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.
DEVIL DRAWER. A miserable painter.
DEVIL'S DUNG. Assafoetida.
DEVIL'S GUTS. A surveyor's chain: so called by farmers,
who do not like their land should be measured by their
landlords.
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,
&c. &c.
DEUSEA VILLE. The country. Cant.
DEUSEA VILLE STAMPERS. Country carriers. Cant.
DEW BEATERS. Feet. Cant.
DEWS WINS, or DEUX WINS. Two-pence. Cant.
DEWITTED. Torn to pieces by a mob, as that great statesman
John de Wit was in Holland, anno 1672.
DIAL PLATE. The face. To alter his dial plate; to
disfigure his face.
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.
DICK. That happened in the reign of queen Dick, i. e.
never: said of any absurd old story. I am as queer as
Dick's hatband; that is, out of spirits, or don't know what
ails me.
DICKY. A woman's under-petticoat. It's all Dicky with
him; i.e. it's all over with him.
DICKED IN THE NOB. Silly. Crazed.
DICKEY. A sham shirt.
DICKEY. An ass. Roll your dickey; drive your ass. Also
a seat for servants to sit behind a carriage, when their
master drives.
TO DIDDLE. To cheat. To defraud. The cull diddled
me out of my dearee; the fellow robbed me of my sweetheart.
See Jeremy Diddler In Raising The Wind.
DIDDEYS. A woman's breasts or bubbies.
DIDDLE. Gin.
DIGGERS. Spurs. Cant.
DILBERRIES. Small pieces of excrement adhering to the
hairs near the fundament.
DILBERRY MAKER. The fundament.
DILDO. [From the Italian DILETTO, q. d. a woman's delight;
or from our word DALLY, q. d. a thing to play withal.]
Penis-succedaneus, called in Lombardy Passo Tempo. Bailey.
DILIGENT. Double diligent, like the Devil's apothecary;
said of one affectedly diligent.
DILLY. (An abbreviation of the word DILIGENCE.) A public
voiture or stage, commonly a post chaise, carrying
three persons; the name is taken from the public stage
vehicles in France and Flanders. The dillies first began
to run in England about the year 1779.
DIMBER. Pretty. A dimber cove; a pretty fellow. Dimber
mort; a pretty wench. CANT.
DIMBER DAMBER. A top man, or prince, among the canting
crew: also the chief rogue of the gang, or the completest
cheat. CANT.
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.
DING BOY. A rogue, a hector, a bully, or sharper. CANT.
DING DONG. Helter skelter, in a hasty disorderly manner.
DINGEY CHRISTIAN. A mulatto; or any one who has, as the
West-Indian term is, a lick of the tar-brush, that is, some
negro blood in him.
DINING ROOM POST. A mode of stealing in houses that
let lodgings, by rogues pretending to be postmen, who
send up sham letters to the lodgers, and, whilst waiting
in the entry for the postage, go into the first room they see
open, and rob it.
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.
THE DIP. A cook's shop, under Furnival's Inn, where many
attornies clerks, and other inferior limbs of the law, take
out the wrinkles from their bellies. DIP is also a punning
name for a tallow-chandler.
DIPPERS. Anabaptists.
DIPT. Pawned or mortgaged.
DIRTY PUZZLE. A nasty slut.
DISGUISED. Drunk.
DISGRUNTLED. Offended, disobliged.
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.
DISHCLOUT. A dirty, greasy woman. He has made a napkin
of his dishclout; a saying of one who has married his
cook maid. To pin a dishclout to a man's tail; a punishment
often threatened by the female servants in a kitchen,
to a man who pries too minutely into the secrets of that
place.
DISMAL DITTY. The psalm sung by the felons at the gallows,
just before they are turned off.
DISPATCHES. A mittimus, or justice of the peace's warrant,
for the commitment of a rogue.
DITTO. A suit of ditto; coat, waistcoat, and breeches, all
of one colour.
DISPATCHERS. Loaded or false dice.
DISTRACTED DIVISION. Husband and wife fighting.
DIVE. To dive; to pick a pocket. To dive for a dinner;
to go down into a cellar to dinner. A dive, is a thief who
stands ready to receive goods thrown out to him by a little
boy put in at a window. Cant.
DIVER. A pickpocket; also one who lives in a cellar.
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.'
TO DO OVER. Carries the same meaning, but is not so briefly
expressed: the former having received the polish of the
present times.
DOASH. A cloak. Cant.
