subs. (common).—A passenger riding inside a vehicle. See OUTSIDE.
1816. SCOTT, Old Mortality, ii. A wheel carriage bearing eight INSIDES and six outsides.
d. 1820. G. CANNING, Loves of the Triangles, i. 178.
| So down thy hill, romantic Ashbourn, glides | |
| The Derby dilly, carrying Three INSIDES. |
1889. Daily Telegraph, 5 Jan. The INSIDES were terrified.
Adj. and adv. (colloquial).—Trustworthy; pertinent; in touch with; BOTTOM (q.v.). TO KNOW THE INSIDE OF EVERYTHING = to be well informed.
1888. Chicago Daily Inter Ocean. A secret service officer, who has just arrived from Washington on important business, claims to have INSIDE information as to the facts in the case.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 12 Nov., p. 6, col. 2. He saw everything and missed not the smallest incident or accident. The latter were few enough, but such as they were he was, so to speak, INSIDE OF them without a falter.
INSIDE OF, subs. and adv. (colloquial).—Within the limit; in less time than.
1888. Missouri Republican, 22 Feb. He is very desperate, and INSIDE OF thirty days shot at four men.
1887. Hartford Courant, 13 Jan. Both animals had been killed INSIDE OF five minutes.
1888. BOLDREWOOD, Robbery under Arms, ch. xi. He knocked the seven senses out of him INSIDE OF three rounds.
1890. W. C. RUSSELL, An Ocean Tragedy, 74. Tain’t to be done in the INSIDE OF a month.
TO TAKE THE INSIDE OUT OF (a glass, a book &c.), verb. phr. (colloquial).—To empty; to GUT (q.v.).
1843. W. T. MONCRIEFF, The Scamps of London, iii. 1. Haven’t you TAKEN THE INSIDE OUT OF that quart of gatter yet?
TO BE ON (or TO HAVE) THE INSIDE TRACK, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To be on the safe side; to be at a point of vantage; or (of a subject) to understand thoroughly.
INSIDE AND OUTSIDE! phr. (old).—A toast: ‘the inside of a cunt and the outside of a gaol.’—GROSE (1823).
