Gift of the Gab.—See Gab.
Gift-house (or Gift), subs. (printers’).—A club; a house of call; specifically for the purpose of finding employment, or providing allowances for members.
Gig (Gigg, Gigge), subs. (old).—1. a wanton; a mistress; a flighty girl. Cf., Giglet.
1373. Chaucer, House of Fame, iii. 851. This house was also ful of gygges.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Cant. Crew. A young gig, a wanton lass.
1780. D’Arbley, Diary, etc., (1876), i., 286. Charlotte L—— called, and the little gig told … of the domestic life she led in her family, and made them all ridiculous, without meaning to make herself so.
1825. Planché, Success in Extravaganzas (1879) I., 26. He! he! What a gig you look in that hat and feather!
1832. Macaulay in Life, by Trevelyan (1884), ch. v., p. 188. Be you Foxes, be you Pitts, You must write to silly chits, Be you Tories, be you Whigs, You must write to sad young gigs.
2. (old).—A jest; a piece of nonsense; anything fanciful or frivolous. Hence, generally, in contempt.
1590. Nashe, Pasquil’s Apologie, in wks. Vol. I., p. 234. A right cutte of the worde, withoute gigges or fancies of haereticall and newe opinions.