DOBIN RIG. Stealing ribbands from haberdashers early in
the morning or late at night; generally practised by women
in the disguise of maid servants.
TO 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.
DODSEY. A woman: perhaps a corruption of Doxey. CANT.
DOG BUFFERS. Dog stealers, who kill those dogs not
advertised for, sell their skins, and feed the remaining dogs
with their flesh.
DOG IN A DOUBLET. A daring, resolute fellow. In
Germany and Flanders the boldest dogs used to hunt the boar,
having a kind of buff doublet buttoned on their bodies,
Rubens has represented several so equipped, so has Sneyders.
DOG. An old dog at it; expert or accustomed to any thing.
Dog in a manger; one who would prevent another from
enjoying what he himself does not want: an allusion to
the well-known fable. The dogs have not dined; a
common saying to any one whose shirt hangs out behind. To
dog, or dodge; to follow at a distance. To blush like a
blue dog, i.e. not at all. To walk the black dog on any
one; a punishment inflicted in the night on a fresh prisoner,
by his comrades, in case of his refusal to pay the usual
footing or garnish.
DOG LATIN. Barbarous Latin, such as was formerly used
by the lawyers in their pleadings.
DOG'S PORTION. A lick and a smell. He comes in for only
a dog's portion; a saying of one who is a distant admirer
or dangler after women. See DANGLER.
DOG'S RIG. To copulate till you are tired, and then turn
tail to it.
DOG'S SOUP. Rain water.
DOG VANE. A cockade. SEA TERM.
DOGGED. Surly.
DOGGESS, DOG'S WIFE or LADY, PUPPY'S MAMMA.
Jocular ways of calling a woman a bitch.
DOLL. Bartholomew doll; a tawdry, over-drest woman,
like one of the children's dolls at Bartholomew fair. To
mill doll; to beat hemp at Bridewell, or any other house
of correction.
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.
DOMINE DO LITTLE. An impotent old fellow.
DOMINEER. To reprove or command in an insolent or
haughty manner. Don't think as how you shall domineer
here.
DOMMERER. A beggar pretending that his tongue has been
cutout by the Algerines, or cruel and blood-thirsty Turks,
or else that he yas born deaf and dumb. Cant.
DONE, or DONE OVER. Robbed: also, convicted or hanged.
Cant.--See DO.
DONE UP. Ruined by gaming and extravagances. Modern
Term.
DONKEY, DONKEY DICK. A he, or jack ass: called donkey,
perhaps, from the Spanish or don-like gravity of
that animal, intitled also the king of Spain's trumpeter.
DOODLE. A silly fellow, or noodle: see NOODLE. Also a
child's penis. Doodle doo, or Cock a doodle doo; a
childish appellation for a cock, in imitation of its note
when crowing.
DOODLE SACK. A bagpipe. Dutch.--Also the private parts
of a woman.
DOPEY. A beggar's trull.
DOT AND GO ONE. To waddle: generally applied to persons
who have one leg shorter than the other, and who, as the
sea phrase is, go upon an uneven keel. Also a jeering
appellation for an inferior writing-master, or teacher of
arithmetic.
DOUBLE. To tip any one the double; to run away in his or
her debt.
DOUBLE JUGG. A man's backside. Cotton's Virgil.
DOVE-TAIL. A species of regular answer, which fits into
the subject, like the contrivance whence it takes its name:
Ex. Who owns this? The dovetail is, Not you by your
asking.
DOUGLAS. Roby Douglas, with one eye and a stinking
breath; the breech. Sea wit.
DOWDY. A coarse, vulgar-looking woman.
DOWN HILLS. Dice that run low.
DOWN. Aware of a thing. Knowing it. There is NO DOWN.
A cant phrase used by house-breakers to signify that the
persons belonging to any house are not on their guard,
or that they are fast asleep, and have not heard any noise
to alarm them.
TO DOWSE. To take down: as, Dowse the pendant. Dowse
your dog vane; take the cockade out of your hat. Dowse
the glim; put out the candle.
DOWSE ON THE CHOPS. A blow in the face.
DOWSER. Vulgar pronunciation of DOUCEUR.
DOXIES. She beggars, wenches, whores.
DRAB. A nasty, sluttish whore.
DRAG. To go on the drag; to follow a cart or waggon, in
order to rob it. CANT.
DRAG LAY. Waiting in the streets to rob carts or waggons.
DRAGGLETAIL or DAGGLETAIL. One whose garments are
bespattered with dag or dew: generally applied to the
female sex, to signify a slattern.
