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 EAT

 

ALL HOLLOW		He was beat all hollow, i.e. he had no chance of conquering: it was all hollow, or a hollow thing, it was a decided thing from the beginning. See HOLLOW.
AMBASSADOR		A trick to duck some ignorant fellow or landsman, frequently played on board ships in the warm latitudes. It is thus managed: A large tub is filled with water, and two stools placed on each side of it. Over the whole is thrown a tarpaulin, or old sail: this is kept tight by two persons, who are to represent the king and queen of a foreign country, and are seated on the stools. The person intended to be ducked plays the Ambassador, and after repeating a ridiculous speech dictated to him, is led in great form up to the throne, and seated between the king and queen, who rising suddenly as soon as he is seated, he falls backwards into the tub of water.
APE LEADER		An old maid; their punishment after death, for neglecting increase and multiply, will be, it is said, leading apes in hell.
ARTHUR, KING ARTHUR		A game used at sea, when near the line, or in a hot latitude. It is performed thus: A man who is to represent king Arthur, ridiculously dressed, having a large wig made out of oakum, or some old swabs, is seated on the side, or over a large vessel of water. Every person in his turn is to be ceremoniously introduced to him, and to pour a bucket of water over him, crying, hail, king Arthur! if during this ceremony the person introduced laughs or smiles (to which his majesty endeavours to excite him, by all sorts of ridiculous gesticulations), he changes place with, and then becomes, king Arthur, till relieved by some brother tar, who has as little command over his muscles as himself.
BANAGHAN		He beats Banaghan; an Irish saying of one who tells wonderful stories. Perhaps Banaghan was a minstrel famous for dealing in the marvellous.
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.
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.
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.
BASTING		A beating.
BASTONADING		Beating any one with a stick; from baton, a stick, formerly spelt baston.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
BIBLE		A boatswain's great axe. Sea term.
BIRDS OF A FEATHER		Rogues of the same gang.
BITE		A cheat; also a woman's privities. The cull wapt the mort's bite; the fellow enjoyed the wench heartily.
BLACK FLY		The greatest drawback on the farmer is the black fly, i.e. the parson who takes tithe of the harvest.
BLACK JACK		A jug to drink out of, made of jacked leather.
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.
BLEATERS		Those cheated by Jack in a box. - See JACK IN A BOX.
BLEATING CHEAT		A sheep.
BLEATING RIG		Sheep stealing.
BOBBED		Cheated, tricked, disappointed.
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 HUTCH		A one-horse chaise, noddy, buggy, or leathern bottle.
BOOTY		To play booty; cheating play, where the player purposely avoids winning.
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.
BOUNCER		A large man or woman; also a great lie.
BOUNCING CHEAT		A bottle; from the explosion in drawing the cork.
BRACKET-FACED		Ugly, hard-featured.
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.
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.
BRISKET BEATER		A Roman catholic. SEE BREAST FLEET, and CRAW THUMPER.
BROUGHTONIAN		A boxer: a disciple of Broughton, who was a beef-eater, and once the best boxer of his day.
BUBBER		A drinking bowl; also a great drinker; a thief that steals plate from public houses.
BUBBLE		To cheat.
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.
BUGGER		A blackguard, a rascal, a term of reproach. Mill the bloody bugger; beat the damned rascal.
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 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'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.
BUTTER BOX		A Dutchman, from the great quantity of butter eaten by the people of that country.
CACKLING CHEATS		Fowls.
CAG MAGG		Bits and scraps of provisions. Bad meat.
CANE		To lay Cane upon Abel; to beat any one with a cane or stick.
CAPPING VERSES		Repeating Latin Verses in turn, beginning with the letter with which the last speaker left off.
CAPTAIN		Led captain; an humble dependant in a great family, who for a precarious subsistence, and distant hopes of preferment, suffers every kind of indignity, and is the butt of every species of joke or ill-humour. The small provision made for officers of the army and navy in time of peace, obliges many in both services to occupy this wretched station. The idea of the appellation is taken from a led horse, many of which for magnificence appear in the retinues of great personages on solemn occasions, such as processions, etc.
CAPTAIN LIEUTENANT		Meat between veal and beef, the flesh of an old calf; a military simile, drawn from the officer of that denomination, who has only the pay of a lieutenant, with the rank of captain; and so is not entirely one or the other, but between both.
CAPTAIN SHARP		A cheating bully, or one in a set of gamblers, whose office is to bully any pigeon, who, suspecting roguery, refuses to pay what he has lost.
CARAVAN		A large sum of money; also, a person cheated of such sum.
CARRION HUNTER		An undertaker; called also a cold cook, and death hunter. See COLD COOK and DEATH HUNTER.
CAT AND BAGPIPEAN SOCIETY		A society which met at their office in the great western road: in their summons, published in the daily papers, it was added, that the kittens might come with the old cats without being scratched.
CAT CALL		A kind of whistle, chiefly used at theatres, to interrupt the actors, and damn a new piece. It derives its name from one of its sounds, which greatly resembles the modulation of an intriguing boar cat.
CAT'S FOOT		To live under the cat's foot; to be under the dominion of a wife hen-pecked. To live like dog and cat; spoken of married persons who live unhappily together. As many lives as a cat; cats, according to vulgar naturalists, have nine lives, that is one less than a woman. No more chance than a cat in hell without claws; said of one who enters into a dispute or quarrel with one greatly above his match.CAT LAP. Tea, called also scandal broth. See SCANDAL BROTH.
CATERPILLAR		A nick name for a soldier. In the year 1745, a soldier quartered at a house near Derby, was desired by his landlord to call upon him, whenever he came that way; for, added he, soldiers are the pillars of the nation. The rebellion being finished, it happened the same regiment was quartered in Derbyshire, when the soldier resolved to accept of his landlord's invitation, and accordingly obtained leave to go to him: but, on his arrival, he was greatly surprised to find a very cold reception; whereupon expostulating with his landlord, he reminded him of his invitation, and the circumstance of his having said, soldiers were the pillars of the nation. If I did, answered the host, I meant CATERpiliars.
CAXON		An old weather-beaten wig.
CHAFED		Well beaten; from CHAUFFE, warmed.
CHALKERS		Men of wit, in Ireland, who in the night amuse themselves with cutting inoffensive passengers across the face with a knife. They are somewhat like those facetious gentlemen some time ago known in England by the title of Sweaters and Mohocks.
CHARREN		The smoke of Charren. - His eyes water from the smoke of Charren; a man of that place coming out of his house weeping, because his wife had beat him, told his neighbours the smoke had made his eyes water.
CHEATS		Sham sleeves to put over a dirty shift or shirt. See SHAMS.
CHILD		To eat a child; to partake of a treat given to the parish officers, in part of commutation for a bastard child the common price was formerly ten pounds and a greasy chin. See GREASY CHIN.
CHURCHYARD COUGH		A cough that is likely to terminate in death.
CLANKER		A great lie.
CLAWED OFF		Severely beaten or whipped; also smartly poxed or clapped.
CLEAR		Very drunk. The cull is clear, let's bite him; the fellow is very drunk, let's cheat him.
