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

OUT: a man who has followed the profession of thieving for some

time, when he is ultimately taken, tried, and convicted, is said to be

bowled out at last. To bowl a person out, in a general sense, means to

detect him in the commission of any fraud, or peculation, which he has

hitherto practised without discovery.

 

BRACE UP: to dispose of stolen goods by pledging them for the utmost you

can get at a pawnbroker’s, is termed bracing them up.

 

BRADS: halfpence; also, money in general.

 

BREAKING UP OF THE SPELL: the nightly termination of performance at the

Theatres Royal, which is regularly attended by pickpockets of the lower

order, who exercise their vocation about the doors and avenues leading

thereto, until the house is emptied and the crowd dispersed.

 

BREECH’D: flush of money.

 

BRIDGE: to bridge a person, or throw him over the bridge, is, in a

general sense, to deceive him by betraying the confidence he has reposed

in you, and instead of serving him faithfully, to involve him in ruin or

disgrace; or, three men being concerned alike in any transaction, two of

them will form a collusion to bridge the third, and engross to themselves

all the advantage which may eventually accrue. Two persons having been

engaged in a long and doubtful contest or rivalship, he, who by superior

art or perseverance gains the point, is said to have thrown his opponent

over the bridge. Among gamblers, it means deceiving the person who had

back’d you, by wilfully losing the game; the money so lost by him being

shared between yourself and your confederates who had laid against you.

In playing three-handed games, two of the party will play into each

other’s hands, so that the third must inevitably be thrown over the

bridge, commonly called, two poll one. See PLAY ACROSS.

 

BROADS: cards ; a person expert at which is said to be a good

broad-player.

 

BROOMSTICKS. See QUEER BAIL.

 

BROWNS and WHISTLERS: bad halfpence and farthings; (a term used by

coiners.)

 

BUB: a low expression signifying drink.

 

BUCKET. To bucket a person is synonymous with putting him in the well.

See WELL. Such treatment is said to be a bucketting concern.

 

BUFF, To buff a person or thing, is to swear to the identity of them;

swearing very positively to any circumstance, is called buffing it home.

 

BUFFER: a dog.

 

BUG or BUG OVER. To give, deliver, or hand over; as, He bug’d me a quid,

he gave me a guinea; bug over the rag, hand over the money.

 

BULL: a crown, or five shillings.

 

BULL-DOG: a sugar-loaf.

 

BULL-HANKERS: men who delight in the sport of bull-banking; that is,

bull-baiting, or bullock-hunting, games which afford much amusement, and

at the same time frequent opportunities of depredation, in the confusion

and alarm excited by the enraged animal.

 

BUM-CHARTER: a name given to bread steeped in hot water, by the first

unfortunate inhabitants of the English Bastile, where this miserable fare

was their daily breakfast, each man receiving with his ; scanty portion

of bread, a quart of boil’d water from the cook’s coppers!

 

BUM-TRAP: a sheriff’s officer or his follower.

 

BUNCE: money.

 

BURICK: a prostitute, or common woman.

 

BUSH’D: poor; without money.

 

BUSHY-PARK: a man who is poor is said to be at Bushy park, or in the

park.

 

BUSTLE: a cant term for money.

 

BUSTLE: any object effected very suddenly, or in a hurry, is said to be

done upon the bustle. To give it to a man upon the bustle, is to obtain

any point, as borrowing money, etc.; by some sudden story or pretence,

and affecting great haste, so that he is taken by surprise, and becomes

duped before he has time to consider of the matter.

 

BUZ: to buz a person is to pick his pocket. The buz is the game of

picking pockets in general.

 

BUZ-COVE, or BUZ-GLOAK: a pickpocket; a person who is clever at this

practice, is said to be a good buz.

 

CABIN: a house.

 

CADGE: to beg. The cadge is the game or profession of begging.

 

CADGE-CLOAK: a beggar.

 

CANT OF DOBBIN: a roll of riband.

 

CAP: synonymous with BONNET, which see.

 

CARDINAL: a lady’s cloak.

 

CARRY THE KEG: a man who is easily vexed or put out of humour by any joke

passed upon him, and cannot conceal his chagrin, is said to carry the

keg, or is compared to a walking distiller.

 

CASTOR: a hat.

 

CAT and KITTEN RIG: the petty game of stealing pewter quart and pint pots

from public-houses.

 

CAZ: cheese; As good as caz, is a phrase signifying that any projected

fraud or robbery may be easily and certainly accomplished; any person who

is the object of such attempt and is known to be an easy dupe, is

declared to be as good as caz, meaning that success is certain.

 

CHANDLER-KEN: a chandler’s shop.

 

CHANT: a person’s name, address, or designation; thus, a thief who

assumes a feigned name on his apprehension to avoid being known, or a

swindler who gives a false address to a tradesman, is said to tip them a

queer chant.

 

CHANT: a cipher, initials, or mark of any kind, on a piece of plate,

linen, or other article; any thing so marked is said to be chanted.

 

CHANT: an advertisement in a newspaper or hand-bill; also a paragraph in

the newspaper describing any robbery or other recent event; any lost or

stolen property, for the recovery of which, or a thief, etc., for whose

apprehension a reward is held out by advertisement, are said to be

chanted.

 

CHARLEY: a watchman.

 

CHARLEY-KEN: a watch-box.

 

CHATS: lice.

 

CHATTY: lousy,

 

CHAUNT: a song; to chaunt is to sing; to throw off a rum chaunt, is to

sing a good song.

 

CHEESE IT. The same as Stow it.

