1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar TongueGrose, Francis
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1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
Grose, Francis
English language -- Slang -- Dictionaries
GOOSEBERRY. He played up old gooseberry among them;
said of a person who, by force or threats, suddenly puts an
end to a riot or disturbance.
GOOSEBERRY-EYED. One with dull grey eyes, like boiled
gooseberries.
GOOSEBERRY WIG. A large frizzled wig: perhaps from a
supposed likeness to a gooseberry bush.
GOOSECAP. A silly fellow or woman.
GORGER. A gentleman. A well dressed man. Mung
kiddey. Mung the gorger; beg child beg, of the gentleman.
GOSPEL SHOP. A church.
GOREE. Money, chiefly gold: perhaps from the traffic
carried on at that place, which is chiefly for gold dust.
CANT.
GORMAGON. A monster with six eyes, three mouths, four
arms, eight legs, live on one side and three on the other,
three arses, two tarses, and a *** upon its back; a man on
horseback, with a woman behind him.
GOTCH-GUTTED. Pot bellied: a gotch in Norfolk signifying
a pitcher, or large round jug.
TO GOUGE. To squeeze out a man's eye with the thumb:
a cruel practice used by the Bostonians in America.
To GRABBLE. To seize. To grabble the bit; to seize any
one's money. CANT.
GRAFTED. Cuckolded, i.e. having horns grafted on his
head.
To GRAB. To seize a man. The pigs grabbed the kiddey
for a crack: the officers, seized the youth for a burglary.
GRANNAM. Corn.
GRANNUM'S GOLD. Hoarded money: supposed to have
belonged to the grandmother of the possessor.
GRANNY. An abbreviation of grandmother; also the name
of an idiot, famous for licking, her eye, who died Nov. 14,
1719. Go teach your granny to suck eggs; said to such
as would instruct any one in a matter he knows better than
themselves.
GRAPPLE THE RAILS. A cant name used in Ireland for
whiskey.
GRAPPLING IRONS. Handcuffs.
GRAVE DIGGER. Like a grave digger; up to the a-se in
business, and don't know which way to turn.
GRAVY-EYED. Blear-eyed, one whose eyes have a running
humour.
TO GREASE. To bribe. To grease a man in the fist; to
bribe him. To grease a fat sow in the a-se; to give to a
rich man. Greasy chin; a treat given to parish officers in
part of commutation for a bastard: called also, Eating a
child.
GREAT INTIMATE. As great as shirt and shitten a-se.
GREAT JOSEPH. A surtout. CANT.
GREEDY GUTS. A covetous or voracious person.
GREEK. St. Giles's Greek; the slang lingo, cant, or gibberish.
GREEN. Doctor Green; i.e. grass: a physician, or rather
medicine, found very successful in curing most disorders
to which horses are liable. My horse is not well, I shall
send him to Doctor Green.
GREEN. Young, inexperienced, unacquainted; ignorant. How
green the cull was not to stag how the old file planted the
books. How ignorant the booby was not to perceive
how the old sharper placed the cards in such a manner
as to insure the game.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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