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DREADFUL. Very, exceedingly. This and the words awful, terrible, desperate, monstrous, etc., are indiscriminately used by uneducated people for the purpose of giving emphasis to an expression.

There was a swod of fine folks at Saratoga, and dreadful nice galls. — Maj. Downing's Letters, p. 35.

It's a fact, Major, the public has a dreadful cravin' appetite for books. — Ibid. May-Day in N. Y., P. 4.

The young ladies thought Mr. Harley's new storekeeper a dreadful nice young man, if he had n't such a horrid nose.-Chronicles of Pineville.

She was a dreadful good creature to work. - Mrs. Clavers.

It is used in the same way in England, in the Westmoreland and Cumberland dialects:

I send to this an, to tell thee amackily what dreadful fine things I saw i' th' road tuv at yon Dublin. -Poems and Glossary, p. 125.

TO DRESS. To dress to death, dress to kill, dress to the nines, and, in the South, to dress up drunk, are women's phrases, which signify to overdress, dress to excess.

When you see a gentleman tipteering along Broadway, with a lady wiggle-wagging by his side, and both dressed to kill, as the vulgar would say, you may say that he looks out for himself and takes care of A. No. 1.-Dow's Sermons, Vol. I. p. 208.

DRINK.

A river. "The Big Drink" is a common term applied by SouthWestern people to the Mississippi River.

The old boat was a rouser the biggest on the drink, had the best officers, and paid the best prices. — Maj. Bunkum, in N. Y. Spirit of the Times.

He kept shoving the boat out, and the first thing I knowd, down I went, kerwash into the drink. - Southern Sketches, p. 36.

About evenin' I got my small dug-out, and fixin' my rifle in the fore eend, I jest paddled over the drink. —A Night on the Missouri.

DRINKING. "He's a drinking man," i. e. a toper.

DRIVE. In Texas, the annual gathering of large herds of cattle for the purpose of branding. This is provided for by law in California. See Rodeo, and Judges of the Plain.

When a regular drive is made, a dozen neighbors, from twenty miles or more about, assemble at a place agreed upon, each man bringing two or three extra horses. These are driven before the company, and form the nucleus of the cattle herd collected. They first drive the outer part of the circuit, within which their cattle are supposed to range, the radius of which is here about forty miles. All cattle having their marks, and all calves following their cows, are herded and driven to pens which have been prepared. They are absent from two to three weeks upon the first drive, usually contriving to arrive by night at a pen in which the stock are enclosed, otherwise guarding them in the open prairie. When the vicinity of a

house is reached, the cattle are divided. The calves are branded, and all turned loose again. Olmsted's Texas, p. 369.

DRIVER.

1. He or that which drives; a coachman, a carman. Worcester. In England, the driver of a carriage is called a "coachman.” 2. A negro-driver, an overseer of slaves on a plantation.

TO BE DRIVING AT.

"What are you driving at?" that is, what are you about? what object have you in view? A colloquial expression, in very

common use.

We confess that we are exceedingly puzzled to know exactly what our long-cherished friend is driving at, in his repeated discussions of the question above involved. -N. Y. Com. Advertiser.

People ludicrate my situation, and say they don't know what the deuce I'm driving at. - Neal's Charcoal Sketches.

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"I have heard enough now," said the recorder, "to know what you and he would be driving at." - Pickings from the Picayune, p. 135.

DROGER, or DROGHER. Lumber droger; cotton droger, etc. A vessel built solely for burden, and for transporting cotton, lumber, and other heavy articles.

DROP GAME. A trick practised by the light-fingered gentry of New York and other eastern cities on their country cousins. One drops a pocketbook containing a large roll of bank-notes a short distance before an approaching stranger, which a confederate picks up just as the stranger is about to do so. He opens the roll, affects surprise at his discovery, manifests sympathy for the loser, and tells the stranger, that, being about to leave town, he will surrender it to him for $10 or $20, on condition that he will advertise it and endeavor to find the owner. Greenhorn eagerly snaps at the tempting bait; but on reaching his hotel finds, of course, that he is the possessor of a package of spurious money. DROP-LETTER. A letter dropped into the post-office for a resident of the same place, and which is therefore not to be mailed.

DRUMMER. A person employed by city houses to solicit the custom of country merchants. See Drumming.

DRUMMING, in mercantile phrase, means the soliciting of customers. It is chiefly used in reference to country merchants, or those supposed to be such. Instead of patiently waiting for these persons to come and purchase, the merchant or his clerk goes to them and solicits their custom. In this manner the sale of goods is often expedited; and though the practice of drumming is held by some to be neither very modest nor very dignified, still it must be owned to add very largely, in certain cases, to the amount of goods sold. Indeed, without drumming, it is sus

pected that sundry houses which make a remarkable show and noise would do very little business.

The expenses of drumming amount to no small sum. Besides employing extra clerks and paying the extra price for their board at the hotels, the merchant has to be very liberal with his money in paying for wine, oyster suppers, theatre tickets, and such other means of conciliating the favor of the country merchant as are usually resorted to by drummers. - Perils of Pearl Street, ch. 9.

DUBERSOME. Doubtful. A vulgarism common in the interior of New
England. Duberous is used in England.

I have been studyin' Tattersall's considerable, to see whether it is a safe shop to
But I'm dubersome; I don't like the cut of the sporting folks here.

trade in or no.

- Sam Slick in England, ch. 28.

Before noon, rain came, and then the pilot muttered that he felt dubersome about the appearances. Lieut. Wise, Scampavia, p. 18.

DUBOUS. A mispronunciation of dubious.

