MIX METAL. A silversmith.

MOABITES. Bailiffs, or Philistines.

MOB; or MAB. A wench, or harlot.

MOBILITY. The mob: a sort of opposite to nobility.

MOHAIR. A man in the civil line, a townsman, or tradesman:

a military term, from the mohair buttons worn by persons

of those descriptions, or any others not in the army, the

buttons of military men being always of metal: this is

generally used as a term of contempt, meaning a bourgeois,

tradesman, or mechanic.

MOIETY. Half, but vulgarly used to signify a share or portion:

as, He will come in for a small moiety.

MOLL. A whore.

MOLL PEATLY'S GIG. A rogering bout.

MOLL THOMPSON'S MARK. M. T. i.e. empty: as, Take

away this bottle, it has Moll Thompson's mark upon it.

MOLLY. A Miss Molly; an effeminate fellow, a sodomite.

MONDAY. Saint Monday. See SAINT.

MONEY. A girl's private parts, commonly applied to little

children: as, Take care, Miss, or you will shew your

money.

MONEY DROPPERS. Cheats who drop money, which they

pretend to find just before some country lad; and by way

of giving him a share of their good luck, entice him into a

public house, where they and their confederates cheat or

rob him of what money he has about him.

MONGREL. A hanger on among cheats, a spunger; also a

child whose father and mother are of different countries.

MONKS AND FRIARS. Terms used by printers: monks are

sheets where the letters are blotted, or printed too black;

friars, those letters where the ink has failed touching the

type, which are therefore white or faint.

MONKEY. To suck the monkey; to suck or draw wine, or

any other liquor, privately out of a cask, by means of a

straw, or small tube. Monkey's allowance; more kicks

than halfpence. Who put that monkey on horseback without

tying his legs? vulgar wit on a bad horseman.

MONOSYLLABLE. A woman's commodity.

MOONCURSER. A link-boy: link-boys are said to curse the

moon, because it renders their assistance unnecessary;

these gentry frequently, under colour of lighting passengers

over kennels, or through dark passages, assist in robbing

them. Cant.

MOON-EYED HEN. A squinting wench.

MOON MEN. Gypsies.

MOON RAKERS. Wiltshire men: because it is said that

some men of that county, seeing the reflection of the

moon in a pond, endeavoured to pull it out with a rake.

MOONSHINE. A matter or mouthful of moonshine; a trifle,

nothing. The white brandy smuggled on the coasts of

Kent and Sussex, and the gin in the north of Yorkshire,

are also called moonshine.

MOP. A kind of annual fair in the west of England, where

farmers usually hire their servants.

To MOP UP. To drink up. To empty a glass or pot.

MOPED. Stupid, melancholy for want of society.

MOPSEY. A dowdy, or homely woman.

MOPSQUEEZER. A maid servant, particularly a housemaid.

MOPUSSES. Money.

MORGLAG. A brown bill, or kind of halbert, formerly

carried by watchmen; corruption of MORE, great or broad,

and GLAVE, blade.

MORNING DROP. The gallows. He napped the king's pardon

and escaped the morning drop; he was pardoned, and

was not hanged.

MORRIS. Come, morris off; dance off, or get you gone.

allusion to morris, i.e. MORISCO, or Moorish dancing.

MORT. A woman or wench; also a yeoman's daughter. To

be taken all-a mort; to be confounded, surprised, or motionless

through fear.

MOSES. To stand Moses: a man is said to stand Moses

when he has another man's bastard child fathered upon

him, and he is obliged by the parish to maintain it.

MOSS. A cant term for lead, because both are found on the

tops of buildings.

MOSSY FACE. The mother of all saints.

MOT. A girl, or wench. See MORT.

MOTHER, or THE MOTHER. A bawd. Mother abbess:

the same. Mother midnight; a midwife. Mother in

law's bit; a small piece, mothers in law being supposed

not apt to overload the stomachs of their husband's children.

MOTHER OF ALL SAINTS. The Monosyllable.

MOTHER OF ALL SOULS. The same. IRISH.

MOTHER OF ST. PATRICK. The same. IRISH.

MOTHER OF THE MAIDS. A bawd.

MOUCHETS. Small patches worn by ladies: from the French

word mouches.

MOVEABLES. Rings, watches, or any toys of value.

MOUSE. To speak like a mouse in a cheese; i.e. faintly or

indistinctly.

MOUSETRAP. The parson's mousetrap; the state of matrimony.

MOUTH. A noisy fellow. Mouth half cocked; one gaping

and staring at every thing he sees. To make any one

laugh on the wrong, or t'other side of his mouth; to make

him cry or grieve.

MOUTH. A silly fellow. A dupe. To stand mouth; i.e.

to be duped.

To MOW. A Scotch word for the act of copulation.

MOW HEATER. A drover: from their frequent sleeping on

hay mows. CANT.

MOWER. A cow.

MUCK. Money; also dung.

MUCKWORM. A miser.

MUCKINDER. A child's handkerchief tied to the side.

MUD. A fool, or thick-sculled fellow; also, among printers

the same as dung among journeymen taylors. See

DUNG.

MUD LARK. A fellow who goes about by the water side

picking up coals, nails, or other articles in the mud. Also

a duck.

MUFF. The private parts of a woman. To the well wearing

of your muff, mort; to the happy consummation of

your marriage, girl; a health.

MUFFLING CHEAT. A napkin.

MUGGLETONIANS. The sect or disciples of Lodowick

Muggleton.

MULLIGRUBS. Sick of the mulligrubs with eating chopped

hay: low-spirited, having an imaginary sickness.

MUM. An interjection directing silence. Mum for that; I

shall be silent as to that. As mute as Mumchance, who

was hanged for saying nothing; a friendly reproach to any

one who seems low-spirited and silent.

MUMCHANCE. An ancient game like hazard, played with

dice: probably so named from the silence observed in playing

at it.

MUM GLASS. The monument erected on Fish-street Hill,

London, in memory of the great fire in 1666.

MUMBLE A SPARROW. A cruel sport practised at wakes

and fairs, in the following manner: A cock sparrow

whose wings are clipped, is put into the crown of a hat; a

man having his arms tied behind him, attempts to bite off

the sparrow's head, but is generally obliged to desist, by

the many pecks and pinches he receives from the enraged

bird.

MUMMER. The mouth.

MUMPERS. Originally beggars of the genteel kind, but

since used for beggars in general.

MUMPERS HALL. An alehouse where beggars are harboured.

MUNDUNGUS. Bad or rank tobacco: from mondongo, a

Spanish word signifying tripes, or the uncleaned entrails

of a beast, full of filth.

MUNG. To beg.

MUNS. The face, or rather the mouth: from the German

word MUND, the mouth. Toute his muns; look at his face.

MUNSTER PLUMS. Potatoes. IRISH.

MUNSTER HEIFER. An Irish woman. A woman with

thick legs is said to be like a Munster heifer; i.e. beef to

the heels.

MURDER. He looked like God's revenge against murder;

he looked angrily.

MURPHIES. Potatoes.

MUSHROOM. A person or family suddenly raised to riches

and eminence: an allusion to that fungus, which starts up

in a night.

MUSIC. The watch-word among highwaymen, signifying

the person is a friend, and must pass unmolested. Music

is also an Irish term, in tossing up, to express the harp side,

or reverse, of a farthing or halfpenny, opposed to the head.

MUTE. An undertaker's servant, who stands at the door of

a person lying in state: so named from being supposed

mute with grief.

MUTTON-HEADED. Stupid.

MUTTON MONGER. A man addicted to wenching.

MUTTON. In her mutton, i.e. having carnal knowledge of a

woman.

MUZZLE. A beard.

MUZZLER. A violent blow on the mouth. The milling

cove tipped the cull a muzzler; the boxer gave the fellow

a blow on the mouth.

MYNT. See MINT.

MYRMIDONS. The constable's assistants, watchmen, &c.

NAB, or NAB CHEAT. A hat. Penthouse nab; a large

hat.

To NAB. To seize, or catch unawares. To nab the teaze;

to be privately whipped. To nab the stoop; to stand in

the pillory. To nab the rust; a jockey term for a horse

that becomes restive. To nab the snow: to steal linen

left out to bleach or dry. CANT.

To NAB GIRDER, or NOB GIRDER. A bridle.

NACK. To have a nack; to be ready at any thing, to have

a turn-for it.

NACKY. Ingenious.

NAILED. Secured, fixed. He offered me a decus, and I

nailed him; he offered me a crown, and I struck or fixed

him.

NANNY HOUSE. A brothel.

TO NAP. To cheat at dice by securing one chance. Also

to catch the venereal disease. You've napt it; you are

infected.

NAPPING. To take any one napping; i.e. to come upon

him unexpectedly, to find him asleep: as, He caught him

napping, as Morse caught his mare.

NAPPER. The head; also a cheat or thief.

NAPPER OF NAPS. A sheep stealer. CANT.

NAPPY ALE. Strong ale.

NASK, or NASKIN. A prison or bridewell. The new nask;

Clerkenwell bridewell. Tothil-fields nask; the bridewell

at Tothil-fields. CANT.

NATION. An abbreviation of damnation: a vulgar term used

in Kent, Sussex, and the adjacent counties, for very.

Nation good; very good. A nation long way; a very long

way.

NATTY LADS. Young thieves or pickpockets. CANT.

NATURAL. A mistress, a child; also an idiot. A natural

son or daughter; a love or merry-begotten child, a bastard.

NAVY OFFICE. The Fleet prison. Commander of the

Fleet; the warden of the Fleet prison.

NAY WORD. A bye-word, proverb.

NAZAKENE FORETOP. The foretop of a wig made in imitation

of Christ's head of hair, as represented by the

painters and sculptors.

NAZY. Drunken. Nazy cove or mort; a drunken rogue

or harlot. Nazy nabs; drunken coxcombs.

NEB, or NIB. The bill of a bird, and the slit of a pen.

Figuratively, the face and mouth of a woman; as, She holds

up her neb: she holds up her mouth to be kissed.

NECK STAMPER. The boy who collects the pots belonging

to an alehouse, sent out with beer to private houses.

NECK VERSE. Formerly the persons claiming the benefit

of clergy were obliged to read a verse in a Latin

manuscript psalter: this saving them from the gallows, was

termed their neck verse: it was the first verse of the

fiftyfirst psalm, Miserere mei,&c.

NECK WEED. Hemp.

NEEDLE POINT. A sharper.

NEGLIGEE. A woman's undressed gown, Vulgarly termed a

neggledigee.

