SWIZZLE, small beer, drink.
SWOT, mathematics; also a mathematician; as a verb, to work hard for an examination, to be diligent in one’s studies.—Army.
This word originated at the great slang manufactory for the army, the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in the broad Scotch pronunciation of Dr. Wallace, one of the Professors, of the word sweat.—See Notes and Queries, vol. i., p. 369.
T, “to suit to a T,” to fit to a nicety.—Old. Perhaps from the T-square of carpenters, by which the accuracy of work is tested.
TACKLE, clothes.—Sea.
TAFFY (corruption of David), a Welshman. Compare SAWNEY (from Alexander), a Scotchman.
TAG-RAG-AND-BOBTAIL, a mixed crowd of low people, mobility.
TAIL BUZZER, a thief who picks coat pockets.
TAKE, to succeed, or be patronised; “do you think the new opera will TAKE?” “No, because the same company TOOK so badly under the old management;” “to TAKE ON,” to grieve; Shakespere uses the word TAKING in this sense. To “TAKE UP for any one,” to protect or defend a person; “to TAKE OFF,” to mimic; “to TAKE heart,” to have courage; “to TAKE down a peg or two,” to humiliate, or tame; “to TAKE UP,” to reprove; “to TAKE AFTER,” to resemble; “to TAKE IN,” to cheat or defraud, from the lodging-house keepers’ advertisements, “single men TAKEN IN AND DONE FOR,”—an engagement which is as frequently performed in a bad as a good sense; “to TAKE THE FIELD,”
when said of a General, to commence operations against the enemy; when a racing man TAKES THE FIELD he stakes his money against the favourite.