COB, or COBBING		A punishment used by the seamen for petty offences, or irregularities, among themselves: it consists in bastonadoing the offender on the posteriors with a cobbing stick, or pipe staff; the number usually inflicted is a dozen. At the first stroke the executioner repeats the word WATCH, on which all persons present are to take off their hats, on pain of like punishment: the last stroke is always given as hard as possible, and is called THE PURSE. Ashore, among soldiers, where this punishment is sometimes adopted, WATCH and THE PURSE are not included in the number, but given over and above, or, in the vulgar phrase, free gratis for nothing. This piece of discipline is also inflicted in Ireland, by the school-boys, on persons coming into the school without taking off their hats; it is there called school butter.
COG		To cheat with dice; also to coax or wheedle, To cog a die; to conceal or secure a die. To cog a dinner; to wheedle one out of a dinner.
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 BURNING		A punishment inflicted by private soldiers on their comrades for trifling offences, or breach of their mess laws; it is administered in the following manner: The prisoner is set against the wall, with the arm which is to be burned tied as high above his head as possible. The executioner then ascends a stool, and having a bottle of cold water, pours it slowly down the sleeve of the delinquent, patting him, and leading the water gently down his body, till it runs out at his breeches knees: this is repeated to the other arm, if he is sentenced to be burned in both.
COLD MEAT		A dead wife is the beat cold meat in a man's house.
COME		To come; to lend. Has he come it; has he lent it? To come over any one; to cheat or over reach him. Coming wench; a forward wench, also a breeding woman.
CONNY WABBLE		Eggs and brandy beat up together. IRISH.
CONVENIENCY		A necessary. A leathern conveniency, a coach.
COOK RUFFIAN		He who roasted the devil in his feathers. A bad cook.
COUNTERFEIT CRANK		A general cheat, assuming all sorts of characters; one conterfeiting the falling sickness.
COVENT, or CONVENT GARDEN, vulgarly called COMMON		Anciently, the garden belonging to a dissolved monastery; now famous for being the chief market in London for fruit, flowers, and herbs. The theatres are situated near it. In its environs are many brothels, and not long ago, the lodgings of the second order of ladies of easy virtue were either there, or in the purlieus of Drury Lane.
COXCOMB		Anciently, a fool. Fools, in great families, wore a cap with bells, on the top of which was a piece of red cloth, in the shape of a cock's comb. At present, coxcomb signifies a fop, or vain self-conceited fellow.
CRACKMANS		Hedges. The cull thought to have loped by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw; the man thought to have escaped by breaking through the hedge, but we brought him back by a great blow on the head, which laid him speechless.
CRAMP WORDS		Sentence of death passed on a criminal by a judge. He has just undergone the cramp word; sentence has just been passed on him.
CRASHING CHEATS		Teeth.
CRAW THUMPERS		Roman catholics, so called from their beating their breasts in the confession of their sins. See BRISKET BEATER, and BREAST FLEET.
CRIMP		A broker or factor, as a coal crimp, who disposes of the cargoes of the Newcastle coal ships; also persons employed to trapan or kidnap recruits for the East Indian and African companies. To crimp, or play crimp; to play foul or booty: also a cruel manner of cutting up fish alive, practised by the London fishmongers, in order to make it eat firm; cod, and other crimped fish, being a favourite dish among voluptuaries and epicures.
CROOK YOUR ELBOW		To crook one's elbow, and wish it may never come straight, if the fact then affirmed is not true - according to the casuists of Bow-street and St. Giles's, adds great weight and efficacy to an oath.
CROPPING DRUMS		Drummers of the foot guards, or Chelsea hospital, who find out weddings, and beat a point of war to serenade the new married couple, and thereby obtain money.
CROWDY		Oatmeal and water, or milk; a mess much eaten in the north.
CRUMP		One who helps solicitors to affidavit men, or false witnesses. - 'I wish you had, Mrs. Crump;' a Gloucestershire saying, in answer to a wish for any thing; implying, you must not expect any assistance from the speaker. It is said to have originated from the following incident: One Mrs. Crump, the wife of a substantial farmer, dining with the old Lady Coventry, who was extremely deaf, said to one of the footmen, waiting at table, 'I wish I had a draught of small beer,' her modesty not permitting her to desire so fine a gentleman to bring it: the fellow, conscious that his mistress could not hear either the request or answer, replied, without moving, 'I wish you had, Mrs. Crump.' These wishes being again repeated by both parties, Mrs. Crump got up from the table to fetch it herself; and being asked by my lady where she was going, related what had passed. The story being told abroad, the expression became proverbial.
CUFF		An old cuff; an old man. To cuff Jonas; said of one who is knock-kneed, or who beats his sides to keep himself warm in frosty weather; called also Beating the booby.
CULLABILITY		A disposition liable to be cheated, an unsuspecting nature, open to imposition.
CULP		A kick or blow: from the words mea culpa, being that part of the popish liturgy at which the people beat their breasts; or, as the vulgar term is, thump their craws.
CUNNING MAN		A cheat, who pretends by his skill in astrology to assist persons in recovering stolen goods: and also to tell them their fortunes, and when, how often, and to whom they shall be married; likewise answers all lawful questions, both by sea and land. This profession is frequently occupied by ladies.
CUNNING SHAVER		A sharp fellow, one that trims close, i.e. cheats ingeniously.
CUP OF THE CREATURE		A cup of good liquor.
CURRY		To curry favour; to obtain the favour of a person be coaxing or servility. To curry any one's hide; to beat him.
DAB		An adept; a dab at any feat or exercise. Dab, quoth Dawkins, when he hit his wife on the arse with a pound of butter.
DADDY		Father. Old daddy; a familiar address to an old man. To beat daddy mammy; the first rudiments of drum beating, being the elements of the roll.
DAISY KICKERS		Ostlers at great inns.
DAMPER		A luncheon, or snap before dinner: so called from its damping, or allaying, the appetite; eating and drinking, being, as the proverb wisely observes, apt to take away the appetite.
DAVID'S SOW		As drunk as David's sow; a common saying, which took its rise from the following circumstance: One David Lloyd, a Welchman, who kept an alehouse at Hereford, had a living sow with six legs, which was greatly resorted to by the curious; he had also a wife much addicted to drunkenness, for which he used sometimes to give her due correction. One day David's wife having taken a cup too much, and being fearful of the consequences, turned out the sow, and lay down to sleep herself sober in the stye. A company coming in to see the sow, David ushered them into the stye, exclaiming, there is a sow for you! did any of you ever see such another? all the while supposing the sow had really been there; to which some of the company, seeing the state the woman was in, replied, it was the drunkenest sow they had ever beheld; whence the woman was ever after called David's sow.
DEATH HUNTER		An undertaker, one who furnishes the necessary articles for funerals. See CARRION HUNTER.
DEATH'S HEAD UPON A MOP-STICK		A poor miserable, emaciated fellow; one quite an otomy. See OTOMY. - He looked as pleasant as the pains of death.
DEFT FELLOW		A neat little man.
