Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 4.pdf/9

 1889. Bird O' Freedom, 7 Aug.s p. 1. If you say of a man he is immense, you pay him a compliment.

1891. Tales from Town Topics, 'Mimi & Bébé', p. 65. The love of twins is phenomenal. It is immense, pure, and heavenly.

Immensikoff, subs. (common).—A fur-lined overcoat. [From the burden of a song, 'The Shoreditch Toff', sung (c. 1868) by the late Arthur Lloyd, who described himself as Immensikoff, and wore an upper garment heavily trimmed with fur].

1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 25 Sept., p. 6., col. 1. Heavy swells clad in Immensikoffs, which is the slang term, I believe, for those very fine and large fur robes affected by men about town.

Immortals, subs. (military).—The Seventy-Sixth Foot. [Most of its men were wounded, but escaped being killed, in India in 1806]. Also The Pigs and The Old Seven and Sixpennies.

Imp, subs. (colloquial).—A mischievous brat; a small or minor devil: originally, a child. [Trench: there are epitaphs extant commencing 'Here lies that noble imp; and Lord Cromwell writing to Henry VIII speaks of 'that noble imp, your son'].

1771. Beattie, Minstrel, 1. Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray Of squabbling imps.

2. (legal).—A man who gets up cases for a devil (q.v.).

Impale, verb. (venery).—To possess a woman: specifically to effect intromission. For synonyms see Greens and Ride.

Imperance, subs. (vulgar).—Impertinence; impudence; cheek (q.v.). Also, inferentially, an impudent person; e.g., 'What's your imperence about'?

1766. Colman, Cland. Marriage, v. in Works, (1777) i. 274. I wonder at your impurence, Mr. Brush, to use me in this manner.

1821. Egan, Life in London, ii. 2. She is blowing up the fellow for his imperance.

1836. Dickens, Pickwick, ch. xiv. 'Don't go away, Mary,' said the black-eyed man. 'Let me alone, imperence,' said the young lady.

Imperial, subs. (colloquial).—A tuft of hair worn on the lower lip. [From being introduced by the Emperor Napoleon III]. See Goatee.

1892. Tit Bits, 19 Mar., p. 421, col. 2. An imperial, or carefully cultivated small tuft tapered down to a point from the lower lip to the chin.

Implement, subs. (old).—See quot.

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

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v., Implement, a Tool, a Property or Fool easily engag'd in any (tho' difficult or Dangerous) Enterprise.

Importance, subs. (common).—A wife; a comfortable importance (q.v.).

1647-80. Rochester, Works (1718), ii. 29. Importance, thinks too, tho' she'd been no sinner To wash away some dregs he had spewed in her.

Impost-Taker, subs. (old).—A gambler's and black-leg's money-*lender; a sixty-per-cent (q.v.).

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

1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.

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

Improvement, subs. (American).—That part of a sermon which enforces and applies to every-day life the doctrine previously set forth; the application.