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.

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SACHEVEREL  The iron door, or blower, to the mouth of a stove: from a divine of that name, who made himself famous for blowing the coals of dissension in the latter end of the reign of queen Ann.
 
SACK  A pocket. To buy the sack: to get drunk. To dive into the sack; to pick a pocket. To break a bottle in an empty sack; a bubble bet, a sack with a bottle in it not being an empty sack.
 
SAD DOG  A wicked debauched fellow; one of the ancient family of the sad dogs. Swift translates it into Latin by the words TRISTIS CANIS.
 
SADDLE  To saddle the spit; to give a dinner or supper. To saddle one's nose; to wear spectacles. To saddle a place or pension; to oblige the holder to pay a certain portion of his income to some one nominated by the donor. Saddle sick: galled with riding, having lost leather.
 
SAINT  A piece of spoilt timber in a coach-maker's shop, like a saint, devoted to the flames.
 
SAINT GEOFFREY'S DAY  Never, there being no saint of that name: tomorrow-come-never, when two Sundays come together.
 
SAINT LUKE'S BIRD  An ox; that Evangelist being always represented with an ox.
 
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.
 
SAL  An abbreviation of SALIVATION. In a high sal; in the pickling tub, or under a salivation.
 
SALESMAN'S DOG  A barker. Vide BARKER.
 
SALMON or SALAMON  The beggars'sacrament or oath.
 
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.
 
SALT  Lecherous. A salt bitch: a bitch at heat, or proud bitch. Salt eel; a rope's end, used to correct boys, etc. at sea: you shall have a salt eel for supper.
 
SAMMY  Foolish. Silly.
 
SANDWICH  Ham, dried tongue, or some other salted meat, cut thin and put between two slices of bread and butter: said to be a favourite morsel with the Earl of Sandwich.
 
SANDY PATE  A red haired man or woman.
 
SANGAREE  Rack punch was formerly so called in bagnios.
 
SANK, SANKY, or CENTIPEE'S  A taylor employed by clothiers in making soldier's clothing.
 
SAPSCULL  A simple fellow. Sappy; foolish.
 
SATYR  A libidinous fellow: those imaginary things are by poets reported to be extremely salacious.
 
SAUCE BOX  A term of familiar raillery, signifying a bold or forward person.
 
SAUNTERER  An idle, lounging fellow; by some derived from SANS TERRE; applied to persons, who, having no lands or home, lingered and loitered about. Some derive it from persons devoted to the Holy Land, SAINT TERRE, who loitered about, as waiting for company.
 
SAVE-ALL  A kind of candlestick used by our frugal forefathers, to burn snuffs and ends of candles. Figuratively, boys running about gentlemen's houses in Ireland, who are fed on broken meats that would otherwise be wasted, also a miser.
 
SAW  An old saw; an ancient proverbial saying.
 
SAWNY or SANDY  A general nick-name for a Scotchman, as Paddy is for an Irishman, or Taffy for a Welchman; Sawny or Sandy being the familiar abbreviation or diminution of Alexander, a very favourite name among the Scottish nation.
 
SCAB  A worthless man or woman.
 
SCALD MISERABLES  A set of mock masons, who, A.D. 1744, made a ludicrous procession in ridicule of the Free Masons.
 
SCALDER  A clap. The cull has napped a scalder; the fellow has got a clap.
 
SCALY  Mean. Sordid. How scaly the cove is; how mean the fellow is.
 
SCALY FISH  An honest, rough, blunt sailor.
 
SCAMP  A highwayman. Royal scamp: a highwayman who robs civilly. Royal foot scamp; a footpad who behaves in like manner.
 
SCAMPER  To run away hastily.
 
SCANDAL BROTH  Tea.
 
SCANDAL PROOF  One who has eaten shame and drank after it, or would blush at being ashamed.
 
SCAPEGALLOWS  One who deserves and has narrowly escaped the gallows, a slip-gibbet, one for whom the gallows is said to groan.
 
SCAPEGRACE  A wild dissolute fellow.
 
SCARCE  To make one's self scarce; to steal away.
 
SCARLET HORSE  A high red, hired or hack horse: a pun on the word HIRED.
 
SCAVEY  Sense, knowledge. "Massa, me no scavey;" master, I don't know (NEGRO LANGUAGE) perhaps from the French SCAVOIR.
 
SCHEME  A party of pleasure.
 
SCHISM MONGER  A dissenting teacher.
 
SCHISM SHOP  A dissenting meeting house.
 
SCHOOL BUTTER  Cobbing, whipping.
 
SCHOOL OF VENUS  A bawdy-house.
 
SCOLD'S CURE  A coffin. The blowen has napped the scold's cure; the bitch is in her coffin.
 
SCONCE  The head, probably as being the fort and citadel of a man: from SCONCE, an old name for a fort, derived from a Dutch word of the same signification; To build a sconce: a military term for bilking one's quarters. To sconce or skonce; to impose a fine.
 
SCOT  A young bull.
 
SCOTCH BAIT  A halt and a resting on a stick, as practised by pedlars.
 
SCOTCH CHOCOLATE  Brimstone and milk.
 
SCOTCH FIDDLE  The itch.
 
SCOTCH GREYS  Lice. The headquarters of the Scotch greys: the head of a man full of large lice.
 
SCOTCH MIST  A sober soaking rain; a Scotch mist will wet an Englishman to the skin.
 
SCOTCH PINT  A bottle containing two quarts.
 
SCOTCH WARMING PAN  A wench; also a fart.
 
SCOUNDREL  A man void of every principle of honour.
 
SCOUR  To scour or score off; to run away: perhaps from SCORE; i.e. full speed, or as fast as legs would carry one. Also to wear: chiefly applied to irons, fetters, or handcuffs, because wearing scours them. He will scour the darbies; he will be in fetters. To scour the cramp ring; to wear bolts or fetters, from which, as well as from coffin hinges, rings supposed to prevent the cramp are made.
 
SCOURERS  Riotous bucks, who amuse themselves with breaking windows, beating the watch, and assaulting every person they meet: called scouring the streets.
 
SCOUT  A college errand-boy at Oxford, called a gyp at Cambridge. Also a watchman or a watch.
 
SCRAGG'EM FAIR  A public execution.
 
