Chapter M (3)

Gradually from this time the word began to assume a place in periodical literature, and in novels written by not over-precise authors. In the preface to a flat, and most likely unprofitable poem, entitled _The Reign of Humbug, a Satire_, 8vo, 1836, the author thus apologizes for the use of the word: ‘I have used the term _humbug_ to designate this principle (wretched sophistry of life generally), considering that it is now adopted into our language as much as the words dunce, jockey, cheat, swindler, &c., which were formerly only colloquial terms.’ A correspondent, who in a number of _Adversaria_ ingeniously traced bombast to the inflated Doctor Paracelsus Bombast, considers that humbug may, in like manner, be derived from Homberg, the distinguished chemist of the Court of the Duke of Orleans, who, according to the following passage from Bishop Berkeley’s _Siris_, was an ardent and successful seeker after the philosopher’s stone:--

Of this there cannot be a better proof than the experiment
of Monsieur Homberg, who made gold of mercury by
introducing light into its pores, but at such trouble and
expense that, I suppose, nobody will try the experiment
for profit. By this injunction of light and mercury,
both bodies became finer, and produced a third different
to either, to wit, real gold. For the truth of which
fact I refer to the memoirs of the French Academy of
Sciences.--=BERKELEY=, _Works_.”

_The Supplementary English Glossary_ gives the word “humbugs” as the North-country term for certain lumps of toffy, well flavoured with peppermint. (Roughs’) Monter à cheval, _to be suffering from a tumour in the groin, a consequence of venereal disease, and termed_ poulain, _foal_, hence the jeu de mots; (wine retailers’) ---- sur le tonneau, _to add water to a cask of wine_, “to christen” _it_. Adding too much water to an alcoholic liquor is termed by lovers of the “tipple” in its pure state, “to drown the miller.”

MONTEUR DE COUPS, _m._ (popular), _story-teller_; _cheat_.

MONTEUSE DE COUPS, _f._ (popular), _deceitful woman_; _one who_ “bamboozles” _her lover or lovers_.

MONTPARNO (thieves’), _Montparnasse_. See MÉNILMONTE.

J’ai flasqué du poivre à la rousse.
Elle ira de turne en garno,
De Ménilmuche à Montparno,
Sans pouvoir remoucher mon gniasse.

=RICHEPIN.=

MONTRER (theatrical), la couture de ses bas, _to break off a stage engagement by the simple process of leaving the theatre_; (familiar and popular) ---- toute sa boutique, _to expose one’s person_.

Ah! non ... remettez votre camisole. Vous savez, je n’aime
pas les indécences. Pendant que vous y êtes, montrez toute
votre boutique.--=ZOLA.=

MONTRE-TOUT, _m._ (popular), _short jacket_. Termed also “ne te gêne pas dans le parc.” (Prostitutes’) Aller à ----, _to go to the medical examination, a periodical and compulsory one, for registered prostitutes, those who shirk it being sent to the prison of Saint-Lazare_.

MONU, _m._ (cads’), _one-sou cigar_.

MONUMENT, _m._ (popular), _tall hat_, or “stove-pipe.”

MONZU, or MOUZU, _m._ (old cant), _woman’s breasts_. Termed, in other varieties of jargon, “avant-postes, avant-scènes, œufs sur le plat, oranges sur l’étagère,” and in the English slang, “dairies, bubbies, or Charlies.”

MORASSE, _f._ (printers’), _proof taken before the forme is finally arranged_; ---- _final proof of a newspaper article_. Also _workman who remains to correct such a proof, or the time employed in the work_. (Thieves’) Morasse, _uneasiness_; _remorse_. Battre ----, _to make a hue and cry_, “to romboyle,” in old cant, or “to whiddle beef.”

MORASSIER, _m._ (printers’), _one who prints off the last proof of a newspaper article_.

MORBAQUE, _m._ (popular), _disagreeable child_. See MORBEC.

MORBEC, _m._ (popular), _a variety of vermin which clings tenaciously to certain parts of the human body_.

MORCEAU, _m._ (freemasons’), d’architecture, _speech_; (popular) ---- de gruyère, _pockmarked face_, “cribbage-face;” ---- de salé, _fat woman_. Un ----, _a slatternly girl_. (Thieves’) Manger le ----, _to peach_, “to blow the gaff.”

Le morceau tu ne mangeras
De crainte de tomber au plan.

=VIDOCQ.=

(Literary) Morceau de pâte ferme, _heavy, dull production_. (Artists’) Faire le ----, _to paint details skilfully_. (Military) Le beau temps tombe par morceaux, _it rains_.

MORD (familiar and popular), ça ne ---- pas, _it’s no use_; _no go_.

MORDANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _file_; _saw_. The allusion is obvious.

MORDRE (popular), se faire ----, _to be reprimanded_, “to get a wigging;” _to get thrashed_, or “wolloped.”

MORESQUE, _f._ (thieves’), _danger_.

MORFE, _f._ (thieves’), _meal_; _victuals_, or “toke.”

Veux-tu venir prendre de la morfe et piausser avec mézière
en une des pioles que tu m’as rouscaillée?--_Le Jargon de
l’Argot._

MORFIANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _plate_.

MORFIGNER, MORFILER (thieves’), _to do_; _to eat_. From the old word morfier. Rabelais uses the word morfialler with the signification of _to eat_, _to gorge oneself_.

La, la, la, c’est morfiallé cela.--=RABELAIS=, _Gargantua_.

MORFILER, or MORFILLER (thieves’), _to eat_, “to yam.”

Un vieux fagot qui s’était fait raille pour
morfiller.--=VIDOCQ.= (_An old convict who had turned spy
to get a living._)

Termed also morfier. Compare with morfire, or morfizzare, _to eat_, in the lingue furbesche, or Italian cant. Se ---- le dardant, _to fret_. Dardant, _heart_.

MORGANE, _f._ (old cant), _salt_.

C’est des oranges, si tu demandais du sel ... de la
morgane! mon fils, ça coûte pas cher.--=VIDOCQ.= (_Here are
some potatoes; just you ask for salt, my boy; it’s cheap
enough._)

MORGANER (roughs’ and thieves’), _to bite_. Morgane le gonse et chair dure! _Bite the cove! pitch into him!_

MORICAUD, _m._ (thieves’), _coal_; _wine-dealer’s wooden pitcher_.

MORI-LARVE, _f._ (thieves’), _sunburnt face_.

MORLINGUE, _m._ (thieves’), _money_; _purse_, “skin.” Faire le ----, _to steal a purse_, “to fake a skin.”

MORNANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _sheepfold_. From morne, _sheep_.

MORNE, _f. and adj._ (thieves’), _sheep_, or “wool-bird.” Termed “bleating cheat” by English vagabonds. Courbe de ----, _shoulder of mutton_. Morne, _stupid_; _stupid man_, “go along.”

MORNÉE, _f._ (thieves’), _mouthful_.

MORNIER, MORNEUX, or MARMIER, _m._ (thieves’), _shepherd_.

MORNIFFER (popular), _to slap one’s face_, “to fetch a bang,” or “to give a biff,” as the Americans have it. Termed _to give a_ “clo,” at Winchester School.

MORNIFLE, _f._ (thieves’), _money_, or “blunt.”

When the slow coach paused, and the gemmen storm’d,
I bore the brunt--
And the only sound which my grave lips form’d
Was “blunt”--still “blunt!”

=LORD LYTTON=, _Paul Clifford_.

Mornifle tarte, _spurious coin_, or “queer bit.” Refiler de la ---- tarte, _to pass off bad coin_; _to be a_ “snide pitcher, or smasher.” Properly mornifle has the signification of _cuff on the face_.

MORNIFLEUR TARTE, _m._ (thieves’), _coiner_, or “queer-bit faker.”

MORNINGUE, or MORLINGUE, _m._ (thieves’), _money_, or “pieces;” _purse_. Faire le ----, _to pick a pocket_. In the old English cant “to fang” _a pocket_.

O shame o’ justice! Wild is hang’d,
For thatten he a pocket fang’d,
While safe old Hubert, and his gang,
Doth pocket of the nation fang.

