GREENHEAD. An inexperienced young man.
GREENHORN. A novice on the town, an undebauched young fellow, just initiated into the society of bucks and bloods.
GREENWICH BARBERS. Retailers of sand from the pits at and about Greenwich, in Kent: perhaps they are styled barbers, from their constant shaving the sandbanks.
GREENWICH GOOSE. A pensioner of Greenwich Hospital.
GREGORIAN TREE. The gallows: so named from GregoryBrandon, a famous finisher of the law; to whom Sir WilliamSegar, garter king of arms (being imposed on byBrooke, a herald), granted a coat of arms.
GREY BEARD. Earthen jugs formerly used in public house for drawing ale: they had the figure of a man with a large beard stamped on them; whence probably they took the name: see BEN JONSON'S PLAYS, BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, &c. &c. Dutch earthen jugs, used for smuggling gin on the coasts of Essex and Suffolk, are at this time called grey beards.
GREY MARE. The grey mare is the better horse; said ofa woman who governs her husband.
GREY PARSON. A farmer who rents the tithes of the rectoror vicar.
GRIG. A farthing. A merry grig; a fellow as merry as a grig: an allusion to the apparent liveliness of a grig, or young eel.
GRIM. Old Mr. Grim; death.
GRIMALKIN. A cat: mawkin signifies a hare in Scotland.
GRIN. To grin in a glass case; to be anatomized for murder: the skeletons of many criminals are preserved in glass cases, at Surgeons' hall.
GRINAGOG, THE CAT'S UNCLE. A foolish grinning fellow,one who grins without reason.
GRINDERS. Teeth. Gooseberry grinder; the breech. Askbogey, the gooseberry grinder; ask mine a-se.
TO GRIND. To have carnal knowledge of a woman.
GROATS. To save his groats; to come off handsomely: at the universities, nine groats are deposited in the hands of an academic officer, by every person standing for a degree; which if the depositor obtains with honour, the groats are returned to him.
GROG. Rum and water. Grog was first introduced into the navy about the year 1740, by Admiral Vernon, to prevent the sailors intoxicating themselves with their allowance of rum, or spirits. Groggy, or groggified; drunk.
GROG-BLOSSOM. A carbuncle, or pimple in the face, caused by drinking.
GROGGED. A grogged horse; a foundered horse.
GROGHAM. A horse. CANT.
GROPERS. Blind men; also midwives.
GROUND SWEAT. A grave.
GROUND SQUIRREL. A hog, or pig. SEA TERM.
GRUB. Victuals. To grub; to dine.
GRUB STREET. A street near Moorfields, formerly the supposed habitation of many persons who wrote for the booksellers: hence a Grub-street writer means a hackney author, who manufactures booss for the booksellers.
GRUB STREET NEWS. Lying intelligence.
TO GRUBSHITE. To make foul or dirty.
GRUMBLE. To grumble in the gizzard; to murmur or repine.He grumbled like a bear with a sore head.
GRUMBLETONIAN. A discontented person; one who is alwaysrailing at the times or ministry.
GRUNTER. A hog; to grunt; to groan, or complain of sickness.
GRUNTER'S GIG. A smoaked hog's face.
GRUNTING PECK. Pork, bacon, or any kind of hog's flesh.
GRUTS. Tea.
GUDGEON. One easily imposed on. To gudgeon; to swallow the bait, or fall into a trap: from the fish of that name, which is easily taken.
GULL. A simple credulous fellow, easily cheated.
GULLED. Deceived, cheated, imposed on.
GULLGROPERS. Usurers who lend money to the gamesters.
GUM. Abusive language. Come, let us have no more ofyour gum.
GUMMY. Clumsy: particularly applied to the ancles ofmen or women, and the legs of horses.
GUMPTION, or RUM GUMPTION. Docility, comprehension,capacity.
GUN. He is in the gun; he is drunk: perhaps from an allusionto a vessel called a gun, used for ale in the universities.
GUNDIGUTS. A fat, pursy fellow.
GUNNER'S DAUGHTER. To kiss the gunner's daughter; to be tied to a gun and flogged on the posteriors; a mode of punishing boys on board a ship of war.
GUNPOWDER. An old Woman. CANT.
GUTS. My great guts are ready to eat my little ones; my guts begin to think my throat's cut; my guts curse my teeth: all expressions signifying the party is extremely hungry.
GUTS AND GARBAGE. A very fat man or woman. More guts than brains; a silly fellow. He has plenty of guts, but no bowels: said of a hard, merciless, unfeeling person.
GUTFOUNDERED. Exceeding hungry.
GUT SCRAPER, or TORMENTOR of CATGUT. A fiddler.
GUTTER LANE. The throat, the swallow, the red lane.See RED LANE.
GUTTING A QUART POT. Taking out the lining of it: i. e.drinking it off. Gutting an oyster; eating it. Gutting ahouse; clearing it of its furniture. See POULTERER.
GUY. A dark lanthorn: an allusion to Guy Faux, the principalactor in the gunpowder plot. Stow the guy: conceal thelanthorn.
GUZZLE. Liquor. To guzzle; to drink greedily.
GUZZLE GUTS. One greedy of liquor.
GYBE, or JYBE. Any writing or pass with a seal.
GYBING. Jeering or ridiculing.
GYLES, or GILES. Hopping Giles; a nick name for a lameperson: St. Giles was the tutelar saint of cripples.
GYP. A college runner or errand-boy at Cambridge, calledat Oxford a scout. See SCOUT.
GYPSIES. A set of vagrants, who, to the great disgrace of our police, are suffered to wander about the country. They pretend that they derive their origin from the ancient Egyptians, who were famous for their knowledge in astronomy and other sciences; and, under the pretence of fortune-telling, find means to rob or defraud the ignorant and superstitious. To colour their impostures, they artificially discolour their faces, and speak a kind of gibberish peculiar to themselves. They rove up and down the country in large companies, to the great terror of the farmers, from whose geese, turkeys, and fowls, they take very considerable contributions.
