(Posted to the Revlist in 11 installments–last posting in June, 2000)
“The terms listed below were mostly gleaned from Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. There is a bit of a nautical bent to this list because of my own peculiar specialty, but there should be plenty of amusing and useful terms for everyone.
Your underly industrious servant,
Lee Bienkowski”
A
Abbess - a woman who is a brothel keeper
Abraham-sham - a feigned illness
Academician - a whore
Cast up one's accounts - to vomit
Admiral of the Blue - a publican
Admiral of the Narrow Seas - a drunk who vomits into a neighbor's lap
Adrift - discharged
Adzooks! - an expletive
Air and exercise - a flogging at the cart's tail
Akerman's hotel - Newgate prison
All Nations - a mixture of drinks from unfinished bottlesAmen-curler - a parish clerk
Amidships - the belly
Anatomy - a very skinny person
Bring one's ass to an anchor - sit down
Anne's fan - thumbing one's nose Talk like an apothecary - talk nonsense
Apple-dumpling shop - a woman's bosom
Hang an arse - to hold back
Arse upward - in good luck
Ask bogy - an evasive reply
Avast! - Stop!
B
Not to know B from a bull's foot - to be ignorant
Bacon-faced - full-faced
Bacon-fed - fat and greasy
Empty the bag - to tell everything
Heavy baggage - women and children
Bagpipe - a long-winded talker
Bailed man - a man who has bribed the press gang for immunity
Baked – exhausted
Banbury story – nonsense
Bark at the moon - to agitate uselessly
Barnacles – spectacles
Barrel fever - ill health caused by excessive drinking
To grin like a basket of chips - to grin broadly
Bear - a very gruff person
Beer-garden jaw - rough or vulgar language
Bring to one's bearings - cause to see reason
Drink like a beast - to drink only when thirsty
Beau-Nasty - finely dressed but dirty
To go up a ladder to bed - to be hanged
Beef-head – idiot
Beggar-maker - a publican
Belly-gut - greedy, lazy person
Bender - a sixpence
Bird-spit - a small sword
Bit of red - a soldier
Black arse - a kettle
Black cattle - a parson
Give a bottle a black eye - empty a bottle
Blashy - rainy weather
Blood and 'ounds! - an exclamation
Blue as a razor - extremely blue
Blue stocking - a learned woman
Blue tape – gin
Shift one's bob - to move or go away
Bog orange - a potato
To marry old boots - to marry another man's mistress
Bosom friend - a body louse
To have some guts in one's brains - to be knowledgeable
Brandy-face - a drunkard
Brattery - a nursery
In bad bread - in a disagreeable situation
Break-teeth words - words hard to pronounce
Gold bridge - an easy and attractive means of escape
To be stabbed with a Bridgeport dagger - to be hanged
Broganeer - one with a strong Irish accent
Brown cow - a barrel of beer
Brown George - ship's biscuit
Buck fitch - an old lecher
Like bull beef - big and grim
Bull calf - a big clumsy fellow
Bull's eye - a crown piece (5 shillings)
Bung one's eye - drink heartily
Bung upwards - on his face
Butter-bag - a Dutchman
Buttock-ball - a dance attended by prostitutes
C
Calfskin fiddle - a drum
Cant a slug into your breadroom! - have a drink!
