fat adj.
1. in fig. senses of positive assessment.
(a) a general positive epithet, good, first-rate, excellent.
 | Works II 422: O, for a bowl of fat canary, Rich Aristippus, sparkling sherry! Some nectar else from Junos dairy, O, these draughts would make us merry [F&H]. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Hist. of the Two Orphans III 157: He [...] sings as many fat songs as the best man in the Garden. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Moby Dick (1907) 150: Grand snoozing to-night, maty; fat night for that. | |
![[Ind]](/static/img/flags/ind.png "India") | Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Mar. 26/2: He [...] hath a few fat stories of venerable antiquity which he quietly tells every night. | |
| Deadwood Dick in Beadle’s Half Dime Library I:1 80/3: Redburn [...] had already learned from study and experience how to guess a fat strike. | |
| Speaker 22 Feb. 212/2: As good in English is fat in Australian, the story is probably true about the missionary not a story of Dr. Lumholtzs. After many years of work in the field, this good missionary was taken apart by some anxious but meagre inquirers in his flock. Sir, said they, must a man be very fat to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? He was able to reassure them [F&H]. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Mar. 6/2: The detectives had a fat time of it. Compositors and detectives* recognize a piece of fat when they get there, The detectives got there. | |
| Sporting Times 31 Mar. 2/1: Workers, shirkers, everyone copped the tale, / ‘It’s just as fat as sin; / E’d fall down twice an’ win’. | |
| in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 103: There’s a guy back there with a fat hand and this is his station. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Stiffs 230: There is a nice fat ten-pound note. | |
| ‘Take ’Im Alive’ Und. Mag. May 🌐 Lissen, Jake—I got a fat deal for you. | |
| Way West 230: Waugh and Jesus Christ! Them was the fat days. | |
| Men from the Boys (1967) 88: Bill Ash [...] gets himself a fat promotion after twenty years of hard work. | |
| Awopbop. (1970) 195: I have a memory of two fat years, 1964 and 1965, when you did nothing but run loose and waste time, buy new clothes and over-eat and gab, when you thought you’d never have to work in your life again. | |
| (con. 1971) Times Square 59: He [...] commented that business was ‘pretty fat’. | |
| Drawing Dead [ebook] The money’s real pal. And fat. |
(b) a general intensifier, e.g. a fat damn.
| ‘Bundles of Truth’ Batchelar’s Jovial Fellows Collection of Songs 6: Boney a fat lie can tell. | |
| Long Wait (1954) 102: Two men came in after me, gave the mayor a fat hello, then parked and talked shop. | |
| Lead With Your Left (1958) 2: That’s the trouble today, nobody gives a fat damn about anything. | |
| Slam the Big Door (1961) 187: We have been having big fat arguments about what the surprise is. | |
| IV Dress Gray (1979) 409: Take a fat guess. | |
| (con. mid-1950s) This Boy’s Life 97: [W]hen Dwight bestirred himself to question her she fed him fat lies that he swallowed without a murmur. | |
| Crongton Knights 57: He hadn’t said a fat zero to me. |
(c) (orig. US black) a general term of approval, excellent, fantastic, attractive etc [spec. black use is a more emphatic version of sense 1].
| Smile Orange i i: She fat, you see! So I decide to check her. | |
| ‘CPT Time’ Buppies, B-Boys, Baps and Bohos (1994) 62: They aren’t going to get paid grabbing their groins and yelling, ‘New York is fat!’. | |
| Hip-Hop Connection Dec. 7: The trouble funkin’ Harmless imprint are bumpin’ fat reissues like it ain’t no thing. | |
| Hip-Hop Connection Jan./Feb. 46: That would be fat. That would be a first and I’m into firsts. |
2. in senses of possession.
