HORSE LADDER. A piece of Wiltshire wit, which consists in sending some raw lad, or simpleton, to a neighbouring farm house, to borrow a horse ladder, in order to get up the horses, to finish a hay-mow. HORSE'S MEAL. A meal without drinking. HOSTELER, i.e. oat stealer. Hosteler was originally the name for an inn-keeper; inns being in old English styled hostels, from the French signifying the same. HOT POT. Ale and brandy made hot. HOT STOMACH. He has so hot a stomach, that he burns all the clothes off his back; said of one who pawns his clothes to purchase liquor. HOUSE, or TENEMENT, TO LET. A widow's weeds; also an atchievement marking the death of a husband, set up on the outside of a mansion: both supposed to indicate that the dolorous widow wants a male comforter. HOYDON. A romping girl. HUBBLE-BUBBLE. Confusion. A hubble-bubble fellow; a man of confused ideas, or one thick of speech, whose words sound like water bubbling out of a bottle. Also an instrument used for smoaking through water in the East Indies, called likewise a caloon, and hooker. HUBBLE DE SHUFF. Confusedly. To fire hubble de shuff, to fire quick and irregularly. OLD MILITARY TERM. HUBBUB. A noise, riot, or disturbance. HUCKLE MY BUFF. Beer, egg, and brandy, made hot. HUCKSTERS. Itinerant retailers of provisions. He is in hucksters hands; he is in a bad way. TO HUE. To lash. The cove was hued in the naskin; the rogue was soundly lashed in bridewell. CANT. TO HUFF. To reprove, or scold at any one; also to bluster, bounce, ding, or swagger. A captain huff; a noted bully. To stand the huff; to be answerable for the reckoning in a public house. HUG. To hug brown bess; to carry a firelock, or serve as a private soldier. He hugs it as the Devil hugs a witch: said of one who holds any thing as if he was afraid of losing it. HUGGER MUGGER. By stealth, privately, without making an appearance. They spent their money in a hugger mugger way. HUGOTONTHEONBIQUIFFINARIANS. A society existing in 1748. HULKY, or HULKING. A great hulky fellow; an over-grown clumsy lout, or fellow. HULVER-HEADED. Having a hard impenetrable head; hulver, in the Norfolk dialect, signifying holly, a hard and solid wood. TO HUM, or HUMBUG. To deceive, or impose on one by some story or device. A humbug; a jocular imposition, or deception. To hum and haw; to hesitate in speech, also to delay, or be with difficulty brought to consent to any matter or business, HUMS. Persons at church. There is a great number of hums in the autem; there is a great congregation in the church. HUM BOX. A pulpit. HUM CAP. Very old and strong beer, called also stingo. See STINGO. HUM DRUM. A hum drum fellow; a dull tedious narrator, a bore; also a set of gentlemen, who (Bailey says) used to meet near the Charter House, or at the King's Head in St. John's-street, who had more of pleasantry, and less of mystery, than the free masons.