NEGROE. A black-a-moor: figuratively used for a slave.

I'll be no man's negro; I will be no man's slave.

NEGROE'S HEADS. Brown leaves delivered to the ships in

ordinary.

NESCIO. He sports a Nescio; he pretends not to understand

any thing. After the senate house examination for

degrees, the students proceed to the schools, to be

questioned by the proctor. According to custom

immemorial the answers MUST be Nescio. The following is

a translated specimen:

Ques. What is your name?--Ans. I do not know.

Ques. What is the name of this university?--Ans. I do not

know.

Ques. Who was your father?-Ans. I do not know.

This last is probably the only true answer of the three!

NETTLED. Teized, provoked, out of temper. He or she has

pissed on a nettle; said of one who is peevish or out of

temper.

NEW COLLEGE STUDENTS. Golden scholars, silver bachelors,

and leaden masters.

NEW DROP. The scaffold used at Newgate for hanging

of criminals; which dropping down, leaves them

suspended. By this improvement, the use of that vulgar

vehicle, a cart, is entirely left off.

NEW LIGHT. One of the new light; a methodist.

NEWGATE BIRD. A thief or sharper, frequently caged in

Newgate.

NEWGATE SOLICITOR. A petty fogging and roguish attorney,

who attends the gaols to assist villains in evading

justice.

NEWMAN'S LIFT. The gallows.

NEWMAN'S TEA GARDENS. Newgate.

NEWMAN'S HOTEL. Newgate.

To NICK. To win at dice, to hit the mark just in the nick

of time, or at the critical moment.

NICK. Old nick; the Devil.

NICKNAME. A name given in ridicule or contempt: from

the French nom de niqne. Niqne is a movement of the head

to mark a contempt for any person or thing.

NICK NINNY. A simpleton.

NICKIN, NIKEY or NIZEY. A soft simple fellow; also a

diminutive of Isaac.

NICKNACKS. Toys, baubles, or curiosities.

NlCKNACKATORY. A toyshop.

NICKUMPOOP, or NINCUMPOOP. A foolish fellow; also

one who never saw his wife's ****.

NIFFYNAFFY FELLOW. A trifler.

NIG. The clippings of money. Nigging; clipping. Nigler,

a clipper. Cant.

NIGGLING. Cutting awkwardly, trifling; also accompanying

with a woman.

NIGHT MAGISTRATE. A constable.

NIGHTINGALE. A soldier who, as the term is, sings out

at the halberts. It is a point of honour in some

regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry out,

become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the

cat of nine tails; to avoid which, they chew a bullet.

NIGHTMAN. One whose business it is to empty necessary

houses in London, which is always done in the night; the

operation is called a wedding. See WEDDING.

NIGMENOG. A very silly fellow.

TO NIM. To steal or pilfer: from the German nemen, to

take. Nim a togeman; steal a cloak.

NIMGIMMER. A physician or surgeon, particularly those

who cure the venereal disease.

NINE LIVES. Cats are said to have nine lives, and women

ten cats lives.

NINNY, or NINNYHAMMER. A simpleton.

NIP. A cheat. Bung nipper; a cutpurse.

NIP CHEESE. A nick name for the purser of a ship: from

those gentlemen being supposed sometimes to nip, or

diminish, the allowance of the seamen, in that and every

other article. It is also applied to stingy persons in

general.

NIPPERKIN. A small measure.

NIPPS. The sheers used in clipping money.

NIT SQUEEGER, i.e. SQUEEZER. A hair-dresser.

NIX. Nothing.

NO CATCHY NO HAVY. If I am not caught, I cannot be hurt.

Negro saying.

NOB. A king. A man of rank.

NOB. The head.

NOBTHATCHER. A peruke-maker.

NOCK. The breech; from NOCK, a notch.

NOCKY BOY. A dull simple fellow.

NOD. He is gone to the land of nod; he is asleep.

NODDLE. The head.

NODDY. A simpleton or fool. Also a kind of low cart,

with a seat before it for the driver, used in and about

Dublin, in the manner of a hackney coach: the fare is

just half that of a coach, for the same distance; so

that for sixpence one may have a set down, as it is

called, of a mile and half, and frequently a tumble

down into the bargain: it is called a noddy from the

nutation of its head. Knave noddy; the old-fashioned

name for the knave of trumps.

NOISY DOG RACKET. Stealing brass knockers from doors.

NOKES. A ninny, or fool. John-a-Nokes and Tom-a-Stiles;

two honest peaceable gentlemen, repeatedly set together

by the ears by lawyers of different denominations: two

fictitious names formerly used in law proceedings, but

now very seldom, having for several years past been

supplanted by two other honest peaceable gentlemen,

namely, John Doe and Richard Roe.

NOLL. Old Noll; Oliver Cromwell.

NON-CON. A nonconformist, presbyterian, or any other

dissenter.

NONE-SUCH. One that is unequalled: frequently applied

ironically.

NONSENSE. Melting butter in a wig.

NOOZED. Married, hanged.

NOPE. A blow: as, I took him a nope on the costard.

NORFOLK CAPON. A red herring.

NORFOLK DUMPLING. A nick name, or term of jocular

reproach to a Norfolk man; dumplings being a favourite

food in that county.

NORTH ALLERTONS. Spurs; that place, like Rippon,

being famous for making them.

NORTHUMBERLAND. Lord Northumberland's arms; a black

eye: so called in the last century.

NORWAY NECKCLOTH. The pillory, usually made of Norway

fir.

NOSE. As plain as the nose on your face; evidently to be

seen. He is led by the nose; he is governed. To follow

one's nose; to go strait forward. To put one's nose

out of joint; to rival one in the favour of any person.

To make a bridge of any one's nose; to pass by him in

drinking. To nose a stink; to smell it. He cut off his

nose to be revenged of his face; said of one who, to be

revenged on his neighbour, has materially injured

himself.

NOSE. A man who informs or turns king's evidence.

TO NOSE. To give evidence. To inform. His pall nosed and

he was twisted for a crack; his confederate turned

king's evidence, and he was hanged for burglary.

TO NOSE. To bully.

NOSE BAG. A bag fastened to the horse's head, in which

the soldiers of the cavalry put the oats given to their

horses: whence the saying, I see the hose bag in his

face; i.e. he has been a private man, or rode private.

NOSE GENT. A nun.

NOSTRUM. A medicine prepared by particular persons

only, a quack medicine.

NOTCH. The private parts of a woman.

NOTE. He changed his note; he told another sort of a

story.

NOUS-BOX. The head.

NOZZLE. The nose of a man or woman.

NUB. The neck; also coition.

NUBBING. Hanging. Nubbing cheat: the gallows. Nubbing

cove; the hangman. Nubbing ken; the sessions

house.

NUG. An endearing word: as, My dear nug; my dear love.

NUGGING DRESS. An out-of-the-way old-fashioned dress,

or rather a loose kind of dress, denoting a courtesan.

NUGGING-HOUSE. A brothel.

TO NULL. To beat: as, He nulled him heartily.

NUMBERS. To consult the book of numbers: a term used

in the House of Commons, when, instead of answering or

confuting a pressing argument, the minister calls for a

division, i.e. puts the matter to the vote.

NUMBSCULL. A stupid fellow.

NUMMS. A sham collar, to be worn over a dirty shirt.

NUNNERY. A bawdy house.

TO NURSE. To cheat: as, they nursed him out of it. An

estate in the hands of trustees, for the payment of

bdebts, is said to be at nurse.

NUTS. It was nuts for them; i.e. it was very agreeable to

them.

NUTS. Fond; pleased. She's nuts upon her cull; she's

pleased with her cully. The cove's nutting the blowen;

the man is trying to please the girl.

NUTCRACKERS. The pillory: as, The cull peeped through

the nutcrackers.

NUTMEGS. Testicles.

NYP, or NIP. A half pint, a nip of ale: whence the

nipperkin, a small vessel.

NYP SHOP. The Peacock in Gray's Inn Lane, where

Burton ale is sold in nyps.

NYPPER. A cut-purse: so called by one Wotton, who in

the year 1585 kept an academy for the education and

perfection of pickpockets and cut-purses: his school was

near Billingsgate, London. As in the dress of ancient

times many people wore their purses at their girdles,

cutting them was a branch of the light-fingered art,

which is now lost, though the name remains. Maitland,

from Stow, gives the following account of this Wotton:

This man was a gentleman born, and sometime a merchant

of good credit, but fallen by time into decay: he kept

an alehouse near Smart's Key, near Billingsgate,

afterwards for some misdemeanor put down. He reared up a

new trade of life, and in the same house he procured all

the cut-purses about the city, to repair to his house;

there was a school-house set up to learn young boys to

cut purses: two devices were hung up; one was a pocket,

and another was a purse; the pocket had in it certain

counters, and was hung about with hawks bells, and over

the top did hang a little sacring bell. The purse had

silver in it; and he that could take out a counter,

without noise of any of the bells, was adjudged a

judicial NYPPER: according to their terms of art, a

FOYSTER was a pick-pocket; a NYPPER was a pick purse,

or cut-purse.

O BE JOYFUL. I'll make you sing O be joyful on the

other side of your mouth; a threat, implying the party

threatened will be made to cry. To sing O be easy; to

appear contented when one has cause to complain, and

dare not.

OAF. A silly fellow.

OAFISH. Simple.

OAK. A rich maa, a man of good substance and credit.

To sport oak; to shut the outward door of a student's

room at college. An oaken towel; an oaken cudgel. To

rub a man down with an oaken towel; to beat him.

OATS. He has sowed his wild oats; he is staid, or sober,

having left off his wild tricks.

OATHS. The favourite oaths of the thieves of the present

day are, "God strike me blind!" "I wish my bloody eyes

may drop out if it is not true!" "So help me God!"

"Bloody end to me!"

OAR. To put in one's oar; to intermeddle, or give an

opinion unasked: as, To be sure, you must put in your

oar!

OBSTROPULOUS. Vulgar misnomer of OBSTREPEROUS: as, I

was going my rounds, and found this here gemman very

obstropulous, whereof I comprehended him as an

auspicious parson.

OCCUPY. To occupy a woman; to have carnal knowledge

of her.

ODDFELLOWS. A convivial society; the introduction to

the most noble grand, arrayed in royal robes, is well worth

seeing at the price of becoming a member.

ODDS PLUT AND HER NAILS. A Welch oath, frequently

mentioned in a jocular manner by persons, it is hoped,

ignorant of its meaning; which is, By God's blood, and

the nails with which he was nailed to the cross.

