Walk

subs. (colloquial).—A special haunt, place of resort, or ROUND (q.v.): an extension of the ordinary usage. Thus a MILKMAN’S (CAT’S-MEAT-MAN’S, POSTMAN’S, etc.) WALK = the district habitually served by a salesman (postman, etc.); a BANK-WALK = the round of a banker’s collecting clerk; THE WALK (Royal Exchange) = that portion of the promenade frequented by some particular clique or set of merchants.

  1851–61.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, II. 8. He had thoughts at one time of trying to establish himself in a CAT’S-MEAT WALK.

  COCK (or HEN) OF THE WALK (club, school, etc.), subs. phr. (common).—A man (or woman) of parts, a worthy, a leader.

  1711.  ADDISON, The Spectator, No. 131, 31 July. Service to the knight. Sir Andrew is grown the COCK OF THE CLUB since he left us, and if he does not return quickly will make every mother’s son of us commonwealth’s-men.

  1729.  SWIFT, The Grand Question Debated. But at cuffs I was always the COCK OF THE SCHOOL.

  1764.  O’HARA, Midas, i. 1.

  1862.  E. WOOD, The Channings, II. ix. Were I going in for the seniorship, and one below me were suddenly hoisted above my head and made COCK OF THE WALK, I’d know the reason why.

  d. 1863.  THACKERAY, Miscellanies, II. 275. There is no more dangerous or stultifying position for a man in life than to be a COCK OF SMALL SOCIETY.

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xxiii. This HEN OF THE WALK of our slum is really herself…. Who can jaw a copper like ’Tilda, or carney a Covent Garden salesman out of a bargain, or take the size out of a chaffing swell?

  LADIES’ (or GENTLEMEN’S) WALK, subs. phr. (American).—A W.C.: a euphemism (hotel-proprietors’).

  TO WALK THE STREETS, verb. phr. (common).—To frequent the streets for the purpose of prostitution; to make public quest for men.

  1887.  St. James’s Gazette, 2 July. The other prisoner was in the habit of WALKING the Quadrant.

  TO WALK INTO, verb. phr. (colloquial).—1.  To attack, assault, drub: also TO WALK INTO THE AFFECTIONS; (2) = to scold, RAG (q.v.), SLANG (q.v.); (3) = to demolish, overcome, get the best of; and (4) to eat heartily, to WOLF (q.v.).

  1840.  DICKENS, The Old Curiosity Shop, lxviii. There is little Jacob, WALKING … INTO a home-made plum-cake, at a most surprising pace.

  1840.  HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., 122. To WALK INTO a down east-land jobber requires great skill, I tell you, and a very considerable knowledge of human natur’ and of bisness.

  1853.  REV. E. BRADLEY (‘Cuthbert Bede’), The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman, xi. When he told Verdant that his claret had been repeatedly tapped, his bread-basket WALKED INTO, his day-lights darkened.

  1858.  New York Herald, 16 Sept. The way in which the Courier and Enquirer WALK INTO the character and reputation of some of their old associates in the Clay movement is a caution to respectable blackguards.

  c. 1859.  HIRAM BIGELOW [Letter in Family Comp.]. [BARTLETT]. I went into the dining-room, and sot down afore a plate that had my name writ on a card onto it, and I did WALK INTO the beef, and taters, and things, about east.

  TO WALK THE CHALK, verb. phr. (orig. American).—1.  To walk along a chalk line as a test of sobriety. Hence (2) to go straight in conduct, manners, or morals, to keep up to the mark.

  1840.  HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., xi. The way she WALKS HER CHALKS ain’t no matter. She is a regular fore-and-after.

  1843.  The Comic Almanack, 366, ‘The Chimney-Sweep’s Lament.’ And since my future walk’s chalk’d out—at once I’ll WALK MY CHALKS.

  1846.  J. J. HOOPER, Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs, 89. ‘The Tallapoosy Vollantares,’ added Suggs, adopting the suggestion; ‘so let every body look out, and WALK THE CHALK!’

  1871.  DE VERE, Americanisms, 318. The President, in whom he is disappointed for one reason or another, does not come up to chalk; when he dismisses an official, he is made to WALK THE CHALK.

  TO WALK ONE’S CHALKS (or TO WALK), verb. phr. (common).—To decamp, move on, go about one’s business: see CHALK for suggested origin.

  1596.  SPENSER, A View of the Present State of Ireland. When he comes foorth, he will make theyr cowes and garrans to WALKE.]

