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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NAB  To seize, or catch unawares. To nab the teaze; to be privately whipped. To nab the stoop; to stand in the pillory. To nab the rust; a jockey term for a horse that becomes restive. To nab the snow: to steal linen left out to bleach or dry.
 
NAB GIRDER, or NOB GIRDER  A bridle.
 
NAB, or NAB CHEAT  A hat. Penthouse nab; a large hat.
 
NACK  To have a nack; to be ready at any thing, to have a turn-for it.
 
NACKY  Ingenious.
 
NAILED  Secured, fixed. He offered me a decus, and I nailed him; he offered me a crown, and I struck or fixed him.
 
NANNY HOUSE  A brothel.
 
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.
 
NAPPER OF NAPS  A sheep stealer.
 
NAPPING  To take any one napping; i.e. to come upon him unexpectedly, to find him asleep: as, He caught him napping, as Morse caught his mare.
 
NAPPY ALE  Strong ale.
 
NASK, or NASKIN  A prison or bridewell. The new nask; Clerkenwell bridewell. Tothil-fields nask; the bridewell at Tothil-fields.
 
NATION  An abbreviation of damnation: a vulgar term used in Kent, Sussex, and the adjacent counties, for very. Nation good; very good. A nation long way; a very long way.
 
NATTY LADS  Young thieves or pickpockets.
 
NATURAL  A mistress, a child; also an idiot. A natural son or daughter; a love or merry-begotten child, a bastard.
 
NAVY OFFICE  The Fleet prison. Commander of the Fleet; the warden of the Fleet prison.
 
NAY WORD  A bye-word, proverb.
 
NAZAKENE FORETOP  The foretop of a wig made in imi- tation of Christ's head of hair, as represented by the painters and sculptors.
 
NAZY  Drunken. Nazy cove or mort; a drunken rogue or harlot. Nazy nabs; drunken coxcombs.
 
NEB, or NIB  The bill of a bird, and the slit of a pen. Figuratively, the face and mouth of a woman; as, She holds up her neb: she holds up her mouth to be kissed.
 
NECK STAMPER  The boy who collects the pots belonging to an alehouse, sent out with beer to private houses.
 
NECK VERSE  Formerly the persons claiming the benefit of clergy were obliged to read a verse in a Latin manuscript psalter: this saving them from the gallows, was termed their neck verse: it was the first verse of the fiftyfirst psalm, Miserere mei,etc.
 
NECK WEED  Hemp.
 
NEEDLE POINT  A sharper.
 
NEGLIGEE  A woman's undressed gown, Vulgarly termed a neggledigee.
 
NEGROE  A black-a-moor: figuratively used for a slave. I'll be no man's negro; I will be no man's slave.
 
NEGROE'S HEADS  Brown leaves delivered to the ships in ordinary.
 
NESCIO  He sports a Nescio; he pretends not to understand any thing.
 
NETTLED  Teized, provoked, out of temper. He or she has pissed on a nettle; said of one who is peevish or out of temper.
 
NEW COLLEGE STUDENTS  Golden scholars, silver bachelors, and leaden masters.
 
NEW DROP  The scaffold used at Newgate for hanging of criminals; which dropping down, leaves them suspended. By this improvement, the use of that vulgar vehicle, a cart, is entirely left off.
 
NEW LIGHT  One of the new light; a methodist.
 
NEWGATE BIRD  A thief or sharper, frequently caged in Newgate.
 
NEWGATE SOLICITOR  A petty fogging and roguish attorney, who attends the gaols to assist villains in evading justice.
 
NEWMAN'S HOTEL  Newgate.
 
NEWMAN'S LIFT  The gallows.
 
NEWMAN'S TEA GARDENS  Newgate.
 
NICK  To win at dice, to hit the mark just in the nick of time, or at the critical moment.
 
NICK  Old nick; the Devil.
 
NICK NINNY  A simpleton.
 
NICKIN, NIKEY or NIZEY  A soft simple fellow; also a diminutive of Isaac.
 
NICKNACKS  Toys, baubles, or curiosities.
 
NICKNAME  A name given in ridicule or contempt: from the French nom de niqne. Niqne is a movement of the head to mark a contempt for any person or thing.
 
NICKUMPOOP, or NINCUMPOOP  A foolish fellow; also one who never saw his wife's cunt.
 
NIFFYNAFFY FELLOW  A trifler.
 
NIG  The clippings of money. Nigging; clipping. Nigler, a clipper.
 
NIGGLING  Cutting awkwardly, trifling; also accompanying with a woman.
 
NIGHT MAGISTRATE  A constable.
 
NIGHTINGALE  A soldier who, as the term is, sings out at the halberts. It is a point of honour in some regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry out, become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the cat of nine tails; to avoid which, they chew a bullet.
 