Caper - to be hanged
Captain Copperthorn's crew - all officers
Captain Grand - a haughty blustering man
Captain Tom - leader of a mob
Cat-sticks - thin legs
Caterpillar - a soldier
Caulker - a dram
Chalk - to strike someone's face
Chatter-broth – tea
Christened by a baker – freckled
Cinder-garbler - a female servant
Cite stage - the gallows
A house of civil reception - a brothel
Clapper-claw - to thrash someone soundly
Clicker - one who shares out the booty
Closh - Dutch sailors
Coach wheel - a crown piece
Cock and pie! - a mild oath
Coffee-house - a water-closet
Cold cook - an undertaker
Comb-brush - a lady's maid
Comb one's head - to scold
House of commons - a privy
Condiddle - to steal
Conveyancer - a thief
Cool crape - a shroud
Corinth - a brothel
Make a great harvest of a little corn - much ado about nothing
Corporation - a large belly
Cotswold lion - a sheep
Country-put - a silly rube
Covent Garden ague – VD
Crab lanthorn - a peevish fellow
Crinkums – VD
Crown-office - the head
Cucumber - a tailor
Cut throat - a dark lantern
Swear like a cutter - swear violently
D
The dam of that was a whisker - a great lie
Dangle in the sheriff's picture-frame - to be hanged
Dasher - showy harlot
Drunk as Davy's sow - very drunk
Deadly nevergreen - the gallows
The devil among the tailors - a row or disturbance
Devil-drawer - a bad artist
The Devil may dance in his pocket - he is penniless
Diddle – gin
Gone to the Diet of Worms - be dead and buried
Dilly - a coach
Dog Booby - an awkward lout
Enough to make a dog laugh - very funny
Dog-vane - a cockade
Dog's portion - a lick and a smell
Dog's soup – water
Go dot and carry - a person with a wooden leg
Double Cape Horn - be cuckolded
Roby Douglas with one eye and a stinking breath - the breech
Draggle-tail - a nasty, dirty slut
Draws straws - to feel sleepy
Drury Lane vestal - a whore
Duke of limbs - a tall awkward fellow
Dull-swift - a stupid fellow
Die dunghill - die cowardly
Drunk as an emperor - regally drunk
Dustman - a dead man
Dutch concert - everyone plays or sings a different tune
Dutch feast - the host gets drunk before the guests
E
Earwig - a malicious flatterer
Ensign-bearer - a drunkard
Eternity box - a coffin
Expended – killed
To have fallen down and trodden upon one's eye - to have a black eye F
Hove no-one's face but one's own - to be penniless
Facer - a glass full to the brim
Make faces - to beget children
Faggot - a man hired to appear on a muster-roll
Fallen away from a horse load to a cart load - to become fat
Fantastically dressed - very shabby
Fegary - a prank
Fiddler's money - all small change
Fiddlestick's end – nothing
Finger-post - a clergyman
Fire a gun - introduce a subject unskillfully
To have been fed with a fire shovel - to have a big mouth
Fish-broth - salt water
Flag of defiance - a drunken roisterer
Flag of distress - the cockade of a half-pay officer
Flap with a fox tail - a rude dismissal
Flapdragon – VD
Flash the gentleman - pretend to be a gentleman
Flash it away - show off
Flats and sharps – weapons
Flawed – drunk
Flay the fox – vomit
Flump - an abrupt or heavy fall
Fly in a tar box - nervously excited
Foreman of the jury - one who monopolizes a conversation
Foul a plate - dine with someone
Frenchified - infected with VD
Frig-pig - a fussy trifler
Froglander - a Dutchman
Full as a goat - very drunk
Fustilugs - a dirty slattern
G
Gallied - hurried, vexed or over-fatigued
Gallows – enormous
Game pullet - a young whore
Gammon – nonsense
Gardy-loo - Look out! (Garde l’eau)
Gaskins - wide breaches
Gentleman in red - a soldier
Gentleman's companion - a louse
Melancholy as a gib cat – dispirited
Give one's head for washing - to submit to be imposed upon
Glass-eyes - person wearing spectacles
Glorious - ecstatically drunk
Glue-pot - a parson
God permit - a stage coach
Golden grease - a bribe
To find fault with a fat goose - grumble without cause
Play old gooseberry - play the devil
Gospel-shop - a church
