RENCH, vulgar pronunciation of RINSE. "Wrench your mouth out," said a fashionable dentist one day.-North.

RE-RAW, 'on the RE-RAW," tipsy or drunk.-Household Words, No. 183. RESURRECTION PIE, a school phrase, to denote a Saturday dish, made of the scraps and leavings of meat that have appeared before. RHINO, ready money.-Old.

"Some as I know,

Have parted with their READY RINO."

-The Seaman's Adieu, Old Ballad, 1670.

"Travelling forms a man; but it at the same time forms a very large hole in his finances. In Switzerland it is pleasant to run up hills, but the wanderer must simultaneously run up bills; and no Englishman can see the Rhine, who does not possess the RHINO."-Morning Star, Aug. 21, 1863.

RHINOCERAL, rich, wealthy, abounding in RHINO.

RIB, a wife.-North.

RIBBON, gin, or other spirits.-Servants' term.--See SATIN.
RIBBONS, the reins.-Middlesex.

RIBROAST, to beat till the ribs are sore.-Old; but still in use:

"And he departs, not meanly boasting

Of his magnificent RIBROASTING."-Hudibras.

RICH, spicy; also used in the sense of "too much of a good thing;' 'a RICH idea," one too absurd or unreasonable to be adopted.

RICHARD, a dictionary.-See DICK.

RIDE, "to RIDE THE HIGH HORSE," or RIDE ROUGH-SHOD Over one, to be overbearing or oppressive; to RIDE THE BLACK DONKEY, to be in an ill humour.

RIDER, in a University examination, a problem or question appended to another, as directly arising from or dependent on it;-beginning to be generally used for any corollary or position which naturally arises from any previous statement or evidence.

RIFF-RAFF, low, vulgar rabble.

RIG, or trick, "spree," or performance; "run a RIG," to play a trick. Gipsy. "RIG the market," in reality to play tricks with it,—a mercantile Slang phrase often used in the newspapers.

RIGGED, "well RIGGED," well dressed.-Old Slang, in use 1736.-See Bailey's Dictionary.-Sea.

"RIGHT AS NINEPENCE," (corruption of NINE-PINS,) quite right, exactly right.-See NINEPENCE.

“RIGHT YOU ARE!" a phrase implying entire acquiescence in what has been said or done. The expression is singularly frequent and general amongst the lower and middle classes of the metropolis. RIGHTS, "to have one TO RIGHTS," to be even with him, to serve him out.

RIGMAROLE, a prolix story.

RILE, to offend, to render very cross, irritated, or vexed. Properly, to render liquor turbid.-Norfolk.

RING, to change; RINGING CASTORS," changing hats; "to RING the changes," in low life means to change bad money for good; in respectable society the phrase is sometimes employed to denote that the aggressor has been paid back in his own coin, as in practical joking, when the laugh is turned against the jester. The expression originally came from the belfry.

RING, a generic term given to horse-racing and pugilism,-the latter is sometimes termed the PRIZE-RING. From the practice of forming the crowd into a ring around the combatants, or outside the race course. RING, "to go through the RING," to take advantage of the Insolvency Act, or be "whitewashed."

RIP,

66

tr

a rake: an old RIP," an old libertine, or debauchee. Corruption of Reprobate." A person reading the letters R. I. P. (Requiescat in Pace,) on the top of a tombstone as one word, said, soliloquising, 'Rip! well, he was an old RIP, and no mistake.”—Cuthbert Bede. RIPPER, a first-rate man or article.-Provincial.

RIPPING, excellent, very good.

RISE, "to take a RISE out of a person." A metaphor from fly-fishing,
the silly fish RISING to be caught by an artificial fly; to mortify, out-
wit, or cheat him, by superior cunning.

"There is only one thing, unfortunately, of which Oxford men are economical,
and that is their University experience. They not only think it fair that
Freshmen should go through their ordeal unaided, but many have a sweet
satisfaction in their distresses, and even busy themselves in obtaining
elevations, or, as it is vulgarly termed, in getting RISES 'out of them.""-
Hints to Freshmen, Oxford, 1843.

RISE (or RAISE) A BARNEY, to collect a mob; term used by patterers,
and "schwassle-box" (Punch and Judy) men.

ROARER, a broken-winded horse; or, in the more polite speech of the
stable, A HIGH BLOWER.' ROARING, as applied to horses, is often
termed "TALKING" by "turf-men."

