row n.1
a disturbance, a noisy quarrel; thus what’s the row? what’s all the noise about? (cites 1873, 1896 are weaker use, i.e. what’s the problem?).
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Discoveries (1774) 16: We were afraid he would make too big a Row when he lost that; that is, a great Noise. | |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Row A disturbance; a term used by the students at Cambridge. | |
| Winter in London III 203: It was reserved for [...] the present evening, to introduce a row, in the lowest sense of that vulgar word; and to add to the list of fashionable pastimes, the demolition of chandeliers [etc.]. | |
| Hamlet Travestie I v: You look stark mad, Ophelia! — What’s the row? | |
| Life in London (1869) 210: He bid fair, in a short time, to become as prime an article [...] as either of the above heroes n kicking up a lark, or to mill his way out of a row. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | N.Y. Gazette and General Advertiser 2 Dec. 2/1–2: Then commenced the general row, during which peepers were closed, and vast quantities of claret uncorked. | |
| Dens of London 64: The Irishman was outrageous [...] he whooped and bellowed, and was all kicking for a row. | |
| Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. III 57: Wot the bloody ’ell’s the hodds, now? [...] Wot’s the row? | |
| Proc. Old Bailey 26 Feb. 534: I have seen men thrust out into the street, and Johnson in rows with them at the door, but not lately—there was a dreadful row with him and Mrs. Timbrell about a month or six weeks ago. | |
| Pippins and Pies 89: ‘Jolly row!’ observed Harry Bumpstead. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 30 Nov. 6/1: Irish Kate [...] laughed with true Irish ecstasy at the prospects of a row. | |
| Sportsman 14 May 2/1: Notes on News [...] There has been what, in the snobbish slang of the day, is called ‘a jollv row’ at Ashton-under-Lyne. Six-and-twenty people have been more or less cut, bruised, battered, and shot. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Knocking About in N.Z. 122: Knowing that I could do nothing to prevent the row, I went with the crowd to look on. | |
| Little Mr. Bouncer 13: Hullo, Giglamps [...] You look peakyish. What’s the row? | |
| Big Bonanza (1947) 272: There’ll be the biggest row in here in about a minute you ever saw! | |
| Daily Tel. 6 Oct. 2: Now, I’ve got to come home boozed, don’t you know, and you are sitting up for me, and you begin to snack at me about it, and then there’s a jolly row. | |
| Robbery Under Arms (1922) 41: Puts me in mind of our old poaching rows. | |
| Barkeep Stories 6: ‘Wot’s de row?’ ‘Why didn’t you send me dat getaway money I staked you to last spring?’. | |
| Regiment 2 July 213/2: [of a battle] Jim was noted for his strong antipathy to shot and shell [...] but at last all his plans failed to keep him out of the ‘row’. | |
| Hooligan Nights 17: He is [...] very bad to tackle in a street row. | |
| Confessions of a Detective 205: What’s all the row? | |
| London Street Games 142: There’s sometimes a smash-up and always a row. | |
| White Moll 180: We don’t want any row in dere, on account of Charlie. | |
| ‘Snowbound’ in Gangster Stories Oct. n.p.: ‘I couldn’t stop him without raising a row, and that would have been bad for business’. | |
| ‘Spanish Blood’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 16: We figure they had a row. | |
| Public School Slang 149: row. A useful word, with several shades of meaning: (1) a noise, uproar [...] (2) trouble. | |
| Battlers 108: Go around getting a hold on a bloke, dragging him out of a row. | |
| Joyful Condemned 34: What’s the use of spending all night going round looking for a row? | |
| letter 15 Dec. in Leader (2000) 565: Hilly found some letters I had received and initiated the most strenuous and painful row we have ever had. | |
| Big Rumble 142: Their voices rose to row proportions. | |
| Billy Bunter at Butlins 44: I say, you fellows, what’s the row? | |
| (con. 1930s) ‘Keep Moving’ 25: ‘Cut out the bloody row an’ put th’ light out,’ he bawled. | |
| Powder 362: James, still smarting from the row, came over to make friends. | |
| Soho 31: Subject of another row, that was. |
In phrases
to be quiet, usu. as excl.
| Sporting Times 1 Mar. 2/2: ‘Hold your row, you fool’. | |
| Boy’s Own Paper 22 Dec. 183: ‘Hold you row, you ass!’ whispered Bates. | |
| Marvel 3 July 6: Hold your row, you stupid old lunatic! |
to cause trouble, to create a disturbance.
