Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/128

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Claret, subs. (pugilistic).—Blood, Variants are Badminton, Bordeaux, and Cochineal-dye. French le vermeil or le vermois.

1604. Dekker, Honest Whore, II., 45, wks. [1873]. This should be a Coronation day: for my head runs claret lustily.

1819. Thomas Moore, Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress, p. 25 This being the first Royal Claret let flow, Since Tom took the Holy Alliance in Tow, The uncorking produced much sensation about, As bets had been flush on the first painted snout.

1878. Besant and Rice, By Celia's Arbour, ch. xxxix. The lieutenant picked him up, and placed him—because he declined to stand; and, indeed, the claret was flowing freely—in the President's arm chair.

To tap one's Claret, phr.—To draw blood.

Claret Jug, subs. (pugilistic).—The nose. [From claret, blood, + jug, a receptacle.] For synonyms, see Conk.

1859. Punch, vol. XXXVII., p. 22. 'A Chapter on Slang.' A man's broken nose, is his claret-jug smashed.

Clarian, subs. (Cambridge University).—A member of Clare Hall, Cambridge; also a Greyhound (q.v.).

1889. C. Whibley. Cap and Gown. E'en stuke-struck Clarians strove to stoop.

Class, subs. (athletic).—The highest quality or combination of highest qualities among athletes. He's not class enough, i.e., not good enough. There's a deal of class about him, i.e., a deal of quality. The term obtains to a certain extent among turfites.

1884. Referee, March 23, p. 1, col. 3. The elasticity necessary for anything like class at sprinting departs comparatively early.

Claw, subs. (prison).—A lash of the cat-o'-nine-tails. Cf., Clawed-off, sense 1.

1876. Greenwood, A Night in a Work-house. Oh! cuss that old Kerr, who condemned me to twenty-five claws with the cat.

Claws for Breakfast, subs. phr. (prison).—See quot.

1873. Greenwood, In Strange Company. A ruffian being uncertain as to the morning when he is to have, as he himself would say, claws for breakfast, is in the habit of lying night after night in a sweat of terror.

Clawed-off, adv. phr. (old).—1. Severely beaten or whipped. Cf., Claw.

2. (old).—Venereally infected.

Claw-Hammer, subs. (Irish),—A dress coat. [From a supposed similarity in the cut of the tails to a claw hammer, one end of which is divided into two claws, for extracting nails from wood.] Also called steel-pen coat and swallow-tail. For synonyms of evening dress generally, see War-paint.

1863. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Passages from English Note-books, I., 538. Sea-captains call a dress-coat a claw-hammer.

1883. Punch, July 21, p. 29, col. 2. An 'Impressionist' is not impressive In a claw-hammer on a public platform.

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, Nov. 11, p. 7, col. 1. After the claw-hammer crowd had been exhausted, he sent up an invitation to the great army of unvarnished.

CLAY, subs. (colloquial).—A clay pipe. Cf., Yard of clay, but for synonyms, see Churchwarden.

1859. Fairholt, Tobacco (1876), 173. Such long pipes were reverently termed aldermen in the last age, and irreverently yards of clay in the present one.