subs. phr. (venery).—1. The penis: see CREAMSTICK and PRICK.
2. (Australian).—A full-grown male kangaroo.
1861. H. W. WHEELWRIGHT, Bush Wanderings of a Naturalist. 4 Some of the ‘OLD MEN’ reach to an immense size, and I have often killed them over 2 cwt.
1873. J. B. STEPHENS, Miscellaneous Poems [1880], ‘A Brisbane Reverie.’ Where the kangaroo gave hops, the ‘OLD MAN’ fleetest of the fleet.
1897. Pall Mall Gazette, 23 Sept., 9, 2. Almost the first kangaroo put up was an OLD MAN, and the pack bustled him through a patch of heavy timber, into a bog and out of it again.
3. (common).—A familiar mode of address. See OLD, adj., sense 4.
1899. A. C. GUNTER, A Florida Enchantment, 9. ‘One would think you like to frighten people.’ ‘So I does,’ grins the youth solemnly, ‘when the OLD MAN’S out.
5. (common).—A husband: cf. OLD WOMAN. Fr. le géniteur.
1856. WHYTE-MELVILLE, Kate Coventry, xvi. Aunt Deborah only stipulating that there should be no male addition to the party, except Mr. Lumley himself, or, as the lady of the house termed him, her OLD MAN.
1883. R. L. STEVENSON, The Silverado Squatters, 98. When her OLD MAN wrote home for her from America.
6. (American).—The captain of a merchantman.
1823. COOPER, The Pilot, vi. We must get them both off … before the OLD MAN takes it into his head to leave the coast.
1847. HOWITT, Journal, 187. To begin with the captain. He was a first-rate OLD MAN as far as good treatment and good living went.
1850. G. H. THROOP (‘Gregory Seaworthy’), Nag’s Head, viii. 66. ‘Land O!’ ‘Where away?’ shouted the OLD MAN.
1883. W. C. RUSSELL, Sailors’ Language, preface, xi. But the lack of variety is no obstruction to the sailor’s poetical inspiration when he wants the OLD MAN to know his private opinions without expressing them to his face, and so the same chantey, as the windlass or halliard chorus is called, furnishes the music to as many various indignant remonstrances as Jack can find injuries to sing about.
7. (common).—The ridge between two sleepers in a feather bed.
8. (nurses’).—A blanket used to wrap a young child in.
9. (common).—A father.
