THRUMS. Threepence.
THUMB. By rule of thumb: to do any thing by dint of practice. To kiss one's thumb instead of the book; a vulgar expedient to avoid perjury in taking a false oath.
THUMMIKINS. An instrument formerly used in Scotland, like a vice, to pinch the thumbs of persons accused of different crimes, in order to extort confession.
THUMP. A blow. This is better than a thump on the back with a stone; said on giving any one a drink of good liquor on a cold morning. Thatch, thistle, thunder, and thump; words to the Irish, like the Shibboleth of the Hebrews.
THUMPING. Great! a thumping boy.
THWACK. A great blow with a stick across the shoulders.
TIB. A young lass.
TIBBY. A cat.
TIB OF THE BUTTERY. A goose. CANT. Saint Tibb's evening; the evening of the last day, or day of judgment: he will pay you on St. Tibb's eve. IRISH.
TICK. To run o'tick; take up goods upon trust, to run in debt. Tick; a watch. SEE SESSIONS PAPERS.
TICKLE TEXT. A parson.
TICKLE PITCKEB. A thirsty fellow, a sot.
TICKLE TAIL. A rod, or schoolmaster. A man's penis.
TICKRUM. A licence.
TIDY. Neat.
TIFFING. Eating or drinking out of meal time, disputing or falling out; also lying with a wench, A tiff of punch, a small bowl of punch.
TILBUKY. Sixpence; so called from its formerly being the fare for Crossing over from Gravesend to Tilbury Fort.
TILT. To tilt; to fight with a sword. To run full tilt against one; allusion to the ancient tilling with the lance.
TILTER. A sword.
TIM WHISKY. A light one—horse chaise without a head.
TIMBER TOE. A man with a wooden leg.
TINY. Little.
TO TIP. To give or lend. Tip me your daddle; give me your hand. Tip me a hog; give me a shilling. To tip the lion; to flatten a man's nose with the thumb, and, at the same time to extend his mouth, with the fingers, thereby giving him a sort of lion-like countenance. To tip the velvet; tonguing woman. To tip all nine; to knock down all the nine pins at once, at the game of bows or skittles: tipping, at these gaines, is slightly touching the tops of the pins with the bowl. Tip; a draught; don't spoil his tip.
TIP-TOP. The best: perhaps from fruit, that growing at the top of the tree being generally the best, as partaking most of the sun. A tip-top workman; the best, or most excellent Workman.
TIPPERARY FORTUNE. Two town lands, stream's town, and ballinocack; said of Irish women without fortune.
TIPPLE. Liquor.
TIPPLERS. Sots who are continually sipping.
TIPSEY. Almost drunk.
TIRING. Dressing: perhaps abbreviation of ATTIRING. Tiring women, or tire women: women that used to cut ladies hair, and dress them.
TIT. A horse; a pretty little tit; a smart little girl. a *** or tid bit; a delicate morsel. Tommy tit; a smart lively little fellow.
TIT FOR TAT. An equivalent.
TO TITTER. To suppress a laugh.
TITTER TATTER. One reeling, and ready to fall at the least touch; also the childish amusement of riding upon the two ends of a plank, poised upon the prop underneath its centre, called also see-saw. Perhaps tatter is a rustic pronunciation of totter.
TITTLE-TATTLE. Idle discourse, scandal, women's talk, or small talk.
TITTUP. A gentle hand gallop, or canter.
TIZZY. Sixpence.
TOAD EATER. A poor female relation, and humble companion, or reduced gentlewoman, in a great family, the standing butt, on whom all kinds of practical jokes are played off, and all ill humours vented. This appellation is derived from a mountebank's servant, on whom all experiments used to be made in public by the doctor, his master; among which was the eating of toads, formerly supposed poisonous. Swallowing toads is here figuratively meant for swallowing or putting up with insults, as disagreeable to a person of feeling as toads to the stomach.
TOAD. Toad in a hole; meat baked or boiled in pye-crust. He or she sits like a toad on a chopping-block; a saying of any who sits ill on horseback. As much need of it as a toad of a side-pocket; said of a person who desires any thing for which he has no real occasion. As full of money as a toad is of feathers.
TOAST. A health; also a beautiful woman whose health is often drank by men. The origin of this term (as it is said) was this: a beautiful lady bathing in a cold bath, one of her admirers out of gallantry drank some of the water: whereupon another of her lovers observed, he never drank in the morning, but he would kiss the toast, and immediately saluted the lady.