DUG-OUT. The name, in the Western States, for a canoe or boat hewn or dug out of a large log. They are common in all the rivers and creeks of the United States and Canada. In the latter country they are called log canoes.

A cypress suitable for a canoe, or dug-out, was selected, and in two days shaped, hollowed out, and launched. —A Stray Yankee in Texas, p. 35.

After a fashion I got to my dug-out, with no weapon along but the paddle. Snags were plenty. I felt strong as a hoss too; and the dug-out had n't leaped more 'n

six lengths afore - co-souse I went! - the front eend jest lifted itself agin a sawyer

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and emptied me into the element. — Robb, Squatter Life.

DULL MUSIC. A term applied to any thing tedious.

DUMB. Stupid.

DUMB CHILL, or DUMB AGUE. An expression common in malaria regions to denote that form of intermittent fever which has no well defined "chill."

TO DUMP. To unload wood, coal, etc., from a cart by tilting it up. The word is used in Devonshire in the sense of to knock heavily, to stump. Hence, probably, its American application.

You would have thought it ridiculous, my fair friends, if your parents had told you that you were to love such a one, and nobody else, as though the heart's affections were a load of wood · -as easily dumped at one door as another. -Dow's SerVol. I. p. 254.

mons,

I once got twenty dollars from an omnibus driver for running into my carriage, knocking off a wheel, and dumping my wife and child into the street.

Ten Thousand, p. 149.

The Upper

DUMPING-GROUND. A low piece of ground where earth, etc., is to be deposited for the purpose of raising its level.

There is much difficulty in getting dumping grounds for the dirt from the streets; but the contractors say they can and will do the work.-N. Y. Tribune, May 18,

1857.

DUNFISH. Codfish cured in a particular manner, by which they acquire a dun color. They command a higher price, and are much superior to those cured in the ordinary way.

DUNNING. A peculiar operation for curing codfish.-Webster. Fish for dunning are caught early in the spring, and often in February. At the Isles of Shoals, off Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, the cod are taken in deep water, split, and slack-salted; then laid in a pile for two or three months, in a dark store, covered, for the greatest part of the time, with salt hay or eel-grass, and pressed with some weight. In April or May they are opened and piled as close as possible in the same dark store till July or August, when they are fit for use.-J. Haven.

DURHAM BOAT. A large, open, flat-bottomed boat formerly used on the St. Lawrence, Mohawk, and other rivers. They were used as freight boats only, and were propelled against the current by means of poles.

DUTCH. It beats the Dutch is an expression often applied, in New York and New England, to any thing astonishing. The earliest instance of its occurrence that I have met with is in a revolutionary song written during the siege of Boston, in 1775:

And besides all the mortars, bombs, cannons, and shells,
And bullets and guns -as the newspaper tells,

Our cargoes of meat, drink, and cloaths beat the Dutch,
Now who would not tarry and take t'other touch?

New Eng. Hist. Register, April, 1857, p. 191.

DUTCHMAN. A flaw in a stone or marble slab, filled up by an insertion. DUTIABLE. Subject to the imposition of duties or customs. - Webster. This is a very convenient word, and is in common use, both by the officers of the customs, and by merchants having transactions with them.

The dutiable imports this year amount to about two hundred and ten million dollars, nearly one half of which were imported the first quarter of the year.- Speech of Senator Wilson, May 24, 1858.

DYED IN THE WOOL. Ingrained; thorough.

The democrats, on the authority of Mr. Cameron's letter, are beginning to claim General Taylor as a democrat dyed in the wool, as a democrat of the Jeffersonian order of 1798.-N. Y. Com. Adv., May 24, 1847.

E.

EAGLE. A gold coin of the United States, of the value of ten dollars, so called from its bearing, on the reverse, the figure of the American eagle. There are also double-eagles of twenty dollars, as well as half and quarter-eagles.

EAR-BOB. An ear-drop.

EAR-MARK. The mark made on a sheep's ear by its owner; and hence the token or signal by which a thing is known. So used also in the north of England.

EARLY CANDLE-LIGHT. Used to denote the beginning of the evening; as, "The meeting will begin at early candle-light."

EARTH ALMOND. (Cyperus esculentus.)

(Cyperus esculentus.) A perennial, indigenous to southern Europe, growing in the form of a rush, some three feet high, producing small tubes the size of a common bean, and called by the Valencians "Chufas." It is one of the plants distributed by the Patent Office in 1854.-White, Gardening for the South.

"Our

EASY. A word in common use among merchants and bankers. bank is easy," meaning that its loans are not extended, or that money is plentiful. "The money market is easy;" or money is easy,” i. e. loans of money may easily be procured.

EAST.

About east is about right, in a proper manner. expression in New Englaud.

A common slang

I went into the dining-room and sot down afore a plate that had my name writ on a card onto it; and I did walk into the beef and 'taters and things about east. — H. Bigelow's Letters in Family Comp.

TO EAT, v. a. To supply with food. A Western use of the word.

Hoosier. - Squire, what pay do you give?

Contractor. Ten bits a day.

-

Hoosier. Why, Squire, I was told you'd give us two dollars a day and eat us. — Pickings from the Picayune, p. 47.

EDUCATIONAL. Pertaining to education; derived from education; as, educational habits.-Webster. The authority cited by Webster for the use of this word is "Smith," - a rather indefinite one. Mr. Pickering says the word was new to him until he saw it in the following extract:

It is believed that there is not an individual of the college who would, if questioned, complain that he has, in any instance, felt himself pressed with opinions which interfered with his educational creed. - Dr. Grant's Report to the Trustees of New Jersey College, 1815.

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