HIGH PAD. A highwayman. CANT.
HIGH ROPES. To be on the high ropes; to be in a passion.
HIGH SHOON, or CLOUTED SHOON. A country clown.
HIGH WATER. It is high water, with him; he is full of
money.
HIGHGATE. Sworn at Highgate--a ridiculous custom formerly
prevailed at the public-houses in Highgate, to administer
a ludicrous oath to all travellers of the middling
rank who stopped there. The party was sworn on a pair
of horns, fastened on a stick: the substance of the oath
was, never to kiss the maid when he could kiss the mistress,
never to drink small beer when he could get strong, with
many other injunctions of the like kind; to all which was
added the saving cause of "unless you like it best." The
person administering the oath was always to be called
father by the juror; and he, in return, was to style him
son, under the penalty of a bottle.
HIKE. To hike off; to run away. CANT.
HIND LEG. To kick out a hind leg; to make a rustic bow.
HINNEY, MY HONEY. A north country hinney, particularly
a Northumbrian: in that county, hinney is the general
term of endearment.
HISTORY OF THE FOUR KINGS, or CHILD'S BEST GUIDE TO
THE GALLOWS. A pack of cards. He studies the history
of the four kings assiduously; he plays much at cards.
HOAXING. Bantering, ridiculing. Hoaxing a quiz; joking
an odd fellow. UNIVERSITY WIT.
HOB, or HOBBINOL, a clown.
HOB OR NOB. Will you hob or nob with me? a question
formerly in fashion at polite tables, signifying a request or
challenge to drink a glass of wine with the proposer: if the
party challenged answered Nob, they were to chuse whether
white or red. This foolish custom is said to have
originated in the days of good queen Bess, thus: when
great chimnies were in fashion, there was at each corner
of the hearth, or grate, a small elevated projection, called
the hob; and behind it a seat. In winter time the beer
was placed on the hob to warm: and the cold beer was
set on a small table, said to have been called the nob; so
that the question, Will you have hob or nob? seems only
to have meant, Will you have warm or cold beer? i.e.
beer from the hob, or beer from the nob.
HOBBERDEHOY. Half a man and half a boy, a lad between
both.
HOBBLED. Impeded, interrupted, puzzled. To hobble;
to walk lamely.
HOBBLEDYGEE. A pace between a walk and a run, a dog-trot.
HOBBY. Sir Posthumous's hobby; one nice or whimsical
in his clothes.
HOBBY HORSE. A man's favourite amusement, or study,
is called his hobby horse. It also means a particular kind
of small Irish horse: and also a wooden one, such as is
given to children.
HOBBY HORSICAL. A man who is a great keeper or rider
of hobby horses; one that is apt to be strongly attached
to his systems of amusement.
HOBNAIL. A country clodhopper: from the shoes of country
farmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full of
hob-nails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron.
The Devil ran over his face with hobnails in his shoes;
said of one pitted With the small pox.
HOBSON'S CHOICE. That or none; from old Hobson, a
famous carrier of Cambridge, who used to let horses to the
students; but never permitted them to chuse, always
allotting each man the horse he thought properest for his
manner of riding and treatment.
HOCKS. vulgar appellation for the feet. You have left
the marks of your dirty hocks on my clean stairs; a frequent
complaint from a mop squeezer to a footman.
HOCKEY. Drunk with strong stale beer, called old hock.
See HICKEY.
HOCKING, or HOUGHING. A piece of cruelty practised by
the butchers of Dublin, on soldiers, by cutting the tendon
of Achilles; this has been by law made felony.
HOCUS POCUS. Nonsensical words used by jugglers, previous
to their deceptions, as a kind of charm, or incantation. A
celebrated writer supposes it to be a ludicrous corruption
of the words hoc est corpus, used by the popish priests in
consecrating the host. Also Hell Hocus is used to express
drunkenness: as, he is quite hocus; he is quite drunk.
HOD. Brother Hod; a familiar name for a bricklayer's
labourer: from the hod which is used for carrying bricks and
mortar.
HODDY DODDY, ALL A-SE AND NO BODY. A short clumsy
person, either male or female.
HODGE. An abbreviation of Roger: a general name for a
country booby.
HODGE PODGE. An irregular mixture of numerous things.
HODMANDODS. Snails in their shells.
HOG. A shilling. To drive one's hogs; to snore: the noise
made by some persons in snoring, being not much unlike
the notes of that animal. He has brought his hogs to a
fine market; a saying of any one who has been remarkably
successful in his affairs, and is spoken ironically to signify
the contrary. A hog in armour; an awkward or mean
looking man or woman, finely dressed, is said to look like
a hog in armour. To hog a horse's mane; to cut it short,
so that the ends of the hair stick up like hog's bristles.
Jonian hogs; an appellation given to the members of St.
John's College, Cambridge.
HOG GRUBBER. A mean stingy fellow.
HOGGISH. Rude, unmannerly, filthy.
HOGO. Corruption of haut goust, high taste, or flavour;
commonly said of flesh somewhat tainted. It has a
confounded hogo; it stinks confoundedly.
HOIST. To go upon the hoist; to get into windows
accidentally left open: this is done by the assistance of a
confederate, called the hoist, who leans his head against the
wall, making his back a kind of step or ascent.
HOISTING. A ludicrous ceremony formerly performed on
every soldier, the first time he appeared in the field after
being married; it was thus managed: As soon as the
regiment, or company, had grounded their arms to rest a
while, three or four men of the same company to which
the bridegroom belonged, seized upon him, and putting a
couple of bayonets out of the two corners of his hat, to
represent horns, it was placed on his head, the back part
foremost. He was then hoisted on the shoulders of two
strong fellows, and carried round the arms, a drum and fife
beating and playing the pioneers call, named Round Heads
and Cuckolds, but on this occasion styled the Cuckold's
March; in passing the colours, he was to take off his hat:
this, in some regiments, was practised by the officers on
their brethren, Hoisting, among pickpockets, is, setting
a man on his head, that his money, watch, &c. may fall
out of his pockets; these they pick up, and hold to be
no robbery. See REVERSED.
HOITY-TOITY. A hoity-toity wench; a giddy, thoughtless,
romping girl.
HOLBORN HILL. To ride backwards up Holborn hill; to
go to the gallows: the way to Tyburn, the place of
execution for criminals condemned in London, was up that
hill. Criminals going to suffer, always ride backwards,
as some conceive to increase the ignominy, but more
probably to prevent them being shocked with a distant view
of the gallows; as, in amputations, surgeons conceal the
instruments with which they are going to operate. The
last execution at Tyburn, and consequently of this
procession, was in the year 1784, since which the criminals
have been executed near Newgate
HOLIDAY. A holiday bowler; a bad bowler. Blind man's
holiday; darkness, night. A holiday is any part of a
ship's bottom, left uncovered in paying it. SEA TERM. It
is all holiday; See ALL HOLIDAY.
HOLY FATHER. A butcher's boy of St. Patrick's Market,
Dublin, or other Irish blackguard; among whom
the exclamation, or oath, by the Holy Father (meaning
the Pope), is common.
HOLY LAMB. A thorough-paced villain. IRISH.
HOLY WATER. He loves him as the Devil loves holy water,
i.e. hates him mortally. Holy water, according to the
Roman Catholics, having the virtue to chase away the Devil
and his imps.
HOLLOW. It was quiet a hollow thing; i.e. a certainty, or
decided business.
HONEST MAN. A term frequently used by superiors to inferiors.
As honest a man as any in the cards when all the
kings are out; i.e. a knave. I dare not call thee rogue for
fear of the law, said a quaker to an attorney; but I wil
give thee five pounds, if thou canst find any creditable
person who wilt say thou art an honest man.
HONEST WOMAN. To marry a woman with whom one has
cohabitated as a mistress, is termed, making an honest
woman of her.
HONEY MOON. The first month after marriage. A poor
honey; a harmless, foolish, goodnatured fellow. It is all
honey or a t--d with them; said of persons who are
either in the extremity of friendship or enmity, either
kissing or fighting.
HOOD-WINKED. Blindfolded by a handkerchief, or other
ligature, bound over the eyes.
