1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 35

GRIMALKIN. A cat: mawkin signifies a hare in Scotland.

GRIN. To grin in a gla.s.s case; to be anatomized for murder: the skeletons of many criminals are preserved in gla.s.s cases, at Surgeons' hall.

GRINAGOG, THE CAT'S UNCLE. A foolish grinning fellow, one who grins without reason.

GRINDERS. Teeth. Gooseberry grinder; the breech. Ask bogey, the gooseberry grinder; ask mine a-se.

TO GRIND. To have carnal knowledge of a woman.

GROATS. To save his groats; to come off handsomely: at the universities, nine groats are deposited in the hands of an academic officer, by every person standing for a degree; which if the depositor obtains with honour, the groats are returned to him.

GROG. Rum and water. Grog was first introduced into the navy about the year 1740, by Admiral Vernon, to prevent the sailors intoxicating themselves with their allowance of rum, or spirits. Groggy, or groggified; drunk.

GROG-BLOSSOM. A carbuncle, or pimple in the face, caused by drinking.

GROGGED. A grogged horse; a foundered horse.

GROGHAM. A horse. CANT.

GROPERS. Blind men; also midwives.

GROUND SWEAT. A grave.

GROUND SQUIRREL. A hog, or pig. SEA TERM.

GRUB. Victuals. To grub; to dine.

GRUB STREET. A street near Moorfields, formerly the supposed habitation of many persons who wrote for the booksellers: hence a Grub-street writer means a hackney author, who manufactures booss for the booksellers.

GRUB STREET NEWS. Lying intelligence.

TO GRUBs.h.i.tE. To make foul or dirty.

GRUMBLE. To grumble in the gizzard; to murmur or repine.

He grumbled like a bear with a sore head.

GRUMBLETONIAN. A discontented person; one who is always railing at the times or ministry.

GRUNTER. A hog; to grunt; to groan, or complain of sickness.

GRUNTER'S GIG. A smoaked hog's face.

GRUNTING PECK. Pork, bacon, or any kind of hog's flesh.

GRUTS. Tea.

GUDGEON. One easily imposed on. To gudgeon; to swallow the bait, or fall into a trap: from the fish of that name, which is easily taken.

GULL. A simple credulous fellow, easily cheated.

GULLED. Deceived, cheated, imposed on.

GULLGROPERS. Usurers who lend money to the gamesters.

GUM. Abusive language. Come, let us have no more of your gum.

GUMMY. Clumsy: particularly applied to the ancles of men or women, and the legs of horses.

GUMPTION, or RUM GUMPTION. Docility, comprehension, capacity.

GUN. He is in the gun; he is drunk: perhaps from an allusion to a vessel called a gun, used for ale in the universities.

GUNDIGUTS. A fat, pursy fellow.

GUNNER'S DAUGHTER. To kiss the gunner's daughter; to be tied to a gun and flogged on the posteriors; a mode of punishing boys on board a ship of war.

GUNPOWDER. An old Woman. CANT.

GUTS. My great guts are ready to eat my little ones; my guts begin to think my throat's cut; my guts curse my teeth: all expressions signifying the party is extremely hungry.

GUTS AND GARBAGE. A very fat man or woman. More guts than brains; a silly fellow. He has plenty of guts, but no bowels: said of a hard, merciless, unfeeling person.

GUTFOUNDERED. Exceeding hungry.

GUT Sc.r.a.pER, or TORMENTOR of CATGUT. A fiddler.

GUTTER LANE. The throat, the swallow, the red lane.

See RED LANE.

GUTTING A QUART POT. Taking out the lining of it: i. e.

drinking it off. Gutting an oyster; eating it. Gutting a house; clearing it of its furniture. See POULTERER.

GUY. A dark lanthorn: an allusion to Guy Faux, the princ.i.p.al actor in the gunpowder plot. Stow the guy: conceal the lanthorn.

GUZZLE. Liquor. To guzzle; to drink greedily.

GUZZLE GUTS. One greedy of liquor.

GYBE, or JYBE. Any writing or pa.s.s with a seal.

GYBING. Jeering or ridiculing.

GYLES, or GILES. Hopping Giles; a nick name for a lame person: St. Giles was the tutelar saint of cripples.

GYP. A college runner or errand-boy at Cambridge, called at Oxford a scout. See SCOUT.

GYPSIES. A set of vagrants, who, to the great disgrace of our police, are suffered to wander about the country.

They pretend that they derive their origin from the ancient Egyptians, who were famous for their knowledge in astronomy and other sciences; and, under the pretence of fortune-telling, find means to rob or defraud the ignorant and superst.i.tious. To colour their impostures, they artificially discolour their faces, and speak a kind of gibberish peculiar to themselves. They rove up and down the country in large companies, to the great terror of the farmers, from whose geese, turkeys, and fowls, they take very considerable contributions.