An eminent critic, however, who had been bred a butcher, having informed the fashionable world that in his native town the sheep's head always went with the PLUCK, the term has been gradually falling into discredit at the West End.

It has been said that a brave soldier is PLUCKY in attack, and GAME when wounded. Women are more GAME than PLUCKY.

PLUCKED, turned back at an examination.—University. A correspondent says that "in ancient times it was the University practice of pulling (or PLUCKING) the sleeve-by the proctor, if I recollect aright-of those whose degrees were refused."

PLUM, £100,000, usually applied to the dowry of a rich heiress, or a legacy.-Civic Slang.

PLUM-CASH, prime cost.-Anglo-Chinese.

PLUMMY, round, sleek, jolly, or fat; excellent, very good, first rate.
PLUMPER, a single vote at an election, not a "split ticket.”

PLUNDER, a common word in the horse trade to express profit. Also an
American term for baggage, luggage.

PLUNGER, a cavalry-man.-Military Slang.

POCKET-PISTOL, a dram-flask.

PODGY, drunk; dumpy, short, and fat.

POGRAM, a Dissenter, a fanatic, formalist, or humbug. So called from a well-known dissenting minister of this name.

POKE, a bag, or sack; "to buy a pig in a POKE," to purchase anything without seeing it.-Saxon.

POKE, a Slang word for booty or plunder.—Times, Nov. 29, 1860.

POKE, "come, none of your POKING fun at me," i.e., you must not laugh

at me.

POKER, "by the holy POKER and the tumbling Tom!" an Irish oath. POKERS, the Cambridge Slang term for the Esquire Bedels, who carry the silver maces (also called POKERS) before the Vice-Chancellor. "Around, around, all, all around,

On seats with velvet lined,

Sat Heads of Houses in a row,

And Deans and College Dons below,

With a POKER or two behind."

Rime of the New-Made Baccalere, 1841.

POKY, confined or cramped; "that corner is POKY and narrow.”—Times article, 21st July 1859. Saxon, POKE, a sack.

POLE-AXE, vulgar rendering of the word "police."

POLICEMAN, a fly-more especially the earlier kind known as “blue bottles."

POLISH OFF, to finish off anything quickly—a dinner for instance; also to finish off an adversary.-Pugilistic.

POLL, or POLLING, one thief robbing another of part of the booty. In use in ancient times, vide Hall's Union, 1548.

POLL, the "ordinary degree" candidates for the B. A. Examination, who do not aspire to the "Honours" list. From the Greek, oi móλo, "the many. Some years ago, at Cambridge, Mr Hopkins being the most celebrated "honour coach," or private tutor for the wranglers, and Mr Potts the principal crammer " of the non-honour men, the latter was facetiously termed the "POLLY HOPKINS" by the undergraduates.

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POLL, a female of unsteady character; POLLED UP," living with a woman in a state of unmarried impropriety.

POLONY, Cockney shortening and vulgar pronunciation of a Bologna sausage.

POMPADOURS, the Fifty-sixth Regiment of Foot in the British army. POND, or HERRING-POND, the sea; so called by those who are sent across it at the national expense.

PONGE, or PONGELOW, beer, half-and-half; the term is also used as a verb, as in the Cockney phrase, “let's PONGELOW, shall we?" PONY, twenty-five pounds.-Sporting.

POONA, a sovereign.-Corruption of "pound;" or from the Lingua Franca.

POP, to pawn or pledge; "to POP up the spout," to pledge at the pawnbroker's, an allusion to the spout up which the brokers send the ticketed articles until such times as they shall be redeemed. The spout runs from the ground-floor to the wareroom at the top of the house.

POPE'S NOSE, the extremity of the rump of a roast fowl, devilled as a dainty for epicures.

POPS, pocket-pistols.

PORTRAIT, a sovereign, or twenty shillings.

POSA, a treasurer.

A corruption of "purser," the name given to the treasurer in the large Anglo-Chinese mercantile establishments.Anglo-Chinese.

