subs. (old cant).—A beggar. Also as verb = to give alms (GROSE).
Verb. (cards: espec. poker).—To contribute to the pool. Hence SWEETENING = money paid into the pool or kitty.
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 191. Then along came a big jack pot that had been enlarged by repeated SWEETENINGS.
TO SWEETEN AND PINCH, verb. phr. (old).—See quot.
1678. Four for a Penny, in Harleian Miscellany (ed. PARK), IV. 147. A main part of his [a bum-bailiff’s] office is to swear and bluster … and cry, ‘Confound us, why do we wait? let us shop him’; whilst the other meekly replies, ‘Jack, be patient, it is a civil gentleman, and I know, will consider us’; which species of wheedling, in terms of their art, is called SWEETEN AND PINCH.
