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 LOO

 

ADRIFT  Loose, turned adrift, discharged. SEA PHRASE.
 
ARSE  To hang an arse; to hang back, to be afraid to advance. He would lend his arse and shite through his ribs; a saying of any one who lends his money inconsiderately. He would lose his arse if it was loose; said of a careless person. Arse about; turn round.
 
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.
 
BLANK  To look blank; to appear disappointed or confounded.
 
BLOOD  A riotous disorderly fellow.
 
BLOOD FOR BLOOD  A term used by tradesmen for bartering the different commodities in which they deal. Thus a hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.
 
BLOOD MONEY  The reward given by the legislature on the conviction of highwaymen, burglars, etc.
 
BLOODY  A favourite word used by the thieves in swearing, as bloody eyes, bloody rascal.
 
BLOODY BACK  A jeering appellation for a soldier, alluding to his scarlet coat.
 
BLOW THE GROUNSILS  To lie with a woman on the floor.
 
BLUE To look blue; to be confounded, terrified, or disappointed. Blue as a razor; perhaps, blue as azure.
 
BLUFF  Fierce, surly. He looked as bluff as bull beef.
 
BOH  Said to be the name of a Danish general, who so terrified his opponent Foh, that he caused him to bewray himself. Whence, when we smell a stink, it is custom to exclaim, Foh! i.e. I smell general Foh. He cannot say Boh to a goose; i.e. he is a cowardly or sheepish fellow. There is a story related of the celebrated Ben Jonson, who always dressed very plain; that being introduced to the presence of a nobleman, the peer, struck by his homely appearance and awkward manner, exclaimed, as if in doubt, "you Ben Johnson! why you look as if you could not say Boh to a goose!" "Boh!" replied the wit.
 
BUCK OF THE FIRST HEAD  One who in debauchery surpasses the rest of his companions, a blood or choice spirit. There are in London divers lodges or societies of Bucks, formed in imitation of the Free Masons: one was held at the Rose, in Monkwell-street, about the year 1705. The president is styled the Grand Buck. A buck sometimes signifies a cuckold.
 
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.
 
BUM TRAP  A sheriff's officer who arrests debtors. Ware hawke! the bum traps are fly to our panney; keep a good look out, the bailiffs know where our house is situated.
 
BUTTER AND EGGS TROT  A kind of short jogg trot, such as is used by women going to market, with butter and eggs. - he looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth, yet I warrant you cheese would not choak her; a saying of a demure looking woman, of suspected character. Don't make butter dear; a gird at the patient angler.
 
CARRIERS  A set of rogues who are employed to look out and watch upon the roads, at inns, etc. in order to carry information to their respective gangs, of a booty in prospect.
 
CHITTY-FACED  Baby-faced; said of one who has a childish look.
 
CLARET  French red wine; figuratively, blood. I tapped his claret; I broke his head, and made the blood run. Claret-faced; red-faced.
 
CUT  To renounce acquaintance with any one is to CUT him. There are several species of the CUT. Such as the cut direct, the cut indirect, the cut sublime, the cut infernal, etc. The cut direct, is to start across the street, at the approach of the obnoxious person in order to avoid him. The cut indirect, is to look another way, and pass without appearing to observe him. The cut sublime, is to admire the top of King's College Chapel, or the beauty of the passing clouds, till he is out of sight. The cut infernal, is to analyze the arrangement of your shoe-strings, for the same purpose.
 
CUTTY-EYE  To look out of the corners of one's eyes, to leer, to look askance. The cull cutty-eyed at us; the fellow looked suspicious at us.
 
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.
 
DINGEY CHRISTIAN  A mulatto; or any one who has, as the West-Indian term is, a lick of the tar-brush, that is, some negro blood in him.
 
DOMMERER  A beggar pretending that his tongue has been cutout by the Algerines, or cruel and blood-thirsty Turks, or else that he yas born deaf and dumb.
 
DOWDY  A coarse, vulgar-looking woman.
 
ENSIGN BEARER  A drunken man, who looks red in the face, or hoists his colours in his drink.
 
FART  He has let a brewer's fart, grains and all; said of one who has bewrayed his breeches. Piss and fart. Sound at heart. Mingere cum bumbis, Res saluberrima est lumbis. I dare not trust my arse with a fart: said by a person troubled with a looseness.
 
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.
 
