SOP. A bribe. A sop for Cerberus; a bribe for a porter, turnkey, or gaoler.
SOPH. (Cambridge) An undergraduate in his second year.
SORREL. A yellowish red. Sorrel pate; one having red hair.
SORROW SHALL BE HIS SOPS. He shall repent this. Sorrow go by me; a common expletive used by presbyterians in Ireland.
SORRY. Vile, mean, worthless. A sorry fellow, or hussy; a worthless man or woman.
SOT WEED. Tobacco.
SOUL CASE. The body. He made a hole in his soul case; he wounded him.
SOUL DOCTOR, or DRIVER. A parson.
SOUNDERS. A herd of swine.
SOUSE. Not a souse; not a penny. FRENCH.
SOW. A fat woman. He has got the wrong sow by the ear, he mistakes his man. Drunk as David's sow; see DAVID'S SOW.
SOW'S BABY. A sucking pig.
SOW CHILD. A female child.
SPADO. A sword. SPANISH.
SPANGLE. A seven shilling piece.
SPANK. (WHIP) To run neatly along, beteen a trot and gallop. The tits spanked it to town; the horses went merrily along all the way to town.
SPANISH. The spanish; ready money.
SPANISH COIN. Fair words and compliments.
SPANISH FAGGOT. The sun.
SPANISH GOUT. The pox.
SPANISH PADLOCK. A kind of girdle contrived by jealous husbands of that nation, to secure the chastity of their wives.
SPANISH, or KING OF SPAIN'S TRUMPETER. An ass when braying.
SPANISH WORM. A nail: so called by carpenters when they meet with one in a board they are sawing.
SPANKS, or SPANKERS. Money; also blows with the open hand.
SPANKING. Large.
SPARK. A spruce, trim, or smart fellow. A man that is always thirsty, is said to have a spark in his throat.
SPARKISH. Fine, gay.
SPARKING BLOWS. Blows given by cocks before they close, or, as the term is, mouth it: used figuratively for words previous to a quarrel.
SPARROW. Mumbling a sparrow; a cruel sport frequently practised at wakes and fairs: for a small premium, a booby having his hands tied behind him, has the wing of a cock sparrow put into his mouth: with this hold, without any other assistance than the motion of his lips, he is to get the sparrow's head into his mouth: on attempting to do it, the bird defends itself surprisingly, frequently pecking the mumbler till his lips are covered with blood, and he is obliged to desist: to prevent the bird from getting away, he is fastened by a string to a button of the booby's coat.
SPARROW-MOUTHED. Wide-mouthed, like the mouth of a sparrow: it is said of such persons, that they do not hold their mouths by lease, but have it from year to year; i.e. from ear to ear. One whose mouth cannot be enlarged without removing their ears, and who when they yawn have their heads half off.
SPATCH COCK. [Abbreviation of DISPATCH COCK.] A hen just killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned, split, and broiled: an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion.
TO SPEAK WITH. To rob. I spoke with the cull on the cherry-coloured prancer; I robbed the man on the black horse. CANT.
SPEAK. Any thing stolen. He has made a good speak; he has stolen something considerable.
SPECKED WHIPER. A coloured hankerchief. CANT.
SPICE. To rob. Spice the swell; rob the gentleman.
SPICE ISLANDS. A privy. Stink-hole bay or dilberry creek. The fundament.
SPIDER-SHANKED. Thin-legged.
TO SPIFLICATE. To confound, silence, or dumbfound.
SPILT. A small reward or gift.
SPILT. Thrown from a horse, or overturned in a carriage; pray, coachee, don't spill us.
SPINDLE SHANKS. Slender legs.
TO SPIRIT AWAY. To kidnap, or inveigle away.
SPIRITUAL FLESH BROKER. A parson.
SPIT. He is as like his father as if he was spit out of his mouth; said of a child much resembling his father.
SPIT. A sword.
