NIDERING. Bad; without mitigation of any kind.
NIG. To clip.
NIL. Nothing.
NIM. To steal.
NIMENOG. A very silly fellow.
NIPPER-KIN. A tumbler; a drinking vessel.
NIPPERED. Turning a key in the inside of a door, from the outside, with
a peculiar pair of forceps or nippers. Hotel-thieves use nippers to
enter rooms after the inmates have gone to sleep.
NIPPERS. An instrument for turning a key on the outside of the door,
used by hotel-thieves.
NIQUE. Contempt; don't care.
NISH. Keep quiet; be still.
NIX. Nothing.
NOB. One who stands at the head; a king; a man of rank.
NOBLERS. Confederates of thimble-riggers, who appear to play, to induce
the flats to try their luck with the "little joker."
NOCKY BOY. A simpleton.
NOD. Asleep. "Gone to the land of Nod," gone to sleep.
NODDLE. An empty-pated fellow; a fool; the head of an animal.
NONSENSE. Melting butter in a wig.
NOOSED. Married.
NOPE. A blow.
NOSE. A spy; one who informs. "His pal nosed, and the bene cove was
pulled for a crack," his partner informed against him, and the good
fellow was arrested for burglary.
NOSEMY. Tobacco.
NOTCH. A pocket.
NOTE. A singer.
NOUSE-BOX. The head.
NOZZLE. A chimney.
NUB. The neck.
NUBBING. Hanging.
NUBIBUS. In the clouds. "Blow a nubibus," make a smoke.
NUG. Dear. "My nug," my dear.
NULL. To flog.
NUMS. Sham; not real.
NYPPER. A cut-purse, so called by a person named Wotton, who in the year
1585, kept in London an academy for the education and perfection of
rogues in the art of abstracting purses and pocket-books. At that period
persons wore their purses at their girdles. Cutting them was a branch of
the light-fingered art, which is now out of use, though the name
remains. Instruction in the practice of this art was given as follows: A
purse and a pocket were separately suspended, attached to which, both
around and above them, were small bells; each contained counters, and he
who could withdraw a counter without causing any of the bells to ring,
was adjudged to be a "Nypper." A nypper was a pick-purse; a pick-pocket
was called a "Foyster."
O
O YES. To cry out. "The O yes of beef was rushing out of his oven like
steam from a bull," the cry of stop thief was rushing out of his big
mouth like steam from a locomotive.