Dick

subs. (common).—1.  A dictionary; a RICHARD (q.v.); also, by implication, fine language or long words.—See SWALLOW THE DICK.

  1860.  HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Season Ticket, No. xii. ‘Ah, now you are talking “DIC,” exclaimed Peabody, ‘and I can’t follow you. When I talk’—— ‘You use the vulgar tongue,’ retorted the Senator.

  2.  (coachman’s).—A riding whip.

  3.  (military).—The penis. For synonyms, see CREAMSTICK and PRICK.

  4.  (common).—An affidavit.

  1861.  DUTTON COOK, Paul Foster’s Daughter, ch. xxvi. No. I’d take my dying DICK he hasn’t got a writ in his pocket, or he couldn’t move along so easy as that.

  5.  (American).—An Irish Catholic.—See CRAWTHUMPER.

  Verb (thieves’).—To look; to PIPE (q.v.); e.g., the bulky’s DICKING = the policeman is watching you. [From the gypsy dikk.] Fr., gaffer. For synonyms, see PIPE.

  DICK IN THE GREEN, phr. (thieves’).—Weak; inferior. Cf., DICKY.

  1812.  J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, s.v.

  IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN DICK, adv. phr. (common).—Never; ‘when two Sundays come in a week.’ For synonyms, see GREEK KALENDS.

  1811.  GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v.

  1864.  Standard, 13 Dec., Review of Slang Dictionary. Moreover … a few days since, a ’bus driver in altercation with his conductor, who threatened him with paying off soon, replied, ‘Oh yes, IN THE REIGN OF QUEEN DICK,’ which, on inquiry we found to be synonymous with ‘Never,’ or ‘Tib’s eve.’

  TO SWALLOW THE DICK, verb. phr. (common).—To use long words without knowledge of their meaning; TO HIGH FALUTE (American).

  UP TO DICK, adv. phr. (common).—Not to be ‘taken in’; ‘artful’; ‘fly’; wide-awake. For synonyms, see DOWNY. Also = up to the mark, i.e., perfectly satisfactory.

  1877.  GREENWOOD, Under the Blue Blanket. ‘Ain’t that UP TO DICK, my biffin?’ ‘I never said it warn’t.’

  1887.  Walford’s Antiquarian, April, p. 251.