1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

COD'S HEAD. A stupid fellow.

COFFEE HOUSE. A necessary house. To make a coffee-house of a woman's ****; to go in and out and spend nothing.

COG. The money, or whatsoever the sweeteners drop to draw in a bubble.

COG. A tooth. A queer cog; a rotten tooth. How the cull flashes his queer cogs; how the fool shews his rotten teeth.

TO COG. To cheat with dice; also to coax or wheedle, To cog a die; to conceal or secure a die. To cog a dinner; to wheedle one out of a dinner.

COGUE. A dram of any spirituous liquor.

COKER. A lie.

COKES. The fool in the play of Bartholomew Fair: perhaps a contraction of the word COXCOMB.

COLCANNON. Potatoes and cabbage pounded together in a mortar, and then stewed with butter: an Irish dish.

COLD. You will catch cold at that; a vulgar threat or advice to desist from an attempt. He caught cold by lying in bed barefoot; a saying of any one extremely tender or careful of himself.

COLD BURNING. A punishment inflicted by private soldiers on their comrades for trifling offences, or breach of their mess laws; it is administered in the following manner: The prisoner is set against the wall, with the arm which is to be burned tied as high above his head as possible. The executioner then ascends a stool, and having a bottle of cold water, pours it slowly down the sleeve of the delinquent, patting him, and leading the water gently down his body, till it runs out at his breeches knees: this is repeated to the other arm, if he is sentenced to be burned in both.

COLD COOK. An undertaker of funerals, or carrion hunter. See CARRION HUNTER.

COLD IRON. A sword, or any other weapon for cutting or stabbing. I gave him two inches of cold iron into his beef.

COLD MEAT. A dead wife is the beat cold meat in a man's house.

COLD PIG. To give cold pig is a punishment inflicted on sluggards who lie too long in bed: it consists in pulling off all the bed clothes from them, and throwing cold water upon them.

COLD PUDDING. This is said to settle one's love.

COLE. Money. Post the cole: pay down the money.

COLIANDER, or CORIANDER SEEDS. Money.

COLLAR DAY. Execution day.

COLLEGE. Newgate or any other prison. New College: the Royal Exchange. King's College: the King's Bench prison. He has been educated at the steel, and took his last degree at college; he has received his education at the house of correction, and was hanged at Newgate.

COLLEGE COVE. The College cove has numbered him, and if he is knocked down he'll be twisted; the turnkey of Newgate has told the judge how many times the prisoner has been tried before and therefore if he is found guilty, he certainly will be hanged. It is said to be the custom of the Old Bailey for one of the turnkeys of Newgate to give information to the judge how many times an old offender has been tried, by holding up as many fingers as the number of times the prisoner has been before arraigned at that bar.

COLLEGIATES. Prisoners of the one, and shopkeepers of the other of those places.

COLLECTOR. A highwayman.

TO COLLOGUE. To wheedle or coax.

COOK RUFFIAN, who roasted the devil in his feathers. A bad cook.

COOL CRAPE. A shroud.

COOLER. A woman.

COOLER. The backside. Kiss my cooler. Kiss my a-se. It is principally used to signify a woman's posteriors.

COOL LADY. A female follower of the camp, who sells brandy.

COOL NANTS. Brandy.

COOL TANKARD. Wine and water, with lemon, sugar, and burrage.

COLQUARRON. A man's neck. His colquarron is just about to be twisted; he is just going to be hanged. CANT.

COLT. One who lets horses to highwaymen; also a boy newly initiated into roguery; a grand or petty juryman on his first assize. CANT.

COLTAGE. A fine or beverage paid by colts on their first entering into their offices.

COLT BOWL. Laid short of the jack by a colt bowler, i.e. a person raw or unexperienced in the art of bowling.

COLT'S TOOTH. An old fellow who marries or keeps a young girl, is said to have a colt's tooth in his head.

COLT VEAL. Coarse red veal, more like the flesh of a colt than that of a calf.

