1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue by Captain Grose et al. - HTML preview

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.

SACHEVEREL. The iron door, or blower, to the mouth of a stove: from a divine of that name, who made himself famous for blowing the coals of dissension in the latter end of the reign of queen Ann.

SACK. A pocket. To buy the sack: to get drunk. To dive into the sack; to pick a pocket. To break a bottle in an empty sack; a bubble bet, a sack with a bottle in it not being an empty sack.

SAD DOG. A wicked debauched fellow; one of the ancient family of the sad dogs. Swift translates it into Latin by the words TRISTIS CANIS.

SADDLE. To saddle the spit; to give a dinner or supper. To saddle one's nose; to wear spectacles. To saddle a place or pension; to oblige the holder to pay a certain portion of his income to some one nominated by the donor. Saddle sick: galled with riding, having lost leather.

SAINT. A piece of spoilt timber in a coach-maker's shop, like a saint, devoted to the flames.

SAINT GEOFFREY'S DAY. Never, there being no saint of that name: tomorrow-come-never, when two Sundays come together.

SAINT LUKE'S BIRD. An ox; that Evangelist being always represented with an ox.

SAINT MONDAY. A holiday most religiously observed by journeymen shoemakers, and other inferior mechanics. a profanation of that day, by working, is punishable by a line, particularly among the gentle craft. An Irishman observed, that this saint's anniversary happened every week.

SAL. An abbreviation of SALIVATION. In a high sal; in the pickling tub, or under a salivation.

 

SALESMAN'S DOG. A barker. Vide BARKER.

SALMON-GUNDY. Apples, onions, veal or chicken, and pickled herrings, minced fine, and eaten with oil and vinegar; some derive the name of this mess from the French words SELON MON GOUST, because the proportions of the different ingredients are regulated by the palate of the maker; others say it bears the name of the inventor, who was a rich Dutch merchant; but the general and most probable opinion is, that it was invented by the countess of Salmagondi, one of the ladies of Mary de Medicis, wife of King Henry IV. of France, and by her brought into France.

SALMON or SALAMON. The beggars'sacrament or oath.

SALT. Lecherous. A salt bitch: a bitch at heat, or proud bitch. Salt eel; a rope's end, used to correct boys, &c. at sea: you shall have a salt eel for supper.

SAMMY. Foolish. Silly.

SANDWICH. Ham, dried tongue, or some other salted meat, cut thin and put between two slices of bread and butter: said to be a favourite morsel with the Earl of Sandwich.

SANDY PATE. A red haired man or woman.

 

SANGAREE. Rack punch was formerly so called in bagnios.

 

SANK, SANKY, or CENTIPEE'S. A taylor employed by clothiers in making soldier's clothing.

 

SAPSCULL. A simple fellow. Sappy; foolish.

 

SATYR. A libidinous fellow: those imaginary things are by poets reported to be extremely salacious.

 

SAUCE BOX. A term of familiar raillery, signifying a bold or forward person.

SAVE-ALL. A kind of candlestick used by our frugal forefathers, to burn snuffs and ends of candles. Figuratively,
boys running about gentlemen's houses in Ireland, who are fed on broken meats that would otherwise be wasted, also a miser.

SAUNTERER. An idle, lounging fellow; by some derived from SANS TERRE; applied to persons, who, having no lands or home, lingered and loitered about. Some derive it from persons devoted to the Holy Land, SAINT TERRE, who loitered about, as waiting for company.

SAW. An old saw; an ancient proverbial saying.

SAWNY or SANDY. A general nick-name for a Scotchman, as Paddy is for an Irishman, or Taffy for a Welchman; Sawny or Sandy being the familiar abbreviation or diminution of Alexander, a very favourite name among the Scottish nation.

SCAB. A worthless man or woman.

SCALD MISERABLES. A set of mock masons, who, A.D. 1744, made a ludicrous procession in ridicule of the Free Masons.

SCALDER. A clap. The cull has napped a scalder; the fellow has got a clap.

 

SCALY. Mean. Sordid. How scaly the cove is; how mean the fellow is.

 

SCALY FISH. An honest, rough, blunt sailor.

SCAMP. A highwayman. Royal scamp: a highwayman who robs civilly. Royal foot scamp; a footpad who behaves in like manner.

TO SCAMPER. To run away hastily.

 

SCANDAL BROTH. Tea.

 

SCANDAL PROOF. One who has eaten shame and drank after it, or would blush at being ashamed.

