MOT MONOSYLLABLE. A woman's commodity. MOON CURSER. A link boy: link boys are A link boy: link boys are faid to curfe the moon; because it renders their affiftance unneceffary; these gentry frequently, under colour of lighting paffengers over kennels, or through dark paffages, affift in robbing them. Cant. MOON-EYED HEN. A fquinting wench. MOON MEN. Gypfies. MOON RAKERS. Wiltshire men: becaufe it is faid that fome men of that country, feeing the reflection of the moon in a pond, endeavoured to pull it out with a rake. MOONSHINE. A matter or mouthful of moonshine; a trifle, nothing. The white brandy fmuggled on the coafts of Kent and Suffex, is alfo called moonshine. Mor. A kind of annual fair in the weft of England, where farmers ufually hire their fervants. MOPED. Stupid, melancholy for want of fociety. MOPSQUEEZER. A maid fervant, particularly a houfe maid. MORE-ISH. This wine has but one fault, and that is, it is more-ish: i. e. more of it is wanted, or there is too little of it. MORGLAG. A brown bill, or kind of halbert, formerly car ried by watchmen; corruption of more, great or broad, and glave, blade. MORRIS., Come, morris off; dance off, or get you gone: allufion to morris, i. e. morisco, or moorish dancing. MORT. A woman or wench; alfo a yeoman's daughter. To be taken all-a-mort; to be confounded, furprised, or motionless through fear. Moss. A cant term for lead, because both found the tops of buildings. MOSSY FACE. The mother of all faints. are on Mother abbefs; Mother in law's the fame. Mother midnight; a midwife. bit; a fmall piece, mothers in law being fuppofed not apt to overload the ftomachs of their husbands children. MOTHER M U M MOTHER OF ALL SAINTS. The monofyllable. MOTHER OF THE MAIDS. A bawd. MOUCHETS. Small patches worn by ladies: from the French word mouches. MOVEABLES. Rings, watches, or any toys of value. MOUSE. To fpeak like a moufe in a cheese; i. e. faintly or indiftinctly. MOUSETRAP. The parfon's moufetrap; the state of matrimony. MOUTH. A noify fellow. Mouth half cock'd; one gaping and ftaring at every thing he fees. To make any one laugh on the wrong or t'other fide of his mouth; to make him cry or grieve. To Mow. A Scotch word for the act of copulation. MOW HEATER. A drover: from their frequent fleeping on hay mows. Cant. MUCKINDER. A child's handkerchief tied to the fide. MUD. A fool, or thick-fculled fellow; alfo, among printers, the fame as dung among journeymen taylors. See DUNG. MUD LARK. A hog. MUFF. The private parts of a woman. To the well wearing of your muff, mort; to the happy confummation of your marriage, girl a health. MUFFLING CHEAT. A napkin. MUGGLETONIANS. Muggleton. The feat or difciples of Lodowick MULLIGRUBS. Sick of the mulligrubs with eating chopped hay; low-fpirited, having an imaginary fickness. MUM. An interjection directing filence. Mum for that; I fhall be filent as to that. You fit like Mumchance, who was hanged for faying nothing; a friendly reproach to any one who seems low-fpirited and filent. MUMCHANCE. An ancient game like hazard, played with dice probably fo named from the filence obferved in playing at it. 1 MUM GLASS. The monument erected on Fish-ftreet hill, London, in memory of the great fire in 1666. MUMBLE 1 MY R MUMBLE A SPARROW. A cruel sport practised at wakes and fairs, in the following manner: A cock sparrow whose wings are clipped, is put into the crown of a hat; a man having his arms tied behind him, attempts to bite off the fparrow's head, but is generally obliged to defift, by the many pecks and pinches he receives from the enraged bird. MUMMER. The mouth. MUMPERS. Originally beggars of the genteel kind, but fince used for beggars in general. MUMPERS HALL. An alehoufe where beggars are harboured. MUNDUNGUS. Bad or rank tobacco: from mondongo, a Spanish word fignifying tripes, or the uncleaned entrails of a beaft, full of filth. MUNS. The face, or rather the mouth: from the German word mund, the mouth. Toute his muns; look at his face. MUNSTER PLUMBS. Potatoes. Irish. MURDER. He looked