COMB. To comb one's head; to clapperclaw, or scold any one: a woman who lectures her husband, is said to comb his head. She combed his head with a joint stool; she threw a stool at him.

COME. To come; to lend. Has he come it; has he lent it? To come over any one; to cheat or over reach him. Coming wench; a forward wench, also a breeding woman.

COMING! SO IS CHRISTMAS. Said of a person who has long been called, and at length answers, Coming!

COMFORTABLE IMPORTANCE. A wife.

COMMISSION. A shirt. CANT.

COMMODE. A woman's head dress.

COMMODITY. A woman's commodity; the private parts of a modest woman, and the public parts of a prostitute.

COMMONS. The house of commons; the necessary house.

COMPANY. To see company; to enter into a course of prostitution.

COMPLIMENT. See CHRISTMAS.

COMUS'S COURT. A social meeting formerly held at the Half Moon tavern Cheapside.

CONFECT. Counterfeited.

CONGER. To conger; the agreement of a set or knot of booksellers of London, that whosoever of them shall buy a good copy, the rest shall take off such a particular number, in quires, at a stated price; also booksellers joining to buy either a considerable or dangerous copy.

CONGO. Will you lap your congo with me? will you drink tea with me?

CONNY WABBLE. Eggs and brandy beat up together. IRISH.

CONSCIENCE KEEPER. A superior, who by his influence makes his dependants act as he pleases.

CONTENT. The cull's content; the man is past complaining: a saying of a person murdered for resisting the robbers. CANT.

CONTENT. A thick liquor, in imitation of chocolate, made of milk and gingerbread.

CONTRA DANCE. A dance where the dancers of the different sexes stand opposite each other, instead of side by side, as in the minuet, rigadoon, louvre, &c. and now corruptly called a country dance.

CONUNDRUMS. Enigmatical conceits.

CONVENIENT. A mistress. CANT.

CONVENIENCY. A necessary. A leathern conveniency, a coach.

COOPED UP. Imprisoned, confined like a fowl in a coop.

COQUET. A jilt.

CORINTH. A bawdy-house. CANT.

CORINTHIANS: Frequenters of brothels. Also an impudent, brazen-faced fellow, perhaps from the Corinthian brass.

CORK-BRAINED. Light-headed, foolish.

CORNED. Drunk.

CORNISH HUG. A particular lock in wrestling, peculiar to the people of that county.

CORNY-FACED. A very red pimpled face.

CORPORAL. To mount a corporal and four; to be guilty of onanism: the thumb is the corporal, the four fingers the privates.

CORPORATION. A large belly. He has a glorious corporation; he has a very prominent belly.

CORPORATION. The magistrates, &c. of a corporate town. Corpus sine ratione. Freemen of a corporation's work; neither strong nor handsome.

COSSET. A foundling. Cosset colt or lamb; a colt or lamb brought up by hand.

COSTARD. The head. I'll smite your costard; I'll give you a knock on the head.

COSTARD MONGER. A dealer in fruit, particularly apples.

COT, or QUOT. A man who meddles with women's household business, particularly in the kitchen. The punishment commonly inflicted on a quot, is pinning a greasy dishclout to the skirts of his coat.

COVE. A man, a fellow, a rogue. The cove was bit; the rogue was outwitted. The cove has bit the cole; the rogue has got the money. CANT.

COVENT, or CONVENT GARDEN, vulgarly called COMMON GARDEN. Anciently, the garden belonging to a dissolved monastery; now famous for being the chief market in London for fruit, flowers, and herbs. The theatres are situated near it. In its environs are many brothels, and not long ago, the lodgings of the second order of ladies of easy virtue were either there, or in the purlieus of Drury Lane.

COVENT GARDEN ABBESS. A bawd.

COVENT GARDEN AGUE. The venereal disease. He broke his shins against Covent Garden rails; he caught the venereal disorder.

COVENT GARDEN NUN. A prostitute.

