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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.
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
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 FAIR
| BARTHOLOMEW BABY | A person dressed up in a tawdry manner, like the dolls or babies sold at Bartholomew fair. | |
| BLEACHED MORT | A fair-complexioned wench. | |
| BOOKS | Cards to play with. To plant the books; to place the cards in the pack in an unfair manner. | |
| CATCHING HARVEST | A dangerous time for a robbery, when many persons are on the road, on account of a horse-race, fair, or some other public meeting. | |
| CHEEKS | Ask cheeks near cunnyborough; the repartee of a St. Gilse's fair one, who bids you ask her backside, anglice her arse. A like answer is current in France: any one asking the road or distance to Macon, a city near Lyons, would be answered by a French lady of easy virtue, 'Mettez votre nez dans mon cul, & vous serrez dans les Fauxbourgs.' | |
| CLERKED | Soothed, funned, imposed on. The cull will not be clerked; i.e. the fellow will not be imposed on by fair words. | |
| COKES | The fool in the play of Bartholomew Fair: perhaps a contraction of the word COXCOMB. | |
| COURT HOLY WATER, COURT PROMISES | Fair speeches and promises, without performance. | |
| CROW FAIR | A visitation of the clergy. See REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS. | |
| CUSTOM-HOUSE GOODS | The stock in trade of a prostitute, because fairly entered. | |
| 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. | |
| ELF | A fairy or hobgoblin, a little man or woman. | |
| FAIR | A set of subterraneous rooms in the Fleet Prison. | |
| FLING | To trick or cheat. He flung me fairly out of it: he cheated me out of it. | |
| FUNK | To use an unfair motion of the hand in plumping at taw. SCHOOLBOY'S TERM. | |
| GAFF | A fair. The drop coves maced the joskins at the gaff; the ring-droppers cheated the countryman at the fair. | |
| GREY BEARD | Earthen jugs formerly used in public house for drawing ale: they had the figure of a man with a large beard stamped on them; whence probably they took the name: see BEN JONSON'S PLAYS, BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, etc. etc. Dutch earthen jugs, used for smuggling gin on the coasts of Essex and Suffolk, are at this time called grey beards. | |
| 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. | |
| HEELS | To he laid by the heels; to be confined, or put in prison. Out at heels; worn, or diminished: his estate or affairs are out at heels. To turn up his heels; to turn up the knave of trumps at the game of all-fours. | |
| HOG | A shilling. To drive one's hogs; to snore: the noise made by some persons in snoring, being not much unlike the notes of that animal. He has brought his hogs to a fine market; a saying of any one who has been remarkably successful in his affairs, and is spoken ironically to signify the contrary. A hog in armour; an awkward or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed, is said to look like a hog in armour. To hog a horse's mane; to cut it short, so that the ends of the hair stick up like hog's bristles. Jonian hogs; an appellation given to the members of St. John's College, Cambridge. | |
| HORN FAIR | An annual fair held at Charlton, in Kent, on St. Luke's day, the 18th of October. It consists of a riotous mob, who after a printed summons dispersed through the adjacent towns, meet at Cuckold's Point, near Deptford, and march from thence in procession, through that town and Greenwich, to Charlton, with horns of different kinds upon their heads; and at the fair there are sold rams horns, and every sort of toy made of horn; even the gingerbread figures have horns. | |
| JAW | Speech, discourse. Give us none of your jaw; let us have none of your discourse. A jaw-me-dead; a talkative fellow. Jaw work; a cry used in fairs by the sellers of nuts. | |
| JINGLERS | Horse cosers, frequenting country fairs. | |
| KETTLE OF FISH | When a person has perplexed his affairs in general, or any particular business, he is said to have made a fine kettle of fish of it. | |
| LEG | To make a leg; to bow. To give leg-bail and land security; to run away. To fight at the leg; to take unfair advantages: it being held unfair by back-sword players to strike at the leg. To break a leg; a woman who has had a bastard, is said to have broken a leg. | |
| MOP | A kind of annual fair in the west of England, where farmers usually hire their servants. | |
| 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. | |
| PADDINGTON FAIR DAY | An execution day, Tyburn being in the parish or neighbourhood of Paddington. To dance the Paddington frisk; to be hanged. | |
| PIG RUNNING | A piece of game frequently practised at fairs, wakes, etc. A large pig, whose tail is cut short, and both soaped and greased, being turned out, is hunted by the young men and boys, and becomes the property of him who can catch and hold him by the tail, abpve the height of his head. | |
| RAG FAIR | An inspection of the linen and necessaries of a company of soldiers, commonly made by their officers on Mondays or Saturdays. | |
| RAT | A drunken man or woman taken up by the watch, and confined in the, watch-house. To smell a rat; to suspect some intended trick, or unfair design. | |
| REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS | A visitation of the clergy. See CROW FAIR. | |
| RUMP | To rump any one; to turn the back to him: an evolution sometimes used at court. Rump and a dozen; a rump of beef and a dozen of claret; an Irish wager, called also buttock and trimmings. Rump and kidney men; fiddlers that play at feasts, fairs, weddings, etc. and live chiefly on the remnants. | |
| SCRAGG'EM FAIR | A public execution. | |
| SHUFFLE | To make use of false pretences, or unfair shifts. A shuffling fellow; a slippery shifting fellow. | |
| SMITHFIELD BARGAIN | A bargain whereby the purchaser is taken in. This is likewise frequently used to express matches or marriages contracted solely on the score of interest, on one or both sides, where the fair sex are bought and sold like cattle in Smithfield. | |
| SMOCK-FACED | Fair faced. | |
| SPANISH COIN | Fair words and compliments. | |
| SPARROW | Mumbling a sparrow; a cruel sport frequently practised at wakes and fairs: for a small premium, a booby having his hands tied behind him, has the wing of a cock sparrow put into his mouth: with this hold, without any other assistance than the motion of his lips, he is to get the sparrow's head into his mouth: on attempting to do it, the bird defends itself surprisingly, frequently pecking the mumbler till his lips are covered with blood, and he is obliged to desist: to prevent the bird from getting away, he is fastened by a string to a button of the booby's coat. | |
| TALE TELLERS | Persons said to have been formerly hired to tell wonderful stories of giants and fairies, to lull their hearers to sleep. Talesman; the author of a story or report: I'll tell you my tale, and my talesman. Tale bearers; mischief makers, incendiaries in families. | |
| TUP RUNNING | A rural sport practised at wakes and fairs in Derbyshire; a ram, whose tail is well soaped and greased, is turned out to the multitude; any one that can take him by the tail, and hold him fast, is to have him for his own. | |
| TURNIP-PATED | White or fair-haired. | |
| WELL | To divide unfairly. To conceal part. A cant phrase used by thieves, where one of the party conceals some of the booty, instead of dividing it fairly amongst his confederates. | |
| WHIP THE COCK | A piece of sport practised at wakes, horse-races, and fairs in Leicestershire: a cock being tied or fastened into a hat or basket, half a dozen carters blindfolded, and armed with their cart whips, are placed round it, who, after being turned thrice about, begin to whip the cock, which if any one strikes so as to make it cry out, it becomes his property; the joke is, that instead of whipping the cock they flog each other heartily. | |