Atlantic is to vex him, or "rile" his temper-not to render him a raving maniac, or a fit subject for Bedlam.

Wild Irishman, the train between Euston and Holyhead, in connection with the Kingstown mail-boats.

Wild oats, youthful pranks. A fast young man is said to be "sowing his WILD OATS.

William, a bill. The derivation is obvious.

Willow, a cricket-bat. From the material of which it is made. The great batsman, W. G. Grace, is often called "champion of the WILLOW." Wind, "to raise the WIND," to procure money; "to slip one's WIND,” a coarse expression, meaning to die. See RAISE.

Wind, "I'll WIND your cotton," i.e., I will give you some trouble. The Byzantine General, Narses, used the same kind of threat to the Greek Empress," I will spin a thread that they shall not be able to unravel." Windows, the eyes, or "peepers."

Winey, intoxicated.

Winged, hurt, but not dangerously, by a bullet. Originally to be shot in the arm or shoulder. To slightly wound birds is to WING them. Winkin, "he went off like WINKIN," i.e., very quickly. From WINK, to shut the eye quickly.

Winks, periwinkles.

Winn, a penny.-Ancient Cant. See introductory chapter.
Wipe, a pocket-handkerchief.-Old Cant.

Wipe, a blow. Frequently sibilated to SWIPE, a cricket-term.

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Wipe, to strike; "he fetcht me a WIPE over the knuckles," he struck me on the knuckles; "to WIPE a person down," to flatter or pacify; "to WIPE off a score,' to pay one's debts, in allusion to the slate or chalk methods of account-keeping; "to WIPE a person's eye," to shoot game which he has missed; hence to obtain an advantage by superior activity. With old topers WIPING one's eye," is equivalent to giving or taking another drink. Wipe-out, to kill or utterly in pretty general use here. Wire-in, a London street phrase in general use, which means to go in with a will. In its original form of "WIRE-IN, and get your name up," it was very popular among London professional athletes. The phrase is now general, and any one who has a hard task before him, knows he must WIRE-IN to bring matters to a successful issue. Wire-pullers, powerful political partisans, who do their work from "behind the scenes.

destroy. This is an Americanism, but is

With and without, words by themselves, supposed to denote the existence or non-existence of sugar in grog. Generally warm WITH" and "cold WITHOUT."

Wobble-shop, a shop where beer is sold without a licence.

Wobbler, a foot soldier, a term of contempt used by cavalrymen.
Wobbly, rickety, unsteady, ill-fitting.

Wolf, to eat greedily. Wooden spoon, the last junior optime who takes a University degree; denoting one who is only fit to stay at home, and stir porridge.— Cambridge. The expression is also parliamentary slang, and is applied to the member of the ministry whose name appears in the division lists least frequently. At the ministerial dinner annually held at Greenwich, such member sometimes has a wooden spoon presented to him. Wooden surtout, a coffin, generally spoken of as a WOODEN SURTOUT with nails for buttons.

Wooden wedge, the last name in the clas

sical honours' list at Cambridge. The last in mathematical honours had long been known as the WOODEN SPOON; but when the classical Tripos was instituted in 1824, it was debated among the undergraduates what sobriquet should be given to the last on the examination list. Curiously enough, the name that year which happened to be. last was WEDGEWOOD (a distinguished Wrangler). Wool, courage, pluck; "you are not half-wOOLED," term of reproach from one thief to another.

Hence the title.

Wool, bravery, pluck. Term much in use among pugilists and their admirers. The highest praise that can be bestowed on a man of courage in lower-class circles is that which characterizes him as being "a reg'lar WOOLED UN," or "a rare WOOL-TOPPED UN." Derived from the great pluck and perseverance shown by many pugilists of whole or partial colour, from Molyneux down to Bob Travers.

Woolbird, a lamb; "wing of a WOOLBIRD," a shoulder of lamb. Wool-gathering, said of any person's wits when they are wandering, or in a reverie.

Wool-hole, the workhouse.
Woolly, out of temper.

Woolly, a blanket.

་་

Work, to plan, or lay down and execute any course of action, to perform anything; "to WORK the bulls," i.e., to get rid of false crown pieces; to WORK the oracle," to succeed by manoeuvring, to concert a wily plan, to victimize,-a possible reference to the stratagems and bribes used to corrupt the Delphic oracle, and cause it to deliver a favourable response. "TO WORK a street or neighbourhood," to try at each house to sell all one can, or to bawl so that every housewife may know what is to be sold. The general plan is to drive a donkey-barrow a short distance, and then stop and cry. The term implies thoroughness; to "WORK a street well" is a common saying with a coster. "TO WORK a benefit" is to canvass among one's friends and acquain

tances.

Worm. See PUMP.

Worm, a policeman.

Worming, removing the beard of an oyster or mussel.

W. P., or WARMING-PAN. A clergyman who holds a living pro tempore, under a bond of resignation, is styled a w. P., or WARMING-PAN rector, because he keeps the place warm for his successor. WARMING-PAN

was a term first popularly applied to a substitute in the reign of James II.

Wrinkle, an idea, or a fancy; an additional piece of knowledge.

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Write, as 'to WRITE one's name on a joint," to leave the impression of one's handiwork thereon, to have the first cut at anything; to leave visible traces of one's presence anywhere.

