slack, swot
»To ‘slack’ in this term, with the full determination of ‘swotting’ in the next.» (Tommy And Co. 94. 14.)
The author.
To sweat or swot is schoolboy slang for drudge, study hard. To slack means the contrary.
The term «swot» originated at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in the broad Scotch pronunciation of Dr. Wallace, one of the Professors, of the word sweat.
Cf. »He used to despise a swot, as we used to call a lad with a taste for literature». (Percy White: Mr. Bailey-Martin. I.) »That’s the worst of clever little swots» (Rudyard Kipling, Stalky & Co.)
spin
»You have been ploughed then?»
»Oh, come, you mustn’t despair. You’ve only been »spun», as you fellows call it, for a few months.» (The Prude’s Progr. 52. 15. 35.)
To be spun: to be rejected in an examination = to be plucked and to be ploughed.