to force open doors. Bring bess and glim; bring the inst ment to force the door and the dark lanthorn.

See BROWN BESS.

Small fi

like those for Florence wine, are also called Betties. BESS. BEST. To get your money at the best, signifies to live by dishonest or fraudulent practices, without labour or industry, according to the general acceptation of the latter word; but, certainly, no persons have more occasion to be industrious, and in a state of perpetual action than cross coves; and, experience has proved, when too late, to many of them, that honesty is the best policy; and, consequently, that the above phrase is by no means à propos.

BEST OF A CHARLEY. Upsetting a watchman in his box. BETTY. A picklock; to unbetty, or betty a lock, is to open or relock it, by means of the betty, so as to avoid subsequent detection.

BETTY MARTIN. That's my eye, Betty Marting an answer to any one that attempts to impose, or humbug: a corruption of “ Mihi beatæ martiniș.”

BEVER. A morning's luncheon: also a fine hat; beayer's fur making the best hats.

BEVERAGE. Garnish money, or money for drink, demanded of anyone having a new suit of clothes. BIBLE. A boatswain's great axe.

Sea term.

BIBLE OATH. Supposed by the vulgar to be more binding than an oath taken on the Testament only, as being the bigger book, and generally containing both the Old and New Testaments.

BIDDY, or CHICK-A-BIDDY. A chicken; and, figuratively, a young wench.

-BIDET; commonly pronounced BIDDY. A kind of tub, contrived for ladies to wash themselves, for which purpose they bestride it like a French pony, or post-horse, called, in French, bidets.

BIENLY. Excellently. She wheedled so bienly; she coaxed or flattered so cleverly. French.

BILL AT SIGHT. To pay a bill at sight; to be ready at all times for the venereal act.

BILK. To cheat. Let us bilk the rattling cove; let us * cheat the hackney coachman of his fare. Cant. Bilking a coachman, a box-keeper, and a poor whore, were, formerly, among men of the town, thought gallant actions,

Bill of Sale. A widow's weeds. See House to let. BILLINGSGATE LANGUAGE. Foul language or abuse. Billingsgate is the market where the fishwomen assemble to purchase fish; and where, in their dealings and disputes, they are somewhat apt to leave decency and good manners a little on the left-hand.

BING. To go. Cant. Bing avast; get you gone. Binged vast in a darkmans; stole away in the night. Bing we to Eumeville? shall we go to London?

DINGO. Brandy or other spirituous liquor. Cant.
BINGO BOY. A dram drinker. Cant.
BINGO MORT. A female dram drinker.

Cant.

BINNACLE Word. A fine or affected word, which sailors jeeringly offer to chalk up on the binnacle.

BIRD AND BABY. The sign of the eagle and child.
BIRD-WITTED. Inconsiderate, thoughtless, easily imposed on.
BIRD'S-EYE WIPE. A spotted handkerchief. Cant.
BIRDS OF A Feather. Rogues of the same gang.
BIRTH-DAY SUIT. He was in his birth-day suit, that is stark
naked.

BISHOP. A mixture of wine and water into which is put a
roasted orange.
BISHOPPED, or To BISHOP. A term used among horse-dealers
for burning the mark into a horse's tooth after he has lost it
by age: by bishopping, a horse is made to appear younger
than he is. It is a common saying of milk that is burnt, too,
that the bishop has set his foot in it. Formerly, when a
bishop-passed through a village, all the inhabitants ran out
of their houses to solicit his blessing, even leaving their milk,
&c. on the fire, to take its chance, which, when burnt, was
said to be bishopped.

BISHOP THE BALLS. A term used among printers, to water them.

-BIT. Money. He grappled the cull's bit; he seized the man's money. A bit is also the smallest coin in Jamaica, equal to about sixpence sterling. To grab the bit; to seize the cash. BITCH. A she dog or doggess; the most offensive appellation 1that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore, as may be gathered from the regular Billingsgate or St. Giles's answer "I may be a whore but can't be a bitch."

2

"BITCH. To yield or give up an attempt through fear. To stand bitch; to make tea, or do the honours of the tea-table, sperforming a female part: bitch there standing for woman, species for genus.

BITCH BOOBY. A country wench.
BIT FAKER. A coiner. Cant.

Military term.

BIT OF GIG. Fun. A spree, &c. › Cant.

BITE.

To over-reach or impose; also to steal. Cant. Biting was once esteemed a kind of wit, similar to the humbug. An instance of it is given in the Spectator:-A, man, under sentence of death, having sold his body to a surgeon, rather below the market price, on receiving the mo

ney, cried A bite! I am to be hanged in chains. To bite the roger; to steal a portmanteau. To bite the wiper; to steal a handkerchief. To bite on the bridle; to be pinched, or reduced to difficulties. Hark ye, friend, whether do they bite in the collar or the cod-piece? Water wit to anglers.

BLAB. A tell-tale, or one incapable of keeping a secret. BLACK AND WHITE. In writing. I have it in black and white; I have written evidence.

BLACK ART. The art of picking a lock. Cant.

BLACK A-SE. black a-se.

A copper or kettle. The pot calls the kettle
Cant.

BLACK BOOK. He is down in the black book; i. e. has a stain in his character. A black book is kept in most regiments, wherein the names of all persons sentenced to punishment are recorded.

BLACK BOX. A lawyer. Cant.

BLACK DIAMONDS. Coals. Cant.

BLACK EYE. We gave the bottle a black eye; i. e. drank it almost up. He cannot say black is the white of my eye; he cannot point out a blot in my character.

