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1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. xxvi. It is even so, my little dandyprat, but who the devil could teach it thee.
Dang it! phr. (provincial).—A euphemism for 'damn it!' Also Dang my buttons! and Dang me!
Danglers, subs, (thieves').—A bunch of seals.
1859. Matsell, Rogues Lexicon, p. 124. And where the swag, so bleakly pinched, A hundred stretches hence? The thimbles, slang, and danglers filched, A hundred stretches hence?
Dan Tucker, subs. phr. (rhyming slang).—Butter. For synonyms, see Cart-grease.
Darbies, subs, (common).—1. Handcuffs. [Origin uncertain. Father Derby's name (he is supposed to have been a noted usurer) was already proverbial in 1576, but that is all now known of him.]
English Synonyms. Black-bracelets; buckles; Father derbie's bands; ruffles; wife; snitchers; clinkers; government securities; twisters; darbies and joans ( = fetters coupling two persons).
French Synonyms. Les alliances (popular = wedding rings); une bride (thieves' = a convicts' chain); le bouclage (thieves': also = imprisonment); une cadenne (thieves': applied to a neck-chain); un cabriolet (thieves' = a small rope or strap); une guirlande (a chain for two).
Italian Synonym. Trionfo (literally = triumph).
Spanish Synonym. Calceta (properly = understocking).
1576. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, I., 787. To binde such babes in father derbie's bands.
1592. Greene, Quip for an Upstart Courtier (Harl. Misc., V., 405). Then hath my broker an usurer at hand, as ill as himself, and he brings the money; but they tie the poor soul in such darbies' bands [i.e., bonds], what with receiving ill commodities [i.e., goods in lieu of cash], and forfeitures upon the bond, that they dub him 'Sir John had Land,' before they leave him; and share, like wolves, the poor novice's wealth betwixt them as a prey.
1602. Carew, Survey of Cornwall, p. 15 (ed. 1769). [Speaking of the hard dealings and usurious tricks of the marchant Londoners in their dealings with the Cornish tinners of his day, this writer tells the wiles by which the poor wretches became bound 'in darbye's bonds.']
1676. Canting Song, 'A Warning for Housekeepers.' But when that we come to the Whitt, Our darbies to behold.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 12, s.v.
1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, p. 77. Thus a new set of darbies, when first they are worn, Makes the jail-bird uneasy, though splendid their ray.
1836. Marryat, Japhet, ch. lvii. We may as well put on the darbies, continued he, producing a pair of handcuffs.
1890. Standard, 7 April, p. 6, col. 3. (Addressing the officer): Didn't you take me by the scruff of the neck, and hold me whilst others put the darbies on me?—did not.
2. (common).—Sausages. Also bags of mystery and chambers of horrors (q.v.).
Darble, subs. (old).—The devil. [A corruption of French diable.]
Darby, subs. (old).—Ready money. [One Derby is supposed to have been a noted sixteenth century usurer.—See quots. under Darbies, sense I.] For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.
1688. Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia (list of cant words), s.v.
