R
- Rabbit
- A Welch rabbit; bread and cheese toasted, i.e. a Welch rare bit. Rabbits were also a sort of wooden canns to drink out of, now out of use.
- Rabbit Catcher
- A midwife.
- Rabbit Suckers
- Young spendthrifts taking up goods on trust at great prices.
- Rack Rent
- Rent strained to the utmost value. To lie at rack and manger; to be in great disorder.
- Rackaback
- A gormagon. See GORMAGON.
- Raffs
- An appellation given by the gownsmen of the university of Oxford to the inhabitants of that place.
- Rag
- A farthing.
- Rag Carrier
- An ensign.
- Rag Fair
- An inspection of the linen and necessaries of a company of soldiers, commonly made by their officers on Mondays or Saturdays.
- Rag Water
- Gin, or any other common dram: these liquors seldom failing to reduce those that drink them to rags.
- Rag, To
- To abuse, and tear to rags the characters of the persons abused. She gave him a good ragging, or ragged him off heartily.
- Ragamuffin
- A ragged fellow, one all in tatters, a tatterdemallion.
- Rails
- See HEAD RAILS. A dish of rails; a lecture, jobation, or scolding from a married woman to her husband.
- Rainbow
- Knight of the rainbow; a footman: from being commonly clothed in garments of different colours. A meeting of gentlemen, styled of the most ancient order of the rainbow, was advertised to be held at the Foppington's Head, Moorfields.
- Rainy Day
- To lay up something for a rainy day; to provide against a time of necessity or distress.
- Rake
- RAKEHELL, or RAKESHAME. A lewd, debauched fellow.
- Ralph Spooner
- A fool.
- Ram Cat
- A he cat.
- Rammer
- The arm. The busnapper's kenchin seized my rammer; i.e. the watchman laid hold of my arm. CANT.
- Rammish
- Rank. Rammish woman; a sturdy virago.
- Ramp, To
- To snatch, or tear any thing forcibly from the person.
- Ramshackled
- Out of repair. A ramshackled house; perhaps a corruption of RANSACKED, i.e. plundered.
- Randle
- A set of nonsensical verses, repeated in Ireland by schoolboys, and young people, who have been guilty of breaking wind backwards before any of their compa- nions; if they neglect this apology, they are liable to certain kicks, pinches, and fillips, which are accompanied with divers admonitory couplets.
- Randy
- Obstreperous, unruly, rampant.
- Rangling
- Intriguing with a variety of women.
- Rank
- Stinking, rammish, ill-flavoured; also strong, great. A rank knave; a rank coward: perhaps the latter may allude to an ill savour caused by fear.
- Rank Rider
- A highwayman.
- Rantallion
- One whose scrotum is so relaxed as to be longer than his penis, i.e. whose shot pouch is longer that the barrel of his piece.
- Rantipole
- A rude romping boy or girl; also a gadabout dissipated woman. To ride rantipole; the same as riding St. George. See ST. GEORGE.
- Rantum Scantum
- Playing at rantum scantum; making the beast with two backs.
- Rapparees
- Irish robbers, or outlaws, who in the time of Oliver Cromwell were armed with short weapons, called in Irish RAPIERS, used for ripping persons up.
- Rapper
- A swinging great lie.
- Raree Shew Men
- Poor Savoyards, who subsist by shewing the magic lantern and marmots about London.
- Rascal
- A rogue or villain: a term borrowed from the chase; a rascal originally meaning a lean shabby deer, at the time of changing his horns, penis, &c. whence, in the vulgar acceptation, rascal is conceived to signify a man without genitals: the regular vulgar answer to this reproach, if uttered by a woman, is the offer of an ocular demonstration of the virility of the party so defamed. Some derive it from RASCAGLIONE, an Italian word signifying a man. without testicles, or an eunuch.
- Rat
- A drunken man or woman taken up by the watch, and confined in the, watch-house. CANT. To smell a rat; to suspect some intended trick, or unfair design.
- Rats
- Of these there are the following kinds: a black rat and a grey rat, a py-rat and a cu-rat.
- Rattle
- A dice-box. To rattle; to talk without consideration, also to move off or go away. To rattle one off; to rate or scold him.
- Rattle-pate
- A volatile, unsteady, or whimsical man or woman.
- Rattle-traps
- A contemptuous name for any curious portable piece of machinery, or philosophical apparatus.
- Rattler
- A coach. Rattle and prad; a coach and horses.
- Rattling Cove
- A coachman. CANT.
- Rattling Mumpers
- Beggars who ply coaches. CANT.
