Chapter VI: Part 6

LEG. To make a leg; to bow. To give leg-bail and land
security; to run away. To fight at the leg; to take
unfair advantages: it being held unfair by back-sword
players to strike at the leg. To break a leg; a woman who has
had a bastard, is said to have broken a leg.

LEGGERS. Sham leggers; cheats who pretend to sell smuggled
goods, but in reality only deal in old shop-keepers or
damaged goods.

LENTEN FARE. Spare diet.

LETCH. A whim of the amorous kind, out of the common
way.

LEVITE. A priest or parson.

TO LIB. To lie together. CANT.

LIBBEGE. A bed. CANT.

LIBBEN. A private dwelling-house. CANT.

LIBKEN. A house to lie in. CANT.

TO LICK. To beat; also to wash, or to paint slightly over.
I'll give you a good lick o' the chops; I'll give you a good
stroke or blow on the face. Jack tumbled into a cow
t--d, and nastied his best clothes, for which his father stept
up, and licked him neatly.--I'll lick you! the dovetail to
which is, If you lick me all over, you won't miss--.

LICKSPITTLE. A parasite, or talebearer.

LIFT. To give one a lift; to assist. A good hand at a
dead lift; a good hand upon an emergency. To lift
one's hand to one's head; to drink to excess, or to drink
drams. To lift or raise one's elbow; the same.

LIFT. See SHOPLIFTER, &c.

LIFTER. A crutch.

LIG. A bed. See LIB.

LIGHT BOB. A soldier of the light infantry company.

LIGHT-FINGERED. Thievish, apt to pilfer.

LIGHT-HEELED. Swift in running. A light-heeled wench;
one who is apt, by the flying up of her heels, to fall flat on
her back, a willing wench.

LIGHT HOUSE. A man with a red fiery nose.

LIGHT TROOPS. Lice; the light troops are in full march;
the lice are crawling about.

LIGHTMANS. The day. CANT.

LIGHTNING. Gin. A flash of lightning; a glass of gin.

LIKENESS. A phrase used by thieves when the officers
or turnkeys are examining their countenance. As the
traps are taking our likeness; the officers are attentively
observing us.

LILIPUTIAN. A diminutive man or woman: from Gulliver's
Travels, written by Dean Swift, where an imaginary
kingdom of dwarfs of that name is described.

LILY WHITE. A chimney-sweeper.

LILY SHALLOW. (WHIP SLANG) A white driving hat.

LIMBS. Duke of limbs; a tall awkward fellow.

LIMB OF THE LAW. An inferior or pettyfogging attorney.

LIMBO. A prison, confinement.

To LINE. A term for the act of coition between dog and
bitch.

LINE OF THE OLD AUTHOR. A dram of brandy.

LINE. To get a man into a line, i.e. to divert his attention
by a ridiculous or absurd story. To humbug.

LINGO. Language. An outlandish lingo; a foreign tongue.
The parlezvous lingo; the French language.

LINEN ARMOURERS. Taylors.

LION. To tip the lion; to squeeze the nose of the party
tipped, flat to his face with the thumb. To shew the
lions and tombs; to point out the particular curiosities of
any place, to act the ciceroni: an allusion to Westminster
Abbey, and the Tower, where the tombs and lions are
shewn. A lion is also a name given by the gownsmen of
Oxford to an inhabitant or visitor. It is a standing joke
among the city wits to send boys and country folks, on
the first of April, to the Tower-ditch, to see the lions
washed.

LIQUOR. To liquor one's boots; to drink before a journey:
among Roman Catholics, to administer the extreme unction.

LITTLE BARBARY. Wapping.

LITTLE BREECHES. A familiar appellation used to a little
boy.

LITTLE CLERGYMAN. A young chimney-sweeper.

LITTLE EASE. A small dark cell in Guildhall, London,
where disorderly apprentices are confined by the city
chamberlain: it is called Little Ease from its being so low
that a lad cannot stand upright in it.

LITTLE SNAKESMAN. A little boy who gets into a house
through the sink-hole, and then opens the door for his
accomplices: he is so called, from writhing and twisting
like a snake, in order to work himself through the narrow
passage.

LIVE LUMBER. A term used by sailors, to signify all landsmen
on board their ships.

LIVE STOCK. Lice or fleas.

LOAF. To be in bad loaf, to be in a disagreeable situation,
or in trouble.

LOB. A till in a tradesman's shop. To frisk a lob; to rob
a till. See FLASH PANNEY.

LOB. Going on the lob; going into a shop to get change
for gold, and secreting some of the change.

LOB'S POUND. A prison. Dr. Grey, in his notes on Hudibras,
explains it to allude to one Doctor Lob, a dissenting
preacher, who used to hold forth when conventicles were
prohibited, and had made himself a retreat by means of a
trap door at the bottom of his pulpit. Once being pursued
by the officers of justice, they followed him through
divers subterraneous passages, till they got into a dark
cell, from whence they could not find their way out, but
calling to some of their companions, swore they had got
into Lob's Pound.

LOBCOCK. A large relaxed penis: also a dull inanimate
fellow.

LOBKIN. A house to lie in: also a lodging.

LOBLOLLEY BOY. A nick name for the surgeon's servant
on board a man of war, sometimes for the surgeon himself:
from the water gruel prescribed to the sick, which is
called loblolley.

LOBONIAN SOCIETY. A society which met at Lob Hall, at
the King and Queen, Norton Falgate, by order of Lob the
great.

LOBSCOUSE. A dish much eaten at sea, composed of salt
beef, biscuit and onions, well peppered, and stewed
together.

LOBSTER. A nick name for a soldier, from the colour of his
clothes. To boil one's lobster, for a churchman to
become a soldier: lobsters, which are of a bluish black,
being made red by boiling. I will not make a lobster
kettle of my ****, a reply frequently made by the nymphs
of the Point at Portsmouth, when requested by a soldier
to grant him a favour.

LOCK. A scheme, a mode. I must fight that lock; I must
try that scheme.

LOCK. Character. He stood a queer lock; he bore but an
indifferent character. A lock is also a buyer of stolen
goods, as well as the receptacle for them.

LOCK HOSPITAL. An hospital for venereal patients.

LOCK UP HOUSE. A spunging house; a public house kept
by sheriff's officers, to which they convey the persons they
have arrested, where they practise every species of
imposition and extortion with impunity. Also houses kept
by agents or crimps, who enlist, or rather trepan, men to
serve the East India or African company as soldiers.

LOCKERAM-JAWED. Thin-faced, or lanthorn-jawed. See
LANTHORN JAWED.

LOCKSMITH'S DAUGHTER. A key.

LOGGERHEAD. A blockhead, or stupid fellow. We three
loggerheads be: a sentence frequently written under two
heads, and the reader by repeating it makes himself the
third. A loggerhead is also a double-headed, or bar shot
of iron. To go to loggerheads; to fall to fighting.