HOOF. To beat the hoof; to travel on foot. He hoofed it
or beat the hoof, every step of the way from Chester to
London.
HOOK AND SNIVEY, WITH NIX THE BUFFER. This rig
consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is
carried on thus: Three men, one of who pretends to be
sick and unable to eat, go to a public house: the two well
men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner,
and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick
companion and dog gratis.
HOOKEE WALKER. An expression signifying that the story
is not true, or that the thing will not occour.
HOOKED. Over-reached, tricked, caught: a simile taken
from fishing. **** hooks; fingers.
HOOKERS. See ANGLERS.
HOOP. To run the hoop; an ancient marine custom. Four
or more boys having their left hands tied fast to an iron
hoop, and each of them a rope, called a nettle, in their
right, being naked to the waist, wait the signal to begin:
this being made by a stroke with a cat of nine tails, given
by the boatswain to one of the boys, he strikes the boy before
him, and every one does the same: at first the blows are
but gently administered; but each irritated by the strokes
from the boy behind him, at length lays it on in earnest.
This was anciently practised when a ship was wind-bound.
TO HOOP. To beat. I'll well hoop his or her barrel, I'll
beat him or her soundly.
TO HOP THE TWIG. To run away. CANT.
HOP MERCHANT. A dancing master. See CAPER MERCHANT.
HOP-O-MY-THUMB. A diminutive person, man or woman.
She was such a-hop-o-my thumb, that a pigeon, sitting
on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a-se.
HOPKINS. Mr. Hopkins; a ludicrous address to a lame or
limping man, being a pun on the word hop.
HOPPING GILES. A jeering appellation given to any person
who limps, or is lame; St. Giles was the patron of
cripples, lepers, &c. Churches dedicated to that saint
commonly stand out of town, many of them having been
chapels to hospitals. See GYLES.
HOPPER-ARSED. Having large projecting buttocks: from
their resemblance to a small basket, called a hopper or
hoppet, worn by husbandmen for containing seed corn,
when they sow the land.
HORNS. To draw in one's horns; to retract an assertion
through fear: metaphor borrowed from a snail, who on the
apprehension of danger, draws in his horns, and retires to
his shell.
HORN COLIC. A temporary priapism.
HORN FAIR. An annual fair held at Charlton, in Kent, on St.
Luke's day, the 18th of October. It consists of a riotous
mob, who after a printed summons dispersed through the
adjacent towns, meet at Cuckold's Point, near Deptford,
and march from thence in procession, through that town
and Greenwich, to Charlton, with horns of different kinds
upon their heads; and at the fair there are sold rams
horns, and every sort of toy made of horn; even the gingerbread
figures have horns, The vulgar tradition gives the
following history of the origin of this fair; King John,
or some other of our ancient kings, being at the palace of
Eltham, in this neighbourhood, and having been out a
hunting one day, rambled from his company to this place,
then a mean hamlet; when entering a cottage to inquire
his way, he was struck with the beauty of the mistress,
whom he found alone; and having prevailed over her
modesty, the husband returning suddenly, surprised them
together; and threatening to kill them both, the king was
obliged to discover himself, and to compound for his safety
by a purse of gold, and a grant of the land from this
place to Cuckold's Point, besides making the husband
master of the hamlet. It is added that, in memory of this
grant, and the occasion of it, this fair was established, for
the sale of horns, and all sorts of goods made with that
material. A sermon is preached at Charlton church on
the fair day.
HORN MAD. A person extremely jealous of his wife, is
said to be horn mad. Also a cuckold, who does not cut
or breed his horns easily.
HORN WORK. Cuckold-making.
HORNIFIED. Cuckolded.
HORSE BUSS. A kiss with a loud smack; also a bite.
HORSE COSER. A dealer in horses: vulgarly and corruptly
pronounced HORSE COURSER. The verb TO COSE was used by
the Scots, in the sense of bartering or exchanging.
HORSE GODMOTHER. A large masculine woman, a
gentlemanlike kind of a lady.
HORSE LADDER. A piece of Wiltshire wit, which consists
in sending some raw lad, or simpleton, to a neighbouring
farm house, to borrow a horse ladder, in order to get up
the horses, to finish a hay-mow.
HORSE'S MEAL. A meal without drinking.
HOSTELER, i.e. oat stealer. Hosteler was originally the
name for an inn-keeper; inns being in old English styled
hostels, from the French signifying the same.
HOT POT. Ale and brandy made hot.
HOT STOMACH. He has so hot a stomach, that he burns
all the clothes off his back; said of one who pawns his
clothes to purchase liquor.
HOUSE, or TENEMENT, TO LET. A widow's weeds; also
an atchievement marking the death of a husband, set up
on the outside of a mansion: both supposed to indicate
that the dolorous widow wants a male comforter.
HOYDON. A romping girl.
HUBBLE-BUBBLE. Confusion. A hubble-bubble fellow;
a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose
words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle. Also an
instrument used for smoaking through water in the East
Indies, called likewise a caloon, and hooker.
HUBBLE DE SHUFF. Confusedly. To fire hubble de shuff,
to fire quick and irregularly. OLD MILITARY TERM.
HUBBUB. A noise, riot, or disturbance.
HUCKLE MY BUFF. Beer, egg, and brandy, made hot.
HUCKSTERS. Itinerant retailers of provisions. He is in
hucksters hands; he is in a bad way.
TO HUE. To lash. The cove was hued in the naskin;
the rogue was soundly lashed in bridewell. CANT.
TO HUFF. To reprove, or scold at any one; also to bluster,
bounce, ding, or swagger. A captain huff; a noted bully.
To stand the huff; to be answerable for the reckoning in
a public house.
HUG. To hug brown bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a
private soldier. He hugs it as the Devil hugs a witch:
said of one who holds any thing as if he was afraid of losing
it.
HUGGER MUGGER. By stealth, privately, without making
an appearance. They spent their money in a hugger
mugger way.
HUGOTONTHEONBIQUIFFINARIANS. A society existing in
1748.
HULKY, or HULKING. A great hulky fellow; an over-grown
clumsy lout, or fellow.
HULVER-HEADED. Having a hard impenetrable head; hulver,
in the Norfolk dialect, signifying holly, a hard and
solid wood.
TO HUM, or HUMBUG. To deceive, or impose on one by
some story or device. A humbug; a jocular imposition,
or deception. To hum and haw; to hesitate in speech,
also to delay, or be with difficulty brought to consent to
any matter or business,
HUMS. Persons at church. There is a great number of hums
in the autem; there is a great congregation in the church.
HUM BOX. A pulpit.
HUM CAP. Very old and strong beer, called also stingo.
See STINGO.
HUM DRUM. A hum drum fellow; a dull tedious narrator,
a bore; also a set of gentlemen, who (Bailey says) used to
meet near the Charter House, or at the King's Head in St.
John's-street, who had more of pleasantry, and less of mystery,
than the free masons.
HUM DURGEON. An imaginary illness. He has got the
humdurgeon, the thickest part of his thigh is nearest his a-se;
i.e. nothing ails him except low spirits.
HUMBUGS. The brethren of the venerable society of humbugs
was held at brother Hallam's, in Goodman's Fields.
HUMMER. A great lye, a rapper. See RAPPER.
HUMMING LIQUOR. Double ale, stout pharaoh. See PHARAOH.
HUMMUMS. A bagnio, or bathing house.
HUM TRUM. A musical instrument made of a mopstick, a
bladder, and some packthread, thence also called a bladder
and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin,
which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum; sometimes,
instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.
HUMP. To hump; once a fashionable word for copulation.
HUMPTY DUMPTY. A little humpty dumpty man or woman;
a short clumsy person of either sex: also ale boiled
with brandy.
TO HUNCH. To jostle, or thrust.
HUNCH-BACKED. Hump-backed.
HUNG BEEF. A dried bull's pizzle. How the dubber
served the cull with hung beef; how the turnkey beat the
fellow with a bull's pizzle.
HUNKS. A covetous miserable fellow, a miser; also the
name of a famous bear mentioned by Ben Jonson.
