Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
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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.

Select a letter or type a word and click Find. Searches are automatically wild-carded and clicking on words in the first column will look for all occurrences of that word, or related word.

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Entries releated to BED

 

APPLE-PYE BED  A bed made apple-pye fashion, like what is called a turnover apple-pye, where the sheets are so doubled as to prevent any one from getting at his length between them: a common trick played by frolicsome country lasses on their sweethearts, male relations, or visitors.
 
ARK RUFFIANS  Rogues who, in conjunction with watermen, robbed, and sometimes murdered, on the water, by picking a quarrel with the passengers in a boat, boarding it, plundering, stripping, and throwing them overboard, etc. A species of badger.
 
BADGERS  A crew of desperate villains who robbed near rivers, into which they threw the bodies of those they murdered.
 
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.
 
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.
 
BOBBED  Cheated, tricked, disappointed.
 
BULK AND FILE  Two pickpockets; the bulk jostles the party to be robbed, and the file does the business.
 
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.
 
CARVEL'S RING  The private parts of a woman. Ham Carvel, a jealous old doctor, being in bed with his wife, dreamed that the Devil gave him a ring, which, so long as he had it on his finger, would prevent his being made a cuckold: waking he found he had got his finger the Lord knows where. See Rabelais, and Prior's versification of the story.
 
CATHEDRAL  Old-fashioned. An old cathedral-bedstead, chair, etc.
 
CHALKING  The amusement above described.
 
CHRISTMAS COMPLIMENTS  A cough, kibed heels, and a snotty nose.
 
CLOTH MARKET  He is just come from the cloth market, i.e. from between the sheets, he is just risen from bed.
 
COLD  You will catch cold at that; a vulgar threat or advice to desist from an attempt. He caught cold by lying in bed barefoot; a saying of any one extremely tender or careful of himself.
 
COLD PIG  To give cold pig is a punishment inflicted on sluggards who lie too long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed clothes from them, and throwing cold water upon them.
 
COMB  To comb one's head; to clapperclaw, or scold any one: a woman who lectures her husband, is said to comb his head. She combed his head with a joint stool; she threw a stool at him.
 
COW  To sleep like a cow, with a cunt at one's arse; said of a married man; married men being supposed to sleep with their backs towards their wives, according to the following proclamation: All you that in your beds do lie, Turn to your wives, and occupy: And when that you have done your best, Turn arse to arse, and take your rest.
 
CRABBED  Sour, ill-tempered, difficult.
 
CRIBBEYS, or CRIBBY ISLANDS  Blind alleys, courts, or bye-ways; perhaps from the houses built there being cribbed out of the common way or passage; and islands, from the similarity of sound to the Caribbee Islands.
 
CUCKOLD  The husband of an incontinent wife: cuckolds, however, are Christians, as we learn by the following story: An old woman hearing a man call his dog Cuckold, reproved him sharply, saying, 'Sirrah, are not you ashamed to call a dog by a Christian's name ?' To cuckold the parson; to bed with one's wife before she has been churched.
 
CUNNY-THUMBED  To double one's fist with the thumb inwards, like a woman.
 
CURTAIN LECTURE  A woman who scolds her husband when in bed, is said to read him a curtain lecture.
 
CUSHION  He has deserved the cushion; a saying of one whose wife is brought to bed of a boy: implying, that having done his business effectually, he may now indulge or repose himself.
 
DAWB  To bribe. The cull was scragged because he could not dawb; the rogue was hanged because he could not bribe. All bedawbed with lace; all over lace.
 
DIDDLE  To cheat. To defraud. The cull diddled me out of my dearee; the fellow robbed me of my sweetheart. See Jeremy Diddler In Raising The Wind.
 
DING  To knock down. To ding it in one's ears; to reproach or tell one something one is not desirous of hearing. Also to throw away or hide: thus a highwayman who throws away or hides any thing with which he robbed, to prevent being known or detected, is, in the canting lingo, styled a Dinger.
 
DO  To do any one; to rob and cheat him. I have done him; I have robbed him. Also to overcome in a boxing match: witness those laconic lines written on the field of battle, by Humphreys to his patron. - 'Sir, I have done the Jew.'
 
DONE, or DONE OVER  Robbed: also, convicted or hanged. - See DO.
 
EASY  Make the cull easy or quiet; gag or kill him. As easy as pissing the bed.
 
FEATHER-BED LANE  A rough or stony lane.
 
FLYER  To take a flyer; to enjoy a woman with her clothes on, or without going to bed.
 
FLYING PORTERS  Cheats who obtain money by pretending to persons who have been lately robbed, that they may come from a place or party where, and from whom, they may receive information respecting the goods stolen from them, and demand payment as porters.
 
FOB  A cheat, trick, or contrivance, I will not be fobbed off so; I will not be thus deceived with false pretences. The fob is also a small breeches pocket for holding a watch.
 
FRISK  Used by thieves to signify searching a person whom they have robbed. Blast his eyes! frisk him.
 
GAG  An instrument used chiefly by housebreakers and thieves, for propping open the mouth of a person robbed, thereby to prevent his calling out for assistance.
 
GRAB  To seize a man. The pigs grabbed the kiddey for a crack: the officers, seized the youth for a burglary.
 
HEMPEN FEVER  A man who was hanged is said to have died of a hempen fever; and, in Dorsetshire, to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.
 
JIG  A trick. A pleasant jig; a witty arch trick. Also a lock or door. The feather-bed jig; copulation.
 
JOLLY DOG  A merry facetious fellow; a BON VIVANT, who never flinches from his glass, nor cries to go home to bed.
 
JUMP  The jump, or dining-room jump; a species of robbery effected by ascending a ladder placed by a sham lamp- lighter, against the house intended to be robbed. It is so called, because, should the lamp-lighter be put to flight, the thief who ascended the ladder has no means of escaping but that of jumping down.
 
