CHEAPSIDE. He came at it by way of Cheapside; he gave little or nothing for it, he bought it cheap. CHEATS. Sham sleeves to put over a dirty shift or shirt. See SHAMS. CHEEK BY JOWL. Side by side; hand to fist. CHEEKS. Ask cheeks near cunnyborough; the repartee of a St. Giles's fair one, who bids you ask her backside, anglicé her a-se. A like answer is current in France: any one asking the road or distance to Macon, a city near Lyons, would be answered by a French lady of easy virtue, ‘Mettez votre nez dans mon cul, et vous serrez dans les Fauxbourgs.' CHEESE IT. Be silent, be quiet, don't do it. Cheese it, the coves are fly; be silent, the people understand our dis course. CHEESE-TOASTER. A sword. CHELSEA. A village near London, famous for the military hospital. To get Chelsea; to obtain the benefit of this hospital. "Dead Chelsea, by G-d!" an exclamation uttered by a grenadier at Fontenoy, on having his leg carried away by a cannon-ball. CHERRY-COLOURED CAT. A black cat, their being black cherries as well as red. CHERUBIM. Peevish children, because cherubim and seraphim continually do cry. CHESHIRE CAT. He grins like a Cheshire cat; said of any one who shows his teeth and gums in laughing. CHEST OF TOOLS. Implements for house-breaking. CHICE-AM-A-TRICE. A vulgar phrase used by the Jews, meaning," of no good," "It's all chice." CHICK-A-BIDDY. children. A chicken, so called to and by little CHICKEN-BREASTED. breasts. CHICKEN-BUTCHER. Said of a woman with scarce any A poulterer. CHICKEN-HAMMED. Persons whose legs and thighs are bent or arched outwards. CHICKEN-HAZARD. A table at which persons play for low stakes. CHICKEN-HEARTED. Fearful, cowardly. CHICKEN NABOB. One returned from the East Indies with but a moderate fortune of fifty or sixty thousand pounds; a diminutive nabob: a term borrowed from the chicken turtle. CHILD. To eat a child; to partake of a treat given to the parish-officers, in part of commutation for a bastard child : the common price was formerly ten pounds and a greasy chin. See GREASY CHIN. CHIMNEY CHOPS. An abusive appellation for a negro. CHINA-STREET. Bow-street, Covent Garden, where the head police office is situated. Cant. CHINK. Money. CHIP. A child. A chip of the old block; a child who, either in person or sentiments, resembles its father or mother. CHIP. A brother chip; a person of the same trade or calling. CHIPS. A nick name for a carpenter. CHIRPING MERRY. Exhilirated with liquor. Chirping glass, a cheerful glass, that makes the company chirp like birds in spring. CHIT. An infant or baby. CHITTERLINS. The bowels. There is a rumpus among my bowels, i. e. I have the colick. The frill of a shirt. CHITTY-PACED. Baby-faced; said of one who has a childish look. CHIVE, or CHIFF. A knife, file, or saw. To chive the darbies; to file off the irons or fetters. To chive the boungs of the frows; to cut off a woman's pockets. CHIVEY. I gave him a good chivey; I gave him a hearty scolding. CHIVING LAY. Cutting the braces of coaches behind, on which, the coachman quitting the box, an accomplice robs the boot; also, formerly, cutting the back of the coach to steal the fine large wigs then worn. CHOAK. Choak away, the churchyard's near; a jocular saying to a person taken with a violent fit of coughing, or who has swallowed any thing, as it is called, the wrong way. Choak, chicken, more are hatching; a like consolation. CHOAKING PYE, or COLD PYE. A punishment inflicted on any person sleeping in company; it consists in wrapping up cotton in a case or tube of paper, setting it on fire, and directing the smoke up the nostrils of the sleeper. See HOWELL'S COTGRAVE. CHOAK OFF. A person who is impudent in company; or a man that might do another some mischief by giving evidence before a magistrate, or on his trial, against him; it is said, he must be choaked off;-at all events, he must be got rid of. CHOAK PEAR. Figuratively, an unanswerable objection; also a machine formerly used in Holland by robbers: it was of iron, shaped like a pear; this they forced into the mouths of persons from whom they intended to extort money, and on turning a key, certain interior springs thrust forth a number of points, in all directions, which so enlarged it, that it could not be taken out of the mouth; and the iron, being case-hardened, could not be filed: the only methods of getting rid of it were, either by cutting the mouth, or advertizing a reward for the key. These pears were also called pears of agony. CHOCOLATE. To give chocolate without sugar; to reprove. Military term. CHOICE SPIRIT. A gay, thoughtless, laughing, singing, merry, fellow. CHOPPER. In bruising, is a blow struck on the face with the back of the hand. Mendoza claims the honour of its invention, but unjustly; he certainly revived, and considerably improved it. It was practised long before our time-Broughton