A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language by James Hardy Vaux (top ten books to read TXT) 📕

Title: A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language

 

Author: James Hardy Vaux

 

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Date first posted: January 2006

 

Date most recently updated: January 2006

 

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Title: A New and Comprehensive Vocabulary of the Flash Language

Author: James Hardy Vaux

 

Note. The Author has found it necessary to introduce frequently, in the

course if his definitions, technical, or cant words and Phrases. This he

could not avoid without much tautology and unpleasing circumlocution. The

Reader will therefore take notice, that all such cant terms are placed in

Italics; and where at a loss to comprehend them, he has only to refer to

their alphabetical position for an explanation.

 

[Note: Italics have not been used in this ebook]

 

ORIGINAL DEDICATION.

 

To THOMAS SKOTTOWE, Esq., of His Majesty’s 73d Regiment, Commandant of

Newcastle, in the Colony of New South Wales, and one of His Majesty’s

Justices of the Peace for that Territory.

 

SIR,

 

WITH the utmost deference and respect, I beg leave to submit to your

perusal the following sheets. The idea of such a compilation first

originated in the suggestion of a friend; and however the theme may be

condemned as exceptionable by narrow minds, I feel confident you possess

too much liberality of sentiment to reject its writer as utterly

depraved, because he has acquired an extensive knowledge on a subject so

obviously disgraceful. True it is, that in the course of a chequered and

eventful life, I have intermixed with the most dissolute and unprincipled

characters, and that a natural quickness of conception, and most

retentive memory, have rendered me familiar with their language and

system of operations.

 

Permit me, Sir, to assure you most seriously, that I view with remorse

the retrospect of my hitherto misspent life, and that my future exertions

shall be solely directed to acquire the estimable good opinion of the

virtuous part of the community.

 

I trust the Vocabulary will afford you some amusement from its novelty;

and that from the correctness of its definitions, you may occasionally

find it useful in your magisterial capacity.

 

I cannot omit this opportunity of expressing my gratitude for the very

humane and equitable treatment I have experienced in common with every

other person in this settlement, under your temperate and judicious

government.

 

I have the honour to remain,

with the most dutiful respect,

Sir,

Your devoted, and very humble Servant,

 

J. H. VAUX.

 

Newcastle,

5th July, 1812

 

The Author (a prisoner under sentence of transportation for life) having,

by an alleged act of impropriety, incurred the Governor’s displeasure,

was at this period banished to Newcastle, a place of punishment for

offenders: these sheets were there compiled during his solitary hours of

cessation from hard labour; and the Commandant was accordingly presented

by the Author with the first copy of his production.

 

A VOCABULARY OF THE FLASH LANGUAGE

 

*

 

ALDERMAN LUSHINGTON. See LUSH.

 

ANDREW MILLER’S LUGGER: a king’s ship or vessel.

 

AREA SNEAK, or AREA SLUM: the practice of slipping unperceived down the

areas of private houses, and robbing the lower apartments of plate or

other articles.

 

ARM-PITS: To work under the arm-pits, is to practise only such kinds of

depredation, as will amount, upon conviction, to what the law terms

single, or petty larceny; the extent of punishment for which is

transportation for seven years. By following this system, a thief avoids

the halter, which certainly is applied above the arm-pits.

 

AWAKE: an expression used on many occasions; as a thief will say to his

accomplice, on perceiving the person they are about to rob is aware of

their intention, and upon his guard, stow it, the cove’s awake. To be

awake to any scheme, deception, or design, means, generally, to see

through or comprehend it.

 

BACK-JUMP. A back-window. See JUMP.

 

BACK-SLANG: to enter or come out of a house by the back-door ; or, to go

a circuitous or private way through the streets, in order to avoid any

particular place in the direct road, is termed back-slanging it.

 

BACK-SLUM: a back room; also the back entrance to any house or premises;

thus, we’ll give it ‘em on the back-slum, means, we’ll get in at the

back-door.

 

BAD HALFPENNY. When a man has been upon any errand, or attempting any

object which has proved unsuccessful or impracticable, he will say on his

return, It’s a bad halfpenny; meaning he has returned as he went.

 

BANDED: hungry.

 

BANDS. To wear the bands, is to be hungry, or short of food for any

length of time; a phrase chiefly used on board the hulks, or in jails.

 

BANG-UP. A person, whose dress or equipage is in the first style of

perfection, is declared to be bang up to the mark. A man who has behaved

with extraordinary spirit and resolution in any enterprise he has been

engaged in, is also said to have come bang up to the mark; any article

which is remarkably good or elegant, or any fashion, act, or measure

which is carried to the highest pitch, is likewise illustrated by the

same emphatical phrase.

 

BARKING-IRONS: pistols; an obsolete term.

 

BARNACLES: spectacles.

