1833. Marryat, Peter Simple, ch. xliii. One of the French officers, after he was taken prisoner, axed me how we had managed to get the gun up there; but I wasn’t going to blow the gaff.
1877. Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ch. ii., p. 122. The prisoner, burning for revenge, quietly bides his time till the chief warder comes round, then asks to speak to him, and blows the gaff.
1891. Referee, 8 Mar. Under sacred promise not to blow the gaff I was put up to the method.
Gaffer, subs. (old).—1. An old man; the masculine of Gammer (q.v.). Also a title of address: e.g., ‘Good day, gaffer!’ Cf., Uncle and Daddy. Also (see quot. 1710), a husband.
1710. Dame Hurdle’s Letter (quoted by Nares). My gaffer only said he would inform himself as well as he could against next election, and keep a good conscience.
1714. Gay, Shepherd’s Week. For Gaffer Treadwell told us, by-the-bye, Excessive sorrow is exceeding dry.
1842. Tennyson, The Goose. Ran Gaffer, stumbled Gammer.
2. (common).—A master; an employer; a boss (q.v.); (athletic) a pedestrian trainer and ‘farmer’; and (navvies’) a gang-master or ganger (q.v.).
1719. Durfey, Pills, etc., iv., 123. In comes our gaffer Underwood, And sits him on the bench.
1748. T. Dyche, Dict. (5th ed.) Gaffer (S.) a familiar word mostly used in the country for master.