- Rawhead and Bloody Bones
- A bull beggar, or scarechild, with which foolish nurses terrify crying brats.
- Reader
- A pocket-book. CANT.
- Reader Merchants
- Pickpockets, chiefly young Jews, who ply about the Bank to steal the pocket-books of persons who have just received their dividends there.
- Ready
- The ready rhino; money. CANT.
- Rebus
- A riddle or pun on a man's name, expressed in sculpture or painting, thus: a bolt or arrow, and a tun, for Bolton; death's head, and a ton, for Morton.
- Receiver General
- A prostitute.
- Reckon
- To reckon with one's host; to make an erroneous judgment in one's own favour. To cast-up one's reckoning or accounts; to vomit.
- Recruit, To
- To get a fresh supply of money.
- Recruiting Service
- Robbing on the highway.
- Red Fustian
- Port wine.
- Red Lane
- The throat. Gone down the red lane; swallowed.
- Red Lattice
- A public house.
- Red Letter Day
- A saint's day or holiday, marked in the calendars with red letters. Red letter men; Roman Catholics: from their observation of the saint days marked in red letters.
- Red Rag
- The tongue. Shut your potatoe trap, and give your red rag a holiday; i.e. shut your mouth, and let your tongue rest. Too much of the red rag (too much tongue).
- Red Ribbin
- Brandy.
- Red Sail-yard Dockers
- Buyers of stores stolen out of the royal yards and docks.
- Red Shank
- A Scotch Highlander.
- Regulars
- Share of the booty. The coves cracked the swell's crib, fenced the swag, and each cracksman napped his regular; some fellows broke open a gentleman's house, and after selling the property which they had stolen, they divided the money between them.
- Religious Horse
- One much given to prayer, or apt to be down upon his knees.
- Religious Painter
- One who does not break the commandment which prohibits the making of the likeness of any thing in heaven or earth, or in the waters under the earth.
- Relish
- Carnal connection with a woman.
- Relish, The
- The sign of the Cheshire cheese.
- Remedy Critch
- A chamber pot, or member mug.
- Remember Parson Melham
- Drink about: a Norfolk phrase.
- Rendezvous
- A place of meeting. The rendezvous of the beggars were, about the year 1638, according to the Bellman, St, Quinton's, the Three Crowns in the Vintry, St. Tybs, and at Knapsbury: there were four barns within a mile of London. In Middlesex were four other harbours, called Draw the Pudding out of the Fire, the Cross Keys in Craneford parish, St. Julian's in Isleworth parish, and the house of Pettie in Northall parish. In Kent, the King's Barn near Dartford, and Ketbrooke near Blackheath.
- Rep
- A woman of reputation.
- Repository
- A lock-up or spunging-house, a gaol. Also livery stables where horses and carriages are sold by auction.
- Rescounters
- The time of settlement between the bulls and bears of Exchange-alley, when the losers must pay their differences, or become lame ducks, and waddle out of the Alley.
- Resurrection Men
- Persons employed by the students in anatomy to steal dead bodies out of church-yards.
- Reverence
- An ancient custom, which obliges any person easing himself near the highway or foot-path, on the word REVERENCE being given him by a passenger, to take off his hat with his teeth, and without moving from his station to throw it over his head, by which it frequently falls into the excrement; this was considered as a punishment for the breach of delicacy, A person refusing to obey this law, might be pushed backwards. Hence, perhaps, the term, SIR-REVERENCE.
- Reversed
- A man set by bullies on his head, that his money may fall out of his breeches, which they afterwards by accident pick up. See HOISTING.
- Review of the Black Cuirassiers
- A visitation of the clergy. See CROW FAIR.
- Rhino
- Money. CANT.
- Rib
- A wife: an allusion to our common mother Eve, made out of Adam's rib. A crooked rib: a cross-grained wife.
- Ribaldry
- Vulgar abusive language, such as was spoken by ribalds. Ribalds were originally mercenary soldiers who travelled about, serving any master far pay, but afterwards degenerated into a mere banditti.
- Ribbin
- Money. The ribbin runs thick; i.e. there is plenty of money. CANT. Blue ribbin. Gin. The cull lushes the blue ribbin; the silly fellow drinks common gin.
- Ribroast, To
- To beat: I'll ribroast him to his heart's content.
- Rich Face
- or NOSE. A red pimpled, face.
- Richaud Snary
- A dictionary. A country lad, having been reproved for calling persons by their christian names, being sent by his master to borrow a dictionary, thought to shew his breeding by asking for a Richard Snary.
