Nut

subs. (common).—1.  The head. [Hence, as in quots. 1888 and 1889 = intelligence, brains.] See CRUMPET.

  1858.  A. MAYHEW, Paved with Gold, II. xii. The first round was soon terminated, for Jack got a cracker on his NUT.

  1860.  Chambers’s Journal, xiii. 348. He has no longer a head, but a NUT: his hair is ‘wool.’

  1879.  Macmillan’s Magazine, xl. 501. He rammed my NUT against the wall.

  1888.  J. RUNCIMAN, The Chequers, 106. It’s Tom Tiddler’s ground if you’ve got a NUT on you.

  1889.  The Sporting Times, 3 Aug., 1, 2. They gave Gladstone a portico on his golden wedding day. A few tiles to repair deficiencies in the old ’un’s NUT would have been better while they were at building materials.

  1892.  T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Voces Populi, ‘In the Mall on Drawing-Room Day,’ 82. Look at the diamonds all over ’er bloomin’ old NUT.

  1892.  KIPLING, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘Gunga Din.’

  2.  (common).—The core of fat in a leg of mutton; the POPE’S-EYE (q.v.).

  1611.  COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Nuguette de Mouton, The NUT of a leg of mutton.

  3.  (provincial).—A harum-scarum ass.

  4.  In pl. (venery).—The testes: see CODS.

  5.  In pl. (common).—Small round coals.

  6.  in pl. (common).—A delightful practice or experience.

  1678.  COTTON, Scarronides, p. 15. It will be NUTS, if my case this is, Both Atrides and Ulysses.

  1712.  SWIFT, The Journal to Stella, Jan. 8, xxxviii. Lord Keeper and Treasurer teased me for a week. It was NUTS to them.

  1744.  R. NORTH, The Life of Lord Guilford, i. 37 [2nd ed. 1808]. This was NUTS to the old Lord, who thought he had outwitted Frank.

  1785.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. NUTS. It was NUTS for them, i.e., it was very agreeable to them.

  1805.  LAMB, Letter, in Wks. (1852), v. 72. But ’tis NUTS to the adept.

  1840.  R. H. DANA, Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, xxv. He … found them waiting on the beach, and a little afraid about going off, as the surf was running very high. This was NUTS to us; for we liked to have a Spaniard wet with salt water.

  1843.  DICKENS, A Christmas Carol. To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all human sympathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing ones call ‘NUTS’ to Scrooge.

  1884.  HAWLEY SMART, From Post to Finish, 223. Yes, it was NUTS to me to find I had just done Phaeton, and hit my black-blooded cousin in his only vulnerable spot—the pocket. But why should Cuthbert detest me.

  1887.  W. E. HENLEY, Culture in the Slums, ‘Ballade,’ iii. The Grosvenor’s NUTS—it is, indeed.

  1893.  MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 4. It’s NUTS to ’ook on to a swell.

  7.  In pl. (stock exchange).—Barcelona Tramway Shares.

  8.  (common).—a drink; a GO (q.v.): see DRINKS.

  Verb. (old).—1.  To fondle; to ogle; to SPOON (q.v.).—VAUX (1819).

  1820.  London Magazine, i. 26. Always NUTTING each other.

  1823.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [EGAN], s.v. NUTS. The cove’s NUTTING the blowen; the man is trying to please the girl.

  2.  (pugilists’).—To strike on the head.

  TO BE NUTS (or DEAD NUTS) ON, verb. phr. (common).—1.  See quot. 1819.

  1819.  J. H. VAUX, Memoirs, s.v. NUTS UPON IT, to be very much pleased or gratified with any object, adventure, or overture; so a person who conceives a strong inclination for another of the opposite sex, is said to be quite NUTTY, or NUTS UPON him or her.

  1823.  GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue [EGAN], s.v. NUTS. She’s NUTS UPON her cull; she’s pleased with her cully.

  1853.  Diogenes, ii. 30. It’s rich nutty flavour I’m NUTS ON no more.

  1860.  Punch’s Book of British Costumes, xxxviii. p. 219. Or cowls, but left their heads with nothing but their hair to cover them. The fact was that the dandies were so NUTS UPON their ‘nuts’ that they did not like to hide their fair (or dark) proportions.

  1873.  W. BLACK, A Princess of Thule, xi. My aunt is awful NUTS ON Marcus Aurelius; I beg your pardon, you don’t know the phrase; my aunt makes Marcus Aurelius her Bible.

  1882.  Punch, LXXXII. 177. I am NUTS UPON Criminal Cases, Perlice News, you know, and all that.

  1893.  MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 10. I’m not NUTS on Bohea.

  2.  (common).—To be very skilful or dexterous.

  3.  (common).—To be particular; to detest.

  1890.  Punch, 22 Feb. He’s NUTS on Henery George.

  TO CRACK A NUT (old Scots’).—See quot.

  1889.  Notes and Queries, 7 S. viii. 437. In country gentlemen’s houses [in Scotland] in the olden time, when a fresh guest arrived he was met by the laird, who made him CRACK A NUT—that is, drink a silver-mounted cocoa-nut shell full of claret.

  THE NUT, subs. phr. (nautical).—See quot.

  1891.  Daily Telegraph, 27 March. Other notes and time-honoured hostelries of Portsmouth town are affectionately commemorated, if not by absolute reproduction, by borrowing their signs. Thus, in one corner, may be discovered the KEPPEL’S HEAD, known to all her Majesty’s navy as the NUT, but perhaps hardly to be recognised in its Chelsea guise—a temperance café.

  A NUT TO CRACK, phr. (colloquial).—A problem to solve; a puzzle to explain; a difficulty to overcome.

  1843.  LONGFELLOW, The Spanish Student.

  1849.  BULWER-LYTTON, The Caxtons, I. i. To others this NUT of such a character was hard TO CRACK.

  1897.  Daily Mail, 26 Oct., 4, 3. The information gained by the recent gun-boat reconnaissance up river … shows that this position will be a hard NUT TO CRACK.

  OFF ONE’S NUT, phr. (common).—1.  Crazy.

  1876.  G. R. SIMS, Dagonet Ballads (‘Polly’). Or to go OFF THEIR NUTS about ladies as dies for young fellers as fights.

  2.  (common).—Drunk; in liquor: see DRINKS and SCREWED.