ODD-COME-SHORTLYS. I'll do it one of these odd-come-shortly's;

I will do it some time or another.

OFFICE. To give the office; to give information, or make

signs to the officers to take a thief.

OGLES. Eyes. Rum ogles; fine eyes.

OIL OF BARLEY, or BARLEY BROTH. Strong beer.

OIL OF GLADNESS. I will anoint you with the oil of gladness;

ironically spoken for, I will beat you.

OIL OF STIRRUP. A dose the cobler gives his wife whenever

she is obstropulous.

OI POAAOI (Proofreaders Note: Greek Letters).

(CAMBRIDGE.) The many; the multitude;

who take degrees without being entitled for an honor.

All that is REQUIRED, are three books of Euclid, and as far

as Quadratic Equation's in Algebra. See PLUCKED.

OLD. Ugly. CANT.

OLD DOG AT IT. Expert, accustomed.

OLD HAND. Knowing or expert in any business.

OLD HARRY. A composition used by vintners to adulterate

their wines; also the nick-name for the devil.

OLD DING. See OLD HAT.

OLD MR. GORY. A piece of gold.

OLD NICK. The Devil: from NEKEN, the evil spirit of the

north.

OLD ONE. The Devil. Likewise an expression of quizzical

familiarity, as "how d'ye do, OLD ONE?"

OLD PEGG. Poor Yorkshire cheese, made of skimmed

milk.

OLD POGER. The Devil.

OLD STAGER. One accustomed to business, one who knows

mankind.

OLD TOAST. A brisk old fellow. CANT.

OLD DOSS. Bridewell.

OLIVER'S SCULL. A chamber pot.

OLLI COMPOLLI. The name of one of the principal rogues

of the canting crew. CANT.

OMNIUM GATHERUM. The whole together: jocular imitation

of law Latin.

ONE IN TEN. A parson: an allusion to his tithes.

ONE OF US, or ONE OF MY COUSINS. A woman of the

town, a harlot.

ONION. A seal. Onion hunters, a class of young thieves

who are on the look out for gentlemen who wear their

seals suspended on a ribbon, which they cut, and thus

secure the seals or other trinkets suspended to the watch.

OPEN ARSE. A medlar. See MEDLAR.

OPTIME. The senior and junior optimes are the second

and last classes of Cambridge honors conferred on taking

a degree. That of wranglers is the first. The last

junior optime is called the Wooden Spoon.

ORGAN. A pipe. Will you cock your organ? will you

smoke your pipe?

ORTHODOXY AND HETERODOXY. Somebody explained these

terms by saying, the first was a man who had a doxy of

his own, the second a person who made use of the doxy

of another man.

OSCHIVES. Bone-handled knives. CANT.

OSTLER. Oatstealer.

OTTOMY. The vulgar word for a skeleton.

OTTOMISED. To be ottomised; to be dissected. You'll be

scragged, ottomised, and grin in a glass case: you'll be

hanged, anatomised, and your skeleton kept in a glass

case at Surgeons' Hall.

OVEN. A great mouth; the old woman would never have

looked for her daughter in the oven, had she not been there

herself.

OVERSEER. A man standing in the pillory, is, from his

elevated situation, said to be made an overseer.

OUT AT HEELS, OR OUT AT ELBOWS. In declining circumstances.

OUTRUN THE CONSTABLE. A man who has lived above his

means, or income, is said to have outrun the constable.

OUTS. A gentleman of three outs. See GENTLEMAN.

OWL. To catch the; a trick practised upon ignorant country

boobies, who are decoyed into a barn under pretence

of catching an owl, where, after divers preliminaries, the

joke ends in their having a pail of water poured upon their

heads.

OWL IN AN IVY BUSH. He looks like an owl in an ivy

bush; frequently said of a person with a large frizzled wig,

or a woman whose hair is dressed a-la-blowze.

OWLERS. Those who smuggle wool over to France.

OX HOUSE. He must go through the ox house to bed; a saying

of an old fellow who marries a young girl.

OYES. Corruption of oyez, proclaimed by the crier of all

courts of justice.

OYSTER. A gob of thick phlegm, spit by a consumptive

man; in law Latin, UNUM VIRIDUM GOBBUM

P'S. To mind one's P's and Q's; to be attentive to the

main chance.

P.P.C. An inscription on the visiting cards of our modern

fine gentleman, signifying that they have called POUR

PRENDRE CONGE, i.e. 'to take leave,' This has of late been

ridiculed by cards inscribed D.I.O. i.e. 'Damme, I'm off.'

PACKET. A false report.

PACKTHREAD. To talk packthread; to use indecent language

well wrapt up.

PAD. The highway, or a robber thereon; also a bed. Footpads;

foot robbers. To go out upon the pad; to go out

in order to commit a robbery.

PAD BORROWERS. Horse stealers.

TO PAD THE HOOF. See To BEAT THE HOOF.

PADDINGTON FAIR DAY. An execution day, Tyburn being

in the parish or neighbourhood of Paddington. To dance

the Paddington frisk; to be hanged.

PADDY. The general name for an Irishman: being the

abbreviation of Patrick, the name of the tutelar saint of that

island.

PAINTER. I'll cut your painter for you; I'll send you off;

the painter being the ropfe that holds the boat fast to the

ship. SEA TERM.

PAIR OF WINGS. Oars. CANT.

TO PALAVER. To flatter: originally an African word for a

treaty, talk, or conference.

PALLIARDS. Those whose fathers were clapperdogens, or

beggars born, and who themselves follow the same trade:

the female sort beg with a number of children, borrowing

them, if they have not a sufficient number of their own,

and making them cry by pinching in order to excite

charity; the males make artificial sores on different parts of

their bodies, to move compassion.

PALL. A companion. One who generally accompanies

another, or who commit robberies together.

PAM. The knave of clubs.

PANNAM. Bread.

PANNIER MAN. A servant belonging to the Temple and

Gray's Inn, whose office is to announce the dinner. This

in the Temple, is done by blowing a horn; and in Gray's

Inn proclaiming the word Manger, Manger, Manger, in

each of the three courts.

PANNY. A house. To do a panny: to rob a house. See

the Sessions Papers. Probably, panny originally meant

the butler's pantry, where the knives and forks, spoons,

&c. are usually kept The pigs frisked my panney, and

nailed my screws; the officers searched my house, and

seized my picklock keys. CANT.

PANTER. A hart: that animal is, in the Psalms, said to

pant after the fresh water-brooks. Also the human

heart, which frequently pants in time of danger. CANT.

PANTILE SHOP. A presbyterian, or other dissenting meeting

house, frequently covered with pantiles: called also

a cock-pit.

PANTLER. A butler.

PAP. Bread sauce; also the food of infants. His mouth is

full of pap; he is still a baby.

PAPER SCULL. A thin-scull'd foolish fellow.

PAPLER. Milk pottage.

PARELL. Whites of eggs, bay salt, milk, and pump water,

beat together, and poured into a vessel of wine to prevent

its fretting.

PARENTHESIS. To put a man's nose into a parenthesis: to

pull it, the fingers and thumb answering the hooks or

crochets. A wooden parenthesis; the pillory. An iron

parenthesis; a prison.

PARINGS. The chippings of money. CANT.

PARISH BULL. A parson.

PARISH. His stockings are of two parishes; i.e. they are

not fellows.

PARISH SOLDIER. A jeering name for a militiaman: from

substitutes being frequently hired by the parish from

which one of its inhabitants is drawn.

PARK PAILING. Teeth.

PARSON. A guide post, hand or finger post by the road

side for directing travellers: compared to a parson,

because, like him, it sets people in the right way. See

GUIDE POST. He that would have luck in horse-flesh,

must kiss a parson's wife.

PARSON'S JOURNEYMAN. A curate.

PARSON PALMER. A jocular name, or term of reproach,

to one who stops the circulation of the glass by preaching

over his liquor; as it is said was done by a parson of that

name whose cellar was under his pulpit.

PARTIAL. Inclining more to one side than the other,

crooked, all o' one hugh.

PASS BANK. The place for playing at passage, cut into

the ground almost like a cock-pit. Also the stock or

fund.

PASSAGE. A camp game with three dice: doublets, making

up ten or more, to pass or win; any other chances

lose.

PAT. Apposite, or to the purpose.

PATE. The head. Carroty-pated; red-haired.

PATRICO, or PATER-COVE. The fifteenth rank of the canting

tribe; strolling priests that marry people under a

hedge, without gospel or common prayer book: the

couple standing on each side of a dead beast, are bid to live

together till death them does part; so shaking hands, the

wedding is ended. Also any minister or parson.

PATTERING. The maundering or pert replies of servants;

also talk or palaver in order to amuse one intended to be

cheated. Pattering of prayers; the confused sound of a

number of persons praying together.

TO PATTER. To talk. To patter flash; to speak flash, or

the language used by thieves. How the blowen lushes

jackey, and patters flash; how the wench drinks gin, and

talks flash.

PAVIOUR'S WORKSHOP. The street.

TO PAUM. To conceal in the hand. To paum a die: to

hide a die in the palm of the hand. He paums; he cheats.

Don't pretend to paum that upon me.

PAUNCH. The belly. Some think paunch was the original

name of that facetious prince of puppets, now called

Mr. Punch, as he is always represented with a very

prominent belly: though the common opinion is, that both

the name and character were taken from a celebrated Italian

comedian, called Polichenello.

PAW. A hand or foot; look at his dirty paws. Fore paw;

the hand. Hind paw; the foot. To paw; to touch or

handle clumsily.

PAW PAW TRICKS. Naughty tricks: an expression used

by nurses, &c. to children.

TO PAY. To smear over. To pay the bottom of a ship or

boat; to smear it over with pitch: The devil to pay, and

no pitch hot or ready. SEA TERM.--Also to beat: as, I will

pay you as Paul paid the Ephesians, over the face and eyes,

and all your d---d jaws. To pay away; to fight manfully,

also to eat voraciously. To pay through the nose: to pay

an extravagant price.

To PEACH. To impeach: called also to blow the gab, squeak,

or turn stag.

PEAK. Any kind of lace.

PEAL. To ring a peal in a man's ears; to scold at him: his

wife rang him such a peal!

PEAR MAKING. Taking bounties from several regiments

and immediately deserting. The cove was fined in the

steel for pear making; the fellow was imprisoned in the

house of correction for taking bounties from different

regiments.

PECCAVI. To cry peccavi; to acknowledge one's self in an

error, to own a fault: from the Latin PECCAVI, I have sinned.

