upper story.'—Carr's Craven Dialect. This same expression is sometimes heard in the United States, to denote a person who is deranged. I have never heard it applied in any other

way.

UP TO. To be up to a thing,' is to understand it. A common English and American vulgarism.

Have you ever tried faro? whispered Spifflekins; there's considerable fun at faro, when you are up to it.-J. C. Neal, P. Ploddy, p. 50.

UP TO THE HUB. To the extreme point. To the extreme point. The figure is that of a vehicle sunk in the mud up to the hub of the wheels, which is as far as it can go.

Newman. I am sorry not to have your good opinion. I don't doubt your courage.

Doolittle. No, you ought not. I've been up to the hub, and didn't flinch. No, nor won't back out now. I'll tell you what, Mister! if we Yankees come to loggerheads, we'll show whose heads are hardest.-D. Humphreys, The Yankee in England, p. 33.

“You've hearn tell of the bank and tarriff questions?"

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Yes," replied the new editor of the Eagle newspaper.

“Well, hoss, we expect you to be right co-chuck up to the hub on them thar questions, and pour it into the enemy in slashergaff style.”—Robb, Squatter Life, p. 31.

UP TO SNUFF. To be flash; to be shrewd. Up to snuff and a pinch above it, is a common cant phrase.-Grose. Both these expressions are familiar in the United States.

“Oh, you remember me, I suppose?" said Mr. Pickwick. "I should think so," replied Sam. "Queer start that 'ere, but he was one too many for you, wasn't he? Up to snuff and a pinch or two over-eh ?"-Pickwick Papers.

A Blue Nose or a John Bull, are a primitive, unsuspectin' sort of folks not exactly up to snuff-Sam Slick, 3d Ser., p. 121.

Then putting his fingers to his nose, says he, "Mr. Slick, I see you are up to snuff."-Ibid., ch. 7.

I'm up to snuff, I can tell ye. The master 'll have to kiss the cook this time; he han't enough left for the cat to lick.—Margaret, p. 305.

The editor of the Herald has commenced several libel suits against Major Noah. We learn that the Major is up to snuff, and announces his intention of bringing thirty or forty suits against Bennett.-N. Y. Tribune. UP TO TRAP. Knowing; shrewd. English and American. Phrenology is a little bit dangerous. It is only fit for an old hand like me, that's up to trap.-Sam Slick.

Mr. Richardson is evidently a man who has lived among foxes and rabbits--who has seen warrens, knows weazles, associates with terriers, and is perfectly "up to trap.”—London Athenæum, Dec. 4, 1848. TO UPSET. To overturn; to overthrow; to overset.-Todd. Webster. This word is now so universal both in England and America, that it may appear unnecessary to give it a place. Its use, however, is quite modern, as it is not in any of the English dictionaries before Todd, who calls it a low word. UPSET PRICE. At public auctions an article is sometimes set up,' or 'started,' by the auctioneer at the lowest price at which it can be sold. This is called the upset price. TO USE. To frequent a place. This word is employed in the following sense among the hunters of the West: I can see where the deer used,' i. e. where the deer have been, or where they have fed. The sense intended to be conveyed, is that the deer has left tracks and other marks on the ground used by him. This term is also noticed by Mr. Sherwood as provincial in Georgia; as, 'The sheep used in that field.' TO USE UP. To discomfit; destroy. Grose has this word, which he calls a military one, meaning killed.

I have promised to write the life of the magician of the North [Mr. Van Buren], and I'll do it; and if, when you read it, you don't say I've used him up, I'm mistaken, that's all.-Crockett, Tour, p. 234.

Moving on the first day of May in New York, has used me up worse than building forty acres of stone wall.-Maj. Downing, May-day in New York.

In 1836, New York went Loco-foco by 26,000 majority, and the Whig party was thought, by its adversaries, to be used up for some years.-N. Y. Tribune, Nov. 1, 1845.

USED TO COULD. A vulgarism used in the Southern States for could formerly; as, 'I cannot do it now, but I used to could.'—Sherwood's Georgia. We had set this down as a native vulgarism, until we discovered it in the poem called John Noakes and Mary Styles, illustrating the Essex dialect of England.

I don't think I cud clime it now,

Altho' I uster could;

I should't warsley loike to try,

For guelch cum down I should.

V.

VACHER. (French.) The stock or cattle keeper on the prairies of the South-west. His duty is also to break wild horses, to run cattle, and to brand calves.

TO VAMOS. A Spanish word signifying let us go. Fr. allons! This and other Spanish expressions have lately become familiar to us through the letters of soldiers and officers from Mexico in the public prints.

I couldn't stand more than this stanza, coming from a street voice compared with which the notes of a hand-saw are positively dulcet, and I accordingly vamosed.-N. Y. Mirror, May, 1848.

Yankee Sullivan's house, corner of Frankfort and Chatham streets, is in a dangerous condition; its foundation walls having been partially undermined for the purpose of excavating a cellar. Its occupants received some very ominous premonitions of a downfall, early yesterday morning, and forthwith vamosed with their baggage.-Journ. of Com., June, 1848.

