subs. (general).—1. A familiar and jesting form of address. An equivalent of ‘governor,’ ‘boss,’ etc. Very common in U.S.A., where also it signifies the conductor or guard of a train—an analogy being drawn between the phraseology of rail and water traffic (see quot. 1862).
1598. SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry IV., ii. 4. Doll Tearsheet. A CAPTAIN! God’s light, these villains will make the word as odious as the word ‘occupy.’
1862. W. H. RUSSELL, My Diary, North and South, I., xiii., 139. All the people who addressed me prefixed my name … by ‘Major’ or ‘Colonel’—‘CAPTAIN’ is very low…. The conductor who took our tickets was called ‘CAPTAIN.’ [M.]
2. (old).—A gaming or bawdy house bully. Cf., Fielding’s Captain Bilkum in The Covent Garden Tragedy. Fr. un major de table d’hôte.
1731. Daily Journal, Jan. 9. ‘List of the officers established in the most notorious gaming-houses.’ 12th. A CAPTAIN, who is to fight any gentleman who is peevish for losing his money.
1748. T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). CAPTAIN (s.) … and in the Cant Phrase, a CAPTAIN is a bully, who is to quarrel or fight with peevish gamesters, who are testy or quarrelsome at the loss of their money; and sometimes it signifies money itself, as, ‘the CAPTAIN is not at home,’ that is, there is no money in my pocket.
[CAPTAIN is also a fancy title for a highwayman in a good way of business; Fletcher uses the term COPPER-CAPTAIN, as also does Washington Irving, for one who has no right to the title, and, in modern athletics, we have the CAPTAIN of a club or crew, with the corresponding verb TO CAPTAIN.]
3. (old).—Money.—See preceding quot. [1748].
4. (knackers’).—A glandered (horse).
