as the succeeding lines clearly prove:—
"For though between dead horses there's not much to choose,
Yet Tom's were the better by the hide and four shoes."
Avast in old cant has the signification of away.
Avast to the pad, let us bing.—T. Middleton: Roaring Girle.
Avering, the trick of a beggar boy who strips himself and goes naked into a town with a false story of his being cold and robbed of his clothes, to move compassion and get other clothes. This is called averis and to go an avering.—Old Manuscript in the Lansdovme Collection, quoted in Wright's "Archaic Dictionary."
The word is evidently gypsy, from aver, to come or go, as further appears by averis, is or os being (as is common in Indian dialects) a suffix to form a noun (vide Av).
Āvo, āwo, auwo, āwali, avali (gypsy), yes. Avali is rare in England, but it may be commonly heard in Hungary.
Lei a chūmer del a chūmer
Avo, āvali!
Buti, buti, sār pa tāte,
Mīro kāmlo zi.
Take a kiss—give a kiss—yes—yes. Many and many, all for you, my dear heart.
—Janet Tuckey.
Avoirdupois lay (old), stealing brass weights off shop counters.
Awake (general), on one's guard, warned, put up to.
"A common expression of the 'family people;' thus a thief will say to his accomplice on perceiving that the person they are about to rob is aware of their intention and upon his guard, 'Stow it, the cove's awake.' To be awake to any scheme, deception, or design, means, generally, to see through or comprehend it."—From Vaux's Memoirs.
Awer (gypsy), but. This recalls the German aber, but it is probably, only a form of the affirmative awo.
Awful. This word does duty in fashionable slang for "very." Girls and women are no longer "very pretty" or "very handsome," but "awfully pretty" or "awfully handsome." The expression is sometimes varied into "dreadfully." An awful shame or pity, or a dreadful shame or pity, are common expressions both among the high and low vulgar. "An awfully fine day" is a favourite expletive among young and old, but especially among the young. All these, and countless other perversions of the word, might fitly be described as awfully destructive of the grace, elegance, and purity of the English language. In like manner very laughable farces are declared to be screamingly funny or excruciatingly funny; as if very were no longer an English word.
