DUCK LEGS. Short legs.
DUDDERS, or WHISPERING DUDDERS. Cheats who travel the country, pretending to sell smuggled goods: they accost their intended dupes in a whisper. The goods they have for sale are old shop-keepers, or damaged; purchased by them of large manufactories. See DUFFER.
DUDDERING RAKE. A thundering rake, a buck of the first head, one extremely lewd.
DUDGEON. Anger.
DUDS. Clothes.
DUFFERS. Cheats who ply in different parts of the town, particularly about Water-lane, opposite St. Clement's church, in the Strand, and pretend to deal in smuggled goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling them Spital-fields goods at double their current price.
DUGS. A woman's breasts,
DUKE, or RUM DUKE. A queer unaccountable fellow.
DUKE OF LIMBS. A tall, awkward, ill-made fellow.
DUKE HUMPHREY. To dine with Duke Humphrey; to fast. In old St. Paul's church was an aisle called Duke Humphrey's walk (from a tomb vulgarly called his, but in reality belonging to John of Gaunt), and persons who walked there, while others were at dinner, were said to dine with Duke Humphrey.
DULL SWIFT. A stupid, sluggish fellow, one long going on an errand.
DUMB ARM. A lame arm.
DUMB-FOUNDED. Silenced, also soundly beaten.
DUMB GLUTTON. A woman's privities.
DUMB WATCH. A venereal bubo in the groin.
DUMMEE. A pocket book. A dummee hunter. A pick-pocket, who lurks about to steal pocket books out of gentlemen's pockets. Frisk the dummee of the screens; take all the bank notes out of the pocket book, ding the dummee, and bolt, they sing out beef. Throw away the pocket book, and run off, as they call out "stop thief."
DUMPLIN. A short thick man or woman. Norfolk dumplin; a jeering appellation of a Norfolk man, dumplins being a favourite kind of food in that county.
DUMPS. Down in the dumps; low-spirited, melancholy: jocularly said to be derived from Dumpos, a king of Egypt, who died of melancholy. Dumps are also small pieces of lead, cast by schoolboys in the shape of money.
DUN. An importunate creditor. Dunny, in the provincial dialect of several counties, signifies DEAF; to dun, then, perhaps may mean to deafen with importunate demands: some derive it from the word DONNEZ, which signifies GIVE. But the true original meaning of the word, owes its birth to one Joe Dun, a famous bailiff of the town of Lincoln, so extremely active, and so dexterous in his business, that it became a proverb, when a man refused to pay, Why do not you DUN him? that is, Why do not you set Dun to attest him? Hence it became a cant word, and is now as old as since the days of Henry VII. Dun was also the general name for the hangman, before that of Jack Ketch.
And presently a halter got,Made of the best strong hempen teer,And ere a cat could lick her ear,Had tied it up with as much art,As DUN himself could do for's heart.
Cotton's Virgil Trav. book iv.
DUNAKER. A stealer of cows and calves.
DUNEGAN. A privy. A water closet.
DUNGHILL. A coward: a cockpit phrase, all but gamecocks being styled dunghills. To die dunghill; to repent, or shew any signs of contrition at the gallows. Moving dunghill; a dirty, filthy man or woman. Dung, an abbreviation of dunghill, also means a journeyman taylor who submits to the law for regulating journeymen taylors' wages, therefore deemed by the flints a coward. See FLINTS.
DUNNOCK. A cow. CUNT.
TO DUP. To open a door: a contraction of DO OPE or OPEN.See DUB.
DURHAM MAN. Knocker kneed, he grinds mustard withhis knees: Durham is famous for its mustard.
DUST. Money. Down with your dust; deposit the money.To raise or kick up a dust; to make a disturbance or riot:see BREEZE. Dust it away; drink about.
DUSTMAN. A dead man: your father is a dustman.
DUTCH COMFORT. Thank God it is no worse.
DUTCH CONCERT. Where every one plays or signs adifferent tune.
DUTCH FEAST. Where the entertainer gets drunk beforehis guest.
DUTCH RECKONING, or ALLE-MAL. A verbal or lump account, without particulars, as brought at spungiug or bawdy houses.
DUTCHESS. A woman enjoyed with her pattens on, or by a man-in boots, is said to be made a dutchess.
DIE HARD, or GAME. To die hard, is to shew no signs of fear or contrition at the gallows; not to whiddle or squeak. This advice is frequently given to felons going to suffer the law, by their old comrades, anxious for the honour of the gang.
EARNEST. A deposit in part of payment, to bind a bargain.
EARTH BATH. A Grave.
EASY. Make the cull easy or quiet; gag or kill him. As easy as pissing the bed.
EASY VIRTUE. A lady of easy virtue: an impure or prostitute.
EAT. To eat like a beggar man, and wag his under jaw; a jocular reproach to a proud man. To eat one's words; to retract what one has said.
TO EDGE. To excite, stimulate, or provoke; or as it is vulgarly called, to egg a man on. Fall back, fall edge; i.e. let what will happen. Some derive to egg on, from the Latin word, AGE, AGE.
EIGHT EYES. I will knock out two of your eight eyes; a common Billingsgate threat from one fish nymph to another: every woman, according to the naturalists of that society, having eight eyes; viz. two seeing eyes, two bub-eyes, a bell-eye, two pope's eyes, and a ***-eye. He has fallen down and trod upon his eye; said of one who has a black eye.
ELBOW GREASE. Labour. Elbow grease will make an oaktable shine.
ELBOW ROOM. Sufficient space to act in. Out at elbows;said of an estate that is mortgaged.
ELBOW SHAKER. A gamester, one who rattles Saint Hugh'sbones, i.e. the dice.
ELLENBOROUGH LODGE. The King's Bench Prison. LordEllenborough's teeth; the chevaux de frize round the topof the wall of that prison.
ELF. A fairy or hobgoblin, a little man or woman.
EMPEROR. Drunk as an emperor, i.e. ten times as drunk as a lord.
ENGLISH BURGUNDY. Porter.
ENSIGN BEARER. A drunken man, who looks red in the face, or hoists his colours in his drink.
