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Gammon   Listen
verb
Gammon  v. t.  
1.
To beat in the game of backgammon, before an antagonist has been able to get his "men" or counters home and withdraw any of them from the board; as, to gammon a person. In certain variants of the game one who gammons an opponent scores twice the normal value of the game.
2.
To impose on; to hoax; to cajole. (Colloq.)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Gammon" Quotes from Famous Books



... declared that he was ashamed to walk among his future constituents, so conspicuous had his name become. Grimes saw it, and was dismayed. At first, Grimes ridiculed the cry with all his publican's wit. "Unless he mean to drown hisself in the Reach, it's hard to say what he do mean by all that gammon about the River Bank," said Grimes, as he canvassed for the other Liberal candidate. But, after a while, Grimes was driven to confess that Mr Scruby knew what he was about. "He is a sharp 'un, that he is," said Grimes in the inside bar of the "Handsome Man;" and he almost regretted that ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... lawyer who had just "taken the coif," once said to Samuel Warren, the author of Ten Thousand a Year: "Hah! Warren, I never could manage to get quite through that novel of yours. What did you do with Oily Gammon?"—"Oh," replied Warren, "I made a serjeant of him, and of course he ...
— Law and Laughter • George Alexander Morton

... "Gammon! I know where he is! Law bless you!—don't blush. I've been there myself a dozen times. We were talking about quod, Lady Thrum. ...
— Men's Wives • William Makepeace Thackeray

... a scrag or knuckle of veal, slices of undressed gammon of bacon, onions, mace, and a small quantity of water; simmer till very strong, and lower it with a good beef broth made the day before, and stewed till the meat is done to rags. Add cream, vermicelli, ...
— Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 • Barkham Burroughs

... takes off all his men wins the game:—a single game (a "hit") if his adversary has begun bearing; a double game (a "gammon") if the adversary has not borne a man; and a triple game (a "backgammon") if, at the time the winner bears his last man, his adversary, not having borne a man, has one in the winner's inner table, or has a man up. When a series of games is played, the winner of ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 - "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" • Various

... day,' quoth his host, 'is a fast And there is naught in my larder but mutton. On Friday who would serve such repast, Except an unchristianlike glutton?' Says Pat, 'Cease your nonsense, I beg; What you tell me is nothing but gammon. Take my compliments down to the leg And bid it walk hither, a salmon.' The leg most ...
— The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson • Edward A. Moore

... to please him; but it was no use, for he now said he must have two deoles, or he would never allow me to leave his palace. Every day matters got worse and worse. Mfumbi, the small chief of Sorombo, came over, in an Oily-Gammon kind of manner, to say Makaka had sent him over to present his compliments to me, and express his sorrow on hearing that I had fallen sick here. He further informed me that the road was closed between this and Usui, ...
— The Discovery of the Source of the Nile • John Hanning Speke

... flung; Lever stands it, so does Ainsworth; you, I guess, may hold your tongue. Down our throats you'd cram your projects, thick and hard as pickled salmon, That, I s'pose, you call free trading,—I pronounce it utter gammon. No, my lad, a 'cuter vision than your own might soon have seen, That a true Columbian ogle carries little that is green; That we never will surrender useful privateering rights, Stoutly won at glorious Bunker's Hill, and other famous fights; That we keep our native dollars for our ...
— The Bon Gaultier Ballads • William Edmonstoune Aytoun

... make a pair of asses; and there are as many asses as there are people who try to do police work with bits of paper, signatures, warrants, and other gammon. Police work, my lad, is done with one's fists. When you come upon the enemy, hit him. Otherwise, you stand a chance of hitting the air. With that, good-night. I'm going to bed. Telephone to me when the job ...
— The Teeth of the Tiger • Maurice Leblanc

... real occasion was this: A shoemaker's 'prentice, making holiday with his sweetheart, treated her with a sight of Bedlam, the puppet-shows, the flying-chairs, and all the elegancies of Moorfields; from whence, proceeding to the Farthing Pye-house, he gave her a collation of buns, cheesecakes, gammon of bacon, stuffed beef, and bottled ale; through all which scenes the author dodged them (charmed with the simplicity of their courtship), from whence he drew this little sketch of Nature; but, being then young and obscure, he was very much ridiculed for this performance; which, nevertheless, ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli

... in a surly tone, 'let's have none of that gammon, for it'll be of no use. If folk will meddle in others folk's concerns, they must take the consequences; we're not such fools as to put the rope round our own ...
— Tales for Young and Old • Various

... Jawleyford, pointing to another group. 'I picked that up for a mere nothing—twenty guineas—worth two hundred at least. Lipsalve, the great picture-dealer in Gammon Passage, offered me Murillo's "Adoration of the Virgin and Shepherds," for which he showed me a receipt for a hundred and eighty-five, ...
— Mr. Sponge's Sporting Tour • R. S. Surtees

... twelvemonth and a day Repented not in thought any way, But continued true in thought and desire, As when you join'd hands in the quire. If to these conditions, with all feare, Of your own accord you will freely sweare, A whole gammon of bacon you shall receive, And bear it hence with love and good leave: For this our custom at Dunmow well known— Though the pleasure be ours, the ...
— Myths of the Norsemen - From the Eddas and Sagas • H. A. Guerber

