A bas les pattes! Les as-tu propres, seulement, tes abattis, pour lacer ce corsage rose?—E. Villars.
Avoir les —— canailles, to have coarse, plebeian hands and feet, or “beetle crushers and mutton fists.” Numérote tes ——, I’ll break every bone in your body.
Abat-jour, m. (popular), peak of a cap; —— des quinquets, eyelid.
Abat-reluit (thieves’), shade for the eyes.
[Abattage], m. (popular), much work done; work quickly done; severe scolding, or “bully-ragging;” action of throwing down one’s cards at baccarat when eight or nine are scored. Vente à l’——, sale of wares spread out on the pavement.
Abattoir, m. (thieves’), cell at the prison of La Roquette occupied by prisoners under sentence of death; corresponds to the Newgate “salt-box.” It has also the meaning of gaming-house, or “punting-shop.” Properly a slaughter-house.
Abattre (familiar), en ——, to do much work, or to “sweat.”
[Abbaye], f. (thieves’), kiln in which thieves and vagrants seek a refuge at night; —— ruffante, warm kiln; —— de Monte-à-regret, the scaffold.
Mon père a épousé la veuve, moi je me retire à l’Abbaye de Monte-à-regret.—Victor Hugo, Le dernier Jour d’un Condamné.
Termed formerly “l’abbaye de Monte-à-rebours;” (popular) —— de Saint-Pierre, the scaffold, a play on the words “cinq-pierres,” the guillotine being erected on five flagstones in front of La Roquette; —— de sots bougres (obsolete), a prison; —— des s’offre à tous, house of ill-fame, or “nanny-shop.”