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.

Sheriff’s picture frame.  The gallows.

To sherk.  To evade or disappoint:  to sherk one’s duty.

To sherry.  To run away:  sherry off.

Shifting.  Shuffling.  Tricking.  Shifting cove; i.e. a
  person who lives by tricking.

Shifting ballast. A term used by sailors, to signify
  soldiers, passengers, or any landsmen on board.

SHILLALEY.  An oaken sapling, or cudgel:  from a wood
  of that name famous for its oaks.  Irish.

SHILLY-shally.  Irresolute.  To stand shilly-shally; to
  hesitate, or stand in doubt.

Shindy.  A dance.  Sea phrase.

Shine.  It shines like a shitten barn door.

Ship shape.  Proper, as it ought to be.  Sea phrase,

Sh-T sack.  A dastardly fellow:  also a non-conformist. 
  This appellation is said to have originated from the
  following story:—­After the restoration, the laws against
  the non-conformists were extremely severe.  They
  sometimes met in very obscure places:  and there is a tradition
  that one of their congregations were assembled in a barn,
  the rendezvous of beggars and other vagrants, where the
  preacher, for want of a ladder or tub, was suspended in
  a sack fixed to the beam.  His discourse that day being
  on the last judgment, he particularly attempted to describe
  the terrors of the wicked at the sounding of the trumpet,
  on which a trumpeter to a puppet-show, who had taken
  refuge in that barn, and lay hid under the straw, sounded
  a charge.  The congregation, struck with the utmost
  consternation, fled in an instant from the place, leaving
  their affrighted teacher to shift for himself.  The effects
  of his terror are said to have appeared at the bottom of
  the sack, and to have occasioned that opprobrious appellation
  by which the non-conformists were vulgarly distinguished.

Sh-T-Ng through the teeth.  Vomiting.  Hark ye,
  friend, have you got a padlock on your a-se, that you sh-te
  through your teeth?  Vulgar address to one vomiting.

Shod all round.  A parson who attends a funeral is said
  to be shod all round, when he receives a hat-band, gloves,
  and scarf:  many shoeings being only partial.

SHOEMAKER’S stocks.  New, or strait shoes.  I was in
  the shoemaker’s stocks; i.e. had on a new pair of shoes
  that were too small for me.

To SHOOLE.  To go skulking about.

To shoot the cat.  To vomit from excess of liquor;
  called also catting.

Shop.  A prison.  Shopped; confined, imprisoned.

Shoplifter.  One that steals whilst pretending to purchase
  goods in a shop.

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