Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue - N-R



NAB, or NAB CHEAT. A hat. Penthouse nab; a large hat. 

To NAB. To seize, or catch unawares. To nab the teaze; to be privately 
whipped. To nab the stoop; to stand in the pillory. To nab the rust; a 
jockey term for a horse that becomes restive. To nab the snow: to steal 
linen left out to bleach or dry. CANT. 

To NAB GIRDER, or NOB GIRDER. A bridle. 

NACK. To have a nack; to be ready at any thing, to have a turn-for it. 

NACKY. Ingenious. 

NAILED. Secured, fixed. He offered me a decus, and I nailed him; he 
offered me a crown, and I struck or fixed him. 

NANNY HOUSE. A brothel. 

TO NAP. To cheat at dice by securing one chance. Also to catch the 
venereal disease. You've napt it; you are infected. 

NAPPING. To take any one napping; i.e. to come upon him unexpectedly, to 
find him asleep: as, He caught him napping, as Morse caught his mare. 

NAPPER. The head; also a cheat or thief. 

NAPPER OF NAPS. A sheep stealer. CANT. 

NAPPY ALE. Strong ale. 

NASK, or NASKIN. A prison or bridewell. The new nask; Clerkenwell 
bridewell. Tothil-fields nask; the bridewell at Tothil-fields. CANT. 

NATION. An abbreviation of damnation: a vulgar term used in Kent, Sussex, 
and the adjacent counties, for very. Nation good; very good. A nation long 
way; a very long way. 

NATTY LADS. Young thieves or pickpockets. CANT. 

NATURAL. A mistress, a child; also an idiot. A natural son or daughter; a 
love or merry-begotten child, a bastard. 

NAVY OFFICE. The Fleet prison. Commander of the Fleet; the warden of the 
Fleet prison. 

NAY WORD. A bye-word, proverb. 

NAZAKENE FORETOP. The foretop of a wig made in imi- tation of Christ's 
head of hair, as represented by the painters and sculptors. 

NAZY. Drunken. Nazy cove or mort; a drunken rogue or harlot. Nazy nabs; 
drunken coxcombs. 

NEB, or NIB. The bill of a bird, and the slit of a pen. Figuratively, the 
face and mouth of a woman; as, She holds up her neb: she holds up her 
mouth to be kissed. 

NECK STAMPER. The boy who collects the pots belonging to an alehouse, sent 
out with beer to private houses. 

NECK VERSE. Formerly the persons claiming the benefit of clergy were 
obliged to read a verse in a Latin manuscript psalter: this saving them 
from the gallows, was termed their neck verse: it was the first verse of 
the fiftyfirst psalm, Miserere mei,&c. 

NECK WEED. Hemp. 

NEEDLE POINT. A sharper. 

NEGLIGEE. A woman's undressed gown, Vulgarly termed a neggledigee. 

NEGROE. A black-a-moor: figuratively used for a slave. I'll be no man's 
negro; I will be no man's slave. 

NEGROE'S HEADS. Brown leaves delivered to the ships in ordinary. 

NESCIO. He sports a Nescio; he pretends not to understand any thing. After 
the senate house examination for degrees, the students proceed to the 
schools, to be questioned by the proctor. According to custom immemorial 
the answers MUST be Nescio. The following is a translated specimen: 

Ques. What is your name?--Ans. I do not know.
Ques. What is the name of this university?--Ans. I do not know.
Ques. Who was your father?-Ans. I do not know.
This last is probably the only true answer of the three!


NETTLED. Teized, provoked, out of temper. He or she has pissed on a 
nettle; said of one who is peevish or out of temper. 

NEW COLLEGE STUDENTS. Golden scholars, silver bachelors, and leaden 
masters. 

NEW DROP. The scaffold used at Newgate for hanging of criminals; which 
dropping down, leaves them suspended. By this improvement, the use of that 
vulgar vehicle, a cart, is entirely left off. 

NEW LIGHT. One of the new light; a methodist. 

NEWGATE BIRD. A thief or sharper, frequently caged in Newgate. 

NEWGATE SOLICITOR. A petty fogging and roguish attorney, who attends the 
gaols to assist villains in evading justice. 

NEWMAN'S LIFT. The gallows. 

NEWMAN'S TEA GARDENS. Newgate. 

NEWMAN'S HOTEL. Newgate. 

To NICK. To win at dice, to hit the mark just in the nick of time, or at 
the critical moment. 

NICK. Old nick; the Devil. 

NICKNAME. A name given in ridicule or contempt: from the French nom de 
niqne. Niqne is a movement of the head to mark a contempt for any person 
or thing. 

NICK NINNY. A simpleton. 

NICKIN, NIKEY or NIZEY. A soft simple fellow; also a diminutive of Isaac. 

NICKNACKS. Toys, baubles, or curiosities. 

NlCKNACKATORY. A toyshop. 

NICKUMPOOP, or NINCUMPOOP. A foolish fellow; also one who never saw his 
wife's ****. 

NIFFYNAFFY FELLOW. A trifler. 

NIG. The clippings of money. Nigging; clipping. Nigler, a clipper. Cant. 

NIGGLING. Cutting awkwardly, trifling; also accompanying with a woman. 

NIGHT MAGISTRATE. A constable. 

NIGHTINGALE. A soldier who, as the term is, sings out at the halberts. It 
is a point of honour in some regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry 
out, become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the cat of nine 
tails; to avoid which, they chew a bullet. 

NIGHTMAN. One whose business it is to empty necessary houses in London, 
which is always done in the night; the operation is called a wedding. See 
WEDDING. 

NIGMENOG. A very silly fellow. 

TO NIM. To steal or pilfer: from the German nemen, to take. Nim a togeman; 
steal a cloak. 

NIMGIMMER. A physician or surgeon, particularly those who cure the 
venereal disease. 

NINE LIVES. Cats are said to have nine lives, and women ten cats lives. 

NINNY, or NINNYHAMMER. A simpleton. 

NIP. A cheat. Bung nipper; a cutpurse. 

NIP CHEESE. A nick name for the purser of a ship: from those gentlemen 
being supposed sometimes to nip, or diminish, the allowance of the seamen, 
in that and every other article. It is also applied to stingy persons in 
general. 

NIPPERKIN. A small measure. 

NIPPS. The sheers used in clipping money. 

NIT SQUEEGER, i.e. SQUEEZER. A hair-dresser. 

NIX. Nothing. 

NO CATCHY NO HAVY. If I am not caught, I cannot be hurt. Negro saying. 

NOB. A king. A man of rank. 

NOB. The head. 

NOBTHATCHER. A peruke-maker. 

NOCK. The breech; from NOCK, a notch. 

NOCKY BOY. A dull simple fellow. 

NOD. He is gone to the land of nod; he is asleep. 

NODDLE. The head. 

NODDY. A simpleton or fool. Also a kind of low cart, with a seat before it 
for the driver, used in and about Dublin, in the manner of a hackney 
coach: the fare is just half that of a coach, for the same distance; so 
that for sixpence one may have a set down, as it is called, of a mile and 
half, and frequently a tumble down into the bargain: it is called a noddy 
from the nutation of its head. Knave noddy; the old-fashioned name for the 
knave of trumps. 

NOISY DOG RACKET. Stealing brass knockers from doors. 

NOKES. A ninny, or fool. John-a-Nokes and Tom-a-Stiles; two honest 
peaceable gentlemen, repeatedly set together by the ears by lawyers of 
different denominations: two fictitious names formerly used in law 
proceedings, but now very seldom, having for several years past been 
supplanted by two other honest peaceable gentlemen, namely, John Doe and 
Richard Roe. 

NOLL. Old Noll; Oliver Cromwell. 

NON-CON. A nonconformist, presbyterian, or any other dissenter. 

NONE-SUCH. One that is unequalled: frequently applied ironically. 

NONSENSE. Melting butter in a wig. 

NOOZED. Married, hanged. 

NOPE. A blow: as, I took him a nope on the costard. 

NORFOLK CAPON. A red herring. 

NORFOLK DUMPLING. A nick name, or term of jocular reproach to a Norfolk 
man; dumplings being a favourite food in that county. 

NORTH ALLERTONS. Spurs; that place, like Rippon, being famous for making 
them. 

NORTHUMBERLAND. Lord Northumberland's arms; a black eye: so called in the 
last century. 

NORWAY NECKCLOTH. The pillory, usually made of Norway fir. 

NOSE. As plain as the nose on your face; evidently to be seen. He is led 
by the nose; he is governed. To follow one's nose; to go strait forward. 
To put one's nose out of joint; to rival one in the favour of any person. 
To make a bridge of any one's nose; to pass by him in drinking. To nose a 
stink; to smell it. He cut off his nose to be revenged of his face; said 
of one who, to be revenged on his neighbour, has materially injured 
himself. 

NOSE. A man who informs or turns king's evidence. 

TO NOSE. To give evidence. To inform. His pall nosed and he was twisted 
for a crack; his confederate turned king's evidence, and he was hanged for 
burglary. 

TO NOSE. To bully. 

NOSE BAG. A bag fastened to the horse's head, in which the soldiers of the 
cavalry put the oats given to their horses: whence the saying, I see the 
hose bag in his face; i.e. he has been a private man, or rode private. 

NOSE GENT. A nun. 

NOSTRUM. A medicine prepared by particular persons only, a quack medicine. 

NOTCH. The private parts of awoman. 

NOTE. He changed his note; he told another sort of a story. 

NOUS-BOX. The head. 

NOZZLE. The nose of a man or woman. 

NUB. The neck; also coition. 

NUBBING. Hanging. Nubbing cheat: the gallows. Nubbing cove; the hangman. 
Nubbing ken; the sessions house. 

NUG. An endearing word: as, My dear nug; my dear love. 

NUGGING DRESS. An out-of-the-way old-fashioned dress, or rather a loose 
kind of dress, denoting a courtesan. 

NUGGING-HOUSE. A brothel. 

TO NULL. To beat: as, He nulled him heartily. 

NUMBERS. To consult the book of numbers: a term used in the House of 
Commons, when, instead of answering or confuting a pressing argument, the 
minister calls for a division, i.e. puts the matter to the vote. 

NUMBSCULL. A stupid fellow. 

