BRACE. The Brace tavern; a room in the S.E. corner of the King's Bench, where, for the convenience of prisoners residing thereabouts, beer purchased at the tap-house was retailed at a halfpenny per pot advance. It was kept by two brothers of the name of Partridge, and thence called the Brace.
BRACKET-FACED. Ugly, hard-featured.
BRAGGET. Mead and ale sweetened with honey.
BRAGGADOCIA. vain-glorious fellow, a boaster.
BRAINS. If you had as much brains as guts, what a clever fellow you would be! a saying to a stupid fat fellow. To have some guts in his brains; to know something.
BRAN-FACED. Freckled. He was christened by a baker, he carries the bran in his face.
BRANDY-FACED. Red-faced, as if from drinking brandy.
BRANDY. Brandy is Latin for a goose; a memento to prevent the animal from rising in the stomach by a glass of the good creature.
BRAT. A child or infant.
BRAY. A vicar of Bray; one who frequently changes his principles, always siding with the strongest party: an allusion to a vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, commemorated in a well-known ballad for the pliability of his conscience.
BRAZEN-FACED. Bold-faced, shameless, impudent.
BREAD AND BUTTER FASHION. One slice upon the other. John and his maid were caught lying bread and butter fashion.—To quarrel with one's bread and butter; to act contrary to one's interest. To know on which side one's bread is buttered; to know one's interest, or what is best for one. It is no bread and butter of mine; I have no business with it; or rather, I won't intermeddle, because I shall get nothing by it.
BREAK-TEETH WORDS. Hard words, difficult to pronounce.
BREAKING SHINS. Borrowing money; perhaps from the figurative operation being, like the real one, extremely disagreeable to the patient.
BREAD. Employment. Out of bread; out of employment.In bad bread; in a disagreeable scrape, or situation.
BREAD BASKET. The stomach; a term used by boxers.I took him a punch in his bread basket; i.e. I gave hima blow in the stomach.
BREAST FLEET. He or she belongs to the breast fleet; i.e. isa Roman catholic; an appellation derived from their customof beating their breasts in the confession of their sins.
BREECHED. Money in the pocket: the swell is wellbreeched, let's draw him; the gentleman has plenty ofmoney in his pocket, let us rob him.
BREECHES. To wear the breeches; a woman who governsher husband is said to wear the breeches.
BREECHES BIBLE. An edition of the Bible printed in 1598, wherein it is said that Adam and Eve sewed figleaves together, and made themselves breeches.
BREEZE. To raise a breeze; to kick up a dust or breed a disturbance.
BRIDGE. To make a bridge of any one's nose; to push the bottle past him, so as to deprive him of his turn of filling his glass; to pass one over. Also to play booty, or purposely to avoid winning.
BRIM. (Abbreviation of Brimstone.) An abandoned woman; perhaps originally only a passionate or irascible woman, compared to brimstone for its inflammability.
BRISKET BEATER. A Roman catholic. SEE BREASTFLEET, and CRAW THUMPER.
BRISTOL MILK. A Spanish wine called sherry, muchdrunk at that place, particularly in the morning.
BRISTOL MAN. The son of an Irish thief and a Welchwhore.
BRITISH CHAMPAIGNE. Porter.
BROGANIER. One who has a strong Irish pronunciation or accent.
BROGUE. A particular kind of shoe without a heel,worn in Ireland, and figuratively used to signify theIrish accent.
BROTHER OF THE BLADE. A soldierBUSKIN. A player.BUNG. A brewerQUILL. An author.STRING. A fiddler.WHIP. A coachman.
BROTHER STARLING. One who lies with the same woman,that is, builds in the same nest.
BROUGHTONIAN. A boxer: a disciple of Broughton,who was a beef-eater, and once the best boxer of his day.
BROWN BESS. A soldier's firelock. To hug brown Bess; tocarry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier.
BROWN GEORGE. An ammunition loaf, A wig withoutpowder; similar to the undress wig worn by his majesty.
BROWN MADAM, or MISS BROWN. The monosyllable.
BROWN STUDY. Said of one absent, in a reverie, orthoughtful.
BRUISER. A boxer; one skilled in the art of boxing alsoan inferior workman among chasers.
BREWES, or BROWES. The fat scum from the pot inwhich salted beef is boiled.
TO BRUSH. To run away. Let us buy a brush and lope; let us go away or off. To have a brush with a woman; to lie with her. To have a brush with a man; to fight with him. The cove cracked the peter and bought a brush; the fellow broke open the trunk, and then ran away.
BRUSHER. A bumper, a full glass. See BUMPER.
BUB. Strong beer.
BUBBER. A drinking bowl; also a great drinker; a thief that steals plate from public houses. CANT.
THE BUBBLE. The party cheated, perhaps from his being like an air bubble, filled with words, which are only wind, instead of real property.
TO BUBBLE. To cheat.
TO BAR THE BUBBLE. To except against the general rule, that he who lays the odds must always be adjudged the loser: this is restricted to betts laid for liquor.
BUBBLY JOCK. A turkey cock. SCOTCH.
BUBBLE AND SQUEAK. Beef and cabbage fried together. It is so called from its bubbling up and squeaking whilst over the fire.
BUBE. The venereal disease.
BUCK. A blind horse; also a gay debauchee.
TO RUN A BUCK. To poll a bad vote at an election.—IRISHTERM.
BUCK BAIL. Bail given by a sharper for one of the gang.
A BUCK OF THE FIRST HEAD. One who in debauchery surpasses the rest of his companions, a blood or choice spirit. There are in London divers lodges or societies of Bucks, formed in imitation of the Free Masons: one was held at the Rose, in Monkwell-street, about the year 1705. The president is styled the Grand Buck. A buck sometimes signifies a cuckold.
BUCK'S FACE. A cuckold.
BUCK FITCH. A lecherous old fellow.
BUCKEEN. A bully. IRISH.
BUCKET. To kick the bucket; to die.
BUCKINGER'S BOOT. The monosyllable. Matthew Buckinger was born without hands and legs; notwithstanding which he drew coats of arms very neatly, and could write the Lord's Prayer within the compass of a shilling; he was married to a tall handsome woman, and traversed the country, shewing himself for money.
