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 MAKE

 

AMBASSADOR OF MOROCCO		A Shoemaker.
ARMOUR		In his armour, pot valiant: to fight in armour; to make use of Mrs. Philips's ware. See CUNDUM.
BARNABY		An old dance to a quick movement. See Cotton, in his Virgil Travesti; where, speaking of Eolus he has these lines, Bounce cry the port-holes, out they fly, And make the world dance Barnaby.
BED-MAKER		Women employed at Cambridge to attend on the Students, sweep his room, etc. They will put their hands to any thing, and are generally blest with a pretty family of daughters: who unmake the beds, as fast as they are made by their mothers.
BEGGAR MAKER		A publican, or ale-house keeper.
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.
BLOWER		A pipe. How the swell funks his blower and lushes red tape; what a smoke the gentleman makes with his pipe, and drinks brandy.
BRIDGE		To make a bridge of any one's nose; to push the bottle past him, so as to deprive him of his turn of filling his glass; to pass one over. Also to play booty, or purposely to avoid winning.
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.
BUTTOCK BROKER		A bawd, or match-maker.
BUTTON		A bad shilling, among coiners. His arse makes buttons; he is ready to bewray himself through fear.
CHIMPING MERRY		Exhilarated with liquor. Chirping glass, a cheerful glass, that makes the company chirp like birds in spring.
CHRISTENING		Erasing the name of the true maker from a stolen watch, and engraving a fictitious one in its place.
COFFEE HOUSE		A necessary house. To make a coffee-house of a woman's cunt; to go in and out and spend nothing.
CONSCIENCE KEEPER		A superior, who by his influence makes his dependants act as he pleases.
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.
CRISPIN		A shoemaker: from a romance, wherein a prince of that name is said to have exercised the art and mystery of a shoemaker, thence called the gentle craft: or rather from the saints Crispinus and Crispianus, who according to the legend, were brethren born at Rome, from whence they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303, to propagate the Christian religion; but, because they would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers: the governor of the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered them to be beheaded, about the year 303; from which time they have been the tutelar saints of the shoemakers.
CUT BENE		To speak gently. To cut bene whiddes; to give good words. To cut queer whiddes; to give foul language. To cut a bosh, or a flash; to make a figure.
DASH		A tavern drawer. To cut a dash: to make a figure.
DILBERRY MAKER		The fundament.
DOCTOR		Milk and water, with a little rum, and some nutmeg; also the name of a composition used by distillers, to make spirits appear stronger than they really are, or, in their phrase, better proof.
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.
DUCKS AND DRAKES		To make ducks and drakes: a school-boy's amusement, practised with pieces of tile, oyster-shells, or flattish stones, which being skimmed along the surface of a pond, or still river, rebound many times. To make ducks and drakes of one's money; to throw it idly away.
DUST		Money. Down with your dust; deposit the money. To raise or kick up a dust; to make a disturbance or riot: see BREEZE. Dust it away; drink about.
EASY		Make the cull easy or quiet; gag or kill him. As easy as pissing the bed.
ELBOW GREASE		Labour. Elbow grease will make an oak table shine.
FAMGRASP		To shake bands: figuratively, to agree or make up a difference. Famgrasp the cove; shake hands with the fellow.
FEAGUE		To feague a horse; to put ginger up a horse's fundament, and formerly, as it is said, a live eel, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse-dealer's servant, who shall shew a horse without first feaguing him. Feague is used, figuratively, for encouraging or spiriting one up.
FEET		To make feet for children's stockings; to beget children. An officer of feet; a jocular title for an officer of infantry.
FIGHT A CRIB		To make a sham fight. BEAR GARDEN TERM.
FLESH BROKER		A match-maker, a bawd.
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.
GENTLE CRAFT		The art of shoeniaking. One of the gentle craft: a shoemaker: so called because once practised by St. Crispin.
GENTLEMAN'S MASTER		A highway robber, because he makes a gentleman obey his commands, i.e. stand and deliver.
GLAZIER		One who breaks windows and shew-glasses, to steal goods exposed for sale. Glaziers; eyes. - Is your father a glazier; a question asked of a lad or young man, who stands between the speaker and the candle, or fire. If it is answered in the negative, the rejoinder is - I wish he was, that he might make a window through your body, to enable us to see the fire or light.
GLOVES		To give any one a pair of gloves; to make them a present or bribe. To win a pair of gloves; to kiss a man whilst he sleeps: for this a pair of gloves is due to any lady who will thus earn them.
GRUBSHITE		To make foul or dirty.
HAND		A sailor. We lost a hand; we lost a sailor. Bear a hand; make haste. Hand to fist; opposite: the same as tete-a-tete, or cheek by joul.
HEAVERS		Thieves who make it their business to steal tradesmen's shop-books.
