FLASH. A periwig. Rum flash; a fine long wig. Queer
flash; a miserable weather-beaten caxon.
To FLASH. To shew ostentatiously. To flash one's ivory;
to laugh and shew one's teeth. Don't flash your ivory, but
shut your potatoe trap, and keep your guts warm; the
Devil loves hot tripes.
To FLASH THE HASH. To vomit. CANT.
FLASH KEN. A house that harbours thieves.
FLASH LINGO. The canting or slang language.
FLASH MAN. A bully to a bawdy house. A whore's bully.
FLAT. A bubble, gull, or silly fellow.
FLAT COCK. A female.
FLAWD. Drunk.
FLAYBOTTOMIST. A bum-brusher, or schoolmaster.
To FLAY, or FLEA, THE FOX. To vomit.
FLEA BITE. A trifling injury. To send any one away with
a flea in his ear; to give any one a hearty scolding.
To FLEECE. To rob, cheat, or plunder.
FLEMISH ACCOUNT. A losing, or bad account.
FLESH BROKER. A match-maker, a bawd.
FLICKER. A drinking glass. CANT.
FLICKERING. Grinning or laughing in a man's face.
FLICKING. Cutting. Flick me some panam and caffan;
cut me some bread and cheese. Flick the peter; cut off
the cloak-bag, or portmanteau.
To FLING. To trick or cheat. He flung me fairly out of it:
he cheated me out of it.
FLINTS. Journeymen taylors, who on a late occasion refused
to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted,
were by the mutineers styled dungs, i.e. dunghills.
FLIP. Small beer, brandy, and sugar: this mixture, with
the addition of a lemon, was by sailors, formerly called Sir
Cloudsly, in memory of Sir Cloudsly Shovel, who used
frequently to regale himself with it.
FLOATING ACADEMY. See CAMPBELL'S ACADEMY.
FLOATING HELL. The hulks.
TO FLOG. To whip.
FLOGGER. A horsewhip. CANT.
FLOGGING CULLY. A debilitated lecher, commonly an old
one.
FLOGGING COVE. The beadle, or whipper, in Bridewell.
FLOGGING STAKE. The whipping-post.
TO FLOOR. To knock down. Floor the pig; knock down
the officer.
FLOURISH. To take a flourish; to enjoy a woman in a hasty
manner, to take a flyer. See FLYER.
TO FLOUT. To jeer, to ridicule.
FLUMMERY. Oatmeal and water boiled to a jelly; also
compliments, neither of which are over-nourishing.
FLUSH IN THE POCKET. Full of money. The cull is
flush in the fob. The fellow is full of money.
FLUSTERED. Drunk.
FLUTE. The recorder of a corporation; a recorder was an
antient musical instrument.
TO FLUX. To cheat, cozen, or over-reach; also to salivate.
To flux a wig; to put it up in curl, and bake it.
FLY. Knowing. Acquainted with another's meaning or
proceeding. The rattling cove is fly; the coachman
knows what we are about.
FLY. A waggon. CANT.
FLY-BY-NIGHT. You old fly-by-night; an ancient term of
reproach to an old woman, signifying that she was a witch,
and alluding to the nocturnal excursions attributed to
witches, who were supposed to fly abroad to their
meetings, mounted on brooms.
FLY SLICERS. Life-guard men, from their sitting on
horseback, under an arch, where they are frequently observed
to drive away flies with their swords.
FLYER. To take a flyer; to enjoy a woman with her
clothes on, or without going to bed.
FLYERS. Shoes.
FLY-FLAPPED. Whipt in the stocks, or at the cart's tail.
FLYING CAMPS. Beggars plying in a body at funerals.
FLYING GIGGERS. Turnpike gates.
FLYING HOUSE. A lock in wrestling, by which he who
uses it throws his adversary over his head.
FLYING PASTY. Sirreverence wrapped in paper and
thrown over a neighbour's wall.
FLYING PORTERS. Cheats who obtain money by pretending
to persons who have been lately robbed, that they
may come from a place or party where, and from whom,
they may receive information respecting the goods stolen
from them, and demand payment as porters.
FLYING STATIONERS. Ballad-singers and hawkers of penny
histories.
FLYMSEY. A bank note.
FOB. A cheat, trick, or contrivance, I will not be fobbed off
so; I will not be thus deceived with false pretences. The
fob is also a small breeches pocket for holding a watch.
FOG. Smoke. CANT.
FOGEY. Old Fogey. A nickname for an invalid soldier:
derived from the French word fougeux, fierce or fiery.
FOGLE. A silk handkerchief,
FOGRAM. An old fogram; a fusty old fellow.
FOGUS. Tobacco. Tip me a gage of fogus; give me a
pipe of tobacco. CANT.
FOOL. A fool at the end of a stick; a fool at one end, and
a maggot at the other; gibes on an angler.
FOOL FINDER. A bailiff.
FOOLISH. An expression among impures, signifying the
cully who pays, in opposition to a flash man. Is he
foolish or flash?
FOOT PADS, or LOW PADS. Rogues who rob on foot.
FOOT WABBLER. A contemptuous appellation for a foot
soldier, commonly used by the cavalry.
FOOTMAN'S MAWND. An artificial sore made with unslaked
lime, soap, and the rust of old iron, on the back
of a beggar's hand, as if hurt by the bite or kick of a horse.
FOOTY DESPICABLE. A footy fellow, a despicable fellow;
from the French foutue.
FOREFOOT, or PAW. Give us your fore foot; give us your hand.
FOREMAN OF THE JURY. One who engrosses all the talk
to himself, or speaks for the rest of the company.
FORK. A pickpocket. Let us fork him; let us pick his
pocket.--'The newest and most dexterous way, which is,
to thrust the fingers strait, stiff, open, and very quick,
into the pocket, and so closing them, hook what can
be held between them.' N.B. This was taken from a
book written many years ago: doubtless the art of picking
pockets, like all others, must have been much improved
since that time.
FORLORN HOPE. A gamester's last stake.
FORTUNE HUNTERS. Indigent men, seeking to enrich
themselves by marrying a woman of fortune.