BUCKLES. Fetters.
BUDGE, or SNEAKING BUDGE. One that slips into houses in the dark, to steal cloaks or other clothes. Also lambs' fur formerly used for doctors' robes, whence they were called budge doctors. Standing budge; a thief's scout or spy.
TO BUDGE. To move, or quit one's station. Don't budge from hence; i.e. don't move from hence, stay here.
BUDGET. A wallet. To open the budget; a term used to signify the notification of the taxes required by the minister for the expences of the ensuing year; as To-morrow the minister will go to the house, and open the budget.
BUFE. A dog. Bufe's nob; a dog's head. CANT.
BUFE NABBER. A dog stealer. CANT.
BUFF. All in buff; stript to the skin, stark naked.
BUFF. To stand buff; to stand the brunt. To swear as awitness. He buffed it home; and I was served; heswore hard against me, and I was found guilty.
BUFFER. One that steals and kills horses and dogs fortheir skins; also an inn-keeper: in Ireland it signifies aboxer.
BUFFER. A man who takes an oath: generally applied toJew bail.
BUFFLE-HEADED. Confused, stupid.
BUG. A nick name given by the Irish to Englishmen; bugs having, as it is said, been introduced into Ireland by the English.
TO BUG. A cant word among journeymen hatters, signifying the exchanging some of the dearest materials of which a hat is made for others of less value. Hats are composed of the furs and wool of divers animals among which is a small portion of beavers' fur. Bugging, is stealing the beaver, and substituting in lieu thereof an equal weight of some cheaper ingredient.—Bailiffs who take money to postpone or refrain the serving of a writ, are said to bug the writ.
BUG-HUNTER. An upholsterer.
BUGABOE. A scare-babe, or bully-beggar.
BUGAROCH. Comely, handsome. IRISH.
BUGGY. A one-horse chaise.
BUGGER. A blackguard, a rascal, a term of reproach. Millthe bloody bugger; beat the damned rascal.
BULK AND FILE. Two pickpockets; the bulk jostles theparty to be robbed, and the file does the business.
BULKER. One who lodges all night on a bulk or projectionbefore old-fashioned shop windows.
BULL. An Exchange Alley term for one who buys stockon speculation for time, i.e. agrees with the seller, calleda Bear, to take a certain sum of stock at a future day, at astated price: if at that day stock fetches more than theprice agreed on, he receives the difference; if it falls or ischeaper, he either pays it, or becomes a lame duck, andwaddles out of the Alley. See LAME DUCK and BEAR.
BULL. A blunder; from one Obadiah Bull, a blunderinglawyer of London, who lived in the reign of Henery VII.by a bull is now always meant a blunder made by an Irishman.A bull was also the name of false hair formerlymuch worn by women. To look like bull beef, or as bluffas bull beef; to look fierce or surly. Town bull, a greatwhore-master.
BULL. A crown piece. A half bull; half a crown.
BULL BEGGAR, or BULLY BEGGAR. An imaginary being with which children are threatened by servants and nurses, like raw head and bloody bones.
BULL CALF. A great hulkey or clumsy fellow. SeeHULKEY.
BULL CHIN. A fat chubby child.
BULL DOGS. Pistols.
BULL HANKERS. Persons who over-drive bulls, or frequent bull baits.
BULL'S EYE. A crown-piece.
BULL'S FEATHER. A horn: he wears the bull's feather; he is a cuckold.
TO BULLOCK. To hector, bounce, or bully.
BULLY. A cowardly fellow, who gives himself airs of great bravery. A bully huff cap; a hector. See HECTOR.
BULLY BACK. A bully to a bawdy-house; one who is kept in pay, to oblige the frequenters of the house to submit to the impositions of the mother abbess, or bawd; and who also sometimes pretends to be the husband of one of the ladies, and under that pretence extorts money from greenhorns, or ignorant young men, whom he finds with her. See GREENHORN.
BULLY COCK. One who foments quarrels in order to robthe persons quarrelling.
BULLY RUFFIANS. Highwaymen who attack passengerswith paths and imprecations.
BULLY TRAP. A brave man with a mild or effeminateappearance, by whom bullies are frequently taken in.
BUM. the breech, or backside.
TO BUM. To arrest a debtor. The gill bummed the swell for a thimble; the tradesman arrested the gentleman for a watch.
BUM TRAP. A sheriff's officer who arrests debtors. Ware hawke! the bum traps are fly to our panney; keep a good look out, the bailiffs know where our house is situated.
BUM BAILIFF. A sheriff's officer, who arrests debtors; so called perhaps from following his prey, and being at their bums, or, as the vulgar phrase is, hard at their a-ses. Blackstone says, it is a corruption of bound bailiff, from their being obliged to give bond for their good behaviour.
BUM BRUSHER. A schoolmaster.
BUM BOAT. A boat attending ships to retail greens, drams, &c. commonly rowed by a woman; a kind of floating chandler's shop,
BUM FODDER. Soft paper for the necessary house or torchecul.
BUMFIDDLE. The backside, the breech. See ARS MUSICA.
BUMBO. Brandy, water, and sugar; also the negro name for the private parts of a woman.
BUMKIN. A raw country fellow.
BUMMED. Arrested.
BUMPER. A full glass; in all likelihood from its convexity or bump at the top: some derive it from a full glass formerly drunk to the health of the pope—AU BON PERE.
BUMPING. A ceremony performed on boys perambulating the bounds of the parish on Whit-monday, when they have their posteriors bumped against the stones marking the boundaries, in order to fix them in their memory.
BUN. A common name for a rabbit, also for the monosyllable. To touch bun for luck; a practice observed among sailors going on a cruize.
BUNDLING. A man and woman sleeping in the same bed, he with his small clothes, and she with her petticoats on; an expedient practised in America on a scarcity of beds, where, on such an occasion, husbands and parents frequently permitted travellers to bundle with their wives and daughters. This custom is now abolished. See Duke of Rochefoucalt's Travels in America,
BUNG UPWARDS. Said of a person lying on his face.
