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 WIT

 

To cant; to toss or throw: as, Cant a slug into y		SEA WIT.
ABEL-WACKETS		Blows given on the palm of the hand with a twisted handkerchief, instead of a ferula; a jocular punishment among seamen, who sometimes play at cards for wackets, the loser suffering as many strokes as he has lost games.
ADAM TILER		A pickpocket's associate, who receives the stolen goods, and runs off with them.
AFFIDAVIT MEN		Knights of the post, or false witnesses, said to attend Westminster Hall, and other courts of justice, ready to swear any thing for hire.
AGAINST THE GRAIN		Unwilling. It went much against the grain with him, i.e. it was much against his inclination, or against his pluck.
ALDERMAN		A roasted turkey garnished with sausages; the latter are supposed to represent the gold chain worn by those magistrates.
ALL HOLIDAY		It is all holiday at Peckham, or it is all holiday with him; a saying signifying that it is all over with the business or person spoken of or alluded to.
ALLS		The five alls is a country sign, representing five human figures, each having a motto under him. The first is a king in his regalia; his motto, I govern all: the second, a bishop in pontificals; motto, I pray for all: third, a lawyer in his gown; motto, I plead for all: fourth: a soldier in his regimentals, fully accoutred; motto, I fight for all: fifth, a poor countryman with his scythe and rake; motto, I pay for all.
ALTAMEL		A verbal or lump account, without particulars, such as is commonly produced at bawdy-houses, spunging-houses, etc. Vide DUTCH RECKONING.
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.
AMBIDEXTER		A lawyer who takes fees from both plaintiff and defendant, or that goes snacks with both parties in gaming.
AMES ACE		Within ames ace; nearly, very near.
ANABAPTIST		A pickpocket caught in the fact, and punished with the discipline of the pump or horse-pond.
ANCHOR		Bring your arse to an anchor, i.e. sit down. To let go an anchor to the windward of the law; to keep within the letter of the law. SEA WIT.
ANGLERS		Pilferers, or petty thieves, who, with a stick having a hook at the end, steal goods out of shop-windows, grates, etc.; also those who draw in or entice unwary persons to prick at the belt, or such like devices.
ANGLING FOR FARTHINGS		Begging out of a prison window with a cap, or box, let down at the end of a long string.
ANKLE		A girl who is got with child, is said to have sprained her ankle.
ANTHONY or TANTONY PIG		The favourite or smallest pig in the litter. To follow like a tantony pig, i.e. St. Anthony's pig; to follow close at one's heels. St. Anthony the hermit was a swineherd, and is always represented with a swine's bell and a pig. Some derive this saying from a privilege enjoyed by the friars of certain convents in England and France (sons of St. Anthony), whose swine were permitted to feed in the streets. These swine would follow any one having greens or other provisions, till they obtained some of them; and it was in those days considered an act of charity and religion to feed them.
APPLE CART		Down with his apple-cart; knock or throw him down.
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.
ARK RUFFIANS		Rogues who, in conjunction with watermen, robbed, and sometimes murdered, on the water, by picking a quarrel with the passengers in a boat, boarding it, plundering, stripping, and throwing them overboard, etc. A species of badger.
ARTHUR, KING ARTHUR		A game used at sea, when near the line, or in a hot latitude. It is performed thus: A man who is to represent king Arthur, ridiculously dressed, having a large wig made out of oakum, or some old swabs, is seated on the side, or over a large vessel of water. Every person in his turn is to be ceremoniously introduced to him, and to pour a bucket of water over him, crying, hail, king Arthur! if during this ceremony the person introduced laughs or smiles (to which his majesty endeavours to excite him, by all sorts of ridiculous gesticulations), he changes place with, and then becomes, king Arthur, till relieved by some brother tar, who has as little command over his muscles as himself.
ASK, or AX MY ARSE		A common reply to any question; still deemed wit at sea, and formerly at court, under the denomination of selling bargains. See BARGAIN.
AUTEM MORT		A married woman; also a female beggar with several children hired or borrowed to excite charity.
AWAKE		Acquainted with, knowing the business. Stow the books, the culls are awake; hide the cards, the fellows know what we intended to do.
BAPTIZED, OR CHRISTENED		Rum, brandy, or any other spirits, that have been lowered with water.
BARGAIN		To sell a bargain; a species of wit, much in vogue about the latter end of the reign of Queen Anne, and frequently alluded to by Dean Swift, who says the maids of honour often amused themselves with it. It consisted in the seller naming his or her hinder parts, in answer to the question, What? which the buyer was artfully led to ask. As a specimen, take the following instance: A lady would come into a room full of company, apparently in a fright, crying out, It is white, and follows me! On any of the company asking, What? she sold him the bargain, by saying, Mine arse.
BARKER		The shopman of a bow-wow shop, or dealer in second hand clothes, particularly about Monmouth-Street, who walks before his master's door, and deafens every passenger with his cries of - Clothes, coats, or gowns - what d'ye want, gemmen? - what d'ye buy? See BOW-WOW SHOP.
BARKSHIRE		A member or candidate for Barkshire, said of one troubled with a cough, vulgarly styled barking.
BASTONADING		Beating any one with a stick; from baton, a stick, formerly spelt baston.
BEAST WITH TWO BACKS		A man and woman in the act of copulation. Shakespeare in Othello.
BECALMED		A piece of sea wit, sported in hot weather. I am becalmed, the sail sticks to the mast; that is, my shirt sticks to my back. His prad is becalmed; his horse knocked up.
BED		Put to bed with a mattock, and tucked up with a spade; said of one that is dead and buried. You will go up a ladder to bed, i.e. you will be hanged. In many country places, persons hanged are made to mount up a ladder, which is afterwards turned round or taken away, whence the term, "Turned off."
BED-MAKER		Women employed at Cambridge to attend on the Students, sweep his room, etc. They will put their hands to any thing, and are generally blest with a pretty family of daughters: who unmake the beds, as fast as they are made by their mothers.
BEEF		To cry beef; to give the alarm. They have cried beef on us. - To be in a man's beef; to wound him with a sword. To be in a woman's beef; to have carnal knowledge of her. Say you bought your beef of me, a jocular request from a butcher to a fat man. implying that he credits the butcher who serves him.
BEILBY'S BALL		He will dance at Beilby's ball, where the sheriff pays the music; he will be hanged. Who Mr. Beilby was, or why that ceremony was so called, remains with the quadrature of the circle, the discovery of the philosopher's stone, and divers other desiderata yet undiscovered.
BELCHER		A red silk handkerchief, intermixed with yellow and a little black. The kiddey flashes his belcher; the young fellow wears a silk handkerchief round his neck.
BELL, BOOK, AND CANDLE		They cursed him with bell, book, and candle; an allusion to the popish form of excommunicating and anathematizing persons who had offended the church.
BELLYFULL		A hearty beating, sufficient to make a man yield or give out. A woman with child is also said to have got her belly full.
BIRD-WITTED		Inconsiderate, thoughtless, easily imposed on.
BLEEDING CULLY		One who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely.
BLOOD FOR BLOOD		A term used by tradesmen for bartering the different commodities in which they deal. Thus a hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.
BLOW THE GROUNSILS		To lie with a woman on the floor.
BLOWER		A pipe. How the swell funks his blower and lushes red tape; what a smoke the gentleman makes with his pipe, and drinks brandy.
BLUE PLUMB		A bullet. - Surfeited with a blue plumb; wounded with a bullet. A sortment of George R - 's blue plumbs; a volley of ball, shot from soldiers' firelocks.
BLUNDERBUSS		A short gun, with a wide bore, for carrying slugs; also a stupid, blundering fellow.
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.
BOGY		Ask bogy, i.e. ask mine arse. Sea wit.
BOH		Said to be the name of a Danish general, who so terrified his opponent Foh, that he caused him to bewray himself. Whence, when we smell a stink, it is custom to exclaim, Foh! i.e. I smell general Foh. He cannot say Boh to a goose; i.e. he is a cowardly or sheepish fellow. There is a story related of the celebrated Ben Jonson, who always dressed very plain; that being introduced to the presence of a nobleman, the peer, struck by his homely appearance and awkward manner, exclaimed, as if in doubt, "you Ben Johnson! why you look as if you could not say Boh to a goose!" "Boh!" replied the wit.
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.
BOOKS		Cards to play with. To plant the books; to place the cards in the pack in an unfair manner.
BORE		A tedious, troublesome man or woman, one who bores the ears of his hearers with an uninteresting tale; a term much in fashion about the years 1780 and 1781.
BOTTLE-HEADED		Void of wit.
BOUGHS		Wide in the boughs; with large hips and posteriors.
BRAGGET		Mead and ale sweetened with honey.
BRAY		A vicar of Bray; one who frequently changes his principles, always siding with the strongest party: an allusion to a vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, commemorated in a well-known ballad for the pliability of his conscience.
BREAD AND BUTTER FASHION		One slice upon the other. John and his maid were caught lying bread and butter fashion. - To quarrel with one's bread and butter; to act contrary to one's interest. To know on which side one's bread is buttered; to know one's interest, or what is best for one. It is no bread and butter of mine; I have no business with it; or rather, I won't intermeddle, because I shall get nothing by it.
BROGUE		A particular kind of shoe without a heel, worn in Ireland, and figuratively used to signify the Irish accent.
BROTHER STARLING		One who lies with the same woman, that is, builds in the same nest.
BROWN GEORGE		An ammunition loaf, A wig without powder; similar to the undress wig worn by his majesty.
BUCKINGER'S BOOT		The monosyllable. Matthew Buckinger was born without hands and legs; notwithstanding which he drew coats of arms very neatly, and could write the Lord's Prayer within the compass of a shilling; he was married to a tall handsome woman, and traversed the country, shewing himself for money.
BUFF		To stand buff; to stand the brunt. To swear as a witness. He buffed it home; and I was served; he swore hard against me, and I was found guilty.
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.
