TIBBY. A cat.
TIB OF THE BUTTERY. A goose. CANT. Saint Tibb's
evening; the evening of the last day, or day of judgment:
he will pay you on St. Tibb's eve. IRISH.
TICK. To run o'tick; take up goods upon trust, to run in
debt. Tick; a watch. SEE SESSIONS PAPERS.
TICKLE TEXT. A parson.
TICKLE PITCKEB. A thirsty fellow, a sot.
TICKLE TAIL. A rod, or schoolmaster. A man's penis.
TICKRUM. A licence.
TIDY. Neat.
TIFFING. Eating or drinking out of meal time, disputing
or falling out; also lying with a wench, A tiff of punch,
a small bowl of punch.
TILBUKY. Sixpence; so called from its formerly being the
fare for Crossing over from Gravesend to Tilbury Fort.
TILT. To tilt; to fight with a sword. To run full tilt
against one; allusion to the ancient tilling with the lance.
TILTER. A sword.
TIM WHISKY. A light one--horse chaise without a head.
TIMBER TOE. A man with a wooden leg.
TINY. Little.
TO TIP. To give or lend. Tip me your daddle; give me
your hand. Tip me a hog; give me a shilling. To tip
the lion; to flatten a man's nose with the thumb, and, at
the same time to extend his mouth, with the fingers, thereby
giving him a sort of lion-like countenance. To tip the
velvet; tonguing woman. To tip all nine; to knock
down all the nine pins at once, at the game of bows or
skittles: tipping, at these gaines, is slightly touching the
tops of the pins with the bowl. Tip; a draught; don't
spoil his tip.
TIP-TOP. The best: perhaps from fruit, that growing at
the top of the tree being generally the best, as partaking
most of the sun. A tip-top workman; the best, or most
excellent Workman.
TIPPERARY FORTUNE. Two town lands, stream's town,
and ballinocack; said of Irish women without fortune.
TIPPLE. Liquor.
TIPPLERS. Sots who are continually sipping.
TIPSEY. Almost drunk.
TIRING. Dressing: perhaps abbreviation of ATTIRING. Tiring
women, or tire women: women that used to cut ladies
hair, and dress them.
TIT. A horse; a pretty little tit; a smart little girl.
a *** or tid bit; a delicate morsel. Tommy tit; a smart lively
little fellow.
TIT FOR TAT. An equivalent.
TO TITTER. To suppress a laugh.
TITTER TATTER. One reeling, and ready to fall at the least
touch; also the childish amusement of riding upon the
two ends of a plank, poised upon the prop underneath its
centre, called also see-saw. Perhaps tatter is a rustic
pronunciation of totter.
TITTLE-TATTLE. Idle discourse, scandal, women's talk,
or small talk.
TITTUP. A gentle hand gallop, or canter.
TIZZY. Sixpence.
TOAD EATER. A poor female relation, and humble companion,
or reduced gentlewoman, in a great family, the standing
butt, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played
off, and all ill humours vented. This appellation is derived
from a mountebank's servant, on whom all experiments
used to be made in public by the doctor, his master; among
which was the eating of toads, formerly supposed poisonous.
Swallowing toads is here figuratively meant for swallowing
or putting up with insults, as disagreeable to a person
of feeling as toads to the stomach.
TOAD. Toad in a hole; meat baked or boiled in pye-crust.
He or she sits like a toad on a chopping-block; a saying
of any who sits ill on horseback. As much need of it
as a toad of a side-pocket; said of a person who desires
any thing for which he has no real occasion. As full of
money as a toad is of feathers.
TOAST. A health; also a beautiful woman whose health is
often drank by men. The origin of this term (as it is said)
was this: a beautiful lady bathing in a cold bath, one of
her admirers out of gallantry drank some of the water:
whereupon another of her lovers observed, he never drank
in the morning, but he would kiss the toast, and immediately
saluted the lady.
TOASTING IRON, or CHEESE TOASTER. A sword.
TOBY LAY. The highway. High toby man; a highway-man.
Low toby man; a footpad.
TOBACCO. A plant, once in great estimation as a medicine:
Tobacco hic
Will make you well if you be sick.
Tobacco hic
If you be well will make you sick.
TODDY. Originally the juice of the cocoa tree, and afterwards
rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg.
TODDLE. To walk away. The cove was touting, but
stagging the traps he toddled; be was looking out, and
feeing the officers he walked away.
TODGE. Beat all to a todge: said of anything beat to mash.
TOGE. A coat. Cant.
TOGEMANS. The same. CANT.
TOGS. Clothes. The swell is rum-togged. The gentleman
is handsomely dressed.
TOKEN. The plague: also the venereal disease. She tipped
him the token; she gave him a clap or pox.
TOL, or TOLEDO. A sword: from Spanish swords made at
Toledo, which place was famous for sword blades of an
extraordinary temper.
TOLLIBAN RIG. A species of cheat carried on by a woman,
assuming the character of a dumb and deaf conjuror.
TOM T--DMAN. A night man, one who empties necessary
houses.
TOMBOY. A romping girl, who prefers the amusement used
by boys to those of her own sex.
TOM OF BEDLAM. The same as Abram man.
TOM CONY. A simple fellow.
TOM LONG. A tiresome story teller. It is coming by Tom
Long, the carrier; said of any thing that has been long
expected.
TOM THUMB. A dwarf, a little hop-o'my-thumb.
TOMMY. Soft Tommy, or white Tommy; bread is so called
by sailors, to distinguish it from biscuit. Brown Tommy:
ammunition bread for soldiers; or brown bread given to
convicts at the hulks.
TO-MORROW COME NEVER. When two Sundays come
together; never.
