1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue Part 84

VESSELS OF PAPER. Half a quarter of a sheet.

VICAR OF BRAY. See BRAY.

VICE ADMIRAL OF THE NARROW SEAS. A drunken man that p.i.s.ses under the table into his companions' shoes.

VICTUALLING OFFICE. The stomach.

VINCENT'S LAW. The art of cheating at cards, composed of the following a.s.sociates: bankers, those who play booty; the gripe, he that betteth; and the person cheated, who is styled the vincent; the gains acquired, termage.

VINEGAR. A name given to the person who with a whip in his hand, and a hat held before his eye, keeps the ring clear, at boxing-matches and cudgel-playing; also, in cant terms, a cloak.

VIXEN. A termagant; also a she fox, who, when she has cubs, is remarkably fierce.

TO VOWEL. A gamester who does not immediately pay his losings, is said to vowel the winner, by repeating the vowels I. O. U. or perhaps from giving his note for the money according to the Irish form, where the acknowledgment of the debt is expressed by the letters I. O. U. which, the sum and name of the debtor being added, is deemed a sufficient security among gentlemen.

UNCLE. Mine uncle's; a necessary house. He is gone to visit his uncle; saying of one who leaves his wife soon after marriage. It likewise means a p.a.w.nbroker's: goods p.a.w.ned are frequently said to be at mine uncle's, or laid up in lavender.

UNDERSTRAPPER. An inferior in any office, or department.

UNDER DUBBER. A turnkey.

UNFORTUNATE GENTLEMEN. The horse guards, who thus named themselves in Germany, where a general officer seeing them very awkward in bundling up their forage, asked what the devil they were; to which some of them answered, unfortunate gentlemen.

UNFORTUNATE WOMEN. Prost.i.tutes: so termed by the virtuous and compa.s.sionate of their own s.e.x.

UNGRATEFUL MAN. A parson, who at least once a week abuses his best benefactor, i.e. the devil.

UNGUENTUM AUREUM. A bribe.

UNICORN. A coach drawn by three horses.

UNLICKED CUB. A rude uncouth young fellow.

UNRIGGED. Undressed, or stripped. Unrig the drab; strip the wench.

UNTRUSS. To untruss a point; to let down one's breeches in order to ease one's self. Breeches were formerly tied with points, which till lately were distributed to the boys every Whit Monday by the churchwardens of most of the parishes in London, under the denomination of tags: these tags were worsteds of different colours twisted up to a size somewhat thicker than packthread, and tagged at both ends with tin. Laces were at the same given to the girls.

UNTWISTED. Undone, ruined, done up.

UNWASHED BAWDRY. Rank bawdry.

UP TO THEIR GOSSIP. To be a match for one who attempts to cheat or deceive; to be on a footing, or in the secret.

I'll be up with him; I will repay him in kind.

UPHILLS. False dice that run high.

UPPER BENJAMIN. A great coat. CANT.

UPPER STORY, or GARRET. Figuratively used to signify the head. His upper story or garrets are unfurnished; i.e.

he is an empty or foolish fellow.

UPPING BLOCK. [Called in some counties a leaping stock, in others a jossing block.] Steps for mounting a horse.

He sits like a toad on a jossing block; said of one who sits ungracefully on horseback.

UPPISH. Testy, apt to take offence.

UPRIGHT. Go upright; a word used by shoemakers, taylors and their servants, when any money is given to make them drink, and signifies, Bring it all out in liquor, though the donor intended less, and expects change, or some of his money, to be returned. Three-penny upright.

See THREEPENNY UPRIGHT,

UPRIGHT MAN. An upright man signifies the chief or princ.i.p.al of a crew. The vilest, stoutest rogue in the pack is generally chosen to this post, and has the sole right to the first night's lodging with the dells, who afterwards are used in common among the whole fraternity.

He carries a short truncheon in his hand, which he calls his filchman, and has a larger share than ordinary in whatsoever is gotten in the society. He often travels in company with thirty or forty males and females, abram men, and others, over whom he presides arbitrarily. Sometimes the women and children who are unable to travel, or fatigued, are by turns carried in panniers by an a.s.s, or two, or by some poor jades procured for that purpose.

UPSTARTS. Persons lately raised to honours and riches from mean stations.

URCHIN. A child, a little fellow; also a hedgehog.

URINAL OF THE PLANETS. Ireland: so called from the frequent rains in that island.

USED UP. Killed: a military saying, originating from a message sent by the late General Guise, on the expedition at Carthagena, where he desired the commander in chief to order him some more grenadiers, for those he had were all used up.

WABLER. Footwabler; a contemptuous term for a foot soldier, frequently used by those of the cavalry.

TO WADDLE. To go like a duck. To waddle out of Change alley as a lame duck; a term for one who has not been able to pay his gaming debts, called his differences, on the Stock Exchange, and therefore absents himself from it.

WAG. An arch-frolicsome fellow.

WAGGISH. Arch, gamesome, frolicsome.

WAGTAIL. A lewd woman.

WAITS. Musicians of the lower order, who in most towns play under the windows of the chief inhabitants at midnight, a short time before Christmas, for which they collect a christmas-box from house to house. They are said to derive their name of waits from being always in waiting to celebrate weddings and other joyous events happening within their district.

WAKE. A country feast, commonly on the anniversary of the tutelar saint of the village, that is, the saint to whom the parish church is dedicated. Also a custom of watching the dead, called Late Wake, in use both in Ireland and Wales, where the corpse being deposited under a table, with a plate of salt on its breast, the table is covered with liquor of all sorts; and the guests, particularly, the younger part of them, amuse themselves with all kinds of pastimes and recreations: the consequence is generally more than replacing the departed friend.

WALKING CORNET. An ensign of foot.

WALKING POULTERER. One who steals fowls, and hawks them from door to door.

WALKING STATIONER. A hawker of pamphlets, &c.

WALKING THE PLANK. A mode of destroying devoted persons or officers in a mutiny or ship-board, by blindfolding them, and obliging them to walk on a plank laid over the ship's side; by this means, as the mutineers suppose, avoiding the penalty of murder.

WALKING UP AGAINST THE WALL. To run up a score, which in alehouses is commonly recorded with chalk on the walls of the bar.

WALL. To walk or crawl up the wall; to be scored up at a public-nouse. Wall-eyed, having an eye with little or no sight, all white like a plaistered wall.

TO WAP. To copulate, to beat. If she wont wap for a winne, let her trine for a make; if she won't lie with a man for a penny, let her hang for a halfpenny. Mort wap-apace; a woman of experience, or very expert at the sport.

WAPPER-EYED. Sore-eyed.