Heading
Commons; sometimes called the chamber of horrors, which appertains more properly to the Peeresses' Gallery in the Upper House.
1870. London Figaro, 10 June. 'The Angels in the House.' Mr. Crauford's Motion for the expulsion of strangers (during the debate on The Contagious (Women's) Diseases Act had reference to the cage and not to the Reporters' Gallery.
Cagg, verb (old military).—Grose
says 'a military term used by the
private soldiers, signifying a
solemn vow or resolution not to
get drunk for a certain time; or,
as the term is, till their cagg is
out, which vow is commonly
observed with the strictest exactness:
e.g., "I have cagg'd myself
for six months. Excuse me
this time, and I will cagg myself
for a year." Common in Scotland,
where the vow is performed with
divers ceremonies.'
Cag-Mag, subs. (vulgar).—Primarily
a provincialism for a tough
old goose; now a vulgarism for
refuse, or rubbish, or scraps and
ends. The transferred sense is
older than given in the N.E.D.
Cf., Keg-meg. [Brewer derives
it, 'from the Gaelic and Welsh,'
cag magu, whilst others consider
it as originally a University slang
term for a bad cook, [Greek: kakos
mageiros]. The Latin magma
(Pliny), = dregs or dross.] Also a
plain or dirty woman.
1769. Pennant, Tour in Scotland, 1774, p. 10. Vast numbers [of geese] are driven annually to London; among them, all the superannuated geese and ganders (called here [Lincoln] cag-mags).
1839.—Comic Almanack, Sept., p. 188, But here's the greatest grief, and sure it makes one choke to put on A libel to one's neck, just like cheap cag-mag-scrag of mutton.
1851-61.—H. Mayhew, London Lab. and Lon. Poor, vol. I., p. 133. 'Do I ever eat my own game if it's high? No, sir, never, I couldn't stand such cag-mag.'
1864.—Temple Bar, vol. X., p. 185. No kag-mag wares are sold, no cheap articles are retailed.
Cain. To raise cain, phr. (American).—To
proceed to extreme
measures; to be quarrelsome;
to make a disturbance. Of
Western origin; primarily applied
to men who would have shown
no hesitation in shooting or
stabbing; generally = merely disputatious
or quarrelsome Variants
are to raise hate, hell, or
hell and tommy, and to raise
ned (q.v.). [An allusion to the
anger of the first fratricide.]
1849.—Ruxton, Scenes in the Far West, p. 117. He had been knocking around all day in every grog-shop and bar-room in town, and when evening came he was seen swaggering down Main Street, his head bare, his eyes bloodshot, and his revolver in hand, shouting: 'Who'll hinder this child? I am going to raise Cain! Who's got anything to say agin it?'
1869.—Mrs. Beecher Stowe, Old Town Folks, p. 116. 'I'll tell you what, Solomon Peters,' said Miss Asphyxia, 'I'd jest as soon have the red dragon in the Revelation a comin' down on my house as a boy! If I don't work hard enough now, I'd like to know, without having a boy around raisin' gineral Cain.'
Cain and Abel, subs. phr. (rhyming
slang).—A table.
Cainsham-Smoke, subs. phr.
(old).—The tears of a wife-beaten
husband.—Dunton. Ladies' Dictionary
[1694].
Cake or Cakey, subs. (popular).—1.
A fool or dullard. Quoted by
Grose in his Dictionary of the
Vulgar Tongue [1785], in various
provincial glossaries, and generally
colloquial in the lower strata of
society. [In punning allusion,
some have thought, to the doughy