=FIELDING=, _J. Wild._

Termed in modern English cant “to fake a cly,” a pickpocket being called, according to Lord Lytton, a “buzz gloak”:--

The “eminent hand” ended with--“He who surreptitiously
accumulates bustle, is, in fact, nothing better than a buzz
gloak.--_Paul Clifford_.

Porte ----, _purse_, “skin, or poge.”

MORNOS, _m._ (thieves’), _mouth_, “bone-box, or muns.” Probably from morne, _mutton_, the mouth’s most important function being to receive food.

MORPION, _m._ (popular), _strong expression of contempt_; _despicable man_, or “snot.” Literally _crab-louse_. Also a _bore_, one who clings to you as the vermin alluded to.

MORPIONNER (popular), _is said of a bore that you cannot get rid of_.

MORSE (Breton cant), _barley bread_.

MORT, _f. and adj._ (popular), marchand de ---- subite, _physician_, “pill.”

C’est bien sûr le médecin en chef ... tous les marchands de
mort subite vous ont de ces regards-là.--=ZOLA.=

Lampe à ----, _confirmed drunkard whose thirst cannot be slaked_. (Familiar and popular) Un corps ----, _an empty bottle_. The English say, when a bottle has been emptied, “Take away this bottle; it has ‘Moll Thompson’s’ mark on it,” that is, it is M. T. An empty bottle is also termed a “marine, or marine recruit.” “This expression having once been used in the presence of an officer of Marines,” says the _Slang Dictionary_, “he was at first inclined to take it as an insult, until someone adroitly appeased his wrath by remarking that no offence could be meant, as all that it could possibly imply was: one who had done his duty, and was ready to do it again.” (Popular) Eau de ----, _brandy_. See TORD-BOYAUX. (Thieves’) Etre ----, _to be sentenced_, “booked.” Hirondelle de la ----, _gendarme on duty at executions_. (Military school of Saint-Cyr) Se faire porter élève-mort _is to get placed on the sick list_. (Gamesters’) Mort, _stakes which have been increased by a cheat, who slily lays additional money the moment the game is in his favour_.

MORTE PAYE SUR MER, _f._ (thieves’), _the hulks_ (obsolete).

MORUE, _f._ (popular), _dirty, disgusting woman_.

Vous voyez, Françoise, ce panier de fraises qu’on vous
fait trois francs; j’en offre un franc, moi, et la
marchande m’appelle ... Oui, madame, elle vous appelle ...
morue!--=GAVARNI.=

Also _prostitute_. See GADOUE. Grande ---- dessalée, _expression of the utmost contempt applied to a woman_. Pedlars formerly termed “morue,” _manuscripts_, for the printing of which they formed an association, “clubbed” together.

MORVIAU, _m._ (popular), _nose_. Termed also “pif, bourbon, piton, pivase, bouteille, caillou, trompe, truffe, tubercule, trompette, nazareth;” and, in English slang, “conk, boko, nob, snorter, handle, post-horn, and smeller.” Lécher le ----, _to kiss_. The expression is old.

Lécher le morveau, manière de parler ironique, qui signifie
caresser une femme, la courtiser, la servir, faire l’amour.
Dit de même que lécher le grouin, baiser, être assidu et
attaché à une personne.--=LE ROUX=, _Dict. Comique_.

The term “snorter” of the English jargon has the corresponding equivalent “soffiante” in Italian cant.

MORVIOT, _m._ (popular), _secretion from the mucous membrane of the nose_, “snot.”

Dans les veines d’ces estropiés,
Au lieu d’sang il coul’ du morviot.
Ils ont des guiboll’s comm’ leur stick,
Trop d’bidoche autour des boyaux,
Et l’arpion plus mou qu’ du mastic.

=RICHEPIN.=

Morviot, _term of contempt_, not quite so forcible as the English expression “snot,” which has the signification of _contemptible individual_. Petit ----, _little scamp_.

MOSCOU, _m._ (military), faire brûler ----, _to mix a vast bowl of punch_. Alluding to the burning down of Moscow by the Russians themselves in 1812.

MOSSIEU À TUBARD, _m._ (popular), _well-dressed man_, a “swell cove.” Tubard is a _silk hat_.

MOT, _m._ (popular), casser un ----, _to have a chat_, or “chin music.”

MOTTE, _f._ (general), _pudenda mulierum_. Termed also “chat,” and formerly by the poets “le verger de Cypris.” Le Roux, concerning the expression, says:--

La motte de la nature d’une femme, c’est proprement le
petit bois touffu qui garnit le penil d’une femme.--_Dict.
Comique._

Formerly the false hair for those parts was termed in English “merkin.” (Thieves’) Motte, _central prison, or house of correction_. Dégringoler de la ----, _to come from such a place of confinement_. The synonyms of prison in different varieties of slang are: “castue, caruche, hôpital, mitre, chetard or jetard, collège, grosse boîte, l’ours, le violon, le bloc, boîte aux cailloux, tuneçon, austo, mazaro, lycée, château, lazaro.” In the English lingo: “stir, clinch, bastile, steel, sturrabin, jigger, Irish theatre, stone-jug, mill,” the last-named being an abbreviation of treadmill, and signifying by analogy _prison_. The word is mentioned by Dickens:--

“Was you never on the mill?” “What mill,” inquired Oliver.
“What mill? why the mill,--the mill as takes up so little
room that it’ll work inside a stone-jug.--_Oliver Twist._

In Yorkshire a prison goes by the appellation of “Toll-shop,” as shown by this verse of a song popular at fairs in the East Riding:--

But if ivver he get out agean,
And can but raise a frind,
Oh! the divel may tak’ toll-shop,
At Beverley town end!

This “toll-shop” is but a variation of the Scottish “tolbooth.” The general term “quod” to denote a prison originates from the universities. Quod is really a shortening of quadrangle; so to be quodded is to be within four walls (_Slang Dict._).

MOTUS DANS L’ENTREPONT! (sailors’), _silence!_ “put a clapper to your mug,” or “mum’s the word.”

MOU, _m._ (popular), avoir le ---- enflé, _to be pregnant_, or “lumpy.”

MOUCHAILLER (popular and thieves’), _to scan_, “to stag;” _to look at_, “to pipe;” _to see_.

J’itre mouchaillé le babillard ... je n’y itre mouchaillé
floutière de vain.--_Le Jargon de l’Argot._

MOUCHARD, _m._ (popular), _portrait hung in a room_; (popular and thieves’) ---- à becs, _lamp-post_, the inconvenient luminary being compared to a spy. Mouchard, properly _spy_, one who goes busily about like a fly. It formerly had the signification of _dandy_.

A la fin du xviiᵉ siècle, on donnait encore ce nom aux
petits-maîtres qui fréquentaient les Tuileries pour voir
autant que pour être vus; C’est sur ce fameux théâtre des
Tuileries, dit un écrivain de l’époque, qu’une beauté
naissante fait sa première entrée au monde. Bientôt
les “mouchars” de la grande allée sont en campagne au
bruit d’un visage nouveau; chacun court en repaître ses
yeux.--=MICHEL.=

MOUCHARDE, _f._ (thieves’), _moon_, “parish lantern, or Oliver.”

Mais déjà la patrarque,
Au clair de la moucharde,
Nous reluque de loin.

=VIDOCQ.=

La ---- se débine, _the moon disappears_, “Oliver is sleepy.”

MOUCHE, _f._, _adj., and verb_ (general), _police, or police officer_; _detective_. Compare with the “mücke,” or spy, of German cant; (thieves’) _muslin_; (students’) ---- à miel, _candidate to the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, a great engineering school_. Alluding to the bee embroidered in gold on their caps. (Popular) Mouche, _bad_, or “snide;” _ugly_; _stupid_. C’est bon pour qui qu’est ----, _it is only fit for_ “flats.” Mouche, _weak_.

