1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

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 fine, 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, may consult his book for the recipe.

SIDE POCKET. He has as much need of a wife as a dog of a side pocket; said of a weak old debilitated man. He wants it as much as a dog does a side pocket; a simile used for one who desires any thing by no means necessary.

SIDLEDYWRY. Crooked.

SIGN OF A HOUSE TO LET. A widow's weeds.

SIGN OF THE: FIVE SHILLINGS. The crown.

TEN SHILLINGS. The two crowns.

FIFTEEN SHILLINGS. The three crowns.

SILENCE. To silence a man; to knock him down, or stun him. Silence in the court, the cat is pissing; a gird upon any one requiring silence unnecessarily.

SILENT FLUTE. See PEGO, SUGAR STICK, &c.

SILK SNATCHERS. Thieves who snatch hoods or bonnets from persons walking in the streets.

SILVER LACED. Replete with lice. The cove's kickseys are silver laced: the fellow's breeches are covered with lice.

SIMEONITES, (at Cambridge,) the followers of the Rev. Charles Simeon, fellow of King's College, author of Skeletons of Sermons, and preacher at Trinity church; they are in fact rank methodists.

SIMKIN. A foolish fellow.

SIMON. Sixpence. Simple Simon: a natural, a silly fellow; Simon Suck-egg, sold his wife for an addle duck-egg.

TO SIMPER. To smile: to simper like a firmity kettle.

SIMPLETON. Abbreviation of simple Tony or Anthony, a foolish fellow.

SIMPLES. Physical herbs; also follies. He must go to Battersea, to be cut for the simples—Battersea is a place famous for its garden grounds, some of which were formerly appropriated to the growing of simples for apothecaries, who at a certain season used to go down to select their stock for the ensuing year, at which time the gardeners were said to cut their simples; whence it became a popular joke to advise young people to go to Battersea, at that time, to have their simples cut, or to be cut for the simples.

TO SING. To call out; the coves sing out beef; they call out stop thief.

TO SING SMALL. To be humbled, confounded, or abashed, to have little or nothing to say for one's-self.

SINGLE PEEPER. A person having but one eye.

SINGLETON. A very foolish fellow; also a particular kind of nails.

SINGLETON. A corkscrew, made by a famous cutler of that name, who lived in a place called Hell, in Dublin; his screws are remarkable for their excellent temper.

SIR JOHN. The old title for a country parson: as Sir John of Wrotham, mentioned by Shakespeare.

SIR JOHN BARLEYCORN. Strong beer.

SIR LOIN. The sur, or upper loin.

SIR REVERENCE. Human excrement, a t—d.

SIR TIMOTHY. One who, from a desire of being the head of the company, pays the reckoning, or, as the term is, stands squire. See SQUIRE.

SITTING BREECHES. One who stays late in company, is said to have his sitting breeches on, or that he will sit longer than a hen.

SIX AND EIGHT-PENCE. An attorney, whose fee on several occasions is fixed at that sum.

SIX AND TIPS. Whisky and small beer. IRISH.

SIXES AND SEVENS. Left at sixes and sevens: i.e. in confusion; commonly said of a room where the furniture, &c. is scattered about; or of a business left unsettled.

SIZE OF ALE. Half a pint. Size of bread and cheese; a certain quantity. Sizings: Cambridge term for the college allowance from the buttery, called at Oxford battles.

To SIZE. (CAMBRIDGE) To sup at one's own expence. If a MAN asks you to SUP, he treats you; if to SIZE, you pay for what you eat—liquors ONLY being provided by the inviter.

SIZAR (Cambridge). Formerly students who came to the University for purposes of study and emolument. But at present they are just as gay and dissipated as their fellow collegians. About fifty years ago they were on a footing with the servitors at Oxford, but by the exertions of the present Bishop of Llandaff, who was himself a sizar, they were absolved from all marks of inferiority or of degradation. The chief difference at present between them and the pensioners, consists in the less amount of their college fees. The saving thus made induces many extravagant fellows to become sizars, that they may have more money to lavish on their dogs, pieces, &c.

SKEW. A cup, or beggar's wooden dish.