LOLL. Mother's loll; a favourite child, the mother's darling,

LOLL TONGUE. He has been playing a game at loll tongue;
he has been salivated.

LOLLIPOPS. Sweet lozenges purchased by children.

TO LOLLOP. To lean with one's elbows on a table.

LOLLPOOP. A lazy, idle drone.

LOMBARD FEVER. Sick of the lombard fever; i.e. of the
idles.

LONG ONE. A hare; a term used by poachers.

LONG. Great. A long price; a great price.

LONG GALLERY. Throwing, or rather trundling, the dice
the whole length of the board.

LONG MEG. A jeering name for a very tall woman: from
one famous in story, called Long Meg of Westminster.

LONG SHANKS. A long-legged person.

LONG STOMACH. A voracious appetite.

LONG TONGUED. Loquacious, not able to keep a secret.
He is as long-tongued as Granny: Granny was an idiot
who could lick her own eye. See GRANNY.

LONG-WINDED. A long-winded parson; one who preached
long, tedious sermons. A long-winded paymaster; one
who takes long credit.

LOO. For the good of the loo; for the benefit of the company
or community.

LOOBY. An awkward, ignorant fellow.

LOOKING AS IF ONE COULD NOT HELP IT. Looking like a
simpleton, or as if one could not say boh! to a goose.

LOOKING-GLASS. A chamber pot, jordan, or member mug.

LOON, or LOUT. A country bumkin, or clown.

LOONSLATE. Thirteen pence halfpenny.

LOOPHOLE. An opening, or means of escape. To find a
loophole in an act of parliament; i.e. a method of
evading it,

LOP-SIDED. Uneven, having one side larger or heavier than
the other: boys' paper kites are often said to be lop-sided.

TO LOPE. To leap, to run away. He loped down the dancers;
he ran down stairs.

LORD. A crooked or hump-backed man. These unhappy
people afford great scope for vulgar raillery; such as, 'Did
you come straight from home? if so, you have got confoundedly
bent by the way.' 'Don't abuse the gemman,'
adds a by-stander, 'he has been grossly insulted already;
don't you see his back's up?' Or someone asks him if the
show is behind; 'because I see,' adds he, 'you have the
drum at your back.' Another piece of vulgar wit is let
loose on a deformed person: If met by a party of soldiers
on their march, one of them observes that that gentleman
is on his march too, for he has got his knapsack at his back.
It is said in the British Apollo, that the title of lord was
first given to deformed persons in the reign of Richard III.
from several persons labouring under that misfortune being
created peers by him; but it is more probably derived
from the Greek word [GREEK: lordos], crooked.

LOUSE. A gentleman's companion. He will never louse a
grey head of his own; he will never live to be old.

LOVE BEGOTTEN CHILD. A bastard.

LOUNGE. A loitering place, or gossiping shop.

LOUSE BAG. A black bag worn to the hair or wig.

LOUSE HOUSE. The round house, cage, or any other place of confinement.

LOUSE LADDER. A stitch fallen in a stocking.

LOUSE LAND. Scotland.

LOUSE TRAP. A small toothed comb.

LOUT. A clumsy stupid fellow.

LOWING RIG. Stealing oxen or cows.

LOW PAD. A footpad.

LOW TIDE, or LOW WATER. When there is no money in
a man's pocket.

LOWRE. Money. Cant.

LUBBER. An awkward fellow: a name given by sailors to
landsmen.

LUCK, or GOOD LUCK. To tread in a surreverence, to be
bewrayed: an allusion to the proverb, Sh-tt-n luck is good
luck.

LUD'S BULWARK. Ludgate prison.

LUGS. Ears or wattles. See WATTLES.

LULLABY CHEAT. An infant. Cant.

LULLIES. Wet linen. Cant.

LULLY TRIGGERS. Thieves who steal wet linen. Cant.

LUMB. Too much.

LUMBER. Live lumber; soldiers or passengers on board a
ship are so called by the sailors.

LUMBER TROOP. A club or society of citizens of London.

LUMBER HOUSE. A house appropriated by thieves for the
reception of their stolen property.

To LUMP. To beat; also to include a number of articles
under one head.

To LUMP THE LIGHTER. To be transported.

LUMPERS. Persons who contract to unload ships; also
thieves who lurk about wharfs to pilfer goods from ships,
lighters, &c.

LUMPING. Great. A lumping penny worth; a great quantity
for the money, a bargain. He has'got a lumping penny-worth;
frequently said of a man who marries a fat woman.

LUN. Harlequin.

LURCH. To be left in the lurch; to be abandoned by one's
confederates or party, to be left in a scrape.

LURCHED. Those who lose a game of whist, without scoring five,
are said to be lurched.

LURCHER. A lurcher of the law; a bum bailiff, or his setter.

LURRIES. Money, watches, rings, or other moveables.

LUSH. Strong beer.

TO LUSH. To drink.

LUSHEY. Drunk. The rolling kiddeys hud a spree, and got
bloody lushey; the dashing lads went on a party of pleasure,
and got very drunk.

LYE. Chamber lye; urine.

MACCARONI. An Italian paste made of flour and eggs.
Also a fop: which name arose from a club, called the
Maccaroni Club, instituted by some of the most dressy
travelled gentlemen about town, who led the fashions; whence
a man foppishly dressed, was supposed a member of that
club, and by contraction styled a Maccaroni.

MACE COVE. A swindler, a sharper, a cheat. On the
mace; to live by swindling.

MACHINES. Mrs. Phillips's ware. See CUNDUM.

MACKEREL. A bawd: from the French maquerel. Mackerel-backed;
long-backed.

MAD TOM, or TOM OF BEDLAM, otherwise an Abram
Man. A rogue that counterfeits madness. CANT.

MADAM. A kept madam; a kept mistress.

MADAM RAN. A whore. CANT.

MADE. Stolen. CANT.

MADGE. The private parts of a woman.

MADGE CULLS. Sodomites. CANT.

MAGG. A halfpenny.

MAGGOT BOILER. A tallow-chandler.

MAGGOTTY. Whimsical, capricious.

MAGNUM BONUM. A bottle containing two quarts of wine.
See SCOTCH PINT.

MAHOMETAN GRUEL. Coffee: because formerly used
chiefly by the Turks.

MAIDEN SESSIONS. A sessions where none of the prisoners
are capitally convicted.

MAKE. A halfpenny. CANT.

MAKE WEIGHT. A small candle: a term applied to a little
slender man.

MALINGEROR. A military term for one who, under pretence
of sickness, evades his duty.

MALKIN, or MAULKIN. A general name for a cat; also a
parcel of rags fastened to the end of a stick, to clean an
oven; also a figure set up in a garden to scare the birds;
likewise an awkward woman. The cove's so scaly, he'd
spice a malkin of his jazey: the fellow is so mean, that he
would rob a scare-crow of his old wig.

