Heading
polish by the hand: genuine elbow-polish, as Mrs. Poyser called it, for she thanked God she never had any of your varnished rubbish in her house.
1870. London Figaro, 31 Oct. Often have I been . . . frequently admonished to put some elbow-grease into my work.
1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard's Daughter, ch. xi. There's no such polish in Devonshire, I should think, as poor Phœbe's elbow-grease.
Elbow-scraper, or Jigger, subs.
(common).—A fiddler.
Elbow-shaker, subs. (old).—A
gambler.—See Elbow.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Elbow-shaker (s.) a gamester, one that practises dice-playing.
Elbow-shaking, subs. (common).—Gambling.—See
Elbow.
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lx. 'It's been doosedly dipped and cut into, sir, by the confounded extravygance of your master, with his helbow shakin', and his bill discountin'.
Electrified, ppl. adj. 1. (American).—Moderately
drunk. For
synonyms, see Drinks and
Screwed.
2. (colloquial).—Violently startled.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends. 'The Lay of St. Gengulphus.' Pig, pudding, and soup. The electrified groups, Pop under the sofa.
Elegant, adj. (colloquial).—Excellent.
Elegant-Extracts, subs. (military).—1.
The Eighty-Fifth Foot.
[This regiment was remodelled in
1812, after a long sequence of
court-martials: when the officers
were removed, and others set in
their room.]
1871. Chambers' Journal, 23 Dec., p. 803. 'Elegant Extracts' was the name given to the 85th on its being reformed with officers picked out from those of other regiments.
2. (Cambridge University).—Students who, though 'plucked,' were still given their degrees. A line was drawn below the poll-list, and those allowed to pass were nicknamed the elegant extracts. There was a similar limbo in the honour-list, called the Gulf: for 'Between them (in the poll) and us (in the honour lists) there is a great gulf fixed.']
Elephant, subs. (American
thieves').—A wealthy victim. Cf.,
To see the Elephant.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, or Rogue's Lexicon, s.v.
To see the Elephant, verb. phr. (American).—1. To see the world; to 'go out for wool and come home shorn'; by implication, to 'go on the loose.' Sometimes, To see the King.
b. 1533, d. 1592. Montaigne, Arrien. Hist. Ind., ch. 17. Aux Indes Orientales la chasteté y estant en singulière recommandation, l'usage pourtant souffroit qu'une femme mariée se peust abandonner à qui luy presentoit un éléphant, et cela avec quelque gloire d'avoir esté estimée à si hault prix.
1841. Kendall, Narrative of the Texan Santa Fé Expedition, i., p. 109. When a man is disappointed in any thing he undertakes, when he has seen enough, when he gets tired and sick of any job he may have set himself about, he has seen the elephant.
1870. L. Oliphant, Piccadilly, pt. ii., p. 39. So had Mr. Wog, who went up to town to see what he called the elephant,—an American expression, signifying 'to gain experience of the world.'
1872. Besant and Rice, R. M. Mortiboy, ch. xxxiv. Just like the Americans, when they go to see a great sight, say they are going to see the elephant.
1888. Boston Globe, 4 March. It was in a Hanover Street dispensary, where the tillers of the soil love to congregate, when