SCRAGGED  Hanged.
 
SCRAGGY  Lean, bony.
 
SCRAP  A villainous scheme or plan. He whiddles the whole scrap; he discovers the whole plan or scheme.
 
SCRAPE  To get into a scrape; to be involved in a disagreeable business.
 
SCRAPER  A fiddler; also one who scrapes plates for mezzotinto prints.
 
SCRAPING  A mode of expressing dislike to a person, or sermon, practised at Oxford by the students, in scraping their feet against the ground during the preachment; frequently done to testify their disapprobation of a proctor who has been, as they think, too rigorous.
 
SCRATCH  Old Scratch; the Devil: probably from the long and sharp claws with which he is frequently delineated.
 
SCRATCH LAND  Scotland.
 
SCRATCH PLATTER, or TAYLOR'S RAGOUT  Bread sopt in the oil and vinegar in which cucumbers have been sliced.
 
SCREEN  A bank note. Queer screens; forged bank notes. The cove was twisted for smashing queer screens; the fellow was hanged for uttering forged bank notes.
 
SCREW  To copulate. A female screw; a common prostitute. To screw one up; to exact upon one in a bargain or reckoning.
 
SCREW  A skeleton key used by housebreakers to open a lock. To stand on the screw signifies that a door is not bolted, but merely locked.
 
SCREW JAWS  A wry-mouthed man or woman.
 
SCRIP  A scrap or slip of paper. The cully freely blotted the scrip, and tipt me forty hogs; the man freely signed the bond, and gave me forty shillings. - Scrip is also a Change Alley phrase for the last loan or subscription. What does scrip go at for the next rescounters? what does scrip sell for delivered at the next day of settling?
 
SCROBY  To be tipt the scroby; to be whipt before the justices.
 
SCROPE  A farthing.
 
SCRUB  A low mean fellow, employed in all sorts of dirty work.
 
SCRUBBADO  The itch.
 
SCULL  A head of a house, or master of a college, at the universities.
 
SCULL THATCHER  A peruke-maker.
 
SCULL, or SCULLER  A boat rowed by one man with a light kind of oar, called a scull; also a one-horse chaise or buggy.
 
SCUM  The riff-raff, tag-rag, and bob-tail, or lowest order of people.
 
SCUT  The tail of a hare or rabbit; also that of a woman.
 
SCUTTLE  To scuttle off; to run away. To scuttle a ship; to make a hole in her bottom in order to sink her.
 
SEA CRAB  A sailor.
 
SEA LAWYER  A shark.
 
SEALER, or SQUEEZE WAX  One ready to give bond and judgment for goods or money.
 
SECRET  He has been let into the secret: he has been cheated at gaming or horse-racing. He or she is in the grand secret, i.e. dead.
 
SEEDY  Poor, pennyless, stiver-cramped, exhausted.
 
SEES  The eyes. See DAYLIGHTS.
 
SEND  To drive or break in. Hand down the Jemmy and send it in; apply the crow to the door, and drive it in.
 
SERAGLIO  A bawdy-house; the name of that part of the Great Turk's palace where the women are kept.
 
SERVED  Found guilty. Convicted. Ordered to be punished or transported. To serve a cull out; to beat a man soundly.
 
SET  A dead set: a concerted scheme to defraud a person by gaming.
 
SETTER  A bailiff's follower, who, like a setting dog follows and points the game for his master. Also sometimes an exciseman.
 
SEVEN-SIDED ANIMAL  A one-eyed man or woman, each having a right side and a left side, a fore side and a back side, an outside, an inside, and a blind side.
 
SHABBAROON  An ill-dressed shabby fellow; also a mean-spirited person.
 
SHAFTSBURY  A gallon pot full of wine, with a cock.
 
SHAG  To copulate. He is but bad shag; he is no able woman's man.
 
SHAG-BAG, or SHAKE-BAG  A poor sneaking fellow; a man of no spirit: a term borrowed from the cock-pit.
 
SHAKE  To draw any thing from the pocket. He shook the swell of his fogle; he robbed the gentleman of his silk handkerchief.
 
SHAKE  To shake one's elbow; to game with dice. To shake a cloth in the wind; to be hanged in chains.
 
SHALLOW  A WHIP hat, so called from the want of depth in the crown. LILLY SHALLOW, a WHITE Whip hat.
 
SHALLOW PATE  A simple fellow.
 
SHAM  A cheat, or trick. To cut a sham; to cheat or deceive. Shams; false sleeves to put on over a dirty shirt, or false sleeves with ruffles to put over a plain one. To sham Abram; to counterfeit sickness.
 
SHAMBLE  To walk awkwardly. Shamble-legged: one that walks wide, and shuffles about his feet.
 
SHANKER  A venereal wart.
 
SHANKS  Legs, or gams.
 
SHANKS NAGGY  To ride shanks naggy: to travel on foot. SCOTCH.
 
SHANNON  A river in Ireland: persons dipped in that river are perfectly and for ever cured of bashfulness.
 
SHAPES  To shew one's shapes; to be stript, or made peel, at the whipping-post.
 
SHAPPO, or SHAP  A hat: corruption of CHAPEAU.
 
SHARK  A sharper: perhaps from his preying upon any one he can lay hold of. Also a custom-house officer, or tide-waiter. Sharks; the first order of pickpockets. BOW- STREET TERM, A.D. 1785.
 
SHARP  Subtle, acute, quick-witted; also a sharper or cheat, in opposition to a flat, dupe, or gull. Sharp's the word and quick's the motion with him; said of any one very attentive to his own interest, and apt to take all advantages. Sharp set; hungry.
 
SHARPER  A cheat, one that lives by his wits. Sharpers tools; a fool and false dice.
 
SHAVER  A cunning shaver; a subtle fellow, one who trims close, an acute cheat. A young shaver; a boy. SEA TERM.
 
SHAVINGS  The clippings of money.
 
SHE HOUSE  A house where the wife rules, or, as the term is, wears the breeches.
 
SHE LION  A shilling.
 
SHE NAPPER  A woman thief-catcher; also a bawd or pimp.
 
SHEEP'S HEAD  Like a sheep's head, all jaw; saying of a talkative man or woman.
 
