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 |