Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue - D-G



DAB. An adept; a dab at any feat or exercise. Dab, quoth Dawkins, when he 
hit his wife on the a-se with a pound of butter. 

DACE. Two pence. Tip me a dace; lend me two pence. CANT. 

DADDLES. Hands. Tip us your daddle; give me your hand. CANT. 

DADDY. Father. Old daddy; a familiar address to an old man. To beat daddy 
mammy; the first rudiments of drum beating, being the elements of the 
roll. 

DAGGERS. They are at daggers drawing; i.e. at enmity, ready to fight. 

DAIRY. A woman's breasts, particularly one that gives suck. She sported 
her dairy; she pulled out her breast. 

DAISY CUTTER. A jockey term for a horse that does not lift up his legs 
sufficiently, or goes too near the ground, and is therefore apt to 
stumble. 

DAISY KICKERS. Ostlers at great inns. 

DAM. A small Indian coin, mentioned in the Gentoo code of laws: hence 
etymologists may, if they please, derive the common expression, I do not 
care a dam, i.e. I do not care half a farthing for it. 

DAMBER. A rascal. See DIMBER. 

DAMME BOY. A roaring, mad, blustering fellow, a scourer of the streets, or 
kicker up of a breeze. 

DAMNED SOUL. A clerk in a counting house, whose sole business it is to 
clear or swear off merchandise at the custom-house; and who, it is said, 
guards against the crime of perjury, by taking a previous oath, never to 
swear truly on those occasions. 

DAMPER. A luncheon, or snap before dinner: so called from its damping, or 
allaying, the appetite; eating and drinking, being, as the proverb wisely 
observes, apt to take away the appetite. 

DANCE UPON NOTHING. To be hanged. 

DANCERS. Stairs. 

DANDY. That's the dandy; i.e. the ton, the clever thing; an expression of 
similar import to "That's the barber." See BARBER. 

DANDY GREY RUSSET. A dirty brown. His coat's dandy grey russet, the colour 
of the Devil's nutting bag. 

DANDY PRAT. An insignificant or trifling fellow. 

To DANGLE. To follow a woman without asking the question. Also, to be 
hanged: I shall see you dangle in the sheriff's picture frame; I shall see 
you hanging on the gallows. 

DANGLER. One who follows women in general, without any particular 
attachment 

DAPPER FELLOW. A smart, well-made, little man. 

DARBIES. Fetters. CANT. 

DARBY. Ready money. CANT. 

DARK CULLY. A married man that keeps a mistress, whom he visits only at 
night, for fear of discovery. 

DARKEE. A dark lanthorn used by housebreakers. Stow the darkee, and bolt, 
the cove of the crib is fly; hide the dark lanthorn, and run away, the 
master of the house knows that we are here. 

DARKMANS. The night. CANT. 

DARKMAN'S BUDGE. One that slides into a house in the dark of the evening, 
and hides himself, in order to let some of the gang in at night to rob it. 

DART. A straight-armed blow in boxing. 

DASH. A tavern drawer. To cut a dash: to make a figure. 

DAVID JONES. The devil, the spirit of the sea: called Necken in the north 
countries, such as Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. 

DAVID JONES'S LOCKER. The sea. 

DAVID'S SOW. As drunk as David's sow; a common saying, which took its rise 
from the following circumstance: One David Lloyd, a Welchman, who kept an 
alehouse at Hereford, had a living sow with six legs, which was greatly 
resorted to by the curious; he had also a wife much addicted to 
drunkenness, for which he used sometimes to give her due correction. One 
day David's wife having taken a cup too much, and being fearful of the 
consequences, turned out the sow, and lay down to sleep herself sober in 
the stye. A company coming in to see the sow, David ushered them into the 
stye, exclaiming, there is a sow for you! did any of you ever see such 
another? all the while supposing the sow had really been there; to which 
some of the company, seeing the state the woman was in, replied, it was 
the drunkenest sow they had ever beheld; whence the woman was ever after 
called David's sow. 

DAVY. I'll take my davy of it; vulgar abbreviation of affidavit. 

TO DAWB. To bribe. The cull was scragged because he could not dawb; the 
rogue was hanged because he could not bribe. All bedawbed with lace; all 
over lace. 

