1859. Sala, Twice Round the Clock, 6 p., in Part 7. With a red face, shaven to the superlative degree of shininess, with gills white and tremendous, with a noble white waistcoat.
1884. Daily Telegraph, July 8, p. 5, c. 4. Lord Macaulay wore, to the close of his life, ‘stick-ups,’ or gills.
To grease the gills.—verb. phr. (common).—To have a good meal; to wolf (q.v.).
To look blue (or queer, or green) about the gills, verb. phr. (common).—To be downcast or dejected; also to suffer from the effects of a debauch. Hence, conversely, to be rosy about the gills = to be cheerful.
1836. M. Scott, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. Most of them were very white and blue in the gills when we sat down, and others of a dingy sort of whitey-brown, while they ogled the viands in a most suspicious manner.
1892. G. Manville Fenn, Witness to the Deed, ch. ii. You look precious seedy. White about the gills.
A cant (or dig) in the gills, phr. (pugilists’).—A punch in the face. See Bang.
Gill-flirt, subs. (old).—A wanton; a flirt. For synonyms, see Barrack Hack and Tart.
1598. Florio, A Worlde of Wordes.
1611. Cotgrave, Dictionarie. Gaultiere, a whore, punke, drab, queane, gill, flirt. [[144]]