MALKINTRASH. One in a dismal garb.

MALMSEY NOSE. A red pimpled snout, rich in carbuncles
and rubies.

MAN OF THE TOWN. A rake, a debauchee.

MAN OF THE TURF. A horse racer, or jockey.

MANOEUVRING THE APOSTLES. Robbing Peter to pay
Paul, i.e. borrowing of one man to pay another.

MAN TRAP. A woman's commodity.

MAN OF THE WORLD. A knowing man.

MAN, (CAMBRIDGE.) Any undergraduate from fifteen to thirty.
As a man of Emanuel--a young member of Emanuel.

MANUFACTURE. Liquors prepared from materials of English
growth.

MARE'S NEST. He has found a mare's nest, and is laughing
at the eggs; said of one who laughs without any
apparent cause.

MARGERY PRATER. A hen. CANT.

MARINE OFFICER. An empty bottle: marine officers being
held useless by the seamen. SEA WIT.

MARPLOT. A spoil sport.

MARRIAGE MUSIC. The squalling and crying of children.

MARRIED. Persons chained or handcuffed together, in order
to be conveyed to gaol, or on board the lighters for
transportation, are in the cant language said to be married
together.

MARROWBONES. The knees. To bring any one down on
his marrow bones; to make him beg pardon on his knees:
some derive this from Mary's bones, i.e. the bones bent in
honour of the Virgin Mary; but this seems rather far-fetched.
Marrow bones and cleavers; principal instruments
in the band of rough music: these are generally
performed on by butchers, on marriages, elections, riding
skimmington, and other public or joyous occasions.

MARTINET. A military term for a strict disciplinarian:
from the name of a French general, famous for restoring
military discipline to the French army. He first disciplined
the French infantry, and regulated their method of
encampment: he was killed at the siege of Doesbourg in the
year 1672.

MASON'S MAUND. A sham sore above the elbow, to counterfeit
a broken arm by a fall from a scaffold.

MASTER OF THE MINT. A gardener.

MASTER OF THE ROLLS. A baker.

MASTER OF THE WARDROBE. One who pawns his clothes
to purchase liquor.

MATRIMONIAL PEACE-MAKER. The sugar-stick, or
arbor vitae.

MAUDLIN DRUNK. Crying drunk: perhaps from Mary
Magdalene, called Maudlin, who is always painted in
tears.

MAULED. Extremely drunk, or soundly beaten.

MAUNDERING BROTH. Scolding.

MAUNDING. Asking or begging. CANT:

MAWKES. A vulgar slattern.

MAWLEY. A hand. Tip us your mawley; shake hands.
with me. Fam the mawley; shake hands.

MAW-WALLOP. A filthy composition, sufficient to provoke
vomiting.

MAX. Gin.

MAY BEES. May bees don't fly all the year long; an answer
to any one who prefaces a proposition with, It may be.

MEALY-MOUTHED. Over-modest or backward in speech.

MEDLAR. A fruit, vulgarly called an open a-se; of which
it is more truly than delicately said, that it is never ripe
till it is as rotten as a t--d, and then it is not worth a
f--t.

MELLOW. Almost drunk.

MELTING MOMENTS. A fat man and woman in the amorous congress.

TO MELT. To spend. Will you melt a borde? will you
spend a shilling? The cull melted a couple of decusses
upon us; the gentleman spent a couple of crowns upon us.
CANT.

MEMBER MUG. A chamber pot.

MEN OF STRAW. Hired bail, so called from having straw
stuck in their shoes to distinguish them.

MEN OF KENT. Men born east of the river Medway, who
are said to have met the Conqueror in a body, each carrying
a green bough in his hand, the whole appearing like
a moving wood; and thereby obtaining a confirmation of
their ancient privileges. The inhabitants of Kent are divided
into Kentish men and men of Kent. Also a society held
at the Fountain Tavern, Bartholomew Lane, A.D. 1743.

MERKIN. Counterfeit hair for women's privy parts. See
BAILEY'S DICT.

MERRY ANDREW, or MR. MERRYMAN. The jack pudding,
jester, or zany of a mountebank, usually dressed in a
party-coloured coat.

MERRY A-SE CHRISTIAN. A whore.

MERRY-BEGOTTEN. A bastard.

MAN OF THE WORLD. A knowing man.

MESS JOHN. A Scotch presbyterian teacher or parson.

MESSMATE. One who eats at the same mess, companion or
comrade.

METTLE. The semen. To fetch mettle; the act of self pollution.
Mettle is also figuratively used for courage.

METTLESOME. Bold, courageous.

MICHAEL. Hip, Michael, your head's on fire. See HYP.

MIDSHIPMAN'S WATCH AND CHAIN. A sheep's heart and
pluck.

MILCH COW. One who is easily tricked out of his property;
a term used by gaolers, for prisoners who have money and
bleed freely.

MILK AND WATER. Both ends of the busk.

TO MILK THE PIGEON. To endeavour at impossibilities.

MILLING COVE. A boxer. How the milling cove served
the cull out; how the boxer beat the fellow.

MILL. A chisel.

To MILL. To rob; also to break, beat out, or kill. I'll
mill your glaze; I'll beat out your eye. To mill a bleating
cheat; to kill a sheep. To mill a ken; to rob a house.
To mill doll; to beat hemp in bridewell. CANT.

MILL LAY. To force open the doors of houses in order to
rob them.

MILLER. A murderer.

MINE A-SE ON A BANDBOX. An answer to the offer of any
thing inadequate to the purpose for which it is wanted, just
as a bandbox would be if used for a seat.

MINE UNCLE'S. A pawnbroker's shop; also a necessary
house. Carried to my uncle's; pawned. New-married
men are also said to go to their uncle's, when they leave
their wives soon after the honey moon.

MINIKIN. A little man or woman: also the smallest sort
of pin.

MINOR CLERGY. Young chimney sweepers.

MINT. Gold. A mint of money; common phrase for a
large sum.

MISCHIEF. A man loaded with mischief, i.e. a man with
his wife on his back.

MISH. A shirt, smock, or sheet. CANT.

MISH TOPPER. A coat, or petticoat.

MISS. A miss or kept mistress; a harlot.

MISS LAYCOCK. The monosyllable.

MITE. A nick name for a cheesemonger: from the small
insect of that name found in cheese.

MIX METAL. A silversmith.

MOABITES. Bailiffs, or Philistines.

MOB; or MAB. A wench, or harlot.

MOBILITY. The mob: a sort of opposite to nobility.

MOHAIR. A man in the civil line, a townsman, or tradesman:
a military term, from the mohair buttons worn by persons
of those descriptions, or any others not in the army, the
buttons of military men being always of metal: this is
generally used as a term of contempt, meaning a bourgeois,
tradesman, or mechanic.