Il a reparu, l’ami soleil. Bravo! encore bien débile, bien
pâlot, bien “mouche,” dirait Gavroche.--=RICHEPIN.=

Non, c’est q’ j’ me ----, _ironical negative expression meant to be strongly affirmative_. Synonymous of “non, c’est q’ je tousse!” Vous n’avez rien fait? Non, c’est q’ j’ me ----, _you did nothing? oh! didn’t I, just!_

MOUCHER (popular), le quinquet, _to kill_, “to do” _for one_; _to strike, to give a_ “wipe.”

Allons, mouche-lui le quinquet, ça l’esbrouffera.
--=TH. GAUTIER.=

Moucher la chandelle, _to give oneself up to solitary practices_; _to act according to the principles of Malthus with a view of not begetting children_. For further explanation the reader may be referred to a work entitled _The Fruits of Philosophy_; ---- sa chandelle, _to die_, “to snuff it.” For synonyms see PIPE. Se ---- dans ses doigts (obsolete), _to be clever, resolute_. Se faire ---- le quinquet, _to get one’s head punched_. (Gamesters’) Se ----, _is said of attendants who, while pretending to make use of their handkerchiefs, purloin a coin or two from the gaming-table_. It is said of such an attendant, who on the sly abstracts a gold piece from the stakes laid out on the table, il s’est “mouché” d’un louis.

MOUCHERON, _m._ (popular), _waiter at a wine-shop_; _child_, or “kid.”

MOUCHES, _f. pl._ (popular), d’hiver, _snow-flakes_. Tuer les ----, _to emit a bad smell_, capable of killing even flies. Termed also tuer les ---- à quinze pas. (Theatrical) Envoyer des coups de pied aux ----, _to lead a disorderly life_.

MOUCHETTES, _f. pl._ (popular), _pocket-handkerchief_, “snottinger, or wipe.” Termed “madam, or stook,” by English thieves. Des ----! _equivalent to_ du flan! des navets! des nèfles, &c., forcible expression of refusal; may be rendered by “Don’t you wish you may get it!” or, as the Americans say, “Yes, in a horn.”

MOUCHEUR DE CHANDELLES, _m._ (popular). See MOUCHER.

MOUCHIQUE, _adj._ (popular and thieves’), _base_, _worthless_, _bad_, “snide.”

C’était un’ tonn’ pas mouchique,
C’était un girond tonneau,
L’anderlique, l’anderlique,
L’anderliqu’ de Landerneau!

=GILL.=

The English cant has the old word “queer,” signifying base, roguish, or worthless--the opposite of “rum,” which signified good and genuine. “Queer, in all probability,” says the _Slang Dictionary_, “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 gipsies from Germany, where _quer_ signifies _cross_, or _crooked_.” (Thieves’) Etre ---- à sa section, or à la sec, _to be noted as a bad character at the police office of one’s district_. The word “mouchique,” says Michel, is derived from “mujik,” _a Russian peasant_, which must have become familiar in 1815 to the inhabitants of the parts of the country invaded by the Russians.

MOUCHOIR, _m._ (popular), d’Adam, _the fingers_, used by some people as a natural handkerchief, “forks;” ---- de bœuf, _meadow_. Termed thus on account of oxen having their noses in the grass when grazing; ---- de poche, _pistol_, or “pops.” (Familiar and popular) Faire le ----, _to steal pocket-handkerchiefs_, “to draw a wipe.” Coup de ---- (obsolete), _a box on the ear_, a “wipe in the chaps.”

Voyez le train qu’a m’ fait pour un coup de mouchoir que
j’lui ai donné.--=POMPIGNY=, 1783.

(Theatrical) Faire le ----, _to pirate another author’s productions_.

MOUCHOUAR-GODEL (Breton cant), _pistol_.

MOUDRE (popular), or ---- un air, _to ply a street organ_.

MOUF (popular), abbreviation of _Mouffetard_, the name of a street almost wholly tenanted by rag-pickers, and situate in one of the lowest quarters of Paris. Quartier ---- mouf, _the Quartier Mouffetard_. La tribu des Beni Mouf-mouf, _inhabitants of the Quartier Mouffetard_. Champagne ----, or Champagne Mouffetard, _a liquid manufactured by rag-pickers with rotten oranges picked out of the refuse at the Halles_. The fruit, after being washed, is thrown into a cask of water and allowed to ferment for a few days, after which some brown sugar being added, the liquid is bottled up, and does duty as champagne. It is the Cliquot of poor people.

MOUFFLANTÉ, _adj._ (popular), _comfortably, warmly clad_.

MOUFFLET, _m._ (popular), _child_, or “kid;” _urchin_; _apprentice_.

MOUFION, _m._ (popular), _pocket-handkerchief_, “snottinger, or wipe.”

MOUFIONNER (popular), _to blow one’s nose_. (Thieves’) Se ---- dans le son, _to be guillotined_. Literally _to blow one’s nose in the bran_. An allusion to an executed convict’s head, which falls into a basket full of sawdust. Termed also “éternuer dans le son, or le sac.” See FAUCHÉ.

MOUGET, _m._ (roughs’), _a swell_, or “gorger.” Des péniches à la ----, _fashionable boots, as now worn, with pointed toes and large square heels_.

MOUILLANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _cod_; (popular) _soup_.

MOUILLÉ, _adj._ (popular), être ----, _to be drunk_, or “tight.” See POMPETTE. Etre ----, _to be known in one’s real character_. Alluding to cloths which are soaked in water to ascertain their quality. (Thieves’) Etre ----, _to be well known to the police_.

MOUILLER (popular), se ----, _to drink_, “to have something damp,” or as the Americans have it, “to smile, to see the man.” The term is old.

Mouillez-vous pour seicher, ou seichez pour
mouiller.--=RABELAIS.=

Also _to get slightly intoxicated_, or “elevated.” (Theatrical) Mouiller à, or dans, _to receive a royalty for a play produced on the stage_. Se ----, _to take pains in one’s acting_. (Thieves’) Se ---- les pieds, _to be transported_, “to lump the lighter, or to be lagged.” (Roughs’) En ----, _to perform some extraordinary feat with great expenditure of physical strength_. Les frères qui en mouillent, _acrobats_. (Military) Mouiller, _to be punished_.

MOUISE, _f._ (thieves’), _soup_.

Vous qui n’avez probablement dans le bauge que la mouise de
Tunebée Bicêtre vous devez canner la pégrenne.--=VIDOCQ.=

MOUKALA, _m._ (military), _rifle_. From the Arab.

MOUKÈRE, or MOUCAIRE, _f._ (popular), _ugly woman_; _girl of indifferent character_; (military) _mistress_. Ma ----, _my young_ “’ooman.” Avoir sa ----, _to have won the good graces of a fair one_, generally a cook in the case of an infantry soldier, the cavalry having the monopoly of housemaids or ladies’ maids, and sappers showing a great penchant for nursery-maids.

MOULARD, _m._ (popular), superlative of moule, _dunce_, or “flat.”

MOULE, _m. and f._ (popular), une ----, _face_, or “mug.” Also _a dunce_, _simpleton_, or “muff.”

Foutez-moi la paix! Vous êtes une couenne et une
moule!--=G. COURTELINE.=

Le ---- à blagues, _mouth_, or “chaffer.” Literally _the humbug-box_. Un ---- à boutons, _a twenty-franc piece_. Un ---- à claques, _face with impertinent expression which invites punishment_. Termed also ---- à croquignoles. Un ---- à gaufres, or à pastilles, _a face pitted with small-pox marks_, “crumpet-face, or cribbage-face.” Un moule à gaufres is properly _a waffle-iron_. Un ---- à poupée (obsolete), _a clumsily-built, awkward man_.

Ah! ah! ah! C’grand benêt! a-t-il un air jaune ... dis
donc eh! c’moule à poupée, qu’ veux-tu faire de cette
pique?--_Riche-en-gueule._

Un ---- à merde, _behind_, “Nancy.” For synonyms see VASISTAS. Also _a foul-mouthed person_. Un ---- de gant, _box on the ear_, or “bang in the gills.” Un ---- de bonnet, head, or “canister.” Un ---- de pipe à Gambier, _grotesque face_, or “knocker face.” Un ---- à melon, _humpback_, or “lord.” (Military) Envoyer chercher le ---- aux guillemets, _to send a recruit on a fool’s errand_, to send him to ask the sergeant-major for _the mould for inverted commas_, the joke being varied by requesting him to fetch the key of the drill-ground. Corresponds somewhat to sending a greenhorn for pigeon’s milk, or a pennyworth of stirrup-oil.

