Diver. A pickpocket; also one who lives in a cellar.
Divide. To divide the house with one’s
wife; to give her
the outside, and to keep all the inside
to one’s self, i.e. to
turn her into the street.
Do. To do any one; to rob and cheat him.
I have done
him; I have robbed him. Also to overcome
in a boxing
match: witness those laconic lines
written on the field of
battle, by Humphreys to his patron.—’Sir,
I have done
the Jew.’
To do over. Carries the same meaning,
but is not so briefly
expressed: the former having received
the polish of the
present times.
DOASH. A cloak. Cant.
Dobin rig. Stealing ribbands from haberdashers
early in
the morning or late at night; generally
practised by women
in the disguise of maid servants.
To dock. To lie with a woman.
The cull docked the dell
all the darkmans; the fellow laid with
the wench all night.
Docked smack smooth; one who has suffered
an amputation
of his penis from a venereal complaint.
He must
go into dock; a sea phrase, signifying
that the person spoken
of must undergo a salivation. Docking
is also a punishment
inflicted by sailors on the prostitutes
who have
infected them with the venereal disease;
it consists in cutting
off all their clothes, petticoats, shift
and all, close to
their stays, and then turning them into
the street.
Doctor. Milk and water, with a little rum,
and some nutmeg;
also the name of a composition used by
distillers,
to make spirits appear stronger than they
really are, or,
in their phrase, better proof.
Doctors. Loaded dice, that will run but
two or three
chances. They put the doctors upon
him; they cheated
him with loaded dice.
DODSEY. A woman: perhaps a corruption of Doxey. Cant.
Dog buffers. Dog stealers, who kill
those dogs not
advertised for, sell their skins, and
feed the remaining dogs
with their flesh.
Dog in A doublet. A daring, resolute
fellow. In
Germany and Flanders the boldest dogs
used to hunt the boar,
having a kind of buff doublet buttoned
on their bodies,
Rubens has represented several so equipped,
so has Sneyders.
Dog. An old dog at it; expert or accustomed
to any thing.
Dog in a manger; one who would prevent
another from
enjoying what he himself does not want:
an allusion to
the well-known fable. The dogs have
not dined; a
common saying to any one whose shirt hangs
out behind. To
dog, or dodge; to follow at a distance.
To blush like a
blue dog, i.e. not at all. To
walk the black dog on any
one; a punishment inflicted in the night
on a fresh prisoner,
by his comrades, in case of his refusal
to pay the usual
footing or garnish.


