1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

V

VAGARIES. Frolics, wild rambles.

VAIN-GLORIOUS, or OSTENTATIOUS MAN. One who boasts without reason, or, as the canters say, pisses more than he drinks.

VALENTINE. The first woman seen by a man, or man seen by a woman, on St. Valentine's day, the 14th of February, when it is said every bird chuses his mate for the ensuing year.

TO VAMP. To pawn any thing. I'll vamp it, and tip you the cole: I'll pawn it, and give you the money. Also to refit, new dress, or rub up old hats, shoes or other wearing apparel; likewise to put new feet to old boots. Applied more particularly to a quack bookseller.

VAMPER. Stockings.

VAN. Madam Van; see MADAM.

VAN-NECK. Miss or Mrs. Van-Neck; a woman with large breasts; a bushel bubby.

VARDY. To give one's vardy; i.e. verdict or opinion.

VARLETS. Now rogues and rascals, formerly yeoman's servants.

VARMENT. (Whip and Cambridge.) Natty, dashing. He is quite varment, he is quite the go. He sports a varment hat, coat, &c.; he is dressed like a gentleman Jehu.

VAULTING SCHOOL. A bawdy-house; also an academy where vaulting and other manly exercises are taught.

VELVET. To tip the velvet; to put one's tongue into a woman's mouth. To be upon velvet; to have the best of a bet or match. To the little gentleman in velvet, i. e. the mole that threw up the hill that caused Crop (King William's horse) to stumble; a toast frequently drank by the tories and catholics in Ireland.

VENERABLE MONOSYLLABLE. Pudendum muliebre.

VENUS'S CURSE. The venereal disease.

VESSELS OF PAPER. Half a quarter of a sheet.

VICAR OF BRAY. See BRAY.

VICE ADMIRAL OF THE NARROW SEAS. A drunken man that pisses under the table into his companions' shoes.

VICTUALLING OFFICE. The stomach.

VINCENT'S LAW. The art of cheating at cards, composed of the following associates: bankers, those who play booty; the gripe, he that betteth; and the person cheated, who is styled the vincent; the gains acquired, termage.

VINEGAR. A name given to the person who with a whip in his hand, and a hat held before his eye, keeps the ring clear, at boxing-matches and cudgel-playing; also, in cant terms, a cloak.

VIXEN. A termagant; also a she fox, who, when she has cubs, is remarkably fierce.

TO VOWEL. A gamester who does not immediately pay his losings, is said to vowel the winner, by repeating the vowels I. O. U. or perhaps from giving his note for the money according to the Irish form, where the acknowledgment of the debt is expressed by the letters I. O. U. which, the sum and name of the debtor being added, is deemed a sufficient security among gentlemen.

U

UNCLE. Mine uncle's; a necessary house. He is gone to visit his uncle; saying of one who leaves his wife soon after marriage. It likewise means a pawnbroker's: goods pawned are frequently said to be at mine uncle's, or laid up in lavender.

UNDERSTRAPPER. An inferior in any office, or department.

UNDER DUBBER. A turnkey.

UNFORTUNATE GENTLEMEN. The horse guards, who thus named themselves in Germany, where a general officer seeing them very awkward in bundling up their forage, asked what the devil they were; to which some of them answered, unfortunate gentlemen.

UNFORTUNATE WOMEN. Prostitutes: so termed by the virtuous and compassionate of their own sex.

UNGRATEFUL MAN. A parson, who at least once a week abuses his best benefactor, i.e. the devil.

UNGUENTUM AUREUM. A bribe.

UNICORN. A coach drawn by three horses.

UNLICKED CUB. A rude uncouth young fellow.

UNRIGGED. Undressed, or stripped. Unrig the drab; strip the wench.

UNTRUSS. To untruss a point; to let down one's breeches in order to ease one's self. Breeches were formerly tied with points, which till lately were distributed to the boys every Whit Monday by the churchwardens of most of the parishes in London, under the denomination of tags: these tags were worsteds of different colours twisted up to a size somewhat thicker than packthread, and tagged at both ends with tin. Laces were at the same given to the girls.

