Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Quotation search

Date

 to 

Country

Author

Source Title

Source from Bibliography

Otago Witness choose

Quotation Text

[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 28 Sept. 19: He lit a candle, dropped it into the Ballarat lantern,* and away they went [note] * For the benefit of the uninitiated, I may explain that a ‘Ballarat lantern’ is formed by knocking off the bottom of a bottle aud putting a candle in the neck. It is cheap, handy, and not at all to be despised.
at ballarat lantern, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness 13 Mar. 18/4: Every person who would know something of the pioneer days of the settlement before the ‘new iniquity’ spread over the land in the search for treasure.
at new iniquity (n.) under new, adj.
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 2 Apr. 8/4: The old lady growled that she did not get her due proportion of the blanket, and between curtain lectures and the cold, Old Split-the-Blanket enjoyed anything but undisturbed rest.
at curtain lecture (n.) under curtain, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 7 July 25: Lifting the tarpaulin, he perceived, by the unsteady light of the Ballarat lantern he carried, the top of a shaggy, unkempt head.
at ballarat lantern, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 20 Apr. 31/5: Irish wit is delightful [...] and there is a lurking twinkle in its seemingly most obtuse ‘bulls’ that the thorough Saxon mind often fails to grasp.
at bull, n.2
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 11 Feb. 20: he was not smart enough for the lurements of the Arrow dredging boom, and became ‘interested’ in some ‘boiled dog’ venture.
at boiled dog (n.) under boiled, adj.
[NZ] Otago Witness 30 Jan. 37: The latter is always springing musical surprises on his audiences, his ‘Railway medley’ being ‘a bonser,’ as the pittite has it.
at boncer, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ 9 Dec. 46: ‘You fellows can empty that bottle and make a Ballarat lantern of it.’ [...] Hartley [...] took a last pull at the bottle after it bad twice gone round. Then he deftly knocked the bottom out of it, and lighting the piece of candle, dropped it into the neck.
at ballarat lantern, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness (N.Z.) 1 Apr. 51/4: In a short time the Jap had everything imitated, even to the firm’s name.
at Jap, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 5 Aug. 52/5: [headline] The Jap Ear for Music.
at Jap, adj.
[NZ] Otago Witness (N.Z.) 1 Apr. 51/3: If he goes betraying any of our signs, signals, or passwords he will get ‘jarrab’.
at jaro, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 5 Aug. 52/4: The soldiers cordially hated him and bestowed upon him the sobriquet of ‘Johnny-come-lately’.
at johnny-come-lately (n.) under johnny, n.1
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 24 May 82/3: He’d made sausage meat of a good many big men from ‘down below’ [...] We got this information from Jim, the horse boy, who came up with him from ‘below’.
at down below, n.2
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 24 May 82/4: She was within cooee of her husband.
at within (a) cooee of under cooee, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 24 May 82/3: ‘You old crawler!’ cried Swiker; ‘I’ll wring your cussed neck!’.
at crawler, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 24 May 82/3: He was a hard man to work for - a nigger driver, - and was well hated by every man in camp.
at nigger-driver, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness (NZ) 24 May 82/4: Our old wagonette was patched from end to end [...] and there was enough wire aboout the old rattletrap to fence in an ordinary selection.
at rattletrap, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness 2 May 79: [O]ur annual group-taking, and [...] our extra-special debate, which is going to be a ‘boshker’ controversy, are all fast drawing nigh.
at bosker, adj.
[NZ] Otago Witness 15 May 73: We refreshed ourselves with a Scotch and Polly each.
at Polly, n.1
[NZ] Otago Witness (N.Z.) 11 Dec. 90/1: Take that thing away; this isn’t a Pop shop, mind thee.
at pop shop (n.) under pop, v.2
[NZ] Otago Witness (N.Z.) 12 Dec. 90/1: Mrs Barnet touched the inlaid polished case with covetous admiration and broke in — ‘Hey, isn’t it a bonny ’un? It’s a stunner!’.
at stunner, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness 4 Mar. 2/3: Shure, he could win it without his taale! [...] It’s a bean feastr fur us, sorr.
at beanfeast (n.) under bean, n.1
[NZ] Otago Witness 4 Mar. 90/4: He had collared the leaders, who were mere cat’s-meat in comparison with this smashing thoroughbred son of the Cossacks.
at cat’s meat, n.
[NZ] Otago Witness 4 Mar. 90/2: Skirmisher was a clinking good colt.
at clinking, adv.
no more results