subs. (old).—1. Booty; plunder.
c. 1790. Kilmainham Minit [Ireland Sixty Years Ago, 87].
| And when dat he milled a fat SLAP, | |
| He merrily melted de winners. |
2. (theatrical).—Make-up. Also as verb.: [cf. SLAP = to rough cast].
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 98. You could just distinguish faintly That she favoured the judicious use of SLAP.
Adj. (colloquial).—First-rate; SMART (q.v.); PRIME (q.v.): also SLAP-UP: cf. BANG-UP (GROSE). Whence SLAPPER = anything exceptional: see WHOPPER; SLAPPING = very big, excellent.
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, II. 119. People’s got proud now … and must have everything SLAP. Ibid., 122. A smart female servant in SLAP-UP black.
1855. THACKERAY, The Newcomes, xxxi. Might it not be more SLAP-UP still to have the two shields painted on the panels with the coronet over.
1859. G. W. MATSELL, Vocabulum; or, The Rogue’s Lexicon. Kerseymere kicksies … built very SLAP with the artful dodge.
1865. DICKENS, Our Mutual Friend, II. viii. A SLAP-UP gal in a bang-up chariot.
1865. W. H. AINSWORTH, Auriol, I. i. He’s a reg’lar SLAP-UP svell.
1885. ‘CORIN,’ The Truth about the Stage, vii. 129. A drama in which the comic characters were Whitechapel Costers, who wore ‘SLAP-UP kicksies, with a double fakement down each side and artful buttons at bottom.’
Adv. (colloquial).—Violently; plump; offhand: also SLAP-BANG, SLAM-BANG and SLAP-DASH. As subs. = (1) careless work, and (2) indiscriminate action; as verb. = to go recklessly to work.
1671. BUCKINGHAM, The Rehearsal [ARBER], 67. He is upon him, SLAP, with a repartee; then he is at him again, DASH, with a new conceit.
1693. CONGREVE, The Old Batchelor, iv. 9. I am SLAP DASH down in the mouth, and have not one word to say.
1705. VANBRUGH, The Confederacy, iv. Very genteel, truly! Go, SLAP DASH, and offer a woman of her scruples money, bolt in her face!
1712. CENTLIVRE, The Perplex’d Lovers, iii. If you don’t march off, I shall play you such an English Courant, of SLAP-DASH, presently, that shan’t out of your Ears this Twelvemonth.
1717. PRIOR, Alma, i. 17.
| And yet, SLAP-DASH, is all again | |
| In every sinew, nerve, and vein. |
1753. RICHARDSON, The History of Sir Charles Grandison, i. 170. In so peremptory, in so unceremonious a manner, SLAPDASH as I may say.
1759–67. STERNE, Tristram Shandy, III. 38. The whips and short turns which in one stage or other of my life have come SLAP upon me.
c. 1790. Kilmainham Minit [Ireland Sixty Years Ago], 87. SLAP DASH tro de Poddle we lark it.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 42. He came down SLAP-DASH on all the rest of the dishes.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends, ‘The Smuggler’s Leap,’ II. 143.
| When his horse coming SLAP on his knees with him, threw | |
| Him head over heels. |
1853. BULWER-LYTTON, My Novel, III. vi. It was a SLAPDASH style.
c. 1866. VANCE, Jolly Dogs. SLAP, BANG, here we are again.
1888. J. R. LOWELL, Some Letters of Walter Savage Landor [The Century Magazine, xxxv. Feb., 515]. The SLAPDASH judgments upon artists in others are very characteristic.
1884. C. READE, Art, 20. He … executed a solemn, but marvellously grotesque bow;… this done, he recovered body, and strode away again SLAP DASH.
1885. Weekly Echo, 5 Sept. This most eccentric of quill-drivers gets up his facts in a SLAP-DASH fashion.
1889. The Athenæum, No. 3197, 2 Feb., 146. As a specimen of newspaper ‘SLAPDASH’ we may point to the description of General Ignatieff as ‘the Russian Mr. Gladstone.’
A SLAP (or SLAT) IN THE FACE, phr. (colloquial).—A rebuff; a reproach (BEE).
See SLOP UP.
