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 VAN

 

APRIL FOOL		Any one imposed on, or sent on a bootless errand, on the first of April; which day it is the custom among the lower people, children, and servants, by dropping empty papers carefully doubled up, sending persons on absurd messages, and such like contrivances, to impose on every one they can, and then to salute them with the title of April Fool. This is also practised in Scotland under the title of Hunting the Gowke.
ARSE		To hang an arse; to hang back, to be afraid to advance. He would lend his arse and shite through his ribs; a saying of any one who lends his money inconsiderately. He would lose his arse if it was loose; said of a careless person. Arse about; turn round.
BANG STRAW		A nick name for a thresher, but applied to all the servants of a farmer.
BOLT		To run suddenly out of one's house, or hiding place, through fear; a term borrowed from a rabbit-warren, where the rabbits are made to bolt, by sending ferrets into their burrows: we set the house on fire, and made him bolt. To bolt, also means to swallow meat without chewing: the farmer's servants in Kent are famous for bolting large quantities of pickled pork.
BOOT CATCHER		The servant at an inn whose business it is to clean the boots of the guest.
BOW-WOW SHOP		A salesman's shop in Monmouth-street; so called because the servant barks, and the master bites. See BARKER.
BRACE		The Brace tavern; a room in the S.E. corner of the King's Bench, where, for the convenience of prisoners residing thereabouts, beer purchased at the tap-house was retailed at a halfpenny per pot advance. It was kept by two brothers of the name of Partridge, and thence called the Brace.
BULL BEGGAR, or BULLY BEGGAR		An imaginary being with which children are threatened by servants and nurses, like raw head and bloody bones.
CARAVAN		A large sum of money; also, a person cheated of such sum.
CATCH FART		A footboy; so called from such servants commonly following close behind their master or mistress.
CATCH PENNY		Any temporary contrivance to raise a contribution on the public.
CHURCH WORK		Said of any work that advances slowly.
CINDER GARBLER		A servant maid, from her business of sifting the ashes from the cinders. CUSTOM-HOUSE WIT.
CLICKER		A salesman's servant; also, one who proportions out the different shares of the booty among thieves.
COUNTY WORK		Said of any work that advances slowly.
DICKEY		An ass. Roll your dickey; drive your ass. Also a seat for servants to sit behind a carriage, when their master drives.
DISHCLOUT		A dirty, greasy woman. He has made a napkin of his dishclout; a saying of one who has married his cook maid. To pin a dishclout to a man's tail; a punishment often threatened by the female servants in a kitchen, to a man who pries too minutely into the secrets of that place.
DOBIN RIG		Stealing ribbands from haberdashers early in the morning or late at night; generally practised by women in the disguise of maid servants.
DOG VANE		A cockade. SEA TERM.
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.
DOVE-TAIL		A species of regular answer, which fits into the subject, like the contrivance whence it takes its name: Ex. Who owns this? The dovetail is, Not you by your asking.
DROP		The new drop; a contrivance for executing felons at Newgate, by means of a platform, which drops from under them: this is also called the last drop. See LEAF. See MORNING DROP.
FAG		To beat. Fag the bloss; beat the wench; A fag also means a boy of an inferior form or class, who acts as a servant to one of a superior, who is said to fag him, he is my fag; whence, perhaps, fagged out, for jaded or tired. To stand a good fag; not to be soon tired.
FEAGUE		To feague a horse; to put ginger up a horse's fundament, and formerly, as it is said, a live eel, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse-dealer's servant, who shall shew a horse without first feaguing him. Feague is used, figuratively, for encouraging or spiriting one up.
FOB		A cheat, trick, or contrivance, I will not be fobbed off so; I will not be thus deceived with false pretences. The fob is also a small breeches pocket for holding a watch.
FREEZE		A thin, small, hard cider, much used by vintners and coopers in parting their wines, to lower the price of them, and to advance their gain. A freezing vintner; a vintner who balderdashes his wine.
GIMCRACK, or JIMCRACK		A spruce wench; a gimcrack also means a person who has a turn for mechanical contrivances.
GIP FROM GUPS A WOLF		A servant at college.
HEATHEN PHILOSOPHER		One whose breech may be seen through his pocket-hole: this saying arose from the old philosophers, many of whom depised the vanity of dress to such a point, as often to fall into the opposite extreme.
JACK OF LEGS		A tall long-legged man; also a giant, said to be buried in Weston church, near Baldock, in Hertfordshire, where there are two stones fourteen feet distant, said to be the head and feet stones of his grave. This giant, says Salmon, as fame goes, lived in a wood here, and was a great robber, but a generous one; for he plundered the rich to feed the poor: he frequently took bread for this purpose from the Baldock bakers, who catching him at an advantage, put out his eyes, and afterwards hanged him upon a knoll in Baldock field.
JILTED		Rejected by a woman who has encouraged one's advances.
JOLLY DOG		A merry facetious fellow; a BON VIVANT, who never flinches from his glass, nor cries to go home to bed.
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.
LANTHORN-JAWED		Thin-visaged: from their cheeksbeing almost transparent. Or else, lenten jawed; i.e. having the jaws of one emaciated by a too rigid observation of Lent. Dark lanthorn; a servant or agent at court, who receives a bribe for his principal or master.
LEG		To make a leg; to bow. To give leg-bail and land security; to run away. To fight at the leg; to take unfair advantages: it being held unfair by back-sword players to strike at the leg. To break a leg; a woman who has had a bastard, is said to have broken a leg.
LOBLOLLEY BOY		A nick name for the surgeon's servant on board a man of war, sometimes for the surgeon himself: from the water gruel prescribed to the sick, which is called loblolley.
MOP		A kind of annual fair in the west of England, where farmers usually hire their servants.
MOPSQUEEZER		A maid servant, particularly a housemaid.
MUTE		An undertaker's servant, who stands at the door of a person lying in state: so named from being supposed mute with grief.
PANNIER MAN		A servant belonging to the Temple and Gray's Inn, whose office is to announce the dinner. This in the Temple, is done by blowing a horn; and in Gray's Inn proclaiming the word Manger, Manger, Manger, in each of the three courts.
PATTERING		The maundering or pert replies of servants; also talk or palaver in order to amuse one intended to be cheated. Pattering of prayers; the confused sound of a number of persons praying together.
PLUMPERS		Contrivances said to be formerly worn by old maids, for filling out a pair of shrivelled cheeks.
PULL		To be pulled; to be arrested by a police officer. To have a pull is to have an advantage; generally where a person has some superiority at a game of chance or skill.
SAINT LUKE'S BIRD		An ox; that Evangelist being always represented with an ox.
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.
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.
SQUIB		A small satirical or political temporary jeu d'esprit, which, like the firework of that denomination, sparkles, bounces, stinks, and vanishes.
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.
TOAD EATER		A poor female relation, and humble companion, or reduced gentlewoman, in a great family, the standing butt, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off, and all ill humours vented. This appellation is derived from a mountebank's servant, on whom all experiments used to be made in public by the doctor, his master; among which was the eating of toads, formerly supposed poisonous. Swallowing toads is here figuratively meant for swallowing or putting up with insults, as disagreeable to a person of feeling as toads to the stomach.
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.
VAN		Madam Van; see MADAM.
VAN-NECK		Miss or Mrs. Van-Neck; a woman with large breasts; a bushel bubby.
VARLETS		Now rogues and rascals, formerly yeoman's servants.
WOMAN OF ALL WORK		Sometimes applied to a female servant, who refuses none of her master's commands.