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

Pistols; an obsolete term.

 

POST, or POST THE PONEY. To stake, or lay down the money, as on laying a

bet, or concluding a bargain.

 

POUNDABLE. Any event which is considered certain or inevitable, is

declared to be poundable, as the issue of a game, the success of a bet,

etc.

 

POUND IT. To ensure or make a certainty of any thing; thus, a man will

say, I’ll pound it to be so; taken, probably from the custom of laying,

or rather offering ten pounds to a crown at a cockmatch, in which case,

if no person takes this extravagant odds, the battle is at an end. This

is termed pounding a cock.

 

PRAD. A horse.

 

PRADBACK. Horseback.

 

PRIG. A thief.

 

PRIG. To steal; to go out a-prigging, is to go a-thieving.

 

PRIME. In a general sense, synonymous with plummy; any thing very good of

its kind, is called a prime article. Any thing executed in a stylish or

masterly manner, is said to be done in prime twig. See FAKEMENT, and

GAMMON THE TWELVE.

 

PULL. An important advantage possessed by one party over another; as in

gaming, you may by some slight, unknown to your adversary, or by a

knowledge of the cards, etc., have the odds of winning considerably on

your side; you are then said to have a great pull. To have the power of

injuring a person, by the knowledge of any thing erroneous in his

conduct, which leaves his character or personal safety at your mercy, is

also termed having a pull upon him, that is (to use a vulgar phrase) that

you have him under your thumb. A person speaking of any intricate affair,

or feat of ingenuity, which he cannot comprehend, will say, There is some

pull at the bottom of it, that I’m not fly to.

 

PULL, or PULL UP: to accost; stop; apprehend; or take into custody; as to

pull up a Jack, is to stop a post-chaise on the highway. To pull a man,

or have him pulled, is to cause his apprehension for some offence; and it

is then said, that Mr. Pullen is concerned.

 

PULLED, PULLED UP, or IN PULL: Taken in custody; in confinement.

 

PUSH: a crowd or concourse of people, either in the streets, or at any

public place of amusement, etc., when any particular scene of crowding

is alluded to, they say, the push, as the push, at the spell doors; the

push at the stooping-match, etc.

 

PUT DOWN. See DOWN.

 

PUT FLASH. See FLASH.

 

PUT FLY. See FLY.

 

PUT UP: to suggest to another, the means of committing a depredation, or

effecting any other business, is termed, putting him up to it.

 

PUT UP AFFAIR: any preconcerted plan or scheme to effect a robbery,

etc., undertaken at the suggestion of another person, who possessing a

knowledge of the premises, is competent to advise the principal how best

to proceed.

 

PUTTER UP: the projector or planner of a put-up affair, as a servant in a

gentleman’s family, who proposes to a gang of housebreakers the robbery

of his master’s house, and informs them where the plate, etc., is

deposited, (instances of which are frequent in London) is termed the

putter up, and usually shares equally in the booty with the parties

executing, although the former may lie dormant, and take no part in the

actual commission of the fact.

 

PUZZLING-STICKS: the triangles to which culprits are tied up, for the

purpose of undergoing flagellation.

 

Q. See LETTER Q.

 

QUEER: bad; counterfeit; false; unwell in health.

 

QUEER, or QUEER-BIT: base money.

 

QUEER SCREENS: forged Bank-notes.

 

QUEER IT: to spoil it, which see.

 

QUEER-BAIL. Persons of no repute, hired to bail a prisoner in any

bailable case; these men are to be had in London for a trifling sum, and

are called Broomsticks.

 

QUID: a guinea.

 

QUOD: a gaol. To quod a person is to send him to gaol. In quod, is in

gaol.

 

QUOD-COVE: the keeper of a gaol.

 

QUODDING-DUES. See DUES.

 

RACKET: some particular kinds of fraud and robbery are so termed, when

called by their flash titles, and others Rig; as, the Letter-racket, the

Order-racket; the Kid-rig; the Cat and Kitten-rig, etc., but all these

terms depend upon the fancy of the speaker. In fact, any game may be

termed a rig, racket, suit, slum, etc., by prefixing thereto the

particular branch of depredation or fraud in question, many examples of

which occur in this work.

 

RAG: money.

 

RAG-GORGY: a rich or monied man, but generally used in conversation when

a particular gentleman, or person high in office, is hinted at; instead

of mentioning his name, they say, the Rag-gorgy, knowing themselves to be

understood by those they are addressing. See COVE, and SWELL.

 

RAMP: to rob any person or place by open violence or suddenly snatching

at something and running off with it, as, I ramp’d him of his montra; why

did you not ramp his castor? etc. A man convicted of this offence, is

said to have been done for a ramp. This audacious game, is called by

prigs, the ramp, and is nearly similar to the RUSH, which see.

 

RANK: complete; absolute, downright, an emphatical manner of describing

persons or characters, as a rank nose, a rank swell, etc. etc.

 

RATTLER: a coach.

 

READER: a pocket-book.

 

READER-HUNTERS. See DUMMY-HUNTERS.

 

REGULARS: one’s due share of a booty, etc. on a division taking place.

Give me my regulars, that is, give me my dividend.

 

REIGN: the length or continuance of a man’s career in a system of

wickedness, which when he is ultimately bowled out, is said to have been

a long, or a short reign, according to its duration.

 

RESURRECTION-COVE: a stealer of dead bodies.

 

RIBBAND: money in general.

 

RIDGE: gold, whether in coin or any other shape, as a ridge montra, a

gold watch; a cly-full of ridge, a pocket full of gold.

