Tool

subs. (colloquial).—1.  A person employed by another (in reproach): a jackal, satellite, or dupe; a cat’s-paw (B. E. and GROSE). Hence, a POOR TOOL = a clumsy worker, a bad hand at anything; A MERE TOOL = a sycophant. Also (old) TOOL = a useless, shiftless fellow.

  1650.  SIR A. WELDON, The Court and Character of King James (1817), 10. [A man is compared to] the TOOLE in the hand of the Work-man.

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. TOOL, an Implement fit for any Turn, the Creature of any Cause or Faction; a meer Property, or Cat’s Foot.

  1699.  GARTH, The Dispensary, III.

  1775.  SHERIDAN, Duenna, ii. 4. Oh, the easy blockhead! what a TOOL I have made of him!

  1813.  BYRON, The Bride of Abydos, ii. 16.

  1861.  T. WINTHROP, Cecil Dreeme, v. He had been a clerk, TOOL, agent, slave, of the great Densdeath.

  2.  (old).—A weapon: spec. a sword.

  c. 1360.  Sir Gawayne [E.E.T.S.], 2259.

  1383.  CHAUCER, The Canterbury Tales, ‘The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,’ 96.

  1582.  STANYHURST, Æneis [ARBER], 63. Mye TOOLS make passadge through flame and hostilitye Greekish.

  1595.  SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, i. 1. 37. Gre. Draw thy TOOL.… Sam. My naked weapon is out: quarrel, I will back thee.

  3.  (thieves’).—Usually in pl. = (a) pistols; (b) housebreaking implements; (c) the hands, THE FORKS (q.v.); and (d) in sing. = a small boy employed to creep through windows, etc., to effect entry. Hence TO TOOL = to burgle, to pick pockets, to steal; FIXED FOR THE TOOLS = convicted for possession of illegal instruments; TOOLER = a burglar or pickpocket; MOLL-TOOLER = a female thief.

  1890.  BOLDREWOOD, The Squatter’s Dream, 157. He possessed himself of the sixteen-shooter, and handed the Snider to the Doctor…. We’ll be a match for all the blessed traps … with these here TOOLS.

  4.  (colloquial).—Generic for equipment (cf. all senses): spec. (artists’) = brushes; (authors’) = books, especially works of reference; (medical) = surgical instruments (see quot. 1706, sense 6).

  5.  (driving).—A whip. Hence, as verb = to handle a team of horses skilfully; also (loosely) = to drive: applied to all means of locomotion—engine, cart, bicycle, motor-car, etc.; TO TOOL ALONG = to go quickly.

  1849.  BULWER-LYTTON, The Caxtons, xiii. 4. He could TOOL a coach.

  1882.  E. P. WHIPPLE, Some Recollections of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Harper’s Magazine, lxv. Sept., 579. Only kept from stopping altogether … by the occasional idle play of Emerson’s whip…. So we ‘TOOLED ON.’

  1885.  Daily Telegraph, 18 Nov. The crack coaches … were TOOLED by expert ‘knights of the bench.’

  1887.  A. JESSOPP, Arcady for Better for Worse, i. The high-stepping mare that TOOLS him along through the village street.

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xiv. See about the coach for Ascot—drivin’ down myself for the Nimrod. TOOL you down in style.

  6.  (venery).—The penis: also (in pl.) = the male privities: see PRICK. Hence TO GRIND ONE’S TOOL = to copulate: see GREENS and RIDE.

  1640.  Ladies’ Parliament. Stamford. She is for the game, She saies her husband is to blame, For her part she loves a foole, If he hath a good TOOLE.

  1653.  URQUHART, Rabelais, I. xii. This little lecher was always groping his nurses and governesses … for he had already begun to exercise the TOOLS, and put his codpiece in practice.

  1694.  MOTTEUX, Rabelais, V. xxviii.

  1706.  WARD, The Wooden World Dissected, 46, ‘The Surgeon.’ His TOOLS are of various Sorts and Sizes; his best he always carries in his Breeches. Ibid. (1707), Hudibras Redivivus, II. ii. 22. And fire the TOOLS of Generation With Some Venereal Inflammation.

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 219.

  d. 1796.  BURNS [The Merry Muses (c. 1800), 22]. ‘Old Song Revised.’