EQUIPT. Rich; also, having new clothes. Well equipt; full of money, or well dressed. The cull equipped me with a brace of meggs; the gentleman furnished me with. a couple of guineas.
ESSEX LION. A calf; Essex being famous for calves, andchiefly supplying the London markets.
ESSEX STILE. A ditch; a great part of Essex is low marshyground, in which there are more ditches than Stiles.
ETERNITY Box. A coffin.
EVES. Hen roosts.
EVE'S CUSTOM-HOUSE, where Adam made his first entry.The monosyllable.
EVES DROPPER. One that lurks about to rob hen-roosts; also a listener at doors and windows, to hear private conversation.
EVIL. A halter. Cant, Also a wife.
EWE. A white ewe; a beautiful woman. An old ewe, drest lamb fashion; an old woman, drest like a young girl.
EXECUTION DAY. Washing day.
EXPENDED. Killed: alluding to the gunner's accounts, wherein the articles consumed are charged under the title of expended. Sea phrase.
EYE. It's all my eye and Betty Martin. It's all nonsense, all mere stuff.
EYE-SORE. A disagreeable object. It will be an eye-sore as long as she lives, said by a limn whose wife was cut for a fistula in ano.
FACE-MAKING. Begetting children. To face it out; to persist in a falsity. No face but his own: a saying of one who has no money in his pocket or no court cards in his hand.
FACER. A bumper, a glass filled so full as to leave no room for the lip. Also a violent blow on the face.
FADGE. It won't fadge; it won't do. A farthing.
TO FAG. To beat. Fag the bloss; beat the wench; Cant. A fag also means a boy of an inferior form or class, who acts as a servant to one of a superior, who is said to fag him, he is my fag; whence, perhaps, fagged out, for jaded or tired. To stand a good fag; not to be soon tired.
FAGGER. A little boy put in at a window to rob the house.
FAGGOT. A man hired at a muster to appear as a soldier. To faggot in the canting sense, means to bind: an allusion to the faggots made up by the woodmen, which are all bound. Faggot the culls; bind the men.
FAITHFUL. One of the faithful; a taylor who gives long credit. His faith has made him unwhole; i.e. trusting too much, broke him.
FAIR. A set of subterraneous rooms in the Fleet Prison.
FAKEMENT. A counterfeit signature. A forgery. Tell the macers to mind their fakements; desire the swindlers to be careful not to forge another person's signature.
FALLALLS. Ornaments, chiefly women's, such as ribands,necklaces, &c.
FALLEN AWAY FROM A HORSE LOAD TO A CART LOAD.A saying on one grown fat.
FAMILY MAN. A thief or receiver of stolen goods.
FAM LAY. Going into a goldsmith's shop, under pretence of buying a wedding ring, and palming one or two, by daubing the hand with some viscous matter.
FAMS, or FAMBLES. Hands. Famble cheats; rings or gloves. CANT.
TO FAMGRASP. To shake bands: figuratively, to agree or make up a difference. Famgrasp the cove; shake hands with the fellow. CANT.
FAMILY OF LOVE. Lewd women; also, a religious sect.
FANCY MAN. A man kept by a lady for secret services.
TO FAN. To beat any one. I fanned him sweetly; I beat him heartily.
FANTASTICALLY DRESSED, with more rags than ribands.
FART. He has let a brewer's fart, grains and all; said ofone who has bewrayed his breeches.
Piss and fart.Sound at heart.Mingere cum bumbis,Res saluberrima est lumbis.
I dare not trust my a-se with a fart: said by a person troubledwith a looseness.
FART CATCHER. A valet or footman from his walkingbehind his master or mistress.
FARTING CRACKERS. Breeches.
FARTLEBERRIES. Excrement hanging about the anus.
FASTNER. A warrant.
FASTNESSES. Bogs.
FAT. The last landed, inned, or stowed, of any sort of merchandise: so called by the water-side porters, carmen, &c. All the fat is in the fire; that is, it is all over with us: a saying used in case of any miscarriage or disappointment in an undertaking; an allusion to overturning the frying pan into the fire. Fat, among printers, means void spaces.
AS FAT AS A HEN IN THE FOREHEAD. A saying of a meagre person.
FAT CULL. A rich fellow.
FAT HEADED. Stupid.
FAULKNER. A tumbler, juggler, or shewer of tricks; perhaps because they lure the people, as a faulconer does his hawks. CANT.
FAYTORS, or FATORS. Fortune tellers.
FAWNEY RIG. A common fraud, thus practised: A fellow drops a brass ring, double gilt, which he picks up before the party meant to be cheated, and to whom he disposes of it for less than its supposed, and ten times more than its real, value. See MONEY DROPPER.
FAWNEY. A ring.
FEAGUE. To feague a horse; to put ginger up a horse's fundament, and formerly, as it is said, a live eel, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse-dealer's servant, who shall shew a horse without first feaguing him. Feague is used, figuratively, for encouraging or spiriting one up.
FEAK. The fundament.
To FEATHER ONE'S NEST. To enrich one's self.
FEATHER-BED LANE. A rough or stony lane.
FEE, FAW, FUM. Nonsensical words, supposed in childish story-books to be spoken by giants. I am not to be frighted by fee, faw, fum; I am not to be scared by nonsense.
FEEDER. A spoon. To nab the feeder; to steal a spoon.
FEET. To make feet for children's stockings; to beget children. An officer of feet; a jocular title for an officer of infantry.
FEINT. A sham attack on one part, when a real one is meant at another.
FELLOW COMMONER. An empty bottle: so called at the university of Cambridge, where fellow commoners are not in general considered as over full of learning. At Oxford an empty bottle is called a gentleman commoner for the same reason. They pay at Cambridge 250 l. a year for the privilege of wearing a gold or silver tassel to their caps. The younger branches of the nobility have the privilege of wearing a hat, and from thence are denominated HAT FELLOW COMMONERS.
FEN. A bawd, or common prostitute. CANT.