TOASTING IRON, or CHEESE TOASTER. A sword.
TOBY LAY. The highway. High toby man; a highway-man. Low toby man; a footpad.
TOBACCO. A plant, once in great estimation as a medicine:
Tobacco hic
Will make you well if you be sick.
Tobacco hic
If you be well will make you sick.
TODDY. Originally the juice of the cocoa tree, and afterwards rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg.
TODDLE. To walk away. The cove was touting, but stagging the traps he toddled; be was looking out, and feeing the officers he walked away.
TODGE. Beat all to a todge: said of anything beat to mash.
TOGE. A coat. Cant.
TOGEMANS. The same. CANT.
TOGS. Clothes. The swell is rum-togged. The gentleman is handsomely dressed.
TOKEN. The plague: also the venereal disease. She tipped him the token; she gave him a clap or pox.
TOL, or TOLEDO. A sword: from Spanish swords made at Toledo, which place was famous for sword blades of an extraordinary temper.
TOLLIBAN RIG. A species of cheat carried on by a woman, assuming the character of a dumb and deaf conjuror.
TOM T—DMAN. A night man, one who empties necessary houses.
TOMBOY. A romping girl, who prefers the amusement used by boys to those of her own sex.
TOM OF BEDLAM. The same as Abram man.
TOM CONY. A simple fellow.
TOM LONG. A tiresome story teller. It is coming by Tom Long, the carrier; said of any thing that has been long expected.
TOM THUMB. A dwarf, a little hop-o'my-thumb.
TOMMY. Soft Tommy, or white Tommy; bread is so called by sailors, to distinguish it from biscuit. Brown Tommy: ammunition bread for soldiers; or brown bread given to convicts at the hulks.
TO-MORROW COME NEVER. When two Sundays come together; never.
TONGUE. Tongue enough for two sets of teeth: said of a talkative person. As old as my tongue, and a little older than my teeth; a dovetail in answer to the question, How old are you? Tongue pad; a scold, or nimble-tongued person.
TONY. A silly fellow, or ninny. A mere tony: a simpleton.
TOOLS. The private parts of a man.
TOOL. The instrument of any person or faction, a cat's paw. See CATS PAW.
TOOTH Music. Chewing.
TOOTH-PICK. A large stick. An ironical expression.
TOPPER. A violent blow on the head.
TOP ROPES. To sway away on all top ropes; to live riotously or extravagantly.
TO TOP. To cheat, or trick: also to insult: he thought to have topped upon me. Top; the signal among taylors for snuffing the candles: he who last pronounces that word word, is obliged to get up and perform the operation.—to be topped; to be hanged. The cove was topped for smashing queerscreens; he was hanged for uttering forged bank notes.
TOP DIVER. A lover of women. An old top diver; one who has loved old hat in his time.
TOP HEAVY. Drunk.
TOP LIGHTS. The eyes. Blast your top lights. See CURSE.
Top SAIL. He paid his debts at Portsmouth with the topsail; i.e. he went to sea and left them unpaid. SCT soldiers are said to pay off their scores with the drum; that is, by marching away.
TOPER. One that loves his bottle, a soaker. SEE TO SOAK.
TOPPING FELLOW. One at the top or head of his profession.
TOPPING CHEAT. The gallows. CANT.
TOPPING COVE. The hangman. CANT.
TOPPING MAN. A rich man.
TOFSY-TURVY. The top side the other way; i.e. the wrong side upwards; some explain it, the top side turf ways, turf being always laid the wrong side upwards.
TORCHECUL. Bumfodder.
TORMENTER OF SHEEP SKIN. A drummer.
TORMENTER OF CATGUT. A fiddler.
TORY. An advocate for absolute monarchy and church power; also an Irish vagabond, robber, Or rapparee.
TOSS POT. A drunkard.
TOSS OFF. Manual pollution.
TOTTY-HEADED. Giddy, hare-brained.
TOUCH. To touch; to get money from any one; also to arrest. Touched in the wind; broken winded. Touched in the head; insane, crazy. To touch up a woman; to have carnal knowledge of her. Touch bone and whistle; any one having broken wind backwards, according to the vulgar law, may be pinched by any of the company till he has touched bone (i.e. his teeth) and whistled.
TOUCH BUN FOR LUCK. See BUN.