When a fresh recruit is admitted into the fraternity, he is to take the following oath, administered by the principal maunder, after going through the annexed forms:
First, a new name is given him by which he is ever after to be called; then standing up in the middle of the assembly, and directing his face to the dimber damber, or principal man of the gang, he repeats the following oath, which is dictated to him by some experienced member of the fraternity:
I, Crank Cuffin, do swear to be a true brother, and that I will in all things obey the commands of the great tawney prince, and keep his counsel and not divulge the secrets of my brethren.
I will never leave nor forsake the company, but observe and keep all the times of appointment, either by day or by night, in every place whatever.
I will not teach any one to cant, nor will I disclose any of our mysteries to them.
I will take my prince's part against all that shall oppose him, or any of us, according to the utmost of my ability; nor will I suffer him, or any one belongiug to us, to be abused by any strange abrams, rufflers, hookers, pailliards, swaddlers, Irish toyles, swigmen, whip jacks, jarkmen, bawdy baskets, dommerars, clapper dogeons, patricoes, or curtals; but will defend him, or them, as much as I can, against all other outliers whatever. I will not conceal aught I win out of libkins or from the ruffmans, but will preserve it for the use of the company. Lastly, I will cleave to my doxy wap stiffly, and will bring her duds, marjery praters, goblers, grunting cheats, or tibs of the buttery, or any thing else I can come at, as winnings for her weppings.
The canters have, it seems, a tradition, that from the three first articles of this oath, the first founders of a certain boastful, worshipful fraternity (who pretend to derive their origin from the earliest times) borrowed both the hint and form of their establishment; and that their pretended derivation from the first Adam is a forgery, it being only from the first Adam Tiler: see ADAM TILER. At the admission of a new brother, a general stock is raised for booze, or drink, to make themselves merry on the occasion. As for peckage or eatables, they can procure without money; for while some are sent to break the ruffmans, or woods and bushes, for firing, others are detached to filch geese, chickens, hens, ducks (or mallards), and pigs. Their morts are their butchers, who presently make bloody work with what living things are brought them; and having made holes in the ground under some remote hedge in an obscure place, they make a fire and boil or broil their food; and when it is enough, fall to work tooth and nail: and having eaten more like beasts than men, they drink more like swine than human creatures, entertaining one another all the time with songs in the canting dialect.
As they live, so they lie, together promiscuously, and know not how to claim a property either in their goods or children: and this general interest ties them more firmly together than if all their rags were twisted into ropes, to bind them indissolubly from a separation; which detestable union is farther consolidated by the above oath.
They stroll up and down all summer-time in droves, and Dexterously pick pockets, while they are telling of fortunes; and the money, rings, silver thirribles, &c. which they get, are instantly conveyed from one hand to another, till the remotest person of the gang (who is not suspected because they come not near the person robbed) gets possession of it; so that, in the strictest search, it is impossible to recover it; while the wretches with imprecations, oaths, and protestations, disclaim the thievery.
That by which they are said to get the most money, is, when young gentlewomen of good families and reputation have happened to be with child before marriage, a round sum is often bestowed among the gypsies, for some one mort to take the child; and as that is never heard of more by the true mother and family, so the disgrace is kept concealed from the world; and, if the child lives, it never knows its parents.
HABERDASHER OF PRONOUNS. A schoolmaster, orusher.
HACKNEY WRITER. One who writes for attornies orbooksellers.
HACKUM. Captain Hackum; a bravo, a slasher.
HAD'EM. He has been at Had'em, and came home by Clapham; said of one who has caught the venereal disease.
HAIR SPLITTER. A man's yard.
HALBERT. A weapon carried by a serjeant of foot. To get a halbert; to be appointed a serjeant. To be brought to the halberts; to be flogged a la militaire: soldiers of the infantry, when flogged, being commonly tied to three halberts, set up in a triangle, with a fourth fastened across them. He carries the halbert in his face; a saying of one promoted from a serjeant to a commission officer.
HALF A HOG. Sixpence.
HALF SEAS OVER. Almost drunk.
HAMLET. A high constable. Cant.
HAMS, or HAMCASES Breeches.
HAND. A sailor. We lost a hand; we lost a sailor. Bear a hand; make haste. Hand to fist; opposite: the same as tete-a-tete, or cheek by joul.
HAND AND POCKET SHOP. An eating house, where ready money is paid for what is called for.
HAND BASKET PORTION. A woman whose husband receivesfrequent presents from her father, or family, issaid to have a hand-basket portion.
HANDLE. To know how to handle one's fists; to be skilfulin the art of boxing. The cove flashes a rare handle tohis physog; the fellow has a large nose.
HANDSOME. He is a handsome-bodied man in the face; ajeering commendation of an ugly fellow. Handsome is thathandsome does: a proverb frequently cited by ugly women.
HANDSOME REWARD. This, in advertisements, means ahorse-whipping.
To HANG AN ARSE. To hang back, to hesitate.
HANG GALLOWS LOOK. A thievish, or villainous appearance.
HANG IN CHAINS. A vile, desperate fellow. Persons guilty of murder, or other atrocious crimes, are frequently, after execution, hanged on a gibbet, to which they are fastened by iron bandages; the gibbet is commonly placed on or near the place where the crime was committed.
HANG IT UP. Score it up: speaking of a reckoning.
HANG OUT. The traps scavey where we hang out; the officers know where we live.
HANGER ON. A dependant.
HANGMAN'S WAGES. Thirteen pence halfpenny; which, according to the vulgar tradition, was thus allotted: one shilling for the executioner, and three halfpence for the rope,—N. B. This refers to former times; the hangmen of the present day having, like other artificers, raised their prices. The true state of this matter is, that a Scottish mark was the fee allowed for an execution, and the value of that piece was settled by a proclamation of James I. at thirteen pence halfpenny.
HANK. He has a hank on him; i.e. an ascendancy over him, or a hold upon him. A Smithfield hank; an ox, rendered furious by overdriving and barbarous treatment. See BULL HANK.
HANKER. To hanker after any thing; to have a longing after or for it.
HANS IN KELDER. Jack in the cellar, i.e. the child in the womb: a health frequently drank to breeding women or their husbands.
HARD. Stale beer, nearly sour, is said to be hard. Hard also means severe: as, hard fate, a hard master.
HARD AT HIS A-SE. Close after him.