SCAPEGALLOWS. One who deserves and has narrowly escaped the gallows, a slip-gibbet, one for whom the gallows is said to groan.

SCAPEGRACE. A wild dissolute fellow.

 

SCARCE. To make one's self scarce; to steal away.

 

SCARLET HORSE. A high red, hired or hack horse: a pun on the word HIRED.

SCAVEY. Sense, knowledge. "Massa, me no scavey;" master, I don't know (NEGRO LANGUAGE) perhaps from the French SCAVOIR.

SCHEME. A party of pleasure.

 

SCHISM MONGER. A dissenting teacher.

 

SCHISM SHOP. A dissenting meeting house.

 

A SCOLD'S CURE. A coffin. The blowen has napped the scold's cure; the bitch is in her coffin.

 

SCHOOL OF VENUS. A bawdy-house.

 

SCHOOL BUTTER. Cobbing, whipping.

SCONCE. The head, probably as being the fort and citadel of a man: from SCONCE, an old name for a fort, derived from a Dutch word of the same signification; To build a sconce: a military term for bilking one's quarters. To sconce or skonce; to impose a fine. ACADEMICAL PHRASE.

SCOT. A young bull.

 

SCOTCH GREYS. Lice. The headquarters of the Scotch greys: the head of a man full of large lice.

 

SCOTCH PINT. A bottle containing two quarts.

 

SCOTCH BAIT. A halt and a resting on a stick, as practised by pedlars.

 

SCOTCH CHOCOLATE. Brimstone and milk.

 

SCOTCH FIDDLE. The itch.

 

SCOTCH MIST. A sober soaking rain; a Scotch mist will wet an Englishman to the skin.

 

SCOTCH WARMING PAN. A wench; also a fart.

 

SCOUNDREL. A man void of every principle of honour.

SCOUR. To scour or score off; to run away: perhaps from SCORE; i.e. full speed, or as fast as legs would carry one. Also to wear: chiefly applied to irons, fetters, or
handcuffs, because wearing scours them. He will scour the darbies; he will be in fetters. To scour the cramp ring; to wear bolts or fetters, from which, as well as from coffin hinges, rings supposed to prevent the cramp are made.

SCOURERS. Riotous bucks, who amuse themselves with breaking windows, beating the watch, and assaulting every person they meet: called scouring the streets.

SCOUT. A college errand-boy at Oxford, called a gyp at Cambridge. Also a watchman or a watch. CANT.

 

SCRAGGED. Hanged.

 

SCRAGGY. Lean, bony.

 

SCRAGG'EM FAIR. A public execution.

 

SCRAP. A villainous scheme or plan. He whiddles the whole scrap; he discovers the whole plan or scheme.

 

SCRAPE. To get into a scrape; to be involved in a disagreeable business.

 

SCRAPER. A fiddler; also one who scrapes plates for mezzotinto prints.

SCRAPING. A mode of expressing dislike to a person, or sermon, practised at Oxford by the students, in scraping their feet against the ground during the preachment; frequently done to testify their disapprobation of a proctor who has been, as they think, too rigorous.

SCRATCH. Old Scratch; the Devil: probably from the long and sharp claws with which he is frequently delineated.

SCRATCH LAND. Scotland.

 

SCRATCH PLATTER, or TAYLOR'S RAGOUT. Bread sopt in the oil and vinegar in which cucumbers have been sliced.

SCREEN. A bank note. Queer screens; forged bank notes. The cove was twisted for smashing queer screens; the fellow was hanged for uttering forged bank notes.

SCREW. A skeleton key used by housebreakers to open a lock. To stand on the screw signifies that a door is not bolted, but merely locked.

TO SCREW. To copulate. A female screw; a common prostitute. To screw one up; to exact upon one in a bargain or reckoning.

SCREW JAWS. A wry-mouthed man or woman.

SCRIP. A scrap or slip of paper. The cully freely blotted the scrip, and tipt me forty hogs; the man freely signed the bond, and gave me forty shillings.--Scrip is also a Change Alley phrase for the last loan or subscription. What does scrip go at for the next rescounters? what does scrip sell for delivered at the next day of settling?

SCROBY. To be tipt the scroby; to be whipt before the justices.

 

SCROPE. A farthing. CANT.

 

SCRUB. A low mean fellow, employed in all sorts of dirty work.

 

SCRUBBADO. The itch.

