subs. (auction).—The same as BONNET (q.v.), subs., sense 1.
Verb (thieves’).—To expose; to inform; to offend or insult; and especially to interrupt, to get in the way of, to spoil. [Properly to render harsh, sour, or peevish; to make crabbed.] Also used adjectively. For synonyms, see PEACH and RILE, respectively.
1825. C. M. WESTMACOTT, The English Spy, vol. I., p. 179. LIVERYMAN, EGLANTINE. What coming CRABB over us, old fellow? Very well, I shall bolt and try Randall, and that’s all about it.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. I., p. 232. If a patterer has been ‘CRABBED,’ that is (offended) at any of the ‘cribs’ (houses), he mostly chalks a signal on or near the door. Ibid., vol. II., p. 568. ‘We don’t CRAB one another when we are sweeping; if we was to CRAB one another, we’d get to fighting and giving slaps of the jaw to one another.’
1876. C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, pp. 5–6. Others, however, would be what we termed ‘CRABBED.’
1880. MILLIKIN, Punch’s Almanack.
| CRAB your enemies,—I’ve got a many, | |
| You can pot ’em proper for a penny. |
TO CATCH A CRAB; also TO CUT A CRAB; TO CATCH or CUT A CANCER or LOBSTER, verbal phr. (common).—There are various ways of CATCHING A CRAB, as, for example, (1) to turn the blade of the oar or ‘feather’ under water at the end of the stroke, and thus be unable to recover; (2) to lose control of the oar at the middle of the stroke by ‘digging’ too deeply; or (3) to miss the water altogether.