PECK. Victuals. Peck and booze; victuals and drink.

PECKISH. Hungry.

PECULIAR. A mistress.

PED. A basket. CANT.

PEDLAR'S FRENCH. The cant language. Pedlar's pony;

a walking-stick.

To PEEL. To strip: allusion to the taking off the coat or

rind of an orange or apple.

PEEPER. A spying glass; also a looking-glass. Track up

the dancers, and pike with the peeper; whip up stairs,

and run off with the looking-glass. CANT.

PEEPERS. Eyes. Single peeper, a one-eyed man.

PEEPING TOM. A nick name for a curious prying fellow;

derived from an old legendary tale, told of a taylor of

Coventry, who, when Godiva countess of Chester rode at

noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure

certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding

the rest of the people shut up their houses) shly peeped

out of his window, for which he was miraculously struck

blind. His figure, peeping out of a window, is still kept

up in remembrance of the transaction.

PEEPY. Drowsy.

To PEER. To look about, to be circumspect.

PEERY. Inquisitive, suspicious. The cull's peery; that

fellow suspects something. There's a peery, tis snitch

we are observed, there's nothing to be done.

PEG. Old Peg; poor hard Suffolk or Yorkshire cheese. A

peg is also a blow with a straightarm: a term used by the

professors of gymnastic arts. A peg in the day-light,

the victualling office, or the haltering-place; a blow in the

eye, stomach, or under the ear.

PEG TRANTUM'S. Gone to Peg Trantum's; dead.

PEGO. The penis of man or beast.

PELL-MELL. Tumultuously, helter skelter, jumbled together.

PELT. A heat, chafe, or passion; as, What a pelt he was

in! Pelt is also the skin of several beasts.

PENANCE BOARD. The pillory.

PENNY-WISE AND POUND FOOLISH. Saving in small matters,

and extravagant in great.

PENNYWORTH. An equivalent. A good pennyworth;

cheap bargain.

PENTHOUSE NAB. A broad brimmed hat.

PEPPERED. Infected with the venereal disease.

PEPPERY. Warm, passionate.

PERKIN. Water cyder.

PERRIWINKLE. A wig.

PERSUADERS. Spurs. The kiddey clapped his persuaders

to his prad but the traps boned him; the highwayman

spurred his horse hard, but the officers seized him.

PET. In a pet; in a passion or miff.

PETER. A portmanteau or cloke-bag. Biter of peters; one

that makes it a trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind

stage coaches or out of waggons. To rob Peter to

pay Paul; to borrow of one man to pay another: styled

also manoeuvring the apostles.

PETER GUNNER, will kill all the birds that died last summer.

A piece of wit commonly thrown out at a person

walking through a street or village near London, with a

gun in his hand.

PETER LAY. The department of stealing portmanteaus,

trunks, &c.

PETER LUG. Who is Peter Lug? who lets the glass stand

at his door, or before him.

PETTICOAT HOLD. One who has an estate during his wife's

life, called the apron-string hold.

PETTICOAT PENSIONER. One kept by a woman for secret

services.

PETTISH. Passionate.

PETTY FOGGER. A little dirty attorney, ready to undertake

any litigious or bad cause: it is derived from the French

words petit vogue, of small credit, or little reputation.

PHARAOH. Strong malt liquor.

PHILISTINES. Bailiffs, or officers of justice; also drunkards.

PHOENIX-MEN. Firemen belonging to an insurance office,

which gave a badge charged with a phoenix: these men

were called likewise firedrakes.

PHOS BOTTLE. A. bottle of phosphorus: used by housebreakers

to light their lanthorns. Ding the phos; throw

away the bottle of phosphorus.

PHRASE OF PAPER. Half a quarter of a sheet. See VESSEL, PHYSOG.

PHYSOG. The face. A vulgar abbreviation of physiognomy.

PHYZ. The face. Rum phyz; an odd face or countenance.

PICAROON. A pirate; also a sharper.

PICKANINY. A young child, an infant. NEGRO TERM.

PICKING. Pilfering, petty larceny.

PICKLE. An arch waggish fellow. In pickle, or in the

pickling tub; in a salivation. There are rods in brine, or

pickle, for him; a punishment awaits him, or is prepared

for him. Pickle herring; the zany or merry andrew

of a mountebank. See JACK PUDDING.

PICKT HATCH. To go to the manor of pickt hatch, a

cant name for some part of the town noted for bawdy

houses in Shakespeare's time, and used by him in that

sense.

PICKTHANK. A tale-bearer or mischief maker.

PICTURE FRAME. The sheriff's picture frame; the gallows

or pillory.

To PIDDLE. To make water: a childish expression; as,

Mammy, I want to piddle. Piddling also means trifling,

or doing any thing in a small degree: perhaps from peddling.

PIECE. A wench. A damned good or bad piece; a girl

who is more or less active and skilful in the amorous congress.

Hence the (CAMBRIDGE) toast, May we never have

a PIECE (peace) that will injure the constitution. Piece

likewise means at Cambridge a close or spot of ground

adjacent to any of the colleges, as Clare-hall Piece, &c.

The spot of ground before King's College formerly belonged

to Clare-hall. While Clare Piece belonged to King's,

the master of Clare-hall proposed a swop, which being

refused by the provost of King's, he erected before their

gates a temple of CLOACINA. It will be unnecessary to say

that his arguments were soon acceded to.

PIG. A police officer. A China street pig; a Bow-street

officer. Floor the pig and bolt; knock down the officer

and run away.

PIG. Sixpence, a sow's baby. Pig-widgeon; a simpleton.

To pig together; to lie or sleep together, two or more in

a bed. Cold pig; a jocular punishment inflicted by the

maid seryants, or other females of the house, on persons

lying over long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the

bed clothes, and leaving them to pig or lie in the cold. To

buy a pig in a poke; to purchase any thing without seeing.

Pig's eyes; small eyes. Pigsnyes; the same: a vulgar

term of endearment to a woman. He can have boiled

pig at home; a mark of being master of his own house:

an allusion to a well known poem and story. Brandy is

Latin for pig and goose; an apology for drinking a dram

after either.

PIG-HEADED. Obstinate.

PIG RUNNING. A piece of game frequently practised at

fairs, wakes, &c. A large pig, whose tail is cut short, and

both soaped and greased, being turned out, is hunted by

the young men and boys, and becomes the property of him

who can catch and hold him by the tail, above the height

of his head.

PIGEON. A weak silly fellow easily imposed on. To pigeon;

to cheat. To milk the pigeon; to attempt impossibilities,

to be put to shifts for want of money. To

fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off a church.

PIGEONS. Sharpers, who, during the drawing of the lottery,

wait ready mounted near Guildhall, and, as soon as

the first two or three numbers are drawn, which they receive

from a confederate on a card, ride with them full

speed to some distant insurance office, before fixed on,

where there is another of the gang, commonly a decent

looking woman, who takes care to be at the office before

the hour of drawing: to her he secretly gives the number,

which she insures for a considerable sum: thus biting

the biter.

PIGEON'S MILK. Boys and novices are frequently sent on

the first of April to buy pigeons milk.

To PIKE. To run away. Pike off; run away.

PILGRIM'S SALVE. A sirreverence, human excrement.

PILL, or PEELE GARLICK. Said originally to mean one

whose skin or hair had fallen off from some disease, chiefly

the venereal one; but now commonly used by persons

speaking of themselves: as, there stood poor pill garlick:

i.e. there stood I.

PILLALOO. The Irish cry or howl at funerals.

PIMP. A male procurer, or cock bawd; also a small faggot

used about London for lighting fires, named from introducing

the fire to the coals.

PIMP WHISKIN. A top trader in pimping.

PIMPLE. The head.

PIN. In or to a merry pin; almost drunk: an allusion to

a sort of tankard, formerly used in the north, having silver

pegs or pins set at equal distances from the top to the

bottom: by the rules of good fellowship, every person

drinking out of one of these tankards, was to swallow

the quantity contained between two pins; if he drank

more or less, he was to continue drinking till he ended at

a pin: by this means persons unaccustomed to measure

their draughts were obliged to drink the whole tankard.

Hence when a person was a little elevated with liquor,

he was said to have drunk to a merry pin.

PIN BASKET. The youngest child.

PIN MONEY. An allowance settled on a married woman

for her pocket expences.

PINCH. At a pinch; on an exigency.

PINCH. To go into a tradesman's shop under the pretence

of purchasing rings or other light articles, and while

examining them to shift some up the sleeve of the coat.

Also to ask for change for a guinea, and when the silver

is received, to change some of the good shillings for bad

ones; then suddenly pretending to recollect that you had

sufficient silver to pay the bill, ask for the guinea again,

and return the change, by which means several bad shillings

are passed.

To PINCH ON THE PARSON'S SIDE. To defraud the parson

of his tithe.

PINCHERS. Rogues who, in changing money, by dexterity

of hand frequently secrete two or three shillings out of

the change of a guinea. This species of roguery is called

the pinch, or pinching lay.

To PINK. To stab or wound with a small sword: probably

derived from the holes formerly cut in both men and women's

clothes, called pinking. Pink of the fashion; the

top of the mode. To pink and wink; frequently winking

the eyes through a weakness in them.

PINKING-DINDEE. A sweater or mohawk. IRISH.

PINS. Legs. Queer pins; ill shapen legs.

PIPER. A broken winded horse.

PISCINARIANS. A club or brotherhood, A.D. 1743.

PISS. He will piss when he can't whistle; he will be hanged.

He shall not piss my money against the wall; he shall not

have my money to spend in liquor.

He who once a good name gets,

May piss a bed, and say he sweats.

PISS-BURNED. Discoloured: commonly applied to a discoloured

grey wig.

PISS MAKER. A great drinker, one much given to liquor.

PISS POT HALL. A house at Clapton, near Hackney, built

by a potter chiefly out of the profits of chamber pots, in the

bottom of which the portrait of Dr. Sacheverel was depicted.

PISS PROPHET. A physician who judges of the diseases of

his patients solely by the inspection of their urine.

PISS-PROUD. Having a false erection. That old fellow

thought he had an erection, but his--was only piss-proud;

said of any old fellow who marries a young wife.

PISSING DOWN ANY ONE'S BACK. Flattering him.

PISSING PINS AND NEEDLES. To have a gonorrhea.

PIT. A watch fob. He drew a rare thimble from the swell's

pit. He took a handsome watch from the gentleman's

fob.

