1662. Donne, Satires, Sat. 4. 116, 117. I sigh and sweat To hear this makaron talke, in vaine.
Mace, subs. (old).—See quots.
1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Mace, the mace is a rogue assuming the character of a gentleman, or opulent tradesman, who under that appearance defrauds workmen, by borrowing a watch or other piece of goods, till one he bespeaks is done.
1821. Egan, Life in London, 287. Mace . . . which is a slang term for imposition or robbery.
1887. W. E. Henley, Villon's Straight Tip, ii. Fiddle, or fence, or mace, or mack.
Verb. (common).—To defraud. See quot. 1868. Also on the mace, and to strike the mace. To mace the rattler = to travel by rail without paying the fare.
1821. Egan, Life in London, p. 320. He laughed heartily at their being maced.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, lxxxiii. To swindle a gentleman did not sound a crime when it was called macing a swell.
1830. W. T. Moncrieff, The Heart of London, ii. 1. He's been working on the mace.
1868. Temple Bar, xxiv. 535. Macing means taking an office, getting goods sent to it, and then bolting with them; or getting goods sent to your lodgings and then removing.
1885. Daily Telegraph, 18 Aug., p. 3, col. 2. Fancy him being so soft as to give that jay a quid back out of the ten he'd maced him of!
On the mace, adv. phr. (common).—1. See verb.; and (2) on credit; on tick (q.v.).
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, 100. Letting 'em have the super and slang on mace, for he gets to know their account, and he puts the pot on 'em settling day.
Maceman (Mace-cove, Mace-gloak,
or Macer), subs. (thieves').—A
general swindler. But see
quots. 1879 and 1884.
1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II. 34, s.v.
1823. Bee, Dict. of the Turf, s.v. Mace. The mace-cove is he who will cheat, take in, or swindle as often as may be.
1828. G. Smeeton, Doings in London, p. 39. It is a game in very great vogue among the macers, who congregate nightly at the flash-houses.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
1861. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 2 p. m. Par. 10. The turf has its blacklegs and touts; the nightside of London is fruitful in macemen, 'mouchers', and 'go-alongs'.
1879. J. W. Horsley, in Macm. Mag., xl. 502. The following people used to go in there—toy-getters (watch-stealers) . . . men at the mace (sham loan offices).
1883. G. A. S[ala], in Illustr. L. News, 28 April, p. 407, col. 2. The lovely and loving spouse of an abandoned macer, named Brabazon Sikes—to further whose villainous ends she consents to 'nobble' Damozel in his stable.
1884. Daily News, 5 Jan., p. 5, col. 2. The victim appears to have entered an omnibus and to have been at once pounced upon by two macemen, otherwise 'swell mobsmen'.
Machine, subs. (venery).—1. The female pudendum. For synonyms see Monosyllable. (2) The penis. For synonyms see Creamstick and Prick.
3. (common).—A bicycle or tricycle; a carriage; (Scots') and (in America) a fire-engine.
d. 1797. Walpole, Letters, iv. 12. Will set out tomorrow morning in the machine that goes from the Queen's Head in the Gray's Inn Lane.
1871. De Vere, Americanisms, p. 325. A special kind of rowdy known only in America is the b'hoy that runs wid de machine . . . the fire-engine.
