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1811 Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue
1811 Dictionary of The Vulgar Tongue
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Edition: 10
Language: English
A
DICTIONARY
OF
BUCKISH SLANG, UNIVERSITY WIT,
AND
PICKPOCKET ELOQUENCE.
PREFACE.
ASSIG. An assignation.
AUTEM. A church.
BACON-FACED. Full-faced.
BADGE. A term used for one burned in the hand. He has got
his badge, and piked; he was burned in the hand, and is
at liberty. Cant.
BALSAM. Money.
TO BANG. To beat.
BASTING. A beating.
BEEF. To cry beef; to give the alarm. They have cried beef
on us. Cant.--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.
BENISH. Foolish.
BLOW. He has bit the blow, i.e. he has stolen the goods.
Cant.
TO BLUBBER. To cry.
BOB. A shilling.
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.
BONES. Dice.
BONE BOX. The mouth. Shut your bone box; shut your
mouth.
BOOSEY. Drunk.
TO BUBBLE. To cheat.
BUCKLES. Fetters.
BUFFER. One that steals and kills horses and dogs for
their skins; also an inn-keeper: in Ireland it signifies a
boxer.
BUG-HUNTER. An upholsterer.
BUMBO. Brandy, water, and sugar; also the negro name for
the private parts of a woman.
BUMMED. Arrested.
BUNT. An apron.
BUTTERED BUN. One lying with a woman that has just lain
with another man, is said to have a buttered bun.
CACKLER. A hen.
CANK. Dumb.
TO CASCADE. To vomit.
CAUDGE-PAWED. Left-handed.
CHAUNT. A song.
CHEESE-TOASTER. A sword.
CHEESE IT; Be silent, be quiet, don't do it. Cheese it, the
coves are fly; be silent, the people understand our discourse.
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.
CHINK. Money.
CHOP-STICK. A fork.
CLAMMED. Starved.
CLOWES. Rogues.
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 YOUR EYE. Shut one eye: thus translated into apothecaries
Latin.--Gallus tuus ego.
COKER. A lie.
COLLECTOR. A highwayman.
COOLER. A woman.
COLT VEAL. Coarse red veal, more like the flesh of a colt
than that of a calf.
CONFECT. Counterfeited.
CONGO. Will you lap your congo with me? will you drink
tea with me?
COQUET. A jilt.
CORNED. Drunk.
COW-HANDED. Awkward.
COW-HEARTED. Fearful.
CRACK. A whore.
CRACKISH. Whorish.
MEN.
1 Rufflers
2 Upright Men
3 Hookers or Anglers
4 Rogues
5 Wild Rogues
6 Priggers of Prancers
7 Palliardes
8 Fraters
9 Jarkmen, or Patricoes
10 Fresh Water Mariners, or Whip Jackets
11 Drummerers
12 Drunken Tinkers
13 Swadders, or Pedlars
14 Abrams.
WOMEN.
CROOK. Sixpence.
CROWDERO. A fiddler.
CRUMP-BACKED. Hump-backed.
CUFFIN. A man.
C**T. The chonnos of the Greek, and the cunnus of the Latin
dictionaries; a nasty name for a nasty thing: un con Miege.
CUP-SHOT. Drunk.
CURTEZAN. A prostitute.
DANCERS. Stairs.
DANDY. That's the dandy; i.e. the ton, the clever thing;
an expression of similar import to "That's the barber."
See BARBER.
DIDDLE. Gin.
DIPPERS. Anabaptists.
DISGUISED. Drunk.
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.
DOG'S RIG. To copulate till you are tired, and then turn
tail to it.
DOGGED. Surly.
TO DRESS. To beat. I'll dress his hide neatly; I'll beat him
soundly.
DRIPPER. A gleet.
DUCE. Two-pence.
DUCK F-CK-R. The man who has the care of the poultry
on board a ship of war.
DUDS. Clothes.
EAT. To eat like a beggar man, and wag his under jaw; a
jocular reproach to a proud man. To eat one's words; to
retract what one has said.
FASTNER. A warrant.
FASTNESSES. Bogs.
FAWNEY. A ring.
FIGDEAN. To kill.
FLABAGASTED. Confounded.