SHEEPISH  Bashful. A sheepish fellow; a bashful or shamefaced fellow. To cast a sheep's eye at any thing; to look wishfully at it.
 
SHEEPSKIN FIDDLER  A drummer.
 
SHELF  On the shelf, i.e. pawned.
 
SHERIFF'S BALL  An execution. To dance at the sheriff's ball, and loll out one's tongue at the company; to be hanged, or go to rest in a horse's night-cap, i.e. a halter.
 
SHERIFF'S BRACELETS  Handcuffs.
 
SHERIFF'S HOTEL  A prison.
 
SHERIFF'S JOURNEYMAN  The hangman.
 
SHERIFF'S PICTURE FRAME  The gallows.
 
SHERK  To evade or disappoint: to sherk one's duty.
 
SHERRY  To run away: sherry off.
 
SHIFTING  Shuffling. Tricking. Shifting cove; i.e. a person who lives by tricking.
 
SHIFTING BALLAST  A term used by sailors, to signify soldiers, passengers, or any landsmen on board.
 
SHILLALEY  An oaken sapling, or cudgel: from a wood of that name famous for its oaks. IRISH.
 
SHILLY-SHALLY  Irresolute. To stand shilly-shally; to hesitate, or stand in doubt.
 
SHINDY  A dance. SEA PHRASE.
 
SHINE  It shines like a shitten barn door.
 
SHIP SHAPE  Proper, as it ought to be. SEA PHRASE,
 
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.
 
SHITTING THROUGH THE TEETH  Vomiting. Hark ye, friend, have you got a padlock on your arse, that you shite through your teeth? Vulgar address to one vomiting.
 
SHOD ALL ROUND  A parson who attends a funeral is said to be shod all round, when he receives a hat-band, gloves, and scarf: many shoeings being only partial.
 
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.
 
SHOOLE  To go skulking about.
 
SHOOT THE CAT  To vomit from excess of liquor; called also catting.
 
SHOP  A prison. Shopped; confined, imprisoned.
 
SHOPLIFTER  One that steals whilst pretending to purchase goods in a shop.
 
SHORT-HEELED WENCH  A girl apt to fall on her back.
 
SHOT  To pay one's shot; to pay one's share of a reckoning. Shot betwixt wind and water; poxed or clapped.
 
SHOTTEN HERRING  A thin meagre fellow.
 
SHOULDER CLAPPER  A bailiff, or member of the catch club. Shoulder-clapped; arrested.
 
SHOULDER FEAST  A dinner given after a funeral, to those who have carried the corpse.
 
SHOULDER SHAM  A partner to a file. See FILE.
 
SHOVE IN THE MOUTH  A dram.
 
SHOVE THE TUMBLER  To be whipped at the cart's tail.
 
SHOVEL  To be put to bed with a shovel; to be buried. He or she was fed with a fire-shovel; a saying of a person with a large mouth.
 
SHRED  A taylor.
 
SHRIMP  A little diminutive person.
 
SHUFFLE  To make use of false pretences, or unfair shifts. A shuffling fellow; a slippery shifting fellow.
 
SHY COCK  One who keeps within doors for fear of bailiffs.
 
SICE  Sixpence.
 
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.
 
SIDE POCKET  He has as much need of a wife as a dog of a side pocket; said of a weak old debilitated man. He wants it as much as a dog does a side pocket; a simile used for one who desires any thing by no means necessary.
 
SIDLEDYWRY  Crooked.
 
SIGN OF A HOUSE TO LET  A widow's weeds.
 
SIGN OF THE: FIVE SHILLINGS  The crown. TEN SHILLINGS. The two crowns. FIFTEEN SHILLINGS. The three crowns.
 
SILENCE  To silence a man; to knock him down, or stun him. Silence in the court, the cat is pissing; a gird upon any one requiring silence unnecessarily.
 
SILENT FLUTE  See PEGO, SUGAR STICK, etc.
 
SILK SNATCHERS  Thieves who snatch hoods or bonnets from persons walking in the streets.
 
SILVER LACED  Replete with lice. The cove's kickseys are silver laced: the fellow's breeches are covered with lice.
 
SIMEONITES  At Cambridge, the followers of the Rev. Charles Simeon, fellow of King's College, author of Skeletons of Sermons, and preacher at Trinity church; they are in fact rank methodists.
 
SIMKIN  A foolish fellow.
 
SIMON  Sixpence. Simple Simon: a natural, a silly fellow; Simon Suck-egg, sold his wife for an addle duck-egg.
 
SIMPER  To smile: to simper like a firmity kettle.
 
SIMPLES  Physical herbs; also follies. He must go to Battersea, to be cut for the simples - Battersea is a place famous for its garden grounds, some of which were formerly appropriated to the growing of simples for apothecaries, who at a certain season used to go down to select their stock for the ensuing year, at which time the gardeners were said to cut their simples; whence it became a popular joke to advise young people to go to Battersea, at that time, to have their simples cut, or to be cut for the simples.
 
SIMPLETON  Abbreviation of simple Tony or Anthony, a foolish fellow.
 
SING  To call out; the coves sing out beef; they call out stop thief.
 
SING SMALL  To be humbled, confounded, or abashed, to have little or nothing to say for one's-self.
 
SINGLE PEEPER  A person having but one eye.
 
SINGLETON  A corkscrew, made by a famous cutler of that name, who lived in a place called Hell, in Dublin; his screws are remarkable for their excellent temper.
 
SINGLETON  A very foolish fellow; also a particular kind of nails.
 
SIR JOHN  The old title for a country parson: as Sir John of Wrotham, mentioned by Shakespeare.
 
SIR JOHN BARLEYCORN  Strong beer.
 
SIR LOIN  The sur, or upper loin.
 
SIR REVERENCE  Human excrement, a turd.
 
SIR TIMOTHY  One who, from a desire of being the head of the company, pays the reckoning, or, as the term is, stands squire. See SQUIRE.
 
SITTING BREECHES  One who stays late in company, is said to have his sitting breeches on, or that he will sit longer than a hen.
 
SIX AND EIGHT-PENCE  An attorney, whose fee on several occasions is fixed at that sum.
 
SIX AND TIPS  Whisky and small beer. IRISH.
 
