'; literally one who shoots his cuffs: having a greater regard for the display of his linen than for his work as an actor.
Cule, Cull, Culing, Culling, verb and verbal subs. (thieves').—To purloin from the seats of carriages; the act of snatching hand-*bags and other impedimenta therefrom. [Either an abbreviation and corruption of reticule, or from cull, to gather.]
1857. Snowden, Mag. Assistant, 3 ed., p. 444. Snatching reticules from a carriage—culing.
Cull or Cully, subs. (old).—A man; companion; partner. Specifically, a fool; one tricked or imposed upon. Grose seems to make a distinction, for he quotes cull = 'a man honest or otherwise,' and cully = 'a fop, fool, or dupe to women,' in which sense it was current in the seventeenth century. Thus Rochester (in Satire on the Times), 'But pimp-fed Ratcliffe's not a greater cully.—See also quot., 1771. [Probably a contraction of cullion (Fr., couillon; It., coglione); but derived by Annandale from the Sp. Gypsy chulai, a man; Turkish Gypsy, khulai, a gentleman.]
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874). Culle: a sap-headed fellow.
1676. A Warning for Housekeepers. we walk along the street, We bite the culley of his cole.
1693. Congreve, Old Batchelor, Act iii., Sc. 1. Man was by nature woman's cully made: We never are but by ourselves betrayed.
1712. Arbuthnot, Hist. of John Bull, pt. IV., ch. i. I won't let him make me over, by deed and indenture, as his lawful cully.