SPIT FIRE. A violent, pettish, or passionate person.
SPLICED. Married: an allusion to joining two ropes ends by splicing. SEA TERM.
SPLIT CROW. The sign of the spread eagle, which being represented with two heads on one neck, gives it somewhat the appearance of being split.
SPLIT CAUSE. A lawyer.
SPLIT FIG. A grocer.
SPLIT IRON. The nick-name for a smith.
SPOONEY. (WHIP) Thin, haggard, like the shank of a spoon; also delicate, craving for something, longing for sweets. Avaricious. That tit is damned spooney. She's a spooney piece of goods. He's a spooney old fellow.
SPOIL PUDDING. A parson who preaches long sermons, keeping his congregation in church till the puddings are overdone.
TO SPORT. To exhibit: as, Jack Jehu sported a new gig yesterday: I shall sport a new suit next week. To sport or flash one's ivory; to shew one's teeth. To sport timber; to keep one's outside door shut; this term is used in the inns of court to signify denying one's self. N.B. The word SPORT was in great vogue ann. 1783 and 1784.
SPUNGE. A thirsty fellow, a great drinker. To spunge; to eat and drink at another's cost. Spunging-house: a bailiff's lock-up-house, or repository, to which persons arrested are taken, till they find bail, or have spent all their money: a house where every species of fraud and extortion is practised under the protection of the law.
SPUNK. Rotten touchwood, or a kind of fungus prepared for tinder; figuratively, spirit, courage.
SPOON HAND. The right hand.
TO SPOUT. To rehearse theatrically.
SPOUTING CLUB. A meeting of apprentices and mechanics to rehearse different characters in plays: thus forming recruits for the strolling companies.
SPOUTING. Theatrical declamation.
SPOUTED. Pawned.
SPREAD. Butter.
SPREAD EAGLE. A soldier tied to the halberts in order to be whipped; his attitude bearing some likeness to that figure, as painted on signs.
SPREE. A frolic. Fun. A drinking bout. A party of pleasure.
SPRING-ANKLE WAREHOUSE. Newgate, or any other gaol: IRISH.
SQUAB. A fat man or woman: from their likeness to a well-stuffed couch, called also a squab. A new-hatched chicken.
SQUARE. Honest, not roguish. A square cove, i.e. a man who does not steal, or get his living by dishonest means.
SQUARE TOES. An old man: square toed shoes were anciently worn in common, and long retained by old men.
SQUEAK. A narrow escape, a chance: he had a squeak for his life. To squeak; to confess, peach, or turn stag. They squeak beef upon us; they cry out thieves after us. CANT.
SQUEAKER. A bar-boy; also a bastard or any other child. To stifle the squeaker; to murder a bastard, or throw It into the necessary house.—Organ pipes are likewise called squeakers. The squeakers are meltable; the small pipes are silver. CANT.
SQUEEZE CRAB. A sour-looking, shrivelled, diminutive fellow.
SQUEEZE WAX. A good-natured foolish fellow, ready to become security for another, under hand and seal.
SQUELCH. A fall. Formerly a bailiff caught in a barrack-yard in Ireland, was liable by custom to have three tosses in a blanket, and a squelch; the squelch was given by letting go the corners of the blanket, and suffering him to fall to the ground. Squelch-gutted; fat, having a prominent belly.
SQUIB. A small satirical or political temporary jeu d'esprit, which, like the firework of that denomination, sparkles, bounces, stinks, and vanishes.
SQUINT-A-PIPES. A squinting man or woman; said to be born in the middle of the week, and looking both ways for Sunday; or born in a hackney coach, and looking out of both windows; fit for a cook, one eye in the pot, and the other up the chimney; looking nine ways at once.
SQUIRE OF ALSATIA. A weak profligate spendthrift, the squire of the company; one who pays the whole reckoning, or treats the company, called standing squire.
SQUIRISH. Foolish.