SIXES AND SEVENS  Left at sixes and sevens: i.e. in confusion; commonly said of a room where the furniture, etc. is scattered about; or of a business left unsettled.
 
SIZAR  Formerly students who came to Cambridge University for purposes of study and emolument. But at present they are just as gay and dissipated as their fellow collegians. About fifty years ago they were on a footing with the servitors at Oxford, but by the exertions of the present Bishop of Llandaff, who was himself a sizar, they were absolved from all marks of inferiority or of degradation. The chief difference at present between them and the pensioners, consists in the less amount of their college fees. The saving thus made induces many extravagant fellows to become sizars, that they may have more money to lavish on their dogs, pieces, etc.
 
SIZE  To sup at one's own expence. If a MAN asks you to SUP, he treats you; if to SIZE, you pay for what you eat - liquors ONLY being provided by the inviter.
 
SIZE OF ALE  Half a pint. Size of bread and cheese; a certain quantity. Sizings: Cambridge term for the college allowance from the buttery, called at Oxford battles.
 
SKEW  A cup, or beggar's wooden dish.
 
SKEWVOW, or ALL ASKEW  Crooked, inclining to one side.
 
SKIN  A purse. Frisk the skin of the stephen; empty the money out of the purse. Queer skin; an empty purse.
 
SKIN  In a bad skin; out of temper, in an ill humour. Thin-skinned: touchy, peevish.
 
SKIN FLINT  An avaricious man or woman,
 
SKINK  To skink, is to wait on the company, ring the bell, stir the fire, and snuff the candles; the duty of the youngest officer in the military mess. See BOOTS.
 
SKINS  A tanner.
 
SKIP JACKS  Youngsters that ride horses on sale, horse- dealers boys. Also a plaything made for children with the breast bone of a goose.
 
SKIP KENNEL  A footman.
 
SKIPPER  A barn. - Also the captain of a Dutch vessel.
 
SKIT  To wheedle.
 
SKIT  A joke. A satirical hint.
 
SKRIP  See SCRIP.
 
SKULKER  A soldier who by feigned sickness, or other pretences, evades his duty; a sailor who keeps below in time of danger; in the civil line, one who keeps out of the way, when any work is to be done. To skulk; to hide one's self, to avoid labour or duty.
 
SKY BLUE  Gin.
 
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.'
 
SKY PARLOUR  The garret, or upper story.
 
SLABBERING BIB  A parson or lawyer's band.
 
SLAG  A slack-mettled fellow, one not ready to resent an affront.
 
SLAM  A trick; also a game at whist lost without scoring one. To slam to a door; to shut it with violence.
 
SLAMKIN  A female sloven, one whose clothes seem hung on with a pitch-fork, a careless trapes.
 
SLANG  Cant language.
 
SLANG  A fetter. Double slanged; double ironed. Now double slanged into the cells for a crop he is knocked down; he is double ironed in the condemned cells, and ordered to be hanged.
 
SLAP-BANG SHOP  A petty cook's shop, where there is no credit given, but what is had must be paid DOWN WITH THE READY SLAP-BANG, i.e. immediately. This is a common appellation for a night cellar frequented by thieves, and sometimes for a stage coach or caravan.
 
SLAPDASH  Immediately, instantly, suddenly.
 
SLASHER  A bullying, riotous fellow. IRISH.
 
SLAT  Half a crown.
 
SLATE  A sheet.
 
SLATER'S PAN  The gaol at Kingston in Jamaica: Slater is the deputy Provost-marshal.
 
SLATTERN  A woman sluttishly negligent in her dress.
 
SLEEPING PARTNER  A partner in a trade, or shop, who lends his name and money, for which he receives a share of the profit, without doing any part of the business.
 
SLEEPY  Much worn: the cloth of your coat must be extremely sleepy, for it has not had a nap this long time.
 
SLEEVELESS ERRAND  A fool's errand, in search of what it is impossible to find.
 
SLICE  To take a slice; to intrigue, particularly with a married woman, because a slice off a cut loaf is not missed.
 
SLIPGIBBET  See SCAPEGALLOWS.
 
SLIPPERY CHAP  One on whom there can be no dependance, a shuffling fellow.
 
SLIPSLOPPING  Misnaming and misapplying any hard word; from the character of Mrs. Slipslop, in Fielding's Joseph Andrews.
 
SLIPSLOPS  Tea, water-gruel, or any innocent beverage taken medicinally.
 
SLOP  Tea. How the blowens lush the slop. How the wenches drink tea!
 
SLOP SELLER  A dealer in those articles, who keeps a slop shop.
 
SLOPS  Wearing apparel and bedding used by seamen.
 
SLOUCH  A stooping gait, a negligent slovenly fellow. To slouch; to hang down one's head. A slouched hat: a hat whose brims are let down.
 
SLUBBER DE GULLION  A dirty nasty fellow.
 
SLUG  A piece of lead of any shape, to be fired from a blunderbuss. To fire a slug; to drink a dram.
 
SLUG-A-BED  A drone, one that cannot rise in the morning.
 
SLUICE YOUR GOB  Take a hearty drink.
 
SLUR  To slur, is a method of cheating at dice: also to cast a reflection on any one's character, to scandalize.
 
SLUSH  Greasy dish-water, or the skimmings of a pot where fat meat has been boiled.
 
SLUSH BUCKET  A foul feeder, one that eats much greasy food.
 
SLY BOOTS  A cunning fellow, under the mask of simplicity.
 
SMABBLED, or SNABBLED  Killed in battle.
 
SMACK  To kiss. I had a smack at her muns: I kissed her mouth. To smack calves skin; to kiss the book, i.e. to take an oath. The queer cuffin bid me smack calves skin, but I only bussed my thumb; the justice bid me kiss the book, but I only kissed my thumb.
 
SMACKING COVE  A coachman.
 
SMACKSMOOTH  Level with the surface, every thing cut away.
 
SMALL CLOTHES  Breeches: a gird at the affected delicacy of the present age; a suit being called coat, waistcoat, and articles, or small clothes.
 
SMART  Spruce, fine: as smart as a carrot new scraped.
 
SMART MONEY  Money allowed to soldiers or sailors for the loss of a limb, or other hurt received in the service.
 
SMASH  Leg of mutton and smash: a leg of mutton and mashed turnips. SEA TERM.
 