- Rider
- A person who receives part of the salary of a place or appointment from the ostensible occupier, by virtue of an agreement with the donor, or great man appointing. The rider is said to be quartered upon the possessor, who often has one or more persons thus riding behind him. See QUARTERED.
- Ridge
- A guinea. Ridge cully; a goldsmith. CANT.
- Riding Skimmington
- A ludicrous cavalcade, in ridicule of a man beaten by his wife. It consists of a man riding behind a woman, with his face to the horse's tail, holding a distaff in his hand, at which he seems to work, the woman all the while beating him with a ladle; a smock displayed on a staff is carried before them as an emblematical standard, denoting female superiority: they are accompanied by what is called the ROUGH MUSIC, that is, frying-pans, bulls horns, marrow-bones and cleavers, &c. A procession of this kind is admirably described by Butler in his Hudibras. He rode private, i.e. was a private trooper.
- Riding St
- GEORGE. The woman uppermost in the amorous congress, that is, the dragon upon St. George. This is said to be the way to get a bishop.
- Riff Raff
- Low vulgar persons, mob, tag-rag and bob-tail.
- Rig
- Fun, game, diversion, or trick. To run one's rig upon any particular person; to make him a butt. l am up to your rig; I am a match for your tricks.
- Rigging
- Clothing. I'll unrig the bloss; I'll strip the wench. Rum Rigging; fine clothes. The cull has rum rigging, let's ding him and mill him, and pike; the fellow has good clothes, let's knock him down, rob him, and scour off, i.e. run away.
- Right
- All right! A favourite expression among thieves, to signify that all is as they wish, or proper for their purpose. All right, hand down the jemmy; every thing is in proper order, give me the crow.
- Rigmarole
- Roundabout, nonsensical. He told a long rigmarole story.
- Ring
- Money procured by begging: beggars so called it from its ringing when thrown to them. Also a circle formed for boxers, wrestlers, and cudgel-players, by a man styled Vinegar; who, with his hat before his eyes, goes round the circle, striking at random with his whip to prevent the populace from crowding in.
- Ring a Peal, To
- To scold; chiefly applied to women. His wife rung him a fine peal!
- Ring the Changes
- When a person receives silver in change to shift some good shillings and put bad ones in their place. The person who gave the change is then requested to give good shillings for these bad ones.
- Rip
- A miserable rip; a poor, lean, worn-out horse. A shabby mean fellow.
- Rippons
- Spurs: Rippon is famous for a manufactory of spurs both for men and fighting cocks.
- Roaratorios and Uproars
- Oratorios and operas.
- Roarer
- A broken-winded horse.
- Roaring Boy
- A noisy, riotous fellow.
- Roaring Trade
- A quick trade.
- Roast and Boiled
- A nick name for the Life Guards, who are mostly substantial house-keepers; and eat daily of roast and boiled.
- Roast, To
- To arrest. I'll roast the dab; I'll arrest the rascal.--Also to jeer, ridicule, or banter. He stood the roast; he was the butt.--Roast meat clothes; Sunday or holiday-clothes. To cry roast meat; to boast of one's situation. To rule the roast; to be master or paramount.
- Robert's Men
- The third old rank of the canting crew, mighty thieves, like Robin Hood.
- Roby Douglass
- with one eye and a stinking breath. The breech.
- Rochester Portion
- Two torn smocks, and what nature gave.
- Rocked
- He was rocked in a stone kitchen; a saying meant to convey the idea that the person spoken of is a fool, his brains having been disordered by the jumbling of his cradle.
- Roger
- or TIB OF THE BUTTERY. A goose. CANT. Jolly Roger; a flag hoisted by pirates.
- Roger, To
- To bull, or lie with a woman; from the name of Roger being frequently given to a bull.
- Rogues
- The fourth order of canters. A rogue in grain; a great rogue, also a corn chandler. A rogue in spirit; a distiller or brandy merchant.
- Rogum Pogum
- or DRAGRUM POGRAM. Goat's beard, eaten for asparagus; so called by the ladies who gather cresses, &c. who also deal in this plant.
- Romboyles
- Watch and ward. Romboyled; sought after with a warrant.
- Rome Mort
- A queen.
- Romeville
- London. CANT.
- Romp
- A forward wanton girl, a tomrig. Grey, in his notes to Shakespeare, derives it from arompo, an animal found in South Guinea, that is a man eater. See HOYDEN.
- Rook
- A cheat: probably from the thievish disposition of the birds of that name. Also the cant name for a crow used in house-breaking. To rook; to cheat, particularly at play.
