Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 6.pdf/5

 Vol. VI.

A Dictionary of Slang and its Analogues.

Reacher, subs. (pugilistic).—1. A blow delivered at long point.

2. (colloquial).—An exaggeration; a STRETCHER (q. v.): see whopper.

1662. Fuller, Worthies, ii. 117. I can hardly believe that reacher that "with the palms of his hands he could touch his knees, though he stood upright."

Reach-me-down, subs. phr. (common).—In pl. = second-hand or ready-made clothes: also hand-me-downs: Fr. décrochez-moi-ça. Also as adj.

1860. Thackeray, Philip, xxiv. In the Palais Royal they hang out the most splendid reach-me-down dressing-gowns, waistcoats, and so forth.

1875. Besant and Rice, Harp and Crown, xv. The capitalist who can afford two new pairs of second-hand machine-made reach-me-downs in a single winter. Where is he, I say?

1888. W. S. Caine, Trip Round the World, xii. The gentlemen attire themselves in ready-made reach-me-downs of black cloth, shiny patent-leather shoes, and round pot-hats.

Read. To read between the lines, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To look into a milestone; to quest for hidden meanings in plain English.

1883. Gentleman's Mag., June. They READ BETWEEN THE LINES, as they say, and find that two and two are intended to represent five.

TO READ THE PAPER, verb. phr. (common).—To take a nap: see Doss.

Read-and-write, subs. (rhyming).—Flight. Also, as verb. = to fight.

Reader, subs. (thieves').—1. A pocket-book; (2) a newspaper, letter, &c. Whence to read = to steal; reader-hunter (or -merchant) = a pickpocket, a DUMMY-HUNTER (q. v.); READERED = advertised in the Police Gazette; wanted (q. v.).—Parker, Grose, Vaux, Bee.

c. 1819. Song,'The Young Prig' [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 82]. And I my reading learnt betime, From studying pocket-books, Sirs.

1828. Bee, Picture of London, 286. For this purpose they had an old pocket-book, or reader now put into one pocket, now into another.