NUMMS. A sham collar, to be worn over a dirty shirt. 

NUNNERY. A bawdy house. 

TO NURSE. To cheat: as, they nursed him out of it. An estate in the hands 
of trustees, for the payment of bdebts, is said to be at nurse. 

NUTS. It was nuts for them; i.e. it was very agreeable to them. 

NUTS. Fond; pleased. She's nuts upon her cull; she's pleased with her 
cully. The cove's nutting the blowen; the man is trying to please the 
girl. 

NUTCRACKERS. The pillory: as, The cull peeped through the nutcrackers. 

NUTMEGS. Testicles. 

NYP, or NIP. A half pint, a nip of ale: whence the nipperkin, a small 
vessel. 

NYP SHOP. The Peacock in Gray's Inn Lane, where Burton ale is sold in 
nyps. 

NYPPER. A cut-purse: so called by one Wotton, who in the year 1585 kept an 
academy for the education and perfection of pickpockets and cut-purses: 
his school was near Billingsgate, London. As in the dress of ancient times 
many people wore their purses at their girdles, cutting them was a branch 
of the light-fingered art, which is now lost, though the name remains. 
Maitland, from Stow, gives the following account of this Wotton: This man 
was a gentleman born, and sometime a merchant of good credit, but fallen 
by time into decay: he kept an alehouse near Smart's Key, near 
Billingsgate, afterwards for some misdemeanor put down. He reared up a new 
trade of life, and in the same house he procured all the cut-purses about 
the city, to repair to his house; there was a school-house set up to learn 
young boys to cut purses: two devices were hung up; one was a pocket, and 
another was a purse; the pocket had in it certain counters, and was hung 
about with hawks bells, and over the top did hang a little sacring bell. 
The purse had silver in it; and he that could take out a counter, without 
noise of any of the bells, was adjudged a judicial NYPPER: according to 
their terms of art, a FOYSTER was a pick-pocket; a NYPPER was a pick 
purse, or cut-purse. 



O BE JOYFUL. I'll make you sing O be joyful on the other side of your 
mouth; a threat, implying the party threatened will be made to cry. To 
sing O be easy; to appear contented when one has cause to complain, and 
dare not. 

OAF. A silly fellow. 

OAFISH. Simple. 

OAK. A rich maa, a man of good substance and credit. To sport oak; to shut 
the outward door of a student's room at college. An oaken towel; an oaken 
cudgel. To rub a man down with an oaken towel; to beat him. 

OATS. He has sowed his wild oats; he is staid, or sober, having left off 
his wild tricks. 

OATHS. The favourite oaths of the thieves of the present day are, "God 
strike me blind!" "I wish my bloody eyes may drop out if it is not true!" 
"So help me God!" "Bloody end to me!" 

OAR. To put in one's oar; to intermeddle, or give an opinion unasked: as, 
To be sure, you must put in your oar! 

OBSTROPULOUS. Vulgar misnomer of OBSTREPEROUS: as, I was going my rounds, 
and found this here gemman very obstropulous, whereof I comprehended him 
as an auspicious parson. 

OCCUPY. To occupy a woman; to have carnal knowledge of her. 

ODDFELLOWS. A convivial society; the introduction to the most noble grand, 
arrayed in royal robes, is well worth seeing at the price of becoming a 
member. 

ODDS PLUT AND HER NAILS. A Welch oath, frequently mentioned in a jocular 
manner by persons, it is hoped, ignorant of its meaning; which is, By 
God's blood, and the nails with which he was nailed to the cross. 

ODD-COME-SHORTLYS. I'll do it one of these odd-come-shortly's; I will do 
it some time or another. 

OFFICE. To give the office; to give information, or make signs to the 
officers to take a thief. 

OGLES. Eyes. Rum ogles; fine eyes. 

OIL OF BARLEY, or BARLEY BROTH. Strong beer. 

OIL OF GLADNESS. I will anoint you with the oil of gladness; ironically 
spoken for, I will beat you. 

OIL OF STIRRUP. A dose the cobler gives his wife whenever she is 
obstropulous. 

OI POAAOI [Greek Letters]. (CAMBRIDGE.) The many; the multitude; who take 
degrees without being entitled for an honor. All that is REQUIRED, are 
three books of Euclid, and as far as Quadratic Equation's in Algebra. See 
PLUCKED. 

OLD. Ugly. CANT. 

OLD DOG AT IT. Expert, accustomed. 

OLD HAND. Knowing or expert in any business. 

OLD HARRY. A composition used by vintners to adulterate their wines; also 
the nick-name for the devil. 

OLD DING. See OLD HAT. 

OLD MR. GORY. A piece of gold. 

OLD NICK. The Devil: from NEKEN, the evil spirit of the north. 

OLD ONE. The Devil. Likewise an expression of quizzical familiarity, as 
"how d'ye do, OLD ONE?" 

OLD PEGG. Poor Yorkshire cheese, made of skimmed milk. 

OLD POGER. The Devil. 

OLD STAGER. One accustomed to business, one who knows mankind. 

OLD TOAST. A brisk old fellow. CANT. 

OLD DOSS. Bridewell. 

OLIVER'S SCULL. A chamber pot. 

OLLI COMPOLLI. The name of one of the principal rogues of the canting 
crew. CANT. 

OMNIUM GATHERUM. The whole together: jocular imitation of law Latin. 

ONE IN TEN. A parson: an allusion to his tithes. 

ONE OF US, or ONE OF MY COUSINS. A woman of the town, a harlot. 

ONION. A seal. Onion hunters, a class of young thieves who are on the look 
out for gentlemen who wear their seals suspended on a ribbon, which they 
cut, and thus secure the seals or other trinkets suspended to the watch. 

OPEN ARSE. A medlar. See MEDLAR. 

OPTIME. The senior and junior optimes are the second and last classes of 
Cambridge honors conferred on taking a degree. That of wranglers is the 
first. The last junior optime is called the Wooden Spoon. 

ORGAN. A pipe. Will you cock your organ? will you smoke your pipe? 

ORTHODOXY AND HETERODOXY. Somebody explained these terms by saying, the 
first was a man who had a doxy of his own, the second a person who made 
use of the doxy of another man. 

OSCHIVES. Bone-handled knives. CANT. 

OSTLER. Oatstealer. 

OTTOMY. The vulgar word for a skeleton. 

OTTOMISED. To be ottomised; to be dissected. You'll be scragged, 
ottomised, and grin in a glass case: you'll be hanged, anatomised, and 
your skeleton kept in a glass case at Surgeons' Hall. 

OVEN. A great mouth; the old woman would never have looked for her 
daughter in the oven, had she not been there herself. 

OVERSEER. A man standing in the pillory, is, from his elevated situation, 
said to be made an overseer. 

OUT AT HEELS, OR OUT AT ELBOWS. In declining circumstances. 

OUTRUN THE CONSTABLE. A man who has lived above his means, or income, is 
said to have outrun the constable. 

OUTS. A gentleman of three outs. See GENTLEMAN. 

OWL. To catch the; a trick practised upon ignorant country boobies, who 
are decoyed into a barn under pretence of catching an owl, where, after 
divers preliminaries, the joke ends in their having a pail of water poured 
upon their heads. 

OWL IN AN IVY BUSH. He looks like an owl in an ivy bush; frequently said 
of a person with a large frizzled wig, or a woman whose hair is dressed a-
la-blowze. 

OWLERS. Those who smuggle wool over to France. 

OX HOUSE. He must go through the ox house to bed; a saying of an old 
fellow who marries a young girl. 

OYES. Corruption of oyez, proclaimed by the crier of all courts of 
justice. 

OYSTER. A gob of thick phlegm, spit by a consumptive man; in law Latin, 
UNUM VIRIDUM GOBBUM 



P'S. To mind one's P's and Q's; to be attentive to the main chance. 

P.P.C. An inscription on the visiting cards of our modern fine gentleman, 
signifying that they have called POUR PRENDRE CONGE, i.e. 'to take leave,' 
This has of late been ridiculed by cards inscribed D.I.O. i.e. 'Damme, I'm 
off.' 

PACKET. A false report. 

PACKTHREAD. To talk packthread; to use indecent language well wrapt up. 

PAD. The highway, or a robber thereon; also a bed. Footpads; foot robbers. 
To go out upon the pad; to go out in order to commit a robbery. 

PAD BORROWERS. Horse stealers. 

TO PAD THE HOOF. See To BEAT THE HOOF. 

PADDINGTON FAIR DAY. An execution day, Tyburn being in the parish or 
neighbourhood of Paddington. To dance the Paddington frisk; to be hanged. 

PADDY. The general name for an Irishman: being the abbreviation of 
Patrick, the name of the tutelar saint of that island. 

PAINTER. I'll cut your painter for you; I'll send you off; the painter 
being the ropfe that holds the boat fast to the ship. SEA TERM. 

PAIR OF WINGS. Oars. CANT. 

TO PALAVER. To flatter: originally an African word for a treaty, talk, or 
conference. 

PALLIARDS. Those whose fathers were clapperdogens, or beggars born, and 
who themselves follow the same trade: the female sort beg with a number of 
children, borrowing them, if they have not a sufficient number of their 
own, and making them cry by pinching in order to excite charity; the males 
make artificial sores on different parts of their bodies, to move 
compassion. 

PALL. A companion. One who generally accompanies another, or who commit 
robberies together. 

PAM. The knave of clubs. 

PANNAM. Bread. 

PANNIER MAN. A servant belonging to the Temple and Gray's Inn, whose 
office is to announce the dinner. This in the Temple, is done by blowing a 
horn; and in Gray's Inn proclaiming the word Manger, Manger, Manger, in 
each of the three courts. 

PANNY. A house. To do a panny: to rob a house. See the Sessions Papers. 
Probably, panny originally meant the butler's pantry, where the knives and 
forks, spoons, &c. are usually kept The pigs frisked my panney, and nailed 
my screws; the officers searched my house, and seized my picklock keys. 
CANT. 

PANTER. A hart: that animal is, in the Psalms, said to pant after the 
fresh water-brooks. Also the human heart, which frequently pants in time 
of danger. CANT. 

PANTILE SHOP. A presbyterian, or other dissenting meeting house, 
frequently covered with pantiles: called also a cock-pit. 