FORTUNE TELLER, or CUNNING MAN. A judge, who tells
every prisoner his fortune, lot or doom. To go before the
fortune teller, lambskin men, or conjuror; to be tried at
an assize. See LAMBSKIN MEN.
FOUL. To foul a plate with a man, to take a dinner with him.
FOUL-MOUTHED. Abusive.
FOUNDLING. A child dropped in the streets, and found, and
educated at the parish expence.
FOUSIL. The name of a public house, where the
Eccentrics assemble in May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane.
Fox. A sharp, cunning fellow. Also an old term for a
sword, probably a rusty one, or else from its being dyed red
with blood; some say this name alluded to certain swords
of remarkable good temper, or metal, marked with the
figure of a fox, probably the sign, or rebus, of the maker.
FOX'S PAW. The vulgar pronunciation of the French
words faux pas. He made a confounded fox's paw.
FOXED. Intoxicated.
FOXEY. Rank. Stinking.
FOXING A BOOT. Mending the foot by capping it.
FOYST. A pickpocket, cheat, or rogue. See WOTTON'S GANG.
TO FOYST. To pick a pocket.
FOYSTED IN. Words or passages surreptitiously interpolated
or inserted into a book or writing.
FRATERS. Vagabonds who beg with sham patents, or briefs,
for hospitals, fires, inundations, &c.
FREE. Free of fumblers hall; a saying of one who cannot
get his wife with child.
FREE AND EASY JOHNS. A society which meet at the Hole
in the Wall, Fleet-street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.
FREE BOOTERS. Lawless robbers and plunderers: originally
soldiers who served without pay, for the privilege of
plundering the enemy.
FREEHOLDER. He whose wife accompanies him to the alehouse.
FREEMAN'S QUAY. Free of expence. To lush at Freeman's
Quay; to drink at another's cost.
FREEZE. A thin, small, hard cider, much used by vintners
and coopers in parting their wines, to lower the price of
them, and to advance their gain. A freezing vintner; a
vintner who balderdashes his wine.
FRENCH CREAM. Brandy; so called by the old tabbies
and dowagers when drank in their tea.
FRENCH DISEASE. The venereal disease, said to have been
imported from France. French gout; the same. He suffered
by a blow over the snout with a French faggot-stick;
i.e. he lost his nose by the pox.
FRENCH LEAVE. To take French leave; to go off without
taking leave of the company: a saying frequently applied
to persons who have run away from their creditors.
FRENCHIFIED. Infected with the venereal disease. The
mort is Frenchified: the wench is infected.
FRESH MILK. Cambridge new comers to the university.
FRESHMAN. One just entered a member of the university.
FRIBBLE. An effeminate fop; a name borrowed from a
celebrated character of that kind, in the farce of Miss in her
Teens, written by Mr. Garrick.
FRIDAY-FACE. A dismal countenance. Before, and even
long after the Reformation, Friday was a day of abstinence,
or jour maigre. Immediately after the restoration of king
Charles II. a proclamation was issued, prohibiting all
publicans from dressing any suppers on a Friday.
TO FRIG. Figuratively used for trifling.
FRIG PIG. A trifling, fiddle-faddle fellow.
FRIGATE. A well-rigged frigate; a well-dressed wench.
FRISK. To dance the Paddington frisk; to be hanged.
TO FRISK. Used by thieves to signify searching a person
whom they have robbed. Blast his eyes! frisk him.
FROE, or VROE, A woman, wife, or mistress. Brush to your
froe, or bloss, and wheedle for crop; run to your mistress,
and sooth and coax her out of some money. DUTCH.
FROGLANDER. A Dutchman.
FROSTY FACE. One pitted with the small pox.
FROG'S WINE. Gin.
FRUITFUL VINE. A woman's private parts, i.e. that has
FLOWERS every month, and bears fruit in nine months.
FRUMMAGEMMED. Choaked, strangled, suffocated, or
hanged. CANT.
FUBSEY. Plump. A fubsey wench; a plump, healthy
wench.
FUDDLE. Drunk. This is rum fuddle; this is excellent
tipple, or drink. Fuddle; drunk. Fuddle cap; a drunkard.
FUDGE. Nonsense.
FULHAMS. Loaded dice are called high and lowmen, or
high and low fulhams, by Ben Jonson and other writers of
his time; either because they were made at Fulham, or from
that place being the resort of sharpers.
FULL OF EMPTINESS. Jocular term for empty.
FULL MARCH. The Scotch greys are in full march by the
crown office; the lice are crawling down his head.
FUMBLER. An old or impotent man. To fumble, also
means to go awkwardly about any work, or manual
operation.
FUN. A cheat, or trick. Do you think to fun me out of
it? Do you think to cheat me?--Also the breech, perhaps
from being the abbreviation of fundament. I'll kick your
fun. CANT.
TO FUNK. To use an unfair motion of the hand in plumping
at taw. SCHOOLBOY'S TERM.
FUNK. To smoke; figuratively, to smoke or stink through
fear. I was in a cursed funk. To funk the cobler; a
schoolboy's trick, performed with assafoettida and cotton,
which are stuffed into a pipe: the cotton being lighted, and the
bowl of the pipe covered with a coarse handkerchief, the
smoke is blown out at the small end, through the crannies
of a cobler's stall.
FURMEN. Aldermen.
FURMITY, or FROMENTY. Wheat boiled up to a jelly. To
simper like a furmity kettle: to smile, or look merry about
the gills.
FUSS. A confusion, a hurry, an unnecessary to do about
trifles.
FUSSOCK. A lazy fat woman. An old fussock; a frowsy
old woman.
FUSTIAN. Bombast language. Red fustian; port wine.
FUSTY LUGGS. A beastly, sluttish woman.
TO FUZZ. To shuffle cards minutely: also, to change the
pack.
GAB, or GOB. The mouth. Gift of the gab; a facility
of speech, nimble tongued eloquence. To blow the gab;
to confess, or peach.
GAB, or GOB, STRING. A bridle.
GABBY. A foolish fellow.
GAD-SO. An exclamation said to be derived from the
Italian word cazzo.
GAFF. A fair. The drop coves maced the joskins at the
gaff; the ring-droppers cheated the countryman at the fair.