TONGUE. Tongue enough for two sets of teeth: said of
a talkative person. As old as my tongue, and a little older
than my teeth; a dovetail in answer to the question, How
old are you? Tongue pad; a scold, or nimble-tongued
person.
TONY. A silly fellow, or ninny. A mere tony: a simpleton.
TOOLS. The private parts of a man.
TOOL. The instrument of any person or faction, a cat's
paw. See CATS PAW.
TOOTH Music. Chewing.
TOOTH-PICK. A large stick. An ironical expression.
TOPPER. A violent blow on the head.
TOP ROPES. To sway away on all top ropes; to live
riotously or extravagantly.
TO TOP. To cheat, or trick: also to insult: he thought to
have topped upon me. Top; the signal among taylors
for snuffing the candles: he who last pronounces that word
word, is obliged to get up and perform the operation.--to
be topped; to be hanged. The cove was topped for
smashing queerscreens; he was hanged for uttering forged
bank notes.
TOP DIVER. A lover of women. An old top diver; one
who has loved old hat in his time.
TOP HEAVY. Drunk.
TOP LIGHTS. The eyes. Blast your top lights. See CURSE.
Top SAIL. He paid his debts at Portsmouth with the topsail;
i.e. he went to sea and left them unpaid. SCT soldiers
are said to pay off their scores with the drum; that
is, by marching away.
TOPER. One that loves his bottle, a soaker. SEE TO SOAK.
TOPPING FELLOW. One at the top or head of his profession.
TOPPING CHEAT. The gallows. CANT.
TOPPING COVE. The hangman. CANT.
TOPPING MAN. A rich man.
TOFSY-TURVY. The top side the other way; i.e. the
wrong side upwards; some explain it, the top side turf
ways, turf being always laid the wrong side upwards.
TORCHECUL. Bumfodder.
TORMENTER OF SHEEP SKIN. A drummer.
TORMENTER OF CATGUT. A fiddler.
TORY. An advocate for absolute monarchy and church
power; also an Irish vagabond, robber, Or rapparee.
TOSS POT. A drunkard.
TOSS OFF. Manual pollution.
TOTTY-HEADED. Giddy, hare-brained.
TOUCH. To touch; to get money from any one; also
to arrest. Touched in the wind; broken winded.
Touched in the head; insane, crazy. To touch up a
woman; to have carnal knowledge of her. Touch bone
and whistle; any one having broken wind backwards,
according to the vulgar law, may be pinched by any of
the company till he has touched bone (i.e. his teeth) and
whistled.
TOUCH BUN FOR LUCK. See BUN.
TOVT. A look-out house, or eminence.
TOUTING. (From TUERI, to look about) Publicans
fore-stalling guests, or meeting them on the road, and begging
their custom; also thieves or smugglers looking out to see
that the coast is clear. Touting ken; the bar of a public
house.
TOW ROW. A grenadier. The tow row club; a club or
society of the grenadier officers of the line.
TOWEL. An oaken towel, a cudgel. To rub one down
with an oaken towel; to beat or cudgel him.
TOWER. Clipped money: they have been round the tower
with it. CANT.
TO TOWER. To overlook, to rise aloft as in a high tower.
TOWER HILL PLAY. A slap on the face, and a kick on the
breech.
TOWN. A woman of the town; a prostitute. To be on
the town: to live by prostitution.
TOWN BULL. A common whoremaster. To roar like a
town bull; to cry or bellow aloud.
TO TRACK. To go. Track up the dancers; go up stairs.
CANT.
TRADING JUSTICES. Broken mechanics, discharged footmen,
and other low fellows, smuggled into the commission
of the peace, who subsist by fomenting disputes, granting
warrants, and otherwise retailing justice; to the honour
of the present times, these nuisances are by no means, so
common as formerly.
TRADESMEN. Thieves. Clever tradesmen; good thieves.
TRANSLATORS. Sellers of old mended shoes and boots,
between coblers and shoemakers.
TO TRANSMOGRAPHY, or TRANSMIGRIFY. To patch up
vamp, or alter.
TO TRANSNEAR. To come up with any body.
TRANTER. See CROCKER.
TRAP. To understand trap; to know one's own interest.
TRAP STICKS. Thin legs, gambs: from the sticks with
which boys play at trap-ball.
TRAPS. Constables and thief-takers. CANT.
TO TRAPAN. To inveigle, or ensnare.
TRAPES. A slatternly woman, a careless sluttish woman.
TRAVELLER. To tip the traveller; to tell wonderful
stories, to romance.
TRAVELLING PIQUET. A mode of amusing themselves,
practised by two persons riding in a carriage, each
reckoning towards his game the persons or animals that pass
by on the side next them, according to the following
estimation:
A parson riding a grey horse, without furniture; game.
An old woman under a hedge; ditto.
A cat looking out of a window; 60.
A man, woman, and child, in a buggy; 40.
A man with a woman behind him; 30.
A flock of sheep; 20.
A flock of geese; 10.
A post chaise; 5.
A horseman; 2.
A man or woman walking; 1.
TRAY TRIP. An ancient game like Scotch hop, played on
a pavement marked out with chalk into different
compartments.
TRENCHER CAP. The square cap worn by the collegians.
at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
TRENCHER MAN. A stout trencher man; one who has a
good appetite, or, as the term is, plays a good knife and
fork.
TRESWINS. Threepence.
TRIB. A prison: perhaps from tribulation.
TRICKUM LEGIS. A quirk or quibble in the law.
TRIG. The point at which schoolboys stand to shoot their
marbles at taw; also the spot whence bowlers deliver the
bowl.
TO TRIG IT. To play truant. To lay a man trigging; to
knock him down.
TRIGRYMATE. An idle female companion.
TRIM. State, dress. In a sad trim; dirty.--Also spruce or
fine: a trim fellow.