TOVT. A look-out house, or eminence.
TOUTING. (From TUERI, to look about) Publicans fore-stalling guests, or meeting them on the road, and begging their custom; also thieves or smugglers looking out to see that the coast is clear. Touting ken; the bar of a public house.
TOW ROW. A grenadier. The tow row club; a club or society of the grenadier officers of the line.
TOWEL. An oaken towel, a cudgel. To rub one down with an oaken towel; to beat or cudgel him.
TOWER. Clipped money: they have been round the tower with it. CANT.
TO TOWER. To overlook, to rise aloft as in a high tower.
TOWER HILL PLAY. A slap on the face, and a kick on the breech.
TOWN. A woman of the town; a prostitute. To be on the town: to live by prostitution.
TOWN BULL. A common whoremaster. To roar like a town bull; to cry or bellow aloud.
TO TRACK. To go. Track up the dancers; go up stairs. CANT.
TRADING JUSTICES. Broken mechanics, discharged footmen, and other low fellows, smuggled into the commission of the peace, who subsist by fomenting disputes, granting warrants, and otherwise retailing justice; to the honour of the present times, these nuisances are by no means, so common as formerly.
TRADESMEN. Thieves. Clever tradesmen; good thieves.
TRANSLATORS. Sellers of old mended shoes and boots, between coblers and shoemakers.
TO TRANSMOGRAPHY, or TRANSMIGRIFY. To patch up vamp, or alter.
TO TRANSNEAR. To come up with any body.
TRANTER. See CROCKER.
TRAP. To understand trap; to know one's own interest.
TRAP STICKS. Thin legs, gambs: from the sticks with which boys play at trap-ball.
TRAPS. Constables and thief-takers. CANT.
TO TRAPAN. To inveigle, or ensnare.
TRAPES. A slatternly woman, a careless sluttish woman.
TRAVELLER. To tip the traveller; to tell wonderful stories, to romance.
TRAVELLING PIQUET. A mode of amusing themselves, practised by two persons riding in a carriage, each reckoning towards his game the persons or animals that pass by on the side next them, according to the following estimation:
A parson riding a grey horse, without furniture; game.
An old woman under a hedge; ditto.
A cat looking out of a window; 60.
A man, woman, and child, in a buggy; 40.
A man with a woman behind him; 30.
A flock of sheep; 20.
A flock of geese; 10.
A post chaise; 5.
A horseman; 2.
A man or woman walking; 1.
TRAY TRIP. An ancient game like Scotch hop, played on a pavement marked out with chalk into different compartments.
TRENCHER CAP. The square cap worn by the collegians. at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
TRENCHER MAN. A stout trencher man; one who has a good appetite, or, as the term is, plays a good knife and fork.
TRESWINS. Threepence.
TRIB. A prison: perhaps from tribulation.
TRICKUM LEGIS. A quirk or quibble in the law.
TRIG. The point at which schoolboys stand to shoot their marbles at taw; also the spot whence bowlers deliver the bowl.
TO TRIG IT. To play truant. To lay a man trigging; to knock him down.
TRIGRYMATE. An idle female companion.
TRIM. State, dress. In a sad trim; dirty.—Also spruce or fine: a trim fellow.
TRIM TRAM. Like master, like man.
TRIMMING. Cheating, changing side, or beating. I'll trim his jacket; I'll thresh him. To be trimmed; to be shaved; I'll just step and get trimmed.
TRINE. To hang; also Tyburn.
TRINGUM TRANGUM. A whim, or maggot.
TRINING. Hanging.
TRINKETS. Toys, bawbles, or nicknacks.
TRIP. A short voyage or journey, a false step or stumble, an error in the tongue, a bastard. She has made a trip; she has had a bastard.
TRIPE. The belly, or guts. Mr. Double Tripe; a fat man. Tripes and trullibubs; the entrails: also a jeering appellation for a fat man.
TO TROLL. To loiter or saunter about.
TROLLY LOLLY. Coarse lace once much in fashion.
TROLLOP. A lusty coarse sluttish woman.
TROOPER. You will die the death of a trooper's horse, that is, with your shoes-on; a jocular method of telling any one he will be hanged.
TROT. An old trot; a decrepit old woman. A dog trot; a gentle pace.
