Canoodle, verb (Oxford).—To paddle or propel a canoe.
1879. E. H. MARSHALL, in Notes and Queries, 5 S., xi. 375. When I was an undergraduate at Oxford, to CANOODLE was the slang expression for paddling one’s own canoe on the bosom of the Cherwell or the Isis.
Cantab, subs. (Cambridge).—A student at Cambridge University. [An abbreviation of “Cantabrigian.”]
1750. Coventry, Pompey Litt., II. x. (1785), p. 18, col. 1. The young CANTAB ... had come up to London.
1803. Gradus ad Cantab. (Title.)
1821. Byron, Don Juan, c. iii., st. 126. And I grown out of many “wooden spoons” Of verse (the name with which we CANTABS please To dub the last of honours in degrees).
Canvas, subs. (Winchester).—See quot.
1867. Collins, The Public Schools, p. 66. The Winchester football game is peculiar. It is played in CANVAS, as it is called. A portion of Meads, some 80 feet by 25, is marked off by screens of canvas on each side, within which the game is played, the two open ends forming the lines of goal, across which the ball is to be kicked. It is placed in the middle of the ground to begin with, and a “hot” formed round it by the players stooping down all close together, with their heads down, and at a given signal trying to force the ball or each other away. The canvas screens answer to the Rugby “line of touch”; when the ball escapes over these it is returned into play by juniors stationed for the purpose, and a hot is formed afresh.
To go on the canvas, verb. phr. (Manchester Grammar).—To finish drill (dumb-bells, clubs, &c.), and do gymnastic exercises on the ladder, bars, rings, and ropes. [The floor beneath the latter was once covered with stuffed canvas; the phrase is retained, though the canvas has given way to mats.]
Cap, subs. 1. (Westminster).—The collection at Play and Election dinners. [The College cap was passed round on the last night of Play for contributions. Cf. “to send round the cap.”]