DAY LIGHTS. Eyes. To darken his day lights, or sow up his sees; to close 
up a man's eyes in boxing. 

DEAD CARGO. A term used by thieves, when they are disappointed in the 
value of their booty. 

DEAD HORSE. To work for the dead horse; to work for wages already paid. 

DEAD-LOUSE. Vulgar pronunciation of the Dedalus ship of war. 

DEAD MEN. A cant word among journeymen bakers, for loaves falsely charged 
to their masters' customers; also empty bottles. 

DEADLY NEVERGREEN, that bears fruit all the year round. The gallows, or 
three-legged mare. See THREE-LEGGEB MARE. 

DEAR JOYS. Irishmen: from their frequently making use of that expression. 

DEATH HUNTER. An undertaker, one who furnishes the necessary articles for 
funerals. See CARRION HUNTER. 

DEATH'S HEAD UPON A MOP-STICK. A poor miserable, emaciated fellow; one 
quite an otomy. See OTOMY.-- He looked as pleasant as the pains of death. 

DEEP-ONE. A thorough-paced rogue, a sly designing fellow: in opposition to 
a shallow or foolish one. 

DEFT FELLOW. A neat little man. 

DEGEN, or DAGEN. A sword. Nim the degen; steal the sword. Dagen is Dutch 
for a sword. CANT. 

DELLS. Young buxom wenches, ripe and prone to venery, but who have not 
lost their virginity, which the UPRIGHT MAN claims by virtue of his 
prerogative; after which they become free for any of the fraternity. Also 
a common strumpet. CANT. 

DEMURE. As demure as an old whore at a christening. 

DEMY-REP. An abbreviation of demy-reputation; a woman of doubtful 
character. 

DERBY. To come down with the derbies; to pay the money. 

DERRICK. The name of the finisher of the law, or hangman about the year 
1608.--'For he rides his circuit with the Devil, and Derrick must be his 
host, and Tiburne the inne at which he will lighte.' Vide Bellman of 
London, in art. PRIGGIN LAW.--'At the gallows, where I leave them, as to 
the haven at which they must all cast anchor, if Derrick's cables do but 
hold.' Ibid. 

DEVIL. A printer's errand-boy. Also a small thread in the king's ropes and 
cables, whereby they may be distinguished from all others. The Devil 
himself; a small streak of blue thread in the king's sails. The Devil may 
dance in his pocket; i.e. he has no money: the cross on our ancient coins 
being jocularly supposed to prevent him from visiting that place, for 
fear, as it is said, of breaking his shins against it. To hold a candle to 
the Devil; to be civil to any one out of fear: in allusion to the story of 
the old woman, who set a wax taper before the image of St. Michael, and 
another before the Devil, whom that saint is commonly represented as 
trampling under his feet: being reproved for paying such honour to Satan, 
she answered, as it was uncertain which place she should go to, heaven or 
hell, she chose to secure a friend in both places. That will be when the 
Devil is blind, and he has not got sore eyes yet; said of any thing 
unlikely to happen. It rains whilst the sun shines, the Devil is beating 
his wife with a shoulder of mutton: this phenomenon is also said to denote 
that cuckolds are going to heaven; on being informed of this, a loving 
wife cried out with great vehemence, 'Run, husband, run!' 

The Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be;
The Devil was well, the Devil a monk was he.


a proverb signifying that we are apt to forget promises made in time of 
distress. To pull the Devil by the tail, to be reduced to one's shifts. 
The Devil go with you and sixpence, and then you will have both money and 
company. 

DEVIL. The gizzard of a turkey or fowl, scored, peppered, salted and 
broiled: it derives its appellation from being hot in the mouth. 

DEVIL'S BOOKS. Cards. 

DEVIL CATCHER, or DEVIL DRIVER. A parson. See SNUB DEVIL. 

DEVIL'S DAUGHTER. It is said of one who has a termagant for his wife, that 
he has married the Devil's daughter, and lives with the old folks. 

DEVIL'S DAUGHTER'S PORTION: 
Deal, Dover, and Harwich,
The Devil gave with his daughter in marriage;
And, by a codicil to his will,
He added Helvoet and the Brill;

a saying occasioned by the shameful impositions practised by the 
inhabitants of those places, on sailors and travellers. 

