A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language, James Hardy Vaux [famous ebook reader TXT] 📗
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time, when he is ultimately taken, tried, and convicted, is said to be
bowled out at last. To bowl a person out, in a general sense, means to
detect him in the commission of any fraud, or peculation, which he has
hitherto practised without discovery.
BRACE UP: to dispose of stolen goods by pledging them for the utmost you
can get at a pawnbroker’s, is termed bracing them up.
BRADS: halfpence; also, money in general.
BREAKING UP OF THE SPELL: the nightly termination of performance at the
Theatres Royal, which is regularly attended by pickpockets of the lower
order, who exercise their vocation about the doors and avenues leading
thereto, until the house is emptied and the crowd dispersed.
BREECH’D: flush of money.
BRIDGE: to bridge a person, or throw him over the bridge, is, in a
general sense, to deceive him by betraying the confidence he has reposed
in you, and instead of serving him faithfully, to involve him in ruin or
disgrace; or, three men being concerned alike in any transaction, two of
them will form a collusion to bridge the third, and engross to themselves
all the advantage which may eventually accrue. Two persons having been
engaged in a long and doubtful contest or rivalship, he, who by superior
art or perseverance gains the point, is said to have thrown his opponent
over the bridge. Among gamblers, it means deceiving the person who had
back’d you, by wilfully losing the game; the money so lost by him being
shared between yourself and your confederates who had laid against you.
In playing three-handed games, two of the party will play into each
other’s hands, so that the third must inevitably be thrown over the
bridge, commonly called, two poll one. See PLAY ACROSS.
BROADS: cards ; a person expert at which is said to be a good
broad-player.
BROOMSTICKS. See QUEER BAIL.
BROWNS and WHISTLERS: bad halfpence and farthings; (a term used by
coiners.)
BUB: a low expression signifying drink.
BUCKET. To bucket a person is synonymous with putting him in the well.
See WELL. Such treatment is said to be a bucketting concern.
BUFF, To buff a person or thing, is to swear to the identity of them;
swearing very positively to any circumstance, is called buffing it home.
BUFFER: a dog.
BUG or BUG OVER. To give, deliver, or hand over; as, He bug’d me a quid,
he gave me a guinea; bug over the rag, hand over the money.
BULL: a crown, or five shillings.
BULL-DOG: a sugar-loaf.
BULL-HANKERS: men who delight in the sport of bull-banking; that is,
bull-baiting, or bullock-hunting, games which afford much amusement, and
at the same time frequent opportunities of depredation, in the confusion
and alarm excited by the enraged animal.
BUM-CHARTER: a name given to bread steeped in hot water, by the first
unfortunate inhabitants of the English Bastile, where this miserable fare
was their daily breakfast, each man receiving with his ; scanty portion
of bread, a quart of boil’d water from the cook’s coppers!
BUM-TRAP: a sheriff’s officer or his follower.
BUNCE: money.
BURICK: a prostitute, or common woman.
BUSH’D: poor; without money.
BUSHY-PARK: a man who is poor is said to be at Bushy park, or in the
park.
BUSTLE: a cant term for money.
BUSTLE: any object effected very suddenly, or in a hurry, is said to be
done upon the bustle. To give it to a man upon the bustle, is to obtain
any point, as borrowing money, etc.; by some sudden story or pretence,
and affecting great haste, so that he is taken by surprise, and becomes
duped before he has time to consider of the matter.
BUZ: to buz a person is to pick his pocket. The buz is the game of
picking pockets in general.
BUZ-COVE, or BUZ-GLOAK: a pickpocket; a person who is clever at this
practice, is said to be a good buz.
CABIN: a house.
CADGE: to beg. The cadge is the game or profession of begging.
CADGE-CLOAK: a beggar.
CANT OF DOBBIN: a roll of riband.
CAP: synonymous with BONNET, which see.
CARDINAL: a lady’s cloak.
CARRY THE KEG: a man who is easily vexed or put out of humour by any joke
passed upon him, and cannot conceal his chagrin, is said to carry the
keg, or is compared to a walking distiller.
CASTOR: a hat.
CAT and KITTEN RIG: the petty game of stealing pewter quart and pint pots
from public-houses.
CAZ: cheese; As good as caz, is a phrase signifying that any projected
fraud or robbery may be easily and certainly accomplished; any person who
is the object of such attempt and is known to be an easy dupe, is
declared to be as good as caz, meaning that success is certain.
CHANDLER-KEN: a chandler’s shop.
CHANT: a person’s name, address, or designation; thus, a thief who
assumes a feigned name on his apprehension to avoid being known, or a
swindler who gives a false address to a tradesman, is said to tip them a
queer chant.
CHANT: a cipher, initials, or mark of any kind, on a piece of plate,
linen, or other article; any thing so marked is said to be chanted.
CHANT: an advertisement in a newspaper or hand-bill; also a paragraph in
the newspaper describing any robbery or other recent event; any lost or
stolen property, for the recovery of which, or a thief, etc., for whose
apprehension a reward is held out by advertisement, are said to be
chanted.
CHARLEY: a watchman.
CHARLEY-KEN: a watch-box.
CHATS: lice.
CHATTY: lousy,
CHAUNT: a song; to chaunt is to sing; to throw off a rum chaunt, is to
sing a good song.
