Imatges de pàgina
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To WHIP OFF. To run away, to drink off greedily, to fnatch. He whipped away from home, went to the alehoufe, 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 four beer.

WHIPPER-SNAPPER. A diminutive fellow.

WHIPSHIRE. Yorkshire.

WHIPSTER. A sharp or subtle fellow.

WHIPT SYLLABUB. A flimfy, frothy difcourfe or treatise, without folidity.

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WHISK. A little inconfiderable impertinent fellow.
WHISKER. A great lye.

WHISKER SPLITTER. A man of intrigue.

WHISKIN. A fhallow brown drinking bowl.

WHISKY. A malt spirit much drank in Ireland; also a one

horse chaife.

See TIM WHISKY.

WHISTLE. The throat,

To wet one's whistle; to drink. WHISTLING SHOP. Rooms in the King's Bench prison where drams are privately fold.

WHIT. [i. e. Whittington's.] Newgate. Newgate. Cant.-Five rumpadders are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and are piked into the deufeaville; five highwaymen broke out of Newgate in the night, and are gone into the country.

WHITE FEATHER. He has a white feather; he is a coward:

an allufion 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 LYE. A harmless lye, one not told with a malicious intent, a lye told to reconcile people at variance. WHITE SERJEANT. A man fetched from the tavern or alehouse by his wife, is faid to be arrested by the white ferjeant.

WHITE SWELLING. A woman big with child is said to have a white fwelling.

WHITE TAPE.

Geneva.

WHITE WOOL. Geneva.

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WHITECHAPEL,

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WHITECHAPEL. Whitechapel portion; two fmocks, and what nature gave. Whitechapel breed; fat, ragged, and faucy fee ST. GILES'S BREED. Whitechapel beau; one who dreffes with a needle and thread, and undreffes with a knife. To play at whift Whitechapel fashion; i, e. aces and kings first.

WHITECHAPEL PROVINCE.

the government of a prætor.

A club or brotherhood under

WHITEWASHED. One who has taken the benefit of an act of infolvency, to defraud his creditors, is faid to have been whitewashed.

WHITFIELITE.

thodist.

WHITHER-GO-YB.

A follower of George Whitfield, a me

A wife: wives being fometimes apt to

queftion their hufbands whither they are going. WHITTINGTON'S COLLEGE. Newgate: built or repaired by the famous Lord Mayor of that name.

WHORE'S BIRD. A debauched fellow, the largest of all birds. He fings more like a whore's bird than a canary bird; faid of one who has a strong manly voice. WHORE'S CURSE. A piece of gold coin, value five fhillings

and three-pence, frequently given to women of the town by fuch as profeffed always to give gold, and who before the introduction of those pieces always gave half a guinea. WHORE'S KITLING, or WHORE'S SON. A baftard. WHORE-MONGER. A man that keeps more than one mif

trefs. A country gentleman, who kept a female friend, being reproved by the parfon of the parifh, and ftyled a whore-monger, afked the parfon whether he had a cheese in his houfe; and being anfwered in the affirmative, Pray,' fays he, does that one cheese make you a cheesemonger?'

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WHQRE-PIPE. The penis,

WHOW BALL. A milk-maid: from their frequent ufe of the word whow, to make the cow stand still in milking; Ball is the fuppofed name of the cow,

WIBBLE. Bad drink.

WIBLING'S WITCH. The four of clubs: from one James Wibling, who in the reign of King James I. grew rich by private gaming, and was commonly obferved to have

that

that card, and never to lofe a game but when he had it

not.

WICKET. A cafement; alfo a little door.

WIDOW'S WEEDS. Mourning clothes of a peculiar fashion, denoting her state. A grafs widow; a difcarded miftrefs. A widow bewitched; a woman whofe husband is abroad, and faid, but not certainly known, to be dead.

WIFE IN WATER COLOURS. A miftrefs, or concubine: water colours being, like their engagements, eafily effaced or diffolved.

WIGANNOWNS.

A man wearing a large wig.

WIGSBY. Mr. Wigfby; a man wearing a wig.

WILD ROGUES. Rogues trained up to ftealing from their cradles.

WILD SQUIRT. A loofenefs.

WILD-GOOSE CHASE. A tedious uncertain pursuit, like the following a flock of wild geefe, who are remarkably fhy.

WILLING TIT. A free horfe, or a coming girl.

WILLOW. Poor, and of no reputation. To wear the willow; to be abandoned by a lover or mistress.

WIN. A penny."

