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To burn daylight, verbal phr. (colloquial).—To use artificial light before it is really dark; to waste time.
1595. Shakspeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act i., 4. Mercutio. Come, we burn daylight.
To let or knock daylight into one, into the victualling department, or into the luncheon reservoir, phr. (common).—To stab in the stomach (or breadbasket); in the bread-room, potato-store, or giblet-pie, etc., and by implication to kill. Fr., bayafer. For synonyms, see Cook one's goose.
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 101, col. 2. A gentleman in a blue uniform has thrown himself into an attitude à la Crib, with the facetious intention of letting daylight into the wittling department.
Daylights, subs. (common).—1.
The eyes. Cf., quots. under
Darken the Daylights. For
synonyms, see Glims.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vul. Tongue, s.v.
1823. Bee, Sl. Dict. [quoted in]. The hero (Achilles) in his tent they found, His day-lights fixed upon the cold, cold ground.
2. (general).—The space in a glass between liquor and brim: inadmissible in bumpers at toasts: the toast-master cries 'no daylights nor heeltaps!'
To darken one's daylights, verbal phr. (pugilistic).—1. To give a black-eye; 'to sew up one's sees.'
1752. Fielding, Amelia, bk. I., ch. x. If the lady says such another word to me, d—n me, I will darken her daylights.
1786. The Microcosm, No. 2. The nobility and gentry were taught theoretically as well as practically, to bruise the bodies, and (to use a technical term) darken the daylights of each other, with the vigour of a Hercules, tempered with the grace of an Apollo.
1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial, p. 3. If the Fine Arts Of fibbing and boring be dear to your hearts; If to level, to punish, to ruffian mankind, And to darken their daylights, be pleasures refin'd.
1822. David Carey, Life in Paris, p. 200. So here's at darkening his daylights for the advantage of his mummer.
Deacon, verb (American).—To
pack fruit, vegetables, etc., the
finest on the top. [Either derived
by inversion, or in allusion to the
Yankee proverb—'All deacons
are good, but there is odds in
deacons.']
1868. Miss Alcott, Little Women, ch. xi. The blanc-mange was lumpy, and the strawberries not as ripe as they looked, having been skilfully deaconed.
To deacon a calf, verbal phr. (American).—To kill.
To deacon land, verbal phr. (American).—To filch land by removing one's fences into the highway or other common property.
To deacon off, verbal phr. (American).—To give the cue; to lead in debate. [From a custom, once universal but now almost extinct, in the New England Congregational churches. An important function of the deacon's office was to read aloud the hymns given out by the minister one line at a time, the congregation singing each line as soon as read. This was called deaconing off.]
1848. J. R. Lowell, Biglow Papers. To funk right out o' p'lit'cal strife ain't thought to be the thing, Without you deacon off the tune you want your folks should sing.
1890. H. D. Traill, Saturday Songs, p. 7. We grieve, too, that of all men you