(a) substantial; wealthy, rich; thus fat cull, a rich man.
| Detection of Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play 30: He hath greata acquaintance of men of the country [...] and, at the beginning, would every day fill the case with jolly fat cousins. | |
| Bankrouts Banquet F3: Another crew of boone Companions as the former, as fat in the purse and as lavish in spending. | |
| Persius III 38: And after, envy not the store Of the Greaz’d Advocate, that Grinds the Poor: Fat Fees from the defended Umbrian draws. | |
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Fat Cull, c. a rich Fellow. | |
| New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698]. |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue [as cit. c.1698]. |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | ‘De Kilmainham Minit’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 6: And when dat he mill’d a fat slap, / He me-ri-ly melted de winner. | |
| Poor Gentleman III i: You had better be influenced by a rich old uncle; unless you think the sun likely to leave you a fat legacy. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785]. | |
| Charcoal Sketches (1865) 140: I’d like to have a fat salary. | |
| Crim.-Con. Gaz. 30 Mar. 103/3: How fat you two are coming out, ninepence between you. | |
| Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. I 114: ‘Fat.’ Rich. ‘Fat cull,’ a rich fellow. | |
| Ladies’ Repository (N.Y.) Oct. VIII:37 315: His practised eye searches out his man. He approaches him and says ‘Friend, do you know of a fat crib’. | |
| Secret Band of Brothers 88: They are well paid for their villany by the job, which they take care to make a fat one. | |
| letter in Yankee Correspondence (1996) 66: These Northern contractors & politicians want fat offices and fat jobs by & by. | |
| N.Y. Times 12 Apr. 2/1: On the way to the prison the [police] officer ‘feels’ the prisoner, as to how much money he can afford to pay for counsel. If the inquiry brings out the fact that the prisoner is a ‘fat one,’ to use the vernacular. | |
| Wanderings of a Vagabond 207: [The tables] are only a sham, and no food is set upon them unless some extra fat customers are in one of the dens, giving up their money freely to a two-card box. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 11 Apr. 17/3: For example, suppose a 200 sov. prize is put up at Dubbo, the prudent owner of a crack will knock him out of condition, and then start him for three or four paltry prizes about the district, for each of which he will run a most successful last, and on this running being made known to a strange handicapper, he will naturally enough vote the horse a duffer, and let him into a fat handicap with something like a ‘feather.’. | |
| Mysterious Beggar 265: The old duffer’s a fat goose, and he must shell out handsome. | |
| Powers That Prey 211: ‘You might be fatter,’ the robber admitted, stepping back with the plunder in his left hand. | |
| ‘A Little Cloud’ Dubliners (1956) 79: She’ll have a good fat account at the bank or she won’t do for me. | |
| Pleasant Jim 69: He does the financing – at damned fat interest. | |
| Flirt & Flapper 17: Flapper: You [...] divorce him [...] the Judge gives you a fat settlement. | |
| Barbary Coast 209: Both runners and crimps waxed fat and sassy [...] some of the runners earned as much as five hundred to eight hundred dollars a week. | |
| Big Con 56: Mr. Ryan [...] brings in only the fattest of marks. | |
| Go, Man, Go! 20: On skimpy weeks I wouldn’t be able to afford it. And they come—in between the fat ones. | |
| Scene (1996) 74: For years that bastard got fat offa what Coke did for him. | |
| Nova Apr. 97: I just get a little sad about people who come over here to make a fat buck. | |
| A-Team Storybook 55: There’s shysters would argue that the sun comes up in the west if the fee was fat enough. | |
| Guardian 12 July 18: These mags pay fat money for the interviews. | |
| Layer Cake 5: Everyone gets fat together, very fat, baby-chubby. |
(b) well supplied with drugs.
| Drug Crisis in Spears (1986). | |
| Lowspeak. |
3. self-obsessed, smug, complacent.
| Bucky O’Connor (1910) 214: You’re always worrying those fat brains of yours with suspicions. | |
| Marvel 1 Mar. 6: Don’t be a fat owl. | |
| Gaudy Image (1966) 71: That puff ball and his fat words. He griped me. | |
| Dock Ellis 186: [of a baseball team] Murtaugh’s too old; they’re fat with winning. | |
| Patriot Game (1985) 60: Everybody was fat and sassy. | |
| Curvy Lovebox 10: Too fat with themselves to know shit. |
4. (US black) pregnant.