MOULER (familiar and popular), un sénateur, _to ease oneself by evacuation_, “to bury a quaker;” (artists’) ---- une Vénus, _same meaning_. Artists term “gazonner,” _the act of easing oneself in the fields_. See MOUSCAILLER.

MOULIN, _m._ (popular), de la halle (obsolete), _the pillory_.

Mais pour qu’à l’avenir tu fass’ mieux ton devoir,
Fais réguiser ta langu’ sur la pierre infernale,
Et puis j’te f’rons tourner au moulin de la halle.

_Amusemens à la Grecque_, 1764.

Moulin, _hairdresser’s shop_; ---- à café, _mitrailleuse_. Thus termed on account of the revolving handle used in firing it off, like that of a coffee-mill. Also _street organ_; ---- à merde, _slanderer_; ---- à vent, _the behind_. See VASISTAS. Concerning the expression Le Roux says:--

Moulin à vent, pour cul, derrière. Moulin à vent,
parcequ’on donne l’essor à ses vents par cette
ouverture-là.--_Dict. Comique._

(Thieves’) Moulin, _receiver’s_, or “fence’s,” _house_. Termed also “maison du meunier.” Porter du gras-double au ----, _to steal lead and take it to a receiver of stolen property_, “to do bluey at the fence.” (Police) Passer au ---- à café, _to transport a prostitute to the colonies_.

MOULINAGE, _m._ (popular), _prattling_, “clack.”

MOULINER (popular), _to talk nonsense_; _to prattle_. A term specially used in reference to the fair sex, and an allusion to the rapid, regular, and monotonous motion of a mill, or to the noise produced by the paddles of a water-mill, a “tattle-box” being termed moulin à paroles.

MOULOIR, _m._ (thieves’), _mouth_, “bone-box, or muns;” _teeth_, “ivories, or grinders.”

MOULURE, _f._ (popular), _lump of excrement_, or “quaker.” Machine à moulures, _breech_, or “Nancy.” See VASISTAS.”

MOUNICHE, _f._ (thieves’), _woman’s privities_, “merkin,” according to the _Slang Dictionary_.

MOUNIN, _m._ (thieves’), _child_, or “kid;” _apprentice_.

MOUNINE, _f._ (thieves’), _little girl_.

MOUQUETTE, _f._ (popular), _cocotte_, or “poll.” See GADOUE.

Assez! Taisez vos becs!... à la porte les mouquettes!
--=P. MAHALIN.=

MOURE, _f._ (thieves’), _pretty face_, “dimber mug.”

MOURIR (popular), tu t’en ferais ----! _is expressive of refusal_. Literally _if I gave you what you want you would die for joy_. See NÈFLES.

MOURON, _m._ (popular), ne plus avoir de ---- sur la cage, _to be bald_, _or to sport_ “a bladder of lard.” For synonymous expressions see AVOIR.

MOUSCAILLE, _f._ (thieves’), _excrement_, or, as the Irish say, “quaker.”

MOUSCAILLER (thieves’), _to ease oneself by evacuation_. The synonyms are “mousser, enterrer son colonel, aller faire une ballade à la lune, mouler un sénateur, mouler une Vénus, gazonner, aller au numéro cent, déponer, fogner, flaquer, écrire à un Juif, déposer une pêche, poser un pépin, un factionnaire, or une sentinelle; envoyer une dépêche à Bismark, flasquer, touser, faire corps neuf, déposer une médaille de papier volant, or des Pays-Bas (obsolete), faire des cordes, mettre une lettre à la poste, faire le grand, faire une commission, débourrer sa pipe, défalquer, tarter, faire une moulure, aller quelque part, aller à ses affaires, aller où le roi va à pied, filer, aller chez Jules, ierchem, aller où le roi n’envoie personne, flaquader, fuser, gâcher du gros, galipoter, pousser son rond, filer le cable de proue, faire un pruneau, aller au buen-retiro, aller voir Bernard, faire ronfler le bourrelet, la chaise percée, or la chaire percée.” In the English slang, “to go to the West Central, to go to Mrs. Jones, or to the crapping-ken, to the bog-house, to the chapel of ease, to Sir Harry; to crap, to go to the crapping-case, to the coffee-shop, to the crapping castle,” and, as the Irish term it, “to bury a quaker.”

MOUSCAILLEUR, _m._ (popular), _scavenger employed in emptying cesspools_, or “gold-finder.”

MOUSQUETAIRE GRIS, _m._ (popular), _louse_, or “grey-backed ’un.”

MOUSSAILLON, _m._ (sailors’), _a ship-boy_, or “powder-monkey.” From mousse, _ship-boy_.

MOUSSANTE, _f._ (popular and thieves’), _beer_, or “gatter.” Un pot de ----, a “shant of gatter.” A curious slang street melody, known in Seven Dials as _Bet the Coaley’s Daughter_, mentions the word “gatter”:--

But when I strove my flame to tell,
Says she, “Come, stow that patter,
If you’re a cove wot likes a gal,
Vy don’t you stand some gatter?”
In course I instantly complied,
Two brimming quarts of porter,
With sev’ral goes of gin beside,
Drain’d Bet the Coaley’s daughter.

Moussante mouchique, _bad, flat beer_, “swipes, or belly vengeance.”

MOUSSARD, _m._ (thieves’), _chestnut tree_.

MOUSSE, _f._ (popular and thieves’), _excrement_; _wine_. The word is old. Villon, a poet of the fifteenth century, uses it with the latter signification. For quotation see JOUER DU POUCE. (Popular) De la ----! _nonsense!_ “all my eye,” or “all my eye and Betty Martin.” Is also expressive of ironical refusal; “yes, in a horn,” as the Americans say.

MOUSSECAILLOUX, _m._ (popular), _infantry soldier_, “wobbler, or beetle-crusher.”

MOUSSELINE, _f._ (thieves’), _white bread_, or “pannum,” alluding to a similarity of colour. Also _prisoner’s fetters_, “darbies.”

MOUSSER (popular), _to ease oneself by evacuation_. See MOUSCAILLER. Also _to be wroth_, “to have one’s monkey up.” Faire ---- quelqu’un, _to make one angry by_ “riling” him.

MOUSSERIE, _f._ (thieves’), _privy_, “crapping-ken.”

MOUSSEUX, _adj._ (literary), _hyperbolic_.

MOUSSUE, _f._ (thieves’), _chestnut_.

MOUSTACHU, _m._ (familiar), _man with moustache_.

MOUSTIQUE, _m._ (popular), avoir un ---- dans la boîte au sel, _to be_ “cracked,” “to have a slate off.” For synonymous expressions see AVOIR.

MOUT, _adj._ (popular), _pretty_, _handsome_.

MOUTARDE, _f._ (popular), _excrement_. Baril à ----, _the behind_. For synonyms see VASISTAS. The expression is old.

En le lançant, il dit: prends garde,
Je vise au baril de moutarde.

_La Suite du Virgile travesti._

MOUTARDIER, _m._ (popular), _breech_, or “tochas.” See VASISTAS.

Et en face! Je n’ai pas besoin de renifler ton
moutardier.--=ZOLA.=

MOUTON, _m._ (popular), _mattress_, or “mot cart;” (general) _prisoner who is set to watch a fellow-prisoner, and, by winning his confidence, seeks to extract information from him_, a “nark.”

Comme tu seras au violon avant lui, il ne se doutera pas
que tu es un mouton.--=VIDOCQ.=

Deux sortes de coqueurs sont à la dévotion de la police:
les coqueurs libres, et les coqueurs détenus autrement dit
moutons.--_Mémoires de Canler._

MOUTONNAILLE, _f._ (popular), _crowd_. Sheep will form a crowd.

MOUTONNER (thieves’ and police), _to play the spy on fellow-prisoners_.