DEVIL		A printer's errand-boy. Also a small thread in the king's ropes and cables, whereby they may be distinguished from all others. The Devil himself; a small streak of blue thread in the king's sails. The Devil may dance in his pocket; i.e. he has no money: the cross on our ancient coins being jocularly supposed to prevent him from visiting that place, for fear, as it is said, of breaking his shins against it. To hold a candle to the Devil; to be civil to any one out of fear: in allusion to the story of the old woman, who set a wax taper before the image of St. Michael, and another before the Devil, whom that saint is commonly represented as trampling under his feet: being reproved for paying such honour to Satan, she answered, as it was uncertain which place she should go to, heaven or hell, she chose to secure a friend in both places. That will be when the Devil is blind, and he has not got sore eyes yet; said of any thing unlikely to happen. It rains whilst the sun shines, the Devil is beating his wife with a shoulder of mutton: this phenomenon is also said to denote that cuckolds are going to heaven; on being informed of this, a loving wife cried out with great vehemence, 'Run, husband, run!'The Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be; The Devil was well, the Devil a monk was he.a proverb signifying that we are apt to forget promises made in time of distress. To pull the Devil by the tail, to be reduced to one's shifts. The Devil go with you and sixpence, and then you will have both money and company.
DEW BEATERS		Feet.
DEWITTED		Torn to pieces by a mob, as that great statesman John de Wit was in Holland, anno 1672.
DICKEY		An ass. Roll your dickey; drive your ass. Also a seat for servants to sit behind a carriage, when their master drives.
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.
DIMBER DAMBER		A top man, or prince, among the canting crew: also the chief rogue of the gang, or the completest cheat.
DISHCLOUT		A dirty, greasy woman. He has made a napkin of his dishclout; a saying of one who has married his cook maid. To pin a dishclout to a man's tail; a punishment often threatened by the female servants in a kitchen, to a man who pries too minutely into the secrets of that place.
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.'
DOCTORS		Loaded dice, that will run but two or three chances. They put the doctors upon him; they cheated him with loaded dice.
DOLL		Bartholomew doll; a tawdry, over-drest woman, like one of the children's dolls at Bartholomew fair. To mill doll; to beat hemp at Bridewell, or any other house of correction.
DOUGLAS		Roby Douglas, with one eye and a stinking breath; the breech. Sea wit.
DROP A COG		To let fall, with design, a piece of gold or silver, in order to draw in and cheat the person who sees it picked up; the piece so dropped is called a dropt cog.
DRUB		To beat any one with a stick, or rope's end: perhaps a contraction of DRY RUB. It is also used to signify a good beating with any instrument.
DRUMMER		A jockey term for a horse that throws about his fore legs irregularly: the idea is taken from a kettle drummer, who in beating makes many flourishes with his drumsticks.
DUDDERS, or WHISPERING DUDDERS		Cheats who travel the country, pretending to sell smuggled goods: they accost their intended dupes in a whisper. The goods they have for sale are old shop-keepers, or damaged; purchased by them of large manufactories. See DUFFER.
DUFFERS		Cheats who ply in different parts of the town, particularly about Water-lane, opposite St. Clement's church, in the Strand, and pretend to deal in smuggled goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling them Spital-fields goods at double their current price.
DUMB-FOUNDED		Silenced, also soundly beaten.
EAT		To eat like a beggar man, and wag his under jaw; a jocular reproach to a proud man. To eat one's words; to retract what one has said.
EIGHT EYES		I will knock out two of your eight eyes; a common Billingsgate threat from one fish nymph to another: every woman, according to the naturalists of that society, having eight eyes; viz. two seeing eyes, two bub-eyes, a bell-eye, two pope's eyes, and a cock-eye. He has fallen down and trod upon his eye; said of one who has a black eye.
ESSEX STILE		A ditch; a great part of Essex is low marshy ground, in which there are more ditches than Stiles.
FAG		To beat. Fag the bloss; beat the wench; A fag also means a boy of an inferior form or class, who acts as a servant to one of a superior, who is said to fag him, he is my fag; whence, perhaps, fagged out, for jaded or tired. To stand a good fag; not to be soon tired.
FAMS, or FAMBLES		Hands. Famble cheats; rings or gloves.
FAN		To beat any one. I fanned him sweetly; I beat him heartily.
FAWNEY RIG		A common fraud, thus practised: A fellow drops a brass ring, double gilt, which he picks up before the party meant to be cheated, and to whom he disposes of it for less than its supposed, and ten times more than its real, value. See MONEY DROPPER.
FEATHER ONE'S NEST		To enrich one's self.
FEATHER-BED LANE		A rough or stony lane.
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.
FIB		To beat. Fib the cove's quarron in the rumpad for the lour in his bung; beat the fellow in the highway for the money in his purse. - A fib is also a tiny lie.
FIDDLERS MONEY		All sixpences: sixpence being the usual sum paid by each couple, for music at country wakes and hops. Fiddler's fare; meat, drink, and money. Fiddler's pay; thanks and wine.
FILE, FILE CLOY, or BUNGNIPPER		A pick pocket. To file; to rob or cheat. The file, or bungnipper, goes generally in company with two assistants, the adam tiler, and another called the bulk or bulker, Whose business it is to jostle the person they intend to rob, and push him against the wall, while the file picks his pocket, and gives'the booty to the adam tiler, who scours off with it.
FINGER IN EYE		To put finger in eye; to weep: commonly applied to women. The more you cry the less you'll p-ss; a consolatory speech used by sailors to their doxies. It is as great a pity to see a woman cry, as to see a goose walk barefoot; another of the same kind.
FLASH		A periwig. Rum flash; a fine long wig. Queer flash; a miserable weather-beaten caxon.
FLEECE		To rob, cheat, or plunder.
FLING		To trick or cheat. He flung me fairly out of it: he cheated me out of it.
FLUX		To cheat, cozen, or over-reach; also to salivate. To flux a wig; to put it up in curl, and bake it.
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.
FOYST		A pickpocket, cheat, or rogue. See WOTTON'S GANG.
FUN		A cheat, or trick. Do you think to fun me out of it? Do you think to cheat me? - Also the breech, perhaps from being the abbreviation of fundament. I'll kick your fun.
FURMITY, or FROMENTY		Wheat boiled up to a jelly. To simper like a furmity kettle: to smile, or look merry about the gills.
GAFF		A fair. The drop coves maced the joskins at the gaff; the ring-droppers cheated the countryman at the fair.
GAGGERS		High and Low. Cheats, who by sham pretences, and wonderful stories of their sufferings, impose on the credulity of well meaning people. See RUM GAGGER.
GAMBADOES		Leathern cases of stiff leather, used in Devonshire instead of boots; they are fastened to the saddle, and admit the leg, shoe and all: the name was at first jocularly given.
GAME		Bubbles or pigeons drawn in to be cheated. Also, at bawdy-houses, lewd women. Mother have you any game; mother, have you any girls? To die game; to suffer at the gallows without shewing any signs of fear or repentance. Game pullet; a young whore, or forward girl in the way of becoming one.
GINGERBREAD WORK		Gilding and carving: these terms are particularly applied by seamen on board Newcastle colliers, to the decorations of the sterns and quarters of West-Indiamen, which they have the greatest joy in defacing.
GINNY		An instrument to lift up a great, in order to steal what is in the window.
GLAYMORE		A Highland broad-sword; from the Erse GLAY, or GLAIVE, a sword; and MORE, great.
GLUTTON		A term used by bruisers to signify a man who will bear a great deal of beating.
GOLGOTHA OR THE PLACE OF SCULLS		Part of the Theatre at Oxford, where the heads of houses sit; those gentlemen being by the wits of the university called sculls.