Gotch-gutted - pot-bellied
Grapple-the-rails – whiskey
Green-bag - a lawyer
Greenwich goose - a Greenwich Hospital pensioner
The cat's uncle gringog - a grinning idiot
Groggified – tipsy
Ride grub - ill-tempered
Guinea-gold – dependable
In the gun – tipsy
Gundiguts - a fat pursy fellow
Gut-foundered - extremely hungry
H
Half an ounce - a half crown
Half seas over - half drunk
Hand like a foot - clumsy handwriting
Hang-gallows look - a villainous appearance
Hanktelo - a fool
Swallow a hare - to get exceedingly drunk
Under hatches – dead
Young hemp - a graceless boy
Hempen bridle - a ship's rigging
Hen-frigate - a ship bossed by the captain's wife
Herring-gutted - tall and very thin
To be on the high ropes - be very angry
Study the history of the four kings - to play cards
Old hock - stale beer
Hog in armor - a finely dressed lout
To drive one's hogs to market - to snore
Holiday - a spot left unpainted
It's all honey or all turd with them - they're either friends or bitter enemies
Off the hooks – peevish
Hopper-arsed - large bottomed
Send for a horse ladder - send on a fool's errand
Horse's meal - food without drink
I
Irish apricot - a potato
Irrigate - take a drink
Itchland – Scotland
J
Jack Adams - a fool
Jack in an office - an imperious petty official
Jack of legs - an unusually tall person
Jack Weight - a fat man
Jakes - a privy
Jaw-me-down - a very talkative fellow
Die like Jenkin's hen - die unmarried (Scottish)
Have been to Jericho - be tipsy
Jerrymumble - to shake
Going to Jerusalem - to be drunk
Jimmy Round - a Frenchman (from Je me rends)
Be laid up in Job's dock - be treated in hospital for VD
You are Josephus Rex - you're joking
K
Kerry security - breath the oath and keep the money
Kicksees – breeches
Kill-devil – rum
One of King John's men - a small man
Clip the King's English - to be drunk
Knob - an officer
Knock-down - strong liquor
L
Laced mutton - a whore
Ship the white lapel - be promoted from the ranks
Lazy as the tinker who laid down his budget to fart - very lazy
Cut one's leg - become drunk
Lay one's legs upon one's neck - run away
Lie with a latchet - tell a great lie
Light-timbered – weak
A line of the old author - a dram of brandy
Little house - a privy
Live lumber - passengers in a ship
Live stock - body vermin
Looking glass - a chamber pot
Lotman - a pirate
Louse-land – Scotland
Lumping pennyworth - a great bargain
M
Mab - to dress carelessly
Mag – chatter
Maltoot - a sailor
Man-a-hanging - a person in difficulties
Married to Brown Bess - enlisted in the army
Mauled - exceedingly drunk
Make mice-feet of - destroy utterly (Scottish)
Milk the pigeon - attempt the impossible
Load of mischief - a wife
Who put that monkey on horseback without tying his tail? - a very bad horseman
Monkey's allowance - more rough treatment than money
Mopus - a dull, stupid person
Morris - to decamp
Mourning shirt - a dirty shirt Look like God's revenge against murder - look very angry
N
Eat one's nails - do something foolish
Navel-tied - to be inseparable
Born on Newgate steps - of criminal extraction
Nip-cheese - a purser
Dead as a nit - quite dead
Make a bridge of someone's nose - pass the bottle past someone
He numbers the waves - he's wasting time
O
Oaken towel - a cudgel
Give one his oatmeal - to punish
Off the hooks – crazy
Old Robin - an experienced person
Open lower-deckers - to use foul language
Overshoes, over boots – completely
Take the owl - become angry
P
Paddy-whack - an Irishman
Cut's one's painter - send a person away
Palette - a hand
Paper-skull - a fool
Parleyvoo - the French language
Parson Palmer - one who slows passing the bottle by talking
Make a pease-kill - to squander lavishly (Scottish)
Penny lattice-house - a low ale-house
To drop off the perch - to die
Peter-gunner - a bad shot
Peter Lug - one who drinks slowly
Pintle-merchant - a whore
Piper's wife - a whore
Tune one's pipes - begin to cry
Piss more than one drinks - said of a braggart