MOIETY. Half, but vulgarly used to signify a share or portion:
as, He will come in for a small moiety.

MOLL. A whore.

MOLL PEATLY'S GIG. A rogering bout.

MOLL THOMPSON'S MARK. M. T. i.e. empty: as, Take
away this bottle, it has Moll Thompson's mark upon it.

MOLLY. A Miss Molly; an effeminate fellow, a sodomite.

MONDAY. Saint Monday. See SAINT.

MONEY. A girl's private parts, commonly applied to little
children: as, Take care, Miss, or you will shew your
money.

MONEY DROPPERS. Cheats who drop money, which they
pretend to find just before some country lad; and by way
of giving him a share of their good luck, entice him into a
public house, where they and their confederates cheat or
rob him of what money he has about him.

MONGREL. A hanger on among cheats, a spunger; also a
child whose father and mother are of different countries.

MONKS AND FRIARS. Terms used by printers: monks are
sheets where the letters are blotted, or printed too black;
friars, those letters where the ink has failed touching the
type, which are therefore white or faint.

MONKEY. To suck the monkey; to suck or draw wine, or
any other liquor, privately out of a cask, by means of a
straw, or small tube. Monkey's allowance; more kicks
than halfpence. Who put that monkey on horseback without
tying his legs? vulgar wit on a bad horseman.

MONOSYLLABLE. A woman's commodity.

MOONCURSER. A link-boy: link-boys are said to curse the
moon, because it renders their assistance unnecessary;
these gentry frequently, under colour of lighting passengers
over kennels, or through dark passages, assist in robbing
them. Cant.

MOON-EYED HEN. A squinting wench.

MOON MEN. Gypsies.

MOON RAKERS. Wiltshire men: because it is said that
some men of that county, seeing the reflection of the
moon in a pond, endeavoured to pull it out with a rake.

MOONSHINE. A matter or mouthful of moonshine; a trifle,
nothing. The white brandy smuggled on the coasts of
Kent and Sussex, and the gin in the north of Yorkshire,
are also called moonshine.

MOP. A kind of annual fair in the west of England, where
farmers usually hire their servants.

To MOP UP. To drink up. To empty a glass or pot.

MOPED. Stupid, melancholy for want of society.

MOPSEY. A dowdy, or homely woman.

MOPSQUEEZER. A maid servant, particularly a housemaid.

MOPUSSES. Money.

MORGLAG. A brown bill, or kind of halbert, formerly
carried by watchmen; corruption of MORE, great or broad,
and GLAVE, blade.

MORNING DROP. The gallows. He napped the king's pardon
and escaped the morning drop; he was pardoned, and
was not hanged.

MORRIS. Come, morris off; dance off, or get you gone.
allusion to morris, i.e. MORISCO, or Moorish dancing.

MORT. A woman or wench; also a yeoman's daughter. To
be taken all-a mort; to be confounded, surprised, or motionless
through fear.

MOSES. To stand Moses: a man is said to stand Moses
when he has another man's bastard child fathered upon
him, and he is obliged by the parish to maintain it.

MOSS. A cant term for lead, because both are found on the
tops of buildings.

MOSSY FACE. The mother of all saints.

MOT. A girl, or wench. See MORT.

MOTHER, or THE MOTHER. A bawd. Mother abbess:
the same. Mother midnight; a midwife. Mother in
law's bit; a small piece, mothers in law being supposed
not apt to overload the stomachs of their husband's children.

MOTHER OF ALL SAINTS. The Monosyllable.

MOTHER OF ALL SOULS. The same. IRISH.

MOTHER OF ST. PATRICK. The same. IRISH.

MOTHER OF THE MAIDS. A bawd.

MOUCHETS. Small patches worn by ladies: from the French
word mouches.

MOVEABLES. Rings, watches, or any toys of value.

MOUSE. To speak like a mouse in a cheese; i.e. faintly or
indistinctly.

MOUSETRAP. The parson's mousetrap; the state of matrimony.

MOUTH. A noisy fellow. Mouth half cocked; one gaping
and staring at every thing he sees. To make any one
laugh on the wrong, or t'other side of his mouth; to make
him cry or grieve.

MOUTH. A silly fellow. A dupe. To stand mouth; i.e.
to be duped.

To MOW. A Scotch word for the act of copulation.

MOW HEATER. A drover: from their frequent sleeping on
hay mows. CANT.

MOWER. A cow.

MUCK. Money; also dung.

MUCKWORM. A miser.

MUCKINDER. A child's handkerchief tied to the side.

MUD. A fool, or thick-sculled fellow; also, among printers
the same as dung among journeymen taylors. See
DUNG.

MUD LARK. A fellow who goes about by the water side
picking up coals, nails, or other articles in the mud. Also
a duck.

MUFF. The private parts of a woman. To the well wearing
of your muff, mort; to the happy consummation of
your marriage, girl; a health.

MUFFLING CHEAT. A napkin.

MUGGLETONIANS. The sect or disciples of Lodowick
Muggleton.

MULLIGRUBS. Sick of the mulligrubs with eating chopped
hay: low-spirited, having an imaginary sickness.

MUM. An interjection directing silence. Mum for that; I
shall be silent as to that. As mute as Mumchance, who
was hanged for saying nothing; a friendly reproach to any
one who seems low-spirited and silent.

MUMCHANCE. An ancient game like hazard, played with
dice: probably so named from the silence observed in playing
at it.

MUM GLASS. The monument erected on Fish-street Hill,
London, in memory of the great fire in 1666.

MUMBLE A SPARROW. A cruel sport practised at wakes
and fairs, in the following manner: A cock sparrow
whose wings are clipped, is put into the crown of a hat; a
man having his arms tied behind him, attempts to bite off
the sparrow's head, but is generally obliged to desist, by
the many pecks and pinches he receives from the enraged
bird.

MUMMER. The mouth.

MUMPERS. Originally beggars of the genteel kind, but
since used for beggars in general.

MUMPERS HALL. An alehouse where beggars are harboured.

MUNDUNGUS. Bad or rank tobacco: from mondongo, a
Spanish word signifying tripes, or the uncleaned entrails
of a beast, full of filth.

MUNG. To beg.

MUNS. The face, or rather the mouth: from the German
word MUND, the mouth. Toute his muns; look at his face.

MUNSTER PLUMS. Potatoes. IRISH.

MUNSTER HEIFER. An Irish woman. A woman with
thick legs is said to be like a Munster heifer; i.e. beef to
the heels.

MURDER. He looked like God's revenge against murder;
he looked angrily.

MURPHIES. Potatoes.

MUSHROOM. A person or family suddenly raised to riches
and eminence: an allusion to that fungus, which starts up
in a night.

