subs. (old).—1. Originally applied to every requisite for soldiers’ use, as AMMUNITION bread, shoes, hat, etc.: now only of powder, shot, shell, and the like. Whence colloquialisms such as AMMUNITION FACE = a warlike face; AMMUNITION WIFE (or whore) = a soldier’s trull (GROSE); AMMUNITION LEG = a wooden leg, etc.
d. 1658. CLEVELAND, Cleivelandi Vindiciæ (ed. 1677), 74. So much for his Warlike or AMMUNITION-FACE.
1663. BUTLER, Hudibras, I. i. 314.
| Link’d with many a piece | |
| Of AMMUNITION BREAD AND CHEESE. |
1693. W. ROBERTSON, Phraseologia Generalis, 1320. An AMMUNITION WHORE, scortum castrense.
1717. PRIOR, Alma, iii. 215.
| That great Achilles might employ | |
| The strength designed to ruin Troy, | |
| He dined on lion’s marrow, spread | |
| On toasts of AMMUNITION-BREAD. |
1766. SMOLLETT, Travels, v. The king … allows them soldiers’pay, that is, five sols or twopence halfpenny a day; or rather, three sols and AMMUNITION BREAD.
1827. BULWER-LYTTON, Pelham, vii. The one milliner’s shop was full of fat squiresses, buying MUSLIN-AMMUNITION.
2. (common).—BUM-FODDER.
3. (venery).—The seminal fluid: see CREAM.
d. 1704. T. BROWN, Upon a Ladies being disappointed by a Young Scotch Lord, in Works, i. 84.
| The lavish Hero fir’d too fast … | |
| So vain was his ambition, | |
| That when three poor attacks were past, | |
| He wanted AMMUNITION. |
MOUTH-AMMUNITION, subs. phr. (old).—Food: cf. BELLY-TIMBER.
1694. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, V. vii. If you would consume the MOUTH-AMMUNITION of this island, you must rise betimes.
