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.

Execution day.  Washing day.

Expended. Killed:  alluding to the gunner’s accounts,
  wherein the articles consumed are charged under the title
  of expended.  Sea phrase.

Eye.  It’s all my eye and Betty Martin.  It’s all nonsense, all
  mere stuff.

Eye-sore.  A disagreeable object.  It will be an eye-sore as
  long as she lives, said by a limn whose wife was cut for a
  fistula in ano.

Face-making.  Begetting children.  To face it out; to
  persist in a falsity.  No face but his own:  a saying of one
  who has no money in his pocket or no court cards in his
  hand.

Facer.  A bumper, a glass filled so full as to leave no room
  for the lip.  Also a violent blow on the face.

Fadge.  It won’t fadge; it won’t do.  A farthing.

To fag.  To beat.  Fag the bloss; beat the wench; Cant. 
  A fag also means a boy of an inferior form or class, who
  acts as a servant to one of a superior, who is said to fag him,
  he is my fag; whence, perhaps, fagged out, for jaded or tired. 
  To stand a good fag; not to be soon tired.

FAGGER.  A little boy put in at a window to rob the house.

Faggot.  A man hired at a muster to appear as a soldier. 
  To faggot in the canting sense, means to bind:  an allusion
  to the faggots made up by the woodmen, which are
  all bound.  Faggot the culls; bind the men.

Faithful.  One of the faithful; a taylor who gives long
  credit.  His faith has made him unwhole; i.e. trusting
  too much, broke him.

Fair.  A set of subterraneous rooms in the Fleet Prison.

FAKEMENT.  A counterfeit signature.  A forgery.  Tell
  the macers to mind their fakements; desire the swindlers
  to be careful not to forge another person’s signature.

FALLALLS.  Ornaments, chiefly women’s, such as ribands,
  necklaces, &c.

Fallen away from A horse load to A cart load
  A saying on one grown fat.

Family man.  A thief or receiver of stolen goods.

Fam lay.  Going into a goldsmith’s shop, under pretence
  of buying a wedding ring, and palming one or two, by
  daubing the hand with some viscous matter.

FAMS, or FAMBLES.  Hands.  Famble cheats; rings or
  gloves.  Cant.

To Famgrasp.  To shake bands:  figuratively, to agree
  or make up a difference.  Famgrasp the cove; shake hands
  with the fellow.  Cant.

Family of love.  Lewd women; also, a religious sect.

Fancy man.  A man kept by a lady for secret services.

To Fan.  To beat any one.  I fanned him sweetly; I beat
  him heartily.

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