TRIM TRAM. Like master, like man.
TRIMMING. Cheating, changing side, or beating. I'll
trim his jacket; I'll thresh him. To be trimmed; to be
shaved; I'll just step and get trimmed.
TRINE. To hang; also Tyburn.
TRINGUM TRANGUM. A whim, or maggot.
TRINING. Hanging.
TRINKETS. Toys, bawbles, or nicknacks.
TRIP. A short voyage or journey, a false step or stumble,
an error in the tongue, a bastard. She has made a trip;
she has had a bastard.
TRIPE. The belly, or guts. Mr. Double Tripe; a fat
man. Tripes and trullibubs; the entrails: also a jeering
appellation for a fat man.
TO TROLL. To loiter or saunter about.
TROLLY LOLLY. Coarse lace once much in fashion.
TROLLOP. A lusty coarse sluttish woman.
TROOPER. You will die the death of a trooper's horse,
that is, with your shoes-on; a jocular method of telling
any one he will be hanged.
TROT. An old trot; a decrepit old woman. A dog trot; a
gentle pace.
TROTTERS. Feet. To shake one's trotters at Bilby's ball,
where the sheriff pays the fiddlers; perhaps the Bilboes
ball, i.e. the ball of fetters: fetters and stocks were
anciently called the bilboes.
To TROUNCE. To punish by course of law.
TRUCK. To exchange, swop, or barter; also a wheel
such as ship's guns are placed upon.
TRULL. A soldier or a tinker's trull; a soldier or tinker's
female companion.--Guteli, or trulli, are spirits like women,
which shew great kindness to men, and hereof it is
that we call light women trulls. RANDLE HOLM'S
ACADEMY OF ARMORY.
TRUMPERY. An old whore, or goods of no value; rubbish.
TRUMPET. To sound one's own trumpet; to praise one's
self.
TRUMPETER. The king of Spain's trumpeter; a braying
ass. His trumpeter is dead, he is therefore forced to
sound his own trumpet. He would make an excellent
trumpeter, for he has a strong breath; said of one having
a foetid breath.
TRUMPS. To be put to one's trumps: to be in difficulties,
or put to one's shifts. Something may turn up trumps;
something lucky may happen. All his cards are trumps:
he is extremely fortunate.
TRUNDLERS. Peas.
TRUNK. A nose. How fares your old trunk? does your
nose still stand fast? an allusion to the proboscis or trunk
of an elephant. To shove a trunk: to introduce one's
self unasked into any place or company. Trunk-maker
like; more noise than work.
TRUSTY TROJAN, or TRUSTY TROUT. A true friend.
TRY ON. To endeavour. To live by thieving. Coves who
try it on; professed thieves.
TRYNING. See TRINING.
TU QUOQUE. The mother of all saints.
TUB THUMPER. A presbyterian parson.
TUCKED UP. Hanged. A tucker up to an old bachelor or
widower; a supposed mistress.
TUFT HUNTER. A it anniversary parasite, one who courts
the acquaintance of nobility, whose caps are adorned with
a gold tuft.
TUMBLER. A cart; also a sharper employed to draw in
pigeons to game; likewise a posture-master, or rope-dancer.
To shove the tumbler, or perhaps tumbril; to-be
whipt at the cart's tail.
TO TUNE. To beat: his father tuned him delightfully:
perhaps from fetching a tune out of the person beaten, or
from a comparison with the disagreeable sounds of instruments
when tuning.
TO TUP. To have carnal knowledge of a woman.
TUP. A ram: figuratively, a cuckold.
TUP RUNNING. A rural sport practised at wakes and fairs
in Derbyshire; a ram, whose tail is well soaped and
greased, is turned out to the multitude; any one that can
take him by the tail, and hold him fast, is to have him for
his own.
T--D. There were four t--ds for dinner: stir t--d, hold
t--d, tread t--d, and mus-t--d: to wit, a hog's face, feet
and chitterlings, with mustard. He will never sh--e a
seaman's t--d; i.e. he will never make a good seaman.
TURF. On the turf; persons who keep running horses, or
attend and bet at horse-races, are said to be on the turf.
TURK. A cruel, hard-hearted man. Turkish treatment;
barbarous usage. Turkish shore; Lambeth, Southwark,
and Rotherhithe side of the Thames.
TURKEY MERCHANT. A poulterer.
TURNCOAT. One who has changed his party from interested
motives.
TURNED UP. Acquitted; discharged.
TURNIP-PATED. White or fair-haired.
TURNPIKE MAN. A parson; because the clergy collect
their tolls at our entrance into and exit from the world.
TUZZY-MUZZY. The monosyllable.
TWADDLE. Perplexity, confusion, or any thing else: a
fashionable term that for a while succeeded that of BORE. See
BORE.
TWANGEY, or STANGEY. A north country name for a taylor.
TWEAGUE. In a great tweague: in a great passion. Tweaguey;
peevish, passionate.
TO TWEAK. To pull: to tweak any one's nose.
TWELVER. A shilling.
TWIDDLE-DIDDLES. Testicles.
TWIDDLE POOP. An effeminate looking fellow.
IN TWIG. Handsome; stilish. The cove is togged in
twig; the fellow is dressed in the fashion.
TO TWIG. To observe. Twig the cull, he is peery;
observe the fellow, he is watching us. Also to disengage,
snap asunder, or break off. To twig the darbies; to knock
off the irons.
TWISS. (IRISH) A Jordan, or pot de chambre. A Mr. Richard
Twiss having in his "Travels" given a very unfavourable
description of the Irish character, the inhabitants of
Dublin, byway of revenge, thought proper to christen this
utensil by his name--suffice it to say that the baptismal
rites were not wanting at the ceremony. On a nephew of
this gentleman the following epigram was made by
a friend of ouis:
Perish the country, yet my name
Shall ne'er in STORY be forgot,
But still the more increase in fame,
The more the country GOES TO POT.