BULL BEGGAR, or BULLY BEGGAR		An imaginary being with which children are threatened by servants and nurses, like raw head and bloody bones.
BULLY BACK		A bully to a bawdy-house; one who is kept in pay, to oblige the frequenters of the house to submit to the impositions of the mother abbess, or bawd; and who also sometimes pretends to be the husband of one of the ladies, and under that pretence extorts money from greenhorns, or ignorant young men, whom he finds with her. See GREENHORN.
BULLY RUFFIANS		Highwaymen who attack passengers with paths and imprecations.
BULLY TRAP		A brave man with a mild or effeminate appearance, by whom bullies are frequently taken in.
BUNDLING		A man and woman sleeping in the same bed, he with his small clothes, and she with her petticoats on; an expedient practised in America on a scarcity of beds, where, on such an occasion, husbands and parents frequently permitted travellers to bundle with their wives and daughters. This custom is now abolished. See Duke of Rochefoucalt's Travels in America.
BURN THE KEN		Strollers living in an alehouse without paying their quarters, are said to burn the ken.
BUSY		As busy is the devil in a high wind; as busy as a hen with one chick.
BUTCHER'S DOG		To be like a butcher's dog, i.e. lie by the beef without touching it; a simile often applicable to married men.
BUTT		A dependant, poor relation, or simpleton, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off; and who serves as a butt for all the shafts of wit and ridicule.
BUTTER AND EGGS TROT		A kind of short jogg trot, such as is used by women going to market, with butter and eggs. - he looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth, yet I warrant you cheese would not choak her; a saying of a demure looking woman, of suspected character. Don't make butter dear; a gird at the patient angler.
BUTTERED BUN		One lying with a woman that has just lain with another man, is said to have a buttered bun.
CABBAGE		Cloth, stuff, or silkpurloined by laylors from their employers, which they deposit in a place called HELL, or their EYE: from the first, when taxed, with their knavery, they equivocally swear, that if they have taken any, they wish they may find it in HELL; or, alluding to the second, protest, that what they have over and above is not more than they could put in their EYE. - When the scrotum is relaxed or whiffled, it is said they will not cabbage.
CAGG		To cagg; a military term used by the private soldiers, signifying a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time; or, as the term is, till their cagg is out: which vow is commonly observed with the strictest exactness. Ex. I have cagg'd myself for six months. Excuse me this time, and I will cagg myself for a year. This term is also used in the same sense among the common people of Scotland, where it is performed with divers ceremonies.
CALVES		His calves are gone to grass; a saying of a man with slender legs without calves. Veal will be cheap, calves fall; said of a man whose calves fall away.
CAMBRIDGE FORTUNE		A wind-mill and a water-mill, used to signify a woman without any but personal endowments.
CANE		To lay Cane upon Abel; to beat any one with a cane or stick.
CAP ACQUAINTANCE		Persons slightly acquainted, or only so far as mutually to salute with the hat on meeting. A woman who endeavours to attract the notice of any particular man, is said to set her cap at him.
CAPPING VERSES		Repeating Latin Verses in turn, beginning with the letter with which the last speaker left off.
CAPTAIN LIEUTENANT		Meat between veal and beef, the flesh of an old calf; a military simile, drawn from the officer of that denomination, who has only the pay of a lieutenant, with the rank of captain; and so is not entirely one or the other, but between both.
CARRY WITCHET		A sort of conundrum, puzzlewit, or riddle.
CARVEL'S RING		The private parts of a woman. Ham Carvel, a jealous old doctor, being in bed with his wife, dreamed that the Devil gave him a ring, which, so long as he had it on his finger, would prevent his being made a cuckold: waking he found he had got his finger the Lord knows where. See Rabelais, and Prior's versification of the story.
CAT AND BAGPIPEAN SOCIETY		A society which met at their office in the great western road: in their summons, published in the daily papers, it was added, that the kittens might come with the old cats without being scratched.
CAT STICKS		Thin legs, compared to sticks with which boys play at cat. See TRAPSTICKS.
CAT WHIPPING, or WHIPPING THE CAT		A trick often practised on ignorant country fellows, vain of their strength, by laying a wager with them that they may be pulled through a pond by a cat. The bet being made, a rope is fixed round the waist of the party to be catted, and the end thrown across the pond, to which the cat is also fastened by a packthread, and three or four sturdy fellows are appointed to lead and whip the cat; these on a signal given, seize the end of the cord, and pretending to whip the cat, haul the astonished booby through the water. - To whip the cat, is also a term among tailors for working jobs at private houses, as practised in the country.
CAT'S FOOT		To live under the cat's foot; to be under the dominion of a wife hen-pecked. To live like dog and cat; spoken of married persons who live unhappily together. As many lives as a cat; cats, according to vulgar naturalists, have nine lives, that is one less than a woman. No more chance than a cat in hell without claws; said of one who enters into a dispute or quarrel with one greatly above his match.CAT LAP. Tea, called also scandal broth. See SCANDAL BROTH.
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.
CHALKERS		Men of wit, in Ireland, who in the night amuse themselves with cutting inoffensive passengers across the face with a knife. They are somewhat like those facetious gentlemen some time ago known in England by the title of Sweaters and Mohocks.
CHICKEN NABOB		One returned from the East Indies with but a moderate fortune of fifty or sixty thousand pounds, a diminutive nabob: a term borrowed from the chicken turtle.
CHICKEN-BREASTED		Said of a woman with scarce any breasts.
CHIMPING MERRY		Exhilarated with liquor. Chirping glass, a cheerful glass, that makes the company chirp like birds in spring.
CHOAK		Choak away, the churchyard's near; a jocular saying to a person taken with a violent fit of coughing, or who has swallowed any thing, as it is called the wrong way; Choak, chicken, more are hatching: a like consolation.
CHOCOLATE		To give chocolate without sugar; to reprove. MILITARY TERM.
CINDER GARBLER		A servant maid, from her business of sifting the ashes from the cinders. CUSTOM-HOUSE WIT.
CIVILITY MONEY		A reward claimed by bailiffs for executing their office with civility.
CLAPPER CLAW		To scold, to abuse, or claw off with the tongue.
CLIMB		To climb the three trees with a ladder; to ascend the gallows.
CLOAK TWITCHERS		Rogues who lurk about the entrances into dark alleys, and bye-lanes, to snatch cloaks from the shoulders of passengers.
CLOUTED SHOON		Shoes tipped with iron.
COB, or COBBING		A punishment used by the seamen for petty offences, or irregularities, among themselves: it consists in bastonadoing the offender on the posteriors with a cobbing stick, or pipe staff; the number usually inflicted is a dozen. At the first stroke the executioner repeats the word WATCH, on which all persons present are to take off their hats, on pain of like punishment: the last stroke is always given as hard as possible, and is called THE PURSE. Ashore, among soldiers, where this punishment is sometimes adopted, WATCH and THE PURSE are not included in the number, but given over and above, or, in the vulgar phrase, free gratis for nothing. This piece of discipline is also inflicted in Ireland, by the school-boys, on persons coming into the school without taking off their hats; it is there called school butter.
COCK AND A BULL STORY		A roundabout story, without head or tail, i.e. beginning or ending.
COCK OF THE COMPANY		A weak man, who from the desire of being the head of the company associates with low people, and pays all the reckoning.
COCK-A-WHOOP		Elevated, in high-spirits, transported with joy.
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.
CODS		The scrotum. Also a nick name for a curate: a rude fellow meeting a curate, mistook him for the rector, and accosted him with the vulgar appellation of Bol - ks the rector, No, Sir, answered he; only Cods the curate, at your service.
COG		To cheat with dice; also to coax or wheedle, To cog a die; to conceal or secure a die. To cog a dinner; to wheedle one out of a dinner.
COLCANNON		Potatoes and cabbage pounded together in a mortar, and then stewed with butter: an Irish dish.
COLD BURNING		A punishment inflicted by private soldiers on their comrades for trifling offences, or breach of their mess laws; it is administered in the following manner: The prisoner is set against the wall, with the arm which is to be burned tied as high above his head as possible. The executioner then ascends a stool, and having a bottle of cold water, pours it slowly down the sleeve of the delinquent, patting him, and leading the water gently down his body, till it runs out at his breeches knees: this is repeated to the other arm, if he is sentenced to be burned in both.
COMB		To comb one's head; to clapperclaw, or scold any one: a woman who lectures her husband, is said to comb his head. She combed his head with a joint stool; she threw a stool at him.
CONGO		Will you lap your congo with me? will you drink tea with me?
COOL TANKARD		Wine and water, with lemon, sugar, and burrage.
COT, or QUOT		A man who meddles with women's household business, particularly in the kitchen. The punishment commonly inflicted on a quot, is pinning a greasy dishclout to the skirts of his coat.
COURT HOLY WATER, COURT PROMISES		Fair speeches and promises, without performance.
COVE		A man, a fellow, a rogue. The cove was bit; the rogue was outwitted. The cove has bit the cole; the rogue has got the money.
COW		To sleep like a cow, with a cunt at one's arse; said of a married man; married men being supposed to sleep with their backs towards their wives, according to the following proclamation: All you that in your beds do lie, Turn to your wives, and occupy: And when that you have done your best, Turn arse to arse, and take your rest.
COXCOMB		Anciently, a fool. Fools, in great families, wore a cap with bells, on the top of which was a piece of red cloth, in the shape of a cock's comb. At present, coxcomb signifies a fop, or vain self-conceited fellow.
CRIBBAGE-FACED		Marked with the small pox, the pits bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a cribbage-board.
CRIM		CON. MONEY. Damages directed by a jury to be paid by a convicted adulterer to the injured husband, for criminal conversation with his wife.
CROAKUMSHIRE		Northumberland, from the particular croaking the pronunciation of the people of that county, especially about Newcastle and Morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter r.
CROOK SHANKS		A nickname for a man with bandy legs. He buys his boots in Crooked Lane, and his stockings in Bandy-legged Walk; his legs grew in the night, therefore could not see to grow straight; jeering sayings of men with crooked legs.