POSH, a halfpenny, or trifling coin. Also a generic term for money. POST, to pay down; POST THE PONY" signifies to place the stakes played

for on the table.

POST-HORN, the nose.-See PASTE-HORN.

POST-MORTEM, at Cambridge, the second examination which men who have been "plucked" have to undergo.-University.

POSTBOYS, THREE JOLLY, a method of tossing.

POSTERIORS, a correspondent insists that the vulgar sense of this word is undoubtedly Slang; (Swift, I believe, first applied it as such,) and remarks that it is curious the word anterior has not been so abused. POSTED UP, well acquainted with the subject in question, "up to the mark,"-metaphor drawn from the counting-house.

POT, a sixpence, i.e., the price of a pot or quart of half-and-half. A halfcrown, in medical student Slang, is a FIVE-POT PIECE.

POT, "to GO TO POT," to die; from the classic custom of putting the ashes of the dead in an urn; also, to be ruined, or broken up,-often applied to tradesmen who fail in business. GO TO POT! i.e., go and hang yourself, shut up and be quiet. L'Estrange, to PUT THE POT ON, to overcharge, or exaggerate. A correspondent, however, prefers looking to the refiner's shop for the origin of the expression, where refuse metal and worn-out plate are daily condemned "to go to POT."

POT, to finish; "don't POT me," term used at billiards, when a player holes his adversary's ball-generally considered shabby play. This word was much used by our soldiers in the Crimea, for firing at the enemy from a hole or ambush. These were called POT-SHOTS. POT-HUNTER, a sportsman who shoots anything he comes across, having more regard to filling his bag than to the rules which regulate the sport.

POT LUCK, just as it comes; to take POT LUCK, ie., one's chance of a dinner, a hearty term used to signify whatever the pot contains the visitor is welcome to.

POT-WALLOPER, an elector in certain boroughs before the passing of the Reform Bill, whose qualification consisted in being a housekeeper, to establish which it was only necessary to boil a pot within the limits of the borough, by the aid of any temporary erection. This implied that he was able to provide for himself, and not necessitated to apply for parochial relief. Honiton, Tregoney, Ilchester, Old Sarum, &c., had this privilege before the passing of the Reform Bill.-See Gentleman's Magazine for June 1852. WALLOP, a word of Anglo-Saxon derivation, from the same root as well.

POTATO-TRAP, the mouth.-Originally a Hibernicism.

POTEEN, whisky made in an illicit still, once a favourite drink in Ireland, now almost unattainable.

POTTED, or POTTED OUT, cabined, confined; "the patriotic member of Parliament POTTED OUT in a dusty little lodging somewhere about Bury Street."-Times article, 21st July 1859. Also applied to burial, -a gardening allusion.

POTTY, indifferent, bad looking,—said of a rotten or unsound scheme. POWER, a large quantity; "a POWER of money."-Especially Irish, but now general. Deriv. POER, Old French or Norman, large resources; also an army.

P. P., in Turf Slang a contraction of "PLAY OR PAY;" that is, the money must be paid whether the horse runs or not.

PRANCER, a horse.-Ancient Cant.

PRECIOUS, used in a Slang sense like very or exceeding; "a PRECIOUS little of that," i.e., a very little indeed; a PRECIOUS humbug, rascal, &c., i e., an eminent one.

PRAD, a horse.

PRAD-NAPPING, horse-stealing.

PRETTY HORSE-BREAKER, a phrase of recent adoption, applied to the ladies of the demi-monde by the Times and other newspapers. It is said that the livery stable-keepers of the West End find it to their advantage to provide horses and "traps" for these PRETTY HORSEBREAKERS to display.

PRIAL, a corruption of PAIR-ROYAL, a term at the game of cribbage, meaning three cards of a similar description. Often used metaphorically for three persons or things of a kind. DOUBLE-PRIAL, a corruption of DOUBLE PAIR-ROYAL, means four persons or things of a similar description.