Next for his favourite MOT (Girl) the KIDDEY (Youth) looks
about,
And if she's in a FLASH PANNEY (Brothel) he swears he'll have
her out;
So he FENCES (Pawns) all his TOGS (Cloathes) to buy her DUDS,
(Wearing Apparel) and then
He FRISKS (Robs) his master's LOB (Till) to take her from the
bawdy KEN (House).
FLASH SONG.
FLAWD. Drunk.
TO FLOG. To whip.
FLUSTERED. Drunk.
FLYERS. Shoes.
FOUL-MOUTHED. Abusive.
FOXED. Intoxicated.
FOXEY. Rank. Stinking.
FROGLANDER. A Dutchman.
FUDGE. Nonsense.
FURMEN. Aldermen.
GALLIGASKINS. Breeches.
GIBBE. A horse that shrinks from the collar and will not
draw.
GLAZE. A window.
GLIMMS. Eyes.
GLUM. Sullen.
GRANNAM. Corn.
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.
GRUTS. Tea.
I will not teach any one to cant, nor will I disclose any of
our mysteries to them.
I will take my prince's part against all that shall oppose him,
or any of us, according to the utmost of my ability; nor
will I suffer him, or any one belongiug to us, to be abused
by any strange abrams, rufflers, hookers, pailliards,
swaddlers, Irish toyles, swigmen, whip jacks, jarkmen,
bawdy baskets, dommerars, clapper dogeons, patricoes,
or curtals; but will defend him, or them, as much as I
can, against all other outliers whatever. I will not conceal
aught I win out of libkins or from the ruffmans, but
will preserve it for the use of the company. Lastly, I
will cleave to my doxy wap stiffly, and will bring her
duds, marjery praters, goblers, grunting cheats, or tibs
of the buttery, or any thing else I can come at, as
winnings for her weppings.
That by which they are said to get the most money, is,
when young gentlewomen of good families and reputation
have happened to be with child before marriage, a round
sum is often bestowed among the gypsies, for some one
mort to take the child; and as that is never heard of
more by the true mother and family, so the disgrace is
kept concealed from the world; and, if the child lives, it
never knows its parents.
HANG OUT. The traps scavey where we hang out; the officers
know where we live.
HEN-HEARTED. Cowardly.
HORNIFIED. Cuckolded.
HUM CAP. Very old and strong beer, called also stingo.
See STINGO.
HUNCH-BACKED. Hump-backed.
JACKEY. Gin.
JARK. A seal.
JEW. A tradesman who has no faith, i.e. will not give credit.
INCHING. Encroaching.
INEXPRESSIBLES. Breeches.
JOBATION. A reproof.
JORDAN. A chamber-pot.
JUKRUM. A licence.
KELTER. Money.
Mr. Ketch had not long been elevated to his office, for the
name of his predecessor Dun occurs in the former part of
this poem, page 29:
KICKSEYS. Breeches.
LARK. A boat.
LIFTER. A crutch.
LOO. For the good of the loo; for the benefit of the company
or community.
LUN. Harlequin.
TO LUSH. To drink.
MAGG. A halfpenny.
MAX. Gin.
MAY BEES. May bees don't fly all the year long; an answer
to any one who prefaces a proposition with, It may be.
MERRY-BEGOTTEN. A bastard.
MILL. A chisel.
MILLER. A murderer.
MOLL. A whore.
MOPUSSES. Money.
MOSS. A cant term for lead, because both are found on the
tops of buildings.
MOWER. A cow.
MUNG. To beg.
MURPHIES. Potatoes.
MUTTON-HEADED. Stupid.
MUZZLE. A beard.
NACKY. Ingenious.
NlCKNACKATORY. A toyshop.
NINE LIVES. Cats are said to have nine lives, and women
ten cats lives.
NIX. Nothing.
NOBTHATCHER. A peruke-maker.
TO NOSE. To bully.
NUGGING-HOUSE. A brothel.
NUTMEGS. Testicles.
OAFISH. Simple.
OLD NICK. The Devil: from NEKEN, the evil spirit of the
north.
OSTLER. Oatstealer.
PAINTER. I'll cut your painter for you; I'll send you off;
the painter being the ropfe that holds the boat fast to the
ship. SEA TERM.