CROSS BITE		One who combines with a sharper to draw in a friend; also, to counteract or disappoint. - This is peculiarly used to signify entrapping a man so as to obtain CRIM. COM. money, in which the wife, real or supposed, conspires with the husband.
CROWN OFFICE		The head. I fired into her keel upwards; my eyes and limbs Jack, the crown office was full; I fucked a woman with her arse upwards, she was so drunk, that her head lay on the ground.
CRUMP		One who helps solicitors to affidavit men, or false witnesses. - 'I wish you had, Mrs. Crump;' a Gloucestershire saying, in answer to a wish for any thing; implying, you must not expect any assistance from the speaker. It is said to have originated from the following incident: One Mrs. Crump, the wife of a substantial farmer, dining with the old Lady Coventry, who was extremely deaf, said to one of the footmen, waiting at table, 'I wish I had a draught of small beer,' her modesty not permitting her to desire so fine a gentleman to bring it: the fellow, conscious that his mistress could not hear either the request or answer, replied, without moving, 'I wish you had, Mrs. Crump.' These wishes being again repeated by both parties, Mrs. Crump got up from the table to fetch it herself; and being asked by my lady where she was going, related what had passed. The story being told abroad, the expression became proverbial.
CUCKOLD		The husband of an incontinent wife: cuckolds, however, are Christians, as we learn by the following story: An old woman hearing a man call his dog Cuckold, reproved him sharply, saying, 'Sirrah, are not you ashamed to call a dog by a Christian's name ?' To cuckold the parson; to bed with one's wife before she has been churched.
CUNNY-THUMBED		To double one's fist with the thumb inwards, like a woman.
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.
DAB		An adept; a dab at any feat or exercise. Dab, quoth Dawkins, when he hit his wife on the arse with a pound of butter.
DANGLE		To follow a woman without asking the question. Also, to be hanged: I shall see you dangle in the sheriff's picture frame; I shall see you hanging on the gallows.
DANGLER		One who follows women in general, without any particular attachment
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.
DAWB		To bribe. The cull was scragged because he could not dawb; the rogue was hanged because he could not bribe. All bedawbed with lace; all over lace.
DERBY		To come down with the derbies; to pay the money.
DERRICK		The name of the finisher of the law, or hangman about the year 1608. - 'For he rides his circuit with the Devil, and Derrick must be his host, and Tiburne the inne at which he will lighte.' Vide Bellman of London, in art. PRIGGIN LAW. - 'At the gallows, where I leave them, as to the haven at which they must all cast anchor, if Derrick's cables do but hold.'
DEVIL		A printer's errand-boy. Also a small thread in the king's ropes and cables, whereby they may be distinguished from all others. The Devil himself; a small streak of blue thread in the king's sails. The Devil may dance in his pocket; i.e. he has no money: the cross on our ancient coins being jocularly supposed to prevent him from visiting that place, for fear, as it is said, of breaking his shins against it. To hold a candle to the Devil; to be civil to any one out of fear: in allusion to the story of the old woman, who set a wax taper before the image of St. Michael, and another before the Devil, whom that saint is commonly represented as trampling under his feet: being reproved for paying such honour to Satan, she answered, as it was uncertain which place she should go to, heaven or hell, she chose to secure a friend in both places. That will be when the Devil is blind, and he has not got sore eyes yet; said of any thing unlikely to happen. It rains whilst the sun shines, the Devil is beating his wife with a shoulder of mutton: this phenomenon is also said to denote that cuckolds are going to heaven; on being informed of this, a loving wife cried out with great vehemence, 'Run, husband, run!'The Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be; The Devil was well, the Devil a monk was he.a proverb signifying that we are apt to forget promises made in time of distress. To pull the Devil by the tail, to be reduced to one's shifts. The Devil go with you and sixpence, and then you will have both money and company.
DEVIL'S DAUGHTER		It is said of one who has a termagant for his wife, that he has married the Devil's daughter, and lives with the old folks.
DEVIL'S DAUGHTER'S PORTION		Deal, Dover, and Harwich, The Devil gave with his daughter in marriage; And, by a codicil to his will, He added Helvoet and the Brill; a saying occasioned by the shameful impositions practised by the inhabitants of those places, on sailors and travellers.
DEVILISH		Very: an epithet which in the English vulgar language is made to agree with every quality or thing; as, devilish bad, devilish good; devilish sick, devilish well; devilish sweet, devilish sour; devilish hot, devilish cold, etc. etc.
DEWITTED		Torn to pieces by a mob, as that great statesman John de Wit was in Holland, anno 1672.
DICE		The names of false dice: A bale of bard cinque deuces A bale of flat cinque deuces A bale of flat sice aces A bale of bard cater traes A bale of flat cater traes A bale of fulhams A bale of light graniers A bale of langrets contrary to the ventage A bale of gordes, with as many highmen as lowmen, for passage A bale of demies A bale of long dice for even and odd A bale of bristles A bale of direct contraries.
DICKY		A woman's under-petticoat. It's all Dicky with him; i.e. it's all over with him.
DILDO		From the Italian DILETTO, a woman's delight; or from our word DALLY, a thing to play withal. Penis-succedaneus, called in Lombardy Passo Tempo. Bailey.
DING		To knock down. To ding it in one's ears; to reproach or tell one something one is not desirous of hearing. Also to throw away or hide: thus a highwayman who throws away or hides any thing with which he robbed, to prevent being known or detected, is, in the canting lingo, styled a Dinger.
DIP		To dip for a wig. Formerly, in Middle Row, Holborn, wigs of different sorts were, it is said, put into a close-stool box, into which, for three-pence, any one might dip, or thrust in his hand, and take out the first wig he laid hold of; if he was dissatisfied with his prize, he might, on paying three halfpence, return it and dip again.
DISHED UP		He is completely dished up; he is totally ruined. To throw a thing in one's dish; to reproach or twit one with any particular matter.
DIVIDE		To divide the house with one's wife; to give her the outside, and to keep all the inside to one's self, i.e. to turn her into the street.
DO		To do any one; to rob and cheat him. I have done him; I have robbed him. Also to overcome in a boxing match: witness those laconic lines written on the field of battle, by Humphreys to his patron. - 'Sir, I have done the Jew.'
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.
DOCTOR		Milk and water, with a little rum, and some nutmeg; also the name of a composition used by distillers, to make spirits appear stronger than they really are, or, in their phrase, better proof.
DOCTORS		Loaded dice, that will run but two or three chances. They put the doctors upon him; they cheated him with loaded dice.
DOG BUFFERS		Dog stealers, who kill those dogs not advertised for, sell their skins, and feed the remaining dogs with their flesh.
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.
DOUGLAS		Roby Douglas, with one eye and a stinking breath; the breech. Sea wit.
DRAGGLETAIL or DAGGLETAIL		One whose garments are bespattered with dag or dew: generally applied to the female sex, to signify a slattern.
DRAW LATCHES		Robbers of houses whose doors are only fastened with latches.
DRIBBLE		A method of pouring out, as it were, the dice from the box, gently, by which an old practitioner is enabled to cog one of them with his fore-finger.
DROP A COG		To let fall, with design, a piece of gold or silver, in order to draw in and cheat the person who sees it picked up; the piece so dropped is called a dropt cog.
DROPPING MEMBER		A man's yard with a gonorrhoea.
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.
DRUMMER		A jockey term for a horse that throws about his fore legs irregularly: the idea is taken from a kettle drummer, who in beating makes many flourishes with his drumsticks.
DRY BOB		A smart repartee: also copulation without emission; in law Latin, siccus robertulus.
DUCKS AND DRAKES		To make ducks and drakes: a school-boy's amusement, practised with pieces of tile, oyster-shells, or flattish stones, which being skimmed along the surface of a pond, or still river, rebound many times. To make ducks and drakes of one's money; to throw it idly away.
DUKE HUMPHREY		To dine with Duke Humphrey; to fast. In old St. Paul's church was an aisle called Duke Humphrey's walk (from a tomb vulgarly called his, but in reality belonging to John of Gaunt), and persons who walked there, while others were at dinner, were said to dine with Duke Humphrey.
DUN		An importunate creditor. Dunny, in the provincial dialect of several counties, signifies DEAF; to dun, then, perhaps may mean to deafen with importunate demands: some derive it from the word DONNEZ, which signifies GIVE. But the true original meaning of the word, owes its birth to one Joe Dun, a famous bailiff of the town of Lincoln, so extremely active, and so dexterous in his business, that it became a proverb, when a man refused to pay, Why do not you DUN him? that is, Why do not you set Dun to attest him? Hence it became a cant word, and is now as old as since the days of Henry VII. Dun was also the general name for the hangman, before that of Jack Ketch. And presently a halter got, Made of the best strong hempen teer, And ere a cat could lick her ear, Had tied it up with as much art, As DUN himself could do for's heart. Cotton's Virgil Trav. book iv.
DURHAM MAN		Knocker kneed, he grinds mustard with his knees: Durham is famous for its mustard.
DUST		Money. Down with your dust; deposit the money. To raise or kick up a dust; to make a disturbance or riot: see BREEZE. Dust it away; drink about.
DUTCH RECKONING, or ALLE-MAL		A verbal or lump account, without particulars, as brought at spungiug or bawdy houses.
DUTCHESS		A woman enjoyed with her pattens on, or by a man-in boots, is said to be made a dutchess.
EQUIPT		Rich; also, having new clothes. Well equipt; full of money, or well dressed. The cull equipped me with a brace of meggs; the gentleman furnished me with. a couple of guineas.
FAM LAY		Going into a goldsmith's shop, under pretence of buying a wedding ring, and palming one or two, by daubing the hand with some viscous matter.
FAMGRASP		To shake bands: figuratively, to agree or make up a difference. Famgrasp the cove; shake hands with the fellow.
FANTASTICALLY DRESSED		With more rags than ribands.
