Black Ajax (32 page)
GLOSSARY
| above par | tolerably drunk |
| ale-draper | publican |
| all's bowmon | all's well |
| angelic | single young woman |
| apartments to let | empty-headed |
| area-sneak | burglar through a house's area |
| baked | exhausted |
| ball of fire | glass of brandy |
| ballum-rankum | dance by naked prostitutes |
| bamming | being funny, humbugging |
| Banbury tale | silly, roundabout story; hence, a lie |
| bang-up | most stylish, a la mode |
| barker | pistol |
| bartholomew baby | a doll, gaudy person; hence, a clown |
| beak | magistrate |
| belch | beer, porter, etc. |
| Black Beetles | lower orders |
| blackleg | sporting gambler or sharper |
| blate | frightened |
| blue tape | gin |
| blunt | money |
| bottom | pluck, grit |
| boxing a charlie | trapping a watchman in his box |
| breathing | exercising |
| breech | backside |
| bridle cull | highwayman |
| browns and whistlers | counterfeit coppers |
| brush | go away quickly |
| bub | beer |
| burned to the socket | dying, done for; hence, penniless |
| burrick | prostitute |
| bushed | poor, without resources |
| buz-gloak | pickpocket |
| buzz | talk, rumour |
| case | suit of clothes |
| castaway | drunk |
| casualty | a nonentity |
| cattle | horses |
| charlies | watchmen |
| cheese it | stop it, desist |
| chipper | lively girl |
| chived | lit. cut, hence gone away |
| chouse | cheat |
| circumvendibus | roundabout way |
| claret | blood |
| clock | face |
| clunch | a lout, a lumpish fellow |
| conk | nose |
| cool Nantz | brandy |
| crack the whid | to talk sociably, to joke |
| crapped | hanged |
| crib | a house |
| cross | a “fixed” fight |
| cry rope | to warn, hence inform |
| cut | drunk |
| cut his pigtail | resign commission |
| Cyprian | a harlot |
| daddle | hand |
| daffy | gin |
| darbies | fetters |
| delope | to fire wide deliberately |
| dial | face |
| Diamond Squad | fashionable society |
| dibs | money |
| dice | teeth |
| dicky | paltry, inferior |
| dicked in the nob | mad, silly |
| dive | to go slumming, hence a low establishment |
| dorse (doss) | to sleep |
| doxy | loose woman |
| dozzened | stupefied |
| dub your mummer | shut your mouth |
| duds | clothes |
| dummy-hunters | pickpockets (of wallets) |
| earwig | eavesdropper, hence to listen |
| edge | encourage (cf egg on) |
| eye-water | gin |
| facer | a blow in the face |
| fadge | be suitable (Won't fadge = won't do) |
| famble (fam) | hand |
| family | underworld |
| Fancy | boxing, sporting fraternity |
| fib | to box, to punch |
| file | a person |
| fives | fists |
| flash | loosely, relating to the underworld, but also disreputable, showy; thieves' language |
| flash the hash | to vomit |
| flimsy | a bank-note, money |
| fly | cunning, aware |
| fly-flapped | whipped at the cart-tail |
| foxed | drunk |
| fussock | lazy fat woman |
| futter | to copulate |
| galoot | a soldier |
| gams | legs |
| gelt | money |
| gig | fun |
| gill | a fellow |
| gloak | synonymous with gill |
| go-alonger | simpleton |
| gone to roost | dead, done for |
| Grand Strut | Rotten Row, Hyde Park |
| gun | to examine (took a gun = took a look) |
| gut-foundered | hungry |
| Haymarket ware | a prostitute |
| heavy wet | porter (drink) |
| high ropes | angry, excited |
| hocus | to drug, hence to deceive |
| Holy Land | back slums of St Giles' |
| hop the twig | to die, to go away |
| hop the wag | to play truant |
| hopper-dockers | shoes |
| hot house | brothel |
| ivories | teeth |
| jigger | door |
| jobbernowl | a fool |
| juggs | breasts |
| ken | a house, place of resort |
| knee | a second (boxing) |
| lawful blanket | wife |
| leery | wary, cunning |
| leg-men (legs) | bookmakers' touts |
| lickerish | lecherous |
| lillywhite | a Negro |
| limbo | prison |
| lush | strong drink |
| lushy | drunk |
| mag (meg) | a ha'penny |
| mauleys | boxing-gloves |
| mellow drain | sociable drinking |
| mill | (n. and v.) fight, to box |
| mint sauce | money |
| mollisher (moll) | a prostitute |
| monkey | £500 |
| mop, on the | on a drinking spree |
| mot | a low woman |
| mufflers | boxing-gloves |
| muslin | girl |
| mutton-monger | a ladies' man, a rake |
| muzzler | upper-cut (boxing) |
| nap (nab) | catch, arrest |
| nix | nothing, hence an emphatic negative |
| not a feather to fly with | penniless |
| nuller | a boxer |
| nun | a harlot |
| nuts (nutty) | something delightful, sweet |
| nymph of the pavey | a prostitute |
| office | private information of prize-fight venue |
| ogles | eyes |
| Oliver | the moon (depending on whether the moon is shining or set, Oliver is said to be in, or out of, town) |
| out-and-outer | splendid fellow |
| Paddington frisk | a hanging |
| pads | street robbers |
| pattering the flash | speaking thieves' cant |
| panny | small house ( family panny , underworld resort) |
| peck | food ( peck alley , throat, peck-box , mouth) |
| peepers | eyes |
| pewter | money |
| phiz (phizzog) | face |
| pick up | to act as second (boxing) |
| pike | run away |
| pilot | a watchman |
| pimple | the head |
| pippen | a good fellow |
| Point Nonplus, off | without money or credit |
| poulticed | mortgaged |
| prad | horse ( pradster , horseman) |
| prig | to steal, a thief. Also prigger |
| put to bed with a shovel | buried |
| racket | a fraudulent or criminal operation |
| rapper | false witness |
| rattler | coach |
| reader | notebook |
| red tape | brandy, spirits (cf. blue tape ) |
| rhino | money |
| roll of soft | sheaf of bank-notes |
| ruby | blood |
| rum | queer, but also excellent |
| sarsy | ( sassy, saucy ) impudent |
| scorched | short of money |
| screwed | burgled |
| shap | hat |
| sharp | a sword |
| shiner | black eye |
| shiver | to shake the fist |
| shoot the cat | vomit |
| shot in the neck | drunk |
| shove in the mouth | glass of gin |
| skirt | female |
| slum | nonsense, foolish talk |
| smoky | suspicious, underhand |
| snitch | betray |
| snyder | a tailor |
| sow's baby | sixpence |
| spangle | a seven-shilling coin |
| Spike Hotel | prison |
| spunging house | preliminary prison for debtors |
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