Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 3.pdf/315

 1891. N. Gould, Double Event, p. 121. None of your high and mighty games with me.

1892. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, i., 2. Ye need na be sae high and mighty onyway.

1892. Hume Nisbet, Bushranger's Sweetheart, p. 49. 'Mighty high some people are, ain't they?' the man observed loudly, straightening himself, and ordering a nobbler for himself.

TOO HIGH FOR ONE'S NUT, adv. phr. (American).—Out of one's reach; beyond one's capacity; OVER ONE'S BEND (q.v.).

You can't get high enough, verb. phr. (common).—A derisive comment on any kind of failure. [Probably obscene in origin.]

HOW IS THAT FOR HIGH? phr. (American).—'What do you think of it?' [Once a tag universal; common wear now.]

1860. Bartlett, Americanisms, s.v. High. For when he slapped my broad-*brim off, and asked, How's that for high? It roused the Adam in me, and I smote him hip and thigh!

1872. Clemens (Mark Twain), Roughing It, 334. We are going to get it up regardless of expense. [He] was always nifty himself, and so you bet his funeral ain't going to be no slouch,—solid silver door-plate on his coffin, six plumes on the hearse, and a nigger on the box in a biled shirt and a plug hat,—how's that FOR HIGH?

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 23 Sep., p. 2, c. 1. 'Cricket' stories are the thing just now. HOW IS THIS FOR HIGH?

High-bellied (or High in the Belly), adj. phr. (colloquial).—Far gone in pregnancy. Also HIGH-WAISTED.

Highbinder, subs. (American).—1. A Chinese blackmailer.

2. (political American).—A political conspirator.—Norton.

High-bloke, subs. (American).—1. A judge.

2. (American).—A well-dressed man; a splawger (q.v.).—Matsell.

Higher-malthusianism, subs. phr. (colloquial).—Sodomy.

Highfalute, verb. (American).—To use fine words. Also to yarn (q.v.). See Highfaluting. Fr., faire l'étroite.

Highfaluting, subs. (formerly American: now general).—Bombast; rant.

1865. Orchestra. We should not think of using high-falutin on ordinary serious occasions, and that we never shall use it in future, unless we happen to speak of the Porcupine critic.

1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 May, 6, 2. A glib master of frothy fustian, of flatulent high-falutin', and of oratorical bombast.

Adj. (general).—Bombastic; fustian; thrasonical.

1870. Friswell, Modern Men of Letters. A driveller of tipsy, high-flown, and high-falutin' nonsense.

1884. Echo, 17 Mar., p. 1, c. 4. It is the boast of high-falutin' Americans that theirs is a country 'where every man can do as he darn pleases.'

High-feather. In high feather, adv. phr. (colloquial).—In luck; on good terms with oneself and the world.

High-fly. To be on the high-fly, verb. phr. (thieves').—Specifically, to practise the begging-letter imposture, but (generally) to tramp the country as a beggar.

1839. Brandon, Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, 163. The High-fly—beggars, with letters, pretending to be broken-down gentlemen, captains, etc.