have two nickels together...to mate

ChandlerのThe Big Sleep を読んでいます。
I put the gun back in my pocket and sat down close to Brody and stared into his bleak brown eyes. A minute passed. The blonde adjusted her face by the aid of a pocket mirror. Brody fumbled around with a cigarette and jerked: Satisfied?
So far. Why did you put the bite on Mrs. Regan instead of the old man?
Tapped the old man once. About six, seven months ago. I figure maybe he gets sore enough to call in some law.
What made you think Mrs. Regan wouldn't tell him about it?
He considered that with some care, smoking his cigarette and keeping his eyes on my face. Finally he said: How well you know her?
I've met her twice. You must know her a lot better to take a chance on that squeeze with the photo.
She skates around plenty. I figure maybe she has a couple of soft spots she don't want the old man to know about. I figure she can raise five grand easy.
A little weak, I said. But pass it. You're broke, eh?
I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate. What you do for a living?
上の引用文最後から２番目の文 "I been shaking two nickels together for a month, trying to get them to mate" の表現は慣用句が含まれているに違いないと睨んだのですが、恐らく次の慣用句が基になっていると確信しています。
・Cambridge Idioms Dictionary: (British, American & Australian) (also not have two nickels to rub together, also not have two pennies to your name) to be very poor: She's been out of work for months and doesn't have two pennies to rub together.
この慣用句はお金以外にも次の形で使われるとも分かりました。
"not have two Xs to rub together"
・Oxford English Dictionary: Have none or hardly any of the specified item, especially money.: she doesn't have two nickels to rub together: Between the miserable lot of them they don't have two good ideas to rub together.
Chandlerの表現は否定形ではなく、"rub" の代わりに "mate" を使っていますが、"not have two nickels to rub together" を基にして、金に困っていたことを表しているに違いありません。

check

ChandlerのThe Big Sleep を読んでいます。
I went to the door and looked out. The cool night breeze was blowing peacefully down the hall. No excited neighbors hung out of doorways. A small gun had gone off and broken a pane of glass, but noises like that don't mean much any more. I held the door open and jerked my head at Carmen. She came towards me, smiling uncertainly.
Go on home and wait for me, I said soothingly.
She put her thumb up. Then she nodded and slipped past me into the hail. She touched my cheek with her fingers as she went by. You'll take care of Carmen, won't you? she cooed.
Check.
You're cute.
"Check" と言うと米国のレストランで「お勘定」の意味で使いますが、上の場面はレストランではないので違う意味ですね。辞書を見ます。
・Cambridge English Dictionary: mainly US used to say yes to someone who is making certain that all the things on a list have been dealt with or included: "Did you bring your sleeping bag?" "Check." "Pillow?" "Check."
アンケートのチェックボックスに印を付けるのと同じですね。

a gat in the hand means a world by the tail

ChandlerのThe Big Sleep を読んでいます。
I reached for it. Brody took a gun out of the cigar box and pointed it at my nose. I looked at the gun. It was a black Police .39. I had no argument against it at the moment.
Neat, huh? Brody said. Just kind of stand up a minute. Come forward just about two yards. You might grab a little air while you're doing that. His voice was the elaborately casual voice of the tough guy in pictures. Pictures have made them all like that.
Tsk, tsk, I said, not moving at all. Such a lot of guns around town and so few brains. You're the second guy I've met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail. Put it down and don't be silly, Joe.
"gat in the hand means a world by the tail" の "a world by the tail" はMary Higgins Clarkの "Before I Say Good-Bye" を読んだ時に出てきた "get the world by the tail"(3/27/2017") の意味ですね。
今日調べるのは "gat" の意味です。
・Oxford English Dictionary: A revolver or pistol.: Teenagers with gats chased all her guests away.
・Wiktionary: a. (archaic, slang, in old westerns) A Gatling gun. b. (1920s gangster slang) Any type of gun, usually a pistol.
Origin: From Gatling gun, after inventor Richard Gatling.
西部劇あるいはChandler作品の様な古い探偵物にしか出てこなそうな単語でした。

walk on the balls of his feet

ChandlerのThe Big Sleep を読んでいます。
I finished my cigarette and lit another. The minutes dragged by. Horns tooted and grunted on the boulevard. A big red interurban car grumbled past A traffic light gonged. The blonde leaned on her elbow and cupped a hand over her eyes and stared at me behind it. The partition door opened and the tall bird with the cane slid out. He had another wrapped parcel, the shape of a large book. He went over to the desk and paid money. He left as he had come, walking on the balls of his feet, breathing with his mouth open, giving me a sharp side glance as he passed.
"walking on the balls of his feet" の個所ですが、最初 "walking on the balls" まで読んで、何かのボールの上を歩くことを、特にバランスボールをイメージした、想像したのですが、それは可笑しい。よく読むと後に "of his feet" とあるので、これは 1/29/2014 に取り上げた "ball" の意味だと気が付きました。しかし、何故わざわざこんな表現を使うのか気になります。
ネットで調べると歩き方について次の様な記述を見つけました。
・While many animals walk on the balls of their feet, humans use a heel-first stride.
・Humans, other great apes and bears are among the few animals that step first on the heel when walking, and then roll onto the ball of the foot and toes. Now, a University of Utah study shows the advantage: Compared with heel-first walking, it takes 53 percent more energy to walk on the balls of your feet, and 83 percent more energy to walk on your toes.
・Why Humans Walk 'Flat-Footed'
・Walking on the toes or the ball of the foot, also known as toe walking, is fairly common in children who are just beginning to walk.
・tiptoe (Oxford English Dictionary): Walk quietly and carefully with one's heels raised and one's weight on the balls of the feet.
歩くときに足のどの部分が先に地面に着くのかの話ですが、人は普通踵から着くとは余り意識していませんでした。