To WIN. To fteal. The cull has won a couple of rum glimfticks; the fellow has ftolen a pair of fine candlesticks. WIND. To raise the wind; to procure money.

WINDFALL. A legacy, or any accidental acceffion of property.

WINDMILLS IN THE HEAD. Foolish projects.

WINDOW PEEPER. A collector of the window tax. WINDWARD PASSAGE. One who ufes or navigates the windward passage; a sodomite.

WINDY. Foolish. A windy fellow; a fimple fellow. WINK. To tip one the wink; to give a fignál by winking

the eye.

WINNINGS. Plunder, goods, or money acquired by theft. WINTER CRICKET. A taylor.

WINTER'S DAY. He is like a winter's day, fhort and dirty. WIPE. A blow, or reproach. I'll give you a wipe on the chops. That ftory gave him a fine wipe.

WIPER. A handkerchief. Cant.

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WIPER DRAWER. A pickpocket, one who fteals handkerchiefs. He drew a broad, narrow, cam, or specked wiper ;

he picked a pocket of a broad, narrow, cambrick, or coloured handkerchief.

TO WIREDRAW. To lengthen out or extend any book, letter, or difcourfe.

WISE. As wife as Waltham's calf, that ran nine miles to fuck a bull.

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WISE MEN OF GOTHAM. Gotham is a village in Nottinghamshire its magiftrates are faid to have attempted to hedge in a cuckow: a bush, called the cuckow's bush, is ftill fhewn in fupport of the tradition. A thousand other ridiculous ftories are told of the men of Gotham.

WISEACRE. A foolish conceited fellow.

WISEACRE'S HALL. Gresham college.

WIT. He has as much wit as three folks, two fools and a madman.

WITCHER. Silver. Witcher bubber; a filver bowl.

Wit

cher tilter; a filver-hilted fword. Witcher cully; a filverfmith.

TO WOBBLE. To boil. Pot wobbler; one who boils a pot. WOLF IN THE BREAST. An extraordinary mode of impofition, fometimes practifed in the country by ftrolling women, who have the knack of counterfeiting extreme pain, pretending to have a fmall animal called a wolf in their breasts, which is continually gnawing them.

WOLF IN THE STOMACH. A monftrous or canine appetite. WOOD. In a wood; bewildered, in a maze, in a peck of troubles, puzzled, or at a loss what courfe to take in any bufinefs. To look over the wood; to afcend the pulpit, to preach I fhall look over the wood at St. James's on Sunday next. To look through the wood; to ftand in the pillory.

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WOOD PECKER. A bystander, who bets whilft another plays.

WOODCOCK. A taylor with a long bill.

WOODEN HABEAS A coffin. A man who dies in prison

is faid to go out with a wooden habeas. He went out with a wooden habeas; i. e. his coffin.

WOODEN

WOR

WOODEN HORSE. To ride the wooden horse, was a military punishment formerly in ufe. This horfe confifted of two or more planks about eight feet long, fixed together fo as to form a fharp ridge or angle, which anfwered to the body. of the horse. It was fupported by four pofts, about fix feet long, for legs. A head, neck, and tail, rudely cut in wood, were added, which completed the appearance of a horse. On this fharp ridge delinquents were mounted, with their hands tied behind them; and to steady them (as it was faid), and least the horfe fhould kick them off, one or more firelocks were tied to each leg. In this fituation they were sometimes condemned to fit an hour or two; but at length it having been found to injure the foldiers materially, and fometimes to rupture them, it was left off about the time of the acceffion of King George I. A wooden horse was standing in the Parade at Portsmouth as late as the year 1750.

WOODEN RUFF.

CLOTH.

The pillory. See NORWAY NECK

WOODEN SURTOUT. A coffin.

WOMAN OF THE TOWN, or WOMAN OF PLEASURE. A prostitute.

WOMAN AND HER HUSBAND. A married couple, where the woman is bigger than her husband.

WOMAN'S CON:CIENCE. Never fatisfied.

WOMAN OF ALL WORK. Sometimes applied to a female fervant, who refufes none of her master's commands.

WOMBLETY CROPT. The indisposition of a drunkard after a debauch. See CROPSICK.

WOOLBIRD. A sheep. Cant.

WOOL GATHERING. Your wits are gone a wool gathering; faying to an abfent man, one in a reverie, or absorbed in thought.

WOOLLEY CROWN. A foft-beaded fellow.

WORD GRUBBERS, Verbal critics, and alfo perfons who ufe hard words in common discourse.

WORD PECKER. A puntler, one who plays upon words.

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