"PRICK THE GARTER," or "PITCH THE NOB," a gambling and cheating game common at fairs, and generally practised by thimble-riggers. It consists of a "garter" or a piece of list doubled, and then folded up tight. The bet is made upon your asserting that you can, with a pin, prick" the point at which the garter is doubled. The garter is then unfolded, and nine times out of ten you will find that you have been deceived, and that one of the false folds has been pricked. The owner of the garter, I should state, holds the ends tightly with one hand. This was, doubtless, originally a Gipsy game, and we are informed by Brand that it was much practised by the Gipsies in the time of Shakspeare. In those days it was termed PRICKING AT THE BELT, or FAST AND LOOSE.

PRIG, a thief. Used by Addison in the sense of a coxcomb. Ancient Cant, probably from the Saxon, PRICC-AN, to filch, &c.-Shakspeare. PRIG, to steal, or rob. PRIGGING, thieving. In Scotland the term PRIG is used in a different sense from what it is in England. In Glasgow, or at Aberdeen, "to PRIG a salmon" would be to cheapen it, or seek for an abatement in the price. A story is told of two Scotchmen, visitors to London, who got into sad trouble a few years ago by announcing their intention of "PRIGGING a hat " which they had espied in a fashionable manufacturer's window, and which one of them thought he would like to possess.

PRIG, a conceited, stuck up person, and contemptible withal; one who ap propriates or adopts a manner or costume not suited to him.

PRIGGISH, conceited.

PRIMED, said of a person in that state of incipient intoxication that if he takes more drink it will become evident.

PRO, a professional.—Theatrical.

PROG, meat, food, &c. Johnson calls it " a low word."

PROP, a blow, the UPPER CUT.

PROPS, crutches.

PROPS, stage properties.-Theatrical.

PRIME PLANT, a good subject for plunder.-See PLANT.

PROP, a gold scarf pin.

PROP-NAILER, a man who steals, or rather snatches, pins from gentlemen's

scarfs.

PROPER, very, exceedingly, sometimes ironically; "you are a PROPER nice fellow," meaning a great scamp.

PROS, a water-closet. Abbreviated form of Tрòs Tivα Tóпov.-Oxford University.

PROSS, to break in or instruct a stage-infatuated youth. Also, to sponge" upon a comrade or stranger for drink.

PSALM-SMITER, a "Ranter," one who sings at a conventicle.-See BRISKET

BEATER.

PUB, or PUBLIC, a public-house; "what PUB do you use?” i.e., which inn or public-house do you frequent?

PUCKER, poor temper, difficulty, déshabillé. PUCKER UP, to get in a poor temper.

PUCKERING, talking privately.

PUCKEROW, to seize, to take hold of. From the Hindostanee, PUCKERNA. -Anglo-Indian.

PUFF, to blow up, swell with praise; declared by a writer in the Weekly Register, as far back as 1732, to be illegitimate.

"PUFF has become a Cant word, signifying the applause set forth by writers, &c., to increase the reputation and sale of a book, and is an excellent stratagem to excite the curiosity of gentle readers."

Lord Bacon, however, used the word in a similar sense a century before.

PUG, abbreviation of "pugilist." Sayers and Heenan would speak familiarly of themselves as "brother PUGS."

PULL, an advantage, or hold upon another; "I've the PULL over you," i.e., you are in my power-perhaps an oblique allusion to the judicial sense. See the following.

PULL, to have one apprehended; "to be PULLED up," to be taken before a magistrate.

PULL, to drink; " come, take a PULL at it," i.e., drink up.

PULLET, a young girl.

PUMMEL, to thrash,-from POMMEL.

PUMP, to extract information by roundabout questioning.

PUNDIT, a person who assumes to be very grave and learned.—AngloIndian.

PUNKAH, a fan.-Anglo-Indian.

PUNT, to gamble; PUNTING-SHOP, a gambling-house. Common in ancient writers, but now disused. The word seems confined to playing for "chicken stakes."

PUBLIC PATTERERS, swell mobites who pretend to be dissenting preachers, and harangue in the open air to attract a crowd for their confederates

to rob.

PUDDING-SNAMMER, one who robs a cook-shop.

PULLEY, a confederate thief,-generally a woman.