SQUIRREL. A prostitute: because she like that animal, covers her back with her tail. Meretrix corpore corpus alit. Menagiana, ii. 128.
SQUIRREL HUNTING. See HUNTING.
STAG. To turn stag; to impeach one's confederates: from a herd of deer, who are said to turn their horns against any of their number who is hunted.
TO STAG. To find, discover, or observe.
STAGGERING BOB, WITH HIS YELLOW PUMPS. A calf just dropped, and unable to stand, killed for veal in Scotland: the hoofs of a young calf are yellow.
STALL WHIMPER. A bastard. CANT.
STALLING. Making or ordaining. Stalling to the rogue; an ancient ceremony of instituting a candidate into the society of rogues, somewhat similar to the creation of a herald at arms. It is thus described by Harman: the upright man taking a gage of bowse, i.e. a pot of strong drink, pours it on the head of the rogue to be admitted; saying,—I, A.B. do stall thee B.C. to the rogue; and from henceforth it shall be lawful for thee to cant for thy living in all places.
STALLING KEN. A broker's shop, or that of a receiver of stolen goods.
STALLION. A man kept by an old lady for secret services.
STAM FLESH. To cant. CANT.
STAMMEL, or STRAMMEL. A coarse brawny wench.
STAMP. A particular manner of throwing the dice out of the box, by striking it with violence against the table.
STAMPS. Legs.
STAMPERS. Shoes.
STAND-STILL. He was run to a stand-still; i.e. till he could no longer move.
STAR GAZER. A horse who throws up his head; also a hedge whore.
TO STAR THE GLAZE. To break and rob a jeweller's show glass. CANT.
STARCHED. Stiff, prim, formal, affected.
STARING QUARTER. An ox cheek.
START, or THE OLD START. Newgate: he is gone to the start, or the old start. CANT.
STARTER. One who leaves a jolly company, a milksop; he is no starter, he will sit longer than a hen.
STARVE'EM, ROB'EM, AND CHEAT'EM. Stroud, Rochester, and Chatham; so called by soldiers and sailors, and not without good reason.
STAR LAG. Breaking shop-windows, and stealing some article thereout.
STASH. To stop. To finish. To end. The cove tipped the prosecutor fifty quid to stash the business; he gave the prosecutor fifty guineas to stop the prosecution.
STATE. To lie in state; to be in bed with three harlots.
STAY. A cuckold.
STAYTAPE. A taylor; from that article, and its coadjutor buckram, which make no small figure in the bills of those knights of the needle.
STEAMER. A pipe. A swell steamer; a long pipe, such as is used by gentlemen to smoke.
STEEL. The house of correction.
STEEL BAR. A needle. A steel bar flinger; a taylor, stay-maker, or any other person using a needle.
STEENKIRK. A muslin neckcloth carelessly put on, from the manner in which the French officers wore their cravats when they returned from the battle of Steenkirk.
STEEPLE HOUSE. A name given to the church by Dissenters.
STEPHEN. Money. Stephen's at home; i.e. has money.
STEPNEY. A decoction of raisins of the sun and lemons in conduit water, sweetened with sugar, and bottled up.
STEWED QUAKER. Burnt rum, with a piece of butter: an American remedy for a cold.
STICKS. Household furniture.
STICKS. Pops or pistols. Stow your sticks; hide your pistols. CANT. See POPS.
STICK FLAMS. A pair of gloves.
STIFF-RUMPED. Proud, stately.
STINGRUM. A niggard.
STINGO. Strong beer, or other liquor.
STIRRUP CUP. A parting cup or glass, drank on horseback by the person taking leave.
STITCH. A nick name for a taylor: also a term for lying with a woman.
STITCHBACK. Strong ale.
STIVER-CRAMPED. Needy, wanting money. A stiver is a Dutch coin, worth somewhat more than a penny sterling.
STOCK. A good stock; i.e. of impudence. Stock and block; the whole: he has lost stock and block.