PANTLER. A butler. 

PAP. Bread sauce; also the food of infants. His mouth is full of pap; he 
is still a baby. 

PAPER SCULL. A thin-scull'd foolish fellow. 

PAPLER. Milk pottage. 

PARELL. Whites of eggs, bay salt, milk, and pump water, beat together, and 
poured into a vessel of wine to prevent its fretting. 

PARENTHESIS. To put a man's nose into a parenthesis: to pull it, the 
fingers and thumb answering the hooks or crochets. A wooden parenthesis; 
the pillory. An iron parenthesis; a prison. 

PARINGS. The chippings of money. CANT. 

PARISH BULL. A parson. 

PARISH. His stockings are of two parishes; i.e. they are not fellows. 

PARISH SOLDIER. A jeering name for a militiaman: from substitutes being 
frequently hired by the parish from which one of its inhabitants is drawn. 

PARK PAILING. Teeth. 

PARSON. A guide post, hand or finger post by the road side for directing 
travellers: compared to a parson, because, like him, it sets people in the 
right way. See GUIDE POST. He that would have luck in horse-flesh, must 
kiss a parson's wife. 

PARSON'S JOURNEYMAN. A curate. 

PARSON PALMER. A jocular name, or term of reproach, to one who stops the 
circulation of the glass by preaching over his liquor; as it is said was 
done by a parson of that name whose cellar was under his pulpit. 

PARTIAL. Inclining more to one side than the other, crooked, all o' one 
hugh. 

PASS BANK. The place for playing at passage, cut into the ground almost 
like a cock-pit. Also the stock or fund. 

PASSAGE. A camp game with three dice: doublets, making up ten or more, to 
pass or win; any other chances lose. 

PAT. Apposite, or to the purpose. 

PATE. The head. Carroty-pated; red-haired. 

PATRICO, or PATER-COVE. The fifteenth rank of the canting tribe; strolling 
priests that marry people under a hedge, without gospel or common prayer 
book: the couple standing on each side of a dead beast, are bid to live 
together till death them does part; so shaking hands, the wedding is 
ended. Also any minister or parson. 

PATTERING. The maundering or pert replies of servants; also talk or 
palaver in order to amuse one intended to be cheated. Pattering of 
prayers; the confused sound of a number of persons praying together. 

TO PATTER. To talk. To patter flash; to speak flash, or the language used 
by thieves. How the blowen lushes jackey, and patters flash; how the wench 
drinks gin, and talks flash. 

PAVIOUR'S WORKSHOP. The street. 

TO PAUM. To conceal in the hand. To paum a die: to hide a die in the palm 
of the hand. He paums; he cheats. Don't pretend to paum that upon me. 

PAUNCH. The belly. Some think paunch was the original name of that 
facetious prince of puppets, now called Mr. Punch, as he is always 
represented with a very prominent belly: though the common opinion is, 
that both the name and character were taken from a celebrated Italian 
comedian, called Polichenello. 

PAW. A hand or foot; look at his dirty paws. Fore paw; the hand. Hind paw; 
the foot. To paw; to touch or handle clumsily. 

PAW PAW TRICKS. Naughty tricks: an expression used by nurses, &c. to 
children. 

TO PAY. To smear over. To pay the bottom of a ship or boat; to smear it 
over with pitch: The devil to pay, and no pitch hot or ready. SEA TERM.--
Also to beat: as, I will pay you as Paul paid the Ephesians, over the face 
and eyes, and all your d---d jaws. To pay away; to fight manfully, also to 
eat voraciously. To pay through the nose: to pay an extravagant price. 

To PEACH. To impeach: called also to blow the gab, squeak, or turn stag. 

PEAK. Any kind of lace. 

PEAL. To ring a peal in a man's ears; to scold at him: his wife rang him 
such a peal! 

PEAR MAKING. Taking bounties from several regiments and immediately 
deserting. The cove was fined in the steel for pear making; the fellow was 
imprisoned in the house of correction for taking bounties from different 
regiments. 

PECCAVI. To cry peccavi; to acknowledge one's self in an error, to own a 
fault: from the Latin PECCAVI, I have sinned. 

PECK. Victuals. Peck and booze; victuals and drink. 

PECKISH. Hungry. 

PECULIAR. A mistress. 

PED. A basket. CANT. 

PEDLAR'S FRENCH. The cant language. Pedlar's pony; a walking-stick. 

To PEEL. To strip: allusion to the taking off the coat or rind of an 
orange or apple. 

PEEPER. A spying glass; also a looking-glass. Track up the dancers, and 
pike with the peeper; whip up stairs, and run off with the looking-glass. 
CANT. 

PEEPERS. Eyes. Single peeper, a one-eyed man. 

PEEPING TOM. A nick name for a curious prying fellow; derived from an old 
legendary tale, told of a taylor of Coventry, who, when Godiva countess of 
Chester rode at noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure 
certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding the rest of the 
people shut up their houses) shly peeped out of his window, for which he 
was miraculously struck blind. His figure, peeping out of a window, is 
still kept up in remembrance of the transaction. 

PEEPY. Drowsy. 

To PEER. To look about, to be circumspect. 

PEERY. Inquisitive, suspicious. The cull's peery; that fellow suspects 
something. There's a peery, tis snitch we are observed, there's nothing to 
be done. 

PEG. Old Peg; poor hard Suffolk or Yorkshire cheese. A peg is also a blow 
with a straightarm: a term used by the professors of gymnastic arts. A peg 
in the day-light, the victualling office, or the haltering-place; a blow 
in the eye, stomach, or under the ear. 

PEG TRANTUM'S. Gone to Peg Trantum's; dead. 

PEGO. The penis of man or beast. 

PELL-MELL. Tumultuously, helter skelter, jumbled together. 

PELT. A heat, chafe, or passion; as, What a pelt he was in! Pelt is also 
the skin of several beasts. 

PENANCE BOARD. The pillory. 

PENNY-WISE AND POUND FOOLISH. Saving in small matters, and extravagant in 
great. 

PENNYWORTH. An equivalent. A good pennyworth; cheap bargain. 

PENTHOUSE NAB. A broad brimmed hat. 

PEPPERED. Infected with the venereal disease. 

PEPPERY. Warm, passionate. 

PERKIN. Water cyder. 

PERRIWINKLE. A wig. 

PERSUADERS. Spurs. The kiddey clapped his persuaders to his prad but the 
traps boned him; the highwayman spurred his horse hard, but the officers 
seized him. 

PET. In a pet; in a passion or miff. 

PETER. A portmanteau or cloke-bag. Biter of peters; one that makes it a 
trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind stage coaches or out of 
waggons. To rob Peter to pay Paul; to borrow of one man to pay another: 
styled also manoeuvring the apostles. 

PETER GUNNER, will kill all the birds that died last summer. A piece of 
wit commonly thrown out at a person walking through a street or village 
near London, with a gun in his hand. 

PETER LAY. The department of stealing portmanteaus, trunks, &c. 

PETER LUG. Who is Peter Lug? who lets the glass stand at his door, or 
before him. 

PETTICOAT HOLD. One who has an estate during his wife's life, called the 
apron-string hold. 

PETTICOAT PENSIONER. One kept by a woman forsecret services. 

PETTISH. Passionate. 

PETTY FOGGER. A little dirty attorney, ready to undertake any litigious or 
bad cause: it is derived from the French words petit vogue, of small 
credit, or little reputation. 

PHARAOH. Strong malt liquor. 

PHILISTINES. Bailiffs, or officers of justice; also drunkards. 

PHOENIX-MEN. Firemen belonging to an insurance office, which gave a badge 
charged with a phoenix: these men were called likewise firedrakes. 

PHOS BOTTLE. A. bottle of phosphorus: used by housebreakers to light their 
lanthorns. Ding the phos; throw away the bottle of phosphorus. 

PHRASE OF PAPER. Half a quarter of a sheet. See VESSEL, PHYSOG. 

PHYSOG. The face. A vulgar abbreviation of physiognomy. 

PHYZ. The face. Rum phyz; an odd face or countenance. 

PICAROON. A pirate; also a sharper. 

PICKANINY. A young child, an infant. NEGRO TERM. 

PICKING. Pilfering, petty larceny. 

PICKLE. An arch waggish fellow. In pickle, or in the pickling tub; in a 
salivation. There are rods in brine, or pickle, for him; a punishment 
awaits him, or is prepared for him. Pickle herring; the zany or merry 
andrew of a mountebank. See JACK PUDDING. 

PICKT HATCH. To go to the manor of pickt hatch, a cant name for some part 
of the town noted for bawdy houses in Shakespeare's time, and used by him 
in that sense. 

PICKTHANK. A tale-bearer or mischief maker. 

PICTURE FRAME. The sheriff's picture frame; the gallows or pillory. 

To PIDDLE. To make water: a childish expression; as, Mammy, I want to 
piddle. Piddling also means trifling, or doing any thing in a small 
degree: perhaps from peddling. 

PIECE. A wench. A damned good or bad piece; a girl who is more or less 
active and skilful in the amorous congress. Hence the (CAMBRIDGE) toast, 
May we never have a PIECE (peace) that will injure the constitution. Piece 
likewise means at Cambridge a close or spot of ground adjacent to any of 
the colleges, as Clare-hall Piece, &c. The spot of ground before King's 
College formerly belonged to Clare-hall. While Clare Piece belonged to 
King's, the master of Clare-hall proposed a swop, which being refused by 
the provost of King's, he erected before their gates a temple of CLOACINA. 
It will be unnecessary to say that his arguments were soon acceded to. 

PIG. A police officer. A China street pig; a Bow-street officer. Floor the 
pig and bolt; knock down the officer and run away. 

PIG. Sixpence, a sow's baby. Pig-widgeon; a simpleton. To pig together; to 
lie or sleep together, two or more in a bed. Cold pig; a jocular 
punishment inflicted by the maid seryants, or other females of the house, 
on persons lying over long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed 
clothes, and leaving them to pig or lie in the cold. To buy a pig in a 
poke; to purchase any thing without seeing. Pig's eyes; small eyes. 
Pigsnyes; the same: a vulgar term of endearment to a woman. He can have 
boiled pig at home; a mark of being master of his own house: an allusion 
to a well known poem and story. Brandy is Latin for pig and goose; an 
apology for drinking a dram after either. 