MUSIC. The watch-word among highwaymen, signifying
the person is a friend, and must pass unmolested. Music
is also an Irish term, in tossing up, to express the harp side,
or reverse, of a farthing or halfpenny, opposed to the head.

MUTE. An undertaker's servant, who stands at the door of
a person lying in state: so named from being supposed
mute with grief.

MUTTON-HEADED. Stupid.

MUTTON MONGER. A man addicted to wenching.

MUTTON. In her mutton, i.e. having carnal knowledge of a
woman.

MUZZLE. A beard.

MUZZLER. A violent blow on the mouth. The milling
cove tipped the cull a muzzler; the boxer gave the fellow
a blow on the mouth.

MYNT. See MINT.

MYRMIDONS. The constable's assistants, watchmen, &c.

NAB, or NAB CHEAT. A hat. Penthouse nab; a large
hat.

To NAB. To seize, or catch unawares. To nab the teaze;
to be privately whipped. To nab the stoop; to stand in
the pillory. To nab the rust; a jockey term for a horse
that becomes restive. To nab the snow: to steal linen
left out to bleach or dry. CANT.

To NAB GIRDER, or NOB GIRDER. A bridle.

NACK. To have a nack; to be ready at any thing, to have
a turn-for it.

NACKY. Ingenious.

NAILED. Secured, fixed. He offered me a decus, and I
nailed him; he offered me a crown, and I struck or fixed
him.

NANNY HOUSE. A brothel.

TO NAP. To cheat at dice by securing one chance. Also
to catch the venereal disease. You've napt it; you are
infected.

NAPPING. To take any one napping; i.e. to come upon
him unexpectedly, to find him asleep: as, He caught him
napping, as Morse caught his mare.

NAPPER. The head; also a cheat or thief.

NAPPER OF NAPS. A sheep stealer. CANT.

NAPPY ALE. Strong ale.

NASK, or NASKIN. A prison or bridewell. The new nask;
Clerkenwell bridewell. Tothil-fields nask; the bridewell
at Tothil-fields. CANT.

NATION. An abbreviation of damnation: a vulgar term used
in Kent, Sussex, and the adjacent counties, for very.
Nation good; very good. A nation long way; a very long
way.

NATTY LADS. Young thieves or pickpockets. CANT.

NATURAL. A mistress, a child; also an idiot. A natural
son or daughter; a love or merry-begotten child, a bastard.

NAVY OFFICE. The Fleet prison. Commander of the
Fleet; the warden of the Fleet prison.

NAY WORD. A bye-word, proverb.

NAZAKENE FORETOP. The foretop of a wig made in imitation
of Christ's head of hair, as represented by the
painters and sculptors.

NAZY. Drunken. Nazy cove or mort; a drunken rogue
or harlot. Nazy nabs; drunken coxcombs.

NEB, or NIB. The bill of a bird, and the slit of a pen.
Figuratively, the face and mouth of a woman; as, She holds
up her neb: she holds up her mouth to be kissed.

NECK STAMPER. The boy who collects the pots belonging
to an alehouse, sent out with beer to private houses.

NECK VERSE. Formerly the persons claiming the benefit
of clergy were obliged to read a verse in a Latin
manuscript psalter: this saving them from the gallows, was
termed their neck verse: it was the first verse of the
fiftyfirst psalm, Miserere mei,&c.

NECK WEED. Hemp.

NEEDLE POINT. A sharper.

NEGLIGEE. A woman's undressed gown, Vulgarly termed a
neggledigee.

NEGROE. A black-a-moor: figuratively used for a slave.
I'll be no man's negro; I will be no man's slave.

NEGROE'S HEADS. Brown leaves delivered to the ships in
ordinary.

NESCIO. He sports a Nescio; he pretends not to understand
any thing. After the senate house examination for
degrees, the students proceed to the schools, to be
questioned by the proctor. According to custom
immemorial the answers MUST be Nescio. The following is
a translated specimen:

Ques. What is your name?--Ans. I do not know.
Ques. What is the name of this university?--Ans. I do not
know.
Ques. Who was your father?-Ans. I do not know.
This last is probably the only true answer of the three!

NETTLED. Teized, provoked, out of temper. He or she has
pissed on a nettle; said of one who is peevish or out of
temper.

NEW COLLEGE STUDENTS. Golden scholars, silver bachelors,
and leaden masters.

NEW DROP. The scaffold used at Newgate for hanging
of criminals; which dropping down, leaves them
suspended. By this improvement, the use of that vulgar
vehicle, a cart, is entirely left off.

NEW LIGHT. One of the new light; a methodist.

NEWGATE BIRD. A thief or sharper, frequently caged in
Newgate.

NEWGATE SOLICITOR. A petty fogging and roguish attorney, who attends the gaols to assist villains in evading justice.

NEWMAN'S LIFT. The gallows.

NEWMAN'S TEA GARDENS. Newgate.

NEWMAN'S HOTEL. Newgate.

To NICK. To win at dice, to hit the mark just in the nick
of time, or at the critical moment.

NICK. Old nick; the Devil.

NICKNAME. A name given in ridicule or contempt: from
the French nom de niqne. Niqne is a movement of the head
to mark a contempt for any person or thing.

NICK NINNY. A simpleton.

NICKIN, NIKEY or NIZEY. A soft simple fellow; also a
diminutive of Isaac.

NICKNACKS. Toys, baubles, or curiosities.

NlCKNACKATORY. A toyshop.

NICKUMPOOP, or NINCUMPOOP. A foolish fellow; also
one who never saw his wife's ****.

NIFFYNAFFY FELLOW. A trifler.

NIG. The clippings of money. Nigging; clipping. Nigler,
a clipper. Cant.

NIGGLING. Cutting awkwardly, trifling; also accompanying
with a woman.

NIGHT MAGISTRATE. A constable.

NIGHTINGALE. A soldier who, as the term is, sings out
at the halberts. It is a point of honour in some
regiments, among the grenadiers, never to cry out,
become nightingales, whilst under the discipline of the
cat of nine tails; to avoid which, they chew a bullet.

NIGHTMAN. One whose business it is to empty necessary
houses in London, which is always done in the night; the
operation is called a wedding. See WEDDING.

NIGMENOG. A very silly fellow.

TO NIM. To steal or pilfer: from the German nemen, to
take. Nim a togeman; steal a cloak.

NIMGIMMER. A physician or surgeon, particularly those
who cure the venereal disease.

NINE LIVES. Cats are said to have nine lives, and women
ten cats lives.

NINNY, or NINNYHAMMER. A simpleton.

NIP. A cheat. Bung nipper; a cutpurse.

NIP CHEESE. A nick name for the purser of a ship: from
those gentlemen being supposed sometimes to nip, or
diminish, the allowance of the seamen, in that and every
other article. It is also applied to stingy persons in
general.

NIPPERKIN. A small measure.