TWIST. A mixture of half tea and half coffee; likewise
brandy, beer, and eggs. A good twist; a good appetite.
To twist it down apace; to eat heartily.
TWISTED. Executed, hanged.
TO TWIT. To reproach a person, or remind him of favours
conferred.
TWITTER. All in a twitter; in a fright. Twittering is
also the note of some small birds, such as the robin, &c.
TWITTOC. Two. CANT.
TWO HANDED PUT. The amorous congress.
TWO THIEVES BEATING A ROGUE. A man beating his
hands against his sides to warm himself in cold weather;
called also beating the booby, and cuffing Jonas.
TWO TO ONE SHOP. A pawnbroker's: alluding to the
three blue balls, the sign of that trade: or perhaps to its
being two to one that the goods pledged are never redeemed.
TWO-HANDED. Great. A two-handed fellow or wench;
a great strapping man orwoman,
TYE. A neckcloth.
TYBURN BLOSSOM. A young thief or pickpocket, who in
time will ripen into fruit borne by the deadly never-green.
TYBURN TIPPET. A halter; see Latimer's sermon before.
Edward VI. A. D. 1549.
TYBURN TOP, or FORETOP. A wig with the foretop
combed over the eyes in a knowing style; such being
much worn by the gentlemen pads, scamps, divers, and
other knowing hands.
TYKE. A dog, also a clown; a Yorkshire tyke.
TYNEY. See TINEY.
VAGARIES. Frolics, wild rambles.
VAIN-GLORIOUS, or OSTENTATIOUS MAN. One who
boasts without reason, or, as the canters say, pisses more
than he drinks.
VALENTINE. The first woman seen by a man, or man seen
by a woman, on St. Valentine's day, the 14th of February,
when it is said every bird chuses his mate for the ensuing
year.
TO VAMP. To pawn any thing. I'll vamp it, and tip you
the cole: I'll pawn it, and give you the money. Also to
refit, new dress, or rub up old hats, shoes or other wearing
apparel; likewise to put new feet to old boots. Applied
more particularly to a quack bookseller.
VAMPER. Stockings.
VAN. Madam Van; see MADAM.
VAN-NECK. Miss or Mrs. Van-Neck; a woman with large
breasts; a bushel bubby.
VARDY. To give one's vardy; i.e. verdict or opinion.
VARLETS. Now rogues and rascals, formerly yeoman's servants.
VARMENT. (Whip and Cambridge.) Natty, dashing. He is
quite varment, he is quite the go. He sports a varment
hat, coat, &c.; he is dressed like a gentleman Jehu.
VAULTING SCHOOL. A bawdy-house; also an academy
where vaulting and other manly exercises are taught.
VELVET. To tip the velvet; to put one's tongue into a
woman's mouth. To be upon velvet; to have the best
of a bet or match. To the little gentleman in velvet, i. e.
the mole that threw up the hill that caused Crop (King
William's horse) to stumble; a toast frequently drank by
the tories and catholics in Ireland.
VENERABLE MONOSYLLABLE. Pudendum muliebre.
VENUS'S CURSE. The venereal disease.
VESSELS OF PAPER. Half a quarter of a sheet.
VICAR OF BRAY. See BRAY.
VICE ADMIRAL OF THE NARROW SEAS. A drunken man
that pisses under the table into his companions' shoes.
VICTUALLING OFFICE. The stomach.
VINCENT'S LAW. The art of cheating at cards, composed of
the following associates: bankers, those who play booty;
the gripe, he that betteth; and the person cheated, who
is styled the vincent; the gains acquired, termage.
VINEGAR. A name given to the person who with a whip
in his hand, and a hat held before his eye, keeps the
ring clear, at boxing-matches and cudgel-playing; also,
in cant terms, a cloak.
VIXEN. A termagant; also a she fox, who, when she has
cubs, is remarkably fierce.
TO VOWEL. A gamester who does not immediately pay
his losings, is said to vowel the winner, by repeating the
vowels I. O. U. or perhaps from giving his note for the
money according to the Irish form, where the acknowledgment
of the debt is expressed by the letters I. O. U. which,
the sum and name of the debtor being added, is deemed a
sufficient security among gentlemen.
UNCLE. Mine uncle's; a necessary house. He is gone to
visit his uncle; saying of one who leaves his wife soon after
marriage. It likewise means a pawnbroker's: goods pawned
are frequently said to be at mine uncle's, or laid up in
lavender.
UNDERSTRAPPER. An inferior in any office, or department.
UNDER DUBBER. A turnkey.
UNFORTUNATE GENTLEMEN. The horse guards, who thus
named themselves in Germany, where a general officer
seeing them very awkward in bundling up their forage,
asked what the devil they were; to which some of them
answered, unfortunate gentlemen.
UNFORTUNATE WOMEN. Prostitutes: so termed by the
virtuous and compassionate of their own sex.
UNGRATEFUL MAN. A parson, who at least once a week
abuses his best benefactor, i.e. the devil.
UNGUENTUM AUREUM. A bribe.
UNICORN. A coach drawn by three horses.
UNLICKED CUB. A rude uncouth young fellow.
UNRIGGED. Undressed, or stripped. Unrig the drab; strip
the wench.
UNTRUSS. To untruss a point; to let down one's breeches
in order to ease one's self. Breeches were formerly tied
with points, which till lately were distributed to the boys
every Whit Monday by the churchwardens of most of the
parishes in London, under the denomination of tags: these
tags were worsteds of different colours twisted up to a size
somewhat thicker than packthread, and tagged at both
ends with tin. Laces were at the same given to the
girls.
