Heading
English Synonyms.—Camp-*candlestick; fellow-commoner; corpse; dummy; dead marine; dead recruit; dead 'un.
French Synonyms.—Une fillette (= a half-bottle); un corps mort (popular: literally, a corpse; une négresse morte (popular: a reference to color as well as condition).
1738. Swift, Polite Convers., Dial. 2. Ld. S. Come, John, bring us a fresh bottle. Col. Ay, my lord; and pray, let him carry off the dead men. as we say in the army [meaning the empty bottles].
1825. The English Spy, vol I., p. 152. On the right was the sleeping room and at the foot of a neat French bed, I could perceive the wine bin, surrounded by a regiment of dead men (empty bottles).
1853. Rev. E. Bradley ('Cuthbert Bede'), Verdant Green, pt. I., p. 59. Talk of the pleasures of the dead languages, indeed! why, how many jolly nights have you, and J. Larkyns passed 'down among the dead men.'
1871. London Figaro, 15 April. We knew that, in practical use, imperials were inconvenient and wasteful; and that, moreover, it was far from easy to dispose of their corpses when they became dead men.
1879. sBraddon, Vixen, ch. viii. And added more dead men to the formidable corps of tall hock bottles, which the astonished butler ranged rank and file in a obby outside the dining room.
1888. E. Zola. 'Translation of L'Assommoir, ch. vii., p. 208. In a corner of the shop, the heap of dead men increased, a cemetery of bottles.
2. (bakers').—A loaf, overcharged, or marked down though not delivered. In London, dead 'un is a popular term for a half-*quartern loaf. Also, by implication, a baker.
1819. T. Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial, p. 16. Dead men are bakers, so called from the loaves falsely charged to their master's customers.
3 (tailors').—In pl. Misfits; hence, a scarecrow.
Dead man's Lurk, subs. phr.
(thieves').—Extortion of money
from the relatives of deceased
persons. [Lurk = a sham, swindle,
or imposition of any kind.]
Dead Marine.—See Dead Man.
Dead-Meat, subs. (common).—A
corpse. [By comparison to
butchers' wares.] Cf., Cold meat.
English Synonyms.—Cold meat; pickles (medical students': for specimens direct from the subject); croaker; stiff; stiff 'un; dustman; cold pig.
French Synonyms.—Un engourdi (thieves': properly, torpid, heavy, dull); une falourde engoúrdie (popular: falourde = a heavy piece of firewood); un dégelé (pop: dégel = death); un rebouis (thieves': one who has been 'polished off'); un refroidi (thieves': refroidir = to cool, to chill; in cant, to kill); les conserves (popular: literally, preserves; cf., 'pickles': specifically used of murdered bodies recovered from the water).
Dead-meat train.—See Cold-meat train.
Dead Men's Shoes, subs. phr.
(common).—A situation, property,
or possession formerly occupied
or enjoyed by a person who is
dead and buried. Waiting for
dead men's shoes = looking forward
to inheritances.
b. 1584, d. 1660. Phineas Fletcher, Poems, p. 256. And 'tis a general shrift, that most men use, But yet 'tis tedious waiting dead men's shoes.
1758. A. Murphy, The Upholsterer, Act i. I grant ye, ma'am, you have very good pretensions; but then it's waiting for dead men's shoes.