TO GAFF. To game by tossing up halfpence.
GAG. An instrument used chiefly by housebreakers and
thieves, for propping open the mouth of a person robbed,
thereby to prevent his calling out for assistance.
GAGE. A quart pot, or a pint; also a pipe. CANT.
GAGE, or FOGUS. A pipe of tobacco.
GAGGERS. High and Low. Cheats, who by sham
pretences, and wonderful stories of their sufferings, impose on
the credulity of well meaning people. See RUM GAGGER.
GALIMAUFREY. A hodgepodge made up of the remnants
and scraps of the larder.
GALL. His gall is not yet broken; a saying used in prisons
of a man just brought in, who appears dejected.
GALLEY. Building the galley; a game formerly used at
sea, in order to put a trick upon a landsman, or fresh-water
sailor. It being agreed to play at that game, one
sailor personates the builder, and another the merchant or
contractor: the builder first begins by laying the keel,
which consists of a number of men laid all along on their
backs, one after another, that is, head to foot; he next
puts in the ribs or knees, by making a number of men sit
feet to feet, at right angles to, and on each side of, the
keel: he now fixing on the person intended to be the object
of the joke, observes he is a fierce-looking fellow,
and fit for the lion; he accordingly places him at the head,
his arms being held or locked in by the two persons next
to him, representing the ribs. After several other
dispositions, the builder delivers over the galley to the
contractor as complete: but he, among other faults and
objections, observes the lion is not gilt, on which the builder
or one of his assistants, runs to the head, and dipping a
mop in the excrement, thrusts it into the face of the lion.
GALLEY FOIST. A city barge, used formerly on the lord
mayor's day, when he was sworn in at Westminster.
GALLIED. Hurried, vexed, over-fatigued, perhaps like a
galley slave.
GALLIGASKINS. Breeches.
GALLIPOT. A nick namefor an apothecary,
GALLORE, or GOLORE. Plenty.
GALLOPER. A blood horse. A hunter. The toby gill clapped his
bleeders to his galloper and tipped the straps the
double. The highwayman spurred his horse and got
away from the officers.
GALLOWS BIRD. A grief, or pickpocket; also one that
associates with them.
GAMES. Thin, ill-shapped legs: a corruption of the French
word jambes. Fancy gambs; sore or swelled legs.
GAMBADOES. Leathern cases of stiff leather, used in
Devonshire instead of boots; they are fastened to the saddle,
and admit the leg, shoe and all: the name was at first
jocularly given.
GAMBLER. A sharper, of tricking, gamester.
GAME. Any mode of robbing. The toby is now a queer
game; to rob on the highway is now a bad mode of
acting. This observation is frequently made by thieves;
the roads being now so well guarded by the horse patrole;
and gentlemen travel with little cash in their pockets.
GAME. Bubbles or pigeons drawn in to be cheated. Also,
at bawdy-houses, lewd women. Mother have you any
game; mother, have you any girls? To die game; to
suffer at the gallows without shewing any signs of fear or
repentance. Game pullet; a young whore, or forward
girl in the way of becoming one.
GAMON. To humbug. To deceive, To tell lies. What
rum gamon the old file pitched to the flat; how finely the
knowing old fellow humbugged the fool.
GAMON AND PATTER. Common place talk of any
profession; as the gamon and patter of a horse-dealer, sailor,
&c.
GAN. The mouth or lips. Cant.
GANDER MONTH. That month in which a man's wife-lies
in: wherefore, during that time, husbands plead a sort of
indulgence in matters of gallantry.
GANG. A company of men, a body of sailors, a knot of
thieves, pickpockets, &c. A gang of sheep trotters; the
four feet of a sheep.
GAOLER'S COACH. A hurdle: traitors being usually
conveyed from the gaol, to the place of execution, on a
hurdle or sledge.
GAP STOPPER. A whoremaster.
GAPESEED. Sights; any thing to feed the eye. I am come
abroad for a little gapeseed.
GARNISH. An entrance fee demanded by the old prisoners
of one just committed to gaol.
GARRET, or UPPER STORY. The head. His garret, or
upper story, is empty, or unfurnished; i.e. he has no
brains, he is a fool.
GARRET ELECTION. A ludicrous ceremony, practised every
new parliament: it consists of a mock election of two
members to represent the borough of Garret (a few
straggling cottages near Wandsworth in Surry); the
qualification of a voter is, having enjoyed a woman in the open
air within that district: the candidates are commonly fellows
of low humour, who dress themselves up in a ridiculous
manner. As this brings a prodigious concourse of
people to Wandsworth, the publicans of that place jointly
contribute to the expence, which is sometimes considerable.
GAWKEY. A tall, thin, awkward young man or woman.
GAYING INSTRUMENT. The penis.
GAZEBO. An elevated observatory or summer-house.
GEE. It won't gee; it won't hit or do, it does not suit or
fit.
GELDING. An eunuch.
GELT. Money, GERMAN.--Also, castrated.
GENTLE CRAFT. The art of shoemaking. One of the gentle
craft: a shoemaker: so called because once practised
by St. Crispin.
GENTLEMAN COMMONER. An empty bottle; an university
joke, gentlemen commoners not being deemed over full
of learning.
GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION. A louse.
GENTLEMAN'S MASTER. A highway robber, because he
makes a gentleman obey his commands, i.e. stand and deliver.
GENTLEMAN OF THREE INS. In debt, in gaol, and in danger
of remaining there for life: or, in gaol, indicted, and
in danger of being hanged in chains.
GENTLEMAN OF THREE OUTS. That is, without money,
without wit, and without manners: some add another
out, i.e. without credit.
GENTRY COVE. A gentleman. CANT.
GENTRY COVE KEN. A gentleman's house. CANT.
GENTRY MORT. A gentlewoman.
GEORGE. Yellow George; a guinea. Brown George: an
ammunition loaf.
GERMAN DUCK. Haifa sheep's head boiled with onions.
GET. One of his get; one of his offspring, or begetting.
GIB CAT. A northern name for a he cat, there commonly
called Gilbert. As melancholy as a gib cat; as melancholy
as a he cat who has been caterwauling, whence they
always return scratched, hungry, and out of spirits.