- Room
- She lets out her fore room and lies backwards: saying of a woman suspected of prostitution.
- Roost Lay
- Stealing poultry.
- Ropes
- Upon the high ropes; elated, in high spirits, cock-a-hoop.
- Rose
- Under the rose: privately or secretly. The rose was, it is said, sacred to Harpocrates, the God of silence, and therefore frequently placed in the ceilings of rooms destined for the receiving of guests; implying, that whatever was transacted there, should not be made public.
- Rosy Gills
- One with a sanguine or fresh-coloured countenance.
- Rot Gut
- Small beer; called beer-a-bumble--will burst one's guts before it will make one tumble.
- Rotan
- A coach, cart, or other wheeled carriage.
- Rough
- To lie rough; to lie all night in one's clothes: called also roughing it. Likewise to sleep on the bare deck of a ship, when the person is commonly advised to chuse the softest plank.
- Rough Music
- Saucepans, frying-paps, poker and tongs, marrow-bones and cleavers, bulls horns, &c. beaten upon and sounded in ludicrous processions.
- Rouleau
- A number of guineas, from twenty to fifty or more, wrapped up in paper, for the more ready circulation at gaming-tables: sometimes they are inclosed in ivory boxes, made to hold exactly 20, 50, or 100 guineas.
- Round Dealing
- Plain, honest dealing.
- Round Mouth
- The fundament. Brother round mouth, speaks; he has let a fart.
- Round Robin
- A mode of signing remonstrances practised by sailors on board the king's ships, wherein their names are written in a circle, so that it cannot be discovered who first signed it, or was, in other words, the ringleader.
- Round Sum
- A considerable sum.
- Round about
- An instrument used in housebreaking. This instrument has not been long in use. It will cut a round piece about five inches in diameter out of a shutter or door.
- Roundheads
- A term of reproach to the puritans and partizans of Oliver Cromwell, and the Rump Parliament, who it is said made use of a bowl as a guide to trim their hair.
- Rout
- A modern card meeting at a private house; also an order from the Secretary at War, directing the march and quartering of soldiers.
- Rovers
- Pirates, vagabonds.
- Row
- To row in the same boat; to be embarked in the same scheme.
- Rowland
- To give a Rowland for an Oliver; to give an equivalent. Rowland and Oliver were two knights famous in romance: the wonderful achievements of the one could only be equalled by those of the other.
- Royal Scamps
- Highwaymen who never rob any but rich persons, and that without ill treating them. See SCAMP.
- Royal Stag Society
- Was held every Monday evening, at seven o'clock, at the Three tuns, near the Hospital Gate, Newgate-street.
- Royster
- A rude boisterous fellow; also a hound that opens on a false scent.
- Rub, To
- To run away. Don't rub us to the whit; don't send us to Newgate. CANT.--To rub up; to refresh: to rub up one's memory. A rub: an impediment. A rubber; the best two out of three. To win a rubber: to win two games out of three.
- Ruby Faced
- Red-faced.
- Ruff
- An ornament formerly worn by men and women round their necks. Wooden ruff; the pillory.
- Ruffian
- The devil. CANT.--May the ruffian nab the cuffin queer, and let the harmanbeck trine with his kinchins about his colquarren; may the Devil take the justice, and let the constable be hanged with his children about his neck. The ruffian cly thee; the Devil take thee. Ruffian cook ruffian, who scalded the Devil in his feathers; a saying of a bad cook. Ruffian sometimes also means, a justice.
- Rufflers
- The first rank of canters; also notorious rogues pretending to be maimed soldiers or sailors.
- Ruffles
- Handcuffs. CANT.
- Ruffmans
- The woods, hedges, or bushes. CANT.
- Rug
- Asleep. The whole gill is safe at rug; the people of the house are fast asleep.
- Rum
- Fine, good, valuable.
- Rum Beck
- A justice of the peace. CANT.
- Rum Bite
- A clever cheat, a clean trick.
- Rum Bleating Cheat
- A fat wether sheep. CANT.
- Rum Blowen
- A handsome wench. CANT.
- Rum Bluffer
- A jolly host. CANT.
- Rum Bob
- A young apprentice; also a sharp trick.
- Rum Booze
- Wine, or any other good liquor. Rum boozing welts; bunches of grapes. CANT.
- Rum Bubber
- A dexterous fellow at stealing silver tankards from inns and taverns.
- Rum Bugher
- A valuable dog. CANT.
- Rum Bung
- A full purse. CANT.
- Rum Chant
- A song.