... "Gammon! I tell you what, Eugene, if Claudia really puts her back into it, I wouldn't give much for that ...
— Father Stafford • Anthony Hope

... common Oriental game, something like a rude out-door form of back-gammon, in which the players who throw certain numbers are dubbed Sultan ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne

... great Turk came instead of turkeys, To beg my favour, I am inexorable. Thou never hadst in thy house, to stay men's stomachs, A piece of Suffolk cheese, or gammon of bacon, Or any esculent, as the learned call it, For their emolument, but sheer drink only. For which gross fault, I here do damn thy license, Forbidding thee ever to tap or draw; For instantly, I will, in mine own person, ...
— The Mirror of Taste, and Dramatic Censor, Vol. I, No. 4, April 1810 • Various

... with a short notice of the kingdom of Gyaman, generally written Gaman and too often pronounced 'Gammon.' Its strength and vigour are clearly increasing; it is one of the richest of gold-fields, and it lies directly upon the route to the interior. Of late years it has almost faded from the map, but it is described at full length in the pages of ...
— To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II - A Personal Narrative • Richard Francis Burton and Verney Lovett Cameron

... My parents are all dead, and the devil a penny they have left me, but a small pension, and that buys me thirty meals a-day and ten bevers,—a small trifle to suffice nature. I come [84] of a royal pedigree: my father was a Gammon of Bacon, my mother was a Hogshead of Claret-wine; my godfathers were these, Peter Pickled-herring and Martin Martlemas-beef; but my godmother, O, she was an ancient gentlewoman; her name was Margery March-beer. Now, Faustus, thou hast heard all my progeny; ...
— Dr. Faustus • Christopher Marlowe

... know must be the emperor's palace, and that must be the very gentleman himself, looking out of the window," said Gaspar. "How fortunate that uncle Gammon taught me Chinese!" He bowed and addressed the emperor, who was quite surprised to see such a very small foreign boy on such a very large horse, speaking his language so correctly. He came down to examine the ...
— The Magician's Show Box and Other Stories • Lydia Maria Child

... want to interrupt you, Larry; but you know this is all gammon. These differences exist in all families; but the members rub on together all right. [Suddenly relapsing into portentousness] Of course there are some questions which touch the very foundations of morals; and on these I grant you even ...
— John Bull's Other Island • George Bernard Shaw

... gammon; never saw a man look as though he enjoyed his beef and beer better; no, go do my bidding, and in your effort to keep out Mormonism you will punish your foe ...
— A Heart-Song of To-day • Annie Gregg Savigny

... 'GAMMON!' said HARRY. 'Wait a moment,' said I; 'I shall throw sixes;' and to be sure down came the sixes, striking him on the 'seize' point, and then rebounding to my own, swept every man from the table. The board was put up, ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various

... now, none of your gammon," said Mr Cripps, angrily; "a promise is a promise, and I expect young swells as makes them to keep ...
— The Fifth Form at Saint Dominic's - A School Story • Talbot Baines Reed

... in one narrow place. Well—then he twist himself round, and, with full voice, cry himself out at the another man, who was so angry as himself, "I'll tell you what, my hearty! If you comes some more of your gammon at me, I shan't stand, and you shall yourself find in the wrong box." It was not for many weeks after as I find out the wrong ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 357 - Vol. XIII, No. 357., Saturday, February 21, 1829 • Various

... Australia, indeed, while ghosts are not known to receive any offerings, "the recent custom of providing food for it"—the dead body of a friend—"is derided by the intelligent old aborigines as 'white fellow's gammon'".(1) ...
— Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Vol. 1 • Andrew Lang

... I say, what a lot of gammon they do write in books! I always thought Africa was quite a ...
— Dead Man's Land - Being the Voyage to Zimbambangwe of certain and uncertain • George Manville Fenn

... mass of which gleams a really elegant mirror, set off by a background of decanters, cigar-vases, and jars of brandied fruit; the whole forming a tout ensemble of dazzling splendor. A table covered with a green cloth,—upon which lies a pack of monte-cards, a back-gammon-board, and a sickening pile of "yallow-kivered" literature,—with several uncomfortable-looking benches, complete the furniture of this most important portion of such a place as "The Empire." The remainder of the room does duty as a shop, where velveteen and leather, flannel ...
— The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52 • Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe

... Gammon Seward, aware that intimidation will not do, is going to resort to the gentle powers of seduction."—Washington correspondent of ...
— A Political History of the State of New York, Volumes 1-3 • DeAlva Stanwood Alexander

... in English fiction is such a problem presented as that in the evolution of which these three—with a following so well selected and achieved as Robert Armstrong and Jonathan Eccles and the evil ruffian Sedgett, a type of the bumpkin gone wrong, and Master Gammon, that type of the bumpkin old and obstinate, a sort of human saurian—are dashed together, and ground against each other till the weakest and best of the three is broken to pieces? Mr. Meredith may and does fail conspicuously to interest you in Anthony Hackbut and Algernon Blancove ...
— Views and Reviews - Essays in appreciation • William Ernest Henley

... who would a-wooing go. Hey, oh! says Rowly. Whether his mother would let him or no, With a Rowly Powly Gammon and Spinach, ...
— A History of Nursery Rhymes • Percy B. Green