STOCK DRAWERS. Stockings.
STOCK JOBBERS. Persons who gamble in Exchange Alley, by pretending to buy and sell the public funds, but in reality only betting that they will be at a certain price, at a particular time; possessing neither the stock pretended to be sold, nor money sufficient to make good the payments for which they contract: these gentlemen are known under the different appellations of bulls, bears, and lame ducks.
STOMACH WORM. The stomach worm gnaws; I am hungry.
STONE. Two stone under weight, or wanting; an eunuch.
Stone doublet; a prison. Stone dead; dead as a stone.
STONE JUG. Newgate, or any other prison.
STONE TAVERN. Ditto.
STOOP-NAPPERS, or OVERSEERS OF THE NEW PAVEMENT. Persons set in the pillory. CANT.
STOOP. The pillory. The cull was served for macing and napp'd the stoop; he was convicted of swindling, and put in the pillory.
STOP HOLE ABBEY. The nick name of the chief rendzvous of the canting crew of beggars, gypsies, cheats, thieves, &c. &c.
STOTER. A great blow. Tip him a stoter in the haltering place; give him a blow under the left ear.
STOUP. A vessel to hold liquor: a vessel containing a size or half a pint, is so called at Cambridge.
STOW. Stow you; be silent, or hold your peace. Stow your whidds and plant'em, for the cove of the ken can cant'em; you have said enough, the man of the house understands you.
STRAIT-LACED. Precise, over nice, puritanical.
STRAIT WAISTCOAT. A tight waistcoat, with long sleeves coming over the hand, having strings for binding them behind the back of the wearer: these waistcoats are used in madhouses for the management of lunatics when outrageous.
STRAMMEL. See STAMMEL.
STRANGER. A guinea.
STRANGLE GOOSE. A poulterer.
To STRAP. To work. The kiddy would not strap, so he went on the scamp: the lad would not work, and therefore robbed on the highway.
STRAPPER. A large man or woman.
STRAPPING. Lying with a woman. CANT.
STRAW. A good woman in the straw; a lying-in woman. His eyes draw straw; his eyes are almost shut, or he is almost asleep: one eye draws straw, and t'other serves the thatcher.
STRETCH. A yard. The cove was lagged for prigging a peter with several stretch of dobbin from a drag; the fellow was transported for stealing a trunk, containing several yards of ribband, from a waggon.
STRETCHING. Hanging. He'll stretch for it; he will be hanged for it. Also telling a great lie: he stretched stoutly.
STRIKE. Twenty shillings. CANT.
STRIP ME NAKED. Gin.
STROKE. To take a stroke: to take a bout with a woman.
STROLLERS. Itinerants of different kinds. Strolling morts; beggars or pedlars pretending to be widows.
STROMMEL. Straw. CANT.
STRONG MAN. To play the part of the strong man, i.e. to push the cart and horses too; to be whipt at the cart's tail.
STRUM. A perriwig. Rum strum: a fine large wig. (CAMBRIDGE) To do a piece. Foeminam subagitare. CANT.
To STRUM. To have carnal knowledge of a woman; also to play badly on the harpsichord; or any other stringed instrument. A strummer of wire, a player on any instrument strung with wire.
STRUMPET. A harlot.
STUB-FACED. Pitted with the smallpox: the devil ran over his face with horse stabs (horse nails) in his shoes.
STUBBLE IT. Hold your tongue. CANT.
STULING KEN. See STALLING KEN. CANT.
STUM. The flower of fermenting wine, used by vintners to adulterate their wines.
STUMPS. Legs. To stir one's stumps; to walk fast.
STURDY BEGGARS. The fifth and last of the most ancient order of canters, beggars that rather demand than ask CANT.
SUCCESSFULLY. Used by the vulgar for SUCCESSIVELY: as three or four landlords of this house have been ruined successfully by the number of soldiers quartered on them. IRISH.