 

SCULL. A head of a house, or master of a college, at the universities.

SCULL, or SCULLER. A boat rowed by one man with a light kind of oar, called a scull; also a one-horse chaise or buggy.

SCULL THATCHER. A peruke-maker.

 

SCUM. The riff-raff, tag-rag, and bob-tail, or lowest order of people.

 

SCUT. The tail of a hare or rabbit; also that of a woman.

 

SCUTTLE. To scuttle off; to run away. To scuttle a ship; to make a hole in her bottom in order to sink her.

 

SEA CRAB. A sailor.

 

SEA LAWYER. A shark.

 

SEALER, or SQUEEZE WAX. One ready to give bond and judgment for goods or money.

SECRET. He has been let into the secret: he has been cheated at gaming or horse-racing. He or she is in the grand secret, i.e. dead.
SEEDY. Poor, pennyless, stiver-cramped, exhausted.

SEES. The eyes. See DAYLIGHTS.

SERVED. Found guilty. Convicted. Ordered to be punished or transported. To serve a cull out; to beat a man soundly.

SERAGLIO. A bawdy-house; the name of that part of the Great Turk's palace where the women are kept.

 

SEND. To drive or break in. Hand down the Jemmy and send it in; apply the crow to the door, and drive it in.

 

SET. A dead set: a concerted scheme to defraud a person by gaming.

SETTER. A bailiff's follower, who, like a setting dog follows and points the game for his master. Also sometimes an exciseman.

TO SETTLE. To knock down or stun any one. We settled the cull by a stroke on his nob; we stunned the fellow by a blow on the head.

SEVEN-SIDED ANIMAL. A one-eyed man or woman, each having a right side and a left side, a fore side and a back side, an outside, an inside, and a blind side.

SHABBAROON. An ill-dressed shabby fellow; also a mean- spirited person.

 

SHAFTSBURY. A gallon pot full of wine, with a cock.

 

To SHAG. To copulate. He is but bad shag; he is no able woman's man.

 

SHAG-BAG, or SHAKE-BAG. A poor sneaking fellow; a man of no spirit: a term borrowed from the cock-pit.

 

SHAKE. To shake one's elbow; to game with dice. To shake a cloth in the wind; to be hanged in chains.

SHAKE. To draw any thing from the pocket. He shook the swell of his fogle; he robbed the gentleman of his silk handkerchief.

SHALLOW PATE. A simple fellow. SHALLOW. A WHIP hat, so called from the want of depth in the crown. LILLY SHALLOW, a WHITE Whip hat.

SHAM. A cheat, or trick. To cut a sham; to cheat or deceive. Shams; false sleeves to put on over a dirty shirt, or false sleeves with ruffles to put over a plain one. To sham Abram; to counterfeit sickness.

TO SHAMBLE. To walk awkwardly. Shamble-legged: one that walks wide, and shuffles about his feet.

 

SHANKER. A venereal wart.

 

SHANKS. Legs, or gams.

 

SHANKS NAGGY. To ride shanks naggy: to travel on foot. SCOTCH.

 

SHANNON. A river in Ireland: persons dipped in that river are perfectly and for ever cured of bashfulness.

 

SHAPES. To shew one's shapes; to be stript, or made peel, at the whipping-post.

 

SHAPPO, or SHAP. A hat: corruption of CHAPEAU. CANT.

SHARK. A sharper: perhaps from his preying upon any one he can lay hold of. Also a custom-house officer, or tide-waiter. Sharks; the first order of pickpockets. BOW- STREET TERM, A.D. 1785.

SHARP. Subtle, acute, quick-witted; also a sharper or cheat, in opposition to a flat, dupe, or gull. Sharp's the word and quick's the motion with him; said of any one very attentive to his own interest, and apt to take all advantages. Sharp set; hungry.

SHARPER. A cheat, one that lives by his wits. Sharpers tools; a fool and false dice.

SHAVER. A cunning shaver; a subtle fellow, one who trims close, an acute cheat. A young shaver; a boy. SEA TERM.

SHAVINGS. The clippings of money.

 

SHE HOUSE. A house where the wife rules, or, as the term is, wears the breeches.

 

SHE LION. A shilling. SHE NAPPER. A woman thief-catcher; also a bawd or pimp.

 

SHEEP'S HEAD. Like a sheep's head, all jaw; saying of a talkative man or woman.