... "Gammon and spinach!" cried Miss Panney, throwing off the bedclothes as if she were about to spring into the middle of the floor. "I want no teas nor plasters. I have had as much sleep as I care for, and now I am going to get up. So trot downstairs, if you please, and ...
— The Girl at Cobhurst • Frank Richard Stockton

... Scraggs. "I fell into the hands of the Filly-steins oncet, and they put the trail of the serpent all over me. I run into the temple of them twin false gods, Mammon and Gammon, and I stood to draw one suit of sack-cloth and a four-mule wagon-load ...
— Mr. Scraggs • Henry Wallace Phillips

... of ultimate rejection. Captain Reid had primed himself; no sooner was the king on board, and the Hennetti question amicably settled, than he proceeded to express my request and give an abstract of my claims and virtues. The gammon about Queen Victoria's son might do for Butaritari; it was out of the question here; and I now figured as 'one of the Old Men of England,' a person of deep knowledge, come expressly to visit Tembinok's dominion, and ...
— In the South Seas • Robert Louis Stevenson

... so blind, so few of friends, that we cannot each pick out of our social circles Mrs. Gore's Dowager, Mrs. Grey's Flirt, Mrs. Trollope's Widow, and Boz's Mrs. Nickleby? Who can help thinking of his lawyer, when he makes acquaintance with those immortal firms Dodson and Fogg, or Quirk, Snap, and Gammon? Is not Wrexhill libellous, and Dr. Hookwell personal? Arise! avenge them both, ye zealous congregations! Why slumber pistols that, should damage Bulwer? Why are the clasp-knives sheathed, which should have drunk the ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... for my breakfast—I'm partial to a bloater—it's black outside, as if it was done in the cinders; and then inside—well, I like them done all through, like any other man. Then I can't get her to get me gammon rashers. She will get these little tiddy rashers, with little white bones in them. Why, while you're cutting them out the bacon gets cold. You may think I'm fussy ... fiddly with my food. I'm not, really; only I ...
— Nocturne • Frank Swinnerton

... in Piedmont; and having told him I was going thither, he asked me, whether I had a mind to buy any horses; that he had about two hundred to dispose of, and that he would sell them cheap. I began to be smoked like a gammon of bacon; and being quite wearied out, both with their tobacco and their questions, I asked my companion if he would play for a single pistole at backgammon, while our men were supping; it was not without great ceremony that he consented, at the ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... profession, of the heresy of Calvinism. Expelled from the bosom of the church, he sought an uncongenial refuge among the apostles of the new faith, only to be thrust forth from the city, for no more heinous offence apparently than that playing back-gammon with the Prisoner of Chillon. He died ...
— Pastoral Poetry and Pastoral Drama - A Literary Inquiry, with Special Reference to the Pre-Restoration - Stage in England • Walter W. Greg

... "Hum," and "Hoity, Toit! A book is not a building block, a cushion or a quoit. Soil your books and spoil your books? Is that the thing to do? Gammon, sir! and Spinach, sir! And Fiddle-faddle, too!" He blinked so quick, and thumped his stick, then gave me such a stare. ...
— A Book for Kids • C. J. (Clarence Michael James) Dennis

... "What's this play-goin' gammon? You talk like a schoolboy that's fed on jam tarts and novelettes, Sartoris. Let's talk sense. Have you ever heard ...
— The Tale of Timber Town • Alfred Grace

... hang; he was born for a halter. I am come to save my own life. I only said that to gammon him." ...
— The Privateer's-Man - One hundred Years Ago • Frederick Marryat

... was along with me, tried werry Hard to gammon me to bleeve as none of the pullers in the fust boat got nothink for winning, and that none of the pullers in the larst boat paid nothink for loosing! But I wasn't quite such a born fool as to beleeve that ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 1, 1893 • Various

... They thought I couldn't find out what they were up to—the municipal government—but I'm a deep one, and I know every thing that's going for'ard. What a jolly go, to be sure! They told me Mayor Bigelow hated proscription—but I knew it was gammon! He must follow the fashion, and Cochituate is all the go. There ain't no pumps now—it's all fountain! Pump water is full of animalculae, and straddle bugs don't exist in pond water—of course not. Nobody ...
— The Three Brides, Love in a Cottage, and Other Tales • Francis A. Durivage

... life. Thin, gaunt dogs barked and snarled in the narrow staired streets. Came the cry of the donkey-boys. Came the cry of the water-sellers. Came the shouts of the young Syrians over the gammon game. Loped the laden camels. Tramped the French ...
— The Wind Bloweth • Brian Oswald Donn-Byrne

... University is not a university at all, but does grammar and high-school work. It is officered and supported by colored people, all churches of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination subscribing funds for its maintenance. Gammon Theological Seminary is, I am informed, the one adequately endowed educational establishment for negroes in Atlanta. It would, of course, be a splendid thing if the best of these schools and ...
— American Adventures - A Second Trip 'Abroad at home' • Julian Street

... "Gammon!" replied Mr. Moulder, who knew all the bearings of a commercial man thoroughly, and could have put one together if he were only supplied with a little bit—say the mouth, as Professor Owen always does with the ...
— Orley Farm • Anthony Trollope

... first; and then we will see to the rest. My goodness, what a bundle: quackery, ignorance, quarrelsomeness, vainglory; idle questionings, prickly arguments, intricate conceptions; humbug and gammon and wishy-washy hair-splittings without end; and hullo! why here's avarice, and self-indulgence, and impudence! luxury, effeminacy and peevishness!—Yes, I see them all; you need not try to hide them. Away with falsehood ...
— Works, V1 • Lucian of Samosata

