Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Share on Facebook
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.

Example:You click A and one of the results is ARSE. If you now click on ARSE the full list of related content will be displayed.

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  

 

Entries releated to BITE

 

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.
 
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.
 
BOW-WOW SHOP  A salesman's shop in Monmouth-street; so called because the servant barks, and the master bites. See BARKER.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
HIGH FLYERS  Tories, Jacobites.
 
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.
 
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.
 
MOABITES  Bailiffs, or Philistines.
 
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.
 
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.
 
RUM BITE  A clever cheat, a clean trick.