SKEWVOW, or ALL ASKEW. Crooked, inclining to one side.

SKIN. In a bad skin; out of temper, in an ill humour. Thin-skinned: touchy, peevish.

SKIN. A purse. Frisk the skin of the stephen; empty the money out of the purse. Queer skin; an empty purse.

SKIN FLINT. An avaricious man or woman.

SKINK. To skink, is to wait on the company, ring the bell, stir the fire, and snuff the candles; the duty of the youngest officer in the military mess. See BOOTS.

SKINS. A tanner.

SKIP JACKS. Youngsters that ride horses on sale, horse-dealers boys. Also a plaything made for children with the breast bone of a goose.

SKIP KENNEL. A footman.

SKIPPER. A barn. CANT.—Also the captain of a Dutch vessel.

TO SKIT. To wheedle. CANT.

SKIT. A joke. A satirical hint.

SKRIP. See SCRIP.

SKULKER. A soldier who by feigned sickness, or other pretences, evades his duty; a sailor who keeps below in time of danger; in the civil line, one who keeps out of the way, when any work is to be done. To skulk; to hide one's self, to avoid labour or duty.

SKY BLUE. Gin.

SKY FARMERS. Cheats who pretend they were farmers in the isle of Sky, or some other remote place, and were ruined by a flood, hurricane, or some such public calamity: or else called sky farmers from their farms being IN NUBIBUS, 'in the clouds.'

SKY PARLOUR. The garret, or upper story.

SLABBERING BIB. A parson or lawyer's band.

SLAG. A slack-mettled fellow, one not ready to resent an affront.

SLAM. A trick; also a game at whist lost without scoring one. To slam to a door; to shut it with violence.

SLAMKIN. A female sloven, one whose clothes seem hung on with a pitch-fork, a careless trapes.

SLANG. A fetter. Double slanged; double ironed. Now double slanged into the cells for a crop he is knocked down; he is double ironed in the condemned cells, and ordered to be hanged.

SLANG. Cant language.

SLAP-BANG SHOP. A petty cook's shop, where there is no credit given, but what is had must be paid DOWN WITH THE READY SLAP-BANG, i.e. immediately. This is a common appellation for a night cellar frequented by thieves, and sometimes for a stage coach or caravan.

SLAPDASH. Immediately, instantly, suddenly.

SLASHER. A bullying, riotous fellow. IRISH.

SLAT. Half a crown. CANT.

SLATE. A sheet. CANT.

SLATER'S PAN. The gaol at Kingston in Jamaica: Slater is the deputy Provost-marshal.

SLATTERN. A woman sluttishly negligent in her dress.

SLEEPING PARTNER. A partner in a trade, or shop, who lends his name and money, for which he receives a share of the profit, without doing any part of the business.

SLEEPY. Much worn: the cloth of your coat must be extremely sleepy, for it has not had a nap this long time.

SLEEVELESS ERRAND. A fool's errand, in search of what it is impossible to find.

SLICE. To take a slice; to intrigue, particularly with a married woman, because a slice off a cut loaf is not missed.

SLIPGIBBET. See SCAPEGALLOWS.

SLIPPERY CHAP. One on whom there can be no dependance, a shuffling fellow.

SLIPSLOPS. Tea, water-gruel, or any innocent beverage taken medicinally.

SLIPSLOPPING. Misnaming and misapplying any hard word; from the character of Mrs. Slipslop, in Fielding's Joseph Andrews.

SLOP. Tea. How the blowens lush the slop. How the wenches drink tea!

SLOPS. Wearing apparel and bedding used by seamen.

SLOP SELLER. A dealer in those articles, who keeps a slop shop.

SLOUCH. A stooping gait, a negligent slovenly fellow. To slouch; to hang down one's head. A slouched hat: a hat whose brims are let down.

SLUBBER DE GULLION. A dirty nasty fellow.

SLUG. A piece of lead of any shape, to be fired from a blunderbuss. To fire a slug; to drink a dram.

SLUG-A-BED. A drone, one that cannot rise in the morning.

SLUICE YOUR GOB. Take a hearty drink.