Dictionary of Americanisms; a Glossary of Words and Phrases Usually Regarded As Peculiar to the United States

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1859 edition. Excerpt: ...species of the genus idler--the most important, because the most annoying branch of that family. " The loafer is not exclusively, as some suppose him, a ragged stepand-corner lounger, who sleeps in the sun, and ' hooks' sugar on the wharf. On the contrary, the propensity to loaf is confined to no rank in life; all conditions are, more or less, troubled with it. Like squinting, the king and the beggar may be equally afflicted with the imperfection. There be your well-dressed moneyed loafer, as well as your loafer who is nightly taken by the watch. " He is that kind of a man, who, having nothing to do, or being unwilling to do any thing, cannot keep his tediousness to himself, and therefore bestows it all upon others, not when they are at leisure for conversational recreation, but when business presses, and they would look black upon the intrusion of a sweetheart or a three-day wife. He is the drag-chain upon industry, and yet so far different from the drag-chain, that he hitches to the wheel when the pull is up hill. Loving the excitement of busy scenes, yet too lazy to be an actor in them, where men are busiest, there too is to be found the pure, unadulterated loafer, sprawling about as the hound sprawls before the fire in everybody's way, and tripping up everybody's heels. In the store, he sits upon the counter, swinging his useless legs, and gaping vacantly at the movements around him. In the office, he effectually checks necessary conversation among those who do not wish their business bruited to the world, turns over papers which he has no right to touch, and squints at contents which he has no right to know. In the ounting-house, he perches on a stool, interrupts difficult calculations with chat as idle as himself, follows...