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
In derivatives
wealth.
| Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant. | |
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
In compounds
In phrases
(US black) to make money (for oneself).
| Blackstone Rangers 126: ‘I just hope you ain’t figured out a cute way to fat yourself up with money without bothering to cut in the rest of us Stones’. |
(US black) to become rich.
| et al. A2Z. |
(S.Afr.) to go wild, to ‘let off steam’.
![[SA]](/static/img/flags/sa.png "South Africa") | Crime in S. Afr. 75: They employed an argot which was peculiarly their own [...] ‘to go fat’ was to go wild. |
(US) to be successful and powerful.
| ‘Whutcha Want?’ 🎵 on Nine Livez [album] I gets banned if I do gets banned if I don’t / So sometimes I will and sometimes I won’t / Puff mad stick crack a forty down the back / Sit fat and relax and plan my attack. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
strong beer.
| Beaux Strategem II i: My parents [...] had early instructed me in rural accomplishments of drinking fat ale, playing at whisk, and smoking tobacco with my husband? | |
| Midwife 28: Drink sixteen Pints of fat Ale, smoak, sleep, snoar, belch, and forget your Book. | |
| Observations on a Tour II 328: Each leads the same life, does the same hard work, drinks the same fat ale. | |
| Polyanthea I 366: Notwithstanding the excellent colour and flavour of Sam’s fat ale. | |
| Fraser’s Mag. Feb. 196/1: To cheat poor old Nimrod of his dinner, that he might deluge his own stomach with fat ale [etc.]. | |
| Rattlin, the Reefer Ch. 58: I was stupefied as much as if I had committed a debauch upon fat ale. | |
| Edin. Tales III 153/2: ‘Suppose, ladies, we drink to the good luck of the match,’ cried the gallant Harry. ‘But, gracious, not in more of that nasty, heavy, fat ale’. |
see under arm n.
see separate entries.
(US) the penis.
| Tattoo of a Naked Lady 241: She lowered herself, easing his fatboy up her snatch. |
see fat-head n.1
see fat-headed adj.
see separate entries.
see separate entry.
see separate entries.
see separate entries.
a general term of opprobrium.
| Pamela II 179: Answer me, fat-face! | |
| Redheap (1965) 28: ‘Talk sense, fat face,’ he said resentfully. | |
| Revenge of the Living Dummy 26: ‘Come upstairs, Fat Face. I want to show you my comedy act with Mr. Badboy.’ ‘Fat Face? [...] Don’t call me Fat Face, Butt Breath!’. | |
| Seven Demons 131: ‘[Y]ou don’t like me calling you fat face. That’s your fat-face problem’. |
a man who prefers plump women.
| Sl. and Its Analogues. |
(orig. US) a slimming clinic.
| Life 5 Nov. 29/1: This was a health resort, a beauty ranch — all right, a fat farm. | |
| Time 11 Apr. 42: Last week the First Tuesday segments dealt with a weight reduction ‘fat farm’ and a Christian anti-Communist crusade. | |
| Time 2 Mar. 64: As waistlines keep expanding, so too do beauty resorts — the places that thin people like to call fat farms. | |
| Tales of the City (1984) 124: Here’s old Bink, wallowing in luxurious misery at America’s most elegant fat farm. | |
| Silent Terror 204: Now & Wow Fitness was [...] ‘A fat farm. All Polack chicks lookin’ to get skinny so they can glom themselves a steelworker, then eat themselves fat again when they get married’. | |
| Dieting a Dry Drunk 124: During that time, my mom offered to send me a ‘fat farm.’. |
a derog. name for a fat person; also attrib.
| On the Waterfront (1964) 43: Old man Foley, a fatgut who had started out doing a job on these waterfront cases. | |
| Thief 20: Dead, With some fat-gut cop spitting tobacco juice in their faces. |
a term of abuse, used of one who has a fat stomach.
