1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar TongueGrose, Francis
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1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Grose, Francis
English language -- Slang -- Dictionaries
TO WHIP THE COCK. A piece of sport practised at wakes,
horse-races, and fairs in Leicestershire: a cock being tied
or fastened into a hat or basket, half a dozen carters
blindfolded, and armed with their cart whips, are placed
round it, who, after being turned thrice about, begin to
whip the cock, which if any one strikes so as to make it
cry out, it becomes his property; the joke is, that instead
of whipping the cock they flog each other heartily.
WHIP JACKS. The tenth order of the canting crew, rogues
who having learned a few sea terms, beg with counterfeit
passes, pretending to be sailors shipwrecked on the
neighbouring coast, and on their way to the port from whence
they sailed.
TO WHIP OFF. To run away, to drink off greedily, to
snatch. He whipped away from home, went to the alehouse,
where he whipped off a full tankard, and coming
back whipped off a fellow's hat from his head.
WHIP-BELLY VENGEANCE, or pinch-gut vengeance, of
which he that gets the most has the worst share. Weak
or sour beer.
WHIPPER-SNAPPER. A diminutive fellow.
WHIPSHIRE. Yorkshire.
WHIPSTER. A sharp or subtle fellow.
WHIPT SYLLABUB. A flimsy, frothy discourse or treatise,
without solidity.
WHIRLYGIGS. Testicles.
WHISKER. A great lie.
WHISKER SPLITTER. A man of intrigue.
WHISKIN. A shallow brown drinking bowl.
WHISKY. A malt spirit much drank in Ireland and Scotland;
also a one-horse chaise. See TIM WHISKY.
WHISTLE. The throat. To wet one's whistle; to drink.
WHISTLING SHOP. Rooms in the King's Bench and Fleet
prison where drams are privately sold.
WHIT. [i. e. Whittington's.] Newgate. Cant.--Five rum-padders
are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and
are piked into the deuseaville; five highwaymen broke out
of Newgate in the night, and are gone into the country.
WHITE RIBBIN. Gin.
WHITE FEATHER. He has a white feather; he is a coward;
an allusion to a game cock, where having a white feather
is a proof he is not of the true game breed.
WHITE-LIVERED. Cowardly, malicious.
WHITE LIE. A harmless lie, one not told with a malicious
intent, a lie told to reconcile people at variance.
WHITE SERJEANT. A man fetched from the tavern or ale-house
by his wife, is said to be arrested by the white serjeant.
WHITE SWELLING. A woman big with child is said to have
a white swelling.
WHITE TAPE. Geneva.
WHITE WOOL. Geneva.
WHITECHAPEL. Whitechapel portion; two smocks, and
what nature gave. Whitechapel breed; fat, ragged, and
saucy: see ST. GILES'S BREED. Whitechapel beau;
one who dresses with a needle and thread, and undresses
with a knife. To play at whist Whitechapel fashion;
i.e. aces and kings first.
WHITEWASHED. One who has taken the benefit of an act
of insolvency, to defraud his creditors, is said to have been
whitewashed.
WHITFIELITE. A follower of George Whitfield, a Methodist.
WHITHER-GO-YE. A wife: wives being sometimes apt to
question their husbands whither they are going.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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