DEVIL DRAWER. A miserable painter. 

DEVIL'S DUNG. Assafoetida. 

DEVIL'S GUTS. A surveyor's chain: so called by farmers, who do not like 
their land should be measured by their landlords. 

DEVILISH. Very: an epithet which in the English vulgar language is made to 
agree with every quality or thing; as, devilish bad, devilish good; 
devilish sick, devilish well; devilish sweet, devilish sour; devilish hot, 
devilish cold, &c. &c. 

DEUSEA VILLE. The country. Cant. 

DEUSEA VILLE STAMPERS. Country carriers. Cant. 

DEW BEATERS. Feet. Cant. 

DEWS WINS, or DEUX WINS. Two-pence. Cant. 

DEWITTED. Torn to pieces by a mob, as that great statesman John de Wit was 
in Holland, anno 1672. 

DIAL PLATE. The face. To alter his dial plate; to disfigure his face. 

DICE. The names of false dice:
A bale of bard cinque deuces
A bale of flat cinque deuces
A bale of flat sice aces
A bale of bard cater traes
A bale of flat cater traes
A bale of fulhams
A bale of light graniers
A bale of langrets contrary to the ventage
A bale of gordes, with as many highmen as lowmen, for passage
A bale of demies
A bale of long dice for even and odd
A bale of bristles
A bale of direct contraries.

DICK. That happened in the reign of queen Dick, i. e. never: said of any 
absurd old story. I am as queer as Dick's hatband; that is, out of 
spirits, or don't know what ails me. 

DICKY. A woman's under-petticoat. It's all Dicky with him; i.e. it's all 
over with him. 

DICKED IN THE NOB. Silly. Crazed. 

DICKEY. A sham shirt. 

DICKEY. An ass. Roll your dickey; drive your ass. Also a seat for servants 
to sit behind a carriage, when their master drives. 

TO DIDDLE. To cheat. To defraud. The cull diddled me out of my dearee; the 
fellow robbed me of my sweetheart. See Jeremy Diddler In Raising The Wind. 

DIDDEYS. A woman's breasts or bubbies. 

DIDDLE. Gin. 

DIGGERS. Spurs. Cant. 

DILBERRIES. Small pieces of excrement adhering to the hairs near the 
fundament. 

DILBERRY MAKER. The fundament. 

DILDO. [From the Italian DILETTO, q. d. a woman's delight; or from our 
word DALLY, q. d. a thing to play withal.] Penis-succedaneus, called in 
Lombardy Passo Tempo. Bailey. 

DILIGENT. Double diligent, like the Devil's apothecary; said of one 
affectedly diligent. 

DILLY. (An abbreviation of the word DILIGENCE.) A public voiture or stage, 
commonly a post chaise, carrying three persons; the name is taken from the 
public stage vehicles in France and Flanders. The dillies first began to 
run in England about the year 1779. 

DIMBER. Pretty. A dimber cove; a pretty fellow. Dimber mort; a pretty 
wench. CANT. 

DIMBER DAMBER. A top man, or prince, among the canting crew: also the 
chief rogue of the gang, or the completest cheat. CANT. 

DING. To knock down. To ding it in one's ears; to reproach or tell one 
something one is not desirous of hearing. Also to throw away or hide: thus 
a highwayman who throws away or hides any thing with which he robbed, to 
prevent being known or detected, is, in the canting lingo, styled a 
Dinger. 

DING BOY. A rogue, a hector, a bully, or sharper. CANT. 

DING DONG. Helter skelter, in a hasty disorderly manner. 

DINGEY CHRISTIAN. A mulatto; or any one who has, as the West-Indian term 
is, a lick of the tar-brush, that is, some negro blood in him. 

DINING ROOM POST. A mode of stealing in houses that let lodgings, by 
rogues pretending to be postmen, who send up sham letters to the lodgers, 
and, whilst waiting in the entry for the postage, go into the first room 
they see open, and rob it. 

DIP. To dip for a wig. Formerly, in Middle Row, Holborn, wigs of different 
sorts were, it is said, put into a close-stool box, into which, for three-
pence, any one might dip, or thrust in his hand, and take out the first 
wig he laid hold of; if he was dissatisfied with his prize, he might, on 
paying three halfpence, return it and dip again. 