BUNG YOUR EYE. Drink a dram; strictly speaking, to drink till one's eye is bunged up or closed.
BUNT. An apron.
BUNTER. A low dirty prostitute, half whore and half beggar.
BUNTLINGS. Petticoats. CANT.
BURN CRUST. A jocular name for a baker.
BURN THE KEN. Strollers living in an alehouse without payingtheir quarters, are said to burn the ken. CANT.
BURNING SHAME. A lighted candle stuck into the parts of awoman, certainly not intended by nature for a candlestick.
BURNER. A clap. The blowen tipped the swell a burner;the girl gave the gentleman a clap.
BURNER. He is no burner of navigable rivers; i.e. he is no conjuror, or man of extraordinary abilities; or rather, he is, but a simple fellow. See THAMES.
BURNT. Poxed or clapped. He was sent out a sacrifice, and came home a burnt offering; a saying of seamen who have caught the venereal disease abroad. He has burnt his fingers; he has suffered by meddling.
BURR. A hanger on, or dependant; an allusion to the field burrs, which are not easily got rid of. Also the Northumbrian pronunciation: the people of that country, but chiefly about Newcastle and Morpeth, are said to have a burr in their throats, particularly called the Newcastle burr.
BUSHEL BUBBY. A full breasted woman.
BUSK. A piece of whalebone or ivory, formerly worn by women, to stiffen the forepart of their stays: hence the toast—Both ends of the busk.
BUSS BEGGAR. An old superannuated fumbler, whom none but beggars will suffer to kiss them.
BUS-NAPPER. A constable. CANT.
BUS-NAPPER'S KENCHIN. A watchman. CANT.
BUSY. As busy is the devil in a high wind; as busy as a hen with one chick.
BUTCHER'S DOG. To be like a butcher's dog, i.e. lie by thebeef without touching it; a simile often applicable tomarried men.
BUTCHER'S HORSE. That must have been a butcher'shorse, by his carrying a calf so well; a vulgar joke on anawkward rider.
BUTT. A dependant, poor relation, or simpleton, on whomall kinds of practical jokes are played off; and who servesas a butt for all the shafts of wit and ridicule.
BUTTER BOX. A Dutchman, from the great quantity ofbutter eaten by the people of that country.
BUTTERED BUN. One lying with a woman that has just lainwith another man, is said to have a buttered bun.
BUTTER AND EGGS TROT. A kind of short jogg trot, such as is used by women going to market, with butter and eggs.—he looks as if butter would not melt in her mouth, yet I warrant you cheese would not choak her; a saying of a demure looking woman, of suspected character. Don't make butter dear; a gird at the patient angler.
BUTTOCK. A whore. CANT.
BUTTOCK BROKER. A bawd, or match-maker. CANT.
BUTTOCK BALL. The amorous congress. CANT.
BUTTOCK AND FILE. A common whore and a pick-pocket.Cant.
BUTTOCK AND TWANG, or DOWN BUTTOCK AND SHAMFILE. A common whore, but no pickpocket.
BUTTOCK AND TONGUE. A scolding wife.
BUTTOCKING SHOP. A brothel.
BUTTON. A bad shilling, among coiners. His a-se makes buttons; he is ready to bewray himself through fear. CANT.
BUZMAN. A pickpocket. CANT.
BUZZARD. A simple fellow. A blind buzzard: a pur-blind man or woman.
BYE BLOW. A bastard.
CABBAGE. Cloth, stuff, or silk purloined by laylors from their employers, which they deposit in a place called HELL, or their EYE: from the first, when taxed, with their knavery, they equivocally swear, that if they have taken any, they wish they may find it in HELL; or, alluding to the second, protest, that what they have over and above is not more than they could put in their EYE.—When the scrotum is relaxed or whiffled, it is said they will not cabbage.
CAB. A brothel. Mother: how many tails have you inyour cab? how many girls have you in your bawdy house?
CACAFEOGO. A sh-te-fire, a furious braggadocio or bullyhuff.
CACKLE. To blab, or discover secrets. The cull is leaky,and cackles; the rogue tells all. CANT. See LEAKY.
CACKLER. A hen.
CACKLER'S KEN. A hen roost. CANT.
CACKLING CHEATS. Fowls. CANT.
CACKLING FARTS. Eggs. CANT.
CADDEE. A helper. An under-strapper.
CADGE. To beg. Cadge the swells; beg of the gentlemen.
CAFFAN. Cheese. CANT.
CAGG. To cagg; a military term used by the private soldiers, signifying a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time; or, as the term is, till their cagg is out: which vow is commonly observed with the strictest exactness. Ex. I have cagg'd myself for six months. Excuse me this time, and I will cagg myself for a year. This term is also used in the same sense among the common people of Scotland, where it is performed with divers ceremonies.
CAG. To be cagged. To be sulky or out of humour. The cove carries the cag; the man is vexed or sullen.
CAG MAGG. Bits and scraps of provisions. Bad meat.
CAGG MAGGS. Old Lincolnshire geese, which having been plucked ten or twelve years, are sent up to London to feast the cockneys.
CAKE, or CAKEY. A foolish fellow.
CALF-SKIN FIDDLE. A drum. To smack calf's skin; to kiss the book in taking an oath. It is held by the St. Giles's casuists, that by kissing one's thumb instead of smacking calf's skin, the guilt of taking a false oath is avoided.
CALVES. His calves are gone to grass; a saying of a man with slender legs without calves. Veal will be cheap, calves fall; said of a man whose calves fall away.
CALVES HEAD CLUB. A club instituted by the Independents and Presbyterians, to commemorate the decapitation of King Charles I. Their chief fare was calves heads; and they drank their wine and ale out of calves skulls.
CALIBOGUS. Rum and spruce beer, American beverage.
CALLE. A cloak or gown. CANT.
CAMBRIDGE FORTUNE. A wind-mill and a water-mill, used to signify a woman without any but personal endowments.
CAMBRIDGE OAK. A willow.
CAMBRADE. A chamber fellow; a Spanish military term. Soldiers were in that country divided into chambers, five men making a chamber, whence it was generally used to signify companion.