HUNT'S DOG. He is like Hunt's dog, will neither go to
church nor stay at home. One Hunt, a labouring man at
a small town in Shropshire, kept a mastiff, who on being
shut up on Sundays, whilst his master went to church,
howled so terribly as to disturb the whole village; wherefore
his master resolved to take him to church with him:
but when he came to the church door, the dog having perhaps
formerly been whipped out by the sexton, refused to
enter; whereupon Hunt exclaimed loudly against his dog's
obstinacy, who would neither go to church nor stay at
home. This shortly became a bye-word for discontented
and whimsical persons.
HUNTING. Drawing in unwary persons to play or game.
CANT.
HUNTING THE SQUIRREL. An amusement practised by
postboys and stage-coachmen, which consists in following
a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close
to it, so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying
any woman or person that may be in it. A man whose
turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former
glass, is said to be hunted.
HUNTSUP. The reveillier of huntsmen, sounded on the
French horn, or other instrument.
HURDY GURDY. A kind of fiddle, originally made perhaps
out of a gourd. See HUMSTRUM.
HURLY BURLY. A rout, riot, bustle or confusion.
HUSH. Hush the cull; murder the fellow.
HUSH MONEY. Money given to hush up or conceal a robbery, theft,
or any other offence, or to take off the evidence
from appearing against a criminal.
HUSKYLOUR. A guinea, or job. Cant.
HUSSY. An abbreviation of housewife, but now always
used as a term of reproach; as, How now, hussy? or She
is a light hussy.
HUZZA. Said to have been originally the cry of the huzzars
or Hungarian light horse; but now the national shout of
the English, both civil and military, in the sea phrase
termed a cheer; to give three cheers being to huzza thrice.
HYP, or HIP. A mode of calling to one passing by. Hip,
Michael, your head's on fire; a piece of vulgar wit to a
red haired man.
HYP. The hypochondriac: low spirits. He is hypped; he
has got the blue devils, &c.
JABBER. To talk thick and fast, as great praters usually
do, to chatter like a magpye; also to speak a foreign
language. He jabbered to me in his damned outlandish
parlez vous, but I could not understand him; he chattered
to me in French, or some other foreign language, but
I could not understand him.
JACK. A farthing, a small bowl serving as the mark for
bowlers. An instrument for pulling off boots.
JACK ADAMS. A fool. Jack Adams's parish; Clerkenwell.
JACK AT A PINCH, A poor hackney parson.
JACK IN A BOX, A sharper, or cheat. A child in the mother's
womb.
JACK IN AN OFFICE, An insolent fellow in authority.
JACK KETCH. The hangman; vide DERRICK and KETCH.
JACK NASTY FACE. A sea term, signifying a common
sailor.
JACK OF LEGS. A tall long-legged man; also a giant, said
to be buried in Weston church, near Baldock, in Hertfordshire,
where there are two stones fourteen feet distant,
said to be the head and feet stones of his grave. This
giant, says Salmon, as fame goes, lived in a wood here, and
was a great robber, but a generous one; for he plundered
the rich to feed the poor: he frequently took bread for
this purpose from the Baldock bakers, who catching him
at an advantage, put out his eyes, and afterwards hanged
him upon a knoll in Baldock field. At his death he made
one request, which was, that he might have his bow and
arrow put into his hand, and on shooting it off, where the
arrow fell, they would bury him; which being granted,
the arrow fell in Weston churchyard. Above seventy
years ago, a very large thigh bone was taken out of the
church chest, where it had lain many years for a show,
and was sold by the clerk to Sir John Tradescant, who,
it is said, put it among the rarities of Oxford.
JACK PUDDING. The merry andrew, zany, or jester to a
mountebank.
JACK ROBINSON. Before one could say Jack Robinson; a
saying to express a very short time, originating from a
very volatile gentleman of that appellation, who would call
on his neighbours, and be gone before his name could
be announced.
JACK SPRAT. A dwarf, or diminutive fellow.
JACK TAR. A sailor.
JACK WEIGHT. A fat man.
JACK WHORE. A large masculine overgrown wench.
JACKANAPES. An ape; a pert, ugly, little fellow.
JACKED. Spavined. A jacked horse.
JACKMEN. See JARKMEN.
JACKEY. Gin.
JACOB. A soft fellow. A fool.
JACOB. A ladder: perhaps from Jacob's dream. CANT. Also
the common name for a jay, jays being usually taught to
say, Poor Jacob! a cup of sack for Jacob.
JACOBITES. Sham or collar shirts. Also partizans for the
Stuart family: from the name of the abdicated king, i.e.
James or Jacobus. It is said by the whigs, that God
changed Jacob's name to Israel, lest the descendants of
that patriarch should be called Jacobites.
JADE. A term of reproach to women.
JAGUE. A ditch: perhaps from jakes.
JAIL BIRDS. Prisoners.
JAKES. A house of office, a cacatorium.
JAMMED. Hanged. CANT.
JANIZARIES. The mob, sometimes so called; also bailiffs,
their setters, and followers.
JAPANNED. Ordained. To be japanned; to enter into holy
orders, to become a clergyman, to put on the black cloth:
from the colour of the japan ware, which is black.
JARK. A seal.
JARKMEN. Those, who fabricate counterfeit passes, licences,
and certificates for beggars.
JARVIS. A hackney coachman.
JASON'S FLEECE. A citizen cheated of his gold.
JAW. Speech, discourse. Give us none of your jaw; let us
have none of your discourse. A jaw-me-dead; a talkative
fellow. Jaw work; a cry used in fairs by the sellers of
nuts.
JAZEY. A bob wig.
IDEA POT. The knowledge box, the head. See KNOWLEDGE
BOX.
JEFFY. It will be done in a jeffy; it will be done in a short
space of time, in an instant.
JEHU. To drive jehu-like; to drive furiously: from a king
of Israel of that name, who was a famous charioteer, and
mentioned as such in the Bible.
JEM. A gold ring. CANT.
JEMMY FELLOW. A smart spruce fellow.
JEMMY. A crow. This instrument is much used by housebreakers.
Sometimes called Jemmy Rook.
JENNY. An instrument for lifting up the grate or top of a
show-glass, in order to rob it. CANT.
JERRYCUMMUMBLE. To shake, towzle, or tumble about.
JERRY SNEAK. A henpecked husband: from a celebrated
character in one of Mr. Foote's plays, representing a man
governed by his wife.
JESSAMY. A smart jemmy fellow, a fopling.
JESIUT. See TO BOX THE JESUIT.
JESUITICAL. Sly, evasive, equivocal. A jesuitical answer;
an equivocal answer.
JET. A lawyer. Autem jet; a parson.
JEW. An over-reaching dealer, or hard, sharp fellow; an
extortioner: the brokers formerly behind St. Clement's
church in the Strand were called Jews by their brethren
the taylors.
JEW. A tradesman who has no faith, i.e. will not give credit.
JEW BAIL. Insufficient bail: commonly Jews, who for a
sum of money will bail any action whatsoever, and justify,
that is, swear to their sufficiency; but, when called on, are
not to be found.
JEW'S EYE. That's worth a Jew's eye; a pleasant or agreeable
sight: a saying taken from Shakespeare.
JIBBER THE KIBBER. A method of deceiving seamen, by
fixing a candle and lanthorn round the neck of a horse,
one of whose fore feet is tied up; this at night has the
appearance of a ship's light. Ships bearing towards it, run
on shore, and being wrecked, are plundered by the inhabitants.
This diabolical device is, it is said, practised by the
inhabitants of our western coasts.
JIG. A trick. A pleasant jig; a witty arch trick. Also a
lock or door. The feather-bed jig; copulation.
JIGGER. A whipping-post. CANT.
JILT. A tricking woman, who encourages the addresses of
a man whom she means to deceive and abandon.
JILTED. Rejected by a woman who has encouraged one's
advances.
JINGLE BOXES. Leathern jacks tipped with silver, and
hung with bells, formerly in use among fuddle caps.
CANT.
JINGLE BRAINS. A wild, thoughtless, rattling fellow.