PIG-HEADED. Obstinate. 

PIG RUNNING. A piece of game frequently practised at fairs, wakes, &c. A 
large pig, whose tail is cut short, and both soaped and greased, being 
turned out, is hunted by the young men and boys, and becomes the property 
of him who can catch and hold him by the tail, abpve the height of his 
head. 

PIGEON. A weak silly fellow easily imposed on. To pigeon; to cheat. To 
milk the pigeon; to attempt impossibilities, to be put to shifts for want 
of money. To fly a blue pigeon; to steal lead off a church. 

PIGEONS. Sharpers, who, during the drawing of the lottery, wait ready 
mounted near Guildhall, and, as soon as the first two or three numbers are 
drawn, which they receive from a confederate on a card, ride with them 
full speed to some distant insurance office, before fixed on, where there 
is another of the gang, commonly a decent looking woman, who takes care to 
be at the office before the hour of drawing: to her he secretly gives the 
number, which she insures for a considerable sum: thus biting the biter. 

PIGEON'S MILK. Boys and novices are frequently sent on the first of April 
to buy pigeons milk. 

To PIKE. To run away. Pike off; run away. 

PILGRIM'S SALVE. A sirreverence, human excrement. 

PILL, or PEELE GARLICK. Said originally to mean one whose skin or hair had 
fallen off from some disease, chiefly the venereal one; but now commonly 
used by persons speaking of themselves: as, there stood poor pill garlick: 
i.e. there stood I. 

PILLALOO. The Irish cry or howl at funerals. 

PIMP. A male procurer, or cock bawd; also a small faggot used about London 
for lighting fires, named from introducing the fire to the coals. 

PIMP WHISKIN. A top trader in pimping. 

PIMPLE. The head. 

PIN. In or to a merry pin; almost drunk: an allusion to a sort of tankard, 
formerly used in the north, having silver pegs or pins set at equal 
distances from the top to the bottom: by the rules of good fellowship, 
every person drinking out of one of these tankards, was to swallow the 
quantity contained between two pins; if he drank more or less, he was to 
continue drinking till he ended at a pin: by this means persons 
unaccustomed to measure their draughts were obliged to drink the whole 
tankard. Hence when a person was a little elevated with liquor, he was 
said to have drunk to a merry pin. 

PIN BASKET. The youngest child. 

PIN MONEY. An allowance settled on a married woman for her pocket 
expences. 

PINCH. At a pinch; on an exigency. 

PINCH. To go into a tradesman's shop under the pretence of purchasing 
rings or other light articles, and while examining them to shift some up 
the sleeve of the coat. Also to ask for change for a guinea, and when the 
silver is received, to change some of the good shillings for bad ones; 
then suddenly pretending to recollect that you had sufficient silver to 
pay the bill, ask for the guinea again, and return the change, by which 
means several bad shillings are passed. 

To PINCH ON THE PARSON'S SIDE. To defraud the parson of his tithe. 

PINCHERS. Rogues who, in changing money, by dexterity of hand frequently 
secrete two or three shillings out of the change of a guinea. This species 
of roguery is called the pinch, or pinching lay. 

To PINK. To stab or wound with a small sword: probably derived from the 
holes formerly cut in both men and women's clothes, called pinking. Pink 
of the fashion; the top of the mode. To pink and wink; frequently winking 
the eyes through a weakness in them. 

PINKING-DINDEE. A sweater or mohawk. IRISH. 

PINS. Legs. Queer pins; ill shapen legs. 

PIPER. A broken winded horse. 

PISCINARIANS. A club or brotherhood, A.D. 1743. 

PISS. He will piss when he can't whistle; he will be hanged. He shall not 
piss my money against the wall; he shall not have my money to spend in 
liquor. 

He who once a good name gets,
May piss a bed, and say he sweats.

PISS-BURNED. Discoloured: commonly applied to a discoloured grey wig. 

PISS MAKER. A great drinker, one much given to liquor. 

PISS POT HALL. A house at Clapton, near Hackney, built by a potter chiefly 
out of the profits of chamber pots, in the bottom of which the portrait of 
Dr. Sacheverel was depicted. 

PISS PROPHET. A physician who judges of the diseases of his patients 
solely by the inspection of their urine. 

PISS-PROUD. Having a false erection. That old fellow thought he had an 
erection, but his--was only piss- proud; said of any old fellow who 
marries a young wife. 

PISSING DOWN ANY ONE'S BACK. Flattering him. 

PISSING PINS AND NEEDLES. To have a gonorrhea. 

PIT. A watch fob. He drew a rare thimble from the swell's pit. He took a 
handsome watch from the gentleman's fob. 

PIT. To lay pit and boxes into one; an operation in midwifery or 
copulation, whereby the division between the anus and vagina is cut 
through, broken, and demolished: a simile borrowed from the playhouse, 
when, for the benefit of some favourite player, the pit and boxes are laid 
together. The pit is also the hole under the gallows, where poor rogues 
unable to pay the fees are buried. 

PITT'S PICTURE. A window stopt up on the inside, to save the tax imposed 
in that gentleman's administration. PARTY WIT 

PIT-A-PAT. The palpitation of the heart: as, my heart went pit-a-pat. 
Pintledy-pantledy; the same. 

PITCH-KETTLED. Stuck fast, confounded. 

PITCHER. The miraculous pitcher, that holds water with the mouth 
downwards: a woman's commodity. She has crack'd her pitcher or pipkin; she 
has lost her maidenhead. 

PIZZY CLUB. A society held, A. D, 1744, at the sign of the Tower, on Tower 
Hill: president, Don Pizzaro. 

PLAISTER OF WARM GUTS. One warm belly'dapped to another; a receipt 
frequently prescribed for different disorders. 

PLANT. The place in the house of the fence where stolen goods are 
secreted. Any place where stolen goods are concealed. 

To PLANT. To lay, place, or hide. Plant your wids and stow them; be 
careful what you say, or let slip. Also to bury, as, he was planted by the 
parson. 

PLATE. Money, silver, prize. He is in for the plate; he has won the KEAT, 
i.e. is infected with the venereal disorder: a simile drawn from hofse-
racing. When the plate fleet comes in; when money comes to hand. 

PLATTER-FACED. Broad-faced. 

PLAY. To play booty; to play with an intention to lose. To play the whole 
game; to cheat. To play least in sight; to hide, or keep out of the way. 
To play the devil; to be guilty of some great irregularity or 
mismanagement. 

PLUCK. Courage. He wants pluck: he is a coward. Against the pluck; against 
the inclination. Pluck the Ribbon; ring the bell. To pluck a crow with 
one; to settle a dispute, to reprove one for some past transgression. To 
pluck a rose; an expression said to be used by women for going to the 
necessary house, which in the country usually stands in the garden. To 
pluck also signifies to deny a degree to a candidate at one of the 
universities, on account of insufficiency. The three first books of 
Euclid, and as far as Quadratic Equations in Algebra, will save a man from 
being plucked. These unfortunate fellows are designated by many 
opprobrious appellations, such as the twelve apostles, the legion of 
honor, wise men of the East, &c. 

PLUG TAIL. A man's penis. 

PLUMB. An hundred thousand pounds. 

PLUMMY. It is all plummy; i.e. all is right, or as it ought to be. 

PLUMP. Fat, full, fleshy. Plump in the pocket; full in the pocket. To 
plump; to strike, or shoot. I'll give you a plump in the bread basket, or 
the victualling office: I'll give you a blow in the stomach. Plump his 
peepers, or day-lights; give him a blow in the eyes. He pulled out his 
pops and plumped him; he drew out his pistols and shot him. A plumper; a 
single vote at an election. Plump also means directly, or exactly; as, it 
fell plump upon him: it fell directly upon him. 

PLUMP CURRANT. I am not plump currant; I am out of sorts. 

PLUMPERS. Contrivances said to be formerly worn by old maids, for filling 
out a pair of shrivelled cheeks. 

PLYER. A crutch; also a trader. 

POGY. Drunk. 

POINT. To stretch a point; to exceed some usual limit, to take a great 
stride. Breeches were usually tied up with points, a kind of short laces, 
formerly given away by the churchwardens at Whitsuntide, under the 
denomination of tags: by taking a great stride these were stretched. 

POISONED. Big with child: that wench is poisoned, see how her belly is 
swelled. Poison-pated: red-haired. 

POKE. A blow with the fist: I'll lend you a poke. A poke likewise means a 
sack: whence, to buy a pig in a poke, i.e. to buy any thing without seeing 
or properly examining it. 

POKER. A sword. Fore pokers; aces and kings at cards. To burn your poker; 
to catch the venereal disease. 

POLE. He is like a rope-dancer's polo, lead at both ends; a saying of a 
stupid sluggish fellow. 

POLISH. To polish the king's iron with one's eyebrows; to be in gaol, and 
look through the iron grated windows. To polish a bone; to eat a meal. 
Come and polish a bone with me; come and eat a dinner or supper with me. 

POLL. The head, jolly nob, napper, or knowledge box; also a wig. 

POLT. A blow. Lend him a polt in the muns; give him a knock in the face. 

TO POMMEL. To beat: originally confined to beating with the hilt of a 
sword, the knob being, from its similarity to a small apple, called 
pomelle; in Spanish it is still called the apple of the sword. As the 
clenched fist likewise somewhat resembles an apple, perhaps that might 
occasion the term pommelling to be applied to fisty-cuffs. 

POMP. To save one's pomp at whist, is to score five before the adversaries 
are up, or win the game: originally derived from pimp, which is Welsh for 
five; and should be, I have saved my pimp. 

POMPAGINIS. Aqua pompaginis; pump water. See AQUA. 

POMPKIN. A man or woman of Boston in America: from, the number of pompkins 
raised and eaten by the people of that country. Pompkinshire; Boston and 
its dependencies. 

PONEY. Money. Post the poney; lay down the money. 

PONTIUS PILATE. A pawnbroker. Pontius Pilate's guards, the first regiment 
of foot, or Royal Scots: so intitled from their supposed great antiquity. 
Pontius Pilate's counsellor; one who like him can say, Non invenio causam, 
I can find no cause. Also (Cambridge) a Mr. Shepherd of Trinity College; 
who disputing with a brother parson on the comparative rapidity with which 
they read the liturgy, offered to give him as far as Pontius Pilate in the 
Belief. 

