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Apparently for a long time a contemporary variant of to ring the changes.
1667. Dryden, Sir Martin Marr-all, Act ii. Warn. . . . By this light, she has put the change upon him! O, sweet womankind! how I love thee for that heavenly gift of lying!
1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. xvi., p. 168 (1874). The box-keeper shall walk off, pretending some speedy dispatch of a business concerning the House of Office, etc., whilst your antagonist shall put the change upon you.
1694. Congreve, Double Dealer, v., 17. I have so contriv'd that Mellefont will presently, in the chaplain's habit, wait for Cynthia in your dressing-room; but I have put the change upon her, that she may be otherwise employed.
1821. Scott, Kenilworth, ch. iii. You cannot put the change on me so easy as you think, for I have lived among the quick-stirring spirits of the age too long to swallow chaff for grain.
To ring the changes, phr. (common).—To change a better article for a worse. [An allusion to bell-ringing where it signifies to exhaust the combinations of a peal of bells.] In its slang sense to ring the changes chiefly refers to the passing of counterfeit money. As thus:—'About five weeks ago, the prisoner went into a tobacconist's shop in Cheapside, and purchased a cheroot, tendering a sovereign in payment. The prosecutor, Mr. Elkin, gave him the change, half-a-sovereign and 9s. 6d. silver. The prisoner said he did not want to distress him by taking away all his silver, and asked for another half sovereign. The prosecutor put down half-a-sovereign, which the prisoner took up, and the latter then said that if he returned the sovereign, he would give him back the change, and the prosecutor, taken off his guard, did so, and received the first half sovereign and the 9s. 6d. in silver, the prisoner walking out of the shop with the second half sovereign.'
1661. Hist. of Eng. Rebellion in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), II., 528. Five months ago, our mighty States Were pleas'd to vote No King; But two months since, to act new cheats, Their votes the changes ring.
1760. Smollett, Sir L. Graves, vol. I., ch. x. Hugging in and ringing out the changes on the balance of power, the Protestant religion, and your allies on the Continent.
1828. Jon. Bee, Picture of London, p. 232. He found one piece [of muslin] that was indeed real India, bargained for and bought it, amidst continued attempts to shuffle it between others, for the purpose of ringing the changes, as they term the nefarious act.
1877. Five Years' Penal Servitude, ch. iii., p. 234. Nothing easier than for some man to have slipped out of bed, night or day, and rung the changes of the bottles.
1880. Hawley Smart, Social Sinners. ch. xli. The culprit had been guilty of ringing the changes or other petty larceny.
To take the change out of [a person or thing], phr. (common).—To be revenged upon; to take an equivalent, or quid pro quo. Frequently used interjectionally—Take your change out of that! with a blow or other rejoinder. An analogous expression is put that in your pipe and smoke it!
1829. John Wilson, Noctes Amb., wks. II., 174. Shepherd (flinging a purse of gold on the table). It'll require a gey strang thaw to melt that, chiels; sae. tak your change out o' that, as Joseph [Hume] says, either in champagne, or jile . . . just whatsumever you like to devour best.
1838. Haliburton, Clockmaker, 2 S., ch. viii. 'Thinks I to myself, take your change out o' that, young man, will you?'
1854. Whyte Melville, General Bounce, ch. xi. If his ammunition be