DRAGOONING IT. A man who occupies two branches of
one profession, is said to dragoon it; because, like the
soldier of that denomination, he serves in a double capacity.
Such is a physician who furnishes the medicines, and
compounds his own prescriptions.
DRAIN. Gin: so called from the diuretic qualities imputed
to that liquor.
DRAM. A glass or small measure of any spirituous liquors,
which, being originally sold by apothecaries, were estimated
by drams, ounces, &c. Dog's dram; to spit in
his mouth, and clap his back.
DRAM-A-TICK. A dram served upon credit.
DRAPER. An ale draper; an alehouse keeper.
DRAUGHT, or BILL, ON THE PUMP AT ALDGATE. A bad
or false bill of exchange. See ALDGATE.
DRAW LATCHES. Robbers of houses whose doors are
only fastened with latches. CANT.
TO DRAW. To take any thing from a pocket. To draw a
swell of a clout. To pick a gentleman's pocket of a
handkerchief. To draw the long bow; to tell lies.
DRAWERS. Stockings. CANT.
DRAWING THE KING'S PICTURE. Coining. CANT.
TO DRESS. To beat. I'll dress his hide neatly; I'll beat him
soundly.
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.
DRIPPER. A gleet.
DROMEDARY. A heavy, bungling thief or rogue. A purple
dromedary; a bungler in the art and mystery of thieving.
CANT.
DROMMERARS. See DOMMERER.
DROP. The new drop; a contrivance for executing felons at
Newgate, by means of a platform, which drops from
under them: this is also called the last drop. See LEAF.
See MORNING DROP.
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.
DROP IN THE EYE. Almost drunk.
DROPPING MEMBER. A man's yard with a gonorrhoea.
DROP COVES. Persons who practice the fraud of dropping
a ring or other article, and picking it up before the
person intended to be defrauded, they pretend that the
thing is very valuable to induce their gull to lend them
money, or to purchase the article. See FAWNY RIG,
and MONEY DROPPERS.
TO DROP DOWN. To be dispirited. This expression is
used by thieves to signify that their companion did not
die game, as the kiddy dropped down when he went to
be twisted; the young fellow was very low spirited when
he walked out to be hanged.
TO 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.
DRUNK. Drunk as a wheel-barrow. Drunk as David's
sow. See DAVID'S SOW.
DRURY LANE AGUE. The venereal disorder.
DRURY LANE VESTAL. A woman of the town, or prostitute;
Drury-lane and its environs were formerly the residence
of many of those ladies.
DRY BOB. A smart repartee: also copulation without
emission; in law Latin, siccus robertulus.
DRY BOOTS. A sly humorous fellow.
DUB. A picklock, or master-key. CANT.
DUB LAY. Robbing houses by picking the locks.
DUB THE JIGGER. Open the door. CANT.
DUB O' TH' HICK. A lick on the head.
DUBBER. A picker of locks. CANT.
DUCE. Two-pence.
DUCK. A lame duck; an Exchange-alley phrase for a
stock-jobber, who either cannot or will not pay his losses,
or, differences, in which case he is said to WADDLE OUT OF
THE ALLEY, as he cannot appear there again till his debts
are settled and paid; should he attempt it, he would be
hustled out by the fraternity.
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.
DUCK F-CK-R. The man who has the care of the poultry
on board a ship of war.
DUCK LEGS. Short legs.
DUDDERS, or WHISPERING DUDDERS. Cheats who travel
the country, pretending to sell smuggled goods: they
accost their intended dupes in a whisper. The goods
they have for sale are old shop-keepers, or damaged;
purchased by them of large manufactories. See DUFFER.
DUDDERING RAKE. A thundering rake, a buck of the
first head, one extremely lewd.
DUDGEON. Anger.
DUDS. Clothes.
DUFFERS. Cheats who ply in different parts of the town,
particularly about Water-lane, opposite St. Clement's
church, in the Strand, and pretend to deal in smuggled
goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think
they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling
them Spital-fields goods at double their current price.
DUGS. A woman's breasts,
DUKE, or RUM DUKE. A queer unaccountable fellow.
DUKE OF LIMBS. A tall, awkward, ill-made fellow.
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.
DULL SWIFT. A stupid, sluggish fellow, one long going on
an errand.
DUMB ARM. A lame arm.
DUMB-FOUNDED. Silenced, also soundly beaten.
DUMB GLUTTON. A woman's privities.
DUMB WATCH. A venereal bubo in the groin.
