Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/37

 his view was the proper qualification for a member of a ring or trust, in which all play into each other's hands for mutual advantages, he replied multiplication, DIVISION, AND SILENCE!

Addle Cove, subs. (common).--A foolish man; an easy dupe; literally, a rank sucker (q.v.), and equivalent to addle-head, addle-pate, addle-plot, all of which are common dictionary words. Why Barrère and Hotten have followed the lead of Grose in classing these words as slang is hardly clear. Dialectical they may have been, but all English was similarly placed prior to the 15th century, and the first reference given by Murray, bears the date of a.d. 1250.

Adept, subs. (thieves').--An expert amongst the light-fingered gentry. It is quite an open question whether adept, even in a thief's sense, can fairly be classed as slang, the meaning being obviously identical with that commonly attached to the word.

Adjective Jerker, subs. phr. (literary).--A term of derision applied, like ink-slinger (q.v.), to those who write for the press. The special allusion in the present case is doubtless to the want of discrimination which young writers, and reporters on low-class papers, often exhibit in the use of a plethora of adjectives to qualify a simple statement of fact.

1888. St. Louis Globe Democrat, April 29. Genevieve spent four hours last night in constructing a three-line letter, which she sent to an adjective jerker on a society weekly, and in which she said she would spend the summer months in the Rocky Mountains.

Adjutant's Gig, subs. phr. (military).--The barrack roller. Men under punishment are generally put to the task of drawing this machine.

Admiral. To tap the Admiral, verb phr. (nautical).--A practice otherwise known as 'sucking the monkey.' Explained in Peter Simple as having originally been used amongst sailors for drinking rum out of cocoa nuts from which the milk had been extracted and replaced by spirits, an evasion of the regulation prohibiting the purchase of ardent liquors when on shore in the tropics. The Germans have an analogous expression Den affen saugen, to 'suck the monkey,' with the same signification.

Nowadays it is applied to drinking on the sly from a cask by inserting a straw through a gimlet hole, and to drinking generally.

1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (the Black Mousquetaire).

What the vulgar call sucking the MONKEY, Has much less effect on a man when he's funky.

Admiral of the Blue, subs. phr. (old).--A publican or tapster; from the colour of his apron; now obsolete. Cf., Admiral of THE RED.

1731. Poor Robin [Pseudonym of Robert Herrick] Almanac.

As soon as customers begin to stir, The admiral of the blue, cries, 'Coming, sir!' Or if grown fat, the mate his place supplies; And says, 'tis not my master's time to rise.