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 RUM

 

AEGROTAT		A certificate from the apothecary that you are INDISPOSED, (ie:) to go to chapel. He sports an Aegrotat, he is sick, and unable to attend Chapel. or Hall. It does not follow, however, but that he can STRUM A PIECE, or sport a pair of oars.
BAPTIZED, OR CHRISTENED		Rum, brandy, or any other spirits, that have been lowered with water.
BARNACLE		A good job, or snack easily got: also shellfish growing at the bottoms of ships; a bird of the goose kind; an instrument like a pair of pincers, to fix on the noses of vicious horses whilst shoeing; a nick name for spectacles, and also for the gratuity given to grooms by the buyers and sellers of horses.
BESS, or BETTY		A small instrument used by house-breakers to force open doors. Bring bess and glym; bring the instrument to force the door, and the dark lantern. Small flasks, like those for Florence wine, are also called betties.
BING		To go. Bing avast; get you gone. Binged avast in a darkmans; stole away in the night. Bing we to Rumeville: shall we go to London?
CALF-SKIN FIDDLE		A drum. To smack calf's skin; to kiss the book in taking an oath. It is held by the St. Giles's casuists, that by kissing one's thumb instead of smacking calf's skin, the guilt of taking a false oath is avoided.
CALIBOGUS		Rum and spruce beer, American beverage.
CARRY WITCHET		A sort of conundrum, puzzlewit, or riddle.
CAT'S PAW		To be made a cat's paw of; to be made a tool or instrument to accomplish the purpose of another: an allusion to the story of a monkey, who made use of a cat's paw to scratch a roasted chesnut out of the fire.
CHITTERLINS		The bowels. There is a rumpus among my bowels, i.e. I have the colic. The frill of a shirt.
CLANK NAPPER		A silver tankard stealer. See RUM BUBBER.
CONUNDRUMS		Enigmatical conceits.
CREW		A knot or gang; also a boat or ship's company. The canting crew are thus divided into twenty-three orders, which see under the different words: MEN. 1 Rufflers 2 Upright Men 3 Hookers or Anglers 4 Rogues 5 Wild Rogues 6 Priggers of Prancers 7 Palliardes 8 Fraters 9 Jarkmen, or Patricoes 10 Fresh Water Mariners, or Whip Jackets 11 Drummerers 12 Drunken Tinkers 13 Swadders, or Pedlars 14 Abrams. WOMEN. 1 Demanders for Glimmer or Fire 2 Bawdy Baskets 3 Morts 4 Autem Morts 5 Walking Morts 6 Doxies 7 Delles 8 Kinching Morts 9 Kinching Coes
CROCUS, or CROCUS METALLORUM		A nick name for a surgeon of the army and navy.
CROPPING DRUMS		Drummers of the foot guards, or Chelsea hospital, who find out weddings, and beat a point of war to serenade the new married couple, and thereby obtain money.
CROWD		A fiddle: probably from CROOTH, the Welch name for that instrument.
CRUMMY		Fat, fleshy. A fine crummy dame; a fat woman. He has picked up his crumbs finely of late; he has grown very fat, or rich, of late.
CRUMP		One who helps solicitors to affidavit men, or false witnesses. - 'I wish you had, Mrs. Crump;' a Gloucestershire saying, in answer to a wish for any thing; implying, you must not expect any assistance from the speaker. It is said to have originated from the following incident: One Mrs. Crump, the wife of a substantial farmer, dining with the old Lady Coventry, who was extremely deaf, said to one of the footmen, waiting at table, 'I wish I had a draught of small beer,' her modesty not permitting her to desire so fine a gentleman to bring it: the fellow, conscious that his mistress could not hear either the request or answer, replied, without moving, 'I wish you had, Mrs. Crump.' These wishes being again repeated by both parties, Mrs. Crump got up from the table to fetch it herself; and being asked by my lady where she was going, related what had passed. The story being told abroad, the expression became proverbial.
CRUMP-BACKED		Hump-backed.
CURSE OF SCOTLAND		The nine of diamonds; diamonds, it is said, imply royalty, being ornaments to the imperial crown; and every ninth king of Scotland has been observed for many ages, to be a tyrant and a curse to that country. Others say it is from its similarity to the arms of Argyle; the Duke of Argyle having been very instrumental in bringing about the union, which, by some Scotch patriots, has been considered as detrimental to their country.
DADDY		Father. Old daddy; a familiar address to an old man. To beat daddy mammy; the first rudiments of drum beating, being the elements of the roll.
DELLS		Young buxom wenches, ripe and prone to venery, but who have not lost their virginity, which the UPRIGHT MAN claims by virtue of his prerogative; after which they become free for any of the fraternity. Also a common strumpet.
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.
DONKEY, DONKEY DICK		A he, or jack ass: called donkey, perhaps, from the Spanish or don-like gravity of that animal, intitled also the king of Spain's trumpeter.