UNTWISTED. Undone, ruined, done up.
UNWASHED BAWDRY. Rank bawdry.
UP TO THEIR GOSSIP. To be a match for one who attempts
to cheat or deceive; to be on a footing, or in the secret.
I'll be up with him; I will repay him in kind.
UPHILLS. False dice that run high.
UPPER BENJAMIN. A great coat. CANT.
UPPER STORY, or GARRET. Figuratively used to signify the
head. His upper story or garrets are unfurnished; i.e.
he is an empty or foolish fellow.
UPPING BLOCK. [Called in some counties a leaping stock,
in others a jossing block.] Steps for mounting a horse.
He sits like a toad on a jossing block; said of one who
sits ungracefully on horseback.
UPPISH. Testy, apt to take offence.
UPRIGHT. Go upright; a word used by shoemakers, taylors
and their servants, when any money is given to
make them drink, and signifies, Bring it all out in liquor,
though the donor intended less, and expects change, or
some of his money, to be returned. Three-penny upright.
See THREEPENNY UPRIGHT,
UPRIGHT MAN. An upright man signifies the chief or
principal of a crew. The vilest, stoutest rogue in the
pack is generally chosen to this post, and has the sole
right to the first night's lodging with the dells, who
afterwards are used in common among the whole fraternity.
He carries a short truncheon in his hand, which he calls
his filchman, and has a larger share than ordinary in
whatsoever is gotten in the society. He often travels in
company with thirty or forty males and females, abram
men, and others, over whom he presides arbitrarily. Sometimes
the women and children who are unable to travel,
or fatigued, are by turns carried in panniers by an ass, or
two, or by some poor jades procured for that purpose.
UPSTARTS. Persons lately raised to honours and riches
from mean stations.
URCHIN. A child, a little fellow; also a hedgehog.
URINAL OF THE PLANETS. Ireland: so called from the
frequent rains in that island.
USED UP. Killed: a military saying, originating from a
message sent by the late General Guise, on the expedition
at Carthagena, where he desired the commander in chief
to order him some more grenadiers, for those he had were
all used up.
WABLER. Footwabler; a contemptuous term for a
foot soldier, frequently used by those of the cavalry.
TO WADDLE. To go like a duck. To waddle out of
Change alley as a lame duck; a term for one who has not
been able to pay his gaming debts, called his differences,
on the Stock Exchange, and therefore absents himself
from it.
WAG. An arch-frolicsome fellow.
WAGGISH. Arch, gamesome, frolicsome.
WAGTAIL. A lewd woman.
WAITS. Musicians of the lower order, who in most towns
play under the windows of the chief inhabitants at midnight,
a short time before Christmas, for which they collect
a christmas-box from house to house. They are said
to derive their name of waits from being always in waiting
to celebrate weddings and other joyous events happening
within their district.
WAKE. A country feast, commonly on the anniversary of
the tutelar saint of the village, that is, the saint to whom
the parish church is dedicated. Also a custom of watching
the dead, called Late Wake, in use both in Ireland and
Wales, where the corpse being deposited under a table,
with a plate of salt on its breast, the table is covered with
liquor of all sorts; and the guests, particularly, the younger
part of them, amuse themselves with all kinds of
pastimes and recreations: the consequence is generally
more than replacing the departed friend.
WALKING CORNET. An ensign of foot.
WALKING POULTERER. One who steals fowls, and hawks
them from door to door.
WALKING STATIONER. A hawker of pamphlets, &c.
WALKING THE PLANK. A mode of destroying devoted
persons or officers in a mutiny or ship-board, by blindfolding
them, and obliging them to walk on a plank laid
over the ship's side; by this means, as the mutineers suppose,
avoiding the penalty of murder.
WALKING UP AGAINST THE WALL. To run up a score,
which in alehouses is commonly recorded with chalk on
the walls of the bar.
WALL. To walk or crawl up the wall; to be scored up at a
public-nouse. Wall-eyed, having an eye with little or
no sight, all white like a plaistered wall.
TO WAP. To copulate, to beat. If she wont wap for a
winne, let her trine for a make; if she won't lie with a
man for a penny, let her hang for a halfpenny. Mort
wap-apace; a woman of experience, or very expert at the
sport.
WAPPER-EYED. Sore-eyed.
WARE. A woman's ware; her commodity.
WARE HAWK. An exclamation used by thieves to inform
their confederates that some police officers are at hand.
WARM. Rich, in good circumstances. To warm, or give
a man a warming; to beat him. See CHAFED.
WARMING-PAN. A large old-fashioned watch. A Scotch
warming-pan; a female bedfellow.
WARREN. One that is security for goods taken up on credit
by extravagant young gentlemen. Cunny warren;
a girl's boarding-school, also a bawdy-house.
WASH. Paint for the face, or cosmetic water. Hog-wash;
thick and bad beer.
WASP. An infected prostitute, who like a wasp carries a
sting in her tail.
WASPISH. Peevish, spiteful.
WASTE. House of waste; a tavern or alehouse, where idle
people waste both their time and money.
WATCH, CHAIN, AND SEALS. A sheep's head And pluck.
WATER-MILL. A woman's private parts.
WATER SNEAKSMAN. A man who steals from ships or
craft on the river.
WATER. His chops watered at it; he longed earnestly for it.
To watch his waters; to keep a strict watch on any one's
actions. In hot water: in trouble, engaged in disputes.
WATER BEWITCHED. Very weak punch or beer.
WATERPAD. One that robs ships in the river Thames.
WATERY-HEADED. Apt to shed tears.
WATER SCRIGER, A doctor who prescribes from inspecting
the water of his patients. See PISS PROPHET.
WATTLES. Ears. CANT.
