OAF. A silly fellow.
OAFISH. Simple.
OAK. Strong; rich; good reputation.
OAK TOWEL. An oaken cudgel.
OAR. Meddle with.
OCCUPY. To wear. "The cove occupies the oaf's benjamin," the fellow
wears the silly man's coat.
OCHIVES. Bone-handled knives.
OCHRE. Money.
OFFICE. Information conveyed by a look, word, or in any way by which the
person receiving it is intelligibly impressed. "The cove tipped the
office, and I was fly to the cop," the fellow gave me the hint, and then
I knew it was a policeman.
OFFICING. Signalizing; a preconcerted signal by a confederate.
OGLE THE COVE. Look at the fellow.
OGLES. The eyes.
OIL OF BARLEY. Strong beer.
OLD. Death.
OLD DOSS. The Tombs.
OLD ONE. The Devil.
OLD POGER. The Devil.
OLD SHOE. Good Luck.
OLD TOAST. A smart old man.
OLIVER. The moon.
OLIVER'S SKULL. A chamber-pot.
OLLI COMPOLLI. The chief rogue; a very smart thief.
ON A STRING. To send a person to look for something that you are sure is
in some other place, is putting him on a string, or humbugging, fooling
him.
ON HIS MUSCLE. "The fellow travels on his muscle," he presumes on his
abilities to fight.
ON IT. "On the cross," getting a living by other than honest means.
ON THE MACE. Ready to cheat; cheating for a living; a professional
cheat.
ON THE MUSCLE. On the fight; a fighter; a pugilist.
ON THE SHALLOW. Half-naked.
ON THE SHARP. Persons who are well acquainted with the mysteries of
gaming, and therefore not easily cheated.
OPTIME. Class. "He's optime No. one as a screwsman," he is a first-class
burglar.
ORACLE. To plan a robbery or any kind of deceit.
ORGAN. Pipe. "Will you lush and cock an organ with me, my bene cove?"
will you drink and smoke a pipe with me, my good fellow?
OSTLER. House thief.
OTTOMISED. To be dissected. "The bene cove was scragged, ottomised, and
put in a glass case for oafs to ogle," the good fellow was hung,
dissected, and put in a glass case for fools to gaze at.
OTTOMY. A skeleton.
OUT-AND-OUT. A spree; a frolic.
OUT-AND-OUTER. Distinguished; first-class.
OUTS. Ex-officers.
OUTSIDE PAL. The thief that watches outside when his confederates are
working within.
OUTSIDE PLANT. A sly place in which the receiver generally keep his
goods after purchasing.
OUTSIDER. Not in the secret; not of our party.
OVEN. A large mouth. "The bloke should be a baker--twig his oven," the
man should be a baker--look at his big mouth.
OWLERS. Smugglers.
OWLS. Women who walk the streets only at night.
P
PACKET. A false report.
PAD. A street; highway, "To go on the pad," to go on the street.
PAD THE HOOF. Walk the street; to be off.
PADDING KEN. A lodging-house.
PAIR OF WINGS. A pair of oars.
PAL. A companion; the partner of a thief.
PALAVER. Talk; flattery; conference.
PALLIARDS. Female mendicants who beg with a number of children,
borrowing from others of the same fraternity if they have not enough of
their own, giving an opiate to one to make it sleep, pinching and
sticking pins into another to make it cry, and making artificial sores
on the arms, hands, and face of a third, all to move the hand of the
benevolent from their purses to the outstretched hand of the beggar.
PALLING IN. A connection formed by a male and female thief to steal and
sleep together.
PALM. To fee or bribe.
PALMER. A thief that adroitly slips jewelry from the top of a show-case
into his pocket.
PAM. A knave.
PANEL-CRIB. A place especially and ingeniously fitted up for the robbery
of gentlemen who are enticed thereto by women who make it their business
to pick up strangers. Panel-cribs are sometimes called badger-cribs,
shakedowns, touch-cribs, and are variously fitted for the admission of
those who are in the secret, but which defy the scrutiny of the
uninitiated. Sometimes the casing of the door is made to swing on
well-oiled hinges which are not discoverable in the room, while the door
itself appears to be hung in the usual manner, and well secured by bolts
and lock. At other times the entrance is effected by means of what
appears to be an ordinary wardrobe, the back of which revolves like a
turn-style on pivots in the middle above and below. When the victim has
undressed himself and got into bed with the woman, the thief enters, and
picking the pocket-book out of the pocket, abstracts the money, and
supplying its place with a small roll of paper, returns the book to its
place. He then withdraws, and coming to the door raps and demands
admission, calling the woman by the name of wife. The frightened victim,
springing out of bed, dresses himself in a hurry, feels his pocket-book
in its proper place, and escapes through another other door,
congratulating himself on his happy deliverance. He soon, however, finds
out that he has been victimized, and not unfrequently tells the story of
his loss and shame to the police; while others, minus their cash, pocket
the dear-bought experience.
PANEL-THIEF. One who fits up a place for the purpose of robbing men that
are brought to the panel-crib by women who are trained to pick up
gentlemen that are on a visit to the city on business or pleasure. They
endeavor to select those who are not likely to remain and prosecute the
thieves that have robbed and duped them of their money.
PANNAM. Bread.
PANNY. A house. "The cove done the panny," the fellow robbed the house;
"the cops frisked my panny and nailed my screws," the officers searched
my house and seized my picklocks, or false keys.
PANTER. The heart. "The lead reached the poor cove's panter, and so
there was nothing to be done but to give him a ground sweat," the bullet
entered the poor fellow's heart, and all that we had then to do was to
put him in the grave.
PANZY. A burglar.
PAP LAP. An infant. "He is but a pap lap," he is but a baby.
PAPER-SKULL. A thin-skulled fellow.
PARCHMENT. A ticket of leave. "The cove has his parchment," the man has
his ticket of leave.
PARCHMENT COVES. Ticket-of-leave men.
PARELL. To make clear.
PARK RAILING. The teeth.
PARNEY. A ring.
PARSON. A guide-post.
PARTIAL. Putting one's hand into another man's pocket; stealing.
PASH. Price; cost.
PATE. The head.
PATRICO. One who in olden time used to marry persons by placing the man
on the right hand side and the woman on the left side of a dead animal.
Causing them to join hands, he commanded them to live together till
death did them part, and so, shaking hands, the wedding was ended.
PATTER. To talk. "How the Moll lushes her jockey and patters," how the
girl drinks her gin and talks.
PATTERED. Tried in a court of justice. "The wire was pattered for
drawing a skin from a bloke's poke, who buffed him home, and of course
his godfathers named him, and the beak slung him for five stretchers and
a moon," the pickpocket was tried for stealing a purse from the man's
pocket, who caught him in the act, and of course the jury convicted him,
and the judge sentenced him for five years and a month.
[Illustration]
PAUM. To conceal in the hand. "To paum pennyweights" to steal rings or
any kind of jewelry by working it with the fingers under the palm of the
hand, and then up the sleeve or into a pocket. These fellows are called
paum-coves.