DRUB		To beat any one with a stick, or rope's end: perhaps a contraction of DRY RUB. It is also used to signify a good beating with any instrument.
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.
DUKE, or RUM DUKE		A queer unaccountable fellow.
FIB		To beat. Fib the cove's quarron in the rumpad for the lour in his bung; beat the fellow in the highway for the money in his purse. - A fib is also a tiny lie.
FLAM		A lie, or sham story: also a single stroke on a drum. To flam; to hum, to amuse, to deceive. Flim flams; idle stories.
FLASH		A periwig. Rum flash; a fine long wig. Queer flash; a miserable weather-beaten caxon.
FLUTE		The recorder of a corporation; a recorder was an antient musical instrument.
FRUMMAGEMMED		Choaked, strangled, suffocated, or hanged.
FUDDLE		Drunk. This is rum fuddle; this is excellent tipple, or drink. Fuddle; drunk. Fuddle cap; a drunkard.
GAG		An instrument used chiefly by housebreakers and thieves, for propping open the mouth of a person robbed, thereby to prevent his calling out for assistance.
GAGGERS		High and Low. Cheats, who by sham pretences, and wonderful stories of their sufferings, impose on the credulity of well meaning people. See RUM GAGGER.
GAMON		To humbug. To deceive, To tell lies. What rum gamon the old file pitched to the flat; how finely the knowing old fellow humbugged the fool.
GAYING INSTRUMENT		The penis.
GILT, or RUM DUBBER		A thief who picks locks, so called from the gilt or picklock key: many of them are so expert, that, from the lock of a church door to that of the smallest cabinet, they will find means to open it; these go into reputable public houses, where, pretending business, they contrive to get into private rooms, up stairs, where they open any bureaus or trunks they happen to find there.
GINNY		An instrument to lift up a great, in order to steal what is in the window.
GIZZARD		To grumble in the gizzard; to be secretly displeased.
GREEN BAG		An attorney: those gentlemen carry their clients' deeds in a green bag; and, it is said, when they have no deeds to carry, frequently fill them with an old pair of breeches, or any other trumpery, to give themselves the appearance of business.
GROG		Rum and water. Grog was first introduced into the navy about the year 1740, by Admiral Vernon, to prevent the sailors intoxicating themselves with their allowance of rum, or spirits. Groggy, or groggified; drunk.
GRUMBLE		To grumble in the gizzard; to murmur or repine. He grumbled like a bear with a sore head.
GRUMBLETONIAN		A discontented person; one who is always railing at the times or ministry.
GUMPTION, or RUM GUMPTION		Docility, comprehension, capacity.
HARUM SCARUM		He was running harum scarum; said of any one running or walking hastily, and in a hurry, after they know not what.
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.
HOISTING		A ludicrous ceremony formerly performed on every soldier, the first time he appeared in the field after being married; it was thus managed: As soon as the regiment, or company, had grounded their arms to rest a while, three or four men of the same company to which the bridegroom belonged, seized upon him, and putting a couple of bayonets out of the two corners of his hat, to represent horns, it was placed on his head, the back part foremost. He was then hoisted on the shoulders of two strong fellows, and carried round the arms, a drum and fife beating and playing the pioneers call, named Round Heads and Cuckolds, but on this occasion styled the Cuckold's March; in passing the colours, he was to take off his hat: this, in some regiments, was practised by the officers on their brethren, Hoisting, among pickpockets, is, setting a man on his head, that his money, watch, etc. may fall out of his pockets; these they pick up, and hold to be no robbery. See REVERSED.
HOLBORN HILL		To ride backwards up Holborn hill; to go to the gallows: the way to Tyburn, the place of execution for criminals condemned in London, was up that hill. Criminals going to suffer, always ride backwards, as some conceive to increase the ignominy, but more probably to prevent them being shocked with a distant view of the gallows; as, in amputations, surgeons conceal the instruments with which they are going to operate. The last execution at Tyburn, and consequently of this procession, was in the year 1784, since which the criminals have been executed near Newgate
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.
HUM DRUM		A hum drum fellow; a dull tedious narrator, a bore; also a set of gentlemen, who (Bailey says) used to meet near the Charter House, or at the King's Head in St. John's-street, who had more of pleasantry, and less of mystery, than the free masons.
HUM TRUM		A musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some packthread, thence also called a bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum; sometimes, instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.
HUNTSUP		The reveillier of huntsmen, sounded on the French horn, or other instrument.
HURDY GURDY		A kind of fiddle, originally made perhaps out of a gourd. See HUMSTRUM.
JACK		A farthing, a small bowl serving as the mark for bowlers. An instrument for pulling off boots.
JEMMY		A crow. This instrument is much used by housebreakers. Sometimes called Jemmy Rook.
