Women
1 Demanders for Glimmer or Fire 2 Bawdy Baskets 3 Morts 4 Autem Morts 5 Walking Morts 6 Doxies 7 Delles 8 Kinching Morts 9 Kinching Coes
CRIB. A house. To crack a crib: to break open a house.
TO CRIB. To purloin, or appropriate to one’s own use,
part of any thing intrusted to one’s care.
TO FIGHT A CRIB. To make a sham fight. BEAR GARDEN
TERM.
CRIBBAGE-FACED. Marked with the small pox, the pits bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a cribbage-board.
CRIBBEYS, or CRIBBY ISLANDS. Blind alleys, courts, or bye-ways; perhaps from the houses built there being cribbed out of the common way or passage; and islands, from the similarity of sound to the Caribbee Islands.
CRIM. CON. MONEY. Damages directed by a jury to be paid by a convicted adulterer to the injured husband, for criminal conversation with his wife.
CRIMP. A broker or factor, as a coal crimp, who disposes of the cargoes of the Newcastle coal ships; also persons employed to trapan or kidnap recruits for the East Indian and African companies. To crimp, or play crimp; to play foul or booty: also a cruel manner of cutting up fish alive, practised by the London fishmongers, in order to make it eat firm; cod, and other crimped fish, being a favourite dish among voluptuaries and epicures.
CRINKUM CRANKUM. A woman’s commodity. See SPECTATOR.
CRINKUMS. The foul or venereal disease.
CRIPPLE. Sixpence; that piece being commonly much bent and distorted.
CRISPIN. A shoemaker: from a romance, wherein a prince of that name is said to have exercised the art and mystery of a shoemaker, thence called the gentle craft: or rather from the saints Crispinus and Crispianus, who according to the legend, were brethren born at Rome, from whence they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303, to propagate the Christian religion; but, because they would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers: the governor of the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered them to be beheaded, about the year 303; from which time they have been the tutelar saints of the shoemakers.
CRISPIN’S HOLIDAY. Every Monday throughout the year, but most particularly the 25th of October, being the anniversary of Crispinus and Crispianus.
CRISPIN’S LANCE. An awl.
CROAKER. One who is always foretelling some accident or misfortune: an allusion to the croaking of a raven, supposed ominous.
CROAKUMSHIRE. Northumberland, from the particular croaking the pronunciation of the people of that county, especially about Newcastle and Morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter r.
CROAKERS. Forestallers, called also Kidders and Tranters.
CROCODILE’S TEARS. The tears of a hypocrite. Crocodiles are fabulously reported to shed tears over their prey before they devour it.
CROCUS, or CROCUS METALLORUM. A nick name for a surgeon of the army and navy.
CROKER. A groat, or four pence.
CRONE. An old ewe whose teeth are worn out; figuratively,
a toothless old beldam.
CRONY. An intimate companion, a comrade; also a confederate
in a robbery.
CROOK. Sixpence.
CROOK BACK. Sixpence; for the reason of this name, see
CRIPPLE.
CROOK YOUR ELBOW. To crook one’s elbow, and wish it may never come straight, if the fact then affirmed is not true—according to the casuists of Bow-street and St. Giles’s, adds great weight and efficacy to an oath.
CROOK SHANKS. A nickname for a man with bandy legs. He buys his boots in Crooked Lane, and his stockings in Bandy-legged Walk; his legs grew in the night, therefore could not see to grow straight; jeering sayings of men with crooked legs.
CROP. A nick name for a presbyterian: from their cropping their hair, which they trimmed close to a bowl-dish, placed as a guide on their heads; whence they were likewise called roundheads. See ROUNDHEADS.
CROP. To be knocked down for a crop; to be condemned to be hanged. Cropped, hanged.
CROPPING DRUMS. Drummers of the foot guards, or Chelsea hospital, who find out weddings, and beat a point of war to serenade the new married couple, and thereby obtain money.
CROPPEN. The tail. The croppen of the rotan; the tail of the cart. Croppen ken: the necessary-house. CANT.
CROPSICK. Sickness in the stomach, arising from drunkenness.