PANNAM. Bread.
PANTLER. A butler.
PECKISH. Hungry.
PECULIAR. A mistress.
PEEPY. Drowsy.
PERRIWINKLE. A wig.
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.
PETER LUG. Who is Peter Lug? who lets the glass stand
at his door, or before him.
PETTISH. Passionate.
PIG-HEADED. Obstinate.
PLATTER-FACED. Broad-faced.
POGY. Drunk.
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.
POT HUNTER. One who hunts more tor the sake of the
prey than the sport. Pot valiant; courageous from drink.
Potwallopers: persons entitled to vote in certain
boroughs by having boiled a pot there.
PRICKLOUSE. A taylor.
PRIEST-LINKED. Married.
PROPS. Crutches.
PURBLIND. Dim-sighted.
RAG. A farthing.
RED LANE. The throat. Gone down the red lane; swallowed.
ROOM. She lets out her fore room and lies backwards:
saying of a woman suspected of prostitution.
RUMBUMTIOUS. Obstreperous.
SCRAGGED. Hanged.
SHE HOUSE. A house where the wife rules, or, as the term
is, wears the breeches.
SHRED. A taylor.
SHY COCK. One who keeps within doors for fear of bailiffs.
SICE. Sixpence.
SIDLEDYWRY. Crooked.
TO SING. To call out; the coves sing out beef; they call
out stop thief.
SKINS. A tanner.
SLOP. Tea. How the blowens lush the slop. How the
wenches drink tea!
SLUSH BUCKET. A foul feeder, one that eats much greasy food.
SMEAR. A plasterer.
SMOKER. A tobacconist.
SNAPPERS. Pistols.
SNIP. A taylor.
SOW. A fat woman. He has got the wrong sow by the ear,
he mistakes his man. Drunk as David's sow; see DAVID'S
SOW.
SPANKING. Large.
SPIDER-SHANKED. Thin-legged.
SPIT. A sword.
SPOUTED. Pawned.
SPREAD. Butter.
SQUIRISH. Foolish.
STAMPS. Legs.
STAMPERS. Shoes.
STAY. A cuckold.
STINGRUM. A niggard.
STOOP. The pillory. The cull was served for macing and
napp'd the stoop; he was convicted of swindling, and
put in the pillory.
STRANGER. A guinea.
STRUMPET. A harlot.
SUNDAY MAN. One who goes abroad on that day only, for
fear of arrests.
TO SWIVE. To copulate.
SWIVEL-EYED. Squinting.
SWOP. An exchange.
SYEBUCK. Sixpence.
SYNTAX. A schoolmaster.
TAWED. Beaten,
THREPS. Threepence.
TO THROTTLE. To strangle.
THRUMS. Threepence.
TIBBY. A cat.
TICKRUM. A licence.
TIDY. Neat.
TILTER. A sword.
TINY. Little.
TIPPLE. Liquor.
TIZZY. Sixpence.
Tobacco hic
Will make you well if you be sick.
Tobacco hic
If you be well will make you sick.
TOP LIGHTS. The eyes. Blast your top lights. See CURSE.
TORCHECUL. Bumfodder.
TRESWINS. Threepence.
TRINING. Hanging.
TRUNDLERS. Peas.
T--D. There were four t--ds for dinner: stir t--d, hold
t--d, tread t--d, and mus-t--d: to wit, a hog's face, feet
and chitterlings, with mustard. He will never sh--e a
seaman's t--d; i.e. he will never make a good seaman.
TWELVER. A shilling.
TWIDDLE-DIDDLES. Testicles.
TYE. A neckcloth.
TO VAMP. To pawn any thing. I'll vamp it, and tip you
the cole: I'll pawn it, and give you the money. Also to
refit, new dress, or rub up old hats, shoes or other wearing
apparel; likewise to put new feet to old boots. Applied
more particularly to a quack bookseller.
VAMPER. Stockings.
WAPPER-EYED. Sore-eyed.
TO WHINE. To complain.
WHINYARD. A sword.
WHIPSHIRE. Yorkshire.
WHIRLYGIGS. Testicles.
WIN. A penny,
WORLD. All the world and his wife; every body, a great
company.
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