SMASH  To break; also to kick down stairs. To smash. To pass counterfeit money.
 
SMASHER  A person who lives by passing base coin. The cove was fined in the steel for smashing; the fellow was ordered to be imprisoned in the house of correction for uttering base coin.
 
SMEAR  A plasterer.
 
SMEAR GELT  A bribe. GERMAN.
 
SMELLER  A nose. Smellers: a cat's whiskers.
 
SMELLING CHEAT  An orchard, or garden; also a nosegay.
 
SMELTS  Half guineas.
 
SMICKET  A smock, or woman's shift.
 
SMIRK  A finical spruce fellow. To smirk; to smile, or look pleasantly.
 
SMITER  An arm. To smite one's tutor; to get money from him. ACADEMIC TERM.
 
SMITHFIELD BARGAIN  A bargain whereby the purchaser is taken in. This is likewise frequently used to express matches or marriages contracted solely on the score of interest, on one or both sides, where the fair sex are bought and sold like cattle in Smithfield.
 
SMOCK-FACED  Fair faced.
 
SMOKE  To observe, to suspect.
 
SMOKER  A tobacconist.
 
SMOKY  Curious, suspicious, inquisitive.
 
SMOUCH  Dried leaves of the ash tree, used by the smugglers for adulterating the black or bohea teas.
 
SMOUS  A German Jew.
 
SMUG  A nick name for a blacksmith; also neat and spruce.
 
SMUG LAY  Persons who pretend to be smugglers of lace and valuable articles; these men borrow money of publicans by depositing these goods in their hands; they shortly decamp, and the publican discovers too late that he has been duped; and on opening the pretended treasure, he finds trifling articles of no value.
 
SMUGGLING KEN  A bawdy-house.
 
SMUSH  To snatch, or seize suddenly.
 
SMUT  A copper. A grate. Old iron. The cove was lagged for a smut: the fellow was transported for stealing a copper.
 
SMUT  Bawdy. Smutty story; an indecent story.
 
SNABBLE  To rifle or plunder; also to kill.
 
SNACK  A share. To go snacks; to be partners.
 
SNAFFLE  To steal. To snaffle any ones poll; to steal his wig.
 
SNAFFLER  A highwayman. Snaffler of prances; a horse stealer.
 
SNAGGS  Large teeth; also snails.
 
SNAKESMAN  See LITTLE SNAKESMAN.
 
SNAP DRAGON  A Christmas gambol: raisins and almonds being put into a bowl of brandy, and the candles extinguished, the spirit is set on fire, and the company scramble for the raisins.
 
SNAP THE GLAZE  To break shop windows or show glasses.
 
SNAPPERS  Pistols.
 
SNAPT  Taken, caught.
 
SNATCH CLY  A thief who snatches women's pockets.
 
SNEAK  A pilferer. Morning sneak; one who pilfers early in the morning, before it is light. Evening sneak; an evening pilferer. Upright sneak: one who steals pewter pots from the alehouse boys employed to collect them. To go upon the sneak; to steal into houses whose doors are carelessly left open.
 
SNEAKER  A small bowl.
 
SNEAKING BUDGE  One that robs alone.
 
SNEAKSBY  A mean-spirited fellow, a sneaking cur.
 
SNEERING  Jeering, flickering, laughing in scorn.
 
SNICKER  A glandered horse.
 
SNICKER, or SNIGGER  To laugh privately, or in one's sleeve.
 
SNILCH  To eye, or look at any thing attentively: the cull snilches.
 
SNIP  A taylor.
 
SNITCH  To turn snitch, or snitcher; to turn informer.
 
SNITE  To wipe, or slap. Snite his snitch; wipe his nose, i.e. give him a good knock.
 
SNIVEL  To cry, to throw the snot or snivel about. Snivelling; crying. A snivelling fellow; one that whines or complains.
 
SNOACH  To speak through the nose, to snuffle.
 
SNOB  A nick name for a shoemaker.
 
SNOOZE, or SNOODGE  To sleep. To snooze with a mort; to sleep with a wench.
 
SNOOZING KEN  A brothel. The swell was spiced in a snoozing ken of his screens; the gentleman was robbed of his bank notes in a brothel.
 
SNOUT  A hogshead.
 
SNOW  Linen hung out to dry or bleach. Spice the snow; to steal the linen.
 
SNOWBALL  A jeering appellation for a negro.
 
SNUB  To check, or rebuke.
 
SNUB DEVIL  A parson.
 
SNUB NOSE  A short nose turned up at the end.
 
SNUDGE  A thief who hides himself under a bed, in Order to rob the house.
 
SNUFF  To take snuff; to be offended.
 
SNUFFLE  To speak through the nose.
 
SNUFFLES  A cold in the head, attended with a running at the nose.
 
SNUG  All's snug; all's quiet.
 
SOAK  To drink. An old soaker; a drunkard, one that moistens his clay to make it stick together.
 
SOCKET MONEY  A whore's fee, or hire: also money paid for a treat, by a married man caught in an intrigue.
 
SOLDIER  A red herring.
 
SOLDIER'S BOTTLE  A large one.
 
SOLDIER'S MAWND  A pretended soldier, begging with a counterfeit wound, which he pretends to have received at some famous siege or battle.
 
SOLDIER'S POMATUM  A piece of tallow candle.
 
SOLFA  A parish clerk.
 
SOLO PLAYER  A miserable performer on any instrument, who always plays alone, because no one will stay in the room to hear him.
 
SOLOMON  The mass.
 
SON OF PRATTLEMENT  A lawyer.
 
SONG  He changed his song; he altered his account or evidence. It was bought for an old song, i.e. very cheap. His morning and his evening song do not agree; he tells a different story.
 
SOOTERKIN  A joke upon the Dutch women, supposing that, by their constant use of stoves, which they place under their petticoats, they breed a kind of small animal in their bodies, called a sooterkin, of the size of a mouse, which when mature slips out.
 
SOP  A bribe. A sop for Cerberus; a bribe for a porter, turnkey, or gaoler.
 
SOPH  An undergraduate in his second year.
 
SORREL  A yellowish red. Sorrel pate; one having red hair.
 
