Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
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The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue dates from 1811 and this is probably the only full, uncensored and searchable version of this dictionary on the internet. All the original crudities have been restored and it offers an interesting perspective on Common English from the time of the Regency and Jane Austen.

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

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.

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Entries releated to LAG

 

ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE  He who carries his flag on the main-mast. A landlord or publican wearing a blue apron, as was formerly the custom among gentlemen of that vocation.
 
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.
 
BLUE FLAG  He has hoisted the blue flag; he has commenced publican, or taken a public house, an allusion to the blue aprons worn by publicans. See ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE.
 
CANNIKIN  A small can: also, in the canting sense, the plague.
 
CHELSEA  A village near London, famous for the military hospital. To get Chelsea; to obtain the benefit of that hospital. Dead Chelsea, by God! an exclamation uttered by a grenadier at Fontenoy, on having his leg carried away by a cannon-ball.
 
COCK, or CHIEF COCK OF THE WALK  The leading man in any society or body; the best boxer in a village or district.
 
FLAG  A groat. - The flag of defiance, or bloody flag is out; signifying the man is drunk, and alluding to the redness of his face. SEA PHRASE.
 
HUNT'S DOG  He is like Hunt's dog, will neither go to church nor stay at home. One Hunt, a labouring man at a small town in Shropshire, kept a mastiff, who on being shut up on Sundays, whilst his master went to church, howled so terribly as to disturb the whole village; wherefore his master resolved to take him to church with him: but when he came to the church door, the dog having perhaps formerly been whipped out by the sexton, refused to enter; whereupon Hunt exclaimed loudly against his dog's obstinacy, who would neither go to church nor stay at home. This shortly became a bye-word for discontented and whimsical persons.
 
LAG  A man transported. The cove was lagged for a drag. The man was transported for stealing something out of a waggon.
 
LAG  To drop behind, to keep back. Lag last; the last of a company.
 
LAG FEVER  A term of ridicule applied to men who being under sentence of transportation, pretend illness, to avoid being sent from gaol to the hulks.
 
LAGE  Water.
 
LAGE OF DUDS  A buck of linen.
 
MORGLAG  A brown bill, or kind of halbert, formerly carried by watchmen; corruption of MORE, great or broad, and GLAVE, blade.
 
PETER GUNNER  Will kill all the birds that died last summer. A piece of wit commonly thrown out at a person walking through a street or village near London, with a gun in his hand.
 
ROGER, or TIB OF THE BUTTERY  A goose. Jolly Roger; a flag hoisted by pirates.
 
SLAG  A slack-mettled fellow, one not ready to resent an affront.
 
SMUT  A copper. A grate. Old iron. The cove was lagged for a smut: the fellow was transported for stealing a copper.
 
STAR LAG  Breaking shop-windows, and stealing some article thereout.
 
STRETCH  A yard. The cove was lagged for prigging a peter with several stretch of dobbin from a drag; the fellow was transported for stealing a trunk, containing several yards of ribband, from a waggon.
 
TAG-RAG AND BOBTAIL  An expression meaning an assemblage of low people, the mobility of all sorts. To tag after one like a tantony pig: to follow one wherever one goes, just as St. Anthony is followed by his pig.
 
TOKEN  The plague: also the venereal disease. She tipped him the token; she gave him a clap or pox.
 
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.
 
WISE MEN OF GOTHAM  Gotham is a village in Nottinghamshire; its magistrates are said to have attempted to hedge in a cuckow; a bush, called the cuckow's bush, is still shewn in support of the tradition. A thousand other ridiculous stories are told of the men of Gotham.