CROSS. To come home by weeping cross; to repent at the
conclusion.
CROSS DISHONEST. A cross cove; any person who lives by
stealing or in a dishonest manner.
CROSS BITE. One who combines with a sharper to draw in a friend; also, to counteract or disappoint. CANT.—This is peculiarly used to signify entrapping a man so as to obtain CRIM. COM. money, in which the wife, real or supposed, conspires with the husband.
CROSS BUTTOCK. A particular lock or fall in the Broughtonian art, which, as Mr. Fielding observes, conveyed more pleasant sensations to the spectators than the patient.
CROSS PATCH. A peevish boy or girl, or rather an unsocial ill-tempered man or woman.
TO CROW. To brag, boast, or triumph. To crow over any one; to keep him in subjection: an image drawn from a cock, who crows over a vanquished enemy. To pluck a crow; to reprove any one for a fault committed, to settle a dispute. To strut like a crow in a gutter; to walk proudly, or with an air of consequence.
CROWD. A fiddle: probably from CROOTH, the Welch name for that instrument.
CROWDERO. A fiddler.
CROWDY. Oatmeal and water, or milk; a mess much eaten
in the north.
CROW FAIR. A visitation of the clergy. See REVIEW OF
THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS.
CROWN OFFICE. The head. I fired into her keel upwards;
my eyes and limbs Jack, the crown office was full; I s—k-d
a woman with her a-e upwards, she was so drunk, that her
head lay on the ground.
CRUISERS. Beggars, or highway spies, who traverse the
road, to give intelligence of a booty; also rogues ready to
snap up any booty that may offer, like privateers or pirates
on a cruise.
CRUMMY. Fat, fleshy. A fine crummy dame; a fat woman.
He has picked up his crumbs finely of late; he has
grown very fat, or rich, of late.
CRUMP. One who helps solicitors to affidavit men, or false witnesses.—‘I wish you had, Mrs. Crump;’ a Gloucestershire saying, in answer to a wish for any thing; implying, you must not expect any assistance from the speaker. It is said to have originated from the following incident: One Mrs. Crump, the wife of a substantial farmer, dining with the old Lady Coventry, who was extremely deaf, said to one of the footmen, waiting at table, ‘I wish I had a draught of small beer,’ her modesty not permitting her to desire so fine a gentleman to bring it: the fellow, conscious that his mistress could not hear either the request or answer, replied, without moving, ‘I wish you had, Mrs. Crump.’ These wishes being again repeated by both parties, Mrs. Crump got up from the table to fetch it herself; and being asked by my lady where she was going, related what had passed. The story being told abroad, the expression became proverbial.
CRUMP-BACKED. Hump-backed.
CRUSTY BEAU. One that uses paint and cosmetics, to obtain a fine complexion.
CRUSTY FELLOW. A surly fellow.
CUB. An unlicked cub; an unformed, ill-educated young man, a young nobleman or gentleman on his travels: an allusion to the story of the bear, said to bring its cub into form by licking. Also, a new gamester.
CUCKOLD. The husband of an incontinent wife: cuckolds, however, are Christians, as we learn by the following story: An old woman hearing a man call his dog Cuckold, reproved him sharply, saying, ‘Sirrah, are not you ashamed to call a dog by a Christian’s name?’ To cuckold the parson; to bed with one’s wife before she has been churched.
CUCUMBERS. Taylors, who are jocularly said to subsist, during the summer, chiefly on cucumbers.
CUFF. An old cuff; an old man. To cuff Jonas; said of one who is knock-kneed, or who beats his sides to keep himself warm in frosty weather; called also Beating the booby.
CUFFIN. A man.
CULL. A man, honest or otherwise. A bob cull; a good-natured,
quiet fellow. CANT.
CULLABILITY. A disposition liable to be cheated, an
unsuspecting nature, open to imposition.
CULLY. A fog or fool: also, a dupe to women: from the
Italian word coglione, a blockhead.
CULP. A kick or blow: from the words mea culpa, being that part of the popish liturgy at which the people beat their breasts; or, as the vulgar term is, thump their craws.
