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.

Ducks and drakes.  To make ducks and drakes:  a
  school-boy’s amusement, practised with pieces of tile,
  oyster-shells, or flattish stones, which being skimmed
  along the surface of a pond, or still river, rebound many
  times.  To make ducks and drakes of one’s money; to
  throw it idly away.

Duck F-CK-R.  The man who has the care of the poultry
  on board a ship of war.

Duck legs.  Short legs.

DUDDERS, or whispering DUDDERS.  Cheats who travel
  the country, pretending to sell smuggled goods:  they
  accost their intended dupes in a whisper.  The goods
  they have for sale are old shop-keepers, or damaged;
  purchased by them of large manufactories.  See Duffer.

DUDDERING rake.  A thundering rake, a buck of the
  first head, one extremely lewd.

Dudgeon.  Anger.

Duds.  Clothes.

Duffers.  Cheats who ply in different parts of the town,
  particularly about Water-lane, opposite St. Clement’s
  church, in the Strand, and pretend to deal in smuggled
  goods, stopping all country people, or such as they think
  they can impose on; which they frequently do, by selling
  them Spital-fields goods at double their current price.

DUGS.  A woman’s breasts,

Duke, or rum Duke.  A queer unaccountable fellow.

Duke of limbs.  A tall, awkward, ill-made fellow.

Duke Humphrey.  To dine with Duke Humphrey; to
  fast.  In old St. Paul’s church was an aisle called Duke
  Humphrey’s walk (from a tomb vulgarly called his, but
  in reality belonging to John of Gaunt), and persons who
  walked there, while others were at dinner, were said to
  dine with Duke Humphrey.

Dull Swift.  A stupid, sluggish fellow, one long going on
  an errand.

Dumb arm.  A lame arm.

Dumb-founded. Silenced, also soundly beaten.

Dumb glutton.  A woman’s privities.

Dumb watch.  A venereal bubo in the groin.

DUMMEE.  A pocket book.  A dummee hunter.  A pick-pocket,
  who lurks about to steal pocket books out of
  gentlemen’s pockets.  Frisk the dummee of the screens; take
  all the bank notes out of the pocket book, ding the dummee,
  and bolt, they sing out beef.  Throw away the pocket
  book, and run off, as they call out “stop thief.”

Dumplin.  A short thick man or woman.  Norfolk dumplin;
  a jeering appellation of a Norfolk man, dumplins being
  a favourite kind of food in that county.

Dumps.  Down in the dumps; low-spirited, melancholy: 
  jocularly said to be derived from Dumpos, a king of Egypt,
  who died of melancholy.  Dumps are also small pieces of
  lead, cast by schoolboys in the shape of money.

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