UNTWISTED. Undone, ruined, done up.

UNWASHED BAWDRY. Rank bawdry.

UP TO THEIR GOSSIP. To be a match for one who attempts to cheat or deceive; to be on a footing, or in the secret. I'll be up with him; I will repay him in kind.

UPHILLS. False dice that run high.

UPPER BENJAMIN. A great coat. CANT.

UPPER STORY, or GARRET. Figuratively used to signify the head. His upper story or garrets are unfurnished; i.e. he is an empty or foolish fellow.

UPPING BLOCK. [Called in some counties a leaping stock, in others a jossing block.] Steps for mounting a horse. He sits like a toad on a jossing block; said of one who sits ungracefully on horseback.

UPPISH. Testy, apt to take offence.

UPRIGHT. Go upright; a word used by shoemakers, taylors and their servants, when any money is given to make them drink, and signifies, Bring it all out in liquor, though the donor intended less, and expects change, or some of his money, to be returned. Three-penny upright. See THREEPENNY UPRIGHT.

UPRIGHT MAN. An upright man signifies the chief or principal of a crew. The vilest, stoutest rogue in the pack is generally chosen to this post, and has the sole right to the first night's lodging with the dells, who afterwards are used in common among the whole fraternity. He carries a short truncheon in his hand, which he calls his filchman, and has a larger share than ordinary in whatsoever is gotten in the society. He often travels in company with thirty or forty males and females, abram men, and others, over whom he presides arbitrarily. Sometimes the women and children who are unable to travel, or fatigued, are by turns carried in panniers by an ass, or two, or by some poor jades procured for that purpose.

UPSTARTS. Persons lately raised to honours and riches from mean stations.

URCHIN. A child, a little fellow; also a hedgehog.

URINAL OF THE PLANETS. Ireland: so called from the frequent rains in that island.

USED UP. Killed: a military saying, originating from a message sent by the late General Guise, on the expedition at Carthagena, where he desired the commander in chief to order him some more grenadiers, for those he had were all used up.

W

WABLER. Footwabler; a contemptuous term for a foot soldier, frequently used by those of the cavalry.

TO WADDLE. To go like a duck. To waddle out of Change alley as a lame duck; a term for one who has not been able to pay his gaming debts, called his differences, on the Stock Exchange, and therefore absents himself from it.

WAG. An arch-frolicsome fellow.

WAGGISH. Arch, gamesome, frolicsome.

WAGTAIL. A lewd woman.

WAITS. Musicians of the lower order, who in most towns play under the windows of the chief inhabitants at midnight, a short time before Christmas, for which they collect a christmas-box from house to house. They are said to derive their name of waits from being always in waiting to celebrate weddings and other joyous events happening within their district.

WAKE. A country feast, commonly on the anniversary of the tutelar saint of the village, that is, the saint to whom the parish church is dedicated. Also a custom of watching the dead, called Late Wake, in use both in Ireland and Wales, where the corpse being deposited under a table, with a plate of salt on its breast, the table is covered with liquor of all sorts; and the guests, particularly, the younger part of them, amuse themselves with all kinds of pastimes and recreations: the consequence is generally more than replacing the departed friend.

WALKING CORNET. An ensign of foot.

WALKING POULTERER. One who steals fowls, and hawks them from door to door.

WALKING STATIONER. A hawker of pamphlets, &c.

WALKING THE PLANK. A mode of destroying devoted persons or officers in a mutiny or ship-board, by blindfolding them, and obliging them to walk on a plank laid over the ship's side; by this means, as the mutineers suppose, avoiding the penalty of murder.

WALKING UP AGAINST THE WALL. To run up a score, which in alehouses is commonly recorded with chalk on the walls of the bar.

WALL. To walk or crawl up the wall; to be scored up at a public-nouse. Wall-eyed, having an eye with little or no sight, all white like a plaistered wall.

TO WAP. To copulate, to beat. If she wont wap for a winne, let her trine for a make; if she won't lie with a man for a penny, let her hang for a halfpenny. Mort wap-apace; a woman of experience, or very expert at the sport.

WAPPER-EYED. Sore-eyed.

