Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 7.pdf/252

 1885. Phillipps-Wolley, Trottings of a Tenderfoot. 'Oh, durn your rifles!' said an old settler to me. 'Give me a two-pipe scatter-gun and a spike-tailed smell-damp and I'm fixed.'

Two Sevens (The), subs. phr. (military).—The second battalion Duke of Cambridge's Own Middlesex Regiment, late the 77th Foot.

Two-shoes, subs. phr. (nursery).—A little girl: an endearment, usually 'little two-shoes' (cf. Goody Two-shoes = a kind of fairy god-mother).

1858. Eliot, Mr Gilfil's Love Story, i. He delighted to tell the young shavers and two-shoes whenever he put pennies into [his pocket] they turned into sugar-plums or gingerbread.

Two Sixes (The), subs. phr. (military).—The second battalion Princess Charlotte of Wales's Royal Berkshire Regiment, late the 66th Foot.

Two Tens (The), subs. phr. (military).—The Lancashire Fusiliers, late the 20th Foot.

Two-twos, subs. phr. (common).—A moment; the shortest imaginable space of time; in a twinkling.

The Two Twos, subs. phr. (military).—The Cheshire Regiment, late the 22nd Foot.

Twoster. See Twist.

Two-to-one Shop, subs. phr. (old).—A pawnbroker's; uncle's (q.v.). [Grose: 'alluding to the three blue balls, the sign of that trade; or perhaps to its being two to one that the goods pledged are never redeemed.']

Two upon ten (or Two pun' ten), phr. (Hotten).—An expression used by assistants to each other, in shops, when a customer of suspected honesty makes his appearance. The phrase refers to 'two eyes upon ten fingers,' shortened as a money term to two pun' ten. When a supposed thief is present, one shopman asks the other if that two pun' (pound) ten matter was ever settled. The man knows at once what is meant, and keeps a careful watch upon the person being served. If it is not convenient to speak, a piece of paper is handed to the same assistant, bearing the, to him, very significant amount of £2, 10s. Cf. Sharp, John Orderly.

Twug, ppl. adj. (Harrow).—Caught: i.e. the past ppl. of twig (q.v.).

Twyford. My name is Twyford, phr. (old).—'I know nothing of the matter' (Ray): cf. Sp. No se nada, de me vinas vengo (a reply to an inconvenient question, or when nothing is wished to be known of a matter: lit. 'I have been absent at my vineyard).'

Tyburn, subs. (old).—The place of execution for Middlesex to 1783: after which the death penalty was enforced at Newgate till the demolition of the prison in 1903. The Tyburn gallows stood in the angle formed by the Edgware Road and Oxford Street. In 1778 this was two miles out of London. Hence Tyburn-blossom = a young thief: 'who in time will ripen into fruit borne by the deadly never-green' (Grose); Tyburn-check (pickadill, tiffany, or tippet) = a rope, a halter: Tyburn-tippet, 'rather obsolete in 1822' (Egan); Tyburn-fair (-jig, -show, or