CAMESA. A shirt or shift. CANT. SPANISH.
CAMP CANDLESTICK. A bottle, or soldier's bayonet.
CAMPBELL'S ACADEMY. The hulks or lighters, onboard of which felons are condemned to hard labour.Mr. Campbell was the first director of them. SeeACADEMY and FLOATING ACADEMY.
CANARY BIRD. A jail bird, a person used to be kept ina cage; also, in the canting sense, guineas.
CANDLESTICKS. Bad, small, or untunable bells. Hark!how the candlesticks rattle.
CANDY. Drunk. IRISH.
CANE. To lay Cane upon Abel; to beat any one with a cane or stick.
CANK. Dumb.
CANNISTER. The head. To mill his cannister; to breakhis head.
CANNIKIN. A small can: also, in the canting sense,the plague.
CANT. An hypocrite, a double-tongue palavering fellow.See PALAVER.
CANT. To cant; to toss or throw: as, Cant a slug intoyour bread room; drink a dram. SEA WIT.
CANTICLE. A parish clerk.
CANTING. Preaching with a whining, affected tone, perhaps a corruption of chaunting; some derive it from Andrew Cant, a famous Scotch preacher, who used that whining manner of expression. Also a kind of gibberish used by thieves and gypsies, called likewise pedlar's French, the slang, &c. &c.
CANTERS, or THE CANTING CREW. Thieves, beggars, and gypsies, or any others using the canting lingo. See LINGO.
CANTERBURY STORY. A long roundabout tale.
TO CAP. To take one's oath. I will cap downright; I will swear home. CANT.
TO CAP. To take off one's hat or cap. To cap the quadrangle; a lesson of humility, or rather servility, taught undergraduates at the university, where they are obliged to cross the area of the college cap in hand, in reverence to the fellows who sometimes walk there. The same ceremony is observed on coming on the quarter deck of ships of war, although no officer should be on it.
TO CAP. To support another's assertion or tale. To assist a man in cheating. The file kidded the joskin with sham books, and his pall capped; the deep one cheated the countryman with false cards, and his confederate assisted in the fraud.
CAP ACQUAINTANCE. Persons slightly acquainted, or only so far as mutually to salute with the hat on meeting. A woman who endeavours to attract the notice of any particular man, is said to set her cap at him.
CAPER MERCHANT. A dancing master, or hop merchant; marchand des capriolles. FRENCH TERM.—To cut papers; to leap or jump in dancing. See HOP MERCHANT.
CAPPING VERSES. Repeating Latin Verses in turn, beginning with the letter with which the last speaker left off.
CAPON. A castrated cock, also an eunuch.
CAPRICORNIFIED. Cuckolded, hornified.
CAPSIZE. To overturn or reverse. He took his broth till he capsized; he drank till he fell out of his chair. SEA TERM.
CAPTAIN. Led captain; an humble dependant in a great family, who for a precarious subsistence, and distant hopes of preferment, suffers every kind of indignity, and is the butt of every species of joke or ill-humour. The small provision made for officers of the army and navy in time of peace, obliges many in both services to occupy this wretched station. The idea of the appellation is taken from a led horse, many of which for magnificence appear in the retinues of great personages on solemn occasions, such as processions, &c.
CAPTAIN COPPERTHORNE'S CREW. All officers; a saying of a company where everyone strives to rule.
CAPTAIN LIEUTENANT. Meat between veal and beef, the flesh of an old calf; a military simile, drawn from the officer of that denomination, who has only the pay of a lieutenant, with the rank of captain; and so is not entirely one or the other, but between both.
CAPTAIN PODD. A celebrated master of a puppet-shew, in Ben Johnson's time, whose name became a common one to signify any of that fraternity.
CAPTAIN QUEERNABS. A shabby ill-dressed fellow.
CAPTAIN SHARP. A cheating bully, or one in a set of gamblers, whose office is to bully any pigeon, who, suspecting roguery, refuses to pay what he has lost. CANT.
CAPTAIN TOM. The leader of a mob; also the mob itself.
CARAVAN. A large sum of money; also, a person cheated of such sum. CANT.
CARBUNCLE FACE. A red face, full of pimples.
CARDINAL. A cloak in fashion about the year 1760.
To CAROUSE. To drink freely or deep: from the German word expressing ALL OUT.
CARRIERS. A set of rogues who are employed to look out and watch upon the roads, at inns, &c. in order to carry information to their respective gangs, of a booty in prospect.
CARRIERS. Pigeons which carry expresses.
CARRION HUNTER. An undertaker; called also a cold cook, and death hunter. See COLD COOK and DEATH HUNTER.
CARROTS. Red hair.
CARROTTY-PATED. Ginger-hackled, red-haired. SeeGINGER-HACKLED.
CARRY WITCHET. A sort of conundrum, puzzlewit, orriddle.
CART. To put the cart before the horse; to mention the last part of a story first. To be flogged at the cart's a-se or tail; persons guilty of petty larceny are frequently sentenced to be tied to the tail of a cart, and whipped by the common executioner, for a certain distance: the degree of severity in the execution is left to the discretion of the executioner, who, it is said, has cats of nine tails of all prices.
CARTING. The punishment formerly inflicted on bawds, who were placed in a tumbrel or cart, and led through a town, that their persons might be known.
CARVEL'S RING. The private parts of a woman. Ham Carvel, a jealous old doctor, being in bed with his wife, dreamed that the Devil gave him a ring, which, so long as he had it on his finger, would prevent his being made a cuckold: waking he found he had got his finger the Lord knows where. See Rabelais, and Prior's versification of the story.
TO CASCADE. To vomit.
CASE. A house; perhaps from the Italian CASA. In the canting lingo it meant store or ware house, as well as a dwelling house. Tout that case; mark or observe that house. It is all bob, now let's dub the gig of the case; now the coast is clear, let us break open the door of the house.
CASE VROW. A prostitute attached to a particular bawdy house.
CASH, or CAFFAN. Cheese; CANT. See CAFFAN.
