Heading
easing a fat West-country grazier of the price of a few beasts.
1840. Thackeray, Paris Sketch Book, p. 109. His was the place at the écarté table, where the Countess would ease him nightly of a few pieces.
1849. Punch, November, 'The Swell Mobsman's Almanack.' Remember, wen you've eased a cove in a fogg, never cut away in an 'urry, or crushers stop you.
2. (venery).—To content a woman.
1861. A. C. Swinburne, Poems and Ballads. 'Hermaphroditus.' Hath made him man to ease a woman's sighs.
To ease oneself, verb. phr. (colloquial).—I. To 'rear.' For synonyms, see Bury a Quaker.
2. (venery).—To ejaculate.
Eason, verb (American thieves').—To
tell.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue's Lexicon, s.v.
East-and-South, subs. (rhyming
slang).—The mouth. Also
Sunny South. For synomyms,
see Potato-trap.
1857. Ducange Anglicus, The Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
Eastery, subs. (cheap-jacks').—Private
business.
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 107. At one eastery Aaron Jessell was going to cry the place.
Easy, To make easy, verb. phr.
(old).—To gag or kill. [Grose,
1785.]
Easy as damn it, (or as my eye), adj. phr. (popular).—Excessively easy: 'easy as lying' [Shakspeare].
Easy does it! verb. phr. (popular).—An exclamation of encouragement and counsel = 'Take your time and keep your coat on.'
Easy over the pimples, (or over the stones), verb. phr. (popular).—An injunction = 'go slow,' or 'mind what you're about.'
Easy Virtue.—See Lady of Easy
Virtue.
Eat, verb (American).—To provision:
e.g., a steamer is said to
be able to eat 400 passengers
and sleep about half that number.
ante 1871. Pickings from the Picayune, p. 47. Hoosier—'Squire, what pay do you give?' Contractor—'Ten bits a day.' Hoosier—'Why, Squire, I was told you'd give us two dollars a-day and eat us.'
1887. R. A. Procter, on 'Americanisms' in Knowledge, s.v. Sometimes a host may eat his guests in another sense. I once, when staying at an hotel, found a finely coloured motto rather unfortunately spelt; it ran, 'Watch and Prey.' Its owner carried out the idea.
Eat coke.—See Coke.
Eat crow.—See Crow.
Eat a fig, verb. phr. (rhyming slang).—To 'crack a crib'; to break a house.
To eat one's head off, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be retained for service and stand idle; also (quot., 1850) to cost more in 'keep' than one is worth.
1850. F. E. Smedley. Frank Fairleigh, ch. xiv. I'd rather keep her for a week than a fortnight, I can tell you; she'd eat her head off in a month, and no mistake.
1872. Times, 27 Aug. 'The Autumn Manœuvres.' The country never would stand the maintenance all the year round of some 1,500 horses which would have nothing to do for nine months out of the twelve but eat their heads off.
