Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. used to intensify questions, e.g. who/how/where/when the deuce...?; or what the deuce...? phr.

1680		School of Venus (2004) 7: Why, who the Duce told you?
1704		Cibber Careless Husband II ii: Why the Duce should he be concern’d at an impertinent Frown for an Attack upon a Woman of Quality.
1722		S. Centlivre Artifice Act II: Where the Duce shall I find the Bed-Chamber?
1753		Richardson Sir Charles Grandison (1812) VI 530: ‘How the deuce,’ said he, ‘does Sir Charles manage it?’.
1763		Oxford Jrnl 12 Nov. 1/4: What the Deuce (I hear you cry) can that produce? What does it mean?
1768		Caledonian Mercury 30 May 3/2: But how the deuce should they, tho’ ever so willing, / Contrive to buy mourning, who have not a shilling.
1775		Sheridan Rivals (1776) I i: Who the deuce thought of seeing you in Bath!
1784		Norfolk Chron. 31 Jan. 2/4: How the deuce came I to take physic till the Constitution was settled?
1790		Scots Mag. 1 May 41/2: How the deuce can you match her with language or lungs / Who is mistress [...] of three tongues?
1791		‘Brother Rook’ Willy Wood & Greedy Grizzle 11: ‘Odsbobs!’ cry’d Willy — ‘why the deuce / Give me sic scandal and abuse!’.
1792		Bath Chron. 23 Feb. 2/2: And who the deuce are you?
1818		‘Thomas Brown’ Fudge Family in Paris Letter VIII 83: But who the deuce cares, Dick, as long as they nourish us.
1821		Egan Life in London (1869) 236: Who the deuce is that [...] that knows me here?
1837		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 11 Nov. 11: Who the deuce is that queer-looking feller?
1842		S. Lover Handy Andy 100: How the deuce could you leap a hedge in a postchaise?
1848		Boston Blade 17 June n.p.: Helen, where in the deuce have you gone?
1864		G.A. Sala Quite Alone I 8: Who the doose is that woman on the black mare?
1866		Broad Arrow Jack 14: Hullo! who the deuce is this?
1875		Wagga Wagga Advertiser (NSW) 23 Oct. 4/1: ‘One of us must marry an heiress. I don't see any other way of pulling through.’ ‘But how the deuce are we to get hold of one?’.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 133: Where the deuce has Jim been all this time?
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 July 10/1: Here we see ‘our representatives’ going forth to ‘do’ the private bars. Being both unsophisticated young men, ‘Where the deuce ARE the private bars?’ they asked each other.
1897		Mohave Co. Miner (AZ) 28 Aug. 1/1: I’m a miner from the desert, and I want a change of base / [...] / So I’m going to Alaska, where it’s colder than the deuce.
1893–4		H. Lawson ‘Stiffner & Jim’ in Roderick (1972) 127: Where the deuce did you get that?
1906		H. Lawson ‘Johnson’s Wonder’ in Roderick (1967–9) II 199: And Johnson wondered how the deuce an ass could be so green.
1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 19: But what puzzles me, you see, is why the deuce you should want this bally infant.
1918		‘Sapper’ Human Touch 34: Well, who the deuce is the ninth?
1922		Joyce Ulysses 106: Where the deuce did he pop out of? He wasn’t in the chapel, that I’ll swear.
1923		Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves 29: How the deuce to slide out of it.
1925		Wodehouse Carry on, Jeeves 47: Who the deuce is Lady Malvern, Jeeves?
1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 10 Dec. [synd. col.] ‘Who the deuce is that’.
1933		E. Pound letter 23 Jan. in Paige (1971) 244: How the deuce do you expect me to swallow all that for the sake of a small sum of money?

2. a general intensifier used to express anger, annoyance, impatience etc; euph. for devil, the phr. (2); often as the deuce take...