DUMMEE. A pocket book. A dummee hunter. A pick-pocket,
who lurks about to steal pocket books out of
gentlemen's pockets. Frisk the dummee of the screens; take
all the bank notes out of the pocket book, ding the dummee,
and bolt, they sing out beef. Throw away the pocket
book, and run off, as they call out "stop thief."
DUMPLIN. A short thick man or woman. Norfolk dumplin;
a jeering appellation of a Norfolk man, dumplins being
a favourite kind of food in that county.
DUMPS. Down in the dumps; low-spirited, melancholy:
jocularly said to be derived from Dumpos, a king of Egypt,
who died of melancholy. Dumps are also small pieces of
lead, cast by schoolboys in the shape of money.
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.
DUNAKER. A stealer of cows and calves.
DUNEGAN. A privy. A water closet.
DUNGHILL. A coward: a cockpit phrase, all but gamecocks
being styled dunghills. To die dunghill; to repent, or shew
any signs of contrition at the gallows. Moving dunghill;
a dirty, filthy man or woman. Dung, an abbreviation of
dunghill, also means a journeyman taylor who submits to
the law for regulating journeymen taylors' wages, therefore
deemed by the flints a coward. See FLINTS.
DUNNOCK. A cow. CUNT.
TO DUP. To open a door: a contraction of DO OPE or OPEN.
See DUB.
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.
DUSTMAN. A dead man: your father is a dustman.
DUTCH COMFORT. Thank God it is no worse.
DUTCH CONCERT. Where every one plays or signs a
different tune.
DUTCH FEAST. Where the entertainer gets drunk before
his guest.
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.
DIE HARD, or GAME. To die hard, is to shew no signs of
fear or contrition at the gallows; not to whiddle or squeak.
This advice is frequently given to felons going to suffer the
law, by their old comrades, anxious for the honour of the
gang.
EARNEST. A deposit in part of payment, to bind a bargain.
EARTH BATH. A Grave.
EASY. Make the cull easy or quiet; gag or kill him. As
easy as pissing the bed.
EASY VIRTUE. A lady of easy virtue: an impure or prostitute.
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.
TO EDGE. To excite, stimulate, or provoke; or as it is
vulgarly called, to egg a man on. Fall back, fall edge; i.e.
let what will happen. Some derive to egg on, from the
Latin word, AGE, AGE.
EIGHT EYES. I will knock out two of your eight eyes; a
common Billingsgate threat from one fish nymph to
another: every woman, according to the naturalists of that
society, having eight eyes; viz. two seeing eyes, two
bub-eyes, a bell-eye, two pope's eyes, and a ***-eye. He has
fallen down and trod upon his eye; said of one who has a
black eye.
ELBOW GREASE. Labour. Elbow grease will make an oak
table shine.
ELBOW ROOM. Sufficient space to act in. Out at elbows;
said of an estate that is mortgaged.
ELBOW SHAKER. A gamester, one who rattles Saint Hugh's
bones, i.e. the dice.
ELLENBOROUGH LODGE. The King's Bench Prison. Lord
Ellenborough's teeth; the chevaux de frize round the top
of the wall of that prison.
ELF. A fairy or hobgoblin, a little man or woman.
EMPEROR. Drunk as an emperor, i.e. ten times as drunk as
a lord.
ENGLISH BURGUNDY. Porter.
ENSIGN BEARER. A drunken man, who looks red in the
face, or hoists his colours in his drink.
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.
ESSEX LION. A calf; Essex being famous for calves, and
chiefly supplying the London markets.
ESSEX STILE. A ditch; a great part of Essex is low marshy
ground, in which there are more ditches than Stiles.
ETERNITY Box. A coffin.
EVES. Hen roosts.
EVE'S CUSTOM-HOUSE, where Adam made his first entry.
The monosyllable.
EVES DROPPER. One that lurks about to rob hen-roosts;
also a listener at doors and windows, to hear private
conversation.
EVIL. A halter. Cant, Also a wife.
EWE. A white ewe; a beautiful woman. An old ewe, drest
lamb fashion; an old woman, drest like a young girl.
EXECUTION DAY. Washing day.
EXPENDED. Killed: alluding to the gunner's accounts,
wherein the articles consumed are charged under the title
of expended. Sea phrase.
EYE. It's all my eye and Betty Martin. It's all nonsense, all
mere stuff.
EYE-SORE. A disagreeable object. It will be an eye-sore as
long as she lives, said by a limn whose wife was cut for a
fistula in ano.