CASTER. A cloak. CANT.
CASTOR. A hat. To prig a castor; to steal a hat.
CASTING UP ONE'S ACCOUNTS. Vomiting.
CAT. A common prostitute. An old cat; a cross old woman.
CAT-HEADS. A Woman's breasts. SEA PHRASE.
TO CAT, or SHOOT THE CAT. To vomit from drunkenness.
CAT AND BAGPIPEAN SOCIETY. A society which met attheir office in the great western road: in their summons,published in the daily papers, it was added, that the kittensmight come with the old cats without being scratched.
CAT CALL. A kind of whistle, chiefly used at theatres, tointerrupt the actors, and damn a new piece. It derivesits name from one of its sounds, which greatly resemblesthe modulation of an intriguing boar cat.
CAT HARPING FASHION. Drinking cross-ways, and not, asusual, over the left thumb. SEA TERM.
CAT IN PAN. To turn cat in pan, to change sides or parties; supposed originally to have been to turn CATE or CAKE in pan.
CAT'S FOOT. To live under the cat's foot; to be under the dominion of a wife hen-pecked. To live like dog and cat; spoken of married persons who live unhappily together. As many lives as a cat; cats, according to vulgar naturalists, have nine lives, that is one less than a woman. No more chance than a cat in hell without claws; said of one who enters into a dispute or quarrel with one greatly above his match.
CAT LAP. Tea, called also scandal broth. See SCANDALBROTH.
CAT MATCH. When a rook or cully is engaged amongstbad bowlers.
CAT OF NINE TAILS. A scourge composed of nine stringsof whip-cord, each string having nine knots.
CAT'S PAW. To be made a cat's paw of; to be made a tool or instrument to accomplish the purpose of another: an allusion to the story of a monkey, who made use of a cat's paw to scratch a roasted chesnut out of the fire.
CAT'S SLEEP. Counterfeit sleep: cats often counterfeiting sleep, to decoy their prey near them, and then suddenly spring on them.
CAT STICKS. Thin legs, compared to sticks with which boys play at cat. See TRAPSTICKS.
CAT WHIPPING, or WHIPPING THE CAT. A trick often practised on ignorant country fellows, vain of their strength, by laying a wager with them that they may be pulled through a pond by a cat. The bet being made, a rope is fixed round the waist of the party to be catted, and the end thrown across the pond, to which the cat is also fastened by a packthread, and three or four sturdy fellows are appointed to lead and whip the cat; these on a signal given, seize the end of the cord, and pretending to whip the cat, haul the astonished booby through the water.—To whip the cat, is also a term among tailors for working jobs at private houses, as practised in the country.
CATAMARAN. An old scraggy woman; from a kind of float made of spars and yards lashed together, for saving ship-wrecked persons.
CATCH CLUB. A member of the patch club; a bum bailiff.
CATCH FART. A footboy; so called from such servantscommonly following close behind their master or mistress.
CATCH PENNY. Any temporary contrivance to raise acontribution on the public.
CATCH POLE. A bum bailiff, or sheriff's officer.
CATCHING HARVEST. A dangerous time for a robbery, when many persons are on the road, on account of a horse-race, fair, or some other public meeting.
CATER COUSINS. Good friends. He and I are not cater cousins, i.e. we are not even cousins in the fourth degree, or four times removed; that is, we have not the least friendly connexion.
CATERPILLAR. A nick name for a soldier. In the year 1745, a soldier quartered at a house near Derby, was desired by his landlord to call upon him, whenever he came that way; for, added he, soldiers are the pillars of the nation. The rebellion being finished, it happened the same regiment was quartered in Derbyshire, when the soldier resolved to accept of his landlord's invitation, and accordingly obtained leave to go to him: but, on his arrival, he was greatly surprised to find a very cold reception; whereupon expostulating with his landlord, he reminded him of his invitation, and the circumstance of his having said, soldiers were the pillars of the nation. If I did, answered the host, I meant CATERpiliars.
CATERWAULING. Going out in the night in search ofintrigues, like a cat in the gutters.
CATHEDRAL. Old-fashioned. An old cathedral-bedstead,chair, &c.
CATTLE. Sad cattle: whores or gypsies. Black cattle,bugs. CANT.
CAVAULTING SCHOOL. A Bawdy-house.
CAUDGE-PAWED. Left-handed.
CAULIFLOWER. A large white wig, such as is commonly worn by the dignified clergy, and was formerly by physicians. Also the private parts of a woman; the reason for which appellation is given in the following story: A woman, who was giving evidence in a cause wherein it was necessary to express those parts, made use of the term cauliflower; for which the judge on the bench, a peevish old fellow, reproved her, saying she might as well call it artichoke. Not so, my lord, replied she; for an artichoke has a bottom, but a **** and a cauliflower have none.
CAUTIONS. The four cautions: I. Beware of a woman before.—II. Beware of a horse behind.—III. Beware of a cart side-ways.—IV. Beware of a priest every way.
CAW-HANDED, or CAW-PAWED. Awkward, not dextrous, ready, or nimble.
CAXON. An old weather-beaten wig.
CENT PER CENT. An usurer.
CHAFED. Well beaten; from CHAUFFE, warmed.
CHALKERS. Men of wit, in Ireland, who in the night amuse themselves with cutting inoffensive passengers across the face with a knife. They are somewhat like those facetious gentlemen some time ago known in England by the title of Sweaters and Mohocks.
CHALKING. The amusement above described.
CHAP. A fellow; An odd chap; A strange fellow.
CHAPERON. The cicisbeo, or gentleman usher to a lady; from the French.
CHAPT. Dry or thirsty.
CHARACTERED, or LETTERED. Burnt in the hand. They have palmed the character upon him; they have burned him in the hand, CANT.—See LETTERED.
CHARM. A picklock. CANT.
CHARREN. The smoke of Charren.—His eyes water from the smoke of Charren; a man of that place coming out of his house weeping, because his wife had beat him, told his neighbours the smoke had made his eyes water.
CHATTER BOX. One whose tongue runs twelve score to the dozen, a chattering man or woman.