Aristotle says, Omne animal post coitum est triste; to which an
anonymous author has given the following exception,
preter gallum gallinaceum, et sucerdotem gratis fornicantem.
GIBBERISH. The cant language of thieves and gypsies,
called Pedlars' French, and St. Giles's Greek: see ST.
GILES'S GREEK. Also the mystic language of Geber,
used by chymists. Gibberish likewise means a sort of
disguised language, formed by inserting any consonant
between each syllable of an English word; in which case it
is called the gibberish of the letter inserted: if F, it is the
F gibberish; if G, the G gibberish; as in the sentence
How do you do? Howg dog youg dog.
GIBBE. A horse that shrinks from the collar and will not
draw.
GIBLETS. To join giblets; said of a man and woman who
cohabit as husband and wife, without being married;
also to copulate.
GIBSON, or SIR JOHN GIBBON, A two-legged stool, used to
support the body of a coach whilst finishing.
GIFTS. Small white specks under the finger nails, said to
portend gifts or presents. A stingy man is said to be
as full of gifts as a brazen horse of his farts.
GIFT OF THE GAB. A facility of speech.
GIGG. A nose. Snitchel his gigg; fillip his nose. Grunter's
gigg; a hog's snout. Gigg is also a high one-horse
chaise, and a woman's privities. To gigg a Smithfield
hank; to hamstring an over-drove ox, vulgarly called a
mad bullock.
GIGGER. A latch, or door. Dub the gigger; open the
door. Gigger dubber; the turnkey of a jaol.
To GIGGLE. To suppress a laugh. Gigglers; wanton women.
GILES'S or ST. GILES'S BREED. Fat, ragged, and saucy;
Newton and Dyot streets, the grand head-quarters-of most
of the thieves and pickpockets about London, are in St. Giles's
Giles's parish. St. Giles's Greek; the cant language,
called also Slang, Pedlars' French, and Flash.
GILFLURT. A proud minks, a vain capricious woman,
GILL. The abbreviation of Gillian, figuratively used for
woman. Every jack has his gill; i.e. every jack has his
gillian, or female mate.
GILLS. The cheeks. To look rosy about the gills; to have
a fresh complexion. To look merry about the gills: to
appear cheerful.
GILLY GAUPUS. A Scotch term for a tall awkward
fellow.
GILT, or RUM DUBBER. A thief who picks locks, so called
from the gilt or picklock key: many of them are so
expert, that, from the lock of a church door to that of
the smallest cabinet, they will find means to open it;
these go into reputable public houses, where, pretending
business, they contrive to get into private rooms, up
stairs, where they open any bureaus or trunks they happen
to find there.
GIMBLET-EYED. Squinting, either in man or woman.
GIMCRACK, or JIMCRACK. A spruce wench; a gimcrack
also means a person who has a turn for mechanical
contrivances.
GIN SPINNER. A distiller.
GINGAMBOBS. Toys, bawbles; also a man's privities. See
THINGAMBOBS.
GINGER-PATED, or GINGER-HACKLED. Red haired: a
term borrowed from the cockpit, where red cocks are
called gingers,
GINGERBREAD. A cake made of treacle, flour, and grated
ginger; also money. He has the gingerbread; he is
rich.
GINGERBREAD WORK. Gilding and carving: these terms
are particularly applied by seamen on board Newcastle
colliers, to the decorations of the sterns and quarters of
West-Indiamen, which they have the greatest joy in defacing.
GINGERLY. Softly, gently, tenderly. To go gingerly to
work: to attempt a thing gently, or cautiously.
GINNY. An instrument to lift up a great, in order to steal
what is in the window. CANT.
GIP from gups a WOLF. A servant at college.
GIRDS. Quips, taunts, severe or biting reflections.
GIZZARD. To grumble in the gizzard; to be secretly
displeased.
GLASS EYES. A nick name for one wearing spectacles.
GLAYMORE. A Highland broad-sword; from the Erse
GLAY, or GLAIVE, a sword; and MORE, great.
GLAZE. A window.
GLAZIER. One who breaks windows and shew-glasses, to
steal goods exposed for sale. Glaziers; eyes. CANT.--Is
your father a glazier; a question asked of a lad or young
man, who stands between the speaker and the candle, or
fire. If it is answered in the negative, the rejoinder
is--I wish he was, that he might make a window through
your body, to enable us to see the fire or light.
GLIB. Smooth, slippery. Glib tongued; talkative.
GLIM. A candle, or dark lantern, used in housebreaking;
also fire. To glim; to burn in the hand. CANT.
GLIMFENDERS. Andirons. CANT.
GLIMFLASHY. Angry, or in a passion. CANT.
GLIM JACK. A link-boy. CANT.
GLIMMER. Fire. CANT.
GLIMMERERS. Persons begging with sham licences,
pretending losses by fire.
GLIMMS. Eyes.
GLIMSTICK. A candlestick. CANT.
GLOBE. Pewter. CANT.
GLOVES. To give any one a pair of gloves; to make them
a present or bribe. To win a pair of gloves; to kiss a man
whilst he sleeps: for this a pair of gloves is due to any lady
who will thus earn them.
GLUEPOT. A parson: from joining men and women together
in matrimony.
GLUM. Sullen.
GLUTTON. A term used by bruisers to signify a man who
will bear a great deal of beating.
GNARLER. A little dog that by his barking alarms the
family when any person is breaking into the house.
GO, THE. The dash. The mode. He is quite the go, he
is quite varment, he is prime, he is bang up, are
synonimous expressions.
GLYBE. A writing. CANT.
GO BETWEEN. A pimp or bawd.
GO BY THE GROUND. A little short person, man or woman.
GO SHOP. The Queen's Head in Duke's court, Bow street,
Covent Garden; frequented by the under players: where
gin and water was sold in three-halfpenny bowls, called
Goes; the gin was called Arrack. The go, the fashion;
as, large hats are all the go.
GOADS. Those who wheedle in chapmen for horse-dealers.
GOAT. A lascivious person. Goats jigg; making the beast
with two backs, copulation.
GOB. The mouth; also a bit or morsel: whence gobbets.