PIT. To lay pit and boxes into one; an operation in midwifery

or copulation, whereby the division between the

anus and vagina is cut through, broken, and demolished:

a simile borrowed from the playhouse, when, for the benefit

of some favourite player, the pit and boxes are laid together.

The pit is also the hole under the gallows, where

poor rogues unable to pay the fees are buried.

PITT'S PICTURE. A window stopt up on the inside, to save

the tax imposed in that gentleman's administration. PARTY WIT

PIT-A-PAT. The palpitation of the heart: as, my heart

went pit-a-pat. Pintledy-pantledy; the same.

PITCH-KETTLED. Stuck fast, confounded.

PITCHER. The miraculous pitcher, that holds water with

the mouth downwards: a woman's commodity. She has

crack'd her pitcher or pipkin; she has lost her maidenhead.

PIZZY CLUB. A society held, A. D, 1744, at the sign of

the Tower, on Tower Hill: president, Don Pizzaro.

PLAISTER OF WARM GUTS. One warm belly'dapped to another;

a receipt frequently prescribed for different disorders.

PLANT. The place in the house of the fence where stolen

goods are secreted. Any place where stolen goods are concealed.

To PLANT. To lay, place, or hide. Plant your wids and

stow them; be careful what you say, or let slip. Also to

bury, as, he was planted by the parson.

PLATE. Money, silver, prize. He is in for the plate; he

has won the KEAT, i.e. is infected with the venereal disorder:

a simile drawn from horse-racing. When the plate

fleet comes in; when money comes to hand.

PLATTER-FACED. Broad-faced.

PLAY. To play booty; to play with an intention to lose. To

play the whole game; to cheat. To play least in sight;

to hide, or keep out of the way. To play the devil; to be

guilty of some great irregularity or mismanagement.

PLUCK. Courage. He wants pluck: he is a coward.

Against the pluck; against the inclination. Pluck the

Ribbon; ring the bell. To pluck a crow with one; to

settle a dispute, to reprove one for some past transgression.

To pluck a rose; an expression said to be used by women

for going to the necessary house, which in the country usually

stands in the garden. To pluck also signifies to deny a

degree to a candidate at one of the universities, on account

of insufficiency. The three first books of Euclid, and as

far as Quadratic Equations in Algebra, will save a man

from being plucked. These unfortunate fellows are designated by

many opprobrious appellations, such as the twelve

apostles, the legion of honor, wise men of the East, &c.

PLUG TAIL. A man's penis.

PLUMB. An hundred thousand pounds.

PLUMMY. It is all plummy; i.e. all is right, or as it ought

to be.

PLUMP. Fat, full, fleshy. Plump in the pocket; full in

the pocket. To plump; to strike, or shoot. I'll give

you a plump in the bread basket, or the victualling office:

I'll give you a blow in the stomach. Plump his peepers,

or day-lights; give him a blow in the eyes. He pulled out

his pops and plumped him; he drew out his pistols and

shot him. A plumper; a single vote at an election. Plump

also means directly, or exactly; as, it fell plump upon

him: it fell directly upon him.

PLUMP CURRANT. I am not plump currant; I am out of

sorts.

PLUMPERS. Contrivances said to be formerly worn by old

maids, for filling out a pair of shrivelled cheeks.

PLYER. A crutch; also a trader.

POGY. Drunk.

POINT. To stretch a point; to exceed some usual limit, to

take a great stride. Breeches were usually tied up with

points, a kind of short laces, formerly given away by the

churchwardens at Whitsuntide, under the denomination

of tags: by taking a great stride these were stretched.

POISONED. Big with child: that wench is poisoned, see

how her belly is swelled. Poison-pated: red-haired.

POKE. A blow with the fist: I'll lend you a poke. A poke

likewise means a sack: whence, to buy a pig in a poke,

i.e. to buy any thing without seeing or properly examining it.

POKER. A sword. Fore pokers; aces and kings at cards.

To burn your poker; to catch the venereal disease.

POLE. He is like a rope-dancer's polo, lead at both ends;

a saying of a stupid sluggish fellow.

POLISH. To polish the king's iron with one's eyebrows; to be

in gaol, and look through the iron grated windows. To

polish a bone; to eat a meal. Come and polish a bone

with me; come and eat a dinner or supper with me.

POLL. The head, jolly nob, napper, or knowledge box;

also a wig.

POLT. A blow. Lend him a polt in the muns; give him a

knock in the face.

TO POMMEL. To beat: originally confined to beating with

the hilt of a sword, the knob being, from its similarity to

a small apple, called pomelle; in Spanish it is still called

the apple of the sword. As the clenched fist likewise

somewhat resembles an apple, perhaps that might occasion the

term pommelling to be applied to fisty-cuffs.

POMP. To save one's pomp at whist, is to score five before

the adversaries are up, or win the game: originally derived

from pimp, which is Welsh for five; and should be, I

have saved my pimp.

POMPAGINIS. Aqua pompaginis; pump water. See

AQUA.

POMPKIN. A man or woman of Boston in America: from,

the number of pompkins raised and eaten by the people

of that country. Pompkinshire; Boston and its dependencies.

PONEY. Money. Post the poney; lay down the money.

PONTIUS PILATE. A pawnbroker. Pontius Pilate's guards,

the first regiment of foot, or Royal Scots: so intitled from

their supposed great antiquity. Pontius Pilate's counsellor;

one who like him can say, Non invenio causam, I can find

no cause. Also (Cambridge) a Mr. Shepherd of Trinity

College; who disputing with a brother parson on the comparative

rapidity with which they read the liturgy, offered

to give him as far as Pontius Pilate in the Belief.

POPE. A figure burned annually every fifth of November,

in memory of the gunpowder plot, which is said to have

been carried on by the papists.

POPE'S NOSE. The rump of a turkey.

POPS. Pistols. Popshop: a pawnbroker's shop. To pop;

to pawn: also to shoot. I popped my tatler; I pawned my

watch. I popt the cull; I shot the man. His means are

two pops and a galloper; that is, he is a highwayman.

POPLERS. Pottage. CANT.

PORK. To cry pork; to give intelligence to the undertaker

of a funeral; metaphor borrowed from the raven, whose

note sounds like the word pork. Ravens are said to smell

carrion at a distance.

PORKER. A hog: also a Jew.

PORRIDGE. Keep your breath to cool your porridge; i. e.

held your tongue.

PORRIDGE ISLAND. An alley leading from St. Martin's

church-yard to Round-court, chiefly inhabited by cooks,

who cut off ready-dressed meat of all sorts, and also sell

soup.

POSEY, or POESY. A nosegay. I shall see you ride backwards

up Holborn-hill, with a book in one hand, and a

posey in t'other; i.e. I shall see you go to be hanged.

Malefactors who piqued themselves on being properly

equipped for that occasion, had always a nosegay to smell

to, and a prayer book, although they could not read.

POSSE MOBILITATIS. The mob.

POST MASTER GENERAL. The prime minister, who has

the patronage of all posts and places.

POST NOINTER. A house painter, who occasionally paints

or anoints posts. Knight of the post; a false evidence,

one ready to swear any thing for hire. From post to

pillar; backwards and forwards.

POSTILION OF THE GOSPEL. A parson who hurries over the

service.

POT. The pot calls the kettle black a-se; one rogue

exclaims against another.

POT. On the pot; i.e. at stool.

POT CONVERTS. Proselytes to the Romish church, made

by the distribution of victuals and money.

POT HUNTER. One who hunts more tor the sake of the

prey than the sport. Pot valiant; courageous from drink.

Potwallopers: persons entitled to vote in certain

boroughs by having boiled a pot there.

POTATOE TRAP. The mouth. Shut your potatoe trap and

give your tongue a holiday; i.e. be silent. IRISH WIT.

POTHOOKS AND HANGEKS. A scrawl, bad writing.

POT-WABBLERS. Persons entitled to vote for members of

parliament in certain boroughs, from having boiled their

pots therein. These boroughs are called pot-wabbling

boroughs.

POULAIN. A bubo. FRENCH.

POULTERER. A person that guts letters; i.e. opens them

and secretes the money. The kiddey was topped for the

poultry rig; the young fellow was hanged for secreting

a letter and taking out the contents.

POUND. To beat. How the milling cove pounded the cull

for being nuts on his blowen; how the boxer beat the fellow

for taking liberties with his mistress.

POUND. A prison. See LOB'S POUND. Pounded; imprisoned.

Shut up in the parson's pound; married. POWDER

POWDER MONKEY. A boy on board a ship of war, whose

business is to fetch powder from the magazine.

POWDERING TUB. The same as pickling tub. See

PICKLING TUB.

PRAD LAY. Cutting bags from behind horses. CANT.

PRAD. A horse. The swell flashes a rum prad: the

e gentleman sports a fine horse.

PRANCER. A horse. Prancer's nab.; a horse's head, used

as a seal to a counterfeit pass. At the sign of the prancer's

poll, i.e. the nag's head.

PRATE ROAST. A talkative boy.

PRATING CHEAT. The tongue.

PRATTS. Buttocks; also a tinder box. CANT.

PRATTLE BROTH. Tea. See CHATTER BROTH, SCANDAL

BROTH, &c.

PRATTLING BOX. The pulpit.

PRAY. She prays with her knees upwards; said of a woman

much given to gallantry and intrigue. At her last prayers;

saying of an old maid.

PREADAMITE QUACABITES. This great and laudable society

(as they termed themselves) held their grand chapter

at the Coal-hole.

P---K. The virile member.

PRICK-EARED. A prick-eared fellow; one whose ears are

longer than his hair: an appellation frequently given to

puritans, who considered long hair as the mark of the

whore of Babylon.

PRICKLOUSE. A taylor.

PRIEST-CRAFT. The art of awing the laity, managing their

consciences, and diving into their pockets.

PRIEST-LINKED. Married.

PRIEST-RIDDEN. Governed by a priest, or priests.

PRIG. A thief, a cheat: also a conceited coxcomical

fellow.

PRIG NAPPER. A thief taker.

PRIGGERS. Thieves in general. Priggers of prancers;

horse stealers. Priggers of cacklers: robbers of hen-roosts.

PRIGGING. Riding; also lying with a woman.

PRIGSTAR. A rival in love.

PRIME. Bang up. Quite the thing. Excellent. Well

done. She's a prime piece; she is very skilful in the

venereal act. Prime post. She's a prime article.

PRIMINAKY. I had like to be brought into a priminary;

i.e. into trouble; from PREMUNIRE.

PRINCE PRIG. A king of the gypsies; also the head thief

or receiver general.