GOLOSHES		Goliath's shoes. Large leathern clogs, worn by invalids over their ordinary shoes.
GOOSE		A taylor's goose; a smoothing iron used to press down the seams, for which purpose it must be heated: hence it is a jocular saying, that a taylor, be he ever so poor, is always sure to have a goose at his fire. He cannot say boh to a goose; a saying of a bashful or sheepish fellow.
GOOSEBERRY		He played up old gooseberry among them; said of a person who. by force or threats, suddenly puts an end to a riot or disturbance.
GREASE		To bribe. To grease a man in the fist; to bribe him. To grease a fat sow in the arse; to give to a rich man. Greasy chin; a treat given to parish officers in part of commutation for a bastard: called also, Eating a child.
GREAT INTIMATE		As great as shirt and shitten arse.
GREAT JOSEPH		A surtout.
GRIM		Old Mr. Grim; death.
GROUND SWEAT		A grave.
GULL		A simple credulous fellow, easily cheated.
GULLED		Deceived, cheated, imposed on.
GUTS		My great guts are ready to eat my little ones; my guts begin to think my throat's cut; my guts curse my teeth: all expressions signifying the party is extremely hungry.
GUTTING A QUART POT		Taking out the lining of it: ie: drinking it off. Gutting an oyster; eating it. Gutting a house; clearing it of its furniture. See POULTERER.
GYPSIES		A set of vagrants, who, to the great disgrace of our police, are suffered to wander about the country. They pretend that they derive their origin from the ancient Egyptians, who were famous for their knowledge in astronomy and other sciences; and, under the pretence of fortune-telling, find means to rob or defraud the ignorant and superstitious. To colour their impostures, they artificially discolour their faces, and speak a kind of gibberish peculiar to themselves. They rove up and down the country in large companies, to the great terror of the farmers, from whose geese, turkeys, and fowls, they take very considerable contributions.
HAND AND POCKET SHOP		An eating house, where ready money is paid for what is called for.
HANK		He has a hank on him; i.e. an ascendancy over him, or a hold upon him. A Smithfield hank; an ox, rendered furious by overdriving and barbarous treatment. See BULL HANK.
HASTY PUDDING		Oatmeal and milk boiled to a moderate thickness, and eaten with sugar and butter. Figuratively, a wet, muddy road: as, The way through Wandsworth is quite a hasty pudding. To eat hot hasty pudding for a laced hat, or some other prize, is a common feat at wakes and fairs.
HAZEL GILD		To beat any one with a hazel stick.
HEARING CHEATS		Ears.
HEATHEN PHILOSOPHER		One whose breech may be seen through his pocket-hole: this saying arose from the old philosophers, many of whom depised the vanity of dress to such a point, as often to fall into the opposite extreme.
HIGH EATING		To eat skylarks in a garret.
HOB OR NOB		Will you hob or nob with me? a question formerly in fashion at polite tables, signifying a request or challenge to drink a glass of wine with the proposer: if the party challenged answered Nob, they were to chuse whether white or red. This foolish custom is said to have originated in the days of good queen Bess, thus: when great chimnies were in fashion, there was at each corner of the hearth, or grate, a small elevated projection, called the hob; and behind it a seat. In winter time the beer was placed on the hob to warm: and the cold beer was set on a small table, said to have been called the nob; so that the question, Will you have hob or nob? seems only to have meant, Will you have warm or cold beer? i.e. beer from the hob, or beer from the nob.
HOBBY HORSICAL		A man who is a great keeper or rider of hobby horses; one that is apt to be strongly attached to his systems of amusement.
HOBSON'S CHOICE		That or none; from old Hobson, a famous carrier of Cambridge, who used to let horses to the students; but never permitted them to chuse, always allotting each man the horse he thought properest for his manner of riding and treatment.
HOISTING		A ludicrous ceremony formerly performed on every soldier, the first time he appeared in the field after being married; it was thus managed: As soon as the regiment, or company, had grounded their arms to rest a while, three or four men of the same company to which the bridegroom belonged, seized upon him, and putting a couple of bayonets out of the two corners of his hat, to represent horns, it was placed on his head, the back part foremost. He was then hoisted on the shoulders of two strong fellows, and carried round the arms, a drum and fife beating and playing the pioneers call, named Round Heads and Cuckolds, but on this occasion styled the Cuckold's March; in passing the colours, he was to take off his hat: this, in some regiments, was practised by the officers on their brethren, Hoisting, among pickpockets, is, setting a man on his head, that his money, watch, etc. may fall out of his pockets; these they pick up, and hold to be no robbery. See REVERSED.
HOOF		To beat the hoof; to travel on foot. He hoofed it or beat the hoof, every step of the way from Chester to London.
HOOK AND SNIVEY, WITH NIX THE BUFFER		This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is carried on thus: Three men, one of who pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house: the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.
HOOP		To beat. I'll well hoop his or her barrel, I'll beat him or her soundly.
HOUSE, or TENEMENT, TO LET		A widow's weeds; also an atchievement marking the death of a husband, set up on the outside of a mansion: both supposed to indicate that the dolorous widow wants a male comforter.
HULKY, or HULKING		A great hulky fellow; an over-grown clumsy lout, or fellow.
HUMMER		A great lye, a rapper. See RAPPER.
HUMS		Persons at church. There is a great number of hums in the autem; there is a great congregation in the church.
HUNG BEEF		A dried bull's pizzle. How the dubber served the cull with hung beef; how the turnkey beat the fellow with a bull's pizzle.
IMPOST TAKERS		Usurers who attend the gaming-tables, and lend money at great premiums.
IMPUDENT STEALING		Cutting out the backs of coaches, and robbing the seats.
INDORSER		A sodomite. To indorse with a cudgel; to drub or beat a man over the back with a stick, to lay CANE upon Abel.
INKLE WEAVERS		Supposed to be a very brotherly set of people; 'as great as two inkle weavers' being a proverbial saying.
JABBER		To talk thick and fast, as great praters usually do, to chatter like a magpye; also to speak a foreign language. He jabbered to rne in his damned outlandish parlez vous, but I could not understand him; he chattered to me in French, or some other foreign language, but I could not understand him.
JACK IN A BOX, A sharper, or cheat		A child in the mother's womb.
JACK OF LEGS		A tall long-legged man; also a giant, said to be buried in Weston church, near Baldock, in Hertfordshire, where there are two stones fourteen feet distant, said to be the head and feet stones of his grave. This giant, says Salmon, as fame goes, lived in a wood here, and was a great robber, but a generous one; for he plundered the rich to feed the poor: he frequently took bread for this purpose from the Baldock bakers, who catching him at an advantage, put out his eyes, and afterwards hanged him upon a knoll in Baldock field.
JASON'S FLEECE		A citizen cheated of his gold.
JIG		A trick. A pleasant jig; a witty arch trick. Also a lock or door. The feather-bed jig; copulation.
JINGLE BOXES		Leathern jacks tipped with silver, and hung with bells, formerly in use among fuddle caps.
JORDAIN		A great blow, or staff. I'll tip him a jordain if I transnear; i.e. I'll give him a blow with my staff, if I come near him.
JOSEPH		A woman's great coat. Also, a sheepish bashful young fellow: an allusion to Joseph who fled from Potiphar's wife. You are Josephus rex; you are jo-king, ie: joking.
