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

he who receives it is said to take ding, or to knap the ding.

 

DINGABLE: any thing considered worthless, or which you can well spare,

having no further occasion for it, is declared to be dingable. This

phrase is often applied by sharps to a flat whom they have cleaned out;

and by abandoned women to a keeper, who having spent his all upon them,

must be discarded, or ding’d as soon as possible.

 

DISPATCHES: false dice used by gamblers, so contrived as always to throw

a nick.

 

DO: a term used by smashers; to do a queer half-quid, or a queer screen,

is to utter a counterfeit half-guinea, or a forged bank-note.

 

DO IT AWAY: to fence or dispose of a stolen article beyond the reach of

probable detection.

 

DO IT UP: to accomplish any object you have in view; to obtain any thing

you were in quest of, is called doing it up for such a thing; a person

who contrives by nob-work, or ingenuity, to live an easy life and appears

to improve daily in circumstances, is said to do it up ill good twig.

 

DO THE TRICK: to accomplish any robbery, or other business successfully;

a thief who has been fortunate enough to acquire an independence, and

prudent enough to tie it up in time, is said by his former associates to

have done the trick; on the other hand, a man who has imprudently

involved himself in some great misfortune, from which there is little

hope of his extrication is declared by his friends, with an air of

commiseration, to have done the trick for himself; that is, his ruin or

downfall is nearly certain.

 

DOBBIN: riband. See CANT.

 

DOLLOP: a dollop is a large quantity of any thing; the whole dollop means

the total quantity.

 

DONE: convicted; as, he was done for a crack, he was convicted of

housebreaking.

 

DORSE: a lodging; to dorse with a woman, signifies to sleep with her.

 

DOUBLE: to double a person, or tip him the Dublin packet, signifies

either to run away from him openly, and elude his attempts to overtake

you, or to give him the slip in the streets, or elsewhere, unperceived,

commonly done to escape from an officer who has you in custody, or to

turn up a flat of any kind, whom you have a wish to get rid of.

 

DOUBLE-SLANGS: double-irons.

 

DOWN: sometimes synonymous with awake, as, when the party you are about

to rob, sees or suspects your intention, it is then said that the cove is

down. A down is a suspicion, alarm, or discovery, which taking place,

obliges yourself and palls to give up or desist from the business or

depredation you were engaged in; to put a down upon a man, is to give

information of any robbery or fraud he is about to perpetrate, so as to

cause his failure or detection; to drop dawn to a person is to discover

or be aware of his character or designs; to put a person down to any

thing, is to apprize him of, elucidate, or explain it to him; to put a

swell down, signifies to alarm or put a gentleman on his guard, when in

the attempt to pick his pocket, you fail to effect it at once, and by

having touched him a little too roughly, you cause him to suspect your

design, and to use precautions accordingly; or perhaps, in the act of

sounding him, by being too precipitate or incautious, his suspicions may

have been excited, and it is then said that you have put him down, put

him fly, or spoiled him. See SPOIL IT. To drop dawn upon yourself, is to

become melancholy, or feel symptoms of remorse or compunction, on being

committed to jail, cast for death, etc. To sink under misfortunes of any

kind. A man who gives way to this weakness, is said to be down upon

himself.

 

DOWN AS A HAMMER; DOWN AS A TRIPPET. These are merely emphatical phrases,

used out of flash, to signify being dawn, leary, fly, or awake to any

matter, meaning, or design.

 

DRAG: a cart. The drag, is the game of robbing carts, waggons, or

carriages, either in town or country, of trunks, bale-goods, or any other

property. Done for a drag, signifies convicted for a robbery of the

before-mentioned nature.

 

DRAG-COVE: the driver of a cart.

 

DRAGS MAN: a thief who follows the game of dragging.

 

DRAKED: ducked; a discipline sometimes inflicted on pickpockets at fairs,

races, etc.

 

DRAW: to draw a person, is to pick his pocket, and the act of so stealing

a pocket-book, or handkerchief, is called drawing a reader, or clout. To

obtain money or goods of a person by a false or plausible story, is

called drawing him of so and so. To draw a kid, is to obtain his swag

from him. See KID-RIG.

 

DRIZ: lace, as sold on cards by the haberdashers, etc.

 

DROP: the game of ring-dropping is called the drop.

 

DROP: to give or present a person with money, as, he dropp’d me a quid,

he gave me a guinea. A kid who delivers his bundle to a sharper without

hesitation, or a shopkeeper who is easily duped of his goods by means of

a forged order or false pretence, is said to drop the swag in good twig,

meaning, to part with it freely.

 

DROP A WHID: to let fall a word, either inadvertently or designedly.

 

DROP-COVE: a sharp who practises the game of ring-dropping.

 

DROP-DOWN. See DOWN.

 

DRUMMOND: any scheme or project considered to be infallible, or any event

which is deemed inevitably certain, is declared to be a Drummond;

meaning, it is as sure as the credit of that respectable banking-house,

Drummond and Co.

 

DUB: a key.

 

DUB AT A KNAPPING-JIGGER: a collector of tolls at a turnpike-gate.

