Welsh, verb (racing and common).—To cheat: spec. to run away without settling. Hence welsher = an absconding bookmaker, a common cheat: also welcher.
1869. Greenwood, Seven Curses of London. Does the reader know what is a welsher, the creature against whose malpractices the sporting public are so emphatically warned? Probably he does not. It is still more unlikely that he ever witnessed a welsher hurt.
1883. Punch, 26 May, 252. 1. 'Look 'ere, this hinnocent cove has been trying a ramp on!' Crowd. Welsher! kill him! Welsher!
18[?]. All Year Round [Century]. The welcher, properly so called, takes the money offered him to back a horse, but when he has taken money enough from his dupes departs from the scene of his labours, and trusts to his luck, a dyed wig or a pair of false whiskers, not to be recognised.
1887. St. James's Gazette., 2 June. The public has always understood that the law cannot be made to touch a 'welsher'; and hence it is that forcible measures are often taken to inflict private vengeance.
1887. D. Teleg., 12 Mar. He stakes his money with one of the book-makers whom he has seen at his stand for many years, with the certainty that he will receive his winnings, and run no risk of being 'welshed'—which would probably be his fate on an English racecourse—if he be astute or lucky enough to spot the right horse.
1889. Nineteenth Century, xxvi. 850. Welshing was decided to be an indictable offence.
Welsh-ambassador, subs. phr.
(old).—The cuckoo.
1608. Middleton, Trick to Catch, iv. Thy sound is like the cuckoo, the Welch ambassador.
Welsh-cricket, subs. phr. (old).—1.
A louse: and (2) = a tailor:
cf. Prick-louse: see next entry.
1592. Greene, Quip for Upst. Court. [Harl. Misc., v. 404]. Before he [the taylor] had no other cognizance but a plaine Spanish needle with a Welch-cricket at top.
Welsh-fiddle, subs. phr. (old).—The
itch (B. E. and Grose):
cf. Scotch-fiddle (s.v.
Scotch).
Welshman's-hose. To turn a
thing to a Welshman's-hose,
verb. phr. (old).—To suit to one's
purpose.
d. 1529. Skelton, Boke of Colin Clout. And make a Walshman's hose Of the text and of the glose.
1606. Mirr. for Mag., 278. The laws we did interpret, and statutes of the land, Not truly by the text, but newly by a glose: And words that were most plaine, when they by us were skan'd, We turned by construction to a Welch-man's hose.
Welsh-rabbit, subs. phr. (common).—A
dish of toasted cheese.
[Smyth-Palmer: 'One of a
numerous class of slang expressions—the
mock-heroic of
the eating-house—in which some
common dish or product for
which any place or people has a
special reputation is called by the
name of some more dainty article
of food which it is supposed
humorously to supersede or
equal.'] Cf. German-duck,
Cobbler's-lobster, Norfolk-capon,
Billingsgate-pheasant,
and many others (Grose).
1772. Graves, Spiritual Quixote, vii. ix. Go to the tavern, and call for your bottle, and your pipe, and your Welsh rabbit.
1854-5. Thackeray, Newcomes, i. The goes of stout, the Chough and Crow, the Welsh rabbit, the Red Cross Knight . . . the song and the cup, in a word, passed round merrily.
Welsh-wig, subs. phr. (common).—A
worsted cap.
Welsh-parsley, subs. phr. (old).—Hemp:
hence a hangman's
rope.
