1821. Haggart, Life, p. 66. The Doctor played the part of the gammoner so well that I made my escape without being observed.
Gammy, subs. (tramps').—1. Cant.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Do you stoll the gammy? Do you understand cant?
2. (common).—A nickname for a lameter; a Hopping Jesus; (q.v.)
3. (Australian).—A fool.
1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger's Sweetheart, p. 191. Well, of all the gammies you are the gammiest, Slowboy, to go and string yourself to a woman, when you might have had the pick of Melbourne.
Adj. (tramps').—1. Bad; impossible. Applied to house-*holders of whom it is known that nothing can be got. See Beggars' Marks. Gammy-vial = a town in which the police will not allow unlicensed hawking. (VIAL = Fr., Ville).
1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, Glossary, s.v.
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., i., 466. No villages that are in any way gammy are ever mentioned in these papers. Ibid., i., 404. These are left by one of the school at the houses of the gentry, a mark being placed on the door post of such as are bone or gammy, in order to inform the rest of 'the school' where to call, and what houses to avoid.
2. Forged; false; spurious: as a gammy-moneker = a forged signature; gammy-lour = counterfeit money, etc.
1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, s.v.
1852. Snowden, Mag. Assistant (3rd. ed.), p. 445. Spurious medicine, gammy stuff, bad coin, gammy lower, p. 446.
1889. C. T. Clarkson and J. Hall Richardson, Police, p. 321. Bad money (coin). . . . Gammy lower.
3. (theatrical).—Old; ugly.
4. (common).—Same as Game, sense 3: e.g., a gammy arm = an arm in dock. Gammy-eyed = blind; sore-eyed; or afflicted with ecchymosis in the region of the eyes. Gammy-leg = a lame leg. Also (subs.) a term of derision for the halt and the maimed.
Gamp, subs. (common).—1. A
monthly nurse; a fingersmith
(q.v.). [After Mrs. Sarah Gamp,
a character in Martin Chuzzlewit
(1843).] Also applied to a fussy
and gossiping busybody.
1864. Sun, 28 Dec. A regular gamp . . . a fat old dowdy of a monthly nurse.
1868. Brewer, Phr. and Fab. (quoted from Daily Telegraph). Mr. Gathorne Hardy is to look after the gamps and Harrises of the Strand.
2. (common).—An umbrella; specifically, one large and loosely-tied; a lettuce (q.v.). [The original Sarah always carried one of this said pattern.] Sometimes a Sarah Gamp. For synonyms, see Rain-napper.
1870. Lond. Figaro, 15 June. Though—shattered, baggy, shivered gamp!
1883. G. R. Sims, Life Boat. He donned his goloshes and shouldered his gamp.
1890. Daily Chron., 5 Mar. Sainte-Beuve insisted that though he was prepared to stand fire he was under no obligation to catch cold, and with his gamp over his head he exchanged four shots with his adversary.
1892 Ally Sloper, 2 Apr., p. 106, c. 3. I never had a brand new tile, a glossy silk or swagger brown, But I left home without a gamp, And rain or hail or snow came down
3. (journalists').—The Standard.
Adj. (common).—Bulging. Also Gampish.
