Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 5.pdf/219

 public house; pissing-post (or piss-dale) = a urinal; piss-fire = a blusterer; piss-kitchen = a kitchen-maid: piss-proud = of a false erectio penis; piss-quick = hot gin-and-water (Bee, 1823); pissing-clout = a napkin; pissing = small, mean, brief, as in pissing-while = a very short time; pissing-conduit = a conduit with a flow of water like a stream of urine: specifically one near the Royal Exchange set up by John Wels (Lord-mayor, 1430); pissing-candle = a small make-weight candle; rods in piss = a reckoning in store; to piss pure cream (or pins and needles) = to be clapped (Grose); to piss when one can't whistle = to be hanged (Grose); to piss money against the wall = to spend money in drink (Grose); to piss down the back = to flatter (Grose); to piss on a nettle = to be peevish or angry; when the goose pisseth = never; as good as ever pissed = as good as may be; to piss in a quill = to agree on a course of action; piss-a-bed = a dandelion: with reference to its diuretic properties; "So drunk that he opened his shirt collar to piss" = blind drunk; "the tin-whiffin" = when you cannot sh-t for pissing; to piss hard (bones, or children) = to be brought to bed; to piss blood (Urquhart) = to bleed; to piss one's tallow = to sweat. Also not a few saws and proverbs—'As easy pissing a bed as to lick a dish'; 'As good (or, as very a knave) as ever pissed'; 'As surly as if he had pissed on a nettle'; 'By fits and starts as the hog pisseth'; 'Every little helps as the old woman said when she pissed in the sea'; 'Fire! quoth the fox, when he pissed on the ice'; 'He did me as much good as if he had pissed in my pottage'; 'He who once a good name gets, May piss a bed and say he sweats'; 'Let her cry, she'll piss the less'; 'Piss clear and defy the physician'; 'Piss not against the wind,' or 'He that pisseth against the wind wets his shirt'; 'He'd have died had he never pissed or shit'; 'Money will make the pot boil though the devil piss in the fire'; 'Many excuses pisses the bed'; 'My horse pisseth whey, My man pisseth amber: My horse is for my way, My man is for my chamber'; 'The devil shits and pisses on a great heap'; 'Such a reason pisses my goose'; 'You'll be good when the goose pisseth'; 'He that's afraid of every grass must not piss in a meadow.' See Rack-off.

1356. Mandeville, Travels, 242. The moste Synne that ony man may do is to pissen in hire Houses that thei dwellen in.

1362. Langland, Piers Plowman's Vision, 1. 3169. He pissed a potel in a paternoster-while.

1383. Chaucer [Skeat, Works, 3798]. This Nicholas was risen for to pisse. Ibid., 4215. Sone after this the wyf hir routing leet, An gan awake, and wente hir out to pisse. Ibid., 729. That Socrates had with hise wyes two How Xantippa caste pisse up-on his heed.

1440-99. Blind Harry, Maner of Crying [Laing, Scot. Poet, ii. 14]. Scho pischit the mekle matter of Forth; Sic tyde ran efter hendir.

1525. Tyndale, Tr. Bible, 1 Sam. xviii. 22. If I leave by the morning light any that pisseth against the wall.

d. 1529. Skelton, Elynour Rummyne, 370. And as she was drynknge She pyst where she stood.