POPE. A figure burned annually every fifth of November, in memory of the 
gunpowder plot, which is said to have been carried on by the papists. 

POPE'S NOSE. The rump of a turkey. 

POPS. Pistols. Popshop: a pawnbroker's shop. To pop; to pawn: also to 
shoot. I popped my tatler; I pawned my watch. I popt the cull; I shot the 
man. His means are two pops and a galloper; that is, he is a highwayman. 

POPLERS. Pottage. CANT. 

PORK. To cry pork; to give intelligence to the undertaker of a funeral; 
metaphor borrowed from the raven, whose note sounds like the word pork. 
Ravens are said to smell carrion at a distance. 

PORKER. A hog: also a Jew. 

PORRIDGE. Keep your breath to cool your porridge; i. e. held your tongue. 

PORRIDGE ISLAND. An alley leading from St. Martin's church-yard to Round-
court, chiefly inhabited by cooks, who cut off ready-dressed meat of all 
sorts, and also sell soup. 

POSEY, or POESY. A nosegay. I shall see you ride backwards up Holborn-
hill, with a book in one hand, and a posey in t'other; i.e. I shall see 
you go to be hanged. Malefactors who piqued themselves on being properly 
equipped for that occasion, had always a nosegay to smell to, and a prayer 
book, although they could not read. 

POSSE MOBILITATIS. The mob. 

POST MASTER GENERAL. The prime minister, who has the patronage of all 
posts and places. 

POST NOINTER. A house painter, who occasionally paints or anoints posts. 
Knight of the post; a false evidence, one ready to swear any thing for 
hire. From post to pillar; backwards and forwards. 

POSTILION OF THE GOSPEL. A parson who hurries over the service. 

POT. The pot calls the kettle black a-se; one rogue exclaims against 
another. 

POT. On the pot; i.e. at stool. 

POT CONVERTS. Proselytes to the Romish church, made by the distribution of 
victuals and money. 

POT HUNTER. One who hunts more for the sake of the prey than the sport. 
Pot valiant; courageous from drink. Potwallopers: persons entitled to vote 
in certain boroughs by having boiled a pot there. 

POTATOE TRAP. The mouth. Shut your potatoe trap and give your tongue a 
holiday; i.e. be silent. IRISH WIT. 

POTHOOKS AND HANGEKS. A scrawl, bad writing. 

POT-WABBLERS. Persons entitled to vote for members of parliament in 
certain boroughs, from having boiled their pots therein. These boroughs 
are called pot-wabbling boroughs. 

POULAIN. A bubo. FRENCH. 

POULTERER. A person that guts letters; i.e. opens them and secretes the 
money. The kiddey was topped for the poultry rig; the young fellow was 
hanged for secreting a letter and taking out the contents. 

POUND. To beat. How the milling cove pounded the cull for being nuts on 
his blowen; how the boxer beat the fellow for taking liberties with his 
mistress. 

POUND. A prison. See LOB'S POUND. Pounded; imprisoned. Shut up in the 
parson's pound; married. POWDER 

POWDER MONKEY. A boy on board a ship of war, whose business is to fetch 
powder from the magazine. 

POWDERING TUB. The same as pickling tub. See PICKLING TUB. 

PRAD LAY. Cutting bags from behind horses. CANT. 

PRAD. A horse. The swell flashes a rum prad: the e gentleman sports a fine 
horse. 

PRANCER. A horse. Prancer's nab.; a horse's head, used as a seal to a 
counterfeit pass. At the sign of the prancer's poll, i.e. the nag's head. 

PRATE ROAST. A talkative boy. 

PRATING CHEAT. The tongue. 

PRATTS. Buttocks; also a tinder box. CANT. 

PRATTLE BROTH. Tea. See CHATTER BROTH, SCANDAL BROTH, &c. 

PRATTLING BOX. The pulpit. 

PRAY. She prays with her knees upwards; said of a woman much given to 
gallantry and intrigue. At her last prayers; saying of an old maid. 

PREADAMITE QUACABITES. This great and laudable society (as they termed 
themselves) held their grand chapter at the Coal-hole. 

P---K. The virile member. 

PRICK-EARED. A prick-eared fellow; one whose ears are longer than his 
hair: an appellation frequently given to puritans, who considered long 
hair as the mark of the whore of Babylon. 

PRICKLOUSE. A taylor. 

PRIEST-CRAFT. The art of awing the laity, managing their consciences, and 
diving into their pockets. 

PRIEST-LINKED. Married. 

PRIEST-RIDDEN. Governed by a priest, or priests. 

PRIG. A thief, a cheat: also a conceited coxcomical fellow. 

PRIG NAPPER. A thief taker. 

PRIGGERS. Thieves in general. Priggers of prancers; horse stealers. 
Priggers of cacklers: robbers of hen- roosts. 

PRIGGING. Riding; also lying with a woman. 

PRIGSTAR. A rival in love. 

PRIME. Bang up. Quite the thing. Excellent. Well done. She's a prime 
piece; she is very skilful in the venereal act. Prime post. She's a prime 
article. 

PRIMINAKY. I had like to be brought into a priminary; i.e. into trouble; 
from PREMUNIRE. 

PRINCE PRIG. A king of the gypsies; also the head thief or receiver 
general. 

PRINCES. When the majesty of the people was a favourite terra in the House 
of Commons, a celebrated wit, seeing chimney sweepers dancing on a May-
day, styled them the young princes. 

PRINCOD. A pincushion. SCOTCH--Also a round plump man or woman. 

PRINCOX. A pert, lively, forward fellow. 

PRINCUM PRANCUM. Mrs. Princum Prancum; a nice, precise, formal madam. 

PRINKING. Dressing over nicely: prinked up as if he came out of a bandbox, 
or fit to sit upon a cupboard's head. 

PRINT. All in print, quite neat or exact, set, screwed up. Quite in print; 
set in a formal manner. 

PRISCIAN. To break Priscian's head; to write or speak false grammar. 
Priscian was a famous grammarian, who flourished at Constantinople in the 
year 525; and who was so devoted to his favourite study, that to speak 
false Latin in his company, was as disagreeable to him as to break his 
head. 

PRITTLE PRATTLE. Insignificant talk: generally applied to women and 
children. 

PROG. Provision. Rum prog; choice provision. To prog; to be on the hunt 
for provision: called in the military term to forage. 

PROPS. Crutches. 

PROPERTY. To make a property of any one; to make him a conveniency, tool, 
or cat's paw; to use him as one's own. 

PROUD. Desirous of copulation. A proud bitch; a bitch at heat, or desirous 
of a dog. 

PROVENDER. He from whom any money is taken on the highway: perhaps 
provider, or provider. CANT. 

PROPHET. The prophet; the Cock at Temple Bar: so called, in 1788, by the 
bucks of the town of the inferior order. 

PRUNELLA. Mr. Prunella; a parson: parson's gowns being frequently made of 
prunella. 

To PRY. To examine minutely into a matter or business. A prying fellow; a 
man of impertinent curiosity, apt to peep and inquire into other men's 
secrets. 

PUBLIC MAN. A bankrupt. 

PUBLIC LEDGER. A prostitute: because, like that paper, she is open to all 
parties. 

PUCKER. All in a pucker; in a dishabille. Also in a fright; as, she was in 
a terrible pucker. 

PUCKER WATER. Water impregnated with alum, or other astringents, used by 
old experienced traders to counterfeit virginity. 

PUDDINGS. The guts: I'll let out your puddings. 

PUDDING-HEADED FELLOW. A stupid fellow, one whose brains are all in 
confusion. 

PUDDING SLEEVES. A parson. 

PUDDING TIME. In good time, or at the beginning of a meal: pudding 
formerly making the first dish. To give the crows a pudding; to die. You 
must eat some cold pudding, to settle your love. 

PUFF, or PUFFER. One who bids at auctions, not with an intent to buy, but 
only to raise the price of the lot; for which purpose many are hired by 
the proprietor of the goods on sale. 

PUFF GUTS. A fat man. 

PUFFING. Bidding at an auction, as above; also praising any thing above 
its merits, from interested motives. The art of puffing is at present 
greatly practised, and essentially necessary in all trades, professions, 
and callings. To puff and blow; to be out of breath. 

PUG. A Dutch pug; a kind of lap-dog, formerly much in vogue; also a 
general name for a monkey. 

PUG CARPENTETER. An inferior carpenter, one employed only in small jobs. 

PUG DRINK. Watered cyder. 

PUGNOSED, or PUGIFIED. A person with a snub or turned up nose. 

PULLY HAWLY. To have a game at pully hawly; to romp with women. 

PULL. To be pulled; to be arrested by a police officer. To have a pull is 
to have an advantage; generally where a person has some superiority at a 
game of chance or skill. 

PUMP. A thin shoe. To pump; to endeavour to draw a secret from any one 
without his perceiving it. Your pump is good, but your sucker is dry; said 
by one to a person who is attempting to pump him. Pumping was also a 
punishment for bailiffs who attempted to act in privileged places, such as 
the Mint, Temple, &c. It is also a piece of discipline administered to a 
pickpocket caught in the fact, when there is no pond at hand. To pump 
ship; to make water, and sometimes to vomit. SEA PHRASE. 

PUMP WATER. He was christened in pump water; commonly said of a person 
that has a red face. 

PUNCH. A liquor called by foreigners Contradiction, from its being 
composed of spirits to make it strong, water to make it weak, lemon juice 
to make it sour, and sugar to make it sweet. Punch is also the name of the 
prince of puppets, the chief wit and support of a puppet-show. To punch 
it, is a cant term for running away. Punchable; old passable money, anno 
1695. A girl that is ripe for man is called a punchable wench. Cobler's 
Punch. Urine with a cinder in it. 

PUNK. A whore; also a soldier's trull. See TRULL. 

PUNY. Weak. A puny child; a weak little child. A puny stomach; a weak 
stomach. Puny, or puisne judge; the last made judge. 

PUPIL MONGERS. Persons at the universities who make it their business to 
instruct and superintend a number of pupils. 

PUPPY. An affected or conceited coxcomb. 