PRINCES. When the majesty of the people was a favourite

terra in the House of Commons, a celebrated wit, seeing

chimney sweepers dancing on a May-day, styled them the

young princes.

PRINCOD. A pincushion. SCOTCH--Also a round plump

man or woman.

PRINCOX. A pert, lively, forward fellow.

PRINCUM PRANCUM. Mrs. Princum Prancum; a nice,

precise, formal madam.

PRINKING. Dressing over nicely: prinked up as if he

came out of a bandbox, or fit to sit upon a cupboard's

head.

PRINT. All in print, quite neat or exact, set, screwed up.

Quite in print; set in a formal manner.

PRISCIAN. To break Priscian's head; to write or speak

false grammar. Priscian was a famous grammarian, who

flourished at Constantinople in the year 525; and who

was so devoted to his favourite study, that to speak false

Latin in his company, was as disagreeable to him as to

break his head.

PRITTLE PRATTLE. Insignificant talk: generally applied

to women and children.

PROG. Provision. Rum prog; choice provision. To prog;

to be on the hunt for provision: called in the military

term to forage.

PROPS. Crutches.

PROPERTY. To make a property of any one; to make

him a conveniency, tool, or cat's paw; to use him as one's

own.

PROUD. Desirous of copulation. A proud bitch; a bitch

at heat, or desirous of a dog.

PROVENDER. He from whom any money is taken on the

highway: perhaps provider, or provider. CANT.

PROPHET. The prophet; the Cock at Temple Bar: so

called, in 1788, by the bucks of the town of the inferior

order.

PRUNELLA. Mr. Prunella; a parson: parson's gowns being

frequently made of prunella.

To PRY. To examine minutely into a matter or business.

A prying fellow; a man of impertinent curiosity, apt to

peep and inquire into other men's secrets.

PUBLIC MAN. A bankrupt.

PUBLIC LEDGER. A prostitute: because, like that paper,

she is open to all parties.

PUCKER. All in a pucker; in a dishabille. Also in a

fright; as, she was in a terrible pucker.

PUCKER WATER. Water impregnated with alum, or other

astringents, used by old experienced traders to

counterfeit virginity.

PUDDINGS. The guts: I'll let out your puddings.

PUDDING-HEADED FELLOW. A stupid fellow, one whose

brains are all in confusion.

PUDDING SLEEVES. A parson.

PUDDING TIME. In good time, or at the beginning of a

meal: pudding formerly making the first dish. To give

the crows a pudding; to die. You must eat some cold

pudding, to settle your love.

PUFF, or PUFFER. One who bids at auctions, not with an

intent to buy, but only to raise the price of the lot; for

which purpose many are hired by the proprietor of the

goods on sale.

PUFF GUTS. A fat man.

PUFFING. Bidding at an auction, as above; also praising

any thing above its merits, from interested motives. The

art of puffing is at present greatly practised, and essentially

necessary in all trades, professions, and callings.

To puff and blow; to be out of breath.

PUG. A Dutch pug; a kind of lap-dog, formerly much in

vogue; also a general name for a monkey.

PUG CARPENTETER. An inferior carpenter, one employed

only in small jobs.

PUG DRINK. Watered cyder.

PUGNOSED, or PUGIFIED. A person with a snub or turned

up nose.

PULLY HAWLY. To have a game at pully hawly; to romp

with women.

PULL. To be pulled; to be arrested by a police officer.

To have a pull is to have an advantage; generally where

a person has some superiority at a game of chance or

skill.

PUMP. A thin shoe. To pump; to endeavour to draw a

secret from any one without his perceiving it. Your

pump is good, but your sucker is dry; said by one to a

person who is attempting to pump him. Pumping was

also a punishment for bailiffs who attempted to act in

privileged places, such as the Mint, Temple, &c. It is also

a piece of discipline administered to a pickpocket caught

in the fact, when there is no pond at hand. To pump

ship; to make water, and sometimes to vomit. SEA PHRASE.

PUMP WATER. He was christened in pump water; commonly

said of a person that has a red face.

PUNCH. A liquor called by foreigners Contradiction, from

its being composed of spirits to make it strong, water to

make it weak, lemon juice to make it sour, and sugar to

make it sweet. Punch is also the name of the prince of

puppets, the chief wit and support of a puppet-show.

To punch it, is a cant term for running away. Punchable;

old passable money, anno 1695. A girl that is ripe for

man is called a punchable wench. Cobler's Punch.

Urine with a cinder in it.

PUNK. A whore; also a soldier's trull. See TRULL.

PUNY. Weak. A puny child; a weak little child. A

puny stomach; a weak stomach. Puny, or puisne judge;

the last made judge.

PUPIL MONGERS. Persons at the universities who make it

their business to instruct and superintend a number of

pupils.

PUPPY. An affected or conceited coxcomb.

PURBLIND. Dim-sighted.

PURL. Ale in which wormwood has been infused, or ale

and bitters drunk warm.

PURL ROYAL. Canary wine; with a dash of tincture of

wormwood.

PURSE PROUD. One that is vain of his riches.

PURSENETS. Goods taken up at thrice their value, by young

spendthrifts, upon trust.

PURSER'S PUMP. A bassoon: from its likeness to a syphon,

called a purser's pump.

PURSY, or PURSIVE. Short-breathed, or foggy, from being

over fat.

PUSHING SCHOOL. A fencing school; also a brothel.

PUT. A country put; an ignorant awkward clown. To

put upon any one; to attempt to impose on him, or to

make him the but of the company.

PUZZLE-CAUSE. A lawyer who has a confused understanding.

PUZZLE-TEXT. An ignorant blundering parson.

QUACK. An ungraduated ignorant pretender to skill in

physic, a vender of nostrums.

QUACK-SALVER. A mountebank: a seller of salves.

QUACKING CHEAT. A duck.

QUAG. Abbreviation of quagmire; marshy moorish around.

QUAIL-PIPE. A woman's tongue; also a device to take

birds of that name by imitating their call. Quail pipe

boots; boots resembling a quail pipe, from the number of

plaits; they were much worn in the reign of Charles II.

QUAKERS. A religious sect so called from their agitations

in preaching.

QUAKING CHEAT. A calf or sheep.

QUANDARY. To be in a quandary: to be puzzled. Also

one so over-gorged, as to be doubtful which he should do

first, sh--e or spew. Some derive the term quandary from

the French phrase qu'en dirai je? what shall I say of it?

others from an Italian word signifying a conjuror's circle.

QUARREL-PICKER. A glazier: from the small squares in

casements, called CARREUX, vulgarly quarrels.

QUARROMES, or QUARRON. A body. CANT.

QUARTERED. Divided into four parts; to be hanged, drawn,

and quartered, is the sentence on traitors and rebels.

Persons receiving part of the salary of an office from the

holder of it, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, are

said to be quartered on him. Soldiers billetted on a publican

are likewise said to be quartered on him.

TO QUASH. To suppress, annul or overthrow; vulgarly pronounced

squash: they squashed the indictment.

QUEAN. A slut, or worthless woman, a strumpet.

QUEEN DICK. To the tune of the life and death of Queen

Dick. That happened in the reign of Queen Dick; i.e.,

never.

QUEEN STREET. A mart governed by his wife, is said to

live in Queen street, or at the sign of the Queen's Head.

QUEER, or QUIRE. Base, roguish, bad, naught or worthless.

How queerly the cull touts; how roguishly the fellow

looks. It also means odd, uncommon. CANT.

QUEER AS DICK'S HATBAND. Out of order, without knowing

one's disease.

TO QUEER. To puzzle or confound. I have queered the

old full bottom; i.e. I have puzzled the judge. To queer

one's ogles among bruisers; to darken one's day lights.

QUEER WEDGES. Large buckles.

QUEER BAIL. Insolvent sharpers, who make a profession of

bailing persons arrested: they are generally styled Jew bail,

from that branch of business being chiefly carried on by

the sons of Judah. The lowest sort of these, who borrow

or hire clothes to appear in, are called Mounters, from

their mounting particular dresses suitable to the occasion.

CANT.

QUEER BIRDS. Rogues relieved from prison, and returned

to their old trade.

QUEER BIT-MAKERS. Coiners. CANT.

QUEER BITCH. An odd, out-of-the-way fellow.

QUEER BLUFFER. The master of a public-house the resort

of rogues and sharpers, a cut-throat inn or alehouse

keeper.

QUEER BUNG. An empty purse.

QUEER CHECKERS. Among strolling players, door-keepers

who defraud the company, by falsely checking the number

of people in the house.

QUEER COLE FENCER. A putter off, or utterer, of bad

money.

QUEER COLE MAKER. A maker of bad money.

QUEER COVE. A rogue. CANT.

QUEER CUFFIN. A justice of the peace; also a churl.

QUEER DEGEN. An ordinary sword, brass or iron hilted.

QUEER KEN. A prison. CANT.

QUEER KICKS. A bad pair of breeches.

QUEER MORT. A diseased strumpet. CANT.

QUEER NAB. A felt hat, or other bad hat.

QUEER PLUNGERS. Cheats who throw themselves into the

water, in order that they may be taken up by their accomplices,

who carry them to one of the houses appointed

by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned

persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a

guinea each; and the supposed drowned persons, pretending

he was driven to that extremity by great necessity,

also frequently sent away with a contribution in his

pocket.

QUEER PRANCER. A bad, worn-out, foundered horse; also

a cowardly or faint-hearted horse-stealer.

QUEER ROOSTER. An informer that pretends to be sleeping,

and thereby overhears the conversation of thieves in

night cellars.

QUEER STREET. Wrong. Improper. Contrary to one's

wish. It is queer street, a cant phrase, to signify

that it is wrong or different to our wish.

QUITAM. A quitam horse; one that will both carry and

draw. LAW WIT.

TO QUIBBLE. To make subtle distinctions; also to play

upon words.

QUICK AND NIMBLE. More like a bear than a squirrel.

Jeeringly said to any one moving sluggishly on a business

or errand that requires dispatch.

QUID. The quantity of tobacco put into the mouth at one

time. To quid tobacco; to chew tobacco. Quid est

hoc? hoc est quid; a guinea. Half a quid; half a guinea.

The swell tipped me fifty quid for the prad; the gentleman

gave fifty pounds for the horse.

QUIDS. Cash, money. Can you tip me any quids? can

you lend me some money?

QUIFFING. Rogering. See TO ROGER.

QUIDNUNC. A politician: from a character of that name

in the farce of the Upholsterer.

