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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Entries releated to BIT

 

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.
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.
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.
BLOW		He has bit the blow, i.e. he has stolen the goods.
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.
BOOBY, or DOG BOOBY		An awkward lout, clodhopper, or country fellow. See CLODHOPPER and LOUT. A bitch booby; a country wench.
BOW-WOW SHOP		A salesman's shop in Monmouth-street; so called because the servant barks, and the master bites. See BARKER.
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.
CAG MAGG		Bits and scraps of provisions. Bad meat.
CLEAR		Very drunk. The cull is clear, let's bite him; the fellow is very drunk, let's cheat him.
CLINK		A place in the Borough of Southwark, formerly privileged from arrests; and inhabited by lawless vagabonds of every denomination, called, from the place of their residence, clinkers. Also a gaol, from the clinking of the prisoners' chains or fetters: he is gone to clink.
COD PIECE		The fore flap of a man's breeches. Do they bite, master? where, in the cod piece or collar? - a jocular attack on a patient angler by watermen, etc.
COVE		A man, a fellow, a rogue. The cove was bit; the rogue was outwitted. The cove has bit the cole; the rogue has got the money.
CRACKING TOOLS		Implements of house-breaking, such as a crow, a center bit, false keys, etc.
CROSS BITE		One who combines with a sharper to draw in a friend; also, to counteract or disappoint. - This is peculiarly used to signify entrapping a man so as to obtain CRIM. COM. money, in which the wife, real or supposed, conspires with the husband.
DEVIL'S DAUGHTER'S PORTION		Deal, Dover, and Harwich, The Devil gave with his daughter in marriage; And, by a codicil to his will, He added Helvoet and the Brill; a saying occasioned by the shameful impositions practised by the inhabitants of those places, on sailors and travellers.
DOGGESS, DOG'S WIFE or LADY, PUPPY'S MAMMA		Jocular ways of calling a woman a bitch.
FERRET		A tradesman who sells goods to youug unthrift heirs, at excessive rates, and then continually duns them for the debt. To ferret; to search out or expel any one from his hiding-place, as a ferret drives out rabbits; also to cheat. Ferret-eyed; red-eyed: ferrets have red eyes.
FLEA BITE		A trifling injury. To send any one away with a flea in his ear; to give any one a hearty scolding.
FOOTMAN'S MAWND		An artificial sore made with unslaked lime, soap, and the rust of old iron, on the back of a beggar's hand, as if hurt by the bite or kick of a horse.
FRIDAY-FACE		A dismal countenance. Before, and even long after the Reformation, Friday was a day of abstinence, or jour maigre. Immediately after the restoration of king Charles II. a proclamation was issued, prohibiting all publicans from dressing any suppers on a Friday.
GIBLETS		To join giblets; said of a man and woman who cohabit as husband and wife, without being married; also to copulate.
GIRDS		Quips, taunts, severe or biting reflections.
GOB		The mouth; also a bit or morsel: whence gobbets. Gift of the gob; wide-mouthed, or one who speaks fluently, or sings well.
GRABBLE		To seize. To grabble the bit; to seize any one's money.
GRUB STREET		A street near Moorfields, formerly the supposed habitation of many persons who wrote for the booksellers: hence a Grub-street writer means a hackney author, who manufactures booss for the booksellers.
HIGH FLYERS		Tories, Jacobites.
HONEST WOMAN		To marry a woman with whom one has cohabitated as a mistress, is termed, making an honest woman of her.
HORSE BUSS		A kiss with a loud smack; also a bite.
JACOBITES		Sham or collar shirts. Also partizans for the Stuart family: from the name of the abdicated king, i.e. James or Jacobus. It is said by the whigs, that God changed Jacob's name to Israel, lest the descendants of that patriarch should be called Jacobites.
JIBBER THE KIBBER		A method of deceiving seamen, by fixing a candle and lanthorn round the neck of a horse, one of whose fore feet is tied up; this at night has the appearance of a ship's light. Ships bearing towards it, run on shore, and being wrecked, are plundered by the inhabitants. This diabolical device is, it is said, practised by the inhabitants of our western coasts.
