old gooseberry, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

old gooseberry n.

the Devil.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1870		W.E.A. Axon Billy O’ Bent’s Berryin’ 3: Happen yo win foind some mischief, for if ever there wur two uv Owd Gooseberry’s childer, it’s thee an’ Red Tom.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1879		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (2nd ser.) 3: Luckily [...] they were not all Darby Doyles, or Micky Quinlans! If they had, there would have been old gooseberry to pay!

In phrases

like old gooseberry (adv.)

very fast.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 684/1: —1865.

play (up) old gooseberry (v.) (also ...old Boguy)

to cause trouble, to ‘play the devil’, ‘play the deuce’.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Gooseberry. he playd up old Gooseberry among them. This is said of a person who by force or threats suddenly quells any disturbance.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 22: SANDY’S the boy, if once to it they fall, / That will play up old gooseberry soon with them all.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1837		F. Saunders Life in N.-Y. 12: That ‘Morning Herald’ has played old gooseberry with the house.
1838		‘Alfred Crowquill’ Seymour’s Humourous Sketches (1866) 27: Sit still! for ve are just now in the current, and if so be you go over here, it’ll play old gooseberry with you.
1840		R. Barham ‘Bloudie Jacke’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 180: All the people of Shrewsbury / Playing old gooseberry / With your choice bits of taste and vir tù.
1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 598: I’ll play Old Gooseberry with the office, and make you glad to buy me out at a good high figure, if you try any of your tricks with me.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 9 34/1: ‘[P]laying up old gooseberry with that tight little frigate Madam James’.
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 14 June 3/3: She began to get uproarious [...] and, in a word, ‘played up old gooseberry’.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864		G.A. Sala Quite Alone III 133: Vy did the hinspector ’ave me up before the commisioners, and play old Gooseberry with me? Because he were jealous.
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 293: Wind and rain are their worst enemies [...] and play ‘old gooseberry’ with the bush-dwellings.
1871		‘George Eliot’ Middlemarch III 174: By Jove, Nick, it’s you! [...] five-and-twenty years have played old Boguy with us both!
1892		Globe (London) 12 July 2/2: We all know his capacity for playing old goosberry with things in general [F&H].

play up old gooseberry with (v.)

to deal with in a peremptory manner, to shut (someone) up.

1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: He played up old gooseberry among them; said of a person who, by force or threats, suddenly puts an end to a riot or disturbance.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859, 1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.