Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/346

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bound from time to time out of the water. That boy is conqueror whose shell both runs out farthest and bounds oftenest.] Variants are To Blue One's Pile; to Sweat (q.v.). Fr., galvauder; manger sa légitime.

1605. Chapman, etc., Eastward Hoe! Act i. Do nothing, be like a gentleman, be idle make ducks and drakes with shillings.

1664. H. Peacham, Worth of a Penny, in Arber's Garner, vol. VI., p. 259. I remember, in Queen Elizabeth's time, a wealthy citizen of London left his son a mighty estate in money; who, imagining he should never be able to spend it, would usually make 'ducks and drakes' in the Thames, with Twelve pences [= 5/- now], as boys are wont to do with tile sherds and oyster shells.

d. 1680. S. Butler, Character of a Miser, in Remains, vol. II., p. 343 (ed. 1759). And he that made Ducks and Drakes with his Money enjoyed it every way as much.

1698. Ward, London Spy, pt. xvi., p. 372. They hook in the old fool again to make ducks and drakes with his money.

1700. Gentleman Instructed, p. 18. I would neither fawn on money for money's sake, nor duck and drake it away for a frolick.

1849. Thackeray, Pendennis, ch. lviii. We've tied up the property, so that he can't make ducks and drakes with it.

1858. Marian Evans (G. Eliot), Janet's Repentance, ch. xxv. They say Mrs. Dempster will have as good as six hundred a year at least It's well if she doesn't make ducks and drakes of it somehow.

Duck's-Bill, subs. (printers').—A tongue cut in a piece of stout paper and pasted on at the bottom of the tympan sheet. [From the shape.]

Ducky or Duck of Diamonds.—See Duck, sense 4.

Dudder, Dudsman, or Duffer, subs. (old).—A pedlar of so-called smuggled wares—gown-pieces, silk waistcoats, etc. The term and practice are both obsolete, though in a few sea-*ports, London especially, they survived till recently in a modified form. [From duds (q.v.) = clothes.] Fr., un marottier (thieves'). See also Whispering Dudder and Barrow-man.

1781. G. Parker, View of Society, II., 160. A dudder happened some time ago to meet a countryman in a dark lane, and sold him a waistcoat-piece for two guineas and a half, which stood himself in only four-and-sixpence.

Dude, subs. (American).—A swell; fop; 'masher.' For synonyms, see Dandy. [From Scots duds = clothes; Cf., quot., 1870.] Derivatives are Dudette and Dudinette = a young girl affecting the airs of a belle; Dudine = a female masher.

1870. Putnam's Magazine, Feb. Think of her? I think she is dressed like a dud; can't say how she would look in the costume of the present century.

1883. Graphic, 31 March, p. 319, col. 1. The one object for which the dude exists is to tone down the eccentricities of fashion The silent, subfuse, subdued 'dude' hands down the traditions of good form.

1889. Puck's Library, April, p. 3. For the front rows two styles are recommended—dude, No. 16, and Bald-headed Man, No. 41—both original in design and exquisite in finish.

Dude Hamfatter, subs. phr. (American).—A wealthy pig-jobber. [From Dude, a swell + Hamfatter, in allusion to occupation.]

1888. New York National Police Gazette. It seems that the dude hamfatters, after trying various games to skip unseen, conceived the idea of making up as a couple of well-dressed women.

DUDS, subs. (colloquial).—Clothes; sometimes old clothes or rags. [Scots dud, Dutch todde, a rag;