or gay-old time, game, liar, etc., adj. phr. (common).—A general intensitive: e.g., HIGH OLD TIME = a very merry time indeed; HIGH OLD LIAR = a liar of might; HIGH OLD DRUNK = an uncommon BOOZE (q.v.).
1883. Referee, 11 March, p. 3, c. 2. All the children who have been engaged in the Drury Lane pantomime took tea on the stage, and had a HIGH OLD TIME (while it lasted).
1888. J. MCCARTHY, and R. CAMPBELL PRAED, The Ladies’ Gallery, ch. xxxv. I went down to Melbourne, intending to have a HIGH OLD TIME.
1891. Murray’s Magazine, Aug., p. 202. There will be a Want of Confidence Motion, and a HIGH OLD debate.
1891. J. NEWMAN, Scamping Tricks, p. 7. You are a big fraud and a HIGH OLD liar.
1892. MILLIKEN, ’Arry Ballads, p. 35. We’d the HIGHEST OLD game.
1892. T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), Voces Populi, ‘The Riding Class,’ p. 108. We’ve bin having a GAY OLD time in ’ere.
