Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 2.pdf/72

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Cent. Not worth a cent, phr.—See Care and Fig.

Cent Per Cent, subs. (common).—A usurer. [Literally one who charges an exorbitant rate of interest, here symbolized as a hundred for every hundred. Quoted by Grose (1785).] For synonyms, see Sixty per Cent.

Centre-of-Bliss, subs. (common).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.

Centurion, subs. (cricket).—A batsman who scores a hundred runs. [From centurion, the commander of a 'century,' in the Roman Army.]

1886. Graphic, 31 July, p. 107, col. 2. Some other centurions have been Chatterton (108) for M.C.C., Shuter (103, not out) for Trent.

Century, subs. (turf).—A hundred pounds; or at cricket, etc., a score of a hundred. Originally a division of the Roman Army numbering 100 men. In English it was and is in common use to signify a group of a hundred. Shakspeare, in Cymbeline, iv., 2, 391 [1611], writes a 'century' of prayers. See also A. C. Swinburne, A Century of Rondels and W. E. Henley, A Century of Artists (1889). Cf., Monkey, Pony, etc.

1864. Derby Day, p. 131. 'I'm open to a bet. I'll lay you an even century about Nimrod.'

1869. Daily News, July 29. 'Police Court Report.' After this he said he searched the breeches pockets that were lying by the side of the bed, and took half a century worth of property from them.

1883. Echo, Nov. 1, p. 4, col. 2. Golding purchased Passaic from F. Archer for a century.

1883. Graphic, August 11, p. 138, col. 2. His batting this year has been of the highest order, as witnesses among his many good performances that against the Players, when he marked his century.

Cert, subs. (sporting).—A certainty, of which it is an abbreviation. With special reference in racing circles to events looked upon as absolutely sure. Variants are a dead, or moral, certainty; A dead 'un; and a moral.

1859. Letter from Edward S. Taylor to John Camden Hotten, 22 Dec. This edition will sell to a dead certainty.

1889. Man of the World, June 29. 'Love-in-Idleness is bound to take the Rous Memorial, and I hear Pioneer is a cert. for the St. James's.'

Certainties, subs. (printers').—Infants of the male sex.—See Uncertainties.

Chafe, verb (old).—To thrash soundly. [Chafe = 'to warm,' 'to rub with the hand.' Cf., Anoint.] For synonyms, see Tan.

1673. R. Head, Canting Acad., p. 36

1785. Grose, Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Chafed: well beaten.

Chafer, verb (common).—To copulate. [Probably a corruption of chauver.] For synonyms, see Ride.

Chaff, subs. (colloquial).—1. Ironical or sarcastic banter; fooling; humbug; ridicule. [A word of uncertain derivation, which, except in two instances, both doubtful, does not appear in English literature, in either its substantive or its verbal form, before the beginning of the present century. Of the two the substantive seems to be the