Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 5.pdf/164

 4. (old).—A looking-glass.—B. E. (c. 1696); Dyche (1748); Grose (1785).

Single peeper, subs. phr. (common).—A one-eyed man.—Grose (1785).

Peeping. A peeping Tom, subs. phr. (common).—An inquisitive person; a Paul Pry (q.v.). [From the Coventry legend.]—Grose (1785).

Peep-O'-day boy, subs. phr. (old).—A street roister [Regency].

1821. Egan, Life in London, ii. vi. Jerry and Bobby, With the Peep-o'-day boys, Hunting after wild joys.

Peepsies, subs. (street performers').—The pan-pipes.

Peepy, adj. and adv. (old).—Drowsy; sleepy. To go to peepy (or peep-) by = to sleep.—B. E. (1696); Grose (1785).

Peery(or Peerie), adj. (old: now recognised).—Suspicious; knowing; sly; sharp-looking: also as verb. = to look about suspiciously.—Head (1665); B. E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785).

1703. Ward, London Spy, xi. 259. Another look'd as Peery as if he thought every fresh Man that came in a Constable.

1751. Fielding, Amelia, ii. ix. You are so shy and peery, you would almost make one suspect there was more in the matter.

1758. Cibber, Refusal, iii. Are you peery, as the Cant is?

1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 20. Fixing his eye on the Porpus's snout, Which he knew that Adonis felt peery about.

Peety, adj. and adv. (Old Cant).—Cheerful.—Bailey (1726).

Pee-wee, subs. phr. (nursery).—(1) The penis and (2) the female pudendum. See Prick and Monosyllable. Also as verb. = to urinate. See Pee.

3. (school).—A small marble.

Peg, subs, (common).—1. A dram; a 'drink'; a go (q.v.): specifically (in India), a 'brandy-and-soda.' In the 16th century 'peg-tankards' held two quarts, divided by seven pegs or pins, one above the other, into eight equal portions. Hence, to drink to pegs = to drink the draught marked in a peg tankard; to add (or drive) a peg (or nail) into one's coffin = to drink hard; to go a peg lower = to drink to excess; a peg too low = (1) drunk, and (2) low-spirited; pegger = a persistent drinker, or nipster (q.v.).

1821. Egan, Life in London, ii. ii. To chaff with the flash Mollishers, and in being home to a peg in all their various sprees and rambles.

1871. Figaro, 15 Oct. A man who, in the days of peg tankards, would have got on peg by peg, marvellously rapidly to the state of the 'much-loved intemperance of the Saxons'—as the old chronicler, Brady, has it.

1871. Sala [Belgravia, April]. Ensign Plume of the 200th Foot, at present languishing obscure at 'Gib' and taking too many pegs of brandy and soda when on guard.

1883. Graphic, 17 March, 286, 3. The dispensation of food and liquor, however, never entered into the calculations of the Anglo-Indian of the last generation. Even the shopkeepers used to think nothing of giving their customers pegs.

1884. World, 16 April, 18, 2. And then he took to play and pegs, and his naturally excitable disposition did the rest.

1894. Illustrated Bits, 31 Mar., 7, i. Come and have a peg, he cried.