The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue dates from 1811 and this is probably the only full, uncensored and searchable version of this dictionary on the internet. All the original crudities have been restored and it offers an interesting perspective on Common English from the time of the Regency and Jane Austen.

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BABBLE		Confused, unintelligible talk, such as was used at the building the tower of Babel.
BABES IN THE WOOD		Criminals in the stocks, or pillory.
BACK BITER		One who slanders another behind his back, i.e. in his absence. His bosom friends are become his back biters, said of a lousy man.
BACK DOOR (USHER, or GENTLEMAN OF THE)		A sodomite.
BACK GAMMON PLAYER		A sodomite.
BACK UP		His back is up, i.e. he is offended or angry; an expression or idea taken from a cat; that animal, when angry, always raising its back. An allusion also sometimes used to jeer a crooked man; as, So, Sir, I see somebody has offended you, for your back is up.
BACKED		Dead. He wishes to have the senior, or old square-toes, backed; he longs to have his father on six men's shoulders; that is, carrying to the grave.
BACON		He has saved his bacon; he has escaped. He has a good voice to beg bacon; a saying in ridicule of a bad voice.
BACON FED		Fat, greasy.
BACON-FACED		Full-faced.
BAD BARGAIN		One of his majesty's bad bargains; a worthless soldier, a malingeror. See MALINGEROR.
BADGE		A term used for one burned in the hand. He has got his badge, and piked; he was burned in the hand, and is at liberty.
BADGE-COVES		Parish Pensioners.
BADGERS		A crew of desperate villains who robbed near rivers, into which they threw the bodies of those they murdered.
BAG		He gave them the bag, i.e. left them.
BAG OF NAILS		He squints like a bag of nails; ie: his eyes are directed as many ways as the points of a bag of nails. The old BAG OF NAILS at Pimlico; originally the BACCHANALS.
BAGGAGE		Heavy baggage; women and children. Also a familiar epithet for a woman; as, cunning baggage, wanton baggage, etc.
BAKER-KNEE'D		One whose knees knock together in walking, as if kneading dough.
BAKERS DOZEN		Fourteen; that number of rolls being allowed to the purchasers of a dozen.
BALDERDASH		Adulterated wine.
BALLOCKS		The testicles of a man or beast; also a vulgar nick name for a parson. His brains are in his ballocks, a cant saying to designate a fool.
BALSAM		Money.
BALUM RANCUM		A hop or dance, where the women are all prostitutes. N. B. The company dance in their birthday suits.
BAM		A jocular imposition, the same as a humbug. See HUMBUG.
BANAGHAN		He beats Banaghan; an Irish saying of one who tells wonderful stories. Perhaps Banaghan was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvellous.
BANBURY STORY OF A COCK AND A BULL		A roundabout, nonsensical story.
BANDBOX		Mine arse on a bandbox; an answer to the offer of any thing inadequate to the purpose for which it is proffered, like offering a bandbox for a seat.
BANDOG		A bailiff or his follower; also a very fierce mastiff: likewise, a bandbox.
BANG STRAW		A nick name for a thresher, but applied to all the servants of a farmer.
BANG UP		Quite the thing, hellish fine. Well done. Compleat. Dashing. In a handsome stile. A bang up cove; a dashing fellow who spends his money freely. To bang up prime: to bring your horses up in a dashing or fine style: as the swell's rattler and prads are bang up prime; the gentleman sports an elegant carriage and fine horses.
BANGING		Great; a fine banging boy.
BANKRUPT CART		A one-horse chaise, said to be so called by a Lord Chief Justice, from their being so frequently used on Sunday jaunts by extravagant shop-keepers and tradesmen.
BANKS'S HORSE		A horse famous for playing tricks, the property of one Banks. It is mentioned in Sir Walter Raleigh's Hist. of the World, p. 178; also by Sir Kenelm Digby and Ben Jonson.
BANTLING		A young child.
BANYAN DAY		A sea term for those days on which no meat is allowed to the sailors: the term is borrowed from the Banyans in the East Indies, a cast that eat nothing that had life.
BAPTIZED, OR CHRISTENED		Rum, brandy, or any other spirits, that have been lowered with water.
BAR THE BUBBLE		To except against the general rule, that he who lays the odds must always be adjudged the loser: this is restricted to betts laid for liquor.
BARBER'S CHAIR		She is as common as a barber's chair, in which a whole parish sit to be trimmed; said of a prostitute.
BARBER'S SIGN		A standing pole and two wash balls.
BARGAIN		To sell a bargain; a species of wit, much in vogue about the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne, and frequently alluded to by Dean Swift, who says the maids of honour often amused themselves with it. It consisted in the seller naming his or her hinder parts, in answer to the question, What? which the buyer was artfully led to ask. As a specimen, take the following instance: A lady would come into a room full of company, apparently in a fright, crying out, It is white, and follows me! On any of the company asking, What? she sold him the bargain, by saying, Mine arse.
BARGEES		Barge-men on the river.
BARKER		The shopman of a bow-wow shop, or dealer in second hand clothes, particularly about Monmouth-Street, who walks before his master's door, and deafens every passenger with his cries of - Clothes, coats, or gowns - what d'ye want, gemmen? - what d'ye buy? See BOW-WOW SHOP.
BARKING IRONS		Pistols, from their explosion resembling the bow-wow or barking of a dog. IRISH.
BARKSHIRE		A member or candidate for Barkshire, said of one troubled with a cough, vulgarly styled barking.