Wylo, be off.-Anglo-Chinese.

X., or LETTER X, a method of arrest used by policemen with desperate ruffians,-by getting a firm grasp on the collar, and drawing the captive's hand over the holding arm, and pressing the fingers down in a peculiar way-the captured person's arm in this way can be more easily broken than extricated.

Yack, a watch; to "church a YACK," to take it out of its case to avoid detection, otherwise to "christen a YACK."

Yaffle, to eat.-Old English.

Yahoo, a person of coarse or degraded habits. Derived from the use of the word by Swift.

Yam, to eat. This word is used by the lowest class all over the world; by the Wapping sailor, West Indian negro, or Chinese coolie. When the fort, called the Dutch Folly, near Canton, was in course of erection by the Hollanders, under the pretence of being intended for an hospital, the Chinese observed a box containing muskets among the alleged hospital stores. "Hy-aw !" exclaimed John Chinaman, "How can sick man YAM gun?" The Dutch were surprised and massacred the same night.

Yappy, soft, foolish; mostly applied to an over-generous person, from the fact that it originally meant one who paid for everything. YAP is back slang for pay, and often when a man is asked to pay more than he considers correct, he says, "Do you think I'm YAPPY?" do you think I'm paying mad? Thus slang begets slang.

Yard of clay, a long, old-fashioned tobacco pipe; also called a churchwarden.

Yarmouth capon, a bloater, or red herring.

Yarmouth mittens, bruised hands.-Sea.

Yarn, a long story, or tale; "a tough YARN," a tale hard to be believed; 'spin a YARN," to tell a tale.-Sea.

Yay-nay, "a poor YAY-NAY" fellow, one who has no conversational power, and can only answer YEA or NAY to a question.

Yellow-belly, a native of the fens of Lincolnshire, or the Isle of Ely, -in allusion to the frogs and yellow-bellied eels caught there.

Yellow-boy, a sovereign, or any gold coin.

Yellow-gloak, a jealous man.

A A

Yellow-Jack, the yellow fever prevalent in the West Indies.

Yellow-man, a yellow silk handkerchief.

Yellows, a term of reproach applied to Bluecoat and other charity school boys.

Yid, or YIT, a Jew. YIDDEN, the Jewish people. The Jews use these terms very frequently.

Yokel, a countryman. Probably from yoke, representative of his occupation. Some fancy, however, that the word was originally YOWKEL, in imitation of the broad tones of country labourers.

Yokuff, a chest, or large box.

Yorkshire, "to YORKSHIRE," or "come YORKSHIRE over any person," to cheat or cozen him. The proverbial over-reaching of the rustics of this county has given rise to the phrase, which is sometimes pronounced Yorshar. To put Yorshar to a man, is to trick or deceive him. This latter is from a work in the Lancashire dialect, 1757. Yorkshire compliment, a gift of something useless to the giver. Sometimes called a North-country compliment.

Yorkshire estates; "I will do it when I come into my YORKSHIRE ESTATES,”—meaning if I ever have the money or the means.

Yorkshire reckoning, a reckoning in which every one pays his own share.

Younker, in street language, a lad or a boy. Term in general use amongst costermongers, cabmen, and old-fashioned people. Barnefield's Affectionate Shepherd, 1594, has the phrase, "a seemelie YOUNKER." Danish and Friesic, JONKER. In the navy, a naval cadet is usually termed a YOUNker.

Your nibs, yourself. See NIBS.

Yoxter, a convict returned from transportation before his time.

Ziff, a juvenile thief.

Ziph, LANGUAGE OF, a way of disguising English in use among the students at Winchester College. Compare MEDICAL GREEK. De Quincey, in his Autobiographic Sketches, says that he acquired this language as a boy, from a Dr. Mapleton, who had three sons at Winchester who had imported it from thence as their sole accomplishment, and that after the lapse of fifty years he could, and did with Lord Westport, converse in it with ease and rapidity. It was communicated at Winchester to new-comers for a fixed fee of half a guinea. The secret is this,— repeat the vowel or diphthong of every syllable, prefixing to the vowel so repeated the letter G, and placing the accent on the intercalated syllable. Thus, for example, "Shall we go away in an hour?" "Shagall wege gogo agawagay igin hougour ?" "Three hours we have already stayed," "Threegee hougours wege hagave agalreageadygy stagayed." De Quincey could hardly have been considered complimentary to his own memory if he supposed that he, or for the matter of that any one possessed of brains, could forget anything so simple; or that, if forgotten until suddenly recalled, it could not be mastered by any sensible person in a minute. The language of ZIPH is far inferior to

any of the slangs manufactured by the lower classes. Evidently any consonant will answer the purpose; F or L would be softer, and so far better. This ZIPH system is not confined to Winchester College, as it is recorded and described amongst many other modes of cryptical communication, oral and visual, spoken, written, and symbolic, in an Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophic Language (founded on or suggested by a treatise published just before, by Geo. Dalgarne), by John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, published by order of the Royal Society, fol. 1668, and as the bishop does not speak of it as a recent invention, it may probably at that time have been regarded as an antique device for conducting a conversation in secrecy amongst bystanders-which says very little for either the designers or the bystanders.

Zounds! a sudden exclamation-abbreviation of "God's wounds !"