FART		He has let a brewer's fart, grains and all; said of one who has bewrayed his breeches. Piss and fart. Sound at heart. Mingere cum bumbis, Res saluberrima est lumbis. I dare not trust my arse with a fart: said by a person troubled with a looseness.
FAT		The last landed, inned, or stowed, of any sort of merchandise: so called by the water-side porters, carmen, etc. All the fat is in the fire; that is, it is all over with us: a saying used in case of any miscarriage or disappointment in an undertaking; an allusion to overturning the frying pan into the fire. Fat, among printers, means void spaces.
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.
FERRARA		Andrea Ferrara; the name of a famous sword- cutler: most of the Highland broad-swords are marked with his name; whence an Andrea Ferrara has become the common name for the glaymore or Highland broad- sword. See GLAYMORE.
FID OF TOBACCO		A quid, from the small pieces of tow with which the vent or touch hole of a cannon is stopped. SEA TERM.
FIERI FACIAS		A red-faced man is said to have been served with a writ of fieri facias.
FILCH, or FILEL		A beggar's staff, with an iron hook at the end, to pluck clothes from an hedge, or any thing out of a casement. Filcher; the same as angler. Filching cove; a man thief. Filching mort; a woman thief.
FILE, FILE CLOY, or BUNGNIPPER		A pick pocket. To file; to rob or cheat. The file, or bungnipper, goes generally in company with two assistants, the adam tiler, and another called the bulk or bulker, Whose business it is to jostle the person they intend to rob, and push him against the wall, while the file picks his pocket, and gives'the booty to the adam tiler, who scours off with it.
FINE		Fine as five pence. Fine as a cow-t - d stuck with primroses.
FIRE SHOVEL		He or she when young, was fed with a fire shovel; a saying of persons with wide mouths.
FLEA BITE		A trifling injury. To send any one away with a flea in his ear; to give any one a hearty scolding.
FLIP		Small beer, brandy, and sugar: this mixture, with the addition of a lemon, was by sailors, formerly called Sir Cloudsly, in memory of Sir Cloudsly Shovel, who used frequently to regale himself with it.
FLY		Knowing. Acquainted with another's meaning or proceeding. The rattling cove is fly; the coachman knows what we are about.
FLY SLICERS		Life-guard men, from their sitting on horseback, under an arch, where they are frequently observed to drive away flies with their swords.
FLY-BY-NIGHT		You old fly-by-night; an ancient term of reproach to an old woman, signifying that she was a witch, and alluding to the nocturnal excursions attributed to witches, who were supposed to fly abroad to their meetings, mounted on brooms.
FLYER		To take a flyer; to enjoy a woman with her clothes on, or without going to bed.
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.
FOOTMAN'S MAWND		An artificial sore made with unslaked lime, soap, and the rust of old iron, on the back of a beggar's hand, as if hurt by the bite or kick of a horse.
FOUL		To foul a plate with a man, to take a dinner with him.
FOX		A sharp, cunning fellow. Also an old term for a sword, probably a rusty one, or else from its being dyed red with blood; some say this name alluded to certain swords of remarkable good temper, or metal, marked with the figure of a fox, probably the sign, or rebus, of the maker.
FRATERS		Vagabonds who beg with sham patents, or briefs, for hospitals, fires, inundations, etc.
FREE		Free of fumblers hall; a saying of one who cannot get his wife with child.
FREE BOOTERS		Lawless robbers and plunderers: originally soldiers who served without pay, for the privilege of plundering the enemy.
FRENCH DISEASE		The venereal disease, said to have been imported from France. French gout; the same. He suffered by a blow over the snout with a French faggot-stick; i.e. he lost his nose by the pox.
FRENCH LEAVE		To take French leave; to go off without taking leave of the company: a saying frequently applied to persons who have run away from their creditors.
FRENCHIFIED		Infected with the venereal disease. The mort is Frenchified: the wench is infected.
FROSTY FACE		One pitted with the small pox.
FUNK		To smoke; figuratively, to smoke or stink through fear. I was in a cursed funk. To funk the cobler; a schoolboy's trick, performed with assafoettida and cotton, which are stuffed into a pipe: the cotton being lighted, and the bowl of the pipe covered with a coarse handkerchief, the smoke is blown out at the small end, through the crannies of a cobler's stall.
GALLOWS BIRD		A grief, or pickpocket; also one that associates with them.
GAME		Any mode of robbing. The toby is now a queer game; to rob on the highway is now a bad mode of acting. This observation is frequently made by thieves; the roads being now so well guarded by the horse patrole; and gentlemen travel with little cash in their pockets.
GAME		Bubbles or pigeons drawn in to be cheated. Also, at bawdy-houses, lewd women. Mother have you any game; mother, have you any girls? To die game; to suffer at the gallows without shewing any signs of fear or repentance. Game pullet; a young whore, or forward girl in the way of becoming one.
GARRET ELECTION		A ludicrous ceremony, practised every new parliament: it consists of a mock election of two members to represent the borough of Garret (a few straggling cottages near Wandsworth in Surry); the qualification of a voter is, having enjoyed a woman in the open air within that district: the candidates are commonly fellows of low humour, who dress themselves up in a ridiculous manner. As this brings a prodigious concourse of people to Wandsworth, the publicans of that place jointly contribute to the expence, which is sometimes considerable.
GENTLEMAN OF THREE OUTS		That is, without money, without wit, and without manners: some add another out, i.e. without credit.
GERMAN DUCK		Haifa sheep's head boiled with onions.
GIBLETS		To join giblets; said of a man and woman who cohabit as husband and wife, without being married; also to copulate.
GLIMMERERS		Persons begging with sham licences, pretending losses by fire.
GOAT		A lascivious person. Goats jigg; making the beast with two backs, copulation.
GOLGOTHA OR THE PLACE OF SCULLS		Part of the Theatre at Oxford, where the heads of houses sit; those gentlemen being by the wits of the university called sculls.
GOOD WOMAN		A nondescript, represented on a famous sign in St. Giles's, in the form of a common woman. but without a head.
GOOSE RIDING		A goose, whose neck is greased, being suspended by the legs to a cord tied to two trees or high posts, a number of men on horseback, riding full speed, attempt to pull off the head: which if they effect, the goose is their prize. This has been practised in Derbyshire within the memory of persons now living.
GOOSEBERRY-EYED		One with dull grey eyes, like boiled gooseberries.
GORMAGON		A monster with six eyes, three mouths, four arms, eight legs, five live on one side and three on the other, three arses, two arses, and a cunt upon its back; a man on horseback, with a woman behind him.
GOUGE		To squeeze out a man's eye with the thumb: a cruel practice used by the Bostonians in America.
GREEN BAG		An attorney: those gentlemen carry their clients' deeds in a green bag; and, it is said, when they have no deeds to carry, frequently fill them with an old pair of breeches, or any other trumpery, to give themselves the appearance of business.
GREY BEARD		Earthen jugs formerly used in public house for drawing ale: they had the figure of a man with a large beard stamped on them; whence probably they took the name: see BEN JONSON'S PLAYS, BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, etc. etc. Dutch earthen jugs, used for smuggling gin on the coasts of Essex and Suffolk, are at this time called grey beards.
GRINAGOG, THE CAT'S UNCLE		A foolish grinning fellow, one who grins without reason.
GROATS		To save his groats; to come off handsomely: at the universities, nine groats are deposited in the hands of an academic officer, by every person standing for a degree; which if the depositor obtains with honour, the groats are returned to him.
GROG		Rum and water. Grog was first introduced into the navy about the year 1740, by Admiral Vernon, to prevent the sailors intoxicating themselves with their allowance of rum, or spirits. Groggy, or groggified; drunk.
GRUMBLE		To grumble in the gizzard; to murmur or repine. He grumbled like a bear with a sore head.
GYBE, or JYBE		Any writing or pass with a seal.
HALBERT		A weapon carried by a serjeant of foot. To get a halbert; to be appointed a serjeant. To be brought to the halberts; to be flogged a la militaire: soldiers of the infantry, when flogged, being commonly tied to three halberts, set up in a triangle, with a fourth fastened across them. He carries the halbert in his face; a saying of one promoted from a serjeant to a commission officer.
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.
HASTY PUDDING		Oatmeal and milk boiled to a moderate thickness, and eaten with sugar and butter. Figuratively, a wet, muddy road: as, The way through Wandsworth is quite a hasty pudding. To eat hot hasty pudding for a laced hat, or some other prize, is a common feat at wakes and fairs.
HAWKERS		Licensed itinerant retailers of different commodities, called also pedlars; likewise the sellers of news-papers. Hawking; an effort to spit up the thick phlegm, called OYSTERS: whence it is wit upon record, to ask the person so doing whether he has a licence; a punning allusion to the Act of hawkers and pedlars.
HAZEL GILD		To beat any one with a hazel stick.
HEMPEN FEVER		A man who was hanged is said to have died of a hempen fever; and, in Dorsetshire, to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.
HIGH WATER		It is high water, with him; he is full of money.
HIGHGATE		Sworn at Highgate - a ridiculous custom formerly prevailed at the public-houses in Highgate, to administer a ludicrous oath to all travellers of the middling rank who stopped there. The party was sworn on a pair of horns, fastened on a stick: the substance of the oath was, never to kiss the maid when he could kiss the mistress, never to drink small beer when he could get strong, with many other injunctions of the like kind; to all which was added the saving cause of "unless you like it best." The person administering the oath was always to be called father by the juror; and he, in return, was to style him son, under the penalty of a bottle.
HOB OR NOB		Will you hob or nob with me? a question formerly in fashion at polite tables, signifying a request or challenge to drink a glass of wine with the proposer: if the party challenged answered Nob, they were to chuse whether white or red. This foolish custom is said to have originated in the days of good queen Bess, thus: when great chimnies were in fashion, there was at each corner of the hearth, or grate, a small elevated projection, called the hob; and behind it a seat. In winter time the beer was placed on the hob to warm: and the cold beer was set on a small table, said to have been called the nob; so that the question, Will you have hob or nob? seems only to have meant, Will you have warm or cold beer? i.e. beer from the hob, or beer from the nob.