HEDGE		To make a hedge; to secure a bet, or wager, laid on one side, by taking the odds on the other, so that, let what will happen, a certain gain is secured, or hedged in, by the person who takes this precaution; who is then said to be on velvet.HEDGE ALEHOUSE. A small obscure alehouse.
HIND LEG		To kick out a hind leg; to make a rustic bow.
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.
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.
KID LAY		Rogues who make it their business to defraud young apprentices, or errand-boys, of goods committed to their charge, by prevailing on them to execute some trifling message, pretending to take care of their parcels till they come back; these are, in cant terms, said to be on the kid lay.
KNIGHT OF THE THIMBLE, or NEEDLE		A taylor or stay-maker.
LAUGH		To laugh on the wrong side of the mouth; to cry. I'll make him laugh on the wrong (or t'other) side of his mouth.
LEAK		To make water.
LEAST IN SIGHT		To play least in sight; to hide, keep out of the way, or make one's self scarce.
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.
LOBSTER		A nick name for a soldier, from the colour of his clothes. To boil one's lobster, for a churchman to become a soldier: lobsters, which are of a bluish black, being made red by boiling. I will not make a lobster kettle of my cunt, a reply frequently made by the nymphs of the Point at Portsmouth, when requested by a soldier to grant him a favour.
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.
MAKE		A halfpenny.
MAKE WEIGHT		A small candle: a term applied to a little slender man.
MARROWBONES		The knees. To bring any one down on his marrow bones; to make him beg pardon on his knees: some derive this from Mary's bones, i.e. the bones bent in honour of the Virgin Mary; but this seems rather far- fetched. Marrow bones and cleavers; principal instruments in the band of rough music: these are generally performed on by butchers, on marriages, elections, riding skimmington, and other public or joyous occasions.
MATRIMONIAL PEACE-MAKER		The sugar-stick, or arbor vitae.
MOUTH		A noisy fellow. Mouth half cocked; one gaping and staring at every thing he sees. To make any one laugh on the wrong, or t'other side of his mouth; to make him cry or grieve.
NOBTHATCHER		A peruke-maker.
NOSE		As plain as the nose on your face; evidently to be seen. He is led by the nose; he is governed. To follow one's nose; to go strait forward. To put one's nose out of joint; to rival one in the favour of any person. To make a bridge of any one's nose; to pass by him in drinking. To nose a stink; to smell it. He cut off his nose to be revenged of his face; said of one who, to be revenged on his neighbour, has materially injured himself.
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.
OFFICE		To give the office; to give information, or make signs to the officers to take a thief.
PALLIARDS		Those whose fathers were clapperdogens, or beggars born, and who themselves follow the same trade: the female sort beg with a number of children, borrowing them, if they have not a sufficient number of their own, and making them cry by pinching in order to excite charity; the males make artificial sores on different parts of their bodies, to move compassion.
PETER		A portmanteau or cloke-bag. Biter of peters; one that makes it a trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind stage coaches or out of waggons. To rob Peter to pay Paul; to borrow of one man to pay another: styled also manoeuvring the apostles.
PICKTHANK		A tale-bearer or mischief maker.
PIDDLE		To make water: a childish expression; as, Mammy, I want to piddle. Piddling also means trifling, or doing any thing in a small degree: perhaps from peddling.
PISS MAKER		A great drinker, one much given to liquor.
PROPERTY		To make a property of any one; to make him a conveniency, tool, or cat's paw; to use him as one's own.
PUMP		A thin shoe. To pump; to endeavour to draw a secret from any one without his perceiving it. Your pump is good, but your sucker is dry; said by one to a person who is attempting to pump him. Pumping was also a punishment for bailiffs who attempted to act in privileged places, such as the Mint, Temple, etc. It is also a piece of discipline administered to a pickpocket caught in the fact, when there is no pond at hand. To pump ship; to make water, and sometimes to vomit. SEA PHRASE.
PUNCH		A liquor called by foreigners Contradiction, from its being composed of spirits to make it strong, water to make it weak, lemon juice to make it sour, and sugar to make it sweet. Punch is also the name of the prince of puppets, the chief wit and support of a puppet-show. To punch it, is a cant term for running away. Punchable; old passable money, anno 1695. A girl that is ripe for man is called a punchable wench. Cobler's Punch. Urine with a cinder in it.
PUPIL MONGERS		Persons at the universities who make it their business to instruct and superintend a number of pupils.
PUT		A country put; an ignorant awkward clown. To put upon any one; to attempt to impose on him, or to make him the but of the company.
QUEER BAIL		Insolvent sharpers, who make a profession of bailing persons arrested: they are generally styled Jew bail, from that branch of business being chiefly carried on by the sons of Judah. The lowest sort of these, who borrow or hire clothes to appear in, are called Mounters, from their mounting particular dresses suitable to the occasion.
QUEER BIT-MAKERS		Coiners.
QUEER COLE MAKER		A maker of bad money.
QUIBBLE		To make subtle distinctions; also to play upon words.
