A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words

POST-HORN, the nose. —See PASTE-HORN.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

POTTY, indifferent, bad looking.

POTATO TRAP, the mouth. A humorous Hibernicism.

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

PRAD, a horse.

PRAD NAPPING, horse stealing.

PRANCER, a horse. —Ancient cant.

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

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

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

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

PRO, a professional. —Theatrical.

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

PROP, a gold scarf pin.

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

PROPS, crutches.

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

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

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

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

PUB, or PUBLIC, a public-house.

PUCKER, poor temper, difficulty, déshabillé.

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

PUCKERING, talking privately.

PUDDING SNAMMER, one who robs a cook shop.

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

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

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

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

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

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

PULLEY, a confederate thief, – generally a woman.

PUMMEL, to thrash, – from POMMEL.

PUMP SHIP, to evacuate urine. —Sea.

PURE FINDERS, street collectors of dogs’ dung.

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

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

“Two penn’orth o’ PURL —Good ‘early PURL,’’Gin all the worldTo put your hair into a curl,When you feel yourself queer of a mornin’.”

PUSH, a crowd. —Old cant.

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

PUT, a game at cards.

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

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

PUT UPON, cheated, deluded, oppressed.

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

“It is true that the wicked make sportOf our PYGOSTOLES, as we go by;And one gownsman, in Trinity Court,Went so far as to call me a ‘Guy,’”

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

QUEAN (not QUEEN), a strumpet.

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

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

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

“Who in a row like Tom could lead the van,Booze in the ken, or at the spellken hustle?Who QUEER a flat,” &c. Don Juan, canto xi., 19.

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

QUEER BIT-MAKERS, coiners.

QUEER SCREENS, forged bank notes.

QUEER SOFT, bad money.

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Des testamens qu’on dit le maistreDe mon fait n’aura QUID ne QUOD.”Grand Testament de Villon.

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

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

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

QUILT, to thrash, or beat.

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

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

QUIZ, to pry, or joke.

QUIZZICAL, jocose, humorous.

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

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

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

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

RACKETY, wild or noisy.

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

RACLAN, a married woman. —Gipsey.

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

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

RAGAMUFFIN, a tattered vagabond, a tatterdemalion.

RAG SPLAWGER, a rich man.

RAGS, bank notes.

RAG-SHOP, a bank.

RAIN NAPPER, umbrella.

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

RAMP, to thieve or rob with violence.

RAMPSMAN, a highway robber who uses violence when necessary.

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

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

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

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

RANTIPOLE, a wild noisy fellow.

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

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

RAPPING, enormous; “a RAPPING big lie.”

RAPSCALLION, a low tattered wretch.

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

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

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

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

RATTLECAP, an unsteady, volatile person.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

REAM-BLOAK, a good man.

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

REDGE, gold.

RED HERRING, a soldier.

RED LANE, the throat.

RED LINER, an officer of the Mendicity Society.

RED RAG, the tongue.

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

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

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

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

RHINO, ready money.

RHINOCERAL, rich, wealthy, abounding in RHINO.

RIB, a wife. —North.

RIBBONS, the reins. —Middlesex.

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

“And he departs, not meanly boastingOf his magnificent RIBROASTING.” —Hudibras.

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

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

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

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

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

RIGHT AS NINEPENCE, quite right, exactly right.

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

RIGMAROLE, a prolix story.

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

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

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

RING DROPPING, see FAWNEY.

RINGING CASTORS, changing hats.

RINGING THE CHANGES, changing bad money for good.

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

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

RIPPING, excellent, very good.

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

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

ROARER, a broken-winded horse.

ROARING TRADE, a very successful business.

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

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

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

ROLL OF SNOW, a piece of Irish linen.

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

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

“I, says the ROOK,With my little book,I’ll be the parson.”

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

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

ROOKY, rascally, rakish, scampish.

ROOST, synonymous with PERCH, which see.

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

ROSE, an orange.

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

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

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

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

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

ROUGHS, coarse, or vulgar men.

ROULEAU, a packet of sovereigns. —Gaming.

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

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

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

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

“Watchmen, sometimes they made their sallies,And walk’d their ROUNDS through streets and allies.” Ned Ward’s Vulgus Britannicus, 1710.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RUGGY, fusty, frowsy.

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

“Thus RUMLY floor’d, the kind Acestes ran,And pitying, rais’d from earth the game old man.”Virgil’s Æneid, book v., Translation by Thomas Moore.

RUMBUMPTIOUS, haughty, pugilistic.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SAL, a salary. —Theatrical.

SALAMANDERS, street acrobats, and jugglers who eat fire.