COVENTRY. To send one to Coventry; a punishment inflicted by officers of the army on such of their brethren as are testy, or have been guilty of improper behaviour, not worthy the cognizance of a court martial. The person sent to Coventry is considered as absent; no one must speak to or answer any question he asks, except relative to duty, under penalty of being also sent to the same place. On a proper submission, the penitent is recalled, and welcomed by the mess, as just returned from a journey to Coventry.

COVEY. A collection of whores. What a fine covey here is, if the Devil would but throw his net!

TO COUCH A HOGSHEAD. To lie down to sleep. CANT.

COUNTERFEIT CRANK. A general cheat, assuming all sorts of characters; one counterfeiting the falling sickness.

COUNTRY HARRY. A waggoner. CANT.

COUNTRY PUT. An ignorant country fellow.

COUNTY WORK. Said of any work that advances slowly.

COURT CARD. A gay fluttering coxcomb.

COURT HOLY WATER, COURT PROMISES. Fair speeches and promises, without performance.

COURT OF ASSISTANTS. A court often applied to by young women who marry old men.

COW. To sleep like a cow, with a **** at one's a-se; said of a married man; married men being supposed to sleep with their backs towards their wives, according to the following proclamation:

All you that in your beds do lie,Turn to your wives, and occupy:And when that you have done your best,Turn a-se to a-se, and take your rest.

COW JUICE. Milk.

COW'S BABY. A calf.

COW'S COURANT. Gallop and sh–e.

COW-HANDED. Awkward.

COW-HEARTED. Fearful.

COW ITCH. The product of a sort of bean, which excites an insufferable itching, used chiefly for playing tricks.

COW'S SPOUSE. A bull.

COW'S THUMB. Done to a cow's thumb; done exactly.

COXCOMB. Anciently, a fool. Fools, in great families, wore a cap with bells, on the top of which was a piece of red cloth, in the shape of a cock's comb. At present, coxcomb signifies a fop, or vain self-conceited fellow.

CRAB. To catch a crab; to fall backwards by missing one's stroke in rowing.

CRAB LANTHORN. A peevish fellow.

CRAB LOUSE. A species of louse peculiar to the human body; the male is denominated a cock, the female a hen.

CRAB SHELLS. Shoes. IRISH.

CRABS. A losing throw to the main at hazard.

CRABBED. Sour, ill-tempered, difficult.

CRACK. A whore.

TO CRACK. To boast or brag; also to break. I cracked his napper; I broke his head.

THE CRACK, or ALL THE CRACK. The fashionable theme, the go. The Crack Lay, of late is used, in the cant language, to signify the art and mystery of house-breaking.

CRACKER. Crust, sea biscuit, or ammunition loaf; also the backside. Farting crackers; breeches.

CRACKISH. Whorish.

CRACKING TOOLS. Implements of house-breaking, such as a crow, a center bit, false keys, &c.

CRACKMANS. Hedges. The cull thought to have loped by breaking through the crackmans, but we fetched him back by a nope on the costard, which stopped his jaw; the man thought to have escaped by breaking through the hedge, but we brought him back by a great blow on the head, which laid him speechless.

CRACKSMAN. A house-breaker. The kiddy is a clever cracksman; the young fellow is a very expert house-breaker.

CRAG. The neck.

CRAMP RINGS. Bolts, shackles, or fetters. CANT.

CRAMP WORDS. Sentence of death passed on a criminal by a judge. He has just undergone the cramp word; sentence has just been passed on him. CANT.

CRANK. Gin and water; also, brisk, pert.

CRANK. The falling sickness. CANT.

TO CRASH. To kill. Crash that cull; kill that fellow. CANT.

CRASHING CHEATS. Teeth.

CRAW THUMPERS. Roman catholics, so called from their beating their breasts in the confession of their sins. See BRISKET BEATER, and BREAST FLEET.

CREAM-POT LOVE. Such as young fellows pretend to dairymaids, to get cream and other good things from them.

TO CREEME. To slip or slide any thing into the hands of another. CANT.

CREEPERS. Gentlemen's companions, lice.

CREW. A knot or gang; also a boat or ship's company. The canting crew are thus divided into twenty-three orders, which see under the different words:

MEN.