 

RIG. See RACKET.

 

RINGING, or RINGING-IN: to ring is to exchange; ringing the changes, is a

fraud practised by smashers, who when they receive good money in change

of a guinea, etc., ring-in one or more pieces of base with great

dexterity, and then request the party to change them.

 

RINGING CASTORS: signifies frequenting churches and other public

assemblies, for the purpose of changing hats, by taking away a good, and

leaving a shabby one in its place; a petty game now seldom practised.

 

RISE THE PLANT. See PLANT.

 

ROCK’D: superannuated, forgetful, absent in mind; old lags are commonly

said to be thus affected, probably caused by the sufferings they have

undergone.

 

ROLLERS: horse and foot patrole, who parade the roads round about London

during the night, for the prevention of robberies.

 

ROMANY: a gypsy; to patter romany, is to talk the gypsy flash.

 

ROOK: a small iron crow.

 

ROUGH-FAM, or ROUGH-FAMMY: the waistcoat pocket.

 

ROW IN THE BOAT: to go snacks, or have a share in the benefit arising

from any transaction to which you are privy. To let a person row with

you, is to admit him to a share.

 

RUFFLES. Handcuffs.

 

RUGGINS’S: to go to bed, is called going to Ruggins’s.

 

RUM: good, in opposition to queer.

 

RUMBLE-TUMBLE: a stage-coach.

 

RUMP’D: flogged or scourged.

 

RUMPUS: a masquerade.

 

RUSH: the rush, is nearly synonymous with the ramp; but the latter often

applies to snatching at a single article, as a silk cloak, for instance,

from a milliner’s shop-door; whereas a rush may signify a forcible entry

by several men into a detached dwelling-house for the purpose of robbing

its owners of their money, etc. A sudden and violent effort to get into

any place, or vice-versa to effect your exit, as from a place of

confinement, etc., is called rushing them, or giving it to ‘em upon the

rush.

 

RUSSIAN COFFEE-HOUSE: a name given by some punster of the family, to the

Brown Bear public-house in Bow-street, Covent-garden.

 

SACK: a pocket; to sack any thing is to pocket it.

 

SALT-BOXES: the condemned cells in Newgate are so called.

 

SALT-BOX-CLY: the outside coat-pocket, with a flap.

 

SAND: moist sugar.

 

SAWNEY: bacon.

 

SCAMP: the game of highway robbery is called the scamp. To scamp a person

is to rob him on the highway. Done for a scamp signifies convicted of a

highway robbery.

 

SCAMP, or SCAMPSMAN: a highwayman.

 

SCHOOL: a party of persons met together for the purpose of gambling.

 

SCOT: a person of an irritable temper, who is easily put in a passion,

which is often done by the company he is with, to create fun; such a one

is declared to be a fine scot. This diversion is called getting him out,

or getting him round the corner, from these terms being used by

bull-hankers, with whom also a scot is a bullock of a particular breed,

which affords superior diversion when hunted.

 

SCOTTISH: fiery, irritable, easily provoked.

 

SCOUT: a watchman.

 

SCOUT-KEN: a watch-house.

 

SCRAG’D: hang’d.

 

SCRAGGING-POST: the gallows.

 

SCREEN: a bank-note.

 

SCREEVE: a letter, or writing paper.

 

SCREW: a skeleton or false key. To screw a place is to enter it by false

keys; this game is called the screw. Any robbery effected by such means

is termed a screw.

 

SCREWSMAN: a thief who goes out a screwing.

 

SCURF’D: taken in custody.

 

SEEDY: poor, ragged in appearance, shabby.

 

SELL: to sell a man is to betray him, by giving information against him,

or otherwise to injure him clandestinely for the sake of interest, nearly

the same as bridgeing him. (See BRIDGE.) A man who falls a victim to any

treachery of this kind, is said to have been sold like a bullock in

Smithfield.

 

SERVE: to serve a person, or place, is to rob them; as, I serv’d him for

his thimble, I rob’d him of his watch; that crib has been served before,

that shop has been already robbed, etc. To serve a man, also sometimes

signifies to maim, wound, or do him some bodily hurt; and to serve him

out and out, is to kill him.

 

SHAKE: to steal, or rob; as, I shook a chest of slop, I stole a chest of

tea; I’ve been shook of my skin, I have been robbed of my purse. A thief,

whose pall has been into any place for the purpose of robbery, will say

on his coming out, Well, is it all right, have you shook? meaning, did

you succeed in getting any thing? When two persons rob in company, it is

generally the province, or part, of one to shake, (that is, obtain the

swagg), and the other to carry, (that is, bear it to a place of safety).

 

SHALLOW: a hat.

 

SHAN: counterfeit money in general.

 

SHARP: a gambler, or person, professed in all the arts of play; a cheat,

or swindler; any cross-cove, in general, is called a sharp, in opposition

to a flat, or square-cove; but this is only in a comparative sense in the

course of conversation.

 

SHARPING: swindling and cheating in all their various forms, including

the arts of fraud at play.

 

SHIFTER: an alarm, or intimation, given by a thief to his pall,

signifying that there is a down, or that some one is approaching, and

that he had, therefore, better desist from what he is about.

 

SHINER: a looking-glass.

 

SHOOK: synonymous with rock’d.

 

SHOVE-UP: nothing.

 

SHUTTER-RACKET: the practice of robbing houses, or shops, by boring a

hole in the window shutter, and taking out a pane