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 STRUM

 

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.
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.
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.
CROWD		A fiddle: probably from CROOTH, the Welch name for that instrument.
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.
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.
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.
FLUTE		The recorder of a corporation; a recorder was an antient musical instrument.
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.
GAYING INSTRUMENT		The penis.
GINNY		An instrument to lift up a great, in order to steal what is in the window.
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 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.
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.
NOSTRUM		A medicine prepared by particular persons only, a quack medicine.
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.
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.
SOLO PLAYER		A miserable performer on any instrument, who always plays alone, because no one will stay in the room to hear him.
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.
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.
TOOL		The instrument of any person or faction, a cat's paw. See CATS PAW.
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.