like God's revenge against murder; he looked angrily. MUSHROOM. A perfon or family fuddenly raised to riches and eminence an allufion to that fungus, which starts up in a night. Music. The watch word among highwaymen, fignifying the perfon is a friend, and muft pafs unmolefted. Mufic is also an Irish term, in toffing up, to express the harp fide, or reverse, of a farthing or halfpenny, opposed to the head. MUTE. An undertaker's fervant, who ftands at the door of a perfon lying in state: so named from being supposed mute with grief. MUTTON-HEADED. Stupid. MUTTON MONGER. A man addicted to wenching. MYNT. See MINT. MYRMIDONS. The conftable's affiftants, watchmen, &c. N N. NAZ AB, or NAB CHEAT. A hat. Penthouse nab; a large hat. To NAB. To feize, or catch unawares. To nab the teize; to be privately whipped. To nab the ftoop; to ftand in the pillory. To nab the ruft; a jockey term for a horse that becomes reftive. To nab the fnow; to steal linen left out Cant. to bleach or dry. NAB GIRDER, or NOB GIRDER. A bridle. NACK. To have a nack; to be ready at any thing, to have a turn for it. NACKY. Ingenious. NAILED. Secured, fixed. He offered me a decus, and I nail. ed him; he offered me a crown, and I ftruck or fixed him. NANNY HOUSE. A brothel. TO NAP. To cheat at dice by fecuring one chance, Also to catch the venereal disease. You've napt it; you are infected. NAPPING. To take any one napping; i. e. to come upon him unexpectedly, to find him asleep: as, He caught him napping, as Morfe caught his mare. NAPPER. The head; alfo a cheat or thief. NAPPER OF NAPS. A sheep ftcaler. Cant. NASK, or NASKIN. A prifon or bridewell. The new nafk; Clerkenwell bridewell. Tothill-fields nafk; the bridewell at Tothill-fields. Cant. NATION. An abbreviation of damnation a vulgar term used in Kent, Suffex, and the adjacent counties, for very. Nation good; very good. A nation long way; a very long way. NATTY LADS. Young thieves or pickpockets. Cant. NATURAL. A miftrefs, a child; alfo an ideot. A natural fon or daughter; a love or merry begotten child,-a baftard. NAY WORD. A bye word, a proverb. NAZARENE FOR ETOP. The foretop of a wig made in imitation of Chrift's head of hair, as reprefented by the painters and fculptors, NAZY, NAZY. Drunken. Nazy cove or mort; a drunken rogue or harlot. Nazy nabs; drunken coxcombs. NEB, or NIB. The bill of a bird, and the flit of a pen. Figuratively, the face and mouth of a woman; as, She holds up her neb; fhe holds up her mouth to be kiffed. NECK STAMPER. The boy who collects the pots belonging' to an alehoufe, fent out with beer to private houses. NECK VERSE. Formerly the perfons claiming the benefit of clergy were obliged to read a verfe in a Latin manufcript pfalter; this faving them from the gallows, was termed their neck verfe it was the firft verfe of the fifty-first pfalm, Miferere mei, &c. NECK WEED. Hemp. NEEDLE POINT. A sharper. NEGLIGEE. A woman's undreffed gown, vulgarly termed a niggledigee. NEGROE. A black-a-moor: figuratively used for a flave. I'll be no man's negroe; I will be no man's flave. NEGROES HEADS. Brown loaves delivered to the ships in ordinary. NETTLED. Teized, provoked, out of temper. He or she has piffed on a nettle; faid of one who is peevish or out of temper. NEW COLLEGE STUDENTS. Golden fcholars, filver batchelors, and leaden, masters. NEW DROP. The scaffold used at Newgate for hanging criminals; which dropping down, leaves them fufpended. By this improvement, the ufe of that vulgar vehicle, a cart, is entirely left off. NEW LIGHT. One of the new light; a methodist. NEWGATE BIRD. A thief or fharper, frequently caged in Newgate. NEWGATE SOLICITOR. A pettyfogging and roguish attorney, who attends the gaols to affift villains in evading juftice. TO NICK. To win at dice, to hit the mark juft in the nick of time, or at the critical moment. NICK. Old Nick; the Devil. : NICK NAME. A name given in ridicule or contempt from the French nom de nique. Nique is a movement of the head to mark a contempt for any perfon or thing. U 2 NICK |