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

meaning, is to understand or

comprehend it, and is synonymous with being fly, down, or awake; to put a

person flash to any thing, is to put him on his guard, to explain or

inform him of what he was before unacquainted with.

 

FLASH: to shew or expose any thing: as I flash’d him a bean, I shewed him

a guinea. Don’t flash your sticks, don’t expose your pistols, etc.

 

FLASH-COVE, or COVESS: the landlord or landlady of a flash-ken.

 

FLASH-CRIB, FLASH-KEN, or FLASH-PANNY, a public-house resorted to chiefly

by family people, the master of which is commonly an old prig, and not

unfrequently an old-lag.

 

FLASH-MAN: a favourite or fancy-man; but this term is generally applied

to those dissolute characters upon the town, who subsist upon the

liberality of unfortunate women; and who, in return, are generally at

hand during their nocturnal perambulations, to protect them should any

brawl occur, or should they be detected in robbing those whom they have

picked up.

 

FLASH-MOLLISHER: a family-woman.

 

FLASH-SONG: a song interlarded with flash words, generally relating to

the exploits of the prigging fraternity in their various branches of

depredation.

 

FLESH-BAG: a shirt.

 

FLAT. In a general sense, any honest man, or square cove, in opposition

to a sharp or cross-cove; when used particularly, it means the person

whom you have a design to rob or defraud, who is termed the flat, or the

flatty-gory. A man who does any foolish or imprudent act, is called a

flat; any person who is found an easy dupe to the designs of the family,

is said to be a prime flat. It’s a good flat that’s never down, is a

proverb among flash people; meaning, that though a man may be repeatedly

duped or taken in, he must in the end have his eyes opened to his folly.

 

FLAT-MOVE. Any attempt or project that miscarries, or any act of folly or

mismanagement in human affairs is said to be a flat move.

 

FLATS: a cant name for playing-cards.

 

FLIP: to shoot.

 

FLOOR: to knock down anyone, either for the purpose of robbery, or to

effect your escape, is termed flooring him.

 

FLOOR’D: a person who is so drunk, as to be incapable of standing, is

said to be floor’d.

 

FLUE-FAKER: a chimney-sweeper.

 

FLY: vigilant; suspicious; cunning; not easily robbed or duped; a

shopkeeper or person of this description, is called a fly cove, or a

leary cove; on other occasions fly is synonymous with flash or leary, as,

I’m fly to you, I was put flash to him, etc.

 

FLY THE MAGS: to gamble, by tossing up halfpence.

 

FOGLE: a silk handkerchief.

 

FORKS: the two forefingers of the hand; to put your forks down, is to

pick a pocket.

 

FOSS, or PHOS: a phosphorus bottle used by cracksmen to obtain a light.

 

FRISK: to search; to frisk a cly, is to empty a pocket of its contents;

to stand frisk, is to stand search.

 

FRISK: fun or mirth of any kind.

 

GAFF: to gamble with cards, dice, etc., or to toss up.

 

GAFF: a country fair; also a meeting of gamblers for the purpose of play;

any public place of amusement is liable to be called the gaff, when

spoken of in flash company who know to what it alludes.

 

GALANEY: a fowl.

 

GALLOOT: a soldier.

 

GAME: every particular branch of depredation practised by the family, is

called a game; as, what game do you go upon? One species of robbery or

fraud is said to be a good game, another a queer game, etc.

 

GAMMON: flattery; deceit; pretence; plausible language; any assertion

which is not strictly true, or professions believed to be insincere, as,

I believe you’re gammoning, or, that’s all gammon, meaning, you are no

doubt jesting with me, or, that’s all a farce. To gammon a person, is to

amuse him with false assurances, to praise, or flatter him, in order to

obtain some particular end; to gammon a man to any act, is to persuade

him to it by artful language, or pretence; to gammon a shopkeeper,

etc., is to engage his attention to your discourse, while your

accomplice is executing some preconcerted plan of depredation upon his

property; a thief detected in a house which he has entered, upon the

sneak, for the purpose of robbing it, will endeavour by some gammoning

story to account for his intrusion, and to get off with a good grace; a

man who is, ready at invention, and has always a flow of plausible

language on these occasions, is said to be a prime gammoner; to gammon

lushy or queer, is to pretend drunkenness, or sickness, for some private

end.

 

GAMMON THE TWELVE: a man who has been tried by a criminal court, and by a

plausible defence, has induced the jury to acquit him, or to banish the

capital part of the charge, and so save his life, is said, by his

associates to have gammoned the twelve in prime twig, alluding to the

number of jurymen.

 

GAMS: the legs, to have queer gams, is to be bandy-legged, or otherwise

deformed.

 

GARNISH: a small sum of money extracted from a new chum on his entering a

jail, by his fellow-prisoners, which affords them a treat of beer, gin,

etc.

 

GARDEN: to put a person in the garden, in the hole, in the bucket, or in

the well, are synonymous phrases, signifying to defraud him of his due

share of the booty by embezzling a part of the property, or the money, it

is fenced for; this phrase also applies generally to defrauding anyone

with whom you are confidentially connected of what is justly his due.

 

GARRET: the fob-pocket.

 

GEORGY: a quartern-loaf.

 

GILL: a word used by way of variation, similar to cove, gloak, or gory;

but generally coupled to some other descriptive term, as a flash-gill, a

toby-gill, etc.