JINGLERS. Horse cosers, frequenting country fairs.
IMPOST TAKERS. Usurers who attend the gaming-tables,
and lend money at great premiums.
IMPUDENT STEALING. Cutting out the backs of coaches,
and robbing the seats.
IMPURE. A modern term for a lady of easy virtue.
INCHING. Encroaching.
INDIES. Black Indies; Newcastle.
INDIA WIPE. A silk handkerchief.
INDORSER. A sodomite. To indorse with a cudgel; to drub
or beat a man over the back with a stick, to lay CANE upon
Abel.
INEXPRESSIBLES. Breeches.
INKLE WEAVERS. Supposed to be a very brotherly set of
people; 'as great as two inkle weavers' being a proverbial
saying.
INLAID. Well inlaid; in easy circumstances, rich or well
to pass.
INNOCENTS. One of the innocents; a weak or simple person,
man or woman.
INSIDE AND OUTSIDE. The inside of a **** and the outside
of a gaol.
JOB. A guinea.
JOB'S COMFORT. Reproof instead of consolation.
JOB'S COMFORTER. One who brings news of some
additional misfortune.
JOB'S DOCK. He is laid up in Job's dock; i.e. in a salivation.
The apartments for the foul or venereal patients in St.
Bartholomew's hospital, are called Job's ward.
JOBATION. A reproof.
JOBBERNOLE. The head.
TO JOB. To reprove or reprehend. CAMBRIDGE TERM.
JOB. Any robbery. To do a job; to commit some kind of
robbery.
JOCK, or CROWDY-HEADED JOCK. A jeering appellation for
a north country seaman, particularly a collier; Jock being
a common name, and crowdy the chief food, of the lower
order of the people in Northumberland.
TO JOCK, or JOCKUM CLOY. To enjoy a woman.
JOCKUM GAGE. A chamber-pot, jordan, looking-glass, or
member-mug. CANT.
JOGG-TROT. To keep on a jogg-trot; to get on with a slow
but regular pace.
JOHNNY BUM. A he or jack ass: so called by a lady that
affected to be extremely polite and modest, who would
not say Jack because it was vulgar, nor ass because it
was indecent.
JOINT. To hit a joint in carving, the operator must think
of a cuckold. To put one's nose out of joint; to rival one
in the favour of a patron or mistress.
JOLLY, or JOLLY NOB. The head. I'll lump your jolly
nob for you; I'll give you a knock on the head.
JOLLY DOG. A merry facetious fellow; a BON VIVANT, who
never flinches from his glass, nor cries to go home to
bed.
JOLTER HEAD. A large head; metaphorically a stupid fellow.
JORDAIN. A great blow, or staff. I'll tip him a jordain if
I transnear; i.e. I'll give him a blow with my staff, if I
come near him. CANT.
JORDAN. A chamber-pot.
JORUM. A jugg, or large pitcher.
JOSEPH. A woman's great coat. Also, a sheepish bashful
young fellow: an allusion to Joseph who fled from Potiphar's
wife. You are Josephus rex; you are jo-king, i. e.
joking.
JOSKIN. A countryman. The dropcove maced the Joskin
of twenty quid; The ring dropper cheated the
countryman of twenty guineas.
JOWL. The cheek. Cheek by jowl; close together, or cheek
to cheek. My eyes how the cull sucked the blowen's
jowl; he kissed the wench handsomely.
IRISH APRICOTS. Potatoes. It is a common joke against
the Irish vessels, to say they are loaded with fruit and
timber, that is, potatoes and broomsticks.
IRISH ASSURANCE. A bold forward behaviour: as being dipt in the
river Styx was formerly supposed to render persons invulnerable,
so it is said that a dipping in the river Shannon totally
annihilates bashfulness; whence arises the saying of an
impudent Irishman, that he has been dipt in the Shannon.
IRISH BEAUTY. A woman with two black eyes.
IRISH EVIDENCE. A false witness.
IRISH LEGS. Thick legs, jocularly styled the Irish arms.
It is said of the Irish women, that they have a dispensation
from the pope to wear the thick end of their legs downwards.
IRISH TOYLES. Thieves who carry about pins, laces, and
other pedlars wares, and under the pretence of offering
their goods to sale, rob houses, or pilfer any thing they
can lay hold of.
IRON. Money in general. To polish the king's iron with
one's eyebrows; to look out of grated or prison windows,
or, as the Irishman expresses them, the iron glass
windows. Iron doublet; a prison. See STONE DOUBLET.
IRONMONGER'S SHOP. To keep an ironmonger's shop by
the side of a common, where the sheriff sets one up; to be
hanged in chains. Iron-bound; laced. An iron-bound
hat; a silver-laced hat.
ISLAND. He drank out of the bottle till he saw the island;
the island is the rising bottom of a wine bottle, which
appears like an island in the centre, before the bottle is
quite empty.
IVORIES. Teeth. How the swell flashed his ivories; how
the gentleman shewed his teeth.
ITCHLAND, or SCRATCHLAND. Scotland.
JUG. See DOUBLE JUG.
JUGGLER'S BOX. The engine for burning culprits in the
hand. CANT.
JUKRUM. A licence.
JUMBLEGUT LANE. A rough road or lane.
JUMP. The jump, or dining-room jump; a species of robbery
effected by ascending a ladder placed by a sham lamp-lighter,
against the house intended to be robbed. It is so
called, because, should the lamp-lighter be put to flight,
the thief who ascended the ladder has no means of escaping
but that of jumping down.
JUMPERS. Persons who rob houses by getting in at the windows.
Also a set of Methodists established in South
Wales.
JUNIPER LECTURE. A round scolding bout.
JURY LEG. A wooden leg: allusion to a jury mast, which
is a temporary substitute for a mast carried away by a
storm, or any other accident. SEA PHRASE.
JURY MAST. A JOURNIERE mast; i.e. a mast for the day or
occasion.
JUST-ASS. A punning appellation for a justice.
IVY BUSH. Like an owl in an ivy bush; a simile for a
meagre or weasel-faced man, with a large wig, or very
bushy hair.
KATE. A picklock. 'Tis a rum kate; it is a clever picklock.
CANT.
KEEL BULLIES. Men employed to load and unload the coal
vessels.
KEELHAULING. A punishment in use among the Dutch
seamen, in which, for certain offences, the delinquent is
drawn once, or oftener, under the ship's keel: ludicrously
defined, undergoing a great hard-ship.
TO KEEP. To inhabit. Lord, where do you keep? i.e.
where are your rooms? ACADEMICAL PHRASE. Mother, your
tit won't keep; your daughter will not preserve her virginity.
TO KEEP IT UP. To prolong a debauch. We kept it up
finely last night; metaphor drawn from the game of shuttle-cock.
KEEPING CULLY. One who keeps a mistress, as he supposes,
for his own use, but really for that of the public.
KEFFEL. A horse. WELSH.
KELTER. Condition, order. Out of kelter; out of order.
KELTER. Money.
KEMP'S MORRIS. William Kemp, said to have been the original
Dogberry in Much ado about Nothing, danced a morris
from London to Norwich in nine days: of which he
printed the account, A. D. 1600, intitled, Kemp's Nine
Days Wonder, &c.
KEMP'S SHOES. Would I had Kemp's shoes to throw after
you. BEN JONSON. Perhaps Kemp was a man remarkable
for his good luck or fortune; throwing an old shoe, or shoes,
after any one going on an important business, being by the
vulgar deemed lucky.
KEN. A house. A bob ken, or a bowman ken; a well-furnished
house, also a house that harbours thieves. Biting
the ken; robbing the house. CANT.
KEN MILLER, or KEN CRACKER. A housebreaker. CANT.
KENT-STREET EJECTMENT. To take away the street door:
a method practised by the landlords in Kent-street, Southwark,
when their tenants are above a fortnight's rent in
arrear.
KERRY SECURITY. Bond, pledge, oath, and keep the
money.
KETCH. Jack Ketch; a general name for the finishers of the
law, or hangmen, ever since the year 1682, when the office
was filled by a famous practitioner of that name, of whom
his wife said, that any bungler might put a man to death,
but only her husband knew how to make a gentleman die
sweetly. This officer is mentioned in Butler's Ghost, page
54, published about the year 1682, in the following lines:
Till Ketch observing he was chous'd,
And in his profits much abus'd.
