subs. (thieves’).—1. Base silver money. TO PLANT THE SOUR = to ‘utter’ SNIDE (q.v.) silver; whence SOUR-PLANTER. See SHOVER.
1883. GREENWOOD, Tag, Rag, & Co., ‘Planting the “Sours.”’ The individual mentioned on the paper was a ‘smasher,’ or, in other words, a dealer in counterfeit coin, or ‘SOURS.’ Ibid. It is not in paltry pewter ‘SOURS’ with which the young woman has dealings, but in ‘dandys,’ which, rendered into intelligible English, means imitation gold coin.
2. (American).—An acid punch: thus WHISKEY-SOUR = whiskey and lemon.
Adj. (B. E.).—‘Crabbed, surly, ill-conditioned.’
TO SOUR ON, verb. phr. (American).—To treat unkindly.