FLASH PANNEYS  Houses to which thieves and prostitutes resort. Next for his favourite MOT (Girl) the KIDDEY (Youth) looks about, And if she's in a FLASH PANNEY (Brothel) he swears he'll have her out; So he FENCES (Pawns) all his TOGS (Cloathes) to buy her DUDS, (Wearing Apparel) and then He FRISKS (Robs) his master's LOB (Till) to take her from the bawdy KEN (House).
 
FLOOR  To knock down. Floor the pig; knock down the officer.
 
FOX  A sharp, cunning fellow. Also an old term for a sword, probably a rusty one, or else from its being dyed red with blood; some say this name alluded to certain swords of remarkable good temper, or metal, marked with the figure of a fox, probably the sign, or rebus, of the maker.
 
FURMITY, or FROMENTY  Wheat boiled up to a jelly. To simper like a furmity kettle: to smile, or look merry about the gills.
 
GALLEY  Building the galley; a game formerly used at sea, in order to put a trick upon a landsman, or fresh- water sailor. It being agreed to play at that game, one sailor personates the builder, and another the merchant or contractor: the builder first begins by laying the keel, which consists of a number of men laid all along on their backs, one after another, that is, head to foot; he next puts in the ribs or knees, by making a number of men sit feet to feet, at right angles to, and on each side of, the keel: he now fixing on the person intended to be the object of the joke, observes he is a fierce-looking fellow, and fit for the lion; he accordingly places him at the head, his arms being held or locked in by the two persons next to him, representing the ribs. After several other dispositions, the builder delivers over the galley to the contractor as complete: but he, among other faults and objections, observes the lion is not gilt, on which the builder or one of his assistants, runs to the head, and dipping a mop in the excrement, thrusts it into the face of the lion.
 
GALLOPER  A blood horse. A hunter. The toby gill clapped his bleeders to his galloper and tipped the straps the double. The highwayman spurred his horse and got away from the officers.
 
GILLS  The cheeks. To look rosy about the gills; to have a fresh complexion. To look merry about the gills: to appear cheerful.
 
GREENHORN  A novice on the town, an undebauched young fellow, just initiated into the society of bucks and bloods.
 
HANG GALLOWS LOOK  A thievish, or villainous appearance.
 
HAWK  Ware hawk; the word to look sharp, a bye-word when a bailiff passes. Hawk also signifies a sharper, in opposition to pigeon. See PIGEON. See WARE HAWK.
 
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.
 
HUBBLE-BUBBLE  Confusion. A hubble-bubble fellow; a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle. Also an instrument used for smoaking through water in the East Indies, called likewise a caloon, and hooker.
 
IRON  Money in general. To polish the king's iron with one's eyebrows; to look out of grated or prison windows, or, as the Irishman expresses them, the iron glass windows. Iron doublet; a prison. See STONE DOUBLET.
 
JOCKUM GAGE  A chamber-pot, jordan, looking-glass, or member-mug.
 
LOO  For the good of the loo; for the benefit of the company or community.
 
LOOBY  An awkward, ignorant fellow.
 
LOOKING AS IF ONE COULD NOT HELP IT  Looking like a simpleton, or as if one could not say boh! to a goose.
 
LOOKING-GLASS  A chamber pot, jordan, or member mug.
 
LOON, or LOUT  A country bumkin, or clown.
 
LOONSLATE  Thirteen pence halfpenny.
 
LOOPHOLE  An opening, or means of escape. To find a loophole in an act of parliament; i.e. a method of evading it,
 
LUSHEY  Drunk. The rolling kiddeys hud a spree, and got bloody lushey; the dashing lads went on a party of pleasure, and got very drunk.
 
MUNS  The face, or rather the mouth: from the German word MUND, the mouth. Toute his muns; look at his face.
 
MURDER  He looked like God's revenge against murder; he looked angrily.
 
NUGGING DRESS  An out-of-the-way old-fashioned dress, or rather a loose kind of dress, denoting a courtesan.
 
OATHS  The favourite oaths of the thieves of the present day are, "God strike me blind!" "I wish my bloody eyes may drop out if it is not true!" "So help me God!" "Bloody end to me!"
 
ODDS PLUT AND HER NAILS  A Welch oath, frequently mentioned in a jocular manner by persons, it is hoped, ignorant of its meaning; which is, By God's blood, and the nails with which he was nailed to the cross.
 