In open hall the tribute dunn'd,
To do his office, or refund.
Mr. Ketch had not long been elevated to his office, for the
name of his predecessor Dun occurs in the former part of
this poem, page 29:
For you yourself to act squire Dun,
Such ignominy ne'er saw the sun.
The addition of 'squire,' with which Mr. Dun is here
dignified, is a mark that he had beheaded some state criminal
for high treason; an operation which, according to custom
for time out of mind, has always entitled the operator to
that distinction. The predecessor of Dun was Gregory
Brandon, from whom the gallows was called the Gregorian
tree, by which name it is mentioned in the prologue to
Mercurius Pragmaticus, tragi-comedy acted at Paris, &c.
1641:
This trembles under the black rod, and he
Doth fear his fate from the Gregorian tree.
Gregory Brandon succeeded Derrick. See DERRICK.
KETTLEDRUMS. Cupid's kettle drums; a woman's breasts,
called by sailors chest and bedding.
KETTLE OF FISH. When a person has perplexed his affairs
in general, or any particular business, he is said to have
made a fine kettle of fish of it.
KICKS. Breeches. A high kick; the top of the fashion. It
is all the kick; it is the present mode. Tip us your kicks,
we'll have them as well as your lour; pull off your breeches,
for we must have them as well as your money. A kick;
sixpence. Two and a kick; half-a-crown. A kick in the
guts; a dram of gin, or any other spirituous liquor. A
kick up; a disturbance, also a hop or dance. An odd kick
in one's gallop; a strange whim or peculiarity.
To KICK THE BUCKET. To die. He kicked the bucket
one day: he died one day. To kick the clouds before the
hotel door; i.e. to be hanged.
KICKERAPOO. Dead. NEGRO WORD.
KICKSEYS. Breeches.
KICKSHAWS. French dishes: corruption of quelque chose.
KID. A little dapper fellow. A child. The blowen has
napped the kid. The girl is with child.
TO KID. To coax or wheedle. To inveigle. To amuse a
man or divert his attention while another robs him. The
sneaksman kidded the cove of the ken, while his pall
frisked the panney; the thief amused the master of the house,
while his companion robbed the house.
KID LAY. Rogues who make it their business to defraud
young apprentices, or errand-boys, of goods committed to
their charge, by prevailing on them to execute some trifling
message, pretending to take care of their parcels till they
come back; these are, in cant terms, said to be on the
kid lay.
KIDDER. A forestaller: see CROCKER. Kidders are also
persons employed by the gardeners to gather peas.
KIDDEYS. Young thieves.
KIDDY NIPPERS. Taylors out of work, who cut off the
waistcoat pockets of their brethren, when cross-legged on
their board, thereby grabbling their bit. CANT.
KIDNAPPER. Originally one who stole or decoyed children
or apprentices from their parents or masters, to send
them to the colonies; called also spiriting: but now used
for all recruiting crimps for the king's troops, or those of
the East India company, and agents for indenting servants
for the plantations, &c.
KIDNEY. Disposition, principles, humour. Of a strange
kidney; of an odd or unaccountable humour. A man of
a different kidney; a man of different principles.
KILKENNY. An old frize coat.
KILL CARE CLUB. The members of this club, styled also
the Sons of Sound Sense and Satisfaction, met at their
fortress, the Castle-tavern, in Paternoster-row.
KILL DEVIL. New still-burnt rum.
KILL PRIEST. Port wine.
To KIMBAW. To trick, cheat or cozen; also to beat or to
bully. Let's kimbaw the cull; let's bully the fellow.
To set one's arms a-kimbaw, vulgarly pronounced a-kimbo,
is to rest one's hands on the hips, keeping the elbows
square, and sticking out from the body; an insolent
bullying attitude. CANT.
KINCHIN. A little child. Kinchin coes; orphan beggar
boys, educated in thieving. Kinchin morts; young girls
under the like circumstances and training. Kinchin
morts, or coes in slates; beggars' children carried at their
mother's backs in sheets. Kinchin cove; a little man. CANT.
KING'S PLATE. Fetters.
KING'S WOOD LION. An Ass. Kingswood is famous for
the great number of asses kept by the colliers who inhabit
that place.
KING'S BAD BARGAIN. One of the king's bad bargains; a
malingeror, or soldier who shirks his duty.
KING'S HEAD INN, or CHEQUER INN, IN NEWGATE
STREET. The prison of Newgate.
KING JOHN'S MEN. He is one of king John's men, eight
score to the hundred: a saying of a little undersized man.
KING OF THE GYPSIES. The captain, chief, or ringleader
of the gang of misrule: in the cant language called also the
upright man.
KING'S PICTURES. Coin, money.
KINGDOM COME. He is gone to kingdom come, he is dead.
KIP. The skin of a large calf, in the language of the
Excise-office.
KISS MINE A-SE. An offer, as Fielding observes, very
frequently made, but never, as he could learn, literally
accepted. A kiss mine a-se fellow; a sycophant.
KISSING CRUST. That part where the loaves have touched
the oven.
KIT. A dancing-master, so called from his kit or cittern, a
small fiddle, which dancing-masters always carry about
with them, to play to their scholars. The kit is likewise
the whole of a soldier's necessaries, the contents of his
knapsack: and is used also to express the whole of different
commodities: as, Here, take the whole kit; i.e. take
all.
KIT-CAT CLUB. A society of gentlemen, eminent for wit
and learning, who in the reign of queen Anne and George
I. met at a house kept by one Christopher Cat. The
portraits of most of the members of this society were painted
by Sir Godfrey Kneller, of one size; thence still called the
kit-cat size.
KITCHEN PHYSIC. Food, good meat roasted or boiled. A
little kitchen physic will set him up; he has more need of
a cook than a doctor.
KITTLE PITCHERING. A jocular method of hobbling or
bothering a troublesome teller of long stories: this is done
by contradicting some very immaterial circumstance at
the beginning of the narration, the objections to which
being settled, others are immediately started to some new
particular of like consequence; thus impeding, or rather
not suffering him to enter into, the main story. Kittle
pitchering is often practised in confederacy, one relieving
the other, by which the design is rendered less obvious.
KITTYS. Effects, furniture; stock in trade. To seize one's
kittys; to take his sticks.
KNACK SHOP. A toy-shop, a nick-nack-atory.
KNAPPERS POLL. A sheep's head. CANT.
KNAVE IN GRAIN. A knave of the first rate: a phrase
borrowed from the dyehouse, where certain colours are said to
be in grain, to denote their superiority, as being dyed with
cochineal, called grain. Knave in grain is likewise a pun
applied to a cornfactor or miller.
KNIGHT OF THE BLADE. A bully.
KNIGHT OF THE POST. A false evidence, one that is ready
to swear any thing for hire.
KNIGHT OF THE RAINBOW. A footman: from the variety
of colours in the liveries and trimming of gentlemen of
that cloth.
KNIGHT OF THE ROAD. A highwayman.
KNIGHT OF THE SHEERS. A taylor.
KNIGHT OF THE THIMBLE, or NEEDLE. A taylor or stay-maker.
KNIGHT OF THE WHIP. A coachman.
KNIGHT OF THE TRENCHER. A great eater.
KNIGHT AND BARROW PIG, more hog than gentleman. A
saying of any low pretender to precedency.
KNOB. The head. See NOB.
KNOCK. To knock a woman; to have carnal knowledge of
her. To knock off; to conclude: phrase borrowed from
the blacksmith. To knock under; to submit.
KNOCK ME DOWN. Strong ale or beer, stingo.
KNOT. A crew, gang, or fraternity. He has tied a knot
with his tongue, that he cannot untie with his teeth: i.e.
he is married.
KNOWING ONES. Sportsmen on the turf, who from
experience and an acquaintance with the jockies, are supposed
to be in the secret, that is, to know the true merits or
powers of each horse; notwithstanding which it often happens
that the knowing ones are taken in.
