E.

EARNEST.

ENG

ARNEST. A depofit in part of payment, to bind a bargain.

EASY. Make the cull eafy, or quiet; gagg or kill him.
As eafy as piffing the bed.

EASY VIRTUE. A lady of cafy virtue; an impure, or prof
titute.

EAT. To eat like a beggar man, and wag his under jaw; a jocular reproach to a proud man. To eat one's words; to retract what one has faid.

TO EDGE. To ftimulate 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 Billingfgate threat from one fih nymph to another every woman, according to the naturalifts of that fociety, having eight eyes; viz. two feeing eyes, two bubeyes, a bell-eye, two popes-eyes, and a *-eye. He has fallen down and trod upon his eye; faid of one who has a black eye.

***

ELBOW GREASE. Labour. Elbow greafe will make an oak table fhine.

ELBOW ROOM. Sufficient fpace to act in. Out at elbows; faid of an eftate that is mortgaged.

ELBOW SHAKER. A gamefter, one who rattles Saint Hugh's bones, i. e. the dice.

ELF. A fairy or hobgoblin, a little man or woman. ELIZABETHS. A fociety for commemorating the anniverfary of queen Elizabeth, who met at the fign of her head, Hicks's Hall, in the room faid to be that wherein he received her juvenile education.

ENGLISH BURGUNDY.

Porter.

L

ENSIGN

"

ENSIGN BEARER. A drunken man, who looks red in the face, or hoifts his colours in his drink.

EQUIPT. Rich; alfo, having new clothes. Well equipt; full of money, or well dreffed. The cull equipped me with a brace of meggs; the gentleman furnished me with a couple of guineas. ERIFFS. Rogues just initiated, and beginning to practice. ESSEX LION. A calf: Effex being famous for calves, and chiefly fupplying the London markets.

ESSEX STILE. A ditch: great part of Effex is low marshy ground, in which there are more ditches than ftiles. ETERNITY Box. A coffin.

EVANS. Mrs Evans; a name frequently given to a she cat : owing, as it is faid, to a witch of the name of Evans, who frequently affumed the appearance of a cat.

EVES. Hen roofts.

EVE'S, CUSTOM-HOUSE, where Adam made his first entry. The monofyllable.

EVES DROPPER. One that lurks about to rob hen roofts; also a listener at doors and windows, to hear private converfation.

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 confumed are charged under the title of Expended. Sea phrafe,

EYES AND LIMBS. The foot guards were formerly fo called

by the marching regiments, from a favourite execration in use among them, which was, damning their eyes, limbs, and blue breeches.

EYE SORE. A difagreeable object. It will be an eye fore as long as she lives; faid by a man whose wife was cut for a fiftula in ano.

F.

F.

FACE

ACE MAKING.

to perfift in a falfity.

FAM

Begetting children. To face it out; No face but his own; a faying of one who has no money in his pocket, or no court cards in his hand.

FACER. A bumper, a glass filled fo full as to leave no room for the lip.

FADGE. It won't fadge; it won't do.

TO FAG. To beat. Fag the blofs; beat the wench. Canı. A fag also means a boy of an inferior form or class, who acts as a servant to one of a fuperior, who is faid to fag him-he is my fag; whence, perhaps, fagged out, for jaded or tired. A little boy put in at a window to rob the

FAGGER.

houfe. FAGGOT. A man hired at a mufter to appear as a foldier. To faggot, in the canting fenfe, means to bind : an allufion to the faggots made up by the woodmen, which are all bound. Faggot the culls; bind the men.

FAITHFUL. One of the faithful; a taylor who gives long credit. His faith has made him unwhole; i. e. trufting too much, broke him.

FALLALLS. Ornaments, chiefly women's, fuch as ribbands, necklaces, &c.

FALLEN AWAY FROM A HORSE LOAD TO A CART LOAD. A faying on one grown fat.