Celui qui est mouton court risque d’être assassiné par les
compagnons ... aussi la police parvient-elle rarement à
décider les voleurs à moutonner leurs camarades.--=CANLER.=

MOUTROT, _m._ (thieves’), _Prefect of police_. Le logis du ----, _the Préfecture de Police_.

MOUVANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _porridge_.

MOUVEMENT, _m._ (swindlers’), concierge dans le ----, _doorkeeper in league with a gang of swindlers_, for a description of which see BANDE NOIRE.

MOUZU, _m._ (thieves’), _woman’s breasts_, “Charlies, or dairies.”

MUCHE, _adj. and m._ (prostitutes’), _polite, timid young man_; (popular) _excellent_, _perfect_, “bully, or ripping.”

MUETTE, _f._ (Saint-Cyr School), _drill exercise in which cadets purposely do not make their muskets ring_. This is done to annoy any unpopular instructor. (Thieves’) Muette, _conscience_. Avoir une puce à la ----, _to feel a pang of remorse_.

MUFE, or MUFFLE, _m. and adj._ (thieves’), _mason_; (familiar and popular) _mean fellow_; _mean_.

Son pâtissier s’était montré assez mufe pour menacer de la
vendre, lorsqu’elle l’avait quitté.--=ZOLA=, _Nana_.

Mufe, _scamp_, _cad_, “bally bounder.”

Elles restaient gaies, jetant simplement un “sale mufe!”
derrière le dos des maladroits dont le talon leur arrachait
un volant.--=ZOLA=, _Nana_.

MUFFÉE, _f._ (popular), en avoir une vraie ----, _to be completely intoxicated_. See POMPETTE.

MUFFETON, MUFFLETON, _m._ (popular), _young scamp_; _mason’s apprentice_.

MUFFLEMAN (popular), _mean fellow_.

MUFFLERIE, _f._ (popular), _contemptible action_; _behaviour like a cad’s_.

MUFLE, _m._ (thieves’), se casser le ----, _to meet with_. Termed also “tomber en frime.”

Tel escarpe ou assassin ne commettra pas un crime un
vendredi, ou s’il s’est cassé le mufle devant un ratichon
(prêtre).--_Mémoires de Monsieur Claude._

MUFRERIE, _f._ (popular), _disparaging epithet_; ---- de sort! _curse my luck!_

MUITAR, _f._ (thieves’), être dans la ----, _to be in prison_, or “in quod.”

MULET, _m._ (military), _marine artillery man_; (printers’) _compositor_, or “donkey.” “In the days before steam machinery was invented, the men who worked at press,” says the _Slang Dictionary_, “the pressmen, were so dirty and drunken a body that they earned the name of pigs. In revenge, and for no reason that can be discovered, they christened the compositors “donkeys.’” (Thieves’) Mulet, _devil_.

Les meusniers, aussi ont une mesme façon de parler que les
cousturiers, appelant leur asne le grand Diable, et leur
sac, Raison. Et rapportant leur farine à ceux ausquels elle
appartient, si on leur demande s’ils en ont point prins
plus qu’il ne leur en faut, respondent: Le grand Diable
m’emporte, si j’en ay prins que par raison. Mais pour tout
cela ils disent qu’ils ne desrobent rien, car on leur
donne.--=TABOUROT.=

MURAILLE (familiar and popular), battre la ----, _to be drunk and to reel about, now in the gutter, now against the wall_.

MURER (popular), je te vas ----! _I’ll knock you down, or I’ll double you up!_ See VOIE.

Là il commença à m’embrasser. Ma foi, comme pour le verre
de vin, il n’y avait pas de refus. Il ne me déplaisait pas,
cet homme. Il voulut même m’habiller avec une chemise de
sa femme. Mais voici qu’il me propose des choses que je ne
pouvais accepter, et qu’il me menace de me murer si je dis
un mot.--_Echo de Paris._

MURON, _m._ (thieves’), _salt_.

MURONNER (thieves’), _to salt_.

MURONNIÈRE, _f._ (thieves’), _salt-cellar_.

MUSARDINE, _f._ (familiar), _name given some forty years ago to a more than fast girl, or to a girl of indifferent character_, termed sometimes by English “mashers,” a “blooming tartlet.”

On dit une musardine, comme jadis on disait une
lorette.--=ALBÉRIC SECOND.=

The synonyms corresponding to various epochs are:--Under the Restauration “femme aimable,” a term of little significance. In Louis Philippe’s time, “lorette,” on account of the frail ones mostly dwelling in the Quartier Notre Dame de Lorette. Under the Third Empire “chignon doré” (it was then the fashion, as it still is, for such women to dye their hair a bright gold or auburn tint), or “cocodette,” the feminine of “cocodès,” _young dandy_. Now-a-days frequenters of the Boulevards use the term “boudinée,” “boudiné, bécarre, or pschutteux,” being the latest appellations for the Parisian “masher.” The term “musardine” must first have been applied to fast girls frequenting the Bals Musard, attended at the time by all the “dashing” elements of Paris. “In English polite society, a fast young lady,” says the _Slang Dictionary_, “is one who affects mannish habits, or makes herself conspicuous by some unfeminine accomplishment, talks slang, drives about in London, smokes cigarettes, is knowing in dogs and horses, &c.”

MUSÉE, _m._ (popular), le ---- des claqués, _the Morgue_.

MUSELÉ, _m._ (popular), _dunce_, or “flat;” _good-for-nothing man_. Alluding to a muzzled dog who cannot use his teeth.

MUSETTE, _f._ (popular), _voice_. Couper la ---- à quelqu’un, _to silence one_, “to clap a stopper on one’s mug;” _to cut one’s throat_.

MUSICIEN, _m._ (thieves’), _dictionary_; _variety of informer_, or “snitcher;” (familiar) ---- par intimidation, _a street melodist who obtains money from people desirous of getting rid of him_.

J’y ai retrouvé aussi le “musicien par intimidation,”
l’homme à la clarinette, qui s’arrête devant les cafés du
boulevard en faisant mine de porter à ses lèvres le bec de
son instrument. Les consommateurs épouvantés se hâtent de
lui jeter quelque monnaie afin d’éviter l’harmonie.
--=ELIE FRÉBAULT=, _La Vie de Paris_.

It, however, occurs occasionally that people annoyed by the harmonists of the street have their revenge whilst getting rid of them without having to pay toll, as in the case of the “musicien par intimidation.” One day a French artist in London, who every day was almost driven mad by the performances of a band of green-coated German musicians, hit upon the following singular stratagem. Placing himself at the window, and facing his tormentors, he applied a lemon to his lips. The effect was instantaneous, as through an association of ideas the mouths of the musicians began to water to such an extent that, unable to proceed with their symphony, they surrendered the battlefield to the triumphant artist. (Popular) Des musiciens, _beans_, alluding to the wind they generate in the bowels. (Printers’) Des musiciens, _large number of corrections made on the margin of pages_; _unskilled compositors who are unable to proceed with their work_.

MUSIQUE, _f._ (popular), _second-hand articles_; _odd pieces of cloth sewn together_; _kind of penny loaf_. Termed also “flûte.” Also _what remains in a glass_; (thieves’) _informing_; _informers_.

La deuxième classe, que les voleurs désignent sous le nom
de musique, est composée de tous les malfaiteurs qui, après
leur arrestation, se mettent à table (dénoncent).--=CANLER.=

Passer à la ----, _to be placed in the presence of informers for identification_; (card-sharpers’) _swindling at cards_.

MUSIQUER (card-sharpers’), _to mark a card with the nail_.

MUSSER (popular), _to smell_.

MUTILÉS, _m. pl._ (military), _soldiers of the punishment companies in Africa, who are sent there as a penalty for purposely maiming themselves in order to escape military service_.

MYLORD, _m._ (popular), _hackney coach_, “growler.”

N

NAGEANT, or NAGEOIR, _m._ (thieves’), _fish_.

NAGEOIRES, _f. pl._ (popular), _large whiskers in the shape of fins_; _arms_, or “benders;” _hands_, or “fins.” Un monsieur à ----, _a prostitute’s bully_, or “pensioner.” For list of synonyms see POISSON.