TROTTERS. Feet. To shake one's trotters at Bilby's ball, where the sheriff pays the fiddlers; perhaps the Bilboes ball, i.e. the ball of fetters: fetters and stocks were anciently called the bilboes.
To TROUNCE. To punish by course of law.
TRUCK. To exchange, swop, or barter; also a wheel such as ship's guns are placed upon.
TRULL. A soldier or a tinker's trull; a soldier or tinker's female companion.—Guteli, or trulli, are spirits like women, which shew great kindness to men, and hereof it is that we call light women trulls. RANDLE HOLM'S ACADEMY OF ARMORY.
TRUMPERY. An old whore, or goods of no value; rubbish.
TRUMPET. To sound one's own trumpet; to praise one's self.
TRUMPETER. The king of Spain's trumpeter; a braying ass. His trumpeter is dead, he is therefore forced to sound his own trumpet. He would make an excellent trumpeter, for he has a strong breath; said of one having a foetid breath.
TRUMPS. To be put to one's trumps: to be in difficulties, or put to one's shifts. Something may turn up trumps; something lucky may happen. All his cards are trumps: he is extremely fortunate.
TRUNDLERS. Peas.
TRUNK. A nose. How fares your old trunk? does your nose still stand fast? an allusion to the proboscis or trunk of an elephant. To shove a trunk: to introduce one's self unasked into any place or company. Trunk-maker like; more noise than work.
TRUSTY TROJAN, or TRUSTY TROUT. A true friend.
TRY ON. To endeavour. To live by thieving. Coves who try it on; professed thieves.
TRYNING. See TRINING.
TU QUOQUE. The mother of all saints.
TUB THUMPER. A presbyterian parson.
TUCKED UP. Hanged. A tucker up to an old bachelor or widower; a supposed mistress.
TUFT HUNTER. A it anniversary parasite, one who courts the acquaintance of nobility, whose caps are adorned with a gold tuft.
TUMBLER. A cart; also a sharper employed to draw in pigeons to game; likewise a posture-master, or rope-dancer. To shove the tumbler, or perhaps tumbril; to-be whipt at the cart's tail.
TO TUNE. To beat: his father tuned him delightfully: perhaps from fetching a tune out of the person beaten, or from a comparison with the disagreeable sounds of instruments when tuning.
TO TUP. To have carnal knowledge of a woman.
TUP. A ram: figuratively, a cuckold.
TUP RUNNING. A rural sport practised at wakes and fairs in Derbyshire; a ram, whose tail is well soaped and greased, is turned out to the multitude; any one that can take him by the tail, and hold him fast, is to have him for his own.
T—D. There were four t—ds for dinner: stir t—d, hold t—d, tread t—d, and mus-t—d: to wit, a hog's face, feet and chitterlings, with mustard. He will never sh—e a seaman's t—d; i.e. he will never make a good seaman.
TURF. On the turf; persons who keep running horses, or attend and bet at horse-races, are said to be on the turf.
TURK. A cruel, hard-hearted man. Turkish treatment; barbarous usage. Turkish shore; Lambeth, Southwark, and Rotherhithe side of the Thames.
TURKEY MERCHANT. A poulterer.
TURNCOAT. One who has changed his party from interested motives.
TURNED UP. Acquitted; discharged.
TURNIP-PATED. White or fair-haired.
TURNPIKE MAN. A parson; because the clergy collect their tolls at our entrance into and exit from the world.
TUZZY-MUZZY. The monosyllable.
TWADDLE. Perplexity, confusion, or any thing else: a fashionable term that for a while succeeded that of BORE. See BORE.
TWANGEY, or STANGEY. A north country name for a taylor.
TWEAGUE. In a great tweague: in a great passion. Tweaguey; peevish, passionate.
TO TWEAK. To pull: to tweak any one's nose.
TWELVER. A shilling.
TWIDDLE-DIDDLES. Testicles.
TWIDDLE POOP. An effeminate looking fellow.
IN TWIG. Handsome; stilish. The cove is togged in twig; the fellow is dressed in the fashion.
TO TWIG. To observe. Twig the cull, he is peery; observe the fellow, he is watching us. Also to disengage, snap asunder, or break off. To twig the darbies; to knock off the irons.
