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 In German, ladies so placed 'lose a shoe'; but of synonyms there are plenty.--See Leg.

Ankle-Beaters, subs. phr. (old).--A class of boys who attended cattle markets for the purpose of driving to the slaughter-house the animals purchased by the butcher. They were called ankle-beaters from their driving the animals with long wattles, and beating them on the legs to avoid spoiling or bruising the flesh. Also called penny-boys (q.v.), because they received one penny per head as remuneration.

Anne's Fan, properly Queen Anne's Fan, subs. phr. (common).--Putting the tip of the thumb of either hand to the nose, and then spreading the fingers in the shape of a fan. A gesture of contempt often intensified either by twiddling the digits when in the position named, or by similarly placing the other hand in an extended line. It is also called taking a sight (q.v.), and biting the thumb (q.v.).

Annex, verb. (American).--To steal; in England the wise it call 'convey.'--See Bone.

Anodyne, subs. (American thieves').--A euphemism for death. From the figurative sense of the word--anything that soothes wounded or excited feelings, or that lessens the sense of misfortunes. Cf., Old English slang term for a halter, Anodyne necklace.

Verb. (American thieves').--To kill. Cf., foregoing; also To cook one's goose.

Anodyne Necklace, subs. phr. (old).--A halter. An anodyne is that which allays or extinguishes pain, and the hangman's rope may indeed be regarded, from one point of view, as a cure for all pains. The expression is old, being traced back to 1639. During the period when the death penalty was inflicted for all kinds of comparatively trivial offences--for sheep stealing, and even highway robberies of not more than forty shillings value--synonyms equally grim and sententious were numerous. According to Wilyam Bullein, an anodyne necklace was that which 'light fellows merrily will call ... neckweede, or Sir Tristam's knot, or St. Andrew's lace (q.v.).' Other terms for the hangman's noose were hempen cravat, horse's nightcap, Tyburn tippet (q.v.).

1639. F. Beaumont, Bloody Brother, Act iii., Sc. 2. [Speaks of the hangman's halter as a 'necklace.']

1766. Oliver Goldsmith, Vicar of Wakefield [works, Globe ed., chap, xx., p. 43. [George Primrose's cousin exclaims] 'May I die by an anodyne necklace, but I'd rather be an underturnkey in Newgate [than an usher in a boarding-school'].

The water poet (John Taylor, a Thames waterman, 1580-1654), explaining the virtue of hemp, says:--

Some call it neck-weed, for it hath a tricke To cure the necke that's troubled with the crick.

An anodyne necklace was also the name of a quack amulet, which, for a long period, was a household word. This famous remedy occupied as prominent a position in the advertising columns of the journals of the middle of the