KETTLEDRUMS  Cupid's kettle drums; a woman's breasts, called by sailors chest and bedding.
 
LIBBEGE  A bed.
 
LIG  A bed. See LIB.
 
LILIPUTIAN  A diminutive man or woman: from Gulliver's Travels, written by Dean Swift, where an imaginary kingdom of dwarfs of that name is described.
 
LOBLOLLEY BOY  A nick name for the surgeon's servant on board a man of war, sometimes for the surgeon himself: from the water gruel prescribed to the sick, which is called loblolley.
 
MAD TOM, or TOM OF BEDLAM  An Abram Man. A rogue that counterfeits madness.
 
OX HOUSE  He must go through the ox house to bed; a saying of an old fellow who marries a young girl.
 
PAD  The highway, or a robber thereon; also a bed. Footpads; foot robbers. To go out upon the pad; to go out in order to commit a robbery.
 
PIG  Sixpence, a sow's baby. Pig-widgeon; a simpleton. To pig together; to lie or sleep together, two or more in a bed. Cold pig; a jocular punishment inflicted by the maid seryants, or other females of the house, on persons lying over long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed clothes, and leaving them to pig or lie in the cold. To buy a pig in a poke; to purchase any thing without seeing. Pig's eyes; small eyes. Pigsnyes; the same: a vulgar term of endearment to a woman. He can have boiled pig at home; a mark of being master of his own house: an allusion to a well known poem and story. Brandy is Latin for pig and goose; an apology for drinking a dram after either.
 
PISS  He will piss when he can't whistle; he will be hanged. He shall not piss my money against the wall; he shall not have my money to spend in liquor. He who once a good name gets, May piss a bed, and say he sweats.
 
PLAISTER OF WARM GUTS  One warm belly'dapped to another; a receipt frequently prescribed for different disorders.
 
PPC  An inscription on the visiting cards of our modern fine gentleman, signifying that they have called POUR PRENDRE CONGE, i.e. 'to take leave,' This has of late been ridiculed by cards inscribed D.I.O. i.e. 'Damme, I'm off.'
 
RIDING SKIMMINGTON  A ludicrous cavalcade, in ridicule of a man beaten by his wife. It consists of a man riding behind a woman, with his face to the horse's tail, holding a distaff in his hand, at which he seems to work, the woman all the while beating him with a ladle; a smock displayed on a staff is carried before them as an emblematical standard, denoting female superiority: they are accompanied by what is called the ROUGH MUSIC, that is, frying-pans, bulls horns, marrow-bones and cleavers, etc. A procession of this kind is admirably described by Butler in his Hudibras. He rode private, i.e. was a private trooper.
 
SHAKE  To draw any thing from the pocket. He shook the swell of his fogle; he robbed the gentleman of his silk handkerchief.
 
SHOVEL  To be put to bed with a shovel; to be buried. He or she was fed with a fire-shovel; a saying of a person with a large mouth.
 
SLOPS  Wearing apparel and bedding used by seamen.
 
SLUG-A-BED  A drone, one that cannot rise in the morning.
 
SNOOZING KEN  A brothel. The swell was spiced in a snoozing ken of his screens; the gentleman was robbed of his bank notes in a brothel.
 
SNUDGE  A thief who hides himself under a bed, in Order to rob the house.
 
SPEAK WITH  To rob. I spoke with the cull on the cherry-coloured prancer; I robbed the man on the black horse.
 
STALLING  Making or ordaining. Stalling to the rogue; an ancient ceremony of instituting a candidate into the society of rogues, somewhat similar to the creation of a herald at arms. It is thus described by Harman: the upright man taking a gage of bowse, i.e. a pot of strong drink, pours it on the head of the rogue to be admitted; saying, - I, A.B. do stall thee B.C. to the rogue; and from henceforth it shall be lawful for thee to cant for thy living in all places.
 
STATE  To lie in state; to be in bed with three harlots.
 
STRAP  To work. The kiddy would not strap, so he went on the scamp: the lad would not work, and therefore robbed on the highway.
 
TARRING AND FEATHERING  A punishment lately infliced by the good people of Boston on any person convicted, or suspected, of loyalty: such delinquents being "stripped naked", were daubed all over wilh tar, and afterwards put into a hogshead of feathers.
 
TAYLOR  Nine taylors make a man; an ancient and common saying, originating from the effeminacy of their employment; or, as some have it, from nine taylors having been robbed by one man; according to others, from the speech of a woollendraper, meaning that the custom of nine, taylors would make or enrich one man - A London taylor, rated to furnish half a man to the Trained Bands, asking how that could possibly be done? was answered, By sending four, journeymen and and apprentice. - Put a taylor, a weaver, and a miller into a sack, shake them well, And the first that puts out his head is certainly a thief. - A taylor is frequently styled pricklouse, assaults on those vermin with their needles.
 
THOUGHT  What did thought do? lay'in bed and beshat himself, and thought he was up; reproof to any one who excuses himself for any breach of positive orders, by pleading that he thought to the contrary.
 
TOM OF BEDLAM  The same as Abram man.
 
TYBURN TOP, or FORETOP  A wig with the foretop combed over the eyes in a knowing style; such being much worn by the gentlemen pads, scamps, divers, and other knowing hands.
 
WARMING-PAN  A large old-fashioned watch. A Scotch warming-pan; a female bedfellow.
 
WHIT  Whittington's Newgate. - Five rum-padders are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and are piked into the deuseaville; five highwaymen broke out of Newgate in the night, and are gone into the country.
 
WOOL GATHERING  Your wits are gone a woolgathering; saying to an absent man, one in a reverie, or absorbed in thought.