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.