 

BASH: to beat any person by way of correction, as the woman you live

with, etc.

 

BASTILE: generally called, for shortness, the Steel; a cant name for the

House of Correction, Cold-Bath-Fields, London.

 

BEAK: a magistrate; the late Sir John Fielding, of police memory, was

known among family people by the title of the blind beak.

 

BEAN: a guinea.

 

BEEF: stop thief! to beef a person, is to raise a hue and cry after him,

in order to get him stopped.

 

BELLOWSER. See WIND.

 

BENDER: a sixpence.

 

BENDER: an ironical word used in conversation by flash people; as where

one party affirms or professes any thing which the other believes to be

false or insincere, the latter expresses his incredulity by exclaiming

bender! or, if one asks another to do any act which the latter considers

unreasonable or impracticable, he replies, O yes, I’ll do it—bender;

meaning, by the addition of the last word, that, in fact, he will do no

such thing.

 

BEST: to get your money at the best, signifies to live by dishonest or

fraudulent practices, without labour or industry, according to the

general acceptation of the latter word; but, certainly, no persons have

more occasion to be industrious, and in a state of perpetual action than

cross-coves; and experience has proved, when too late, to many of them,

that honesty is the best policy; and, consequently, that the above phrase

is by no means a-propos.

 

BETTY: picklock; to unbetty, or b e g a lock, to open or relock it, by

means of the betty, so as to avoid subsequent detection.

 

BILLIARD SLUM. The mace is sometimes called giving it to ‘em on the

billiard slum. See MACE.

 

BISHOP. See CHRISTEN.

 

BIT: money in general.

 

BIT-FAKER: a coiner. See FAKE.

 

BIT-FAKING: coining base money.

 

BLACK DIAMONDS: coals.

 

BLEEDERS: spurs.

 

BLOODY-JEMMY: a sheep’s head.

 

BLOW THE GAFF: a person having any secret in his possession, or a

knowledge of any thing injurious to another, when at last induced from

revenge, or other motive, to tell it openly to the world and expose him

publicly, is then said to have blown the gaff upon him.

 

BLOWEN: a prostitute; a woman who cohabits with a man without marriage.

 

BLUE-PIGEON: lead.

 

BLUE-PIGEON FLYING: the practice of stealing lead from houses, churches,

or other buildings, very prevalent in London and its vicinity.

 

BLUNT: money.

 

BOB, or BOBSTICK: a shilling.

 

BODY-SLANGS. See SLANGS.

 

BODY-SNATCHER: a stealer of dead bodies from church which are sold to the

surgeons and students in anatomy.

 

BOLT: to run. away from or leave any place suddenly, is c bolting, or

making a bolt: a thief observing an alarm while attempting a robbery,

will exclaim to his accomplice, Bolt, there’s a dawn. sudden escape of

one or more prisoners from a place of confinement is termed a bolt.

 

BOLT-IN-TURN: a term founded on the cant word bolt merely a fanciful

variation, very common among flash persons, there being in London a

famous inn so called; it is customary when a man has run away from his

lodgings, broke out of a jail, or ma any other sudden movement, to say,

The Bolt-in-fun is concerned; or? He’s gone to the Bolt-in-turn; instead

of simply saying, He has bolted, etc. See BOLT.

 

BONED: taken in custody, apprehended; Tell us how you was boned,

signifies, tell us the story of your apprehension; a common request among

fellow-prisoners in a jail, etc., which is readily complied with in

general; and the various circumstances therein related afford present

amusement, and also useful hints for regulating their future operations,

so as to avoid the like misfortune.

 

BONNET: a concealment, pretext, or pretence; an ostensible manner of

accounting for what you really mean to conceal; as a man who actually

lives by depredation, will still outwardly follow some honest employment,

as a clerk, porter, newsman, etc. By this system of policy, he is said

to have a good bonnet if he happens to get boned, and, in a doubtful

case, is commonly discharged on the score of having a good character. To

bonnet for a person, is to corroborate any assertion he has made, or to

relate facts in the most favourable light, in order to extricate him from

a dilemma, or to further any object he has in view.

 

BOUNCE: to bully, threaten, talk loud, or affect great consequence; to

bounce a person out of any thing, is to use threatening or high words, in

order to intimidate him, and attain the object you are intent upon; or to

obtain goods of a tradesman, by assuming the appearance of great

respectability and importance, so as to remove any suspicion he might at

first entertain. A thief, detected in the commission of a robbery, has

been known by this sort of finesse, aided by a genteel appearance and

polite manners, to persuade his accusers of his innocence, and not only

to get off with a good grace, but induce them to apologize for their

supposed mistake, and the affront put upon him. This masterstroke of

effrontery is called giving it to ‘em upon the bounce.

 

BOUNCE: a person well or fashionably drest, is said to be a rank bounce.

 

BOWLED