CHATTER BROTH. Tea. See CAT LAP and SCANDAL BROTH.
CHATTS. Lice: perhaps an abbreviation of chattels, lice being the chief live stock of chattels of beggars, gypsies, and the rest of the canting crew. CANT.—Also, according to the canting academy, the gallows.
CHATES. The gallows. CANT.
CHAUNTER CULLS. Grub-street writers, who compose songs, carrols, &c. for ballad-singers. CANT.
CHAUNT. A song.
TO CHAUNT. To sing. To publish an account in the newspapers. The kiddey was chaunted for a toby; his examination concerning a highway robbery was published in the papers.
CHAW BACON. A countryman. A stupid fellow.
CHEAPSIDE. He came at it by way of Cheapside; he gavelittle or nothing for it, he bought it cheap.
CHEATS. Sham sleeves to put over a dirty shift or shirt.See SHAMS.
CHEEK BY JOWL. Side by side, hand to fist.
CHEEKS. Ask cheeks near cunnyborough; the repartee of a St. Gilse's fair one, who bids you ask her backside, anglice her a-se. A like answer is current in France: any one asking the road or distance to Macon, a city near Lyons, would be answered by a French lady of easy virtue, 'Mettez votre nez dans mon cul, & vous serrez dans les Fauxbourgs.'
CHEESE-TOASTER. A sword.
CHEESE IT; Be silent, be quiet, don't do it. Cheese it, the coves are fly; be silent, the people understand our discourse.
CHEESER. A strong smelling fart.
CHELSEA. A village near London, famous for the military hospital. To get Chelsea; to obtain the benefit of that hospital. Dead Chelsea, by G-d! an exclamation uttered by a grenadier at Fontenoy, on having his leg carried away by a cannon-ball.
CHEST OF TOOLS. A shoe-black's brush and wig, &c. Irish.
CHERRY-COLOURED CAT. A black cat, there being blackcherries as well as red.
CHERUBIMS. Peevish children, because cherubims and seraphimscontinually do cry.
CHESHIRE CAT. He grins like a Cheshire cat; said of anyonewho shews his teeth and gums in laughing.
CHICK-A-BIDDY. A chicken, so called to and by little children.
CHICKEN-BREASTED. Said of a woman with scarce any breasts.
CHICKEN BUTCHER. A poulterer.
CHICKEN-HAMMED. Persons whose legs and thighs are bent or archward outwards.
CHICKEN-HEARTED. Fearful, cowardly.
CHICKEN NABOB. One returned from the East Indies with but a moderate fortune of fifty or sixty thousand pounds, a diminutive nabob: a term borrowed from the chicken turtle.
CHILD. To eat a child; to partake of a treat given to the parish officers, in part of commutation for a bastard child the common price was formerly ten pounds and a greasy chin. See GREASY CHIN.
CHIMNEY CHOPS. An abusive appellation for a negro.
CHINK. Money.
CHIP. A child. A chip of the old block; a child who either in person or sentiments resembles its father or mother.
CHIP. A brother chip; a person of the same trade or calling.
CHIPS, A nick name for a carpenter.
CHIRPING MERRY. Exhilarated with liquor. Chirping glass, a cheerful glass, that makes the company chirp like birds in spring.
CHIT. An infant or baby.
CHITTERLINS. The bowels. There is a rumpus among mybowels, i.e. I have the colic. The frill of a shirt.
CHITTY-FACED. Baby-faced; said of one who has a childishlook.
CHIVE, or CHIFF. A knife, file: or saw. To chive thedarbies; to file off the irons or fetters. To chive the bouhgsof the frows; to cut off women's pockets.
CHIVEY. I gave him a good chivey; I gave him, a heartyScolding.
CHIVING LAY. Cutting the braces of coaches behind, onwhich the coachman quitting the box, an accomplice robsthe boot; also, formerly, cutting the back of the coach tosteal the fine large wigs then worn.
CHOAK. Choak away, the churchyard's near; a jocular sayingto a person taken with a violent fit of coughing, or whohas swallowed any thing, as it is called the wrong way;Choak, chicken, more are hatching: a like consolation.
CHOAK PEAR. Figuratively, an unanswerable objection: also a machine formerly used in Holland by robbers; it was of iron, shaped like a pear; this they forced into the mouths of persons from whom they intended to extort money; and on turning a key, certain interior springs thrust forth a number of points, in all directions, which so enlarged it, that it could not be taken out of the mouth: and the iron, being case-hardened, could not be filed: the only methods of getting rid of it, were either by cutting the mouth, or advertizing a reward for the key, These pears were also called pears of agony.
CHOAKING PYE, or COLD PYE, A punishment inflicted on any person sleeping in company: it consists in wrapping up cotton in a case or tube of paper, setting it on fire, and directing the smoke up the nostrils of the sleeper. See HOWELL'S COTGRAVE.
CHOCOLATE. To give chocolate without sugar; to reprove.MILITARY TERM.
CHOICE SPIRIT. A thoughtless, laughing, singing, drunken fellow.
CHOP. A blow. Boxing term.
TO CHOP AND CHANGE. To exchange backwards and forwards. To chop, in the canting sense, means making dispatch, or hurrying over any business: ex. The AUTEM BAWLER will soon quit the HUMS, for he CHOPS UP the WHINERS; the parson will soon quit the pulpit, for he hurries over the prayers. See AUTEM BAWLER, HUMS, and WHINERS,
CHOP CHURCHES. Simoniacal dealers in livings, or otherecclesiastical preferments.
CHOPPING, LUSTY. A chopping boy or girl; a lustychild.
CHOPS. The mouth. I gave him a wherrit, or a souse,across the chops; I gave him a blow over the mouth,See WHERRIT.
CHOP-STICK. A fork.
CHOUDER. A sea-dish, composed of fresh fish, salt pork, herbs, and sea-biscuits, laid in different layers, and stewed together.
TO CHOUSE. To cheat or trick: he choused me out of it.Chouse is also the term for a game like chuck-farthing.
CHRIST-CROSS ROW. The alphabet in a horn-book: calledChrist-cross Row, from having, as an Irishman observed,Christ's cross PREFIXED before and AFTER the twenty-fourletters.