... of the Cetacea is the Right whale, of which—so persistently is it hunted down—there will soon be but few Left. Some flippant jokist has remarked that there is no Wrong whale, but this is all Oily Gammon. There is a right and a wrong to everything—not excepting the leviathan of ...
— Punchinello, Vol. 1, No. 19, August 6, 1870 • Various

... dismayed, Or Deborah, the chambermaid, Whose terrors not to be gainsaid In laughs hysteric were displayed, Was always there before them; This had its due effect with some Who straight departed, muttering, Hum! 642 Transparent hoax! and Gammon! But these were few: believing souls, Came, day by day, in larger shoals, As the ancients to the windy holes 'Neath Delphi's tripod brought their doles, Or to the ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... gammon," said another and rougher voice than that of the first speaker: "we know you have more blunt than this,—a paltry sum of fifty ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... to mix spices so well as he who has been where they grow?—I have seen the sun ripening nutmegs and cloves, and here, it can hardly fill a peasecod, by Jupiter. Ah, Tyrrel, the merry nights we have had at Smyrna!—Gad, I think the gammon and the good wine taste all the better in a land where folks hold them to be sinful indulgences—Gad, I believe many a good Moslem is of the same opinion—that same prohibition of their prophet's gives a flavour to the ham, and a ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott

... remark was made by Tuppett to Mr. Runciman who was riding by him. Mr. Runciman replied that there was a great difference in people. "You may say that, Mr. Runciman. It's all changes. His lordship's father couldn't bear the sight of a hound nor a horse and saddle. Well;—I suppose I needn't gammon any furder. We'll just trot across to ...
— The American Senator • Anthony Trollope

... double dealing, insincerity, hypocrisy, cant, humbug; jesuitism, jesuitry; pharisaism; Machiavelism, "organized hypocrisy"; crocodile tears, mealy-mouthedness[obs3], quackery; charlatanism[obs3], charlatanry; gammon; bun-kum[obs3], bumcombe, flam; bam*[obs3], flimflam, cajolery, flattery; Judas kiss; perfidy &c (bad faith) 940; il volto sciolto i pensieri stretti[It]. unfairness &c (dishonesty) 940; artfulness &c (cunning) 702; misstatement &c (error) 495. ...
— Roget's Thesaurus

... He was a good-humoured, cheery-looking man, about fifty years of age, with grizzled hair and sunburnt face, and large whiskers. Nobody would have taken him to be a partner in any of those great houses of which we have read in history,—the Quirk, Gammon and Snaps of the profession, or the Dodson ...
— The Last Chronicle of Barset • Anthony Trollope

... herbs, Father," said Agnes, echoing the smile; "for 'tis a bit of gammon of bacon and spinach, with eggs ...
— It Might Have Been - The Story of the Gunpowder Plot • Emily Sarah Holt

... FROGGIE would a-rowing go, Heigho for Rowing! To see if Big BULLIE could lick him or no; With his boating form that's all gammon and spinach. ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 103, October 15, 1892 • Various

... to make use of him because of his present accounts. Thence to drink with Mr. Shepley and Mr. Pinkny, and so home and among my workmen all day. In the evening Mr. Shepley came to me for some money, and so he and I to the Mitre, and there we had good wine and a gammon of bacon. My uncle Wight, Mr. Talbot, and others were with us, and we were pretty merry. So at night home and to bed. Finding my head grow weak now-a-days if I come to drink wine, and therefore hope that I shall leave it off of myself, which ...
— Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete • Samuel Pepys

... represented. There was ex-Judge Dingley, with his frills and his snuff-box; Mr. Moddison, with his shaggy eyebrows and square jaw; Mr. Brileson, almost as long and thin as his nose; Mr. Eakins, looking as much like Oily Gammon as ever; and, besides the leaders of the bar, any number of the rank and file, especially of the junior members of the profession; and with some of these young gentlemen's elder brothers Mrs. Tarbell had danced, once on a time. ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, November 1885 • Various

... bitterly and brokenly, till Freckle, not entirely sober, shouted, "Good God, is it that gammon-head, Hugenot, who has ruined us? Fetch him out from his ancestry; let me see him, I say! Where is the man who ...
— Bohemian Days - Three American Tales • Geo. Alfred Townsend

... he would a-wooing go, Heigho, says ROWLEY! Whether his Mother would let him or no. With a rowley-powley, gammon and spinach, Heigho, ...
— A Frog He Would A-Wooing Go • Randolph Caldecott

... along with your gammon, counsellor," exclaimed Black Dan, absolutely indignant that his ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville

... stripped of its contents, left open, and deserted. She had not a shilling in the world, and knew not where to look for aid. She was taken back to prison, and remained there for some time, until a person named Gammon, apparently a stranger, happened to hear of her case, and, touched with compassion, raised the money required, and released her. It was long before the affairs of the Jacobs' family were so far retrieved as to enable them to refund the money to the noble-hearted fisherman. How many others lingered ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham

... sort of triangular ring formed on the end of a gammon-plate, for the gammoning lashing or chain to be ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth

