To know what's what (what's o'clock, etc.), verb. phr. (common).—To have knowledge, taste, judgment, or experience; to be wide-awake (q.v.), equal to any emergency, fly (q.v.).
1513-25. Skelton, Works [Dyce], ii. 132. To know what ys a clocke.
c.1520. Chaucer's Dream, 216. [There occurs] to know what was what.
1534. N. Udall, Roister Doister, i. 2, p. 17 (Arber). Have ye spied out that? Ah sir, mary nowe I see you know what is what.
1563. Googe, Eclogues, vii. Our wyts be not so base, But what we know as well as you What's what in every case.
1609. Jonson, Silent Woman, v. Daw. O, it pleases him to say so, sir; but Sir Amorous knows what's what as well.
1679. W. Wycherley, Love in a Wood, iii. 1. But you, gossip, know what's what.
1711. Spectator, No. 132. This sly saint, who, I will warrant, understands what is what as well as you or I, widow, shall give the bride as father.
1773. Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, v. 'Come, boy, I'm an old fellow, and know what's what as well as you that are younger.'
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 330. As soon as we get settled we must stock our cellar, and establish a respectable larder, like people who know what is what.
1835. Dickens, Sketches by Boz. Our governor's wide awake, he is. I'll never say nothin' agin him, nor no man; but he knows what's o'clock, he does, uncommon. Ibid. (1836), Pickwick, 364 (1857). 'Never mind, Sir,' said Mr. Weller with dignity, 'I know wot's o'clock.'
1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, x. I'm not clever, p'raps; but I am rather downy; and partial friends say I know what's o'clock tolerably well.
1874. Siliad, 172. And know what's what in England, and who's who.
1887. Baumann, Londinismen, Slang u. Cant, pref. vi. So from hartful young dodgers From waxy old codgers, From the blowens we got Soon to know vot is vot.
1888. Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, xxvii. As for old Mullockson, he used to take a drive to Sawpit Gully, or Ten-Mile, as soon as ever he saw what o'clock it was—and glad to clear out, too.
What not, phr. (colloquial).—Elliptical for 'What may I not say'; also as subs. = no matter what, what you please, 'etcetera.'
1592. Harvey, Four Letters. If Mother Hubbard, in the vein of Chaucer, happened to tell one canicular tale, father Elderton and his son Greene, in the vein of Skelton or Scoggin, will counterfeit a hundred dogged fables, libels, calumnies, slanders, lies for the whetstone, what not.
1602. Cooke, How a Man may Choose a Good Wife, etc. [Dodsley, Old Plays (1874), ix. 78]. Why, you Jack-sauce! you cuckold! you what-not.
1621. Burton, Anat. Melan., 150. Such air is unwholesome and engenders melancholy, plagues, and what not.
1678. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progress, i. Lions, dragons, darkness, and in a word, death and what not.
1862. Thackeray, Philip, ix. I profess to be an impartial chronicler of poor Philip's fortunes, misfortunes, friendships, and what-nots.
1887. Contemp. Rev., li. 617. College A cannot compete with College B unless it has more scholarships, unless it changes the time of election to scholarships, or what not.
1903. D. Tel., 28 Dec., 5. 1. British, Italian, French, Russians, and natives . . . and what-not.
To give what for, verb. phr. (common).—To reprimand, call over the coals, castigate, punish (q.v.).
The Lord knows what, phr. (colloquial).—1. 'Heaps'; plenty more; all sorts of things.
