Heading
watchman.] For synonyms, see Ticker.
5. (tailors').—The nap on faced on glossy-surfaced cloth.
6. (tailors').—A round-shouldered figure.
Charley Bates' Farm, or
Garden.—See Bates' farm.
Charley-Lancaster, subs. (rhyming
slang).—A 'handkercher.'
Charley-Pitcher, subs. (thieves').—A
prowling sharper who entices
greenhorns to take a hand
in thimble-rigging, the three-card
trick, prick the garter, etc.
1859. G. A. Sala, Twice Round the Clock (2 p m., par. 10), p. 160. Even at remote country race-courses, you may find remnants of the whilom swarming tribe of Charley-pitchers, the knavish gentry who pursue the games of 'under seven or over seven,' . . . or inveigle the unwary with 'three little thimbles and one small pea.'
1851-61. H. Mayhew, Lon. Lab. and Lon. Poor, IV., 32, note. A Charley-pitcher seems to be one who pitches to the Ceorla or countryman, and hence is equivalent to the term Yokel-hunter.
1877. Besant and Rice, Son of Vulcan, pt. I., ch. ix. With them marched the Charley-pitchers, who gained an honourable livelihood with the thimble and the pea.
Charley-Prescot, subs. (rhyming
slang).—A waistcoat. For
synonyms, see Fan.
Charley-Wag. To play the
charley-wag (school-slang).—To
absent oneself from school
without leave; to play truant.
Variants are To mouch; To
wag; Fr., tailler or caler l'école;
Spanish, hacer novillos, and andar
á la tuna.
1876. C. Hindley, Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, p. 57. Nothing could be done with him at school . . . Joe being, in spite of all entreaties, the greatest rapscallion and ringleader of all mischief, and at all times readier to play the charley Wag than to be the first in any prominent position in his class or form.
2. (common).—To disappear [figurative].
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip to all Cross Coves. It's up the spout and Charley-wag With wipes and tickers and what not. Until the squeezer nips your scrag, Booze and the blowens cop the lot.
Charlie.—See Charley.
Charlies, subs. (popular).—1.
The paps. For synonyms, see
Dairy.
2. (Winchester College).—Thick gloves made of twine. [Introduced by a Mr. Charles Griffith; hence the name.] Obsolete.
Charm, subs. (old).—1. A pick-*lock.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.
1881. New York Slang Dict., s.v.
Charms, subs. (old).—The paps.
Fr., les appas. Once in literary
use, but now impossible except as
slang. Flashing her Charms
= showing her paps.
2. (American).—A generic term for money. For synonyms, see Actual and Gilt.
1875. American English, in Cham. Journal, 25 Sept., p. 610. Money has forty or fifty different names; such singular terms as . . . shadscales, and charms figuring in the list.
Charter the Bar or Grocery,
verbal phr. (American).—To buy
up the whole of the liquor at a
bar and stand drinks all round as