PURBLIND. Dim-sighted. 

PURL. Ale in which wormwood has been infused, or ale and bitters drunk 
warm. 

PURL ROYAL. Canary wine; with a dash of tincture of wormwood. 

PURSE PROUD. One that is vain of his riches. 

PURSENETS. Goods taken up at thrice their value, by young spendthrifts, 
upon trust. 

PURSER'S PUMP. A bassoon: from its likeness to a syphon, called a purser's 
pump. 

PURSY, or PURSIVE. Short-breathed, or foggy, from being over fat. 

PUSHING SCHOOL. A fencing school; also a brothel. 

PUT. A country put; an ignorant awkward clown. To put upon any one; to 
attempt to impose on him, or to make him the but of the company. 

PUZZLE-CAUSE. A lawyer who has a confused understanding. 

PUZZLE-TEXT. An ignorant blundering parson. 



QUACK. An ungraduated ignorant pretender to skill in physic, a vender of 
nostrums. 

QUACK-SALVER. A mountebank: a seller of salves. 

QUACKING CHEAT. A duck. 

QUAG. Abbreviation of quagmire; marshy moorish around. 

QUAIL-PIPE. A woman's tongue; also a device to take birds of that name by 
imitating their call. Quail pipe boots; boots resembling a quail pipe, 
from the number of plaits; they were much worn in the reign of Charles II. 

QUAKERS. A religious sect so called from their agitations in preaching. 

QUAKING CHEAT. A calf or sheep. 

QUANDARY. To be in a quandary: to be puzzled. Also one so over-gorged, as 
to be doubtful which he should do first, sh--e or spew. Some derive the 
term quandary from the French phrase qu'en dirai je? what shall I say of 
it? others from an Italian word signifying a conjuror's circle. 

QUARREL-PICKER. A glazier: from the small squares in casements, called 
CARREUX, vulgarly quarrels. 

QUARROMES, or QUARRON. A body. CANT. 

QUARTERED. Divided into four parts; to be hanged, drawn, and quartered, is 
the sentence on traitors and rebels. Persons receiving part of the salary 
of an office from the holder of it, by virtue of an agreement with the 
donor, are said to be quartered on him. Soldiers billetted on a publican 
are likewise said to be quartered on him. 

TO QUASH. To suppress, annul or overthrow; vulgarly pronounced squash: 
they squashed the indictment. 

QUEAN. A slut, or worthless woman, a strumpet. 

QUEEN DICK. To the tune of the life and death of Queen Dick. That happened 
in the reign of Queen Dick; i.e., never. 

QUEEN STREET. A mart governed by his wife, is said to live in Queen 
street, or at the sign of the Queen's Head. 

QUEER, or QUIRE. Base, roguish, bad, naught or worthless. How queerly the 
cull touts; how roguishly the fellow looks. It also means odd, uncommon. 
CANT. 

QUEER AS DICK'S HATBAND. Out of order, without knowing one's disease. 

TO QUEER. To puzzle or confound. I have queered the old full bottom; i.e. 
I have puzzled the judge. To queer one's ogles among bruisers; to darken 
one's day lights. 

QUEER WEDGES. Large buckles. 

QUEER BAIL. Insolvent sharpers, who make a profession of bailing persons 
arrested: they are generally styled Jew bail, from that branch of business 
being chiefly carried on by the sons of Judah. The lowest sort of these, 
who borrow or hire clothes to appear in, are called Mounters, from their 
mounting particular dresses suitable to the occasion. CANT. 

QUEER BIRDS. Rogues relieved from prison, and returned to their old trade. 

QUEER BIT-MAKERS. Coiners. CANT. 

QUEER BITCH. An odd, out-of-the-way fellow. 

QUEER BLUFFER. The master of a public-house the resort of rogues and 
sharpers, a cut-throat inn or alehouse keeper. 

QUEER BUNG. An empty purse. 

QUEER CHECKERS. Among strolling players, door-keepers who defraud the 
company, by falsely checking the number of people in the house. 

QUEER COLE FENCER. A putter off, or utterer, of bad money. 

QUEER COLE MAKER. A maker of bad money. 

QUEER COVE. A rogue. CANT. 

QUEER CUFFIN. A justice of the peace; also a churl. 

QUEER DEGEN. An ordinary sword, brass or iron hilted. 

QUEER KEN. A prison. CANT. 

QUEER KICKS. A bad pair of breeches. 

QUEER MORT. A diseased strumpet. CANT. 

QUEER NAB. A felt hat, or other bad hat. 

QUEER PLUNGERS. Cheats who throw themselves into the water, in order that 
they may be taken up by their accomplices, who carry them to one of the 
houses appointed by the Humane Society for the recovery of drowned 
persons, where they are rewarded by the society with a guinea each; and 
the supposed drowned persons, pretending he was driven to that extremity 
by great necessity, also frequently sent away with a contribution in his 
pocket. 

QUEER PRANCER. A bad, worn-out, foundered horse; also a cowardly or faint-
hearted horse-stealer. 

QUEER ROOSTER. An informer that pretends to be sleeping, and thereby 
overhears the conversation of thieves in night cellars. 

QUEER STREET. Wrong. Improper. Contrary to one's wish. It is queer street, 
a cant phrase, to signify that it is wrong or different to our wish. 

QUITAM. Aquitam horse; one that will both carry and draw. LAW WIT. 

TO QUIBBLE. To make subtle distinctions; also to play upon words. 

QUICK AND NIMBLE. More like a bear than a squirrel. Jeeringly said to any 
one moving sluggishly on a business or errand that requires dispatch. 

QUID. The quantity of tobacco put into the mouth at one time. To quid 
tobacco; to chew tobacco. Quid est hoc? hoc est quid; a guinea. Half a 
quid; half a guinea. The swell tipped me fifty quid for the prad; the 
gentleman gave fifty pounds for the horse. 

QUIDS. Cash, money. Can you tip me any quids? can you lend me some money? 

QUIFFING. Rogering. See TO ROGER. 

QUIDNUNC. A politician: from a character of that name in the farce of the 
Upholsterer. 

QUILL DRIVER. A clerk, scribe, or hackney writer. 

QUIM. The private parts of a woman: perhaps from the Spanish quemar, to 
burn. (CAMBRIDGE) A piece's furbelow. 

QUINSEY. Choked by a hempen quinsey; hanged. 

QUIPPS. Girds, taunts, jests. 

QUIRE, or CHOIR BIRD. A complete rogue, one that has sung in different 
choirs or cages, i.e. gaols. CANT. 

QUIRKS AND QUILLETS. Tricks and devices. Quirks in law; subtle 
distinctions and evasions. 

QUIZ. A strange-looking fellow, an odd dog. OXFORD. 

QUOD. Newgate, or any other prison. The dab's in quod; the poor rogue is 
in prison. 

QUOTA. Snack, share, part, proportion, or dividend. Tip me my quota; give 
me part of the winnings, booty, or plunder. CANT. 



RABBIT. A Welch rabbit; bread and cheese toasted, i.e. a Welch rare bit. 
Rabbits were also a sort of wooden canns to drink out of, now out of use. 

RABBIT CATCHER. A midwife. 

RABBIT SUCKERS. Young spendthrifts taking up goods on trust at great 
prices. 

RACK RENT. Rent strained to the utmost value. To lie at rack and manger; 
to be in great disorder. 

RACKABACK. A gormagon. See GORMAGON. 

RAFFS. An appellation given by the gownsmen of the university of Oxford to 
the inhabitants of that place. 

RAG. Bank notes. Money in general. The cove has no rag; the fellow has no 
money. 

RAG. A farthing. 

TO RAG. To abuse, and tear to rags the characters of the persons abused. 
She gave him a good ragging, or ragged him off heartily. 

RAG CARRIER. An ensign. 

RAG FAIR. An inspection of the linen and necessaries of a company of 
soldiers, commonly made by their officers on Mondays or Saturdays. 

RAG WATER. Gin, or any other common dram: these liquors seldom failing to 
reduce those that drink them to rags. 

RAGAMUFFIN. A ragged fellow, one all in tatters, a tatterdemallion. 

RAILS. See HEAD RAILS. A dish of rails; a lecture, jobation, or scolding 
from a married woman to her husband. 

RAINBOW. Knight of the rainbow; a footman: from being commonly clothed in 
garments of different colours. A meeting of gentlemen, styled of the most 
ancient order of the rainbow, was advertised to be held at the 
Foppington's Head, Moorfields. 

RAINY DAY. To lay up something for a rainy day; to provide against a time 
of necessity or distress. 

RAKE, RAKEHELL, or RAKESHAME. A lewd, debauched fellow. 

RALPH SPOONER. A fool. 

RAM CAT. A he cat. 

RAMMISH. Rank. Rammish woman; a sturdy virago. 

RAMMER. The arm. The busnapper's kenchin seized my rammer; i.e. the 
watchman laid hold of my arm. CANT. 

TO RAMP. To snatch, or tear any thing forcibly from the person. 

RAMSHACKLED. Out of repair. A ramshackled house; perhaps a corruption of 
RANSACKED, i.e. plundered. 

RANDLE. A set of nonsensical verses, repeated in Ireland by schoolboys, 
and young people, who have been guilty of breaking wind backwards before 
any of their compa- nions; if they neglect this apology, they are liable 
to certain kicks, pinches, and fillips, which are accompanied with divers 
admonitory couplets. 

RANDY. Obstreperous, unruly, rampant. 

RANGLING. Intriguing with a variety of women. 

RANK. Stinking, rammish, ill-flavoured; also strong, great. A rank knave; 
a rank coward: perhaps the latter may allude to an ill savour caused by 
fear. 

RANK RIDER. A highwayman. 

RANTALLION. One whose scrotum is so relaxed as to be longer than his 
penis, i.e. whose shot pouch is longer that the barrel of his piece. 

RANTIPOLE. A rude romping boy or girl; also a gadabout dissipated woman. 
To ride rantipole; the same as riding St. George. See ST. GEORGE. 

RANTUM SCANTUM. Playing at rantum scantum; making the beast with two 
backs. 

To RAP To take a false oath; also to curse. He rapped out a volley; i.e. 
he swore a whole volley of oaths. To rap, means also to exchange or 
barter: a rap is likewise an Irish halfpenny. Rap on the knuckles; a 
reprimand. 