SUCH A REASON PIST MY GOOSE, or MY GOOSE PIST. Said when any one offers an absurd reason.
SUCK. Strong liquor of any sort. To suck the monkey; see MONKEY. Sucky; drunk.
To SUCK. To pump. To draw from a man all be knows. The file sucked the noodle's brains: the deep one drew out of the fool all he knew.
SUCKING CHICKEN. A young chicken.
SUDS. In the suds; in trouble, in a disagreeable situation, or involved in some difficulty.
SUGAR STICK. The virile member.
SUGAR SOPS. Toasted bread soked in ale, sweetened with sugar, and grated nutmeg: it is eaten with cheese.
SULKY. A one-horse chaise or carriage, capable of holding but one person: called by the French a DESOBLIGEANT.
SUN. To have been in the sun; said of one that is drunk.
SUNBURNT. Clapped; also haying many male children.
SUNDAY MAN. One who goes abroad on that day only, for fear of arrests.
SUNNY BANK. A good fire in winter.
SUNSHINE. Prosperity.
SUPERNACOLUM. Good liquor, of which there is not even a drop left sufficient to wet one's nail.
SUPOUCH. A landlady of an inn, or hostess.
SURVEYOR OF THE HIGHWAYS. One reeling drunk.
SURVEYOR OF THE PAVEMENT. One standing in the pillory.
SUS PER COLL. Hanged: persons who have been hanged are thus entered into the jailor's books.
SUSPENCE. One in a deadly suspence; a man just turned off at the gallows.
SUTRER. A camp publican: also one that pilfers gloves, tobacco boxes, and such small moveables.
SWABBERS. The ace of hearts, knave of clubs, ace and duce of trumps, at whist: also the lubberly seamen, put to swab, and clean the ship.
SWAD, or SWADKIN. A soldier. CANT.
To SWADDLE. To beat with a stick.
SWADDLERS. The tenth order of the canting tribe, who not only rob, but beat, and often murder passenges. CANT.
Swaddlers is also the Irish name for methodist.
SWAG. A shop. Any quantity of goods. As, plant the swag; conceal the goods. Rum swag; a shop full of rich goods. CANT.
SWAGGER. To bully, brag, or boast, also to strut.
SWANNERY. He keeps a swannery; i.e. all his geese are swans.
SWEATING. A mode of diminishing the gold coin, practiced chiefly by the Jews, who corrode it with aqua regia. Sweating was also a diversion practised by the bloods of the last century, who styled themselves Mohocks: these gentlemen lay in wait to surprise some person late in the night, when surrounding him, they with their swords pricked him in the posteriors, which obliged him to be constantly turning round; this they continued till they thought him sufficiently sweated.
SWEET. Easy to be imposed on, or taken in; also expert, dexterous clever. Sweet's your hand; said of one dexterous at stealing.
SWEET HEART. A term applicable to either the masculine or feminine gender, signifying a girl's lover, or a man's mistress: derived from a sweet cake in the shape of a heart.
SWEETNESS. Guinea droppers, cheats, sharpers. To sweeten to decoy, or draw in. To be sweet upon; to coax, wheedle, court, or allure. He seemed sweet upon that wench; he seemed to court that girl.
SWELL. A gentleman. A well-dressed map. The flashman bounced the swell of all his blunt; the girl's bully frightened the gentleman out of all his money.
SWELLED HEAD. A disorder to which horses are extremely liable, particularly those of the subalterns of the army. This disorder is generally occasioned by remaining too long in one livery-stable or inn, and often arises to that height that it prevents their coming out at the stable door. The most certain cure is the unguentum aureum—not applied to the horse, but to the palm of the master of the inn or stable. N. B. Neither this disorder, nor its remedy, is mentioned by either Bracken, Bartlet, or any of the modern writers on farriery.
SWIG. A hearty draught of liquor.