TO FENCE. To pawn or sell to a receiver of stolen goods. The kiddey fenced his thimble for three quids; the young fellow pawned his watch for three guineas. To fence invariably means to pawn or sell goods to a receiver.
FENCING KEN. The magazine, or warehouse, where stolen goods are secreted.
FERME. A hole. CANT.
FERMERDY BEGGARS. All those who have not the sham sores or clymes.
FERRARA. Andrea Ferrara; the name of a famous sword-cutler:most of the Highland broad-swords are markedwith his name; whence an Andrea Ferrara has becomethe common name for the glaymore or Highlandbroad-sword. See CLAYMORE.
FERRET. A tradesman who sells goods to young unthriftheirs, at excessive rates, and then continually duns themfor the debt. To ferret; to search out or expel any onefrom his hiding-place, as a ferret drives out rabbits; alsoto cheat. Ferret-eyed; red-eyed: ferrets have red eyes.
FETCH. A trick, wheedle, or invention to deceive.
FEUTERER. A dog-keeper: from the French vautrier, or vaultrier, one that leads a lime hound for the chase.
TO FIB. To beat. Fib the cove's quarron in the rumpadfor the lour in his bung; beat the fellow in the highwayfor the money in his purse. CANT.—A fib is also a tiny lie.
FICE, or FOYSE. A small windy escape backwards, moreobvious to the nose than ears; frequently by old ladiescharged on their lap-dogs. See FIZZLE.
FID OF TOBACCO. A quid, from the small pieces of towwith which the vent or touch hole of a cannon is stopped.SEA TERM.
FIDDLE FADDLE. Trifling discourse, nonsense. A merefiddle faddle fellow; a trifier.
FIDDLESTICK'S END. Nothing; the end of the ancient fiddlesticks ending in a point; hence metaphorically used to express a thing terminating in nothing.
FIDGETS. He has got the fidgets; said of one that cannotsit long in a place.
FIDLAM BEN. General thieves; called also St. Peter's sons,having every finger a fish-hook. CANT.
FIDDLERS MONEY. All sixpences: sixpence being the usual sum paid by each couple, for music at country wakes and hops. Fiddler's fare; meat, drink, and money. Fiddler's pay; thanks and wine.
FIELD LANE DUCK. A baked sheep's head.
FIERI FACIAS. A red-faced man is said to have been served with a writ of fieri facias.
FIGDEAN. To kill.
FIGGER. A little boy put in at a window to hand out goods to the diver. See DIVER.
FIGGING LAW. The art of picking pockets. CANT.
FIGURE DANCER. One who alters figures on bank notes, converting tens to hundreds.
FILCH, or FILEL. A beggar's staff, with an iron hook at the end, to pluck clothes from an hedge, or any thing out of a casement. Filcher; the same as angler. Filching cove; a man thief. Filching mort; a woman thief.
FILE, FILE CLOY, or BUNGNIPPER. A pick pocket. To file; to rob or cheat. The file, or bungnipper, goes generally in company with two assistants, the adam tiler, and another called the bulk or bulker, Whose business it is to jostle the person they intend to rob, and push him against the wall, while the file picks his pocket, and gives'the booty to the adam tiler, who scours off with it. CANT.
FIN. An arm. A one finned fellow; a man who has lostan arm. SEA PHRASE.
FINE. Fine as five pence. Fine as a cow-t—d stuck withprimroses.
FINE. A man imprisoned for any offence. A fine of eighty-fourmonths; a transportation for seven years.
FINGER IN EYE. To put finger in eye; to weep: commonly applied to women. The more you cry the less you'll p-ss; a consolatory speech used by sailors to their doxies. It is as great a pity to see a woman cry, as to see a goose walk barefoot; another of the same kind.
FINGER POST. A parson: so called, because he points outa way to others which he never goes himself. Like thefinger post, he points out a way he has never been, andprobably will never go, i.e. the way to heaven.
FINISH. The finish; a small coffee-house in Coven Garden,market, opposite Russel-street, open very early in themorning, and therefore resorted to by debauchees shut outof every other house: it is also called Carpenter's coffee-house.
FIRING A GUN. Introducing a story by head and shoulders.A man wanting to tell a particular story, said to thecompany, Hark! did you not hear a gun?—but now we aretalking of a gun, I will tell you the story of one.
TO FIRE A SLUG. To drink a dram.
FIRE PRIGGERS. Villains who rob at fires under pretence of assisting in removing the goods.
FIRE SHIP. A wench who has the venereal disease.
FIRE SHOVEL. He or she when young, was fed with a fire shovel; a saying of persons with wide mouths.
FISH. A seaman. A scaly fish; a rough, blunt tar. To have other fish to fry; to have other matters to mind, something else to do.
FIT. Suitable. It won't fit; It will not suit or do.
FIVE SHILLINGS. The sign of five shillings, i.e. the crown.Fifteen shillings; the sign of the three crowns.
FIZZLE. An escape backward,
FLABAGASTED. Confounded.
FLABBY. Relaxed, flaccid, not firm or solid.
FLAG. A groat. CANT.—The flag of defiance, or bloody flagis out; signifying the man is drunk, and alluding to theredness of his face. SEA PHRASE.
FLAM. A lie, or sham story: also a single stroke on a drum.To flam; to hum, to amuse, to deceive. Flim flams; idlestories.
FLAP DRAGON. A clap, or pox.
To FLARE. To blaze, shine or glare.
FLASH. Knowing. Understanding another's meaning. The swell was flash, so I could not draw his fogle. The gentleman saw what I was about, and therefore I could not pick his pocket of his silk handkerchief. To patter flash, to speak the slang language. See PATTER.
FLASH PANNEYS. Houses to which thieves and prostitutesresort.
Next for his favourite MOT (Girl) the KIDDEY (Youth) looksabout,And if she's in a FLASH PANNEY (Brothel) he swears he'll haveher out;So he FENCES (Pawns) all his TOGS (Cloathes) to buy her DUDS,(Wearing Apparel) and thenHe FRISKS (Robs) his master's LOB (Till) to take her from thebawdy KEN (House).