BARN		A parson's barn; never so full but there is still room, for more. Bit by a barn mouse, tipsey, probably from an allusion to barley.
BARNABY		An old dance to a quick movement. See Cotton, in his Virgil Travesti; where, speaking of Eolus he has these lines, Bounce cry the port-holes, out they fly, And make the world dance Barnaby.
BARNACLE		A good job, or snack easily got: also shellfish growing at the bottoms of ships; a bird of the goose kind; an instrument like a pair of pincers, to fix on the noses of vicious horses whilst shoeing; a nick name for spectacles, and also for the gratuity given to grooms by the buyers and sellers of horses.
BARREL FEVER		He died of the barrel fever; he killed himself by drinking.
BARROW MAN		A man under sentence of transportation; alluding to the convicts at Woolwich, who are principally employed in wheeling barrows full of brick or dirt.
BARTHOLOMEW BABY		A person dressed up in a tawdry manner, like the dolls or babies sold at Bartholomew fair.
BASKET		An exclamation frequently made use of in cock-pits, at cock-fightings, where persons refusing or unable to pay their losings, are adjudged by that respectable assembly to be put into a basket suspended over the pit, there to remain during that day's diversion: on the least demur to pay a bet, Basket is vociferated in terrorem. He grins like a basket of chips: a saying of one who is on the broad grin.
BASKET-MAKING		The good old trade of basket-making; copulation, or making feet for children's stockings.
BASTARD		The child of an unmarried woman.
BASTARDLY GULLION		A bastard's bastard.
BASTING		A beating.
BASTONADING		Beating any one with a stick; from baton, a stick, formerly spelt baston.
BAT		A low whore: so called from moving out like bats in the dusk of the evening.
BATCH		We had a pretty batch of it last night; we had a hearty dose of liquor. Batch originally means the whole quantity of bread baked at one time in an oven.
BATCHELOR'S FARE		Bread and cheese and kisses.
BATCHELOR'S SON		A bastard.
BATTLE-ROYAL		A battle or bout at cudgels or fisty-cuffs, wherein more than two persons are engaged: perhaps from its resemblance, in that particular, to more serious engagements fought to settle royal disputes.
BATTNER		An ox: beef being apt to batten or fatten those that eat it. The cove has hushed the battner; i.e. has killed the ox.
BAWBEE		A halfpenny. Scotch.
BAWBELS, or BAWBLES		Trinkets; a man's testicles.
BAWD		A female procuress.
BAWDY BASKET		The twenty-third rank of canters, who carry pins, tape, ballads, and obscene books to sell, but live mostly by stealing.
BAWDY-HOUSE BOTTLE		A very small bottle; short measure being among the many means used by the keepers of those houses, to gain what they call an honest livelihood: indeed this is one of the least reprehensible; the less they give a man of their infernal beverages for his money, the kinder they behave to him.
BAY FEVER		A term of ridicule applied to convicts, who sham illness, to avoid being sent to Botany Bay.
BAYARD OF TEN TOES		To ride bayard of ten toes, is to walk on foot. Bayard was a horse famous in old romances, BEAK. A justice of-peace, or magistrate. Also a judge or chairman who presides in court. I clapp'd my peepers full of tears, and so the old beak set me free; I began to weep, and the judge set me free.
BEAN		A guinea. Half bean; half a guinea.
BEAR		One who contracts to deliver a certain quantity of sum of stock in the public funds, on a future day, and at stated price; or, in other words, sells what he has not got, like the huntsman in the fable, who sold the bear's skin before the bear was killed. As the bear sells the stock he is not possessed of, so the bull purchases what he has not money to pay for; but in case of any alteration in the price agreed on, either party pays or receives the difference. Exchange Alley.
BEAR LEADER		A travelling tutor.
BEAR-GARDEN JAW or DISCOURSE		Rude, vulgar language, such as was used at the bear-gardens.
BEARD SPLITTER		A man much given to wenching.
BEARINGS		I'll bring him to his bearings; I'll bring him to reason. Sea term.
BEAST		To drink like a beast, i.e. only when thirsty.
BEAST WITH TWO BACKS		A man and woman in the act of copulation. Shakespeare in Othello.
BEATER CASES		Boots.
BEAU TRAP		A loose stone in a pavement, under which water lodges, and on being trod upon, squirts it up, to the great damage of white stockings; also a sharper neatly dressed, lying in wait for raw country squires, or ignorant fops.
BEAU-NASTY		A slovenly fop; one finely dressed, but dirty.
BECALMED		A piece of sea wit, sported in hot weather. I am becalmed, the sail sticks to the mast; that is, my shirt sticks to my back. His prad is becalmed; his horse knocked up.
BECK		A beadle. See HERMANBECK.
BED		Put to bed with a mattock, and tucked up with a spade; said of one that is dead and buried. You will go up a ladder to bed, i.e. you will be hanged. In many country places, persons hanged are made to mount up a ladder, which is afterwards turned round or taken away, whence the term, "Turned off."
BED-MAKER		Women employed at Cambridge to attend on the Students, sweep his room, etc. They will put their hands to any thing, and are generally blest with a pretty family of daughters: who unmake the beds, as fast as they are made by their mothers.
BEDFORDSHIRE		I am for Bedfordshire, i.e. for going to bed.
BEDIZENED		Dressed out, over-dressed, or awkwardly ornamented.
BEEF		To cry beef; to give the alarm. They have cried beef on us. - To be in a man's beef; to wound him with a sword. To be in a woman's beef; to have carnal knowledge of her. Say you bought your beef of me, a jocular request from a butcher to a fat man. implying that he credits the butcher who serves him.