HARE. He has swallowed a hare; he is drunk; more probably a HAIR, which requires washing down,
HARK-YE-ING. Whispering on one side to borrow money.
HARMAN. A constable. CANT.
HARMAN BECK. A beadle. CANT.
HARMANS. The stocks. CANT.
HARP. To harp upon; to dwell upon a subject. Have among you, my blind harpers; an expression used in throwing or shooting at random among the crowd. Harp is also the Irish expression for woman, or tail, used in tossing up in Ireland: from Hibernia, being represented with a harp on the reverse of the copper coins of that country; for which it is, in hoisting the copper, i.e. tossing up, sometimes likewise called music.
HARRIDAN. A hagged old woman; a miserable, scraggy, worn-out harlot, fit to take her bawd's degree: derived from the French word HARIDELLE, a worn-out jade of a horse or mare.
HARRY. A country fellow. CANT.—Old Harry; the Devil.
HARUM SCARUM. He was running harum scarum; said of any one running or walking hastily, and in a hurry, after they know not what.
HASH. To flash the hash; to vomit. CANT.
HASTY. Precipitate, passionate. He is none of the Hastings sort; a saying of a slow, loitering fellow: an allusion to the Hastings pea, which is the first in season.
HASTY PUDDING. Oatmeal and milk boiled to a moderate thickness, and eaten with sugar and butter. Figuratively, a wet, muddy road: as, The way through Wandsworth is quite a hasty pudding. To eat hot hasty pudding for a laced hat, or some other prize, is a common feat at wakes and fairs.
HAT. Old hat; a woman's privities: because frequently felt.
HATCHES. Under the hatches; in trouble, distress, or debt.
HATCHET FACE. A long thin face.
HAVIL. A sheep. CANT.
HAVY CAVY. Wavering, doubtful, shilly shally.
HAWK. Ware hawk; the word to look sharp, a bye-word when a bailiff passes. Hawk also signifies a sharper, in opposition to pigeon. See PIGEON. See WARE HAWK.
HAWKERS. Licensed itinerant retailers of different commodities, called also pedlars; likewise the sellers of news-papers. Hawking; an effort to spit up the thick phlegm, called OYSTERS: whence it is wit upon record, to ask the person so doing whether he has a licence; a punning allusion to the Act of hawkers and pedlars.
To HAZEL GILD. To beat any one with a hazel stick.
HEAD CULLY OF THE PASS, or PASSAGE BANK. The top tilter of that gang throughout the whole army, who demands and receives contribution from all the pass banks in the camp.
HEAD RAILS. Teeth. SEA PHRASE.
HEARING CHEATS. Ears. CANT.
HEART'S EASE. Gin.
HEARTY CHOAK. He will have a hearty choak and caper sauce for breakfast; i.e. he will be hanged.
HEATHEN PHILOSOPHER. One whose breech may be seen through his pocket-hole: this saying arose from the old philosophers, many of whom depised the vanity of dress to such a point, as often to fall into the opposite extreme.
TO HEAVE. To rob. To heave a case; to rob a house.To heave a bough; to rob a booth. CANT.
HEAVER. The breast. CANT.
HEAVERS. Thieves who make it their business to steal tradesmen's shop-books. CANT.
HECTOR. bully, a swaggering coward. To hector; to bully, probably from such persons affecting the valour of Hector, the Trojan hero.
HEDGE. To make a hedge; to secure a bet, or wager, laid on one side, by taking the odds on the other, so that, let what will happen, a certain gain is secured, or hedged in, by the person who takes this precaution; who is then said to be on velvet.
HEDGE ALEHOUSE. A small obscure alehouse.
HEDGE CREEPER. A robber of hedges.
HEDGE PRIEST. An illiterate unbeneficed curate, a patrico.
HEDGE WHORE. An itinerant harlot, who bilks the bagnios and bawdy-houses, by disposing of her favours on the wayside, under a hedge; a low beggarly prostitute.
HEELS. To he laid by the heels; to be confined, or put inprison. Out at heels; worn, or diminished: his estate oraffairs are out at heels. To turn up his heels; to turn upthe knave of trumps at the game of all-fours.
HEEL TAP. A peg in the heel of a shoe, taken out when itis finished. A person leaving any liquor in his glass, isfrequently called upon by the toast-master to take off hisheel-tap.
HELL. A taylor's repository for his stolen goods, called cabbage: see CABBAGE. Little hell; a small dark covered passage, leading from London-wall to Bell-alley.
HELL-BORN BABE. A lewd graceless youth, one naturallyof a wicked disposition.
HELL CAT. A termagant, a vixen, a furious scolding woman.See TERMAGANT and VIXEN.
HELL HOUND. A wicked abandoned fellow.
HELL FIRE DICK. The Cambridge driver of the Telegraph. The favorite companion of the University fashionables, and the only tutor to whose precepts they attend.
HELTER SKELTER. To run helter skelter, hand over head, in defiance of order.
HEMP. Young hemp; an appellation for a graceless boy.
HEMPEN FEVER. A man who was hanged is said to have died of a hempen fever; and, in Dorsetshire, to have been stabbed with a Bridport dagger; Bridport being a place famous for manufacturing hemp into cords.
HEMPEN WIDOW. One whose husband was hanged.
HEN-HEARTED. Cowardly.
HEN HOUSE. A house where the woman rules; called also a SHE HOUSE, and HEN FRIGATE: the latter a sea phrase, originally applied to a ship, the captain of which had his wife on board, supposed to command him.
HENPECKED. A husband governed by his wife, is said tobe henpecked.
HEN. A woman. A cock and hen club; a club composedof men and women.
HERE AND THEREIAN. One who has no settled place ofresidence.
HERRING. The devil a barrel the better herring; all equallybad.
HERRING GUTTED. Thin, as a shotten herring.
HERRING POND. The sea. To cross the herring pond atthe king's expence; to be transported.
HERTFORDSHIRE KINDNESS. Drinking twice to the sameperson.
HICK. A country hick; an ignorant clown. CANT.
HICKENBOTHOM. Mr. Hickenbothom; a ludicrous name for an unknown person, similar to that of Mr. Thingambob. Hickenbothom, i.e. a corruption of the German word ickenbaum, i.e. oak tree.
