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 TAYLOR

 

BOTCH		A nick name for a taylor.
CHUNK		Among printers, a journeyman who refuses to work for legal wages; the same as the flint among taylors. See FLINT.
CUCUMBERS		Taylors, who are jocularly said to subsist, during the summer, chiefly on cucumbers.
DUNGHILL		A coward: a cockpit phrase, all but gamecocks being styled dunghills. To die dunghill; to repent, or shew any signs of contrition at the gallows. Moving dunghill; a dirty, filthy man or woman. Dung, an abbreviation of dunghill, also means a journeyman taylor who submits to the law for regulating journeymen taylors' wages, therefore deemed by the flints a coward. See FLINTS.
FAITHFUL		One of the faithful; a taylor who gives long credit. His faith has made him unwhole; i.e. trusting too much, broke him.
FLINTS		Journeymen taylors, who on a late occasion refused to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted, were by the mutineers styled dungs, i.e. dunghills.
GOOSE		A taylor's goose; a smoothing iron used to press down the seams, for which purpose it must be heated: hence it is a jocular saying, that a taylor, be he ever so poor, is always sure to have a goose at his fire. He cannot say boh to a goose; a saying of a bashful or sheepish fellow.
HELL		A taylor's repository for his stolen goods, called cabbage: see CABBAGE. Little hell; a small dark covered passage, leading from London-wall to Bell-alley.
JEW		An over-reaching dealer, or hard, sharp fellow; an extortioner: the brokers formerly behind St. Clement's church in the Strand were called Jews by their brethren the taylors.
KIDDY NIPPERS		Taylors out of work, who cut off the waistcoat pockets of their brethren, when cross-legged on their board, thereby grabbling their bit.
KNIGHT OF THE SHEERS		A taylor.
KNIGHT OF THE THIMBLE, or NEEDLE		A taylor or stay-maker.
LINEN ARMOURERS		Taylors.
MUD		A fool, or thick-sculled fellow; also, among printers the same as dung among journeymen taylors. See DUNG.
PEEPING TOM		A nick name for a curious prying fellow; derived from an old legendary tale, told of a taylor of Coventry, who, when Godiva countess of Chester rode at noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding the rest of the people shut up their houses) shly peeped out of his window, for which he was miraculously struck blind. His figure, peeping out of a window, is still kept up in remembrance of the transaction.
PRICKLOUSE		A taylor.
SANK, SANKY, or CENTIPEE'S		A taylor employed by clothiers in making soldier's clothing.
SCRATCH PLATTER, or TAYLOR'S RAGOUT		Bread sopt in the oil and vinegar in which cucumbers have been sliced.
SHRED		A taylor.
SNIP		A taylor.
STAYTAPE		A taylor; from that article, and its coadjutor buckram, which make no small figure in the bills of those knights of the needle.
STEEL BAR		A needle. A steel bar flinger; a taylor, stay- maker, or any other person using a needle.
STITCH		A nick name for a taylor: also a term for lying with a woman.
TAYLOR		Nine taylors make a man; an ancient and common saying, originating from the effeminacy of their employment; or, as some have it, from nine taylors having been robbed by one man; according to others, from the speech of a woollendraper, meaning that the custom of nine, taylors would make or enrich one man - A London taylor, rated to furnish half a man to the Trained Bands, asking how that could possibly be done? was answered, By sending four, journeymen and and apprentice. - Put a taylor, a weaver, and a miller into a sack, shake them well, And the first that puts out his head is certainly a thief. - A taylor is frequently styled pricklouse, assaults on those vermin with their needles.
TAYLORS GOOSE		An iron with which, when heated, press down the seams of clothes.
TO TOP		To cheat, or trick: also to insult: he thought to have topped upon me. Top; the signal among taylors for snuffing the candles: he who last pronounces that word word, is obliged to get up and perform the operation. - to be topped; to be hanged. The cove was topped for smashing queerscreens; he was hanged for uttering forged bank notes.
TWANGEY, or STANGEY		A north country name for a taylor.
UPRIGHT		Go upright; a word used by shoemakers, taylors and their servants, when any money is given to make them drink, and signifies, Bring it all out in liquor, though the donor intended less, and expects change, or some of his money, to be returned. Three-penny upright. See THREEPENNY UPRIGHT.
WINTER CRICKET		A taylor.
WOODCOCK		A taylor with a long bill.