A DICTIONARY OF MODERN SLANG, CANT, & VULGAR WORDS; MANY WITH THEIR ETYMOLOGIES TRACED. (continued 3)

PEERY, suspicious, or inquisitive.

PEG, brandy and soda water.

PEG, “to PEG away,” to strike, run, or drive away; “PEG a hack,” to drive a cab; “take down a PEG or two,” to check an arrogant or conceited person.

PEG, a shilling.—Scotch.

PEG-TOPS, the loose trousers now in fashion, small at the ankle and swelling upwards, in imitation of the Zouave costume.

PENNY GAFFS, shops turned into temporary theatres (admission one penny), where dancing and singing take place every night. Rude pictures of the performers are arranged outside to give the front a gaudy and attractive look, and at night-time coloured lamps and transparencies are displayed to draw an audience.

PENNY-A-LINER, a contributor of local news, accidents, fires, scandal, political and fashionable gossip, club jokes, and anecdotes, to a newspaper; not regularly “on the paper;” one who is popularly believed to be paid for each contribution at the rate of a penny a line, and whose interest is, therefore, that his article should be horribly stuffed with epithets.

PENISULAR, or MOLL TOOLER, a female pickpocket.

PENSIONER, a man of the lowest morals who lives off the miserable earnings of a prostitute.

PEPPER, to thrash, or strike.—Pugilistic, but used by Shakespere.—East.

PERCH, or ROOST, a resting place; “I’m off to PERCH,” i.e., I am going to bed.

PERSUADERS, spurs.

PESKY, an intensitive expression, implying annoyance; a PESKY, troublesome fellow. Corruption of PESTILENT?

PETER, a partridge.—Poacher’s term.

PETER, a bundle, or valise.—Bulwer’s Paul Clifford.

PETER, to run short, or give out.

PETERER, or PETERMAN, one who follows hackney and stage coaches, and cuts off the portmanteaus and trunks from behind.—Nearly obsolete. Ancient term for a fisherman, still used at Gravesend.

PETTICOAT, a woman.

PEWTER, money, like TIN, used generally to signify silver; also, a pewter-pot.

PHYSOG, or PHIZ, the face. Swift uses the latter. Corruption of physiognomy.

PIC., the Piccadilly Saloon.

PICK, “to PICK oneself up,” to recover after a beating or illness; “to PICK a man up,” “to do,” or cheat him.

PICKERS, the hands.—Shakespere.

PICKLE, a miserable or comical position; “he is in a sad PICKLE,” said of any one who has fallen into the gutter, or got besmeared. “A PICKLE herring,” a comical fellow, a merry Andrew.—Old.

PICKLES! gammon.

PIECE, a contemptuous term for a woman; a strumpet.—Shakespere.

PIG, or SOW’S BABY, a sixpence.

PIG, a mass of metal,—so called from its being poured in a fluid state from a sow, which see.—Workmen’s term.

PIG AND TINDER-BOX, the vulgar rendering of the well-known tavern sign, “Elephant and Castle.”

PEPPER-BOXES, the buildings of the Royal Academy and National Gallery, in Trafalgar-square. The name was first given by a wag, in allusion to the cupolas erected by Wilkins, the architect, upon the roof, and which at a distance suggest to the stranger the fact of their being enlarged PEPPER-BOXES, from their form and awkward appearance.—See BOILERS.

PIGEON, a gullible or soft person. The French slang, or argot, has the word PIGEON, dupe—“PECHON, PESCHON DE RUBY, apprenti gueux, enfant (sans doute dérobé).” The vagabonds and brigands of Spain also use the word in their Germania, or Robbers’ Language, PALOMO (pigeon), ignorant, simple.

PIGEON, or BLUEY CRACKING, breaking into empty houses and stealing lead.

PIG-HEADED, obstinate.

PIG’S WHISPER, a low or inaudible whisper; also a short space of time, synonymous with COCKSTRIDE, i.e., cock’s tread.

PIKE, to run away.

PIKE, a turnpike; “to bilk a PIKE,” to cheat the keeper of the toll-gate.

PILL, a doctor—Military. Pill-driver, a peddling apothecary.

PIN, “to put in the PIN,” to refrain from drinking. From the ancient peg tankard, which was furnished with a row of PINS, or pegs, to regulate the amount which each person was to drink. A MERRY PIN, a roisterer.

PINCH, to steal, or cheat; also, to catch, or apprehend.

PINDARIC HEIGHTS, studying the odes of Pindar.—Oxford.

PINK, to stab, or pierce.

PINK, the acmé of perfection.—Shakespere.

PINNERS-UP, sellers of old songs pinned against a wall, or framed canvas.

PINS, legs.

PIPE, to shed tears, or bewail; “PIPE one’s eye.”Sea term.

Metaphor from the boatswain’s pipe, which calls to duty.

PIPE, “to put one’s PIPE out,” to traverse his plans, “take a rise” out of him.

PIPKIN, the stomach,—properly, an earthen round-bottomed pot.—Norwich.

PIT, a breast pocket.

PITCH, a fixed locality where a patterer can hold forth to a gaping multitude for at least some few minutes continuously; “to do a PITCH in the drag,” to perform in the street.

PITCH INTO, to fight; “PITCH INTO him, Bill,” i.e., give him a thrashing.

PITCH THE FORK, to tell a pitiful tale.

PITCH THE NOB, PRICK THE GARTER, which see.

PLANT, a dodge, a preconcerted swindle; a position in the street to sell from. Plant, a swindle, may be thus described: a coster will join a party of gambling costers that he never saw before, and commence tossing. When sufficient time has elapsed to remove all suspicions of companionship, his mate will come up and commence betting on each of his PAL’S throws with those standing around. By a curious quickness of hand, a coster can make the toss tell favourably for his wagering friend, who meets him in the evening after the play is over and shares the spoil.

PLANT, to mark a person out for plunder or robbery, to conceal, or place.—Old cant.

PLEBS, a term used to stigmatise a tradesman’s son at Westminster School. Latin, PLEBS, the vulgar.

PLOUGHED, drunk.—Household Words, No. 183. Also a University term equivalent to PLUCKED.

PLUCK, the heart, liver, and lungs of an animal,—all that is PLUCKED away in connection with the windpipe, from the chest of a sheep or hog; among low persons, courage, valour, and a stout heart.—See MOLLYGRUBS.

PLUCK’D-’UN, a stout or brave fellow; “he’s a rare PLUCKED-’UN,” i.e.

During the Crimean war, PLUCKY, signifying courageous, seemed likely to become a favourite term in May-Fair, even among the ladies. An eminent critic, however, who had been bred a butcher, having informed the fashionable world that in his native town the sheep’s head always went with the PLUCK, the term has been gradually falling into discredit at the West End.

It has been said that a brave soldier is PLUCKY in attack, and GAME when wounded. Women are more GAME than PLUCKY.

PLUCKED, turned back at an examination.—University.

PLUNDER, a common word in the horse trade to express profit. Also an American term for baggage, luggage.

PLUM, £100,000, usually applied to the dowry of a rich heiress, or a legacy.

PLUMMY, round, sleek, jolly, or fat; excellent, very good, first rate.

PLUMPER, a single vote at an election, not a “split ticket.”

PODGY, drunk; dumpy, short and fat.

POGRAM, a dissenter, a fanatic, formalist, or humbug.

POKE, “come, none of your POKING fun at me,” i.e., you must not laugh at me.

POKE, a bag, or sack; “to buy a pig in a POKE,” to purchase anything without seeing it.—Saxon.

POKER, “by the holy POKER and the tumbling Tom!” an Irish oath.

POKERS, the Cambridge slang term for the Esquire Bedels, who carry the silver maces (also called POKERS) before the Vice-Chancellor.

POKY, confined or cramped; “that corner is POKY and narrow.”—Times article, 21st July, 1859.

POLE-AXE, vulgar corruption of policeman.

POLICEMAN, a fly.

POLISH OFF, to finish off anything quickly—a dinner for instance; also to finish off an adversary.—Pugilistic.

POLL, or POLLING, one thief robbing another of part of their booty.—Hall’s Union, 1548.

POLL, the “ordinary degree” candidates for the B.A. Examination, who do not aspire to the “Honours” list. From the Greek, ὁι πόλλοι, “the many.” Some years ago, at Cambridge, Mr. Hopkins being the most celebrated “honour coach,” or private tutor for the wranglers, and Mr. Potts the principal “crammer” of the non-honour men, the latter was facetiously termed the “POLLY HOPKINS” by the undergraduates.

POLL, a prostitute; POLLED UP, living with a woman without being married to her.

POLONY, a Bologna sausage.

POONA, a sovereign.—Corruption of pound; or from the Lingua Franca?

PONY, twenty-five pounds.—Sporting.

POPS, pocket pistols.

POP, to pawn or pledge; “to POP up the spout,” to pledge at the pawnbroker’s,—an allusion to the spout up which the brokers send the ticketed articles until such times as they shall be redeemed. The spout runs from the ground floor to the wareroom at the top of the house.

POSH, a halfpenny, or trifling coin. Also a generic term for money.

POSTERIORS, a correspondent insists that the vulgar sense of this word is undoubtedly slang (Swift, I believe, first applied it as such), and remarks that it is curious the word anterior has not been so abused.

POST-HORN, the nose.—See PASTE-HORN.

POST-MORTEM, at Cambridge, the second examination which men who have been “plucked” have to undergo.—University.

POT, a sixpence, i.e., the price of a pot or quart of half-and-half. A half crown, in medical student slang, is a FIVE-POT PIECE.

POT, “to GO TO POT,” to die; from the classic custom of putting the ashes of the dead in an urn; also, to be ruined, or broken up,—often applied to tradesmen who fail in business. Go to pot! i.e., go and hang yourself, shut up and be quiet. L’Estrange, to PUT THE POT ON, to overcharge, or exaggerate.

POT, to finish; “don’t POT me,” term used at billiards. This word was much used by our soldiers in the Crimea, for firing at the enemy from a hole or ambush. These were called POT-SHOTS.

POT-HUNTER, a sportsman who shoots anything he comes across, having more regard to filling his bag than to the rules which regulate the sport.

POT-LUCK, just as it comes; to take POT-LUCK, i.e., one’s chance of a dinner,—a hearty term used to signify whatever the pot contains you are welcome to.

POT-WALLOPERS, electors in certain boroughs before the passing of the Reform Bill, whose qualification consisted in being housekeepers,—to establish which, it was only necessary to boil a pot within the limits of the borough, by the aid of any temporary erection. This implied that they were able to provide for themselves, and not necessitated to apply for parochial relief. Wallop, a word of Anglo Saxon derivation, from the same root as wall.

POTTED, or POTTED OUT, cabined, confined; “the patriotic member of Parliament POTTED OUT in a dusty little lodging somewhere about Bury-street.”—Times article, 21st July, 1859. Also applied to burial.

POTTY, indifferent, bad looking.

POTATO TRAP, the mouth. A humorous Hibernicism.

POWER, a large quantity.—Formerly Irish, but now general; “a POWER of money.”

PRAD, a horse.

PRAD NAPPING, horse stealing.

PRANCER, a horse.—Ancient cant.

PRICK THE GARTER, or PITCH THE NOB, a gambling and cheating game common at fairs, and generally practised by thimble riggers. It consists of a “garter” or a piece of list doubled, and then folded up tight. The bet is made upon your asserting that you can, with a pin, “prick” the point at which the garter is doubled. The garter is then unfolded, and nine times out of ten you will find that you have been deceived, and that you pricked one of the false folds. The owner of the garter, I should state, holds the ends tightly with one hand. This was, doubtless, originally a Gipsey game, and we are informed by Brand that it was much practised by the Gipseys in the time of Shakespere. In those days, it was termed PRICKING AT THE BELT, or FAST AND LOOSE.

PRIG, a thief.Addison in the sense of a coxcomb. Ancient cant, probably from the Saxon, PRICC-AN, to filch, &c.—Shakespere. Prig, to steal, or rob. Prigging, thieving. In Scotland the term PRIG is used in a different sense from what it is in England. In Glasgow, or at Aberdeen, “to PRIG a salmon,” would be to cheapen it, or seek for an abatement in the price. A story is told of two Scotchmen, visitors to London, who got into sad trouble a few years ago by announcing their intention of “PRIGGING a hat” which they had espied in a fashionable manufacturer’s window, and which one of them thought he would like to possess.

PRIME PLANT, a good subject for plunder.—See PLANT.