HICKEY. Tipsey; quasi, hickupping.
HIDE AND SEEK. A childish game. He plays at hide and seek; a saying of one who is in fear of being arrested for debt, or apprehended for some crime, and therefore does not chuse to appear in public, but secretly skulks up and down. See SKULK.
HIDEBOUND. Stingy, hard of delivery; a poet poor in invention, is said to have a hidebound muse.
HIGGLEDY PIGGLEDY. Confusedly mixed.
HIGH EATING. To eat skylarks in a garret.
HIGH FLYERS. Tories, Jacobites.
HIGH JINKS. A gambler at dice, who, having a strong head, drinks to intoxicate his adversary, or pigeon.
HIGH LIVING. To lodge in a garret, or cockloft
HIGH PAD. A highwayman. CANT.
HIGH ROPES. To be on the high ropes; to be in a passion.
HIGH SHOON, or CLOUTED SHOON. A country clown.
HIGH WATER. It is high water, with him; he is full of money.
HIGHGATE. Sworn at Highgate—a ridiculous custom formerly prevailed at the public-houses in Highgate, to administer a ludicrous oath to all travellers of the middling rank who stopped there. The party was sworn on a pair of horns, fastened on a stick: the substance of the oath was, never to kiss the maid when he could kiss the mistress, never to drink small beer when he could get strong, with many other injunctions of the like kind; to all which was added the saving cause of "unless you like it best." The person administering the oath was always to be called father by the juror; and he, in return, was to style him son, under the penalty of a bottle.
HIKE. To hike off; to run away. CANT.
HIND LEG. To kick out a hind leg; to make a rustic bow.
HINNEY, MY HONEY. A north country hinney, particularlya Northumbrian: in that county, hinney is the generalterm of endearment.
HISTORY OF THE FOUR KINGS, or CHILD'S BEST GUIDE TOTHE GALLOWS. A pack of cards. He studies the historyof the four kings assiduously; he plays much at cards.
HOAXING. Bantering, ridiculing. Hoaxing a quiz; jokingan odd fellow. UNIVERSITY WIT.
HOB, or HOBBINOL, a clown.
HOB OR NOB. Will you hob or nob with me? a question formerly in fashion at polite tables, signifying a request or challenge to drink a glass of wine with the proposer: if the party challenged answered Nob, they were to chuse whether white or red. This foolish custom is said to have originated in the days of good queen Bess, thus: when great chimnies were in fashion, there was at each corner of the hearth, or grate, a small elevated projection, called the hob; and behind it a seat. In winter time the beer was placed on the hob to warm: and the cold beer was set on a small table, said to have been called the nob; so that the question, Will you have hob or nob? seems only to have meant, Will you have warm or cold beer? i.e. beer from the hob, or beer from the nob.
HOBBERDEHOY. Half a man and half a boy, a lad betweenboth.
HOBBLED. Impeded, interrupted, puzzled. To hobble;to walk lamely.
HOBBLEDYGEE. A pace between a walk and a run, a dog-trot.
HOBBY. Sir Posthumous's hobby; one nice or whimsical in his clothes.
HOBBY HORSE. A man's favourite amusement, or study, is called his hobby horse. It also means a particular kind of small Irish horse: and also a wooden one, such as is given to children.
HOBBY HORSICAL. A man who is a great keeper or rider of hobby horses; one that is apt to be strongly attached to his systems of amusement.
HOBNAIL. A country clodhopper: from the shoes of countryfarmers and ploughmen being commonly stuck full ofhob-nails, and even often clouted, or tipped with iron.The Devil ran over his face with hobnails in his shoes;said of one pitted With the small pox.
HOBSON'S CHOICE. That or none; from old Hobson, afamous carrier of Cambridge, who used to let horses to thestudents; but never permitted them to chuse, alwaysallotting each man the horse he thought properest for hismanner of riding and treatment.
HOCKS. vulgar appellation for the feet. You have leftthe marks of your dirty hocks on my clean stairs; a frequentcomplaint from a mop squeezer to a footman.
HOCKEY. Drunk with strong stale beer, called old hock.See HICKEY.
HOCKING, or HOUGHING. A piece of cruelty practised by the butchers of Dublin, on soldiers, by cutting the tendon of Achilles; this has been by law made felony.
HOCUS POCUS. Nonsensical words used by jugglers, previous to their deceptions, as a kind of charm, or incantation. A celebrated writer supposes it to be a ludicrous corruption of the words hoc est corpus, used by the popish priests in consecrating the host. Also Hell Hocus is used to express drunkenness: as, he is quite hocus; he is quite drunk.
HOD. Brother Hod; a familiar name for a bricklayer's labourer: from the hod which is used for carrying bricks and mortar.
HODDY DODDY, ALL A-SE AND NO BODY. A short clumsyperson, either male or female.
HODGE. An abbreviation of Roger: a general name for acountry booby.
HODGE PODGE. An irregular mixture of numerous things.
HODMANDODS. Snails in their shells.
HOG. A shilling. To drive one's hogs; to snore: the noise made by some persons in snoring, being not much unlike the notes of that animal. He has brought his hogs to a fine market; a saying of any one who has been remarkably successful in his affairs, and is spoken ironically to signify the contrary. A hog in armour; an awkward or mean looking man or woman, finely dressed, is said to look like a hog in armour. To hog a horse's mane; to cut it short, so that the ends of the hair stick up like hog's bristles. Jonian hogs; an appellation given to the members of St. John's College, Cambridge.
HOG GRUBBER. A mean stingy fellow.
HOGGISH. Rude, unmannerly, filthy.
HOGO. Corruption of haut goust, high taste, or flavour; commonly said of flesh somewhat tainted. It has a confounded hogo; it stinks confoundedly.
HOIST. To go upon the hoist; to get into windows accidentally left open: this is done by the assistance of a confederate, called the hoist, who leans his head against the wall, making his back a kind of step or ascent.