WEAR A--E. A one-horse chaise.
WEASEL-FACED. Thin, meagre-faced. Weasel-gutted;
thin-bodied; a weasel is a thin long slender animal with a
sharp face.
WEDDING. The emptying of a necessary-house, particularly
in London. You have been at an Irish wedding,
where black eyes are given instead of favours; saying to
one who has a black eye.
WEDGE. Silver plate, because melted by the receivers of
stolen goods into wedges. CANT.
TO WEED. To take a part. The kiddey weeded the swell's
screens; the youth took some of the gentleman's bank
notes.
WEEPING CROSS. To come home by weeping cross; to
repent.
WELCH COMB. The thumb and four fingers.
WELCH FIDDLE. The itch. See SCOTCH FIDDLE.
WELCH MILE. Like a Welch mile, long and narrow. His
story is like a Welch mile, long and tedious.
WELCH RABBIT, [i. e. a Welch rare-bit] Bread and cheese
toasted. See RABBIT.--The Welch are said to be so
remarkably fond of cheese, that in cases of difficulty their
midwives apply a piece of toasted cheese to the janua vita
to attract and entice the young Taffy, who on smelling it
makes most vigorous efforts to come forth.
WELCH EJECTMENT. To unroof the house, a method
practised by landlords in Wales to eject a bad tenant.
TO WELL. To divide unfairly. To conceal part. A cant
phrase used by thieves, where one of the party conceals
some of the booty, instead of dividing it fairly amongst
his confederates.
WELL-HUNG. The blowen was nutts upon the kiddey because
he is well-hung; the girl is pleased with the youth
because his genitals are large.
WESTMINSTER WEDDING. A match between a whore
and a rogue.
WET PARSON. One who moistens his clay freely, in order
to make it stick together.
WET QUAKER. One of that sect who has no objection to
the spirit derived from wine.
WHACK. A share of a booty obtained by fraud. A paddy
whack; a stout brawney Irishman.
WHAPPER. A large man or woman.
WHEEDLE. A sharper. To cut a wheedle; to decoy by
fawning or insinuation. Cant.
WHEELBAND IN THE NICK. Regular drinking over the
left thumb.
WHELP. An impudent whelp; a saucy boy.
WHEREAS. To follow a whereas; to become a bankrupt,
to figure among princes and potentates: the notice given
in the Gazette that a commission of bankruptcy is issued
out against any trader, always beginning with the word
whereas. He will soon march in the rear of a whereas.
WHET. A morning's draught, commonly white wine, supposed
to whet or sharpen the appetite.
WHETSTONE'S PARK. A lane between Holborn and Lincoln's-inn
Fields, formerly famed for being the resort of
women of the town.
WHIDS. Words. Cant.
TO WHIDDLE. To tell or discover. He whiddles; he
peaches. He whiddles the whole scrap; he discovers all
he knows. The cull whiddled because they would not
tip him a snack: the fellow peached because they would
not give him a share, They whiddle beef, and we must
brush; they cry out thieves, and we must make off. Cant.
WHIDDLER. An informer, or one that betrays the secrets
of the gang.
WHIFFLES. A relaxation of the scrotum.
WHIFFLERS. Ancient name for fifers; also persons at the
universities who examine candidates for degrees. A whiffling
cur, a small yelping cur.
WHIMPER, or WHINDLE. A low cry.
TO WHINE. To complain.
WHINYARD. A sword.
TO WHIP THE COCK. A piece of sport practised at wakes,
horse-races, and fairs in Leicestershire: a cock being tied
or fastened into a hat or basket, half a dozen carters
blindfolded, and armed with their cart whips, are placed
round it, who, after being turned thrice about, begin to
whip the cock, which if any one strikes so as to make it
cry out, it becomes his property; the joke is, that instead
of whipping the cock they flog each other heartily.
WHIP JACKS. The tenth order of the canting crew, rogues
who having learned a few sea terms, beg with counterfeit
passes, pretending to be sailors shipwrecked on the
neighbouring coast, and on their way to the port from whence
they sailed.
TO WHIP OFF. To run away, to drink off greedily, to
snatch. He whipped away from home, went to the alehouse,
where he whipped off a full tankard, and coming
back whipped off a fellow's hat from his head.
WHIP-BELLY VENGEANCE, or pinch-gut vengeance, of
which he that gets the most has the worst share. Weak
or sour beer.
WHIPPER-SNAPPER. A diminutive fellow.
WHIPSHIRE. Yorkshire.
WHIPSTER. A sharp or subtle fellow.
WHIPT SYLLABUB. A flimsy, frothy discourse or treatise,
without solidity.
WHIRLYGIGS. Testicles.
WHISKER. A great lie.
WHISKER SPLITTER. A man of intrigue.
WHISKIN. A shallow brown drinking bowl.
WHISKY. A malt spirit much drank in Ireland and Scotland;
also a one-horse chaise. See TIM WHISKY.
WHISTLE. The throat. To wet one's whistle; to drink.
WHISTLING SHOP. Rooms in the King's Bench and Fleet
prison where drams are privately sold.
WHIT. [i. e. Whittington's.] Newgate. Cant.--Five rum-padders
are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and
are piked into the deuseaville; five highwaymen broke out
of Newgate in the night, and are gone into the country.
WHITE RIBBIN. Gin.
WHITE FEATHER. He has a white feather; he is a coward;
an allusion to a game cock, where having a white feather
is a proof he is not of the true game breed.
WHITE-LIVERED. Cowardly, malicious.
WHITE LIE. A harmless lie, one not told with a malicious
intent, a lie told to reconcile people at variance.
WHITE SERJEANT. A man fetched from the tavern or ale-house
by his wife, is said to be arrested by the white serjeant.
