Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 6.pdf/234

 1892. Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads, 'Gunga Din.' With 'is mussick on 'is back, 'E would skip with our attack.

1895. Pocock, Rules of the Game, ii. 10. If I had known of this warrant, I'd have gone on my knees and implored him for your dear sake not to skip the train.

2. (common).—To die: see Hop the Twig.

1900. Savage, Brought to Bay, xv. The dark pool of blood told its awful story Skipped out  game to the last, and never flinched.

3. (common).—To read hastily, picking out passages here and there. Hence 4 (University), to shirk work. Also skipper = a hasty reader; and skippable = easily and quickly read.

1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 28 Feb. Two classes of readers, however, may get not a little that is interesting out of this book—the pachydermatous plodder and the judicious skipper.

Skip-brain, adj. (old).—Flighty; volatile; fickle.

1603. Davies, Microcosmus, 30. This skipp-braine Fancie.

Skipjack, subs. (old).—1. A horse-dealer's jockey (B. E. and Grose).

1568. Fulwel, Like will to Like [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 565. Here we see knave of clubs, skipjack, snip-snap].

1608-9. Dekker, Lanthorne and Candlelight, x. The boyes, striplings, &c, that have the riding of the jades up and downe are called skip-jackes.

2.—A nobody; a trifler: also skipper.

1580. Sidney, Arcadia, 111. Now the devil, said she, take these villains, that can never leave grinning, because I am not so fair as mistress Mopsa; to see how this skip-jack looks at me.

d.1592. Greene, Alphonsus, i. What, know'st thou, skip-jack, whom thou villain call'st.

1593. Shakspeare, Taming of Shrew, ii. 1, 341. Skipper, 'tis age that nourisheth.

1611. Cotgrave, Nimbot. A dwarfe, dandiprat, little skip-jacke.

1670. Cotton, Scoffer Scofft [Works (1725), 190]. But till thou hadst this Skip-Jack got.

Skipper, subs. (Old Cant).—1. A barn (Awdeley, Harman, Rowlands, Head, B. E., and Grose). Whence as verb. (or to skipper it) = to sleep in the straw or in Hedge Square (q.v.); skipper-bird = a barn-rooster or hedge-tramp.

1652. Broome, Jovial Crew, ii. Now let each tripper Make a retreat into the skipper.

1851-61. Mayhew, London Lab., ii. 83. When I get down I go to sleep for a couple of hours. I skipper it—turn in under a hedge or anywhere. Ibid., i. 336. Here is the best places in England for skipper-birds (parties that never go to lodging-houses, but to barns or outhouses, sometimes without a blanket) 'Key-*hole whistlers,' the skipper-birds are sometimes called.

2. (common).—The Devil. For synonyms see Black Spy.

3. (B. E. and Grose: still colloquial).—'A Dutch Master of a Ship or Vessell'; in modern use any ship's captain; and (4) a leader or chief in any enterprise, adventure, or business. Hence 5. (general) a master, boss (q.v.), governor (q.v.).

1485-1500. Gardner, Letters of Rich. III. and Hen. VII. [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 352. There is the skippar of a ship, and the Northern form raid]. Ibid. 341 (1509). [James IV. speaks of a crew as including] Master, 2 factours, skippar, sterisman.

1600. Decker, Show. Holiday [Grosart, Wks. (1873), i. 30]. Do you remember the shippe my fellow Hans told you of, the skipper and he are both drinking at the Swan?

1636. Suckling, Goblins, iv. With as much ease as a skipper Would laver against the wind.