KEEP		To inhabit. Lord, where do you keep? i.e. where are your rooms? ACADEMICAL PHRASE. Mother, your tit won't keep; your daughter will not preserve her virginity.
KEN		A house. A bob ken, or a bowman ken; a well-furnished house, also a house that harbours thieves. Biting the ken; robbing the house.
KIDDY NIPPERS		Taylors out of work, who cut off the waistcoat pockets of their brethren, when cross-legged on their board, thereby grabbling their bit.
KING'S WOOD LION		An Ass. Kingswood is famous for the great number of asses kept by the colliers who inhabit that place.
LINE		A term for the act of coition between dog and bitch.
LION		To tip the lion; to squeeze the nose of the party tipped, flat to his face with the thumb. To shew the lions and tombs; to point out the particular curiosities of any place, to act the ciceroni: an allusion to Westminster Abbey, and the Tower, where the tombs and lions are shewn. A lion is also a name given by the gownsmen of Oxford to an inhabitant or visitor. It is a standing joke among the city wits to send boys and country folks, on the first of April, to the Tower-ditch, to see the lions washed.
LOB'S POUND		A prison. Dr. Grey, in his notes on Hudibras, explains it to allude to one Doctor Lob, a dissenting preacher, who used to hold forth when conventicles were prohibited, and had made himself a retreat by means of a trap door at the bottom of his pulpit. Once being pursued by the officers of justice, they followed him through divers subterraneous passages, till they got into a dark cell, from whence they could not find their way out, but calling to some of their companions, swore they had got into Lob's Pound.
MEN OF KENT		Men born east of the river Medway, who are said to have met the Conqueror in a body, each carrying a green bough in his hand, the whole appearing like a moving wood; and thereby obtaining a confirmation of their ancient privileges. The inhabitants of Kent are divided into Kentish men and men of Kent. Also a society held at the Fountain Tavern, Bartholomew Lane, A.D. 1743.
MOABITES		Bailiffs, or Philistines.
MOTHER, or THE MOTHER		A bawd. Mother abbess: the same. Mother midnight; a midwife. Mother in law's bit; a small piece, mothers in law being supposed not apt to overload the stomachs of their husband's children.
MUMBLE A SPARROW		A cruel sport practised at wakes and fairs, in the following manner: A cock sparrow whose wings are clipped, is put into the crown of a hat; a man having his arms tied behind him, attempts to bite off the sparrow's head, but is generally obliged to desist, by the many pecks and pinches he receives from the enraged bird.
PARISH SOLDIER		A jeering name for a militiaman: from substitutes being frequently hired by the parish from which one of its inhabitants is drawn.
PEEPING TOM		A nick name for a curious prying fellow; derived from an old legendary tale, told of a taylor of Coventry, who, when Godiva countess of Chester rode at noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding the rest of the people shut up their houses) shly peeped out of his window, for which he was miraculously struck blind. His figure, peeping out of a window, is still kept up in remembrance of the transaction.
PETER		A portmanteau or cloke-bag. Biter of peters; one that makes it a trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind stage coaches or out of waggons. To rob Peter to pay Paul; to borrow of one man to pay another: styled also manoeuvring the apostles.
PIGEONS		Sharpers, who, during the drawing of the lottery, wait ready mounted near Guildhall, and, as soon as the first two or three numbers are drawn, which they receive from a confederate on a card, ride with them full speed to some distant insurance office, before fixed on, where there is another of the gang, commonly a decent looking woman, who takes care to be at the office before the hour of drawing: to her he secretly gives the number, which she insures for a considerable sum: thus biting the biter.
PORRIDGE ISLAND		An alley leading from St. Martin's church-yard to Round-court, chiefly inhabited by cooks, who cut off ready-dressed meat of all sorts, and also sell soup.
PREADAMITE QUACABITES		This great and laudable society (as they termed themselves) held their grand chapter at the Coal-hole.