PRIMED, said of a person in that state of incipient intoxication that if he takes more drink it will become evident.

PRO, a professional.—Theatrical.

PROG, meat, food, &c. Johnson calls it “a low word.”

PROP, a gold scarf pin.

PROP-NAILER, a man who steals, or rather snatches, pins from gentlemen’s scarfs.

PROPS, crutches.

PROPER, very, exceedingly, sometimes ironically; “you are a PROPER nice fellow,” meaning a great scamp.

PROS, a water-closet. Abbreviated form of πρὸς τινα τόπον.—Oxford University.

PROSS, breaking in, or instructing, a stage-infatuated youth.—Theatrical.

PSALM-SMITER, a “Ranter,” one who sings at a conventicle.—See BRISKET BEATER.

PUB, or PUBLIC, a public-house.

PUCKER, poor temper, difficulty, déshabillé.

PUCKER, or PUCKER UP, to get in a poor temper.

PUCKERING, talking privately.

PUDDING SNAMMER, one who robs a cook shop.

PUFF, to blow up, swell with praise, was declared by a writer in the Weekly Register, as far back as 1732, to be illegitimate.

“Puff has become a cant word, signifying the applause set forth by writers, &c., to increase the reputation and sale of a book, and is an excellent stratagem to excite the curiosity of gentle readers.”

Lord Bacon, however, used the word in a similar sense a century before.

PULL, an advantage, or hold upon another; “I’ve the PULL over you,” i.e., you are in my power—perhaps an oblique allusion to the judicial sense.—See the following.

PULL, to have one apprehended; “to be PULLED up,” to be taken before a magistrate.

PULL, to drink; “come, take a PULL at it,” i.e., drink up.

PULLEY, a confederate thief,—generally a woman.

PUMMEL, to thrash,—from POMMEL.

PUMP SHIP, to evacuate urine.—Sea.

PURE FINDERS, street collectors of dogs’ dung.

PURL, hunting term for a fall, synonymous with FOALED, or SPILT; “he’ll get PURLED at the rails.”

PURL, a mixture of hot ale and sugar, with wormwood infused in it, a favourite morning drink to produce an appetite; sometimes with gin and spice added:—

PUSH, a crowd.—Old cant.

PUSSEY CATS, corruption of Puseyites, a name constantly, but improperly, given to the “Tractarian” party in the Church, from the Oxford Regius Professor of Hebrew, who by no means approved of the Romanising tendencies of some of its leaders.

PUT, a game at cards.

PUT THE POT ON, to bet too much upon one horse.—Sporting.

PUT UP, to suggest, to incite, “he PUT me UP to it;” to have done with; PUT IT UP, is a vulgar answer often heard in the streets. Put Up, to stop at an hotel or tavern for entertainment.

PUT UPON, cheated, deluded, oppressed.

PYGOSTOLE, the least irreverent of names for the peculiar “M.B.” coats worn by Tractarian curates.—

QUARTEREEN, a farthing.—Gibraltar term. Ital., QUATTRINO.

QUEAN (not QUEEN), a strumpet.

QUEER, an old cant word, once in continual use as a prefix, signifying base, roguish, or worthless,—the opposite of RUM, which signified good and genuine. Queer, in all probability, is immediately derived from the cant language. It has been mooted that it came into use from a quære (?) being set before a man’s name; but it is more than probable that it was brought into this country by the Gipseys from Germany, where QUER signifies “cross,” or “crooked.” At all events, it is believed to have been first used in England as a cant word.

QUEEN BESS, the Queen of Clubs,—perhaps because that queen, history says, was of a swarthy complexion.—North Hants.—See Gentleman’s Magazine for 1791, p. 141.

QUEER, “to QUEER a flat,” to puzzle or confound a “gull” or silly fellow.

QUEER BAIL, worthless persons who for a consideration would stand bail for any one in court. Insolvent Jews generally performed this office, which gave rise to the term JEW-BAIL.—See MOUNTERS: both nearly obsolete.

QUEER BIT-MAKERS, coiners.

QUEER SCREENS, forged bank notes.

QUEER SOFT, bad money.

QUEER STREET, “in QUEER STREET,” in difficulty or in want.

QUEER CUFFEN, a justice of the peace, or magistrate—a very ancient term, mentioned in the earliest slang dictionary.

QUERIER, a chimney-sweep who calls from house to house,—formerly termed KNULLER, which see.

QUI-HI, an English resident at Calcutta.—Anglo Indian.

QUICK STICKS, in a hurry, rapidly; “to cut QUICK STICKS,” to be in a great hurry.

QUID, or THICK UN, a sovereign; “half a QUID,” half a sovereign; QUIDS, money generally; “QUID for a QUOD,” one good turn for another. The word is used by Old French writers:—

QUID, a small piece of tobacco—one mouthful. Quid est hoc? asked one, tapping the swelled cheek of another; hoc est quid, promptly replied the other, exhibiting at the same time “a chaw” of the weed. Probably a corruption of CUD.

QUIET, “on the QUIET,” clandestinely, so as to avoid observation, “under the rose.”

QUILL-DRIVER, a scrivener, a clerk—satirical phrase similar to STEEL BAR-DRIVER, a tailor.

QUILT, to thrash, or beat.

QUISBY, bankrupt, poverty stricken.—Ho. Words, No. 183.

QUIZ, a prying person, an odd fellow. Oxford slang; lately admitted into dictionaries. Not noticed by Johnson.

QUIZ, to pry, or joke.

QUIZZICAL, jocose, humorous.

QUOCKERWODGER, a wooden toy figure, which, when pulled by a string, jerks its limbs about. The term is used in a slang sense to signify a pseudo-politician, one whose strings of action are pulled by somebody else.—West.

QUOD, a prison, or lock up; QUODDED, put in prison. A slang expression used by Mr. Hughes, in Tom Brown’s Schooldays (Macmillan’s Magazine, January, 1860), throws some light upon the origin of this now very common street term:—“Flogged or whipped in QUAD,” says the delineator of student life, in allusion to chastisement inflicted within the Quadrangle of a college. Quadrangle is the term given to the prison inclosure within which culprits are allowed to walk, and where whippings were formerly inflicted. Quadrangle also represents a building of four sides; and to be “within FOUR WALLS,” or prison, is the frequent slang lamentation of unlucky vagabonds.

RABBIT, when a person gets the worst of a bargain he is said “to have bought the RABBIT.”

RACKET, a dodge, manœuvre, exhibition; a disturbance.

RACKETY, wild or noisy.

RACKS, the bones of a dead horse. Term used by horse slaughterers.

RACLAN, a married woman.—Gipsey.

RAFE, or RALPH, a pawnbroker’s duplicate.—Norwich.

RAG, to divide or share; “let’s RAG IT,” or GO RAGS, i.e., share it equally between us.—Norwich.

RAGAMUFFIN, a tattered vagabond, a tatterdemalion.

RAG SPLAWGER, a rich man.

RAGS, bank notes.

RAG-SHOP, a bank.

RAIN NAPPER, umbrella.

RAISE THE WIND, to obtain credit, or money—generally by pawning or selling off property.

RAMP, to thieve or rob with violence.

RAMPSMAN, a highway robber who uses violence when necessary.

RAMSHACKLE, to shatter as with a battering ram; RAMSHACKLED, knocked about, as standing corn is after a high wind. Corrupted from ram-shatter, or possibly from ransack.

RANDOM, three horses driven in line, a very appropriate term.—See TANDEM.

RANDY, rampant, violent, warm, amorous. North, RANDY-BEGGAR, a gipsey tinker.

RAN-TAN, “on the RAN-TAN,” drunk.—Ho. Words, No. 183.

RANTIPOLE, a wild noisy fellow.

RAP, a halfpenny; frequently used generically for money, thus: “I hav’nt a RAP,” i.e., I have no money whatever; “I don’t care a RAP,” &c. Originally a species of counterfeit coin used for small change in Ireland, against the use of which a proclamation was issued, 5th May, 1737. Small copper or base metal coins are still called RAPPEN in the Swiss cantons. Irish robbers are called RAPPAREES.

RAP, to utter; “he RAPPED out a volley of oaths.”

RAPPING, enormous; “a RAPPING big lie.”

RAPSCALLION, a low tattered wretch.

RAT, a sneak, an informer, a turn-coat, one who changes his party for interest. The late Sir Robert Peel was called the RAT, or the TAMWORTH RATCATCHER, for altering his views on the Roman Catholic question. From rats deserting vessels about to sink.

RAT, term amongst printers to denote one who works under price. Old cant for a clergyman.

RATHER! a ridiculous street exclamation synonymous with yes; “do you like fried chickens?” “RATHER!” “are you going out of town?” “RATHER!”

RATHER OF THE RATHEREST, a phrase applied to anything slightly in excess or defect.

RATTLECAP, an unsteady, volatile person.

RATTLER, a cab, coach, or cart.—Old cant.

RATTLERS, a railway; “on the RATTLERS to the stretchers,” i.e., going to the races by railway.

RAW, uninitiated; a novice.—Old. Frequently a JOHNNY RAW.

RAW, a tender point, a foible; “to touch a man up on the RAW” is to irritate one by alluding to, or joking him on, anything on which he is peculiarly susceptible or “thin-skinned.”

READER, a pocket-book; “give it him for his READER,” i.e., rob him of his pocket-book.—Old cant.

READY, or READY GILT (properly GELT), money. Used by Arbuthnot, “Lord Strut was not very flush in READY.”

REAM, good or genuine. From the Old cant, RUM.

REAM-BLOAK, a good man.

RECENT INCISION, the busy thoroughfare on the Surrey side of the Thames, known by sober people as the NEW CUT.

REDGE, gold.

RED HERRING, a soldier.

RED LANE, the throat.

RED LINER, an officer of the Mendicity Society.

RED RAG, the tongue.

REGULARS, a thief’s share of the plunder. “They were quarrelling about the REGULARS.”—Times, 8th January, 1856.

RELIEVING OFFICER, a significant term for a father.—Univ.

RENCH, vulgar pronunciation of RINSE. “Wrench your mouth out,” said a fashionable dentist one day.—North.

RE-RAW, “on the RE-RAW,” tipsy or drunk.—Household Words, No. 183.

RHINO, ready money.

RHINOCERAL, rich, wealthy, abounding in RHINO.

RIB, a wife.—North.

RIBBONS, the reins.—Middlesex.

RIBROAST, to beat till the ribs are sore.Old; but still in use:—

RICH, spicy; also used in the sense of “too much of a good thing;” “a RICH idea,” one too absurd or unreasonable to be adopted.

RIDE, “to RIDE THE HIGH HORSE,” or RIDE ROUGH-SHOD over one, to be overbearing or oppressive; to RIDE THE BLACK DONKEY, to be in an ill humour.

RIDER, in a University examination, a problem or question appended to another, as directly arising from or dependent on it;—beginning to be generally used for any corollary or position which naturally arises from any previous statement or evidence.

RIG, a trick, “spree,” or performance; “run a RIG,” to play a trick—Gipsey; “RIG the market,” in reality to play tricks with it,—a mercantile slang phrase often used in the newspapers.

RIGGED, “well RIGGED,” well dressed.—Old slang, in use 1736.—See Bailey’s Dictionary.—Sea.

RIGHT AS NINEPENCE, quite right, exactly right.

RIGHTS, “to have one to RIGHTS,” to be even with him, to serve him out.

RIGMAROLE, a prolix story.

RILE, to offend, to render very cross, irritated, or vexed. Properly, to render liquor turbid.—Norfolk.

RING, a generic term given to horse-racing and pugilism,—the latter is sometimes termed the PRIZE-RING. From the practice of forming the crowd into a ring around the combatants, or outside the race-course.

RING, “to go through the RING,” to take advantage of the Insolvency Act, or be whitewashed.

RING DROPPING, see FAWNEY.

RINGING CASTORS, changing hats.

RINGING THE CHANGES, changing bad money for good.

RIP, a rake; “an old RIP,” an old libertine, or debauchee. Corruption of Reprobate. A person reading the letters R. I. P. (Requiescat in Pace) on the top of a tombstone as one word, said, soliloquising, “Rip! well, he was an old RIP, and no mistake.”Cuthbert Bede.

RIPPER, a first-rate man or article.—Provincial.

RIPPING, excellent, very good.

RISE, “to take a RISE out of a person,” to mortify, outwit, or cheat him, by superior cunning.