BEEF EATER		A yeoman of the guards, instituted by Henry VII. Their office was to stand near the bouffet, or cupboard, thence called Bouffetiers, since corrupted to Beef Eaters. Others suppose they obtained this name from the size of their persons, and the easiness of their duty, as having scarce more to do than to eat the king's beef.
BEETLE-BROWED		One having thick projecting eyebrows.
BEETLE-HEADED		Dull, stupid.
BEGGAR MAKER		A publican, or ale-house keeper.
BEGGAR'S BULLETS		Stones. The beggar's bullets began to fly, i.e. they began to throw stones.
BEILBY'S BALL		He will dance at Beilby's ball, where the sheriff pays the music; he will be hanged. Who Mr. Beilby was, or why that ceremony was so called, remains with the quadrature of the circle, the discovery of the philosopher's stone, and divers other desiderata yet undiscovered.
BELCH		All sorts of beer; that liquor being apt to cause eructation.
BELCHER		A red silk handkerchief, intermixed with yellow and a little black. The kiddey flashes his belcher; the young fellow wears a silk handkerchief round his neck.
BELL SWAGGER		A noisy bullying fellow.
BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE		They cursed him with bell, book, and candle; an allusion to the popish form of excommunicating and anathematizing persons who had offended the church.
BELLOWER		The town crier.
BELLOWS		The lungs.
BELLOWSER		Transportation for life: i.e. as long.
BELLWETHER		The chief or leader of a mob; an idea taken from a flock of sheep, where the wether has a bell about his neck.
BELLY		His eye was bigger than his belly; a saying of a person at a table, who takes more on his plate than he can eat.
BELLY CHEAT		An apron.
BELLY PLEA		The plea of pregnancy, generally adduced by female felons capitally convicted, which they take care to provide for, previous to their trials; every gaol having, as the Beggar's Opera informs us, one or more child getters, who qualify the ladies for that expedient to procure a respite.
BELLY TIMBER		Food of all sorts.
BELLYFULL		A hearty beating, sufficient to make a man yield or give out. A woman with child is also said to have got her belly full.
BEN		A fool.
BENE		Good - BENAR. Better.
BENE BOWSE		Good beer, or other strong liquor.
BENE COVE		A good fellow.
BENE DARKMANS		Goodnight.
BENE FEAKERS OF GYBES		Counterfeiters of passes.
BENE FEARERS		Counterfeiters of bills.
BENESHIPLY		Worshipfully.
BENISH		Foolish.
BENISON		The beggar's benison: May your prick and purse never fail you.
BERMUDAS		A cant name for certain places in London, privileged against arrests, like the Mint in Southwark, Ben. Jonson. These privileges are abolished.
BESS		See BROWN BESS.
BESS, or BETTY		A small instrument used by house-breakers to force open doors. Bring bess and glym; bring the instrument to force the door, and the dark lantern. Small flasks, like those for Florence wine, are also called betties.
BEST		To the best in Christendom: i.e. the best arse in Christendom; a health formerly much in vogue.
BET		A wager. - TO BET. To lay a wager.
BETTY MARTIN		That's my eye, Betty Martin; an answer to any one that attempts to impose or humbug.
BETWATTLED		Surprised, confounded, out of one's senses; also bewrayed.
BEVER		An afternoon's luncheon; also a fine hat; beaver's fur making the best hats,
BEVERAGE		Garnish money, or money for drink, demanded of any one having a new suit of clothes.
BIBLE		A boatswain's great axe. Sea term.
BIBLE OATH		Supposed by the vulgar to be more binding than an oath taken on the Testament only, as being the bigger book, and generally containing both the Old and New Testament.
BIDDY, or CHICK-A-BIDDY		A chicken, and figuratively a young wench.
BIDET, commonly pronounced BIDDY		A kind of tub, contrived for ladies to wash themselves, for which purpose they bestride it like a French poney, or post-horse, called in French bidets.
BIENLY		Excellently. She wheedled so bienly; she coaxed or flattered so cleverly. French.
BILBOA		A sword. Bilboa in Spain was once famous for well-tempered blades: these are quoted by Falstaff, where he describes the manner in which he lay in the buck-basket. Bilboes, the stock; prison.
BILL AT SIGHT		To pay a bill at sight; to be ready at all times for the venereal act.
BILL OF SALE		A widow's weeds. See HOUSE TO LET.
BILLINGSGATE LANGUAGE		Foul language, or abuse. Billingsgate is the market where the fishwomen assemble to purchase fish; and where, in their dealings and disputes, they are somewhat apt to leave decency and good manners a little on the left hand.
BING		To go. Bing avast; get you gone. Binged avast in a darkmans; stole away in the night. Bing we to Rumeville: shall we go to London?
BINGO		Brandy or other spirituous liquor.
BINGO BOY		A dram drinker.
BINGO MORT		A female dram drinker.
BINNACLE WORD		A fine or affected word, which sailors jeeringly offer to chalk up on the binnacle.
BIRD AND BABY		The sign of the eagle and child.
BIRD-WITTED		Inconsiderate, thoughtless, easily imposed on.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER		Rogues of the same gang.
BIRTH-DAY SUIT		He was in his birth-day suit, that is, stark naked.
BISHOP		A mixture of wine and water, into which is put a roasted orange. Also one of the largest of Mrs. Philips's purses, used to contain the others.