RECKON		To reckon with one's host; to make an erroneous judgment in one's own favour. To cast-up one's reckoning or accounts; to vomit.
RIG		Fun, game, diversion, or trick. To run one's rig upon any particular person; to make him a butt. l am up to your rig; I am a match for your tricks.
ROT GUT		Small beer; called beer-a-bumble - will burst one's guts before it will make one tumble.
SAINT		A piece of spoilt timber in a coach-maker's shop, like a saint, devoted to the flames.
SAINT MONDAY		A holiday most religiously observed by journeymen shoemakers, and other inferior mechanics. a profanation of that day, by working, is punishable by a line, particularly among the gentle craft. An Irishman observed, that this saint's anniversary happened every week.
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.
SCARCE		To make one's self scarce; to steal away.
SCULL THATCHER		A peruke-maker.
SCUTTLE		To scuttle off; to run away. To scuttle a ship; to make a hole in her bottom in order to sink her.
SHOEMAKER'S STOCKS		New, or strait shoes. I was in the shoemaker's stocks; i.e. had on a new pair of shoes that were too small for me.
SHUFFLE		To make use of false pretences, or unfair shifts. A shuffling fellow; a slippery shifting fellow.
SICK AS A HORSE		Horses are said to be extremely sick at their stomachs, from being unable to relieve themselves by vomiting. Bracken, indeed, in his Farriery, gives an instance of that evacuation being procured, but by a means which he says would make the Devil vomit. Such as may have occasion to administer an emetic either to the animal or the fiend, may consult his book for the recipe.
SNOB		A nick name for a shoemaker.
SOAK		To drink. An old soaker; a drunkard, one that moistens his clay to make it stick together.
STAYTAPE		A taylor; from that article, and its coadjutor buckram, which make no small figure in the bills of those knights of the needle.
STEEL BAR		A needle. A steel bar flinger; a taylor, stay- maker, or any other person using a needle.
STOCK JOBBERS		Persons who gamble in Exchange Alley, by pretending to buy and sell the public funds, but in reality only betting that they will be at a certain price, at a particular time; possessing neither the stock pretended to be sold, nor money sufficient to make good the payments for which they contract: these gentlemen are known under the different appellations of bulls, bears, and lame ducks.
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.
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.
TAYLOR		Nine taylors make a man; an ancient and common saying, originating from the effeminacy of their employment; or, as some have it, from nine taylors having been robbed by one man; according to others, from the speech of a woollendraper, meaning that the custom of nine, taylors would make or enrich one man - A London taylor, rated to furnish half a man to the Trained Bands, asking how that could possibly be done? was answered, By sending four, journeymen and and apprentice. - Put a taylor, a weaver, and a miller into a sack, shake them well, And the first that puts out his head is certainly a thief. - A taylor is frequently styled pricklouse, assaults on those vermin with their needles.
THAMES		He will not find out a way to set the Thames on fire; he will not make any wonderful discoveries, he is no conjuror.
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.
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.
TRANSLATORS		Sellers of old mended shoes and boots, between coblers and shoemakers.
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.
TRUNK		A nose. How fares your old trunk? does your nose still stand fast? an allusion to the proboscis or trunk of an elephant. To shove a trunk: to introduce one's self unasked into any place or company. Trunk-maker like; more noise than work.
TURD		There were four turds for dinner: stir turd, hold turd, tread turd, and mus-turd: to wit, a hog's face, feet and chitterlings, with mustard. He will never shite a seaman's turd; i.e. he will never make a good seaman.
UPRIGHT		Go upright; a word used by shoemakers, taylors and their servants, when any money is given to make them drink, and signifies, Bring it all out in liquor, though the donor intended less, and expects change, or some of his money, to be returned. Three-penny upright. See THREEPENNY UPRIGHT.
WELCH RABBIT		Welch rare-bit. Bread and cheese toasted. See RABBIT. - The Welch are said to be so remarkably fond of cheese, that in cases of difficulty their midwives apply a piece of toasted cheese to the janua vita to attract and entice the young Taffy, who on smelling it makes most vigorous efforts to come forth.
WET PARSON		One who moistens his clay freely, in order to make it stick together.
WHIDDLE		To tell or discover. He whiddles; he peaches. He whiddles the whole scrap; he discovers all he knows. The cull whiddled because they would not tip him a snack: the fellow peached because they would not give him a share, They whiddle beef, and we must brush; they cry out thieves, and we must make off.
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.
WHORE-MONGER		A man that keeps more than one mistress. A country gentleman, who kept a female friend, being reproved by the parson of the parish, and styled a whore-monger, asked the parson whether he had a cheese in his house; and being answered in the affirmative, 'Pray,' says he, 'does that one cheese make you a cheese-monger?'
WHOW BALL		A milk-maid: from their frequent use of the word whow, to make the cow stand still in milking. Ball is the supposed name of the cow.
YELP		To cry out. Yelper; a town cryer, also one apt to make great complaints on trifling occasions.