subs. (common).—1. A red herring; and (2) a boiled lobster (GROSE and BEE).
Verb. (Australian).—1. ‘To make temporary use of (another man’s horse). Thus a man wanting a mount catches the first horse he can, rides it to his destination, and then lets it go’ (Century).
2. (old).—To bully; to hector (HALLIWELL).
3. (military).—To do routine work, as cleaning accoutrements, fatigue duty, anything irksome in a soldier’s life.
PHRASES and COMBINATIONS.—SOLDIER’S-BOTTLE (B. E. and GROSE) = a large bottle; SOLDIER’S-MAWND = (1) ‘a counterfeit Sore or Wound in the left Arm’ (B. E.), and (2) ‘a pretended soldier, begging with a counterfeit wound, which he pretends to have received at some famous siege or battle’ (GROSE); SOLDIER’S JOY = masturbation; SOLDIER’S POMATUM = a piece of tallow (GROSE); SOLDIER’S THIGH = an empty pocket; A SOLDIER’S WIND = a fair wind either way, consequently (C. RUSSELL) ‘a beam wind’; OLD SOLDIER = (1) an empty bottle: cf. MARINE, and (2) see OLD SOLDIER. See COME and FRESHWATER SOLDIER.
1855. C. KINGSLEY, Westward Ho! xix. The breeze blowing dead off the land was ‘a SOLDIER’S WIND there and back again,’ for either ship.