BLACK FLY. The greatest drawback on the farmer is the black fly, i. e. the parson who takes the tithe of the harvest. BLACK GUARD. A shabby, mean fellow; a term said to be derived from a number of dirty, tattered, roguish boys, who attended at the Horse Guards and Parade, in St. James's Park, to black the boots and shoes of the soldiers, or to do any other dirty offices. These, from their constant attendance about the time of guard mounting, were nick-named the black guards.

BLACK JACK. A nick-name given to the late Recorder of London by the thieves.

BLACK JOKE. A popular tune to a song, having for the burden, "Her black joke and belly so white;" figuratively, the black joke signifies the monosyllable. See MONOSYL

LABLE.

BLACK LEGS. A gambler or sharper on the turf or in the cock-pit; so called, perhaps, from their appearing generally in boots; or else from game-cocks, whose legs are always black.

BLACK MONDAY. The first Monday after the school-boys' holidays, or breaking up, when they are to go to school and produce or repeat the tasks set them.

BLACK PSALM. To sing the black psalm; to cry: a saying used to children.

BLACK SPICE RACKET. To rob chimney-sweepers of their soot-bag and soot.

BLACK SPY. The devil; a smith; an informer. Cant.

BLACK STRAP. Bene Carlo wine; also port. A task of labour imposed on soldiers at Gibraltar, as a punishment for small offences.

BLANK. To look blank; to appear disappointed or confounded.

BLANKET HORNPIPE. The amorous congress.

BLARNEY. He has licked the blarney stone; he deals in the wonderful, or tips us the traveller. The blarney stone is a triangular stone on the very top of an ancient castle of that name in the county of Cork, in Ireland, extremely difficult of access; so that to have ascended to it was considered as a proof of perseverance, courage, and agility, whereof many are supposed to claim the honour who never achieved the adventure: and to tip the blarney is, figuratively used, telling a marvellous story, or falsity; and also sometimes to express flattery. Irish.

BLASTED FELLOW, or BRIMSTONE.

or prostitute. Cant.

BLAST. To curse.

BLATER. A calf. Cant.

An abandoned rogue

BLEACHED MORT. A fair-complexioned wench.

BLEATERS. Those cheated by Jack in a box. Cant. See JACK IN A Box.

BLEATING CHEAT. A sheep. Cant.

BLEATING RIG. Sheep-stealing. Cant.

BLEEDERS. Spurs. He clapped his bleeders to his prad; he put spurs to his horse.

i

BLEEDING CULLY. One who parts easily with his money, or bleeds freely.

BLESSING.

A small quantity over and above the measure, usually given by huxters dealing in peas, beans, and other vegetables.

BLIND. A feint, pretence, or shift.

Blind Cheeks. The breech.

a-se.

BLIND CUPID. The backside.

BLIND EXCUSE.

Buss blind cheeks; kiss mine

A poor or insufficient excuse. A blind ale

house, lane, or alley; an obscure or little known or frequented ale-house, lane, or alley.

BLIND HARPERS, Beggars, counterfeiting blindness, playing on fiddles, &c.

BLINDMAN'S HOLIDAY. Night, darkness.

BLINK. A Tight. Cant.

BLOCK-HOUSES.

Prisons, houses of correction, &c.

BLONE. A girl. Cant.

BLOOD. A riotous disorderly fellow.

BLOOD FOR Blood. A term used by tradesmen for bartering

C

the different commodities in which they deal. Thus hatter furnishing a hosier with a hat, and taking payment in stockings, is said to deal blood for blood.

BLOOD MONEY. The reward given by the legislature on the conviction of highwaymen, burglars, &c.

BLOODY BACK. A jeering appellation for a soldier, alluding to his scarlet coat.

BLOODY. A favourite word used by the thieves in swearing, as bloody eyes, bloody rascal. Irish.

BLOODY-JEMMY. A hot baked sheep's head.

BLOSS or BLOWEN. The pretended wife of a bully or shoplifter. Cant.

BLOT THE SKRIP AND JAR IT. To stand engaged or bound for any one. Cant.

BLOW. He has bit the blow, i. e. he has stolen the goods. Cant.

BLOW A prostitute.

BLOWEN. A mistress or whore of a gentleman of the scamp. The blowen kidded the swell into a snoozing ken, and shook him of his dummee and thimble; the girl inveigled the gentleman into a brothel and robbed him of his pocket book and watch.

BLOWER. A pipe. lushes red tape;

How the swell funks his blower and

a

b smoke the gentleman makes with

his pipe, and drinks brandy. BLOW A CLOUD. To smoke a pipe. Cant.

Let me blow a cloud, or a bender spend

At the Pig and Tinder-Box nightly."

Vide Randall's Scrap Book.

"A civiller Swell

I'd never wish to blow a cloud with."

Crib's Memorial..

บ

BLOW THE GROUNSILS. floor. Cant.

To lie with a woman on the

BLOW THE GAB, To confess, or impeach a confederate. Cant.

BLOW THE GAFF. A person having any secret in his possession, or a knowledge of any thing injurious to another, when at last induced, from revenge or other motive, to tell it openly to the world and expose him publicly, is then said to have blown the gaff upon him.

BLOW-UP. A discovery, or the confusion occasioned by one. BLOWSE, or BLOWSABELLA. A woman whose hair is dishevelled, and hanging about her face; a slattern.

BLUBBER. The mouth.-I have stopped the cull's lubber; I have stopped the fellow's mouth, meant either by gagging or murdering him.