SORROW SHALL BE HIS SOPS  He shall repent this. Sorrow go by me; a common expletive used by presbyterians in Ireland.
 
SORRY  Vile, mean, worthless. A sorry fellow, or hussy; a worthless man or woman.
 
SOT WEED  Tobacco.
 
SOUL CASE  The body. He made a hole in his soul case; he wounded him.
 
SOUL DOCTOR, or DRIVER  A parson.
 
SOUNDERS  A herd of swine.
 
SOUSE  Not a souse; not a penny. FRENCH.
 
SOW  A fat woman. He has got the wrong sow by the ear, he mistakes his man. Drunk as David's sow; see DAVID'S SOW.
 
SOW CHILD  A female child.
 
SOW'S BABY  A sucking pig.
 
SPADO  A sword. SPANISH.
 
SPANGLE  A seven shilling piece.
 
SPANISH  The spanish; ready money.
 
SPANISH COIN  Fair words and compliments.
 
SPANISH FAGGOT  The sun.
 
SPANISH GOUT  The pox.
 
SPANISH PADLOCK  A kind of girdle contrived by jealous husbands of that nation, to secure the chastity of their wives.
 
SPANISH WORM  A nail: so called by carpenters when they meet with one in a board they are sawing.
 
SPANISH, or KING OF SPAIN'S TRUMPETER  An ass when braying.
 
SPANK To run neatly along, beteeen a trot and gallop. The tits spanked it to town; the horses went merrily along all the way to town.
 
SPANKING  Large.
 
SPANKS, or SPANKERS  Money; also blows with the open hand.
 
SPARK  A spruce, trim, or smart fellow. A man that is always thirsty, is said to have a spark in his throat.
 
SPARKING BLOWS  Blows given by cocks before they close, or, as the term is, mouth it: used figuratively for words previous to a quarrel.
 
SPARKISH  Fine, gay.
 
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.
 
SPARROW-MOUTHED  Wide-mouthed, like the mouth of a sparrow: it is said of such persons, that they do not hold their mouths by lease, but have it from year to year; i.e. from ear to ear. One whose mouth cannot be enlarged without removing their ears, and who when they yawn have their heads half off.
 
SPATCH COCK  Abbreviation of DISPATCH COCK. A hen just killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned, split, and broiled: an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion.
 
SPEAK  Any thing stolen. He has made a good speak; he has stolen something considerable.
 
SPEAK WITH  To rob. I spoke with the cull on the cherry-coloured prancer; I robbed the man on the black horse.
 
SPECKED WHIPER  A coloured hankerchief.
 
SPICE  To rob. Spice the swell; rob the gentleman.
 
SPICE ISLANDS  A privy. Stink-hole bay or dilberry creek. The fundament.
 
SPIDER-SHANKED  Thin-legged.
 
SPIFLICATE  To confound, silence, or dumbfound.
 
SPILT  A small reward or gift.
 
SPILT  Thrown from a horse, or overturned in a carriage; pray, coachee, don't spill us.
 
SPINDLE SHANKS  Slender legs.
 
SPIRIT AWAY  To kidnap, or inveigle away.
 
SPIRITUAL FLESH BROKER  A parson.
 
SPIT  A sword.
 
SPIT  He is as like his father as if he was spit out of his mouth; said of a child much resembling his father.
 
SPIT FIRE  A violent, pettish, or passionate person.
 
SPLICED  Married: an allusion to joining two ropes ends by splicing. SEA TERM.
 
SPLIT CAUSE  A lawyer.
 
SPLIT CROW  The sign of the spread eagle, which being represented with two heads on one neck, gives it somewhat the appearance of being split.
 
SPLIT FIG  A grocer.
 
SPLIT IRON  The nick-name for a smith.
 
SPOIL PUDDING  A parson who preaches long sermons, keeping his congregation in church till the puddings are overdone.
 
SPOON HAND  The right hand.
 
SPOONEY Thin, haggard, like the shank of a spoon; also delicate, craving for something, longing for sweets. Avaricious. That tit is damned spooney. She's a spooney piece of goods. He's a spooney old fellow.
 
SPORT  To exhibit: as, Jack Jehu sported a new gig yesterday: I shall sport a new suit next week. To sport or flash one's ivory; to shew one's teeth. To sport timber; to keep one's outside door shut; this term is used in the inns of court to signify denying one's self. N.B. The word SPORT was in great vogue ann. 1783 and 1784.
 
SPOUT  To rehearse theatrically.
 
SPOUTED  Pawned.
 
SPOUTING  Theatrical declamation.
 
SPOUTING CLUB  A meeting of apprentices and mechanics to rehearse different characters in plays: thus forming recruits for the strolling companies.
 
SPREAD  Butter.
 
SPREAD EAGLE  A soldier tied to the halberts in order to be whipped; his attitude bearing some likeness to that figure, as painted on signs.
 
SPREE  A frolic. Fun. A drinking bout. A party of pleasure.
 
SPRING-ANKLE WAREHOUSE  Newgate, or any other gaol: IRISH.
 
SPUNGE  A thirsty fellow, a great drinker. To spunge; to eat and drink at another's cost. Spunging-house: a bailiff's lock-up-house, or repository, to which persons arrested are taken, till they find bail, or have spent all their money: a house where every species of fraud and extortion is practised under the protection of the law.
 
SPUNK  Rotten touchwood, or a kind of fungus prepared for tinder; figuratively, spirit, courage.
 
SQUAB  A fat man or woman: from their likeness to a well-stuffed couch, called also a squab. A new-hatched chicken.
 
SQUARE  Honest, not roguish. A square cove, i.e. a man who does not steal, or get his living by dishonest means.
 
SQUARE TOES  An old man: square toed shoes were anciently worn in common, and long retained by old men.
 
SQUEAK  A narrow escape, a chance: he had a squeak for his life. To squeak; to confess, peach, or turn stag. They squeak beef upon us; they cry out thieves after us.
 
SQUEAKER  A bar-boy; also a bastard or any other child. To stifle the squeaker; to murder a bastard, or throw It into the necessary house. - Organ pipes are likewise called squeakers. The squeakers are meltable; the small pipes are silver.
 
SQUEEZE CRAB  A sour-looking, shrivelled, diminutive fellow.
 