Pitt's picture - a bricked up window
When the plate-fleet comes in - when I get my fortune
Plump currant - in good health
Pontius Pilate - a pawn broker
Popper - a pistol
Prattle-broth – tea
Princod - a plump, round person (Scottish)
Alter the property - disguise oneself
Prow - a bumpkin
Public ledger - a whore
Pudding-bellied - very fat
Pump ship – urinate
Punch-house - a brothel
R
Rabbit hunting with a dead ferret - a pointless undertaking
Rag-water - bad booze
Rammaged - tipsy (Scottish)
Rapping – perjury
Red-letter man - a Catholic
Remedy-critch - chamber pot
Repository – a jail
Rib-roast - to thrash
Ride as if fetching the midwife - to go in haste
Ride the forehorse - to be early
Cry roast meat - boast of one's good fortune
Roast-meat clothes - holiday clothes
Rocked in a stone kitchen - a little weak-minded
Rogue in spirit - a distiller
Royal image - a coin
Rum gagger - one who tells false sea stories of hardship
Loose in one's rump – wanton
Rusty guts - a blunt, surly fellow
Buy the sack - become tipsy
S
Saddle the wrong horse - lay blame on the wrong person
Saddle one's nose - wear spectacles
Salamugundy - a cook
Salt eel - a thrashing with a rope's end
Sandy - a Scotsman
Sauce – VD
Sawney - a Scotsman
Sawny - to whine
Scald - infect with VD
Scandal-broth – tea
Scarlet horse - a hired horse
School of Venus - a brothel
Scotch casement - a pillory
Sea-crab - a sailor
Sea-lawyer - a shark
Settler - a parting drink
Shab-rag - very worn
Shake a cloth in the wind - be hanged
To have been dipped in the Shannon - to be very forward
Shapes - a name given an ill-made man
Keep sheep by moonlight - hang in chains
Sheep's head - a very talkative person
Shifting ballast - soldiers aboard ship
Shiners – money
Make children's shoes - to be occupied with trivia
Shreds - a tailor
Shut-up house - land headquarters of a press gang
Sick of the idles - a very lazy person
Silver-cooped - deserting for the merchant service
Sky-blue – gin
Snabbled - killed in battle
Smart as a carrot - very smartly dressed
Go a snail's gallop - move very slowly
Soldier's bottle - a large bottle
Solo player - a very bad musician
Sot-weed – tobacco
The Sovereign's parade - the quarterdeck of a man-of-war
Spanish trumpeter -a braying donkey
Spoil pudding - a long-winded preacher
Squire of the placket - a pimp
Stiff-rump - a haughty person
Take a stink for a nosegay - be very gullible
Stoupe - to give up
Strip-me-naked – gin
Sunburnt - having many children
Surly boots - a grumpy person
Surveyor of the highway - a reeling drunk
In deadly suspense – hanged
Keep a swannery - to boast
Purser's swipes - small beer
Swizzle – liquor
T
Tallow-breeched - having a large bottom
Tears of tankard - liquor stains on a waistcoat
Tea-voider - a chamberpot
Thornback - an old maid
Three skips of a louse - worth little or nothing
Tickle-pitcher - a drinking buddy
Tiff - thin or inferior liquor
Tilly-tally – nonsense
Tilter - a small sword
Swill like a tinker - drink immoderately
Make dead men chew tobacco - keep a false muster
Tol-lol - pretty good
Tongue enough for two sets of teeth - a very talkative person
Blast your toplights! - Blast your eyes!
Topping man - a rich man
Pay one's debts with the topsail - run off to sea leaving unpaid debts
Tripes and trillabubs - nickname for a fat man
Trunkmaker-like - more noise than work
U
Untwisted – ruined
The Urinal of the Planets – Ireland
V
Vaulting school - a brothel
W, X, Y, Z
As wise as Waltham's calf - very foolish
Wamble - an uneasiness in the stomach
War-caperer - a privateer
Water bewitched - weak beer
Water in one's shoes - a source of annoyance
You have been to an Irish wedding - you have a black eye
Whigland – Scotland
Whisk - an impertinent fellow
Whister-clister - a cuff on the ear
Whither-go-ye - a wife
Wife in water colors - a mistress
Windy – conceited
Wrapt in warm flannel – drunk
Yea-and-Nay man - a Quaker
Znees - frost
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