PROUD		Desirous of copulation. A proud bitch; a bitch at heat, or desirous of a dog.
PURL		Ale in which wormwood has been infused, or ale and bitters drunk warm.
QUEER BIT-MAKERS		Coiners.
QUEER BITCH		An odd, out-of-the-way fellow.
RABBIT		A Welch rabbit; bread and cheese toasted, i.e. a Welch rare bit. Rabbits were also a sort of wooden canns to drink out of, now out of use.
RABBIT CATCHER		A midwife.
RABBIT SUCKERS		Young spendthrifts taking up goods on trust at great prices.
RAFFS		An appellation given by the gownsmen of the university of Oxford to the inhabitants of that place.
RELIGIOUS PAINTER		One who does not break the commandment which prohibits the making of the likeness of any thing in heaven or earth, or in the waters under the earth.
RUM BITE		A clever cheat, a clean trick.
RUM DUKE		A jolly handsome fellow; also an odd eccentric fellow; likewise the boldest and stoutest fellows lately among the Alsatians, Minters, Savoyards, and other inhabitants of privileged districts, sent to remove and guard the goods of such bankrupts as intended to take sanctuary in those places.
SALT		Lecherous. A salt bitch: a bitch at heat, or proud bitch. Salt eel; a rope's end, used to correct boys, etc. at sea: you shall have a salt eel for supper.
SCOLD'S CURE		A coffin. The blowen has napped the scold's cure; the bitch is in her coffin.
SCUT		The tail of a hare or rabbit; also that of a woman.
SPORT		To exhibit: as, Jack Jehu sported a new gig yesterday: I shall sport a new suit next week. To sport or flash one's ivory; to shew one's teeth. To sport timber; to keep one's outside door shut; this term is used in the inns of court to signify denying one's self. N.B. The word SPORT was in great vogue ann. 1783 and 1784.
TABBY		An old maid; either from Tabitha, a formal antiquated name; or else from a tabby cat, old maids being often compared to cats. To drive Tab; to go out on a party of pleasure with a wife and family.
TALLY MEN		Brokers that let out clothes to the women of the town. See RABBIT SUCKERS.
TIT		A horse; a pretty little tit; a smart little girl. a tit or tid bit; a delicate morsel. Tommy tit; a smart lively little fellow.
TWISS		(IRISH) A Jordan, or pot de chambre. A Mr. Richard Twiss having in his "Travels" given a very unfavourable description of the Irish character, the inhabitants of Dublin, byway of revenge, thought proper to christen this utensil by his name - suffice it to say that the baptismal rites were not wanting at the ceremony. On a nephew of this gentleman the following epigram was made by a friend of ouis: Perish the country, yet my name Shall ne'er in STORY be forgot, But still the more increase in fame, The more the country GOES TO POT.
UPRIGHT MAN		An upright man signifies the chief or principal of a crew. The vilest, stoutest rogue in the pack is generally chosen to this post, and has the sole right to the first night's lodging with the dells, who afterwards are used in common among the whole fraternity. He carries a short truncheon in his hand, which he calls his filchman, and has a larger share than ordinary in whatsoever is gotten in the society. He often travels in company with thirty or forty males and females, abram men, and others, over whom he presides arbitrarily. Sometimes the women and children who are unable to travel, or fatigued, are by turns carried in panniers by an ass, or two, or by some poor jades procured for that purpose.
WAITS		Musicians of the lower order, who in most towns play under the windows of the chief inhabitants at midnight, a short time before Christmas, for which they collect a christmas-box from house to house. They are said to derive their name of waits from being always in waiting to celebrate weddings and other joyous events happening within their district.
WELCH RABBIT		Welch rare-bit. Bread and cheese toasted. See RABBIT. - The Welch are said to be so remarkably fond of cheese, that in cases of difficulty their midwives apply a piece of toasted cheese to the janua vita to attract and entice the young Taffy, who on smelling it makes most vigorous efforts to come forth.