RISE (or RAISE) A BARNEY, to collect a mob.

ROARER, a broken-winded horse.

ROARING TRADE, a very successful business.

ROAST, to expose a person to a running fire of jokes at his expense from a whole company, in his presence. Quizzing is done by a single person only.

ROCK A LOW, an overcoat. Corruption of the French ROQUELAURE.

ROCKED, “he’s only HALF-ROCKED,” i.e., half witted.

ROLL OF SNOW, a piece of Irish linen.

ROMANY, a Gipsey, or the Gipsey language; the speech of the Roma or Zincali.—Spanish Gipsey.

ROOK, a clergyman, not only from his black attire, but also, perhaps, from the old nursery favourite, the History of Cock Robin.

ROOK, a cheat, or tricky gambler; the opposite of PIGEON.—Old.

ROOKERY, a low neighbourhood inhabited by dirty Irish and thieves—as ST. GILES’ ROOKERY.—Old. In Military slang that part of the barracks occupied by subalterns, often by no means a pattern of good order.

ROOKY, rascally, rakish, scampish.

ROOST, synonymous with PERCH, which see.

ROOTER, anything good or of a prime quality; “that is a ROOTER,” i.e., a first-rate one of the sort.

ROSE, an orange.

ROSE, “under the ROSE” (frequently used in its Latin form, Sub rosâ), i.e., under the obligation of silence and secresy, of which the rose was anciently an emblem, perhaps, as Sir Thomas Browne remarks, from the closeness with which its petals are enfolded in the bud. The Rose of Venus was given, says the classic legend, to Harpocrates, the God of Silence, by Cupid, as a bribe not to “peach” about the Goddess’ amours. It was commonly sculptured on the ceilings of banquetting rooms, as a sign that what was said in free conversation there was not afterwards to be divulged and about 1526 was placed over the Roman confessionals as an emblem of secrecy. The White Rose was also an emblem of the Pretender, whose health, as king, his secret adherents used to drink “under the ROSE.”

ROT, nonsense, anything bad, disagreeable, or useless.

ROT GUT, bad small beer,—in America, cheap whisky.

ROUGH, bad; “ROUGH fish,” bad or stinking fish.

ROUGH IT, to put up with chance entertainment, to take pot luck, and what accommodation “turns up,” without sighing for better. Roughing it in the Bush” is the title of an interesting work on Backwoods life.

ROUGHS, coarse, or vulgar men.

ROULEAU, a packet of sovereigns.—Gaming.

ROUND, to tell tales, to “SPLIT,” which see; “to ROUND on a man,” to swear to him as being the person, &c. Synonymous with “BUFF,” which see. Shakespere has ROUNDING, whispering.

ROUND, “ROUND dealing,” honest trading; “ROUND sum,” a large sum. Synonymous also in a slang sense with SQUARE, which see.

ROUNDS, shirt collars—apparently a mere shortening of “All Rounds,” or “All Rounders,” names of fashionable collars.

ROUNDS (in the language of the street), the BEATS or usual walks of the costermonger to sell his stock. A term used by street folk generally.

ROUND ROBIN, a petition, or paper of remonstrance, with the signatures written in a circle,—to prevent the first signer, or ringleader, from being discovered.

ROUNDABOUTS, large swings of four compartments, each the size, and very much the shape, of the body of a cart, capable of seating six or eight boys and girls, erected in a high frame, and turned round by men at a windlass. Fairs and merry-makings generally abound with them. The frames take to pieces, and are carried in vans by miserable horses, from fair to fair, &c.

ROW, a noisy disturbance, tumult, or trouble. Originally Cambridge, now universal. Seventy years ago it was written ROUE, which would indicate a French origin from roué, a profligate, or disturber of the peace.—Vide George Parker’s Life’s Painter, 1789, p. 122.

ROWDY, money. In America, a ruffian, a brawler, “rough.”

ROWDY-DOW, low, vulgar; “not the CHEESE,” or thing.

RUB, a quarrel, or impediment: “there’s the RUB,” i.e., that is the difficulty.—Shakespere and L’Estrange.

RUBBER, a term at whist, &c., two games out of three.—Old, 1677.

RUCK, the undistinguished crowd; “to come in with the RUCK,” to arrive at the winning post among the non-winning horses.—Racing term.

RUGGY, fusty, frowsy.

RUM, like its opposite, QUEER, was formerly a much used prefix, signifying, fine, good, gallant, or valuable, perhaps in some way connected with ROME. Now-a-days it means indifferent, bad, or questionable, and we often hear even persons in polite society use such a phrase as “what a RUM fellow he is, to be sure,” in speaking of a man of singular habits or appearance. The term, from its frequent use, long since claimed a place in our dictionaries; but, with the exception of Johnson, who says RUM, a cant word for a clergyman (?), no lexicographer has deigned to notice it.

RUMBUMPTIOUS, haughty, pugilistic.

RUMBUSTIOUS, or RUMBUSTICAL, pompous, haughty, boisterous, careless of the comfort of others.

RUMGUMPTION, or GUMPTION, knowledge, capacity, capability,—hence, RUMGUMPTIOUS, knowing, wide-awake, forward, positive, pert, blunt.

RUM MIZZLERS, persons who are clever at making their escape, or getting out of a difficulty.

RUMPUS, a noise, disturbance, a “row.”

RUMY, a good woman, or girl.—Gipsey slang. In the regular Gipsey language, ROMI, a woman, a wife, is the feminine of RO, a man; and in the Robber’s Language of Spain (partly Gipsey), RUMI signifies a harlot.

RUN (good or bad), the success of a performance—Theatrical.

RUN, to comprehend, &c.; “I don’t RUN, to it,” i.e., I can’t do it, or I don’t understand, or I have not money enough.—North.

RUN, “to get the RUN upon any person,” to have the upper hand, or be able to laugh at them. Run down, to abuse or backbite anyone.

RUNNING PATTERER, a street seller who runs or moves briskly along, calling aloud his wares.

RUNNING STATIONERS, hawkers of books, ballads, dying speeches, and newspapers. They formerly used to run with newspapers, blowing a horn, when they were also termed FLYING STATIONERS.

RUSH, “doing it on the RUSH,” running away, or making off.

RUST, “to nab the RUST,” to take offence. Rusty, cross, ill-tempered, morose, one who cannot go through life like a person of easy and polished manners.

RUSTY GUTS, a blunt, rough old fellow. Corruption of RUSTICUS.

SACK, “to get the SACK,” to be discharged by an employer.

SADDLE, an additional charge made by the manager to a performer upon his benefit night.—Theatrical.

SAD DOG, a merry fellow, a joker, a gay or “fast” man.

SAINT MONDAY, a holiday most religiously observed by journeymen shoemakers, and other mechanics. An Irishman observed that this saint’s anniversary happened every week.—North, where it is termed COBBLERS’ MONDAY.

SAL, a salary.—Theatrical.

SALAMANDERS, street acrobats, and jugglers who eat fire.

SALOOP, SALEP, or SALOP, a greasyOrchis mascula, or Red-handed Orchis. Within a few years coffee stands have superseded SALOOP stalls, but Charles Lamb, in one of his papers, has left some account of this drinkable, which he says was of all preparations the most grateful to the stomachs of young chimney sweeps.

SALT, “its rather too SALT,” said of an extravagant hotel bill.

SALT BOX, the condemned cell in Newgate.

SALTEE, a penny. Pence, &c., are thus reckoned:—

Oney saltee, a penny, from the Ital., UNO SOLDO.

Dooe saltee, twopence DUE SOLDI.

Tray saltee, threepence TRE SOLDI.

Quarterer saltee, fourpence QUATTRO SOLDI.

Chinker saltee, fivepence CINQUE SOLDI.

Say saltee, sixpence SEI SOLDI.

Say oney saltee, or SETTER SALTEE, sevenpence SETTE SOLDI.

Say dooe saltee, or OTTER SALTEE, eightpence OTTO SOLDI.

Say tray saltee, or NOBBA SALTEE, ninepence NOVE SOLDI.

Say quarterer saltee, or DACHA SALTEE, tenpence DIECI SOLDI.

Say chinker saltee, or DACHA ONE SALTEE, elevenpence DIECI UNO SOLDI, &c.

Oney beong, one shilling.

A beong say saltee, one shilling and sixpence.

Dooe beong say saltee, or MADZA CAROON, half-a-crown, or two shillings and sixpence.

⁂ This curious list of numerals in use among the London street folk is, strange as it may seem, derived from the Lingua Franca, or bastard Italian, of the Mediterranean seaports, of which other examples may be found in the pages of this Dictionary. Saltee, the cant term used by the costermongers and others for a penny, is no other than the Italian, SOLDO (plural, SOLDI), and the numerals—as may be seen by the Italian equivalents—are a tolerably close imitation of the originals. After the number SIX, a curious variation occurs, which is peculiar to the London cant, seven being reckoned as SAY ONEY, six-one, SAY DOOE, six-two = 8, and so on. Dacha, I may remark, is perhaps from the Greek, DEKA (δέκα), ten, which, in the Constantinopolitan Lingua Franca, is likely enough to have been substituted for the Italian. Madza, is clearly the Italian MEZZA. The origin of BEONG I have not been so fortunate as to discover, unless it be the French, BIEN, the application of which to a shilling is not so evident; but amongst costermongers and other street folk, it is quite immaterial what foreign tongue contributes to their secret language. Providing the terms are unknown to the police and the public generally, they care not a rushlight whether the polite French, the gay Spaniards, or the cloudy Germans helped to swell their vocabulary. The numbers of low foreigners, however, dragging out a miserable existence in our crowded neighbourhoods, organ grinders and image sellers, foreign seamen from the vessels in the river, and our own connection with Malta and the Ionian Isles, may explain, to a certain extent, the phenomenon of these Southern phrases in the mouths of costers and tramps.

SALT JUNK, navy salt beef.—See OLD HORSE.

SALVE, praise, flattery, chaff.

SAM, to “stand SAM,” to pay for refreshment, or drink, to stand paymaster for anything. An Americanism, originating in the letters U.S. on the knapsacks of the United States soldiers, which letters were jocularly said to be the initials of Uncle Sam (the Government), who pays for all. In use in this country as early as 1827.

SANGUINARY JAMES, a sheep’s head.—See BLOODY JEMMY.

SANK WORK, making soldiers’ clothes. Mayhew says from the Norman, SANC, blood,—in allusion either to the soldier’s calling, or the colour of his coat.

SAP, or SAPSCULL, a poor green simpleton, with no heart for work.

SAUCEBOX, a mouth, also a pert young person.

SAVELOY, a sausage of chopped beef smoked, a minor kind of POLONY.

SAVEY, to know; “do you SAVEY that?”—French, SAVEZ VOUS CELA? In the nigger and Anglo Chinese patois, this is SABBY, “me no SABBY.” The Whampoa slang of this description is very extraordinary; from it we have got our word CASH!

SAW YOUR TIMBER, “be off!” equivalent to cut your stick.—See CUT.

SAWBONES, a surgeon.

SAWNEY, or SANDY, a Scotchman. Corruption of Alexander.

SAWNEY, a simpleton.

SAWNEY, bacon. Sawney hunter, one who steals bacon.

SCAB, a worthless person.—Old. Shakespere uses SCALD in a similar sense.

SCALDRUM DODGE, burning the body with a mixture of acids and gunpowder, so as to suit the hues and complexions of the accident to be deplored.

SCALY, shabby, or mean. Shakespere uses SCALD, an old word of reproach.

SCAMANDER, to wander about without a settled purpose;—possibly in allusion to the winding course of the Homeric river of that name.

SCAMMERED, drunk.

SCAMP, a graceless fellow, a rascal; formerly the cant term for plundering and thieving. A ROYAL-SCAMP was a highwayman, whilst a FOOT-SCAMP was an ordinary thief with nothing but his legs to trust to in case of an attempt at capture. Some have derived SCAMP from qui ex campo exit, viz., one who leaves the field, a deserter.

SCARPER, to run away.—Spanish, ESCAPAR, to escape, make off; Italian, SCAPPARE. “Scarper with the feele of the donna of the cassey,” to run away with the daughter of the land-lady of the house; almost pure Italian, “scappare colla figlia della donna della casa.”

SCHISM-SHOP, a dissenters’ meeting-house.—University.

SCHOFEL, bad money.—See SHOW FULL.

SCHOOL, or MOB, two or more “patterers” working together in the streets.

SCHOOLING, a low gambling party.

