Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 6.pdf/62

 Round-about, subs. (old).—1. See quot. c.1548. Also (2: modern) = a short, close-fitting jacket: also rounder.

c. 1548. Latimer, Sermons and Remains (Parker, Works, 108). [Oliphant, New Eng., i. 516. The huge farthingales worn by women are called round-abouts].

1848. Durivage, Stray Subjects, 81. One of the party in a green round-about.

1893. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads, 24. That's me in plaid dittos and rounder.

3. (thieves').—A female thief's all-round pocket.

4. (common).—1. A horizontal wheel or frame, turned by a small engine, and furnished with wooden horses or carriages; a merry-go-round.

1872. Besant & Rice, R. M. Mortiboy, xxiii. He got a Punch and Judy, swing-boats, a roundabout, and a performing monkey.

5. (prison).—A treadmill; the everlasting-staircase (q.v.).

6. (thieves').—A housebreaker's tool: it cuts a round piece, about five inches in diameter, out of a shutter or door; also round robin (Grose).

Round-and-square, phr. (rhyming).—Everywhere.

Round-betting. See Round.

Roundem, subs. (thieves').—A button.

Rounder, subs. (common).—1. A whoremaster: see Mutton-*monger: spec. a fancy-man (q.v.).

2. (common).—A person or thing taking or making a round (subs., senses 1-6).

3. (common).—A round of cheers.

1882. Blackmore, Christowell, xxxiii. Was off amid a rounder of 'Thank'e, ma'am, thank'e.'

4. (common).—A big oath.

1886. Campbell-Praed, Heaa Station, 33. We can all swear a rounder in the stock-yard.

5. (American).—A man who goes habitually from bar to bar.

1883. Century, xxxvi. 249. Midnight rounders, with nose laid over as evidence of their prowess in bar-room mills and paving-stone riots.

1886. Philadelphia Times [Century]. G had made himself conspicuous as a rounder.

1887. Christ. Union, 25 Aug. A very large proportion are old rounders, who return again and again.

To round (or round in the ear), verb. phr. (old).—To whisper.

1604. Shakspeare, Winter's Tale, i. 2, 217. They're whispering, rounding.

1611. Cotgrave, Dict., s.v. s'accouter a l'oreille.

See Round, subs. and adj., and Round-about.

Roundhead, subs. (old colloquial).—A Puritan (q.v.). [The hair was worn closely cropped.] To round the head = to cut the hair round.—B. E., Grose.

Roundy (or Roundy-ken), subs. phr. (old).—A watch-house; a lock-up.

1828. Egan, Finish to Life in London, 245. To avoid a night's lodging in the roundy-ken.

Round Mouth (The), subs. phr. (old).—The fundament: also Brother round-mouth. 'Brother round-mouth speaks' = 'He has let a fart' (Grose).