The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue dates from 1811 and this is probably the only full, uncensored and searchable version of this dictionary on the internet. All the original crudities have been restored and it offers an interesting perspective on Common English from the time of the Regency and Jane Austen.

Select a letter or type a word and click Find. Searches are automatically wild-carded and clicking on words in the first column will look for all occurrences of that word, or related word.

Example:You click A and one of the results is ARSE. If you now click on ARSE the full list of related content will be displayed.

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z  

 

Entries releated to SING

 

AMBASSADOR		A trick to duck some ignorant fellow or landsman, frequently played on board ships in the warm latitudes. It is thus managed: A large tub is filled with water, and two stools placed on each side of it. Over the whole is thrown a tarpaulin, or old sail: this is kept tight by two persons, who are to represent the king and queen of a foreign country, and are seated on the stools. The person intended to be ducked plays the Ambassador, and after repeating a ridiculous speech dictated to him, is led in great form up to the throne, and seated between the king and queen, who rising suddenly as soon as he is seated, he falls backwards into the tub of water.
BACK UP		His back is up, i.e. he is offended or angry; an expression or idea taken from a cat; that animal, when angry, always raising its back. An allusion also sometimes used to jeer a crooked man; as, So, Sir, I see somebody has offended you, for your back is up.
BASKET		An exclamation frequently made use of in cock-pits, at cock-fightings, where persons refusing or unable to pay their losings, are adjudged by that respectable assembly to be put into a basket suspended over the pit, there to remain during that day's diversion: on the least demur to pay a bet, Basket is vociferated in terrorem. He grins like a basket of chips: a saying of one who is on the broad grin.
BISHOPED, or TO BISHOP		A term used among horse-dealers, for burning the mark into a horse's tooth, after he has lost it by age; by bishoping, a horse is made to appear younger than he is. It is a common saying of milk that is burnt too, that the bishop has set his foot in it. Formerly, when a bishop passed through a village, all the inhabitants ran out of their houses to solicit his blessing, even leaving their milk, etc. on the fire, to take its chance: which, went burnt to, was said to be bishoped.
BLACK PSALM		To sing the black psalm; to cry: a saying used to children.
BLESSING		A small quantity over and above the measure, usually given by hucksters dealing in peas, beans, and other vegetables.
BOB TAIL		A lewd woman, or one that plays with her tail; also an impotent man, or an eunuch. Tag, rag, and bobtail; a mob of all sorts of low people. To shift one's bob; to move off, or go away. To bear a bob; to join in chorus with any singers. Also a term used by the sellers of game, for a partridge.
BOWSING KEN		An ale-house or gin-shop.
BRANDY		Brandy is Latin for a goose; a memento to prevent the animal from rising in the stomach by a glass of the good creature.
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.
CHAUNT		To sing. To publish an account in the newspapers. The kiddey was chaunted for a toby; his examination concerning a highway robbery was published in the papers.
CHAUNTER CULLS		Grub-street writers, who compose songs, carrols, etc. for ballad-singers.
CHOICE SPIRIT		A thoughtless, laughing, singing, drunken fellow.
CHRISTENING		Erasing the name of the true maker from a stolen watch, and engraving a fictitious one in its place.
CRAB		To catch a crab; to fall backwards by missing one's stroke in rowing.
CRABS		A losing throw to the main at hazard.
CROPSICK		Sickness in the stomach, arising from drunkenness.
CUT		To renounce acquaintance with any one is to CUT him. There are several species of the CUT. Such as the cut direct, the cut indirect, the cut sublime, the cut infernal, etc. The cut direct, is to start across the street, at the approach of the obnoxious person in order to avoid him. The cut indirect, is to look another way, and pass without appearing to observe him. The cut sublime, is to admire the top of King's College Chapel, or the beauty of the passing clouds, till he is out of sight. The cut infernal, is to analyze the arrangement of your shoe-strings, for the same purpose.
DAVID'S SOW		As drunk as David's sow; a common saying, which took its rise from the following circumstance: One David Lloyd, a Welchman, who kept an alehouse at Hereford, had a living sow with six legs, which was greatly resorted to by the curious; he had also a wife much addicted to drunkenness, for which he used sometimes to give her due correction. One day David's wife having taken a cup too much, and being fearful of the consequences, turned out the sow, and lay down to sleep herself sober in the stye. A company coming in to see the sow, David ushered them into the stye, exclaiming, there is a sow for you! did any of you ever see such another? all the while supposing the sow had really been there; to which some of the company, seeing the state the woman was in, replied, it was the drunkenest sow they had ever beheld; whence the woman was ever after called David's sow.
DIDDLE		To cheat. To defraud. The cull diddled me out of my dearee; the fellow robbed me of my sweetheart. See Jeremy Diddler In Raising The Wind.
DUMMEE		A pocket book. A dummee hunter. A pick-pocket, who lurks about to steal pocket books out of gentlemen's pockets. Frisk the dummee of the screens; take all the bank notes out of the pocket book, ding the dummee, and bolt, they sing out beef. Throw away the pocket book, and run off, as they call out "stop thief."
EASY		Make the cull easy or quiet; gag or kill him. As easy as pissing the bed.
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.
FLEMISH ACCOUNT		A losing, or bad account.
FLYING STATIONERS		Ballad-singers and hawkers of penny histories.
FORK		A pickpocket. Let us fork him; let us pick his pocket. - 'The newest and most dexterous way, which is, to thrust the fingers strait, stiff, open, and very quick, into the pocket, and so closing them, hook what can be held between them.' N.B. This was taken from a book written many years ago: doubtless the art of picking pockets, like all others, must have been much improved since that time.