SHEEPISH. Bashful. A sheepish fellow; a bashful or shamefaced fellow. To cast a sheep's eye at any thing; to look wishfully at it.

SHEEPSKIN FIDDLER. A drummer.

 

SHELF. On the shelf, i.e. pawned.

 

SHERIFF'S JOURNEYMAN. The hangman.

SHERIFF'S BALL. An execution. To dance at the sheriff's ball, and loll out one's tongue at the company; to be hanged, or go to rest in a horse's night-cap, i.e. a halter.

SHERIFF'S BRACELETS. Handcuffs.

 

SHERIFF'S HOTEL. A prison.

 

SHERIFF'S PICTURE FRAME. The gallows.

 

TO SHERK. To evade or disappoint: to sherk one's duty.

 

TO SHERRY. To run away: sherry off.

 

SHIFTING. Shuffling. Tricking. Shifting cove; i.e. a person who lives by tricking.

 

SHIFTING BALLAST. A term used by sailors, to signify soldiers, passengers, or any landsmen on board.

 

SHILLALEY. An oaken sapling, or cudgel: from a wood of that name famous for its oaks. IRISH.

 

SHILLY-SHALLY. Irresolute. To stand shilly-shally; to hesitate, or stand in doubt.

 

SHINDY. A dance. SEA PHRASE.

 

SHINE. It shines like a shitten barn door.

 

SHIP SHAPE. Proper, as it ought to be. SEA PHRASE,

SH-T SACK. A dastardly fellow: also a non-conformist. This appellation is said to have originated from the following story:--After the restoration, the laws against the non-conformists were extremely severe. They
sometimes met in very obscure places: and there is a tradition that one of their congregations were assembled in a barn, the rendezvous of beggars and other vagrants, where the preacher, for want of a ladder or tub, was suspended in a sack fixed to the beam. His discourse that day being on the last judgment, he particularly attempted to describe the terrors of the wicked at the sounding of the trumpet, on which a trumpeter to a puppet-show, who had taken refuge in that barn, and lay hid under the straw, sounded a charge. The congregation, struck with the utmost consternation, fled in an instant from the place, leaving their affrighted teacher to shift for himself. The effects of his terror are said to have appeared at the bottom of the sack, and to have occasioned that opprobrious appellation by which the non-conformists were vulgarly distinguished.

SH-T-NG THROUGH THE TEETH. Vomiting. Hark ye, friend, have you got a padlock on your a-se, that you sh-te through your teeth? Vulgar address to one vomiting.

SHOD ALL ROUND. A parson who attends a funeral is said to be shod all round, when he receives a hat-band, gloves, and scarf: many shoeings being only partial.

SHOEMAKER'S STOCKS. New, or strait shoes. I was in the shoemaker's stocks; i.e. had on a new pair of shoes that were too small for me.

TO SHOOLE. To go skulking about.

 

TO SHOOT THE CAT. To vomit from excess of liquor; called also catting.

 

SHOP. A prison. Shopped; confined, imprisoned.

 

SHOPLIFTER. One that steals whilst pretending to purchase goods in a shop.

 

SHORT-HEELED WENCH. A girl apt to fall on her back.

 

SHOT. To pay one's shot; to pay one's share of a reckoning. Shot betwixt wind and water; poxed or clapped.

 

SHOTTEN HERRING. A thin meagre fellow.

 

To SHOVE THE TUMBLER. To be whipped at the cart's tail.

 

SHOVE IN THE MOUTH. A dram.

SHOVEL. To be put to bed with a shovel; to be buried. He or she was fed with a fire-shovel; a saying of a person with a large mouth.

SHOULDER FEAST. A dinner given after a funeral, to those who have carried the corpse.

 

SHOULDER CLAPPER. A bailiff, or member of the catch club. Shoulder-clapped; arrested.

 

SHOULDER SHAM. A partner to a file. See FILE.

 

SHRED. A taylor.

 

SHRIMP. A little diminutive person.

 

TO SHUFFLE. To make use of false pretences, or unfair shifts. A shuffling fellow; a slippery shifting fellow.

 

SHY COCK. One who keeps within doors for fear of bailiffs.

 

SICE. Sixpence.

SICK AS A HORSE. Horses are said to be extremely sick at their stomachs, from being unable to relieve themselves by vomiting. Bracken, indeed, in his Farriery, gives an instance of that evacuation being procured, but by a means which he says would make the Devil vomit. Such as may have occasion to administer an emetic either to the animal or the fiend, m