Garrotting, a mode of cheating practised amongst card-sharpers, by concealing certain cards at the back of the neck.
Gas, to give off superfluous conceit, to bounce or brag; “his game is GAS.” “To give a person GAS,” is to scold him or give him a good beating. Synonymous with “to give him Jessie.”
Gassy, or GASEOUS, liable to “flare up” at any offence.
Gate, THE, Billingsgate. Sometimes Newgate, according to the occupation and condition of the speaker. In the same way Paternoster Row is by publishers known as “the Row.”
Gate, to order an undergrad not to pass beyond the college GATE. As a rule, the GATE begins after hall, but in extreme cases the offender is GATED for the whole day.—University.
Gate-race, among pedestrians a mock race, got up not so much for the best runner to win, as for the money taken from spectators, at the gate. This sort of business is not peculiar to pedestrians; there are such things as gate-money meetings at horse-racing.
Gatter, beer; “shant of GATTER,” a pot of beer. A curious slang street melody, known in Seven Dials as Bet the Coaley’s Daughter, thus mentions the word in a favourite verse:—
“But when I strove my flame to tell,
Says she, ‘Come, stow that patter,
If you’re a cove wot likes a gal,
Vy don’t you stand some GATTER?’
In course I instantly complied—
Two brimming quarts of porter,
With sev’ral goes of gin beside,
Drain’d Bet the Coaley’s daughter.”
Gaudy, the annual dinner of the Fellows of a College, in memory of founders and benefactors. From GAUDEAMUS.—Oxford University.
Gawfs, cheap red-skinned apples, a favourite fruit with costermongers, who rub them well with a piece of cloth, and find ready purchasers.