Gift of the gob; wide-mouthed, or one who speaks fluently,
or sings well.
GOB STRING. A bridle.
GOBBLER. A turkey cock.
GODFATHER. He who pays the reckoning, or answers for
the rest of the company: as, Will you stand godfather, and
we will take care of the brat; i.e. repay you another
time. Jurymen are also called godfathers, because they
name the crime the prisoner before them has been guilty
of, whether felony, petit larceny, &c.
GOG. All-a-gog; impatient, anxious, or desirous of a thing.
GOG AND MAGOG. Two giants, whose effigies stand on
each side of the clock in Guildhall, London; of whom
there is a tradition, that, when they hear the clock strike
one, on the first of April, they will walk down from their
places.
GOGGLES. Eyes: see OGLES. Goggle eyes; large prominent eyes. To
goggle; to stare.
GOING UPON THE DUB. Going out to break open, or pick
the locks of, houses.
GOLD DROPPERS. Sharpers who drop a piece of gold,
which they pick up in the presence of some unexperienced
person, for whom the trap is laid, this they pretend to
have found, and, as he saw them pick it up, they invite
him to a public house to partake of it: when there, two
or three of their comrades drop in, as if by accident, and
propose cards, or some other game, when they seldom fail
of stripping their prey.
GOLD FINDER. One whose employment is to empty necessary
houses; called also a tom-turd-man, and night-man:
the latter, from that business being always performed in
the night.
GOLDFINCH. One who has commonly a purse full of gold.
Goldfinches; guineas.
GOLGOTHA OR THE PLACE OF SCULLS. Part of the Theatre
at Oxford, where the heads of houses sit; those
gentlemen being by the wits of the university called sculls.
GOLLUMPUS. A large, clumsy fellow.
GOLOSHES, i.e. Goliah's shoes. Large leathern clogs, worn
by invalids over their ordinary shoes.
GOOD MAN. A word of various imports, according to the
place where it is spoken: in the city it means a rich man;
at Hockley in the Hole, or St. Giles's, an expert boxer;
at a bagnio in Covent Garden, a vigorous fornicator; at
an alehouse or tavern, one who loves his pot or bottle;
and sometimes, though but rarely, a virtuous man
GOOD WOMAN. A nondescript, represented on a famous
sign in St. Giles's, in the form of a common woman, but
without a head.
GOODYER'S PIG. Like Goodyer's pig; never well but when
in mischief.
GOOSE. A taylor's goose; a smoothing iron used to press
down the seams, for which purpose it must be heated:
hence it is a jocular saying, that a taylor, be he ever so
poor, is always sure to have a goose at his fire. He cannot
say boh to a goose; a saying of a bashful or sheepish
fellow.
GOOSE RIDING. A goose, whose neck is greased, being suspended
by the legs to a cord tied to two trees or high posts,
a number of men on horseback, riding full speed, attempt
to pull off the head: which if they effect, the goose is
their prize. This has been practised in Derbyshire within
the memory of persons now living.
GOOSEBERRY. He played up old gooseberry among them;
said of a person who, by force or threats, suddenly puts an
end to a riot or disturbance.
GOOSEBERRY-EYED. One with dull grey eyes, like boiled
gooseberries.
GOOSEBERRY WIG. A large frizzled wig: perhaps from a
supposed likeness to a gooseberry bush.
GOOSECAP. A silly fellow or woman.
GORGER. A gentleman. A well dressed man. Mung
kiddey. Mung the gorger; beg child beg, of the gentleman.
GOSPEL SHOP. A church.
GOREE. Money, chiefly gold: perhaps from the traffic
carried on at that place, which is chiefly for gold dust.
CANT.
GORMAGON. A monster with six eyes, three mouths, four
arms, eight legs, live on one side and three on the other,
three arses, two tarses, and a *** upon its back; a man on
horseback, with a woman behind him.
GOTCH-GUTTED. Pot bellied: a gotch in Norfolk signifying
a pitcher, or large round jug.
TO GOUGE. To squeeze out a man's eye with the thumb:
a cruel practice used by the Bostonians in America.
To GRABBLE. To seize. To grabble the bit; to seize any
one's money. CANT.
GRAFTED. Cuckolded, i.e. having horns grafted on his
head.
To GRAB. To seize a man. The pigs grabbed the kiddey
for a crack: the officers, seized the youth for a burglary.
GRANNAM. Corn.
GRANNUM'S GOLD. Hoarded money: supposed to have
belonged to the grandmother of the possessor.
GRANNY. An abbreviation of grandmother; also the name
of an idiot, famous for licking, her eye, who died Nov. 14,
1719. Go teach your granny to suck eggs; said to such
as would instruct any one in a matter he knows better than
themselves.
GRAPPLE THE RAILS. A cant name used in Ireland for
whiskey.
GRAPPLING IRONS. Handcuffs.
GRAVE DIGGER. Like a grave digger; up to the a-se in
business, and don't know which way to turn.
GRAVY-EYED. Blear-eyed, one whose eyes have a running
humour.
TO GREASE. To bribe. To grease a man in the fist; to
bribe him. To grease a fat sow in the a-se; to give to a
rich man. Greasy chin; a treat given to parish officers in
part of commutation for a bastard: called also, Eating a
child.
GREAT INTIMATE. As great as shirt and shitten a-se.
GREAT JOSEPH. A surtout. CANT.
GREEDY GUTS. A covetous or voracious person.
GREEK. St. Giles's Greek; the slang lingo, cant, or gibberish.
GREEN. Doctor Green; i.e. grass: a physician, or rather
medicine, found very successful in curing most disorders
to which horses are liable. My horse is not well, I shall
send him to Doctor Green.
GREEN. Young, inexperienced, unacquainted; ignorant. How
green the cull was not to stag how the old file planted the
books. How ignorant the booby was not to perceive
how the old sharper placed the cards in such a manner
as to insure the game.
GREEN BAG. An attorney: those gentlemen carry their
clients' deeds in a green bag; and, it is said, when they
have no deeds to carry, frequently fill them with an old
pair of breeches, or any other trumpery, to give themselves
the appearance of business.
GREEN GOWN. To give a girl a green gown; to tumble her
on the grass.