THE DIP. A cook's shop, under Furnival's Inn, where many attornies clerks, 
and other inferior limbs of the law, take out the wrinkles from their 
bellies. DIP is also a punning name for a tallow-chandler. 

DIPPERS. Anabaptists. 

DIPT. Pawned or mortgaged. 

DIRTY PUZZLE. A nasty slut. 

DISGUISED. Drunk. 

DISGRUNTLED. Offended, disobliged. 

DISHED UP. He is completely dished up; he is totally ruined. To throw a 
thing in one's dish; to reproach or twit one with any particular matter. 

DISHCLOUT. A dirty, greasy woman. He has made a napkin of his dishclout; a 
saying of one who has married his cook maid. To pin a dishclout to a man's 
tail; a punishment often threatened by the female servants in a kitchen, 
to a man who pries too minutely into the secrets of that place. 

DISMAL DITTY. The psalm sung by the felons at the gallows, just before 
they are turned off. 

DISPATCHES. A mittimus, or justice of the peace's warrant, for the 
commitment of a rogue. 

DITTO. A suit of ditto; coat, waistcoat, and breeches, all of one colour. 

DISPATCHERS. Loaded or false dice. 

DISTRACTED DIVISION. Husband and wife fighting. 

DIVE. To dive; to pick a pocket. To dive for a dinner; to go down into a 
cellar to dinner. A dive, is a thief who stands ready to receive goods 
thrown out to him by a little boy put in at a window. Cant. 

DIVER. A pickpocket; also one who lives in a cellar. 

DIVIDE. To divide the house with one's wife; to give her the outside, and 
to keep all the inside to one's self, i.e. to turn her into the street. 

DO. To do any one; to rob and cheat him. I have done him; I have robbed 
him. Also to overcome in a boxing match: witness those laconic lines 
written on the field of battle, by Humphreys to his patron.--'Sir, I have 
done the Jew.' 

TO DO OVER. Carries the same meaning, but is not so briefly expressed: the 
former having received the polish of the present times. 

DOASH. A cloak. Cant. 

DOBIN RIG. Stealing ribbands from haberdashers early in the morning or 
late at night; generally practised by women in the disguise of maid 
servants. 

TO DOCK. To lie with a woman. The cull docked the dell all the darkmans; 
the fellow laid with the wench all night. Docked smack smooth; one who has 
suffered an amputation of his penis from a venereal complaint. He must go 
into dock; a sea phrase, signifying that the person spoken of must undergo 
a salivation. Docking is also a punishment inflicted by sailors on the 
prostitutes who have infected them with the venereal disease; it consists 
in cutting off all their clothes, petticoats, shift and all, close to 
their stays, and then turning them into the street. 

DOCTOR. Milk and water, with a little rum, and some nutmeg; also the name 
of a composition used by distillers, to make spirits appear stronger than 
they really are, or, in their phrase, better proof. 

DOCTORS. Loaded dice, that will run but two or three chances. They put the 
doctors upon him; they cheated him with loaded dice. 

DODSEY. A woman: perhaps a corruption of Doxey. CANT. 

DOG BUFFERS. Dog stealers, who kill those dogs not advertised for, sell 
their skins, and feed the remaining dogs with their flesh. 

DOG IN A DOUBLET. A daring, resolute fellow. In Germany and Flanders the 
boldest dogs used to hunt the boar, having a kind of buff doublet buttoned 
on their bodies, Rubens has represented several so equipped, so has 
Sneyders. 

DOG. An old dog at it; expert or accustomed to any thing. Dog in a manger; 
one who would prevent another from enjoying what he himself does not want: 
an allusion to the well-known fable. The dogs have not dined; a common 
saying to any one whose shirt hangs out behind. To dog, or dodge; to 
follow at a distance. To blush like a blue dog, i.e. not at all. To walk 
the black dog on any one; a punishment inflicted in the night on a fresh 
prisoner, by his comrades, in case of his refusal to pay the usual footing 
or garnish. 

DOG LATIN. Barbarous Latin, such as was formerly used by the lawyers in 
their pleadings. 