NIPPS. The sheers used in clipping money.

NIT SQUEEGER, i.e. SQUEEZER. A hair-dresser.

NIX. Nothing.

NO CATCHY NO HAVY. If I am not caught, I cannot be hurt.
Negro saying.

NOB. A king. A man of rank.

NOB. The head.

NOBTHATCHER. A peruke-maker.

NOCK. The breech; from NOCK, a notch.

NOCKY BOY. A dull simple fellow.

NOD. He is gone to the land of nod; he is asleep.

NODDLE. The head.

NODDY. A simpleton or fool. Also a kind of low cart,
with a seat before it for the driver, used in and about
Dublin, in the manner of a hackney coach: the fare is
just half that of a coach, for the same distance; so
that for sixpence one may have a set down, as it is
called, of a mile and half, and frequently a tumble
down into the bargain: it is called a noddy from the
nutation of its head. Knave noddy; the old-fashioned
name for the knave of trumps.

NOISY DOG RACKET. Stealing brass knockers from doors.

NOKES. A ninny, or fool. John-a-Nokes and Tom-a-Stiles;
two honest peaceable gentlemen, repeatedly set together
by the ears by lawyers of different denominations: two
fictitious names formerly used in law proceedings, but
now very seldom, having for several years past been
supplanted by two other honest peaceable gentlemen,
namely, John Doe and Richard Roe.

NOLL. Old Noll; Oliver Cromwell.

NON-CON. A nonconformist, presbyterian, or any other
dissenter.

NONE-SUCH. One that is unequalled: frequently applied
ironically.

NONSENSE. Melting butter in a wig.

NOOZED. Married, hanged.

NOPE. A blow: as, I took him a nope on the costard.

NORFOLK CAPON. A red herring.

NORFOLK DUMPLING. A nick name, or term of jocular
reproach to a Norfolk man; dumplings being a favourite
food in that county.

NORTH ALLERTONS. Spurs; that place, like Rippon,
being famous for making them.

NORTHUMBERLAND. Lord Northumberland's arms; a black
eye: so called in the last century.

NORWAY NECKCLOTH. The pillory, usually made of Norway
fir.

NOSE. As plain as the nose on your face; evidently to be
seen. He is led by the nose; he is governed. To follow
one's nose; to go strait forward. To put one's nose
out of joint; to rival one in the favour of any person.
To make a bridge of any one's nose; to pass by him in
drinking. To nose a stink; to smell it. He cut off his
nose to be revenged of his face; said of one who, to be
revenged on his neighbour, has materially injured
himself.

NOSE. A man who informs or turns king's evidence.

TO NOSE. To give evidence. To inform. His pall nosed and
he was twisted for a crack; his confederate turned
king's evidence, and he was hanged for burglary.

TO NOSE. To bully.

NOSE BAG. A bag fastened to the horse's head, in which
the soldiers of the cavalry put the oats given to their
horses: whence the saying, I see the hose bag in his
face; i.e. he has been a private man, or rode private.

NOSE GENT. A nun.

NOSTRUM. A medicine prepared by particular persons
only, a quack medicine.

NOTCH. The private parts of a woman.

NOTE. He changed his note; he told another sort of a
story.

NOUS-BOX. The head.

NOZZLE. The nose of a man or woman.

NUB. The neck; also coition.

NUBBING. Hanging. Nubbing cheat: the gallows. Nubbing
cove; the hangman. Nubbing ken; the sessions
house.

NUG. An endearing word: as, My dear nug; my dear love.

NUGGING DRESS. An out-of-the-way old-fashioned dress,
or rather a loose kind of dress, denoting a courtesan.

NUGGING-HOUSE. A brothel.

TO NULL. To beat: as, He nulled him heartily.

NUMBERS. To consult the book of numbers: a term used
in the House of Commons, when, instead of answering or
confuting a pressing argument, the minister calls for a
division, i.e. puts the matter to the vote.

NUMBSCULL. A stupid fellow.

NUMMS. A sham collar, to be worn over a dirty shirt.

NUNNERY. A bawdy house.

TO NURSE. To cheat: as, they nursed him out of it. An
estate in the hands of trustees, for the payment of
bdebts, is said to be at nurse.

NUTS. It was nuts for them; i.e. it was very agreeable to
them.

NUTS. Fond; pleased. She's nuts upon her cull; she's
pleased with her cully. The cove's nutting the blowen;
the man is trying to please the girl.

NUTCRACKERS. The pillory: as, The cull peeped through
the nutcrackers.

NUTMEGS. Testicles.

NYP, or NIP. A half pint, a nip of ale: whence the
nipperkin, a small vessel.

NYP SHOP. The Peacock in Gray's Inn Lane, where
Burton ale is sold in nyps.

NYPPER. A cut-purse: so called by one Wotton, who in
the year 1585 kept an academy for the education and
perfection of pickpockets and cut-purses: his school was
near Billingsgate, London. As in the dress of ancient
times many people wore their purses at their girdles,
cutting them was a branch of the light-fingered art,
which is now lost, though the name remains. Maitland,
from Stow, gives the following account of this Wotton:
This man was a gentleman born, and sometime a merchant
of good credit, but fallen by time into decay: he kept
an alehouse near Smart's Key, near Billingsgate,
afterwards for some misdemeanor put down. He reared up a
new trade of life, and in the same house he procured all
the cut-purses about the city, to repair to his house;
there was a school-house set up to learn young boys to
cut purses: two devices were hung up; one was a pocket,
and another was a purse; the pocket had in it certain
counters, and was hung about with hawks bells, and over
the top did hang a little sacring bell. The purse had
silver in it; and he that could take out a counter,
without noise of any of the bells, was adjudged a
judicial NYPPER: according to their terms of art, a
FOYSTER was a pick-pocket; a NYPPER was a pick purse,
or cut-purse.

O BE JOYFUL. I'll make you sing O be joyful on the
other side of your mouth; a threat, implying the party
threatened will be made to cry. To sing O be easy; to
appear contented when one has cause to complain, and
dare not.

OAF. A silly fellow.

OAFISH. Simple.

OAK. A rich maa, a man of good substance and credit.
To sport oak; to shut the outward door of a student's
room at college. An oaken towel; an oaken cudgel. To
rub a man down with an oaken towel; to beat him.

OATS. He has sowed his wild oats; he is staid, or sober,
having left off his wild tricks.

OATHS. The favourite oaths of the thieves of the present
day are, "God strike me blind!" "I wish my bloody eyes
may drop out if it is not true!" "So help me God!"
"Bloody end to me!"

OAR. To put in one's oar; to intermeddle, or give an
opinion unasked: as, To be sure, you must put in your
oar!

OBSTROPULOUS. Vulgar misnomer of OBSTREPEROUS: as, I
was going my rounds, and found this here gemman very
obstropulous, whereof I comprehended him as an
auspicious parson.