GREEN SICKNESS. The disease of maids occasioned by celibacy.
GREENHEAD. An inexperienced young man.
GREENHORN. A novice on the town, an undebauched young
fellow, just initiated into the society of bucks and bloods.
GREENWICH BARBERS. Retailers of sand from the pits at
and about Greenwich, in Kent: perhaps they are styled
barbers, from their constant shaving the sandbanks.
GREENWICH GOOSE. A pensioner of Greenwich Hospital.
GREGORIAN TREE. The gallows: so named from Gregory
Brandon, a famous finisher of the law; to whom Sir William
Segar, garter king of arms (being imposed on by
Brooke, a herald), granted a coat of arms.
GREY BEARD. Earthen jugs formerly used in public house
for drawing ale: they had the figure of a man with a large
beard stamped on them; whence probably they took
the name: see BEN JONSON'S PLAYS, BARTHOLOMEW FAIR,
&c. &c. Dutch earthen jugs, used for smuggling gin on
the coasts of Essex and Suffolk, are at this time called
grey beards.
GREY MARE. The grey mare is the better horse; said of
a woman who governs her husband.
GREY PARSON. A farmer who rents the tithes of the rector
or vicar.
GRIG. A farthing. A merry grig; a fellow as merry as a
grig: an allusion to the apparent liveliness of a grig, or
young eel.
GRIM. Old Mr. Grim; death.
GRIMALKIN. A cat: mawkin signifies a hare in Scotland.
GRIN. To grin in a glass case; to be anatomized for murder:
the skeletons of many criminals are preserved in glass
cases, at Surgeons' hall.
GRINAGOG, THE CAT'S UNCLE. A foolish grinning fellow,
one who grins without reason.
GRINDERS. Teeth. Gooseberry grinder; the breech. Ask
bogey, the gooseberry grinder; ask mine a-se.
TO GRIND. To have carnal knowledge of a woman.
GROATS. To save his groats; to come off handsomely: at
the universities, nine groats are deposited in the hands of an
academic officer, by every person standing for a degree;
which if the depositor obtains with honour, the groats are
returned to him.
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.
GROG-BLOSSOM. A carbuncle, or pimple in the face, caused
by drinking.
GROGGED. A grogged horse; a foundered horse.
GROGHAM. A horse. CANT.
GROPERS. Blind men; also midwives.
GROUND SWEAT. A grave.
GROUND SQUIRREL. A hog, or pig. SEA TERM.
GRUB. Victuals. To grub; to dine.
GRUB STREET. A street near Moorfields, formerly the supposed
habitation of many persons who wrote for the booksellers:
hence a Grub-street writer means a hackney author,
who manufactures booss for the booksellers.
GRUB STREET NEWS. Lying intelligence.
TO GRUBSHITE. To make foul or dirty.
GRUMBLE. To grumble in the gizzard; to murmur or repine.
He grumbled like a bear with a sore head.
GRUMBLETONIAN. A discontented person; one who is always
railing at the times or ministry.
GRUNTER. A hog; to grunt; to groan, or complain of sickness.
GRUNTER'S GIG. A smoaked hog's face.
GRUNTING PECK. Pork, bacon, or any kind of hog's flesh.
GRUTS. Tea.
GUDGEON. One easily imposed on. To gudgeon; to swallow
the bait, or fall into a trap: from the fish of that name,
which is easily taken.
GULL. A simple credulous fellow, easily cheated.
GULLED. Deceived, cheated, imposed on.
GULLGROPERS. Usurers who lend money to the gamesters.
GUM. Abusive language. Come, let us have no more of
your gum.
GUMMY. Clumsy: particularly applied to the ancles of
men or women, and the legs of horses.
GUMPTION, or RUM GUMPTION. Docility, comprehension,
capacity.
GUN. He is in the gun; he is drunk: perhaps from an allusion
to a vessel called a gun, used for ale in the universities.
GUNDIGUTS. A fat, pursy fellow.
GUNNER'S DAUGHTER. To kiss the gunner's daughter; to
be tied to a gun and flogged on the posteriors; a mode of
punishing boys on board a ship of war.
GUNPOWDER. An old Woman. CANT.
GUTS. My great guts are ready to eat my little ones; my
guts begin to think my throat's cut; my guts curse my
teeth: all expressions signifying the party is extremely
hungry.
GUTS AND GARBAGE. A very fat man or woman. More
guts than brains; a silly fellow. He has plenty of guts, but
no bowels: said of a hard, merciless, unfeeling person.
GUTFOUNDERED. Exceeding hungry.
GUT SCRAPER, or TORMENTOR of CATGUT. A fiddler.
GUTTER LANE. The throat, the swallow, the red lane.
See RED LANE.
GUTTING A QUART POT. Taking out the lining of it: i. e.
drinking it off. Gutting an oyster; eating it. Gutting a
house; clearing it of its furniture. See POULTERER.
GUY. A dark lanthorn: an allusion to Guy Faux, the principal
actor in the gunpowder plot. Stow the guy: conceal the
lanthorn.
GUZZLE. Liquor. To guzzle; to drink greedily.
GUZZLE GUTS. One greedy of liquor.
GYBE, or JYBE. Any writing or pass with a seal.
GYBING. Jeering or ridiculing.
GYLES, or GILES. Hopping Giles; a nick name for a lame
person: St. Giles was the tutelar saint of cripples.
GYP. A college runner or errand-boy at Cambridge, called
at Oxford a scout. See SCOUT.
GYPSIES. A set of vagrants, who, to the great disgrace of
our police, are suffered to wander about the country.
They pretend that they derive their origin from the
ancient Egyptians, who were famous for their knowledge
in astronomy and other sciences; and, under the pretence
of fortune-telling, find means to rob or defraud the ignorant
and superstitious. To colour their impostures, they
artificially discolour their faces, and speak a kind of
gibberish peculiar to themselves. They rove up and down the
country in large companies, to the great terror of the
farmers, from whose geese, turkeys, and fowls, they take very
considerable contributions.
