Cambridge, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Cambridge adj.

Proper name in slang uses

In compounds

Cambridge fortune (n.) [punning on two staples of the Cambridgeshire countryside, the term is defined by Grose as ‘a wind mill and a water mill’, i.e. she can talk and urinate but that is all]

a woman who has no fortune of her own and must rely for attraction on her personal charms alone.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Cambridge fortune a Woman without any Substance.
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Cambridge fortune. a wind mill and a water mill; a woman without any but personal endowments.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

Cambridge oak (n.) (also Cambridgeshire oak) [the frequency of willows in that county]

a willow.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.

Cambridgeshire camel (n.) [the stilt-walkers once found in the fens]

a native or established resident of Cambridgeshire.

1662		Fuller Worthies (1840) I 226: Cambridgeshire Camels.
1790		Grose Provincial Gloss. (1811).
1878		Luton Times 12 July 7/4: Cambridgeshire — ‘Cambridge Camels’.
1899		Cornishman 25 May 4/2: Among country nicknames is [...] Cambridgeshire camel, Essex calf, Norfolk dumpling.

Cambridgeshire nightingale (n.) [the large numbers of croaking frogs found in the marshy fens]

a frog.

1875		Chambers’s Journal No. 581 107, col. 2: The male of the eatable frog is distinguished... by... a pouch... These pouches increase the volume of the croak, and render it so powerful that the possessors have, from the county in which they are particularly plentiful, received the nickname of Cambridgeshire nightingales [F&H].
1882		Shields Dly Gaz. 27 Mar. 4/1: The edible frog [...] formerly pretty common in the fen districts, where his harmonious croaking [...] procured him the soubriquet of the ‘Cambridgeshire Nightingale’.
1903		Cheltenham Chron. 23 May 8/6: The species [...] was found to be fairly abundant in Foulmire fen, in Cambridgeshire, where its curious croaking had gained for it the name of ‘Cambridgeshire Nightingale’.
1916		Liverpool Post 18 Apr. 4/2: His new name is the Cambridgeshire nightingale.