subs. (venery).—1.  The female pudendum: see MONOSYLLABLE.

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  1705.  WARD, Hudibras Redivivus, I. x. 18. They hide that tempting SPOT, That caus’d old Adam’s Fall.

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  2.  (American).—Shares (or goods) ready for delivery: that is ‘on the SPOT.’

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  1902.  Daily Mail, 17 Nov., 2, 2. The quotation for two months’ forward delivery declined 1-16d. to 22 11-16d., but was unchanged at 223/4d. for SPOT.

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  3.  (American gaming).—A dollar: e.g., FIVE SPOT = five dollars; $5.

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  1896.  LILLARD, Poker Stories, 246. But one single dollar remained of that FIVE SPOT.

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  Verb. (colloquial).—1.  To recognise; to take note of; to discover. Also 2. (thieves’) = to detect, to come upon: hence SPOTTER = a detective: Fr. indicateur: whence SPOTTED = known to the police (TUFTS, 1791); and 3. (racing) = to pick out, to choose, to chance upon: e.g., TO SPOT THE WINNER.

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  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, I. 484. At length he became ‘SPOTTED.’ The police got to know him, and he was apprehended, tried, and convicted.

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  1857.  Morning Chronicle, 22 June. Having met with tolerable success in SPOTTING the winners.

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  1861.  O. W. HOLMES, Elsie Venner, xxi. The Widow Leech … rang three times … but all in vain; the inside Widow having SPOTTED the outside one through the blinds.

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  1877.  W. H. THOMSON, Five Years’ Penal Servitude, i. 33. The officer ‘SPOTTED’ him directly, and if he could not ‘reckon him up’ himself, would mark him for the attention of some one else he thought would be likely to know something of him before.

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  1885.  The Field, 4 April. The hounds SPOTTED him, and he became food and trophy two minutes later.

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  1896.  FARJEON, The Betrayal of John Fordham, iii. 279. The minute I sor ’im I SPOTTED wot they wos up to.

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  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, v. I’ve SPOTTED her many a time when she didn’t think I was lookin’.

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  1902.  Free Lance, 19 July, 377, 1. To hear you laugh is as good as SPOTTING A WINNER.

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  1903.  Punch’s Almanack, 12, 1. B. P. gives a thrilling example of experiment on this line. Got up a tree and watched how many passers-by SPOTTED him.

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  4.  (common).—To gamble.

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  PHRASES AND COMBINATIONS.—A SOFT SPOT = an easy, comfortable, or desirable berth, thing, or circumstance: see HUNT; TO KNOCK SPOTS OUT OF (see KNOCK); ON (or OFF) THE SPOT = alert, dead certain; IN SPOTS = by snatches; TO HAVE A VACANT SPOT = to be crazy.

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  1887.  W. E. HENLEY, Villon’s Straight Tip to all Cross Coves. Rattle the tats, or MARK THE SPOT.

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