1866. Mansfield, School Life at Winchester, 223. Ostiarius—An office held by the Præfects in succession. The duties were, to keep order in school, collect the Vulguses, and prevent the boys from shirking out. It is also the official title for the Second Master.
1878. Adams, Wykehamica, xxiii. 429. Ostiarius, the Præfect in charge of school.
Ostler, subs. (old).—1. An oat-stealer;
and (2) in America, a
horse-thief.—Matsell (1859).
Otter, subs. (common).—A sailor.
Adj. (costermongers').—Eight. [It. otta]. Also otto.
1893. Emerson, Signor Lippo, xiv. I'll take otto soldi, that's due soldi for baking and six soldi for navs.
Ottomy, subs. (old).—A skeleton;
a bag of bones (q.v.); an atomy
(q.v.). Ottomised = anatomised.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (Conv. i). Lady Answ. Why, my lord, she was handsome in her time; but she can't eat her cake and have her cake. I hear she grown a meer otomy.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Ottomy. You'll be scragged, ottomised, and grin in a glass case, You'll be hanged, anatomised, and your skeleton kept in a glass case.
1834. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, iii. ii. Is that Peter Bradley? asked Sybil. Ay, you may well ask whether that old dried-up otomy . . . be kith and kin of . . . Luke, said Turpin.
Ounce, subs. (old).—See quots.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v. Half an ounce, Half-a-crown.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Half an ounce, half a crown, silver being formerly estimated at a crown or five shillings an ounce.
Out, subs. (old).—1. A dram-glass:
they are made 'two-out' (= half-quartern),
'three-out,' and 'four-out,'
When a man wants to
'treat' a couple of friends he
asks for 'a quartern of gin and
three-out,' meaning, a quartern of
gin and three glasses, which
together will exactly hold that
quantity.
1836. Dickens, Sketches by Boz, 40. Having imbibed the contents of various 'three-outs' of gin and bitters in the course of the morning.
2. (colloquial).—One out of employment or office; specifically (in politics) a member of the party in 'opposition'. Cf. In.
1768. Goldsmith, Good Naturea Man, v. Was it for this I have been dreaded both by ins and outs? Have I been libelled in the Gazetteer, and promised in the St. James's?
1770. Chatterton, Prophesy. And doomed a victim for the sins. Of half the outs and all the ins.
1842. Dickens, American Notes, ii. The in's rubbed their hands; the out's shook their heads; the Government party said there never was such a good speech; the opposition declared there never was such a bad one.
1857. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone (5th ed.), 216. If he had backed the in instead of the out.
1884. Pall Mall Gazette, 7 July. The pledges which the ins have to contend with in their strife with the outs.
1888. Boston Daily Globe. It is the civil service that turns out all the ins and puts in the outs.
1890. Norton, Political Americanisms, s.v. Ins and outs.
3. (colloquial).—Leave to go out; an outing (q.v.); a holiday.
1847. Halliwell, Archaic Words, etc., s.v.
1852. Dickens, Bleak House, vii. Us London lawyers don't often get an out.
1855. Mrs. Gaskell, North and South, xiii. When I have gone for an out, I've always wanted to go high up and see far away, and take a deep breath o' fulness in that air.
1862-5. Shirley Brooks, Naggletons (1875), p. 202. We have had three pleasant days, Maria, and I think you need not have finished the out with a row.