CUNDUM. The dried gut of a sheep, worn by men in the act of coition, to prevent venereal infection; said to have been invented by one colonel Cundum. These machines were long prepared and sold by a matron of the name of Philips, at the Green Canister, in Half-moon-street, in the Strand. That good lady having acquired a fortune, retired from business; but learning that the town was not well served by her successors, she, out of a patriotic zeal for the public welfare, returned to her occupation; of which she gave notice by divers hand-bills, in circulation in the year 1776. Also a false scabbard over a sword, and the oil-skin case for holding the colours of a regiment.
CUNNINGHAM. A punning appellation for a simple fellow.
CUNNING MAN. A cheat, who pretends by his skill in astrology to assist persons in recovering stolen goods: and also to tell them their fortunes, and when, how often, and to whom they shall be married; likewise answers all lawful questions, both by sea and land. This profession is frequently occupied by ladies.
CUNNING SHAVER. A sharp fellow, one that trims close,
i.e. cheats ingeniously.
CUNNY-THUMBED. To double one’s fist with the thumb inwards,
like a woman.
C**T. The chonnos of the Greek, and the cunnus of the Latin dictionaries; a nasty name for a nasty thing: un con Miege.
CUP OF THE CREATURE. A cup of good liquor.
CUP-SHOT. Drunk.
CUPBOARD LOVE. Pretended love to the cook, or any other
person, for the sake of a meal. My guts cry cupboard;
i.e. I am hungry
CUPID, BLIND CUPID. A jeering name for an ugly blind
man: Cupid, the god of love, being frequently painted
blind. See BLIND CUPID.
CUR. A cut or curtailed dog. According to the forest laws, a man who had no right to the privilege of the chase, was obliged to cut or law his dog: among other modes of disabling him from disturbing the game, one was by depriving him of his tail: a dog so cut was called a cut or curtailed dog, and by contraction a cur. A cur is figuratively used to signify a surly fellow.
CURBING LAW. The act of hooking goods out of windows:
the curber is the thief, the curb the hook. CANT.
CURE A-SE. A dyachilon plaister, applied to the parts galled
by riding.
CURLE. Clippings of money, which curls up in the operation. CANT.
CURMUDGEON. A covetous old fellow, derived, according to some, from the French term coeur mechant.
CURRY. To curry favour; to obtain the favour of a person be coaxing or servility. To curry any one’s hide; to beat him.
CURSE OF SCOTLAND. The nine of diamonds; diamonds, it is said, imply royalty, being ornaments to the imperial crown; and every ninth king of Scotland has been observed for many ages, to be a tyrant and a curse to that country. Others say it is from its similarity to the arms of Argyle; the Duke of Argyle having been very instrumental in bringing about the union, which, by some Scotch patriots, has been considered as detrimental to their country.
CURSE OF GOD. A cockade.
CURSITORS. Broken petty-fogging attornies, or Newgate solicitors. CANT.
CURTAILS. Thieves who cut off pieces of stuff hanging out of shop windows, the tails of women’s gowns, &c.; also, thieves wearing short jackets.
CURTAIN LECTURE. A woman who scolds her husband when in bed, is said to read him a curtain lecture.
CURTEZAN. A prostitute.
CUSHION. He has deserved the cushion; a saying of one whose wife is brought to bed of a boy: implying, that having done his business effectually, he may now indulge or repose himself.
CUSHION THUMPER, or DUSTER. A parson; many of whom
in the fury of their eloquence, heartily belabour their
cushions.
CUSTARD CAP. The cap worn by the sword-bearer of the city of London, made hollow at the top like a custard.
CUSTOM-HOUSE GOODS. The stock in trade of a prostitute,
because fairly entered.
CUT. Drunk. A little cut over the head; slightly intoxicated. To cut; to leave a person or company. To cut up well; to die rich.
TO CUT. (Cambridge.) To renounce acquaintance with any one is to CUT him. There are several species of the CUT. Such as the cut direct, the cut indirect, the cut sublime, the cut infernal, &c. The cut direct, is to start across the street, at the approach of the obnoxious person in order to avoid him. The cut indirect, is to look another way, and pass without appearing to observe him. The cut sublime, is to admire the top of King’s College Chapel, or the beauty of the passing clouds, till he is out of sight. The cut infernal, is to analyze the arrangement of your shoe-strings, for the same purpose.
