or jill, subs. (old).—1. A girl; (2) a sweetheart: e.g., ‘every Jack must have his GILL’; (3) a wanton, a strumpet (an abbreviation of GILLIAN). For synonyms, see JOMER and TITTER.
1586–1606. WARNER, Albion’s England, bk. vii., ch. 37. The simplest GILL or knave.
1598. FLORIO, A Worlde of Wordes, s.v. Palandrina, a common queane, a harlot, a strumpet, a GILL.
1620. PERCY, Folio MSS., p. 104, ‘As I was ridinge by the way.’ There is neuer a Iacke for GILL.
1659. TORRIANO, Vocabolario, s.v.
2. (common).—a drink; a GO (q.v.).
1785. BURNS, Scots Drink. Haill breeks, a scone, and WHISKY GILL.
3. In pl. ‘g’ hard (colloquial).—The mouth or jaws; the face. See POTATO-TRAP and DIAL.
1622. BACON, Historia Naturalis. Redness about the cheeks and GILLS.
1632. JONSON, The Magnetic Lady, i. 2.
| He … draws all the parish wills, | |
| Designs the legacies, and strokes the GILLS | |
| Of the chief mourners. |
b. 1738. WOLCOT (‘Peter Pindar’), Pindar’s Works (1809), i., 8.
| Whether ye look all rosy round the GILLS, | |
| Or hatchet-fac’d like starving cats so lean. |
1820. LAMB, The Essays of Elia, ‘The Two Races of Men.’ What a careless, even deportment hath your borrower! what rosy GILLS!
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, ch. viii. Binnie, as brisk and rosy about the GILLS as chanticleer, broke out in a morning salutation.
1884. Punch. He went a bit red in the GILLS.
4. In pl. (common).—A very large shirt collar; also STICK-UPS and SIDEBOARDS. Fr.: cache-bonbon-à-liqueur = a stick-up.
1859. G. A. SALA, Twice Round the Clock, 6 P.M., in Part 7. With a red face, shaven to the superlative degree of shininess, with GILLS white and tremendous, with a noble white waistcoat.
1884. Daily Telegraph, July 8, p. 5, c. 4. Lord Macaulay wore, to the close of his life, ‘stick-ups,’ or GILLS.
TO GREASE THE GILLS.—verb phr. (common).—To have a good meal; TO WOLF (q.v.).
TO LOOK BLUE (or QUEER, or GREEN) ABOUT THE GILLS, verb. phr. (common).—To be downcast or dejected; also to suffer from the effects of a debauch. Hence, conversely, TO BE ROSY ABOUT THE GILLS = to be cheerful.
1836. M. SCOTT, Tom Cringle’s Log, ch. ii. Most of them were very white and BLUE IN THE GILLS when we sat down, and others of a dingy sort of whitey-brown, while they ogled the viands in a most suspicious manner.
1892. G. M. FENN, Witness to the Deed, ch. ii. You look precious seedy. WHITE ABOUT THE GILLS.
A CANT (or DIG) IN THE GILLS, phr. (pugilists’).—A punch in the face. See BANG.