SCHWASSLE BOX, the street performance of Punch and Judy.—Household Words, No. 183.

SCONCE, the head, judgment, sense.—Dutch.

SCORE, “to run up a SCORE at a public house,” to obtain credit there until pay day, or a fixed time, when the debt must be WIPED OFF.

SCOT, a quantity of anything, a lot, a share.—Anglo Saxon, SCEAT, pronounced SHOT.

SCOT, temper, or passion,—from the irascible temperament of that nation; “oh! what a SCOT he was in,” i.e., what temper he showed,—especially if you allude to the following.

SCOTCH FIDDLE, the itch; “to play the SCOTCH FIDDLE,” to work the index finger of the right hand like a fiddlestick between the index and middle finger of the left. This provokes a Scotchmen in the highest degree, it implying that he is afflicted with the itch.

SCOTCH GRAYS, lice. Our northern neighbours are calumniously reported, from their living on oatmeal, to be peculiarly liable to cutaneous eruptions and parasites.

SCOTCHES, the legs; also synonymous with NOTCHES.

SCOUT, a college valet, or waiter.—Oxford.—See GYP.

SCRAG, the neck.—Old cant. Scotch, CRAIG. Still used by butchers. Hence, SCRAG, to hang by the neck, and SCRAGGING, an execution,—also old cant.

SCRAN, pieces of meat, broken victuals. Formerly the reckoning at a public-house. Scranning, begging for broken victuals. Also, an Irish malediction of a mild sort, “Bad SCRAN to yer!”

SCRAPE, a difficulty; SCRAPE, low wit for a shave.

SCRAPE, cheap butter; “bread and SCRAPE,” the bread and butter issued to school-boys—so called from the butter being laid on, and then scraped off again, for economy’s sake.

SCRAPING CASTLE, a water-closet.

SCRATCH, a fight, contest, point in dispute; “coming up to the SCRATCH,” going or preparing to fight—in reality, approaching the line usually chalked on the ground to divide the ring.—Pugilistic.

SCRATCH, “no great SCRATCH,” of little worth.

SCRATCH, to strike a horse’s name out of the list of runners in a particular race. “Tomboy was SCRATCHED for the Derby, at 10, a.m.,See P.P.—Turf.

SCRATCH-RACE (on the Turf), a race where any horse, aged, winner, or loser, can run with any weights; in fact, a race without restrictions. At Cambridge a boat-race, where the crews are drawn by lot.

SCREAMING, first-rate, splendid. Believed to have been first used in the Adelphi play-bills; “a SCREAMING farce,” one calculated to make the audience scream with laughter. Now a general expression.

SCREEVE, a letter, a begging petition.

SCREEVE, to write, or devise; “to SCREEVE a fakement,” to concoct, or write, a begging letter, or other impostor’s document. From the Dutch, SCHRYVEN; German, SCHREIBEN; French, ECRIVANT (old form), to write.

SCREEVER, a man who draws with coloured chalks on the pavement figures of our Saviour crowned with thorns, specimens of elaborate writing, thunderstorms, ships on fire, &c. The men who attend these pavement chalkings, and receive halfpence and sixpences from the admirers of street art, are not always the draughtsmen. The artist, or SCREEVER, drew, perhaps, in half-a-dozen places that very morning, and rented the spots out to as many cadaverous looking men.

SCREW, an unsound, or broken-down horse, that requires both whip and spur to get him along.

SCREW, a key,—skeleton, or otherwise.

SCREW, a turnkey.

SCREW, a mean or stingy person.

SCREW, salary or wages.

SCREW, “to put on the SCREW,” to limit one’s credit, to be more exact and precise.

SCREW LOOSE, when friends become cold and distant towards each other, it is said there is a SCREW LOOSE betwixt them; said also when anything goes wrong with a person’s credit or reputation.

SCREW, a small packet of tobacco.

SCREWED, intoxicated or drunk.

SCRIMMAGE, or SCRUMMAGE, a disturbance or row.—Ancient. Corruption of skirmish?

SCROBY, “to get SCROBY,” to be whipped in prison before the justices.

SCROUGE, to crowd or squeeze.—Wiltshire.

SCRUFF, the back part of the neck seized by the adversary in an encounter.

SCRUMPTIOUS, nice, particular, beautiful.

SCUFTER, a policeman.—North country.

SCULL, or SKULL, the head or master of a college.—University, but nearly obsolete; the gallery, however, in St. Mary’s (the University church), where the “Heads of Houses” sit in solemn state, is still nicknamed the GOLGOTHA by the undergraduates.

SCURF, a mean fellow.

SEALS, a religious slang term for converts.—See OWNED.

SEEDY, worn out, poverty stricken, used up, shabby. Metaphorical expression from the appearance of flowers when off bloom and running to seed; hence said of one who wears clothes until they crack and become shabby; “how SEEDY he looks,” said of any man whose clothes are worn threadbare, with greasy facings, and hat brightened up by perspiration and continual polishing and wetting. When a man’s coat begins to look worn out and shabby he is said to look SEEDY and ready for cutting. This term has been “on the streets” for nearly two centuries, and latterly has found its way into most dictionaries. Formerly slang, it is now a recognised word, and one of the most expressive in the English language. The French are always amused with it, they having no similar term.

SELL, to deceive, swindle, or play a practical joke upon a person. A sham is a SELL in street parlance. “Sold again, and got the money,” a costermonger cries after having successfully deceived somebody. Shakespere uses SELLING in a similar sense, viz., blinding or deceiving.

SELL, a deception, disappointment; also a lying joke.

SENSATION, a quartern of gin.

SERENE, all right; “it’s all SERENE,” a street phrase of very modern adoption, the burden of a song.

SERVE OUT, to punish, or be revenged on any one.

SETTER, sevenpence. Italian, SETTE.—See SALTEE.

SETTER, a person employed by the vendor at an auction to run the biddings up; to bid against bonâ fide bidders.

SETTLE, to kill, ruin, or effectually quiet a person.

SETTLED, transported.

SET TO, a sparring match, a fight; “a dead set,” a determined stand, in argument or in movement.

SEVEN PENNORTH, transported for seven years.

SEWED-UP, done up, used up, intoxicated. Dutch, SEEUWT, sick.

SHACK, a “chevalier d’industrie.”

SHACKLY, loose, rickety.—Devonshire.

SHAKE, a prostitute, a disreputable man or woman.—North.

SHAKE, to take away, to steal, or run off with anything; “what SHAKES, Bill?” “None,” i.e., no chance of committing a robbery.—See the following.

SHAKE, or SHAKES, a bad bargain is said to be “no great SHAKES;” “pretty fair SHAKES” is anything good or favourable.—Byron. In America, a fair SHAKE is a fair trade or a good bargain.

SHAKE LURK, a false paper carried by an impostor, giving an account of a “dreadful shipwreck.”

SHAKER, a shirt.

SHAKESTER, or SHICKSTER, a prostitute. Amongst costermongers this term is invariably applied to ladies, or the wives of tradesmen, and females generally of the classes immediately above them.

SHAKY, said of a person of questionable health, integrity, or solvency; at the University, of one not likely to pass his examination.

SHALER, a girl.

SHALLOW, a flat basket used by costers.

SHALLOWS, “to go on the SHALLOWS,” to go half naked.

SHALLOW-COVE, a begging rascal who goes about the country half naked,—with the most limited amount of rags upon his person, wearing neither shoes, stockings, nor hat.

SHALLOW-MOT, a ragged woman,—the frequent companion of the SHALLOW-COVE.

SHALLOW-SCREEVER, a man who sketches and draws on the pavement.—See SCREEVER.

SHAM ABRAHAM, to feign sickness.—See ABRAHAM.

SHANDY-GAFF, ale and ginger beer; perhaps SANG DE GOFF, the favourite mixture of one GOFF, a blacksmith.

SHANKS, legs.

SHANKS’ NAG, “to ride SHANKS’ NAG,” to go on foot.

SHANT, a pot or quart; “SHANT of bivvy,” a quart of beer.

SHAPES, “to cut up” or “show SHAPES,” to exhibit pranks, or flightiness.

SHARP, or SHARPER, a cunning cheat, a rogue,—the opposite of FLAT.

SHARP’S-ALLEY BLOOD WORMS, beef sausages and black puddings. Sharp’s-alley was very recently a noted slaughtering place near Smithfield.

SHARPING-OMEE, a policeman.

SHARK, a sharper, a swindler. Bow-street term in 1785, now in most dictionaries.—Friesic and Danish, SCHURK.—See LAND-SHARK.

SHAVE, a false alarm, a hoax, a sell. This was much used in the Crimea during the Russian campaign.

SHAVE, a narrow escape. At Cambridge, “just SHAVING through,” or “making a SHAVE,” is just escaping a “pluck” by coming out at the bottom of the list.

SHAVER, a sharp fellow; “a young” or “old SHAVER,” a boy or man.—Sea.

SHEEN, bad money.—Scotch.

SHEEP’S EYES, “to make SHEEP’S EYES at a person,” to cast amorous glances towards one on the sly:—

SHEEP’S FOOT, an iron hammer used in a printing office, the end of the handle being made like a sheep’s foot.

SHELF, “on the SHELF,” not yet disposed of; young ladies are said to be so situated when they cannot meet with a husband; “on the SHELF,” pawned.

SHELL OUT, to pay or count out money.

SHICE, nothing; “to do anything for SHICE,” to get no payment. The term was first used by the Jews in the last century. Grose gives the phrase CHICE-AM-A-TRICE, which has a synonymous meaning. Spanish, CHICO, little; Anglo Saxon, CHICHE, niggardly.

SHICER, a mean man, a humbug, a “duffer,”—a person who is either worthless or will not work.

SHICKERY, shabby, bad.

SHICKSTER; a prostitute, a lady.—See SHAKESTER.

SHILLY SHALLY, to trifle or fritter away time; irresolute. Corruption of Shall I, shall I?

SHINDY, a row, or noise.

SHINE, a row, or disturbance.

SHINE, “to take the SHINE out of a person,” to surpass or excel him.

SHINER, a looking-glass.

SHINERS, sovereigns, or money.

SHINEY RAG, “to win the SHINEY RAG,” to be ruined,—said in gambling, when any one continues betting after “luck has set in against him.”

SHIP-SHAPE, proper, in good order; sometimes the phrase is varied to “SHIP-SHAPE and Bristol fashion.”—Sea.

SHIRTY, ill-tempered, or cross. When one person makes another in an ill humour he is said to have “got his SHIRT out.”

SHITTEN-SATURDAY (corruption of SHUT-IN-SATURDAY), the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, when our Lord’s body was enclosed in the tomb.

SHIVERING JEMMY, the name given by street folk to any cadger who exposes himself, half naked, on a cold day, to excite pity and procure alms. The “game” is unpleasant, but exceedingly lucrative.

SHODDY, old cloth worked up into new; also, a term of derision applied to workmen in woollen factories.—Yorkshire.

SHOE, to free, or initiate a person,—a practice common in most trades to a new comer. The SHOEING consists in paying for beer, or other drink, which is drunk by the older hands. The cans emptied, and the bill paid, the stranger is considered properly SHOD.

SHOE LEATHER! a thief’s warning cry, when he hears footsteps. This exclamation is used in the same spirit as Bruce’s friend, who, when he suspected treachery towards him at King Edward’s court, in 1306, sent him a purse and a pair of spurs, as a sign that he should use them in making his escape.

SHOES, “to die in one’s SHOES,” to be hung.

SHOOL, to saunter idly, become a vagabond, beg rather than work.—Smollett’s Roderick Random, vol. i., p. 262.

SHOOT THE CAT, to vomit.

SHOOT THE MOON, to remove furniture from a house in the night, without paying the landlord.

SHOOT WITH THE LONG BOW, to tell lies, to exaggerate. Synonymous with THROWING THE HATCHET.

SHOP BOUNCER, or SHOP LIFTER, a person generally respectably attired, who, while being served with a small article at a shop, steals one of more value. Shakespere has the word LIFTER, a thief.

SHOPPING, purchasing at shops. Termed by Todd a slang word, but used by Cowper and Byron.

SHORT, when spirit is drunk without any admixture of water, it is said to be taken “short;” “summat SHORT,” a dram. A similar phrase is used at the counters of banks; upon presenting a cheque, the clerk asks, “how will you take it?” i.e., in gold, or in notes? Should it be desired to receive it in as small a compass as possible, the answer is, “SHORT.”

