Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 5.pdf/379

 1733. Fielding, Don Quixote, i. 1. The Don is just such another lean ramscallion as his Rozinante. Ibid. (1742), Joseph Andrews, iv. iii. A profession [the legal] which owes to such kind of rascallions the ill-will which weak persons bear towards it.

1749. Smollett, Gil Blas (1812), iii. iv. Let us take an oath never to serve such rapscallions, and swear to it by the river Styx.

1772. Bridges, Burlesque Homer, 216. As to that copper-nosed rabscallion, Venus's bully-back and stallion.

d. 1824. Byron, Letter to Mr. Murray [Ency. Dict.]. The pompous rascallion.

1847. Lytton, Lucretia, i. x. But the poor rapscallion had a heart larger than many honest painstaking men.

1885. Daily News, 29 Sept. To give no goods to those rapscallion servants.

Raree-show, subs. phr. (old).—A peep-show: specifically one carried in a box. Hence, raree-showman = 'a poor Savoyard trotting up and down with portable Boxes of Puppet-shews at their backs Pedlars of Puppets.'—B. E. (c. 1696); Grose (1785).

1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, ii. 1. Your language is a suitable trumpet to draw people's eyes upon the raree-shew.

1707. Ward, Hud. Rediv., ii. vi. 3. The Rabble-Rout, Who move, in Tumults, to and fro, To wonder at the Raree-Show.

1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, xlv. At last Pickle, being tired of exhibiting this raree-show handed her into the coach.

1837. Lytton, Maltravers, v. xii. He expressed a dislike to be visited merely as a raree-show.

1885. Field, 4 Ap. As though a Catholic Church were a theatre or raree-show.

Rascal, subs. (colloquial).—1. A term of (a) affection, and (b) contempt: cf. 'rogue,' 'scamp,' &c. (B. E., c. 1696, and Grose, 1785). Also (2) 'a man without genitals' (Grose, 1785). Whence raskabilia = the rascal people. See Rapscallion.

1557. Tusser, Husbandrie, 25. Beware raskabilia, slothful to worke.

Rasher-of-wind, subs. phr. (common).—1. A thin person; a lamp-post (q.v.), or yard of pump-water (q.v.).

2. (common).—Anything of little or no account.

1899. D. Telegraph, 7 Ap., 8, 2. Lets 'em howl, an' sweat, an die, an' goes on all the time, as if they was jest rashers o' wind.

Rasp, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum: see Monosyllable. To rasp (or doo a rasp) = to copulate: see Greens and Ride.

Raspberry, subs. (stable).—Set quot.

c.1880. Sporting Times [S. J. & C.]. One gentleman I came across had a way of finding out the cussedness of this or that animal by a method that I found to be not entirely his own. The tongue is inserted in the left cheek and forced through the lips, producing a peculiarly squashy noise that is extremely irritating. It is termed, I believe, a raspberry, and when not employed for the purpose of testing horseflesh, is regarded rather as an expression of contempt than of admiration.

Raspberry-tart, subs. phr. (American).—A dainty girl.

2. (rhyming).—The heart; and (3) a fart (q.v.).

1892. Marshall, Rhyme of the Rusher [Sporting Times, 29 Oct.]. Then I sallied forth with a careless air, And contented raspberry-tart.

Rasper, subs. (various).—Anything especial: as (hunting) a bad leap; (common) a punishing blow, rank tradesman, or flat falsehood;