Category: British Literature

A Dictionary of Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; the Houses of Parliament; the Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James.

Hotten, John Camden, 1832-1873· 3 chapters· 63,285 words

BILLINGSGATE (when applied to speech), foul and coarse language. Not many years since, one of the London notorieties was to hear the fishwomen at Billingsgate abuse each other. The anecdote of Dr. Johnson and the Billingsgate virago is well known.

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2. part ii. of King Henry IV., act v., scene 4, Doll Tearsheet calls the

BLUE-PIGEON FLYERS, journeymen plumbers, glaziers, and others, who, under the plea of repairing houses, strip off the lead, and make way with it. Sometimes they get off with it...

3. act v., scene 1.

SISERARA, a hard blow.—_Suffolk._ Moor derives it from the story of Sisera in the Old Testament, but it is more probably a corruption of CERTIORARI, a Chancery writ reciting a c...

1. act i., scene 1. This was used sometimes as a defensive weapon.

BILLINGSGATE (when applied to speech), foul and coarse language. Not many years since, one of the London notorieties was to hear the fishwomen at Billingsgate abuse each other....