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 TAT

 

ACADEMY, or PUSHING SCHOOL		A brothel. The Floating Academy; the lighters on board of which those persons are confined, who by a late regulation are condemned to hard labour, instead of transportation. Campbell's Academy; the same, from a gentleman of that name, who had the contract for victualling the hulks or lighters.
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.
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.
APOTHECARY		To talk like an apothecary; to use hard or gallipot words: from the assumed gravity and affectation of knowledge generally put on by the gentlemen of this profession, who are commonly as superficial in their learning as they are pedantic in their language.
APRON STRING HOLD		An estate held by a man during his wife's life.
BARROW MAN		A man under sentence of transportation; alluding to the convicts at Woolwich, who are principally employed in wheeling barrows full of brick or dirt.
BEAR		One who contracts to deliver a certain quantity of sum of stock in the public funds, on a future day, and at stated price; or, in other words, sells what he has not got, like the huntsman in the fable, who sold the bear's skin before the bear was killed. As the bear sells the stock he is not possessed of, so the bull purchases what he has not money to pay for; but in case of any alteration in the price agreed on, either party pays or receives the difference. Exchange Alley.
BELCH		All sorts of beer; that liquor being apt to cause eructation.
BELLOWSER		Transportation for life: i.e. as long.
BLACK GUARD		A shabby, mean fellow; a term said to be derived from a number of dirty, tattered roguish boys, who attended at the Horse Guards, and Parade in St. James's Park, to black the boots and shoes of the soldiers, or to do any other dirty offices. These, from their constant attendance about the time of guard mounting, were nick-named the black-guards.
BUCK OF THE FIRST HEAD		One who in debauchery surpasses the rest of his companions, a blood or choice spirit. There are in London divers lodges or societies of Bucks, formed in imitation of the Free Masons: one was held at the Rose, in Monkwell-street, about the year 1705. The president is styled the Grand Buck. A buck sometimes signifies a cuckold.
BULL		An Exchange Alley term for one who buys stock on speculation for time, i.e. agrees with the seller, called a Bear, to take a certain sum of stock at a future day, at a stated price: if at that day stock fetches more than the price agreed on, he receives the difference; if it falls or is cheaper, he either pays it, or becomes a lame duck, and waddles out of the Alley. See LAME DUCK and BEAR.
CALVES HEAD CLUB		A club instituted by the Independents and Presbyterians, to commemorate the decapitation of King Charles I. Their chief fare was calves heads; and they drank their wine and ale out of calves skulls.
CAPTAIN		Led captain; an humble dependant in a great family, who for a precarious subsistence, and distant hopes of preferment, suffers every kind of indignity, and is the butt of every species of joke or ill-humour. The small provision made for officers of the army and navy in time of peace, obliges many in both services to occupy this wretched station. The idea of the appellation is taken from a led horse, many of which for magnificence appear in the retinues of great personages on solemn occasions, such as processions, etc.
CATERPILLAR		A nick name for a soldier. In the year 1745, a soldier quartered at a house near Derby, was desired by his landlord to call upon him, whenever he came that way; for, added he, soldiers are the pillars of the nation. The rebellion being finished, it happened the same regiment was quartered in Derbyshire, when the soldier resolved to accept of his landlord's invitation, and accordingly obtained leave to go to him: but, on his arrival, he was greatly surprised to find a very cold reception; whereupon expostulating with his landlord, he reminded him of his invitation, and the circumstance of his having said, soldiers were the pillars of the nation. If I did, answered the host, I meant CATERpiliars.
CHILD		To eat a child; to partake of a treat given to the parish officers, in part of commutation for a bastard child the common price was formerly ten pounds and a greasy chin. See GREASY CHIN.
CLUB		A meeting or association, where each man is to spend an equal and stated sum, called his club.
COCKNEY		A nick name given to the citizens of London, or persons born within the sound of Bow bell, derived from the following story: A citizen of London, being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, Lord! how that horse laughs! A by-stander telling him that noise was called NEIGHING, the next morning, when the cock crowed, the citizen to shew he had not forgot what was told him, cried out, Do you hear how the COCK NEIGHS? The king of the cockneys is mentioned among the regulations for the sports and shows formerly held in the Middle Temple on Childermas Day, where he had his officers, a marshal, constable, butler, etc. See DUGDALE'S ORIGINES JURIDICIALES, p. 247. - Ray says, the interpretation of the word Cockney, is, a young person coaxed or conquered, made wanton; or a nestle cock, delicately bred and brought up, so as, when arrived a man's estate, to be unable to bear the least hardship. Whatever may be the origin of this appellation, we learn from the following verses, attributed to Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, that it was in use. in the time of king Henry II. Was I in my castle at Bungay, Fast by the river Waveney, I would not care for the king of Cockney; ie: the king of London.
COLCANNON		Potatoes and cabbage pounded together in a mortar, and then stewed with butter: an Irish dish.
