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.

PILLALOO.  The Irish cry or howl at funerals.

Pimp.  A male procurer, or cock bawd; also a small faggot
  used about London for lighting fires, named from introducing
  the fire to the coals.

Pimp WHISKIN.  A top trader in pimping.

Pimple.  The head.

Pin.  In or to a merry pin; almost drunk:  an allusion to
  a sort of tankard, formerly used in the north, having silver
  pegs or pins set at equal distances from the top to the
  bottom:  by the rules of good fellowship, every person
  drinking out of one of these tankards, was to swallow
  the quantity contained between two pins; if he drank
  more or less, he was to continue drinking till he ended at
  a pin:  by this means persons unaccustomed to measure
  their draughts were obliged to drink the whole tankard. 
  Hence when a person was a little elevated with liquor,
  he was said to have drunk to a merry pin.

Pin basket.  The youngest child.

Pin money.  An allowance settled on a married woman
  for her pocket expences.

Pinch.  At a pinch; on an exigency.

Pinch.  To go into a tradesman’s shop under the pretence
  of purchasing rings or other light articles, and while
  examining them to shift some up the sleeve of the coat. 
  Also to ask for change for a guinea, and when the silver
  is received, to change some of the good shillings for bad
  ones; then suddenly pretending to recollect that you had
  sufficient silver to pay the bill, ask for the guinea again,
  and return the change, by which means several bad shillings
  are passed.

To pinch on the parson’s side.  To defraud the parson
  of his tithe.

PINCHERS.  Rogues who, in changing money, by dexterity
  of hand frequently secrete two or three shillings out of
  the change of a guinea.  This species of roguery is called
  the pinch, or pinching lay.

To pink.  To stab or wound with a small sword:  probably
  derived from the holes formerly cut in both men and women’s
  clothes, called pinking.  Pink of the fashion; the
  top of the mode.  To pink and wink; frequently winking
  the eyes through a weakness in them.

Pinking-DINDEE.  A sweater or mohawk.  Irish.

Pins.  Legs.  Queer pins; ill shapen legs.

Piper.  A broken winded horse.

PISCINARIANS.  A club or brotherhood, A.D. 1743.

Piss.  He will piss when he can’t whistle; he will be hanged. 
  He shall not piss my money against the wall; he shall not
  have my money to spend in liquor.

      He who once a good name gets,
      May piss a bed, and say he sweats.

Piss-burned. Discoloured:  commonly applied to a discoloured
  grey wig.

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