BISHOPED, or TO BISHOP		A term used among horse-dealers, for burning the mark into a horse's tooth, after he has lost it by age; by bishoping, a horse is made to appear younger than he is. It is a common saying of milk that is burnt too, that the bishop has set his foot in it. Formerly, when a bishop passed through a village, all the inhabitants ran out of their houses to solicit his blessing, even leaving their milk, etc. on the fire, to take its chance: which, went burnt to, was said to be bishoped.
BIT		Money. He grappled the cull's bit; he seized the man's money. A bit is also the smallest coin in Jamaica, equal to about sixpence sterling.
BITCH		A she dog, or doggess; the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore, as may he gathered from the regular Billinsgate or St. Giles's answer - "I may be a whore, but can't be a bitch."
BITCH BOOBY		A country wench. Military term.
BITE		A cheat; also a woman's privities. The cull wapt the mort's bite; the fellow enjoyed the wench heartily.
BITER		A wench whose cunt is ready to bite her arse; a lascivious, rampant wench.
BLAB		A tell-tale, or one incapable of keeping a secret
BLACK AND WHITE		In writing. I have it in black and white; I have written evidence.
BLACK ARSE		A copper or kettle. The pot calls the kettle black arse.
BLACK ART		The art of picking a lock.
BLACK BOOK		He is down in the black book, i.e. has a stain in his character. A black book is keep in most regiments, wherein the names of all persons sentenced to punishment are recorded.
BLACK BOX		A lawyer.
BLACK EYE		We gave the bottle a black eye, i.e. drank it almost up. He cannot say black is the white of my eye; he cannot point out a blot in my character.
BLACK FLY		The greatest drawback on the farmer is the black fly, i.e. the parson who takes tithe of the harvest.
BLACK GUARD		A shabby, mean fellow; a term said to be derived from a number of dirty, tattered roguish boys, who attended at the Horse Guards, and Parade in St. James's Park, to black the boots and shoes of the soldiers, or to do any other dirty offices. These, from their constant attendance about the time of guard mounting, were nick-named the black-guards.
BLACK INDIES		Newcastle upon Tyne, whose rich coal mines prove an Indies to the proprietors.
BLACK JACK		A nick name given to the Recorder by the Thieves.
BLACK JACK		A jug to drink out of, made of jacked leather.
BLACK JOKE		A popular tune to a song, having for the burden, "Her black joke and belly so white:" figuratively the black joke signifies the monosyllable. See MONOSYLLABLE.
BLACK MONDAY		The first Monday after the school-boys holidays, or breaking up, when they are to go to school, and produce or repeat the tasks set them.
BLACK PSALM		To sing the black psalm; to cry: a saying used to children.
BLACK SPICE RACKET		To rob chimney sweepers of their soot, bag and soot.
BLACK SPY		The Devil.
BLACK STRAP		Bene Carlo wine; also port. A task of labour imposed on soldiers at Gibraltar, as a punishment for small offences.
BLACKLEGS		A gambler or sharper on the turf or in the cockpit: so called, perhaps, from their appearing generally in boots; or else from game-cocks whose legs are always black.
BLANK		To look blank; to appear disappointed or confounded.
BLANKET HORNPIPE		The amorous congress.
BLARNEY		He has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller. The blarney stone is a triangular stone on the very top of an ancient castle of that name in the county of Cork in Ireland, extremely difficult of access; so that to have ascended to it, was considered as a proof of perseverance, courage, and agility, whereof many are supposed to claim the honour, who never atchieved the adventure: and to tip the blarney, is figuratively used telling a marvellous story, or falsity; and also sometimes to express flattery. Irish.
BLAST		To curse.
BLASTED FELLOW or BRIMSTONE		An abandoned rogue or prostitute.
BLATER		A calf.
BLEACHED MORT		A fair-complexioned wench.
BLEATERS		Those cheated by Jack in a box. - See JACK IN A BOX.
BLEATING CHEAT		A sheep.
BLEATING RIG		Sheep stealing.
BLEEDERS		Spurs. He clapped his bleeders to his prad; be put spurs to his horse.
BLEEDING CULLY		One who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely.
BLEEDING NEW		A metaphor borrowed from fish, which will not bleed when stale.
BLESSING		A small quantity over and above the measure, usually given by hucksters dealing in peas, beans, and other vegetables.
BLIND		A feint, pretence, or shift.
BLIND CHEEKS		The breech. Buss blind cheeks; kiss mine arse.
BLIND CUPID		The backside.
BLIND EXCUSE		A poor or insufficient excuse. A blind ale-house, lane, or alley; an obscure, or little known or frequented ale-house, lane, or alley.
BLIND HARPERS		Beggars counterfeiting blindness, playing on fiddles, etc.
BLINDMAN'S BUFF		A play used by children, where one being blinded by a handkerchief bound over his eyes, attempts to seize any one of the company, who all endeavour to avoid him; the person caught, must be blinded in his stead.
BLINDMAN'S HOLIDAY		Night, darkness.
BLOCK HOUSES		Prisons, houses of correction, etc.
BLOCKED AT BOTH ENDS		Finished. The game is blocked at both ends; the game is ended.
BLOOD		A riotous disorderly fellow.
BLOOD FOR BLOOD		A term used by tradesmen for bartering the different commodities in which they deal. Thus a hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.
BLOOD MONEY		The reward given by the legislature on the conviction of highwaymen, burglars, etc.
BLOODY		A favourite word used by the thieves in swearing, as bloody eyes, bloody rascal.
BLOODY BACK		A jeering appellation for a soldier, alluding to his scarlet coat.
BLOSS or BLOWEN		The pretended wife of a bully, or shoplifter.