FLASH. A periwig. Rum flash; a fine long wig. Queer flash; a miserable weather-beaten caxon.
To FLASH. To shew ostentatiously. To flash one's ivory; to laugh and shew one's teeth. Don't flash your ivory, but shut your potatoe trap, and keep your guts warm; the Devil loves hot tripes.
To FLASH THE HASH. To vomit. CANT.
FLASH KEN. A house that harbours thieves.
FLASH LINGO. The canting or slang language.
FLASH MAN. A bully to a bawdy house. A whore's bully.
FLAT. A bubble, gull, or silly fellow.
FLAT COCK. A female.
FLAWD. Drunk.
FLAYBOTTOMIST. A bum-brusher, or schoolmaster.
To FLAY, or FLEA, THE FOX. To vomit.
FLEA BITE. A trifling injury. To send any one away with a flea in his ear; to give any one a hearty scolding.
To FLEECE. To rob, cheat, or plunder.
FLEMISH ACCOUNT. A losing, or bad account.
FLESH BROKER. A match-maker, a bawd.
FLICKER. A drinking glass. CANT.
FLICKERING. Grinning or laughing in a man's face.
FLICKING. Cutting. Flick me some panam and caffan; cut me some bread and cheese. Flick the peter; cut off the cloak-bag, or portmanteau.
To FLING. To trick or cheat. He flung me fairly out of it: he cheated me out of it.
FLINTS. Journeymen taylors, who on a late occasion refused to work for the wages settled by law. Those who submitted, were by the mutineers styled dungs, i.e. dunghills.
FLIP. Small beer, brandy, and sugar: this mixture, with the addition of a lemon, was by sailors, formerly called Sir Cloudsly, in memory of Sir Cloudsly Shovel, who used frequently to regale himself with it.
FLOATING ACADEMY. See CAMPBELL'S ACADEMY.
FLOATING HELL. The hulks.
TO FLOG. To whip.
FLOGGER. A horsewhip. CANT.
FLOGGING CULLY. A debilitated lecher, commonly an old one.
FLOGGING COVE. The beadle, or whipper, in Bridewell.
FLOGGING STAKE. The whipping-post.
TO FLOOR. To knock down. Floor the pig; knock downthe officer.
FLOURISH. To take a flourish; to enjoy a woman in a hastymanner, to take a flyer. See FLYER.
TO FLOUT. To jeer, to ridicule.
FLUMMERY. Oatmeal and water boiled to a jelly; alsocompliments, neither of which are over-nourishing.
FLUSH IN THE POCKET. Full of money. The cull isflush in the fob. The fellow is full of money.
FLUSTERED. Drunk.
FLUTE. The recorder of a corporation; a recorder was anantient musical instrument.
TO FLUX. To cheat, cozen, or over-reach; also to salivate.To flux a wig; to put it up in curl, and bake it.
FLY. Knowing. Acquainted with another's meaning or proceeding. The rattling cove is fly; the coachman knows what we are about.
FLY. A waggon. CANT.
FLY-BY-NIGHT. You old fly-by-night; an ancient term of reproach to an old woman, signifying that she was a witch, and alluding to the nocturnal excursions attributed to witches, who were supposed to fly abroad to their meetings, mounted on brooms.
FLY SLICERS. Life-guard men, from their sitting on horseback, under an arch, where they are frequently observed to drive away flies with their swords.
FLYER. To take a flyer; to enjoy a woman with her clothes on, or without going to bed.
FLYERS. Shoes.
FLY-FLAPPED. Whipt in the stocks, or at the cart's tail.
FLYING CAMPS. Beggars plying in a body at funerals.
FLYING GIGGERS. Turnpike gates.
FLYING HOUSE. A lock in wrestling, by which he whouses it throws his adversary over his head.
FLYING PASTY. Sirreverence wrapped in paper andthrown over a neighbour's wall.
FLYING PORTERS. Cheats who obtain money by pretending to persons who have been lately robbed, that they may come from a place or party where, and from whom, they may receive information respecting the goods stolen from them, and demand payment as porters.
FLYING STATIONERS. Ballad-singers and hawkers of penny histories.
FLYMSEY. A bank note.
FOB. A cheat, trick, or contrivance, I will not be fobbed off so; I will not be thus deceived with false pretences. The fob is also a small breeches pocket for holding a watch.
FOG. Smoke. CANT.
FOGEY. Old Fogey. A nickname for an invalid soldier: derived from the French word fougeux, fierce or fiery.
FOGLE. A silk handkerchief,
FOGRAM. An old fogram; a fusty old fellow.
FOGUS. Tobacco. Tip me a gage of fogus; give me apipe of tobacco. CANT.
FOOL. A fool at the end of a stick; a fool at one end, anda maggot at the other; gibes on an angler.
FOOL FINDER. A bailiff.
FOOLISH. An expression among impures, signifying the cully who pays, in opposition to a flash man. Is he foolish or flash?
FOOT PADS, or LOW PADS. Rogues who rob on foot.
FOOT WABBLER. A contemptuous appellation for a foot soldier, commonly used by the cavalry.
FOOTMAN'S MAWND. An artificial sore made with unslaked lime, soap, and the rust of old iron, on the back of a beggar's hand, as if hurt by the bite or kick of a horse.
FOOTY DESPICABLE. A footy fellow, a despicable fellow; from the French foutue.
FOREFOOT, or PAW. Give us your fore foot; give us your hand.
FOREMAN OF THE JURY. One who engrosses all the talk to himself, or speaks for the rest of the company.
FORK. A pickpocket. Let us fork him; let us pick his pocket.—'The newest and most dexterous way, which is, to thrust the fingers strait, stiff, open, and very quick, into the pocket, and so closing them, hook what can be held between them.' N.B. This was taken from a book written many years ago: doubtless the art of picking pockets, like all others, must have been much improved since that time.
FORLORN HOPE. A gamester's last stake.
FORTUNE HUNTERS. Indigent men, seeking to enrich themselves by marrying a woman of fortune.