HOBNAIL		A country clodhopper: from the shoes of country farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full of hob-nails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron. The Devil ran over his face with hobnails in his shoes; said of one pitted With the small pox.
HOCKEY		Drunk with strong stale beer, called old hock. See HICKEY.
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.
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.
HOOK AND SNIVEY, WITH NIX THE BUFFER		This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is carried on thus: Three men, one of who pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house: the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.
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.
HORN FAIR		An annual fair held at Charlton, in Kent, on St. Luke's day, the 18th of October. It consists of a riotous mob, who after a printed summons dispersed through the adjacent towns, meet at Cuckold's Point, near Deptford, and march from thence in procession, through that town and Greenwich, to Charlton, with horns of different kinds upon their heads; and at the fair there are sold rams horns, and every sort of toy made of horn; even the gingerbread figures have horns.
HORSE BUSS		A kiss with a loud smack; also a bite.
HORSE LADDER		A piece of Wiltshire wit, which consists in sending some raw lad, or simpleton, to a neighbouring farm house, to borrow a horse ladder, in order to get up the horses, to finish a hay-mow.
HORSE'S MEAL		A meal without drinking.
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.
HUGGER MUGGER		By stealth, privately, without making an appearance. They spent their money in a hugger mugger way.
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.
HUMPTY DUMPTY		A little humpty dumpty man or woman; a short clumsy person of either sex: also ale boiled with brandy.
HUNG BEEF		A dried bull's pizzle. How the dubber served the cull with hung beef; how the turnkey beat the fellow with a bull's pizzle.
HUNT'S DOG		He is like Hunt's dog, will neither go to church nor stay at home. One Hunt, a labouring man at a small town in Shropshire, kept a mastiff, who on being shut up on Sundays, whilst his master went to church, howled so terribly as to disturb the whole village; wherefore his master resolved to take him to church with him: but when he came to the church door, the dog having perhaps formerly been whipped out by the sexton, refused to enter; whereupon Hunt exclaimed loudly against his dog's obstinacy, who would neither go to church nor stay at home. This shortly became a bye-word for discontented and whimsical persons.
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.
INDORSER		A sodomite. To indorse with a cudgel; to drub or beat a man over the back with a stick, to lay CANE upon Abel.
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.
IRISH BEAUTY		A woman with two black eyes.
IRISH EVIDENCE		A false witness.
IRON		Money in general. To polish the king's iron with one's eyebrows; to look out of grated or prison windows, or, as the Irishman expresses them, the iron glass windows. Iron doublet; a prison. See STONE DOUBLET.
IVY BUSH		Like an owl in an ivy bush; a simile for a meagre or weasel-faced man, with a large wig, or very bushy hair.
JIG		A trick. A pleasant jig; a witty arch trick. Also a lock or door. The feather-bed jig; copulation.
JINGLE BOXES		Leathern jacks tipped with silver, and hung with bells, formerly in use among fuddle caps.
JOGG-TROT		To keep on a jogg-trot; to get on with a slow but regular pace.
JORDAIN		A great blow, or staff. I'll tip him a jordain if I transnear; i.e. I'll give him a blow with my staff, if I come near him.
KID		A little dapper fellow. A child. The blowen has napped the kid. The girl is with child.
KIT		A dancing-master, so called from his kit or cittern, a small fiddle, which dancing-masters always carry about with them, to play to their scholars. The kit is likewise the whole of a soldier's necessaries, the contents of his knapsack: and is used also to express the whole of different commodities: as, Here, take the whole kit; i.e. take all.
KIT-CAT CLUB		A society of gentlemen, eminent for wit and learning, who in the reign of queen Anne and George I. met at a house kept by one Christopher Cat. The portraits of most of the members of this society were painted by Sir Godfrey Kneller, of one size; thence still called the kit-cat size.
KNAVE IN GRAIN		A knave of the first rate: a phrase borrowed from the dyehouse, where certain colours are said to be in grain, to denote their superiority, as being dyed with cochineal, called grain. Knave in grain is likewise a pun applied to a cornfactor or miller.
KNOT		A crew, gang, or fraternity. He has tied a knot with his tongue, that he cannot untie with his teeth: i.e. he is married.
KNOWING ONES		Sportsmen on the turf, who from experience and an acquaintance with the jockies, are supposed to be in the secret, that is, to know the true merits or powers of each horse; notwithstanding which it often happens that the knowing ones are taken in.
LAMBSKIN MEN		The judges: from their robes lined and bordered with ermine.
LANK SLEEVE		The empty sleeve of a one armed man. A fellow with a lank sleeve; a man who has lost an arm.
LANSPRISADO		One who has only two-pence in his pocket. Also a lance, or deputy corporal; that is, one doing the duty without the pay of a corporal. Formerly a lancier, or horseman, who being dismounted by the death of his horse, served in the foot, by the title of lansprisado, or lancepesato, a broken lance.
LAZYBONES		An instrument like a pair of tongs, for old or very fat people to take any thing from the ground without stooping.
LEAF		To go off with the fall of the leaf; to be hanged: criminals in Dublin being turned off from the outside of the prison by the falling of a board, propped up, and moving on a hinge, like the leaf of a table. IRISH TERM.
LEATHER		To lose leather; to be galled with riding on horseback, or, as the Scotch express it, to be saddle sick. To leather also meant to beat, perhaps originally with a strap: I'll leather you to your heart's content. Leather-headed; stupid. Leathern conveniency; term used by quakers for a stage-coach.
LIGHT HOUSE		A man with a red fiery nose.
LION		To tip the lion; to squeeze the nose of the party tipped, flat to his face with the thumb. To shew the lions and tombs; to point out the particular curiosities of any place, to act the ciceroni: an allusion to Westminster Abbey, and the Tower, where the tombs and lions are shewn. A lion is also a name given by the gownsmen of Oxford to an inhabitant or visitor. It is a standing joke among the city wits to send boys and country folks, on the first of April, to the Tower-ditch, to see the lions washed.
LOCK UP HOUSE		A spunging house; a public house kept by sheriff's officers, to which they convey the persons they have arrested, where they practise every species of imposition and extortion with impunity. Also houses kept by agents or crimps, who enlist, or rather trepan, men to serve the East India or African company as soldiers.
LOLLOP		To lean with one's elbows on a table.
LURCHED		Those who lose a game of whist, without scoring five, are said to be lurched.
MARE'S NEST		He has found a mare's nest, and is laughing at the eggs; said of one who laughs without any apparent cause.
MARINE OFFICER		An empty bottle: marine officers being held useless by the seamen. SEA WIT.
MAWLEY		A hand. Tip us your mawley; shake hands. with me. Fam the mawley; shake hands.
MAY BEES		May bees don't fly all the year long; an answer to any one who prefaces a proposition with, It may be.
MISCHIEF		A man loaded with mischief, i.e. a man with his wife on his back.
MONKEY		To suck the monkey; to suck or draw wine, or any other liquor, privately out of a cask, by means of a straw, or small tube. Monkey's allowance; more kicks than halfpence. Who put that monkey on horseback without tying his legs? vulgar wit on a bad horseman.
MOON RAKERS		Wiltshire men: because it is said that some men of that county, seeing the reflection of the moon in a pond, endeavoured to pull it out with a rake.
MULLIGRUBS		Sick of the mulligrubs with eating chopped hay: low-spirited, having an imaginary sickness.
MUMCHANCE		An ancient game like hazard, played with dice: probably so named from the silence observed in playing at it.
MUNSTER HEIFER		An Irish woman. A woman with thick legs is said to be like a Munster heifer; i.e. beef to the heels.
MUTE		An undertaker's servant, who stands at the door of a person lying in state: so named from being supposed mute with grief.
NECK STAMPER		The boy who collects the pots belonging to an alehouse, sent out with beer to private houses.
NIGGLING		Cutting awkwardly, trifling; also accompanying with a woman.
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.
NUTS		Fond; pleased. She's nuts upon her cull; she's pleased with her cully. The cove's nutting the blowen; the man is trying to please the girl.
OAK		A rich man, a man of good substance and credit. To sport oak; to shut the outward door of a student's room at college. An oaken towel; an oaken cudgel. To rub a man down with an oaken towel; to beat him.
ODDS PLUT AND HER NAILS		A Welch oath, frequently mentioned in a jocular manner by persons, it is hoped, ignorant of its meaning; which is, By God's blood, and the nails with which he was nailed to the cross.
OIL OF GLADNESS		I will anoint you with the oil of gladness; ironically spoken for, I will beat you.
OWL IN AN IVY BUSH		He looks like an owl in an ivy bush; frequently said of a person with a large frizzled wig, or a woman whose hair is dressed a-la-blowze.
PALLIARDS		Those whose fathers were clapperdogens, or beggars born, and who themselves follow the same trade: the female sort beg with a number of children, borrowing them, if they have not a sufficient number of their own, and making them cry by pinching in order to excite charity; the males make artificial sores on different parts of their bodies, to move compassion.
PANTILE SHOP		A presbyterian, or other dissenting meeting house, frequently covered with pantiles: called also a cock-pit.
PASSAGE		A camp game with three dice: doublets, making up ten or more, to pass or win; any other chances lose.
PATRICO, or PATER-COVE		The fifteenth rank of the canting tribe; strolling priests that marry people under a hedge, without gospel or common prayer book: the couple standing on each side of a dead beast, are bid to live together till death them does part; so shaking hands, the wedding is ended. Also any minister or parson.
PAUNCH		The belly. Some think paunch was the original name of that facetious prince of puppets, now called Mr. Punch, as he is always represented with a very prominent belly: though the common opinion is, that both the name and character were taken from a celebrated Italian comedian, called Polichenello.