| Henry IV Pt 1 II ii: Peace, ye fat-guts! | |
| ‘Ballad’ in Court Satires of the Restoration (1976) 11: Old fatguts himself, / With his tripes and his pelf, / With a purse as full as his paunch. | |
| in Pills to Purge Melancholy V 26: The next a Usurer, / Old fat Guts he came grunting. | |
| Bath Chron. 8 Dec. 1/3: [to a hog] Quoth to Ass [...] Poor Fat-Guts! is such thy hard Case, / If for no other Ebnd / Thou wert Stuff’d — by thy Friend. | |
| ‘British Spy’ in Collection of Eng. Ballads 86: Here’s fat guts the butcher. | |
| Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 272/2: ’Tis said he’s Farmer Fatgut’s child. | |
| ‘Sut Lovingood’s Chest Story’ Nashville Union and American XXIX June in Inge (1967) 122: In jumped Gut Fatty in his shut tail. | |
| Pall Mall Gaz. 17 Oct. 2/1: You can bear her troubles well enough, can’t you, old fat-guts. | |
| Cornishman 10 Aug. 3/7: Get out of the way or I will run over you, you old fat-guts. | |
| Bang To Rights 64: Did you see old fat guts run? | |
| Muvver Tongue 90: He may also be called [...] ‘fat-guts’. | |
| How Dark is Your Dungeon 31: It was the turn of the older, fat, and ugly boy in blue to speak [...] Once inside, fat guts asked Mrs. Hickman, ‘Can you confirm that your husband is a Ronald Hickman?’. |
a general abusive epithet, describing someone with a fat stomach.
| York Spy 48: [In] came hobbling up another Fiery-faced, Tun-bellied, Gossiping Legate to club her Groat, who entring the Chamber, thus accosted her tipling fatgutted Gammars, I’m glad to find you so merry, Neighbours. | |
| London Mag. Apr. 201/2: The fat-gutted tapster both belches and f — ts. | |
| Sale of Authors 28: Fat-gutted, thick-headed Engglish pock-puddings. | |
| ‘Shufflers’ in City of London Collection 7: Of the fat-gutted butcher we cannot say much. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Fortunes of Nigel (1855) 211: A purse-proud, pudding-headed, fat-gutted, lean-brained Southron. | |
| Bury & Norwich Post 27 Oct. 6/4: You great fat-headed, swill-headed, fat-gutted —. | |
| Jackson’s War 83: You’re nothing but a-a-a fat, gutted bastard [...] Fat, gutted, useless pisspot. | |
| Bonney’s Place 153: An old fat-gutted gal had a big scar on her belly. | |
| Straight Razor 39: I ain’t one of them old-fashioned fat-gutted bikers. | |
| Gift from the Grave 19: The fat gutted Hustler tries to follow me. I move quicker and he tires. |
see separate entries.
(UK juv.) an unattractive, promiscuous woman.
| OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 fat knacker n. 1) fat old tart. |
(US black) a substantial roll of dollar bills.
| Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
a bruised and swollen mouth, the result of a blow.
| Dict. Service Sl. n.p.: A fat lip [...] a sock in the puss. | |
| Knock on Any Door 201: Say, are you looking for a fat lip? I told you to beat it! | |
| (con. 1948) Flee the Angry Strangers 330: You wanna fat lip. | |
| Go, Man, Go! 47: ‘I promise tight lips if—’ Paul straightened up and clipped Gil against the wall. ‘And I promise fat lips.’. | |
| All Night Stand 49: If you want to argue you can end up with a fat lip on. | |
![[Can]](/static/img/flags/can.png "Canada") | Go-Boy! 27: As a result of the fracas I ended up with a black eye, a bloody nose and a fat lip. | |
| Sweet La-La Land (1999) 221: She was alive like always. Had a fat lip and a new space in her smile. | |
| Crumple Zone 57: He was a whole lot wiser with his fat lip. | |
| Chopper 4 27: Fat lips and black eyes and broken teeth are commonplace. |
not very much, if anything at all; often as phr. a fat lot of good (that will do).