FACE-MAKING. Begetting children. To face it out; to
persist in a falsity. No face but his own: a saying of one
who has no money in his pocket or no court cards in his
hand.
FACER. A bumper, a glass filled so full as to leave no room
for the lip. Also a violent blow on the face.
FADGE. It won't fadge; it won't do. A farthing.
TO FAG. To beat. Fag the bloss; beat the wench; Cant.
A fag also means a boy of an inferior form or class, who
acts as a servant to one of a superior, who is said to fag him,
he is my fag; whence, perhaps, fagged out, for jaded or tired.
To stand a good fag; not to be soon tired.
FAGGER. A little boy put in at a window to rob the house.
FAGGOT. A man hired at a muster to appear as a soldier.
To faggot in the canting sense, means to bind: an allusion
to the faggots made up by the woodmen, which are
all bound. Faggot the culls; bind the men.
FAITHFUL. One of the faithful; a taylor who gives long
credit. His faith has made him unwhole; i.e. trusting
too much, broke him.
FAIR. A set of subterraneous rooms in the Fleet Prison.
FAKEMENT. A counterfeit signature. A forgery. Tell
the macers to mind their fakements; desire the swindlers
to be careful not to forge another person's signature.
FALLALLS. Ornaments, chiefly women's, such as ribands,
necklaces, &c.
FALLEN AWAY FROM A HORSE LOAD TO A CART LOAD.
A saying on one grown fat.
FAMILY MAN. A thief or receiver of stolen goods.
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.
FAMS, or FAMBLES. Hands. Famble cheats; rings or
gloves. CANT.
TO FAMGRASP. To shake bands: figuratively, to agree
or make up a difference. Famgrasp the cove; shake hands
with the fellow. CANT.
FAMILY OF LOVE. Lewd women; also, a religious sect.
FANCY MAN. A man kept by a lady for secret services.
TO FAN. To beat any one. I fanned him sweetly; I beat
him heartily.
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 a-se with a fart: said by a person troubled
with a looseness.
FART CATCHER. A valet or footman from his walking
behind his master or mistress.
FARTING CRACKERS. Breeches.
FARTLEBERRIES. Excrement hanging about the anus.
FASTNER. A warrant.
FASTNESSES. Bogs.
FAT. The last landed, inned, or stowed, of any sort of
merchandise: so called by the water-side porters, carmen, &c.
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.
AS FAT AS A HEN IN THE FOREHEAD. A saying of a meagre person.
FAT CULL. A rich fellow.
FAT HEADED. Stupid.
FAULKNER. A tumbler, juggler, or shewer of tricks; perhaps
because they lure the people, as a faulconer does his
hawks. CANT.
FAYTORS, or FATORS. Fortune tellers.
FAWNEY RIG. A common fraud, thus practised: A fellow
drops a brass ring, double gilt, which he picks up before
the party meant to be cheated, and to whom he disposes
of it for less than its supposed, and ten times more than
its real, value. See MONEY DROPPER.
FAWNEY. A ring.
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.
FEAK. The fundament.
To FEATHER ONE'S NEST. To enrich one's self.
FEATHER-BED LANE. A rough or stony lane.
FEE, FAW, FUM. Nonsensical words, supposed in childish
story-books to be spoken by giants. I am not to be frighted
by fee, faw, fum; I am not to be scared by nonsense.
FEEDER. A spoon. To nab the feeder; to steal a spoon.
FEET. To make feet for children's stockings; to beget
children. An officer of feet; a jocular title for an officer
of infantry.
FEINT. A sham attack on one part, when a real one is meant
at another.
FELLOW COMMONER. An empty bottle: so called at the
university of Cambridge, where fellow commoners are
not in general considered as over full of learning. At
Oxford an empty bottle is called a gentleman commoner
for the same reason. They pay at Cambridge 250 l. a year
for the privilege of wearing a gold or silver tassel to their
caps. The younger branches of the nobility have the
privilege of wearing a hat, and from thence are denominated HAT
FELLOW COMMONERS.
FEN. A bawd, or common prostitute. CANT.
TO FENCE. To pawn or sell to a receiver of stolen goods.
The kiddey fenced his thimble for three quids; the young
fellow pawned his watch for three guineas. To fence
invariably means to pawn or sell goods to a receiver.
FENCING KEN. The magazine, or warehouse, where
stolen goods are secreted.
FERME. A hole. CANT.
FERMERDY BEGGARS. All those who have not the sham
sores or clymes.
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 CLAYMORE.
