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.

Carting.  The punishment formerly inflicted on bawds,
  who were placed in a tumbrel or cart, and led through
  a town, that their persons might be known.

CARVEL’S ring.  The private parts of a woman.  Ham
  Carvel, a jealous old doctor, being in bed with his wife,
  dreamed that the Devil gave him a ring, which, so long as
  he had it on his finger, would prevent his being made a
  cuckold:  waking he found he had got his finger the Lord
  knows where.  See Rabelais, and Prior’s versification of
  the story.

To Cascade.  To vomit.

Case.  A house; perhaps from the Italian Casa.  In the canting
  lingo it meant store or ware house, as well as a dwelling
  house.  Tout that case; mark or observe that house. 
  It is all bob, now let’s dub the gig of the case; now the
  coast is clear, let us break open the door of the house.

Case VROW.  A prostitute attached to a particular bawdy
  house.

Cash, or caffan.  Cheese; cant.  See caffan.

Caster.  A cloak.  Cant.

Castor.  A hat.  To prig a castor; to steal a hat.

Casting up one’s accounts.  Vomiting.

Cat.  A common prostitute.  An old cat; a cross old woman.

Cat-heads.  A Woman’s breasts.  Sea phrase.

To cat, or shoot the cat.  To vomit from drunkenness.

Cat and BAGPIPEAN society.  A society which met at
  their office in the great western road:  in their summons,
  published in the daily papers, it was added, that the kittens
  might come with the old cats without being scratched.

Cat call.  A kind of whistle, chiefly used at theatres, to
  interrupt the actors, and damn a new piece.  It derives
  its name from one of its sounds, which greatly resembles
  the modulation of an intriguing boar cat.

Cat harping fashion.  Drinking cross-ways, and not, as
  usual, over the left thumb.  Sea term.

Cat in pan.  To turn cat in pan, to change sides or
  parties; supposed originally to have been to turn Cate or cake
  in pan.

Cat’s foot.  To live under the cat’s foot; to be under the
  dominion of a wife hen-pecked.  To live like dog and cat;
  spoken of married persons who live unhappily together. 
  As many lives as a cat; cats, according to vulgar
  naturalists, have nine lives, that is one less than a woman. 
  No more chance than a cat in hell without claws; said of
  one who enters into a dispute or quarrel with one greatly
  above his match.

Cat lap.  Tea, called also scandal broth.  See scandal
  broth.

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