BLOT THE SKRIP AND JAR IT		To stand engaged or bound for any one.
BLOW		He has bit the blow, i.e. he has stolen the goods.
BLOW THE GAB		To confess, or impeach a confederate.
BLOW THE GROUNSILS		To lie with a woman on the floor.
BLOW-UP		A discovery, or the confusion occasioned by one.
BLOWEN		A mistress or whore of a gentleman of the scamp. The blowen kidded the swell into a snoozing ken, and shook him of his dummee and thimble; the girl inveigled the gentleman into a brothel and robbed him of his pocket book and watch.
BLOWER		A pipe. How the swell funks his blower and lushes red tape; what a smoke the gentleman makes with his pipe, and drinks brandy.
BLOWSE, or BLOWSABELLA		A woman whose hair is dishevelled, and hanging about her face; a slattern.
BLUBBER		The mouth. - I have stopped the cull's blubber; I have stopped the fellow's mouth, meant either by gagging or murdering him.
BLUBBER		To cry.
BLUBBER CHEEKS		Large flaccid cheeks, hanging like the fat or blubber of a whale.
BLUE		To look blue; to be confounded, terrified, or disappointed. Blue as a razor; perhaps, blue as azure.
BLUE BOAR		A venereal bubo.
BLUE DEVILS		Low spirits.
BLUE FLAG		He has hoisted the blue flag; he has commenced publican, or taken a public house, an allusion to the blue aprons worn by publicans. See ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE.
BLUE PIGEONS		Thieves who steal lead off houses and churches. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off houses or churches.
BLUE PLUMB		A bullet. - Surfeited with a blue plumb; wounded with a bullet. A sortment of George R - 's blue plumbs; a volley of ball, shot from soldiers' firelocks.
BLUE RUIN		Gin. Blue ribband; gin.
BLUE SKIN		A person begotten on a black woman by a white man. One of the blue squadron; any one having a cross of the black breed, or, as it is termed, a lick of the tar brush.
BLUE TAPE, or SKY BLUE		Gin.
BLUFF		Fierce, surly. He looked as bluff as bull beef.
BLUFFER		An inn-keeper.
BLUNDERBUSS		A short gun, with a wide bore, for carrying slugs; also a stupid, blundering fellow.
BLUNT		Money.
BLUSTER		To talk big, to hector or bully.
BO-PEEP		One who sometimes hides himself, and sometimes appears publicly abroad, is said to-play at bo-peep. Also one who lies perdue, or on the watch.
BOARDING SCHOOL		Bridewell, Newgate, or any other prison, or house of correction.
BOB		A shoplifter's assistant, or one that receives and carries off stolen goods. All is bob; all is safe.
BOB		A shilling.
BOB STAY		A rope which holds the bowsprit to the stem or cutwater. Figuratively, the frenum of a man's yard.
BOB TAIL		A lewd woman, or one that plays with her tail; also an impotent man, or an eunuch. Tag, rag, and bobtail; a mob of all sorts of low people. To shift one's bob; to move off, or go away. To bear a bob; to join in chorus with any singers. Also a term used by the sellers of game, for a partridge.
BOBBED		Cheated, tricked, disappointed.
BOBBISH		Smart, clever, spruce.
BODY OF DIVINITY BOUND IN BLACK CALF		A parson.
BODY SNATCHERS		Bum bailiffs.
BOG HOUSE		The necessary house. To go to bog; to go to stool.
BOG LANDER		An Irishman.
BOG LATIN		Barbarous Latin. Irish. - See DOG LATIN, and APOTHECARIES LATIN.
BOG TROTTER		An Irishman; Ireland being famous for its large bogs, which furnish the chief fuel in many parts of that kingdom.
BOGY		Ask bogy, i.e. ask mine arse. Sea wit.
BOH		Said to be the name of a Danish general, who so terrified his opponent Foh, that he caused him to bewray himself. Whence, when we smell a stink, it is custom to exclaim, Foh! i.e. I smell general Foh. He cannot say Boh to a goose; i.e. he is a cowardly or sheepish fellow. There is a story related of the celebrated Ben Jonson, who always dressed very plain; that being introduced to the presence of a nobleman, the peer, struck by his homely appearance and awkward manner, exclaimed, as if in doubt, "you Ben Johnson! why you look as if you could not say Boh to a goose!" "Boh!" replied the wit.
BOLD		Bold as a miller's shirt, which every day takes a rogue by the collar.
BOLT		A blunt arrow.
BOLT		To run suddenly out of one's house, or hiding place, through fear; a term borrowed from a rabbit-warren, where the rabbits are made to bolt, by sending ferrets into their burrows: we set the house on fire, and made him bolt. To bolt, also means to swallow meat without chewing: the farmer's servants in Kent are famous for bolting large quantities of pickled pork.
BOLT UPRIGHT		As erect, or straight up, as an arrow set on its end.
BOLUS		A nick name for an apothecary.
BONE BOX		The mouth. Shut your bone box; shut your mouth.
BONE PICKER		A footman.
BONED		Seized. apprehended, taken up by a constable.
BONES		Dice.
BONESETTER		A hard-trotting horse.
BOOBY HUTCH		A one-horse chaise, noddy, buggy, or leathern bottle.
BOOBY, or DOG BOOBY		An awkward lout, clodhopper, or country fellow. See CLODHOPPER and LOUT. A bitch booby; a country wench.
BOOK-KEEPER		One who never returns borrowed books. Out of one's books; out of one's fevor. Out of his books; out of debt.