Madame Anna Bishop gave, on Monday evening last, a spirited exhibition, and not exactly of the vocal powers, for which she is celebrated, but of the woman's temper of which she has undoubtedly her due portion. The saloon was duly lighted up, and very soon after the doors were opened a respectable number of ladies and gentlemen took their seats. But the Madame appears to have been dissatisfied at the number, and before waiting to see if others would assemble, the audience was unceremoniously dismissed, the lights blown out in a huff, and Madame and Monsieur, fiddles, harps, rosin, catgut and all, vamosed.—Vicksburgh Sentinel, May, 1848.

On Sunday our city was thrown into a state of intense excitement. Between seventy and eighty slaves had disappeared. Several negroes who had made arrangements to vamose, were left behind, and, to be revenged, they gave the alarm.-Washington Paper.

And flinging down a dollar on the table, he seized his white bell-top from the hand of the trembling waiter, and vamosed. Down Washington and State streets, he streaked it like a comet, and never slackened his pace till he pulled up on board the Kennebec.

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'Cap'n," said he to the commander, " cast off your lines jest as quick as you're a mind to--and ef you catch me wanting to see Boston again, jest take me by the slack and throw me right into that ere biler, boots and all, by gravy!"-Sunday Atlas.

VARMINT.

A corrupt pronunciation of the word vermin. Applied to noxious wild beasts of any kind.

I shot tolerably well, and was satisfied the fault would be mine if the varmints did not suffer.-Crockett, Tour, p. 125.

The idea of a man's keeping two varmints in a grass, when he might shoot a dozen by going a little way into the woods. These varmints were two beautiful deer.—Thorpe's Backwoods, p. 156. VENDUE. (French vendre, to sell, vendu, sold.)

Auction;

a public sale of anything by outcry to the highest bidder.Webster. This word is in use in the United States and the West Indies; but it is not common in England, though it is found in the recent English dictionaries of Knowles, Oswald, and Smart.

VEST. A waistcoat, or garment worn under a coat. We almost always use this word instead of waistcoat, which we rarely apply to anything but an under garment, as a flannel waistcoat.'

VETO. A prohibition; negative. A word frequently transferred from political to ordinary life.

The cold, miserable, rainy, unseasonable weather yesterday, put a veto an all out-door operations.-N. Y. Paper.

VINE-FRETTER. (Lat. aphis puceron.) An insect very destructive to vines, rose bushes, cabbages, &c. in the Southern States. There are said to be 150 species. On every plant they vary in form and color. They have many enemies, among them the caterpillar which will destroy about a hundred in an hour.-Williams's Florida.

VOYAGEUR. (French.) A Canadian boatman.-Worcester. Vг. The common abbreviation for Vermont.

I VUM! An exclamation often heard in New England.

“I vum,” said he, "I'm sorry; what's the matter ?"-Margaret, p. 86.

W.

TO WABBLE. In the Western States, to make free use of one's tongue; to be a ready speaker.

TO WABBLE. To move from side to side; to vacillate. A low and barbarous word, says Dr. Johnson. It is provincial in England.-Forby's Glossary.

1

The sleighs wabbled and warped from side to side, the riders screamed and hooted at each other.--Margaret, p. 174.

WABBLING. Moving from side to side; vacillation; oscillation.

Leverrier's calculations gave the mass of the unknown planet, by which the "wabblings" of Herschell were to be set right, at so much; but the mass of the known planet proves to be less than a quarter of what Leverrier figured out; and the result is, in short, that yet another and much larger planet must be found to make Leverrier's theory good. Here's a pretty kettle of fish!-N. Y. Com. Adv.

WAFFLE. (Dutch wafel.) A wafer; a soft indented cake baked in an iron utensil on coals.

WAFFLE-IRON. (Dutch wafelyzen.) A wafer-iron ; a utensil for baking waffles.

TO WALK THE CHALK. To walk straight.

"The Tallapoosa volunteers," said Capt. Suggs; "so let every body look out and walk the chalk."-Simon Suggs, p. 89.

TO WALK INTO. To get the upper hand of; to take advantage of; to punish. A common vulgarism.

To walk into a down-east land-jobber, requires great skill, and a very considerable knowledge of human nature.-Sam Slick, 3d series, p. 122. Senator Benton's speech at St. Louis will amply reward a perusal. The way it walks into Tyler and Calhoun for the Texas iniquity fully atones for all its nonsense about the surrender of Texas in 1819.-New York Tribune, May 24, 1847.

I went into the dining room, and sot down afore a plate that had my name writ on a card onto it, and I did walk into the beef, and taters, and things, about east.-Hiram Bigelow's Lett. in Family Comp.

WALKING TICKET.

WALKING PAPERS. Orders to leave; a dismissal. When

a person is appointed to a public office, or receives a commission, he receives papers or documents investing him with authority; so when he is discharged it is said in familiar language that he has received his walking papers, or his walking ticket.'

It is probable, that "walking papers" will be forwarded to a large proportion of the corps diplomatique during the session of Congress. Band B are already admonished to return, and the invitation will be pretty general.-N. Y. Herald, Letter from Washington.

We can announce with certainty that the Hon. Mr. D has received