subs. (common).—1. A fast, showy horse; a beast that looks FIGGED (q.v.).
1859. Notes and Queries, 17 Dec., p. 493. A GINGER is a showy fast horse.
2. (common).—A red-haired person; CARROTS (q.v.). [Whence the phrase (venery) ‘Black for beauty, GINGER for pluck.’]
1885. D. TENNANT, in The English Illustrated Magazine, June, p. 605, ‘The London Ragamuffin.’ The policemen are well known to the boys, and appropriately nicknamed by them. There is ‘Jumbo,’ too stout to run; ‘GINGER,’ the red-haired.
1888. The World, 13 May. You will remark that your spinal column is requiring a hinge, and that considerable GINGER is departing from your resolution to bear up and enjoy yourself.
1890. A. C. GUNTER, Miss Nobody of Nowhere, p. 124. If father objects send him to me; I’ll take the GINGER out of him in short order!
1892. R. L. STEVENSON and L. OSBOURNE, The Wrecker, p. 207. Give her GINGER, boys.
Adj. (common).—Red-haired; FOXY (q.v.); JUDAS-HAIRED (q.v.). Also GINGER-PATED, GINGER-HACKLED, and GINGERY.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Red-haired; a term borrowed from the cock-pit, where red cocks are called GINGERS.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard, ch. xii. Somebody may be on the watch—perhaps that old GINGER-HACKLED Jew.
1852. DICKENS, Bleak House, ch. xix., p. 160. The very learned gentleman who has cooled the natural heat of his GINGERY complexion in pools and fountains of law, until he has become great in knotty arguments for term-time.
1878. M. E. BRADDON, The Cloven Foot, ch. iv. The landlady was a lean-looking widow, with a false front of GINGERY curls.