QUILL DRIVER. A clerk, scribe, or hackney writer.

QUIM. The private parts of a woman: perhaps from the

Spanish quemar, to burn. (CAMBRIDGE) A piece's furbelow.

QUINSEY. Choked by a hempen quinsey; hanged.

QUIPPS. Girds, taunts, jests.

QUIRE, or CHOIR BIRD. A complete rogue, one that has

sung in different choirs or cages, i.e. gaols. CANT.

QUIRKS AND QUILLETS. Tricks and devices. Quirks in

law; subtle distinctions and evasions.

QUIZ. A strange-looking fellow, an odd dog. OXFORD.

QUOD. Newgate, or any other prison. The dab's in quod;

the poor rogue is in prison.

QUOTA. Snack, share, part, proportion, or dividend. Tip

me my quota; give me part of the winnings, booty, or

plunder. CANT.

RABBIT. A Welch rabbit; bread and cheese toasted, i.e.

a Welch rare bit. Rabbits were also a sort of wooden

canns to drink out of, now out of use.

RABBIT CATCHER. A midwife.

RABBIT SUCKERS. Young spendthrifts taking up goods on

trust at great prices.

RACK RENT. Rent strained to the utmost value. To

lie at rack and manger; to be in great disorder.

RACKABACK. A gormagon. See GORMAGON.

RAFFS. An appellation given by the gownsmen of the university

of Oxford to the inhabitants of that place.

RAG. Bank notes. Money in general. The cove has no

rag; the fellow has no money.

RAG. A farthing.

TO RAG. To abuse, and tear to rags the characters of the

persons abused. She gave him a good ragging, or ragged

him off heartily.

RAG CARRIER. An ensign.

RAG FAIR. An inspection of the linen and necessaries of a

company of soldiers, commonly made by their officers on

Mondays or Saturdays.

RAG WATER. Gin, or any other common dram: these

liquors seldom failing to reduce those that drink them to

rags.

RAGAMUFFIN. A ragged fellow, one all in tatters, a

tatterdemallion.

RAILS. See HEAD RAILS. A dish of rails; a lecture, jobation,

or scolding from a married woman to her husband.

RAINBOW. Knight of the rainbow; a footman: from being

commonly clothed in garments of different colours. A

meeting of gentlemen, styled of the most ancient order of

the rainbow, was advertised to be held at the Foppington's

Head, Moorfields.

RAINY DAY. To lay up something for a rainy day; to

provide against a time of necessity or distress.

RAKE, RAKEHELL, or RAKESHAME. A lewd, debauched

fellow.

RALPH SPOONER. A fool.

RAM CAT. A he cat.

RAMMISH. Rank. Rammish woman; a sturdy virago.

RAMMER. The arm. The busnapper's kenchin seized my

rammer; i.e. the watchman laid hold of my arm. CANT.

TO RAMP. To snatch, or tear any thing forcibly from the

person.

RAMSHACKLED. Out of repair. A ramshackled house;

perhaps a corruption of RANSACKED, i.e. plundered.

RANDLE. A set of nonsensical verses, repeated in Ireland

by schoolboys, and young people, who have been guilty

of breaking wind backwards before any of their companions;

if they neglect this apology, they are liable to certain

kicks, pinches, and fillips, which are accompanied with

divers admonitory couplets.

RANDY. Obstreperous, unruly, rampant.

RANGLING. Intriguing with a variety of women.

RANK. Stinking, rammish, ill-flavoured; also strong, great.

A rank knave; a rank coward: perhaps the latter may

allude to an ill savour caused by fear.

RANK RIDER. A highwayman.

RANTALLION. One whose scrotum is so relaxed as to be

longer than his penis, i.e. whose shot pouch is longer

that the barrel of his piece.

RANTIPOLE. A rude romping boy or girl; also a gadabout

dissipated woman. To ride rantipole; the same as riding

St. George. See ST. GEORGE.

RANTUM SCANTUM. Playing at rantum scantum; making

the beast with two backs.

To RAP To take a false oath; also to curse. He rapped

out a volley; i.e. he swore a whole volley of oaths. To

rap, means also to exchange or barter: a rap is likewise an

Irish halfpenny. Rap on the knuckles; a reprimand.

RAPPAREES. Irish robbers, or outlaws, who in the time of

Oliver Cromwell were armed with short weapons, called

in Irish RAPIERS, used for ripping persons up.

RAPPER. A swinging great lie.

RAREE SHEW MEN. Poor Savoyards, who subsist by shewing

the magic lantern and marmots about London.

RASCAL. A rogue or villain: a term borrowed from the

chase; a rascal originally meaning a lean shabby deer, at

the time of changing his horns, penis, &c. whence, in the

vulgar acceptation, rascal is conceived to signify a man

without genitals: the regular vulgar answer to this reproach,

if uttered by a woman, is the offer of an ocular demonstration

of the virility of the party so defamed. Some derive

it from RASCAGLIONE, an Italian word signifying a man.

without testicles, or an eunuch.

RAT. A drunken man or woman taken up by the watch,

and confined in the watch-house. CANT. To smell a rat;

to suspect some intended trick, or unfair design.

RATS. Of these there are the following kinds: a black rat

and a grey rat, a py-rat and a cu-rat.

RATTLE. A dice-box. To rattle; to talk without consideration,

also to move off or go away. To rattle one off;

to rate or scold him.

RATTLE-PATE. A volatile, unsteady, or whimsical man or

woman.

RATTLE-TRAPS. A contemptuous name for any curious

portable piece of machinery, or philosophical apparatus.

RATTLER. A coach. Rattle and prad; a coach and horses.

RATTLING COVE. A coachman. CANT.

RATTLING MUMPERS. Beggars who ply coaches. CANT.

RAWHEAD AND BLOODY BONES. A bull beggar, or scarechild,

with which foolish nurses terrify crying brats.

READER. A pocket-book. CANT.

READER MERCHANTS. Pickpockets, chiefly young Jews,

who ply about the Bank to steal the pocket-books of

persons who have just received their dividends there.

READY. The ready rhino; money. CANT.

REBUS. A riddle or pun on a man's name, expressed in

sculpture or painting, thus: a bolt or arrow, and a tun,

for Bolton; death's head, and a ton, for Morton.

RECEIVER GENERAL. A prostitute.

RECKON. To reckon with one's host; to make an erroneous

judgment in one's own favour. To cast-up one's reckoning

or accounts; to vomit.

TO RECRUIT. To get a fresh supply of money.

RECRUITING SERVICE. Robbing on the highway.

RED FUSTIAN. Port wine.

RED LANE. The throat. Gone down the red lane; swallowed.

RED RIBBIN. Brandy.

RED LATTICE. A public house.

RED LETTER DAY. A saint's day or holiday, marked in

the calendars with red letters. Red letter men; Roman

Catholics: from their observation of the saint days

marked in red letters.

RED RAG. The tongue. Shut your potatoe trap, and

give your red rag a holiday; i.e. shut your mouth, and

let your tongue rest. Too much of the red rag (too much

tongue).

RED SAIL-YARD DOCKERS. Buyers of stores stolen out of

the royal yards and docks.

RED SHANK. A Scotch Highlander.

REGULARS. Share of the booty. The coves cracked the

swell's crib, fenced the swag, and each cracksman napped

his regular; some fellows broke open a gentleman's house,

and after selling the property which they had stolen,

they divided the money between them.

RELIGIOUS HORSE. One much given to prayer, or apt to

be down upon his knees.

RELIGIOUS PAINTER. One who does not break the commandment

which prohibits the making of the likeness of

any thing in heaven or earth, or in the waters under the

earth.

THE RELISH. The sign of the Cheshire cheese.

RELISH. Carnal connection with a woman.

REMEDY CRITCH. A chamber pot, or member mug.

REMEMBER PARSON MELHAM. Drink about: a Norfolk

phrase.

RENDEZVOUS. A place of meeting. The rendezvous of

the beggars were, about the year 1638, according to the

Bellman, St. Quinton's, the Three Crowns in the Vintry,

St. Tybs, and at Knapsbury: there were four barns within

a mile of London. In Middlesex were four other harbours,

called Draw the Pudding out of the Fire, the Cross

Keys in Craneford parish, St. Julian's in Isleworth parish,

and the house of Pettie in Northall parish. In Kent, the

King's Barn near Dartford, and Ketbrooke near Blackheath.

REP. A woman of reputation.

REPOSITORY. A lock-up or spunging-house, a gaol. Also

livery stables where horses and carriages are sold by

auction.

RESCOUNTERS. The time of settlement between the bulls

and bears of Exchange-alley, when the losers must pay

their differences, or become lame ducks, and waddle out

of the Alley.

RESURRECTION MEN. Persons employed by the students

in anatomy to steal dead bodies out of church-yards.

REVERENCE. An ancient custom, which obliges any person

easing himself near the highway or foot-path, on the

word REVERENCE being given him by a passenger, to take off

his hat with his teeth, and without moving from his station

to throw it over his head, by which it frequently falls

into the excrement; this was considered as a punishment

for the breach of delicacy, A person refusing to obey this

law, might be pushed backwards. Hence, perhaps, the

term, SIR-REVERENCE.

REVERSED. A man set by bullies on his head, that his

money may fall out of his breeches, which they afterwards

by accident pick up. See HOISTING.

REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS. A visitation of the

clergy. See CROW FAIR.

RHINO. Money. CANT.

RIB. A wife: an allusion to our common mother Eve,

made out of Adam's rib. A crooked rib: a cross-grained

wife.

RIBALDRY. Vulgar abusive language, such as was spoken

by ribalds. Ribalds were originally mercenary soldiers

who travelled about, serving any master far pay, but

afterwards degenerated into a mere banditti.

RIBBIN. Money. The ribbin runs thick; i.e. there is

plenty of money. CANT. Blue ribbin. Gin. The cull

lushes the blue ribbin; the silly fellow drinks common

gin.

To RIBROAST. To beat: I'll ribroast him to his heart's

content.

RICH FACE, or NOSE. A red pimpled, face.

RICHAUD SNARY. A dictionary. A country lad, having

been reproved for calling persons by their christian names,

being sent by his master to borrow a dictionary, thought

to shew his breeding by asking for a Richard Snary.

RIDER. A person who receives part of the salary of a place

or appointment from the ostensible occupier, by virtue

of an agreement with the donor, or great man appointing.

The rider is said to be quartered upon the possessor, who

often has one or more persons thus riding behind him. See

QUARTERED.