TO CUT BENE. To speak gently. To cut bene whiddes; to give good words. To cut queer whiddes; to give foul language. To cut a bosh, or a flash; to make a figure. CANT.
TO CUTTY-EYE. To look out of the corners of one’s eyes,
to leer, to look askance. The cull cutty-eyed at us; the
fellow looked suspicious at us.
DAB. An adept; a dab at any feat or exercise. Dab,
quoth Dawkins, when he hit his wife on the a-se with a
pound of butter.
DACE. Two pence. Tip me a dace; lend me two pence.
CANT.
DADDLES. Hands. Tip us your daddle; give me your hand.
CANT.
DADDY. Father. Old daddy; a familiar address to an old man. To beat daddy mammy; the first rudiments of drum beating, being the elements of the roll.
DAGGERS. They are at daggers drawing; i.e. at enmity,
ready to fight.
DAIRY. A woman’s breasts, particularly one that gives suck. She sported her dairy; she pulled out her breast.
DAISY CUTTER. A jockey term for a horse that does not lift up his legs sufficiently, or goes too near the ground, and is therefore apt to stumble.
DAISY KICKERS. Ostlers at great inns.
DAM. A small Indian coin, mentioned in the Gentoo code of laws: hence etymologists may, if they please, derive the common expression, I do not care a dam, i.e. I do not care half a farthing for it.
DAMBER. A rascal. See DIMBER.
DAMME BOY. A roaring, mad, blustering fellow, a scourer of the streets, or kicker up of a breeze.
DAMNED SOUL. A clerk in a counting house, whose sole business it is to clear or swear off merchandise at the custom-house; and who, it is said, guards against the crime of perjury, by taking a previous oath, never to swear truly on those occasions.
DAMPER. A luncheon, or snap before dinner: so called from its damping, or allaying, the appetite; eating and drinking, being, as the proverb wisely observes, apt to take away the appetite.
DANCE UPON NOTHING. To be hanged.
DANCERS. Stairs.
DANDY. That’s the dandy; i.e. the ton, the clever thing; an expression of similar import to “That’s the barber.” See BARBER.
DANDY GREY RUSSET. A dirty brown. His coat’s dandy grey russet, the colour of the Devil’s nutting bag.
DANDY PRAT. An insignificant or trifling fellow.
To DANGLE. To follow a woman without asking the question. Also, to be hanged: I shall see you dangle in the sheriff’s picture frame; I shall see you hanging on the gallows.
DANGLER. One who follows women in general, without any particular attachment
DAPPER FELLOW. A smart, well-made, little man.
DARBIES. Fetters. CANT.
DARBY. Ready money. CANT.
DARK CULLY. A married man that keeps a mistress, whom he visits only at night, for fear of discovery.
DARKEE. A dark lanthorn used by housebreakers. Stow the darkee, and bolt, the cove of the crib is fly; hide the dark lanthorn, and run away, the master of the house knows that we are here.
DARKMANS. The night. CANT.
DARKMAN’S BUDGE. One that slides into a house in the dark of the evening, and hides himself, in order to let some of the gang in at night to rob it.
DART. A straight-armed blow in boxing.
DASH. A tavern drawer. To cut a dash: to make a figure.
DAVID JONES. The devil, the spirit of the sea: called Necken in the north countries, such as Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.
DAVID JONES’S LOCKER. The sea.
DAVID’S SOW. As drunk as David’s sow; a common saying, which took its rise from the following circumstance: One David Lloyd, a Welchman, who kept an alehouse at Hereford, had a living sow with six legs, which was greatly resorted to by the curious; he had also a wife much addicted to drunkenness, for which he used sometimes to give her due correction. One day David’s wife having taken a cup too much, and being fearful of the consequences, turned out the sow, and lay down to sleep herself sober in the stye. A company coming in to see the sow, David ushered them into the stye, exclaiming, there is a sow for you! did any of you ever see such another? all the while supposing the sow had really been there; to which some of the company, seeing the state the woman was in, replied, it was the drunkenest sow they had ever beheld; whence the woman was ever after called David’s sow.
