subs. (old).—A blockhead. For synonyms, see BUFFLE and CABBAGE-HEAD.
1589. SHAKESPEARE, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv. 3. 207. Ah, you whoreson LOGGERHEAD! you were born to do me shame. Ibid. (1597), 1 Henry IV., ii. 4. 4. Poins. Where hast been, Hal? Prince. With three or four LOGGERHEADS amongst three or four score hogsheads.
1599. NASHE, Lenten Stuffe [GROSART (1883–4), v. 281]. A sweaty LOGGERHEAD.
1609. DEKKER, The Guls Horne-booke [GROSART (1886), ii. 204]. In defiance of those terrible blockhouses, their LOGGERHEADS make a true discovery of their wild country.
1667. DRYDEN, Sir Martin Mar-all, i. Warn. Pray, sir, let me alone: what is it to you if I rail upon myself? Now could I break my own LOGGER-HEAD.
1672. COTTON, Scarronides, Bk. i. p. 44 (ed. 1715).
| At last his Friend jog’d him with’s Hand, | |
| How like a LOGGERHEAD you stand! |
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1704. SWIFT, The Battle of the Books, in Prose Works (Camelot). A pack of rogues, and fools … and confounded LOGGERHEADS.
1777. SHERIDAN, A Trip to Scarborough, i. 2. Lory. Here comes a head, sir, would contrive it better than both our LOGGERHEADS, if she would but join in the confederacy.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. LOGGERHEAD.
1815. SCOTT, Guy Mannering, ii. ch. vii. ‘What plea, you LOGGERHEAD,’ said the lawyer.
Adj. (old).—Stupid. Also LOGGERHEADED (q.v.).
1596. NASHE, Have with You to Saffron-Walden, in Works, iii. 104. For the printing of this LOGGER-HEAD Legend of lyes.
1711. SWIFT, The Journal to Stella, 22 Aug., xxviii. Pretty, dear, little, naughty, saucy MD. Silly, impudent, LOGGERHEAD Presto.
TO BE AT (or COME TO) LOGGERHEADS, verb. phr. (old).—To quarrel; to come to blows.
1678. COTTON, Virgil Travestie, in Works (1725), Bk. iv. p. 90.
| He was … ready … | |
| To fall to LOGGER-HEADS, as’t appears, | |
| With a few sawcy Carpenters. |
1688. SHADWELL, The Squire of Alsatia, i., in Works (1720), iv. 19. Go To LOGGERHEADS with the constable and the watch.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1701. FARQUHAR, Sir Harry Wildair, i. They FELL TO LOGGERHEADS about their playthings.
1751. SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, xxxix. Who having driven their carts against each other, quarrelled, and WENT TO LOGGERHEADS on the spot.
1828. G. SMEETON, Doings in London, ‘Humours of the Fleet.’
| Disputes more noisy now a quarrel breeds, | |
| And fools on both sides FALL TO LOGGERHEADS. |
1846. Punch, x. 46. The Queen’s Speech, xxx. ‘F. M. the Duke of Wellington will let Mr. Punch have the earliest intimation of anything definite being come to.’ As we have not heard from his grace … we can only presume that the ministers were, up to the last moment, AT LOGGERHEADS.
1876. C. H. WALL, trans. Molière, i. 199. You see that without my help you would still all be AT LOGGERHEADS.
