Golopshus, splendid, delicious, luscious.—Norwich.
Gonnof, an expert thief, a master of his craft; one of the greatest compliments a London pickpocket can pay another is to say, “he’s a reglar GONNOF.”—See [GUN]. The word GONNOF is very old. During Kett’s rebellion in Norfolk, in the reign of Edward VI., a song was sung by the insurgents in which the term occurs—
“The country GNOFFES, Hob, Dick, and Hick,
With clubbes and clouted shoon,
Shall fill up Dussyn dale
With slaughter’d bodies soone.”
Good people, the name given by country folk, evidently from fear of offending by any less decided term, to fairies, brownies, pixies, &c. Mothers often say to querulous children, “I wish the GOOD PEOPLE would run away with you.”
Goods, in the sporting world, men or horses. A horse or man of exceptionable quality is called “good GOODS,” and a backer will speak of either as being in his opinion “best GOODS,” as compared with others in the race.
Good time, an expressive phrase, which means all earthly bliss to the American mind. The finest reminiscence a Yankee can have is that of a GOOD TIME, wherever it may have been spent. No moderate amount of happiness is ever recorded in the register which denotes how often its possessor has “had a GOOD TIME.”
Good woman, a not uncommon public-house sign, representing a woman without a head,—the ungallant allusion is that she cannot scold. Maybe, the publican does not think that it means also that she cannot drink. The Honest Lawyer, another sign, is depicted in the same manner.
Goose, a tailor’s pressing iron. Originally a slang term, but now in most dictionaries.
Goose; “Paddy’s GOOSE,” i.e., the White Swan, a celebrated public-house in Ratcliff Highway.