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.

GUTFOUNDERED. Exceeding hungry.

Gut Scraper, or tormentor of catgut.  A fiddler.

Gutter lane.  The throat, the swallow, the red lane. 
  See red lane.

Gutting A quart pot.  Taking out the lining of it:  i. e.
  drinking it off.  Gutting an oyster; eating it.  Gutting a
  house; clearing it of its furniture.  See poulterer.

Guy.  A dark lanthorn:  an allusion to Guy Faux, the principal
  actor in the gunpowder plot.  Stow the guy:  conceal the
  lanthorn.

Guzzle.  Liquor.  To guzzle; to drink greedily.

Guzzle guts.  One greedy of liquor.

Gybe, or JYBE.  Any writing or pass with a seal.

GYBING.  Jeering or ridiculing.

Gyles, or Giles.  Hopping Giles; a nick name for a lame
  person:  St. Giles was the tutelar saint of cripples.

Gyp.  A college runner or errand-boy at Cambridge, called
  at Oxford a scout.  See scout.

Gypsies.  A set of vagrants, who, to the great disgrace of
  our police, are suffered to wander about the country. 
  They pretend that they derive their origin from the
  ancient Egyptians, who were famous for their knowledge
  in astronomy and other sciences; and, under the pretence
  of fortune-telling, find means to rob or defraud the ignorant
  and superstitious.  To colour their impostures, they
  artificially discolour their faces, and speak a kind of
  gibberish peculiar to themselves.  They rove up and down the
  country in large companies, to the great terror of the
  farmers, from whose geese, turkeys, and fowls, they take very
  considerable contributions.

  When a fresh recruit is admitted into the fraternity, he is to
   take the following oath, administered by the principal
   maunder, after going through the annexed forms: 

  First, a new name is given him by which he is ever after to
   be called; then standing up in the middle of the assembly,
   and directing his face to the dimber damber, or principal
   man of the gang, he repeats the following oath, which is
   dictated to him by some experienced member of the fraternity: 

  I, Crank Cuffin, do swear to be a true brother, and that I will
   in all things obey the commands of the great tawney
   prince, and keep his counsel and not divulge the secrets of
   my brethren.

  I will never leave nor forsake the company, but observe and
   keep all the times of appointment, either by day or by
   night, in every place whatever.

  I will not teach any one to cant, nor will I disclose any of
   our mysteries to them.

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