DAVY. I’ll take my davy of it; vulgar abbreviation of affidavit.
TO DAWB. To bribe. The cull was scragged because he could not dawb; the rogue was hanged because he could not bribe. All bedawbed with lace; all over lace.
DAY LIGHTS. Eyes. To darken his day lights, or sow up
his sees; to close up a man’s eyes in boxing.
DEAD CARGO. A term used by thieves, when they are
disappointed in the value of their booty.
DEAD HORSE. To work for the dead horse; to work for
wages already paid.
DEAD-LOUSE. Vulgar pronunciation of the Dedalus ship of
war.
DEAD MEN. A cant word among journeymen bakers, for
loaves falsely charged to their masters’ customers; also
empty bottles.
DEADLY NEVERGREEN, that bears fruit all the year round.
The gallows, or three-legged mare. See THREE-LEGGED
MARE.
DEAR JOYS. Irishmen: from their frequently making use
of that expression.
DEATH HUNTER. An undertaker, one who furnishes the
necessary articles for funerals. See CARRION HUNTER.
DEATH’S HEAD UPON A MOP-STICK. A poor miserable, emaciated fellow; one quite an otomy. See OTOMY.—He looked as pleasant as the pains of death.
DEEP-ONE. A thorough-paced rogue, a sly designing fellow: in opposition to a shallow or foolish one.
DEFT FELLOW. A neat little man.
DEGEN, or DAGEN. A sword. Nim the degen; steal the sword. Dagen is Dutch for a sword. CANT.
DELLS. Young buxom wenches, ripe and prone to venery, but who have not lost their virginity, which the UPRIGHT MAN claims by virtue of his prerogative; after which they become free for any of the fraternity. Also a common strumpet. CANT.
DEMURE. As demure as an old whore at a christening.
DEMY-REP. An abbreviation of demy-reputation; a woman of doubtful character.
DERBY. To come down with the derbies; to pay the money.
DERRICK. The name of the finisher of the law, or hangman about the year 1608.—‘For he rides his circuit with the Devil, and Derrick must be his host, and Tiburne the inne at which he will lighte.’ Vide Bellman of London, in art. PRIGGIN LAW.—‘At the gallows, where I leave them, as to the haven at which they must all cast anchor, if Derrick’s cables do but hold.’ Ibid.
DEVIL. A printer’s errand-boy. Also a small thread in the king’s ropes and cables, whereby they may be distinguished from all others. The Devil himself; a small streak of blue thread in the king’s sails. The Devil may dance in his pocket; i.e. he has no money: the cross on our ancient coins being jocularly supposed to prevent him from visiting that place, for fear, as it is said, of breaking his shins against it. To hold a candle to the Devil; to be civil to any one out of fear: in allusion to the story of the old woman, who set a wax taper before the image of St. Michael, and another before the Devil, whom that saint is commonly represented as trampling under his feet: being reproved for paying such honour to Satan, she answered, as it was uncertain which place she should go to, heaven or hell, she chose to secure a friend in both places. That will be when the Devil is blind, and he has not got sore eyes yet; said of any thing unlikely to happen. It rains whilst the sun shines, the Devil is beating his wife with a shoulder of mutton: this phenomenon is also said to denote that cuckolds are going to heaven; on being informed of this, a loving wife cried out with great vehemence, ‘Run, husband, run!’
The Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be;
The Devil was well, the Devil a monk was he.
a proverb signifying that we are apt to forget promises made in time of distress. To pull the Devil by the tail, to be reduced to one’s shifts. The Devil go with you and sixpence, and then you will have both money and company.
DEVIL. The gizzard of a turkey or fowl, scored, peppered, salted and broiled: it derives its appellation from being hot in the mouth.
DEVIL’S BOOKS. Cards.
DEVIL CATCHER, or DEVIL DRIVER. A parson. See
SNUB DEVIL.
DEVIL’S DAUGHTER. It is said of one who has a termagant for his wife, that he has married the Devil’s daughter, and lives with the old folks.