CONGER		To conger; the agreement of a set or knot of booksellers of London, that whosoever of them shall buy a good copy, the rest shall take off such a particular number, in quires, at a stated price; also booksellers joining to buy either a considerable or dangerous copy.
CONTENT		A thick liquor, in imitation of chocolate, made of milk and gingerbread.
CRINKUM CRANKUM		A woman's commodity. See SPECTATOR.
CROSS BUTTOCK		A particular lock or fall in the Broughtonian art, which, as Mr. Fielding observes, conveyed more pleasant sensations to the spectators than the patient.
CROW FAIR		A visitation of the clergy. See REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS.
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.
DEMY-REP		An abbreviation of demy-reputation; a woman of doubtful character.
DEWITTED		Torn to pieces by a mob, as that great statesman John de Wit was in Holland, anno 1672.
DOCK		To lie with a woman. The cull docked the dell all the darkmans; the fellow laid with the wench all night. Docked smack smooth; one who has suffered an amputation of his penis from a venereal complaint. He must go into dock; a sea phrase, signifying that the person spoken of must undergo a salivation. Docking is also a punishment inflicted by sailors on the prostitutes who have infected them with the venereal disease; it consists in cutting off all their clothes, petticoats, shift and all, close to their stays, and then turning them into the street.
DOLLY		A Yorkshire dolly; a contrivance for washing, by means of a kind of wheel fixed in a tub, which being turned about, agitates and cleanses the linen put into it, with soap and water.
DOODLE		A silly fellow, or noodle: see NOODLE. Also a child's penis. Doodle doo, or Cock a doodle doo; a childish appellation for a cock, in imitation of its note when crowing.
ELBOW ROOM		Sufficient space to act in. Out at elbows; said of an estate that is mortgaged.
FINE		A man imprisoned for any offence. A fine of eighty- four months; a transportation for seven years.
FLASH		To shew ostentatiously. To flash one's ivory; to laugh and shew one's teeth. Don't flash your ivory, but shut your potatoe trap, and keep your guts warm; the Devil loves hot tripes.
FLOGGING CULLY		A debilitated lecher, commonly an old one.
FLYING STATIONERS		Ballad-singers and hawkers of penny histories.
GREASE		To bribe. To grease a man in the fist; to bribe him. To grease a fat sow in the arse; to give to a rich man. Greasy chin; a treat given to parish officers in part of commutation for a bastard: called also, Eating a child.
GRUB STREET		A street near Moorfields, formerly the supposed habitation of many persons who wrote for the booksellers: hence a Grub-street writer means a hackney author, who manufactures booss for the booksellers.
HANG AN ARSE		To hang back, to hesitate.
HANGMAN'S WAGES		Thirteen pence halfpenny; which, according to the vulgar tradition, was thus allotted: one shilling for the executioner, and three halfpence for the rope, - N. B. This refers to former times; the hangmen of the present day having, like other artificers, raised their prices. The true state of this matter is, that a Scottish mark was the fee allowed for an execution, and the value of that piece was settled by a proclamation of James I. at thirteen pence halfpenny.
HASTY		Precipitate, passionate. He is none of the Hastings sort; a saying of a slow, loitering fellow: an allusion to the Hastings pea, which is the first in season.
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.
HOCUS POCUS		Nonsensical words used by jugglers, previous to their deceptions, as a kind of charm, or incantation. A celebrated writer supposes it to be a ludicrous corruption of the words hoc est corpus, used by the popish priests consecrating the host. Also Hell Hocus is used to express drunkenness: as, he is quite hocus; he is quite drunk.
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
HONEST WOMAN		To marry a woman with whom one has cohabitated as a mistress, is termed, making an honest woman of her.
HOOP		To run the hoop; an ancient marine custom. Four or more boys having their left hands tied fast to an iron hoop, and each of them a rope, called a nettle, in their right, being naked to the waist, wait the signal to begin: this being made by a stroke with a cat of nine tails, given by the boatswain to one of the boys, he strikes the boy before him, and every one does the same: at first the blows are but gently administered; but each irritated by the strokes from the boy behind him, at length lays it on in earnest. This was anciently practised when a ship was wind-bound.
HUM, or HUMBUG		To deceive, or impose on one by some story or device. A humbug; a jocular imposition, or deception. To hum and haw; to hesitate in speech, also to delay, or be with difficulty brought to consent to any matter or business.
IRISH APRICOTS		Potatoes. It is a common joke against the Irish vessels, to say they are loaded with fruit and timber, that is, potatoes and broomsticks. Irish assurance; a bold forward behaviour: as being dipt in the river Styx was formerly supposed to render persons invulnerable, so it is said that a dipping in the river Shannon totally annihilates bashfulness; whence arises the saying of an impudent Irishman, that he has been dipt in the Shannon.
KIDNAPPER		Originally one who stole or decoyed children or apprentices from their parents or masters, to send them to the colonies; called also spiriting: but now used for all recruiting crimps for the king's troops, or those of the East India company, and agents for indenting servants for the plantations, etc.
