1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
- -
- 100%
- +
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 a woman.
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
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 (Proofreaders Note: 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
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 for secret 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.