FORTUNE TELLER, or CUNNING MAN. A judge, who tells every prisoner his fortune, lot or doom. To go before the fortune teller, lambskin men, or conjuror; to be tried at an assize. See LAMBSKIN MEN.
FOUL. To foul a plate with a man, to take a dinner with him.
FOUL-MOUTHED. Abusive.
FOUNDLING. A child dropped in the streets, and found, andeducated at the parish expence.
FOUSIL. The name of a public house, where theEccentrics assemble in May's Buildings, St. Martin's Lane.
Fox. A sharp, cunning fellow. Also an old term for a sword, probably a rusty one, or else from its being dyed red with blood; some say this name alluded to certain swords of remarkable good temper, or metal, marked with the figure of a fox, probably the sign, or rebus, of the maker.
FOX'S PAW. The vulgar pronunciation of the French words faux pas. He made a confounded fox's paw.
FOXED. Intoxicated.
FOXEY. Rank. Stinking.
FOXING A BOOT. Mending the foot by capping it.
FOYST. A pickpocket, cheat, or rogue. See WOTTON'S GANG.
TO FOYST. To pick a pocket.
FOYSTED IN. Words or passages surreptitiously interpolatedor inserted into a book or writing.
FRATERS. Vagabonds who beg with sham patents, or briefs,for hospitals, fires, inundations, &c.
FREE. Free of fumblers hall; a saying of one who cannotget his wife with child.
FREE AND EASY JOHNS. A society which meet at the Holein the Wall, Fleet-street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry.
FREE BOOTERS. Lawless robbers and plunderers: originally soldiers who served without pay, for the privilege of plundering the enemy.
FREEHOLDER. He whose wife accompanies him to the alehouse.
FREEMAN'S QUAY. Free of expence. To lush at Freeman'sQuay; to drink at another's cost.
FREEZE. A thin, small, hard cider, much used by vintners and coopers in parting their wines, to lower the price of them, and to advance their gain. A freezing vintner; a vintner who balderdashes his wine.
FRENCH CREAM. Brandy; so called by the old tabbies and dowagers when drank in their tea.
FRENCH DISEASE. The venereal disease, said to have been imported from France. French gout; the same. He suffered by a blow over the snout with a French faggot-stick; i.e. he lost his nose by the pox.
FRENCH LEAVE. To take French leave; to go off without taking leave of the company: a saying frequently applied to persons who have run away from their creditors.
FRENCHIFIED. Infected with the venereal disease. The mort is Frenchified: the wench is infected.
FRESH MILK. Cambridge new comers to the university.
FRESHMAN. One just entered a member of the university.
FRIBBLE. An effeminate fop; a name borrowed from a celebrated character of that kind, in the farce of Miss in her Teens, written by Mr. Garrick.
FRIDAY-FACE. A dismal countenance. Before, and even long after the Reformation, Friday was a day of abstinence, or jour maigre. Immediately after the restoration of king Charles II. a proclamation was issued, prohibiting all publicans from dressing any suppers on a Friday.
TO FRIG. Figuratively used for trifling.
FRIG PIG. A trifling, fiddle-faddle fellow.
FRIGATE. A well-rigged frigate; a well-dressed wench.
FRISK. To dance the Paddington frisk; to be hanged.
TO FRISK. Used by thieves to signify searching a person whom they have robbed. Blast his eyes! frisk him.
FROE, or VROE, A woman, wife, or mistress. Brush to your froe, or bloss, and wheedle for crop; run to your mistress, and sooth and coax her out of some money. DUTCH.
FROGLANDER. A Dutchman.
FROSTY FACE. One pitted with the small pox.
FROG'S WINE. Gin.
FRUITFUL VINE. A woman's private parts, i.e. that hasFLOWERS every month, and bears fruit in nine months.
FRUMMAGEMMED. Choaked, strangled, suffocated, orhanged. CANT.
FUBSEY. Plump. A fubsey wench; a plump, healthywench.
FUDDLE. Drunk. This is rum fuddle; this is excellenttipple, or drink. Fuddle; drunk. Fuddle cap; a drunkard.
FUDGE. Nonsense.
FULHAMS. Loaded dice are called high and lowmen, or high and low fulhams, by Ben Jonson and other writers of his time; either because they were made at Fulham, or from that place being the resort of sharpers.
FULL OF EMPTINESS. Jocular term for empty.
FULL MARCH. The Scotch greys are in full march by the crown office; the lice are crawling down his head.
FUMBLER. An old or impotent man. To fumble, also means to go awkwardly about any work, or manual operation.
FUN. A cheat, or trick. Do you think to fun me out of it? Do you think to cheat me?—Also the breech, perhaps from being the abbreviation of fundament. I'll kick your fun. CANT.
TO FUNK. To use an unfair motion of the hand in plumping at taw. SCHOOLBOY'S TERM.
FUNK. To smoke; figuratively, to smoke or stink through fear. I was in a cursed funk. To funk the cobler; a schoolboy's trick, performed with assafoettida and cotton, which are stuffed into a pipe: the cotton being lighted, and the bowl of the pipe covered with a coarse handkerchief, the smoke is blown out at the small end, through the crannies of a cobler's stall.
FURMEN. Aldermen.
FURMITY, or FROMENTY. Wheat boiled up to a jelly. To simper like a furmity kettle: to smile, or look merry about the gills.
FUSS. A confusion, a hurry, an unnecessary to do abouttrifles.
FUSSOCK. A lazy fat woman. An old fussock; a frowsyold woman.
FUSTIAN. Bombast language. Red fustian; port wine.
FUSTY LUGGS. A beastly, sluttish woman.
TO FUZZ. To shuffle cards minutely: also, to change the pack.
GAB, or GOB. The mouth. Gift of the gab; a facility of speech, nimble tongued eloquence. To blow the gab; to confess, or peach.
GAB, or GOB, STRING. A bridle.
GABBY. A foolish fellow.
GAD-SO. An exclamation said to be derived from theItalian word cazzo.
GAFF. A fair. The drop coves maced the joskins at thegaff; the ring-droppers cheated the countryman at the fair.