RAPPAREES. Irish robbers, or outlaws, who in the time of Oliver Cromwell 
were armed with short weapons, called in Irish RAPIERS, used for ripping 
persons up. 

RAPPER. A swinging great lie. 

RAREE SHEW MEN. Poor Savoyards, who subsist by shewing the magic lantern 
and marmots about London. 

RASCAL. A rogue or villain: a term borrowed from the chase; a rascal 
originally meaning a lean shabby deer, at the time of changing his horns, 
penis, &c. whence, in the vulgar acceptation, rascal is conceived to 
signify a man without genitals: the regular vulgar answer to this 
reproach, if uttered by a woman, is the offer of an ocular demonstration 
of the virility of the party so defamed. Some derive it from RASCAGLIONE, 
an Italian word signifying a man. without testicles, or an eunuch. 

RAT. A drunken man or woman taken up by the watch, and confined in the, 
watch-house. CANT. To smell a rat; to suspect some intended trick, or 
unfair design. 

RATS. Of these there are the following kinds: a black rat and a grey rat, 
a py-rat and a cu-rat. 

RATTLE. A dice-box. To rattle; to talk without consideration, also to move 
off or go away. To rattle one off; to rate or scold him. 

RATTLE-PATE. A volatile, unsteady, or whimsical man or woman. 

RATTLE-TRAPS. A contemptuous name for any curious portable piece of 
machinery, or philosophical apparatus. 

RATTLER. A coach. Rattle and prad; a coach and horses. 

RATTLING COVE. A coachman. CANT. 

RATTLING MUMPERS. Beggars who ply coaches. CANT. 

RAWHEAD AND BLOODY BONES. A bull beggar, or scarechild, with which foolish 
nurses terrify crying brats. 

READER. A pocket-book. CANT. 

READER MERCHANTS. Pickpockets, chiefly young Jews, who ply about the Bank 
to steal the pocket-books of persons who have just received their 
dividends there. 

READY. The ready rhino; money. CANT. 

REBUS. A riddle or pun on a man's name, expressed in sculpture or 
painting, thus: a bolt or arrow, and a tun, for Bolton; death's head, and 
a ton, for Morton. 

RECEIVER GENERAL. A prostitute. 

RECKON. To reckon with one's host; to make an erroneous judgment in one's 
own favour. To cast-up one's reckoning or accounts; to vomit. 

TO RECRUIT. To get a fresh supply of money. 

RECRUITING SERVICE. Robbing on the highway. 

RED FUSTIAN. Port wine. 

RED LANE. The throat. Gone down the red lane; swallowed. 

RED RIBBIN. Brandy. 

RED LATTICE. A public house. 

RED LETTER DAY. A saint's day or holiday, marked in the calendars with red 
letters. Red letter men; Roman Catholics: from their observation of the 
saint days marked in red letters. 

RED RAG. The tongue. Shut your potatoe trap, and give your red rag a 
holiday; i.e. shut your mouth, and let your tongue rest. Too much of the 
red rag (too much tongue). 

RED SAIL-YARD DOCKERS. Buyers of stores stolen out of the royal yards and 
docks. 

RED SHANK. A Scotch Highlander. 

REGULARS. Share of the booty. The coves cracked the swell's crib, fenced 
the swag, and each cracksman napped his regular; some fellows broke open a 
gentleman's house, and after selling the property which they had stolen, 
they divided the money between them. 

RELIGIOUS HORSE. One much given to prayer, or apt to be down upon his 
knees. 

RELIGIOUS PAINTER. One who does not break the commandment which prohibits 
the making of the likeness of any thing in heaven or earth, or in the 
waters under the earth. 

THE RELISH. The sign of the Cheshire cheese. 

RELISH. Carnal connection with a woman. 

REMEDY CRITCH. A chamber pot, or member mug. 

REMEMBER PARSON MELHAM. Drink about: a Norfolk phrase. 

RENDEZVOUS. A place of meeting. The rendezvous of the beggars were, about 
the year 1638, according to the Bellman, St, Quinton's, the Three Crowns 
in the Vintry, St. Tybs, and at Knapsbury: there were four barns within a 
mile of London. In Middlesex were four other harbours, called Draw the 
Pudding out of the Fire, the Cross Keys in Craneford parish, St. Julian's 
in Isleworth parish, and the house of Pettie in Northall parish. In Kent, 
the King's Barn near Dartford, and Ketbrooke near Blackheath. 

REP. A woman of reputation. 

REPOSITORY. A lock-up or spunging-house, a gaol. Also livery stables where 
horses and carriages are sold by auction. 

RESCOUNTERS. The time of settlement between the bulls and bears of 
Exchange-alley, when the losers must pay their differences, or become lame 
ducks, and waddle out of the Alley. 

RESURRECTION MEN. Persons employed by the students in anatomy to steal 
dead bodies out of church-yards. 

REVERENCE. An ancient custom, which obliges any person easing himself near 
the highway or foot-path, on the word REVERENCE being given him by a 
passenger, to take off his hat with his teeth, and without moving from his 
station to throw it over his head, by which it frequently falls into the 
excrement; this was considered as a punishment for the breach of delicacy, 
A person refusing to obey this law, might be pushed backwards. Hence, 
perhaps, the term, SIR-REVERENCE. 

REVERSED. A man set by bullies on his head, that his money may fall out of 
his breeches, which they afterwards by accident pick up. See HOISTING. 

REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS. A visitation of the clergy. See CROW 
FAIR. 

RHINO. Money. CANT. 

RIB. A wife: an allusion to our common mother Eve, made out of Adam's rib. 
A crooked rib: a cross-grained wife. 

RIBALDRY. Vulgar abusive language, such as was spoken by ribalds. Ribalds 
were originally mercenary soldiers who travelled about, serving any master 
far pay, but afterwards degenerated into a mere banditti. 

RIBBIN. Money. The ribbin runs thick; i.e. there is plenty of money. CANT. 
Blue ribbin. Gin. The cull lushes the blue ribbin; the silly fellow drinks 
common gin. 

To RIBROAST. To beat: I'll ribroast him to his heart's content. 

RICH FACE, or NOSE. A red pimpled, face. 

RICHAUD SNARY. A dictionary. A country lad, having been reproved for 
calling persons by their christian names, being sent by his master to 
borrow a dictionary, thought to shew his breeding by asking for a Richard 
Snary. 

RIDER. A person who receives part of the salary of a place or appointment 
from the ostensible occupier, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, or 
great man appointing. The rider is said to be quartered upon the 
possessor, who often has one or more persons thus riding behind him. See 
QUARTERED. 

RIDGE. A guinea. Ridge cully; a goldsmith. CANT. 

RIDING ST. GEORGE. The woman uppermost in the amorous congress, that is, 
the dragon upon St. George. This is said to be the way to get a bishop. 

RIDING SKIMMINGTON. A ludicrous cavalcade, in ridicule of a man beaten by 
his wife. It consists of a man riding behind a woman, with his face to the 
horse's tail, holding a distaff in his hand, at which he seems to work, 
the woman all the while beating him with a ladle; a smock displayed on a 
staff is carried before them as an emblematical standard, denoting female 
superiority: they are accompanied by what is called the ROUGH MUSIC, that 
is, frying-pans, bulls horns, marrow-bones and cleavers, &c. A procession 
of this kind is admirably described by Butler in his Hudibras. He rode 
private, i.e. was a private trooper. 

RIFF RAFF. Low vulgar persons, mob, tag-rag and bob-tail. 

RIG. Fun, game, diversion, or trick. To run one's rig upon any particular 
person; to make him a butt. l am up to your rig; I am a match for your 
tricks. 

RIGGING. Clothing. I'll unrig the bloss; I'll strip the wench. Rum 
Rigging; fine clothes. The cull has rum rigging, let's ding him and mill 
him, and pike; the fellow has good clothes, let's knock him down, rob him, 
and scour off, i.e. run away. 

RIGHT. All right! A favourite expression among thieves, to signify that 
all is as they wish, or proper for their purpose. All right, hand down the 
jemmy; every thing is in proper order, give me the crow. 

RIGMAROLE. Roundabout, nonsensical. He told a long rigmarole story. 

RING. Money procured by begging: beggars so called it from its ringing 
when thrown to them. Also a circle formed for boxers, wrestlers, and 
cudgel-players, by a man styled Vinegar; who, with his hat before his 
eyes, goes round the circle, striking at random with his whip to prevent 
the populace from crowding in. 

TO RING A PEAL. To scold; chiefly applied to women. His wife rung him a 
fine peal! 

RING THE CHANGES. When a person receives silver in change to shift some 
good shillings and put bad ones in their place. The person who gave the 
change is then requested to give good shillings for these bad ones. 

RIP. A miserable rip; a poor, lean, worn-out horse. A shabby mean fellow. 

RIPPONS. Spurs: Rippon is famous for a manufactory of spurs both for men 
and fighting cocks. 

ROARATORIOS AND UPROARS. Oratorios and operas. 

ROARING BOY. A noisy, riotous fellow. 

ROARER. A broken-winded horse. 

ROARING TRADE. A quick trade. 

TO ROAST. To arrest. I'll roast the dab; I'll arrest the rascal.--Also to 
jeer, ridicule, or banter. He stood the roast; he was the butt.--Roast 
meat clothes; Sunday or holiday-clothes. To cry roast meat; to boast of 
one's situation. To rule the roast; to be master or paramount. 

ROAST AND BOILED. A nick name for the Life Guards, who are mostly 
substantial house-keepers; and eat daily of roast and boiled. 

ROBERT'S MEN. The third old rank of the canting crew, mighty thieves, like 
Robin Hood. 

ROBY DOUGLASS, with one eye and a stinking breath. The breech. 

ROCHESTER PORTION. Two torn smocks, and what nature gave. 

ROCKED. He was rocked in a stone kitchen; a saying meant to convey the 
idea that the person spoken of is a fool, his brains having been 
disordered by the jumbling of his cradle. 

ROGER. A portmanteau; also a man's yard. Cant. 

ROGER, or TIB OF THE BUTTERY. A goose. Cant. Jolly Roger; a flag hoisted 
by pirates. 