When a fresh recruit is admitted into the fraternity, he is to
take the following oath, administered by the principal
maunder, after going through the annexed forms:
First, a new name is given him by which he is ever after to
be called; then standing up in the middle of the assembly,
and directing his face to the dimber damber, or principal
man of the gang, he repeats the following oath, which is
dictated to him by some experienced member of the fraternity:
I, Crank Cuffin, do swear to be a true brother, and that I will
in all things obey the commands of the great tawney
prince, and keep his counsel and not divulge the secrets of
my brethren.
I will never leave nor forsake the company, but observe and
keep all the times of appointment, either by day or by
night, in every place whatever.
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.
The canters have, it seems, a tradition, that from the three
first articles of this oath, the first founders of a certain
boastful, worshipful fraternity (who pretend to derive their
origin from the earliest times) borrowed both the hint and
form of their establishment; and that their pretended
derivation from the first Adam is a forgery, it being only
from the first Adam Tiler: see ADAM TILER. At the
admission of a new brother, a general stock is raised for
booze, or drink, to make themselves merry on the occasion.
As for peckage or eatables, they can procure without
money; for while some are sent to break the ruffmans,
or woods and bushes, for firing, others are detached to
filch geese, chickens, hens, ducks (or mallards), and pigs.
Their morts are their butchers, who presently make
bloody work with what living things are brought them; and
having made holes in the ground under some remote hedge
in an obscure place, they make a fire and boil or broil their
food; and when it is enough, fall to work tooth and nail:
and having eaten more like beasts than men, they drink
more like swine than human creatures, entertaining one
another all the time with songs in the canting dialect.
As they live, so they lie, together promiscuously, and know
not how to claim a property either in their goods or children:
and this general interest ties them more firmly together
than if all their rags were twisted into ropes, to bind
them indissolubly from a separation; which detestable
union is farther consolidated by the above oath.
They stroll up and down all summer-time in droves, and
Dexterously pick pockets, while they are telling of fortunes;
and the money, rings, silver thirribles, &c. which they
get, are instantly conveyed from one hand to another,
till the remotest person of the gang (who is not suspected
because they come not near the person robbed) gets possession
of it; so that, in the strictest search, it is impossible to
recover it; while the wretches with imprecations,
oaths, and protestations, disclaim the thievery.
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.
HABERDASHER OF PRONOUNS. A schoolmaster, or
usher.
HACKNEY WRITER. One who writes for attornies or
booksellers.
HACKUM. Captain Hackum; a bravo, a slasher.
HAD'EM. He has been at Had'em, and came home by Clapham;
said of one who has caught the venereal disease.
HAIR SPLITTER. A man's yard.
HALBERT. A weapon carried by a serjeant of foot. To get
a halbert; to be appointed a serjeant. To be brought to
the halberts; to be flogged a la militaire: soldiers of the
infantry, when flogged, being commonly tied to three halberts,
set up in a triangle, with a fourth fastened across
them. He carries the halbert in his face; a saying of one
promoted from a serjeant to a commission officer.
HALF A HOG. Sixpence.
HALF SEAS OVER. Almost drunk.
HAMLET. A high constable. Cant.
HAMS, or HAMCASES Breeches.
HAND. A sailor. We lost a hand; we lost a sailor. Bear a
hand; make haste. Hand to fist; opposite: the same as
tete-a-tete, or cheek by joul.
HAND AND POCKET SHOP. An eating house, where ready
money is paid for what is called for.
HAND BASKET PORTION. A woman whose husband receives
frequent presents from her father, or family, is
said to have a hand-basket portion.
HANDLE. To know how to handle one's fists; to be skilful
in the art of boxing. The cove flashes a rare handle to
his physog; the fellow has a large nose.
HANDSOME. He is a handsome-bodied man in the face; a
jeering commendation of an ugly fellow. Handsome is that
handsome does: a proverb frequently cited by ugly women.
HANDSOME REWARD. This, in advertisements, means a
horse-whipping.
To HANG AN ARSE. To hang back, to hesitate.
HANG GALLOWS LOOK. A thievish, or villainous appearance.
HANG IN CHAINS. A vile, desperate fellow. Persons
guilty of murder, or other atrocious crimes, are frequently,
after execution, hanged on a gibbet, to which
they are fastened by iron bandages; the gibbet is commonly
placed on or near the place where the crime was committed.
HANG IT UP. Score it up: speaking of a reckoning.
HANG OUT. The traps scavey where we hang out; the officers
know where we live.
HANGER ON. A dependant.
HANGMAN'S WAGES. Thirteen pence halfpenny; which,
according to the vulgar tradition, was thus allotted: one
shilling for the executioner, and three halfpence for the
rope,--N. B. This refers to former times; the hangmen of the
present day having, like other artificers, raised their prices.
The true state of this matter is, that a Scottish mark was
the fee allowed for an execution, and the value of that
piece was settled by a proclamation of James I. at thirteen
pence halfpenny.
HANK. He has a hank on him; i.e. an ascendancy over
him, or a hold upon him. A Smithfield hank; an ox,
rendered furious by overdriving and barbarous treatment.
See BULL HANK.
HANKER. To hanker after any thing; to have a longing
after or for it.
HANS IN KELDER. Jack in the cellar, i.e. the child in the
womb: a health frequently drank to breeding women or
their husbands.
HARD. Stale beer, nearly sour, is said to be hard. Hard
also means severe: as, hard fate, a hard master.
HARD AT HIS A-SE. Close after him.
HARE. He has swallowed a hare; he is drunk; more probably
a HAIR, which requires washing down,
HARK-YE-ING. Whispering on one side to borrow money.
HARMAN. A constable. CANT.
HARMAN BECK. A beadle. CANT.
HARMANS. The stocks. CANT.
HARP. To harp upon; to dwell upon a subject. Have
among you, my blind harpers; an expression used in throwing
or shooting at random among the crowd. Harp is also
the Irish expression for woman, or tail, used in tossing
up in Ireland: from Hibernia, being represented with a
harp on the reverse of the copper coins of that country;
for which it is, in hoisting the copper, i.e. tossing up,
sometimes likewise called music.
HARRIDAN. A hagged old woman; a miserable, scraggy,
worn-out harlot, fit to take her bawd's degree: derived
from the French word HARIDELLE, a worn-out jade of a horse
or mare.