SHORT COMMONS, short allowance of food.—See COMMONS.

SHOT, from the modern sense of the word to SHOOT,—a guess, a random conjecture; “to make a bad SHOT,” to expose one’s ignorance by making a wrong guess, or random answer without knowing whether it is right or wrong.

SHOT, from the once English, but now provincial word, to SHOOT, to subscribe, contribute in fair proportion;—a share, the same as SCOT, both being from the Anglo Saxon word, SCEAT; “to pay one’s SHOT,” i.e., share of the reckoning, &c.

SHOT, “I wish I may be SHOT, if,” &c., a common form of mild swearing.

SHOVE-HALFPENNY, a gambling street game.

SHOWFULL, or SCHOFELL, a Hansom cab,—said to have been from the name of the inventor.—Led de hor qu.

SHOW-FULL, or SCHOFUL, bad money. Mayhew thinks this word is from the Danish, SKUFFE, to shove, to deceive, cheat; Saxon, SCUFAN,—whence the English, SHOVE. The term, however, is possibly one of the many street words from the Hebrew (through the low Jews); SHEPHEL, in that language, signifying a low or debased estate. Chaldee, SHAPHAL.—See Psalm cxxxvi. 23, “in our low estate.” A correspondent suggests another very probable derivation, from the German, SCHOFEL, trash, rubbish,—the German adjective, SCHOFELIG, being the nearest possible translation of our shabby.

SHOWFULL-PITCHER, a passer of counterfeit money.

SHOWFULL PITCHING, passing bad money.

SHOWFULL PULLET, a “gay” woman.

SHRIMP, a diminutive person.—Chaucer.

SHUNT, to throw or turn aside.—Railway term.

SHUT OF, or SHOT OF, rid of.

SHUT UP! be quiet, don’t make a noise; to stop short, to make cease in a summary manner, to silence effectually. “Only the other day we heard of a preacher who, speaking of the scene with the doctors in the Temple, remarked that the Divine disputant completely SHUT THEM UP!”—Athen. 30th July, 1859. Shut up, utterly exhausted, done for.

SHY, a throw.

SHY, “to fight SHY of a person,” to avoid his society either from dislike, fear, or any other reason. SHY has also the sense of flighty, unsteady, untrustworthy.

SHY, to fling; COCK-SHY, a game at fairs, consisting of throwing short sticks at trinkets set upon other sticks,—both name and practice derived from the old game of throwing or SHYING at live cocks.

SICES, or SIZES, a throw of sixes at dice.

SICK AS A HORSE, popular simile,—curious, because a horse never vomits.

SICKNER, or SICKENER, a dose too much of anything.

SIDE BOARDS, or STICK-UPS, shirt collars.

SIGHT, “to take a SIGHT at a person,” a vulgar action employed by street boys to denote incredulity, or contempt for authority, by placing the thumb against the nose and closing all the fingers except the little one, which is agitated in token of derision.—See WALKER.

SIM, one of a Methodistical turn in religion; a low-church-man; originally a follower of the late Rev. Charles Simeon.—Cambridge.

SIMON, a sixpenny piece.

SIMON PURE, “the real SIMON PURE,” the genuine article. Those who have witnessed Mr. C. Mathews’ performance in Mrs. Centlivre’s admirable comedy of A Bold Stroke for a Wife, and the laughable coolness with which he, the false SIMON PURE, assuming the quaker dress and character of the REAL ONE, elbowed that worthy out of his expected entertainment, will at once perceive the origin of this phrase.—See act v., scene 1.

SING OUT, to call aloud.—Sea.

SING SMALL, to lessen one’s boasting, and turn arrogance into humility.

SINKERS, bad money.

SINKS, a throw of fives at dice. French, CINQS.

SIR HARRY, a close stool.

SISERARA, a hard blow.—Suffolk. Moor derives it from the story of Sisera in the Old Testament, but it is more probably a corruption of CERTIORARI, a Chancery writ reciting a complaint of hard usage.

SIT UNDER, a term employed in Dissenters’ meeting houses, to denote attendance on the ministry of any particular preacher.

SITTING PAD, sitting on the pavement in a begging position.

SIT-UPONS, trousers.—See INEXPRESSIBLES.

SIVVY, “’pon my SIVVY,” i.e., upon my soul or honour. Corruption of asseveration, like DAVY, which is an abridgment of affidavit.

SIXES AND SEVENS, articles in confusion are said to be all SIXES and SEVENS. The Deity is mentioned in the Towneley Mysteries as He that “sett all on seven,” i.e., set or appointed everything in seven days. A similar phrase at this early date implied confusion and disorder, and from these, Halliwell thinks, has been derived the phrase “to be at SIXES AND SEVENS.” A Scotch correspondent, however, states that the phrase probably came from the workshop, and that amongst needle makers when the points and eyes are “heads and tails” (“heeds and thraws”), or in confusion, they are said to be SIXES AND SEVENS, because those numbers are the sizes most generally used, and in the course of manufacture have frequently to be distinguished.

SIXTY, “to go along like SIXTY,” i.e., at a good rate, briskly.

SIZE, to order extras over and above the usual commons at the dinner in college halls. Soup, pastry, &c., are SIZINGS, and are paid for at a certain specified rate per SIZE, or portion, to the college cook.—Peculiar to Cambridge. Minsheu says, “SIZE, a farthing which schollers in Cambridge have at the buttery, noted with the letter s.”

SIZERS, or SIZARS, are certain poor scholars at Cambridge, annually elected, who get their dinners (including sizings) from what is left at the upper, or Fellows’ table, free, or nearly so. They pay rent of rooms, and some other fees, on a lower scale than the “Pensioners” or ordinary students, and answer to the “battlers” and “servitors” at Oxford.

SIZINGS, see SIZE.

SKATES LURK, a begging impostor dressed as a sailor.

SKID, a sovereign. Fashionable slang.

SKIE, to throw upwards, to toss “coppers.”—See ODD MAN.

SKILLY, broth served on board the hulks to convicts.—Linc.

SKILLIGOLEE, prison gruel, also sailors’ soup of many ingredients.

SKIN, a purse.

SKIN, to abate, or lower the value of anything; “thin SKINNED,” sensitive, touchy.

SKIN-FLINT, an old popular simile for a “close-fisted,” stingy person.

SKIPPER, the master of a vessel. Dutch, SCHIFFER, from schiff a ship; sometimes used synonymous with “Governor.”

SKIPPER, a barn.—Ancient cant.

SKIPPER IT, to sleep in the open air, or in a rough way.

SKIPPER-BIRDS, or KEYHOLE WHISTLERS, persons who sleep in barns or outhouses in preference to lodging-houses.

SKIT, a joke, a squib.

SKITTLES, a game similar to Ten Pins, which, when interdicted by the Government was altered to Nine Pins, or SKITTLES. They are set up in an alley and are thrown at (not bowled) with a round piece of hard wood, shaped like a small flat cheese. The costers consider themselves the best players in London.

SKROUGE, to push or squeeze.—North.

SKULL-THATCHERS, straw bonnet makers,—sometimes called “bonnet-BUILDERS.”

SKY, a disagreeable person, an enemy.—Westminster School.

SKY-BLUE, London milk much diluted with water, or from which the cream has been too closely skimmed.

Sky-blue formerly meant gin.

SKY-LARK.—See LARK.

SKY PARLOUR, the garret.

SKY SCRAPER, a tall man; “are you cold up there, old SKY SCRAPER?” Properly a sea term; the light sails which some adventurous skippers set above the royals in calm latitudes are termed SKY-SCRAPERS and MOON-RAKERS.

SKY WANNOCKING, unsteady, frolicking.—Norfolk.

SLAMMOCK, a slattern or awkward person.—West; and Norf.

SLANG, low, vulgar, unwritten, or unauthorised language. Gipsey, SLANG, the secret language of the Gipseys, synonymous with GIBBERISH, another Gipsey word. This word is only to be found in the Dictionaries of Webster and Ogilvie. It was, perhaps, first recorded by Grose, in his Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, 1785. Slang, since it has been adopted as an English word, generally implies vulgar language not known or recognised as CANT; and latterly, when applied to speech, has superseded the word FLASH.

SLANG, counterfeit or short weights and measures. A SLANG quart is a pint and a half. Slang measures are lent out at 2d. per day. The term is used principally by costermongers.

SLANG, to cheat, to abuse in foul language.

SLANG, a travelling show.

SLANG, a watch chain.

SLANGY, flashy, vulgar; loud in dress, manner, and conversation.

SLANTINGDICULAR, oblique, awry,—as opposed to PERPENDICULAR.

SLAP, paint for the face, rouge.

SLAP, exactly, precisely; “SLAP in the wind’s eye,” i.e., exactly to windward.

SLAP-UP, first-rate, excellent, very good.

SLAP-BANG, suddenly, violently.

SLAP-BANG SHOPS, low eating houses, where you have to pay down the ready money with a SLAP-BANG.—Grose.

SLAP-DASH, immediately, or quickly.

SLASH, a pocket in an overcoat.

SLASHER, a powerful roisterer, a pugilist; “the TIPTON SLASHER.”

SLATE, to pelt with abuse, to beat, to “LICK;” or, in the language of the reviewers, to “cut up.”

SLATE, “he has a SLATE loose,” i.e., he is slightly crazy.

SLAVEY, a maid servant.

SLEWED, drunk, or intoxicated.—Sea term. When a vessel changes the tack she, as it were, staggers, the sails flap, she gradually heels over, and the wind catching the waiting canvas, she glides off at another angle. The course pursued by an intoxicated, or SLEWED man, is supposed to be analogous

SLICK, an Americanism, very prevalent in England since the publication of Judge Haliburton’s facetious stories. As an adjective, SLICK means rapidly, effectually, utterly; as a verb, it has the force of “to despatch rapidly,” turn off, get done with a thing.

SLICK A DEE, a pocket book.

SLING, to pass from one person to another.

SLIP, “to give the SLIP,” to run away, or elude pursuit. Shakespere has “you gave me the counterfeit,” in Romeo and Juliet. Giving the slip, however, is a Sea phrase, and refers to fastening an anchor and chain cable to a floating buoy, or water cask, until such a time arrives that is convenient to return and take them on board. In fastening the cable, the home end is slipped through the hawse pipe. Weighing anchor is a noisy task, so that giving it the SLIP infers to leave it in quietness.

SLIP, or LET SLIP; “to SLIP into a man,” to give him a sound beating; “to LET SLIP at a cove,” to rush violently upon him, and assault with vigour.

SLOG, or SLOGGER (its original form), to beat, baste, or wallop. German, SCHLAGEN; or, perhaps a vulgar corruption of SLAUGHTER. The pretended Greek derivation from σλογω, which Punch puts in the mouth of the schoolboy, in his impression of 4th May, 1859, is of course only intended to mystify grandmamma, there being no such word in the language.

SLOGGERS, i.e., SLOW-GOERS, the second division of race-boats at Cambridge. At Oxford they are called TORPIDS.—Univ.

SLOGGING, a good beating.

SLOP, cheap, or ready made, as applied to clothing, is generally supposed to be a modern appropriation; but it was used in this sense in 1691, by Maydman, in his Naval Speculations; and by Chaucer two centuries before that. Slops properly signify sailors’ working clothes.

SLOP, a policeman. Probably at first back slang, but now general.

SLOPE, to decamp, to run, or rather slip away. Originally from LOPE, to make off; the s probably became affixed as a portion of the preceding word, as in the case of “let’s lope,” let us run.—Americanism.

SLOPS, chests or packages of tea; “he shook a slum of SLOPS,” i.e., stole a chest of tea.

SLOUR, to lock, or fasten.

SLOUR’D, buttoned up; SLOUR’D HOXTER, an inside pocket buttoned up.

SLOWED, to be locked up—in prison.

SLUICERY, a gin shop or public house.

SLUM, a letter.

SLUM, a chest, or package.—See SLOPS.

SLUM, gammon; “up to SLUM,” wide awake, knowing,

SLUM THE GORGER, to cheat on the sly, to be an eye servant. Slum in this sense is old cant.

SLUMMING, passing bad money.

SLUMS, or BACK SLUMS, dark retreats, low neighbourhoods; “the Westminster SLUMS,” favourite haunts for thieves.

SLUSHY, a ship’s cook.

SMACK SMOOTH, even, level with the surface, quickly.

SMALL BEER, “he does’t think SMALL BEER of himself,” i.e., he has a great opinion of his own importance. Small coals is also used in the same sense.

