Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 5.pdf/334

 1891. Sporting Life, 3 Ap. He will send a deposit as a guarantee to keep his appointment if any club or gentleman will give a purse for him to face the victorious one in the match referred to.

Verb. (old).—To take purses; to steal.

1609. Beaumont and Fletcher, Scornful Lady, i. 1. Why I'll purse: if that raise me not I'll bet at Bowling Alleys.

One or two colloquialisms merit notice: thus, a light (or empty) purse = poverty; a long (or heavy) purse = wealth; sword and purse = the military power and wealth of a nation; to make a purse = to amass money; purse-proud (or full) = haughty, because rich (B. E., 1696); out of purse = penniless: purse-pinched = poor; 'I've left my purse in my other hose (old), or on the piano' = a bald excuse for not parting (q.v.). Amongst proverbs there are:—'A full purse makes the mouth to speak'; 'An empty purse fills the face with wrinkles'; 'Ask thy purse what thou should'st buy'; 'An empty purse and a new house make a man wise, but too late'; 'An empty purse frights away friends'; 'A friend at Court is better than a penny in the purse.'

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of the Shrew, iv. 3. Our purses shall be proud, our garments poor; For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich.

1615. Fisheries [Arber, Garner, iii. 635]. [He was] out of purse.

d.1626. Davies, Microcosmus [Grosart, Works (1876), 14]. Ladies and lords, purse-pinched and soule-pained.

1634. Withal, Dict., Zonam perdidit: he hath left his purse in his other hose.

1814. Edgeworth, Patronage, xix. Dr. Percy's next difficulty was how to supply the purse-full and purse-proud citizen with motive and occupation.

Purse-leech, subs. phr. (old).—A money-grubber.

1648. British Belman [Harl. Misc. (Park), vii. 625]. Golden days of peace and plenty, as we must never see again, So long as you harpyes, you sucking purse-leeches, and your implements be our masters.

Purse-milking, adj. phr. (old).—Spendthrift; greedy.

1621. Burton, Anat. Melan. [1638], Democ. to Reader, 49. A purse-milking nation, a clamorous company, gowned vultures [of lawyers].

Pursenets, subs. (old).—See quot.

c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Pursenets, Goods taken upon Trust by young Unthrifts at treble the Value; also a little Purse.

Purser, subs. (nautical).—A ship's storekeeper: used contemptuously as follows:—Purser's dip (quart, &c.) = an undersized candle, or quart short in measure; purser's grin = a hypocritical or satirical sneer: e.g., 'There are no half laughs or purser's grins about me, I'm right up and down like a yard of pump water,' meaning that the speaker is in earnest; purser's-name = a false name; purser's shirt on a handspike (said of ill-fitting clothes); purser's-grind (venery) = 'plenty of prick and no money': a Yiddish compliment (q.v.).

1748. Smollett, Rod. Random, xxxiii. We had languished five weeks on the allowance of a purser's quart per diem for each man.

Purser's-pump, subs. phr. (old).—(1) A syphon; and (2) a bassoon.—Grose (1785).

Pursy (or pursive), adj. (old: now colloquial).—1. Rich; (2) fat with well-being; and (3) short-winded.—B. E. (c.1696); Grose (1785).