1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 43

JUST-a.s.s. A punning appellation for a justice.

IVY BUSH. Like an owl in an ivy bush; a simile for a meagre or weasel-faced man, with a large wig, or very bushy hair.

KATE. A picklock. 'Tis a rum kate; it is a clever picklock.

CANT.

KEEL BULLIES. Men employed to load and unload the coal vessels.

KEELHAULING. A punishment in use among the Dutch seamen, in which, for certain offences, the delinquent is drawn once, or oftener, under the ship's keel: ludicrously defined, undergoing a great hard-ship.

TO KEEP. To inhabit. Lord, where do you keep? i.e.

where are your rooms? ACADEMICAL PHRASE. Mother, your t.i.t won't keep; your daughter will not preserve her virginity.

TO KEEP IT UP. To prolong a debauch. We kept it up finely last night; metaphor drawn from the game of shuttle-c.o.c.k.

KEEPING CULLY. One who keeps a mistress, as he supposes, for his own use, but really for that of the public.

KEFFEL. A horse. WELSH.

KELTER. Condition, order. Out of kelter; out of order.

KELTER. Money.

KEMP'S MORRIS. William Kemp, said to have been the original Dogberry in Much ado about Nothing, danced a morris from London to Norwich in nine days: of which he printed the account, A. D. 1600, int.i.tled, Kemp's Nine Days Wonder, &c.

KEMP'S SHOES. Would I had Kemp's shoes to throw after you. BEN JONSON. Perhaps Kemp was a man remarkable for his good luck or fortune; throwing an old shoe, or shoes, after any one going on an important business, being by the vulgar deemed lucky.

KEN. A house. A bob ken, or a bowman ken; a well-furnished house, also a house that harbours thieves. Biting the ken; robbing the house. CANT.

KEN MILLER, or KEN CRACKER. A housebreaker. CANT.

KENT-STREET EJECTMENT. To take away the street door: a method practised by the landlords in Kent-street, Southwark, when their tenants are above a fortnight's rent in arrear.

KERRY SECURITY. Bond, pledge, oath, and keep the money.

KETCH. Jack Ketch; a general name for the finishers of the law, or hangmen, ever since the year 1682, when the office was filled by a famous pract.i.tioner of that name, of whom his wife said, that any bungler might put a man to death, but only her husband knew how to make a gentleman die sweetly. This officer is mentioned in Butler's Ghost, page 54, published about the year 1682, in the following lines:

Till Ketch observing he was chous'd, And in his profits much abus'd.

In open hall the tribute dunn'd, To do his office, or refund.

Mr. Ketch had not long been elevated to his office, for the name of his predecessor Dun occurs in the former part of this poem, page 29:

For you yourself to act squire Dun, Such ignominy ne'er saw the sun.

The addition of 'squire,' with which Mr. Dun is here dignified, is a mark that he had beheaded some state criminal for high treason; an operation which, according to custom for time out of mind, has always ent.i.tled the operator to that distinction. The predecessor of Dun was Gregory Brandon, from whom the gallows was called the Gregorian tree, by which name it is mentioned in the prologue to Mercurius Pragmaticus, tragi-comedy acted at Paris, &c.

1641:

This trembles under the black rod, and he Doth fear his fate from the Gregorian tree.

Gregory Brandon succeeded Derrick. See DERRICK.

KETTLEDRUMS. Cupid's kettle drums; a woman's b.r.e.a.s.t.s, called by sailors chest and bedding.

KETTLE OF FISH. When a person has perplexed his affairs in general, or any particular business, he is said to have made a fine kettle of fish of it.

KICKS. Breeches. A high kick; the top of the fashion. It is all the kick; it is the present mode. Tip us your kicks, we'll have them as well as your lour; pull off your breeches, for we must have them as well as your money. A kick; sixpence. Two and a kick; half-a-crown. A kick in the guts; a dram of gin, or any other spirituous liquor. A kick up; a disturbance, also a hop or dance. An odd kick in one's gallop; a strange whim or peculiarity.

To KICK THE BUCKET. To die. He kicked the bucket one day: he died one day. To kick the clouds before the hotel door; i.e. to be hanged.

KICKERAPOO. Dead. NEGRO WORD.

KICKSEYS. Breeches.

KICKSHAWS. French dishes: corruption of quelque chose.

KID. A little dapper fellow. A child. The blowen has napped the kid. The girl is with child.

TO KID. To coax or wheedle. To inveigle. To amuse a man or divert his attention while another robs him. The sneaksman kidded the cove of the ken, while his pall frisked the panney; the thief amused the master of the house, while his companion robbed the house.

KID LAY. Rogues who make it their business to defraud young apprentices, or errand-boys, of goods committed to their charge, by prevailing on them to execute some trifling message, pretending to take care of their parcels till they come back; these are, in cant terms, said to be on the kid lay.

KIDDER. A forestaller: see CROCKER. Kidders are also persons employed by the gardeners to gather peas.

KIDDEYS. Young thieves.

KIDDY NIPPERS. Taylors out of work, who cut off the waistcoat pockets of their brethren, when cross-legged on their board, thereby grabbling their bit. CANT.

KIDNAPPER. Originally one who stole or decoyed children or apprentices from their parents or masters, to send them to the colonies; called also spiriting: but now used for all recruiting crimps for the king's troops, or those of the East India company, and agents for indenting servants for the plantations, &c.

KIDNEY. Disposition, principles, humour. Of a strange kidney; of an odd or unaccountable humour. A man of a different kidney; a man of different principles.

KILKENNY. An old frize coat.

KILL CARE CLUB. The members of this club, styled also the Sons of Sound Sense and Satisfaction, met at their fortress, the Castle-tavern, in Paternoster-row.

KILL DEVIL. New still-burnt rum.

KILL PRIEST. Port wine.

To KIMBAW. To trick, cheat or cozen; also to beat or to bully. Let's kimbaw the cull; let's bully the fellow.

To set one's arms a-kimbaw, vulgarly p.r.o.nounced a-kimbo, is to rest one's hands on the hips, keeping the elbows square, and sticking out from the body; an insolent bullying att.i.tude. CANT.

KINCHIN. A little child. Kinchin coes; orphan beggar boys, educated in thieving. Kinchin morts; young girls under the like circ.u.mstances and training. Kinchin morts, or coes in slates; beggars' children carried at their mother's backs in sheets. Kinchin cove; a little man. CANT.

KING'S PLATE. Fetters.

KING'S WOOD LION. An a.s.s. Kingswood is famous for the great number of a.s.ses kept by the colliers who inhabit that place.