Heading
crack one's egg, and pair of spectacles. [From the shape of the 'O.']
1868. St. Paul's Magazine, Aug. You see by the twitch of the hand, the glove rapidly raised to the face, and replaced on the bat-handle, the jerk of the elbow, and perhaps the uneasy lifting of the foot, that his fear of a duck—as, by a pardonable contraction from 'duck's-egg,'—a nought is called in cricket play—etc.
1870. London Figaro, 21 June. J. C. Shaw is a host in himself; he took six wickets, and all of them for ducks.
1872. Weekly Dispatch, 9 June. The next ball from Brice sends Caffyn's bails flying: and out comes the last man—Southerton—and he is used to duck's eggs.
1883. Echo, 15 May, p. 4, col. 2. Out of the eleven Surrey batsmen who played against Notts yesterday, no less than five were credited with ducks.
Duck that runs, or grinds the gospel mill, subs. phr. (American).—A clergyman. For synonyms, see Devil-dodger.
1869. S. L. Clemens ('Mark Twain') Innocents at Home, p. 17, 18. Are you the duck that runs the gospel mill next door?
Lame Duck (q.v. post).
German Duck (q.v. post).
To do a duck, verb. phr. (thieves').—To hide under the seat of a public conveyance with a view to avoid paying the fare. [From duck = to bow or stoop.]
1889. Sporting Times. Doin' a duck, macin' the rattler, ridin' on the cheap, on the odno, under the bloomin' seat.
Ducket.—See Ducat.
Duck-footed, adj. phr. (common).—Said of people who walk like a duck; i.e., with the toes turned inwards.
Ducking. To go ducking, verb. phr. (common).—To go courting. [From duck (q.v.) = a term of endearment + ing.] See Goose-and-Duck.
Ducks, subs. (colloquial).—1. Linen trousers; generally white ducks. [From the material and colour.] At Eton worn only by men in the boats. For synonyms, see Bags and Kicks.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, p. 248. There's our man, Tom; he can have a pair of ducks of mine, and a check shirt of Bob's.
1846. Punch, vol. X., p. 263. I wore my Russian Ducks, In their beautiful whiteness.
1888. Mrs. Musgrave, Savage London. Billy should do the thing proper, and be married in a pair of white ducks.
2. (Stock Exchange].—Aylesbury Dairy Co. shares.
3. (Anglo-Indian).—Officials of the Bombay service.
Chance the ducks (q.v., ante.)
To make ducks and drakes of one's money, verb. phr. (common).—To squander money as lavishly as stones are squandered at 'ducks and drakes.' [In allusion to the childish game. Lemprière (Art. Scipio Africanus the Younger) refers to Scipio and Lælius taking to 'ducks and drakes' as a supplementary recreation to shell-gathering, and an early notice of the game occurs in Minucius Felix (Octavius cap. iii.):—From the beach they choose a shell, thin and polished by the waves; they hold it in a horizontal position, and then whirl it along as near the surface of the sea as possible, so as to make it skim the surge in its even motion, or spring up and