JOSKIN		A countryman. The dropcove maced the Joskin of twenty quid; The ring dropper cheated the countryman of twenty guineas.
KEELHAULING		A punishment in use among the Dutch seamen, in which, for certain offences, the delinquent is drawn once, or oftener, under the ship's keel: ludicrously defined, undergoing a great hard-ship.
KETCH		Jack Ketch; a general name for the finishers of the law, or hangmen, ever since the year 1682, when the office was filled by a famous practitioner of that name, of whom his wife said, that any bungler might put a man to death, but only her husband knew how to make a gentleman die sweetly.
KIMBAW		To trick, cheat or cozen; also to beat or to bully. Let's kimbaw the cull; let's bully the fellow. To set one's arms a-kimbaw, vulgarly pronounced a-kimbo, is to rest one's hands on the hips, keeping the elbows square, and sticking out from the body; an insolent bullying attitude.
KING'S WOOD LION		An Ass. Kingswood is famous for the great number of asses kept by the colliers who inhabit that place.
KITCHEN PHYSIC		Food, good meat roasted or boiled. A little kitchen physic will set him up; he has more need of a cook than a doctor.
KNIGHT OF THE TRENCHER		A great eater.
LACING		Beating. I'll lace your jacket handsomely.
LAMB, or LAMBASTE		To beat. Lamb pye; a beating: from lambo.
LANSPRISADO		One who has only two-pence in his pocket. Also a lance, or deputy corporal; that is, one doing the duty without the pay of a corporal. Formerly a lancier, or horseman, who being dismounted by the death of his horse, served in the foot, by the title of lansprisado, or lancepesato, a broken lance.
LEATHER		To lose leather; to be galled with riding on horseback, or, as the Scotch express it, to be saddle sick. To leather also meant to beat, perhaps originally with a strap: I'll leather you to your heart's content. Leather-headed; stupid. Leathern conveniency; term used by quakers for a stage-coach.
LEFT-HANDED WIFE		A concubine; an allusion to an ancient German custom, according to which, when a man married his concubine, or a woman greatly his inferior, he gave her his left hand.
LEGGERS		Sham leggers; cheats who pretend to sell smuggled goods, but in reality only deal in old shop-keepers or damaged goods.
LICK		To beat; also to wash, or to paint slightly over. I'll give you a good lick o' the chops; I'll give you a good stroke or blow on the face. Jack tumbled into a cow t - d, and nastied his best clothes, for which his father stept up, and licked him neatly. - I'll lick you! the dovetail to which is, If you lick me all over, you won't miss - .
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.
LOBONIAN SOCIETY		A society which met at Lob Hall, at the King and Queen, Norton Falgate, by order of Lob the great.
LOBSCOUSE		A dish much eaten at sea, composed of salt beef, biscuit and onions, well peppered, and stewed together.
LOGGERHEAD		A blockhead, or stupid fellow. We three loggerheads be: a sentence frequently written under two heads, and the reader by repeating it makes himself the third. A loggerhead is also a double-headed, or bar shot of iron. To go to loggerheads; to fall to fighting.
LONG		Great. A long price; a great price.
LORD		A crooked or hump-backed man. These unhappy people afford great scope for vulgar raillery; such as, 'Did you come straight from home? if so, you have got confoundedly bent by the way.'
LULLABY CHEAT		An infant.
LUMP		To beat; also to include a number of articles under one head.
LUMPING		Great. A lumping penny worth; a great quantity for the money, a bargain. He has'got a lumping penny-worth; frequently said of a man who marries a fat woman.
MACE COVE		A swindler, a sharper, a cheat. On the mace; to live by swindling.
MAULED		Extremely drunk, or soundly beaten.
MESSMATE		One who eats at the same mess, companion or comrade.
MILL		To rob; also to break, beat out, or kill. I'll mill your glaze; I'll beat out your eye. To mill a bleating cheat; to kill a sheep. To mill a ken; to rob a house. To mill doll; to beat hemp in bridewell.
MILLING COVE		A boxer. How the milling cove served the cull out; how the boxer beat the fellow.
MINE ARSE ON A BANDBOX		An answer to the offer of any thing inadequate to the purpose for which it is wanted, just as a bandbox would be if used for a seat.
MOLL PEATLY'S GIG		A rogering bout.
MONEY DROPPERS		Cheats who drop money, which they pretend to find just before some country lad; and by way of giving him a share of their good luck, entice him into a public house, where they and their confederates cheat or rob him of what money he has about him.
MONGREL		A hanger on among cheats, a spunger; also a child whose father and mother are of different countries.
MORGLAG		A brown bill, or kind of halbert, formerly carried by watchmen; corruption of MORE, great or broad, and GLAVE, blade.
MOW HEATER		A drover: from their frequent sleeping on hay mows.
MUFFLING CHEAT		A napkin.
MULLIGRUBS		Sick of the mulligrubs with eating chopped hay: low-spirited, having an imaginary sickness.
MUM GLASS		The monument erected on Fish-street Hill, London, in memory of the great fire in 1666.
NAB, or NAB CHEAT		A hat. Penthouse nab; a large hat.
NAP		To cheat at dice by securing one chance. Also to catch the venereal disease. You've napt it; you are infected.
NAPPER		The head; also a cheat or thief.
NIP		A cheat. Bung nipper; a cutpurse.
NODDY		A simpleton or fool. Also a kind of low cart, with a seat before it for the driver, used in and about Dublin, in the manner of a hackney coach: the fare is just half that of a coach, for the same distance; so that for sixpence one may have a set down, as it is called, of a mile and half, and frequently a tumble down into the bargain: it is called a noddy from the nutation of its head. Knave noddy; the old-fashioned name for the knave of trumps.
NOKES		A ninny, or fool. John-a-Nokes and Tom-a-Stiles; two honest peaceable gentlemen, repeatedly set together by the ears by lawyers of different denominations: two fictitious names formerly used in law proceedings, but now very seldom, having for several years past been supplanted by two other honest peaceable gentlemen, namely, John Doe and Richard Roe.
NUBBING		Hanging. Nubbing cheat: the gallows. Nubbing cove; the hangman. Nubbing ken; the sessions house.
NULL		To beat: as, He nulled him heartily.
NURSE		To cheat: as, they nursed him out of it. An estate in the hands of trustees, for the payment of bdebts, is said to be at nurse.
O BE JOYFUL		I'll make you sing O be joyful on the other side of your mouth; a threat, implying the party threatened will be made to cry. To sing O be easy; to appear contented when one has cause to complain, and dare not.
OAK		A rich man, a man of good substance and credit. To sport oak; to shut the outward door of a student's room at college. An oaken towel; an oaken cudgel. To rub a man down with an oaken towel; to beat him.
OIL OF GLADNESS		I will anoint you with the oil of gladness; ironically spoken for, I will beat you.
OVEN		A great mouth; the old woman would never have looked for her daughter in the oven, had she not been there herself.
PAD THE HOOF		See BEAT THE HOOF.
PALAVER		To flatter: originally an African word for a treaty, talk, or conference.
PARELL		Whites of eggs, bay salt, milk, and pump water, beat together, and poured into a vessel of wine to prevent its fretting.