... pert man, was the skipper, with a sharp face, an edge to his voice, and two little points of eyes that glowed. Salt water had not drenched his dry cockney speech, and he was a gamin of the sea and as keen to its gammon ways as in boyhood he had been to those of pubs around the old ...
— The Missourian • Eugene P. (Eugene Percy) Lyle

... had L50,000 to leave behind could not be expected to play 'for love;' and so when Mr H—e proposed 'a pound a hit or treble a gammon,' the lawyer not only thought it reasonable, but, conscious of his power in the game, eagerly accepted the terms of playing. They played; but the lawyer was gammoned almost incessantly, till he lost ...
— The Gaming Table: Its Votaries and Victims - Volume II (of II) • Andrew Steinmetz

... mixed shapes; By the flower of fairest grapes; By thy bisks famed far and wide; By thy store of neats'-tongues dried; By thy incense, Indian smoke; By the joys thou dost provoke; By this salt Westphalia gammon; By these sausages that inflame one; By thy tall majestic flagons; By mass, tope, and thy flapdragons; By this olive's unctuous savour; By this orange, the wine's flavour; By this cheese o'errun with mites; By thy dearest favourites; To thy frolic order call us, Knights of the ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... asking them how they liked their new sister, and when it was going to come off, and who'd be bridesmaids and best man, and whether they weren't surprised at their brother Jack's choice; and then I'd gammon at home that it ...
— While the Billy Boils • Henry Lawson

... sir, and it usually takes five regular hands to keep it in repair. But for two weeks a couple of the men have been off on account of illness, while our foreman, Mr. Gammon, has not been on duty half of the time. This left one man, with myself, to look after the road. That, with the rains we have been having, has given us more than we could do as it ought to be done. But Mr. ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XII, Jan. 3, 1891 • Various

... line 49. gammon (O. Fr. gambon, Lat. gamba, 'joint of a leg'), the buttock or thigh of a hog salted and dried; the lower end of ...
— Marmion • Sir Walter Scott

... Irving Cobb, the editor of the World, is, as I have often said, the strongest writer on the New York press since Horace Greeley. But he can hardly be called a sentimentalist, as Greeley was, and there is nothing but sentiment—gush and gammon—in ...
— Marse Henry, Complete - An Autobiography • Henry Watterson

... scenic and character phrasing are memorable, as where the dyspeptic philosopher in "Feverel" is described after dinner as "languidly twinkling stomachic contentment." And what a scene is that where Master Gammon replies to Mrs. Sumfit's anxious query concerning his lingering at table with appetite ...
— Masters of the English Novel - A Study Of Principles And Personalities • Richard Burton

... "That's gammon. When the thing is so equal, anything is fair. But you see they don't like it. Of course there are some among them as hungry as we are; and Dubby would give his toes and fingers to remain in." Dubby was the ordinary name by which, among friends and foes, ...
— Phineas Finn - The Irish Member • Anthony Trollope

... always preaching up capital. It is their star and garter, their coronet, their ermine, their robe of state, their cap of maintenance, their wand of office, their noli me tangere. But stars and garters, caps and wands, and all other noli me tangeres, are gammon to those who can see through them. And capital is gammon. Capital is a very nice thing if you can get it. It is the desirable result of trade. A tradesman looks to end with a capital. But it's ...
— The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson - By One of the Firm • Anthony Trollope

... would a-wooing go, Heigho! said Rowley, Whether his mother would let him or no, With his rowly powly, Gammon and spinnage, O ...
— Charles Dickens and Music • James T. Lightwood

... Snipkins being unwell, sent for a medical man, and declared that she was poisoned, and that Mr. Snipkins did it. "I didn't do it," shouted Snipkins. "It's all gammon; she isn't poisoned. Prove it, doctor—open her on ...
— The Book of Anecdotes and Budget of Fun; • Various

... frog he would a-wooing go; 'Heigh ho!' says Rowley; Whether his mother would let him or no, With a rowly, powly, Gammon and spinach, 'Heigh!' ...
— Notes and Queries, No. 28. Saturday, May 11, 1850 • Various

... "Gammon," said the pilot to himself. "What would he think if we were to show him some specimens of our white niggers in Charleston?" And turning, he walked past Manuel with a suspicious look, and took a position near ...
— Manuel Pereira • F. C. Adams

... "All gammon—all in her eye! No man bigger than a cockroach could have smuggled himself aboard this yacht without my being told. I know my ship, I know my men, I ...
— Alias The Lone Wolf • Louis Joseph Vance

... honor; hollowness; mere show, mere outside; duplicity, double dealing, insincerity, hypocrisy, cant, humbug; jesuitism, jesuitry; pharisaism; Machiavelism, organized hypocrisy; crocodile tears, mealy-mouthedness^, quackery; charlatanism^, charlatanry; gammon; bun-kum^, bumcombe, flam; bam [Slang], flimflam, cajolery, flattery; Judas kiss; perfidy &c (bad faith) 940; il volto sciolto i pensieri stretti [It]. unfairness &c (dishonesty) 940; artfulness &c (cunning) 702; misstatement &c (error) 495. V. be false &c ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... consent. I ask not for wealth. Mine is sufficient for you both.' The cornet protested that the honor was one never contemplated by him—that it was too great—that—. But, of course, reader, you know that 'gammon' flourishes in Peru, amongst the silver mines, as well as in some more boreal lands that produce little better than copper and tin. 'Tin,' however, has its uses. The delighted Senora overruled all objections, great and small; and she confirmed Juana's notion ...
— Narrative And Miscellaneous Papers • Thomas De Quincey