WHITE SWELLING. A woman big with child is said to have
a white swelling.
WHITE TAPE. Geneva.
WHITE WOOL. Geneva.
WHITECHAPEL. Whitechapel portion; two smocks, and
what nature gave. Whitechapel breed; fat, ragged, and
saucy: see ST. GILES'S BREED. Whitechapel beau;
one who dresses with a needle and thread, and undresses
with a knife. To play at whist Whitechapel fashion;
i.e. aces and kings first.
WHITEWASHED. One who has taken the benefit of an act
of insolvency, to defraud his creditors, is said to have been
whitewashed.
WHITFIELITE. A follower of George Whitfield, a Methodist.
WHITHER-GO-YE. A wife: wives being sometimes apt to
question their husbands whither they are going.
WHITTINGTON'S COLLEGE. Newgate; built or repaired by
the famous lord mayor of that name.
WHORE'S BIRD. A debauched fellow, the largest of all birds.
He sings more like a whore's bird than a canary bird; said
of one who has a strong manly voice.
WHORE'S CURSE. A piece of gold coin, value five shillings
and three pence, frequently given to women of the town by
such as professed always to give gold, and who before the
introduction of those pieces always gave half a guinea.
WHOHE'S KITLING, or WHORE'S SON. A bastard.
WHORE-MONGER. A man that keeps more than one mistress.
A country gentleman, who kept a female friend, being reproved
by the parson of the parish, and styled a whore-monger,
asked the parson whether he had a cheese in his
house; and being answered in the affirmative, 'Pray,'
says he, 'does that one cheese make you a cheese-monger?'
WHORE PIPE. The penis.
WHOW BALL. A milk-maid: from their frequent use of the
word whow, to make the cow stand still in milking. Ball
is the supposed name of the cow.
WIBBLE. Bad drink.
WIBLING'S WITCH. The four of clubs: from one James
Wibling, who in the reign of King James I. grew rich by
private gaming, and was commonly observed to have that
card, and never to lose a game but when he had it not.
WICKET. A casement; also a little door.
WIDOW'S WEEDS. Mourning clothes of a peculiar fashion,
denoting her state. A grass widow; a discarded mistress.
a widow bewitched; a woman whose husband is abroad,
and said, but not certainly known, to be dead.
WIFE. A fetter fixed to one leg.
WIFE IN WATER COLOURS. A mistress, or concubine;
water colours being, like their engagements, easily effaced,
or dissolved.
WIGANNOWNS. A man wearing a large wig.
WIGSBY. Wigsby; a man wearing a wig.
WILD ROGUES. Rogues trained up to stealing from their
cradles.
WILD SQUIRT. A looseness.
WILD-GOOSE CHASE. A tedious uncertain pursuit, like the
following a flock of wild geese, who are remarkably shy.
WILLING TIT. A free horse, or a coming girl.
WILLOW. Poor, and of no reputation. To wear the willow;
to be abandoned by a lover or mistress.
WIN. A penny,
TO WIN. To steal. The cull has won a couple of rum
glimsticks; the fellow has stolen a pair of fine candlesticks.
WIND. To raise the wind; to procure mony.
WINDER. Transportation for life. The blowen has napped
a winder for a lift; the wench is transported for life for
stealing in a shop.
WIND-MILL. The fundament. She has no fortune but
her mills; i.e. she has nothing but her **** and a*se.
WINDFALL. A legacy, or any accidental accession of property.
WINDMILLS IN THE HEAD. Foolish projects.
WINDOW PEEPER. A collector of the window tax.
WINDWARD PASSAGE. One who uses or navigates the
windward passage; a sodomite.
WINDY. Foolish. A windy fellow; a simple fellow.
WINK. To tip one the wink; to give a signal by winking
the eye.
WINNINGS. Plunder, goods, or money acquired by theft.
WINTER CRICKET. A taylor.
WINTER'S DAY. He is like a winter's day, short and dirty.
WIPE. A blow, or reproach. I'll give you a wipe on the
chops. That story gave him a fine wipe. Also a handkerchief.
WIPER. A handkerchief. CANT.
WIPER DRAWER. A pickpocket, one who steals handkerchiefs.
He drew a broad, narrow, cam, or specked wiper;
he picked a pocket of a broad, narrow, cambrick, or coloured
handkerchief.
TO WIREDRAW. To lengthen out or extend any book, letter,
or discourse.
WISE. As wise as Waltham's calf, that ran nine miles to
suck a bull.
WISE MEN OF GOTHAM. Gotham is a village in Nottinghamshire;
its magistrates are said to have attempted to
hedge in a cuckow; a bush, called the cuckow's bush, is
still shewn in support of the tradition. A thousand other
ridiculous stories are told of the men of Gotham.
WISEACRE. A foolish conceited fellow.
WISEACRE'S HALL. Gresham college.
WIT. He has as much wit as three folks, two fools and a
madman.
WITCHES. Silver. Witcher bubber; a silver bowl. Witcher
tilter; a silver-hilted sword. Witcher cully; a silversmith.
TO WOBBLE. To boil. Pot wobbler; one who boils a
pot.
WOLF IN THE BREAST. An extraordinary mode of imposition,
sometimes practised in the country by strolling
women, who have the knack of counterfeiting extreme
pain, pretending to have a small animal called a wolf in
their breasts, which is continually gnawing them.
WOLF IN THE STOMACH. A monstrous or canine appetite.
WOOD. In a wood; bewildered, in a maze, in a peck of
troubles, puzzled, or at a loss what course to take in any
business. To look over the wood; to ascend the pulpit,
to preach: I shall look over the wood at St. James's on
Sunday next. To look through the wood; to stand in the
pillory. Up to the arms in wood; in the pillory.
