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fund.
PASSAGE. A camp game with three dice: doublets, making
up ten or more, to pass or win; any other chances
lose.
PAT. Apposite, or to the purpose.
PATE. The head. Carroty-pated; red-haired.
PATRICO, or PATER-COVE. The fifteenth rank of the canting
tribe; strolling priests that marry people under a
hedge, without gospel or common prayer book: the
couple standing on each side of a dead beast, are bid to live
together till death them does part; so shaking hands, the
wedding is ended. Also any minister or parson.
PATTERING. The maundering or pert replies of servants;
also talk or palaver in order to amuse one intended to be
cheated. Pattering of prayers; the confused sound of a
number of persons praying together.
TO PATTER. To talk. To patter flash; to speak flash, or
the language used by thieves. How the blowen lushes
jackey, and patters flash; how the wench drinks gin, and
talks flash.
PAVIOUR'S WORKSHOP. The street.
TO PAUM. To conceal in the hand. To paum a die: to
hide a die in the palm of the hand. He paums; he cheats.
Don't pretend to paum that upon me.
PAUNCH. The belly. Some think paunch was the original
name of that facetious prince of puppets, now called
Mr. Punch, as he is always represented with a very
prominent belly: though the common opinion is, that both
the name and character were taken from a celebrated Italian
comedian, called Polichenello.
PAW. A hand or foot; look at his dirty paws. Fore paw;
the hand. Hind paw; the foot. To paw; to touch or
handle clumsily.
PAW PAW TRICKS. Naughty tricks: an expression used
by nurses, to children.
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1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
TO PAY. To smear over. To pay the bottom of a ship or
boat; to smear it over with pitch: The devil to pay, and
no pitch hot or ready. SEA TERM. Also to beat: as, I will
pay you as Paul paid the Ephesians, over the face and eyes,
and all your d -d jaws. To pay away; to fight manfully,
also to eat voraciously. To pay through the nose: to pay
an extravagant price.
To PEACH. To impeach: called also to blow the gab, squeak,
or turn stag.
PEAK. Any kind of lace.
PEAL. To ring a peal in a man's ears; to scold at him: his
wife rang him such a peal!
PEAR MAKING. Taking bounties from several regiments
and immediately deserting. The cove was fined in the
steel for pear making; the fellow was imprisoned in the
house of correction for taking bounties from different
regiments.
PECCAVI. To cry peccavi; to acknowledge one's self in an
error, to own a fault: from the Latin PECCAVI, I have sinned.
PECK. Victuals. Peck and booze; victuals and drink.
PECKISH. Hungry.
PECULIAR. A mistress.
PED. A basket. CANT.
PEDLAR'S FRENCH. The cant language. Pedlar's pony;
a walking-stick.
To PEEL. To strip: allusion to the taking off the coat or
rind of an orange or apple.
PEEPER. A spying glass; also a looking-glass. Track up
the dancers, and pike with the peeper; whip up stairs,
and run off with the looking-glass. CANT.
PEEPERS. Eyes. Single peeper, a one-eyed man.
PEEPING TOM. A nick name for a curious prying fellow;
derived from an old legendary tale, told of a taylor of
Coventry, who, when Godiva countess of Chester rode at
noon quite naked through that town, in order to procure
certain immunities for the inhabitants, (notwithstanding
the rest of the people shut up their houses) shly peeped
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1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
out of his window, for which he was miraculously struck
blind. His figure, peeping out of a window, is still kept
up in remembrance of the transaction.
PEEPY. Drowsy.
To PEER. To look about, to be circumspect.
PEERY. Inquisitive, suspicious. The cull's peery; that
fellow suspects something. There's a peery, tis snitch
we are observed, there's nothing to be done.
PEG. Old Peg; poor hard Suffolk or Yorkshire cheese. A
peg is also a blow with a straightarm: a term used by the
professors of gymnastic arts. A peg in the day-light,
the victualling office, or the haltering-place; a blow in the
eye, stomach, or under the ear.
PEG TRANTUM'S. Gone to Peg Trantum's; dead.