ONION  A seal. Onion hunters, a class of young thieves who are on the look out for gentlemen who wear their seals suspended on a ribbon, which they cut, and thus secure the seals or other trinkets suspended to the watch.
 
OVEN  A great mouth; the old woman would never have looked for her daughter in the oven, had she not been there herself.
 
OWL IN AN IVY BUSH  He looks like an owl in an ivy bush; frequently said of a person with a large frizzled wig, or a woman whose hair is dressed a-la-blowze.
 
PAW  A hand or foot; look at his dirty paws. Fore paw; the hand. Hind paw; the foot. To paw; to touch or handle clumsily.
 
PEEPER  A spying glass; also a looking-glass. Track up the dancers, and pike with the peeper; whip up stairs, and run off with the looking-glass.
 
PEER  To look about, to be circumspect.
 
PIG  A police officer. A China street pig; a Bow-street officer. Floor the pig and bolt; knock down the officer and run away.
 
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.
 
PILLALOO  The Irish cry or howl at funerals.
 
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.
 
QUEER, or QUIRE  Base, roguish, bad, naught or worthless. How queerly the cull touts; how roguishly the fellow looks. It also means odd, uncommon.
 
QUIZ  A strange-looking fellow, an odd dog.
 
RAWHEAD AND BLOODY BONES  A bull beggar, or scarechild, with which foolish nurses terrify crying brats.
 
RUM PEEPERS  Fine looking-glasses.
 
SHEEPISH  Bashful. A sheepish fellow; a bashful or shamefaced fellow. To cast a sheep's eye at any thing; to look wishfully at it.
 
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.'
 
SMIRK  A finical spruce fellow. To smirk; to smile, or look pleasantly.
 
SNILCH  To eye, or look at any thing attentively: the cull snilches.
 
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.
 
SQUEEZE CRAB  A sour-looking, shrivelled, diminutive fellow.
 
SQUINT-A-PIPES  A squinting man or woman; said to be born in the middle of the week, and looking both ways for Sunday; or born in a hackney coach, and looking out of both windows; fit for a cook, one eye in the pot, and the other up the chimney; looking nine ways at once.
 
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.
 
THIEF TAKERS  Fellows who associate with all kinds of villains, in order to betray them, when they have committed any of those crimes which entitle the persons taking them to a handsome reward, called blood money. It is the business of these thief takers to furnish subjects for a handsome execution, at the end of every sessions.
 
THOROUGH GO NIMBLE  A looseness, a violent purging.
 
THREE-LEGGED MARE, or STOOL  The gallows, formerly consisting of three posts, over which were laid three transverse beams. This clumsy machine has lately given place to an elegant contrivance, called the NEW DROP, by which the use of that vulgar vehicle a cart, or mechanical instrument a ladder, is also avoided; the patients being left suspended by the dropping down of that part of the floor on which they stand. This invention was first made use of for a peer. See DROP.
 
TODDLE  To walk away. The cove was touting, but stagging the traps he toddled; be was looking out, and feeing the officers he walked away.
 
TOUTING  (From TUERI, to look about) Publicans fore-stalling guests, or meeting them on the road, and begging their custom; also thieves or smugglers looking out to see that the coast is clear. Touting ken; the bar of a public house.
 
TOWER  To overlook, to rise aloft as in a high tower.
 
TRAVELLING PIQUET  A mode of amusing themselves, practised by two persons riding in a carriage, each reckoning towards his game the persons or animals that pass by on the side next them, according to the following estimation: A parson riding a grey horse, witholue furniture; game. An old woman under a hedge; ditto. A cat looking out of a window; 60. A man, woman, and child, in a buggy; 40. A man with a woman behind him; 30. A flock of sheep; 20. A flock of geese; 10. A post chaise; 5. A horseman; 2. A man or woman walking; 1.
 
TWIDDLE POOP  An effeminate looking fellow.
 
WILD SQUIRT  A looseness.
 
WOOD  In a wood; bewildered, in a maze, in a peck of troubles, puzzled, or at a loss what course to take in any business. To look over the wood; to ascend the pulpit, to preach: I shall look over the wood at St. James's on Sunday next. To look through the wood; to stand in the pillory. Up to the arms in wood; in the pillory.
 
YELLOW  To look yellow; to be jealous. I happened to call on Mr. Green, who was out: on coming home, and finding me with his wife, he began to look confounded blue, and was, I thought, a little yellow.