1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar TongueGrose, Francis
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1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Grose, Francis
English language -- Slang -- Dictionaries
TO EDGE. To excite, stimulate, or provoke; or as it is
vulgarly called, to egg a man on. Fall back, fall edge; i.e.
let what will happen. Some derive to egg on, from the
Latin word, AGE, AGE.
EIGHT EYES. I will knock out two of your eight eyes; a
common Billingsgate threat from one fish nymph to
another: every woman, according to the naturalists of that
society, having eight eyes; viz. two seeing eyes, two
bub-eyes, a bell-eye, two pope's eyes, and a ***-eye. He has
fallen down and trod upon his eye; said of one who has a
black eye.
ELBOW GREASE. Labour. Elbow grease will make an oak
table shine.
ELBOW ROOM. Sufficient space to act in. Out at elbows;
said of an estate that is mortgaged.
ELBOW SHAKER. A gamester, one who rattles Saint Hugh's
bones, i.e. the dice.
ELLENBOROUGH LODGE. The King's Bench Prison. Lord
Ellenborough's teeth; the chevaux de frize round the top
of the wall of that prison.
ELF. A fairy or hobgoblin, a little man or woman.
EMPEROR. Drunk as an emperor, i.e. ten times as drunk as
a lord.
ENGLISH BURGUNDY. Porter.
ENSIGN BEARER. A drunken man, who looks red in the
face, or hoists his colours in his drink.
EQUIPT. Rich; also, having new clothes. Well equipt;
full of money, or well dressed. The cull equipped me
with a brace of meggs; the gentleman furnished me with.
a couple of guineas.
ESSEX LION. A calf; Essex being famous for calves, and
chiefly supplying the London markets.
ESSEX STILE. A ditch; a great part of Essex is low marshy
ground, in which there are more ditches than Stiles.
ETERNITY Box. A coffin.
EVES. Hen roosts.
EVE'S CUSTOM-HOUSE, where Adam made his first entry.
The monosyllable.
EVES DROPPER. One that lurks about to rob hen-roosts;
also a listener at doors and windows, to hear private
conversation.
EVIL. A halter. Cant, Also a wife.
EWE. A white ewe; a beautiful woman. An old ewe, drest
lamb fashion; an old woman, drest like a young girl.
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.
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