PAY		To smear over. To pay the bottom of a ship or boat; to smear it over with pitch: The devil to pay, and no pitch hot or ready. SEA TERM. - Also to beat: as, I will pay you as Paul paid the Ephesians, over the face and eyes, and all your d - -d jaws. To pay away; to fight manfully, also to eat voraciously. To pay through the nose: to pay an extravagant price.
PEEPER		A spying glass; also a looking-glass. Track up the dancers, and pike with the peeper; whip up stairs, and run off with the looking-glass.
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.
PEG		Old Peg; poor hard Suffolk or Yorkshire cheese. A peg is also a blow with a straightarm: a term used by the professors of gymnastic arts. A peg in the day-light, the victualling office, or the haltering-place; a blow in the eye, stomach, or under the ear.
PEPPERED		Infected with the venereal disease.
PETER GUNNER		Will kill all the birds that died last summer. A piece of wit commonly thrown out at a person walking through a street or village near London, with a gun in his hand.
PHOENIX-MEN		Firemen belonging to an insurance office, which gave a badge charged with a phoenix: these men were called likewise firedrakes.
PIG		Sixpence, a sow's baby. Pig-widgeon; a simpleton. To pig together; to lie or sleep together, two or more in a bed. Cold pig; a jocular punishment inflicted by the maid seryants, or other females of the house, on persons lying over long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed clothes, and leaving them to pig or lie in the cold. To buy a pig in a poke; to purchase any thing without seeing. Pig's eyes; small eyes. Pigsnyes; the same: a vulgar term of endearment to a woman. He can have boiled pig at home; a mark of being master of his own house: an allusion to a well known poem and story. Brandy is Latin for pig and goose; an apology for drinking a dram after either.
PIGEONS		Sharpers, who, during the drawing of the lottery, wait ready mounted near Guildhall, and, as soon as the first two or three numbers are drawn, which they receive from a confederate on a card, ride with them full speed to some distant insurance office, before fixed on, where there is another of the gang, commonly a decent looking woman, who takes care to be at the office before the hour of drawing: to her he secretly gives the number, which she insures for a considerable sum: thus biting the biter.
PIN		In or to a merry pin; almost drunk: an allusion to a sort of tankard, formerly used in the north, having silver pegs or pins set at equal distances from the top to the bottom: by the rules of good fellowship, every person drinking out of one of these tankards, was to swallow the quantity contained between two pins; if he drank more or less, he was to continue drinking till he ended at a pin: by this means persons unaccustomed to measure their draughts were obliged to drink the whole tankard. Hence when a person was a little elevated with liquor, he was said to have drunk to a merry pin.
PINK		To stab or wound with a small sword: probably derived from the holes formerly cut in both men and women's clothes, called pinking. Pink of the fashion; the top of the mode. To pink and wink; frequently winking the eyes through a weakness in them.
PITCHER		The miraculous pitcher, that holds water with the mouth downwards: a woman's commodity. She has crack'd her pitcher or pipkin; she has lost her maidenhead.
PITT'S PICTURE		A window stopt up on the inside, to save the tax imposed in that gentleman's administration. PARTY WIT
PLATE		Money, silver, prize. He is in for the plate; he has won the KEAT, i.e. is infected with the venereal disorder: a simile drawn from hofse-racing. When the plate fleet comes in; when money comes to hand.
PLAY		To play booty; to play with an intention to lose. To play the whole game; to cheat. To play least in sight; to hide, or keep out of the way. To play the devil; to be guilty of some great irregularity or mismanagement.
PLUCK		Courage. He wants pluck: he is a coward. Against the pluck; against the inclination. Pluck the Ribbon; ring the bell. To pluck a crow with one; to settle a dispute, to reprove one for some past transgression. To pluck a rose; an expression said to be used by women for going to the necessary house, which in the country usually stands in the garden. To pluck also signifies to deny a degree to a candidate at one of the universities, on account of insufficiency.
POINT		To stretch a point; to exceed some usual limit, to take a great stride. Breeches were usually tied up with points, a kind of short laces, formerly given away by the churchwardens at Whitsuntide, under the denomination of tags: by taking a great stride these were stretched.
POISONED		Big with child: that wench is poisoned, see how her belly is swelled. Poison-pated: red-haired.
POKE		A blow with the fist: I'll lend you a poke. A poke likewise means a sack: whence, to buy a pig in a poke, i.e. to buy any thing without seeing or properly examining it.
POLISH		To polish the king's iron with one's eyebrows; to be in gaol, and look through the iron grated windows. To polish a bone; to eat a meal. Come and polish a bone with me; come and eat a dinner or supper with me.
POMMEL		To beat: originally confined to beating with the hilt of a sword, the knob being, from its similarity to a small apple, called pomelle; in Spanish it is still called the apple of the sword. As the clenched fist likewise somewhat resembles an apple, perhaps that might occasion the term pommelling to be applied to fisty-cuffs.
PONTIUS PILATE		A pawnbroker. Pontius Pilate's guards, the first regiment of foot, or Royal Scots: so intitled from their supposed great antiquity. Pontius Pilate's counsellor; one who like him can say, Non invenio causam, I can find no cause. Also (Cambridge) a Mr. Shepherd of Trinity College; who disputing with a brother parson on the comparative rapidity with which they read the liturgy, offered to give him as far as Pontius Pilate in the Belief.
POSEY, or POESY		A nosegay. I shall see you ride backwards up Holborn-hill, with a book in one hand, and a posey in t'other; i.e. I shall see you go to be hanged. Malefactors who piqued themselves on being properly equipped for that occasion, had always a nosegay to smell to, and a prayer book, although they could not read.
POTATOE TRAP		The mouth. Shut your potatoe trap and give your tongue a holiday; i.e. be silent. IRISH WIT.
POUND		To beat. How the milling cove pounded the cull for being nuts on his blowen; how the boxer beat the fellow for taking liberties with his mistress.
PRAY		She prays with her knees upwards; said of a woman much given to gallantry and intrigue. At her last prayers; saying of an old maid.
PRIGGING		Riding; also lying with a woman.
PRINCES		When the majesty of the people was a favourite terra in the House of Commons, a celebrated wit, seeing chimney sweepers dancing on a May-day, styled them the young princes.
PUCKER WATER		Water impregnated with alum, or other astringents, used by old experienced traders to counterfeit virginity.
PUFF, or PUFFER		One who bids at auctions, not with an intent to buy, but only to raise the price of the lot; for which purpose many are hired by the proprietor of the goods on sale.
PUGNOSED, or PUGIFIED		A person with a snub or turned up nose.
PULLY HAWLY		To have a game at pully hawly; to romp with women.
PUMP		A thin shoe. To pump; to endeavour to draw a secret from any one without his perceiving it. Your pump is good, but your sucker is dry; said by one to a person who is attempting to pump him. Pumping was also a punishment for bailiffs who attempted to act in privileged places, such as the Mint, Temple, etc. It is also a piece of discipline administered to a pickpocket caught in the fact, when there is no pond at hand. To pump ship; to make water, and sometimes to vomit. SEA PHRASE.
PUNCH		A liquor called by foreigners Contradiction, from its being composed of spirits to make it strong, water to make it weak, lemon juice to make it sour, and sugar to make it sweet. Punch is also the name of the prince of puppets, the chief wit and support of a puppet-show. To punch it, is a cant term for running away. Punchable; old passable money, anno 1695. A girl that is ripe for man is called a punchable wench. Cobler's Punch. Urine with a cinder in it.
PURL ROYAL		Canary wine; with a dash of tincture of wormwood.
QUARTERED		Divided into four parts; to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, is the sentence on traitors and rebels. Persons receiving part of the salary of an office from the holder of it, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, are said to be quartered on him. Soldiers billetted on a publican are likewise said to be quartered on him.
QUEER AS DICK'S HATBAND		Out of order, without knowing one's disease.
QUEER PLUNGERS		Cheats who throw themselves into the water, in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each; and the supposed drowned persons, pretending he was driven to that extremity by great necessity, also frequently sent away with a contribution in his pocket.
QUITAM		Aquitam horse; one that will both carry and draw. LAW WIT.
RANDLE		A set of nonsensical verses, repeated in Ireland by schoolboys, and young people, who have been guilty of breaking wind backwards before any of their compa- nions; if they neglect this apology, they are liable to certain kicks, pinches, and fillips, which are accompanied with divers admonitory couplets.
RANGLING		Intriguing with a variety of women.
RANTUM SM		Playing at rantum scantum; making the beast with two backs.
RAPPAREES		Irish robbers, or outlaws, who in the time of Oliver Cromwell were armed with short weapons, called in Irish RAPIERS, used for ripping persons up.
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.
RATTLE		A dice-box. To rattle; to talk without consideration, also to move off or go away. To rattle one off; to rate or scold him.
RAWHEAD AND BLOODY BONES		A bull beggar, or scarechild, with which foolish nurses terrify crying brats.
RECKON		To reckon with one's host; to make an erroneous judgment in one's own favour. To cast-up one's reckoning or accounts; to vomit.
RED LETTER DAY		A saint's day or holiday, marked in the calendars with red letters. Red letter men; Roman Catholics: from their observation of the saint days marked in red letters.
RELISH		Carnal connection with a woman.
RENDEZVOUS		A place of meeting. The rendezvous of the beggars were, about the year 1638, according to the Bellman, St, Quinton's, the Three Crowns in the Vintry, St. Tybs, and at Knapsbury: there were four barns within a mile of London. In Middlesex were four other harbours, called Draw the Pudding out of the Fire, the Cross Keys in Craneford parish, St. Julian's in Isleworth parish, and the house of Pettie in Northall parish. In Kent, the King's Barn near Dartford, and Ketbrooke near Blackheath.
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.
RIDER		A person who receives part of the salary of a place or appointment from the ostensible occupier, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, or great man appointing. The rider is said to be quartered upon the possessor, who often has one or more persons thus riding behind him. See QUARTERED.
