NOSE BAG. A bag fastened to the horse's head, in which the soldiers of the cavalry put the oats given to their horses whence the saying, I see the nose bag in his face; i. e. he has been a private man, or rode private. NOSE GENT. A nun.

NOSTRUM. A medicine prepared by particular persons only, a quack medicine.

NOTCH. The private parts of a woman.

NOTE. He changed his note; he told another sort of a story. Nous-Box. The head.

NOZZLE. The nose of a man or woman.

NUB. The neck; also coition.

NUBBING. Hanging. Nubbing cheat: the gallows. Nubbing cove; the hangman. Nubbing ken; the sessions house.

NUG. An endearing word: as, My dear nug; my dear love. NUGGING DRESS. An out-of-the-way old-fashioned dress, or rather a loose kind of dress, denoting a courtesan. NUGGING HOUSE. A brothel.

TO NULL. To beat : as, He nulled him heartily.
NUMBERS. To consult the book of numbers: a term used
in the House of Commons, when, instead of answering or
confuting a pressing argument, the minister calls for a
division, i. e. puts the matter to the vote.
NUMBSCULL. A stupid fellow.

NUMMS. A sham collar, to be worn over a dirty shirt.
NUNNERY. A bawdy house.

To NURSE. To cheat: as, they nursed him out of it. An estate in the hands of trustees, for the payment of debts, is said to be at nurse.

NUTS. It was nuts for them; i. e. it was very agreeable to them.

NUTS. Fond; pleased. She's nuts upon her cull; she's pleased with her cully. The cove's nutting the blowen; the man is trying to please the girl.

NUTCRACKERS. The pillory: as, The cull peeped through the nutcrackers.

NUTMEGS. Testicles.

NYP, or NIP. A half pint, a nip of ale: whence the nipperkin, a small vessel.

NYP SHOP. The Peacock in Gray's Inn Lane, where Burton ale is sold in nyps.

NYPPER. A cut-purse: so called by one Wotton, who in the year 1585 kept an academy for the education and perfection of pickpockets and cut-purses: his school was near Billingsgate, London. As in the dress of ancient

times

times many people wore their purses at their girdles, cutting them was a branch of the light-fingered art, which is now lost, though the name remains. Maitland, from Stow, gives the following account of this Wotton: This man was gentleman born, and sometime a merchant of good credit, but fallen by time into decay: he kept an alehouse near Smart's Key, near Billingsgate, afterwards for some misdemeanor put down. He reared up a new trade of life, and in the same house he procured all the cut-purses about the city, to repair to his house; there was a school-house set up to learn young boys to cut purses two devices were hung up; one was a pocket, and another was a purse; the pocket had in it certain counters, and was hung about with hawks bells, and over the top did hang a little sacring bell. The purse had silver in it; and he that could take out a counter, without noise of any of the bells, was adjudged a judicial nypper : according to their terms of art, a foyster was a pick-pocket ; a nypper was a pick purse, or cut-purse.

OBS

BE JOYFUL. I'll make you sing O be joyful on the other side of your mouth; a threat, implying the party threatened will be made to cry. To sing O be easy; to appear contented when one has cause to complain, and dare not.

OAF. A silly fellow.

OAFISH. Simple.

OAK. A rich man, a man of good substance and credit.

To sport oak; to shut the outward door of a student's room at college. An oaken towel; an oaken cudgel. To rub a man down with an oaken towel; to beat him. OATS. He has sowed his wild oats; he is staid, or sober, having left off his wild tricks.

OATHS. The favourite oaths of the thieves of the present day are," God strike me blind!" "I wish my bloody eyes may drop out if it is not true!"" So help ne God!" Bloody end to me!"

OAR. To put in one's oar; to intermeddle, or give an opinion unasked: as, To be sure, you must put in your

oar!

OBSTROPULOUS. Vulgar misnomer of obstreperous: as, I

was

was going my rounds, and found this here gemman very obstropulous, whereof I comprehended him as an auspicious parson.

OCCUPY. To occupy a woman; to have carnal knowledge of her.

ODD FELLOWS. A convivial society; the introduction to the most noble grand, arrayed in royal robes, is well worth seeing at the price of becoming a member.

ODDS PLUT AND HER NAILS. A Welch oath, frequently mentioned in a jocular manner by persons, it is hoped, ignorant of its meaning; which is, By God's blood, and the nails with which he was nailed to the cross. ODD-COME-SHORTLYS. I'll do it one of these odd-comeshortly's; I will do it some time or another.

OFFICE. To give the office; to give information, or make signs to the officers to take a thief.

OGLES. Eyes. Rum ogles; fine eyes.

OIL OF BARLEY, or BARLEY BROTH. Strong beer. OIL OF GLADNESS. I will anoint you with the oil of gladness; ironically spoken for, I will beat you.

OIL OF STIRRUP. A dose the cobler gives his wife whenever she is obstropulous.

