AFFÛT (thieves’ and popular), être d’----, _to be able, cunning_, or
“a downy cove;” _to be wide awake_, or “to be one who knows what’s
o’clock.” A l’----, _on the watch_.
AFFÛTER (thieves’), _to deceive_, _to snatch_, “to click;” _to whip
up_, “to nip;” _to make unlawful profits_; ---- ses pincettes, _to
walk_, to “pad the hoof;” _to run_, to “leg it.” Proper sense, _to
sharpen_. S’---- le sifflet, _to drink_, to “whet one’s whistle.”
AGACEUR (sporting), _one who sets a thing going_, “buttoner.”
AGANTER (popular), _to take_, _to catch_, “to grab;” ---- une claque,
_to receive a box on the ear_, “to get one’s ear’s wax warmed.”
AGATE, _f._ (thieves’), _crockery_.
AGATER (popular), _to be thrashed_, “tanned;” _to be caught_, “nabbed.”
AGENOUILLÉE, _f._ (journalists’), _prostitute whose spécialité is best
described by the appellation itself_.
AGOBILLE (thieves’), _implements_, “jilts.”
AGONIR (popular), _to abuse vehemently_, to “bully-rag,” or “to haul
over the coals. “
AGOUT, _m._ (thieves’), _drinking-water_.
AGRAFE, _f._ (popular), _hand_, “picker,” “dooks,” or “dukes.”
AGRAFER (thieves’ and cads’), _to seize_, to “grab;” _to arrest_, “to
pull up,” or “to smug.”
AGRÉMENT, _m._ (theatrical), avoir de l’----, _to obtain applause_.
(Popular) Se pousser de l’----, _to amuse oneself_.
AGRIPPER (popular), _to seize secretly_, _to steal quickly_, to “nip.”
S’----, _to come to blows_, “to slip into one another.”
AGUICHER (popular), _to allure_, _decoy_, “to button;” _to quicken_,
_to excite_.
Il fallait lui faire comprendre qu’elle aguiche la soif du
petit, en l’empêchant de boire.--=RICHEPIN=, _La Glu_.
AGUIGNER (popular), _to teaze_, “to badger.”
AHURI, _m._ (popular), de Chaillot, _block-head_, “cabbage-head.” See
ABRUTI.
AIDE-CARGOT, _canteen servant_.
AIDES. See ALLER.
AÏE-AÏE, _m._ (popular), _omnibus_.
AIGUILLE, _f._ (military), à tricoter les côtes, _sword_,
“toasting-fork;” (thieves’) _key_, or “screw;” _card made to protrude
from a pack for cheating_, “old gentleman.”
AIGUILLER (card-sharpers’), la brème, _to make a mark or notch on a
card_.
AILE, _f._, AILERON, _m._ (popular), _arm_, or “bender.”
AILLE, IERGUE, ORGUE, UCHE, _suffixes used to disguise any word_.
AILLE (familiar), fallait pas qu’y ----, _it is all his own fault_, _he
has nobody to thank for it but himself_.
AIMANT, _m._ (popular), faire de l’----, _to make a fussy show of
affected friendliness through interested motives_.
AIMER (popular), à crédit, _to enjoy the gratuitous good graces of a
kept woman_. Aimer comme ses petits boyaux, _to doat on one_, “to love
like the apple of one’s eye.”
AIR, _m._ (popular), se donner de l’----, se pousser de l’----, jouer
la fille de l’----, _to run away_, to “cut and run.” See PATATROT.
AIRS, _m. pl._ (popular), être à plusieurs ----, _to be a hypocrite,
double-faced person_, “mawworm.”
A LA BALADE (popular), chanteurs ----, _itinerant singers_, “chaunters.”
A LA BARQUE, _street cry of mussel costermongers_.
A LA BONNE (popular), prendre quelquechose chose ----, _to take
anything good-humouredly_. Avoir ----, _to love, to like_.
Je peste contre le quart d’œil de mon quartier qui ne m’a
pas à la bonne.--=VIDOCQ.=
A LA CARRE (thieves’), dégringoler ----, _to steal from shops_; _kind
of theft committed principally by women who pretend to be shopping_;
“shoplifting.”
A LA CLEF (familiar), _an expletive_. Trop de zèle ----, _too much zeal
by half_. From a musical term. The expression is used sometimes with no
particular meaning, thus, Il y aura du champagne ----, is equivalent
to, Il y aura du champagne.
A LA CORDE (popular), logement ----, _low lodging-house, where the
lodgers sleep with their heads on a rope_, _which is let down early in
the morning_. In some of these the lodgers leave all their clothes with
the keeper, to ensure against their being stolen.
A LA COULE (popular), être ----, _to be conversant with_.
S’il avait été au courant, à la coule, il aurait su que le
premier truc du camelot, c’est de s’établir au cœur même de
la foule.--=RICHEPIN.=
Etre ----, _to be happy; at one’s ease; comfortable_. Je n’étais pas
----, _I felt very uncomfortable_.
A LA FLAN, À LA RENCONTRE, or À LA DURE (thieves’), fabriquer un gas
----, _to attack and rob a person at night_, “to jump a cove.”
A LA GRIVE! (thieves’ and cads’), _take care!_ “shoe leather!” Cribler
----, _to call out “police!”_ to “give hot beef.”
Par contretemps ma largue,
. . . . . .
Pour gonfler ses valades,
Encasque dans un rade,
Sert des sigues à foison;
On la crible à la grive,
Je m’la donne et m’esquive,
Elle est pommée maron.
_Mémoires de Vidocq._
A LA MANQUE (thieves’), fafiots, or fafelards ----, _forged bank
notes_, “queer soft.” Avoir du pognon, or de la galette ----, _to be
penniless_. Etre ----, _not to be trustworthy_; _to betray_.