Passe-passe, m. (card-sharpers’), swindling trick at cards, which consists in passing a card over. Joueur de ——, swindler. Rabelais uses the term jouer de passe-passe with the signification of to steal:—
Qui desrobe, ravist et joue de passe-passe.—Pantagruel.
[Passer] (popular), au bleu, to disappear; (military) —— à la casserole, the operation consists in placing a man suffering from a dangerous venereal disease in a vapour bath, and leaving him there till he becomes unconscious. It is for him a case of “kill or cure;” —— au dixième, to become mad; —— des curettes, to make a fool of one, “to bamboozle.”
Mon lapin, faut pas qu’ çà te la coupe, mais j’suis trop ancien au peloton pour qu’on essaye de me passer des curettes.—G. Courteline.
Passer la jambe à Thomas, or à Jules, to empty the privy tub. (Familiar) Passer devant la glace, to pay, “to shell out.” An allusion to the looking-glass behind the counter of cafés or restaurants, and before which one must stand while paying for the reckoning; to obtain gratis the favours of a prostitute at a brothel; —— devant la mairie, to get married without the assistance of the registrar, to live “tally;” —— la main dans les cheveux, to praise, “to give soft sawder.” Termed “genuine” at Winchester School; (general) —— l’arme à gauche, to die, “to kick the bucket.” See [Pipe]. Termed, in the English military slang, “to lose the number of one’s mess.”
Un criminel que la débauche
Avait conduit à l’échafaud,
Au moment d’passer l’arme à gauche
Dit à l’oreille du bourreau:
Y a plus moyen d’rigoler,