| Sweet Seventeen III 85: A fat lot of advance you'll get with a nipper like Naylor in the shop! | |
| Dead Men’s Shoes I 179: ‘A fat lot Marion teaches me!’ said the incorrigible child. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 Nov. 6/1: ’A far lot of good it’ll do you trying to get me broke’. | |
| Fire Trumpet I 75: A fat lot of good he’ll do. | |
| Tony Drum 192: A fat lot I care about him! | |
| Such is Life 10: Fat lot o’ good tailin’ you up! | |
| Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 72: They can have the money back [...] for a fat lot of good it’s done me. | |
| Ulysses 701: O let them all go and smother themselves for the fat lot I care. | |
| Carry on, Jeeves 110: He just hangs around, saying: ‘Most disturbing, sir!’ A fat lot of help that is! | |
| ‘The Well of Lycopolis’ Complete Poems (1868) 29: He used to cuddle me. Fat lot of good its done me! | |
| Battlers 222: You’re going to tell us about this conference and that conference that passed resolutions calling for better treatment for the unemployed. And a fat lot of good that’s been. | |
| Jennings Goes To School 210: Fat lot of good that’d be if it bit you in the foot. | |
| For Your Eyes Only (1962) 40: Fat lot Bill cares. | |
| I’m a Jack, All Right 26: A fart lot of good that’ll do me when she [i.e. an automobile] starts coughing and farting miles from anywhere. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Breathing Spaces 37: A fat lot you care for Dad’s plants. | |
| Desperate Dan Special No. 7 23: A fat lotta good! | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 76: fat lot of good Extension of the British phrase ‘fat lot’, usually a caustic expression. | |
| Sucked In 255: And a fat lot of good it did. Still no Andrea Lane. |
1. (US black) a $20 bill.
| in Chicago Defender 31 Oct. 26: I’m gonna bait my line with raz-ma-taz, and I’ll bet a fat man I’ll twitch and twitter then. |
2. see fat n. (3)
see fat-fancier
see separate entries.
1. a hard blow.
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 24 Feb. 3/1: She gave him a fat one on the chops, if she was to be scragged tor it. |
2. (also fat ’un) an especially noisy breaking of wind.
| DSUE (8 edn) 381/2: fat one or un. A particularly rank breaking of wind C.19–early 20. |
3. (US) a $100 bill.
| Pimp 67: I was going to collect five fat ones for my pleasant night’s work. | |
| (con. 1950s) Whoreson 80: She picked out a leather coat for two hundred fat ones. |
4. (US drugs, also fattie, fatty) a marijuana cigarette, esp. a large one.
| Drugs from A to Z (1970) 94: fatty A thickly rolled marijuana cigarette. | |
| Campus Sl. Mar. 4: fattie – marijuana cigarette. | |
| (con. 1970s) King Suckerman (1998) 56: Vivian held out the fatty. | |
| Indep. Rev. 9 Nov. 12: So if pot was legal, why wouldn’t celebrities be on the cover of our magazine smoking a big fattie? | |
| Hip-Hop Connection Jan./Feb. 27: They like to roll a fattie. | |
| Tattoo of a Naked Lady 93: We passed a fatty back and forth to take the edge off. Speed and weed. | |
| Hashbash.com 🌐 ****WARNING! THIS IS A SMOKE-IN**** No, it is not legal (yet) to smoke marijuana at the HASH BASH. [...] We do realize that some of you will come and as an act of civil disobedience LIGHT UP A BIG STINKY FAT ONE. | |
| ‘Discipline’ in Knockemstiff 117: [I] lit up a serious fattie for the long haul back. | |
| Atomic Lobster 15: Coleman twisted a fat one in his lips. | |
| Blood Miracles : [P]art of the way through rolling hiimself a fat one. |
5. (US) a large cigar.
| Love Is a Racket 310: Old guys who used to be players [...] smoking fat ones. |
see Fats n.