PATRICO, or PATER-COVE		The fifteenth rank of the canting tribe; strolling priests that marry people under a hedge, without gospel or common prayer book: the couple standing on each side of a dead beast, are bid to live together till death them does part; so shaking hands, the wedding is ended. Also any minister or parson.
PATTERING		The maundering or pert replies of servants; also talk or palaver in order to amuse one intended to be cheated. Pattering of prayers; the confused sound of a number of persons praying together.
PAUM		To conceal in the hand. To paum a die: to hide a die in the palm of the hand. He paums; he cheats. Don't pretend to paum that upon me.
PAY		To smear over. To pay the bottom of a ship or boat; to smear it over with pitch: The devil to pay, and no pitch hot or ready. SEA TERM. - Also to beat: as, I will pay you as Paul paid the Ephesians, over the face and eyes, and all your d - -d jaws. To pay away; to fight manfully, also to eat voraciously. To pay through the nose: to pay an extravagant price.
PELT		A heat, chafe, or passion; as, What a pelt he was in! Pelt is also the skin of several beasts.
PENNY-WISE AND POUND FOOLISH		Saving in small matters, and extravagant in great.
PIGEON		A weak silly fellow easily imposed on. To pigeon; to cheat. To milk the pigeon; to attempt impossibilities, to be put to shifts for want of money. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off a church.
PINKING-DINDEE		A sweater or mohawk. IRISH.
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.
PISS MAKER		A great drinker, one much given to liquor.
PLATE		Money, silver, prize. He is in for the plate; he has won the KEAT, i.e. is infected with the venereal disorder: a simile drawn from hofse-racing. When the plate fleet comes in; when money comes to hand.
PLAY		To play booty; to play with an intention to lose. To play the whole game; to cheat. To play least in sight; to hide, or keep out of the way. To play the devil; to be guilty of some great irregularity or mismanagement.
POINT		To stretch a point; to exceed some usual limit, to take a great stride. Breeches were usually tied up with points, a kind of short laces, formerly given away by the churchwardens at Whitsuntide, under the denomination of tags: by taking a great stride these were stretched.
POLISH		To polish the king's iron with one's eyebrows; to be in gaol, and look through the iron grated windows. To polish a bone; to eat a meal. Come and polish a bone with me; come and eat a dinner or supper with me.
POMMEL		To beat: originally confined to beating with the hilt of a sword, the knob being, from its similarity to a small apple, called pomelle; in Spanish it is still called the apple of the sword. As the clenched fist likewise somewhat resembles an apple, perhaps that might occasion the term pommelling to be applied to fisty-cuffs.
POMPKIN		A man or woman of Boston in America: from, the number of pompkins raised and eaten by the people of that country. Pompkinshire; Boston and its dependencies.
PONTIUS PILATE		A pawnbroker. Pontius Pilate's guards, the first regiment of foot, or Royal Scots: so intitled from their supposed great antiquity. Pontius Pilate's counsellor; one who like him can say, Non invenio causam, I can find no cause. Also (Cambridge) a Mr. Shepherd of Trinity College; who disputing with a brother parson on the comparative rapidity with which they read the liturgy, offered to give him as far as Pontius Pilate in the Belief.
PORRIDGE		Keep your breath to cool your porridge; ie: held your tongue.
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.
POUND		To beat. How the milling cove pounded the cull for being nuts on his blowen; how the boxer beat the fellow for taking liberties with his mistress.
PRATING CHEAT		The tongue.
PREADAMITE QUACABITES		This great and laudable society (as they termed themselves) held their grand chapter at the Coal-hole.
PRIG		A thief, a cheat: also a conceited coxcomical fellow.
PRINT		All in print, quite neat or exact, set, screwed up. Quite in print; set in a formal manner.
PROUD		Desirous of copulation. A proud bitch; a bitch at heat, or desirous of a dog.
PUDDING TIME		In good time, or at the beginning of a meal: pudding formerly making the first dish. To give the crows a pudding; to die. You must eat some cold pudding, to settle your love.
PUFFING		Bidding at an auction, as above; also praising any thing above its merits, from interested motives. The art of puffing is at present greatly practised, and essentially necessary in all trades, professions, and callings. To puff and blow; to be out of breath.
PURSY, or PURSIVE		Short-breathed, or foggy, from being over fat.
QUACKING CHEAT		A duck.
QUAKING CHEAT		A calf or sheep.
QUEEN DICK		To the tune of the life and death of Queen Dick. That happened in the reign of Queen Dick; i.e., never.
QUEER PLUNGERS		Cheats who throw themselves into the water, in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each; and the supposed drowned persons, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket.
RABBIT SUCKERS		Young spendthrifts taking up goods on trust at great prices.
RACK RENT		Rent strained to the utmost value. To lie at rack and manger; to be in great disorder.
RANDLE		A set of nonsensical verses, repeated in Ireland by schoolboys, and young people, who have been guilty of breaking wind backwards before any of their compa- nions; if they neglect this apology, they are liable to certain kicks, pinches, and fillips, which are accompanied with divers admonitory couplets.
RANK		Stinking, rammish, ill-flavoured; also strong, great. A rank knave; a rank coward: perhaps the latter may allude to an ill savour caused by fear.
RAPPER		A swinging great lie.
REBUS		A riddle or pun on a man's name, expressed in sculpture or painting, thus: a bolt or arrow, and a tun, for Bolton; death's head, and a ton, for Morton.
RENDEZVOUS		A place of meeting. The rendezvous of the beggars were, about the year 1638, according to the Bellman, St, Quinton's, the Three Crowns in the Vintry, St. Tybs, and at Knapsbury: there were four barns within a mile of London. In Middlesex were four other harbours, called Draw the Pudding out of the Fire, the Cross Keys in Craneford parish, St. Julian's in Isleworth parish, and the house of Pettie in Northall parish. In Kent, the King's Barn near Dartford, and Ketbrooke near Blackheath.
RIBROAST		To beat: I'll ribroast him to his heart's content.
RIDER		A person who receives part of the salary of a place or appointment from the ostensible occupier, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, or great man appointing. The rider is said to be quartered upon the possessor, who often has one or more persons thus riding behind him. See QUARTERED.
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.
ROAST		To arrest. I'll roast the dab; I'll arrest the rascal. - Also to jeer, ridicule, or banter. He stood the roast; he was the butt. - Roast meat clothes; Sunday or holiday-clothes. To cry roast meat; to boast of one's situation. To rule the roast; to be master or paramount.
ROAST AND BOILED		A nick name for the Life Guards, who are mostly substantial house-keepers; and eat daily of roast and boiled.
ROBY DOUGLASS		with one eye and a stinking breath. The breech.
ROGUES		The fourth order of canters. A rogue in grain; a great rogue, also a corn chandler. A rogue in spirit; a distiller or brandy merchant.
ROGUM POGUM, or DRAGRUM POGRAM		Goat's beard, eaten for asparagus; so called by the ladies who gather cresses, etc. who also deal in this plant.
ROMP		A forward wanton girl, a tomrig. Grey, in his notes to Shakespeare, derives it from arompo, an animal found in South Guinea, that is a man eater. See HOYDEN.
ROOK		A cheat: probably from the thievish disposition of the birds of that name. Also the cant name for a crow used in house-breaking. To rook; to cheat, particularly at play.