HOISTING. A ludicrous ceremony formerly performed on every soldier, the first time he appeared in the field after being married; it was thus managed: As soon as the regiment, or company, had grounded their arms to rest a while, three or four men of the same company to which the bridegroom belonged, seized upon him, and putting a couple of bayonets out of the two corners of his hat, to represent horns, it was placed on his head, the back part foremost. He was then hoisted on the shoulders of two strong fellows, and carried round the arms, a drum and fife beating and playing the pioneers call, named Round Heads and Cuckolds, but on this occasion styled the Cuckold's March; in passing the colours, he was to take off his hat: this, in some regiments, was practised by the officers on their brethren, Hoisting, among pickpockets, is, setting a man on his head, that his money, watch, &c. may fall out of his pockets; these they pick up, and hold to be no robbery. See REVERSED.
HOITY-TOITY. A hoity-toity wench; a giddy, thoughtless, romping girl.
HOLBORN HILL. To ride backwards up Holborn hill; to go to the gallows: the way to Tyburn, the place of execution for criminals condemned in London, was up that hill. Criminals going to suffer, always ride backwards, as some conceive to increase the ignominy, but more probably to prevent them being shocked with a distant view of the gallows; as, in amputations, surgeons conceal the instruments with which they are going to operate. The last execution at Tyburn, and consequently of this procession, was in the year 1784, since which the criminals have been executed near Newgate
HOLIDAY. A holiday bowler; a bad bowler. Blind man'sholiday; darkness, night. A holiday is any part of aship's bottom, left uncovered in paying it. SEA TERM. Itis all holiday; See ALL HOLIDAY.
HOLY FATHER. A butcher's boy of St. Patrick's Market,Dublin, or other Irish blackguard; among whomthe exclamation, or oath, by the Holy Father (meaningthe Pope), is common.
HOLY LAMB. A thorough-paced villain. IRISH.
HOLY WATER. He loves him as the Devil loves holy water, i.e. hates him mortally. Holy water, according to the Roman Catholics, having the virtue to chase away the Devil and his imps.
HOLLOW. It was quiet a hollow thing; i.e. a certainty, or decided business.
HONEST MAN. A term frequently used by superiors to inferiors. As honest a man as any in the cards when all the kings are out; i.e. a knave. I dare not call thee rogue for fear of the law, said a quaker to an attorney; but I wil give thee five pounds, if thou canst find any creditable person who wilt say thou art an honest man.
HONEST WOMAN. To marry a woman with whom one has cohabitated as a mistress, is termed, making an honest woman of her.
HONEY MOON. The first month after marriage. A poor honey; a harmless, foolish, goodnatured fellow. It is all honey or a t—d with them; said of persons who are either in the extremity of friendship or enmity, either kissing or fighting.
HOOD-WINKED. Blindfolded by a handkerchief, or other ligature, bound over the eyes.
HOOF. To beat the hoof; to travel on foot. He hoofed it or beat the hoof, every step of the way from Chester to London.
HOOK AND SNIVEY, WITH NIX THE BUFFER. This rig consists in feeding a man and a dog for nothing, and is carried on thus: Three men, one of who pretends to be sick and unable to eat, go to a public house: the two well men make a bargain with the landlord for their dinner, and when he is out of sight, feed their pretended sick companion and dog gratis.
HOOKEE WALKER. An expression signifying that the storyis not true, or that the thing will not occour.
HOOKED. Over-reached, tricked, caught: a simile takenfrom fishing. **** hooks; fingers.
HOOKERS. See ANGLERS.
HOOP. To run the hoop; an ancient marine custom. Four or more boys having their left hands tied fast to an iron hoop, and each of them a rope, called a nettle, in their right, being naked to the waist, wait the signal to begin: this being made by a stroke with a cat of nine tails, given by the boatswain to one of the boys, he strikes the boy before him, and every one does the same: at first the blows are but gently administered; but each irritated by the strokes from the boy behind him, at length lays it on in earnest. This was anciently practised when a ship was wind-bound.
TO HOOP. To beat. I'll well hoop his or her barrel, I'll beat him or her soundly.
TO HOP THE TWIG. To run away. CANT.
HOP MERCHANT. A dancing master. See CAPER MERCHANT.
HOP-O-MY-THUMB. A diminutive person, man or woman. She was such a-hop-o-my thumb, that a pigeon, sitting on her shoulder, might pick a pea out of her a-se.
HOPKINS. Mr. Hopkins; a ludicrous address to a lame or limping man, being a pun on the word hop.
HOPPING GILES. A jeering appellation given to any person who limps, or is lame; St. Giles was the patron of cripples, lepers, &c. Churches dedicated to that saint commonly stand out of town, many of them having been chapels to hospitals. See GYLES.
HOPPER-ARSED. Having large projecting buttocks: fromtheir resemblance to a small basket, called a hopper orhoppet, worn by husbandmen for containing seed corn,when they sow the land.
HORNS. To draw in one's horns; to retract an assertionthrough fear: metaphor borrowed from a snail, who on theapprehension of danger, draws in his horns, and retires tohis shell.
HORN COLIC. A temporary priapism.
HORN FAIR. An annual fair held at Charlton, in Kent, on St. Luke's day, the 18th of October. It consists of a riotous mob, who after a printed summons dispersed through the adjacent towns, meet at Cuckold's Point, near Deptford, and march from thence in procession, through that town and Greenwich, to Charlton, with horns of different kinds upon their heads; and at the fair there are sold rams horns, and every sort of toy made of horn; even the gingerbread figures have horns, The vulgar tradition gives the following history of the origin of this fair; King John, or some other of our ancient kings, being at the palace of Eltham, in this neighbourhood, and having been out a hunting one day, rambled from his company to this place, then a mean hamlet; when entering a cottage to inquire his way, he was struck with the beauty of the mistress, whom he found alone; and having prevailed over her modesty, the husband returning suddenly, surprised them together; and threatening to kill them both, the king was obliged to discover himself, and to compound for his safety by a purse of gold, and a grant of the land from this place to Cuckold's Point, besides making the husband master of the hamlet. It is added that, in memory of this grant, and the occasion of it, this fair was established, for the sale of horns, and all sorts of goods made with that material. A sermon is preached at Charlton church on the fair day.
HORN MAD. A person extremely jealous of his wife, is said to be horn mad. Also a cuckold, who does not cut or breed his horns easily.
HORN WORK. Cuckold-making.
