Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 4.pdf/145

 voyante (thieves'); être mécanisé (common = to be passed through the machine: mécanicien = executioner); être glaivé (common = to be knifed); passer sous le rasoir national (popular = to be passed under the national razor); être mis à la bise (old = to be set in the wind); vendanger à l'éschelle (old = to go vintaging on a ladder); avoir le collet rouge (old = to wear the red neck-band); croître d'un demi-pied (old = to grow half a foot taller); faire la longue lettre (old = to make the long letter, i.e. 'I'—from the Latin); tomber du haut mât (old); servir de bouchon (common = to act as a cork); faire le saut (common = to take the leap); faire un saut sur rien (old = to jump upon nothing); danser où il n'y a pas de plancher (common = to dance where there isn't a floor); donner un soufflet à une potence (common = to cuff the gallows); donner le moine par le cou (common); approcher du ciel à reculons (common = to go to heaven backwards); danser un branle en l'air (old = to cut capers in the air); avoir la chanterelle au cou (old: chanterelle = first string of a violin); faire le guet à Mont-faucon (old = to do sentry go at Mont-faucon, i.e., the public gibbet); faire le guet au clair de la lune à la cour des Monnoyes (old = to stand sentinel by moonlight); monter à la jambe en l'air (old = to mount the leg-in-air); tirer la langue d'un demi-pied (old = to stick out one's tongue).

Italian Synonyms. Agguinzare (= to swing); allungar la vita (= to lengthen life); andar or mandar in piccardia (Florio = to go, or be sent to Picardy; also andare a Longone or Fuligno); dar de' calci al vento, or a Rouiao (Florio = to kick the wind); ballare in campo azzuro (= to dance upon nothing); sperlungare (perlunga = lengthened); aver la fune al guindo (= to wear a hempen collar).

To be unable to see a hole in a ladder, verb. phr. (common).—To be hopelessly drunk. For synonyms see Drinks and Screwed.

Laddle, subs. (chimney-sweeps').—A lady.

Ladies' Cage, subs. phr. (parliamentary).—That portion of the gallery in the Commons which is set apart for ladies. See Cage, subs., sense 4.

1870. Times, 27 May, 'Leader'. The female opponents of the Contagious Diseases Act filled the Ladies' Cage on Tuesday Night.

Ladies' Fever, subs. phr. (common).—Syphilis; French Gout (q.v.).

English synonyms. Bad (or foul) disease (or disorder); Bamwell ague; the clap (sometimes but erroneously): coals (or winter coals); Covent Garden ague; the crinkums; fire; the Frenchman or French gout; the glim; the glue (q.v.); the Garden gout; goodyears (Shakspeare); grandgore (Old Scots'); knock with a French faggot (q.v.); malady of France (Shakspeare); the marbles; the stick; the Scotch fiddle; Venus' curse.