BOOKS		Cards to play with. To plant the books; to place the cards in the pack in an unfair manner.
BOOSE, or BOUSE		Drink.
BOOSEY		Drunk.
BOOT CATCHER		The servant at an inn whose business it is to clean the boots of the guest.
BOOTS		The youngest officer in a regimental mess, whose duty it is to skink, that is, to stir the fire, snuff the candles, and ring the bell. See SKINK. - To ride in any one's old boots; to marry or keep his cast-off mistress.
BOOTY		To play booty; cheating play, where the player purposely avoids winning.
BORACHIO		A skin for holding wine, commonly a goat's; also a nick name for a drunkard.
BORDE		A shilling. A half borde; a sixpence.
BORDELLO		A bawdy house.
BORE		A tedious, troublesome man or woman, one who bores the ears of his hearers with an uninteresting tale; a term much in fashion about the years 1780 and 1781.
BORN UNDER A THREEPENNY HALFPENNY PLANET		... never to be worth a groat. Said of any person remarkably unsuccessful in his attempts or profession.
BOTCH		A nick name for a taylor.
BOTHERAMS		A convivial society.
BOTHERED or BOTH-EARED		Talked to at both ears by different persons at the same time, confounded, confused. IRISH PHRASE.
BOTTLE-HEADED		Void of wit.
BOTTOM		A polite term for the posteriors. Also, in the sporting sense, strength and spirits to support fatigue; as a bottomed horse. Among bruisers it is used to express a hardy fellow, who will bear a good beating.
BOTTOMLESS PIT		The monosyllable.
BOUGHS		Wide in the boughs; with large hips and posteriors.
BOUGHS		He is up in the boughs; he is in a passion.
BOUNCER		A large man or woman; also a great lie.
BOUNCING CHEAT		A bottle; from the explosion in drawing the cork.
BOUNG		A purse.
BOUNG NIPPER		A cut purse. - Formerly purses were worn at the girdle, from whence they were cut.
BOW-WOW		The childish name for a dog; also a jeering appellation for a man born at Boston in America.
BOW-WOW MUTTON		Dog's flesh.
BOW-WOW SHOP		A salesman's shop in Monmouth-street; so called because the servant barks, and the master bites. See BARKER.
BOWSING KEN		An ale-house or gin-shop.
BOWSPRIT		The nose, from its being the most projecting part of the human face, as the bowsprit is of a ship.
BOWYER		One that draws a long bow, a dealer in the marvellous, a teller of improbable stories, a liar: perhaps from the wonderful shots frequently boasted of by archers.
BRACE		The Brace tavern; a room in the S.E. corner of the King's Bench, where, for the convenience of prisoners residing thereabouts, beer purchased at the tap-house was retailed at a halfpenny per pot advance. It was kept by two brothers of the name of Partridge, and thence called the Brace.
BRACKET-FACED		Ugly, hard-featured.
BRAGGADOCIA		vain-glorious fellow, a boaster.
BRAGGET		Mead and ale sweetened with honey.
BRAINS		If you had as much brains as guts, what a clever fellow you would be! a saying to a stupid fat fellow. To have some guts in his brains; to know something.
BRAN-FACED		Freckled. He was christened by a baker, he carries the bran in his face.
BRANDY		Brandy is Latin for a goose; a memento to prevent the animal from rising in the stomach by a glass of the good creature.
BRANDY-FACED		Red-faced, as if from drinking brandy.
BRAT		A child or infant.
BRAY		A vicar of Bray; one who frequently changes his principles, always siding with the strongest party: an allusion to a vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, commemorated in a well-known ballad for the pliability of his conscience.
BRAZEN-FACED		Bold-faced, shameless, impudent.
BREAD		Employment. Out of bread; out of employment. In bad bread; in a disagreeable scrape, or situation.
BREAD AND BUTTER FASHION		One slice upon the other. John and his maid were caught lying bread and butter fashion. - To quarrel with one's bread and butter; to act contrary to one's interest. To know on which side one's bread is buttered; to know one's interest, or what is best for one. It is no bread and butter of mine; I have no business with it; or rather, I won't intermeddle, because I shall get nothing by it.
BREAD BASKET		The stomach; a term used by boxers. I took him a punch in his bread basket; i.e. I gave him a blow in the stomach.
BREAK-TEETH WORDS		Hard words, difficult to pronounce.
BREAKING SHINS		Borrowing money; perhaps from the figurative operation being, like the real one, extremely disagreeable to the patient.
BREAST FLEET		He or she belongs to the breast fleet; i.e. is a Roman catholic; an appellation derived from their custom of beating their breasts in the confession of their sins.
BREECHED		Money in the pocket: the swell is well breeched, let's draw him; the gentleman has plenty of money in his pocket, let us rob him.
BREECHES		To wear the breeches; a woman who governs her husband is said to wear the breeches.
BREECHES BIBLE		An edition of the Bible printed in 1598, wherein it is said that Adam and Eve sewed figleaves together, and made themselves breeches.
BREEZE		To raise a breeze; to kick up a dust or breed a disturbance.
BREWES, or BROWES		The fat scum from the pot in which salted beef is boiled.
BRIDGE		To make a bridge of any one's nose; to push the bottle past him, so as to deprive him of his turn of filling his glass; to pass one over. Also to play booty, or purposely to avoid winning.
BRIM		(Abbreviation of Brimstone.) An abandoned woman; perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared to brimstone for its inflammability.
BRISKET BEATER		A Roman catholic. SEE BREAST FLEET, and CRAW THUMPER.