SMASH, to become bankrupt, or worthless; “to go all to SMASH;” to break, or “go to the dogs.”

SMASH, to pass counterfeit money.

SMASHER, one who passes bad coin.

SMASHFEEDER, a Britannia metal spoon,—the best imitation shillings are made from this metal.

SMELLER, a blow on the nose, or a NOSER.

SMIGGINS, soup served to convicts on board the hulks.

SMISH, a shirt, or chemise. Corruption of the Span.—See MISH.

SMITHERS, or SMITHEREENS, “all to SMITHEREENS,” all to smash. Smither, is a Lincolnshire word for a fragment.

SMOKE, to detect, or penetrate an artifice.

SMUDGE, to smear, obliterate, daub. Corruption of SMUTCH.—Times, 10th August, 1859.

SMUG, extremely neat, after the fashion, in order.

SMUG, to snatch another’s property and run.

SMUGGINGS, snatchings, or purloinings,—shouted out by boys, when snatching the tops, or small play property, of other lads, and then running off at full speed.

SMUT, a copper boiler. Also, the “blacks” from a furnace.

SMUTTY, obscene,—vulgar as applied to conversation.

SNACK, booty, or share. Also, a light repast.—Old cant and Gipsey term.

SNAFFLED, arrested, “pulled up,”—so termed from a kind of horse’s bit, called a SNAFFLE. In East Anglia, to SNAFFLE is to talk foolishly.

SNAGGLE TEETH, uneven, and unpleasant looking dental operators.—West. Snags (Americanism), ends of sunken drift-wood sticking out of the water, on which river steamers are often wrecked.

SNAGGLING, angling after geese with a hook and line, the bait being a worm or snail. The goose swallows the bait, and is quietly landed and bagged.

SNAGGY, cross, crotchetty, malicious.

SNAM, to snatch, or rob from the person.

SNAPPS, share, portion; any articles or circumstances out of which money may be made; “looking out for SNAPPS,” waiting for windfalls, or odd jobs.—Old. Scotch, CHITS,—term also used for “coppers,” or halfpence.

SNEAKSMAN, a shoplifter; a petty, cowardly thief.

SNEEZER, a snuff box; a pocket-handkerchief.

SNEEZE LURKER, a thief who throws snuff in a person’s face and then robs him.

SNID, a sixpence.—Scotch.

SNIGGER, “I’m SNIGGERED if you will,” a mild form of swearing. Another form of this is JIGGERED.

SNIGGERING, laughing to oneself.—East.

SNIP, a tailor.

SNIPE, a long bill; also a term for attorneys,—a race remarkable for their propensity to long bills.

SNIPES, “a pair of SNIPES,” a pair of scissors. They are occasionally made in the form of that bird.

SNITCHERS, persons who turn queen’s evidence, or who tell tales. In Scotland, SNITCHERS signify handcuffs.

SNOB, a low, vulgar, or affected person. Supposed to be from the nickname usually applied to a Crispin, or a maker of shoes; but believed by a writer in Notes and Queries to be a contraction of the Latin, SINE OBOLO. A more probable derivation, however, has just been forwarded by an ingenious correspondent. He supposes that NOBS, i.e., Nobiles, was appended in lists to the names of persons of gentle birth, whilst those who had not that distinction were marked down as S. NOB., i.e., sine nobilitate, without marks of gentility,—thus reversing its meaning. Another “word-twister” remarks that, as at college sons of nobleman wrote after their names in the admission lists, fil nob., son of a lord, and hence all young noblemen were called NOBS, and what they did NOBBY, so those who imitated them would be called quasi-nobs, “like a nob,” which by a process of contraction would be shortened to si-nob, and then SNOB, one who pretends to be what he is not, and apes his betters. The short and expressive terms which many think fitly represent the three great estates of the realm, NOB, SNOB, and MOB, were all originally slang words. The last has safely passed through the vulgar ordeal of the streets, and found respectable quarters in the standard dictionaries.

SNOBBISH, stuck up, proud, make believe.

SNOB-STICK, a workman who refuses to join in strikes, or trade unions. Query, properly KNOB-STICK.

SNOOKS, an imaginary personage often brought forward as the answer to an idle question, or as the perpetrator of a senseless joke.

SNOOZE, or SNOODGE (vulgar pronunciation), to sleep or doze.

SNOT, a term of reproach applied to persons by the vulgar when vexed or annoyed. In a Westminster school vocabulary for boys, published in the last century, the term is curiously applied. Its proper meaning is the glandular mucus discharged through the nose.

SNOTTER, or WIPE-HAULER, a pickpocket who commits great depredations upon gentlemen’s pocket-handkerchiefs.—North.

SNOTTINGER, a coarse word for a pocket-handkerchief. The German schnupftuch is, however, nearly as plain. A handkerchief was also anciently called a MUCKINGER, or MUCKENDER.

SNOTS, small bream, a slimy kind of flat fish.—Norwich.

SNOW, wet linen.

SNOW GATHERERS, or SNOW-DROPPERS, rogues who steal linen from hedges and drying grounds.

SNUFF, “up to SNUFF,” knowing and sharp; “to take SNUFF,” to be offended. Shakespere uses SNUFF in the sense of anger, or passion. Snuffy, tipsy.

SNYDER, a tailor. German, SCHNEIDER.

SOAP, flattery.—See SOFT SOAP.

SOFT, foolish, inexperienced. An old term for bank notes.

SOFT-SOAP, or SOFT-SAWDER, flattery, ironical praise.

SOFT TACK, bread.—Sea.

SOLD, “SOLD again! and the money taken,” gulled, deceived.—Vide SELL.

SOLD UP, or OUT, broken down, bankrupt.

SOLDIER, a red herring.

SON OF A GUN, a contemptuous title for a man. In the army it is sometimes applied to an artilleryman.

SOOT BAG, a reticule.

SOP, a soft or foolish man. Abbreviation of MILKSOP.

SOPH (abbreviation of SOPHISTER), a title peculiar to the University of Cambridge. Undergraduates are junior SOPHS before passing their “Little Go,” or first University examination,—senior SOPHS after that.

SOUND, to pump, or draw information from a person in an artful manner.

SOW, the receptacle into which the liquid iron is poured in a gun-foundry. The melted metal poured from it is termed PIG.—Workmen’s terms.

SOW’S BABY, a pig; sixpence.

SPANK, a smack, or hard slap.

SPANK, to move along quickly; hence a fast horse or vessel is said to be “a SPANKER to go.”

SPANKING, large, fine, or strong; e.g., a SPANKING pace, a SPANKING breeze, a SPANKING fellow.

SPECKS, damaged oranges.

SPEEL, to run away, make off; “SPEEL the drum,” to go off with stolen property.—North.

SPELL, “to SPELL for a thing,” hanker after it, intimate a desire to possess it.

SPELLKEN, or SPEELKEN, a playhouse. German, SPIELEN.—See KEN.—Don Juan.

SPICK AND SPAN, applied to anything that is quite new and fresh.—Hudibras.

SPIFFED, slightly intoxicated.—Scotch slang.

SPIFFS, the percentage allowed by drapers to their young men when they effect a sale of old-fashioned or undesirable stock.

SPIFFY, spruce, well-dressed, tout à la mode.

SPIFLICATE, to confound, silence, or thrash.

SPILT, thrown from a horse or chaise.—See PURL.

SPIN, to reject from an examination.—Army.

SPIN-EM-ROUNDS, a street game consisting of a piece of brass, wood, or iron, balanced on a pin, and turned quickly around on a board, when the point, arrow shaped, stops at a number and decides the bet one way or the other. The contrivance very much resembles a sea compass, and was formerly the gambling accompaniment of London piemen. The apparatus then was erected on the tin lids of their pie cans, and the bets were ostensibly for pies, but more frequently for “coppers,” when no policeman frowned upon the scene, and when two or three apprentices or porters happened to meet.

SPINIKEN, a workhouse.

SPIRT, or SPURT, “to put on a SPIRT,” to make an increased exertion for a brief space, to attain one’s end; a nervous effort.

SPITFIRE, a passionate person.

SPLENDIFEROUS, sumptuous, first-rate.

SPLICE, to marry; “and the two shall become one flesh.”—Sea.

SPLICE THE MAIN BRACE, to take a drink.—Sea.

SPLIT, to inform against one’s companions, to tell tales. “To SPLIT with a person,” to cease acquaintanceship, to quarrel.

SPLODGER, a lout, an awkward countryman.

SPOFFY, a bustling busy-body is said to be SPOFFY.

SPONGE, “to throw up the SPONGE,” to submit, give over the struggle,—from the practice of throwing up the SPONGE used to cleanse the combatants’ faces, at a prize fight, as a signal that the “mill” is concluded.

SPOON, synonymous with SPOONEY. A SPOON has been defined to be “a thing that touches a lady’s lips without kissing them.”

SPOONEY, a weak-minded and foolish person, effeminate or fond; “to be SPOONEY on a girl,” to be foolishly attached to one.

SPOONS, “when I was SPOONS with you,” i.e., when young, and in our courting days before marriage.—Charles Mathews, in the farce of Everybody’s Friend.

SPORT, to exhibit, to wear, &c.,—a word which is made to do duty in a variety of senses, especially at the University. See the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam. “To SPORT a new tile;” “to SPORT an Ægrotat” (i.e., a permission from the “Dons” to abstain from lectures, &c., on account of illness); “to SPORT ONE’S OAK,” to shut the outer door and exclude the public,—especially duns, and boring acquaintances. Common also in the Inns of Court.—See Notes and Queries, 2nd series, vol. viii., p. 492, and Gentleman’s Magazine, December, 1794.

SPORTING DOOR, the outer door of chambers, also called the OAK.—See under SPORT.—University.

SPOTTED, to be known or marked by the police.

SPOUT, “up the SPOUT,” at the pawnbroker’s; SPOUTING, pawning.—See POP for origin.

SPOUT, to preach, or make speeches; SPOUTER, a preacher or lecturer.

SPRAT, sixpence.

SPREAD, butter.

SPREAD, a lady’s shawl. Spread, at the East end of London, a feast, or a TIGHTENER; at the West end a fashionable reunion, an entertainment, display of good things.

SPREE, a boisterous piece of merriment; “going on the SPREE,” starting out with intent to have a frolic. French, ESPRIT. In the Dutch language, SPREEUW is a jester.

SPRINGER-UP, a tailor who sells low-priced ready made clothing, and gives starvation wages to the poor men and women who “make up” for him. The clothes are said to be SPRUNG-UP, or “blown together.”

SPRY, active, strong, manly.—Americanism.

SPUDDY, a seller of bad potatoes. In Scotland, a SPUD is a raw potato; and roasted SPUDS are those cooked in the cinders with their jackets on.

SPUNGING-HOUSE, the sheriff’s officer’s house, where prisoners, when arrested for debt, are sometimes taken. As extortionate charges are made there for accommodation, the name is far from inappropriate.

SPUNK, spirit, fire, courage, mettle.

Common in America. For derivation see the following.

SPUNKS, lucifer matches.—Herefordshire; Scotland. Spunk, says Urry, in his MS. notes to Ray, “is the excrescency of some tree, of which they make a sort of tinder to light their pipes with.”

SPUNK-FENCER, a lucifer match seller.

SQUABBY, flat, short and thick.

SQUARE, honest; “on the SQUARE,” i.e., fair and strictly honest; “to turn SQUARE,” to reform, and get one’s living in an honest manner,—the opposite of CROSS.

SQUARE, “to be SQUARE with a man,” to be even with him, or to be revenged; “to SQUARE up to a man,” to offer to fight him. Shakespere uses SQUARE in the sense of to quarrel.

SQUARE COVE, an honest man.

SQUARE MOLL, an honest woman.

SQUARE RIGGED, well dressed.—Sea.

SQUARING HIS NIBS, giving a policeman money.

SQUEEZE, silk.

SQUIB, a temporary jeu d’esprit, which, like the firework of that denomination, sparkles, bounces, stinks, and vanishes.—Grose.

SQUINNY-EYED, squinting.—Shakespere.

SQUIRT, a doctor, or chemist.

STAFF NAKED, gin.

STAG, a shilling.

STAG, a term applied during the railway mania to a speculator without capital, who took “scrip” in “Diddlesex Junction,” and other lines, ejus et sui generis, got the shares up to a premium, and then sold out. Punch represented the house of Hudson, “the Railway King,” at Albert Gate, with a STAG on it, in allusion to this term.

