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 2. (venery).—A prostitute.

Communicator. Agitate the communicator, verbal phr. (common).—To ring the bell.

Comp, subs. (printers').—A compositor. [An abbreviated form of 'companion' now peculiar to compositors, but originally applied to pressmen who work in couples, as well as to compositors who work in a 'companionship,' or ship (q.v.).] Galley-slave (q.v.) is a variant; so are ass (q.v.) and donkey (q.v). Cf., Pig.

1870. Sportsman, 17 Dec. 'A Chapel Meeting.' I stood before the world a journeyman comp.

1886. Tit-Bits, 31 July, p. 252. At provincial newspaper offices and other establishments applications for work from travelling comps are frequent.

1888. W. Blades, in Notes and Queries, 7 S., vi., 365. The printers who work together in one room are to this day called comps.

Company. To see company, verbal phr. (prostitutes').—To live by prostitution; to take in fancy work (q.v.).

1811. Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

Competition Wallah, subs. phr. (Anglo-Indian).—One who enters the Indian Civil Service by examination. [From competition + Hindustani wallah, 'a man' or 'person.']

1863. G. O. Trevelyan, Title, The Competition Wallah.

1886. Ill. Lon. News, 9 Jan., p. 31, col. 3. It is quite certain that, if justice is ever to be done to India, our competition wallahs must not be encouraged to look upon it as a mere Tom Tidler's ground, where they are to remain just so long as they require for picking up gold and silver (in the form of pension and savings).

Compo, subs. (nautical).—A sailor's term for his monthly advance of wages.

Compy-Shop, subs. (workmen's).—A truck-shop. [Probably a corruption of 'company-shop': workmen before the passing of certain Truck Acts, having been frequently compelled to make their weekly purchases at shops either kept by, or worked to the profit of, their employer.]

1870. Globe, 24 Sept. The Acts of Parliament which have been passed from time to time in reference to truck are easily evaded, for as a rule no workman is told that he must buy at the compy-shop, but the workmen well know that if they did not resort thither they would soon be dismissed their employment.

Con, subs. (Winchester College).—A rap on the head with the knuckles, or with anything hard, such as a cricket ball. [For suggested derivations, see verbal sense.]

Verb.—To rap with the knuckles. [The derivation formerly accepted at Winchester was from [Greek: kondulon] = a knuckle, but the editors of the Wykehamist suggest its origin in the North Country con, 'to fillip,' with which the French se cogner exactly corresponds.]

Concaves and Convexes, subs. ph. (cardsharpers'). Cards prepared for cheating. All from the eight to the king are cut convex, and all from the deuce to the seven concave; so that by cutting the pack broadwise you cut convex, and by cutting them