Chapter 17

SH-T SACK. A dastardly fellow: also a non-conformist. This appellation is said to have originated from the following story:--After the restoration, the laws against the non-conformists were extremely severe. They sometimes met in very obscure places: and there is a tradition that one of their congregations were assembled in a barn, the rendezvous of beggars and other vagrants, where the preacher, for want of a ladder or tub, was suspended in a sack fixed to the beam. His discourse that day being on the last judgment, he particularly attempted to describe the terrors of the wicked at the sounding of the trumpet, on which a trumpeter to a puppet-show, who had taken refuge in that barn, and lay hid under the straw, sounded a charge. The congregation, struck with the utmost consternation, fled in an instant from the place, leaving their affrighted teacher to shift for himself. The effects of his terror are said to have appeared at the bottom of the sack, and to have occasioned that opprobrious appellation by which the non-conformists were vulgarly distinguished.

SH-T-NG THROUGH THE TEETH. Vomiting. Hark ye, friend, have you got a padlock on your a-se, that you sh-te through your teeth? Vulgar address to one vomiting.

SHOD ALL ROUND. A parson who attends a funeral is said to be shod all round, when he receives a hat-band, gloves, and scarf: many shoeings being only partial.

SHOEMAKER'S STOCKS. New, or strait shoes. I was in the shoemaker's stocks; i.e. had on a new pair of shoes that were too small for me.

TO SHOOLE. To go skulking about.

TO SHOOT THE CAT. To vomit from excess of liquor; called also catting.

SHOP. A prison. Shopped; confined, imprisoned.

SHOPLIFTER. One that steals whilst pretending to purchase goods in a shop.

SHORT-HEELED WENCH. A girl apt to fall on her back.

SHOT. To pay one's shot; to pay one's share of a reckoning. Shot betwixt wind and water; poxed or clapped.

SHOTTEN HERRING. A thin meagre fellow.

To SHOVE THE TUMBLER. To be whipped at the cart's tail.

SHOVE IN THE MOUTH. A dram.

SHOVEL. To be put to bed with a shovel; to be buried. He or she was fed with a fire-shovel; a saying of a person with a large mouth.

SHOULDER FEAST. A dinner given after a funeral, to those who have carried the corpse.

SHOULDER CLAPPER. A bailiff, or member of the catch club. Shoulder-clapped; arrested.

SHOULDER SHAM. A partner to a file. See FILE.

SHRED. A taylor.

SHRIMP. A little diminutive person.

TO SHUFFLE. To make use of false pretences, or unfair shifts. A shuffling fellow; a slippery shifting fellow.

SHY COCK. One who keeps within doors for fear of bailiffs.

SICE. Sixpence.

SICK AS A HORSE. Horses are said to be extremely sick at their stomachs, from being unable to relieve themselves by vomiting. Bracken, indeed, in his Farriery, gives an instance of that evacuation being procured, but by a means which he says would make the Devil vomit. Such as may have occasion to administer an emetic either to the animal or the fiend, may consult his book for the recipe.

SIDE POCKET. He has as much need of a wife as a dog of a side pocket; said of a weak old debilitated man. He wants it as much as a dog does a side pocket; a simile used for one who desires any thing by no means necessary.

SIDLEDYWRY. Crooked.

SIGN OF A HOUSE TO LET. A widow's weeds.

SIGN OF THE: FIVE SHILLINGS. The crown. TEN SHILLINGS. The two crowns. FIFTEEN SHILLINGS. The three crowns.

SILENCE. To silence a man; to knock him down, or stun him. Silence in the court, the cat is pissing; a gird upon any one requiring silence unnecessarily.

SILENT FLUTE. See PEGO, SUGAR STICK, &c.

SILK SNATCHERS. Thieves who snatch hoods or bonnets from persons walking in the streets.

SILVER LACED. Replete with lice. The cove's kickseys are silver laced: the fellow's breeches are covered with lice.

SIMEONITES, (at Cambridge,) the followers of the Rev. Charles Simeon, fellow of King's College, author of Skeletons of Sermons, and preacher at Trinity church; they are in fact rank methodists.