  1853.  C. READE, Gold! iv. 2. There are riflemen among them that will bring you down like squirrels if you don’t WALK YOUR CHALKS in good time.

  1873.  A. TROLLOPE, Phineas Redux, i. Browborough has sat for the place now for three Parliaments…. I am told that he must WALK if anybody would go down who could talk to the colliers every night for a week or two.

  THE GHOST WALKS (or DOESN’T WALK), phr. (theatrical).—There is (or is not) money in the treasury.

  1853.  Household Words, 183. When no salaries are forthcoming the GHOST DOESN’T WALK.

  1883.  Referee, 24 June, 3, 2. An Actors’ Benevolent Fund box placed on the treasurer’s desk every day when THE GHOST WALKS would get many an odd shilling or sixpence put into it.

  1885.  ‘CORIN,’ The Truth about the Stage, vi. 112. The rogues seldom appear at a loss for a plausible story when it is time for the ‘GHOST TO WALK.’ Ibid., 114. The next day THE GHOST DECLINES TO WALK.

  1889.  J. C. COLMAN (in A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant), 405. GHOST-WALKING, a term originally applied by an impecunious stroller in a sharing company to the operation of ‘holding the treasury,’ or paying the salaries, which has become a stock facetiæ among all kinds and descriptions of actors. Instead of inquiring whether the treasury is open, they generally say—‘Has the GHOST WALKED?’ or ‘What, has this thing appeared again?’ (Shakspeare).

  1890.  Illustrated Bits, 29 March, 11, 1. And a few nights with empty benches LAID THE GHOST completely. It could not even WALK to the tune of quarter salaries.

  TO WALK THE PLANK, verb. phr. (nautical).—To walk overboard, to die: formerly an old method of execution or vengeance, the victim being forced to walk blindfolded along a plank over the ship’s side.

  TO WALK INTO ONE’S AFFECTIONS, verb. phr. (common).—1.  TO WALK INTO (q.v. supra); and (2) to get into debt.

  TO WALK OVER, verb. phr. (racing).—To win a race without opposition; hence to win easily. WALK-OVER = an unopposed success, complete triumph. [Spec. of a horse, coming alone, of all the entries, to the scratch; it has consequently but to walk over the course at leisure to be entitled to the stake.]

  c. 1859.  Vicksburg Herald [BARTLETT]. What a difference it makes to a candidate, when he knows he is offered a WALK-OVER instead of a forlorn hope?

  1889.  F. REMINGTON, On the Indian Reservations, in The Century Magazine, xxxviii. July, 403. That ’s the bay stallion there … and he ’s never been beaten. It ’s his WALK-OVER, and I ’ve got my gun up on him with an Injun.

  1887.  The Field, 13 Aug. He then proceeded to WALK OVER the imaginary course for the imaginary plate. Ibid., 25 June. In cases where no second horse exists in racing law, either for want of placing or by reason of a WALK-OVER.

  WALK, KNAVE, WALK, phr. (old).—‘A rude phrase which parrots were taught to use’ (FAIRHOLT).

  1592.  J. LYLY, Mydas, i. 2. Pet. That’s a leaden dagger in a velvet sheath, to have a blacke tongue in a faire mouth. Lecio. Tush, it is not for the blacknesse, but for the babling, for every hour she will cry, WALKE, KNAVE, WALKE.

  1663–78.  BUTLER, Hudibras, I. i.

  Also in VARIOUS PHRASES: Thus TO WALK ALONE = to be an outcast, forsaken, shunned; TO WALK THE HOSPITALS = to attend the medical and surgical practice of hospitals as a student under one of the qualified staff; TO WALK SPANISH = to be seized by the scruff and the seat and thus forced along, to act under compulsion; TO WALK ABOUT (military) = an occasional instruction from officers to sentinels for the purpose of waiving the ceremony of the salute; TO WALK THE PEGS (gaming) = to ‘sharp’ one’s pegs forward or those of one’s antagonist backward (cribbage); TO WALK (or JUMP) DOWN ONE’S THROAT = to rate, scold, abuse; TO WALK UP LADDER-LANE AND DOWN HEMP-STREET = to be hanged at the yardarm: see LADDER; TO WALK ROUND ONE = to get an advantage, or the bulge over.

  1853.  HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), Wise Saws, 20. My ambassadors, said the President, may not dance as elegantly as European courtiers, but they can WALK ROUND them in a treaty, that’s a fact.