1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue eBook

Francis Grose
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 343 pages of information about 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue eBook

Francis Grose
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 343 pages of information about 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Ped. A basket.  Cant.

Pedlar’s French.  The cant language.  Pedlar’s pony;
  a walking-stick.

To peel.  To strip:  allusion to the taking off the coat or
  rind of an orange or apple.

Peeper.  A spying glass; also a looking-glass.  Track up
  the dancers, and pike with the peeper; whip up stairs,
  and run off with the looking-glass.  Cant.

Peepers.  Eyes.  Single peeper, a one-eyed man.

Peeping tom.  A nick name for a curious prying fellow;
  derived from an old legendary tale, told of a taylor of
  Coventry, who, when Godiva countess of Chester rode at
  noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure
  certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding
  the rest of the people shut up their houses) shly peeped
  out of his window, for which he was miraculously struck
  blind.  His figure, peeping out of a window, is still kept
  up in remembrance of the transaction.

Peepy.  Drowsy.

To peer.  To look about, to be circumspect.

Peery.  Inquisitive, suspicious.  The cull’s peery; that
  fellow suspects something.  There’s a peery, tis snitch
  we are observed, there’s nothing to be done.

Peg.  Old Peg; poor hard Suffolk or Yorkshire cheese.  A
  peg is also a blow with a straightarm:  a term used by the
  professors of gymnastic arts.  A peg in the day-light,
  the victualling office, or the haltering-place; a blow in the
  eye, stomach, or under the ear.

Peg Trantum’s.  Gone to Peg Trantum’s; dead.

PEGO.  The penis of man or beast.

Pell-Mell.  Tumultuously, helter skelter, jumbled together.

Pelt.  A heat, chafe, or passion; as, What a pelt he was
  in!  Pelt is also the skin of several beasts.

Penance board.  The pillory.

Penny-wise and pound foolish.  Saving in small matters,
  and extravagant in great.

Pennyworth.  An equivalent.  A good pennyworth;
  cheap bargain.

Penthouse nab.  A broad brimmed hat.

Peppered. Infected with the venereal disease.

Peppery.  Warm, passionate.

Perkin.  Water cyder.

PERRIWINKLE.  A wig.

Persuaders.  Spurs.  The kiddey clapped his persuaders
  to his prad but the traps boned him; the highwayman
  spurred his horse hard, but the officers seized him.

Pet.  In a pet; in a passion or miff.

Peter.  A portmanteau or cloke-bag.  Biter of peters; one
  that makes it a trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind
  stage coaches or out of waggons.  To rob Peter to
  pay Paul; to borrow of one man to pay another:  styled
  also manoeuvring the apostles.

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1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.