Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 3.pdf/243

 1883. Hargrave Jennings, quoted in Saturday Review, 28 Apr., p. 536, c. 1. Women are not the gushingly credulous creatures that man in his constant condescension and in his appreciation of himself would deem.

1884. F. Anstey, Giant's Robe, ch. xx. 'It's not precisely gushing,' he said to himself, 'but she couldn't very well say more just yet.'

Gusset, subs. (common).—Generic for the female sex. Thus, Brother (or Knight, or Squire) of the Gusset = a pimp; Gussetting = wenching; Gusseteer = a wencher; etc.

Gusset of the Arse, subs. phr. (common).—The inside edge of the buttocks.

d. 1796. Burns, Merry Muses, pp. 99-100. An' he grippit her fast by the gusset of her arse.

Gut, subs. (vulgar).—The vice or habit of gluttony; the belly [as opposed to the Groin (q.v.).]

2. in. pl. (common).—The stomach and intestines.

1609. Dekker, Gul's Horne-Booke, chap. ii. The Neapolitan will (like Derick, the hangman) embrace you with one arme, and rip your guts with the other.

1640. Rawlins, The Rebellion, iii. (Dodsley, Old Plays, 4th ed., 1875, xiv., 48). Thou hast a gut could swallow a peck loaf.

1661. Brome, Poems, 'A Satire on the Rebellion.' The grumbling guts, the belly of the State.

1713. Bentley, On Free Thinking, sect. 53. What then was our writer's soul? Was it brain or guts?

1754. Fielding, Jonathan Wild, bk. iv., c. 1. But so it was that the knife, missing these noble parts (the noblest of many) the guts, perforated only the hollow of his belly.

1787. Burns, Death and Dr. Hornbook, st. 27. A countra Laird had ta'en the batts, Or some curmurring in his guts.

3. in. pl. (old).—A fat man; a forty-guts (q.v.). Also Guts-and-garbage. More Guts (also More Balls) than Brains = a fool.

1598. Shakspeare, Henry IV., pt. 1, ii., 2. Peace, ye fat-guts.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Gutts, a very fat gross Person.

4. (artists' and colloquial).—Spirit; quality; a touch of force, or energy, or fire: e.g., a picture, a book, an actor. With guts = a strong thing. Put your guts into it (aquatic) = Row the very best you can. He (or it) has no guts in him (or it) = He (or it) is a common rotter (q.v.). Hence, Gutsy, adj. = having guts, and Gutsiness, subs. = the condition of being gutsy.

1738. Swift, Polite Conversation, I. The fellow's well enough if he had any guts in his brain.

1893. Pall Mall Budget. No. 1292 (June 29), 1906. The body of the cigar, or what might vulgarly be called the guts.

Verb (vulgar).—1. To plunder, or take out all or most of the contents (i.e., intestines) of a place or thing; to drain; to 'clean out': e.g., to gut a house (thieves') = to rifle it; to gut an oyster = to eat it; to gut a book = to empty it of interesting matter; to gut a quart pot = to drain at a draught. Whence, Gutted = dead-broke.

1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.

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

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, p. 1. Whether diddling your subjects or gutting their jobs.

1849-61. Macaulay, Hist. of England. The king's printing-house was, to use a coarse metaphor, which then for the first time came into fashion, completely gutted.