(HOTTEN).—1. When a knowing blade is asked what he has been doing lately, and does not choose to tell, he replies, ‘WEAVING LEATHER APRONS.’ (From the reports of a celebrated trial for gold robbery on the South-Western Railway.) Similar replies are, ‘Making a trundle for a goose’s eye,’ or a ‘whim-wham to bridle a goose.’ Sometimes a man will describe himself as ‘a doll’s-eye WEAVER.’
Verb (common).—To roll the neck and body from side to side: of horses. Also (American) = to walk unsteadily, TO MAKE SNAKES (q.v.): as a shuttle in a loom: spec. of drunken men: usually with along, about, etc.
1884. S. L. CLEMENS (‘Mark Twain’), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, xx. Then the preacher begun to preach; and begun in earnest, too; and went WEAVING first to one side of the platform and then the other.