FAM LAY. Going into a goldfmith's fhop, under pretence of buying a wedding ring, and palming one or two, by daubing the hand with fome viscous matter.

FAMS, OF FAMBLES. Hands.

Famble cheats; rings or

To FAMGRASP. To shake hands: figuratively, to agree or make up a difference. Famgrafp the cove; fhake hands with the fellow.

Cant.

FAMILY OF LOVE. Lewd women; alfo, a religious fect.

FEA

TO FAN. To beat any one. I fanned him sweetly; I beat him

heartily.

FART. He has let a brewer's fart, grains and all; said of one who has bewrayed his breeches.

Pifs and fart,

Sound at heart.

Mingere cum bumbis,

Res faluberrima eft lumbis.

I dare not trust my a-se with a fart; faid by a person troubled with a looseness.

FART CATCHER.

A valet or footman, from his walking

behind his mafter or mistress.

FARTING CRACKERS.

Breeches.

FARTLEBERRIES. Excrement hanging about the tail of a fheep,

FAT: The last landed, inned, or stowed, of any fort of mer chandife: fo called by the water-fide porters, carmen, &c. All the fat is in the fire; that is, it is all over with us a faying ufed in cafe of any miscarriage or difappointment in an undertaking; an allufion to overturning the frying-pan into the fire. Fat, among printers, means void spaces.

As FAT AS A HEN IN THE FOREHEAD. A faying of a meagre perfon.

FAULKNER. A tumbler, juggler, or shewer of tricks: pers haps because they lure the people, as a faulconer does his hawks. Cant.

FAYTORS, OF FATORS. Fortune tellers.

FAWNEY RIG. A common fraud, thus practifed: A fellow drops a brass ring, double gilt, which he picks up before the party meant to be cheated, and to whom he difpofes of it for less than its fuppofed, and ten times more than its real, value. See MONEY DROPPER.

FEAGUE. To feague a horfe; to put ginger up a horse's fundament, and formerly, as it is faid, a live eel, to make

FER

him lively and carry his tail well: it is faid, a forfeit is incurred by any horfe dealer's fervant, who shall fhew a horfe without first feaguing him. Feague is ufed, figuratively, for encouraging or fpiriting one up.

TO FEATHER ONE'S NEST. To enrich one's felf.

FEATHER-BED LANE. A rough or ftony lane.

FEE, FAW, FUM. Nonfenfical words, fuppofed in childish ftory books to be spoken by giants. I am not to be frighted by fee, faw, fum; I am not to be scared by nonsense. FEEDER. A spoon. To nab the feeder; to fteal a spoon. FEET. To make feet for children's fockings; to beget children. An officer of feet; a jocular title for an officer of infantry.

FEINT. A fham attack on one part, when a real one is meant at another.

FELLOW COMMONER. An empty bottle: fo called at the University of Cambridge, where fellow commoners are not in general confidered as over full of learning. At Oxford an empty bottle is called a gentleman commoner for the fame reafon.

FEN. A bawd, or common proftitute, Cant.

FENCE, or FENCING CULLY. A receiver of ftolen goods. To fence; to spend or lay out. He fenced his hog; he fpent his fhilling. Cant.

FENCING KEN. The magazine, or warehoufe, where stolen goods are fecreted.

FERME. A hole.

Cant.

FERMERDY BEGGARS.

fores or clymes.

All thofe who have not the fham

FERRARA. Andrea Ferrara; the name of a famous fword cutler: most of the Highland broad fwords are marked with his name`; whence an Andrea Ferrara has become the common name for the glaymore or Highland broad fword. See GLAYMORE.

FERRET. A tradefman who fells goods to young unthrifty

heirs, at exceffive rates, and then continually duns them for the debt. To ferret; to fearch out or expel any one from his hiding place, as a ferret drives out rabbits; alfo to cheat. Ferret-eyed; red-eyed: ferrets have red eyes.

FETCH.