Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 5.pdf/251

 Pollard, subs. (old).—A counterfeit coin, worth about a halfpenny, made abroad, and smuggled into England, temp. Ed. I. [Said to be named after the original maker.]

c.1350. Fabyan, Chronicle, ii. He sodeynly dampned certayne coynes of money, called pollardes.

Poller. 1. See Pill and Poll. 2. (old).—See quot.

1676. Warning for Housekeepers, 4. They carry in one hand a dark Glim, and in the other a poller, which is a dark Lanthorn and a Pistol.

Poll-parrot, subs. phr. (common).—A talkative woman: also poll and polly.

1865. Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, xii. If it warn't wasting good sherry wine on you, I'd chuck this at you for Poll Parroting with this man.

Pollrumptious, adj. (colloquial).—Restive; unruly; foolishly confident.

Polly, subs. (tramps').—1. Used as in quot.

1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, xiv. All I get is my kip and a clean mill tog, a pair of pollies and a stoock, and what few medazas I can make out of the lodgers and needies.

2. (common).—Apollinaris water.

1894. G. Egerton, Keynotes, 59. The draught is transformed into lukewarm water, or Polly without the 'dash' in it.

1894. Illustrated Bits, 31 Mar., 10, 3. What is more gratifying—he could drink. Not sips of weak tea, or "polly," but the Extra Sec of the right year, and plenty of it.

To do polly, verb. phr. (American prison).—To pick oakum; to mill doll (q.v.).—Matsell (1859).

Pollycon, subs. phr. (American students').—Political economy.

Polt, subs. (old).—A blow; a stroke.—B. E. (c.1696); Grose (1785).

1782. D'arblay, Cecilia, ii. ix. Give me a good polt of the head.

Poltroon, subs. (old: now recognised).—A coward.—B. E. (c.1696).

1595. Shakspeare, 3 Henry VI., i. 1. Patience is for poltroons such as he.

1778. Sheridan, The Rivals, iv. 1. Out, you poltroon!—you ha'n't the valour of a grasshopper.

Polty (or dolty), adj. (cricketers').—Easy.

Polyphemus, subs. (venery).—The penis: see Prick. [The Monops, the One-eyed One.]

Pommel. See Pummel.

Pompadours (The), subs. (military).—The late 56th Regiment of Foot, now the 2nd Batt. Essex Regiment. [Tradition relates that, when facings were changed in 1764, the crimson not wearing well, the Colonel desired Blue. The authorities, however, objected, and he chose purple, a favourite colour of Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV. of France.] Also "The Saucy Pompadours."

Pompaginis. Aqua pompaginis, subs. phr. (old).—Pure water: see Aqua.—Grose (1785).

Pompey's-pillar. Pompey's-pillar to a stick of sealing-wax, phr. (old).—A fanciful bet: cf. All Lomard-street to a China orange, and Chelsea-college to a sentry-box.

Pompkin. See Pumpkin.