Derby.—See Darby.
Derrey, subs. (thieves').—An eye-*glass. To take the derrey, (tailors') = to quiz, ridicule.
Derrick, subs. (old).—The gallows.
[A corruption of Theodoric, the
name of the public hangman
at the end of the sixteenth
and the beginning of the
seventeenth centuries.] Now
the name of an apparatus,
resembling a crane. Also, used
as a verb = to hang; apparently
the earliest recorded sense. For
synonyms, see Nubbing Cheat.
1600. W. Kemp, Nine Days' Wonder, in Arber's English Garner, vol. VIII., p. 37. One that . . . would pol his father, derick his dad! do anything, how ill soever, to please his apish humour.
1607. Dekker, Jests to Make you Merie, in wks. (Grosart), ii., 318. For might I have beene her Judge, shee should haue had her due, and danst Derriks dance in a hempen halter.
1609. Dekker, Gul's Horne-Booke, chap. ii. The Neapolitan will (like Derick, the hangman) embrace you with one arme, and rip your guts with the other.
Derwenter, subs. (Australian).—A
convict. [From the penal
settlement on the banks of the
Derwent, Tasmania.]
Despatchers, subs. (gamesters').—False
dice with two sides,
double four, five, and six.
1856. Times, 27 Nov., s.v.
Desperate, and Desperately,
adj. and adv. (colloquial).—A
metaphor of excessiveness; e.g.,
desperately mashed = over
head and ears in love.
Detrimental, subs. (society).—An
ineligible suitor; also a male
flirt.
1841. Punch, vol. I., p. 133, col. 1. Defining that zero of fortune to stand below which constitutes a detrimental.
1859. Whitty, Political Portraits, p. 113. The fact is, that the detrimentals won't work; born into shifty affluence, it is easier to struggle on in a false position than to struggle out of it.
1886. Household Words, 13 March, p. 400. A detrimental, in genteel slang, is a lover, who, owing to his poverty is ineligible as a husband; or one who professes to pay attentions to a lady without serious intention of marriage, and thereby discourages the intentions of others.
Detrimental-Club, subs. (society).—The
Reform Club.
Deuce, Dewce, or Deuse, subs.
(common).—1. The devil; perdition.
Also used as an ejaculative,
e.g., The deuce! What
the deuce! Who the deuce!
Deuce take you! etc. [Wedgwood:
'The evolution of deuce
from Thurs., the name of a
Scandinavian demon is fully
vouched.' Skeat: Latin deus,
God, deus, borrowed from French
usage, being found as an interjection
in early English works.
Low German duus, Ger. daus
are used similarly and may have
the same origin; others connect it
with Armor. dus, teuz, a goblin.]
For synonyms, see Skipper.
b. 1670, d. 1729. Congreve. It was the prettiest prologue as he wrote it; well, the deuce take me if I ha'n't forgot it.
1754. B. Martin, Eng. Dict. (2nd ed.), s.v. Dewce.
1780. Mrs. Cowley, The Belle's Stratagem, Act v., Sc. i. Miss C. Deuce take her! She's six years younger than I am.
1827. R. B. Peake, Comfortable Lodgings, Act I., Sc. iii., De C. I am the Intendant of Police, sir. Sir H. The deuce you are!
1837. Barham, I. L. (Jackdaw of Rheims). There's a cry and a shout, And a deuce of a rout, And nobody seems to know what they're about.
