Page:Farmer - Slang and its analogues past and present - Volume 7.pdf/96

 1830-5. [Walsh, Lit. Curios, 1049.] It is said that Richard Turner, an English temperance orator, who had an impediment in his speech, would invariably speak of t-t-total abstinence.

1843. Carlton, New Purchase, ii. 245. Stranger, I'm powerful sorry, but we're teetotally out: he took every bit of food with him.

1843-4. Haliburton, Attaché, xii. The meetin' houses on one side of the water, how teetotally different they be!

1856. Dow, Sermons, 1. I wouldn't have you think that I am teetotally opposed to dancing in every shape, for the reason that I used to heel and toe it a trifle myself, when young.

d. 1859. De Quincey, Dinner, etc. Dinner was an ugly little parenthesis between two still uglier clauses of a teetotally ugly sentence.

1861. Thackeray [in Cornhill Mag., iv. 758]. This giant had quite a small appetite and was also a tea-*totaller.

1882. Smyth-Palmer, Folk Etymology, 385. Tea-totalers, an occasional misprint of tee-totalers, as if it meant those who were totally for tea. It is more likely to be an intensive reduplication as in tip-top for first-rate. Ibid., 655. It may be noted that tee-total is the reduplication of a reduplication.

Teetotal Hotel (The), subs. phr. (thieves').—A prison.

Teignton-squash, subs. phr. (provincial).—Perry.

1834. Southey, Doctor, Interchapter, xvi. Cokaghee or foxwhelp, a beverage as much better than champagne as it is honester, wholesomer, and cheaper. Or Perry, the Teignton-Squash. These are right old English liquors, and I like them all.

Teize. See Tease.

Tejus, adv. (vulgar).—Tedious; extremely; wearyingly, tiresomely: e.g., tejus good, bad, quick, slow, etc.

Telegraph. See Milk and Underground.

Telescope, verb. (Australian).—To silence.

Tell, subs. (American).—A story; a bon mot; spec. one worth telling. Also, according to their tell = 'Upon their making out.'

1743. Walpole, To Mann, 4 Ap. There, I am at the end of my tell! If I write on, it must be to ask questions.

18[?]. Betsy Bobbet, 101. I told Josiah that, accordin' to their tell, I had got every disease under the sun, unless it was the horse-distemper.

18[?]. Humphreys, Yankee in England. In his dealings with the other sex, he is a little twistical, according to their tell.

1882. Eggleston (Century, xxxv. 44]. Little Barb'ry's the very flower of the flock, accordin' to my tell.

See Marines; Noses; Tales.

Tell-clock, subs. phr. (old).—An idler.

d. 1639. Ward, Sermons, 131. Is there no mean between busy-bodies and tell-clocks, between factotums and faineants?

Teller, subs. (pugilists').—A well-delivered blow; anything that scores; hence telling (colloquial) = effective, to the point.

1834. Ainsworth, Rookwood. Ven luckily for Jem a teller Vos planted right upon his smeller.

1832. Emerson, Burns. Not Latimer, not Luther, struck more telling blows against false theology than did this brave singer.

1888. Academy, 1 Dec. 345. Put tellingly and persuasively.

2. See Tailor.

Tell-tale, subs. phr. (nautical).—An inverted compass fixed in a cabin. Also (general) any recording device: usually automatic: e.g., a turnstile, an organ bellows-indicator, etc.