card n.2
1. a joker, a clown.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘The Masquerade’ Songs Comic and Satyrical 187: A Card flew to Pan, who was skill’d in these matters, / To model some Masks from the Portraits of Satyrs; / Of Proserpine ask’d Merry Andrew’s Shade, / Without a Buffoon there is no Masquerade. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Pop. 1280 in Four Novels (1983) 470: That was the way I was, a real card. | |
| (con. 1949) True Confessions (1979) 78: ‘Jery Bang Bang,’ Tom Spellacy said. ‘He was a shooter.’ ‘Fucking card is what he was,’ Crotty said. | |
| Breaks 103: You’re quite a card, Mr. Keller. | |
| Whores for Gloria 118: I’m such a card I shuffle when I walk! |
2. a character, a noticeable person, a likeable eccentric [? one who stands out from the ‘pack’].
| Momus Elenticus 3: Next Roberts of Jesus that doubty good Card. | |
| ‘Making a Night of It’ in Slater Dickens’ Journalism I (1994) 267: Mr. Thomas Potter, whose great aim it was to be considered as a ‘knowing card’, a ‘fastgoer’ and so forth. | |
| ‘The Faking Boy to the Crap is Gone’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 124: ‘Smash my glim,’ cries the reg’lar card. | |
| Bleak House (1991) 280: Such an old card as this; so deep, so sly, and so secret. | |
| Trail of the Serpent 27: I’ve seen a many knowing cards. | |
| Wilds of London (1881) 139: An earnestness [...] calculated to impress the two young ladies that though young they are lads of mettle and knowing cards. | |
| My Secret Life (1966) VIII 1625: ‘Get out and wash, always — I do.’ said the knowing old card. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bulletin (Sydney) 19 July 7/3: This E.T. Smith was the Drury-lane manager, a most remarkable card. He once hired a thousand-pound note from Genuse, the West-end money lender, just to flash about and inspire confidence. | |
| Marvel III:62 18: He’s a deep card, this! [...] But I’ll track him down! | |
| Card (1974) 280: ‘What a card!’ said one, laughing joyously. ‘He’s a rare ’un, no mistake.’. | |
| ‘A Rhyme of Gaffer D—’ Coll. Poems 123: You won’t get rid of that Old Card, / Leastways till you’ve got rid of sin. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Ulysses 85: Great card he was. Waltzing in Stamer Street with Ignatius Gallagher on a Sunday morning, the landlady’s two hats pinned on his head. | |
| Call It Sleep (1977) 408: They guffawed. ‘Yer a card!’ said the coal heaver. ‘Yer a good lad.’. | |
| Malachi Horan Remembers 103: There was one of these men in it as was the comicalest card ever you clapt an eye on. | |
| Blackboard Jungle 176: It was okay for Miller to ride the teacher ’cause he was a card that way. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Maori Girl 180: He’s a card, isn’t he? | |
| Start in Life (1979) 105: It was hard to say whether he was the greatest card of them all, or just plain stupid. | |
| Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 15: Bless him, he’s a card. | |
| Donkey’s Years 168: The Dodo was a card. | |
| Layer Cake 56: Oh yeah, very good, you’re a card, son. | |
| Untold Stories (2006) 118: She is a real card is Lily. We always have a laugh. |
3. an attraction, a ‘drawing card’.
| Wkly Varieties (Boston, MA) 29 Oct. 3/1: While he had money he proved a ‘big card’ among the ’boys’ about town. | |
 | Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 16 June 246/1: The chief card of the week, in the base-ball line, was a game between the famous Eckfords and the equally well-known Union Club [DA]. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 3 June 2/2: Lizzie McCall [...] is the biggest burleque card of the season [...] Blanche Douglass will be a good dramatic card, too—none better. | |
| Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) 1 May 21/1: The festival of last year was quite a card for Louisville [DA]. | |
| Fables in Sl. (1902) 138: Marie was a Strong card. The Male patrons of the Establishment hovered around the desk long after paying their Checks. | |
| ‘The Big Umbrella’ Runyon on Broadway (1954) 550: He will be a wonderful card. | |
| Westerners’ Brand Book 94: It was a great card and all San Francisco turned out [DA]. |
4. (US) an amusing thing or circumstance.
| (con. 1925) My Days of Anger 325: That’s a card. That’s your democracy for you. |
5. a fool.
| Burn 69: Listen to him, isn’t he a card? Thinks I made a joke of everything. I ask you, do I look the type? |
6. (US) in drug uses.