SIMKIN. A foolish fellow.

SIMON. Sixpence. Simple Simon: a natural, a silly fellow; Simon Suck-egg, sold his wife for an addle duck-egg.

TO SIMPER. To smile: to simper like a firmity kettle.

SIMPLETON. Abbreviation of simple Tony or Anthony, a foolish fellow.

SIMPLES. Physical herbs; also follies. He must go to Battersea, to be cut for the simples--Battersea is a place famous for its garden grounds, some of which were formerly appropriated to the growing of simples for apothecaries, who at a certain season used to go down to select their stock for the ensuing year, at which time the gardeners were said to cut their simples; whence it became a popular joke to advise young people to go to Battersea, at that time, to have their simples cut, or to be cut for the simples.

TO SING. To call out; the coves sing out beef; they call out stop thief.

TO SING SMALL. To be humbled, confounded, or abashed, to have little or nothing to say for one's-self.

SINGLE PEEPER. A person having but one eye.

SINGLETON. A very foolish fellow; also a particular kind of nails.

SINGLETON. A corkscrew, made by a famous cutler of that name, who lived in a place called Hell, in Dublin; his screws are remarkable for their excellent temper.

SIR JOHN. The old title for a country parson: as Sir John of Wrotham, mentioned by Shakespeare.

SIR JOHN BARLEYCORN. Strong beer.

SIR LOIN. The sur, or upper loin.

SIR REVERENCE. Human excrement, a t--d.

SIR TIMOTHY. One who, from a desire of being the head of the company, pays the reckoning, or, as the term is, stands squire. See SQUIRE.

SITTING BREECHES. One who stays late in company, is said to have his sitting breeches on, or that he will sit longer than a hen.

SIX AND EIGHT-PENCE. An attorney, whose fee on several occasions is fixed at that sum.

SIX AND TIPS. Whisky and small beer. IRISH.

SIXES AND SEVENS. Left at sixes and sevens: i.e. in confusion; commonly said of a room where the furniture, &c. is scattered about; or of a business left unsettled.

SIZE OF ALE. Half a pint. Size of bread and cheese; a certain quantity. Sizings: Cambridge term for the college allowance from the buttery, called at Oxford battles.

To SIZE. (CAMBRIDGE) To sup at one's own expence. If a MAN asks you to SUP, he treats you; if to SIZE, you pay for what you eat--liquors ONLY being provided by the inviter.

SIZAR (Cambridge). Formerly students who came to the University for purposes of study and emolument. But at present they are just as gay and dissipated as their fellow collegians. About fifty years ago they were on a footing with the servitors at Oxford, but by the exertions of the present Bishop of Llandaff, who was himself a sizar, they were absolved from all marks of inferiority or of degradation. The chief difference at present between them and the pensioners, consists in the less amount of their college fees. The saving thus made induces many extravagant fellows to become sizars, that they may have more money to lavish on their dogs, pieces, &c.

SKEW. A cup, or beggar's wooden dish.

SKEWVOW, or ALL ASKEW. Crooked, inclining to one side.

SKIN. In a bad skin; out of temper, in an ill humour. Thin-skinned: touchy, peevish.

SKIN. A purse. Frisk the skin of the stephen; empty the money out of the purse. Queer skin; an empty purse.

SKIN FLINT. An avaricious man or woman,

SKINK. To skink, is to wait on the company, ring the bell, stir the fire, and snuff the candles; the duty of the youngest officer in the military mess. See BOOTS.

SKINS. A tanner.

SKIP JACKS. Youngsters that ride horses on sale, horse-dealers boys. Also a plaything made for children with the breast bone of a goose.

SKIP KENNEL. A footman.

SKIPPER. A barn. CANT.--Also the captain of a Dutch vessel.

TO SKIT. To wheedle. CANT.

SKIT. A joke. A satirical hint.

SKRIP. See SCRIP.

SKULKER. A soldier who by feigned sickness, or other pretences, evades his duty; a sailor who keeps below in time of danger; in the civil line, one who keeps out of the way, when any work is to be done. To skulk; to hide one's self, to avoid labour or duty.