KNOWLEDGE BOX. The head.
KNUCKLES. Pickpockets who attend the avenues to public
places to steal pocket-books, watches, &c. a superior kind
of pickpockets. To knuckle to, to submit.
TO KNUCKLE ONE'S WIPE. To steal his handkerchief.
KNUCKLE-DABS, or KNUCKLE-CONFOUNDERS. Ruffles.
KONOBLIN RIG. Stealing large pieces of coal from coalsheds.
LACED MUTTON. A prostitute.
LACING. Beating. I'll lace your jacket handsomely.
LADDER. To go up the ladder to rest; to be hanged.
LADY. A crooked or hump-backed woman.
LADY OF EASY VIRTUE. A woman of the town, an impure,
a prostitute.
LADYBIRDS. Light or lewd women.
LADY DACRE'S WINE. Gin.
LAG. A man transported. The cove was lagged for a drag.
The man was transported for stealing something out of a
waggon.
LAG FEVER. A term of ridicule applied to men who being
under sentence of transportation, pretend illness, to avoid
being sent from gaol to the hulks.
TO LAG. To drop behind, to keep back. Lag last; the
last of a company.
LAGE. Water. CANT.
LAGE OF DUDS. A buck of linen.
LAID ON THE SHELF, or LAID UP IN LAVENDER. Pawned.
To LAMB, or LAMBASTE. To beat. Lamb pye; a beating:
from lambo.
LAMB'S WOOL. Apples roasted and put into strong ale.
LAMBSKIN MEN. The judges: from their robes lined and
bordered with ermine.
LAMP. An eye. The cove has a queer lamp. The man
has a blind or squinting eye.
LAND. How lies the land? How stands the reckoning?
Who has any land in Appleby? a question asked the man
at whose door the glass stands long, or who does not
circulate it in due time.
LAND LOPERS, or LAND LUBBERS. Vagabonds lurking
about the country who subsist by pilfering.
LAND PIRATES. Highwaymen.
LANK SLEEVE. The empty sleeve of a one armed man.
A fellow with a lank sleeve; a man who has lost an arm.
LANSPRISADO. One who has only two-pence in his pocket.
Also a lance, or deputy corporal; that is, one doing the
duty without the pay of a corporal. Formerly a lancier, or
horseman, who being dismounted by the death of his
horse, served in the foot, by the title of lansprisado, or
lancepesato, a broken lance.
LANTHORN-JAWED. Thin-visaged: from their cheeks being almost
transparent. Or else, lenten jawed; i.e. having
the jaws of one emaciated by a too rigid observation of
Lent. Dark lanthorn; a servant or agent at court, who
receives a bribe for his principal or master.
LAP. Butter-milk or whey. CANT.
LARK. A boat.
LARK. A piece of merriment. People playing together jocosely.
LARRY DUGAN'S EYE WATER. Blacking: Larry Dugan
was a famous shoe-black at Dublin.
LATCH. Let in.
LATHY. Thin, slender. A lathy wench; a girl almost as
slender as a lath.
LATITAT. A nick-name for an attorney; from the name of
a writ.
LAVENDER. Laid up in lavender; pawned.
LAUGH. To laugh on the wrong side of the mouth; to cry.
I'll make him laugh on the wrong (or t'other) side of his
mouth.
LAUNCH. The delivery, or labour, of a pregnant woman;
a crying out or groaning.
LAW. To give law to a hare; a sporting term, signifying to
give the animal a chance of escaping, by not setting on
the dogs till the hare is at some distance; it is also more
figuratively used for giving any one a chance of succeeding
in a scheme or project.
LAWFUL BLANKET. A wife.
LAY. Enterprize, pursuit, or attempt: to be sick of the
lay. It also means a hazard or chance: he stands a queer
lay; i.e. he is in danger. CANT.
LAYSTALL. A dunghill about London, on which the soil
brought from necessary houses is emptied; or, in more
technical terms, where the old gold collected at weddings
by the Tom t--d man, is stored.
LAZY. As lazy as Ludman's dog, who leaned against the
wall to bark. As lazy as the tinker, who laid down his
budget to f--t.
LAZY MAN'S LOAD. Lazy people frequently take up more
than they can safely carry, to save the trouble of coming
a second time.
LAZYBONES. An instrument like a pair of tongs, for old or
very fat people to take any thing from the ground without
stooping.
LEAF. To go off with the fall of the leaf; to be hanged:
criminals in Dublin being turned off from the outside of
the prison by the falling of a board, propped up, and moving
on a hinge, like the leaf of a table. IRISH TERM.
TO LEAK. To make water.
LEAKY. Apt to blab; one who cannot keep a secret is said
to be leaky.
LEAPING OVER THE SWORD. An ancient ceremonial said to
constitute a military marriage. A sword being laid down
on the ground, the parties to be married joined hands,
when the corporal or serjeant of the company repeated
these words:
Leap rogue, and jump whore,
And then you are married for evermore.
Whereupon the happy couple jumped hand in hand over
the sword, the drum beating a ruffle; and the parties were
ever after considered as man and wife.
LEAST IN SIGHT. To play least in sight; to hide, keep
out of the way, or make one's self scarce.
LEATHER. To lose leather; to be galled with riding on
horseback, or, as the Scotch express it, to be saddle sick.
To leather also meant to beat, perhaps originally with a
strap: I'll leather you to your heart's content. Leather-headed;
stupid. Leathern conveniency; term used by
quakers for a stage-coach.
LEERY. On one's guard. See PEERY.
LEFT-HANDED WIFE. A concubine; an allusion to an
ancient German custom, according to which, when a man
married his concubine, or a woman greatly his inferior,
he gave her his left hand.
LEG. To make a leg; to bow. To give leg-bail and land
security; to run away. To fight at the leg; to take
unfair advantages: it being held unfair by back-sword
players to strike at the leg. To break a leg; a woman who has
had a bastard, is said to have broken a leg.
LEGGERS. Sham leggers; cheats who pretend to sell smuggled
goods, but in reality only deal in old shop-keepers or
damaged goods.
LENTEN FARE. Spare diet.
LETCH. A whim of the amorous kind, out of the common
way.
LEVITE. A priest or parson.
TO LIB. To lie together. CANT.
LIBBEGE. A bed. CANT.
LIBBEN. A private dwelling-house. CANT.
LIBKEN. A house to lie in. CANT.
TO LICK. To beat; also to wash, or to paint slightly over.
I'll give you a good lick o' the chops; I'll give you a good
stroke or blow on the face. Jack tumbled into a cow
t--d, and nastied his best clothes, for which his father stept
up, and licked him neatly.--I'll lick you! the dovetail to
which is, If you lick me all over, you won't miss--.
LICKSPITTLE. A parasite, or talebearer.
LIFT. To give one a lift; to assist. A good hand at a
dead lift; a good hand upon an emergency. To lift
one's hand to one's head; to drink to excess, or to drink
drams. To lift or raise one's elbow; the same.
LIFT. See SHOPLIFTER, &c.
LIFTER. A crutch.
LIG. A bed. See LIB.
LIGHT BOB. A soldier of the light infantry company.
LIGHT-FINGERED. Thievish, apt to pilfer.
LIGHT-HEELED. Swift in running. A light-heeled wench;
one who is apt, by the flying up of her heels, to fall flat on
her back, a willing wench.
LIGHT HOUSE. A man with a red fiery nose.
LIGHT TROOPS. Lice; the light troops are in full march;
the lice are crawling about.
LIGHTMANS. The day. CANT.
LIGHTNING. Gin. A flash of lightning; a glass of gin.
LIKENESS. A phrase used by thieves when the officers
or turnkeys are examining their countenance. As the
traps are taking our likeness; the officers are attentively
observing us.
LILIPUTIAN. A diminutive man or woman: from Gulliver's
Travels, written by Dean Swift, where an imaginary
kingdom of dwarfs of that name is described.
LILY WHITE. A chimney-sweeper.
LILY SHALLOW. (WHIP SLANG) A white driving hat.
LIMBS. Duke of limbs; a tall awkward fellow.
LIMB OF THE LAW. An inferior or pettyfogging attorney.
