or chete, subs. (old).—A fowl. [From CACKLING, that cackles, + CHEAT, From A.S. ceat, a thing.]—See CHEAT.
ENGLISH SYNONYMS. Beaker; cackler; margery prater; galeny; partlet; chickabiddy; rooster; chuck-chuck; chuckie.
FRENCH SYNONYMS. Un becquant (a thieves’ term); un ornichon (also a thieves’ term for a chicken); un pique-en-terre (literally ‘a peck-the-ground’); une estable or une estaphle (thieves’); bruantez (Breton slang).
GERMAN SYNONYMS. Kachni (from the Gypsy); mistkratzer.
ITALIAN SYNONYMS. Ruspante or raspant (properly ‘scratching’ or ‘scraping’).
SPANISH SYNONYMS. Capiscol (this, and indeed all the terms here given from the Germania, refer to the cock-bird. Capiscol = Fr. caporal); obispo (properly a bishop); rey (literally king).
1567. HARMAN, A Caveat or Warening for Common Cursetors, p. 86. She has a CACKLING-CHETE, a grunting-chete, ruff pecke, cassan, and poplarr of yarum.
1622. FLETCHER, Beggar’s Bush, v. 1. Or surprising a boor’s ken for grunting-cheats? Or CACKLING-CHEATS?
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. CACKLING CHEATS, (cant) fowls.
1811. GROSE and CLARKE, Lexicon Balatronicum, s.v. CACKLING CHEATS: Fowls. Cant.