JENNY		An instrument for lifting up the grate or top of a show-glass, in order to rob it.
JORUM		A jugg, or large pitcher.
JUKRUM		A licence.
KATE		A picklock. 'Tis a rum kate; it is a clever picklock.
KETTLEDRUMS		Cupid's kettle drums; a woman's breasts, called by sailors chest and bedding.
KILL DEVIL		New still-burnt rum.
LAZYBONES		An instrument like a pair of tongs, for old or very fat people to take any thing from the ground without stooping.
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.
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.
NOSTRUM		A medicine prepared by particular persons only, a quack medicine.
OGLES		Eyes. Rum ogles; fine eyes.
OMNIUM GATHERUM		The whole together: jocular imitation of law Latin.
PHYZ		The face. Rum phyz; an odd face or countenance.
POPE'S NOSE		The rump of a turkey.
PRAD		A horse. The swell flashes a rum prad: the e gentleman sports a fine horse.
PROG		Provision. Rum prog; choice provision. To prog; to be on the hunt for provision: called in the military term to forage.
QUACK		An ungraduated ignorant pretender to skill in physic, a vender of nostrums.
QUEAN		A slut, or worthless woman, a strumpet.
QUEER MORT		A diseased strumpet.
RIGGING		Clothing. I'll unrig the bloss; I'll strip the wench. Rum Rigging; fine clothes. The cull has rum rigging, let's ding him and mill him, and pike; the fellow has good clothes, let's knock him down, rob him, and scour off, i.e. run away.
ROGUM POGUM, or DRAGRUM POGRAM		Goat's beard, eaten for asparagus; so called by the ladies who gather cresses, etc. who also deal in this plant.
ROUND ABOUT		An instrument used in housebreaking. This instrument has not been long in use. It will cut a round piece about five inches in diameter out of a shutter or door.
ROUNDHEADS		A term of reproach to the puritans and partizans of Oliver Cromwell, and the Rump Parliament, who it is said made use of a bowl as a guide to trim their hair.
RUM		Fine, good, valuable.
RUM BECK		A justice of the peace.
RUM BITE		A clever cheat, a clean trick.
RUM BLEATING CHEAT		A fat wether sheep.
RUM BLOWEN		A handsome wench.
RUM BLUFFER		A jolly host.
RUM BOB		A young apprentice; also a sharp trick.
RUM BOOZE		Wine, or any other good liquor. Rum boozing welts; bunches of grapes.
RUM BUBBER		A dexterous fellow at stealing silver tankards from inns and taverns.
RUM BUGHER		A valuable dog.
RUM BUNG		A full purse.
RUM CHANT		A song.
RUM CHUB		Among butchers, a customer easily imposed on, as to the quality and price of meat.
RUM CLOUT		A fine silk, cambric, or holland handkerchief.
RUM COD		A good purse of gold.
RUM COLE		New money, or medals.
RUM COVE		A dexterous or clever rogue.
RUM CULL		A rich fool, easily cheated, particularly by his mistress.
RUM DEGEN		A handsome sword.
RUM DELL		See RUM DOXY.
RUM DIVER		A dextrous pickpocket.
RUM DOXY		A fine wench.
RUM DRAWERS		Silk, or other fine stockings.
RUM DROPPER		A vintner.
RUM DUBBER		An expert picklock.
RUM DUKE		A jolly handsome fellow; also an odd eccentric fellow; likewise the boldest and stoutest fellows lately among the Alsatians, Minters, Savoyards, and other inhabitants of privileged districts, sent to remove and guard the goods of such bankrupts as intended to take sanctuary in those places.
RUM FILE		See RUM DIVER.
RUM FUN		A sharp trick.
RUM GAGGERS		Cheats who tell wonderful stories of their sufferings at sea, or when taken by the Algerines,
RUM GHELT		See RUM COLE.
RUM GLYMMER		King or chief of the link-boys.
RUM KICKS		Breeches of gold or silver brocade, or richly laced with gold or silver.
RUM MAWND		One that counterfeits a fool.
RUM MORT		A queen, or great lady.
RUM NAB		A good hat.
RUM NANTZ		Good French brandy.
RUM NED		A very rich silly fellow.
RUM PAD		The highway.
RUM PADDERS		Highwaymen well mounted and armed.
RUM PEEPERS		Fine looking-glasses.
RUM PRANCER		A fine horse.
RUM QUIDS		A great booty.
RUM RUFF PECK		Westphalia ham.
RUM SNITCH		A smart fillip on the nose.
RUM SQUEEZE		Much wine, or good liquor, given among fiddlers.
RUM TILTER		See RUM DEGEN.
RUM TOL		See RUM DEGEN.
RUM TOPPING		A rich commode, or woman's head-dress.
RUM VILLE		See ROMEVILLE.
RUM WIPER		See RUM CLOUT.
