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.

Contra dance.  A dance where the dancers of the different
  sexes stand opposite each other, instead of side by side, as
  in the minuet, rigadoon, louvre, &c. and now corruptly called a
  country dance.

Conundrums. Enigmatical conceits.

Convenient.  A mistress.  Cant.

Conveniency.  A necessary.  A leathern conveniency, a coach.

Cooped up.  Imprisoned, confined like a fowl in a coop.

Coquet.  A jilt.

Corinth.  A bawdy-house.  Cant.

Corinthians:  Frequenters of brothels.  Also an impudent,
  brazen-faced fellow, perhaps from the Corinthian
  brass.

Cork-brained. Light-headed, foolish.

Corned. Drunk.

Cornish hug.  A particular lock in wrestling, peculiar to
  the people of that county.

Corny-faced. A very red pimpled face.

Corporal.  To mount a corporal and four; to be guilty
  of onanism:  the thumb is the corporal, the four fingers
  the privates.

Corporation.  A large belly.  He has a glorious corporation;
  he has a very prominent belly.

Corporation.  The magistrates, &c. of a corporate
  town.  Corpus sine ratione.  Freemen of a corporation’s
  work; neither strong nor handsome.

Cosset.  A foundling.  Cosset colt or lamb; a colt or
  lamb brought up by hand.

Costard.  The head.  I’ll smite your costard; I’ll give
  you a knock on the head.

Costard monger.  A dealer in fruit, particularly apples.

Cot, or quot.  A man who meddles with women’s household
  business, particularly in the kitchen.  The punishment
  commonly inflicted on a quot, is pinning a greasy
  dishclout to the skirts of his coat.

Cove.  A man, a fellow, a rogue.  The cove was bit; the
  rogue was outwitted.  The cove has bit the cole; the
  rogue has got the money.  Cant.

Covent, or Convent garden, vulgarly called common
  garden.  Anciently, the garden belonging to a
  dissolved monastery; now famous for being the chief
  market in London for fruit, flowers, and herbs.  The
  theatres are situated near it.  In its environs are
  many brothels, and not long ago, the lodgings of the
  second order of ladies of easy virtue were either there, or
  in the purlieus of Drury Lane.

Covent garden abbess.  A bawd.

Covent garden ague.  The venereal disease.  He broke
  his shins against Covent Garden rails; he caught the
  venereal disorder.

Covent garden nun.  A prostitute.

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