adj. (occasionally colloquial).—Trustworthy; certain: e.g., ‘So-and-so’s SAFE enough’ = ‘He is certain to meet his engagements’; SAFE to be hanged = sure of the gallows; SAFE AS HOUSES (THE BELLOWS, COONS, THE BANK—ANYTHING) = perfectly sure; A SAFE-CARD = a wide-awake fellow; A SAFE-UN = a horse not meant to run, nor, if he runs, to win; also STIFF-’UN (q.v.); DEAD-’UN (q.v.), or STUMER (q.v.): with such an entry a bookmaker can SAFELY operate.
1624. MIDDLETON, A Game at Chess, ii. 1.
| To sell away all the powder in a kingdom, | |
| To prevent blowing up: that’s SAFE, I’ll able it. |
1851. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, II. 154. If you was caught up and brought afore the Lord Mayor, he’d give you fourteen days on it, as SAFE AS THE BELLOWS.
1854. WHYTE-MELVILLE, General Bounce, xiii. But here we are at Tattersail’s;… so now for good information, long odds, a SAFE man, and a shot at the favourite!
1864. Derby-day, 51. We’re all ruined AS SAFE AS COONS.
1864. YATES, Broken to Harness, x. I shall be county-courted, AS SAFE AS HOUSES. Ibid. (1866), Land at Last, I. 173. One or two more of the same sort are SAFE to make him an associate.
1867. London Herald, 23 March, 221, 3. We’re SAFE to nab him; SAFE AS HOUSES.
1871. “HAWK’S-EYE,” Turf Notes, 11. Most assuredly it is the bookmakers that profit by the SAFE UNS, or “stiff uns,” as, in their own language, horses that have no chance of winning are called.
1890. GRANT ALLEN, The Tents of Shem, xxviii. You may make your forgery itself as SAFE AS HOUSES.
1894. GEORGE MOORE, Esther Waters, xxx. I overlaid my book against Wheatear; I’d heard that she was AS SAFE AS ’OUSES.