WOOD PECKER. A bystander, who bets whilst another
plays.
WOODCOCK. A taylor with a long bill.
WOODEN HABEAS. A coffin. A man who dies in prison is
said to go out with a wooden habeas. He went out with
a wooden habeas; i.e. his coffin.
WOODEN SPOON. (Cambridge.) The last junior optime.
See WRANGLER, OPTIME.
WOODEN HORSE. To ride the wooden horse was a military
punishment formerly in use. This horse consisted of two
or more planks about eight feet long, fixed together so as
to form a sharp ridge or angle, which answered to the
body of the horse. It was supported by four posts, about
six feet long, for legs. A head, neck, and tail, rudely cut
in wood, were added, which completed the appearance of
a horse. On this sharp ridge delinquents were mounted,
with their hands tied behind them; and to steady them
(as it was said), and lest the horse should kick them off,
one or more firelocks were tied to each leg. In this situation
they were sometimes condemned to sit an hour or
two; but at length it having been found to injure the
soldiers materially, and sometimes to rupture them, it was
left off about the time of the accession of King George I.
A wooden horse was standing in the Parade at Portsmouth
as late as the year 1750.
WOODEN RUFF. The pillory. See NORWAY NECKCLOTH.
WOODEN SURTOUT. A coilin.
WOMAN OF THE TOWN, or WOMAN OF PLEASURE. A
prostitute.
WOMAN AND HER HUSBAND. A married couple, where
the woman is bigger than her husband.
WOMAN'S CONSCIENCE. Never satisfied.
WOMAN OF ALL WORK. Sometimes applied to a female
servant, who refuses none of her master's commands.
WOOLBIRD. A sheep. CANT.
WOOL GATHERING. Your wits are gone a woolgathering;
saying to an absent man, one in a reverie, or absorbed
in thought.
WOOLLEY CROWN. A soft-headed fellow.
WORD GRUBBERS. Verbal critics, and also persons who
use hard words in common discourse.
WORD PECKER. A punster, one who plays upon words.
WORD OF MOUTH. To drink by word of mouth, i.e. out
of the bowl or bottle instead, of a glass.
WORLD. All the world and his wife; every body, a great
company.
WORM. To worm out; to obtain the knowledge of a secret
by craft, also to undermine or supplant. He is gone to
the diet of worms; he is dead and buried, or gone to
Rothisbone.
WRANGLERS. At CAMBRIDGE the first class (generally of
twelve) at the annual examination for a degree. There
are three classes of honours, wranglers, senior optimes,
and junior optimes. Wranglers are said to be born with
golden spoons in their mouths, the senior optimes with
silver, and the junior with leaden ones. The last junior
optime is called the wooden spoon. Those who are not
qualified for honors are either in the GULF (that is,
meritorious, but not deserving of being in the three first
classes) or among the pollot [Proofreaders Note: Greek Letters]
the many. See PLUCK, APOSTLES, &C.
WRAP RASCAL. A red cloak, called also a roquelaire.
WRAPT UP IN WARM FLANNEL. Drunk with spirituous
liquors. He was wrapt up in the tail of his mother's
smock; saying of any one remarkable for his success with
the ladies. To be wrapt up in any one: to have a good
opinion of him, or to be under his influence.
WRINKLE. A wrinkle-bellied whore; one who has had
a number of bastards: child-bearing leaves wrinkles in a
woman's belly. To take the wrinkles out of any one's
belly; to fill it out by a hearty meal. You have one
wrinkle more in your a-se; i.e. you have one piece of
knowledge more than you had, every fresh piece of
knowledge being supposed by the vulgar naturalists to add a
wrinkle to that part.
WRY MOUTH AND A PISSEN PAIR OF BREECHES. Hanging.
WRY NECK DAY. Hanging day.
WYN. See WIN.
XANTIPPE. The name of Socrates's wife: now used to
signify a shrew or scolding wife.
YAFFLING. Eating. CANT.
TO YAM. To eat or stuff heartily.
YANKEY, or YANKEY DOODLE. A booby, or country
lout: a name given to the New England men in North
America. A general appellation for an American.
YARMOUTH CAPON. A red herring: Yarmouth is a
famous place for curing herrings.
YARMOUTH COACH. A kind of low two-wheeled cart
drawn by one horse, not much unlike an Irish car.
YARMOUTH PYE. A pye made of herrings highly spiced,
which the city of Norwich is by charter bound to present
annually to the king.
YARUM. Milk. CANT.
YEA AND NAY MAN. A quaker, a simple fellow, one who
can only answer yes, or no.
YELLOW. To look yellow; to be jealous. I happened to
call on Mr. Green, who was out: on coming home, and
finding me with his wife, he began to look confounded
blue, and was, I thought, a little yellow.
YELLOW BELLY. A native of the Fens of Lincolnshire; an
allusion to the eels caught there.
YELLOW BOYS. Guineas.
TO YELP. To cry out. Yelper; a town cryer, also one
apt to make great complaints on trifling occasions.
YEST. A contraction of yesterday.
YOKED. Married. A yoke; the quantum of labour performed
at one spell by husbandmen, the day's work being
divided in summer into three yokes. Kentish term.
YORKSHIRE TYKE. A Yorkshire clown. To come Yorkshire
over any one; to cheat him.
YOUNG ONE. A familiar expression of contempt for another's
ignorance, as "ah! I see you're a young one." How
d'ye do, young one?
TO YOWL. To cry aloud, or howl.
ZAD. Crooked like the letter Z. He is a mere zad, or
perhaps zed; a description of a very crooked or deformed
person.
ZANY. The jester, jack pudding, or merry andrew, to a
mountebank.
ZEDLAND. Great part of the west country, where the
letter Z is substituted for S; as zee for see, zun for sun,