NAÏF, _m._ (printers’), _employer_, or “boss.” The expression is scarcely used nowadays.

Le vieux pressier resta seul dans l’imprimerie
dont le maître, autrement dit le “naïf,” venait de
mourir.--=BALZAC.=

NARQUOIS, or DRILLE, _m._ (old cant), formerly _a thievish or vagrant old soldier_.

Drilles ou narquois sont des soldats qui truchent la
flamme sous le bras, et battent en ruine les entiffes et
tous les creux des vergnes ... ils ont fait banqueroute
au grand coëre et ne veulent pas être ses sujets ni le
reconnaître.--_Le Jargon de l’Argot._

Parler ---- formerly had the signification of _to talk the jargon of vagabonds_.

NASE, _m._ (popular), _nose_.

NASER QUELQU’UN (popular), is equivalent to “avoir quelqu’un dans le nez,” _to have a strong dislike for one_, _to abominate one_.

NAVARIN, _m._ (thieves’), _turnip_; (popular) _scraps of meat from butchers’ stalls retailed at a low price to poor people_.

NAVET, _m._ (familiar), _hypocrite with bland polished manners_, a kind of Mr. Pecksniff; _fool_, _dunce_, or “flat.” Le champ de navets, _the cemetery_.

Je ne sais pas seulement à quel endroit du champ de navets
on a enterré le pauvre vieux, j’étais au dépôt.
--=LOUISE MICHEL.=

(Familiar and popular) Avoir du jus de ---- dans les veines, _to be lacking in energy_, _to be a_ “sappy.” Des navets! _an ejaculation of refusal_.

Ohé! les gendarmes, ohé! des navets!--=H. MONNIER.=

Also _is expressive of incredulity, impossibility_. See NÈFLES.

Il faut avoir fait trois ans de Conservatoire pour savoir
parler ... alors on sait donner aux mots leur valeur: mais
sans cela!...--Des navets!--=E. MONTEIL.=

(Artists’) Navets, _rounded arms or legs showing no muscle_.

NAVETTE, _f._ (thieves’), _pedlar_.

NAZARET, _m._ (popular), _large nose_, or “conk.” See MORVIAU.

NAZE, _m._ (popular and thieves’), _nose_, “smeller, or smelling-cheat.” The word is borrowed from the Provençal. For synonyms see MORVIAU.

NAZI, _m._ (popular and thieves’), _venereal disease_, “Venus’ curse.”

NAZIBOTER (popular), _to speak through the nose_. J’ai le mirliton bouché, ça me fait ----, _I have a cold in the head, that makes me speak through my nose_.

NAZICOT, _m._ (popular), _small nose_. See MORVIAU.

NAZONNANT, _m._ (popular), _big nose_, “conk.” See MORVIAU.

NÈFLES, _f. pl._ (familiar and popular), des ----! _an expression of refusal, or ejaculation of incredulity_.

Il paraît que cette vierge est bonne, bonne!--à
quoi?--A tout. Elle fait des miracles superbes.--Des
nèfles!--=MONTEIL.=

Kindred expressions are: “Des navets! De l’anis! Tu auras de l’anis dans une écope! Du flan! Tu t’en ferais mourir! Tu t’en ferais péter la sous-ventrière! Mon œil! Flûte! Zut! Et ta sœur? Des plis! La peau! Peau de nœud! De la mousse! Du vent! Des emblèmes! Des vannes! Des fouilles! On t’en fricasse!” which might be rendered by, “Walker! All my eye! You be blowed! You be hanged! Not for Joe! How’s your brother Job? Don’t you wish you may get it?” &c., and by the Americanism, “Yes, in a horn.”

NEG, _m._ (popular), au petit croche, _rag-dealer_. Neg, for négociant; ---- en viande chaude, _prostitute’s bully_, or “pensioner.” For the list of synonyms see POISSON.

NÉGOCIANTE, _f._ (familiar), _woman who keeps a small shop, and who pretends to sell gentlemen’s gloves or perfumery_. When the purchaser tenders a twenty-franc piece for payment, “Do you require change?” the lady asks with an inviting smile, the required change being generally returned “en nature.”

NÉGRESSE, _f._ (popular), _bottle of red wine_.

Allons, la mère, du piccolo! et deux négresses à la fois,
s’il vous plaît.--=CH. DUBOIS DE GENNES.=

Une ---- morte, _an empty bottle_, one which has “M. T.” on it, _i.e._, “Moll Thompson’s mark.” Termed also “marine.”

Le tas de négresses mortes grandissait. Un cimetière de
bouteilles.--=ZOLA.=

Etouffer, éreinter une ----, or éternuer sur une ----, _to drink a bottle of red wine_, “to crack” it. Négresse, _flea_.

Qu’il s’ra content le vieux propriétaire,
Quand il viendra pour toucher son loyer,
D’voir en entrant tout’ la paill’ par terre
Et les négress’s à ses jamb’s sautiller.

_Parisian Song._

Négresse, _parcel made up in oilskin_; (sailors’) _belt_.

NÉGRIOT, _m._ (thieves’), _strong box_, “peter;” _casket_.

Vous avez entendu ma femme et mes deux momignardes (filles)
vous bonnir (dire) que le négriot (coffret) était gras et
qu’il plombait (pesait beaucoup).--=VIDOCQ.=

NEIGE, _f._ (familiar and popular), boule de ----, _negro_. Termed also “bamboula, boîte à cirage, bille de pot-au-feu, mal blanchi,” and in the English cant or slang, “bit o’ ebony, snowball, lily-white, darky, black cuss.”

NÉNETS, or NÉNAIS, _m. pl._ (familiar), _woman’s breasts_, “Charlies, dairies, or bubbies.” Termed also “avant-postes, avant-scènes, nichons, deux œufs sur le plat;” (popular) ---- de veuve, _feeding bottle_.

NEP, _m._ (thieves’), _rascally Jew dealing in counterfeit diamonds, sham jewellery, or who seeks to sell at a high price the cross of an order studded with glass pearls or paste diamonds_.

NE-TE-GÊNE-PAS-DANS-LE-PARC, _m._ (familiar and popular), _short jacket_. Termed also “saute-en-barque, pet-en-l’air, montretout.”

NET, _adj._ (popular), un atelier ----, _a workshop tabooed by workmen, who forbid any of their fellows to accept work there_.

NETTOYAGE, _m._ (popular), _loss of all one’s money at a game_, or “mucking-out;” _selling of property_; _robbing of property_.

NETTOYÉ, _adj._ (familiar and popular), _given up for dead_, “done for,” or, as the Americans say, a “gone coon;” _dead_, “settled;” _robbed_. Etre ----, _to have lost all one’s money at some game_, “to have blewed it, or to be a muck-snipe.” Also _to be exhausted_, _done up_, or “gruelled.” La monnaie est nettoyée, _the money is gone, spent_.

De la jolie fripouille, les ouvriers! Toujours en noce.
Se fichant de l’ouvrage, vous lâchant au beau milieu
d’une commande, reparaissant quand leur monnaie est
nettoyée.--=ZOLA.=

NETTOYER (familiar and popular), _to sell_; _to rob_; _to clean out at some game_, “to muck out;” _to kill_, “to do” _for one_. Se faire ----, _to be killed_. (Thieves’) Nettoyer un bocart, _to break into a house and strip it of all its valuables_, “to do a crib,” _or to do a_ “ken-crack-lay.” Nettoyer, _to apprehend_, “to smug.”

NEZ, _m._ (familiar and popular), _disappointed look_.

Plus de parts de gâteaux! Il fallait voir le nez de
Boche.--=ZOLA.=

Prendre dans le ----, _to reprimand_, “to give a wigging.” Un ---- en pied de marmite, _short nose with a thick end_. Un ---- où il pleut dedans, _turned-up nose_, or “pug nose.” Nez passé à l’encaustique, _nose which shows a partiality for potations on its owner’s part_, or “copper nose.” Avoir le ---- sale, _to be drunk_, or “tight.” See POMPETTE. Avoir quelqu’un dans le ----, _to entertain feelings of dislike towards one_. Faire son ----, _to make a wry face_, _to look_ “glum.”

