DARBIES. Handcuffs; fetters.
DARBY. Cash. "Fork over the darby," hand over the cash.
DARK CULLEY. A man who visits his mistress only at night.
DARKEY. A dark lantern. "The coves had screwed the gig of the jug, when
Jack flashed the darkey into it, and found it planted full of coppers.
'Bingavast!' was the word; some one has cackled," the thieves had opened
the door of a bank with false keys, and when they looked in with the aid
of a dark lantern, they found the place filled with officers. One of the
thieves cried out: "Be off! some one has cackled."
DAUB. A ribbon.
DAVEY. Affidavit; to witness under oath.
DAWB. To bribe. "The bene cove was scragged, because he could not dawb
the beak," the good fellow was hanged, because he could not bribe the
judge.
DAY-LIGHTS. The eyes.
DEAD BEAT. Without hope; certain.
DEAD BROKE. Not a cent.
DEAD GAME. A term used by gamblers when they have a certainty of
winning.
DEAD SET. A concentrated attack on a person or thing.
DEAD SWAG. Not worth so much as it was thought to be; things stolen that
are not easily disposed of.
DEAD TO RIGHTS. Positively guilty, and no way of getting clear.
DEATH HUNTER. The undertaker.
DEEK THE COVE. See the fellow; look at him.
DELLS. A prostitute.
DERREY. An eye-glass.
DEVIL BOOKS. Cards.
DEW-BEATERS. The feet.
DEWS. A gold eagle; ten dollars.
DIAL-PLATE. The face.
DIARY. To remember; to enter in a book. "I'll diary the joskin," I'll
remember the fool.
DIB. Portion or share.
DIBS. Money.
DIDDLE. Liquor.
DIDDLE COVE. A landlord.
DIE. Dummy, or pocket-book.
DIFT COVE. A neat little man.
DIGGERS. Finger-nails.
DIMBER. Handsome; pretty.
DIMBER-MORT. Pretty girl; enchanting girl.
DING. To throw away; to strike.
DIP. A kiss in the dark; a pickpocket.
DIP. To pick a pocket; the act of putting a hand into a pocket.
DIPT. Pawned.
DISMAL DITTY. The psalm or hymn sung by persons just before they are
hanged.
DISPATCH. A mittimus; a warrant of arrest.
DIVER. A pickpocket.
DIVING. Picking pockets.
DIVING-BELL. A rum-shop in a basement.
DOASH. A cloak.
DOBING LAY. To steal from stores early in the morning. Two thieves enter
a store, as soon as the porter opens it; one of them inquires about some
goods he pretends he was looking at the day before, and wishes to see
them. The goods inquired for are either in the back of the store or up
stairs. In the absence of the porter, the other fellow robs the store.
DOCTOR GREEN. A young inexperienced fellow.
DOCTORS. False cards or dice.
DOG-NIPPERS. Rogues who steal dogs, and restore them to their owners
after a reward has been offered.
DOGS-PASTE. Sausage-meat; mince meat.
DOING POLLY. Picking oakum in prison.
DOLLY SHOP. A loan office.
DOMESTIC. Made at home. The man robbed himself; some one in the house
assisted the thieves. "You may look at home for the thief."
DOMMERER. A fellow that pretends to be deaf and dumb.
DONBITE. A street.
DONE. Convicted.
DONKEY-RIDING. Cheating in weight or measure; miscounting.
DONNEZ. To give.
DOOKIN COVE. A fortune-teller.
DOPEY. A thief's mistress.
DOSE. Burglary.
DOSS. A bed. "The badger got under the doss, and frisked the bloke's
pokes of two centuries and a half, and then bounced the flat till he
mizzled."
DOTS. Money.
DOWN. Hatred; dislike; vindictive; to suspect another. "The copper
cutty-eyed me and measured my mug, and is down on the job," the officer
looked at me from the corners of his eyes, and examined my face; he
suspects what we are about.
DOWNER. A five cent piece.
DOWNEY. A smooth, pleasant talker; a knowing fellow.
DOWSE. To strike. "Dowse his mug." hit his face.
DOXIE. A girl.
DRAB. A nasty woman.
DRAG. A cart or wagon.
DRAGGING. Stealing from shop-doors.
DRAGONS. Sovereigns; gold coins.
DRAGSMAN. A thief that steals from express wagons and carts; also trunks
from the back of coaches. They sometimes have a fast horse and light
wagon.
