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.

Hang it up.  Score it up:  speaking of a reckoning.

Hang out.  The traps scavey where we hang out; the officers
  know where we live.

Hanger on.  A dependant.

Hangman’s wages.  Thirteen pence halfpenny; which,
  according to the vulgar tradition, was thus allotted:  one
  shilling for the executioner, and three halfpence for the rope,
  —­N.  B. This refers to former times; the hangmen of the
  present day having, like other artificers, raised their prices. 
  The true state of this matter is, that a Scottish mark was
  the fee allowed for an execution, and the value of that
  piece was settled by a proclamation of James I. at thirteen
  pence halfpenny.

Hank.  He has a hank on him; i.e. an ascendancy over
  him, or a hold upon him.  A Smithfield hank; an ox,
  rendered furious by overdriving and barbarous treatment. 
  See bull hank.

Hanker.  To hanker after any thing; to have a longing
  after or for it.

Hans in Kelder.  Jack in the cellar, i.e. the child in the
  womb:  a health frequently drank to breeding women or
  their husbands.

Hard.  Stale beer, nearly sour, is said to be hard.  Hard
  also means severe:  as, hard fate, a hard master.

Hard at his A-se.  Close after him.

Hare.  He has swallowed a hare; he is drunk; more probably
  a hair, which requires washing down,

Hark-ye-Ing.  Whispering on one side to borrow money.

Harman.  A constable.  Cant.

Harman Beck.  A beadle.  Cant.

Harmans.  The stocks.  Cant.

Harp.  To harp upon; to dwell upon a subject.  Have
  among you, my blind harpers; an expression used in throwing
  or shooting at random among the crowd.  Harp is also
  the Irish expression for woman, or tail, used in tossing
  up in Ireland:  from Hibernia, being represented with a
  harp on the reverse of the copper coins of that country;
  for which it is, in hoisting the copper, i.e. tossing up,
  sometimes likewise called music.

Harridan.  A hagged old woman; a miserable, scraggy,
  worn-out harlot, fit to take her bawd’s degree:  derived
  from the French word HARIDELLE, a worn-out jade of a horse
  or mare.

Harry.  A country fellow.  Cant.—­Old Harry; the Devil.

HARUM scarum.  He was running harum scarum; said of
  any one running or walking hastily, and in a hurry, after
  they know not what.

Hash.  To flash the hash; to vomit.  Cant.

Hasty.  Precipitate, passionate.  He is none of the Hastings
  sort; a saying of a slow, loitering fellow:  an allusion to the
  Hastings pea, which is the first in season.

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