ROUGH MUSIC		Saucepans, frying-paps, poker and tongs, marrow-bones and cleavers, bulls horns, etc. beaten upon and sounded in ludicrous processions.
ROYAL SCAMPS		Highwaymen who never rob any but rich persons, and that without ill treating them. See SCAMP.
RUFFIAN		The devil. - May the ruffian nab the cuffin queer, and let the harmanbeck trine with his kinchins about his colquarren; may the Devil take the justice, and let the constable be hanged with his children about his neck. The ruffian cly thee; the Devil take thee. Ruffian cook ruffian, who scalded the Devil in his feathers; a saying of a bad cook. Ruffian sometimes also means, a justice.
RUM BITE		A clever cheat, a clean trick.
RUM BLEATING CHEAT		A fat wether sheep.
RUM CHUB		Among butchers, a customer easily imposed on, as to the quality and price of meat.
RUM CULL		A rich fool, easily cheated, particularly by his mistress.
RUM GAGGERS		Cheats who tell wonderful stories of their sufferings at sea, or when taken by the Algerines,
RUM MORT		A queen, or great lady.
RUM QUIDS		A great booty.
RUMFORD		To ride to Rumford to have one's backside new bottomed: i.e. to have a pair of new leather breeches. Rumford was formerly a famous place for leather breeches. A like saying is current in Norfolk and Suffolk, of Bungay, and for the same reason. - Rumford lion; a calf. See ESSEX LION.
RUSHERS		Thieves who knock at the doors of great houses in London, in summer time, when the families are gone out of town, and on the door being opened by a woman, rush in and rob the house; also housebreakers who enter lone houses by force.
SADDLE		To saddle the spit; to give a dinner or supper. To saddle one's nose; to wear spectacles. To saddle a place or pension; to oblige the holder to pay a certain portion of his income to some one nominated by the donor. Saddle sick: galled with riding, having lost leather.
SALMON-GUNDY		Apples, onions, veal or chicken, and pickled herrings, minced fine, and eaten with oil and vinegar; some derive the name of this mess from the French words SELON MON GOUST, because the proportions of the different ingredients are regulated by the palate of the maker; others say it bears the name of the inventor, who was a rich Dutch merchant; but the general and most probable opinion is, that it was invented by the countess of Salmagondi, one of the ladies of Mary de Medicis, wife of King Henry IV. of France, and by her brought into France.
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.
SANDWICH		Ham, dried tongue, or some other salted meat, cut thin and put between two slices of bread and butter: said to be a favourite morsel with the Earl of Sandwich.
SAVE-ALL		A kind of candlestick used by our frugal forefathers, to burn snuffs and ends of candles. Figuratively, boys running about gentlemen's houses in Ireland, who are fed on broken meats that would otherwise be wasted, also a miser.
SCANDAL PROOF		One who has eaten shame and drank after it, or would blush at being ashamed.
SCOURERS		Riotous bucks, who amuse themselves with breaking windows, beating the watch, and assaulting every person they meet: called scouring the streets.
SCRATCH		Old Scratch; the Devil: probably from the long and sharp claws with which he is frequently delineated.
SECRET		He has been let into the secret: he has been cheated at gaming or horse-racing. He or she is in the grand secret, i.e. dead.
SERAGLIO		A bawdy-house; the name of that part of the Great Turk's palace where the women are kept.
SERVED		Found guilty. Convicted. Ordered to be punished or transported. To serve a cull out; to beat a man soundly.
SHAM		A cheat, or trick. To cut a sham; to cheat or deceive. Shams; false sleeves to put on over a dirty shirt, or false sleeves with ruffles to put over a plain one. To sham Abram; to counterfeit sickness.
SHARP		Subtle, acute, quick-witted; also a sharper or cheat, in opposition to a flat, dupe, or gull. Sharp's the word and quick's the motion with him; said of any one very attentive to his own interest, and apt to take all advantages. Sharp set; hungry.
SHARPER		A cheat, one that lives by his wits. Sharpers tools; a fool and false dice.
SHAVER		A cunning shaver; a subtle fellow, one who trims close, an acute cheat. A young shaver; a boy. SEA TERM.
SIZE		To sup at one's own expence. If a MAN asks you to SUP, he treats you; if to SIZE, you pay for what you eat - liquors ONLY being provided by the inviter.
SKY FARMERS		Cheats who pretend they were farmers in the isle of Sky, or some other remote place, and were ruined by a flood, hurricane, or some such public calamity: or else called sky farmers from their farms being IN NUBIBUS, 'in the clouds.'
SLUR		To slur, is a method of cheating at dice: also to cast a reflection on any one's character, to scandalize.
SLUSH		Greasy dish-water, or the skimmings of a pot where fat meat has been boiled.
SLUSH BUCKET		A foul feeder, one that eats much greasy food.
SMELLING CHEAT		An orchard, or garden; also a nosegay.
SMUG		A nick name for a blacksmith; also neat and spruce.
SOCKET MONEY		A whore's fee, or hire: also money paid for a treat, by a married man caught in an intrigue.
SPANK		To run neatly along, beteeen a trot and gallop. The tits spanked it to town; the horses went merrily along all the way to town.
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.
SPOUT		To rehearse theatrically.
SPOUTING		Theatrical declamation.
SPUNGE		A thirsty fellow, a great drinker. To spunge; to eat and drink at another's cost. Spunging-house: a bailiff's lock-up-house, or repository, to which persons arrested are taken, till they find bail, or have spent all their money: a house where every species of fraud and extortion is practised under the protection of the law.
SQUIRE OF ALSATIA		A weak profligate spendthrift, the squire of the company; one who pays the whole reckoning, or treats the company, called standing squire.
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.
STARVE'EM, ROB'EM, AND CHEAT'EM		Stroud, Rochester, and Chatham; so called by soldiers and sailors, and not without good reason.
STOP HOLE ABBEY		The nick name of the chief rendzvous of the canting crew of beggars, gypsies, cheats, thieves, etc. etc.
STOTER		A great blow. Tip him a stoter in the haltering place; give him a blow under the left ear.
STRETCHING		Hanging. He'll stretch for it; he will be hanged for it. Also telling a great lie: he stretched stoutly.
SUGAR SOPS		Toasted bread soked in ale, sweetened with sugar, and grated nutmeg: it is eaten with cheese.
SWADDLE		To beat with a stick.
SWADDLERS		The tenth order of the canting tribe, who not only rob, but beat, and often murder passenges. Swaddlers is also the Irish name for methodist.
SWEATING		A mode of diminishing the gold coin, practiced chiefly by the Jews, who corrode it with aqua regia. Sweating was also a diversion practised by the bloods of the last century, who styled themselves Mohocks: these gentlemen lay in wait to surprise some person late in the night, when surrouding him, they with their swords pricked him in the posteriors, which obliged him to be constantly turning round; this they continued till they thought him sufficiently sweated.
SWEETNESS		Guinea droppers, cheats, sharpers. To sweeten to decoy, or draw in. To be sweet upon; to coax, wheedle, court, or allure. He seemed sweet upon that wench; he seemed to court that girl.
SWINDLER		One who obtains goods on credit by false pretences, and sells them for ready money at any price, in order to make up a purse. This name is derived from the German word SCHWINDLIN, to totter, to be ready to fall; these arts being generally practised by persons on the totter, or just ready to break. The term SWINDLER has since been used to signify cheats of every kind.
