Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/210

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1883. Graphic, March 24, p, 303, col. 1. He [the Oxford stroke] could also depend on his own men for not falling to pieces through being taken off at a cracker.

Crackey.—See Crikey.

Crack-Halter, or Crack-Rope, subs. (old).—A vagabond; an old equivalent of jail-bird. Cf., Hemp-seed.

1566. Gascoigne, Supposes, i., 4. You crackhalter, if I catch you by the ears, I'll make you answer directly.

1607. Dekker, Northward Hoe, IV., i. Featherstone's boy, like an honest crack-halter, laid open all to one of my prentices.

1639. Massinger, Unnatural Combat, II., ii. Peace, you crack-rope!

1818. Scott, Heart of Midlothian, ch. xxx. 'Hark ye, ye crack-rope padder, born-beggar, and hedge-thief,' replied the hag.

Crack-Hunter, or Haunter, subs. (venery).—The penis. Cf., Crack, subs., sense 4. For synonyms, see Creamstick.

Cracking, verbal subs. (thieves').—House-breaking. [From crack, verb, sense 2.]

1862. Cornhill Mag., vol. VI., 651. We are going a-flimping, buzzing, cracking, tooling, etc.

Crackish, adj. (old).—Wanton, said only of women. [From crack, subs., sense 4.] Cf., Coming.

Crack-Jaw Words, Names, etc., subs. (colloquial).—Long words difficult to pronounce. [From crack, to break, + jaw, speech.] Variants are half-crown words, jaw-breakers, and cramp words.

1876. M. E. Braddon, Joshua Haggard's Daughter, ch. vii. 'He brings her plants with crackjaw names.'

1883. Daily Telegraph, June 25, p. 3, col. 1. 'Some of the ways with the crack-jaw names of cooking it would give it a foreign flavour to me.'

Crackle or Crackling, subs. (University).—The velvet bars on the gowns of the Johnian 'hogs' (q.v.). [From their resemblance to the scored rind on roast pork.] The covered bridge between one of the courts and the grounds of John's is called the Isthmus of Suez (Latin sus, a swine).

1885. Cuthbert Bede, in Notes and Queries. 6 S., xi., 414. The word crackle refers to the velvet bars on the students' gowns.

Crackmans or Cragmans, subs. (old).—A hedge.

1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 57 (H. Club's Repr., 1874), s.v.

1671. R. Head, English Rogue, pt. I., ch. v., p. 48 (1874), s.v.

1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue. The cull thought to have loped, by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope.

Crack or Break One's Egg, or Duck, verbal phr. (cricket).—To begin to score. [To make no run is to 'lay, or make, a duck's egg'; to make none in either innings is 'to get a double-duck,' or to come off with a pair of spectacles.]

1890. Polytechnic Magazine, 5 June, p. 367, col. 2. Watson bowled splendidly, taking 8 wickets at a very small cost, two of his foemen being unable to crack their egg.

Crack-Pot, subs. (popular).—A pretentious, worthless person. For synonyms, see Swash-Buckler.

1883. Broadside Ballad, 'I'm Living with Mother now.' My aunty knew lots, and called them crack-pots.

Crack-Rope.—See Crack-halter.