LAG FEVER		A term of ridicule applied to men who being under sentence of transportation, pretend illness, to avoid being sent from gaol to the hulks.
LATITAT		A nick-name for an attorney; from the name of a writ.
MARRIED		Persons chained or handcuffed together, in order to be conveyed to gaol, or on board the lighters for transportation, are in the cant language said to be married together.
MOUSETRAP		The parson's mousetrap; the state of matrimony.
MUNSTER PLUMS		Potatoes. IRISH.
MURPHIES		Potatoes.
MUTE		An undertaker's servant, who stands at the door of a person lying in state: so named from being supposed mute with grief.
NAZAKENE FORETOP		The foretop of a wig made in imi- tation of Christ's head of hair, as represented by the painters and sculptors.
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.
NURSE		To cheat: as, they nursed him out of it. An estate in the hands of trustees, for the payment of bdebts, is said to be at nurse.
OMNIUM GATHERUM		The whole together: jocular imitation of law Latin.
PETTICOAT HOLD		One who has an estate during his wife's life, called the apron-string hold.
PETTY FOGGER		A little dirty attorney, ready to undertake any litigious or bad cause: it is derived from the French words petit vogue, of small credit, or little reputation.
PIT-A-PAT		The palpitation of the heart: as, my heart went pit-a-pat. Pintledy-pantledy; the same.
POPS		Pistols. Popshop: a pawnbroker's shop. To pop; to pawn: also to shoot. I popped my tatler; I pawned my watch. I popt the cull; I shot the man. His means are two pops and a galloper; that is, he is a highwayman.
POSSE MOBILITATIS		The mob.
POTATOE TRAP		The mouth. Shut your potatoe trap and give your tongue a holiday; i.e. be silent. IRISH WIT.
QUAIL-PIPE		A woman's tongue; also a device to take birds of that name by imitating their call. Quail pipe boots; boots resembling a quail pipe, from the number of plaits; they were much worn in the reign of Charles II.
QUAKERS		A religious sect so called from their agitations in preaching.
RAGAMUFFIN		A ragged fellow, one all in tatters, a tatterdemallion.
RASCAL		A rogue or villain: a term borrowed from the chase; a rascal originally meaning a lean shabby deer, at the time of changing his horns, penis, etc. whence, in the vulgar acceptation, rascal is conceived to signify a man without genitals: the regular vulgar answer to this reproach, if uttered by a woman, is the offer of an ocular demonstration of the virility of the party so defamed. Some derive it from RASCAGLIONE, an Italian word signifying a man. without testicles, or an eunuch.
RED RAG		The tongue. Shut your potatoe trap, and give your red rag a holiday; i.e. shut your mouth, and let your tongue rest. Too much of the red rag (too much tongue).
REP		A woman of reputation.
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.
REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS		A visitation of the clergy. See CROW FAIR.
RUNNING STATIONERS		Hawker of newspapers, trials, and dying speeches.
SHILLY-SHALLY		Irresolute. To stand shilly-shally; to hesitate, or stand in doubt.
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.
STATE		To lie in state; to be in bed with three harlots.
STIFF-RUMPED		Proud, stately.
TAT		Tit for tat; an equivalent.
TAT MONGER		One that uses false dice.
TATLER		A watch. To flash a tatler: to wear a watch.
TATS		False dice.
TATTERDEMALION		A ragged fellow, whose clothes hang all in tatters.
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.
TERRA FIRMA		An estate in land.
THINGSTABLE		Mr. Thingstable; Mr. Constable: a ludicrous affectation of delicacy in avoiding the pronunciation of the first syllable in the title of that officer, which in sound has some similarity to an indecent monosyllable.
TIT FOR TAT		An equivalent.
TITTER TATTER		One reeling, and ready to fall at the least touch; also the childish amusement of riding upon the two ends of a plank, poised upon the prop underneath its centre, called also see-saw. Perhaps tatter is a rustic pronunciation of totter.
TITTLE-TATTLE		Idle discourse, scandal, women's talk, or small talk.
TRIM		State, dress. In a sad trim; dirty. - Also spruce or fine: a trim fellow.
UPSTARTS		Persons lately raised to honours and riches from mean stations.
VAIN-GLORIOUS, or OSTENTATIOUS MAN		One who boasts without reason, or, as the canters say, pisses more than he drinks.
WALKING STATIONER		A hawker of pamphlets, etc.
WHEREAS		To follow a whereas; to become a bankrupt, to figure among princes and potentates: the notice given in the Gazette that a commission of bankruptcy is issued out against any trader, always beginning with the word whereas. He will soon march in the rear of a whereas.
WIDOW'S WEEDS		Mourning clothes of a peculiar fashion, denoting her state. A grass widow; a discarded mistress. a widow bewitched; a woman whose husband is abroad, and said, but not certainly known, to be dead.
WILLOW		Poor, and of no reputation. To wear the willow; to be abandoned by a lover or mistress.
WINDER		Transportation for life. The blowen has napped a winder for a lift; the wench is transported for life for stealing in a shop.