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.

Cut.  Drunk.  A little cut over the head; slightly
  intoxicated.  To cut; to leave a person or company.  To cut
  up well; to die rich.

To cut. (Cambridge.) To renounce acquaintance with any
  one is to cut him.  There are several species of the cut
  Such as the cut direct, the cut indirect, the cut sublime,
  the cut infernal, &c.  The cut direct, is to start across the
  street, at the approach of the obnoxious person in order to
  avoid him.  The cut indirect, is to look another way, and
  pass without appearing to observe him.  The cut sublime,
  is to admire the top of King’s College Chapel, or the beauty
  of the passing clouds, till he is out of sight.  The cut
  infernal, is to analyze the arrangement of your shoe-strings,
  for the same purpose.

To cut bene.  To speak gently.  To cut bene whiddes;
  to give good words.  To cut queer whiddes; to give foul
  language.  To cut a bosh, or a flash; to make a figure. 
  Cant.

To cutty-eye.  To look out of the corners of one’s eyes,
  to leer, to look askance.  The cull cutty-eyed at us; the
  fellow looked suspicious at us.

Dab.  An adept; a dab at any feat or exercise.  Dab,
  quoth Dawkins, when he hit his wife on the a-se with a
  pound of butter.

Dace.  Two pence.  Tip me a dace; lend me two pence. 
  Cant.

DADDLES.  Hands.  Tip us your daddle; give me your hand. 
  Cant.

Daddy.  Father.  Old daddy; a familiar address to an old
  man.  To beat daddy mammy; the first rudiments of
  drum beating, being the elements of the roll.

Daggers.  They are at daggers drawing; i.e. at enmity,
  ready to fight.

Dairy.  A woman’s breasts, particularly one that gives
  suck.  She sported her dairy; she pulled out her breast.

Daisy Cutter.  A jockey term for a horse that does not
  lift up his legs sufficiently, or goes too near the ground,
  and is therefore apt to stumble.

Daisy kickers.  Ostlers at great inns.

Dam.  A small Indian coin, mentioned in the Gentoo code
  of laws:  hence etymologists may, if they please, derive
  the common expression, I do not care a dam, i.e.  I do
  not care half a farthing for it.

DAMBER.  A rascal.  See dimber.

Damme boy.  A roaring, mad, blustering fellow, a scourer
  of the streets, or kicker up of a breeze.

Damned soul.  A clerk in a counting house, whose sole
  business it is to clear or swear off merchandise at the
  custom-house; and who, it is said, guards against the crime
  of perjury, by taking a previous oath, never to swear truly
  on those occasions.

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