HORNIFIED. Cuckolded.
HORSE BUSS. A kiss with a loud smack; also a bite.
HORSE COSER. A dealer in horses: vulgarly and corruptly pronounced HORSE COURSER. The verb TO COSE was used by the Scots, in the sense of bartering or exchanging.
HORSE GODMOTHER. A large masculine woman, a gentlemanlike kind of a lady.
HORSE LADDER. A piece of Wiltshire wit, which consists in sending some raw lad, or simpleton, to a neighbouring farm house, to borrow a horse ladder, in order to get up the horses, to finish a hay-mow.
HORSE'S MEAL. A meal without drinking.
HOSTELER, i.e. oat stealer. Hosteler was originally the name for an inn-keeper; inns being in old English styled hostels, from the French signifying the same.
HOT POT. Ale and brandy made hot.
HOT STOMACH. He has so hot a stomach, that he burns all the clothes off his back; said of one who pawns his clothes to purchase liquor.
HOUSE, or TENEMENT, TO LET. A widow's weeds; also an atchievement marking the death of a husband, set up on the outside of a mansion: both supposed to indicate that the dolorous widow wants a male comforter.
HOYDON. A romping girl.
HUBBLE-BUBBLE. Confusion. A hubble-bubble fellow; a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle. Also an instrument used for smoaking through water in the East Indies, called likewise a caloon, and hooker.
HUBBLE DE SHUFF. Confusedly. To fire hubble de shuff, to fire quick and irregularly. OLD MILITARY TERM.
HUBBUB. A noise, riot, or disturbance.
HUCKLE MY BUFF. Beer, egg, and brandy, made hot.
HUCKSTERS. Itinerant retailers of provisions. He is inhucksters hands; he is in a bad way.
TO HUE. To lash. The cove was hued in the naskin;the rogue was soundly lashed in bridewell. CANT.
TO HUFF. To reprove, or scold at any one; also to bluster,bounce, ding, or swagger. A captain huff; a noted bully.To stand the huff; to be answerable for the reckoning ina public house.
HUG. To hug brown bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as aprivate soldier. He hugs it as the Devil hugs a witch:said of one who holds any thing as if he was afraid of losingit.
HUGGER MUGGER. By stealth, privately, without making an appearance. They spent their money in a hugger mugger way.
HUGOTONTHEONBIQUIFFINARIANS. A society existing in1748.
HULKY, or HULKING. A great hulky fellow; an over-grownclumsy lout, or fellow.
HULVER-HEADED. Having a hard impenetrable head; hulver, in the Norfolk dialect, signifying holly, a hard and solid wood.
TO HUM, or HUMBUG. To deceive, or impose on one by some story or device. A humbug; a jocular imposition, or deception. To hum and haw; to hesitate in speech, also to delay, or be with difficulty brought to consent to any matter or business,
HUMS. Persons at church. There is a great number of hums in the autem; there is a great congregation in the church.
HUM BOX. A pulpit.
HUM CAP. Very old and strong beer, called also stingo.See STINGO.
HUM DRUM. A hum drum fellow; a dull tedious narrator, a bore; also a set of gentlemen, who (Bailey says) used to meet near the Charter House, or at the King's Head in St. John's-street, who had more of pleasantry, and less of mystery, than the free masons.
HUM DURGEON. An imaginary illness. He has got the humdurgeon, the thickest part of his thigh is nearest his a-se; i.e. nothing ails him except low spirits.
HUMBUGS. The brethren of the venerable society of humbugs was held at brother Hallam's, in Goodman's Fields.
HUMMER. A great lye, a rapper. See RAPPER.
HUMMING LIQUOR. Double ale, stout pharaoh. See PHARAOH.
HUMMUMS. A bagnio, or bathing house.
HUM TRUM. A musical instrument made of a mopstick, a bladder, and some packthread, thence also called a bladder and string, and hurdy gurdy; it is played on like a violin, which is sometimes ludicrously called a humstrum; sometimes, instead of a bladder, a tin canister is used.
HUMP. To hump; once a fashionable word for copulation.
HUMPTY DUMPTY. A little humpty dumpty man or woman; a short clumsy person of either sex: also ale boiled with brandy.
TO HUNCH. To jostle, or thrust.
HUNCH-BACKED. Hump-backed.
HUNG BEEF. A dried bull's pizzle. How the dubber served the cull with hung beef; how the turnkey beat the fellow with a bull's pizzle.
HUNKS. A covetous miserable fellow, a miser; also the name of a famous bear mentioned by Ben Jonson.
HUNT'S DOG. He is like Hunt's dog, will neither go to church nor stay at home. One Hunt, a labouring man at a small town in Shropshire, kept a mastiff, who on being shut up on Sundays, whilst his master went to church, howled so terribly as to disturb the whole village; wherefore his master resolved to take him to church with him: but when he came to the church door, the dog having perhaps formerly been whipped out by the sexton, refused to enter; whereupon Hunt exclaimed loudly against his dog's obstinacy, who would neither go to church nor stay at home. This shortly became a bye-word for discontented and whimsical persons.
HUNTING. Drawing in unwary persons to play or game.CANT.
HUNTING THE SQUIRREL. An amusement practised by postboys and stage-coachmen, which consists in following a one-horse chaise, and driving it before them, passing close to it, so as to brush the wheel, and by other means terrifying any woman or person that may be in it. A man whose turn comes for him to drink, before he has emptied his former glass, is said to be hunted.
HUNTSUP. The reveillier of huntsmen, sounded on theFrench horn, or other instrument.
HURDY GURDY. A kind of fiddle, originally made perhapsout of a gourd. See HUMSTRUM.
HURLY BURLY. A rout, riot, bustle or confusion.
HUSH. Hush the cull; murder the fellow.
HUSH MONEY. Money given to hush up or conceal a robbery, theft, or any other offence, or to take off the evidence from appearing against a criminal.
HUSKYLOUR. A guinea, or job. Cant.
HUSSY. An abbreviation of housewife, but now always used as a term of reproach; as, How now, hussy? or She is a light hussy.
HUZZA. Said to have been originally the cry of the huzzars or Hungarian light horse; but now the national shout of the English, both civil and military, in the sea phrase termed a cheer; to give three cheers being to huzza thrice.