(US) overweight.
| Big Heat 40: Me, the fat-tailed moneybags, so they say. |
(US) an aristocrat, a wealthy person; also attrib.
| Salt Lake Herald 5 Aug. 3/4: Captain Fatwad, with two of his officers, was in charge. | |
| N.Y. Tribune 30 Jan. 10/3: Mildred’s quite a girl, even if she ain’t got a lot of fatwad folks back of her. | |
| Torchy 93: Our toniest fatwads is sittin’ around the mahogany votin’ to raise the price of chewin’ gum. | |
| Edgefield Advertiser 11 July 2/3: Young Fatwad is an absolute nincompoop. | |
| Finnegan’s Parish 9: The more expensive we make it, the more it’ll be a magnet to all those fatwad corporation chiefs. |
In phrases
(US black) cowardly.
| Mules and Men (1995) 50: Jack looked at de hund’ud dollars and put down five hund’ud and says, ‘Man, Ah ain’t for no spuddin’. You playin’ wid yo’ stuff out de winder. You fat ’round de heart. Bet some money.’. |
(US) very thin.
| in DARE. |
(US) very thin.
| Bentley’s Misc. III 201: Muster Stork, the purser, as fat as a match, and his legs swelled as thick as tobacco- pipes. | |
| Belmont Chron. (St Clairsville, OH) 26 Apr. 2/3: A gentleman looking about as fat as match [...] had been seen. | |
| Dly Phoenix (Columbia, SC) 15 Feb. 2/6: A think lady is told: ‘Shaped like a lath, fat as a match’. | |
| Ten Old Maids 173: I expect to get as fat as a match on the diet. | |
| Eve. Bulletin (Maysville, KY) 6 Mar. 2/2: Hence our modern phrase [...] ‘As fat as a match’. | |
| Virginia Folk-Speech (1912) 23: Fat as a match. | |
| St John’s Rev. (OR) 14 Apr. 3/2: A gigantic specimen of the order Hymenotera is now lying in front of the writer. It is about as long as a string and as fat as a match. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 3 Oct. 31/1: Sen. Pomerene, of Ohio [...] is about as fat as a match. | |
| Sunset 49 148: I was ‘Snake,’ ‘Rope,’ ‘Slim,’ [...] It was often remarked that I was ‘as fat as a match’. | |
| (con. 1890s) Dial. Grant County 25: Fat as a match [...] not fat at all. | |
| in DARE. | |
| Beyond the Big Run 86: Blue Bob was just an old bastard, fat as a match and about six feet tall. |
extremely fat.
| Poetical Wks 111: As fat as Sir Roger, sir, warn’t she? We don’t make her work very hard. | |
| Londinismen (2nd edn). |
(US) stupidly oblivious.
| Leader-Telegram (Eau Claire, WI) 19 June 12/2: A student who placidly flies into a dangerous situation aware that there is anything wrong is dubbed ‘fat, dumb and happy’. | |
| And When She Was Bad 176: ‘Oh, hell, [...] the murderer unquestionably has been watching the house and waiting for us to walk into the trap. [...] And we walked right into the snare.’ ‘Fat, dumb and happy,’ I replied bitterly. |
(N.Z. prison) female prison officers.
| Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 67/2: fat ladies’ arms, the n. female prison officers. |
1. intellectual.
| Queens’ Vernacular 79: fat on top 1. intellectual. |
2. drunk.
| Queens’ Vernacular 79: fat on top [...] 2. intoxicated. |
rhetorical qn used to denote that a statement is uncontrovertibly true.
| (con. 1960s) Blood Brothers 98: ‘Do you two really know each other?’ Marra asked [...] ‘Is fat meat greasy?’ I said. ‘Of course we know each other very well.’. | |
| Lovelines Lifelines n.p.: Tell me, oh, Wise One, ‘s fat meat greasy?’ Replied the sage pundit, ’Not on a fish!’. | |
| Hard to Please Ch. i: ‘Did you hit it?’ ‘Is fat meat greasy? You’re talking to Action Jackson. I don’t mess around.’. |
In exclamations
(N.Z.) no chance at all!
| Eng. Lang. in Aus. and N.Z. 108: New Zealand has some slang of its own [...] a fat show ‘little chance’. | |
| Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 45/1: fat show little or no chance, or ‘fat chance’. | |
| Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988]. |