... gammon worked. Half of them, at least, saw Tilly disappear in the air. They'd drunk my whiskey at Juneau and seen stranger sights, I'll warrant. Why should I not do this thing, I, who sold bad spirits corked in bottles? Some of the women shrieked. Everybody fell to whispering in ...
— The God of His Fathers • Jack London

... not gammon. What it comes to in practice is this. The phagocytes wont eat the microbes unless the microbes are nicely buttered for them. Well, the patient manufactures the butter for himself all right; but my discovery ...
— The Doctor's Dilemma • George Bernard Shaw

... cried, "it's us must break the treaty when the time comes; and till then I'll gammon that doctor, if I have to ile ...
— Treasure Island • Robert Louis Stevenson

... manufactured puns and jokes to amuse his saturnine brother. When the dessert was removed he read the newspapers to the old Squire, until he dosed in his easy chair; and when the sleepy fit was over, he played with him at cribbage or back-gammon, until the ...
— Mark Hurdlestone - Or, The Two Brothers • Susanna Moodie

... Let all their gammon be resisted; Vithout you vishes to get twisted! [16] And never nose upon yourself— [17] You then are sure to keep ...
— Musa Pedestris - Three Centuries of Canting Songs - and Slang Rhymes [1536 - 1896] • John S. Farmer

... say they mane, an' the divil himself wouldn't tur-r-n thim. Ah, but they're a har-r-d-timpered breed, ivery mother's son o' them. Ye can comether (gammon) a Roscommon man, but a Bilfast man, whillaloo!" He stopped in sheer despair of finding words to express the futility of attempting to take in a Belfast man. "An' whin ye ax thim for taxes, an' they say they won't pay—ye might ...
— Ireland as It Is - And as It Would be Under Home Rule • Robert John Buckley (AKA R.J.B.)

... of his lengthy article he gave "the Chesterbelloc"—"a very amusing pantomime elephant"—several shrewd digs in the ribs. It claimed, according to G.B.S., to be the Zeitgeist. "To which we reply, bluntly, but conclusively, 'Gammon!'" The rest was mostly amiable personalities. Mr. Shaw owned up to musical cravings, compared with which the Chesterbelloc tendency to consume alcohol was as nothing. He also jeered very pleasantly at Mr. Belloc's power to cause a stampede of Chesterton's political and religious ...
— G. K. Chesterton, A Critical Study • Julius West

... Put in ever Comes out of the Cracks. Sometimes you will see a small Trifle peep its Nose out on a Billiard Table, now & then the four knaves will tempt a Small Parcell to walk on the Table, & I believe Black Gammon, Shuffle Board, horse Racing, & that Noble Game of Roleing two Bullets on the Sandy Ground Where if there Should be y^e Least Breath air it would Blind you all those would help a little of it to Move & if I added Whoreing and Drinking they would Not Deny ...
— Log-book of Timothy Boardman • Samuel W Boardman

... from his predecessor; but he also appears to have made some improvements in the science. We have here the methods, to dress pikes a la sauce Robert, to make blackcaps (apples baked in their skins); to make a Wood Street cake; to make Shrewsbury cakes; to dress a leg of mutton like a gammon of bacon; to dress eggs a la Augemotte; to make a dish of quaking pudding of several colours; to make an Italian pudding, and to make an Olio. The eye seems to meet for the first time with hasty pudding, ...
— Old Cookery Books and Ancient Cuisine • William Carew Hazlitt

... his sister-in-law of the trouble of carving the gammon of bacon which accompanied the veal which her husband was helping, Dr. Woodford informed her of her ...
— A Reputed Changeling • Charlotte M. Yonge

... told about the Land of Morn Above this world of Mammon, He'd shout, with an emphatic scorn, "Ah, gammon, ...
— The Poems of Henry Kendall • Henry Kendall

... a party to look for them. It was, of course, impossible to identify any blackfellow concerned in the outrage, and therefore atonement must be made by the tribe. The blacks were found encamped near a waterhole at Gammon Creek, and those who were shot were thrown into it, to the number, it was said, of about sixty, men, women, and children; but this was probably an exaggeration. At any rate, the black who capered about to attract young Macalister's attention escaped, and he often afterwards described ...
— The Book of the Bush • George Dunderdale

... fortnight at Marshlands was not wasted. Lance had faculties for never being dull. He pottered about with Mr. or Mrs. Froggatt, fed their chickens, gathered their apples and nuts, petted their cats, tried to teach words to their parrot and tricks to their dogs, played cribbage and back-gammon with them in the evening, never had a headache, never was at a loss or upon their hands, gained their hearts completely, and came home wonderfully benefited by the respite from noise and harass, and quite decided to stand ...
— The Pillars of the House, V1 • Charlotte M. Yonge

... highway. Starlight was to stay another day at Barnes's, keeping very quiet, and making believe, if any one came, to be a gentleman from Port Phillip that wasn't very well. He'd come in and see the horses sold, but gammon to be a stranger, and never ...
— Robbery Under Arms • Thomas Alexander Browne, AKA Rolf Boldrewood