BRISTOL MAN		The son of an Irish thief and a Welch whore.
BRISTOL MILK		A Spanish wine called sherry, much drunk at that place, particularly in the morning.
BRITISH CHAMPAIGNE		Porter.
BROGANIER		One who has a strong Irish pronunciation or accent.
BROGUE		A particular kind of shoe without a heel, worn in Ireland, and figuratively used to signify the Irish accent.
BROTHER OF THE BLADE		A soldier
BROTHER STARLING		One who lies with the same woman, that is, builds in the same nest.
BROUGHTONIAN		A boxer: a disciple of Broughton, who was a beef-eater, and once the best boxer of his day.
BROWN BESS		A soldier's firelock. To hug brown Bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier.
BROWN GEORGE		An ammunition loaf, A wig without powder; similar to the undress wig worn by his majesty.
BROWN MADAM, or MISS BROWN		The monosyllable.
BROWN STUDY		Said of one absent, in a reverie, or thoughtful.
BRUISER		A boxer; one skilled in the ar of boxing also an inferior workman among chasers.
BRUSHER		A bumper, a full glass. See BUMPER.
BUB		Strong beer.
BUBBER		A drinking bowl; also a great drinker; a thief that steals plate from public houses.
BUBBLE		To cheat.
BUBBLE AND SQUEAK		Beef and cabbage fried together. It is so called from its bubbling up and squeaking whilst over the fire.
BUBBLY JOCK		A turkey cock. SCOTCH.
BUBE		The venereal disease.
BUCK		A blind horse; also a gay debauchee.
BUCK BAIL		Bail given by a sharper for one of the gang.
BUCK FITCH		A lecherous old fellow.
BUCK OF THE FIRST HEAD		One who in debauchery surpasses the rest of his companions, a blood or choice spirit. There are in London divers lodges or societies of Bucks, formed in imitation of the Free Masons: one was held at the Rose, in Monkwell-street, about the year 1705. The president is styled the Grand Buck. A buck sometimes signifies a cuckold.
BUCK'S FACE		A cuckold.
BUCKEEN		A bully. IRISH.
BUCKET		To kick the bucket; to die.
BUCKINGER'S BOOT		The monosyllable. Matthew Buckinger was born without hands and legs; notwithstanding which he drew coats of arms very neatly, and could write the Lord's Prayer within the compass of a shilling; he was married to a tall handsome woman, and traversed the country, shewing himself for money.
BUCKLES		Fetters.
BUDGE, or SNEAKING BUDGE		One that slips into houses in the dark, to steal cloaks or other clothes. Also lambs' fur formerly used for doctors' robes, whence they were called budge doctors. Standing budge; a thief's scout or spy.
BUDGET		A wallet. To open the budget; a term used to signify the notification of the taxes required by the minister for the expences of the ensuing year; as To-morrow the minister will go to the house, and open the budget.
BUFE		A dog. Bufe's nob; a dog's head.
BUFE NABBER		A dog stealer.
BUFF		All in buff; stript to the skin, stark naked.
BUFF		To stand buff; to stand the brunt. To swear as a witness. He buffed it home; and I was served; he swore hard against me, and I was found guilty.
BUFFER		One that steals and kills horses and dogs for their skins; also an inn-keeper: in Ireland it signifies a boxer.
BUFFER		A man who takes an oath: generally applied to Jew bail.
BUFFLE-HEADED		Confused, stupid.
BUG		A nick name given by the Irish to Englishmen; bugs having, as it is said, been introduced into Ireland by the English.
BUG-HUNTER		An upholsterer.
BUGABOE		A scare-babe, or bully-beggar.
BUGAROCH		Comely, handsome. IRISH.
BUGGER		A blackguard, a rascal, a term of reproach. Mill the bloody bugger; beat the damned rascal.
BUGGY		A one-horse chaise.
BULK AND FILE		Two pickpockets; the bulk jostles the party to be robbed, and the file does the business.
BULKER		One who lodges all night on a bulk or projection before old-fashioned shop windows.
BULL		An Exchange Alley term for one who buys stock on speculation for time, i.e. agrees with the seller, called a Bear, to take a certain sum of stock at a future day, at a stated price: if at that day stock fetches more than the price agreed on, he receives the difference; if it falls or is cheaper, he either pays it, or becomes a lame duck, and waddles out of the Alley. See LAME DUCK and BEAR.
BULL		A blunder; from one Obadiah Bull, a blundering lawyer of London, who lived in the reign of Henery VII. by a bull is now always meant a blunder made by an Irishman. A bull was also the name of false hair formerly much worn by women. To look like bull beef, or as bluff as bull beef; to look fierce or surly. Town bull, a great whore-master.
BULL		A crown piece. A half bull; half a crown.
BULL BEGGAR, or BULLY BEGGAR		An imaginary being with which children are threatened by servants and nurses, like raw head and bloody bones.
BULL CALF		A great hulkey or clumsy fellow. See HULKEY.
BULL CHIN		A fat chubby child.
BULL DOGS		Pistols.
BULL HANKERS		Persons who over-drive bulls, or frequent bull baits.
BULL'S EYE		A crown-piece.
BULL'S FEATHER		A horn: he wears the bull's feather; he is a cuckold.
BULLY		A cowardly fellow, who gives himself airs of great bravery. A bully huff cap; a hector. See HECTOR.
BULLY BACK		A bully to a bawdy-house; one who is kept in pay, to oblige the frequenters of the house to submit to the impositions of the mother abbess, or bawd; and who also sometimes pretends to be the husband of one of the ladies, and under that pretence extorts money from greenhorns, or ignorant young men, whom he finds with her. See GREENHORN.