1 Rufflers 2 Upright Men 3 Hookers or Anglers 4 Rogues 5 Wild Rogues 6 Priggers of Prancers 7 Palliardes 8 Fraters 9 Jarkmen, or Patricoes 10 Fresh Water Mariners, or Whip Jackets 11 Drummerers 12 Drunken Tinkers 13 Swadders, or Pedlars 14 Abrams.

WOMEN.

1 Demanders for Glimmer or Fire 2 Bawdy Baskets 3 Morts 4 Autem Morts 5 Walking Morts 6 Doxies 7 Delles 8 Kinching Morts 9 Kinching Coes

CRIB. A house. To crack a crib: to break open a house.

TO CRIB. To purloin, or appropriate to one's own use, part of any thing intrusted to one's care.

TO FIGHT A CRIB. To make a sham fight. BEAR GARDEN TERM.

CRIBBAGE-FACED. Marked with the small pox, the pits bearing a kind of resemblance to the holes in a cribbage-board.

CRIBBEYS, or CRIBBY ISLANDS. Blind alleys, courts, or bye-ways; perhaps from the houses built there being cribbed out of the common way or passage; and islands, from the similarity of sound to the Caribbee Islands.

CRIM. CON. MONEY. Damages directed by a jury to be paid by a convicted adulterer to the injured husband, for criminal conversation with his wife.

CRIMP. A broker or factor, as a coal crimp, who disposes of the cargoes of the Newcastle coal ships; also persons employed to trapan or kidnap recruits for the East Indian and African companies. To crimp, or play crimp; to play foul or booty: also a cruel manner of cutting up fish alive, practised by the London fishmongers, in order to make it eat firm; cod, and other crimped fish, being a favourite dish among voluptuaries and epicures.

CRINKUM CRANKUM. A woman's commodity. See SPECTATOR.

CRINKUMS. The foul or venereal disease.

CRIPPLE. Sixpence; that piece being commonly much bent and distorted.

CRISPIN. A shoemaker: from a romance, wherein a prince of that name is said to have exercised the art and mystery of a shoemaker, thence called the gentle craft: or rather from the saints Crispinus and Crispianus, who according to the legend, were brethren born at Rome, from whence they travelled to Soissons in France, about the year 303, to propagate the Christian religion; but, because they would not be chargeable to others for their maintenance, they exercised the trade of shoemakers: the governor of the town discovering them to be Christians, ordered them to be beheaded, about the year 303; from which time they have been the tutelar saints of the shoemakers.

CRISPIN'S HOLIDAY. Every Monday throughout the year, but most particularly the 25th of October, being the anniversary of Crispinus and Crispianus.

CRISPIN'S LANCE. An awl.

CROAKER. One who is always foretelling some accident or misfortune: an allusion to the croaking of a raven, supposed ominous.

CROAKUMSHIRE. Northumberland, from the particular croaking the pronunciation of the people of that county, especially about Newcastle and Morpeth, where they are said to be born with a burr in their throats, which prevents their pronouncing the letter r.

CROAKERS. Forestallers, called also Kidders and Tranters.

CROCODILE'S TEARS. The tears of a hypocrite. Crocodiles are fabulously reported to shed tears over their prey before they devour it.

CROCUS, or CROCUS METALLORUM. A nick name for a surgeon of the army and navy.

CROKER. A groat, or four pence.

CRONE. An old ewe whose teeth are worn out; figuratively, a toothless old beldam.

CRONY. An intimate companion, a comrade; also a confederate in a robbery.

CROOK. Sixpence.

CROOK BACK. Sixpence; for the reason of this name, see CRIPPLE.

CROOK YOUR ELBOW. To crook one's elbow, and wish it may never come straight, if the fact then affirmed is not true—according to the casuists of Bow-street and St. Giles's, adds great weight and efficacy to an oath.

CROOK SHANKS. A nickname for a man with bandy legs. He buys his boots in Crooked Lane, and his stockings in Bandy-legged Walk; his legs grew in the night, therefore could not see to grow straight; jeering sayings of men with crooked legs.