occasionally used it; and Slack, it also appears, struck the chopper in giving the return in many of his battles.. CHOP AND CHANGE. To exchange backwards and forwards. To chop, in the canting sense, means making despatch, or hurrying over any business: ex. The autem bawler will soon quit the hums, for he chops up the whiners ; the parson will soon quit the pulpit, for he hurries over the prayers. See AUTEM BAWLER, HUMS, and WHINERS. CHOP CHURCHES. Simoniacal dealers in livings, or other ecclesiastical preferments. CHOPPING. Lusty. A chopping boy or girl; a lusty child. CHOPS. The mouth. I gave him a wherrit, or a souse, across the chops: I gave him a blow over the mouth. WHERRIT. CHOP-STICK. A fork. See CHOUDER. A sea-dish, composed of fresh fish, salt pork, herbs, and sea-biscuits, laid in different layers, and stewed together. CHOUSE. To cheat or trick: he choused me out of it. CHRISTIAN. A tradesman who has faith, i. e. will give credit. CHRISTMAS COMPLIMENTS. A cough, kibed heels, and a snotty nose. CHUB. He is a young chub, or a mere chub; i. e. a foolish fellow, easily imposed on: an allusion to a fish of that name, easily taken. CHUBBY. Round-faced, plump. CHUCK. My chuck; a term of endearment. CHUCK. To show a propensity for a man. the wench wants to be doing. The mors chucks; CHUCK FARTHING. A parish clerk. CHUM. A chamber-fellow, particularly at the universities and in prisons. CHUMMAGE. Money paid by the richer sort of prisoners in the Fleet and King's Bench, to the poorer, for their share of a room. When prisons are very full, which is too often the case, particularly on the eve of an insolvent act, two or three persons are obliged to sleep in a room. A prisoner who can pay for being alone, chuses two poor chums, who, for a stipulated price, called chummage, give up their share of the room, and sleep on the stairs, or, as the term is, # ruff it. CHURCH WARDEN. A Sussex name for a shag, or cormorant, probably from its voracity. CHURCH WORK. Said of any work that advances slowly. CHURCHYARD COUGH. A cough that is likely to terminate in death. CHURK. The udder. CHURL. Originally, a labourer or husbandman: figuratively, a rude, surly, boorish fellow. To put a churl upon a gentleman; to drink malt liquor immediately after having drunk wine. CHURY. A knife. Cant. CINDER GARBLER. A servant maid, from her business of sifting the ashes from the cinders. Custom-house wit. CIRCUMBENdibus. A roundabout way, or story. He took such a circumbendibus; he took such a circuit. CIT. A citizen of London. CITY COLLEGE. Newgate. CIVILITY MONEY. A reward claimed by bailiffs for executing their office with civility. CIVIL RECEPTION. A house of civil reception; a bawdyhouse or nanny-house. See NANNY-HOUSE. CLACK. A tongue, chiefly applied to women; a simile drawn from the clack of a water-mill. CLACK-LOFT. A pulpit, so callen by orator Henley. CLAN. A family's tribe or brotherhood; a word much used in Scotland. The head of the clan; the chief. An allusion to a story of a Scotchman, who, when a very large louse crept down his arm, put him back again, saying he was the head of the clan, and that, if injured, all the rest would resent it. CLANK NAPPER. A silver tankard stealer. See RUM BUB BER. CLANKER. A great lie. CLAP. A delicate taint. He went out by Had'em, and came round by Clapham home; i. e. he went out a wenching and got a clap. CLAP ON THE SHOULDER. An arrest for debt; whence a bum bailiff is called a shoulder-clapper. CLAPPER. The tongue of a bell, and, figuratively, of a man or woman. CLAPPER CLAW. To scold, to abuse, or claw off with the tongue. CLAPPERDOGEON. A beggar born. Cant. Cla CLARET. French red wine; figuratively, blood. I tapped his claret; I broke his head, and made the blood run. ret-faced; red-faced. CLAWED OFF. Severely beaten or whipped; also, smartly poxed or clapped. CLEAN. Expert; clever. Amongst the knuckling coves he is reckoned very clean; he is considered very expert as a pickpocket. CLEANED OUT. A sporting phrase, in who has lost all his money in betting. nifies the same as to dish, or sew up. alluding to any person To clean out also sigex. gr. "For Turner I've clean'd out and Martin the baker, I'd very near put on the bankruptcy list." Randall's Farewell to the Ring. Vide Randall's Diary. CLEAR. Very drunk. The cull is clear, let's bite him; the fellow is very drunk, let's cheat him. CLEARING OUT AT CUSTOM-HOUSE. brance. Sea term. Cant. Eased of an incum CLEAVER. One that will cleave; said of a forward or wan ton woman. CLERKED. Soothed, funned, imposed on. The cull will not be clerked; i. e. the fellow will not be imposed on by fair words. CLEW. To hold fast. Sea term. CLEYMES. Artificial sores, made by beggars to excite charity. CLICK. A blow. A click in the muns; a blow or knock in the face. Cant. CLICK. To snatch. To click a nab; to snatch a hat. |