Odds, ask no: ask no favor.
- 1857: I ask no odds of them, no more than I do of the dirt I walk on. H.C. Kimball at the Bowery, Salt Lake City, Journal of Discourses, July 12
- 1857: I swore I would send them to hell across lots if they meddled with me; and I ask no more odds of all hell today. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, July 26, P. 78
Off the reel: immediately.
- 1833: [I had a mind] to have a fight with him off the reel, and settle the right of soil at once. J.K. Paulding, Banks of the Ohio, p. 78
- 1856: You have got to promise right off the reel that you won't say another word. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Dred, Ch. XLVIII
Old man, old woman: one's spouse. Also, one's father or mother.
- 1843: "He's your old man, mam?" Mrs. C. assented. R. Carlton, The New Purchase, p.62
- 1855: As we were talk about the war [she] said… "What does your old man think about it?" I answered as well as I could, and am amused at this appellation, purely western, she has given my husband. Sara Robinson, Kansas, p. 138
- 1859: [She] feels that she has a right to spend every cent that the old man allows her. J.G. Holland, Titcomb's Letters, p. 195
Old orchard: whiskey.
- 1810: Come, ye lovers of Old Orchard, let us take a walk into the fields. Robert Thomas, The Farmer's Almanac, September
- 1844: The old orchard went merrily around… tea, coffee, and old orchard served to wash down the good things. Lowell Offering
One-horse: small, limited, inferior.
- 1854: I'm done with one-horse bedsteads, I am. Aneed, New York Journal of Commerce
- 1857: A Mormon elder says he has visited and preached in the following places in Texas: Empty-Bucket, Rake-pocket, Doughplate, Bucksnort, Possum Trot, Buzzard Roost, Hardscrabble, Nippentuck, and Lickskillet; most of which, however, he says, are merely one-horse towns. Harper's Weekly, November 14
- 1858: A country clergyman, with a one-story intellect and a one-horse vocabulary. Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Ch. II
- 1859: Close by the little one-horse church, skirted by the belt of cedars. Knickerbocker Magazine, March
Opine: to be of the opinion.
- 1830: Not a few leeches in that city, we opine, will vote for him. Northern Watchman, August 17
- 1842: [General Winfield Scott] had better keep his fingers to scratch his own ears with, we opine. Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, August 27
- 1854: We opine that he would have carried with him… prayers and good wishes. Weekly Oregonian, October 7
Ornary: mean.
- 1830: You ornery fellow! do you pretend to call me to account for my language? Massachusetts Spy, May 28
- 1854: [He was] sent to Freehold court-house last term for 'busin' his wife. Awful ornary! Knickerbocker Magazine, March
- 1857: That poor ornary cuss of a red-haired, cross-eyed grocery-keeper. Knickerbocker Magazine, November
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