or Johnny, subs. (common).—1. A policeman: also JOHNNY DARBY.
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, ii. 154. The JOHNNYS on the water are always on the look-out, and if they sees any on us about we has to cut our lucky.
1878. BESANT and RICE, By Celia’s Arbour, vi. We might run up and down the slopes or on the ramparts … without rebuke from the JOHNNIES, the official guardians of the walls.
1886. Graphic, 30 Jan., p. 130, col. 1. Constables used to be known as JOHNNY DARBIES, said to be a corruption of the French gensdarmes, and they are still occasionally called JOHNNIES.
2. (general).—An acquaintance; a young man about town. Also = a sweetheart, male or female: e.g., MY JOHNNY.
1727. RAMSAY, And I’ll awa’ to Bonny Tweed-side, in Wks. (1848), ii. 245.
| And let us to Edinburgh go; | |
| Where she that’s bonny | |
| May catch a JOHNY, | |
| And never lead apes below. |
1883. Punch, 18 Aug., p. 84, col. 2.
| Ah! who is more brave than your JOHNNY of note, | |
| With his snowy shirt-front and his dainty dust-coat? |
1889. The Sporting Times, 3 Aug., p. 1, col. 1. Well, I’ll put it practically to you. A straight line is the way you JOHNNIES will go to the canteen when I’ve done with you.
1889. Pall Mall Gazette, 23 Sept., p. 2, col. 3. Now to the JOHNNY in the stalls, now to the ‘’Arry’ in the amphitheatre flew the honeyed tokens, until the air was overcast with them. Ibid., 29 Oct., p. 7, col. 1. Mr. Blake said he was very fond of her and did not intend to leave her, as many a JOHNNY would have done.
1890. Tit-Bits, 3 Aug., p. 332, col. 3. A microcephalous youth, whose chief intellectual relaxation consists in sucking the head of a stick, thinks that his conversational style is brilliant when he calls a man a JOHNNIE, a hero ‘a game sort of a chappie,’ and so on.
1890. Daily Telegraph, 4 Feb. The committee seriously discussed the feasibility of conferring with a high-class JOHNNIE.
1892. KIPLING, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘The Widow’s Party,’ 57.
| Where have you been this while away,… | |
| Johnnie, my JOHNNIE, aha! |
1894. PERCY WHITE, Mr. Bailey Martin, p. 49. What snap your sister has got, and how she must mash all your local JOHNNIES.
3. (Irish).—A half-glass of whisky.
4. (American).—See JOHNNY REB.
JOHNNY-BUM, subs. (old).—A jack-ass.—GROSE (1785); Lexicon Balatronicum (1811).
JOHNNY-CAKE, subs. (American).—A New-Englander.
JOHNNY-HAULTANT, subs. (nautical).—A merchants’ sailor’s name for a man-o’-war’s-man.—CLARK RUSSELL.
JOHNNY-BATES’-FARM.—See BATES’ FARM.
JOHNNY-BONO, subs. (East-end).—Generic for an Englishman.
JOHNNY-DARBY, subs. (old).—(1). A policeman, (2) in pl. handcuffs.
JOHNNY NEWCOME, subs. (common).—A new-born child. Also (nautical) an inexperienced youngster; landsman in general.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘Some Account of a New Play’ (ed. 1862), p. 201.
| Now to young ‘JOHNNY NEWCOME’ she seems to confine hers, | |
| Neglecting the poor little dear out at dry-nurse. |
JOHNNY RAW, subs. (common).—1. A recruit; a novice.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, p. 18.
| A prettier treat | |
| Between two JOHNNY RAWS ’tis not easy to meet. |
1825. SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, xxv. Well, I can snuff a candle and strike out the ace of hearts; and so, should things go wrong, he has no JACK RAW to deal with, but Jack Mowbray.
1828. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Living Picture of London, p. 2. The designations of JOHNNY RAW, Greenhorn or Youkel, whereby they hope to lessen his pretensions to equality with themselves on the score of town-knowledge.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Merchant of Venice’ (ed. 1862), p. 258. Antonio, like most of those sage ‘JOHNNY RAWS.’
1891. R. L. STEVENSON, Kidnapped, p. 39. You took me for a country JOHNNIE RAW? with no more mother-wit or courage than a porridge-stick.
1887. Sydney (N.S.W.) Bulletin, 26 Feb., p. 12. He was a new-chum—a regular JOHNNY-RAW.
2. (provincial).—A morning draught.
JOHNNY REB (or JOHNNY), subs. (American).—A soldier in the Confederate ranks during the Civil War, 1861–5. See BLUE-BELLIES.