STAG, to demand money, to “cadge.”

STAG, to see, discover, or watch,—like a STAG at gaze; “STAG the push,” look at the crowd. Also, to dun, or demand payment.

STAGGER, one who looks out, or watches.

STAGGERING BOB, an animal to whom the knife only just anticipates death from natural disease or accident,—said of meat on that account unfit for human food.

STALE, to evacuate urine.—Stable term.

STALL, to lodge, or put up at a public house. Also, to act a part.—Theatrical.

STALL, or STALL OFF, a dodge, a blind, or an excuse. Stall is ancient cant.

STALL OFF, to blind, excuse, hide, to screen a robbery during the perpetration of it by an accomplice.

STALL YOUR MUG, go away; spoken sharply by any one who wishes to get rid of a troublesome or inconvenient person.

STALLSMAN, an accomplice.

STAMPERS, shoes.—Ancient cant.

STAND, “to STAND treat,” to pay for a friend’s entertainment; to bear expense; to put up with treatment, good or ill; “this house STOOD me in £1,000,” i.e., cost that sum; “to STAND PAD,” to beg on the curb with a small piece of paper pinned on the breast, inscribed “I’m starving.”

STANDING, the position at a street corner, or on the curb of a market street, regularly occupied by a costermonger, or street seller.

STANDING PATTERERS, men who take a stand on the curb of a public thoroughfare, and deliver prepared speeches to effect a sale of any articles they have to vend.—See PATTERER.

STANGEY, a tailor; a person under petticoat government,—derived from the custom of “riding the STANG,” mentioned in Hudibras:—

STARK-NAKED (originally STRIP-ME-NAKED, vide Randall’s Diary, 1820), raw gin.—Bulwer’s Paul Clifford.

STARCHY, stuck-up, high-notioned, showily dressed, disdainful, cross.

STAR IT, to perform as the centre of attraction, with inferior subordinates to set off one’s abilities.—Theatrical.

STAR THE GLAZE, to break the window or show glass of a jeweller or other tradesman, and take any valuable articles, and run away. Sometimes the glass is cut with a diamond, and a strip of leather fastened to the piece of glass cut out to keep it from falling in and making a noise. Another plan is to cut the sash.

START, “THE START,” London,—the great starting point for beggars and tramps.

START, a proceeding of any kind; START,” an odd circumstance; “to get the START of a person,” to anticipate

STASH, to cease doing anything, to refrain, be quiet, leave off; “STASH IT, there, you sir!” i.e., be quiet, sir; to give over a lewd or intemperate course of life is termed STASHING IT.

STEEL, the house of correction in London, formerly named the Bastile, but since shortened to STEEL.

STEEL BAR DRIVERS, or FLINGERS, journeymen tailors.

STEMS, the legs.

STEP IT, to run away, or make off.

STICK, a derogatory expression for a person; “a rum” or “odd STICK,” a curious man. More generally a “poor STICK.”—Provincial.

STICK, “cut your STICK,” be off, or go away; either simply equivalent to a recommendation to prepare a walking staff in readiness for a journey—in allusion to the Eastern custom of cutting a stick before setting out—or from the ancient mode of reckoning by notches or tallies on a stick. In Cornwall the peasantry tally sheaves of corn by cuts in a stick, reckoning by the score. Cut your stick in this sense may mean to make your mark and pass on—and so realise the meaning of the phrase “IN THE NICK (or notch) OF TIME.” Sir J. Emerson Tennent, in Notes and Queries (December, 1859), considers the phrase equivalent to “cutting the connection,” and suggests a possible origin in the prophets breaking the staves of “Beauty” and “Bands,”—vide Zech., xi., 10, 14.

STICK, to cheat; “he got STUCK,” he was taken in; STICK, to forget one’s part in a performance—Theatrical; STICK ON, to overcharge or defraud; STICK UP FOR, to defend a person, especially when slandered in his absence; STICK UP TO, to persevere in courting or attacking, whether in fisty-cuffs or argument; “to STICK in one’s gizzard,” to rankle in one’s heart; “to STICK TO a person,” to adhere to one, be his friend through adverse circumstances.

STICKS, furniture, or household chattels; “pick up your STICKS and cut!” summary advice to a person to take himself and furniture away.—Cumberland.

STICKS, pistols.—Nearly obsolete.

STICK-UPS, or GILLS, shirt collars.

STICKINGS, bruised or damaged meat sold to sausage makers and penny pie shops.—North.

STICKY, wax.

STIFF, paper, a bill of acceptance, &c.; “how did you get it, STIFF or hard?” i.e., did he pay you cash or give a bill?

STIFF FENCER, a street seller of writing paper.

STIFF ’UN, a corpse.—Term used by undertakers.

STILTON, “that’s the STILTON,” or “it is not the STILTON,” i.e., that is quite the thing, or that is not quite the thing;—polite rendering of “that is not the CHEESE,” which see.

STINGO, strong liquor.—Yorkshire.

STINK, a disagreeable exposure.

STINKOMALEE, a name given to the then New London University by Theodore Hook. Some question about Trincomalee was agitated at the same time. It is still applied by the students of the old Universities, who regard it with disfavour from its admitting all denominations.

STIPE, a stipendiary magistrate.—Provincial.

STIR, a prison, a lock-up; “IN STIR,” in jail. Anglo Saxon, STYR, correction, punishment.

STIR UP SUNDAY, the Sunday next before Advent, the collect for that day commencing with the words “Stir up.” Schoolboys, growing excited at the prospect of the vacation, irreverently commemorate it by stirring up—pushing and poking each other. Crib crust monday and TUG BUTTON TUESDAY are distinguished by similar tricks; while on PAY-OFF WEDNESDAY they retaliate small grudges in a playful facetious way. Forby says, good housewives in Norfolk consider themselves reminded by the name to mix the ingredients for their Christmas mince pies.

STOCKDOLAGER, a heavy blow, a “finisher.” Italian, STOCCADO, a fencing term.

STODGE, to surfeit, gorge, or clog with food.

STONE JUG, a prison.

STOOK, a pocket-handkerchief.

STOOK HAULER, or BUZZER, a thief who takes pocket-handkerchiefs.

STOP, a detective policeman.

STORY, a falsehood,—the soft synonyme for a lie, allowed in family circles and boarding-schools. A Puritanism that came in fashion with the tirade against romances, all novels and stories being considered as dangerous and false.

STOTOR, a heavy blow, a SETTLER.—Old cant.

STOW, to leave off, or have done; “STOW IT, the gorger’s leary,” leave off, the person is looking. See STASH, with which it is synonymous.—Ancient cant.

STOW FAKING! leave off there, be quiet! FAKING implying anything that may be going on.

STRAW. Married ladies are said to be “in THE STRAW” at their accouchements. The phrase is a coarse allusion to farm-yard animals in a similar condition.

STRAWING, selling straws in the streets (generally for a penny) and giving the purchaser a paper (indecent or political), or a gold (!) ring,—neither of which the patterer states he is allowed to sell.

STREAK, to decamp, run away.—Saxon. In America the phrase is “to make STREAKS,” or “make TRACKS.”

STREAKY, irritated, ill-tempered.

STREET PITCHERS, negro minstrels, ballad singers, long song men, men “working a board” on which have been painted various exciting scenes in some terrible drama, the details of which the STREET PITCHER is bawling out, and selling in a little book or broadsheet (price one penny); or any persons who make a stand in the streets, and sell articles for their living.

STRETCH, abbreviation of “STRETCH one’s neck,” to hang, be executed as a malefactor.—Bulwer’s Paul Clifford.

STRETCH, twelve months,—generally used to intimate the time any one has been sentenced by the judge or magistrate. One stretch is to be imprisoned twelve months, TWO STRETCH is two years, THREE STRETCH is three years, and so on.

STRETCHER, a falsehood.

STRETCHER, a contrivance with handles, used by the police to carry off persons who are violent or drunk.

STRETCHER FENCER, one who sells braces.

STRETCHING MATCH, an execution.—See STRETCH.

STRIKE ME LUCKY! an expression used by the lower orders when making a bargain, derived from the old custom of striking hands together, leaving in that of the seller a LUCK PENNY as an earnest that the bargain is concluded. In Ireland, at cattle markets, &c., a penny, or other small coin, is always given by the buyer to the seller to ratify the bargain.—Hudibras. Anciently this was called a GOD’S PENNY.

“With that he cast him a God’s peny.”—Heir of Linne.

The origin of the phrase being lost sight of, like that of many others, it is often corrupted now-a-days into STRIKE ME SILLY.

STRIKE THE JIGGER, to pick the lock, or break open the door.

STROMMEL, straw.—Ancient cant. Halliwell says that in Norfolk STRUMMEL is a name for hair.

STRONG, “to come it STRONG.”—See COME.

STUCK-UP, “purse-proud”—a form of snobbishness very common in those who have risen in the world. Mr. Albert Smith has written some amusing papers on the Natural History of STUCK-UP People.

STUFF, money.

STUFF, to make false but plausible statements, to praise ironically, to make game of a person,—literally, to STUFF or CRAM him with gammon or falsehood.

STUMP, to go on foot.

STUMPED, bowled out, done for, bankrupt, poverty stricken.—Cricketing term.

STUMPS, legs, or feet.

STUMPY, money.

STUMP UP, to pay one’s share, to pay the reckoning, to bring forth the money reluctantly.

STUN, to astonish.

STUNNER, a first-rate person or article.

STUNNERS, feelings of great astonishment; “it put the STUNNERS on me,” it confounded me.

STUNNING, first-rate, very good. “Stunning pears,” shouts the coster, “only eight a penny.”—Vide Athenæum, 26th March, 1859. Sometimes amplified to STUNNING JOE BANKS! when the expression is supposed to be in its most intense form. Joe Banks was a noted character in the last generation. He was the proprietor of a public-house in Dyott-street, Seven Dials, and afterwards, on the demolition of the Rookery, of another in Cranbourne-alley. His houses became well-known from their being the resort of the worst characters, at the same time that the strictest decorum was always maintained in them. Joe Banks also acquired a remarkable notoriety by acting as a medium betwixt thieves and their victims. Upon the proper payment to Joe, a watch or a snuff box would at any time be restored to its lawful owner—“no questions in any case being asked.” The most daring depredators in London placed the fullest confidence in Joe, and it is believed (although the Biographie Universelle is quiet upon this point) that he never, in any instance, “sold” them. He was of the middle height, stout, and strongly made, and was always noted for a showy pin, and a remarkably STUNNING neck-tie. It was this peculiarity in the costume of Mr. Banks, coupled with those true and tried qualities as a friend, for which, as I have just remarked, he was famous, that led his customers to proclaim him as STUNNING JOE BANKS! The Marquis of Douro, Colonel Chatterley, and men of their stamp, were accustomed to resort to a private room at his house, when too late or too early to gain admittance to the clubs or more aristocratic establishments.

STUNNED ON SKILLY, to be sent to prison and compelled to eat SKILLY, or SKILLIGOLEE.

STURABAN, a prison. Gipsey, DISTARABIN.

SUCK, a parasite, flatterer of the “nobs.”—University.

SUCK, to pump, or draw information from a person.

SUCK-CASSA, a public-house.

SUCK THE MONKEY, to rob a cask of liquor by inserting a straw through a gimlet hole, and sucking a portion of the contents.

SUCK UP, “to SUCK UP to a person,” to insinuate oneself into his good graces.

SUFFERER, a tailor.

SUIT, a watch and seals.

SULKY, a one-horse chaise, having only room for one person.

SUN IN THE EYES, to have too much drink.—Dickens.

SUP, abbreviation of supernumerary.—Theatrical.

SUPER, a watch; SUPER-SCREWING, stealing watches.

SURF, an actor who frequently pursues another calling.—Theat.

SWADDLER, a Wesleyan Methodist; a name originally given to members of that body by the Irish mob; said to have originated with an ignorant Romanist, to whom the words of the English Bible were a novelty, and who, hearing one of John Wesley’s preachers mention the swaddling clothes of the Holy Infant, in a sermon on Christmas-day at Dublin, shouted out in derision, “A swaddler! a swaddler!” as if the whole story were the preacher’s invention.—Southey’s Life of Wesley, vol. ii., p. 109.

SWADDY, or COOLIE, a soldier. The former was originally applied to a discharged soldier, and perhaps came from shoddy, of which soldiers’ coats are made.