CHEESE IT. The same as Stow it.
CHEESE THAT. See STOW THAT.
CHINA STREET: a cant name for Bow Street, Covent Garden.
CHIV: a knife; to chiv a person is to stab or cut him with a knife.
CHRISTEN: obliterating the name and number on the movement on a stolen
watch; or the crest, cipher, etc., on articles of plate, and getting
others engraved, so as to prevent their being identified, is termed
having them bishop’d or christen’d.
CHUM: a fellow prisoner in a jail, hulk, etc.; so there are new chums
and old chums, as they happen to have been a short or a long time in
confinement.
CHURY: a knife.
CLEANED OUT: said of a gambler who has lost his last stake at play; also,
of a flat who has been stript of all his money by a coalition of sharps.
CLOUT: a handkerchief of any kind.
CLOUTING: the practice of picking pockets exclusively of handkerchiefs.
CLY: a pocket.
CLY-FAKER: a pickpocket.
COACH-WHEEL: a dollar or crown-piece.
COME. A thief observing any article in a shop, or other situation, which
he conceives may be easily purloined, will say to his accomplice, I think
there is so and so to come.
COME IT: to divulge a secret; to tell any thing of one party to another;
they say of a thief who has turned evidence against his accomplices, that
he is coming all he knows, or that he comes it as strong as a horse.
COME TO THE HEATH: a phrase signifying to payor give money, and
synonymous with Tipping, from which word it takes its rise, there being a
place called Tiptree Heath, I believe, in the County of Essex.
COME TO THE MARK: to abide strictly by any contract previously made; to
perform your part manfully in any exploit or enterprise you engage in; or
to offer what I consider a fair price for any article in question.
CONCERNED. In using many cant words, the lovers of flash, by way of
variation, adopt this term, for an illustration of which, see
BOLT-IN-TURN, ALDERMAN LUSHINGTON, MR. PALMER, etc.
CONK: the nose.
CONK: a thief who impeaches his accomplices; a spy; informer, or
tell-tale. See NOSE, and WEAR IT.
COVE: the master of a house or shop, is called the Cove; on other
occasions, when joined to particular words, as a cross-cove, a
flash-cove, a leary-cove, etc., it simply implies a man of these several
descriptions; sometimes, in speaking of any third person, whose name you
are either ignorant of, or don’t wish to mention, the word cove is
adopted by way of emphasis, as may be seen under the word AWAKE.
COVER: to stand in such a situation as to obscure your Pall, who is
committing a robbery, from the view of by-standers or persons passing, is
called covering him. Any body whose dress or stature renders him
particularly eligible for this purpose, is said to be a good cover.
COVESS: the mistress of a house or shop, and used on other occasions, in
the same manner as Cove, when applied to a man.
CRAB: to prevent the perfection or execution of any intended matter or
business, by saying any thing offensive or unpleasant, is called crabbing
it, or throwing a crab; to crab a person, is to use offensive language or
behaviour as will highly displease, or put him in an ill humour.
CRAB’D: affronted; out of humour; sometimes called, being in Crab-street.
CRABSHELLS: shoes.
CRACK: to break open; the crack is the game of housebreaking; a crack is
a breaking any house or building for the purpose of plunder.
CRACKSMAN: a housebreaker.
CRACK A WHID: to speak or utter: as, he crack’d some queer whids, he
dropt some bad or ugly expressions: crack a whid for me, intercede, or
put in a word for me.
CRACKER: a small loaf, served to prisoners in jails, for their daily
subsistence.
CRAP: the gallows.
CRAP’D: hanged.
CRIB: a house, sometimes applied to shops, as, a thimble-crib, a
watch-maker’s shop; a stocking-crib, a hosier’s, etc.
CROAK: to die.
CROOK: a sixpence.
CROSS: illegal or dishonest practices in general are called the cross, in
opposition to the square. See SQUARE. Any article which has been
irregularly obtained, is said to have been got upon the cross, and is
emphatically termed a cross article.
CROSS-COVE, or CROSS-MOLLISHER, a man or woman who lives upon the cross.
CROSS-CRIB: a house inhabited, or kept by family people. See SQUARE CRIB.
CROSS-FAM: to cross-fam a person, is to pick his pocket, by crossing your
arms in a particular position.
CUE. See letter Q.
CUT THE LINE. See LINE.
CUT THE STRING. See STRING.
CUT THE TARN. See YARN.
CUTTING-GLOAK: a man famous for drawing a knife, and cutting any person
he quarrels with.
DAB: a bed. DAB IT UP: to dab it up with a woman, is to agree to cohabit
with her.
DANCERS: stairs.
DANNA: human, or other excrement.
DANNA-DRAG: commonly pronounced dunnick-drag. See KNAP A JACOB, etc.
DARBIES: fetters.
DARKY: night.
DARKY: a dark lanthorn.
DEATH-HUNTER: an undertaker.
DICKY, or DICK IN THE GREEN: very bad or paltry; any thing of an inferior
quality, is said to be a dicky concern.
DIMMOCK: money.
DING: to throw, or throw away; particularly any article you have stolen,
either because it is worthless, or that there is danger of immediate
apprehension. To ding a person, is to drop his acquaintance totally; also
to quit his company, or leave him for the time present; to ding to your
pall, is to convey to him, privately, the property you have just stolen;
and
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