SWIGMEN. Thieves who travel the country under colour of buying old shoes, old clothes, &c. or selling brooms, mops, &c. CANT.
TO SWILL. To drink greedily.
SWILL TUB. A drunkard, a sot.
SWIMMER. A counterfeit old coin.
SWIMMER. A ship. I shall have a swimmer; a cant phrase used by thieves to signify that they will be sent on board the tender.
TO SWING. To be hanged. He will swing for it; he will be hanged for it.
SWING TAIL. A hog.
TO SWINGE. To beat stoutly.
SWINGING. A great swinging fellow; a great stout fellow. A swinging lie; a lusty lie.
SWINDLER. One who obtains goods on credit by false pretences, and sells them for ready money at any price, in order to make up a purse. This name is derived from the German word SCHWINDLIN, to totter, to be ready to fall; these arts being generally practised by persons on the totter, or just ready to break. The term SWINDLER has since been used to signify cheats of every kind.
SWIPES. Purser's swipes; small beer: so termed on board the king's ships, where it is furnished by the purser.
SWISH TAIL. A pheasant; so called by the persons who sell game for the poachers.
TO SWIVE. To copulate.
SWIVEL-EYED. Squinting.
SWIZZLE. Drink, or any brisk or windy liquor. In North America, a mixture of spruce beer, rum, and sugar, was so called. The 17th regiment had a society called the Swizzle Club, at Ticonderoga, A. D. 1760.
SWORD RACKET. To enlist in different regiments, and on receiving the bounty to desert immediately.
SWOP. An exchange.
SYEBUCK. Sixpence.
SYNTAX. A schoolmaster.
T
TABBY. An old maid; either from Tabitha, a formal antiquated name; or else from a tabby cat, old maids being often compared to cats. To drive Tab; to go out on a party of pleasure with a wife and family.
TACE. Silence, hold your tongue. TACE is Latin for a candle; a jocular admonition to be silent on any subject.
TACKLE. A mistress; also good clothes. The cull has tipt his tackle rum gigging; the fellow has given his mistress good clothes. A man's tackle: the genitals.
TAFFY, i.e. Davy. A general name for a Welchman, St. David being the tutelar saint of Wales. Taffy's day; the first of March, St. David's day.
TAG-RAG AND BOBTAIL. An expression meaning an assemblage of low people, the mobility of all sorts. To tag after one like a tantony pig: to follow one wherever one goes, just as St. Anthony is followed by his pig.
TAIL. A prostitute. Also, a sword.
TAKEN IN. Imposed on, cheated.
TALE TELLERS. Persons said to have been formerly hired to tell wonderful stories of giants and fairies, to lull their hearers to sleep. Talesman; the author of a story or report: I'll tell you my tale, and my talesman. Tale bearers; mischief makers, incendiaries in families.
TALL BOY. A bottle, or two-quart pot.
TALLY MEN. Brokers that let out clothes to the women of the town. See RABBIT SUCKERS.
TALLYWAGS, or TARRYWAGS. A man's testicles.
TAME. To run tame about a house; to live familiarly in a family with which one is upon a visit. Tame army; the city trained bands.
TANDEM. A two-wheeled chaise, buggy, or noddy, drawn by two horses, one before the other: that is, AT LENGTH.
TANGIER. A room in Newgate, where debtors were confined, hence called Tangerines.
TANNER. A sixpence. The kiddey tipped the rattling cove a tanner for luck; the lad gave the coachman sixpence for drink.
TANTADLIN TART. A sirreverence, human excrement.
TANTRUMS. Pet, or passion: madam was in her tantrums.
TANTWIVY. Away they went tantwivy; away they went full speed. Tantwivy was the sound of the hunting horn in full cry, or that of a post horn.
TAP. A gentle blow. A tap on the shoulder;-an-arrest. To tap a girl; to be the first seducer: in allusion to a beer barrel. To tap a guinea; to get it changed.
TAPPERS. Shoulder tappers: bailiffs.