TO GAFF. To game by tossing up halfpence.
GAG. An instrument used chiefly by housebreakers and thieves, for propping open the mouth of a person robbed, thereby to prevent his calling out for assistance.
GAGE. A quart pot, or a pint; also a pipe. CANT.
GAGE, or FOGUS. A pipe of tobacco.
GAGGERS. High and Low. Cheats, who by sham pretences, and wonderful stories of their sufferings, impose on the credulity of well meaning people. See RUM GAGGER.
GALIMAUFREY. A hodgepodge made up of the remnantsand scraps of the larder.
GALL. His gall is not yet broken; a saying used in prisonsof a man just brought in, who appears dejected.
GALLEY. Building the galley; a game formerly used at sea, in order to put a trick upon a landsman, or fresh-water sailor. It being agreed to play at that game, one sailor personates the builder, and another the merchant or contractor: the builder first begins by laying the keel, which consists of a number of men laid all along on their backs, one after another, that is, head to foot; he next puts in the ribs or knees, by making a number of men sit feet to feet, at right angles to, and on each side of, the keel: he now fixing on the person intended to be the object of the joke, observes he is a fierce-looking fellow, and fit for the lion; he accordingly places him at the head, his arms being held or locked in by the two persons next to him, representing the ribs. After several other dispositions, the builder delivers over the galley to the contractor as complete: but he, among other faults and objections, observes the lion is not gilt, on which the builder or one of his assistants, runs to the head, and dipping a mop in the excrement, thrusts it into the face of the lion.
GALLEY FOIST. A city barge, used formerly on the lordmayor's day, when he was sworn in at Westminster.
GALLIED. Hurried, vexed, over-fatigued, perhaps like agalley slave.
GALLIGASKINS. Breeches.
GALLIPOT. A nick namefor an apothecary,
GALLORE, or GOLORE. Plenty.
GALLOPER. A blood horse. A hunter. The toby gill clapped his bleeders to his galloper and tipped the straps the double. The highwayman spurred his horse and got away from the officers.
GALLOWS BIRD. A grief, or pickpocket; also one thatassociates with them.
GAMES. Thin, ill-shapped legs: a corruption of the Frenchword jambes. Fancy gambs; sore or swelled legs.
GAMBADOES. Leathern cases of stiff leather, used in Devonshire instead of boots; they are fastened to the saddle, and admit the leg, shoe and all: the name was at first jocularly given.
GAMBLER. A sharper, of tricking, gamester.
GAME. Any mode of robbing. The toby is now a queer game; to rob on the highway is now a bad mode of acting. This observation is frequently made by thieves; the roads being now so well guarded by the horse patrole; and gentlemen travel with little cash in their pockets.
GAME. Bubbles or pigeons drawn in to be cheated. Also, at bawdy-houses, lewd women. Mother have you any game; mother, have you any girls? To die game; to suffer at the gallows without shewing any signs of fear or repentance. Game pullet; a young whore, or forward girl in the way of becoming one.
GAMON. To humbug. To deceive, To tell lies. Whatrum gamon the old file pitched to the flat; how finely theknowing old fellow humbugged the fool.
GAMON AND PATTER. Common place talk of anyprofession; as the gamon and patter of a horse-dealer, sailor,&c.
GAN. The mouth or lips. Cant.
GANDER MONTH. That month in which a man's wife-liesin: wherefore, during that time, husbands plead a sort ofindulgence in matters of gallantry.
GANG. A company of men, a body of sailors, a knot ofthieves, pickpockets, &c. A gang of sheep trotters; thefour feet of a sheep.
GAOLER'S COACH. A hurdle: traitors being usuallyconveyed from the gaol, to the place of execution, on ahurdle or sledge.
GAP STOPPER. A whoremaster.
GAPESEED. Sights; any thing to feed the eye. I am comeabroad for a little gapeseed.
GARNISH. An entrance fee demanded by the old prisonersof one just committed to gaol.
GARRET, or UPPER STORY. The head. His garret, or upper story, is empty, or unfurnished; i.e. he has no brains, he is a fool.
GARRET ELECTION. A ludicrous ceremony, practised every new parliament: it consists of a mock election of two members to represent the borough of Garret (a few straggling cottages near Wandsworth in Surry); the qualification of a voter is, having enjoyed a woman in the open air within that district: the candidates are commonly fellows of low humour, who dress themselves up in a ridiculous manner. As this brings a prodigious concourse of people to Wandsworth, the publicans of that place jointly contribute to the expence, which is sometimes considerable.
GAWKEY. A tall, thin, awkward young man or woman.
GAYING INSTRUMENT. The penis.
GAZEBO. An elevated observatory or summer-house.
GEE. It won't gee; it won't hit or do, it does not suit or fit.
GELDING. An eunuch.
GELT. Money, GERMAN.—Also, castrated.
GENTLE CRAFT. The art of shoemaking. One of the gentlecraft: a shoemaker: so called because once practisedby St. Crispin.
GENTLEMAN COMMONER. An empty bottle; an universityjoke, gentlemen commoners not being deemed over fullof learning.
GENTLEMAN'S COMPANION. A louse.
GENTLEMAN'S MASTER. A highway robber, because he makes a gentleman obey his commands, i.e. stand and deliver.
GENTLEMAN OF THREE INS. In debt, in gaol, and in dangerof remaining there for life: or, in gaol, indicted, andin danger of being hanged in chains.
GENTLEMAN OF THREE OUTS. That is, without money,without wit, and without manners: some add anotherout, i.e. without credit.
GENTRY COVE. A gentleman. CANT.
GENTRY COVE KEN. A gentleman's house. CANT.
GENTRY MORT. A gentlewoman.
GEORGE. Yellow George; a guinea. Brown George: an ammunition loaf.
GERMAN DUCK. Haifa sheep's head boiled with onions.
GET. One of his get; one of his offspring, or begetting.
GIB CAT. A northern name for a he cat, there commonly called Gilbert. As melancholy as a gib cat; as melancholy as a he cat who has been caterwauling, whence they always return scratched, hungry, and out of spirits. Aristotle says, Omne animal post coitum est triste; to which an anonymous author has given the following exception, preter gallum gallinaceum, et sucerdotem gratis fornicantem.