TO ROGER. To bull, or lie with a woman; from the name of Roger being 
frequently given to a bull. 

ROGUES. The fourth order of canters. A rogue in grain; a great rogue, also 
a corn chandler. A rogue in spirit; a distiller or brandy merchant. 

ROGUM POGUM, or DRAGRUM POGRAM. Goat's beard, eaten for asparagus; so 
called by the ladies who gather cresses, &c. who also deal in this plant. 

ROMBOYLES. Watch and ward. Romboyled; sought after with a warrant. 

ROME MORT. A queen. 

ROMEVILLE. London. Cant. 

ROMP. A forward wanton girl, a tomrig. Grey, in his notes to Shakespeare, 
derives it from arompo, an animal found in South Guinea, that is a man 
eater. See HOYDEN. 

ROOK. A cheat: probably from the thievish disposition of the birds of that 
name. Also the cant name for a crow used in house-breaking. To rook; to 
cheat, particularly at play. 

ROOM. She lets out her fore room and lies backwards: saying of a woman 
suspected of prostitution. 

ROOST LAY. Stealing poultry. 

ROPES. Upon the high ropes; elated, in high spirits, cock-a-hoop. 

ROSE. Under the rose: privately or secretly. The rose was, it is said, 
sacred to Harpocrates, the God of silence, and therefore frequently placed 
in the ceilings of rooms destined for the receiving of guests; implying, 
that whatever was transacted there, should not be made public. 

ROSY GILLS. One with a sanguine or fresh-coloured countenance. 

ROTAN. A coach, cart, or other wheeled carriage. 

ROT GUT. Small beer; called beer-a-bumble--will burst one's guts before it 
will make one tumble. 

ROVERS. Pirates, vagabonds. 

ROUGH. To lie rough; to lie all night in one's clothes: called also 
roughing it. Likewise to sleep on the bare deck of a ship, when the person 
is commonly advised to chuse the softest plank. 

ROUGH MUSIC. Saucepans, frying-paps, poker and tongs, marrow-bones and 
cleavers, bulls horns, &c. beaten upon and sounded in ludicrous 
processions. 

ROULEAU. A number of guineas, from twenty to fifty or more, wrapped up in 
paper, for the more ready circulation at gaming-tables: sometimes they are 
inclosed in ivory boxes, made to hold exactly 20, 50, or 100 guineas. 

ROUND DEALING. Plain, honest dealing. 

ROUNDHEADS. A term of reproach to the puritans and partizans of Oliver 
Cromwell, and the Rump Parliament, who it is said made use of a bowl as a 
guide to trim their hair. 

ROUND ROBIN. A mode of signing remonstrances practised by sailors on board 
the king's ships, wherein their names are written in a circle, so that it 
cannot be discovered who first signed it, or was, in other words, the 
ringleader. 

ROUND SUM. A considerable sum. 

ROUND ABOUT. An instrument used in housebreaking. This instrument has not 
been long in use. It will cut a round piece about five inches in diameter 
out of a shutter or door. 

ROUND MOUTH. The fundament. Brother round mouth, speaks; he has let a 
fart. 

ROUT. A modern card meeting at a private house; also an order from the 
Secretary at War, directing the march and quartering of soldiers. 

ROW. A disturbance; a term used by the students at Cambridge. 

ROW. To row in the same boat; to be embarked in the same scheme. 

ROWLAND. To give a Rowland for an Oliver; to give an equivalent. Rowland 
and Oliver were two knights famous in romance: the wonderful achievements 
of the one could only be equalled by those of the other. 

ROYAL SCAMPS. Highwaymen who never rob any but rich persons, and that 
without ill treating them. See SCAMP. 

ROYAL STAG SOCIETY. Was held every Monday evening, at seven o'clock, at 
the Three tuns, near the Hospital Gate, Newgate-street. 

ROYSTER. A rude boisterous fellow; also a hound that opens on a false 
scent. 

TO RUB. To run away. Don't rub us to the whit; don't send us to Newgate. 
CANT.--To rub up; to refresh: to rub up one's memory. A rub: an 
impediment. A rubber; the best two out of three. To win a rubber: to win 
two games out of three. 

RUBY FACED. Red-faced. 

RUFF. An ornament formerly worn by men and women round their necks. Wooden 
ruff; the pillory. 

RUFFIAN. The devil. CANT.--May the ruffian nab the cuffin queer, and let 
the harmanbeck trine with his kinchins about his colquarren; may the Devil 
take the justice, and let the constable be hanged with his children about 
his neck. The ruffian cly thee; the Devil take thee. Ruffian cook ruffian, 
who scalded the Devil in his feathers; a saying of a bad cook. Ruffian 
sometimes also means, a justice. 

RUFFLES. Handcuffs. CANT. 

RUFFLERS. The first rank of canters; also notorious rogues pretending to 
be maimed soldiers or sailors. 

RUFFMANS. The woods, hedges, or bushes. CANT. 

RUG. It is all rug; it is all right and safe, the game is secure. CANT. 

RUG. Asleep. The whole gill is safe at rug; the people of the house are 
fast asleep. 

RUM. Fine, good, valuable. 

RUM BECK. A justice of the peace. CANT. 

RUM BITE. A clever cheat, a clean trick. 

RUM BLEATING CHEAT. A fat wether sheep. CANT. 

RUM BLOWEN. A handsome wench. CANT. 

RUM BLUFFER. A jolly host. CANT. 

RUM BOB. A young apprentice; also a sharp trick. 

RUM BOOZE. Wine, or any other good liquor. Rum boozing welts; bunches of 
grapes. CANT. 

RUM BUBBER. A dexterous fellow at stealing silver tankards from inns and 
taverns. 

RUM BUGHER. A valuable dog. CANT. 

RUM BUNG. A full purse. CANT. 

RUM CHUB. Among butchers, a customer easily imposed on, as to the quality 
and price of meat. CANT. 

RUM CHANT. A song. 

RUM CLOUT. A fine silk, cambric, or holland handkerchief. CANT. 

RUM COD. A good purse of gold. CANT. 

RUM COLE. New money, or medals. 

RUM COVE. A dexterous or clever rogue. 

RUM CULL. A rich fool, easily cheated, particularly by his mistress. 

RUM DEGEN. A handsome sword. CANT. 

RUM DELL. See RUM DOXY. 

RUM DIVER. A dextrous pickpocket. CANT. 

RUM DOXY. A fine wench. CANT. 

RUM DRAWERS. Silk, or other fine stockings. CANT. 

RUM DROPPER. A vintner. CANT. 

RUM DUBBER. An expert picklock. 

RUM DUKE. A jolly handsome fellow; also an odd eccentric fellow; likewise 
the boldest and stoutest fellows lately among the Alsatians, Minters, 
Savoyards, and other inhabitants of privileged districts, sent to remove 
and guard the goods of such bankrupts as intended to take sanctuary in 
those places. CANT. 

RUM FILE. See RUM DIVER. 

RUM FUN. A sharp trick. CANT. 

RUM GAGGERS. Cheats who tell wonderful stories of their sufferings at sea, 
or when taken by the Algerines, CANT. 

RUM GHELT. See RUM COLE. CANT. 

RUM GLYMMER. King or chief of the link-boys. CANT. 

RUM KICKS. Breeches of gold or silver brocade, or richly laced with gold 
or silver. CANT. 

RUM MAWND. One that counterfeits a fool. CANT 

RUM MORT. A queen, or great lady. CANT. 

RUM NAB. A good hat. 

RUM NANTZ. Good French brandy. CANT. 

RUM NED. A very rich silly fellow. CANT. 

RUM PAD. The highway. CANT. 

RUM PADDERS. Highwaymen well mounted and armed. CANT. 

RUM PEEPERS. Fine looking-glasses. CANT. 

RUM PRANCER. A fine horse. CANT. 

RUM QUIDS. A great booty. CANT. 

RUM RUFF PECK. Westphalia ham. CANT. 

RUM SNITCH. A smart fillip on the nose. 

RUM SQUEEZE. Much wine, or good liquor, given among fiddlers. CANT. 

RUM TILTER. See RUM DEGEN. 

RUM TOL. See RUM DEGEN. 

RUM TOPPING. A rich commode, or woman's head-dress. 

RUM VILLE. See ROMEVILLE. 

RUM WIPER. See RUM CLOUT. 

RUMBO. Rum, water, and sugar; also a prison. 

RUMBOYLE. A ward or watch. 

RUMBUMTIOUS. Obstreperous. 

RUMFORD. To ride to Rumford to have one's backside new bottomed: i.e. to 
have a pair of new leather breeches. Rumford was formerly a famous place 
for leather breeches. A like saying is current in Norfolk and Suffolk, of 
Bungay, and for the same reason.--Rumford lion; a calf. See ESSEX LION. 

RUMP. To rump any one; to turn the back to him: an evolution sometimes 
used at court. Rump and a dozen; a rump of beef and a dozen of claret; an 
Irish wager, called also buttock and trimmings. Rump and kidney men; 
fiddlers that play at feasts, fairs, weddings, &c. and live chiefly on the 
remnants. 

RUMPUS. A riot, quarrel, or confusion. 

RUN GOODS. A maidenhead, being a commodity never entered. 

RUNNING HORSE, or NAG. A clap, or gleet. 

RUNNING SMOBBLE. Snatching goods off a counter, and throwing them to an 
accomplice, who brushes off with them. 

RUNNING STATIONERS. Hawker of newspapers, trials, and dying speeches. 

RUNT. A short squat man or woman: from the small cattle called Welsh 
runts. 

RUSHERS. Thieves who knock at the doors of great houses in London, in 
summer time, when the families are gone out of town, and on the door being 
opened by a woman, rush in and rob the house; also housebreakers who enter 
lone houses by force. 

RUSSIAN COFFEE-HOUSE. The Brown Bear in Bow-street, Covent Garden, a house 
of call for thief-takers and runners of the Bow street justices. 

RUSTY. Out of use, To nab the rust; to be refractory; properly applied to 
a restive horse, and figuratively to the human species. To ride rusty; to 
be sullen; called also to ride grub. 

RUSTY GUTS. A blunt surly fellow: a jocular misnomer of RESTICUS. 

RUTTING. Copulating. Rutting time; the season, when deer go to rut.