DOG'S PORTION. A lick and a smell. He comes in for only a dog's portion; a 
saying of one who is a distant admirer or dangler after women. See 
DANGLER. 

DOG'S RIG. To copulate till you are tired, and then turn tail to it. 

DOG'S SOUP. Rain water. 

DOG VANE. A cockade. SEA TERM. 

DOGGED. Surly. 

DOGGESS, DOG'S WIFE or LADY, PUPPY'S MAMMA. Jocular ways of calling a 
woman a bitch. 

DOLL. Bartholomew doll; a tawdry, over-drest woman, like one of the 
children's dolls at Bartholomew fair. To mill doll; to beat hemp at 
Bridewell, or any other house of correction. 

DOLLY. A Yorkshire dolly; a contrivance for washing, by means of a kind of 
wheel fixed in a tub, which being turned about, agitates and cleanses the 
linen put into it, with soap and water. 

DOMINE DO LITTLE. An impotent old fellow. 

DOMINEER. To reprove or command in an insolent or haughty manner. Don't 
think as how you shall domineer here. 

DOMMERER. A beggar pretending that his tongue has been cutout by the 
Algerines, or cruel and blood-thirsty Turks, or else that he yas born deaf 
and dumb. Cant. 

DONE, or DONE OVER. Robbed: also, convicted or hanged. Cant.--See DO. 

DONE UP. Ruined by gaming and extravagances. Modern Term. 

DONKEY, DONKEY DICK. A he, or jack ass: called donkey, perhaps, from the 
Spanish or don-like gravity of that animal, intitled also the king of 
Spain's trumpeter. 

DOODLE. A silly fellow, or noodle: see NOODLE. Also a child's penis. 
Doodle doo, or Cock a doodle doo; a childish appellation for a cock, in 
imitation of its note when crowing. 

DOODLE SACK. A bagpipe. Dutch.--Also the private parts of a woman. 

DOPEY. A beggar's trull. 

DOT AND GO ONE. To waddle: generally applied to persons who have one leg 
shorter than the other, and who, as the sea phrase is, go upon an uneven 
keel. Also a jeering appellation for an inferior writing-master, or 
teacher of arithmetic. 

DOUBLE. To tip any one the double; to run away in his or her debt. 

DOUBLE JUGG. A man's backside. Cotton's Virgil. 

DOVE-TAIL. A species of regular answer, which fits into the subject, like 
the contrivance whence it takes its name: Ex. Who owns this? The dovetail 
is, Not you by your asking. 

DOUGLAS. Roby Douglas, with one eye and a stinking breath; the breech. Sea 
wit. 

DOWDY. A coarse, vulgar-looking woman. 

DOWN HILLS. Dice that run low. 

DOWN. Aware of a thing. Knowing it. There is NO DOWN. A cant phrase used 
by house-breakers to signify that the persons belonging to any house are 
not on their guard, or that they are fast asleep, and have not heard any 
noise to alarm them. 

TO DOWSE. To take down: as, Dowse the pendant. Dowse your dog vane; take 
the cockade out of your hat. Dowse the glim; put out the candle. 

DOWSE ON THE CHOPS. A blow in the face. 

DOWSER. Vulgar pronunciation of DOUCEUR. 

DOXIES. She beggars, wenches, whores. 

DRAB. A nasty, sluttish whore. 

DRAG. To go on the drag; to follow a cart or waggon, in order to rob it. 
CANT. 

DRAG LAY. Waiting in the streets to rob carts or waggons. 

DRAGGLETAIL or DAGGLETAIL. One whose garments are bespattered with dag or 
dew: generally applied to the female sex, to signify a slattern. 

DRAGOONING IT. A man who occupies two branches of one profession, is said 
to dragoon it; because, like the soldier of that denomination, he serves 
in a double capacity. Such is a physician who furnishes the medicines, and 
compounds his own prescriptions. 

DRAIN. Gin: so called from the diuretic qualities imputed to that liquor. 

DRAM. A glass or small measure of any spirituous liquors, which, being 
originally sold by apothecaries, were estimated by drams, ounces, &c. 
Dog's dram; to spit in his mouth, and clap his back. 