... whisky, he luckily fell in with a shepherd, who led him on to a public-house somewhere near Exeford. And here he was so unmanned, the excitement being over, that nothing less than a gallon of ale and half a gammon of bacon, brought him to his right mind again. And he took good care to be home before dark, having followed a ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore

... I? Well, Pitt, are you a sporting man? Do you want to see a dawg as CAN kill a rat? If you do, come down with me to Tom Corduroy's, in Castle Street Mews, and I'll show you such a bull-terrier as—Pooh! gammon," cried James, bursting out laughing at his own absurdity—"YOU don't care about a dawg or rat; it's all nonsense. I'm blest if I think you know the difference between a dog and ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray

... "Gammon," said Kitwater. "There isn't a Chinaman within fifty miles of the ruins. You are unduly excited. You'll be seeing a regiment of Scots Guards presently if you ...
— My Strangest Case • Guy Boothby

... tell you!" roared Rockamore. "Whoever stuffed you with such idiotic rot as that is making gammon of you! That conversation is a chimera of some disordered mind, if it isn't merely part of a deliberate conspiracy of yours against me! You'll suffer for this, my man! I'll break you if it is the last act of my life! Such a conference ...
— The Crevice • William John Burns and Isabel Ostrander

... "Gammon!" said Jauncy. "That isn't it, Tweddle; don't try and humbug me. You were ready enough to go just now. You've a better reason ...
— The Tinted Venus - A Farcical Romance • F. Anstey

... "Oh, gammon! Why not tell me at once that you are a winkle stall-keeper and be done with it? You can't tell a fish that another fish is a turnip—at least you can't and expect him to believe it. Own up, old chap. I ...
— Cleek: the Man of the Forty Faces • Thomas W. Hanshew

... God and Mammon, Who, binding up his Bible with his ledger, Blends Gospel texts with trading gammon, A black-leg saint, a spiritual hedger, Who backs his rigid Sabbath, so to speak, Against the wicked remnant of the week, A saving bet against, his sinful bias— "Rogue that I am," he whispers to himself, "I lie—I cheat—do any thing for pelf, But who on earth ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton

... took the silver piece and rung it on his tin tobacco-box, then stowed it inside, and said, "Gammon! What ...
— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... anything spiritual or material with these machines made in Connecticut. I took them out and laid them on the table. One of them suddenly disappeared! I did not like that, still my nerves were firm, for I knew it was all gammon. I took the other pistol in my hand and surveyed the room. Nobody was there; and, finally half suspicious that I had gone to sleep and had a dream, I woke up with a grasp on my hand which was holding the other pistol. This soon ...
— The Humbugs of the World • P. T. Barnum

... passed through a ring at the top of the stern, and this ring is termed the gammon iron. Its end is secured in a socket or between a pair of uprights called the bowsprit bits. These are fixed to the deck. Metal bars are fixed a short distance above the deck to take rings attached to the sheets. This is done so that the sails may swing freely from one side ...
— Boys' Book of Model Boats • Raymond Francis Yates

... sure it was all gammon, and told us stories of men who'd sacrificed everything and joined a stampede, and got sold—sold badly. But the two crazy whites with him—miners from Dakotah—they were on fire about Minook. Kept on bragging they hadn't cold feet, and swore they'd ...
— The Magnetic North • Elizabeth Robins (C. E. Raimond)

... and it's all up. Nothing but unbuilding the whole place would free the locks after that. And it would be a mighty smart firm that could unbuild this place inside a fortnight. No!' he said again. 'No gammon with the clock—unless we ...
— Hugo - A Fantasia on Modern Themes • Arnold Bennett

... gammon. She don't mean to have him, Mr. Newton. You may take my word for that. You go in and ask her if she do. A pretty thing indeed! I can't invite my friend, Mr. Newton, to eat a bit of dinner, and let him walk out with my Polly, but you ...
— Ralph the Heir • Anthony Trollope

... leave his roost. Then beware! little fishes and lizards—those red eyes are glowing for you! That long spear-shaped beak is ready to stab you to death! Froggy 'who would a-wooing go,' return quickly to your mother, without making any impertinent remarks about 'gammon and spinach' on the way, or something much more savage than the 'lily-while duck' will surely gobble you up! Stay in doors patiently, until sunrise sends the rough-clawed prowler back to his ...
— Citizen Bird • Mabel Osgood Wright and Elliott Coues

... goes on now," said Mercer spitefully. "It was all gammon, and he never meant to teach us, and we shan't be able to serve those two out. ...
— Burr Junior • G. Manville Fenn

... their Country fashion, indeavour to receive you with all civilities and kind entertainment. If, with their Hay-cart, you have a mind to go and look upon the Land, and to be a participator of those sort of pleasures; or to eat some new Curds, Cream, Gammon of Bacon, and ripe Fruits, all these things; in place of mony, shall be willingly and neatly ...
— The Ten Pleasures of Marriage and The Confession of the New-married Couple (1682) • A. Marsh

... "Gammon!" said Reginald. "You might as well say a fox is the son of a gander. Come now; I am not going to let you cut my throat with your tongue. Sign at once, or else come to her this moment and tell ...
— A Terrible Temptation - A Story of To-Day • Charles Reade

... has just called me into her sitting-room, ostensibly to ask me to order breakfast, but really for the pleasure of conversation. Why she should inquire whether I would relish some gammon of bacon with eggs, when she knows that there has not been, is not now, and never will be, anything but gammon of bacon with eggs, is more ...
— The Diary of a Goose Girl • Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

