subs. (colloquial).—1. Generic for magnitude (that is, something worth looking at): thus a SIGHT of people = a multitude; a SIGHT of work = untiring industry or ‘enough and to spare’; a SIGHT of money = a large amount (BEE). Hence, OUT OF SIGHT = unrivaled, beyond comparison; A SMART (PRETTY, PRECIOUS, POWERFUL, &c.) SIGHT = a great deal; A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES = something to please: also in sarcasm.
1393. GOWER, Confessio Amantis (PAULI, I. 121). A wonder SIGHT of flowers.
1440–50. Plumpton Papers [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 268. There are the nouns karving knyves; a SIGHT (number) OF PEOPLE …].
c. 14[?]. [G. P. MARSH, Lectures on the English Language, First Series, viii. Juliana Berners, lady prioress of the nunnery of Sopwell in the fifteenth century, informs us that in her time a bomynable SYGHT of monkes was elegant English for ‘a large company of friars.’]
1534. TYNDALE, Bible, Heb. xii. 22. Ye are come vnto the Mounte Sion … and to an innumerable SIGHT of angels.
1540. PALSGRAVE, trans. The Comedye of Acolastus. Where is so great a strength of money. i. where is so huge a SYGHT of mony?
1843. B. R. HALL (‘Robert Carlton’) The New Purchase, II. 74. Yes, Mr. Speaker,… I’d a powerful SIGHT sooner go into retiracy among the red, wild, Abor’rejines of our wooden country, nor consent to that bill.
1857. T. HUGHES, Tom Brown’s School-days, II. vii. It’s a precious SIGHT harder than I thought.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, iii. 222. This ’ere Dartmoor is a BLESSED SIGHT better than Chatham, I can tell you.
1888. Owosso (Mich.) Press, April. Doctor, I’m a dead man!… NOT BY A BLANKETY BLANK BLANK SIGHT.
1893. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, 14, ‘On ’Igh Life.’ That beats any sermon a SIGHT.
1889. R. MARSH, The Crime and the Criminal, xxiii. He was A SIGHT FOR SORE EYES.… I like to see a man that is a man.
2. (colloquial).—An opportunity; a chance; a SHOW (q.v.). TO GET WITHIN SIGHT = to near the end.
3. (colloquial).—An oddity; a scarecrow: also contemptuously, ‘Her new jacket was a perfect SIGHT,’ or ‘You’ve made yourself a regular SIGHT’ = ‘Not fit to be seen.’
1694. PENN, The Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers, ii. It was not very easy to our primitive friends to make themselves SIGHTS and spectacles, and the scorn and derision of the world.
4. (American).—As far as can be seen at one time, as the reach of a river, or a bend in a road: thus, in directing a person, ‘Go three SIGHTS on, and take,’ &c. Also A LOOK.
5. (common).—A gesture of derision: the thumb on the nose-tip and the fingers spread fan-wise: also QUEEN ANNE’S FAN. A double sight is made by joining the tip of the little finger (already in position) to the thumb of the other hand, the fingers being similarly extended. Emphasis is given by moving the fingers of both hands as if playing a piano. Similar actions are TAKING A GRINDER (q.v.) or WORKING THE COFFEE-MILL (q.v.); PULLING BACON (q.v.); MAKING A NOSE (or LONG NOSE); COCKING SNOOKS, &c.
1702. The English Theophrastus, ‘Frontispiece.’ [Truth stripping a fine lady of her false decorations, with one hand removes a painted mask, and with the other pulls away her “borrowed” hair and head-dress, showing an ugly face, and a head as round and smooth as a bullet. Below there are four little satyrs, one of whom is taking a single sight, or making “a nose” at the lady; whilst a second is taking a DOUBLE SIGHT, or “long nose,” towards the spectator.—Notes and Queries, 5 S., iii. 298.]
1712. The Spectator, No. 354, 16 April. The ’prentice speaks his disrespect by an extended finger, and the porter by stealing out his tongue.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Nell Cook.’ But he puts his thumb unto his nose, and spread his fingers out!
1840. DICKENS, The Old Curiosity Shop, xxxviii. Even Mr. Chuckster would sometimes condescend to give him a slight nod, or to honour him with that peculiar form of recognition which is called ‘TAKING A SIGHT.’
1871. Morning Advertiser, 11 Sept. The fame of mighty Nelson shall not with his compare, Who … thrusts his tongue into his cheek, and TAKES A SIGHT at Death.
1875. Notes and Queries, 5 S., iii. 298. TAKING A SIGHT.—Pictorial illustrations of this gesture prior to the time of the Georges, are, I believe, not very common.
1886. Household Words, 2 Oct. 453. [This] peculiar action has, I believe, almost invariably been described as TAKING A SIGHT. A solicitor, however, in a recent police case at Manchester, described it as pulling bacon.
TO PUT OUT OF SIGHT, verb. phr. (common).—To eat; to consume.