RIDING SKIMMINGTON		A ludicrous cavalcade, in ridicule of a man beaten by his wife. It consists of a man riding behind a woman, with his face to the horse's tail, holding a distaff in his hand, at which he seems to work, the woman all the while beating him with a ladle; a smock displayed on a staff is carried before them as an emblematical standard, denoting female superiority: they are accompanied by what is called the ROUGH MUSIC, that is, frying-pans, bulls horns, marrow-bones and cleavers, etc. A procession of this kind is admirably described by Butler in his Hudibras. He rode private, i.e. was a private trooper.
RING		Money procured by begging: beggars so called it from its ringing when thrown to them. Also a circle formed for boxers, wrestlers, and cudgel-players, by a man styled Vinegar; who, with his hat before his eyes, goes round the circle, striking at random with his whip to prevent the populace from crowding in.
ROBY DOUGLASS		with one eye and a stinking breath. The breech.
ROMBOYLES		Watch and ward. Romboyled; sought after with a warrant.
ROSY GILLS		One with a sanguine or fresh-coloured countenance.
ROYAL SCAMPS		Highwaymen who never rob any but rich persons, and that without ill treating them. See SCAMP.
RUFFIAN		The devil. - May the ruffian nab the cuffin queer, and let the harmanbeck trine with his kinchins about his colquarren; may the Devil take the justice, and let the constable be hanged with his children about his neck. The ruffian cly thee; the Devil take thee. Ruffian cook ruffian, who scalded the Devil in his feathers; a saying of a bad cook. Ruffian sometimes also means, a justice.
RUM KICKS		Breeches of gold or silver brocade, or richly laced with gold or silver.
RUNNING SMOBBLE		Snatching goods off a counter, and throwing them to an accomplice, who brushes off with them.
SACK		A pocket. To buy the sack: to get drunk. To dive into the sack; to pick a pocket. To break a bottle in an empty sack; a bubble bet, a sack with a bottle in it not being an empty sack.
SADDLE		To saddle the spit; to give a dinner or supper. To saddle one's nose; to wear spectacles. To saddle a place or pension; to oblige the holder to pay a certain portion of his income to some one nominated by the donor. Saddle sick: galled with riding, having lost leather.
SAINT LUKE'S BIRD		An ox; that Evangelist being always represented with an ox.
SALMON-GUNDY		Apples, onions, veal or chicken, and pickled herrings, minced fine, and eaten with oil and vinegar; some derive the name of this mess from the French words SELON MON GOUST, because the proportions of the different ingredients are regulated by the palate of the maker; others say it bears the name of the inventor, who was a rich Dutch merchant; but the general and most probable opinion is, that it was invented by the countess of Salmagondi, one of the ladies of Mary de Medicis, wife of King Henry IV. of France, and by her brought into France.
SANDWICH		Ham, dried tongue, or some other salted meat, cut thin and put between two slices of bread and butter: said to be a favourite morsel with the Earl of Sandwich.
SCOURERS		Riotous bucks, who amuse themselves with breaking windows, beating the watch, and assaulting every person they meet: called scouring the streets.
SCRATCH		Old Scratch; the Devil: probably from the long and sharp claws with which he is frequently delineated.
SCULL, or SCULLER		A boat rowed by one man with a light kind of oar, called a scull; also a one-horse chaise or buggy.
SHAFTSBURY		A gallon pot full of wine, with a cock.
SHAKE		To shake one's elbow; to game with dice. To shake a cloth in the wind; to be hanged in chains.
SHAM		A cheat, or trick. To cut a sham; to cheat or deceive. Shams; false sleeves to put on over a dirty shirt, or false sleeves with ruffles to put over a plain one. To sham Abram; to counterfeit sickness.
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.
SHARPER		A cheat, one that lives by his wits. Sharpers tools; a fool and false dice.
SHIT SACK		A dastardly fellow: also a non-conformist. This appellation is said to have originated from the following story: - After the restoration, the laws against the non-conformists were extremely severe. They sometimes met in very obscure places: and there is a tradition that one of their congregations were assembled in a barn, the rendezvous of beggars and other vagrants, where the preacher, for want of a ladder or tub, was suspended in a sack fixed to the beam. His discourse that day being on the last judgment, he particularly attempted to describe the terrors of the wicked at the sounding of the trumpet, on which a trumpeter to a puppet-show, who had taken refuge in that barn, and lay hid under the straw, sounded a charge. The congregation, struck with the utmost consternation, fled in an instant from the place, leaving their affrighted teacher to shift for himself. The effects of his terror are said to have appeared at the bottom of the sack, and to have occasioned that opprobrious appellation by which the non-conformists were vulgarly distinguished.
SHOVEL		To be put to bed with a shovel; to be buried. He or she was fed with a fire-shovel; a saying of a person with a large mouth.
SHY COCK		One who keeps within doors for fear of bailiffs.
SILVER LACED		Replete with lice. The cove's kickseys are silver laced: the fellow's breeches are covered with lice.
SIZAR		Formerly students who came to Cambridge University for purposes of study and emolument. But at present they are just as gay and dissipated as their fellow collegians. About fifty years ago they were on a footing with the servitors at Oxford, but by the exertions of the present Bishop of Llandaff, who was himself a sizar, they were absolved from all marks of inferiority or of degradation. The chief difference at present between them and the pensioners, consists in the less amount of their college fees. The saving thus made induces many extravagant fellows to become sizars, that they may have more money to lavish on their dogs, pieces, etc.
SKIP JACKS		Youngsters that ride horses on sale, horse- dealers boys. Also a plaything made for children with the breast bone of a goose.
SLAM		A trick; also a game at whist lost without scoring one. To slam to a door; to shut it with violence.
SLAMKIN		A female sloven, one whose clothes seem hung on with a pitch-fork, a careless trapes.
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.
SLEEPING PARTNER		A partner in a trade, or shop, who lends his name and money, for which he receives a share of the profit, without doing any part of the business.
SLICE		To take a slice; to intrigue, particularly with a married woman, because a slice off a cut loaf is not missed.
SMACKSMOOTH		Level with the surface, every thing cut away.
SNOOZE, or SNOODGE		To sleep. To snooze with a mort; to sleep with a wench.
SNUFFLES		A cold in the head, attended with a running at the nose.
SOLDIER'S MAWND		A pretended soldier, begging with a counterfeit wound, which he pretends to have received at some famous siege or battle.
SPANISH WORM		A nail: so called by carpenters when they meet with one in a board they are sawing.
SPANKS, or SPANKERS		Money; also blows with the open hand.
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.
SPARROW-MOUTHED		Wide-mouthed, like the mouth of a sparrow: it is said of such persons, that they do not hold their mouths by lease, but have it from year to year; i.e. from ear to ear. One whose mouth cannot be enlarged without removing their ears, and who when they yawn have their heads half off.
SPEAK WITH		To rob. I spoke with the cull on the cherry-coloured prancer; I robbed the man on the black horse.
SPLIT CROW		The sign of the spread eagle, which being represented with two heads on one neck, gives it somewhat the appearance of being split.
SQUIRREL		A prostitute: because she like that animal, covers her back with her tail. Meretrix corpore corpus alit. Menagiana, ii. 128.
STAGGERING BOB, WITH HIS YELLOW PUMPS		A calf just dropped, and unable to stand, killed for veal in Scotland: the hoofs of a young calf are yellow.
STAMP		A particular manner of throwing the dice out of the box, by striking it with violence against the table.
STARVE'EM, ROB'EM, AND CHEAT'EM		Stroud, Rochester, and Chatham; so called by soldiers and sailors, and not without good reason.
STATE		To lie in state; to be in bed with three harlots.
STEPNEY		A decoction of raisins of the sun and lemons in conduit water, sweetened with sugar, and bottled up.
STEWED QUAKER		Burnt rum, with a piece of butter: an American remedy for a cold.
STITCH		A nick name for a taylor: also a term for lying with a woman.
STRAIT WAISTCOAT		A tight waistcoat, with long sleeves coming over the hand, having strings for binding them behind the back of the wearer: these waistcoats are used in madhouses for the management of lunatics when outrageous.
STRAPPING		Lying with a woman.
STRETCH		A yard. The cove was lagged for prigging a peter with several stretch of dobbin from a drag; the fellow was transported for stealing a trunk, containing several yards of ribband, from a waggon.
STROKE		To take a stroke: to take a bout with a woman.
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.
STUB-FACED		Pitted with the smallpox: the devil ran over his face with horse stabs (horse nails) in his shoes.
SUGAR SOPS		Toasted bread soked in ale, sweetened with sugar, and grated nutmeg: it is eaten with cheese.
SWADDLE		To beat with a stick.
SWEATING		A mode of diminishing the gold coin, practiced chiefly by the Jews, who corrode it with aqua regia. Sweating was also a diversion practised by the bloods of the last century, who styled themselves Mohocks: these gentlemen lay in wait to surprise some person late in the night, when surrouding him, they with their swords pricked him in the posteriors, which obliged him to be constantly turning round; this they continued till they thought him sufficiently sweated.
TABBY		An old maid; either from Tabitha, a formal antiquated name; or else from a tabby cat, old maids being often compared to cats. To drive Tab; to go out on a party of pleasure with a wife and family.
TAME		To run tame about a house; to live familiarly in a family with which one is upon a visit. Tame army; the city trained bands.
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.
TAW		A schoolboy's game, played with small round balls made of stone dust, catted marbles. I'll be one upon your taw presently; a species of threat.
TAWDRY		Garish, gawdy, with lace or staring and discordant colours: a term said to be derived from the shrine and altar of St. Audrey (an Isle of Ely saintess), which for finery exceeded all others thereabouts, so as to become proverbial; whence any fine dressed man or woman said to be all St Audrey, and by contraction, all tawdry.
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.
TEMPLE PICKLING		Pumping a bailiff; a punishment formerly administered to any of that fraternity caught exercising their functions within the limits of Temple.
