Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 7.pdf/152

 1877. Diprose, London Life. I've been doing awful dab with my tol, haven't made a yennep.

See Toledo.

Told. I told you so, phr. (old).—The retort provocant: in modern phrase, 'So like a woman to say, "I told you so!"'

1412. Occleve, De Reg. Princ. (Roxburgh), 26. I tolde hym so.

1609. Jonson, Silent Woman, iv. 2. True. I told you so, sir, and you would not believe me. Mor. Alas, do not rub those wounds to blood again.

To be told, verb. phr. (Tonbridge School).—To obtain one's colours in a school team.

Toledo (or Tol), subs. (old).—A sword-blade: manufactured at Toledo in Spain, whence in fifteenth and sixteenth centuries came the finest tempered weapons: cf. Fox. Hence a rum-tol = a silver-hilted sword; a queer-tol = a very ordinary weapon (B. E. and Grose).

1596. Jonson, Ev. Man in Humour, iii. 1. A most perfect Toledo, I assure you, sir This a Toledo, pish!

1612. Webster, White Devil, v. 2. O what blade is't? A Toledo, or an English fox?

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood. His tol by his side, and his pops in his pocket.

Tolerable, adj. (colloquial).—In fair health; pretty well: cf. Toll-ollish.

1847. Bronté, Jane Eyre, xxvi. We're tolerable, sir, I thank you.

Toll. To take toll, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To pilfer; to 'pick and steal': cf. custom of millers taking a portion of grain as compensation for grinding. Also to get (or take) more than a proper share.

[1596. Shakspeare, King John, iii. 1. 154. No Italian priest shall tithe or toll in our dominion.]

1809. Malkin, Gil Bias [Routledge], 42. His hand shook the table-cloth and napkin took toll [of soup].

Tolliban Rig, subs. phr. (old).—'A species of cheat carried on by a woman, assuming the character of a dumb and deaf conjuror' (Grose).

Tol-loll (or Tol-lollish), adj. phr. (common).—Tolerable; pretty good; 'nothing to grumble at.'

18[?]. Gilbert [Encyclop. Dict.]. Lord Nelson, too, was pretty well—That is, tol-lol-ish!

1901. Free Lance, 20 Sep., 4. 3. Oh, I feel tol-lollish enough to go through with that little bit of circus business.

Tolly, subs. (public schools').—1. A candle: spec. a 'tallow' candle. To tolly up (Harrow) = to light candles surreptitiously after the gas has been put out. Cf. Brolly, Yolly, etc.

2. (Stonyhurst).—The flat instrument used in caning the hand: also taps. Hence tolly-shop = a Præfect's room where corporal punishment is administered; and tolly-ticket = a good conduct card, given as a reward for specially good work, which, presented when punishment is ordered, secures immunity except for too grave an offence. [This system of accumulated merit, now almost obsolete, is precisely similar to one described by Mr. Kegan Paul in his Memories as existent at Eton in the forties.]

The Tolly (Rugby).—See quot. and sense 1.