Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/125

 ==Heading==

or Beelzebub, And t'other's clack, who pats her back, is louder far than Bell's hubbub.

1888. J. Payn, Myst Mirbridge (Tauchn.) II., xviii., 197. The old fellow would have had a clack with her. [m.]

2. (common).—The tongue [i.e., that which clacks (q.v.), verb.] A more ancient form was clap dating back to 1225.

English Synonyms. Glib; red-rag; clapper; dubber; velvet; jibb; quail-pipe.

French Synonyms. La diligence de Rome (popular); un battant (thieves': also 'heart,' 'stomach,' and 'throat'); un bon battant ('a nimble tongue.' Cf., 'clapper'); une chiffe or un chiffon rouge (popular); une gaffe; le grelot.

German Synonym. Lecker (literally 'the licker').

Italian Synonyms. Serpentina; dannoso (literally 'damagable'); zavarina (properly 'a trifling old woman').

Spanish Synonym. La desosada (i.e., Old Boneless).

1598. Greene, Jas. IV., wks. (Gros.) XIII., 210. Haud your clacks, lads. [m.]

1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). Clack (s.) also a nickname for a woman's tongue; a prattler or busybody.

1828. D'Israeli, Chas. I., II., i., 23. Who, as washerwomen at their work, could not hold their clack. [m.]

1864. E. Sargent, Peculiar, III., 76. To hermetically seal up this Mrs. Gentry's clack. [M.]

Verb.—To gabble. For synonyms, see Patter.

Clack-Box, subs. (common).—1. The mouth. For synonyms, see Potato-trap.

2. (common).—A chatterbox.

English Synonyms. A mouth almighty; poll parrot; babble-merchant; slammer.

French Synonyms. Un parlotteur (familiar); un dévideur or une dévideuse (popular: literally 'a winder'); un bagoulard (popular: c'est un fameux bagoulard = he is the bloke to slam); un chambert: abuser du crachoir (said of a chatterbox who does too much with the 'spitter').

Spanish Synonyms. Hablatista (m; jocular); hablantin or hablanchin (m; colloquial); ladrador (m; properly 'a barker'); prosador (m; properly 'a sarcastic and malicious babbler'); gazetilla (f; a farthing newspaper'); garlador; fuelle (m; properly 'a pair of bellows'); ya escampa (it is importunate babbling; escampar signifies literally 'to clean or clear out a place'); cotorrera (= a gossip; cotorreria = loquacity; a term specially applied to women); comadre (f; juéves de comadres = Cummers' Thursday, the last before Shrove Tuesday); una chicharra (a prattler; chicharra = 'a froth worm' or 'harvest fly'); charlantin.

Clack-Loft, subs. (popular).—A pulpit. [From clack, verb, + loft, an elevated room or place.] For synonyms, see Hum-box.

Claim, verb (thieves').—To steal. (A locution similar in character to 'annex,' 'convey,' etc., and derived from a sense of the legitimate word signifying 'to demand on the ground of right.) For synonyms, see Prig.