1694		Congreve Double-Dealer IV ii: No, the deuce take me if I can’t help laughing myself, ha! ha!
1702		‘Princely Diversion’ in Ebsworth Roxburghe Ballads (1893) VII:1 91: A fresh Hare, Deuce take her!
1714		S. Centlivre Wonder! V ii: A deuce take your quarrels, she’ll never think on me.
1733		Laugh and Be Fat 131: As you for Drinking, Neighbour, or for Eating? / You’ll always make one stay, the Duce is in ye.
1738		Swift Polite Conversation 28: Why then, the Duce take you.
1744		‘Nurse Lovechild’ Tommy Thumb’s Songbook II 15: The Wheelbarrow broke / And give my Wife a fall, / The duce take the Wheelbarrow, Wife & all.
1751		Smollett Peregrine Pickle (1964) 612: Hum! Ha! The deuce!
1760		Foote The Minor 60: The duce!
1772		G. Stevens ‘Courtship’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 145: Let others sing of Flames and Darts [...] The Deuce a bit will I.
1780		H. Cowley Belle’s Stratagem V v: Deuce take her! She’s six year’s younger than I am.
1801		M. Edgeworth Belinda (1994) 110: Young, beautiful, graceful; then the deuce take me.
1820		Jack Randall’s Diary 44: Oh, sad is the heart that can say ‘the deuce take her’.
1839		(con. 1724) W.H. Ainsworth Jack Sheppard (1917) 252: ‘Jack Sheppard has escaped’ [...] ‘The deuce he has!’.
1840		R. Barham ‘Row in an Omnibus’ Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 212: Deuce a bit! / We’ll never submit!
1853		Dickens Bleak House (1991) 179: ‘To tell you the truth, Guardian, I rather expected it.’ ‘The deuce you did!’ said he.
1857		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) III. 345: Doose take the feller, he’s always out of the way when he’s wanted.
1860		R.S. Surtees Plain or Ringlets? (1926) 90: ‘The deuce!’ exclaimed the Baronet.
1875		Auckland Eve. Star (Supp.) 30 Oct. 6/1: And the doose of it is, she seems really as if she was making mine up to.
1888		‘Rolf Boldrewood’ Robbery Under Arms (1922) 384: ‘She didn’t know me a bit.’ ‘The deuce she didn’t!’.
1898		Regiment 18 June 183/2: Summoning his courage, he blurted out, ‘Major, I’ve no trousers on.’ ‘The deuce, you haven’t,’ he said.
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 15: Deuce knows how many more there’ll be, but I know of two at least.
1900		Boys Of The Empire 23 Oct. 42: The deuce she does!
1902		‘Banjo’ Paterson ‘Hay & Hell & Booligal’ Rio Grande’s Last Race (1904) 40: And fight the snaggers every day, / Until there is the deuce to pay.
1905		Marvel III:55 2: The deuce take me!
1915		T. McNamara Us Boys 19 Feb. [synd. cartoon strip] Gosh, it’s lonesome as the deuce without Skinny.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘The Jelly Bean’ in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald V (1963) 208: The deuce. He promised me a highball.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 155: The deuce you are.

3. a general intensifier implying quantity, intensity; var. on hell, the phr. (3)

1841		‘The Wonderful Nose’ Dublin Comic Songster 73: And such a deuce of a fellow was he to take snuff.
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 278: Sir Moses was always in a deuce of a hurry on a hunting morning.
1861		Hills & Plains I 37: ‘I passed the deuce of a night; I feel rather seedy still, indeed’.
1876		F.W. Green ‘Naughty Young Man’ 🎵 We gay naughty young fellows, / Do love so a deuce of a spree.
1880		G.R. Sims ‘Sir Rupert’s Wife’ Ballads of Babylon 28: ‘Dare-devil Leigh’ was his nickname, he was last of a lawless line / Who had gone to the deuce full gallop, through women and cards and wine.
1886		N.Z. Observer and Free Lance (Auckland) 20 Mar. 23/1: Young cock sparrow looks a deuce of a chump in the naval’s rig-out. Pretty cocky!
1888		‘’Arry on Marriage’ Punch 29 Sept. 156/1: Great Scott, wot a patter he ’ad, and a mouth on ’im, ah! like the doose!
1889		‘’Arry on the Ice’ Punch 23 Feb. 85: The swell he let hout like the doose.
1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 71: Took a cab in the King’s Road, and drove like the deuce to Clapham Junction.
1902		Ade Girl Proposition 13: Number One was trying to demonstrate that he was a Deuce of a Fellow and Number Two was trying to convince her that she was an Ace of a Girl.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 137: There’ll be a deuce of a smoke before long.
1915		J. Buchan Thirty-Nine Steps (1930) 13: I woke next morning to hear my man, Paddock, making the deuce of a row at the smoking-room door.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 153: A cheap, messy flat-house to the deuce and gone up Eighth avenue.
1916		Nenagh Guardian 12 Feb. 3/1: The ould woman was in such a duce of a hurry.
1920		R.J. Fry Salvation of Jemmy Sl. III i: Don’t you see that I’m in a deuce of a fix.
1924		S. Scott Human Side of Crook and Convict Life 157: I dropped the ladder once, and it made the deuce of a row.
1925		S. Lewis Arrowsmith 317: It certainly does beat the deuce that a man worth thirty million dollars [...] can’t find a clean pair of pyjamas.
1936		J.T. Farrell World I Never Made 145: He’s as cranky as the deuce.
1938		N. Lindsay Age Of Consent 99: It was a dooce of a problem to settle.
1947		J. Maclaren-Ross Of Love and Hunger 108: Kicked up a deuce of a row and seemed likely to fall to bits any minute.