HYP, or HIP. A mode of calling to one passing by. Hip, Michael, your head's on fire; a piece of vulgar wit to a red haired man.
HYP. The hypochondriac: low spirits. He is hypped; he has got the blue devils, &c.
JABBER. To talk thick and fast, as great praters usually do, to chatter like a magpye; also to speak a foreign language. He jabbered to me in his damned outlandish parlez vous, but I could not understand him; he chattered to me in French, or some other foreign language, but I could not understand him.
JACK. A farthing, a small bowl serving as the mark for bowlers. An instrument for pulling off boots.
JACK ADAMS. A fool. Jack Adams's parish; Clerkenwell.
JACK AT A PINCH, A poor hackney parson.
JACK IN A BOX, A sharper, or cheat. A child in the mother's womb.
JACK IN AN OFFICE, An insolent fellow in authority.
JACK KETCH. The hangman; vide DERRICK and KETCH.
JACK NASTY FACE. A sea term, signifying a common sailor.
JACK OF LEGS. A tall long-legged man; also a giant, said to be buried in Weston church, near Baldock, in Hertfordshire, where there are two stones fourteen feet distant, said to be the head and feet stones of his grave. This giant, says Salmon, as fame goes, lived in a wood here, and was a great robber, but a generous one; for he plundered the rich to feed the poor: he frequently took bread for this purpose from the Baldock bakers, who catching him at an advantage, put out his eyes, and afterwards hanged him upon a knoll in Baldock field. At his death he made one request, which was, that he might have his bow and arrow put into his hand, and on shooting it off, where the arrow fell, they would bury him; which being granted, the arrow fell in Weston churchyard. Above seventy years ago, a very large thigh bone was taken out of the church chest, where it had lain many years for a show, and was sold by the clerk to Sir John Tradescant, who, it is said, put it among the rarities of Oxford.
JACK PUDDING. The merry andrew, zany, or jester to a mountebank.
JACK ROBINSON. Before one could say Jack Robinson; a saying to express a very short time, originating from a very volatile gentleman of that appellation, who would call on his neighbours, and be gone before his name could be announced.
JACK SPRAT. A dwarf, or diminutive fellow.
JACK TAR. A sailor.
JACK WEIGHT. A fat man.
JACK WHORE. A large masculine overgrown wench.
JACKANAPES. An ape; a pert, ugly, little fellow.
JACKED. Spavined. A jacked horse.
JACKMEN. See JARKMEN.
JACKEY. Gin.
JACOB. A soft fellow. A fool.
JACOB. A ladder: perhaps from Jacob's dream. CANT. Also the common name for a jay, jays being usually taught to say, Poor Jacob! a cup of sack for Jacob.
JACOBITES. Sham or collar shirts. Also partizans for the Stuart family: from the name of the abdicated king, i.e. James or Jacobus. It is said by the whigs, that God changed Jacob's name to Israel, lest the descendants of that patriarch should be called Jacobites.
JADE. A term of reproach to women.
JAGUE. A ditch: perhaps from jakes.
JAIL BIRDS. Prisoners.
JAKES. A house of office, a cacatorium.
JAMMED. Hanged. CANT.
JANIZARIES. The mob, sometimes so called; also bailiffs, their setters, and followers.
JAPANNED. Ordained. To be japanned; to enter into holy orders, to become a clergyman, to put on the black cloth: from the colour of the japan ware, which is black.
JARK. A seal.
JARKMEN. Those, who fabricate counterfeit passes, licences, and certificates for beggars.
JARVIS. A hackney coachman.
JASON'S FLEECE. A citizen cheated of his gold.
JAW. Speech, discourse. Give us none of your jaw; let us have none of your discourse. A jaw-me-dead; a talkative fellow. Jaw work; a cry used in fairs by the sellers of nuts.
JAZEY. A bob wig.
IDEA POT. The knowledge box, the head. See KNOWLEDGEBOX.
JEFFY. It will be done in a jeffy; it will be done in a shortspace of time, in an instant.
JEHU. To drive jehu-like; to drive furiously: from a king of Israel of that name, who was a famous charioteer, and mentioned as such in the Bible.
JEM. A gold ring. CANT.
JEMMY FELLOW. A smart spruce fellow.
JEMMY. A crow. This instrument is much used by housebreakers.Sometimes called Jemmy Rook.
JENNY. An instrument for lifting up the grate or top of ashow-glass, in order to rob it. CANT.
JERRYCUMMUMBLE. To shake, towzle, or tumble about.
JERRY SNEAK. A henpecked husband: from a celebrated character in one of Mr. Foote's plays, representing a man governed by his wife.
JESSAMY. A smart jemmy fellow, a fopling.
JESIUT. See TO BOX THE JESUIT.
JESUITICAL. Sly, evasive, equivocal. A jesuitical answer; an equivocal answer.
JET. A lawyer. Autem jet; a parson.
JEW. An over-reaching dealer, or hard, sharp fellow; an extortioner: the brokers formerly behind St. Clement's church in the Strand were called Jews by their brethren the taylors.
JEW. A tradesman who has no faith, i.e. will not give credit.
JEW BAIL. Insufficient bail: commonly Jews, who for a sum of money will bail any action whatsoever, and justify, that is, swear to their sufficiency; but, when called on, are not to be found.
JEW'S EYE. That's worth a Jew's eye; a pleasant or agreeable sight: a saying taken from Shakespeare.
JIBBER THE KIBBER. A method of deceiving seamen, by fixing a candle and lanthorn round the neck of a horse, one of whose fore feet is tied up; this at night has the appearance of a ship's light. Ships bearing towards it, run on shore, and being wrecked, are plundered by the inhabitants. This diabolical device is, it is said, practised by the inhabitants of our western coasts.
JIG. A trick. A pleasant jig; a witty arch trick. Also a lock or door. The feather-bed jig; copulation.
JIGGER. A whipping-post. CANT.
JILT. A tricking woman, who encourages the addresses ofa man whom she means to deceive and abandon.
JILTED. Rejected by a woman who has encouraged one'sadvances.