CROP. A nick name for a presbyterian: from their cropping their hair, which they trimmed close to a bowl-dish, placed as a guide on their heads; whence they were likewise called roundheads. See ROUNDHEADS.

CROP. To be knocked down for a crop; to be condemned to be hanged. Cropped, hanged.

CROPPING DRUMS. Drummers of the foot guards, or Chelsea hospital, who find out weddings, and beat a point of war to serenade the new married couple, and thereby obtain money.

CROPPEN. The tail. The croppen of the rotan; the tail of the cart. Croppen ken: the necessary-house. CANT.

CROPSICK. Sickness in the stomach, arising from drunkenness.

CROSS. To come home by weeping cross; to repent at the conclusion.

CROSS DISHONEST. A cross cove; any person who lives by stealing or in a dishonest manner.

CROSS BITE. One who combines with a sharper to draw in a friend; also, to counteract or disappoint. CANT.—This is peculiarly used to signify entrapping a man so as to obtain CRIM. COM. money, in which the wife, real or supposed, conspires with the husband.

CROSS BUTTOCK. A particular lock or fall in the Broughtonian art, which, as Mr. Fielding observes, conveyed more pleasant sensations to the spectators than the patient.

CROSS PATCH. A peevish boy or girl, or rather an unsocial ill-tempered man or woman.

TO CROW. To brag, boast, or triumph. To crow over any one; to keep him in subjection: an image drawn from a cock, who crows over a vanquished enemy. To pluck a crow; to reprove any one for a fault committed, to settle a dispute. To strut like a crow in a gutter; to walk proudly, or with an air of consequence.

CROWD. A fiddle: probably from CROOTH, the Welch name for that instrument.

CROWDERO. A fiddler.

CROWDY. Oatmeal and water, or milk; a mess much eaten in the north.

CROW FAIR. A visitation of the clergy. See REVIEW OF THE BLACK CUIRASSIERS.

CROWN OFFICE. The head. I fired into her keel upwards; my eyes and limbs Jack, the crown office was full; I s—k-d a woman with her a-e upwards, she was so drunk, that her head lay on the ground.

CRUISERS. Beggars, or highway spies, who traverse the road, to give intelligence of a booty; also rogues ready to snap up any booty that may offer, like privateers or pirates on a cruise.

CRUMMY. Fat, fleshy. A fine crummy dame; a fat woman. He has picked up his crumbs finely of late; he has grown very fat, or rich, of late.

CRUMP. One who helps solicitors to affidavit men, or false witnesses.—'I wish you had, Mrs. Crump;' a Gloucestershire saying, in answer to a wish for any thing; implying, you must not expect any assistance from the speaker. It is said to have originated from the following incident: One Mrs. Crump, the wife of a substantial farmer, dining with the old Lady Coventry, who was extremely deaf, said to one of the footmen, waiting at table, 'I wish I had a draught of small beer,' her modesty not permitting her to desire so fine a gentleman to bring it: the fellow, conscious that his mistress could not hear either the request or answer, replied, without moving, 'I wish you had, Mrs. Crump.' These wishes being again repeated by both parties, Mrs. Crump got up from the table to fetch it herself; and being asked by my lady where she was going, related what had passed. The story being told abroad, the expression became proverbial.

CRUMP-BACKED. Hump-backed.

CRUSTY BEAU. One that uses paint and cosmetics, to obtain a fine complexion.

CRUSTY FELLOW. A surly fellow.

CUB. An unlicked cub; an unformed, ill-educated young man, a young nobleman or gentleman on his travels: an allusion to the story of the bear, said to bring its cub into form by licking. Also, a new gamester.

CUCKOLD. The husband of an incontinent wife: cuckolds, however, are Christians, as we learn by the following story: An old woman hearing a man call his dog Cuckold, reproved him sharply, saying, 'Sirrah, are not you ashamed to call a dog by a Christian's name?' To cuckold the parson; to bed with one's wife before she has been churched.