 

DUB-COVE, or DUBSMAN: a turnkey.

 

DUBLIN-PACKET. See DOUBLE.

 

DUB UP: to lock up or secure any thing or place; also to button one’s

pocket, coat, etc.

 

DUCE. Twopence is called a duce.

 

DUDS: women’s apparel in general.

 

DUES. This term is sometimes used to express money, where any certain sum

or payment is spoken of; a man asking for money due to him for any

service done, or a blowen requiring her previous compliment from a

family-man, would say, Come, tip us the dues. So a thief, requiring his

share of booty from his palls, will desire them to bring the dues to

light.

 

DUES. This word is often introduced by the lovers of flash on many

occasions, but merely out of fancy, and can only be understood from the

context of their discourse; like many other cant terms, it is not easily

explained on paper; for example, speaking of a man likely to go to jail,

one will say, there will be quodding dues concerned, of a man likely to

be executed; there will be topping dues, if any thing is alluded to that

will require a fee or bribe, there must be tipping dues, or palming dues

concerned, etc.

 

DUMMY: a pocket-book; a silly half-witted person.

 

DUMMY-HUNTERS: thieves who confine themselves to the practice of stealing

gentlemen’s pocket-books, and think, or profess to think, it paltry to

touch a clout, or other insignificant article; this class of depredators

traverse the principal streets of London, during the busy hours, and

sometimes meet with valuable prizes.

 

DUNNICK, or DANNA-DRAG. See KNAP A JACOB.

 

FADGE: a farthing.

 

FAKE: a word so variously used, that I can only illustrate it by a few

examples. To fake any person or place, may signify to rob them; to fake a

person, may also imply to shoot, wound, or cut; to fake a man out and

out, is to kill him; a man who inflicts wounds upon, or otherwise

disfigures, himself, for any sinister purpose, is said to have faked

himself; if a man’s shoe happens to pinch, or gall his foot, from its

being overtight, he will complain that his shoe fakes his foot sadly; it

also describes the doing of any act, or the fabricating any thing, as, to

fake your slangs, is to cut your irons in order to escape from custody;

to fake your pin, is to create a sore leg, or to cut it, as if

accidentally, with an axe, etc., in hopes to obtain a discharge from the

army or navy, to get into the doctor’s list, etc.; to fake a screeve, is

to write a letter, or other paper; to fake a screw, is to shape out a

skeleton or false key, for the purpose of screwing a particular place; to

fake a cly, is to pick a pocket; etc., etc., etc.

 

FAKE AWAY, THERE’S NO DOWN: an intimation from a thief to his pall,

during the commission of a robbery, or other act, meaning, go on with

your operations, there is no sign of any alarm or detection.

 

FAKEMAN-CHARLEY; FAKEMENT. As to fake signifies to do any act, or make

any thing, so the fakement means the act or thing alluded to, and on

which your discourse turns; consequently, any stranger unacquainted with

your subject will not comprehend what is meant by the fakement; for

instance, having recently been concerned with another in some robbery,

and immediately separated, the latter taking the booty with him, on your

next meeting you will inquire, what he has done with the fakement?

meaning the article stolen, whether it was a pocket-book, piece or linen,

or what not. Speaking of any stolen property which has a private mark,

one will say, there is a fakeman-charley on it; a forgery which is well

executed, is said to be a prime fakement; in a word, any thing is liable

to be termed a fakement, or a fakeman-charley, provided the person you

address knows to what you allude.

 

FAM: the hand.

 

FAM: to feel or handle.

 

FAMILY: thieves, sharpers and all others who get their living upon the

cross, are comprehended under the title of �The Family.�

 

FAMILY-MAN, or WOMAN: any person known or recognised as belonging to the

family; all such are termed family people.

 

FANCY: any article universally admired for its beauty, or which the owner

sets particular store by, is termed a fancy article; as, a fancy clout,

is a favourite handkerchief, etc.; so a woman who is the particular

favourite of any man, is termed his fancy woman, and vice versa.

 

FAWNEY: a finger-ring.

 

FAWNIED, or FAWNEY-FAM’D: having one or more rings on the finger.

 

FEEDER: a spoon.

 

FENCE: a receiver of stolen goods; to fence any property, is to sell it

to a receiver or other person.

 

FIB: a stick. To fib is to beat with a stick; also to box.

 

FIBBING-GLOAK, a pugilist.

 

FIBBING-MATCH: a boxing match.

 

FILE: a person who has had a long course of experience in the arts of

fraud, so as to have become an adept, is termed an old file upon the

town; so it is usual to say of a man who is extremely cunning, and not to

be over-reached, that he is a deep file. File, in the old version of cant,

signified a pickpocket, but the term is now obsolete.

 

FINGER-SMITH: a midwife.

 

FI’PENNY: a clasp-knife.

 

FLASH: the cant language used by the family. To speak good flash is to be

well versed in cant terms.

 

FLASH: a person who affects any peculiar habit, as swearing, dressing in

a particular manner, taking snuff, etc., merely to be taken notice of,

is said to do it out of flash.

 

FLASH: to be flash to any matter or