- Rum Chub
- Among butchers, a customer easily imposed on, as to the quality and price of meat. CANT.
- Rum Clout
- A fine silk, cambric, or holland handkerchief. CANT.
- Rum Cod
- A good purse of gold. CANT.
- Rum Cole
- New money, or medals.
- Rum Cove
- A dexterous or clever rogue.
- Rum Cull
- A rich fool, easily cheated, particularly by his mistress.
- Rum Degen
- A handsome sword. CANT.
- Rum Dell
- See RUM DOXY.
- Rum Diver
- A dextrous pickpocket. CANT.
- Rum Doxy
- A fine wench. CANT.
- Rum Drawers
- Silk, or other fine stockings. CANT.
- Rum Dropper
- A vintner. CANT.
- Rum Dubber
- An expert picklock.
- Rum Duke
- A jolly handsome fellow; also an odd eccentric fellow; likewise the boldest and stoutest fellows lately among the Alsatians, Minters, Savoyards, and other inhabitants of privileged districts, sent to remove and guard the goods of such bankrupts as intended to take sanctuary in those places. CANT.
- Rum File
- See RUM DIVER.
- Rum Fun
- A sharp trick. CANT.
- Rum Gaggers
- Cheats who tell wonderful stories of their sufferings at sea, or when taken by the Algerines, CANT.
- Rum Ghelt
- See RUM COLE. CANT.
- Rum Glymmer
- King or chief of the link-boys. CANT.
- Rum Kicks
- Breeches of gold or silver brocade, or richly laced with gold or silver. CANT.
- Rum Mawnd
- One that counterfeits a fool. CANT
- Rum Mort
- A queen, or great lady. CANT.
- Rum Nab
- A good hat.
- Rum Nantz
- Good French brandy. CANT.
- Rum Ned
- A very rich silly fellow. CANT.
- Rum Pad
- The highway. CANT.
- Rum Padders
- Highwaymen well mounted and armed. CANT.
- Rum Peepers
- Fine looking-glasses. CANT.
- Rum Prancer
- A fine horse. CANT.
- Rum Quids
- A great booty. CANT.
- Rum Ruff Peck
- Westphalia ham. CANT.
- Rum Snitch
- A smart fillip on the nose.
- Rum Squeeze
- Much wine, or good liquor, given among fiddlers. CANT.
- Rum Tilter
- See RUM DEGEN.
- Rum Tol
- See RUM DEGEN.
- Rum Topping
- A rich commode, or woman's head-dress.
- Rum Ville
- See ROMEVILLE.
- Rum Wiper
- See RUM CLOUT.
- Rumbo
- Rum, water, and sugar; also a prison.
- Rumboyle
- A ward or watch.
- Rumbumtious
- Obstreperous.
- Rumford
- To ride to Rumford to have one's backside new bottomed: i.e. to have a pair of new leather breeches. Rumford was formerly a famous place for leather breeches. A like saying is current in Norfolk and Suffolk, of Bungay, and for the same reason.--Rumford lion; a calf. See ESSEX LION.
- Rump
- To rump any one; to turn the back to him: an evolution sometimes used at court. Rump and a dozen; a rump of beef and a dozen of claret; an Irish wager, called also buttock and trimmings. Rump and kidney men; fiddlers that play at feasts, fairs, weddings, &c. and live chiefly on the remnants.
- Rumpus
- A riot, quarrel, or confusion.
- Run Goods
- A maidenhead, being a commodity never entered.
- Run a Buck, To
- To poll a bad vote at an election.--IRISH TERM.
- Running Horse
- or NAG. A clap, or gleet.
- Running Smobble
- Snatching goods off a counter, and throwing them to an accomplice, who brushes off with them.
- Running Stationers
- Hawker of newspapers, trials, and dying speeches.
- Runt
- A short squat man or woman: from the small cattle called Welsh runts.
- Rushers
- Thieves who knock at the doors of great houses in London, in summer time, when the families are gone out of town, and on the door being opened by a woman, rush in and rob the house; also housebreakers who enter lone houses by force.
- Russian Coffee-house
- The Brown Bear in Bow-street, Covent Garden, a house of call for thief-takers and runners of the Bow street justices.
- Rusty
- Out of use, To nab the rust; to be refractory; properly applied to a restive horse, and figuratively to the human species. To ride rusty; to be sullen; called also to ride grub.
- Rusty Guts
- A blunt surly fellow: a jocular misnomer of RESTICUS.
- Rutting
- Copulating. Rutting time; the season, when deer go to rut.