See MESS.
TO CONSULT THE BOOK OF NUMBERS, verb. phr. (old Parliamentary).—To call for a division; to put the matter to the vote.—GROSE (1785).
NUMBER 9, subs. phr. (old).—The Fleet Prison. [No. 9, Fleet Market].—BEE (1823).
NUMBER NIP, subs. (venery).—The female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE.
NUMBER ONE, subs. (colloquial).—1. Self. TO TAKE CARE OF NUMBER ONE = to look after one’s own interests.
1838. DICKENS, Oliver Twist, xlii. Some conjurors say that number three is the magic number, and some say number seven. It’s neither, my friend, neither. It’s NUMBER ONE. Ha! ha! cried Mr. Bolter. NUMBER ONE for ever.
1848. J. R. LOWELL, A Fable for Critics, 48.
| Like most fathers, Bull hates to see NUMBER ONE | |
| Displacing himself in the mind of his son. |
1871. Judy, 29 July. If a man doesn’t TAKE CARE OF NO. 1, he will soon have 0 to take care of!
1873. Spectator, 22 March, 379, col. 1. It is in the early chapters, too, that the author speaks of himself, seldom referring to NUMBER ONE afterwards—for a less egotistical book we have seldom seen.
1897. KENNARD, The Girl in the Brown Habit, xi. I was just beginning to find NUMBER ONE remarkably bad company, and am most grateful to you for your visit. It will do me an immensity of good.
2. (nursery).—Urination; also a chamber-pot.
3. (prison).—The cat-o’-nine-tails.
1889. Answers, 9 March, 233, 3. Punishment was ordered by the Directors—the Governor has no power to order flogging—and took the shape of two dozen of NO. 1.
To be at NUMBER ONE, LONDON, verb. phr. (common).—To have the menstrual discharge: see FLAG.
NUMBER SIX. See NEWGATE KNOCKER.
NUMBER TWO, subs. phr. (prison).—1. The birch.
1889. Answers, 9 March, 233, 3. No. 2, by the way, is the birch.
2. (nursery).—Evacuation.