DRAM-A-TICK. A dram served upon credit. 

DRAPER. An ale draper; an alehouse keeper. 

DRAUGHT, or BILL, ON THE PUMP AT ALDGATE. A bad or false bill of exchange. 
See ALDGATE. 

DRAW LATCHES. Robbers of houses whose doors are only fastened with 
latches. CANT. 

TO DRAW. To take any thing from a pocket. To draw a swell of a clout. To 
pick a gentleman's pocket of a handkerchief. To draw the long bow; to tell 
lies. 

DRAWERS. Stockings. CANT. 

DRAWING THE KING'S PICTURE. Coining. CANT. 

TO DRESS. To beat. I'll dress his hide neatly; I'll beat him soundly. 

DRIBBLE. A method of pouring out, as it were, the dice from the box, 
gently, by which an old practitioner is enabled to cog one of them with 
his fore-finger. 

DRIPPER. A gleet. 

DROMEDARY. A heavy, bungling thief or rogue. A purple dromedary; a bungler 
in the art and mystery of thieving. CANT. 

DROMMERARS. See DOMMERER. 

DROP. The new drop; a contrivance for executing felons at Newgate, by 
means of a platform, which drops from under them: this is also called the 
last drop. See LEAF. See MORNING DROP. 

DROP A COG. To let fall, with design, a piece of gold or silver, in order 
to draw in and cheat the person who sees it picked up; the piece so 
dropped is called a dropt cog. 

DROP IN THE EYE. Almost drunk. 

DROPPING MEMBER. A man's yard with a gonorrhoea. 

DROP COVES. Persons who practice the fraud of dropping a ring or other 
article, and picking it up before the person intended to be defrauded, 
they pretend that the thing is very valuable to induce their gull to lend 
them money, or to purchase the article. See FAWNY RIG, and MONEY DROPPERS. 

TO DROP DOWN. To be dispirited. This expression is used by thieves to 
signify that their companion did not die game, as the kiddy dropped down 
when he went to be twisted; the young fellow was very low spirited when he 
walked out to be hanged. 

TO DRUB. To beat any one with a stick, or rope's end: perhaps a 
contraction of DRY RUB. It is also used to signify a good beating with any 
instrument. 

DRUMMER. A jockey term for a horse that throws about his fore legs 
irregularly: the idea is taken from a kettle drummer, who in beating makes 
many flourishes with his drumsticks. 

DRUNK. Drunk as a wheel-barrow. Drunk as David's sow. See DAVID'S SOW. 

DRURY LANE AGUE. The venereal disorder. 

DRURY LANE VESTAL. A woman of the town, or prostitute; Drury-lane and its 
environs were formerly the residence of many of those ladies. 

DRY BOB. A smart repartee: also copulation without emission; in law Latin, 
siccus robertulus. 

DRY BOOTS. A sly humorous fellow. 

DUB. A picklock, or master-key. CANT. 

DUB LAY. Robbing houses by picking the locks. 

DUB THE JIGGER. Open the door. CANT. 

DUB O' TH' HICK. A lick on the head. 

DUBBER. A picker of locks. CANT. 

DUCE. Two-pence. 

DUCK. A lame duck; an Exchange-alley phrase for a stock-jobber, who either 
cannot or will not pay his losses, or, differences, in which case he is 
said to WADDLE OUT OF THE ALLEY, as he cannot appear there again till his 
debts are settled and paid; should he attempt it, he would be hustled out 
by the fraternity. 

DUCKS AND DRAKES. To make ducks and drakes: a school-boy's amusement, 
practised with pieces of tile, oyster-shells, or flattish stones, which 
being skimmed along the surface of a pond, or still river, rebound many 
times. To make ducks and drakes of one's money; to throw it idly away. 

DUCK F-CK-R. The man who has the care of the poultry on board a ship of 
war. 

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 with his 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 a different tune. 

DUTCH FEAST. Where the entertainer gets drunk before his 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 oak table 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's bones, i.e. the 
dice. 

ELLENBOROUGH LODGE. The King's Bench Prison. Lord Ellenborough's teeth; 
the chevaux de frize round the top of 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, and chiefly supplying 
the London markets. 