PEGO. The penis of man or beast.
PELL-MELL. Tumultuously, helter skelter, jumbled together.
PELT. A heat, chafe, or passion; as, What a pelt he was
in! Pelt is also the skin of several beasts.
PENANCE BOARD. The pillory.
PENNY-WISE AND POUND FOOLISH. Saving in small matters,
and extravagant in great.
PENNYWORTH. An equivalent. A good pennyworth;
cheap bargain.
PENTHOUSE NAB. A broad brimmed hat.
PEPPERED. Infected with the venereal disease.
PEPPERY. Warm, passionate.
PERKIN. Water cyder.
PERRIWINKLE. A wig.
PERSUADERS. Spurs. The kiddey clapped his persuaders
to his prad but the traps boned him; the highwayman
spurred his horse hard, but the officers seized him.
PET. In a pet; in a passion or miff.
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1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue
PETER. A portmanteau or cloke-bag. Biter of peters; one
that makes it a trade to steal boxes and trunks from behind
stage coaches or out of waggons. To rob Peter to
pay Paul; to borrow of one man to pay another: styled
also manoeuvring the apostles.
PETER GUNNER, will kill all the birds that died last summer.
A piece of wit commonly thrown out at a person
walking through a street or village near London, with a
gun in his hand.
PETER LAY. The department of stealing portmanteaus,
trunks,
PETER LUG. Who is Peter Lug? who lets the glass stand
at his door, or before him.
PETTICOAT HOLD. One who has an estate during his wife's
life, called the apron-string hold.
PETTICOAT PENSIONER. One kept by a woman forsecret
services.
PETTISH. Passionate.
PETTY FOGGER. A little dirty attorney, ready to undertake
any litigious or bad cause: it is derived from the French
words petit vogue, of small credit, or little reputation.
PHARAOH. Strong malt liquor.
PHILISTINES. Bailiffs, or officers of justice; also drunkards.
PHOENIX-MEN. Firemen belonging to an insurance office,
which gave a badge charged with a phoenix: these men
were called likewise firedrakes.
PHOS BOTTLE. A. bottle of phosphorus: used by housebreakers
to light their lanthorns. Ding the phos; throw
away the bottle of phosphorus.
PHRASE OF PAPER. Half a quarter of a sheet. See VESSEL, PHYSOG.
PHYSOG. The face. A vulgar abbreviation of physiognomy.
PHYZ. The face. Rum phyz; an odd face or countenance.
PICAROON. A pirate; also a sharper.
PICKANINY. A young child, an infant. NEGRO TERM.
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PICKING. Pilfering, petty larceny.
PICKLE. An arch waggish fellow. In pickle, or in the
pickling tub; in a salivation. There are rods in brine, or
pickle, for him; a punishment awaits him, or is prepared
for him. Pickle herring; the zany or merry andrew
of a mountebank. See JACK PUDDING.
PICKT HATCH. To go to the manor of pickt hatch, a
cant name for some part of the town noted for bawdy
houses in Shakespeare's time, and used by him in that
sense.
PICKTHANK. A tale-bearer or mischief maker.
PICTURE FRAME. The sheriff's picture frame; the gallows
or pillory.
To PIDDLE. To make water: a childish expression; as,
Mammy, I want to piddle. Piddling also means trifling,
or doing any thing in a small degree: perhaps from peddling.
PIECE. A wench. A damned good or bad piece; a girl
who is more or less active and skilful in the amorous congress.
Hence the (CAMBRIDGE) toast, May we never have
a PIECE (peace) that will injure the constitution. Piece
likewise means at Cambridge a close or spot of ground
adjacent to any of the colleges, as Clare-hall Piece, The spot of ground before King's College formerly
belonged
to Clare-hall. While Clare Piece belonged to King's,
the master of Clare-hall proposed a swop, which being
refused by the provost of King's, he erected before their
gates a temple of CLOACINA. It will be unnecessary to say
that his arguments were soon acceded to.
PIG. A police officer. A China street pig; a Bow-street
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