TAPE. Red tape; brandy. Blue or white tape; gin.
TAPLASH. Thick and bad beer.
TAR. Don't lose a sheep for a halfpennyworth of tar: tar is used to mark sheep. A jack tar; a sailor.
TARADIDDLE. A fib, or falsity.
TARPAWLIN. A coarse cloth tarred over: also, figuratively, a sailor.
TARRING AND FEATHERING. A punishment lately inflicted by the good people of Boston on any person convicted, or suspected, of loyalty: such delinquents being "stripped naked", were daubed all over wilh tar, and afterwards put into a hogshead of feathers.
TART. Sour, sharp, quick, pert.
TARTAR. To catch a Tartar; to attack one of superior strength or abilities. This saying originated from a story of an Irish-soldier in the Imperial service, who, in a battle against the Turks, called out to his comrade that he had caught a Tartar. 'Bring him along then,' said he. 'He won't come,' answered Paddy. 'Then come along yourself,' replied his comrade. 'Arrah,' cried he, 'but he won't let me.'—A Tartar is also an adept at any feat, or game: he is quite a Tartar at cricket, or billiards.
TAT. Tit for tat; an equivalent.
TATS. False dice.
TATLER. A watch. To flash a tatler: to wear a watch.
TAT MONGER. One that uses false dice.
TATTERDEMALION. A ragged fellow, whose clothes hang all in tatters.
TATTOO. A beat of the drum, of signal for soldiers to go to their quarters, and a direction to the sutlers to close the tap, and draw no more liquor for them; it is generally beat at nine in summer and eight in winter. The devil's tattoo; beating with one's foot against the ground, as done by persons in low spirits.
TAW. A schoolboy's game, played with small round balls made of stone dust, catted marbles. I'll be one upon your taw presently; a species of threat.
TAWDRY. Garish, gawdy, with lace or staring and discordant colours: a term said to be derived from the shrine and altar of St. Audrey (an Isle of Ely saintess), which for finery exceeded all others thereabouts, so as to become proverbial; whence any fine dressed man or woman said to be all St Audrey, and by contraction, all tawdry.
TAWED. Beaten.
TAYLE. See TAIL.
TAYLE DRAWERS. Thieves who snatch gentlemens swords from their sides. He drew the cull's tayle rumly; he snatched away the gentleman's sword cleverly.
TAYLOR. Nine taylors make a man; an ancient and common saying, originating from the effeminacy of their employment; or, as some have it, from nine taylors having been robbed by one man; according to others, from the speech of a woollendraper, meaning that the custom of nine, taylors would make or enrich one man—A London taylor, rated to furnish half a man to the Trained Bands, asking how that could possibly be done? was answered, By sending four, journeymen and and apprentice.—Puta taylor, a weaver, and a miller into a sack, shake them well, And the first that, puts out his head is certainly a thief.—A taylor is frequently styled pricklouse, assaults on those vermin with their needles.
TAYLORS GOOSE. An iron with which, when heated, press down the seams of clothes.
TEA VOIDER. A chamber pot.
TEA GUELAND. Ireland. Teaguelanders; Irishmen.
TEARS OF THE TANKARD. The drippings of liquor on a man's waistcoat.
TEDDY MY GODSON. An address to a supposed simple fellow, or nysey.
TEIZE. To-nap the teize; to receive a whipping. CANT.
TEMPLE PICKLING. Pumping a bailiff; a punishment formerly administered to any of that fraternity caught exercising their functions within the limits of Temple.
TEN TOES. See BAYARD OF TEN TOES.
TEN IN THE HUNDRED. An usurer; more than five in the hundred being deemed usurious interest.
TENANT AT WILL, One whose wife usually fetches him from the alehouse.
TENANT FOR LIFE. A married man; i.e. possessed of a woman for life.
TENDER PARNELL. A tender creature, fearful of the least puff of wind or drop of rain. As tender as Parnell, who broke her finger in a posset drink.