SQUEEZE WAX  A good-natured foolish fellow, ready to become security for another, under hand and seal.
 
SQUELCH  A fall. Formerly a bailiff caught in a barrack- yard in Ireland, was liable by custom to have three tosses in a blanket, and a squelch; the squelch was given by letting go the corners of the blanket, and suffering him to fall to the ground. Squelch-gutted; fat, having a prominent belly.
 
SQUIB  A small satirical or political temporary jeu d'esprit, which, like the firework of that denomination, sparkles, bounces, stinks, and vanishes.
 
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.
 
SQUIRE OF ALSATIA  A weak profligate spendthrift, the squire of the company; one who pays the whole reckoning, or treats the company, called standing squire.
 
SQUIRISH  Foolish.
 
SQUIRREL  A prostitute: because she like that animal, covers her back with her tail. Meretrix corpore corpus alit. Menagiana, ii. 128.
 
SQUIRREL HUNTING  See HUNTING.
 
STAG  To find, discover, or observe.
 
STAG  To turn stag; to impeach one's confederates: from a herd of deer, who are said to turn their horns against any of their number who is hunted.
 
STAGGERING BOB, WITH HIS YELLOW PUMPS  A calf just dropped, and unable to stand, killed for veal in Scotland: the hoofs of a young calf are yellow.
 
STALL WHIMPER  A bastard.
 
STALLING  Making or ordaining. Stalling to the rogue; an ancient ceremony of instituting a candidate into the society of rogues, somewhat similar to the creation of a herald at arms. It is thus described by Harman: the upright man taking a gage of bowse, i.e. a pot of strong drink, pours it on the head of the rogue to be admitted; saying, - I, A.B. do stall thee B.C. to the rogue; and from henceforth it shall be lawful for thee to cant for thy living in all places.
 
STALLING KEN  A broker's shop, or that of a receiver of stolen goods.
 
STALLION  A man kept by an old lady for secret services.
 
STAMMEL, or STRAMMEL  A coarse brawny wench.
 
STAMP  A particular manner of throwing the dice out of the box, by striking it with violence against the table.
 
STAMPERS  Shoes.
 
STAMPS  Legs.
 
STAND-STILL  He was run to a stand-still; i.e. till he could no longer move.
 
STAR GAZER  A horse who throws up his head; also a hedge whore.
 
STAR LAG  Breaking shop-windows, and stealing some article thereout.
 
STAR THE GLAZE  To break and rob a jeweller's show glass.
 
STARCHED  Stiff, prim, formal, affected.
 
STARING QUARTER  An ox cheek.
 
START, or THE OLD START  Newgate: he is gone to the start, or the old start.
 
STARTER  One who leaves a jolly company, a milksop; he is no starter, he will sit longer than a hen.
 
STARVE'EM, ROB'EM, AND CHEAT'EM  Stroud, Rochester, and Chatham; so called by soldiers and sailors, and not without good reason.
 
STASH  To stop. To finish. To end. The cove tipped the prosecutor fifty quid to stash the business; he gave the prosecutor fifty guineas to stop the prosecution.
 
STATE  To lie in state; to be in bed with three harlots.
 
STAY  A cuckold.
 
STAYTAPE  A taylor; from that article, and its coadjutor buckram, which make no small figure in the bills of those knights of the needle.
 
STEAMER  A pipe. A swell steamer; a long pipe, such as is used by gentlemen to smoke.
 
STEEL  The house of correction.
 
STEEL BAR  A needle. A steel bar flinger; a taylor, stay- maker, or any other person using a needle.
 
STEENKIRK  A muslin neckcloth carelessly put on, from the manner in which the French officers wore their cravats when they returned from the battle of Steenkirk.
 
STEEPLE HOUSE  A name given to the church by Dissenters.
 
STEPHEN  Money. Stephen's at home; i.e. has money.
 
STEPNEY  A decoction of raisins of the sun and lemons in conduit water, sweetened with sugar, and bottled up.
 
STEWED QUAKER  Burnt rum, with a piece of butter: an American remedy for a cold.
 
STICK FLAMS  A pair of gloves.
 
STICKS  Household furniture.
 
STICKS  Pops or pistols. Stow your sticks; hide your pistols. See POPS.
 
STIFF-RUMPED  Proud, stately.
 
STINGO  Strong beer, or other liquor.
 
STINGRUM  A niggard.
 
STIRRUP CUP  A parting cup or glass, drank on horseback by the person taking leave.
 
STITCH  A nick name for a taylor: also a term for lying with a woman.
 
STITCHBACK  Strong ale.
 
STIVER-CRAMPED  Needy, wanting money. A stiver is a Dutch coin, worth somewhat more than a penny sterling.
 
STOCK  A good stock; i.e. of impudence. Stock and block; the whole: he has lost stock and block.
 
STOCK DRAWERS  Stockings.
 
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.
 
STOMACH WORM  The stomach worm gnaws; I am hungry.
 
STONE  Two stone under weight, or wanting; an eunuch. Stone doublet; a prison. Stone dead; dead as a stone.
 
STONE JUG  Newgate, or any other prison.
 
STONE TAVERN  Ditto.
 
STOOP  The pillory. The cull was served for macing and napp'd the stoop; he was convicted of swindling, and put in the pillory.
 
STOOP-NAPPERS, or OVERSEERS OF THE NEW PAVEMENT  Persons set in the pillory.
 
STOP HOLE ABBEY  The nick name of the chief rendzvous of the canting crew of beggars, gypsies, cheats, thieves, etc. etc.
 
STOTER  A great blow. Tip him a stoter in the haltering place; give him a blow under the left ear.
 
STOUP  A vessel to hold liquor: a vessel containing a size or half a pint, is so called at Cambridge.
 
STOW  Stow you; be silent, or hold your peace. Stow your whidds and plant'em, for the cove of the ken can cant'em; you have said enough, the man of the house understands you.
 
STRAIT WAISTCOAT  A tight waistcoat, with long sleeves coming over the hand, having strings for binding them behind the back of the wearer: these waistcoats are used in madhouses for the management of lunatics when outrageous.
 
STRAIT-LACED  Precise, over nice, puritanical.
 
STRAMMEL  See STAMMEL.
 
STRANGER  A guinea.
 