nap

ChandlerのThe Big Sleep を読んでいます。
It was a wide room, the whole width of the house, It had a low beamed ceiling and brown plaster walls decked out with strips of Chinese embroidery and Chinese and Japanese prints in grained wood frames. There were low bookshelves, there was a thick pinkish Chinese rug in which a gopher could have spent a week without showing his nose above the nap.
"grained wood" の "grain" は 8/2/2011に取り上げています。
今日調べたい単語は最後に出てきた "nap" です。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: The raised hairs, threads, or similar small projections on the surface of fabric or suede (used especially with reference to the direction in which they naturally lie): carefully machine the seam, following the direction of the nap
・Collins Dictionary: The nap of a carpet or of a cloth such as velvet is the top layer of short threads, which usually lie smoothly in one direction.
・Cambridge English Dictionary: the surface of a piece of cloth such as velvet, consisting of short threads that have been brushed in one direction
細かい描写を記述するChandlerが好みそうな単語でした。私は従来から知っている意味の方が好きですね。

more than meet the eye

ChandlerのThe Big Sleep を読んでいます。
She had lovely legs. I would say that for her. They were a couple of pretty smooth citizens, she and her father. He was probably just trying me out; the job he had given me was a lawyer's job. Even if Mr. Arthur Gwynn Geiger, Rare Books and De Luxe Editions, turned out to be a blackmailer, it was still a lawyer's job. Unless there was a lot more to it than met the eye. At a casual glance I thought I might have a lot of fun finding out.
"there was a lot more to it than met the eye" の個所を読んで、数十年前の米国駐在時にＴＶアニメの影響で息子が "The Transformers! More than meets the eye!" と歌っていたのを思い出しました。
息子は幼稚園児位だったので多分 "More than meets the eye" の意味は分からずに歌っていたと思います。私も意味が分からなかったので辞書を引いた覚えがあります。
・Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary: more (to something) than there appears to be at first: There is more to this proposal than meets the eye.
・McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs: Fig. [there are] hidden values or facts regarding something. There is more to that problem than meets the eye. What makes you think that there is more than meets the eye?

know one's onions

Raymond ChandlerのThe Big Sleep を読んでいます。
“Somebody’s counting on that. It’s the easiest way to fool them. That or the police. Geiger can collect on these notes, unless you can show fraud. Instead of that he makes you a present of them and admits they are gambling debts, which gives you a defense, even if he had kept the notes. If he’s a crook, he knows his onions, and if he’s an honest man doing a little loan business on the side, he ought to have his money. Who was this Joe Brody you paid the five thousand dollars to?”
"knows his onions" はイデオムでしょう。辞書を見ます。
・Oxford English Dictionary: Be very knowledgeable about something.: And you need to know your onions when you tackle Beethoven, even before you get to the details of the music.
・Collins Dictionary: to be fully acquainted with a subject
・English slang and colloquialisms used in the United Kingdom: Knowledgeable and competent in one's task. E.g."I'll say one thing for Craig, he knows his onions when it comes to repairing car engines."
語源が気になりますね。長くなるので引用しませんが、興味のある方は次のサイト（World Wide Words at http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kno1.htm）の記事を読んで下さい。

convenient hair

Raymond ChandlerのThe Big Sleepを読み始めました。Raymond Chandlerの小説はこれで3冊目ですが、The Big Sleepは彼の最初の長編だそうです。Chandlerは場面や人物の描写が細かいので読むのに時間がかかる気がします。
Big Sleepで最初に引っ掛かった表現は次の個所の "convenient hair" でした。
The main hallway of the Sternwood place was two stories high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained-glass panel showing a knight in dark armor rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn’t have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the vizor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling with the knots on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him. He didn’t seem to be really trying.
"convenient" は "convenience" の形容詞形で、"convenience store/shop" はコンビニとして日本語になっていますが、この形容詞の "convenient" が付く髪が何故便利なのか最初はさっぱり分からず、"convenient" に便利とか都合の良いの他になにか意味があるのか辞書を見ましたが分かりませんでした。
しかし、文章を何度か読み直して気が付きました、この女性は "didn’t have any clothes on" で、髪の毛は "very long" となっている事に。想像力の乏しい私にはChandlerの小説を読むのに時間がかかるわけだ。

Pure As the Driven Snow

Reader's Digest 5月号の記事 Six Idiotic Idioms--and What's Wrong with Them は昔からのイデオムに疑義を投じています。　その内の一つを引用します。
Pure As the Driven Snow
The flaw: Driven snow is toxic.
"Driven" snow has been blown into drifts and remained untrodden-upon by human heels. Sounds pure, but according to Canadian researchers, fresh white snow is a magnet for car-exhaust pollution, absorbing enough toxins while "driven" to become a health hazard if you were to drink enough of it.
"Pure As the Driven Snow" は3/28/2017 に取り上げた "as clean as the driven snow" と同義の表現ですね。