ESSEX STILE. A ditch; a great part of Essex is low marshy ground, 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 of one 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 troubled with a 
looseness. 

FART CATCHER. A valet or footman from his walking behind 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 marked with his name; whence an Andrea Ferrara 
has become the common name for the glaymore or Highland broad- sword. See 
GLAYMORE. 

FERRET. A tradesman who sells goods to youug unthrift heirs, at excessive 
rates, and then continually duns them for the debt. To ferret; to search 
out or expel any one from his hiding-place, as a ferret drives out 
rabbits; also to 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 rumpad for the lour in his 
bung; beat the fellow in the highway for the money in his purse. CANT.--A 
fib is also a tiny lie. 

FICE, or FOYSE. A small windy escape backwards, more obvious to the nose 
than ears; frequently by old ladies charged on their lap-dogs. See FIZZLE. 

FID OF TOBACCO. A quid, from the small pieces of tow with which the vent 
or touch hole of a cannon is stopped. SEA TERM. 

FIDDLE FADDLE. Trifling discourse, nonsense. A mere fiddle 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 cannot sit 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 lost an arm. SEA PHRASE. 

FINE. Fine as five pence. Fine as a cow-t--d stuck with primroses. 

FINE. A man imprisoned for any offence. A fine of eighty- four months; 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 out a way to others 
which he never goes himself. Like the finger post, he points out a way he 
has never been, and probably 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 the morning, and therefore resorted to 
by debauchees shut out of 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 the company, Hark! did you not hear a 
gun?--but now we are talking 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 flag is out; 
signifying the man is drunk, and alluding to the redness 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; idle stories. 

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 prostitutes resort. 

Next for his favourite MOT (Girl) the KIDDEY (Youth) looks about,
And if she's in a FLASH PANNEY (Brothel) he swears he'll have her out;
So he FENCES (Pawns) all his TOGS (Cloathes) to buy her DUDS,
   (Wearing Apparel) and then
He FRISKS (Robs) his master's LOB (Till) to take her from the 
   bawdy KEN (House).

FLASH SONG. 

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 down the officer. 

FLOURISH. To take a flourish; to enjoy a woman in a hasty manner, to take 
a flyer. See FLYER. 

TO FLOUT. To jeer, to ridicule. 

FLUMMERY. Oatmeal and water boiled to a jelly; also compliments, neither 
of which are over-nourishing. 

FLUSH IN THE POCKET. Full of money. The cull is flush in the fob. The 
fellow is full of money. 

FLUSTERED. Drunk. 

FLUTE. The recorder of a corporation; a recorder was an antient 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 who uses it throws his 
adversary over his head. 

FLYING PASTY. Sirreverence wrapped in paper and thrown 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 a pipe of tobacco. CANT. 

FOOL. A fool at the end of a stick; a fool at one end, and a 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, and educated at the 
parish expence. 

FOUSIL. The name of a public house, where the Eccentrics 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 interpolated or 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 cannot get his wife with 
child. 

FREE AND EASY JOHNS. A society which meet at the Hole in 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's Quay; 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 has FLOWERS every month, 
and bears fruit in nine months. 

FRUMMAGEMMED. Choaked, strangled, suffocated, or hanged. CANT. 

FUBSEY. Plump. A fubsey wench; a plump, healthy wench. 

FUDDLE. Drunk. This is rum fuddle; this is excellent tipple, 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 about trifles. 

FUSSOCK. A lazy fat woman. An old fussock; a frowsy old 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 the Italian word cazzo. 

GAFF. A fair. The drop coves maced the joskins at the gaff; 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 remnants and scraps of the 
larder. 

GALL. His gall is not yet broken; a saying used in prisons of 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 lord mayor's day, when he 
was sworn in at Westminster. 

GALLIED. Hurried, vexed, over-fatigued, perhaps like a galley slave. 

GALLIGASKINS. Breeches. 

GALLIPOT. A nick name for 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 that associates with them. 

GAMES. Thin, ill-shapped legs: a corruption of the French word 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. What rum gamon the old file 
pitched to the flat; how finely the knowing old fellow humbugged the fool. 

GAMON AND PATTER. Common place talk of any profession; 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-lies in: wherefore, during 
that time, husbands plead a sort of indulgence in matters of gallantry. 