STRANGLE GOOSE  A poulterer.
 
STRAP  To work. The kiddy would not strap, so he went on the scamp: the lad would not work, and therefore robbed on the highway.
 
STRAPPER  A large man or woman.
 
STRAPPING  Lying with a woman.
 
STRAW  A good woman in the straw; a lying-in woman. His eyes draw straw; his eyes are almost shut, or he is almost asleep: one eye draws straw, and t'other serves the thatcher.
 
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.
 
STRETCHING  Hanging. He'll stretch for it; he will be hanged for it. Also telling a great lie: he stretched stoutly.
 
STRIKE  Twenty shillings.
 
STRIP ME NAKED  Gin.
 
STROKE  To take a stroke: to take a bout with a woman.
 
STROLLERS  Itinerants of different kinds. Strolling morts; beggars or pedlars pretending to be widows.
 
STROMMEL  Straw.
 
STRONG MAN  To play the part of the strong man, i.e. to push the cart and horses too; to be whipt at the cart's tail.
 
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.
 
STUB-FACED  Pitted with the smallpox: the devil ran over his face with horse stabs (horse nails) in his shoes.
 
STUBBLE IT  Hold your tongue.
 
STULING KEN  See STALLING KEN.
 
STUM  The flower of fermenting wine, used by vintners to adulterate their wines.
 
STUMPS  Legs. To stir one's stumps; to walk fast.
 
STURDY BEGGARS  The fifth and last of the most ancient order of canters, beggars that rather demand than ask
 
SUCCESSFULLY  Used by the vulgar for SUCCESSIVELY: as three or four landlords of this house have been ruined successfully by the number of soldiers quartered on them. IRISH.
 
SUCH A REASON PIST MY GOOSE, or MY GOOSE PIST  Said when any one offers an absurd reason.
 
SUCK  Strong liquor of any sort. To suck the monkey; see MONKEY. Sucky; drunk.
 
SUCK  To pump. To draw from a man all be knows. The file sucked the noodle's brains: the deep one drew out of the fool all he knew.
 
SUCKING CHICKEN  A young chicken.
 
SUDS  In the suds; in trouble, in a disagreeable situation, or involved in some difficulty.
 
SUGAR SOPS  Toasted bread soked in ale, sweetened with sugar, and grated nutmeg: it is eaten with cheese.
 
SUGAR STICK  The virile member.
 
SULKY  A one-horse chaise or carriage, capable of holding but one person: called by the French a DESOBLIGEANT.
 
SUN  To have been in the sun; said of one that is drunk.
 
SUNBURNT  Clapped; also haying many male children.
 
SUNDAY MAN  One who goes abroad on that day only, for fear of arrests.
 
SUNNY BANK  A good fire in winter.
 
SUNSHINE  Prosperity.
 
SUPERNACOLUM  Good liquor, of which there is not even a drop left sufficient to wet one's nail.
 
SUPOUCH  A landlady of an inn, or hostess.
 
SURVEYOR OF THE HIGHWAYS  One reeling drunk.
 
SURVEYOR OF THE PAVEMENT  One standing in the pillory.
 
SUS PER COLL  Hanged: persons who have been hanged are thus entered into the jailor's books.
 
SUSPENCE  One in a deadly suspence; a man just turned off at the gallows.
 
SUTRER  A camp publican: also one that pilfers gloves, tobacco boxes, and such small moveables.
 
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.
 
SWAD, or SWADKIN  A soldier.
 
SWADDLE  To beat with a stick.
 
SWADDLERS  The tenth order of the canting tribe, who not only rob, but beat, and often murder passenges. Swaddlers is also the Irish name for methodist.
 
SWAG  A shop. Any quantity of goods. As, plant the swag; conceal the goods. Rum swag; a shop full of rich goods.
 
SWAGGER  To bully, brag, or boast, also to strut.
 
SWANNERY  He keeps a swannery; i.e. all his geese are swans.
 
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.
 
SWEET  Easy to be imposed on, or taken in; also expert, dexterous clever. Sweet's your hand; said of one dexterous at stealing.
 
SWEET HEART  A term applicable to either the masculine or feminine gender, signifying a girl's lover, or a man's mistress: derived from a sweet cake in the shape of a heart.
 
SWEETNESS  Guinea droppers, cheats, sharpers. To sweeten to decoy, or draw in. To be sweet upon; to coax, wheedle, court, or allure. He seemed sweet upon that wench; he seemed to court that girl.
 
SWELL  A gentleman. A well-dressed map. The flashman bounced the swell of all his blunt; the girl's bully frightened the gentleman out of all his money.
 
SWELLED HEAD  A disorder to which horses are extremely liable, particularly those of the subalterns of the army. This disorder is generally occasioned by remaining too long in one livery-stable or inn, and often arises to that height that it prevents their coming out at the stable door. The most certain cure is the unguentum aureum - not applied to the horse, but to the palm of the master of the inn or stable. N. B. Neither this disorder, nor its remedy, is mentioned by either Bracken, Bartlet, or any of the modern writers on farriery.
 
SWIG  A hearty draught of liquor.
 
SWIGMEN  Thieves who travel the country under colour of buying old shoes, old clothes, etc. or selling brooms, mops, etc.
 
SWILL  To drink greedily.
 
SWILL TUB  A drunkard, a sot.
 
SWIMMER  A counterfeit old coin.
 
SWIMMER  A ship. I shall have a swimmer; a cant phrase used by thieves to signify that they will be sent on board the tender.
 
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.
 
SWING  To be hanged. He will swing for it; he will be hanged for it.
 
SWING TAIL  A hog.
 
SWINGE  To beat stoutly.
 
SWINGING  A great swinging fellow; a great stout fellow. A swinging lie; a lusty lie.
 
SWIPES  Purser's swipes; small beer: so termed on board the king's ships, where it is furnished by the purser.
 
SWISH TAIL  A pheasant; so called by the persons who sell game for the poachers.
 
SWIVE  To copulate.
 
SWIVEL-EYED  Squinting.
 
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.
 
SWOP  An exchange.
 
SWORD RACKET  To enlist in different regiments, and on receiving the bounty to desert immediately.
 
SYEBUCK  Sixpence.
 
SYNTAX  A schoolmaster.