Login

Green’s Dictionary of Slang

crackmans n.

also crack, cragmans

[SE crack, dry firewood + -mans sfx]

(UK Und.) a hedge.

1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 41: Cragmans is now used for the hedge. [Ibid.] 43: Budg a beak the Crackmans & tip lowr with thy prat.
1621		Jonson Gypsies Metamorphosed 4: ’Tis thought fit he marche in the Infants Equipage With the convoy cheates, and peckage out of the clutch of Harman-beckage, to theire Libkens at the Crackmans or some skipper of the Black-mans.
1639		J. Taylor Crabtree Lectures 193: Mort. If you tower any states [sic] lye upon the Cracke, mill them, and budge a beak.
1648		Dekker Canters Dict. Eng. Villainies (9th edn).
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 48: Crackmans, Hedges.
a.1674		‘A Wenches complaint for . . . her lusty Rogue’ Head Canting Academy (1674) 17: When the Darkmans have been wet / Thou the Crackmans down did beat / For Glymmar whilst a quacking cheat / Or Tib o’th Buttery was our meat.
1684		W. Nevison in Newgate Calendar I (1926) 291: ‘Now,’ saith he, ‘that thou art entered into our fraternity, thou must not scruple to act any villainies which thou shalt be able to perform, whether it be to nip a bung, bite the Peter Cloy, [...] or to cloy a mish from the crack man’s.’.
1688		J. Shirley Triumph of Wit 225: [as cit. a.1674].
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1719		A. Smith Lives of Most Notorious Highway-men, etc. (1926) 204: Crackmans, hedges.
1725		New Canting Dict. n.p.: crackmans Hedges; as, The Cull thought to have loap’d, by breaking through the Crackmans; but we fetch’d him back by a Nope on the Costard, which made him silent; i.e. The Gentleman thought to escape, by breaking through the Hedges; but we brought him back by a great Blow on the Head, which laid him for Dead.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725].
c.1750–1882		B.M. Carew Life and Adventures.
1754		Scoundrel’s Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Crackmans, hedges. The cull thought to have loped, by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw; the man thought to have escaped by breaking through the hedge, but we brought him back by a great blow on the head, which laid him speechless.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
c.1850		Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict.

In phrases

mill a crackmans (v.)

to collect firewood from a hedge, lit. to ‘break a hedge’.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: mill-a-crackmans c. to break a Hedge.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].