SWINGE		To beat stoutly.
SWINGING		A great swinging fellow; a great stout fellow. A swinging lie; a lusty lie.
TAKEN IN		Imposed on, cheated.
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.
TARTAR		To catch a Tartar; to attack one of superior strength or abilities. This saying originated from a story of an Irish-soldier in the Imperial service, who, in a battle against the Turks, called out to his comrade that he had caught a Tartar. 'Bring him along then,' said he. 'He won't come,' answered Paddy. 'Then come along yourself,' replied his comrade. 'Arrah,' cried he, 'but he won't let me.' - A Tartar is also an adept at any feat, or game: he is quite a Tartar at cricket, or billiards.
TATTOO		A beat of the drum, of signal for soldiers to go to their quarters, and a direction to the sutlers to close the tap, anddtew nomore liquor for them; it is generally beat at nine in summer and eight in winter. The devil's tattoo; beating with one's foot against the ground, as done by persons in low spirits.
TAW		A schoolboy's game, played with small round balls made of stone dust, catted marbles. I'll be one upon your taw presently; a species of threat.
TAWED		Beaten,
TAYLORS GOOSE		An iron with which, when heated, press down the seams of clothes.
TENDER PARNELL		A tender creature, fearful of the least puff of wind or drop of rain. As tender as Parnell, who broke her finger in a posset drink.
THUMPING		Great! a thumping boy.
THWACK		A great blow with a stick across the shoulders.
TIDY		Neat.
TIFFING		Eating or drinking out of meal time, disputing or falling out; also lying with a wench, A tiff of punch, a small bowl of punch.
TITTER TATTER		One reeling, and ready to fall at the least touch; also the childish amusement of riding upon the two ends of a plank, poised upon the prop underneath its centre, called also see-saw. Perhaps tatter is a rustic pronunciation of totter.
TO TOP		To cheat, or trick: also to insult: he thought to have topped upon me. Top; the signal among taylors for snuffing the candles: he who last pronounces that word word, is obliged to get up and perform the operation. - to be topped; to be hanged. The cove was topped for smashing queerscreens; he was hanged for uttering forged bank notes.
TO WAP		To copulate, to beat. If she wont wap for a winne, let her trine for a make; if she won't lie with a man for a penny, let her hang for a halfpenny. Mort wap-apace; a woman of experience, or very expert at the sport.
TO WAP		To copulate, to beat. If she wont wap for a winne, let her trine for a make; if she won't lie with a man for a penny, let her hang for a halfpenny. Mort wap-apace; a woman of experience, or very expert at the sport.
TOAD		Toad in a hole; meat baked or boiled in pye-crust. He or she sits like a toad on a chopping-block; a saying of any who sits ill on horseback. As much need of it as a toad of a side-pocket; said of a person who desires any thing for which he has no real occasion. As full of money as a toad is of feathers.
TOAD EATER		A poor female relation, and humble companion, or reduced gentlewoman, in a great family, the standing butt, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off, and all ill humours vented. This appellation is derived from a mountebank's servant, on whom all experiments used to be made in public by the doctor, his master; among which was the eating of toads, formerly supposed poisonous. Swallowing toads is here figuratively meant for swallowing or putting up with insults, as disagreeable to a person of feeling as toads to the stomach.
TOBACCO		A plant, once in great estimation as a medicine: Tobacco hic Will make you well if you be sick. Tobacco hic If you be well will make you sick.
TODGE		Beat all to a todge: said of anything beat to mash.
TOLLIBAN RIG		A species of cheat carried on by a woman, assuming the character of a dumb and deaf conjuror.
TOPPING CHEAT		The gallows.
TOWEL		An oaken towel, a cudgel. To rub one down with an oaken towel; to beat or cudgel him.
TRIMMING		Cheating, changing side, or beating. I'll trim his jacket; I'll thresh him. To be trimmed; to be shaved; I'll just step and get trimmed.
TROOPER		You will die the death of a trooper's horse, that is, with your shoes-on; a jocular method of telling any one he will be hanged.
TRULL		A soldier or a tinker's trull; a soldier or tinker's female companion. - Guteli, or trulli, are spirits like women, which shew great kindness to men, and hereof it is that we call light women trulls.
TRUMPETER		The king of Spain's trumpeter; a braying ass. His trumpeter is dead, he is therefore forced to sound his own trumpet. He would make an excellent trumpeter, for he has a strong breath; said of one having a foetid breath.
TUNE		To beat: his father tuned him delightfully: perhaps from fetching a tune out of the person beaten, or from a comparison with the disagreeable sounds of instruments when tuning.
TURK		A cruel, hard-hearted man. Turkish treatment; barbarous usage. Turkish shore; Lambeth, Southwark, and Rotherhithe side of the Thames.
TWEAGUE		In a great tweague: in a great passion. Tweaguey; peevish, passionate.
TWIST		A mixture of half tea and half coffee; likewise brandy, beer, and eggs. A good twist; a good appetite. To twist it down apace; to eat heartily.
TWO THIEVES BEATING A ROGUE		A man beating his hands against his sides to warm himself in cold weather; called also beating the booby, and cuffing Jonas.
TWO-HANDED		Great. A two-handed fellow or wench; a great strapping man orwoman,
UP TO THEIR GOSSIP		To be a match for one who attempts to cheat or deceive; to be on a footing, or in the secret. I'll be up with him; I will repay him in kind.
UPPER BENJAMIN		A great coat.
VINCENT'S LAW		The art of cheating at cards, composed of the following associates: bankers, those who play booty; the gripe, he that betteth; and the person cheated, who is styled the vincent; the gains acquired, termage.
VOWEL		A gamester who does not immediately pay his losings, is said to vowel the winner, by repeating the vowels I. O. U. or perhaps from giving his note for the money according to the Irish form, where the acknowledgment of the debt is expressed by the letters I. O. U. which, the sum and name of the debtor being added, is deemed a sufficient security among gentlemen.
WAKE		A country feast, commonly on the anniversary of the tutelar saint of the village, that is, the saint to whom the parish church is dedicated. Also a custom of watching the dead, called Late Wake, in use both in Ireland and Wales, where the corpse being deposited under a table, with a plate of salt on its breast, the table is covered with liquor of all sorts; and the guests, particularly, the younger part of them, amuse themselves with all kinds of pastimes and recreations: the consequence is generally more than replacing the departed friend.
WARM		Rich, in good circumstances. To warm, or give a man a warming; to beat him. See CHAFED.
WHIPT SYLLABUB		A flimsy, frothy discourse or treatise, without solidity.
WHISKER		A great lie.
WHITE FEATHER		He has a white feather; he is a coward; an allusion to a game cock, where having a white leather is a proof he is not of the true game breed.
WORLD		All the world and his wife; every body, a great company.
YAFFLING		Eating.
YAM		To eat or stuff heartily.
YELP		To cry out. Yelper; a town cryer, also one apt to make great complaints on trifling occasions.
YORKSHIRE TYKE		A Yorkshire clown. To come Yorkshire over any one; to cheat him.
ZEDLAND		Great part of the west country, where the letter Z is substituted for S; as zee for see, zun for sun.