GIBBERISH. The cant language of thieves and gypsies, called Pedlars' French, and St. Giles's Greek: see ST. GILES'S GREEK. Also the mystic language of Geber, used by chymists. Gibberish likewise means a sort of disguised language, formed by inserting any consonant between each syllable of an English word; in which case it is called the gibberish of the letter inserted: if F, it is the F gibberish; if G, the G gibberish; as in the sentence How do you do? Howg dog youg dog.
GIBBE. A horse that shrinks from the collar and will not draw.
GIBLETS. To join giblets; said of a man and woman who cohabit as husband and wife, without being married; also to copulate.
GIBSON, or SIR JOHN GIBBON, A two-legged stool, used to support the body of a coach whilst finishing.
GIFTS. Small white specks under the finger nails, said to portend gifts or presents. A stingy man is said to be as full of gifts as a brazen horse of his farts.
GIFT OF THE GAB. A facility of speech.
GIGG. A nose. Snitchel his gigg; fillip his nose. Grunter's gigg; a hog's snout. Gigg is also a high one-horse chaise, and a woman's privities. To gigg a Smithfield hank; to hamstring an over-drove ox, vulgarly called a mad bullock.
GIGGER. A latch, or door. Dub the gigger; open the door. Gigger dubber; the turnkey of a jaol.
To GIGGLE. To suppress a laugh. Gigglers; wanton women.
GILES'S or ST. GILES'S BREED. Fat, ragged, and saucy; Newton and Dyot streets, the grand head-quarters-of most of the thieves and pickpockets about London, are in St. Giles's Giles's parish. St. Giles's Greek; the cant language, called also Slang, Pedlars' French, and Flash.
GILFLURT. A proud minks, a vain capricious woman,
GILL. The abbreviation of Gillian, figuratively used forwoman. Every jack has his gill; i.e. every jack has hisgillian, or female mate.
GILLS. The cheeks. To look rosy about the gills; to havea fresh complexion. To look merry about the gills: toappear cheerful.
GILLY GAUPUS. A Scotch term for a tall awkwardfellow.
GILT, or RUM DUBBER. A thief who picks locks, so called from the gilt or picklock key: many of them are so expert, that, from the lock of a church door to that of the smallest cabinet, they will find means to open it; these go into reputable public houses, where, pretending business, they contrive to get into private rooms, up stairs, where they open any bureaus or trunks they happen to find there.
GIMBLET-EYED. Squinting, either in man or woman.
GIMCRACK, or JIMCRACK. A spruce wench; a gimcrack also means a person who has a turn for mechanical contrivances.
GIN SPINNER. A distiller.
GINGAMBOBS. Toys, bawbles; also a man's privities. SeeTHINGAMBOBS.
GINGER-PATED, or GINGER-HACKLED. Red haired: aterm borrowed from the cockpit, where red cocks arecalled gingers,
GINGERBREAD. A cake made of treacle, flour, and gratedginger; also money. He has the gingerbread; he isrich.
GINGERBREAD WORK. Gilding and carving: these terms are particularly applied by seamen on board Newcastle colliers, to the decorations of the sterns and quarters of West-Indiamen, which they have the greatest joy in defacing.
GINGERLY. Softly, gently, tenderly. To go gingerly towork: to attempt a thing gently, or cautiously.
GINNY. An instrument to lift up a great, in order to stealwhat is in the window. CANT.
GIP from gups a WOLF. A servant at college.
GIRDS. Quips, taunts, severe or biting reflections.
GIZZARD. To grumble in the gizzard; to be secretly displeased.
GLASS EYES. A nick name for one wearing spectacles.
GLAYMORE. A Highland broad-sword; from the ErseGLAY, or GLAIVE, a sword; and MORE, great.
GLAZE. A window.
GLAZIER. One who breaks windows and shew-glasses, to steal goods exposed for sale. Glaziers; eyes. CANT.—Is your father a glazier; a question asked of a lad or young man, who stands between the speaker and the candle, or fire. If it is answered in the negative, the rejoinder is—I wish he was, that he might make a window through your body, to enable us to see the fire or light.
GLIB. Smooth, slippery. Glib tongued; talkative.
GLIM. A candle, or dark lantern, used in housebreaking; also fire. To glim; to burn in the hand. CANT.
GLIMFENDERS. Andirons. CANT.
GLIMFLASHY. Angry, or in a passion. CANT.
GLIM JACK. A link-boy. CANT.
GLIMMER. Fire. CANT.
GLIMMERERS. Persons begging with sham licences, pretending losses by fire.
GLIMMS. Eyes.
GLIMSTICK. A candlestick. CANT.
GLOBE. Pewter. CANT.
GLOVES. To give any one a pair of gloves; to make them a present or bribe. To win a pair of gloves; to kiss a man whilst he sleeps: for this a pair of gloves is due to any lady who will thus earn them.
GLUEPOT. A parson: from joining men and women together in matrimony.
GLUM. Sullen.
GLUTTON. A term used by bruisers to signify a man whowill bear a great deal of beating.
GNARLER. A little dog that by his barking alarms thefamily when any person is breaking into the house.
GO, THE. The dash. The mode. He is quite the go, he is quite varment, he is prime, he is bang up, are synonimous expressions.
GLYBE. A writing. CANT.
GO BETWEEN. A pimp or bawd.
GO BY THE GROUND. A little short person, man or woman.
GO SHOP. The Queen's Head in Duke's court, Bow street, Covent Garden; frequented by the under players: where gin and water was sold in three-halfpenny bowls, called Goes; the gin was called Arrack. The go, the fashion; as, large hats are all the go.
GOADS. Those who wheedle in chapmen for horse-dealers.
GOAT. A lascivious person. Goats jigg; making the beast with two backs, copulation.
GOB. The mouth; also a bit or morsel: whence gobbets. Gift of the gob; wide-mouthed, or one who speaks fluently, or sings well.
