verb. (old).—1. To bribe; TO TIP (q.v.): also TO GREASE (ANOINT, or GILD) THE PALM (or HAND): cf. sense. 2. Hence (1) AN ITCHING PALM = a hand ready to receive bribes: cf. the old superstition that money is about to be received if the palm itches; and (2) PALM-OIL (GREASE or SOAP, or OIL OF PALMS or ANGELS, q.v.) = a bribe, whence also = money: Fr. huile and graisse (GROSE, 1785); MR. PALMER IS CONCERNED, of a person bribed or bribing (VAUX, 1819). See GREASE.
c. 1513. SKELTON [DYCE, Works (1843), ii.]. GRESE MY HANDES with gold.
d. 1572. KNOX, The History of the Reformation in Scotland [Works (1846) I. 102]. Yea, the HANDIS of our Lordis so liberallie were ANOYNTED.
1592. GREENE, Repentance, etc., Sig C. My Mother pampered me … and secretly helped mee to the OYLE OF ANGELS, that I grew … prone to all mischefs.
1607. SHAKESPEARE, Julius Cæsar, iv. 3.
| Bru. Let me tell you, Cassius, you yourself | |
| Are much condemn’d to have AN ITCHING PALM. |
1623. MASSINGER, The Duke of Milan, iii. 2.
| His stripes wash’d off | |
| With OIL OF ANGELS. |
1678. COTTON, Virgil Travestie, in Works (1725), Bk. iv., p. 70.
| Him she conjures, intreats, and prays, | |
| With all the Cunning that she has, | |
| GREASES HIS FIST. |
17[?]. [quoted in J. ASHTON, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, II. 220]. He accounts them very honest Tikes, and can with all safety trust his Life in their Hands, for now and then GILDING THEIR PALMS for the good services they do him.
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 81.
| OIL OF PALM’S the thing that flowing, | |
| Sets the naves and felloes going. |
1840. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, viii. I dare say you may manage to soften the justice’s sentence by a little OIL OF PALMS.
1854. Punch, ii. 168. OIL OF PALMS.—Metaphora vetustissima. A specific much in vogue for rigid fingers and horny fistedness; though, strange to say, it only serves to augment the itch which so often affects the hand.
1858. Morning Chronicle, 10 Feb. It is not an unusual thing in our trade to PALM the police.
1879. DICKENS, Jr., Dictionary of London, s.v. SIGHT-SEEING. The enterprising sight-seer who proceeds on this plan, and who understands the virtues of PALM OIL, is sure to see everything he cares to see.
1898. The Saturday Review, 3 Sept., 298, 1. It was suggested … that one of the reasons for the failure of British diplomacy in China was that we did not rightly appreciate the uses of PALM OIL.
1900. OUIDA, The Massarenes, 32. I think she’ll take us up, William,… but she will want a lot of PALM-GREASE.
2. (colloquial).—To conceal in the palm of the hand; to swindle; to misrepresent. Whence PALMING (PALMISTRY or PALMING-RACKET) = trickery (by secreting in the palm of the hand): specifically shop-lifting, the thieves hunting in pairs, one bargaining, the other watching opportunities: see quots. 1714 and 1755. Also TO PALM OFF = to beguile; TO GAMMON (q.v.); PALMER = a trickster: specifically at cards and dice.—DYCHE (1748); VAUX (1819).
1601. JONSON, The Poetaster, v. Well said, this CARRIES PALM with it.
1698. FARQUHAR, Love and a Bottle [Old Dram. 492]. [He will] palm letters on you.
1700. A Step to the Bath [quoted in J. ASHTON, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, ii. 111]. … There was PALMING, Lodging, Loaded Dice, Levant, and Gammoning, with all the Speed imaginable.
1704. SWIFT, Tale of a Tub, Sect. VI. A rogue that … PALMED his damned crusts upon us for mutton.
1711. Spectator, No. 117. She … has made the country ring with several imaginary exploits which are PALMED UPON her. Ibid., 130. He found his pocket was picked; that being a kind of PALMISTRY at which this race of vermin [gypsies] are very dexterous.
1714. T. LUCAS, Memoirs of Gamesters, etc., 27. PALMING the Die; that is, having the Box in his Hand, he nimbly takes up both the Dice as they are thrown, within the Hollow of his Hand, and puts but one into the Box, reserving the other in the PALM, and observing with a quick Eye what side was upward, he accordingly conforms the next Throw to his Purpose, by delivering that in the Box and the other in his Hand smoothly together.
1755. The Connoisseur, No. 68. Dexterity … TO PALM an ace, or cog a die.
1811. AUSTEN, Sense and Sensibility, xx. Don’t PALM all your abuses … upon me.
1818. SCOTT, Rob Roy, xxxvii. A foundered blood-mare, which he wished to PALM UPON a Manchester merchant.
1826. LAMB, Last Essays of Elia, ‘Popular Fallacies,’ xi. A horse-giver, no more than a horse-seller, has a right to PALM his spavined article UPON us for good ware.
1857. SNOWDEN, Magistrates Assistant, 445. Robbing in shops by two—PALMING.
1877. W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, ii. 119. The warder behind narrowly watches that the prisoner does not ‘PALM’ anything—in other words, practise some legerdemain trick to conceal any contraband article he might have upon him.
TO BEAR THE PALM, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To excel; to be first or best. [The Romans gave branches of palm to a victorious gladiator.]