OI ПOAAОI. (Cambridge.) The many; the multitude; who take degrees without being entitled for an honor. All that is required, are three books of Euclid, and as far as Quadratic Equations in Algebra. See PLUCKED, OLD. Ugly. Cant.

OLD DOG AT IT. Expert, accustomed.

OLD HAND. Knowing or expert in any business.

OLD HARRY. A composition used by vintners to adulterate their wines; also the nick-name for the devil.

OLD DING. See OLD HAT.

OLD Mr. GORY. A piece of gold.

OLD NICK. The Devil: from Neken, the evil spirit of the north.

OLD ONE. The Devil. Likewise an expression of quizzical familiarity, as "how d'ye do, OLD ONE?"

OLD PEGG. Poor Yorkshire cheese, made of skimmed milk.

OLD POGER. The Devil.

OLD STAGER. One accustomed to business, one who knows mankind.

OLD TOAST. A brisk old fellow. Cant.

OLIVER'S SCULL. A chamber pot.

OLLI COMPOLLI. The name of one of the principal rogues

of the canting crew. Cant.

OMNIUM

OMNIUM GATHERUM. The whole together: jocular imitation of law Latiu.

ONE IN TEN.

A parson an allusion to his tithes.

ONE OF US, or ONE OF MY COUSINS. A woman of the town, a harlot.

ONION. A Scal. Onion hunters, a class of young thieves who are on the look out for gentlemen who wear their seals suspended on a ribbon, which they cut, and thus secure the seals or other trinkets suspended to the watch. OPEN ARSE. A medlar.. See MEDLAR. OPTIME. The senior and junior optimes are the second and last classes of Cambridge honors conferred on taking a degree. That of wranglers is the first. The last junior optime is called the Wooden Spoon.

ORGAN. A pipe. Will you cock your organ? will you smoke your pipe?

ORTHODOXY AND HETERODOXY. Somebody explained these terms by saying, the first was a man who had a doxy of his own, the second a person who made use of the doxy of another man.

OSCHIVES. Bone-handled knives. Cant.

OSTLER. Oatstealer.

ОTтомY. The vulgar word for a skeleton.

OTTOMY.

OTTOMISED. To'be ottomised; to be dissected.

You'll be

scragged, ottomised, and grin in a glass case: you'll be hanged, anatomised, and your skeleton kept in a glass case at Surgeons' Hall.

OVEN. A great mouth; the old woman would never have looked for her daughter in the oven, had she not been there herself.

OVERSEER. A man standing in the pillory, is, from his elevated situation, said to be made an overseer.

OUT AT HEELS, OR OUT AT ELBOWS. In declining circum

stances.

OUTRUN THE CONSTABLE. A man who has lived above his means, or income, is said to have outrun the constable. OUTS. A gentleman of three outs. See GENTLEMAN. OWL. To catch the; a trick practised upon ignorant country boobies, who are decoyed into a barn under pretence of catching an owl, where, after divers preliminaries, the joke ends in their having a pail of water poured upon their heads.

OWL IN AN IVY BUSH. He looks like an owl in an ivy bush; frequently said of a person with a large frizzled wig, or a woman whose hair is dressed a-la-blowze. OWLERS. Those who smuggle wool over to France.

Ox.

OX HOUSE. He must go through the ox house to bed; a saying of an old fellow who marries a young girl.

OYES. Corruption of oyez, proclaimed by the crier of all courts of justice.

OYSTER. A gob of thick phlegm, spit by a consumptive man; in law Latin, unum viridum gobbum.

PAN

P's. To mind one's P's and Q's; to be attentive to the

main chance.

P.P.C.

An inscription on the visiting cards of our modern fine gentleman, signifying that they have called pour prendre conge, i.e. to take leave,' This has of late been ridiculed by cards inscribed D.I.O. i.e. 'Damme, I'm off.' PACKET. A false report.

PACKTHREAD. To talk packthread; to use indecent language well wrapt up.

PAD. The highway, or a robber thereon; also a bed. Footpads; foot robbers. To go out upon the pad; to go out in order to commit a robbery.

PAD BORROWERS. Horse stealers.

TO PAD THE HOOF. See To BEAT THE HOOF.

PADDINGTON FAIR DAY. An execution day, Tyburn being in the parish or neighbourhood of Paddington. To dance the Paddington frisk; to be hanged.

PADDY. The general name for an Irishman: being the abbreviation of Patrick, the name of the tutelar saint of that island.

PAINTER. I'll cut your painter for you; I'll send you off; the painter being the rope that holds the boat fast to the ship. Sea term.

PAIR OF WINGS. Oars. Cant.

To PALAVER. To flatter: originally an African word for a treaty, talk, or conference.

PALLIARDS. Those whose fathers were clapperdogens, or beggars born, and who themselves follow the same trade: the female sort beg with a number of children, borrowing them, if they have not a sufficient number of their own, and making them cry by pinching in order to excite charity; the males make artificial sores on different parts of their bodies, to move compassion.

PALL. A companion. One who generally accompanies another, or who commit robberies together. PAM. The knave of clubs.

PANNAM. Bread.

PANNIER