CHRISTENING. Erasing the name of the true maker froma stolen watch, and engraving a fictitious one in its place.
CHRISTIAN PONEY. A chairman.
CHRISTIAN. A tradesman who has faith, i.e. will give credit.
CHRISTMAS COMPLIMENTS. A cough, kibed heels, and a snotty nose.
CHUB. He is a young chub, or a mere chub; i.e. a foolish fellow, easily imposed on: an illusion to a fish of that name, easily taken.
CHUBBY. Round-faced, plump.
CHUCK. My chuck; a term of endearment.
CHUCK FARTHING. A parish clerk.
CHUCKLE-HEADED. Stupid, thick-headed.
CHUFFY. Round-faced, chubby.
CHUM. A chamber-fellow, particularly at the universities and in prison.
CHUMMAGE. Money paid by the richer sort of prisoners in the Fleet and King's Bench, to the poorer, for their share of a room. When prisons are very full, which is too often the case, particularly on the eve of an insolvent act, two or three persons are obliged to sleep in a room. A prisoner who can pay for being alone, chuses two poor chums, who for a stipulated price, called chummage, give up their share of the room, and sleep on the stairs, or, as the term is, ruff it.
CHUNK. Among printers, a journeyman who refuses to work for legal wages; the same as the flint among taylors. See FLINT.
CHURCH WARDEN. A Sussex name for a shag, or cormorant, probably from its voracity.
CHURCH WORK. Said of any work that advances slowly.
CHURCHYARD COUGH. A cough that is likely to terminate in death.
CHURK. The udder.
CHURL. Originally, a labourer or husbandman: figuratively a rude, surly, boorish fellow. To put a churl upon a gentleman; to drink malt liquor immediately after having drunk wine.
CINDER GARBLER. A servant maid, from her business ofsifting the ashes from the cinders. CUSTOM-HOUSE WIT.
CIRCUMBENDIBUS. A roundabout way, or story. Hetook such a circumbendibus; he took such a circuit.
CIT. A citizen of London.
CITY COLLEGE. Newgate.
CIVILITY MONEY. A reward claimed by bailiffs for executingtheir office with civility.
CIVIL RECEPTION. A house of civil reception; a bawdy-house,or nanny-house. See NANNY-HOUSE.
CLACK. A tongue, chiefly applied to women; a simile drawnfrom the clack of a water-mill.
CLACK-LOFT. A pulpit, so called by orator Henley.
CLAMMED. Starved.
CLAN. A family's tribe or brotherhood; a word much used in Scotland. The head of the clan; the chief: an allusion to a story of a Scotchman, who, when a very large louse crept down his arm, put him back again, saying he was the head of the clan, and that, if injured, all the rest would resent it.
CLANK. A silver tankard. CANT.
CLANK NAPPER. A silver tankard stealer. See RUM BUBBER.
CLANKER. A great lie.
CLAP. A venereal taint. He went out by Had'em, and came round by Clapham home; i.e. he went out a wenching, and got a clap.
CLAP ON THE SHOULDER. An arrest for debt; whence abum bailiff is called a shoulder-clapper.
CLAPPER. The tongue of a bell, and figuratively of a manor woman.
CLAPPER CLAW. To scold, to abuse, or claw off with thetongue.
CLAPPERDOGEON. A beggar born. CANT.
CLARET. French red wine; figuratively, blood. I tapped his claret; I broke his head, and made the blood run. Claret-faced; red-faced.
CLAWED OFF. Severely beaten or whipped; also smartlypoxed or clapped.
CLEAR. Very drunk. The cull is clear, let's bite him; thefellow is very drunk, let's cheat him. CANT.
CLEAVER. One that will cleave; used of a forward orwanton woman.
CLEAN. Expert; clever. Amongst the knuckling coves heis reckoned very clean; he is considered very expert asa pickpocket.
CLERKED. Soothed, funned, imposed on. The cull willnot be clerked; i.e. the fellow will not be imposed on byfair words.
CLEYMES. Artificial sores, made by beggars to excitecharity.
CLICK. A blow. A click in the muns; a blow or knockin the face. CANT.
TO CLICK. To snatch. To click a nab; to snatch a hat.CANT.
CLICKER. A salesman's servant; also, one who proportionsout the different shares of the booty among thieves.
CLICKET. Copulation of foxes; and thence used, in a canting sense, for that of men and women: as, The cull and the mort are at clicket in the dyke; the man and woman are copulating in the ditch.
CLIMB. To climb the three trees with a ladder; to ascend the gallows.
CLINCH. A pun or quibble. To clinch, or to clinch thenail; to confirm an improbable story by another: as, Aman swore he drove a tenpenny nail through the moon;a bystander said it was true, for he was on the other sideand clinched it.
CLINK. A place in the Borough of Southwark, formerlyprivileged from arrests; and inhabited by lawless vagabondsof every denomination, called, from the place oftheir residence, clinkers. Also a gaol, from the clinkingof the prisoners' chains or fetters: he is gone to clink.
CLINKERS. A kind of small Dutch bricks; also irons wornby prisoners; a crafty fellow.
TO CLIP. To hug or embrace: to clip and cling. To clipthe coin; to diminish the current coin. To clip the king'sEnglish; to be unable to speak plain through drunkenness.
CLOAK TWITCHERS. Rogues who lurk about the entrancesinto dark alleys, and bye-lanes, to snatch cloaks from theshoulders of passengers.
CLOD HOPPER. A country farmer, or ploughman.
CLOD PATE. A dull, heavy booby.
CLOD POLE. The same.
CLOSE. As close as God's curse to a whore's a-se: close as shirt and shitten a-se.
CLOSE-FISTED. Covetous or stingy.
CLOSH. A general name given by the mobility to Dutch seamen, being a corruption of CLAUS, the abbreviation of Nicholas, a name very common among the men of that nation.
CLOTH MARKET. He is just come from the cloth market, i.e. from between the sheets, he is just risen from bed.
CLOUD. Tobacco. Under a cloud; in adversity.