TERMAGANT. An outrageous scold from Termagantes, a cruel Pagan, formerly represented in diners shows and entertainments, where being dressed a la Turque, in long clothes, he was mistaken for a furious woman.
TERRA FIRMA. An estate in land.
TESTER. A sixpence: from TESTON, a coin with a head on it.
TETBURY PORTION. A **** and a clap.
THAMES. He will not find out a way to set the Thames on fire; he will not make any wonderful discoveries, he is no conjuror.
THATCH-GALLOWS. A rogue, or man of bad character.
THICK. Intimate. They are as thick as two inkle-weavers.
THIEF. You are a thief and a murderer, you have killed a baboon and stole his face; vulgar abuse.
THIEF IN A CANDLE. Part of the wick or snuff, which falling on the tallow, burns and melts it, and causing it to gutter, thus steals it away.
THIEF TAKERS. Fellows who associate with all kinds of villains, in order to betray them, when they have committed any of those crimes which entitle the persons taking them to a handsome reward, called blood money. It is the business of these thief takers to furnish subjects for a handsome execution, at the end of every sessions.
THIMBLE. A watch. The swell flashes a rum thimble; the gentleman sports a fine watch.
THINGSTABLE. Mr. Thingstable; Mr. Constable: a ludicrous affectation of delicacy in avoiding the pronunciation of the first syllable in the title of that officer, which in sound has some similarity to an indecent monosyllable.
THINGUMBOB. Mr. Thingumbob; a vulgar address or nomination to any person whose name is unknown, the same as Mr. What-d'ye-cal'em. Thingumbobs; testicles.
THIRDING. A custom practised at the universities, where two thirds of the original price is allowed by the upholsterers to the students for household goods returned to them within the year.
THIRTEENER. A shilling in Ireland, which there passes for thirteen pence.
THOMOND. Like Lord Thomond's cocks, all on one side. Lord Thomond's cock-feeder, an Irishman, being entrusted with some cocks which were matched for a considerable sum, the night before the battle shut them all together in one room, concluding that as they were all on the same side, they would not disagree: the consequence was, they were most of them either killed or lamed before the morning.
THOMAS. Man Thomas; a man's penis.
THORNS. To be or sit upon thorns; to be uneasy, impatient, anxious for an event.
THORNBACK. An old maid.
THOROUGH CHURCHMAN. A person who goes in at one door of a church, and out at the other, without stopping.
THOROUGH-GOOD-NATURED WENCH. One who being asked to sit down, will lie down.
THOROUGH GO NIMBLE. A looseness, a violent purging.
THOROUGH COUGH. Coughing and breaking wind backwards at the same time.
THOROUGH STITCH. To go thorough stitch; to stick at nothing; over shoes, over boots.
THOUGHT. What did thought do? lay'in bed and beshat himself, and thought he was up; reproof to any one who excuses himself for any breach of positive orders, by pleading that he thought to the contrary.
THREE TO ONE. He is playing three to one, though sure to lose; said of one engaged in the amorous congress.
THREE-PENNY UPRIGHT. A retailer of love, who, for the sum mentioned, dispenses her favours standing against a wall.
THREE-LEGGED MARE, or STOOL. The gallows, formerly consisting of three posts, over which were laid three transverse beams. This clumsy machine has lately given place to an elegant contrivance, called the NEW DROP, by which the use of that vulgar vehicle a cart, or mechanical instrument a ladder, is also avoided; the patients being left suspended by the dropping down of that part of the floor on which they stand. This invention was first made use of for a peer. See DROP.
THREE THREADS. Half common ale, mixed with stale and double beer.
THREPS. Threepence.
TO THROTTLE. To strangle.
THROTTLE. The throat, or gullet.
TO THRUM. To play on any instrument stringed with wire. A thrummer of wire; a player on the spinet, harpsichord, of guitar.