ROARING TRADE, a very successful business.-Shopkeepers' Slang.
ROAST, to expose a person to a running fire of jokes at his expense
from a whole company. QUIZZING is done by a single person only.
ROCK-A-LOW, an overcoat. Corruption of the French ROQUELAURE.
ROCKED, "he's only HALF-ROCKED," i.e., half-witted.

ROGUE'S YARN, a thread of red or blue worsted, worked into the ropes
manufactured in the Government dockyards, to identify them if stolen.
Also a blue thread worked into canvas, for the same purpose.

ROMANY, a Gipsy, or the Gipsy language; the speech of the Roma or Zincali.-Spanish Gipsy. "Can you patter ROMANY?" .e., can you talk "black," or Gipsy lingo?

ROOK, a cheat, or tricky gambler; the opposite of PIGEON.-Old.

RING-DROPPING, see FAWNEY.

"ROLL OF SNOw," a piece of Irish linen.-Prison term.

ROOK, a clergyman, not only from his black attire, but also, perhaps, from the old nursery favourite, the History of Cock Robin.

"I, says the ROOK,
With my little book,
I'll be the parson.'

ROOKERY, a low neighbourhood inhabited by dirty Irish and thievesas ST GILES'S ROOKERY.-Old. In Military Slang that part of the barracks occupied by subalterns, often by no means a pattern of good order.

ROOKY, rascally, rakish, scampish.

ROOST, synonymous with PERCH, which see.

ROOTER, anything good, or of a prime quality; "that is a ROOTER," i.e., a first-rate one of the sort.

ROPER, MISTRESS, "to marry MRS ROPER" is to enlist in the Royal Marines.

ROPING, the act of pulling or restraining a horse, by its rider, to prevent it winning a race-a trick not unfrequently practised on the turf. ROSE, an orange.

"

ROSE, "under the ROSE (frequently used in its Latin form, sub rosá,) i.e., under the obligation of silence and secrecy, of which the rose was anciently an emblem, perhaps, as Sir Thomas Browne remarks, from the closeness with which its petals are enfolded in the bud. The Rose of Venus was given, says the classic legend, to Harpocrates, the God of Silence, by Cupid, as a bribe not to "peach" about the Goddess's amours. It was commonly sculptured on the ceilings of banqueting rooms, as a sign that what was said in free conversation there was not afterwards to be divulged; and about 1526 was placed over the Roman confessionals as an emblem of secrecy. The White Rose was also an emblem of the Pretender, whose health, as king, his secret adherents used to drink "under the ROSE."

ROSIN, beer or other drink given to musicians at a dancing party.
ROSIN-THE-BOW, a fiddler.

ROT, nonsense, anything bad, disagreeable, or useless.

ROT-GUT, bad small beer,-in America, cheap whisky.
ROUGH, bad; 66

ROUGH fish," bad or stinking fish.-Billingsgate. ROUGH-IT, to put up with chance entertainment, to take pot luck, and what accommodation " turns up," without sighing for better. "ROUGHING IT in the Bush" is the title of an interesting work on Backwoods life.

ROUGHS, coarse, or vulgar men.

ROULEAU, a packet of sovereigns.-Gaming.

ROUND, to tell tales, to " SPLIT," which see; "to ROUND on a man," to
swear to him as being the person, &c. Synonymous with "BUFF,"
which see. Shakspeare has ROUNDING, whispering.

ROUND, "ROUND dealing," honest trading; "ROUND sum," a large sum.
Synonymous also in a Slang sense with SQUARE, which see.

ROUNDEM, a button.

ROUNDS, shirt collars-apparently a mere shortening of "All Rounds," or "All Rounders," names of fashionable collars.

ROUND, (in the language of the street,) the BEAT or usual walk of the cos
termonger to sell his stock. A term used by street folk generally.
"Watchmen, sometimes they made their sallies,

And walk'd their ROUNDS through streets and allies."
-Ned Ward's Vulgus Britannicus, 1710.

ROUND ROBIN, a petition, or paper of remonstrance, with the signatures
written in a circle,-to prevent the first signer, or ringleader, from
being discovered.
ROUNDABOUT, a large swing with four compartments, each the size, and
very much the shape, of the body of a cart, capable of seating six or
eight boys and girls, erected in a high frame, and turned round by
men at a windlass. Fairs and merry-makings generally abound with
these swings. The frames take to pieces, and are carried in vans from
fair to fair by miserable horses.