LIMBO. A prison, confinement.
To LINE. A term for the act of coition between dog and
bitch.
LINE OF THE OLD AUTHOR. A dram of brandy.
LINE. To get a man into a line, i.e. to divert his attention
by a ridiculous or absurd story. To humbug.
LINGO. Language. An outlandish lingo; a foreign tongue.
The parlezvous lingo; the French language.
LINEN ARMOURERS. Taylors.
LION. To tip the lion; to squeeze the nose of the party
tipped, flat to his face with the thumb. To shew the
lions and tombs; to point out the particular curiosities of
any place, to act the ciceroni: an allusion to Westminster
Abbey, and the Tower, where the tombs and lions are
shewn. A lion is also a name given by the gownsmen of
Oxford to an inhabitant or visitor. It is a standing joke
among the city wits to send boys and country folks, on
the first of April, to the Tower-ditch, to see the lions
washed.
LIQUOR. To liquor one's boots; to drink before a journey:
among Roman Catholics, to administer the extreme unction.
LITTLE BARBARY. Wapping.
LITTLE BREECHES. A familiar appellation used to a little
boy.
LITTLE CLERGYMAN. A young chimney-sweeper.
LITTLE EASE. A small dark cell in Guildhall, London,
where disorderly apprentices are confined by the city
chamberlain: it is called Little Ease from its being so low
that a lad cannot stand upright in it.
LITTLE SNAKESMAN. A little boy who gets into a house
through the sink-hole, and then opens the door for his
accomplices: he is so called, from writhing and twisting
like a snake, in order to work himself through the narrow
passage.
LIVE LUMBER. A term used by sailors, to signify all landsmen
on board their ships.
LIVE STOCK. Lice or fleas.
LOAF. To be in bad loaf, to be in a disagreeable situation,
or in trouble.
LOB. A till in a tradesman's shop. To frisk a lob; to rob
a till. See FLASH PANNEY.
LOB. Going on the lob; going into a shop to get change
for gold, and secreting some of the change.
LOB'S POUND. A prison. Dr. Grey, in his notes on Hudibras,
explains it to allude to one Doctor Lob, a dissenting
preacher, who used to hold forth when conventicles were
prohibited, and had made himself a retreat by means of a
trap door at the bottom of his pulpit. Once being pursued
by the officers of justice, they followed him through
divers subterraneous passages, till they got into a dark
cell, from whence they could not find their way out, but
calling to some of their companions, swore they had got
into Lob's Pound.
LOBCOCK. A large relaxed penis: also a dull inanimate
fellow.
LOBKIN. A house to lie in: also a lodging.
LOBLOLLEY BOY. A nick name for the surgeon's servant
on board a man of war, sometimes for the surgeon himself:
from the water gruel prescribed to the sick, which is
called loblolley.
LOBONIAN SOCIETY. A society which met at Lob Hall, at
the King and Queen, Norton Falgate, by order of Lob the
great.
LOBSCOUSE. A dish much eaten at sea, composed of salt
beef, biscuit and onions, well peppered, and stewed
together.
LOBSTER. A nick name for a soldier, from the colour of his
clothes. To boil one's lobster, for a churchman to
become a soldier: lobsters, which are of a bluish black,
being made red by boiling. I will not make a lobster
kettle of my ****, a reply frequently made by the nymphs
of the Point at Portsmouth, when requested by a soldier
to grant him a favour.
LOCK. A scheme, a mode. I must fight that lock; I must
try that scheme.
LOCK. Character. He stood a queer lock; he bore but an
indifferent character. A lock is also a buyer of stolen
goods, as well as the receptacle for them.
LOCK HOSPITAL. An hospital for venereal patients.
LOCK UP HOUSE. A spunging house; a public house kept
by sheriff's officers, to which they convey the persons they
have arrested, where they practise every species of
imposition and extortion with impunity. Also houses kept
by agents or crimps, who enlist, or rather trepan, men to
serve the East India or African company as soldiers.
LOCKERAM-JAWED. Thin-faced, or lanthorn-jawed. See
LANTHORN JAWED.
LOCKSMITH'S DAUGHTER. A key.
LOGGERHEAD. A blockhead, or stupid fellow. We three
loggerheads be: a sentence frequently written under two
heads, and the reader by repeating it makes himself the
third. A loggerhead is also a double-headed, or bar shot
of iron. To go to loggerheads; to fall to fighting.
LOLL. Mother's loll; a favourite child, the mother's darling,
LOLL TONGUE. He has been playing a game at loll tongue;
he has been salivated.
LOLLIPOPS. Sweet lozenges purchased by children.
TO LOLLOP. To lean with one's elbows on a table.
LOLLPOOP. A lazy, idle drone.
LOMBARD FEVER. Sick of the lombard fever; i.e. of the
idles.
LONG ONE. A hare; a term used by poachers.
LONG. Great. A long price; a great price.
LONG GALLERY. Throwing, or rather trundling, the dice
the whole length of the board.
LONG MEG. A jeering name for a very tall woman: from
one famous in story, called Long Meg of Westminster.
LONG SHANKS. A long-legged person.
LONG STOMACH. A voracious appetite.
LONG TONGUED. Loquacious, not able to keep a secret.
He is as long-tongued as Granny: Granny was an idiot
who could lick her own eye. See GRANNY.
LONG-WINDED. A long-winded parson; one who preached
long, tedious sermons. A long-winded paymaster; one
who takes long credit.
LOO. For the good of the loo; for the benefit of the company
or community.
LOOBY. An awkward, ignorant fellow.
LOOKING AS IF ONE COULD NOT HELP IT. Looking like a
simpleton, or as if one could not say boh! to a goose.
LOOKING-GLASS. A chamber pot, jordan, or member mug.
LOON, or LOUT. A country bumkin, or clown.
LOONSLATE. Thirteen pence halfpenny.
LOOPHOLE. An opening, or means of escape. To find a
loophole in an act of parliament; i.e. a method of
evading it,
LOP-SIDED. Uneven, having one side larger or heavier than
the other: boys' paper kites are often said to be lop-sided.
TO LOPE. To leap, to run away. He loped down the dancers;
he ran down stairs.
LORD. A crooked or hump-backed man. These unhappy
people afford great scope for vulgar raillery; such as, 'Did
you come straight from home? if so, you have got confoundedly
bent by the way.' 'Don't abuse the gemman,'
adds a by-stander, 'he has been grossly insulted already;
don't you see his back's up?' Or someone asks him if the
show is behind; 'because I see,' adds he, 'you have the
drum at your back.' Another piece of vulgar wit is let
loose on a deformed person: If met by a party of soldiers
on their march, one of them observes that that gentleman
is on his march too, for he has got his knapsack at his back.
It is said in the British Apollo, that the title of lord was
first given to deformed persons in the reign of Richard III.
from several persons labouring under that misfortune being
created peers by him; but it is more probably derived
from the Greek word [GREEK: lordos], crooked.
LOUSE. A gentleman's companion. He will never louse a
grey head of his own; he will never live to be old.
LOVE BEGOTTEN CHILD. A bastard.
LOUNGE. A loitering place, or gossiping shop.
LOUSE BAG. A black bag worn to the hair or wig.
LOUSE HOUSE. The round house, cage, or any other place
of confinement.
LOUSE LADDER. A stitch fallen in a stocking.
LOUSE LAND. Scotland.
LOUSE TRAP. A small toothed comb.
LOUT. A clumsy stupid fellow.
LOWING RIG. Stealing oxen or cows.
LOW PAD. A footpad.
LOW TIDE, or LOW WATER. When there is no money in
a man's pocket.
LOWRE. Money. Cant.
LUBBER. An awkward fellow: a name given by sailors to
landsmen.
LUCK, or GOOD LUCK. To tread in a surreverence, to be
bewrayed: an allusion to the proverb, Sh-tt-n luck is good
luck.
LUD'S BULWARK. Ludgate prison.
LUGS. Ears or wattles. See WATTLES.
LULLABY CHEAT. An infant. Cant.
LULLIES. Wet linen. Cant.
