Weed

subs. (common).—1.  A cigar, a NEWTOWN PIPPIN (q.v.). Also THE WEED = tobacco: cf. CABBAGE.

  1841.  E. G. PAIGE (‘Dow, Jr.’), Short Patent Sermons, ‘Another Discourse on Tobacco.’ By the appearance of the shirt-bosoms of some inveterate old chewers [of the WEED], I should judge they had been squirting their juice in the face of a northeaster for spite.

  1844.  Puck, 14. With his WEED in his cheek and his glass on his eye, His cutaway neat, and knowing tie, The milliners’ hearts he did trepan My spicy swell small-college man.

  1848.  E. Z. C. JUDSON (‘Ned Buntline’), The Mysteries and Miseries of New York, 89. Those who were not dancing, were seated around the room, some smoking, others chewing ‘the WEED,’ still others drinking.

  1888.  H. JAMES, The Modern Warning [Harper’s Magazine, lxxvii. 88]. Sir Rufus puffed his own WEED in solitude, strolling up and down the terrace.

  1889.  Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, 6 July. Last week he offered me a WEED—A worse one no man’s lips e’er soiled.

  1901.  Troddles, 77. He was fourteen … and produced his cigarette case and asked me to ‘have a WEED.’

  2.  (colloquial).—Generic for sorryness or worthlessness: spec. a horse, unfit for stock, a SCREW (q.v.): i.e., (racing) an animal lacking the points of a thoroughbred. Whence WEEDY, adj. = worthless, unfit for stock purposes.

  1859.  LEVER, Davenport Dunn, ii. He bore the same relation to a man of fashion that a WEED does to a winner of the Derby.

  1888.  BOLDREWOOD, The Squatter’s Dream, 28. She pointed to her steed, a small violent WEED.

  1888.  T. A. GUTHRIE (‘F. Anstey’), A Gypsy Fair in Surrey, in Harper’s Magazine, lxxvi. 625. A gypsy hostler would trot out a succession of the WEEDIEST of old screws.

  3.  (once literary: now colloquial in surviving sense).—In pl. = generic for clothes: spec. an outer garment: now only in phrase WIDOWS’ WEEDS = mourning. Whence WEEDY = clad in mourning garments.

  1320.  GROSSETESTE, Castel of Loue, 658.

  c. 1500.  The Romans of Partenay [E.E.T.S.], 3415.

  1369.  CHAUCER, Troilus and Criseyde, iii. 1718.

  1503.  DUNBAR, The Thrissill and the Rois, l. 15.

  1588.  R. GREENE, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, 153.

  1590.  SPENSER, The Fairie Queene, I. vii. 21.

  1614.  CHAPMAN, Odyssey, x. Her own hands putting on both shirt and WEED.

  1671.  MILTON, Paradise Regained, i. 314.

  1766.  H. BROOKE, The Fool of Quality, i. 191. I gave her twopence, reassumed my former garb, and left my WEEDS in her custody.

  d. 1870.  DICKENS, David Copperfield, xvii. She was as WEEDY as in the early days of her mourning.

  Verb (old).—‘To pilfer or purloin a small portion from a large quantity of any thing; often done by young or timid depredators, in the hope of escaping detection, as, an apprentice or shopman will WEED his master’s lob, that is, take small sums out of the till when opportunity offers, which sort of peculation may be carried on with impunity for a length of time; but experienced thieves sometimes think it good judgment to WEED a place, in order that it may be good again, perhaps for a considerable length of time, as in the instance of a warehouse, or other depôt, for goods, to which they may possess the means of access by means of a false key; in this case, by taking too great a swag, at first, the proprietors would discover the deficiency, and take measures to prevent future depredation. To WEED THE SWAG is to embezzle part of the booty, unknown to your palls, before a division takes place, a temptation against which very few of the family are proof, if they can find an opportunity. A flash-cove, on discovering a deficiency in his purse or property, which he cannot account for, will declare that he (or it, naming the article) has been wedded to the ruffian’ (GROSE). Hence WEEDING-DUES: in speaking of any person, place, or property that has been weeded, it is said WEEDING DUES have been concerned.