TO GIVE COLD PIG, verbal phr. (common).—To waken a sleeper either by sluicing him with cold water, or by suddenly stripping him of his bed-clothes.

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  1818.  PLANCHÉ, Amoroso, King of Little Britain.

        For if the queen should come this way,
As sure as fate and quarter-day,
COLD PIG will be your fare.

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  1837.  The Comic Almanack, June.

        I’ve given him strap,—a thick rope’s end,—
            COLD PIG!
In vain!—There lies the stupid clown,
As if the Night Mare held him down.

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  1846.  THACKERAY, Jeames’s Diary (in Punch, vol. II., p. 72). ‘What was it I red there? What was it that made me spring outabed as if sumbady had given me COLD PIG?—I red Rewin in that share list—the Pannick was in full hoporation.’

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  1869.  W. BRADWOOD, The O. V. H., ch. xxxv. Then he came back rosy and hungry, and revenged himself by an administration of COLD PIG to the still slumbering Ralph.

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  Subs. (thieves’).—1.  A person robbed of his clothing. Cf., sense 2.

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  2.  (thieves’).—A corpse. For synonyms, see DEAD MEAT.

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  3.  (commercial travellers’).—The ‘empty returns’ sent back by rail to wholesale houses.

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