RUMBO		Rum, water, and sugar; also a prison.
RUMBOYLE		A ward or watch.
RUMBUMTIOUS		Obstreperous.
RUMFORD		To ride to Rumford to have one's backside new bottomed: i.e. to have a pair of new leather breeches. Rumford was formerly a famous place for leather breeches. A like saying is current in Norfolk and Suffolk, of Bungay, and for the same reason. - Rumford lion; a calf. See ESSEX LION.
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.
RUMPUS		A riot, quarrel, or confusion.
SHEEPSKIN FIDDLER		A drummer.
SHIT SACK		A dastardly fellow: also a non-conformist. This appellation is said to have originated from the following story: - After the restoration, the laws against the non-conformists were extremely severe. They sometimes met in very obscure places: and there is a tradition that one of their congregations were assembled in a barn, the rendezvous of beggars and other vagrants, where the preacher, for want of a ladder or tub, was suspended in a sack fixed to the beam. His discourse that day being on the last judgment, he particularly attempted to describe the terrors of the wicked at the sounding of the trumpet, on which a trumpeter to a puppet-show, who had taken refuge in that barn, and lay hid under the straw, sounded a charge. The congregation, struck with the utmost consternation, fled in an instant from the place, leaving their affrighted teacher to shift for himself. The effects of his terror are said to have appeared at the bottom of the sack, and to have occasioned that opprobrious appellation by which the non-conformists were vulgarly distinguished.
SOLO PLAYER		A miserable performer on any instrument, who always plays alone, because no one will stay in the room to hear him.
SPANISH, or KING OF SPAIN'S TRUMPETER		An ass when braying.
STEWED QUAKER		Burnt rum, with a piece of butter: an American remedy for a cold.
STIFF-RUMPED		Proud, stately.
STINGRUM		A niggard.
STRUM		A perriwig. Rum strum: a fine large wig. (CAMBRIDGE) To do a piece. Foeminam subagitare.
STRUM		To have carnal knowledge of a woman; also to play badly on the harpsichord; or any other stringed instrument. A strummer of wire, a player on any instrument strung with wire.
STRUMPET		A harlot.
SWABBERS		The ace of hearts, knave of clubs, ace and duce of trumps, at whist: also the lubberly seamen, put to swab, and clean the ship.
SWAG		A shop. Any quantity of goods. As, plant the swag; conceal the goods. Rum swag; a shop full of rich goods.
SWIZZLE		Drink, or any brisk or windy liquor. In North America, a mixture of spruce beer, rum, and sugar, was so called. The 17th regiment had a society called the Swizzle Club, at Ticonderoga, A. D. 1760.
TACKLE		A mistress; also good clothes. The cull has tipt his tackle rum gigging; the fellow has given his mistress good clothes. A man's tackle: the genitals.
TANTRUMS		Pet, or passion: madam was in her tantrums.
TATTOO		A beat of the drum, of signal for soldiers to go to their quarters, and a direction to the sutlers to close the tap, anddtew nomore liquor for them; it is generally beat at nine in summer and eight in winter. The devil's tattoo; beating with one's foot against the ground, as done by persons in low spirits.
TAYLE DRAWERS		Thieves who snatch gentlemens swords from their sides. He drew the cull's tayle rumly; he snatched away the gentleman's sword cleverly.
THIMBLE		A watch. The swell flashes a rum thimble; the gentleman sports a fine watch.
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.
THRUM		To play on any instrument sttfnged with wire. A thrummer of wire; a player on the spinet, harpsichord, of guitar.
THRUMS		Threepence.
TICKRUM		A licence.
TODDY		Originally the juice of the cocoa tree, and afterwards rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg.
TOGS		Clothes. The swell is rum-togged. The gentleman is handsomely dressed.
TOOL		The instrument of any person or faction, a cat's paw. See CATS PAW.
TOP SAIL		He paid his debts at Portsmouth with the topsail; i.e. he went to. sea and left them unpaid. SCT soldiers are said to pay off their scores with the drum; that is, by marching away.
TORMENTER OF SHEEP SKIN		A drummer.
TRUMPERY		An old whore, or goods of no value; rubbish.
TRUMPET		To sound one's own trumpet; to praise one's self.
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.
TRUMPS		To be put to one's trumps: to be in difficulties, or put to one's shifts. Something may turn up trumps; something lucky may happen. All his cards are trumps: he is extremely fortunate.
TUNE		To beat: his father tuned him delightfully: perhaps from fetching a tune out of the person beaten, or from a comparison with the disagreeable sounds of instruments when tuning.
WHIT		Whittington's Newgate. - Five rum-padders are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and are piked into the deuseaville; five highwaymen broke out of Newgate in the night, and are gone into the country.
WIN		To steal. The cull has won a couple of rum glimsticks; the fellow has stolen a pair of fine candlesticks.
YARUM		Milk.