verb. (old).—To decoy a PIGEON (q.v.) to the tables. Hence HUNTING = card-sharping. FLAT-CATCHING (q.v.).
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. HUNTING (c.), decoying or drawing others into Play.
1786. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v.
TO HUNT FOR SOFT SPOTS, verb. phr. (American).—To make oneself comfortable; to seek one’s ease.
1888. San Francisco Weekly Examiner, 22 March. It was demnition hot, and I commenced to HUNT FOR SOFT SPOTS in my saddle.
TO HUNT GRASS, verb. phr. (pugilists’).—To be knocked down; TO BE GRASSED (q.v.). Also, to be puzzled; to be dumfoundered.
1869. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), Innocents at Home, ch. ii. I HUNT GRASS every time.
TO HUNT LEATHER, verb. phr. (cricketers’).—To field at cricket.
1892. Cassell’s Saturday Journal, 21 Sept., p. 13, c. 2. For nearly ten years I earned a living—and a good one—by ‘wielding the willow’ and HUNTING THE LEATHER.
TO HUNT THE DUMMY, verb. phr. (thieves’).—To steal pocket books.
1878. CHARLES HINDLEY, The Life and Times of James Catnach, ‘The Song of The Young Prig,’ Chorus.
| Frisk the cly, and fork the rag, | |
| Draw the fogles plummy, | |
| Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, | |
| And finely HUNT THE DUMMY. |
TO HUNT THE SQUIRREL, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. HUNTING THE SQUIRREL. An amusement practised by post boys, and stage coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it, so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to be HUNTED.
IN, or OUT OF, THE HUNT, adv. phr. (colloquial).—Having a chance, or none; IN or OUT OF THE SWIM (q.v.). Admitted to, or outside, a circle or society.
