subs. phr. (common).—A moment; a jiffy; the twinkling of an eye: also a COUPLE OF SHAKES. Fr. far-far.

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  1837.  R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (The Babes in the Wood). I’ll be back in a COUPLE OF SHAKES.

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  1841.  Punch, i. 135. A couple of agues, caught, to speak vulgarly, IN A BRACE OF SHAKES.

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  1854.  MARTIN and AYTOUN, Bon Gaultier Ballads, ‘Jupiter and the Indian Ale.’

          Quick! invent some other drink,
Or, IN A BRACE OF SHAKES, thou standest
  On Cocytus’ sulph’ry brink.

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  1866.  C. READE, The Cloister and the Hearth, xciii. Now Dragon could kill a wolf in a BRACE OF SHAKES.

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  1868.  OUIDA, Under Two Flags, xii. ‘But I’ve a trick with a ’oss that’ll set that sort o’ thing—if it ain’t gone too far, that is to say—right in a BRACE OF SHAKES.’

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  1884.  Cornhill Magazine, Jan., 101. ‘If there were any boys at Oppingbury now like those who were here when I was young, they’d break the window in a COUPLE OF SHAKES.’

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  TO BRACE IT THROUGH, verb. phr. (American).—To succeed by sheer impudence: cf. BRACE UP, to gird oneself up, to buckle to.

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  TO BRACE UP, verb. phr. (thieves’).—1.  To pawn stolen goods: spec. to pledge their utmost value.

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  2.  (American).—To take a drink.

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  1888.  Puck’s Library, April, 20. Come old boy, let’s BRACE UP; a bumper will pull you together again.

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