Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/159

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3. (familiar).—An unpleasant return or snub for a proffered kindness.

Cold Comfort, subs. phr. (trade).—An expression used of articles sent out on approval and returned. [Merely an extension of the literal meaning i.e., what is barren of consolation: a usage dating from the sixteenth century.

Cold Cook, subs. (popular).—An undertaker. [Literally one who has to deal with cold meat, i.e., the lifeless human body.] Cf., Cold meat and its derivatives.

English Synonyms. Carrion hunter; body snatcher; death hunter; black worker (see Black work).

French Synonyms. Un emballeur de refroidis (thieves': an undertaker's man; literally 'a packer of cold meat').

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue, s.v.

1864. Hotten, Slang Dict., s.v.

Cold Cookshop, subs. phr. (popular).—An undertaker's premises.—See Cold cook.

Cold Cream.—See Cream of the valley.

Cold Deck, subs. (American hieves').—A prepared pack of cards. Cf., Concaves and convexes and Stock broads. More politely a good hand obtained on first dealing and without drawing fresh cards.

1880. S. L. Clemens ('Mark Twain'). Screamers. I never have gambled from that day to this—never once—without a cold deck in my pocket. I cannot even tell who is going to lose in games that are being played unless I deal myself.

Cold Gruel.—See Cold coffee, sense 2.

Cold Meat, subs. (common).—A corpse. [The human carcass is compared to butchers' wares.] For synonyms, see Dead Meat. Among medical students the term COLD MEAT or PICKLES (q.v.) = specimens direct from the subject.

1819. Thos. Moore, Tom Crib's Mem. to Con., p. 25. In the Twelfth and Last Round Sandy fetched him a downer, That left him all's one as cold meat for the Crowner.

To make cold meat of one, verbal phr. (common).—To kill. For synonyms, see Cook one's goose.

1836. C. Dickens, Pickwick Papers, p. 148 (ed. 1857). 'You mustn't handle your piece in that 'ere way, when you come to have the charge in it, sir,' said the tall gamekeeper, gruffly, 'or I'm damned if you won't make cold meat of some of us!'

Cold-Meat Box, subs. phr. (common).—A coffin. [From cold-meat, a corpse, + box, a receptacle.] For synonyms, see Eternity box.

1889. Sporting Times, 3 Aug., p. 1, col. 3. 'Well, s'pose I perched first?' 'Well, replied Pitcher, I should just come in where you were lying in the cold-meat box, and I should whisper in your ear,' etc.

Cold-Meat Cart, subs. phr. (common).—A hearse. [From cold-meat, a corpse, + cart.] Fr., mannequin à refroidis. Cf., Cold-meat train.

1820. Reynolds ('Peter Corcoran'). The Fancy, p. 46. He's gone—how very muddy some folks die!—He's for the cold-meat cart, and so am I.

Cold-Meat Train, subs. phr. (popular).—Generally, the funeral trains to Brookwood, Kensal Green, and other cemeteries.