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 1875. Notes and Queries, 5 S., iii. 298. Taking a sight.—Pictorial illustrations of this gesture prior to the time of the Georges, are, I believe, not very common.

1886. Household Words, 2 Oct. 453. [This] peculiar action has, I believe, almost invariably been described as taking A sight. A solicitor, however, in a recent police case at Manchester, described it as pulling bacon.

To put out of sight, verb. phr. (common).—To eat; to consume.

Sign. Here may be arranged two or three obsolete colloquialisms—sign of a house to let = a widow's weeds (Grose); the sign of the feathers = a woman's best good graces; at the sign of the horn = in cuckoldom; the sign of the prancer = the Nag's Head; the sign of the three balls = a pawnbroker's; sign of the five (ten or fifteen) shillings = The Crown (The Two Crowns, or The Three Crowns).—Grose (1785); to live at the sign of the cats' foot = to be hen-pecked.

1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), 85. A bene mort hereby at the sign of the prauncer.

Signboard, subs. (common).—The face: see Dial.

Sign-manual, subs. phr. (old).—The mark of a blow.

1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, xxiii. I bear some marks of the parson about me The man of God bears my sign-manual too, but the Duke made us friends again.

Sikes. See Bill Sikes.

Sil. See Silver-beggar.

Silence, verb. (old: now recognised).—To knock down; to stun; to kill (Grose). Whence silencer = a knock-down or stunning blow.

Silence in the court, the cat is pissing, phr. (old).—'A gird upon anyone requiring silence unnecessarily' (Grose).

Silent-beard, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pubic hair: see Fleece.

d.1704. Brown, Works, ii. 202. It is not fit the silent beard should know how much it has been abus'd for, if it did, it would make it open its sluice to the drowning of the low countries in an inundation of salt-water.

Silent-flute. See Flute.

Silk, subs. (common).—1. A King's Counsel; also silk-gown. [The canonical K.C.'s robe is of silk; that of a Junior Counsel of stuff.] Hence to take silk = to attain the rank of King's (or Queen's) Counsel. 2. (clerical) = a bishop: the apron is of silk.

1838. Jerrold, Men of Character (John Applejohn), viii. The finest lawn [bishop] makes common cause with any linen bands—the silken apron shrinks not from poor prunella.

1853. Dickens, Bleak House, i. Mr. Blowers, the eminent silk-gown.

1872. Standard, 16 Aug., Second Leader. Mr. J. P. Benjamin (an American gentleman) has, in the professional phrase, received silk; in other words has been raised to the rank of Queen's Counsel at the English Bar.

1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 Nov., 6, 1. Some time ago the presence of a learned silk was required in court at eleven o'clock.

1890. Globe, 6 May, 6, 1. Mr. Reid's rise has been steady and sure. Called at the age of twenty-five, he took silk only eleven years later, and is now a Bencher of his Inn at the age of forty-four.

To carry (or sport) silk, verb. phr. (racing).—To run (or ride) in a race.

1884. Hawley Smart, Post to Finish, 219. One thing he was clear about—that there could be no hope of his passing unrecognised if he wore silk on the Town Moor.