Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 1.pdf/59

 with cold' or 'fear'); saluer le public (theat.: lit. 'to make one's bow'--to make one's last appearance on this world's stage, and one's first in that land where 'the dead are many, and the living few'); recevoir son décompte (military: lit. 'to receive deferred pay'; décompte is also military slang for a 'mortal wound'); cracher ses embouchures (an expression of musical origin: the figure is obviously that of losing the power to perform on wind instruments'); déteindre (popular: lit. 'to wash off the colour' or 'dye.' Is this a play upon words, or an allusion to death as the great revealer of man as he is?); donner son dernier bon à tirer (familiar: equivalent to the American, 'to pass in one's checks.' French printers understand by this phrase 'to send the last proofs to press'); lâcher la perche (popular: lit. 'to slip off one's perch'); éteindre son gaz (popular: 'to turn off the gas.' Cf., 'to snuff it'); épointer son foret (popular: lit. 'to break off the point of the drill,' as in boring); être exproprié (popular: lit. 'to be dispossessed'; exproprier is a judical[**judicial? P2] term signifying 'to take possession of the landed property of a debtor'); péter son lof (sailors'); fumer ses terres; fermer son parapluie (popular: 'to close one's umbrella'); perdre son bâton (popular: 'to lose one's walking stick'); descendre la garde (popular: 'to come off guard'); défiler la parade (military: 'to file off parade'; equivalent to the English 'to lose the number of one's mess'); tourner de l'œil (popular: is there not here an allusion to the phenomenon attendant on genuine sleep; feigned sleep can always be detected by turning up the eyelids of the sleeper, if sleep be genuine only the 'whites' of the eyes will be discoverable); perdre le goût du pain (popular: 'to lose one's taste for bread'); lâcher la rampe (theatrical: 'to lose sight of the footlights'); faire ses petits paquets (popular: 'to pack up one's [small] traps'); casser son crachoir (popular: lit. 'to break one's spittoon' or mouth); remercier son boulanger (thieves': lit. 'to thank the baker.' It must be explained that boulanger baker is a French nickname for the devil); canner; dévider à l'estorgue (thieves'); baiser la camarde (popular: 'to salute,' or 'kiss Death'; camarde is a popular euphemism for the 'Messenger of Life'); camarder (popular: see previous example); fuir (thieves': lit. 'to fly' or 'escape'--from justice or capture); casser son câble (popular: 'to slip the cable'--evidently a simile drawn from the sea); casser son fouet (popular: 'to break' or 'lay aside one's whip'); faire sa crevaison (popular: crever, 'to kill' or 'die' is usually only employed in speaking of animals); déralinguer (sailors': properly 'to detach from the bolt rope'); virer de bord (sailors': lit. 'to tack about'); déchirer son faux-col (popular: verbatim, 'to burst open one's collar'--the allusion is obvious); se dégeler (in good French, 'to thaw'); couper sa mèche (coachman's: 'to throw down the whip'); piquer sa plaque (sailors'); mettre la table pour les asticots (popular: properly 'to lay the table [become food] for worms');