LULLY TRIGGERS. Thieves who steal wet linen. Cant.
LUMB. Too much.
LUMBER. Live lumber; soldiers or passengers on board a
ship are so called by the sailors.
LUMBER TROOP. A club or society of citizens of London.
LUMBER HOUSE. A house appropriated by thieves for the
reception of their stolen property.
To LUMP. To beat; also to include a number of articles
under one head.
To LUMP THE LIGHTER. To be transported.
LUMPERS. Persons who contract to unload ships; also
thieves who lurk about wharfs to pilfer goods from ships,
lighters, &c.
LUMPING. Great. A lumping penny worth; a great quantity
for the money, a bargain. He has'got a lumping penny-worth;
frequently said of a man who marries a fat woman.
LUN. Harlequin.
LURCH. To be left in the lurch; to be abandoned by one's
confederates or party, to be left in a scrape.
LURCHED. Those who lose a game of whist, without scoring five,
are said to be lurched.
LURCHER. A lurcher of the law; a bum bailiff, or his setter.
LURRIES. Money, watches, rings, or other moveables.
LUSH. Strong beer.
TO LUSH. To drink.
LUSHEY. Drunk. The rolling kiddeys hud a spree, and got
bloody lushey; the dashing lads went on a party of pleasure,
and got very drunk.
LYE. Chamber lye; urine.
MACCARONI. An Italian paste made of flour and eggs.
Also a fop: which name arose from a club, called the
Maccaroni Club, instituted by some of the most dressy
travelled gentlemen about town, who led the fashions; whence
a man foppishly dressed, was supposed a member of that
club, and by contraction styled a Maccaroni.
MACE COVE. A swindler, a sharper, a cheat. On the
mace; to live by swindling.
MACHINES. Mrs. Phillips's ware. See CUNDUM.
MACKEREL. A bawd: from the French maquerel. Mackerel-backed;
long-backed.
MAD TOM, or TOM OF BEDLAM, otherwise an Abram
Man. A rogue that counterfeits madness. CANT.
MADAM. A kept madam; a kept mistress.
MADAM RAN. A whore. CANT.
MADE. Stolen. CANT.
MADGE. The private parts of a woman.
MADGE CULLS. Sodomites. CANT.
MAGG. A halfpenny.
MAGGOT BOILER. A tallow-chandler.
MAGGOTTY. Whimsical, capricious.
MAGNUM BONUM. A bottle containing two quarts of wine.
See SCOTCH PINT.
MAHOMETAN GRUEL. Coffee: because formerly used
chiefly by the Turks.
MAIDEN SESSIONS. A sessions where none of the prisoners
are capitally convicted.
MAKE. A halfpenny. CANT.
MAKE WEIGHT. A small candle: a term applied to a little
slender man.
MALINGEROR. A military term for one who, under pretence
of sickness, evades his duty.
MALKIN, or MAULKIN. A general name for a cat; also a
parcel of rags fastened to the end of a stick, to clean an
oven; also a figure set up in a garden to scare the birds;
likewise an awkward woman. The cove's so scaly, he'd
spice a malkin of his jazey: the fellow is so mean, that he
would rob a scare-crow of his old wig.
MALKINTRASH. One in a dismal garb.
MALMSEY NOSE. A red pimpled snout, rich in carbuncles
and rubies.
MAN OF THE TOWN. A rake, a debauchee.
MAN OF THE TURF. A horse racer, or jockey.
MANOEUVRING THE APOSTLES. Robbing Peter to pay
Paul, i.e. borrowing of one man to pay another.
MAN TRAP. A woman's commodity.
MAN OF THE WORLD. A knowing man.
MAN, (CAMBRIDGE.) Any undergraduate from fifteen to thirty.
As a man of Emanuel--a young member of Emanuel.
MANUFACTURE. Liquors prepared from materials of English
growth.
MARE'S NEST. He has found a mare's nest, and is laughing
at the eggs; said of one who laughs without any
apparent cause.
MARGERY PRATER. A hen. CANT.
MARINE OFFICER. An empty bottle: marine officers being
held useless by the seamen. SEA WIT.
MARPLOT. A spoil sport.
MARRIAGE MUSIC. The squalling and crying of children.
MARRIED. Persons chained or handcuffed together, in order
to be conveyed to gaol, or on board the lighters for
transportation, are in the cant language said to be married
together.
MARROWBONES. The knees. To bring any one down on
his marrow bones; to make him beg pardon on his knees:
some derive this from Mary's bones, i.e. the bones bent in
honour of the Virgin Mary; but this seems rather far-fetched.
Marrow bones and cleavers; principal instruments
in the band of rough music: these are generally
performed on by butchers, on marriages, elections, riding
skimmington, and other public or joyous occasions.
MARTINET. A military term for a strict disciplinarian:
from the name of a French general, famous for restoring
military discipline to the French army. He first disciplined
the French infantry, and regulated their method of
encampment: he was killed at the siege of Doesbourg in the
year 1672.
MASON'S MAUND. A sham sore above the elbow, to counterfeit
a broken arm by a fall from a scaffold.
MASTER OF THE MINT. A gardener.
MASTER OF THE ROLLS. A baker.
MASTER OF THE WARDROBE. One who pawns his clothes
to purchase liquor.
MATRIMONIAL PEACE-MAKER. The sugar-stick, or
arbor vitae.
MAUDLIN DRUNK. Crying drunk: perhaps from Mary
Magdalene, called Maudlin, who is always painted in
tears.
MAULED. Extremely drunk, or soundly beaten.
MAUNDERING BROTH. Scolding.
MAUNDING. Asking or begging. CANT:
MAWKES. A vulgar slattern.
MAWLEY. A hand. Tip us your mawley; shake hands.
with me. Fam the mawley; shake hands.
MAW-WALLOP. A filthy composition, sufficient to provoke
vomiting.
MAX. Gin.
MAY BEES. May bees don't fly all the year long; an answer
to any one who prefaces a proposition with, It may be.
MEALY-MOUTHED. Over-modest or backward in speech.
MEDLAR. A fruit, vulgarly called an open a-se; of which
it is more truly than delicately said, that it is never ripe
till it is as rotten as a t--d, and then it is not worth a
f--t.
MELLOW. Almost drunk.
MELTING MOMENTS. A fat man and woman in the amorous congress.
TO MELT. To spend. Will you melt a borde? will you
spend a shilling? The cull melted a couple of decusses
upon us; the gentleman spent a couple of crowns upon us.
CANT.
MEMBER MUG. A chamber pot.
MEN OF STRAW. Hired bail, so called from having straw
stuck in their shoes to distinguish them.
MEN OF KENT. Men born east of the river Medway, who
are said to have met the Conqueror in a body, each carrying
a green bough in his hand, the whole appearing like
a moving wood; and thereby obtaining a confirmation of
their ancient privileges. The inhabitants of Kent are divided
into Kentish men and men of Kent. Also a society held
at the Fountain Tavern, Bartholomew Lane, A.D. 1743.
MERKIN. Counterfeit hair for women's privy parts. See
BAILEY'S DICT.
MERRY ANDREW, or MR. MERRYMAN. The jack pudding,
jester, or zany of a mountebank, usually dressed in a
party-coloured coat.
MERRY A-SE CHRISTIAN. A whore.
MERRY-BEGOTTEN. A bastard.
MAN OF THE WORLD. A knowing man.
MESS JOHN. A Scotch presbyterian teacher or parson.
MESSMATE. One who eats at the same mess, companion or
comrade.
METTLE. The semen. To fetch mettle; the act of self pollution.
Mettle is also figuratively used for courage.
METTLESOME. Bold, courageous.
MICHAEL. Hip, Michael, your head's on fire. See HYP.
MIDSHIPMAN'S WATCH AND CHAIN. A sheep's heart and
pluck.
MILCH COW. One who is easily tricked out of his property;
a term used by gaolers, for prisoners who have money and
bleed freely.
MILK AND WATER. Both ends of the busk.
TO MILK THE PIGEON. To endeavour at impossibilities.
MILLING COVE. A boxer. How the milling cove served
the cull out; how the boxer beat the fellow.