SKY BLUE. Gin.

SKY FARMERS. Cheats who pretend they were farmers in the isle of Sky, or some other remote place, and were ruined by a flood, hurricane, or some such public calamity: or else called sky farmers from their farms being IN NUBIBUS, 'in the clouds.'

SKY PARLOUR. The garret, or upper story.

SLABBERING BIB. A parson or lawyer's band.

SLAG. A slack-mettled fellow, one not ready to resent an affront.

SLAM. A trick; also a game at whist lost without scoring one. To slam to a door; to shut it with violence.

SLAMKIN. A female sloven, one whose clothes seem hung on with a pitch-fork, a careless trapes.

SLANG. A fetter. Double slanged; double ironed. Now double slanged into the cells for a crop he is knocked down; he is double ironed in the condemned cells, and ordered to be hanged.

SLANG. Cant language.

SLAP-BANG SHOP. A petty cook's shop, where there is no credit given, but what is had must be paid DOWN WITH THE READY SLAP-BANG, i.e. immediately. This is a common appellation for a night cellar frequented by thieves, and sometimes for a stage coach or caravan.

SLAPDASH. Immediately, instantly, suddenly.

SLASHER. A bullying, riotous fellow. IRISH.

SLAT. Half a crown. CANT.

SLATE. A sheet. CANT.

SLATER'S PAN. The gaol at Kingston in Jamaica: Slater is the deputy Provost-marshal.

SLATTERN. A woman sluttishly negligent in her dress.

SLEEPING PARTNER. A partner in a trade, or shop, who lends his name and money, for which he receives a share of the profit, without doing any part of the business.

SLEEPY. Much worn: the cloth of your coat must be extremely sleepy, for it has not had a nap this long time.

SLEEVELESS ERRAND. A fool's errand, in search of what it is impossible to find.

SLICE. To take a slice; to intrigue, particularly with a married woman, because a slice off a cut loaf is not missed.

SLIPGIBBET. See SCAPEGALLOWS.

SLIPPERY CHAP. One on whom there can be no dependance, a shuffling fellow.

SLIPSLOPS. Tea, water-gruel, or any innocent beverage taken medicinally.

SLIPSLOPPING. Misnaming and misapplying any hard word; from the character of Mrs. Slipslop, in Fielding's Joseph Andrews.

SLOP. Tea. How the blowens lush the slop. How the wenches drink tea!

SLOPS. Wearing apparel and bedding used by seamen.

SLOP SELLER. A dealer in those articles, who keeps a slop shop.

SLOUCH. A stooping gait, a negligent slovenly fellow. To slouch; to hang down one's head. A slouched hat: a hat whose brims are let down.

SLUBBER DE GULLION. A dirty nasty fellow.

SLUG. A piece of lead of any shape, to be fired from a blunderbuss. To fire a slug; to drink a dram.

SLUG-A-BED. A drone, one that cannot rise in the morning.

SLUICE YOUR GOB. Take a hearty drink.

SLUR. To slur, is a method of cheating at dice: also to cast a reflection on any one's character, to scandalize.

SLUSH. Greasy dish-water, or the skimmings of a pot where fat meat has been boiled.

SLUSH BUCKET. A foul feeder, one that eats much greasy food.

SLY BOOTS. A cunning fellow, under the mask of simplicity.

SMABBLED, or SNABBLED. Killed in battle.

TO SMACK. To kiss. I had a smack at her muns: I kissed her mouth. To smack calves skin; to kiss the book, i.e. to take an oath. The queer cuffin bid me smack calves skin, but I only bussed my thumb; the justice bid me kiss the book, but I only kissed my thumb.

SMACKSMOOTH. Level with the surface, every thing cut away.

SMACKING COVE. A coachman.

SMALL CLOTHES. Breeches: a gird at the affected delicacy of the present age; a suit being called coat, waistcoat, and articles, or small clothes.

SMART. Spruce, fine: as smart as a carrot new scraped.

SMART MONEY. Money allowed to soldiers or sailors for the loss of a limb, or other hurt received in the service.