DRAW. } Picking pockets. "I say, my kinchin,
DRAWING. } what's your lay?" "Vy, yer see,
} as how I am learning to draw."
DRAY. Three.
DROMEDARY. A clumsy, blundering fellow.
DROPS, or DROPPERS. Fellows that cheat countrymen by dropping a
pocket-book filled with bad money, near their heels, and then pretend
that they found it. By the aid of an accomplice, the countryman is
induced to purchase it, with the avowed intention of finding the real
owner, believing it to contain good money.
DROPT DOWN. Low-spirited. "The kiddy dropt down when he went to be
scragged," the youngster was very low-spirited when he walked out to be
hanged.
DRUM. A drinking-place.
DRUMSTICK. A club.
DRY UP. Be silent; stop that.
DUB. A key; a picklock.
DUB LAY. Robbing houses by picking the locks.
DUB O' THE HICK. A blow on the head. The copper tipt the dromedary a dub
o' the hick with his drum-stick.
DUB THE JIGGER. Open the door.
DUBLER. A picker of locks.
DUCE. Two cents; two.
DUDS. Clothes.
DUFF. Pudding.
DUFFER. A fellow, in the dress of a sailor, who knocks at the
basement-door, and inquires if the lady of the house does not want to
buy some smuggled goods, and then exhibits imitation silks, satins,
Irish linens, etc., etc., which he pretends to have run ashore without
the knowledge of the custom-house officers.
DUKES. The hands.
DUMMY. A pocket-book; a portmonnaie. "Frisk the dummy of the screens,
ding it and bolt; they are crying out beef," take out the money and
throw the pocket-book away; run, they are crying, stop thief!
DUN. A _very importunate_ creditor. Dunny, in the provincial dialect of
several counties in England, signifies _deaf_; to dun, then, perhaps may
mean to deafen with _importunate demands_; it may have been derived from
the word _donnez_, which signifies _give_. But the word undoubtedly
originated in the days of one Joe Dun, a famous bailiff of the town of
Lincoln, England, who was so extremely active and dexterous in his
business, that it became a proverb, when a man refused to pay, to say,
"Why don't you Dun him?" that is, send Dun after him. Hence it became a
cant word, and is now as old as the days of Henry VII. Dun was also the
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.
[Illustration]
DUNEKER. A thief that steals cattle.
DUNNAKIN. It can't be helped; necessary.
DUNNEY. Deaf; to dun.
DUNNOCK. A cow.
DURIA. Fire.
DUSTMAN. Dead man. "Poor Bill is a dustman; he was a bene cove," poor
Bill is dead; he was a good man.
DUSTY. Dangerous. "Two fly-cops and a beak tumbled to us, and Bill
thought as how it was rather dusty, and so, shady was the word," two
detectives and a magistrate came upon us suddenly; Bill said it was
rather dangerous, and so we got out of sight.
E
EARTH-BATH. A grave.
EASE. To rob.
EASE THE COVE. Rob the man.
EASON. To tell.
EASY. Killed. "Make the cull easy," kill him; gag him.
EAT. To take back; to recall; to retract; to unsay.
EAVES. A hen-roost; a poultry-house.
EAVESDROPPER. A mean fellow; a petty larceny vagabond.
EDGE. Encourage; persuade; induce.
EGROTAT. He is sick.
ELBOW. Turn the corner; get out of sight.
ELBOW-SHAKER. A man that gambles with dice.
ELEPHANT. The fellow has an enormous booty, and knows not how to secrete
it. If he had less, he would be able to save more.
ELFEN. Walk light; on tiptoe.
EMPEROR. A drunken man.
ENGLISH BURGUNDY. London porter.
EQUIPT. Rich; full of money; well dressed, "The cull equipped me with a
deuce of finifs," the man gave me two five-dollar bills.
ERIFFS. Young thieves; minor rogues.
ETERNITY-BOX. A coffin.
EVERLASTING. The treadmill.
EVIL. A wife; a halter; matrimony.
EWE. An old woman dressed like a young girl, "An old ewe dressed lamb
fashion." "A white ewe," a beautiful woman.
EXECUTION-DAY. Wash-day; cleaning house.
EYE. Nonsense; humbug.
F
FACER. A glass filled so full that there is no room for the lip; a
staller, or one who places himself in the way of persons who are in hot
pursuit of his accomplices.