CLOVEN, CLEAVE, or CLEFT. A term used for a woman who passes for a maid, but is not one.
CLOVEN FOOT. To spy the cloven foot in any business; to discover some roguery or something bad in it: a saying that alludes to a piece of vulgar superstition, which is, that, let the Devil transform himself into what shape he will, he cannot hide his cloven foot
TO CHUCK. To shew a propensity for a man. The mors chucks; the wench wants to be doing.
CLOUT. A blow. I'll give you a clout on your jolly nob; I'll give you a blow on your head. It also means a handkerchief. CANT. Any pocket handkerchief except a silk one.
CLOUTED SHOON. Shoes tipped with iron.
CLOUTING LAY. Picking pockets of handkerchiefs.
CLOVER. To be, or live, in clover; to live luxuriously.Clover is the most desirable food for cattle.
CLOWES. Rogues.
CLOY. To steal. To cloy the clout; to steal the handkerchief.To cloy the lour; to steal money. CANT.
CLOVES. Thieves, robbers, &c.
CLUB. A meeting or association, where each man is to spendan equal and stated sum, called his club.
CLUB LAW. Argumentum bacculinum, in which an oakenstick is a better plea than an act of parliament.
CLUMP. A lump. Clumpish; lumpish, stupid.
CLUNCH. An awkward clownish fellow.
TO CLUTCH THE FIST. To clench or shut the hand. Clutch fisted; covetous, stingy. See CLOSE-FISTED.
CLUTCHES. Hands, gripe, power.
CLUTTER. A stir, noise, or racket: what a confoundedclutter here is!
CLY. Money; also a pocket. He has filed the cly; hehas picked a pocket. CANT.
CLY THE JERK: To be whipped. CANT.
CLYSTER PIPE. A nick name for an apothecary.
COACH WHEEL. A half crown piece is a fore coach wheel, and a crown piece a hind coach wheel; the fore wheels of a coach being less than the hind ones.
TO COAX. To fondle, or wheedle. To coax a pair of stockings; to pull down the part soiled into the shoes, so as to give a dirty pair of stockings the appearance of clean ones. Coaxing is also used, instead of darning, to hide the holes about the ancles.
COB. A Spanish dollar.
COB, or COBBING. A punishment used by the seamen for petty offences, or irregularities, among themselves: it consists in bastonadoing the offender on the posteriors with a cobbing stick, or pipe staff; the number usually inflicted is a dozen. At the first stroke the executioner repeats the word WATCH, on which all persons present are to take off their hats, on pain of like punishment: the last stroke is always given as hard as possible, and is called THE PURSE. Ashore, among soldiers, where this punishment is sometimes adopted, WATCH and THE PURSE are not included in the number, but given over and above, or, in the vulgar phrase, free gratis for nothing. This piece of discipline is also inflicted in Ireland, by the school-boys, on persons coming into the school without taking off their hats; it is there called school butter.
COBBLE. A kind of boat.
TO COBBLE. To mend, or patch; likewise to do a thing in a bungling manner.
COBBLE COLTER. A turkey.
COBBLER. A mender of shoes, an improver of the understandings of his customers; a translator.
COBBLERS PUNCH. Treacle, vinegar, gin, and water.
COCK, or CHIEF COCK OF THE WALK. The leading man in any society or body; the best boxer in a village or district.
COCK ALE. A provocative drink.
COCK ALLEY or COCK LANE. The private parts of a woman.
COCK AND A BULL STORY. A roundabout story, without head or tail, i.e. beginning or ending.
COCK OF THE COMPANY. A weak man, who from the desire of being the head of the company associates with low people, and pays all the reckoning.
COCK-A-WHOOP. Elevated, in high-spirits, transported with joy.
COCK BAWD. A male keeper of a bawdy-house.
COCK HOIST. A cross buttock.
COCKISH. Wanton, forward. A cockish wench; a forward coming girl.
COCKLES. To cry cockles; to be hanged: perhaps from the noise made whilst strangling. CANT.—This will rejoice the cockles of one's heart; a saying in praise of wine, ale, or spirituous liquors.
COCK PIMP. The supposed husband of a bawd.
COCK ROBIN. A soft, easy fellow.
COCK-SURE. Certain: a metaphor borrowed front the cock of a firelock, as being much more certain to fire than the match.
COCK YOUR EYE. Shut one eye: thus translated into apothecariesLatin.—Gallus tuus ego.
COCKER. One fond of the diversion of cock-fighting.
COCKNEY: A nick name given to the citizens of London, or persons born within the sound of Bow bell, derived from the following story: A citizen of London, being in the country, and hearing a horse neigh, exclaimed, Lord! how that horse laughs! A by-stander telling him that noise was called NEIGHING, the next morning, when the cock crowed, the citizen to shew he had not forgot what was told him, cried out, Do you hear how the COCK NEIGHS? The king of the cockneys is mentioned among the regulations for the sports and shows formerly held in the Middle Temple on Childermas Day, where he had his officers, a marshal, constable, butler, &c. See DUGDALE'S ORIGINES JURIDICIALES, p. 247.—Ray says, the interpretation of the word Cockney, is, a young person coaxed or conquered, made wanton; or a nestle cock, delicately bred and brought up, so as, when arrived a man's estate, to be unable to bear the least hardship. Whatever may be the origin of this appellation, we learn from the following verses, attributed to Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, that it was in use, in the time of king Henry II.
Was I in my castle at Bungay,Fast by the river Waveney,I would not care for the king of Cockney;
i.e. the king of London.
COCKSHUT TIME. The evening, when fowls go to roost.
COD. A cod of money: a good sum of money.
CODDERS. Persons employed by the gardeners to gather peas.
CODGER. An old codger: an old fellow.
COD PIECE. The fore flap of a man's breeches. Do they bite, master? where, in the cod piece or collar?—a jocular attack on a patient angler by watermen, &c.
CODS. The scrotum. Also a nick name for a curate: a rude fellow meeting a curate, mistook him for the rector, and accosted him with the vulgar appellation of Bol—ks the rector, No, Sir, answered he; only Cods the curate, at your service.