OCCUPY. To occupy a woman; to have carnal knowledge
of her.

ODDFELLOWS. A convivial society; the introduction to
the most noble grand, arrayed in royal robes, is well worth
seeing at the price of becoming a member.

ODDS PLUT AND HER NAILS. A Welch oath, frequently
mentioned in a jocular manner by persons, it is hoped,
ignorant of its meaning; which is, By God's blood, and
the nails with which he was nailed to the cross.

ODD-COME-SHORTLYS. I'll do it one of these odd-come-shortly's;
I will do it some time or another.

OFFICE. To give the office; to give information, or make
signs to the officers to take a thief.

OGLES. Eyes. Rum ogles; fine eyes.

OIL OF BARLEY, or BARLEY BROTH. Strong beer.

OIL OF GLADNESS. I will anoint you with the oil of gladness;
ironically spoken for, I will beat you.

OIL OF STIRRUP. A dose the cobler gives his wife whenever
she is obstropulous.

OI POAAOI (Proofreaders Note: Greek Letters).
(CAMBRIDGE.) The many; the multitude;
who take degrees without being entitled for an honor.
All that is REQUIRED, are three books of Euclid, and as far
as Quadratic Equation's in Algebra. See PLUCKED.

OLD. Ugly. CANT.

OLD DOG AT IT. Expert, accustomed.

OLD HAND. Knowing or expert in any business.

OLD HARRY. A composition used by vintners to adulterate
their wines; also the nick-name for the devil.

OLD DING. See OLD HAT.

OLD MR. GORY. A piece of gold.

OLD NICK. The Devil: from NEKEN, the evil spirit of the
north.

OLD ONE. The Devil. Likewise an expression of quizzical
familiarity, as "how d'ye do, OLD ONE?"

OLD PEGG. Poor Yorkshire cheese, made of skimmed
milk.

OLD POGER. The Devil.

OLD STAGER. One accustomed to business, one who knows
mankind.

OLD TOAST. A brisk old fellow. CANT.

OLD DOSS. Bridewell.

OLIVER'S SCULL. A chamber pot.

OLLI COMPOLLI. The name of one of the principal rogues
of the canting crew. CANT.

OMNIUM GATHERUM. The whole together: jocular imitation
of law Latin.

ONE IN TEN. A parson: an allusion to his tithes.

ONE OF US, or ONE OF MY COUSINS. A woman of the
town, a harlot.

ONION. A seal. Onion hunters, a class of young thieves
who are on the look out for gentlemen who wear their
seals suspended on a ribbon, which they cut, and thus
secure the seals or other trinkets suspended to the watch.

OPEN ARSE. A medlar. See MEDLAR.

OPTIME. The senior and junior optimes are the second
and last classes of Cambridge honors conferred on taking
a degree. That of wranglers is the first. The last
junior optime is called the Wooden Spoon.

ORGAN. A pipe. Will you cock your organ? will you
smoke your pipe?

ORTHODOXY AND HETERODOXY. Somebody explained these
terms by saying, the first was a man who had a doxy of
his own, the second a person who made use of the doxy
of another man.

OSCHIVES. Bone-handled knives. CANT.

OSTLER. Oatstealer.

OTTOMY. The vulgar word for a skeleton.

OTTOMISED. To be ottomised; to be dissected. You'll be
scragged, ottomised, and grin in a glass case: you'll be
hanged, anatomised, and your skeleton kept in a glass
case at Surgeons' Hall.

OVEN. A great mouth; the old woman would never have
looked for her daughter in the oven, had she not been there
herself.

OVERSEER. A man standing in the pillory, is, from his
elevated situation, said to be made an overseer.

OUT AT HEELS, OR OUT AT ELBOWS. In declining circumstances.

OUTRUN THE CONSTABLE. A man who has lived above his
means, or income, is said to have outrun the constable.

OUTS. A gentleman of three outs. See GENTLEMAN.

OWL. To catch the; a trick practised upon ignorant country
boobies, who are decoyed into a barn under pretence
of catching an owl, where, after divers preliminaries, the
joke ends in their having a pail of water poured upon their
heads.

OWL IN AN IVY BUSH. He looks like an owl in an ivy
bush; frequently said of a person with a large frizzled wig,
or a woman whose hair is dressed a-la-blowze.

OWLERS. Those who smuggle wool over to France.

OX HOUSE. He must go through the ox house to bed; a saying
of an old fellow who marries a young girl.

OYES. Corruption of oyez, proclaimed by the crier of all
courts of justice.

OYSTER. A gob of thick phlegm, spit by a consumptive
man; in law Latin, UNUM VIRIDUM GOBBUM

P'S. To mind one's P's and Q's; to be attentive to the
main chance.

P.P.C. An inscription on the visiting cards of our modern
fine gentleman, signifying that they have called POUR
PRENDRE CONGE, i.e. 'to take leave,' This has of late been
ridiculed by cards inscribed D.I.O. i.e. 'Damme, I'm off.'

PACKET. A false report.

PACKTHREAD. To talk packthread; to use indecent language
well wrapt up.

PAD. The highway, or a robber thereon; also a bed. Footpads;
foot robbers. To go out upon the pad; to go out
in order to commit a robbery.

PAD BORROWERS. Horse stealers.

TO PAD THE HOOF. See To BEAT THE HOOF.

PADDINGTON FAIR DAY. An execution day, Tyburn being
in the parish or neighbourhood of Paddington. To dance
the Paddington frisk; to be hanged.

PADDY. The general name for an Irishman: being the
abbreviation of Patrick, the name of the tutelar saint of that
island.

PAINTER. I'll cut your painter for you; I'll send you off;
the painter being the ropfe that holds the boat fast to the
ship. SEA TERM.

PAIR OF WINGS. Oars. CANT.

TO PALAVER. To flatter: originally an African word for a
treaty, talk, or conference.

PALLIARDS. Those whose fathers were clapperdogens, or
beggars born, and who themselves follow the same trade:
the female sort beg with a number of children, borrowing
them, if they have not a sufficient number of their own,
and making them cry by pinching in order to excite
charity; the males make artificial sores on different parts of
their bodies, to move compassion.

PALL. A companion. One who generally accompanies
another, or who commit robberies together.

PAM. The knave of clubs.

PANNAM. Bread.

PANNIER MAN. A servant belonging to the Temple and
Gray's Inn, whose office is to announce the dinner. This
in the Temple, is done by blowing a horn; and in Gray's
Inn proclaiming the word Manger, Manger, Manger, in
each of the three courts.

PANNY. A house. To do a panny: to rob a house. See
the Sessions Papers. Probably, panny originally meant
the butler's pantry, where the knives and forks, spoons,
&c. are usually kept The pigs frisked my panney, and
nailed my screws; the officers searched my house, and
seized my picklock keys. CANT.