SMASHER. A person who lives by passing base coin. The cove was fined in the steel for smashing; the fellow was ordered to be imprisoned in the house of correction for uttering base coin.

SMASH. Leg of mutton and smash: a leg of mutton and mashed turnips. SEA TERM.

TO SMASH. To break; also to kick down stairs. CANT. To smash. To pass counterfeit money.

SMEAR. A plasterer.

SMEAR GELT. A bribe. GERMAN.

SMELLER. A nose. Smellers: a cat's whiskers.

SMELLING CHEAT. An orchard, or garden; also a nosegay. CANT.

SMELTS. Half guineas. CANT.

SMICKET. A smock, or woman's shift.

SMIRK. A finical spruce fellow. To smirk; to smile, or look pleasantly.

SMITER. An arm. To smite one's tutor; to get money from him. ACADEMIC TERM.

SMITHFIELD BARGAIN. A bargain whereby the purchaser is taken in. This is likewise frequently used to express matches or marriages contracted solely on the score of interest, on one or both sides, where the fair sex are bought and sold like cattle in Smithfield.

SMOCK-FACED. Fair faced.

TO SMOKE. To observe, to suspect.

SMOKER. A tobacconist.

SMOKY. Curious, suspicious, inquisitive.

SMOUCH. Dried leaves of the ash tree, used by the smugglers for adulterating the black or bohea teas.

SMOUS. A German Jew.

SMUG. A nick name for a blacksmith; also neat and spruce.

SMUG LAY. Persons who pretend to be smugglers of lace and valuable articles; these men borrow money of publicans by depositing these goods in their hands; they shortly decamp, and the publican discovers too late that he has been duped; and on opening the pretended treasure, he finds trifling articles of no value.

SMUGGLING KEN. A bawdy-house.

TO SMUSH. To snatch, or seize suddenly.

SMUT. Bawdy. Smutty story; an indecent story.

SMUT. A copper. A grate. Old iron. The cove was lagged for a smut: the fellow was transported for stealing a copper.

SNACK. A share. To go snacks; to be partners.

TO SNABBLE. To rifle or plunder; also to kill.

SNAFFLER. A highwayman. Snaffler of prances; a horse stealer.

TO SNAFFLE. To steal. To snaffle any ones poll; to steal his wig.

SNAGGS. Large teeth; also snails.

SNAKESMAN. See LITTLE SNAKESMAN.

SNAP DRAGON. A Christmas gambol: raisins and almonds being put into a bowl of brandy, and the candles extinguished, the spirit is set on fire, and the company scramble for the raisins.

TO SNAP THE GLAZE. To break shop windows or show glasses.

SNAPPERS. Pistols.

SNAPT. Taken, caught.

SNATCH CLY. A thief who snatches women's pockets.

SNEAK. A pilferer. Morning sneak; one who pilfers early in the morning, before it is light. Evening sneak; an evening pilferer. Upright sneak: one who steals pewter pots from the alehouse boys employed to collect them. To go upon the sneak; to steal into houses whose doors are carelessly left open. CANT.

SNEAKER. A small bowl.

SNEAKING BUDGE. One that robs alone.

SNEAKSBY. A mean-spirited fellow, a sneaking cur.

SNEERING. Jeering, flickering, laughing in scorn.

SNICKER. A glandered horse.

TO SNICKER, or SNIGGER. To laugh privately, or in one's sleeve.

TO SNILCH. To eye, or look at any thing attentively: the cull snilches. CANT.

SNIP. A taylor.

SNITCH. To turn snitch, or snitcher; to turn informer.

TO SNITE. To wipe, or slap. Snite his snitch; wipe his nose, i.e. give him a good knock.

TO SNIVEL. To cry, to throw the snot or snivel about. Snivelling; crying. A snivelling fellow; one that whines or complains.

TO SNOACH. To speak through the nose, to snuffle.

SNOB. A nick name for a shoemaker.

TO SNOOZE, or SNOODGE. To sleep. To snooze with a mort; to sleep with a wench. CANT.

SNOOZING KEN. A brothel. The swell was spiced in a snoozing ken of his screens; the gentleman was robbed of his bank notes in a brothel.