TWISS. (IRISH) A Jordan, or pot de chambre. A Mr. Richard Twiss having in his "Travels" given a very unfavourable description of the Irish character, the inhabitants of Dublin, byway of revenge, thought proper to christen this utensil by his name—suffice it to say that the baptismal rites were not wanting at the ceremony. On a nephew of this gentleman the following epigram was made by a friend of ouis:
Perish the country, yet my name
Shall ne'er in STORY be forgot,
But still the more increase in fame,
The more the country GOES TO POT.
TWIST. A mixture of half tea and half coffee; likewise brandy, beer, and eggs. A good twist; a good appetite. To twist it down apace; to eat heartily.
TWISTED. Executed, hanged.
TO TWIT. To reproach a person, or remind him of favours conferred.
TWITTER. All in a twitter; in a fright. Twittering is also the note of some small birds, such as the robin, &c.
TWITTOC. Two. CANT.
TWO HANDED PUT. The amorous congress.
TWO THIEVES BEATING A ROGUE. A man beating his hands against his sides to warm himself in cold weather; called also beating the booby, and cuffing Jonas.
TWO TO ONE SHOP. A pawnbroker's: alluding to the three blue balls, the sign of that trade: or perhaps to its being two to one that the goods pledged are never redeemed.
TWO-HANDED. Great. A two-handed fellow or wench; a great strapping man orwoman,
TYE. A neckcloth.
TYBURN BLOSSOM. A young thief or pickpocket, who in time will ripen into fruit borne by the deadly never-green.
TYBURN TIPPET. A halter; see Latimer's sermon before.
Edward VI. A. D. 1549.
TYBURN TOP, or FORETOP. A wig with the foretop combed over the eyes in a knowing style; such being much worn by the gentlemen pads, scamps, divers, and other knowing hands.
TYKE. A dog, also a clown; a Yorkshire tyke.
TYNEY. See TINEY.
V
VAGARIES. Frolics, wild rambles.
VAIN-GLORIOUS, or OSTENTATIOUS MAN. One who boasts without reason, or, as the canters say, pisses more than he drinks.
VALENTINE. The first woman seen by a man, or man seen by a woman, on St. Valentine's day, the 14th of February, when it is said every bird chuses his mate for the ensuing year.
TO VAMP. To pawn any thing. I'll vamp it, and tip you the cole: I'll pawn it, and give you the money. Also to refit, new dress, or rub up old hats, shoes or other wearing apparel; likewise to put new feet to old boots. Applied more particularly to a quack bookseller.
VAMPER. Stockings.
VAN. Madam Van; see MADAM.
VAN-NECK. Miss or Mrs. Van-Neck; a woman with large breasts; a bushel bubby.
VARDY. To give one's vardy; i.e. verdict or opinion.
VARLETS. Now rogues and rascals, formerly yeoman's servants.
VARMENT. (Whip and Cambridge.) Natty, dashing. He is quite varment, he is quite the go. He sports a varment hat, coat, &c.; he is dressed like a gentleman Jehu.
VAULTING SCHOOL. A bawdy-house; also an academy where vaulting and other manly exercises are taught.
VELVET. To tip the velvet; to put one's tongue into a woman's mouth. To be upon velvet; to have the best of a bet or match. To the little gentleman in velvet, i. e. the mole that threw up the hill that caused Crop (King William's horse) to stumble; a toast frequently drank by the tories and catholics in Ireland.
VENERABLE MONOSYLLABLE. Pudendum muliebre.
VENUS'S CURSE. The venereal disease.
VESSELS OF PAPER. Half a quarter of a sheet.
VICAR OF BRAY. See BRAY.
VICE ADMIRAL OF THE NARROW SEAS. A drunken man that pisses under the table into his companions' shoes.
VICTUALLING OFFICE. The stomach.
VINCENT'S LAW. The art of cheating at cards, composed of the following associates: bankers, those who play booty; the gripe, he that betteth; and the person cheated, who is styled the vincent; the gains acquired, termage.
VINEGAR. A name given to the person who with a whip in his hand, and a hat held before his eye, keeps the ring clear, at boxing-matches and cudgel-playing; also, in cant terms, a cloak.
VIXEN. A termagant; also a she fox, who, when she has cubs, is remarkably fierce.
TO VOWEL. A gamester who does not immediately pay his losings, is said to vowel the winner, by repeating the vowels I. O. U. or perhaps from giving his note for the money according to the Irish form, where the acknowledgment of the debt is expressed by the letters I. O. U. which, the sum and name of the debtor being added, is deemed a sufficient security among gentlemen.