ROW, “the ROW," i.e., Paternoster Row. The notorious Holywell Street is now called by its denizens "Bookseller's Row!"

ROW, a noisy disturbance, tumult, or trouble. Originally Cambridge, now universal. Seventy years ago it was written ROUE, which would indicate a French origin from roué, a profligate or disturber of the peace. Vide George Parker's Life's Painter, 1789, p. 122.

ROWDY, money. In America, a ruffian, a brawler, a “rough.”
ROWDY-DOW, low, vulgar; "not the CHEESE," or thing.

RUB, a quarrel or impediment; "there's the RUB," i.e., that is the difficulty.-Shakspeare and L'Estrange.

RUBBED OUT, dead,—a melancholy expression, of late frequently used in fashionable novels.

RUBBER, a term at whist, &c., two games out of three.-Old, 1677. RUCK, the undistinguished crowd; "to come in with the RUCK," to arrive at the winning-post among the non-winning horses.-Racing term. RUGGY, fusty, frowsy.

RUM, like its opposite, QUEER, was formerly a much-used prefix, signifying fine, good, gallant, or valuable, perhaps in some way connected with ROME. Now-a-days it means indifferent, bad, or questionable, and we often hear even persons in polite society use such a phrase as "what a RUM fellow he is, to be sure," in speaking of a man of singular habits or appearance. The term, from its frequent use, long since claimed a place in our dictionaries; but, with the exception of Johnson, who says RUM, a Cant word for a clergyman (?), no lexicographer has deigned to notice it.

"Thus RUMLY floor'd, the kind Acestes ran.

And pitying, raised from earth the game old man."

-Virgil's Eneid, book v., Translation by Thomas Moore. RUMBOWLING, anything inferior or adulterated.-Sea. RUMBUMPTIOUS, haughty, pugilistic.

RUMBUSTIOUS, or RUMBUSTICAL, pompous, haughty, boisterous, careless of the comfort of others.

RUMBLER, a four-wheeled cab. Not so common as BOUNDER.

RUM CULL, the manager of a theatre.-Travelling Theatre.

RUMGUMPTION, or GUMPTION, knowledge, capacity, capability, hence,
RUMGUMPTIOUS, knowing, wide-awake, forward, positive, pert, blunt.
RUM-MIZZLER, the Seven Dials' Cant for a person who is clever at mak-
ing his escape, or getting out of a difficulty.
RUMPUS, a noise, disturbance, a "row."
RUM-SLIM, rum punch.

RUMY, a good woman, or girl.-Gipsy Cant. In the continental Gipsy,
ROMI, a woman, a wife, is the feminine of RO, a man.

RUN, (good or bad,) the success of a performance.—Theatrical.

RUN, to comprehend, &c.; "I don't RUN to it," ie., I can't do it, I don't understand, or I have not money enough.-North.

RUN, "to get the RUN upon any person," to have the upper hand, or be able to laugh at them. RUN DOWN, to abuse or backbite any one; to "lord it," or "drive over" them. Originally Stable Slang. RUNNING PATTERER, a street seller who runs or moves briskly along, calling aloud his wares.

RUNNING STATIONER, a hawker of books, ballads, dying speeches, and newspapers. Persons of this class formerly used to run with newspapers, blowing a horn, when they were sometimes termed FLYING STATIONERS. Now-a-days, in the event of any political or social disturbance, the miserable relics of these peripatetic newsmen bawl the heads of the telegram or information in quiet London thoroughfares, to the disturbance of the residents.

RUSH, "doing it on the RUSH," running away, or making off.

RUST, "to nab the RUST," to take offence. RUSTY, cross, ill-tempered, morose; one who cannot go through life like a person of easy and "polished" manners.

RUSTY GUTS, a blunt, rough, old fellow. Corruption of RUSTICUS.

SACK, to "get the SACK," to be discharged the north of England to "get the BAG." spoken of as "getting the EMPTY."

by an employer. Varied in In London it is sometimes

SADDLE, an additional charge made by the manager to a performer upon his benefit night.-Theatrical.

SAD DOG, a merry fellow, a joker, a gay or "fast" man.

SAILS, the sail-maker on board ship.

SAINT MONDAY, a holiday most religiously observed by journeymen shoemakers, and other mechanics.

An Irishman observed that this

saint's anniversary happened every week.-North, where it is termed COBBLERS' MONDAY.

SAL, a salary.-Theatrical.