TO CAST UP ACCOUNTS (ONE’S GORGE, or RECKONING), verb. phr. (old cant).—1. To vomit; TO CAT (or SHOOT THE CAT) (q.v.): orig. TO CAST, thence by punning extension (RAY, GROSE). Also (nautical) TO AUDIT ONE’S ACCOUNTS AT THE COURT OF NEPTUNE.
1484. CAXTON, Curial, 6. We ete so gredyly … that otherwhyle we CASTE IT VP AGAYN.
1594. J. LYLY, Mother Bombie, ii. 1. I carouse to Prisius … wee shall CAST UP OUR ACCOUNTS, and discharge our stomackes, like men that can digest anything.
1597. SHAKESPEARE, 2 Henry IV., i. 3. 96.
| Thou beastly feeder, art so full of him | |
| That thou provokst thyself to CAST him UP? |
1607. DEKKER, Westward Ho! v. 1. I would not have ’em CAST UP THEIR ACCOUNTS here, for more than they mean to be drunk this twelvemonth.
1629. EARLE, Microcosmographie, 56. ‘A Meere Emptie Wit’ [ARBER], 80. A nauseating stomacke … where there is nothing to CAST VP.
1633. ROGERS, Treatise of the Sacrament, i. 12. Searches himselfe and CASTS UP HIS GORGE.
1674. Hogan-Moganides, 49. She, whilst in Womb the Hogan mounts, Began to CAST UP her ACCOUNTS … With gulps and gripes spewing her guts out.
1690. MOTTEUX, Rabelais, V. xxii. Poor Panulfe fairly CAST UP HIS ACCOUNTS, and gave up his halfpenny.
1808. R. ANDERSON, Cumberland Ballads, 26.
| The breyde she KEST UP HER ACCOUNTS | |
| In Rachel’s lap. |
2. (thieves’).—To turn Queen’s evidence.
TO GO ON THE ACCOUNT, verb. phr. (old nautical).—To join a filibustering or buccaneering expedition; to turn pirate. [OGILVIE: ‘probably from the parties sharing, as in a commercial venture.’]
1812. SCOTT, Letter to a Friend. I hope it is no new thing for gentlemen of fortune who are GOING ON THE ACCOUNT to change a captain now and then.
TO ACCOUNT FOR (sporting).—To kill; literally to be answerable for bringing down one’s share of the shooting: to make away with.
1846–48. THACKERAY, Vanity Fair, xx. The persecuted animals [rats] bolted above ground: the terrier ACCOUNTED FOR one, the keeper for another.
1858. Times, 19 Nov., ‘Letter from Lahore.’ In the course of one week they were hunted up and ACCOUNTED FOR; and you know that in Punjab phraseology ACCOUNTING FOR means the extreme fate due to mutineers.
TO GIVE A GOOD ACCOUNT OF, verb. phr. (sporting).—To be successful; to do one’s duty by: e.g., ‘The stable GAVE A GOOD ACCOUNT of their trainer.’
1684. Scanderbeg Redivivus, iv. 81. Offering that with an Army of 60,000 … he did not doubt but to GIVE A GOOD ACCOUNT OF this Summers Campaign.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 92. I will GIVE you A GOOD ACCOUNT OF her…. I long to have a grapple with a beauty.