... I do understand you; and I say it is gammon. I would be the last man in the world to ridicule your scruples about duty, if this hesitation on your part arose from any such scruple. But answer me honestly, do you not know that such is not ...
— Framley Parsonage • Anthony Trollope

... share the guilt Of Christian Blood, devoutly spilt; For so our ignorance was flamm'd To damn ourselves, t' avoid being damn'd; 1060 Till finding your old foe, the hangman, Was like to lurch you at back-gammon And win your necks upon the set, As well as ours, who did but bet, (For he had drawn your ears before, 1065 And nick'd them on the self-same score,) We threw the box and dice away, Before y' had lost us, at ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler

... have cooled. Walks upon the sea-shore are uncommonly dull without something like reciprocal sentimentality. The odds are, that the old aunt is addicted to snuff, tracts, and the distribution of flannel, and before August, the fair Dorothea will be yearning for a sight of her adorer. You can easily gammon Anthony Whaup into a loan of that yacht of his which he makes such a boast of; and if you go prudently about it, and flatter him on the score of his steering, I haven't the least doubt that he will victual his hooker and give you a cruise ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, No. 382, October 1847 • Various

... day, Repented not in thought, any way, But continued true, and in desire, As when you join'd hands in holy quire. If to these conditions, without all fear, Of your own accord you will freely swear, A gammon of bacon you shall receive, And beare it hence with love and good leave, For this is our custom at Dunmow well known, Though the sport be ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. XIX. No. 540, Saturday, March 31, 1832 • Various

... has gone away from here, and has entrusted to me the most important concern of catering. Immortal Gods! how I shall now be slicing necks off of sides; how vast a downfall will befall the gammon [1]; how vast a belabouring the bacon! How great a using-up of udders, how vast a bewailing for the brawn! How great a bestirring for the butchers, how great a preparation for the porksellers! But if I were to enumerate the rest of the things which minister to the supply of the stomach, 'twould ...
— The Captiva and The Mostellaria • Plautus

... knows of, I am rather startled by "Rowley Powley" not being as old as myself. I remember seeing mentioned somewhere, without any reference to this chorus, that rowley powley is a name for a plump fowl, of which both "gammon and spinach" are posthumous connexions. I cannot help thinking that this may be a clue to some prior occurrence of the chorus, with or without {75} the song. If "derry down," which has been said to be druidical, were judged of by the last song it went with, ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 35, June 29, 1850 • Various

... trick or two to gammon a bumpkin; I am not a bad hand at hiding what a pal has prigged; I have a good eye for a gudgeon; I play well at most games of cards, and have all the best turns of the pasteboard at my finger ends; ...
— The Exemplary Novels of Cervantes • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... return. Nor was the Wager the only ship in the squadron that suffered in this tempest; for next day, a signal of distress was made by the Anna pink, and on speaking her, we found she had broken her fore-stay and the gammon of her boltsprit, and was in no small danger of all her masts coming by the board; so that the whole squadron had to bear away to leeward till she made all fast, after which we again ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 11 • Robert Kerr

... Potage for dinner is thus made: Boil Beef, Mutton, Veal, Volaille, and a little piece of the Lean of a Gammon of the best Bacon, with some quartered Onions, (and a little Garlick, if you like it) you need no salt, if you have Bacon, but put in a little Pepper and Cloves. If it be in the Winter, put in a Bouquet of Sweet-herbs, ...
— The Closet of Sir Kenelm Digby Knight Opened • Kenelm Digby

... certain fascination: Parnell. Arthur Griffith is a squareheaded fellow but he has no go in him for the mob. Or gas about our lovely land. Gammon and spinach. Dublin Bakery Company's tearoom. Debating societies. That republicanism is the best form of government. That the language question should take precedence of the economic question. Have your daughters inveigling them to your house. Stuff them up with meat and drink. Michaelmas ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce

... a matter of indifference to me," said Marcel. "So far as fruits are concerned, I prefer that piece of beef, that ham, or that simple gammon of bacon, cuirassed with jelly as ...
— Bohemians of the Latin Quarter • Henry Murger

... pig souc't with tongues. 4 Three ducks, one larded. 5 Three pheasants, 1 larded 6 A Swan Pye. 7 Three brace of partridge, three larded. 8 Made dish in puff paste. 9 Bolonia sausages, and anchoves, mushrooms, and Cavieate, and pickled oysters in a dish. 10 Six teels, three larded. 11 A Gammon of Westphalia Bacon. 12 Ten plovers, five larded. 13 A quince pye, or warden pie. 14 Six woodcocks, 3 larded. 15 A standing Tart in puff-paste, preserved fruits, Pippins, &c. 16 A dish of Larks. 17 Six dried neats tongues. 18 ...
— The accomplisht cook - or, The art & mystery of cookery • Robert May

... Bill Gammon found Pete curled up by the stove. He took him out of doors and explained the business in hand. Bill prided himself somewhat on his ability to "git work out of Injuns." Pete muttered only "all right." He took the money Bill gave him, and then slunk ...
— A Budget of Christmas Tales by Charles Dickens and Others • Various



Words linked to "Gammon" :   bacon, prosciutto, Virginia ham, cut of pork



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