PANTER. A hart: that animal is, in the Psalms, said to
pant after the fresh water-brooks. Also the human
heart, which frequently pants in time of danger. CANT.

PANTILE SHOP. A presbyterian, or other dissenting meeting
house, frequently covered with pantiles: called also
a cock-pit.

PANTLER. A butler.

PAP. Bread sauce; also the food of infants. His mouth is
full of pap; he is still a baby.

PAPER SCULL. A thin-scull'd foolish fellow.

PAPLER. Milk pottage.

PARELL. Whites of eggs, bay salt, milk, and pump water,
beat together, and poured into a vessel of wine to prevent
its fretting.

PARENTHESIS. To put a man's nose into a parenthesis: to
pull it, the fingers and thumb answering the hooks or
crochets. A wooden parenthesis; the pillory. An iron
parenthesis; a prison.

PARINGS. The chippings of money. CANT.

PARISH BULL. A parson.

PARISH. His stockings are of two parishes; i.e. they are
not fellows.

PARISH SOLDIER. A jeering name for a militiaman: from
substitutes being frequently hired by the parish from
which one of its inhabitants is drawn.

PARK PAILING. Teeth.

PARSON. A guide post, hand or finger post by the road
side for directing travellers: compared to a parson,
because, like him, it sets people in the right way. See
GUIDE POST. He that would have luck in horse-flesh,
must kiss a parson's wife.

PARSON'S JOURNEYMAN. A curate.

PARSON PALMER. A jocular name, or term of reproach,
to one who stops the circulation of the glass by preaching
over his liquor; as it is said was done by a parson of that
name whose cellar was under his pulpit.

PARTIAL. Inclining more to one side than the other,
crooked, all o' one hugh.

PASS BANK. The place for playing at passage, cut into
the ground almost like a cock-pit. Also the stock or
fund.

PASSAGE. A camp game with three dice: doublets, making
up ten or more, to pass or win; any other chances
lose.

PAT. Apposite, or to the purpose.

PATE. The head. Carroty-pated; red-haired.

PATRICO, or PATER-COVE. The fifteenth rank of the canting
tribe; strolling priests that marry people under a
hedge, without gospel or common prayer book: the
couple standing on each side of a dead beast, are bid to live
together till death them does part; so shaking hands, the
wedding is ended. Also any minister or parson.

PATTERING. The maundering or pert replies of servants;
also talk or palaver in order to amuse one intended to be
cheated. Pattering of prayers; the confused sound of a
number of persons praying together.

TO PATTER. To talk. To patter flash; to speak flash, or
the language used by thieves. How the blowen lushes
jackey, and patters flash; how the wench drinks gin, and
talks flash.

PAVIOUR'S WORKSHOP. The street.

TO PAUM. To conceal in the hand. To paum a die: to
hide a die in the palm of the hand. He paums; he cheats.
Don't pretend to paum that upon me.

PAUNCH. The belly. Some think paunch was the original
name of that facetious prince of puppets, now called
Mr. Punch, as he is always represented with a very
prominent belly: though the common opinion is, that both
the name and character were taken from a celebrated Italian
comedian, called Polichenello.

PAW. A hand or foot; look at his dirty paws. Fore paw;
the hand. Hind paw; the foot. To paw; to touch or
handle clumsily.

PAW PAW TRICKS. Naughty tricks: an expression used
by nurses, &c. to children.

TO PAY. To smear over. To pay the bottom of a ship or
boat; to smear it over with pitch: The devil to pay, and
no pitch hot or ready. SEA TERM.--Also to beat: as, I will
pay you as Paul paid the Ephesians, over the face and eyes,
and all your d---d jaws. To pay away; to fight manfully,
also to eat voraciously. To pay through the nose: to pay
an extravagant price.

To PEACH. To impeach: called also to blow the gab, squeak,
or turn stag.

PEAK. Any kind of lace.

PEAL. To ring a peal in a man's ears; to scold at him: his
wife rang him such a peal!

PEAR MAKING. Taking bounties from several regiments
and immediately deserting. The cove was fined in the
steel for pear making; the fellow was imprisoned in the
house of correction for taking bounties from different
regiments.

PECCAVI. To cry peccavi; to acknowledge one's self in an
error, to own a fault: from the Latin PECCAVI, I have sinned.

PECK. Victuals. Peck and booze; victuals and drink.

PECKISH. Hungry.

PECULIAR. A mistress.

PED. A basket. CANT.

PEDLAR'S FRENCH. The cant language. Pedlar's pony;
a walking-stick.

To PEEL. To strip: allusion to the taking off the coat or
rind of an orange or apple.

PEEPER. A spying glass; also a looking-glass. Track up
the dancers, and pike with the peeper; whip up stairs,
and run off with the looking-glass. CANT.

PEEPERS. Eyes. Single peeper, a one-eyed man.

PEEPING TOM. A nick name for a curious prying fellow;
derived from an old legendary tale, told of a taylor of
Coventry, who, when Godiva countess of Chester rode at
noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure
certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding
the rest of the people shut up their houses) shly peeped
out of his window, for which he was miraculously struck
blind. His figure, peeping out of a window, is still kept
up in remembrance of the transaction.

PEEPY. Drowsy.

To PEER. To look about, to be circumspect.

PEERY. Inquisitive, suspicious. The cull's peery; that
fellow suspects something. There's a peery, tis snitch
we are observed, there's nothing to be done.

PEG. Old Peg; poor hard Suffolk or Yorkshire cheese. A
peg is also a blow with a straightarm: a term used by the
professors of gymnastic arts. A peg in the day-light,
the victualling office, or the haltering-place; a blow in the
eye, stomach, or under the ear.

PEG TRANTUM'S. Gone to Peg Trantum's; dead.

PEGO. The penis of man or beast.

PELL-MELL. Tumultuously, helter skelter, jumbled together.

PELT. A heat, chafe, or passion; as, What a pelt he was
in! Pelt is also the skin of several beasts.

PENANCE BOARD. The pillory.

PENNY-WISE AND POUND FOOLISH. Saving in small matters,
and extravagant in great.

PENNYWORTH. An equivalent. A good pennyworth;
cheap bargain.

PENTHOUSE NAB. A broad brimmed hat.

PEPPERED. Infected with the venereal disease.

PEPPERY. Warm, passionate.

PERKIN. Water cyder.

PERRIWINKLE. A wig.

PERSUADERS. Spurs. The kiddey clapped his persuaders
to his prad but the traps boned him; the highwayman
spurred his horse hard, but the officers seized him.

PET. In a pet; in a passion or miff.

PETER. A portmanteau or cloke-bag. Biter of peters; one
that makes it a trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind
stage coaches or out of waggons. To rob Peter to
pay Paul; to borrow of one man to pay another: styled
also manoeuvring the apostles.