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 17[?]. P. Kirkden, Statts. Ac, ii. 515. Many randies infest this country from the neighbouring towns and the Highlands.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 57. Juno and he have had their quantum, And play no more at rantum-scantum.

b.1796. Burns, Jolly Beggars. Ae night, at e'en, a merry cove O' randie gangrel bodies. Ibid. Wi' quaffing and laughing, They ranted and they sang. Ibid., To James Tennant. Yours, Saint or Sinner, Rob the Ranter.

1815. Scott, Guy Mannering, iii. 304. I was the mad randy gypsey, that had been scourged, and banished and branded. Ibid. (1816), Black Dwarf, ii. I hae a good conscience, unless it be about a rant among the lasses, or a splore at a fair.

1822. Steamboat, 179. 'You are one of the protectors of innocence, I can see that!' cried a randy-like woman.

183[?]. Carlyle [Froude, Life in London, xviii.]. That scandalous randy of a girl.

c.1852. Traits of Amer. Humour, 49. He was the darndest, rantankerous hossfly that ever clum a tree.

1871. Figaro, 15 Ap. We put him down near Sloane Square—There was a ranters' chapel there.

1885. Punch, 27 June, 303. The Oracle, he Talks rantipole rubbish and fiddle-de-dee!

1887. Stevenson, John Nicolson, vii. [Yule Tide, 9]. John had been (as he was pleased to call it) visibly on the randan the night before.

2. (streets').—See quot.

1887. Walford's Antiquarian, Ap. 253. To Rant is to appropriate anything in a forcible manner. "Lets go and rant their marleys," says one urchin to another, and straightway the pair annex the possessions of a more respectable party. But it is also used to denote undue freedom with females, and springs, no doubt, from rantipole.

Rap, subs. and verb. (old).—Quick, forcible, explosive action: generic: e.g. (1) a blow; 'a Polt on the pate, and a hard knocking at a Door' (B. E., c. 1696); (2) a fart (q.v.); (3) an oath or exclamation (also rapper); and (4) a severe reprimand: as a rap on (or over) the fingers, knuckles, &c. Hence, as verb. = (1) to strike smartly or to speak forcibly (espec. to reprimand): usually with off or out; (2) to break wind; (3) to swear; (4) to perjure oneself: to deal a blow at one's honor or another's reputation (Grose, 1785). Also on the rap = on the spree (q.v.); in a rap = in a moment; rapfully = violently; rapped = (1) ruined; (2) knocked out of time; and (3) killed.

1512-3. Douglas, Virgil, 74, 13. The broken skyis rappis furth thunderis leuin.

d. 1549. [? Borde], Mylner of Abington [Hazlitt, Early Pop. Poet., iii. 115]. His wife lent him suche a rappe, That stil on grounde he laie.

c. 1553. Udall, Roister Doister, iv. iii. To speede we are not like, Except ye rappe out a ragge of your Rhetorike.

d. 1577. Gascoigne [Chalmers, Wks., ii. 486, 'In Praise of Lady Sandes']. He sodainly with mighty mace gan rap hir on the pate.

1582. Stanyhurst, Æneid, iii. 566. And a sea-belch grounting on rough rocks rapfully fretting.

1591. Greene, Second Part Conny-*catching [Works, x. 99]. He began to chafe, and to sweare, and to rap out gogges Nownes.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, i. 2, 12. Villain, I say, knock me at this gate, And rap me well. Ibid. And rap him soundly, sir.

1610. Percy Folio MS., 'Fryar and Boye,' 104. I would shee might a rapp let goe that might ring through the place.

1612. Shelton, Don Quixote, iv. 18. He rapped out an oath or two.

1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 155. The new substantives are yellow-boy  , rap over the finger ends ].

1743. Fielding, Jon. Wild, i. xiii. It was his constant maxim, that he was a pitiful fellow who would stick at a little rapping for his friend.