WARE. A woman's ware; her commodity.

WARE HAWK. An exclamation used by thieves to inform their confederates that some police officers are at hand.

WARM. Rich, in good circumstances. To warm, or give a man a warming; to beat him. See CHAFED.

WARMING-PAN. A large old-fashioned watch. A Scotch warming-pan; a female bedfellow.

WARREN. One that is security for goods taken up on credit by extravagant young gentlemen. Cunny warren; a girl's boarding-school, also a bawdy-house.

WASH. Paint for the face, or cosmetic water. Hog-wash;

thick and bad beer.

WASP. An infected prostitute, who like a wasp carries a sting in her tail.

WASPISH. Peevish, spiteful.

WASTE. House of waste; a tavern or alehouse, where idle people waste both their time and money.

WATCH, CHAIN, AND SEALS. A sheep's head And pluck.

WATER-MILL. A woman's private parts.

WATER SNEAKSMAN. A man who steals from ships or craft on the river.

WATER. His chops watered at it; he longed earnestly for it. To watch his waters; to keep a strict watch on any one's actions. In hot water: in trouble, engaged in disputes.

WATER BEWITCHED. Very weak punch or beer.

WATERPAD. One that robs ships in the river Thames.

WATERY-HEADED. Apt to shed tears.

WATER SCRIGER, A doctor who prescribes from inspecting the water of his patients. See PISS PROPHET.

WATTLES. Ears. CANT.

WEAR A—E. A one-horse chaise.

WEASEL-FACED. Thin, meagre-faced. Weasel-gutted; thin-bodied; a weasel is a thin long slender animal with a sharp face.

WEDDING. The emptying of a necessary-house, particularly in London. You have been at an Irish wedding, where black eyes are given instead of favours; saying to one who has a black eye.

WEDGE. Silver plate, because melted by the receivers of stolen goods into wedges. CANT.

TO WEED. To take a part. The kiddey weeded the swell's screens; the youth took some of the gentleman's bank notes.

WEEPING CROSS. To come home by weeping cross; to repent.

WELCH COMB. The thumb and four fingers.

WELCH FIDDLE. The itch. See SCOTCH FIDDLE.

WELCH MILE. Like a Welch mile, long and narrow. His story is like a Welch mile, long and tedious.

WELCH RABBIT, [i. e. a Welch rare-bit] Bread and cheese toasted. See RABBIT.—The Welch are said to be so remarkably fond of cheese, that in cases of difficulty their midwives apply a piece of toasted cheese to the janua vita to attract and entice the young Taffy, who on smelling it makes most vigorous efforts to come forth.

WELCH EJECTMENT. To unroof the house, a method practised by landlords in Wales to eject a bad tenant.

TO WELL. To divide unfairly. To conceal part. A cant phrase used by thieves, where one of the party conceals some of the booty, instead of dividing it fairly amongst his confederates.

WELL-HUNG. The blowen was nutts upon the kiddey because he is well-hung; the girl is pleased with the youth because his genitals are large.

WESTMINSTER WEDDING. A match between a whore and a rogue.

WET PARSON. One who moistens his clay freely, in order to make it stick together.

WET QUAKER. One of that sect who has no objection to the spirit derived from wine.

WHACK. A share of a booty obtained by fraud. A paddy whack; a stout brawney Irishman.

WHAPPER. A large man or woman.

WHEEDLE. A sharper. To cut a wheedle; to decoy by fawning or insinuation. Cant.

WHEELBAND IN THE NICK. Regular drinking over the left thumb.

WHELP. An impudent whelp; a saucy boy.

WHEREAS. To follow a whereas; to become a bankrupt, to figure among princes and potentates: the notice given in the Gazette that a commission of bankruptcy is issued out against any trader, always beginning with the word whereas. He will soon march in the rear of a whereas.

WHET. A morning's draught, commonly white wine, supposed to whet or sharpen the appetite.

WHETSTONE'S PARK. A lane between Holborn and Lincoln's-inn Fields, formerly famed for being the resort of women of the town.

WHIDS. Words. Cant.