JINGLE BOXES. Leathern jacks tipped with silver, andhung with bells, formerly in use among fuddle caps.CANT.
JINGLE BRAINS. A wild, thoughtless, rattling fellow.
JINGLERS. Horse cosers, frequenting country fairs.
IMPOST TAKERS. Usurers who attend the gaming-tables,and lend money at great premiums.
IMPUDENT STEALING. Cutting out the backs of coaches,and robbing the seats.
IMPURE. A modern term for a lady of easy virtue.
INCHING. Encroaching.
INDIES. Black Indies; Newcastle.
INDIA WIPE. A silk handkerchief.
INDORSER. A sodomite. To indorse with a cudgel; to drub or beat a man over the back with a stick, to lay CANE upon Abel.
INEXPRESSIBLES. Breeches.
INKLE WEAVERS. Supposed to be a very brotherly set of people; 'as great as two inkle weavers' being a proverbial saying.
INLAID. Well inlaid; in easy circumstances, rich or wellto pass.
INNOCENTS. One of the innocents; a weak or simple person,man or woman.
INSIDE AND OUTSIDE. The inside of a **** and the outsideof a gaol.
JOB. A guinea.
JOB'S COMFORT. Reproof instead of consolation.
JOB'S COMFORTER. One who brings news of someadditional misfortune.
JOB'S DOCK. He is laid up in Job's dock; i.e. in a salivation.The apartments for the foul or venereal patients in St.Bartholomew's hospital, are called Job's ward.
JOBATION. A reproof.
JOBBERNOLE. The head.
TO JOB. To reprove or reprehend. CAMBRIDGE TERM.
JOB. Any robbery. To do a job; to commit some kind of robbery.
JOCK, or CROWDY-HEADED JOCK. A jeering appellation for a north country seaman, particularly a collier; Jock being a common name, and crowdy the chief food, of the lower order of the people in Northumberland.
TO JOCK, or JOCKUM CLOY. To enjoy a woman.
JOCKUM GAGE. A chamber-pot, jordan, looking-glass, ormember-mug. CANT.
JOGG-TROT. To keep on a jogg-trot; to get on with a slowbut regular pace.
JOHNNY BUM. A he or jack ass: so called by a lady that affected to be extremely polite and modest, who would not say Jack because it was vulgar, nor ass because it was indecent.
JOINT. To hit a joint in carving, the operator must think of a cuckold. To put one's nose out of joint; to rival one in the favour of a patron or mistress.
JOLLY, or JOLLY NOB. The head. I'll lump your jolly nob for you; I'll give you a knock on the head.
JOLLY DOG. A merry facetious fellow; a BON VIVANT, who never flinches from his glass, nor cries to go home to bed.
JOLTER HEAD. A large head; metaphorically a stupid fellow.
JORDAIN. A great blow, or staff. I'll tip him a jordain if I transnear; i.e. I'll give him a blow with my staff, if I come near him. CANT.
JORDAN. A chamber-pot.
JORUM. A jugg, or large pitcher.
JOSEPH. A woman's great coat. Also, a sheepish bashful young fellow: an allusion to Joseph who fled from Potiphar's wife. You are Josephus rex; you are jo-king, i. e. joking.
JOSKIN. A countryman. The dropcove maced the Joskinof twenty quid; The ring dropper cheated thecountryman of twenty guineas.
JOWL. The cheek. Cheek by jowl; close together, or cheekto cheek. My eyes how the cull sucked the blowen'sjowl; he kissed the wench handsomely.
IRISH APRICOTS. Potatoes. It is a common joke againstthe Irish vessels, to say they are loaded with fruit andtimber, that is, potatoes and broomsticks.
IRISH ASSURANCE. A bold forward behaviour: as being dipt in the river Styx was formerly supposed to render persons invulnerable, so it is said that a dipping in the river Shannon totally annihilates bashfulness; whence arises the saying of an impudent Irishman, that he has been dipt in the Shannon.
IRISH BEAUTY. A woman with two black eyes.
IRISH EVIDENCE. A false witness.
IRISH LEGS. Thick legs, jocularly styled the Irish arms. It is said of the Irish women, that they have a dispensation from the pope to wear the thick end of their legs downwards.
IRISH TOYLES. Thieves who carry about pins, laces, andother pedlars wares, and under the pretence of offeringtheir goods to sale, rob houses, or pilfer any thing theycan lay hold of.
IRON. Money in general. To polish the king's iron withone's eyebrows; to look out of grated or prison windows,or, as the Irishman expresses them, the iron glasswindows. Iron doublet; a prison. See STONE DOUBLET.
IRONMONGER'S SHOP. To keep an ironmonger's shop bythe side of a common, where the sheriff sets one up; to behanged in chains. Iron-bound; laced. An iron-boundhat; a silver-laced hat.
ISLAND. He drank out of the bottle till he saw the island;the island is the rising bottom of a wine bottle, whichappears like an island in the centre, before the bottle isquite empty.
IVORIES. Teeth. How the swell flashed his ivories; howthe gentleman shewed his teeth.
ITCHLAND, or SCRATCHLAND. Scotland.
JUG. See DOUBLE JUG.
JUGGLER'S BOX. The engine for burning culprits in the hand. CANT.
JUKRUM. A licence.
JUMBLEGUT LANE. A rough road or lane.
JUMP. The jump, or dining-room jump; a species of robbery effected by ascending a ladder placed by a sham lamp-lighter, against the house intended to be robbed. It is so called, because, should the lamp-lighter be put to flight, the thief who ascended the ladder has no means of escaping but that of jumping down.
JUMPERS. Persons who rob houses by getting in at the windows.Also a set of Methodists established in SouthWales.
JUNIPER LECTURE. A round scolding bout.
JURY LEG. A wooden leg: allusion to a jury mast, which is a temporary substitute for a mast carried away by a storm, or any other accident. SEA PHRASE.
JURY MAST. A JOURNIERE mast; i.e. a mast for the day or occasion.
JUST-ASS. A punning appellation for a justice.
IVY BUSH. Like an owl in an ivy bush; a simile for a meagre or weasel-faced man, with a large wig, or very bushy hair.
KATE. A picklock. 'Tis a rum kate; it is a clever picklock.CANT.