CUCUMBERS. Taylors, who are jocularly said to subsist, during the summer, chiefly on cucumbers.

CUFF. An old cuff; an old man. To cuff Jonas; said of one who is knock-kneed, or who beats his sides to keep himself warm in frosty weather; called also Beating the booby.

CUFFIN. A man.

CULL. A man, honest or otherwise. A bob cull; a good-natured, quiet fellow. CANT.

CULLABILITY. A disposition liable to be cheated, an unsuspecting nature, open to imposition.

CULLY. A fog or fool: also, a dupe to women: from the Italian word coglione, a blockhead.

CULP. A kick or blow: from the words mea culpa, being that part of the popish liturgy at which the people beat their breasts; or, as the vulgar term is, thump their craws.

CUNDUM. The dried gut of a sheep, worn by men in the act of coition, to prevent venereal infection; said to have been invented by one colonel Cundum. These machines were long prepared and sold by a matron of the name of Philips, at the Green Canister, in Half-moon-street, in the Strand. That good lady having acquired a fortune, retired from business; but learning that the town was not well served by her successors, she, out of a patriotic zeal for the public welfare, returned to her occupation; of which she gave notice by divers hand-bills, in circulation in the year 1776. Also a false scabbard over a sword, and the oil-skin case for holding the colours of a regiment.

CUNNINGHAM. A punning appellation for a simple fellow.

CUNNING MAN. A cheat, who pretends by his skill in astrology to assist persons in recovering stolen goods: and also to tell them their fortunes, and when, how often, and to whom they shall be married; likewise answers all lawful questions, both by sea and land. This profession is frequently occupied by ladies.

CUNNING SHAVER. A sharp fellow, one that trims close, i.e. cheats ingeniously.

CUNNY-THUMBED. To double one's fist with the thumb inwards, like a woman.

C**T. The chonnos of the Greek, and the cunnus of the Latin dictionaries; a nasty name for a nasty thing: un con Miege.

CUP OF THE CREATURE. A cup of good liquor.

CUP-SHOT. Drunk.

CUPBOARD LOVE. Pretended love to the cook, or any other person, for the sake of a meal. My guts cry cupboard; i.e. I am hungry

CUPID, BLIND CUPID. A jeering name for an ugly blind man: Cupid, the god of love, being frequently painted blind. See BLIND CUPID.

CUR. A cut or curtailed dog. According to the forest laws, a man who had no right to the privilege of the chase, was obliged to cut or law his dog: among other modes of disabling him from disturbing the game, one was by depriving him of his tail: a dog so cut was called a cut or curtailed dog, and by contraction a cur. A cur is figuratively used to signify a surly fellow.

CURBING LAW. The act of hooking goods out of windows: the curber is the thief, the curb the hook. CANT.

CURE A-SE. A dyachilon plaister, applied to the parts galled by riding.

CURLE. Clippings of money, which curls up in the operation. CANT.

CURMUDGEON. A covetous old fellow, derived, according to some, from the French term coeur mechant.

CURRY. To curry favour; to obtain the favour of a person be coaxing or servility. To curry any one's hide; to beat him.

CURSE OF SCOTLAND. The nine of diamonds; diamonds, it is said, imply royalty, being ornaments to the imperial crown; and every ninth king of Scotland has been observed for many ages, to be a tyrant and a curse to that country. Others say it is from its similarity to the arms of Argyle; the Duke of Argyle having been very instrumental in bringing about the union, which, by some Scotch patriots, has been considered as detrimental to their country.

CURSE OF GOD. A cockade.

CURSITORS. Broken petty-fogging attornies, or Newgate solicitors. CANT.

CURTAILS. Thieves who cut off pieces of stuff hanging out of shop windows, the tails of women's gowns, &c.; also, thieves wearing short jackets.

CURTAIN LECTURE. A woman who scolds her husband when in bed, is said to read him a curtain lecture.

CURTEZAN. A prostitute.

CUSHION. He has deserved the cushion; a saying of one whose wife is brought to bed of a boy: implying, that having done his business effectually, he may now indulge or repose himself.