On se mouilla encore d’une tournée générale; puis on alla
à la _Puce qui renifle_, un petit bousingot où il y avait
un billard. Le chapelier fit un instant son nez, parce que
c’était une maison pas très propre. Le schnick y valait un
franc le litre.--=ZOLA=, _L’Assommoir_.

Avoir le ---- creux, _to be cunning_, “to be fly to wot’s wot;” _to possess perspicacity_.

Oh! elle avait le nez creux, elle savait déjà comment cela
devait tourner.--=ZOLA.=

Mettre son ---- dans le bleu, or se piquer le ----, _to get drunk_. See POMPETTE.

Lui se piquait le nez proprement, sans qu’on s’en
aperçût.... Le zingueur au contraire, devenait dégoûtant,
ne pouvait plus boire sans se mettre dans un état
ignoble.--=ZOLA=, _L’Assommoir_.

Nez de pompettes formerly meant _drunkard’s nose_, like that of an “Admiral of the Red,” with “grog blossoms.”

NEZ-DE-CHIEN, _m._ (popular), _mixture of beer and brandy_. Avoir le ----, _to be drunk_. See POMPETTE.

NIAIS, _m._ (thieves’), _thief who repents, or who has qualms of conscience_.

NIAS, _m._ (thieves’), _me_, “my nibs;” in Italian cant, “monarco, or mia madre.” C’est pas pour mon ----, _that’s not for me_.

NIB, NIBERGUE, NIBERTE (thieves’ and cads’), _no_; _not_; ---- de braise, _no money_. Ça fait ---- dans mes blots, _that does not suit me_, _that’s not my game_; ---- du flanche! _leave off!_ “stow faking!” Nib du flanche, le gonse t’exhibe, _leave off, the man is looking at you_. In other terms, “stow it, the gorger’s leary.” Nib de tous les flanches! S’ils te font la jactance, n’entrave pas dans leurs vannes, ne norgue pas. _Keep dark about all our jobs; if they try to pump you, don’t allow yourself to be taken in, do not confess._ Nib au truc, or ---- du truc, _hold your tongue about any job_, “keep dark.”

NIBÉ (thieves’), _hold your tongue_, “mum your dubber;” _enough_.

NIBER (thieves’), _to see_, “to pipe;” _to look_, “to dick.” Nibe la gonzesse, _look at the girl_, or “nark the titter.” Le rousse te nibe, _the policeman is looking at you_, “the bulky is dicking.”

NIBERGUE (thieves’), _nothing_, “nix.”

Est-ce que tu coupes dans les rêves, toi? Quoiqu’ ça peut
faire des rêves? nibergue! (rien).--=VIDOCQ.=

NIBERTE (thieves’), _nothing_, “nix.”

J’avais balancé le bogue que j’avais fourliné et je ne
litrais que niberte en valades.--=VIDOCQ.= (_I had thrown
away the watch which I had stolen, and I had nothing in my
pockets._)

NICDOUILLE, _m._ (popular), _dunce_, “dunderhead.”

NICHE, _f._ (roughs’), _house_; _home_. Rappliquer à la ----, _to go home_.

Quand qu’ all’ rappliqu’ à la niche,
Et qu’ nous sommes poivrots,
Gare au bataillon d’la guiche,
C’est nous qu’est les dos.

=RICHEPIN=, _Chanson des Gueux_.

A c’te ----! _go home!_

NICHONS, _m. pl._ (familiar), _bosoms_, or “Charlies.”

Nana ne fourrait plus de boules de papier dans son corsage.
Des nichons lui étaient venus.--=ZOLA.=

NID, _m._ (popular), à poussière, _the navel_. Un pante sans ---- à poussière, _Adam_. According to a quotation in Mr. O. Davies’ _Supplementary English Glossary_, the navel being only of use to attract the aliment _in utero materno_, and Adam having no mother, he had no use of a navel, and therefore it is not to be conceived he had any. Un ---- à punaises, _a room in a lodging-house_, where the bed is generally a mere “bug-walk.” Un ---- de noirs, _priests’ seminary_, alluding to their black vestments.

NIÈRE, or NIERT, _m._ (thieves’), _individual_, “cove, bloke, or cull.” The Americans say “cuss.”

C’est le moment il n’y a pas un niert dans la
trime.--=VIDOCQ.= (_It’s just the time when there’s nobody
on the road._)

Nière, _accomplice_, or “stallsman.” Manger son ----, _to inform against an accomplice_, “to turn rusty and split,” or “to turn snitch.” Cromper son ----, _to save one’s accomplice_. Un ---- à la manque, _accomplice not to be trusted_. Un bon ----, _a good fellow_, or “ben cove.” Mon ----, _I_, _me_, “my nibs.” Termed also mon ---- bobéchon. Un ----, _a clumsy fellow_.

NIF, or NIB (thieves’), _nothing_, “nix;” _no_. Termed “ack” at Christ’s Hospital or Blue Coat School.

NIFER (thieves’), _to cease_, “to stash, to stow, or to cheese.”

NIGAUDINOS, _m._ (popular), _simple-minded fellow_, or “flat.”

NIKOL (Breton cant), _meat_.

NINGLE, _f._ (literary), _gay girl_, “mot.” See GADOUE.

NIOLLE, or GNIOLE, _m. and adj._ (popular and thieves’), _dunce_, or “flat;” _foolish_.

Vous comprenez que je n’étais pas si niolle (bête) de
donner mon centre (nom) pour me faire nettoyer par vos
rousses (arrêter par vos agents).--=CANLER.=

Niolle, _old hat_.

NIOLLEUR, _m._ (popular), _dealer in old hats_.

NIORT, _m._ (thieves’), _name of a town_. Aller, or battre à ----, _to deny one’s guilt_. A play on the above name, and nier, _to deny_.

NIORTE, _f._ (thieves’), _flesh_, or “carnish.”

NIPPE-MAL, _m._ (popular), _badly-dressed man_.

NIQUE, _f._ (thieves’), être ---- de mèche, _to have no share in some evil deed_.

Elle est nique de mèche (sans aucune complicité), répondit
l’amant de la Biffe.--=BALZAC.=

NIQUEDOULE, _m._ (thieves’), _dunce_, or “go-along.”

Ah! ah! dit l’Frisé, te v’là morte!
Et l’grand niqu’doul’ s’mit à pleurer.

=RICHEPIN.=

NISCO, or NIX (popular), _nothing_, “nix;” _no such thing_.

Et moi! je m’en irais bredouille? Nisco! ma biche.
--=P. MAHALIN.=

Nisco braisicoto, _no money_, _no_ “tin.”

NISETTE, _f._ (thieves’), _olive_.

NIVEAU, _m._ (popular), ne pas trouver son ----, _to be drunk_, or “snuffy.” See POMPETTE.

NIVET, _m._ (old cant), _hemp_.

NIVETTE, _f._ (old cant), _hemp-field_.

NIX. See NISCO.

NOBLE ÉTRANGÈRE, _f._ (literary), _five-franc piece_.

NOBRER, or NOBLER (thieves’), _to recognize_. Nous sommes noblés et filés, _we are recognized and followed_.

NOC, _m._ (popular), _blockhead_, “cabbage-head.”

NOCE, _f._ (popular), de bâtons de chaise, _grand jollification_, or “flare up.” Also _a fight between a married couple_. Faire la ----, _to lead a gay life_; _to hold revels_.

NOCER. See FAIRE LA NOCE; (popular) ---- en Père Peinard, _to indulge in solitary revels_.

NOCERIE, _f._ (popular), _revels_, “boozing.”

NOCEUR, _m._ (popular), _one who leads a gay life_, _a sort of_ “jolly dog.”

NOCEUSE, _f._ (popular), _woman of questionable character who shows a partiality for good cheer_.

NOCHER (popular), _to ring_. Noche la retentissante, _ring the bell_, or “jerk the tinkler.”

NOCTAMBULE, _m._ (familiar), _one fond of roving about on the Boulevards at night_.

NOCTAMBULER (familiar), _to sit up, or rove about at night_, “to be on the tiles.”