GANG. A company of men, a body of sailors, a knot of thieves, pickpockets, 
&c. A gang of sheep trotters; the four feet of a sheep. 

GAOLER'S COACH. A hurdle: traitors being usually conveyed from the gaol, 
to the place of execution, on a hurdle or sledge. 

GAP STOPPER. A whoremaster. 

GAPESEED. Sights; any thing to feed the eye. I am come abroad for a little 
gapeseed. 

GARNISH. An entrance fee demanded by the old prisoners of 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 shoeniaking. One of the gentle craft: a 
shoemaker: so called because once practised by St. Crispin. 

GENTLEMAN COMMONER. An empty bottle; an university joke, gentlemen 
commoners not being deemed over full of 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 danger of remaining there 
for life: or, in gaol, indicted, and in danger of being hanged in chains. 

GENTLEMAN OF THREE OUTS. That is, without money, without wit, and without 
manners: some add another out, 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 for woman. Every jack 
has his gill; i.e. every jack has his gillian, or female mate. 

GILLS. The cheeks. To look rosy about the gills; to have a fresh 
complexion. To look merry about the gills: to appear cheerful. 

GILLY GAUPUS. A Scotch term for a tall awkward fellow. 

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. See THINGAMBOBS. 

GINGER-PATED, or GINGER-HACKLED. Red haired: a term borrowed from the 
cockpit, where red cocks are called gingers, 

GINGERBREAD. A cake made of treacle, flour, and grated ginger; also money. 
He has the gingerbread; he is rich. 

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 to work: to attempt a 
thing gently, or cautiously. 

GINNY. An instrument to lift up a great, in order to steal what 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 Erse GLAY, 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 who will bear a great 
deal of beating. 

GNARLER. A little dog that by his barking alarms the family 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 
thecompany: 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. To goggle; to 
stare. 

GOING UPON THE DUB. Going out to break open, or pick the 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 press down the seams, 
for which purpose it must be heated: hence it is a jocular saying, that a 
taylor, be he ever so poor, is always sure to have a goose at his fire. He 
cannot say boh to a goose; a saying of a bashful or sheepish fellow. 

GOOSE RIDING. A goose, whose neck is greased, being suspended by the legs 
to a cord tied to two trees or high posts, a number of men on horseback, 
riding full speed, attempt to pull off the head: which if they effect, the 
goose is their prize. This has been practised in Derbyshire within the 
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 boiled gooseberries. 

GOOSEBERRY WIG. A large frizzled wig: perhaps from a supposed 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 signifying a 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 any one's money. CANT. 

GRAFTED. Cuckolded, i.e. having horns grafted on his head. 

To GRAB. To seize a man. The pigs grabbed the kiddey for 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 in business, and don't 
know which way to turn. 

GRAVY-EYED. Blear-eyed, one whose eyes have a running humour. 

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. How green the cull 
was not to stag how the old file planted the books. How ignorant the booby 
was not to perceive how the old sharper placed the cards in such a manner 
as to insure the game. 

GREEN BAG. An attorney: those gentlemen carry their clients' deeds in a 
green bag; and, it is said, when they have no deeds to carry, frequently 
fill them with an old pair of breeches, or any other trumpery, to give 
themselves the appearance of business. 

GREEN GOWN. To give a girl a green gown; to tumble her on the grass. 

GREEN SICKNESS. The disease of maids occasioned by celibacy. 

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 Gregory Brandon, a famous 
finisher of the law; to whom Sir William Segar, garter king of arms (being 
imposed on by Brooke, 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 of a woman who governs 
her husband. 

GREY PARSON. A farmer who rents the tithes of the rector or 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. Ask bogey, 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 always railing 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 of your gum. 

GUMMY. Clumsy: particularly applied to the ancles of men 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 allusion to 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 a house; clearing it of its 
furniture. See POULTERER. 

GUY. A dark lanthorn: an allusion to Guy Faux, the principal actor in the 
gunpowder plot. Stow the guy: conceal the lanthorn. 

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 lame person: St. Giles 
was the tutelar saint of cripples. 

GYP. A college runner or errand-boy at Cambridge, called at 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.