GOB STRING. A bridle.
GOBBLER. A turkey cock.
GODFATHER. He who pays the reckoning, or answers for the rest of the company: as, Will you stand godfather, and we will take care of the brat; i.e. repay you another time. Jurymen are also called godfathers, because they name the crime the prisoner before them has been guilty of, whether felony, petit larceny, &c.
GOG. All-a-gog; impatient, anxious, or desirous of a thing.
GOG AND MAGOG. Two giants, whose effigies stand on each side of the clock in Guildhall, London; of whom there is a tradition, that, when they hear the clock strike one, on the first of April, they will walk down from their places.
GOGGLES. Eyes: see OGLES. Goggle eyes; large prominent eyes. Togoggle; to stare.
GOING UPON THE DUB. Going out to break open, or pickthe locks of, houses.
GOLD DROPPERS. Sharpers who drop a piece of gold, which they pick up in the presence of some unexperienced person, for whom the trap is laid, this they pretend to have found, and, as he saw them pick it up, they invite him to a public house to partake of it: when there, two or three of their comrades drop in, as if by accident, and propose cards, or some other game, when they seldom fail of stripping their prey.
GOLD FINDER. One whose employment is to empty necessary houses; called also a tom-turd-man, and night-man: the latter, from that business being always performed in the night.
GOLDFINCH. One who has commonly a purse full of gold.Goldfinches; guineas.
GOLGOTHA OR THE PLACE OF SCULLS. Part of the Theatre at Oxford, where the heads of houses sit; those gentlemen being by the wits of the university called sculls.
GOLLUMPUS. A large, clumsy fellow.
GOLOSHES, i.e. Goliah's shoes. Large leathern clogs, worn by invalids over their ordinary shoes.
GOOD MAN. A word of various imports, according to the place where it is spoken: in the city it means a rich man; at Hockley in the Hole, or St. Giles's, an expert boxer; at a bagnio in Covent Garden, a vigorous fornicator; at an alehouse or tavern, one who loves his pot or bottle; and sometimes, though but rarely, a virtuous man
GOOD WOMAN. A nondescript, represented on a famous sign in St. Giles's, in the form of a common woman, but without a head.
GOODYER'S PIG. Like Goodyer's pig; never well but when in mischief.
GOOSE. A taylor's goose; a smoothing iron used to pressdown the seams, for which purpose it must be heated:hence it is a jocular saying, that a taylor, be he ever sopoor, is always sure to have a goose at his fire. He cannotsay boh to a goose; a saying of a bashful or sheepishfellow.
GOOSE RIDING. A goose, whose neck is greased, being suspendedby the legs to a cord tied to two trees or high posts,a number of men on horseback, riding full speed, attemptto pull off the head: which if they effect, the goose istheir prize. This has been practised in Derbyshire withinthe memory of persons now living.
GOOSEBERRY. He played up old gooseberry among them; said of a person who, by force or threats, suddenly puts an end to a riot or disturbance.
GOOSEBERRY-EYED. One with dull grey eyes, like boiledgooseberries.
GOOSEBERRY WIG. A large frizzled wig: perhaps from asupposed likeness to a gooseberry bush.
GOOSECAP. A silly fellow or woman.
GORGER. A gentleman. A well dressed man. Mung kiddey. Mung the gorger; beg child beg, of the gentleman.
GOSPEL SHOP. A church.
GOREE. Money, chiefly gold: perhaps from the traffic carried on at that place, which is chiefly for gold dust. CANT.
GORMAGON. A monster with six eyes, three mouths, four arms, eight legs, live on one side and three on the other, three arses, two tarses, and a *** upon its back; a man on horseback, with a woman behind him.
GOTCH-GUTTED. Pot bellied: a gotch in Norfolk signifyinga pitcher, or large round jug.
TO GOUGE. To squeeze out a man's eye with the thumb:a cruel practice used by the Bostonians in America.
To GRABBLE. To seize. To grabble the bit; to seize anyone's money. CANT.
GRAFTED. Cuckolded, i.e. having horns grafted on hishead.
To GRAB. To seize a man. The pigs grabbed the kiddeyfor a crack: the officers, seized the youth for a burglary.
GRANNAM. Corn.
GRANNUM'S GOLD. Hoarded money: supposed to have belonged to the grandmother of the possessor.
GRANNY. An abbreviation of grandmother; also the name of an idiot, famous for licking, her eye, who died Nov. 14, 1719. Go teach your granny to suck eggs; said to such as would instruct any one in a matter he knows better than themselves.
GRAPPLE THE RAILS. A cant name used in Ireland for whiskey.
GRAPPLING IRONS. Handcuffs.
GRAVE DIGGER. Like a grave digger; up to the a-se inbusiness, and don't know which way to turn.
GRAVY-EYED. Blear-eyed, one whose eyes have a runninghumour.
TO GREASE. To bribe. To grease a man in the fist; to bribe him. To grease a fat sow in the a-se; to give to a rich man. Greasy chin; a treat given to parish officers in part of commutation for a bastard: called also, Eating a child.
GREAT INTIMATE. As great as shirt and shitten a-se.
GREAT JOSEPH. A surtout. CANT.
GREEDY GUTS. A covetous or voracious person.
GREEK. St. Giles's Greek; the slang lingo, cant, or gibberish.
GREEN. Doctor Green; i.e. grass: a physician, or rather medicine, found very successful in curing most disorders to which horses are liable. My horse is not well, I shall send him to Doctor Green.
GREEN. Young, inexperienced, unacquainted; ignorant. Howgreen the cull was not to stag how the old file planted thebooks. How ignorant the booby was not to perceivehow the old sharper placed the cards in such a manneras to insure the game.
GREEN BAG. An attorney: those gentlemen carry theirclients' deeds in a green bag; and, it is said, when theyhave no deeds to carry, frequently fill them with an oldpair of breeches, or any other trumpery, to give themselvesthe appearance of business.
GREEN GOWN. To give a girl a green gown; to tumble heron the grass.
GREEN SICKNESS. The disease of maids occasioned by celibacy.