RIDGE. A guinea. Ridge cully; a goldsmith. CANT.

RIDING ST. GEORGE. The woman uppermost in the amorous

congress, that is, the dragon upon St. George. This

is said to be the way to get a bishop.

RIDING SKIMMINGTON. A ludicrous cavalcade, in ridicule

of a man beaten by his wife. It consists of a man riding

behind a woman, with his face to the horse's tail, holding

a distaff in his hand, at which he seems to work, the woman

all the while beating him with a ladle; a smock displayed

on a staff is carried before them as an emblematical standard,

denoting female superiority: they are accompanied

by what is called the ROUGH MUSIC, that is, frying-pans, bulls

horns, marrow-bones and cleavers, &c. A procession of

this kind is admirably described by Butler in his Hudibras.

He rode private, i.e. was a private trooper.

RIFF RAFF. Low vulgar persons, mob, tag-rag and bob-tail.

RIG. Fun, game, diversion, or trick. To run one's rig

upon any particular person; to make him a butt. I am

up to your rig; I am a match for your tricks.

RIGGING. Clothing. I'll unrig the bloss; I'll strip the

wench. Rum Rigging; fine clothes. The cull has rum

rigging, let's ding him and mill him, and pike; the

fellow has good clothes, let's knock him down, rob him,

and scour off, i.e. run away.

RIGHT. All right! A favourite expression among thieves,

to signify that all is as they wish, or proper for their

purpose. All right, hand down the jemmy; every thing is

in proper order, give me the crow.

RIGMAROLE. Roundabout, nonsensical. He told a long

rigmarole story.

RING. Money procured by begging: beggars so called it

from its ringing when thrown to them. Also a circle formed

for boxers, wrestlers, and cudgel-players, by a man

styled Vinegar; who, with his hat before his eyes, goes

round the circle, striking at random with his whip to

prevent the populace from crowding in.

TO RING A PEAL. To scold; chiefly applied to women.

His wife rung him a fine peal!

RING THE CHANGES. When a person receives silver in

change to shift some good shillings and put bad ones in

their place. The person who gave the change is then

requested to give good shillings for these bad ones.

RIP. A miserable rip; a poor, lean, worn-out horse. A

shabby mean fellow.

RIPPONS. Spurs: Rippon is famous for a manufactory of

spurs both for men and fighting cocks.

ROARATORIOS AND UPROARS. Oratorios and operas.

ROARING BOY. A noisy, riotous fellow.

ROARER. A broken-winded horse.

ROARING TRADE. A quick trade.

TO ROAST. To arrest. I'll roast the dab; I'll arrest the

rascal.--Also to jeer, ridicule, or banter. He stood the

roast; he was the butt.--Roast meat clothes; Sunday or

holiday-clothes. To cry roast meat; to boast of one's

situation. To rule the roast; to be master or paramount.

ROAST AND BOILED. A nick name for the Life Guards,

who are mostly substantial house-keepers; and eat daily

of roast and boiled.

ROBERT'S MEN. The third old rank of the canting crew,

mighty thieves, like Robin Hood.

ROBY DOUGLASS, with one eye and a stinking breath. The

breech.

ROCHESTER PORTION. Two torn smocks, and what nature gave.

ROCKED. He was rocked in a stone kitchen; a saying

meant to convey the idea that the person spoken of is a

fool, his brains having been disordered by the jumbling of

his cradle.

ROGER. A portmanteau; also a man's yard. Cant.

ROGER, or TIB OF THE BUTTERY. A goose. Cant. Jolly

Roger; a flag hoisted by pirates.

TO ROGER. To bull, or lie with a woman; from the name

of Roger being frequently given to a bull.

ROGUES. The fourth order of canters. A rogue in grain;

a great rogue, also a corn chandler. A rogue in spirit; a

distiller or brandy merchant.

ROGUM POGUM, or DRAGRUM POGRAM. Goat's beard,

eaten for asparagus; so called by the ladies who gather

cresses, &c. who also deal in this plant.

ROMBOYLES. Watch and ward. Romboyled; sought after

with a warrant.

ROME MORT. A queen.

ROMEVILLE. London. Cant.

ROMP. A forward wanton girl, a tomrig. Grey, in his

notes to Shakespeare, derives it from arompo, an animal

found in South Guinea, that is a man eater. See HOYDEN.

ROOK. A cheat: probably from the thievish disposition of

the birds of that name. Also the cant name for a crow

used in house-breaking. To rook; to cheat, particularly

at play.

ROOM. She lets out her fore room and lies backwards:

saying of a woman suspected of prostitution.

ROOST LAY. Stealing poultry.

ROPES. Upon the high ropes; elated, in high spirits,

cock-a-hoop.

ROSE. Under the rose: privately or secretly. The rose

was, it is said, sacred to Harpocrates, the God of silence,

and therefore frequently placed in the ceilings of rooms

destined for the receiving of guests; implying, that

whatever was transacted there, should not be made public.

ROSY GILLS. One with a sanguine or fresh-coloured countenance.

ROTAN. A coach, cart, or other wheeled carriage.

ROT GUT. Small beer; called beer-a-bumble--will burst

one's guts before it will make one tumble.

ROVERS. Pirates, vagabonds.

ROUGH. To lie rough; to lie all night in one's clothes:

called also roughing it. Likewise to sleep on the bare

deck of a ship, when the person is commonly advised to

chuse the softest plank.

ROUGH MUSIC. Saucepans, frying-paps, poker and tongs,

marrow-bones and cleavers, bulls horns, &c. beaten upon

and sounded in ludicrous processions.

ROULEAU. A number of guineas, from twenty to fifty or

more, wrapped up in paper, for the more ready circulation

at gaming-tables: sometimes they are inclosed in ivory boxes,

made to hold exactly 20, 50, or 100 guineas.

ROUND DEALING. Plain, honest dealing.

ROUNDHEADS. A term of reproach to the puritans and

partizans of Oliver Cromwell, and the Rump Parliament,

who it is said made use of a bowl as a guide to trim their

hair.

ROUND ROBIN. A mode of signing remonstrances practised

by sailors on board the king's ships, wherein their

names are written in a circle, so that it cannot be

discovered who first signed it, or was, in other words, the

ringleader.

ROUND SUM. A considerable sum.

ROUND ABOUT. An instrument used in housebreaking.

This instrument has not been long in use. It will cut a

round piece about five inches in diameter out of a shutter

or door.

ROUND MOUTH. The fundament. Brother round mouth,

speaks; he has let a fart.

ROUT. A modern card meeting at a private house; also an

order from the Secretary at War, directing the march

and quartering of soldiers.

ROW. A disturbance; a term used by the students at

Cambridge.

ROW. To row in the same boat; to be embarked in the

same scheme.

ROWLAND. To give a Rowland for an Oliver; to give an

equivalent. Rowland and Oliver were two knights famous

in romance: the wonderful achievements of the

one could only be equalled by those of the other.

ROYAL SCAMPS. Highwaymen who never rob any but

rich persons, and that without ill treating them. See

SCAMP.

ROYAL STAG SOCIETY. Was held every Monday evening,

at seven o'clock, at the Three tuns, near the Hospital

Gate, Newgate-street.

ROYSTER. A rude boisterous fellow; also a hound that

opens on a false scent.

TO RUB. To run away. Don't rub us to the whit; don't

send us to Newgate. CANT.--To rub up; to refresh: to

rub up one's memory. A rub: an impediment. A rubber;

the best two out of three. To win a rubber: to

win two games out of three.

RUBY FACED. Red-faced.

RUFF. An ornament formerly worn by men and women

round their necks. Wooden ruff; the pillory.

RUFFIAN. The devil. CANT.--May the ruffian nab the

cuffin queer, and let the harmanbeck trine with his kinchins

about his colquarren; may the Devil take the justice,

and let the constable be hanged with his children about

his neck. The ruffian cly thee; the Devil take thee.

Ruffian cook ruffian, who scalded the Devil in his feathers;

a saying of a bad cook. Ruffian sometimes also means,

a justice.

RUFFLES. Handcuffs. CANT.

RUFFLERS. The first rank of canters; also notorious rogues

pretending to be maimed soldiers or sailors.

RUFFMANS. The woods, hedges, or bushes. CANT.

RUG. It is all rug; it is all right and safe, the game is

secure. CANT.

RUG. Asleep. The whole gill is safe at rug; the people

of the house are fast asleep.

RUM. Fine, good, valuable.

RUM BECK. A justice of the peace. CANT.

RUM BITE. A clever cheat, a clean trick.

RUM BLEATING CHEAT. A fat wether sheep. CANT.

RUM BLOWEN. A handsome wench. CANT.

RUM BLUFFER. A jolly host. CANT.

RUM BOB. A young apprentice; also a sharp trick.

RUM BOOZE. Wine, or any other good liquor. Rum boozing

welts; bunches of grapes. CANT.

RUM BUBBER. A dexterous fellow at stealing silver tankards

from inns and taverns.

RUM BUGHER. A valuable dog. CANT.

RUM BUNG. A full purse. CANT.

RUM CHUB. Among butchers, a customer easily imposed

on, as to the quality and price of meat. CANT.

RUM CHANT. A song.

RUM CLOUT. A fine silk, cambric, or holland handkerchief.

CANT.

RUM COD. A good purse of gold. CANT.

RUM COLE. New money, or medals.

RUM COVE. A dexterous or clever rogue.

RUM CULL. A rich fool, easily cheated, particularly by

his mistress.

RUM DEGEN. A handsome sword. CANT.

RUM DELL. See RUM DOXY.

RUM DIVER. A dextrous pickpocket. CANT.

RUM DOXY. A fine wench. CANT.

RUM DRAWERS. Silk, or other fine stockings. CANT.

RUM DROPPER. A vintner. CANT.

RUM DUBBER. An expert picklock.

RUM DUKE. A jolly handsome fellow; also an odd eccentric

fellow; likewise the boldest and stoutest fellows lately

among the Alsatians, Minters, Savoyards, and other

inhabitants of privileged districts, sent to remove and guard

the goods of such bankrupts as intended to take sanctuary

in those places. CANT.

RUM FILE. See RUM DIVER.

RUM FUN. A sharp trick. CANT.

RUM GAGGERS. Cheats who tell wonderful stories of

their sufferings at sea, or when taken by the Algerines,

CANT.

RUM GHELT. See RUM COLE. CANT.

RUM GLYMMER. King or chief of the link-boys. CANT.

RUM KICKS. Breeches of gold or silver brocade, or richly

laced with gold or silver. CANT.