SNOW. Linen hung out to dry or bleach. Spice the snow; to steal the linen.

SNOUT. A hogshead. CANT.

SNOWBALL. A jeering appellation for a negro.

TO SNUB. To check, or rebuke.

SNUB DEVIL. A parson.

SNUB NOSE. A short nose turned up at the end.

SNUDGE. A thief who hides himself under a bed, in Order to rob the house.

SNUFF. To take snuff; to be offended.

TO SNUFFLE. To speak through the nose.

SNUFFLES. A cold in the head, attended with a running at the nose.

SNUG. All's snug; all's quiet.

TO SOAK. To drink. An old soaker; a drunkard, one that moistens his clay to make it stick together.

SOCKET MONEY. A whore's fee, or hire: also money paid for a treat, by a married man caught in an intrigue.

SOLDIER'S BOTTLE. A large one.

SOLDIER'S MAWND. A pretended soldier, begging with a counterfeit wound, which he pretends to have received at some famous siege or battle.

SOLDIER'S POMATUM. A piece of tallow candle.

SOLDIER. A red herring.

SOLFA. A parish clerk.

SOLO PLAYER. A miserable performer on any instrument, who always plays alone, because no one will stay in the room to hear him.

SOLOMON. The mass. CANT.

SON OF PRATTLEMENT. A lawyer.

SONG. He changed his song; he altered his account or evidence. It was bought for an old song, i.e. very cheap. His morning and his evening song do not agree; he tells a different story.

SOOTERKIN. A joke upon the Dutch women, supposing that, by their constant use of stoves, which they place under their petticoats, they breed a kind of small animal in their bodies, called a sooterkin, of the size of a mouse, which when mature slips out.

SOP. A bribe. A sop for Cerberus; a bribe for a porter, turnkey, or gaoler.

SOPH. (Cambridge) An undergraduate in his second year.

SORREL. A yellowish red. Sorrel pate; one having red hair.

SORROW SHALL BE HIS SOPS. He shall repent this. Sorrow go by me; a common expletive used by presbyterians in Ireland.

SORRY. Vile, mean, worthless. A sorry fellow, or hussy; a worthless man or woman.

SOT WEED. Tobacco.

SOUL CASE. The body. He made a hole in his soul case; he wounded him.

SOUL DOCTOR, or DRIVER. A parson.

SOUNDERS. A herd of swine.

SOUSE. Not a souse; not a penny. FRENCH.

SOW. A fat woman. He has got the wrong sow by the ear, he mistakes his man. Drunk as David's sow; see DAVID'S SOW.

SOW'S BABY. A sucking pig.

SOW CHILD. A female child.

SPADO. A sword. SPANISH.

SPANGLE. A seven shilling piece.

SPANK. (WHIP) To run neatly along, beteen a trot and gallop. The tits spanked it to town; the horses went merrily along all the way to town.

SPANISH. The spanish; ready money.

SPANISH COIN. Fair words and compliments.

SPANISH FAGGOT. The sun.

SPANISH GOUT. The pox.

SPANISH PADLOCK. A kind of girdle contrived by jealous husbands of that nation, to secure the chastity of their wives.

SPANISH, or KING OF SPAIN'S TRUMPETER. An ass when braying.

SPANISH WORM. A nail: so called by carpenters when they meet with one in a board they are sawing.

SPANKS, or SPANKERS. Money; also blows with the open hand.

SPANKING. Large.

SPARK. A spruce, trim, or smart fellow. A man that is always thirsty, is said to have a spark in his throat.

SPARKISH. Fine, gay.

SPARKING BLOWS. Blows given by cocks before they close, or, as the term is, mouth it: used figuratively for words previous to a quarrel.

SPARROW. Mumbling a sparrow; a cruel sport frequently practised at wakes and fairs: for a small premium, a booby having his hands tied behind him, has the wing of a cock sparrow put into his mouth: with this hold, without any other assistance than the motion of his lips, he is to get the sparrow's head into his mouth: on attempting to do it, the bird defends itself surprisingly, frequently pecking the mumbler till his lips are covered with blood, and he is obliged to desist: to prevent the bird from getting away, he is fastened by a string to a button of the booby's coat.