SWAG, a lot or plenty of anything, a portion or division of property. In Australia the term is used for the luggage carried by diggers: in India the word LOOT is used. Scotch, SWEG, or SWACK; German, SWEIG, a flock. Old cant for a shop.

SWAG, booty, or plundered property; “collar the SWAG,” seize the booty.

SWAG-SHOP, a warehouse where “Brummagem” and general wares are sold,—fancy trinkets, plated goods, &c. Jews are the general proprietors, and the goods are excessively low priced, trashy, and showy. Swag-shops were formerly plunder depôts.—Old cant.

SWAGSMAN, one who carries the booty after a burglary.

SWANKEY, cheap beer.—West.

SWAP, to exchange. Grose says it is Irish cant, but the term is now included in most dictionaries as an allowed vulgarism.

SWEAT, to extract money from a person, to “bleed,” to squander riches.—Bulwer.

SWEATER, common term for a “cutting” or “grinding” employer.

SWEEP, a low or shabby man.

SWEET, loving or fond; “how SWEET he was upon the moll,” i.e., what marked attention he paid the girl.

SWELL, a man of importance; a person with a showy, jaunty exterior; “a rank SWELL,” a very “flashly” dressed person, a man who by excessive dress apes a higher position than he actually occupies. Anything is said to be SWELL or SWELLISH that looks showy, or is many coloured, or is of a desirable quality. Dickens and Thackeray are termed great SWELLS in literature; so indeed are the first persons in the learned professions.

SWELL FENCER, a street salesman of needles.

SWELL HUNG IN CHAINS, said of a showy man in the habit of wearing much jewellery.

SWIG, to drink. Saxon, SWIGAN.

SWIG, a hearty drink.

SWIM, “a good SWIM,” a good run of luck, a long time out of the policeman’s clutches.—Thieves’ term.

SWINDLER, although a recognised word in respectable dictionaries, commenced service as a slang term. It was used as such by the poor Londoners against the German Jews who set up in London about the year 1762, also by our soldiers in the German War about that time. Schwindel, in German, signifies to cheat.

SWING, to be hanged.

SWINGING, large, huge.

SWIPES, sour or small beer. Swipe, to drink.—Sea.

SWIPEY (from SWIPES), intoxicated.

SWISHED, married.

SWIZZLE, small beer, drink.

SWOT, mathematics; also a mathematician; as a verb, to work hard for an examination, to be diligent in one’s studies.—Army.

This word originated at the great slang manufactory for the army, the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in the broad Scotch pronunciation of Dr. Wallace, one of the Professors, of the word sweat.—See Notes and Queries, vol. i., p. 369.

T, “to suit to a T,” to fit to a nicety.—Old. Perhaps from the T-square of carpenters, by which the accuracy of work is tested.

TACKLE, clothes.—Sea.

TAFFY (corruption of David), a Welshman. Compare SAWNEY (from Alexander), a Scotchman.

TAG-RAG-AND-BOBTAIL, a mixed crowd of low people, mobility.

TAIL BUZZER, a thief who picks coat pockets.

TAKE, to succeed, or be patronised; “do you think the new opera will TAKE?” “No, because the same company TOOK so badly under the old management;” “to TAKE ON,” to grieve; Shakespere uses the word TAKING in this sense. To “TAKE UP for any one,” to protect or defend a person; “to TAKE OFF,” to mimic; “to TAKE heart,” to have courage; “to TAKE down a peg or two,” to humiliate, or tame; “to TAKE UP,” to reprove; “to TAKE AFTER,” to resemble; “to TAKE IN,” to cheat or defraud, from the lodging-house keepers’ advertisements, “single men TAKEN IN AND DONE FOR,”—an engagement which is as frequently performed in a bad as a good sense; “to TAKE THE FIELD,”General, to commence operations against the enemy; when a racing man TAKES THE FIELD he stakes his money against the favourite.

TAKE BEEF, to run away.

TAKE IN, a cheating or swindling transaction,—sometimes termed “a DEAD TAKE IN.” Shakespere has TAKE IN in the sense of conquering. To be had, or TO BE SPOKE TO, were formerly synonymous phrases with TO BE TAKEN IN.

TALLY, five dozen bunches of turnips.

TAN, to beat or thrash; I’ll TAN your hide, i.e., give you a good beating.

TANNER, a sixpence. Gipsey, TAWNO, little, or Latin, TENER, slender?

TANNY, or TEENY, little. Gipsey, TAWNO, little.

TANTREMS, pranks, capers, or frolicking; from the Tarantula dance? See account of the involuntary phrensy and motions caused by the bite of the tarantula in Italy.—Penny Cyclopædia.

TAPE, gin,—term with female servants.

TAPER, to gradually give over, to run short.

TAP TUB, the Morning Advertiser.

TAT BOX, a dice box.

TATER, “s’elp my TATER,” another street evasion of a profane oath, sometimes varied by “s’elp my GREENS.”

TATLER, a watch; “nimming a TATLER,” stealing a watch.

TATS, dice.

TATS, old rags; MILKY TATS, white rags.

TATTING, gathering old rags.

TAW, a large or principal marble; “I’ll be one on your TAW,” I will pay you out, or be even with you,—a simile taken from boys aiming always at winning the TAW when playing at marbles.

TEAGUELAND, Ireland.

TEETH, “he has cut his eye TEETH,” i.e., is old and cute enough.

TEETH-DRAWING, wrenching off knockers.

TEETOTALLER, a total abstainer from alcoholic drinks.

TEETOTALLY, amplification of TOTALLY.

TELL-ON, to tell about.

TENPENCE TO THE SHILLING, a vulgar phrase denoting a deficiency in intellect.

TESTER, sixpence. From TESTONE, a shilling in the reign of Henry VIII., but a sixpence in the time of Q. Elizabeth.—Shakespere. French, TESTE, or TETE, the head of the monarch on the coin.

TEVISS, a shilling.

THEATRE, a police court.

THICK, intimate, familiar. Scotch, CHIEF; “the two are very CHIEF now,” i.e., friendly.

THICK-UN, a sovereign; a crown piece, or five shillings.

THIMBLE, or YACK, a watch.

THIMBLE-RIG, a noted cheating game played at fairs and places of great public thronging, consisting of two or three thimbles rapidly and dexterously placed over a pea, when the THIMBLE-RIGGER, suddenly ceasing, asks you under which thimble the pea is to be found. If you are not a practised hand you will lose nine times out of ten any bet you may happen to make with him. The pea is sometimes concealed under his nail.

THIMBLE TWISTERS, thieves who rob persons of their watches.

THINSKINNED, over nice, petulant, apt to get a “raw.”

THREE SHEETS IN THE WIND, unsteady from drink.—Sea.

THREE-UP, a gambling game played by costers. Three halfpennies are thrown up, and when they fall all “heads,” or all “tails,” it is a mark; and the man who gets the greatest number of marks out of a given amount—three, five, or more—wins. The costers are very quick and skilful at this game, and play fairly at it amongst themselves; but should a stranger join in they invariably unite to cheat him.

THRUMS, threepence.

THRUMMER, a threepenny bit.

THRUPS, threepence.

THUMPING, large, fine, or strong.

THUNDERER, the Times newspaper.

THUNDERING, large, extra-sized.

TIBBING OUT, going out of bounds.—Charterhouse.

TICK, credit, trust. Johnson says it is a corruption of ticket,—tradesmen’s bills being formerly written on tickets or cards. On tick, therefore, is equivalent to on ticket, or on trust. In use 1668. Cuthbert Bede, in Notes and Queries, supplies me with an earlier date, from the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam.

“No matter upon landing whether you have money or no—you may swim in twentie of their boats over the river UPON TICKET.”Decker’s Gul’s Hornbook, 1609.

TICKER, a watch.

TICKET, “that’s the TICKET,” i.e., what was wanted, or what is best. Corruption of “that is not etiquette,” by adding, in vulgar pronunciation, th to the first e of etiquette; or, perhaps, from TICKET, a bill or invoice. This phrase is sometimes extended into “that’s the TICKET FOR SOUP,” in allusion to the card given to beggars for immediate relief at soup kitchens.—See TICK.

TIDY, tolerably, or pretty well; “how did you get on to-day”—“Oh, TIDY.”—Saxon.

TIED UP, given over, finished; also married, in allusion to the Hymenial knot, unless a jocose allusion be intended to the halter (altar).

TIFFIN, a breakfast, dejeuner a la fourchette.—Anglo Indian slang.

TIGER, a boy employed to wait on gentlemen; one who waits on ladies is a page.

TIGHT, close, stingy; hard up, short of cash; TIGHT, spruce, strong, active; “a TIGHT lad,” a smart, active young fellow; TIGHT, drunk, or nearly so; “TIGHT laced,” puritanical, over-precise. Money is said to be TIGHT, when the public, from want of confidence in the aspect of affairs, are not inclined to speculate.

TIGHTNER, a dinner, or hearty meal.

TIKE, or BUFFER LURKING, dog stealing.

TILE, a hat; a covering for the head.

Sometimes used in another sense, “having a TILE loose,” i.e., being slightly crazy.—See PANTILE.

TIMBER MERCHANT, or SPUNK FENCER, a lucifer match seller.

TIME O’ DAY, a dodge, the latest aspect of affairs; “that’s your TIME O’ DAY,” i.e., Euge, well done; to PUT A PERSON UP TO THE TIME O’ DAY, let him know what is o’clock,—to instruct him in the knowledge needful for him.

TIN, money,—generally applied to silver.

TINGE, the percentage allowed by drapers and clothiers to their assistants, upon the sale of old-fashioned articles.—See SPIFFS.

TIN-POT, “he plays a TIN-POT game,” i.e., a low or shabby one.—Billiards.

TIP, a douceur; also to give, lend, or hand over anything to another person; “come, TIP up the tin,” i.e., hand up the money; “TIP the wink,” to inform by winking; “TIP us your fin,” i.e., give me your hand; “TIP one’s boom off,” to make off, depart.—Sea. “To miss one’s TIP,” to fail in a scheme.—Old cant.

TIP THE DOUBLE, to “bolt,” or run away from a creditor or officer. Sometimes TIP THE DOUBLE TO SHERRY, i.e., to the sheriff.

TIP-TOP, first-rate, of the best kind.

TIPTOPPER, a “swell,” or dressy man, a “Gorger.”

TIT, favourite name for a horse.

TIT FOR TAT, an equivalent.

TITIVATE, to put in order, or dress up.

TITLEY, drink.

TITTER, a girl.

’TIZER, the Morning Advertiser.

TIZZY, a sixpence. Corruption of TESTER.

TOASTING FORK, derisive term for a sword.

TOBY CONSARN, a highway expedition.

TOBY, a road; “high TOBY,” the turnpike road. “High TOBY spice,” robbery on horse-back.—Don Juan, canto xi., 19.

TODDLE, to walk as a child.

TO-DO (pronounced quickly, and as one word), a disturbance, trouble; “here’s a pretty TO-DO,” here is an unpleasant difficulty. This exactly tallies with the French word AFFAIRE (a faire).—See Forby’s Vocabulary of East Anglia.

TOFFER, a well dressed, “gay” woman.

TOFFICKY, dressy, showy.

TOFT, a showy individual, a SWELL, a person who, according to a Yorkshireman’s vocabulary, is UP-ISH.

TOG, a coat. Latin, TOGA.—Ancient cant.

TOG, to dress, or equip with an outfit; “TOGGED out to the nines,” dressed in the first style.

TOGS, clothes; “Sunday TOGS,” best clothes. One of the oldest cant words, in use in the time of Henry VIII.

TOGERY, clothes, harness, domestic paraphernalia of any kind.

TOKE, dry bread.

TOL-LOL, or TOL-LOLISH, tolerable, or tolerably.

TOMMY.—See DICKEY.

TOMMY, bread,—generally a penny roll.

TOMMY, a truck, barter, the exchange of labour for goods, not money. Both term and practice general among English operatives for half-a century.

TOMMY-MASTER, one who pays his workmen in goods, or gives them tickets upon tradesmen, with whom he shares the profit.

TOMMY SHOP, where wages are generally paid to mechanics or others, who are expected to “take out” a portion of the money in goods.

TOM-TOM, a street instrument, a small kind of drum beaten with the fingers, somewhat like the ancient tabor; a performer on this instrument. It was imported, doubtless, with the Nigger melodies,—TOM-TOMS being a favourite instrument with the darkies.