BULLY COCK		One who foments quarrels in order to rob the persons quarrelling.
BULLY RUFFIANS		Highwaymen who attack passengers with paths and imprecations.
BULLY TRAP		A brave man with a mild or effeminate appearance, by whom bullies are frequently taken in.
BUM		the breech, or backside.
BUM		To arrest a debtor. The gill bummed the swell for a thimble; the tradesman arrested the gentleman for a watch.
BUM BAILIFF		A sheriff's officer, who arrests debtors; so called perhaps from following his prey, and being at their bums, or, as the vulgar phrase is, hard at their arses. Blackstone says, it is a corruption of bound bailiff, from their being obliged to give bond for their good behaviour.
BUM BOAT		A boat attending ships to retail greens, drams, etc. commonly rowed by a woman; a kind of floating chandler's shop.
BUM BRUSHER		A schoolmaster.
BUM FODDER		Soft paper for the necessary house or torchecul.
BUM TRAP		A sheriff's officer who arrests debtors. Ware hawke! the bum traps are fly to our panney; keep a good look out, the bailiffs know where our house is situated.
BUMBO		Brandy, water, and sugar; also the negro name for the private parts of a woman.
BUMFIDDLE		The backside, the breech. See ARS MUSICA.
BUMKIN		A raw country fellow.
BUMMED		Arrested.
BUMPER		A full glass; in all likelihood from its convexity or bump at the top: some derive it from a full glass formerly drunk to the health of the pope - AU BON PERE.
BUMPING		A ceremony performed on boys perambulating the bounds of the parish on Whit-monday, when they have their posteriors bumped against the stones marking the boundaries, in order to fix them in their memory.
BUN		A common name for a rabbit, also for the monosyllable. To touch bun for luck; a practice observed among sailors going on a cruize.
BUNDLING		A man and woman sleeping in the same bed, he with his small clothes, and she with her petticoats on; an expedient practised in America on a scarcity of beds, where, on such an occasion, husbands and parents frequently permitted travellers to bundle with their wives and daughters. This custom is now abolished. See Duke of Rochefoucalt's Travels in America.
BUNG		A brewer
BUNG UPWARDS		Said of a person lying on his face.
BUNG YOUR EYE		Drink a dram; strictly speaking, to drink till one's eye is bunged up or closed.
BUNT		An apron.
BUNTER		A low dirty prostitute, half whore and half beggar.
BUNTLINGS		Petticoats.
BURN CRUST		A jocular name for a baker.
BURN THE KEN		Strollers living in an alehouse without paying their quarters, are said to burn the ken.
BURNER		A clap. The blowen tipped the swell a burner; the girl gave the gentleman a clap.
BURNER		He is no burner of navigable rivers; i.e. he is no conjuror, or man of extraordinary abilities; or rather, he is, but a simple fellow. See THAMES.
BURNING SHAME		A lighted candle stuck into the parts of a woman, certainly not intended by nature for a candlestick.
BURNT		Poxed or clapped. He was sent out a sacrifice, and came home a burnt offering; a saying of seamen who have caught the venereal disease abroad. He has burnt his fingers; he has suffered by meddling.
BURR		A hanger on, or dependant; an allusion to the field burrs, which are not easily got rid of. Also the Northumbrian pronunciation: the people of that country, but chiefly about Newcastle and Morpeth, are said to have a burr in their throats, particularly called the Newcastle burr.
BUS-NAPPER		A constable.
BUS-NAPPER'S KENCHIN		A watchman.
BUSHEL BUBBY		A full breasted woman.
BUSK		A piece of whalebone or ivory, formerly worn by women, to stiffen the forepart of their stays: hence the toast - Both ends of the busk.
BUSKIN		A player.
BUSS BEGGAR		An old superannuated fumbler, whom none but beggars will suffer to kiss them.
BUSY		As busy is the devil in a high wind; as busy as a hen with one chick.
BUTCHER'S DOG		To be like a butcher's dog, i.e. lie by the beef without touching it; a simile often applicable to married men.
BUTCHER'S HORSE		That must have been a butcher's horse, by his carrying a calf so well; a vulgar joke on an awkward rider.
BUTT		A dependant, poor relation, or simpleton, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off; and who serves as a butt for all the shafts of wit and ridicule.
BUTTER AND EGGS TROT		A kind of short jogg trot, such as is used by women going to market, with butter and eggs. - he looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth, yet I warrant you cheese would not choak her; a saying of a demure looking woman, of suspected character. Don't make butter dear; a gird at the patient angler.
BUTTER BOX		A Dutchman, from the great quantity of butter eaten by the people of that country.
BUTTERED BUN		One lying with a woman that has just lain with another man, is said to have a buttered bun.
BUTTOCK		A whore.
BUTTOCK AND FILE		A common whore and a pick-pocket.
BUTTOCK AND TONGUE		A scolding wife.
BUTTOCK AND TWANG, or DOWN BUTTOCK AND SHAM FILE		A common whore, but no pickpocket.
BUTTOCK BALL		The amorous congress.
BUTTOCK BROKER		A bawd, or match-maker.
BUTTOCKING SHOP		A brothel.
BUTTON		A bad shilling, among coiners. His arse makes buttons; he is ready to bewray himself through fear.
BUZMAN		A pickpocket.
BUZZARD		A simple fellow. A blind buzzard: a pur-blind man or woman.
BYE BLOW		A bastard.