TO WHIDDLE. To tell or discover. He whiddles; he peaches. He whiddles the whole scrap; he discovers all he knows. The cull whiddled because they would not tip him a snack: the fellow peached because they would not give him a share, They whiddle beef, and we must brush; they cry out thieves, and we must make off. Cant.

WHIDDLER. An informer, or one that betrays the secrets of the gang.

WHIFFLES. A relaxation of the scrotum.

WHIFFLERS. Ancient name for fifers; also persons at the universities who examine candidates for degrees. A whiffling cur, a small yelping cur.

WHIMPER, or WHINDLE. A low cry.

TO WHINE. To complain.

WHINYARD. A sword.

TO WHIP THE COCK. A piece of sport practised at wakes, horse-races, and fairs in Leicestershire: a cock being tied or fastened into a hat or basket, half a dozen carters blindfolded, and armed with their cart whips, are placed round it, who, after being turned thrice about, begin to whip the cock, which if any one strikes so as to make it cry out, it becomes his property; the joke is, that instead of whipping the cock they flog each other heartily.

WHIP JACKS. The tenth order of the canting crew, rogues who having learned a few sea terms, beg with counterfeit passes, pretending to be sailors shipwrecked on the neighbouring coast, and on their way to the port from whence they sailed.

TO WHIP OFF. To run away, to drink off greedily, to snatch. He whipped away from home, went to the alehouse, where he whipped off a full tankard, and coming back whipped off a fellow's hat from his head.

WHIP-BELLY VENGEANCE, or pinch-gut vengeance, of which he that gets the most has the worst share. Weak or sour beer.

WHIPPER-SNAPPER. A diminutive fellow.

WHIPSHIRE. Yorkshire.

WHIPSTER. A sharp or subtle fellow.

WHIPT SYLLABUB. A flimsy, frothy discourse or treatise, without solidity.

WHIRLYGIGS. Testicles.

WHISKER. A great lie.

WHISKER SPLITTER. A man of intrigue.

WHISKIN. A shallow brown drinking bowl.

WHISKY. A malt spirit much drank in Ireland and Scotland; also a one-horse chaise. See TIM WHISKY.

WHISTLE. The throat. To wet one's whistle; to drink.

WHISTLING SHOP. Rooms in the King's Bench and Fleet prison where drams are privately sold.

WHIT. [i. e. Whittington's.] Newgate. Cant.—Five rum-padders are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and are piked into the deuseaville; five highwaymen broke out of Newgate in the night, and are gone into the country.

WHITE RIBBIN. Gin.

WHITE FEATHER. He has a white feather; he is a coward; an allusion to a game cock, where having a white feather is a proof he is not of the true game breed.

WHITE-LIVERED. Cowardly, malicious.

WHITE LIE. A harmless lie, one not told with a malicious intent, a lie told to reconcile people at variance.

WHITE SERJEANT. A man fetched from the tavern or ale-house by his wife, is said to be arrested by the white serjeant.

WHITE SWELLING. A woman big with child is said to have a white swelling.

WHITE TAPE. Geneva.

WHITE WOOL. Geneva.

WHITECHAPEL. Whitechapel portion; two smocks, and what nature gave. Whitechapel breed; fat, ragged, and saucy: see ST. GILES'S BREED. Whitechapel beau; one who dresses with a needle and thread, and undresses with a knife. To play at whist Whitechapel fashion; i.e. aces and kings first.

WHITEWASHED. One who has taken the benefit of an act of insolvency, to defraud his creditors, is said to have been whitewashed.

WHITFIELITE. A follower of George Whitfield, a Methodist.

WHITHER-GO-YE. A wife: wives being sometimes apt to question their husbands whither they are going.

WHITTINGTON'S COLLEGE. Newgate; built or repaired by the famous lord mayor of that name.

WHORE'S BIRD. A debauched fellow, the largest of all birds. He sings more like a whore's bird than a canary bird; said of one who has a strong manly voice.

WHORE'S CURSE. A piece of gold coin, value five shillings and three pence, frequently given to women of the town by such as professed always to give gold, and who before the introduction of those pieces always gave half a guinea.

WHOHE'S KITLING, or WHORE'S SON. A bastard.