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.