FERRET. A tradesman who sells goods to young unthrift
heirs, at excessive rates, and then continually duns them
for the debt. To ferret; to search out or expel any one
from his hiding-place, as a ferret drives out rabbits; also
to cheat. Ferret-eyed; red-eyed: ferrets have red eyes.
FETCH. A trick, wheedle, or invention to deceive.
FEUTERER. A dog-keeper: from the French vautrier, or
vaultrier, one that leads a lime hound for the chase.
TO FIB. To beat. Fib the cove's quarron in the rumpad
for the lour in his bung; beat the fellow in the highway
for the money in his purse. CANT.--A fib is also a tiny lie.
FICE, or FOYSE. A small windy escape backwards, more
obvious to the nose than ears; frequently by old ladies
charged on their lap-dogs. See FIZZLE.
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.
FIDDLE FADDLE. Trifling discourse, nonsense. A mere
fiddle faddle fellow; a trifier.
FIDDLESTICK'S END. Nothing; the end of the ancient
fiddlesticks ending in a point; hence metaphorically used
to express a thing terminating in nothing.
FIDGETS. He has got the fidgets; said of one that cannot
sit long in a place.
FIDLAM BEN. General thieves; called also St. Peter's sons,
having every finger a fish-hook. CANT.
FIDDLERS MONEY. All sixpences: sixpence being the
usual sum paid by each couple, for music at country
wakes and hops. Fiddler's fare; meat, drink, and money.
Fiddler's pay; thanks and wine.
FIELD LANE DUCK. A baked sheep's head.
FIERI FACIAS. A red-faced man is said to have been served
with a writ of fieri facias.
FIGDEAN. To kill.
FIGGER. A little boy put in at a window to hand out
goods to the diver. See DIVER.
FIGGING LAW. The art of picking pockets. CANT.
FIGURE DANCER. One who alters figures on bank notes,
converting tens to hundreds.
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. CANT.
FIN. An arm. A one finned fellow; a man who has lost
an arm. SEA PHRASE.
FINE. Fine as five pence. Fine as a cow-t--d stuck with
primroses.
FINE. A man imprisoned for any offence. A fine of eighty-four
months; a transportation for seven years.
FINGER IN EYE. To put finger in eye; to weep: commonly
applied to women. The more you cry the less
you'll p-ss; a consolatory speech used by sailors to their
doxies. It is as great a pity to see a woman cry, as to
see a goose walk barefoot; another of the same kind.
FINGER POST. A parson: so called, because he points out
a way to others which he never goes himself. Like the
finger post, he points out a way he has never been, and
probably will never go, i.e. the way to heaven.
FINISH. The finish; a small coffee-house in Coven Garden,
market, opposite Russel-street, open very early in the
morning, and therefore resorted to by debauchees shut out
of every other house: it is also called Carpenter's coffee-house.
FIRING A GUN. Introducing a story by head and shoulders.
A man wanting to tell a particular story, said to the
company, Hark! did you not hear a gun?--but now we are
talking of a gun, I will tell you the story of one.
TO FIRE A SLUG. To drink a dram.
FIRE PRIGGERS. Villains who rob at fires under pretence
of assisting in removing the goods.
FIRE SHIP. A wench who has the venereal disease.
FIRE SHOVEL. He or she when young, was fed with a fire
shovel; a saying of persons with wide mouths.
FISH. A seaman. A scaly fish; a rough, blunt tar. To
have other fish to fry; to have other matters to mind,
something else to do.
FIT. Suitable. It won't fit; It will not suit or do.
FIVE SHILLINGS. The sign of five shillings, i.e. the crown.
Fifteen shillings; the sign of the three crowns.
FIZZLE. An escape backward,
FLABAGASTED. Confounded.
FLABBY. Relaxed, flaccid, not firm or solid.
FLAG. A groat. CANT.--The flag of defiance, or bloody flag
is out; signifying the man is drunk, and alluding to the
redness of his face. SEA PHRASE.
FLAM. A lie, or sham story: also a single stroke on a drum.
To flam; to hum, to amuse, to deceive. Flim flams; idle
stories.
FLAP DRAGON. A clap, or pox.
To FLARE. To blaze, shine or glare.
FLASH. Knowing. Understanding another's meaning. The
swell was flash, so I could not draw his fogle. The
gentleman saw what I was about, and therefore I could not
pick his pocket of his silk handkerchief. To patter flash,
to speak the slang language. See PATTER.
FLASH PANNEYS. Houses to which thieves and prostitutes
resort.
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).