| Life’s Painter 142: Tolobon Nan. Whose a-going to kick up a roue? | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | ‘When Princes and Prelates’ in Merry Muses of Caledonia (1965) 54: By sea & by shore! The Emp-r-r swore, / In Paris he’s kick up a row. | |
| Gent.’s Mag. 1085: And was very near rustication [at Cambridge] merely for kicking up a row after a beakering party. | |
| ‘Tom the Drover’ No. 30 Papers of Francis Place (1819) n.p.: When a row was kick’d up in a minute, a bottle at his head she did fling. | |
| Boxiana I 10: He [...] was fond of kicking up a row, and not afraid to fight his way out of it. | |
| ‘Newgate Melody’ in Morn. Post 17 Apr. 3/4: Since the Jury and the judge, oh Jack Ketch! / Have agreed that Tim Higgins must stretch / Since ’tis too late to kick up a row. | |
| ‘New Policeman’ in James Catnach (1878) 211: Once if I kicked up a row [...] I was walked before a beak, sir. | |
| ‘King William IV’ in Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 54: Each day and every hour they’ve been kicking up a row. | |
| ‘She Wore Some Slap Up Togs’ in Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 18: I Saw her in St. Giles’s, and methinks I see her now, / Lugg’d off by policemen, for kicking up a row. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 27 Dec. 2/5: Serjeant Connor [...] said that she was kicking up a row at 2 o’clock on Sunday morning in Harrington-street, being rather excited from the drop she had taken. | |
| Mysteries of London II (2nd Ser.) 362: When I threatened just now to kick up a row in the streets and attract the notice of the police. | |
| It Is Never Too Late to Mend 1 207: It is No. 50 kicking up a row at having his bed and gas taken. | |
| (con. 1840s–50s) London Labour and London Poor (1968) III 198: In the evening some countrymen come into the tap-room and kicked up a row with the missus. | |
| Americanisms 319: The disturber of the public peace is said to kick up a row, and so is the man who brings discord into a public body or party. | |
| Robbery Under Arms (1922) 187: The diggers used to [...] kick up a bit of a row sometimes when two lots of men were fighting for the same claim. | |
| Eve. Post (Dundee) 29 Aug. 3/2: He continued to kick up a row, and threatened to murder the whole of the inmates. | |
| Magnet 10 Sept. 12: You came here to kick up a row, but if you make us go for you, you won’t find it pleasant. | |
| Film Fun 24 Apr. 20: All these jolly little joints [...] started to kick their heels, and kick up a row, and do the jump. | |
| Carry on, Jeeves 75: A taxi had driven up, and an old boy in a top hat had got out and was kicking up a frightful row about the fare. | |
| They Drive by Night 201: Coming in here in this state you two and kicking up this row. |
1. to wake up someone roughly and noisily.
| DSUE (8th edn) 992/2: C.19–20. |
2. to scold, to criticize.
| N.Y. Herald 7 May n.p.: We hope the President gave his Secretary a good rowing up; he certainly deserved it for his imbecility. | |
| Americanisms 346: To row up became soon identical with severe scolding or actual punishment. |
to be quiet, esp. as imper.
| ‘The Cane Brake Song’ 🎵 Shut yer nooise, gals and boys, now mind I told yer plain. | |
| [perf. Marie Lloyd] What's that for, eh? 🎵 ‘What’s that for, eh? Tell me Ma / If you don't tell me I’ll ask Pa’ / But Ma said, ‘Oh its nothing shut your row’. | |
| Bulletin (Sydney) 2 June 14/1: ‘Shut yer noise,’ he said. ‘Them jokes / Ain’t fer dacent married folks.’. | |
| ‘Champion’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 109: Let loose and shut up your noise. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Butcher Shop 15: Aw, shut yer row! | |
| Cockney Cavalcade 137: Shut yer – row, will yer? | |
| None But the Lonely Heart 117: Ah, shut your row, the pair of you. | |
| Three-Ha’Pence to the Angel 19: Vera, will you shut your row? | |
| Live Like Pigs XII: Shut the bloody row! | |
| Muvver Tongue 76: It ain’t that either, so shut your row. | |
| Down and Out 75: Just get your bloody head down, shut your noise. |