 

GIVE IT TO: to rob or defraud any place or person, as, I gave it to him

for his reader, I robb’d him of his pocket-book. ‘What suit did you give

it them upon? In what manner, or by what means, did you effect your

purpose? Also, to impose upon a person’s credulity by telling him a

string of falsehoods; or to take any unfair advantage of another’s

inadvertence or unsuspecting temper, on any occasion; in either case, the

party at last dropping down, that is, detecting your imposition, will

say, I believe you have been giving it to me nicely all this while.

 

GLAZE: a glass-window.

 

GLIM: a candle, or other light.

 

GLIM-STICK: a candlestick.

 

GLOAK: synonymous with GILL, which see.

 

GNARL: to gnarl upon a person, is the same as splitting or nosing upon

him; a man guilty of this treachery is called a gnarling scoundrel, etc.

 

GO-ALONGER: a simple easy person, who suffers himself to be made a tool

of, and is readily persuaded to any act or undertaking by his associates,

who inwardly laugh at his folly, and ridicule him behind his back.

 

GO OUT: to follow the profession of thieving; two or more persons who

usually rob in company, are said to go out together.

 

GOOD: a place or person, which promises to be easily robbed, is said to

be good, as, that house is good upon the crack; this shop is good upon

the star; the swell is good for his montra; etc. A man who declares

himself good for any favour or thing, means, that he has sufficient

influence, or possesses the certain means to obtain it; good as bread, or

good as cheese, are merely emphatical phrases to the same effect. See

CAZ.

 

GORY: a term synonymous with cove, gill, or gloak, and like them,

commonly used in the descriptive. See FLAT and SWELL.

 

GRAB: to seize; apprehend; take in custody; to make a grab at any thing,

is to snatch suddenly, as at a gentleman’s watch-chain, etc.

 

GRAB’D: taken, apprehended.

 

GRAY: a halfpenny, or other coin, having two heads or two tails, and

fabricated for the use of gamblers, who, by such a deception. frequently

win large sums.

 

GROCERY: halfpence, or copper coin, in a collective sense.

 

GRUB: victuals of any kind; to grub a person, is to diet him, or find him

in victuals; to grub well, is to eat with an appetite.

 

GUN: a view; look; observation; or taking notice; as, there is a strong

gun at us, means, we are strictly observed. To gun any thing, is to look

at or examine it.

 

HADDOCK: a purse; a haddock stuff’d with beans, is a jocular term for a

purse full of guineas!

 

HALF A BEAN, HALF A QUID; half-a-guinea.

 

HALF A BULL: half-a-crown.

 

HALF-FLASH AND HALF-FOOLISH: this character is applied sarcastically to a

person, who has a smattering of the cant language, and having associated

a little with family people, pretends to a knowledge of life which he

really does not possess, and by this conduct becomes an object of

ridicule among his acquaintance.

 

HAMMERISH: down as a hammer.

 

HANG IT ON: purposely to delay or protract the performance of any task or

service you have undertaken, by dallying, and making as slow a progress

as possible, either from natural indolence, or to answer some private end

of your own, To hang it on with a woman, is to form a temporary connexion

with her; to cohabit or keep company with her without marriage.

 

HANK: a bull-bait, or bullock-hunt.

 

HANK: to have a person at a good hank, is to have made any contract with

him very advantageous to yourself; or to be able from some prior cause to

command or use him just as you please; to have the benefit of his purse

or other services, in fact, upon your own terms.

 

HANK: a spell of cessation from any work or duty, on the score of

indisposition, or some other pretence.

 

HIGH-TOBY: the game of highway robbery, that is, exclusively on

horseback.

 

HIGH-TOBY-GLOAK: a highwayman.

 

HIS-NABS: him or himself; a term used by way of emphasis, when speaking

of a third person.

 

HOBBLED: taken up, or in custody; to hobble a plant, is to spring it. See

PLANT.

 

HOG: a shilling; five, ten, or more shillings, are called five, ten, or

more hog.

 

HOIST: the game of shoplifting is called the hoist,. a person expert at

this practice is said to be a goad hoist.

 

HOLE. See GARDEN.

 

HOPPER-DOCKERS: shoes.

 

HORNEY: a constable.

 

HOXTER: an inside coat-pocket.

 

IN IT: to let another partake of any benefit or acquisition you have

acquired by robbery or otherwise, is called putting him in it: a

family-man who is accidentally witness to a robbery, etc., effected by

one or more others, will say to the latter, Mind, I’m in it: which is

generally acceded to, being the established custom; but there seems more

of courtesy than right in this practice.

 

IN TOWN: flush of money; breeched.

 

JACOB: a ladder; a simple half-witted person.

 

JACK: a post-chaise.

 

JACK-BOY: a postillion.

 

JACKET: to jacket a person, or clap a jacket on him, is nearly synonymous

with bridging him. See BRIDGE. But this term is more properly applied to

removing a man by underhand and vile means from any birth or situation he

enjoys, commonly with a view to supplant him; therefore, when a person,

is supposed to have fallen a victim to such infamous machinations, it is

said to have been a jacketing concern.

 

JASEY: a wig.

 

JEMMY, or JAMES: an iron-crow.

 

JERRY: a fog or mist.

 

JERVIS: a