JOSKIN, a countryman.
JUG, a prison, or jail.
JUMP, to seize, or rob; “to JUMP a man,” to pounce upon him, and either
rob or maltreat him; “to JUMP a house,” to rob it.—_See_ GO.
JUNIPER, gin.—_Household Words_, No. 183.
JUNK, salt beef.—_See_ OLD HORSE.
KEEL-HAULING, a good thrashing or mauling, rough treatment,—from the
old nautical custom of punishing offenders by throwing them overboard
with a rope attached and hauling them up from under the ship’s keel.
KEEP IT UP, to prolong a debauch, or the occasion of a rejoicing—a
metaphor drawn from the game of shuttlecock.—_Grose._
KEN, a house.—_Ancient cant._ KHAN, _Gipsey_ and _Oriental_.
⁂ All slang and cant words which end in KEN, such as SPIELKEN,
SPINIKEN, BAWDYKEN, or BOOZINGKEN, refer to _houses_, and are partly of
_Gipsey_ origin.
KEN-CRACKERS, housebreakers.
KENNEDY, to strike or kill with a poker. A St. Giles’ term, so given
from a man of that name being killed by a poker. Frequently shortened
to NEDDY.
KENT RAG, or CLOUT, a cotton handkerchief.
KERTEVER-CARTZO, the venereal disease. From the _Lingua Franca_,
CATTIVO, bad, and CAZZO, the male generative organ.
KETCH, or JACK KETCH, the popular name for a public hangman—derived
from a person of that name who officiated in the reign of Charles
II.—_See Macaulay’s History of England_, p. 626.
KIBOSH, nonsense, stuff, humbug; “it’s all KIBOSH,” _i.e._, palaver
or nonsense; “to put on the KIBOSH,” to run down, slander, degrade,
&c.—_See_ BOSH.
KICK, a moment; “I’ll be there in a KICK,” _i.e._, in a minute.
KICK, a sixpence; “two and a KICK,” two shillings and sixpence.
KICK, a pocket.
KICK THE BUCKET, to die.—_Norfolk._ According to Forby, a metaphor
taken from the descent of a well or mine, which is of course absurd.
The Rev. E. S. Taylor supplies me with the following note from his MS.
additions to the work of the East-Anglian lexicographer:—
“The allusion is to the way in which a slaughtered pig is hung up,
viz., by passing the ends of a bent piece of wood behind the tendons
of the hind legs, and so suspending it to a hook in a beam above.
This piece of wood is locally termed _a bucket_, and so by a coarse
metaphor the phrase came to signify to die. Compare the Norfolk
phrase “as wrong as a bucket.”
The natives of the West Indies have converted the expression into
KICKERABOO.
KICK-UP, a noise or disturbance.
KICK UP, “to KICK UP a _row_,” to create a tumult.
KICKSHAWS, trifles; made, or French dishes—not English, or substantial.
Corruption of the _French_, QUELQUES CHOSES.
KICKSIES, trousers.
KICKSY, troublesome, disagreeable.
KID, an infant, or child.
KID, to joke, to quiz, to hoax anybody.
KID-ON, to entice, or incite a person on to the perpetration of an act.
KID-RIG, cheating children in the streets sent on errands, or entrusted
with packages. _Nearly obsolete._
KIDDEN, a low lodging house for boys.
KIDDIER, a pork-butcher.
KIDDILY, fashionably, or showily; “KIDDILY togg’d,” showily dressed.
KIDDLEYWINK, a small shop where they retail the commodities of a
village store. Also, a loose woman.
KIDDY, a man or boy. Formerly a low thief.
KIDDYISH, frolicsome, jovial.
“Think on the KIDDYISH spree we had on such a day.”
_Randall’s Diary_, 1820.
KIDMENT, a pocket-handkerchief fastened to the pocket, and partially
hung out to entrap thieves.
KIDNAPPER, one who steals children or adults. From KID, a child, and
NAB (corrupted to NAP), to steal, or seize.
KIDNEY, “of that KIDNEY,” of such a stamp: “strange KIDNEY,” odd
humour; “two of a KIDNEY,” two persons of a sort, or as like as two
peas, _i.e._, resembling each other like two kidneys in a bunch.—_Old._
“Attempt to put their hair out of KIDNEY.”—_Terræ Filius_, 1763.
KIDSMAN, one who trains boys to thieve and pick pockets successfully.
KILKENNY CAT, a popular simile for a voracious or desperate animal or
person, from the story of the two cats in that county, who are said to
have fought and bitten each other until a small portion of the tail of
one of them alone remained.
KILLING, bewitching, fascinating. The term is akin to the phrase
“dressing to DEATH.”
KIMBO, or A-KIMBO, holding the arms in a bent position from the body,
and resting the hands upon the hips, in a bullying attitude. Said to be
from A SCHEMBO, _Italian_; but more probably from KIMBAW, the old cant
for beating, or bullying.—_See Grose._
KINCHIN, a child.—_Old cant._ From the _German_ diminutive, KINDCHEN, a
baby.