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 orsociety of the grenadier officers of the line.
TOWEL. An oaken towel, a cudgel. To rub one downwith an oaken towel; to beat or cudgel him.
TOWER. Clipped money: they have been round the towerwith 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 thebreech.
TOWN. A woman of the town; a prostitute. To be onthe town: to live by prostitution.
TOWN BULL. A common whoremaster. To roar like atown 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 upvamp, 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 fatman. Tripes and trullibubs; the entrails: also a jeeringappellation 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 inpigeons to game; likewise a posture-master, or rope-dancer.To shove the tumbler, or perhaps tumbril; to-bewhipt at the cart's tail.
TO TUNE. To beat: his father tuned him delightfully:perhaps from fetching a tune out of the person beaten, orfrom a comparison with the disagreeable sounds of instrumentswhen 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 nameShall 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; likewisebrandy, 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 favoursconferred.
TWITTER. All in a twitter; in a fright. Twittering isalso 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 hishands 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 thethree blue balls, the sign of that trade: or perhaps to itsbeing 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 intime 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 ofthe following associates: bankers, those who play booty;the gripe, he that betteth; and the person cheated, whois styled the vincent; the gains acquired, termage.
VINEGAR. A name given to the person who with a whipin his hand, and a hat held before his eye, keeps thering clear, at boxing-matches and cudgel-playing; also,in cant terms, a cloak.
VIXEN. A termagant; also a she fox, who, when she hascubs, 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 thevirtuous and compassionate of their own sex.
UNGRATEFUL MAN. A parson, who at least once a weekabuses 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 onthe walls of the bar.
WALL. To walk or crawl up the wall; to be scored up at apublic-nouse. Wall-eyed, having an eye with little orno 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 informtheir confederates that some police officers are at hand.
WARM. Rich, in good circumstances. To warm, or givea man a warming; to beat him. See CHAFED.
WARMING-PAN. A large old-fashioned watch. A Scotchwarming-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 asting 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 whoreand a rogue.
WET PARSON. One who moistens his clay freely, in orderto make it stick together.
WET QUAKER. One of that sect who has no objection tothe spirit derived from wine.
WHACK. A share of a booty obtained by fraud. A paddywhack; a stout brawney Irishman.
WHAPPER. A large man or woman.
WHEEDLE. A sharper. To cut a wheedle; to decoy byfawning or insinuation. Cant.
WHEELBAND IN THE NICK. Regular drinking over theleft 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 maliciousintent, a lie told to reconcile people at variance.
WHITE SERJEANT. A man fetched from the tavern or ale-houseby his wife, is said to be arrested by the white serjeant.
WHITE SWELLING. A woman big with child is said to havea 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 toquestion their husbands whither they are going.
WHITTINGTON'S COLLEGE. Newgate; built or repaired bythe 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; saidof 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 tosuck 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 amadman.
WITCHES. Silver. Witcher bubber; a silver bowl. Witchertilter; a silver-hilted sword. Witcher cully; a silversmith.
TO WOBBLE. To boil. Pot wobbler; one who boils apot.
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. Aprostitute.
WOMAN AND HER HUSBAND. A married couple, wherethe 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. outof the bowl or bottle instead, of a glass.
WORLD. All the world and his wife; every body, a greatcompany.
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 afamous place for curing herrings.
YARMOUTH COACH. A kind of low two-wheeled cartdrawn 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 amountebank.
ZEDLAND. Great part of the west country, where theletter Z is substituted for S; as zee for see, zun for sun,