FREE AND EASY JOHNS		A society which meet at the Hole in the Wall, Fleet-street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.
FRIDAY-FACE		A dismal countenance. Before, and even long after the Reformation, Friday was a day of abstinence, or jour maigre. Immediately after the restoration of king Charles II. a proclamation was issued, prohibiting all publicans from dressing any suppers on a Friday.
GAFF		To game by tossing up halfpence.
GOB		The mouth; also a bit or morsel: whence gobbets. Gift of the gob; wide-mouthed, or one who speaks fluently, or sings well.
HARP		To harp upon; to dwell upon a subject. Have among you, my blind harpers; an expression used in throwing or shooting at random among the crowd. Harp is also the Irish expression for woman, or tail, used in tossing up in Ireland: from Hibernia, being represented with a harp on the reverse of the copper coins of that country; for which it is, in hoisting the copper, i.e. tossing up, sometimes likewise called music.
HEDGE WHORE		An itinerant harlot, who bilks the bagnios and bawdy-houses, by disposing of her favours on the wayside, under a hedge; a low beggarly prostitute.
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.
HONEY MOON		The first month after marriage. A poor honey; a harmless, foolish, goodnatured fellow. It is all honey or a t - d with them; said of persons who are either in the extremity of friendship or enmity, either kissing or fighting.
HUG		To hug brown bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier. He hugs it as the Devil hugs a witch: said of one who holds any thing as if he was afraid of losing it.
HUNTING THE SQUIRREL		An amusement practised by postboys and stage-coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, anddriving it before them, passing close to it, so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to be hunted.
HYP, or HIP		A mode of calling to one passing by. Hip, Michael, your head's on fire; a piece of vulgar wit to a red haired man.
ISLAND		He drank out of the bottle till he saw the island; the island is the rising bottom of a wine bottle, which appears like an island in the centre, before the bottle is quite empty.
KISSING CRUST		That part where the loaves have touched the oven.
MUSIC		The watch-word among highwaymen, signifying the person is a friend, and must pass unmolested. Music is also an Irish term, in tossing up, to express the harp side, or reverse, of a farthing or halfpenny, opposed to the head.
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.
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.
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.
PEEPERS		Eyes. Single peeper, a one-eyed man.
PINCH		To go into a tradesman's shop under the pretence of purchasing rings or other light articles, and while examining them to shift some up the sleeve of the coat. Also to ask for change for a guinea, and when the silver is received, to change some of the good shillings for bad ones; then suddenly pretending to recollect that you had sufficient silver to pay the bill, ask for the guinea again, and return the change, by which means several bad shillings are passed.
PISSING DOWN ANY ONE'S BACK		Flattering him.
PISSING PINS AND NEEDLES		To have a gonorrhea.
PLUMP		Fat, full, fleshy. Plump in the pocket; full in the pocket. To plump; to strike, or shoot. I'll give you a plump in the bread basket, or the victualling office: I'll give you a blow in the stomach. Plump his peepers, or day-lights; give him a blow in the eyes. He pulled out his pops and plumped him; he drew out his pistols and shot him. A plumper; a single vote at an election. Plump also means directly, or exactly; as, it fell plump upon him: it fell directly upon him.
PRINKING		Dressing over nicely: prinked up as if he came out of a bandbox, or fit to sit upon a cupboard's head.
PUFFING		Bidding at an auction, as above; also praising any thing above its merits, from interested motives. The art of puffing is at present greatly practised, and essentially necessary in all trades, professions, and callings. To puff and blow; to be out of breath.
REVERENCE		An ancient custom, which obliges any person easing himself near the highway or foot-path, on the word REVERENCE being given him by a passenger, to take off his hat with his teeth, and without moving from his station to throw it over his head, by which it frequently falls into the excrement; this was considered as a punishment for the breach of delicacy, A person refusing to obey this law, might be pushed backwards. Hence, perhaps, the term, SIR-REVERENCE.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
TEMPLE PICKLING		Pumping a bailiff; a punishment formerly administered to any of that fraternity caught exercising their functions within the limits of Temple.
THIEF IN A CANDLE		Part of the wick or snuff, which falling on the tallow, burns and melts it, and causing it to gutter, thus steals it away.
TILBURY		Sixpence; so called from its formerly being the fare for Crossing over from Gravesend to Tilbury Fort.
TIRING		Dressing: perhaps abbreviation of ATTIRING. Tiring women, or tire women: women that used to cut ladies hair, and dress them.
TRAVELLING PIQUET		A mode of amusing themselves, practised by two persons riding in a carriage, each reckoning towards his game the persons or animals that pass by on the side next them, according to the following estimation: A parson riding a grey horse, witholue furniture; game. An old woman under a hedge; ditto. A cat looking out of a window; 60. A man, woman, and child, in a buggy; 40. A man with a woman behind him; 30. A flock of sheep; 20. A flock of geese; 10. A post chaise; 5. A horseman; 2. A man or woman walking; 1.
UPPING BLOCK		Called in some counties a leaping stock, in others a jossing block. Steps for mounting a horse. He sits like a toad on a jossing block; said of one who sits ungracefully on horseback.
VOWEL		A gamester who does not immediately pay his losings, is said to vowel the winner, by repeating the vowels I. O. U. or perhaps from giving his note for the money according to the Irish form, where the acknowledgment of the debt is expressed by the letters I. O. U. which, the sum and name of the debtor being added, is deemed a sufficient security among gentlemen.
WHORE'S BIRD		A debauched fellow, the largest of all birds. He sings more like a whore's bird than a canary bird; said of one who has a strong manly voice.