NIGHTMAN  One whose business it is to empty necessary houses in London, which is always done in the night; the operation is called a wedding. See WEDDING.
 
NIGMENOG  A very silly fellow.
 
NIM  To steal or pilfer: from the German nemen, to take. Nim a togeman; steal a cloak.
 
NIMGIMMER  A physician or surgeon, particularly those who cure the venereal disease.
 
NINE LIVES  Cats are said to have nine lives, and women ten cats lives.
 
NINNY, or NINNYHAMMER  A simpleton.
 
NIP  A cheat. Bung nipper; a cutpurse.
 
NIP CHEESE  A nick name for the purser of a ship: from those gentlemen being supposed sometimes to nip, or diminish, the allowance of the seamen, in that and every other article. It is also applied to stingy persons in general.
 
NIPPERKIN  A small measure.
 
NIPPS  The sheers used in clipping money.
 
NIT SQUEEGER or SQUEEZER A hair-dresser.
 
NIX  Nothing.
 
NlCKNACKATORY  A toyshop.
 
NO CATCHY NO HAVY  If I am not caught, I cannot be hurt. Negro saying.
 
NOB  A king. A man of rank.
 
NOB  The head.
 
NOBTHATCHER  A peruke-maker.
 
NOCK  The breech; from NOCK, a notch.
 
NOCKY BOY  A dull simple fellow.
 
NOD  He is gone to the land of nod; he is asleep.
 
NODDLE  The head.
 
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.
 
NOISY DOG RACKET  Stealing brass knockers from doors.
 
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.
 
NOLL  Old Noll; Oliver Cromwell.
 
NON-CON  A nonconformist, presbyterian, or any other dissenter.
 
NONE-SUCH  One that is unequalled: frequently applied ironically.
 
NONSENSE  Melting butter in a wig.
 
NOOZED  Married, hanged.
 
NOPE  A blow: as, I took him a nope on the costard.
 
NORFOLK CAPON  A red herring.
 
NORFOLK DUMPLING  A nick name, or term of jocular reproach to a Norfolk man; dumplings being a favourite food in that county.
 
NORTH ALLERTONS  Spurs; that place, like Rippon, being famous for making them.
 
NORTHUMBERLAND  Lord Northumberland's arms; a black eye: so called in the last century.
 
NORWAY NECKCLOTH  The pillory, usually made of Norway fir.
 
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.
 
NOSE  A man who informs or turns king's evidence.
 
NOSE BAG  A bag fastened to the horse's head, in which the soldiers of the cavalry put the oats given to their horses: whence the saying, I see the hose bag in his face; i.e. he has been a private man, or rode private.
 
NOSE GENT  A nun.
 
NOSTRUM  A medicine prepared by particular persons only, a quack medicine.
 
NOTCH  The private parts of awoman.
 
NOTE  He changed his note; he told another sort of a story.
 
NOUS-BOX  The head.
 
NOZZLE  The nose of a man or woman.
 
NUB  The neck; also coition.
 
NUBBING  Hanging. Nubbing cheat: the gallows. Nubbing cove; the hangman. Nubbing ken; the sessions house.
 
NUG  An endearing word: as, My dear nug; my dear love.
 
NUGGING DRESS  An out-of-the-way old-fashioned dress, or rather a loose kind of dress, denoting a courtesan.
 
NUGGING-HOUSE  A brothel.
 
NULL  To beat: as, He nulled him heartily.
 
NUMBERS  To consult the book of numbers: a term used in the House of Commons, when, instead of answering or confuting a pressing argument, the minister calls for a division, i.e. puts the matter to the vote.
 
NUMBSCULL  A stupid fellow.
 
NUMMS  A sham collar, to be worn over a dirty shirt.
 
NUNNERY  A bawdy house.
 
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.
 
NUTCRACKERS  The pillory: as, The cull peeped through the nutcrackers.
 
NUTMEGS  Testicles.
 
NUTS  It was nuts for them; i.e. it was very agreeable to them.
 
NUTS  Fond; pleased. She's nuts upon her cull; she's pleased with her cully. The cove's nutting the blowen; the man is trying to please the girl.
 
NYP SHOP  The Peacock in Gray's Inn Lane, where Burton ale is sold in nyps.
 
NYP, or NIP  A half pint, a nip of ale: whence the nipperkin, a small vessel.
 
NYPPER  A cut-purse: so called by one Wotton, who in the year 1585 kept an academy for the education and perfection of pickpockets and cut-purses: his school was near Billingsgate, London. As in the dress of ancient times many people wore their purses at their girdles, cutting them was a branch of the light-fingered art, which is now lost, though the name remains.