HARRY. A country fellow. CANT.--Old Harry; the Devil.
HARUM SCARUM. He was running harum scarum; said of
any one running or walking hastily, and in a hurry, after
they know not what.
HASH. To flash the hash; to vomit. CANT.
HASTY. Precipitate, passionate. He is none of the Hastings
sort; a saying of a slow, loitering fellow: an allusion to the
Hastings pea, which is the first in season.
HASTY PUDDING. Oatmeal and milk boiled to a moderate
thickness, and eaten with sugar and butter. Figuratively,
a wet, muddy road: as, The way through Wandsworth is
quite a hasty pudding. To eat hot hasty pudding for a
laced hat, or some other prize, is a common feat at wakes
and fairs.
HAT. Old hat; a woman's privities: because frequently
felt.
HATCHES. Under the hatches; in trouble, distress, or debt.
HATCHET FACE. A long thin face.
HAVIL. A sheep. CANT.
HAVY CAVY. Wavering, doubtful, shilly shally.
HAWK. Ware hawk; the word to look sharp, a bye-word
when a bailiff passes. Hawk also signifies a sharper, in
opposition to pigeon. See PIGEON. See WARE HAWK.
HAWKERS. Licensed itinerant retailers of different commodities,
called also pedlars; likewise the sellers of news-papers.
Hawking; an effort to spit up the thick phlegm, called
OYSTERS: whence it is wit upon record, to ask the person
so doing whether he has a licence; a punning allusion to the
Act of hawkers and pedlars.
To HAZEL GILD. To beat any one with a hazel stick.
HEAD CULLY OF THE PASS, or PASSAGE BANK. The top
tilter of that gang throughout the whole army, who
demands and receives contribution from all the pass banks in
the camp.
HEAD RAILS. Teeth. SEA PHRASE.
HEARING CHEATS. Ears. CANT.
HEART'S EASE. Gin.
HEARTY CHOAK. He will have a hearty choak and caper
sauce for breakfast; i.e. he will be hanged.
HEATHEN PHILOSOPHER. One whose breech may be seen
through his pocket-hole: this saying arose from the old
philosophers, many of whom depised the vanity of dress to
such a point, as often to fall into the opposite extreme.
TO HEAVE. To rob. To heave a case; to rob a house.
To heave a bough; to rob a booth. CANT.
HEAVER. The breast. CANT.
HEAVERS. Thieves who make it their business to steal
tradesmen's shop-books. CANT.
HECTOR. bully, a swaggering coward. To hector; to
bully, probably from such persons affecting the valour of
Hector, the Trojan hero.
HEDGE. To make a hedge; to secure a bet, or wager, laid
on one side, by taking the odds on the other, so that, let
what will happen, a certain gain is secured, or hedged in,
by the person who takes this precaution; who is then said
to be on velvet.
HEDGE ALEHOUSE. A small obscure alehouse.
HEDGE CREEPER. A robber of hedges.
HEDGE PRIEST. An illiterate unbeneficed curate, a patrico.
HEDGE WHORE. An itinerant harlot, who bilks the bagnios
and bawdy-houses, by disposing of her favours on the
wayside, under a hedge; a low beggarly prostitute.
HEELS. To he laid by the heels; to be confined, or put in
prison. Out at heels; worn, or diminished: his estate or
affairs are out at heels. To turn up his heels; to turn up
the knave of trumps at the game of all-fours.
HEEL TAP. A peg in the heel of a shoe, taken out when it
is finished. A person leaving any liquor in his glass, is
frequently called upon by the toast-master to take off his
heel-tap.
HELL. A taylor's repository for his stolen goods, called
cabbage: see CABBAGE. Little hell; a small dark covered
passage, leading from London-wall to Bell-alley.
HELL-BORN BABE. A lewd graceless youth, one naturally
of a wicked disposition.
HELL CAT. A termagant, a vixen, a furious scolding woman.
See TERMAGANT and VIXEN.
HELL HOUND. A wicked abandoned fellow.
HELL FIRE DICK. The Cambridge driver of the Telegraph.
The favorite companion of the University fashionables,
and the only tutor to whose precepts they attend.
HELTER SKELTER. To run helter skelter, hand over head,
in defiance of order.
HEMP. Young hemp; an appellation for a graceless boy.
HEMPEN FEVER. A man who was hanged is said to have
died of a hempen fever; and, in Dorsetshire, to have been
stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place
famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.
HEMPEN WIDOW. One whose husband was hanged.
HEN-HEARTED. Cowardly.
HEN HOUSE. A house where the woman rules; called also
a SHE HOUSE, and HEN FRIGATE: the latter a sea phrase,
originally applied to a ship, the captain of which had his
wife on board, supposed to command him.
HENPECKED. A husband governed by his wife, is said to
be henpecked.
HEN. A woman. A cock and hen club; a club composed
of men and women.
HERE AND THEREIAN. One who has no settled place of
residence.
HERRING. The devil a barrel the better herring; all equally
bad.
HERRING GUTTED. Thin, as a shotten herring.
HERRING POND. The sea. To cross the herring pond at
the king's expence; to be transported.
HERTFORDSHIRE KINDNESS. Drinking twice to the same
person.
HICK. A country hick; an ignorant clown. CANT.
HICKENBOTHOM. Mr. Hickenbothom; a ludicrous name
for an unknown person, similar to that of Mr. Thingambob.
Hickenbothom, i.e. a corruption of the German
word ickenbaum, i.e. oak tree.
HICKEY. Tipsey; quasi, hickupping.
HIDE AND SEEK. A childish game. He plays at hide and
seek; a saying of one who is in fear of being arrested for
debt, or apprehended for some crime, and therefore does
not chuse to appear in public, but secretly skulks up and
down. See SKULK.
HIDEBOUND. Stingy, hard of delivery; a poet poor in invention,
is said to have a hidebound muse.
HIGGLEDY PIGGLEDY. Confusedly mixed.
HIGH EATING. To eat skylarks in a garret.
HIGH FLYERS. Tories, Jacobites.
HIGH JINKS. A gambler at dice, who, having a strong
head, drinks to intoxicate his adversary, or pigeon.