NOCTAMBULISME, _m._ (familiar), _roving about at night_.

NŒUD, _m._ (popular), see FLAGEOLET. Mon ----! _an ejaculation of contempt or refusal_. Filer son ----, _to go away_, “to slope;” _to run away_, “to cut the cable and run before the wind,” in the language of English sailors. Peau de ----, see PEAU.

NOGUE, _f._ (roughs’), _night_, or “darkmans.”

NOIR, _m. and adj._ (popular), _coffee_; ---- de peau de nègre, _miserable man_, _an assistant of rag-pickers_. Du ----, _lead_, or “bluey.” Un ---- de trois ronds sans cogne, _a three-halfpenny cup of coffee without brandy_. Pierre noire, _slate_. Un petit père ----, _a tankard of wine_. (Familiar) Le cabinet ----, _an office in which the letters of persons suspected of being hostile to the government were opened previous to their being forwarded by the post office_.

Le cabinet noir, supprimé en 1830, fut rétabli par le
ministre des affaires étrangères, le général Sébastiani....
Le cabinet noir n’existait plus de nom sous l’Empire; il
existait de fait aux Tuileries.--_Mémoires de Monsieur
Claude._

La chambre noire, _a council-chamber where Napoleon III. received his agents and formed secret plans_.

Ce fut dans ce cabinet secret que furent résolus la mort de
Kelch et l’enlèvement secret des premiers fomentateurs du
complot de l’Opéra-Comique.--_Mémoires de Monsieur Claude._

Bande noire, _a gang of swindlers_. See BANDE. The _Echo de Paris_, August, 1886, mentions a gang of this description which formed a vast association and victimized wine merchants in all parts of the country:--

Les associés se divisaient en quatre catégories: 1º “Les
Faisans;” 2º “Les Courtiers à la mode;” 3º “Les Concierges
dans le mouvement;” 4º “Les Fusilleurs.” Les “Courtiers
à la mode” étaient des individus qui avaient réussi à se
faire agréer comme représentants par des maisons de gros.
Les “Faisans,” par l’intermédiaire des “courtiers,” et avec
la complaisance des “concierges dans le mouvement,” se
faisaient faire des envois de pièces de vins soit en gare,
soit à domicile. Les “Fusilleurs” achetaient ces pièces de
vin à vil prix et les revendaient aussi cher que possible.

(Saint-Cyr School) Une noire fontaine, _an inkstand_.

NOISETTE, _f._ (popular), avoir un asticot dans la ----, _to be_ “cracked.” For synonyms see AVOIR.

NOIX, _f._ (popular), escailleux de ---- (obsolete), _slow man_, “slow-coach.”

Et Dieu, quelz escailleux de noix,
Qui venez cy de tous cottez,
Ou, par la foy que je vous doys,
D’une grosse pelle de boys
Vos trouz de cul seront sellez.

_Farce nouvelle._

Une coquille de ----, _a very small glass_. (Military) Gauler des ----, _to fence badly_. An allusion to a man knocking down walnuts from a tree with a rod.

A ce compte-là on ne doit pas faire de grands progrès en
escrime?--Eh! justement ... on a beau être cavalier et
avoir toujours le bancal au côté ... on barbotte ... on
gaule des noix.--=DUBOIS DE GENNES.=

NOM, _m._ (theatrical), _actor of note_, “star.”

Bourgoin prenait des élèves du Conservatoire pour
accompagner son “nom,” quelquefois aussi des cabotins de
province.--=E. MONTEIL.=

(Popular) Un ---- de Dieu, _disparaging epithet_, the equivalent being, in English slang, “bally fellow.”

L’homme de chambre, au café! Dort-t’y assez ce nom de
Dieu-là!--=G. COURTELINE.=

NOMBRIL (card-players’), de religieuse, _the ace of cards_, or “pig’s eye.” (Thieves’) Nombril, _noon_.

NONNANT, _m._, NONNANTE, _f._ (thieves’), _friend_.

NONNE, _f._ (thieves’), _abettor of a pickpocket_. The accomplices press round the victim during the thief’s operations. The proceeds of the robbery pass at once into the hands of one of the “nonnes,” called “coqueur,” or “bob,” in English cant. Faire ----, _to form a small crowd in the street so as to attract idlers, and thus to facilitate a pickpockets operations_. Those who thus aid a confederate are termed “jollies” in the English slang.

NONNEUR, _m._ (thieves’), _accomplice_. Termed by English thieves “stallsman, or Philiper.” The “Philiper” stands by and looks out for the police while the others commit a robbery, and calls out “Philip!” when anyone approaches. According to Vidocq, there is a variety of “nonneurs” who are merely in the service of other thieves. Their functions are to watch, to hustle the intended victim, and to make off with the valuables handed to them by their principal. The “nonneur” is not always rewarded by a share in the proceeds of the robbery; he generally receives wages for the day proportionate to the profits obtained in the “business.” Manger sur ses nonneurs, _to inform against one’s accomplices_, “to blow the gaff, or to turn snitch.”

Le quart d’œil lui jabotte
Mange sur tes nonneurs,
Lui tire une carotte,
Lui montant la couleur.

=VIDOCQ=, _Mémoires_.

NORGUER (thieves’ and cads’), _to own to a crime_; _to confess_. Si le curieux te fait la jactance n’entrave pas, ne norgue pas, _If the judge examines you, do not fall into the snare, do not confess_.

NOSIGUES, or NOUSAILLES (thieves’), _we_, _ourselves_.

NOTAIRE, _m._ (popular), _bar of drinking-shop_; _landlord of drinking-shop_, “boss of lushing-crib;” _tradesman who allows credit_.

NOTE, _f._ (dandies’), être dans la ----, _to be well up in events of the day_; _to be a man of the_ “period.”

NOTER (Breton cadgers’), _night_.

NOTRE, _m._ (thieves’), _accomplice_, or “stallsman;” “one of our mob.”

NOUET (Breton cant), _dead drunk_.

NOUEUR, _m._ (thieves’), _accomplice_, or “stallsman.”

NOUJON, _m._ (thieves’), _fish_.

NOUNE, or NONNE, _m._ (thieves’), _accomplice who follows in the wake of a pickpocket and receives the stolen property_, “bob.”

NOURRICE, _f._ (thieves’), _female who purchases stolen property_, or “fence.” (Familiar and popular) Et les mois de ---- (ironical), _and the rest_. Cette dame a trente ans. Et les mois de nourrice! _This lady is thirty years old. And the rest!_ Un dépuceleur de nourrices, _a simpleton_, a “duffer;” _a silly Lovelace_.

NOURRIR (thieves’), une affaire, _to preconcert a scheme for a theft or murder_.

Nourrir une affaire, c’est l’avoir en perspective, en
attendant le moment propice pour l’exécution.--=VIDOCQ.=

Nourrir un poupard, or un poupon, _synonymous of_ “nourrir une affaire.”

Chacun donnait dix-huit ans à ce garçon qui devait avoir
nourri ce poupon (comploté, préparé ce crime) pendant un
mois.--=BALZAC.=

NOURRISSEUR, _m._ (popular), _eating-house keeper_, or “boss of a grubbing-crib;” (thieves’) _thief who a long time beforehand makes every preparation with the view of committing a robbery or crime_.

Les nourrisseurs préméditent leurs coups de longue main, et
ne se hasardent pas à cueillir la poire avant qu’elle ne
soit mûre.--=VIDOCQ.=

Nourrisseur, _housebreaker who devotes his attentions to houses or apartments whose tenants are away on a journey_, such houses being termed “dead ’uns” by English “busters.”

NOUSAILLES, or NOUZAILLES (thieves’), _we_, _ourselves_.

Je crois que nous avons été donnés par le chêne qui s’est
esgaré de chez nouzailles avec mes frusquins.--=VIDOCQ.=
(_I think we have been informed against by the man who ran
away from our place with my clothes._)

NOUVEAU JEU, _m._ (literary), _new model_; _new fashion_.

NOUVEAUTÉ, _f._ (prostitutes’), faire sa ----, _is to take to a fresh_ “beat.”