SPARROW-MOUTHED. Wide-mouthed, like the mouth of a sparrow: it is said of such persons, that they do not hold their mouths by lease, but have it from year to year; i.e. from ear to ear. One whose mouth cannot be enlarged without removing their ears, and who when they yawn have their heads half off.

SPATCH COCK. [Abbreviation of DISPATCH COCK.] A hen just killed from the roost, or yard, and immediately skinned, split, and broiled: an Irish dish upon any sudden occasion.

TO SPEAK WITH. To rob. I spoke with the cull on the cherry-coloured prancer; I robbed the man on the black horse. CANT.

SPEAK. Any thing stolen. He has made a good speak; he has stolen something considerable.

SPECKED WHIPER. A coloured hankerchief. CANT.

SPICE. To rob. Spice the swell; rob the gentleman.

SPICE ISLANDS. A privy. Stink-hole bay or dilberry creek. The fundament.

SPIDER-SHANKED. Thin-legged.

TO SPIFLICATE. To confound, silence, or dumbfound.

SPILT. A small reward or gift.

SPILT. Thrown from a horse, or overturned in a carriage; pray, coachee, don't spill us.

SPINDLE SHANKS. Slender legs.

TO SPIRIT AWAY. To kidnap, or inveigle away.

SPIRITUAL FLESH BROKER. A parson.

SPIT. He is as like his father as if he was spit out of his mouth; said of a child much resembling his father.

SPIT. A sword.

SPIT FIRE. A violent, pettish, or passionate person.

SPLICED. Married: an allusion to joining two ropes ends by splicing. SEA TERM.

SPLIT CROW. The sign of the spread eagle, which being represented with two heads on one neck, gives it somewhat the appearance of being split.

SPLIT CAUSE. A lawyer.

SPLIT FIG. A grocer.

SPLIT IRON. The nick-name for a smith.

SPOONEY. (WHIP) Thin, haggard, like the shank of a spoon; also delicate, craving for something, longing for sweets. Avaricious. That tit is damned spooney. She's a spooney piece of goods. He's a spooney old fellow.

SPOIL PUDDING. A parson who preaches long sermons, keeping his congregation in church till the puddings are overdone.

TO SPORT. To exhibit: as, Jack Jehu sported a new gig yesterday: I shall sport a new suit next week. To sport or flash one's ivory; to shew one's teeth. To sport timber; to keep one's outside door shut; this term is used in the inns of court to signify denying one's self. N.B. The word SPORT was in great vogue ann. 1783 and 1784.

SPUNGE. A thirsty fellow, a great drinker. To spunge; to eat and drink at another's cost. Spunging-house: a bailiff's lock-up-house, or repository, to which persons arrested are taken, till they find bail, or have spent all their money: a house where every species of fraud and extortion is practised under the protection of the law.

SPUNK. Rotten touchwood, or a kind of fungus prepared for tinder; figuratively, spirit, courage.

SPOON HAND. The right hand.

TO SPOUT. To rehearse theatrically.

SPOUTING CLUB. A meeting of apprentices and mechanics to rehearse different characters in plays: thus forming recruits for the strolling companies.

SPOUTING. Theatrical declamation.

SPOUTED. Pawned.

SPREAD. Butter.

SPREAD EAGLE. A soldier tied to the halberts in order to be whipped; his attitude bearing some likeness to that figure, as painted on signs.

SPREE. A frolic. Fun. A drinking bout. A party of pleasure.

SPRING-ANKLE WAREHOUSE. Newgate, or any other gaol: IRISH.

SQUAB. A fat man or woman: from their likeness to a well-stuffed couch, called also a squab. A new-hatched chicken.

SQUARE. Honest, not roguish. A square cove, i.e. a man who does not steal, or get his living by dishonest means.

SQUARE TOES. An old man: square toed shoes were anciently worn in common, and long retained by old men.

SQUEAK. A narrow escape, a chance: he had a squeak for his life. To squeak; to confess, peach, or turn stag. They squeak beef upon us; they cry out thieves after us. CANT.