TESTER		A sixpence: from TESTON, a coin with a head on it.
THIEF TAKERS		Fellows who associate with all kinds of villains, in order to betray them, when they have committed any of those crimes which entitle the persons taking them to a handsome reward, called blood money. It is the business of these thief takers to furnish subjects for a handsome execution, at the end of every sessions.
THIRDING		A custom practised at the universities, where two thirds of the original price is allowed by the upholsterers to the students for household goods returned to them within the year.
THOMOND		Like Lord Thomond's cocks, all on one side. Lord Thomond's cock-feeder, an Irishman, being entrusted with some cocks which were matched for a considerable sum, the night before the battle shut them all together in one room, concluding that as they were all on the same side, they would not disagree: the consequence was, they were most of them either killed or lamed before the morning.
THOROUGH CHURCHMAN		A person who goes in at one door of a church, and out at the other, without stopping.
THREE THREADS		Half common ale, mixed with stale and double beer.
THRUM		To play on any instrument sttfnged with wire. A thrummer of wire; a player on the spinet, harpsichord, of guitar.
THUMP		A blow. This is better than a thump on the back with a stone; said on giving any one a drink of good liquor on a cold morning. Thatch, thistle, thunder, and thump; words to the Irish, like the Shibboleth of the Hebrews.
THWACK		A great blow with a stick across the shoulders.
TIFFING		Eating or drinking out of meal time, disputing or falling out; also lying with a wench, A tiff of punch, a small bowl of punch.
TILT		To tilt; to fight with a sword. To run full tilt against one; allusion to the ancient tilling with the lance.
TIM WHISKY		A light one - horse chaise without a head.
TIMBER TOE		A man with a wooden leg.
TIPPERARY FORTUNE		Two town lands, stream's town, and ballinocack; said of Irish women without fortune.
TO TIP		To give or lend. Tip me your daddle; give me your hand. Tip me a hog; give me a shilling. To tip the lion; to flatten a man's nose with the thumb, and, at the same time to extend his mouth, with the fingers, thereby giving him a sort of lion-like countenauce. To tip the velvet; tonguing woman. To tip all nine; to knock down all the nine pins at once, at the game of bows or skittles: tipping, at these gaines, is slightly touching the tops of the pins with the bowl. Tip; a draught; don't spoil his tip.
TO WAP		To copulate, to beat. If she wont wap for a winne, let her trine for a make; if she won't lie with a man for a penny, let her hang for a halfpenny. Mort wap-apace; a woman of experience, or very expert at the sport.
TO WAP		To copulate, to beat. If she wont wap for a winne, let her trine for a make; if she won't lie with a man for a penny, let her hang for a halfpenny. Mort wap-apace; a woman of experience, or very expert at the sport.
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.
TOP SAIL		He paid his debts at Portsmouth with the topsail; i.e. he went to. sea and left them unpaid. SCT soldiers are said to pay off their scores with the drum; that is, by marching away.
TOWEL		An oaken towel, a cudgel. To rub one down with an oaken towel; to beat or cudgel him.
TOWER		Clipped money: they have been round the tower with it.
TRANSNEAR		To come up with any body.
TRAP STICKS		Thin legs, gambs: from the sticks with which boys play at trap-ball.
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.
TRAY TRIP		An ancient game like Scotch hop, played on a pavement marked out with chalk into different compartments.
TROOPER		You will die the death of a trooper's horse, that is, with your shoes-on; a jocular method of telling any one he will be hanged.
TUFT HUNTER		A it anniversary parasite, one who courts the acquaintance of nobility, whose caps are adorned with a gold tuft.
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.
TURD		There were four turds for dinner: stir turd, hold turd, tread turd, and mus-turd: to wit, a hog's face, feet and chitterlings, with mustard. He will never shite a seaman's turd; i.e. he will never make a good seaman.
TWIT		To reproach a person, or remind him of favours conferred.
TWITTER		All in a twitter; in a fright. Twittering is also the note of some small birds, such as the robin, etc.
TWITTOC		Two.
TYBURN TOP, or FORETOP		A wig with the foretop combed over the eyes in a knowing style; such being much worn by the gentlemen pads, scamps, divers, and other knowing hands.
UNTRUSS		To untruss a point; to let down one's breeches in order to ease one's self. Breeches were formerly tied with points, which till lately were distributed to the boys every Whit Monday by the churchwardens of most of the parishes in London, under the denomination of tags: these tags were worsteds of different colours twisted up to a size somewhat thicker than packthread, and tagged at both ends with tin. Laces were at the same given to the girls.
UP TO THEIR GOSSIP		To be a match for one who attempts to cheat or deceive; to be on a footing, or in the secret. I'll be up with him; I will repay him in kind.
UPRIGHT MAN		An upright man signifies the chief or principal of a crew. The vilest, stoutest rogue in the pack is generally chosen to this post, and has the sole right to the first night's lodging with the dells, who afterwards are used in common among the whole fraternity. He carries a short truncheon in his hand, which he calls his filchman, and has a larger share than ordinary in whatsoever is gotten in the society. He often travels in company with thirty or forty males and females, abram men, and others, over whom he presides arbitrarily. Sometimes the women and children who are unable to travel, or fatigued, are by turns carried in panniers by an ass, or two, or by some poor jades procured for that purpose.
VAIN-GLORIOUS, or OSTENTATIOUS MAN		One who boasts without reason, or, as the canters say, pisses more than he drinks.
VAN-NECK		Miss or Mrs. Van-Neck; a woman with large breasts; a bushel bubby.
VINEGAR		A name given to the person who with a whip in his hand, and a hat held before his eye, keeps the ring clear, at boxing-matches and cudgel-playing; also, in cant terms, a cloak.
WAITS		Musicians of the lower order, who in most towns play under the windows of the chief inhabitants at midnight, a short time before Christmas, for which they collect a christmas-box from house to house. They are said to derive their name of waits from being always in waiting to celebrate weddings and other joyous events happening within their district.
WAKE		A country feast, commonly on the anniversary of the tutelar saint of the village, that is, the saint to whom the parish church is dedicated. Also a custom of watching the dead, called Late Wake, in use both in Ireland and Wales, where the corpse being deposited under a table, with a plate of salt on its breast, the table is covered with liquor of all sorts; and the guests, particularly, the younger part of them, amuse themselves with all kinds of pastimes and recreations: the consequence is generally more than replacing the departed friend.
WALKING UP AGAINST THE WALL		To run up a score, which in alehouses is commonly recorded with chalk on the walls of the bar.
WALL		To walk or crawl up the wall; to be scored up at a public-house. Wall-eyed, having an eye with little or no sight, all white like a plaistered wall.
WATER BEWITCHED		Very weak punch or beer.
WEASEL-FACED		Thin, meagre-faced. Weasel-gutted; thin-bodied; a weasel is a thin long slender animal with a sharp face.
WELL-HUNG		The blowen was nutts upon the kiddey because he is well-hung; the girl is pleased with the youth because his genitals are large.
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.
WHIP JACKS		The tenth order of the canting crew, rogues who having learned a few sea terms, beg with counterfeit passes, pretending to be sailors shipwrecked on the neighbouring coast, and on their way to the port from whence they sailed.
WHIP THE COCK		A piece of sport practised at wakes, horse-races, and fairs in Leicestershire: a cock being tied or fastened into a hat or basket, half a dozen carters blindfolded, and armed with their cart whips, are placed round it, who, after being turned thrice about, begin to whip the cock, which if any one strikes so as to make it cry out, it becomes his property; the joke is, that instead of whipping the cock they flog each other heartily.
WHIPT SYLLABUB		A flimsy, frothy discourse or treatise, without solidity.
WHITE LIE		A harmless lie, one not told with a malicious intent, a lie told to reconcile people at variance.
WHITE SWELLING		A woman big with child is said to have a white swelling.
WHITECHAPEL		Whitechapel portion; two smocks, and what nature gave. Whitechapel breed; fat, ragged, and saucy: see ST. GILES'S BREED. Whitechapel beau; one who dresses with a needle and thread, and undresses with a knife. To play at whist Whitechapel fashion; i.e. aces and kings first.
WIBLING'S WITCH		The four of clubs: from one James Wibling, who in the reign of King James I. grew rich by private gaming, and was commonly observed to have that card, and never to lose a game but when he had it not.
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.
WIT		He has as much wit as three folks, two fools and a madman.
WITCHES		Silver. Witcher bubber; a silver bowl. Witcher tilter; a silver-hilted sword. Witcher cully; a silversmith.
WOODCOCK		A taylor with a long bill.
WOODEN HABEAS		A coffin. A man who dies in prison is said to go out with a wooden habeas. He went out with a wooden habeas; i.e. his coffin.
WOODEN HORSE		To fide the wooden horse was a military punishment formerly in use. This horse consisted of two or more planks about eight feet long, fixed together so as to form a sharp ridge or angle, which answered to the body of the horse. It was supported by four posts, about six feet long, for legs. A head, neck, and tail, rudely cut in wood, were added, which completed the appearance of a horse. On this sharp ridge delinquents were mounted, with their hands tied behind them; and to steady them (as it was said), and lest the horse should kick them off, one or more firelocks were tied to each leg. In this situation they were sometimes condemned to sit an hour or two; but at length it having been found to injure the soldiers materially, and sometimes to rupture them, it was left off about the time of the accession of King George I. A wooden horse was standing in the Parade at Portsmouth as late as the year 1750.
WOOL GATHERING		Your wits are gone a woolgathering; saying to an absent man, one in a reverie, or absorbed in thought.
WRAPT UP IN WARM FLANNEL		Drunk with spirituous liquors. He was wrapt up in the tail of his mother's smock; saying of any one remarkable for his success with the ladies. To be wrapt up in any one: to have a good opinion of him, or to be under his influence.
YELLOW		To look yellow; to be jealous. I happened to call on Mr. Green, who was out: on coming home, and finding me with his wife, he began to look confounded blue, and was, I thought, a little yellow.