Vamose: to disappear or leave quickly.
- 1848: The united faces of the company would have reached a mile. They bolted, mizzled, flew, vamosed. Stray Subjects, p. 198
- 1855: Our hero vamosed rather hurriedly. Oregon Weekly Times, June 16
- 1857: Another pair ofjail-birds have vamosed the logjail at Jacksonville. The new institution, it is hoped, will not prove so leaky. Oregon Weekly Times, August 1
Varment, varmint: a wild animal or objectional person.
- 1827: They scent plunder; and it would be as hard to drive a hound from his game as to throw the varmints [Indians] from its trail. James Fenimore Cooper, The Prairie, p.93
- 1837: The fossil remnant of some antediluvian varmint, in the shape of a molar tooth, was dug up. Baltimore Commerical Transcript, August 25
- 1842: Killed. A mad dog in Locust Street yesterday. The varmint had run into the midst of a colored temperance meeting. Philadelphia Spirit of the Times, June 6
- 1858: For nearly a fortnight a regular live comet has been visible. Time of appearance, early in the evening. It is rumored to us that the same varmint is occasionally seen flitting athwart the sky of mornings. Oregon Weekly Times, October 2
Virginia fence: a staggering drunk was said to make this (a zigzagging fence) when he walked. Anyone or anything that meanders. Also, a fence constructed in this manner.
- 1824: You pass no stone walls [in Virginia] but hedge, or in-and-out zig-zag cedar rails, or wattled fences. Arthur Singleton, Letters from the South and West, p.59
- 1826: The universal fence [in the West] is split rails, laid in a worm trail, or what is known in the North by the name of Virginia fence. T. Flint, Recollections, p. 206
- 1853: His acres were enclosed with harsh stone walls, or an unpicturesque Virginia fence, with its zig-zag of rude rails. Life Scenes, p.99