(a) pieces of opium weighed out onto a (playing) card; the usual ration of prepared opium used in a single smoking session.
| Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 127: He tried to think out a plan to get just enough for one little card. | |
| God’s Man 278: They don’t ever seem to let him have enough to blow a round of drinks or a card of stuff. | |
| Hop-Heads 111: A card of opium is sold in the dens for $1. There are four smoking pills to a card. | |
| Mister Jelly Roll (1952) 25: I was personally sent to Chinatown many times with a sealed note and a small amount of money and would bring back several cards of hop. | |
| , | | DAS. |
(b) a means of selling opium in which pills of the drug are stuck to a playing card.
| Black Candle 45: ‘Card-opium’ [...] opium is made into cakes about the size of a fifty-cent piece. This is placed on the centre of a playing card, and the card is bent in half, the opium adhering to the inside like a wad of chewing gum. | |
| ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 119/2: card. A bindle of opium peddled by sticking small pills of the gum on the under side of a card. |
In phrases
see under dead adj.
to allow someone else an advantage.
| St Paul Dly Globe (MN)30 June 6/1: Mr Barnes’ black legged players can give cards and spades to bad luck and beat it out. | |
| Grip (Toronto) May n.p.: You know that Artie found a Chinaman out in ’Frisco who could give him cards and spades and beat him out [F&H]. | |
| Little Stories of Married Life 105: A girl always knows what a man ought to do — she can give him cards and spades and beat him every time. | |
| Boss 191: There’s other games, like Tammany Hall for instance, where I could give you cards an’ spades. | |
| Valley of the Moon (Internet edn) 187: Billy [...] had said that she was built like a French woman, and that in the matter of lines and form she could give Annette Kellerman cards and spades. | |
| Sing-Sing Nights (2010) n.p.: You can give ’em all cards and spades when you want to. | |
| Rotarian Oct. 57/3: This amateur criminal can give cards and spades to professionals, and he does. | |
| Billboard 14 Nov. 15/2: Current show is headed by Hinda Wausau, who will give cards and spades to any peeler in this theater. | |
| Rogue Moon (Internet edn) n.p.: I can give Connington cards and spades, Doctor – cards and spades – and still beat him out. |
(US) a provocative, lively person.
| Tales of the Ex-Tanks 97: We [...] met all the hot cards, including the member of Congress from the district. | |
| Wash. Times (DC) 28 July 13/5: He was a good-looker all right [...] One morning a big delegation of girls came down [...] and it wasn’t twenty minutes before this hot card was calling ’em Lulu and Minnie and Blanche, and they liked it. |
(US) less than wholly mentally stable, eccentric.
| Dain Curse 256: ‘How do you figure her--only fifty cards to her deck?’. |
1. to attack, to beat up, to kill.
| ‘Together Forever’ 🎵 My rock is hard, you can’t pull my card. | |
| ‘Let Yourself Go’ 🎵 When you get to Detroit, the real thugs gon’ pull your card. | |
| Portable Promised Land (ms.) 158: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Bust a cap. Peel your cap. Pull your card. Protect ya neck. | |
| ‘Shit Don’t Change’ 🎵 It ain’t never been nuttin to pull a nigga’s card. |
2. (US prison) to find out information about another inmate [the image is of file cards; the records are now computerized].
| Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Pulling Someone’s Card: Finding out about another prisoner. |
of individuals or inanimate objects, that which is trustworthy, dependable.
| Thersytes (1550) E i: Now this is a sure carde, nowe I may well saye That a cowarde crakinge here I dyd fynde. | |
| Euphues (1916) 107: A cleere conscience is a sure card. | |
| Titus Andronicus V i: As sure a card as ever won the set. | |
| The Two Angry Women of Abington K3: ralph: O yee are a trustie squire. nic.: It had bin better and he had said, a sure carde. | |
| Captain I ii: for.: You know the juggling captain? clown: Ay; there’s a sure card . | |
| Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: A sure Card, a trusty Tool, or Confiding Man. | |
| She Would and She Would Not III i: I’ve just thought of a sure Card to win the lady into our Party. | |
| Wooden World 52: His Phiz is a Beacon to all Fresh-water Sailors in bad Weather [...] he’s their sure Card at a dead Lift. | |
| (trans.) Erasmus’ Colloquies 31: Then to be sure, that Christopher the Collier was a sure Card to trust to. | |
| Joseph Andrews (1954) IV 290: We have one sure card, which is to carry him before Justice Frolick. | |
| The Minor 55: This is doing business. This Pinch is a sure card. | |
| Morn. Post (London) 12 Oct. 3/2: Jack considered himself a sure card, but he has since had reason to alter his opinion! | |
| Examiner 3 Nov. 7/2: A taste for domestic comedy is reviving; [...] whatever can assist it is to be encouraged [...] Mrs Davison is a sure card. | |
| Bristol Mercury 8 Sept. 3/6: Auber’s magnificnet aria [...] is a sure card in Templeton’s hands. | |
| Natural History of the Gent 56: His surest card is Buckstone. | |
| Won in a Canter I 18: One fellow of ours said his father was a Turkey merchant. He had no end of tin, and we really thought he was the ‘correct card’. | |
| Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 8 May 5: [caption] In pronouncing this [a pretty woman] a little darling, may Ally not be allowed to be a correct card. | |
| Notes on a Cellar-Book 106: Bols, like Wynand Fockink best known to us for liqueurs, is also a sure card, and also rather dear. |