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.


