Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 4.pdf/189

 his left. His aim was straight at the tip of my nose.

4. (common).—A general verb of action; to do.

1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, ix. Jim's horse was far and away the fastest, and he let out to head the mare off from a creek that was just in front and at the end of the plain.

To let out a reef, verb. phr. (common).—To loosen one's clothes after a meal. Fr. lâcher un cran.

She lies backwards and lets out her fore-rooms, phr. (old).—Said of a whore.—Ray (1767).

To let rip. See Rip.

To let slide. See Slide.

To let up, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To stop. Also (as subs.) let up (q.v.).

1888. San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 March. When every rabbit is killed, the coyotes sit down on their haunches to a very comfortable banquet, and never let up until they have taken aboard so much rabbit-meat that they can hardly stir.

1892. A. K. Green, Cynthia Wakeham's Money, 141. 'We have talked well into the night,' he remarked; supposing we let up now, and continue our conversation to-morrow.'

To let the finger ride the thumb too often, verb. phr. (American).—To get drunk. For synonyms see Drinks and Screwed.

[For other combination see Disinfect—Flicker—In—Marks—Monkey—Play—Pockets—Slide—Stimulate—Tucks—Up, etc.]

Letchwater, subs. (venery).—The sexual secretion, male and female: specifically the concomitant of desire.

Let-down, subs. (colloquial).—A decline in circumstances; a comedown.

1866. London Miscellany, 3 Mar., p. 57. Bug-hunting (robbing drunken men) was about the best game out, and he added, 'I don't think that's no little let-down for a cove as has been tip-topper in his time, and smelt the insides of all the coops in the three kingdoms.'

Lets. No lets, subs. phr. (schoolboys').—No hindrances.

Letter, subs. (venery).—An abbreviation of French letter (q.v.).

Letter-in-the-post-office. See Flag.

To go and post a letter, verb. phr. (venery).—To copulate. For synonyms see Greens and Ride.

To go on the letter Q, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.

1823. De Vaux, Memoirs, p. 185, s.v. Letter Q, the mace or billiard slum, is sometimes called going on the Q, or the letter Q, alluding to an instrument used in playing billiards.

Lettered, adj. (old).—Branded; burnt in the hand.

Letter-racket, subs. (vagrants').—See quot.

1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue (3rd ed.), s.v. Letter Racket, men or women of genteel address, going about to respectable houses with a letter or statement, detailing some case of extreme distress, as shipwreck, sufferings by fire, etc. by which many benevolent, but credulous, persons are induced to relieve the fictitious wants of the impostors.

Letty, subs. (common).—A bed; a lodging. For synonyms see Kip. Also verbally = to lodge.

1875. J. Frost, Circus Life, p. 279. Letty is used both as a noun and as verb signifying 'lodging' and 'to lodge'.