 

CHEESE THAT. See STOW THAT.

 

CHINA STREET: a cant name for Bow Street, Covent Garden.

 

CHIV: a knife; to chiv a person is to stab or cut him with a knife.

 

CHRISTEN: obliterating the name and number on the movement on a stolen

watch; or the crest, cipher, etc., on articles of plate, and getting

others engraved, so as to prevent their being identified, is termed

having them bishop’d or christen’d.

 

CHUM: a fellow prisoner in a jail, hulk, etc.; so there are new chums

and old chums, as they happen to have been a short or a long time in

confinement.

 

CHURY: a knife.

 

CLEANED OUT: said of a gambler who has lost his last stake at play; also,

of a flat who has been stript of all his money by a coalition of sharps.

 

CLOUT: a handkerchief of any kind.

 

CLOUTING: the practice of picking pockets exclusively of handkerchiefs.

 

CLY: a pocket.

 

CLY-FAKER: a pickpocket.

 

COACH-WHEEL: a dollar or crown-piece.

 

COME. A thief observing any article in a shop, or other situation, which

he conceives may be easily purloined, will say to his accomplice, I think

there is so and so to come.

 

COME IT: to divulge a secret; to tell any thing of one party to another;

they say of a thief who has turned evidence against his accomplices, that

he is coming all he knows, or that he comes it as strong as a horse.

 

COME TO THE HEATH: a phrase signifying to payor give money, and

synonymous with Tipping, from which word it takes its rise, there being a

place called Tiptree Heath, I believe, in the County of Essex.

 

COME TO THE MARK: to abide strictly by any contract previously made; to

perform your part manfully in any exploit or enterprise you engage in; or

to offer what I consider a fair price for any article in question.

 

CONCERNED. In using many cant words, the lovers of flash, by way of

variation, adopt this term, for an illustration of which, see

BOLT-IN-TURN, ALDERMAN LUSHINGTON, MR. PALMER, etc.

 

CONK: the nose.

 

CONK: a thief who impeaches his accomplices; a spy; informer, or

tell-tale. See NOSE, and WEAR IT.

 

COVE: the master of a house or shop, is called the Cove; on other

occasions, when joined to particular words, as a cross-cove, a

flash-cove, a leary-cove, etc., it simply implies a man of these several

descriptions; sometimes, in speaking of any third person, whose name you

are either ignorant of, or don’t wish to mention, the word cove is

adopted by way of emphasis, as may be seen under the word AWAKE.

 

COVER: to stand in such a situation as to obscure your Pall, who is

committing a robbery, from the view of by-standers or persons passing, is

called covering him. Any body whose dress or stature renders him

particularly eligible for this purpose, is said to be a good cover.

 

COVESS: the mistress of a house or shop, and used on other occasions, in

the same manner as Cove, when applied to a man.

 

CRAB: to prevent the perfection or execution of any intended matter or

business, by saying any thing offensive or unpleasant, is called crabbing

it, or throwing a crab; to crab a person, is to use offensive language or

behaviour as will highly displease, or put him in an ill humour.

 

CRAB’D: affronted; out of humour; sometimes called, being in Crab-street.

 

CRABSHELLS: shoes.

 

CRACK: to break open; the crack is the game of housebreaking; a crack is

a breaking any house or building for the purpose of plunder.

 

CRACKSMAN: a housebreaker.

 

CRACK A WHID: to speak or utter: as, he crack’d some queer whids, he

dropt some bad or ugly expressions: crack a whid for me, intercede, or

put in a word for me.

 

CRACKER: a small loaf, served to prisoners in jails, for their daily

subsistence.

 

CRAP: the gallows.

 

CRAP’D: hanged.

 

CRIB: a house, sometimes applied to shops, as, a thimble-crib, a

watch-maker’s shop; a stocking-crib, a hosier’s, etc.

 

CROAK: to die.

 

CROOK: a sixpence.

 

CROSS: illegal or dishonest practices in general are called the cross, in

opposition to the square. See SQUARE. Any article which has been

irregularly obtained, is said to have been got upon the cross, and is

emphatically termed a cross article.

 

CROSS-COVE, or CROSS-MOLLISHER, a man or woman who lives upon the cross.

 

CROSS-CRIB: a house inhabited, or kept by family people. See SQUARE CRIB.

 

CROSS-FAM: to cross-fam a person, is to pick his pocket, by crossing your

arms in a particular position.

 

CUE. See letter Q.

 

CUT THE LINE. See LINE.

 

CUT THE STRING. See STRING.

 

CUT THE TARN. See YARN.

 

CUTTING-GLOAK: a man famous for drawing a knife, and cutting any person

he quarrels with.

 

DAB: a bed. DAB IT UP: to dab it up with a woman, is to agree to cohabit

with her.

 

DANCERS: stairs.

 

DANNA: human, or other excrement.

 

DANNA-DRAG: commonly pronounced dunnick-drag. See KNAP A JACOB, etc.

 

DARBIES: fetters.

 

DARKY: night.

 

DARKY: a dark lanthorn.

 

DEATH-HUNTER: an undertaker.

 

DICKY, or DICK IN THE GREEN: very bad or paltry; any thing of an inferior

quality, is said to be a dicky concern.

 

DIMMOCK: money.

 

DING: to throw, or throw away; particularly any article you have stolen,

either because it is worthless, or that there is danger of immediate

apprehension. To ding a person, is to drop his acquaintance totally; also

to quit his company, or leave him for the time present; to ding to your

pall, is to convey to him, privately, the property you have just stolen;

and