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 mid-
night, a short time before Christmas, for which they col-
lect 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 watch-
ing 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 youn-
ger 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 hawls 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-house. 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.

WARE. A woman's ware; her commodity.

WARE HAWK. An exclamation used by thieves to inform their confederates that some police officers are at hand. WARM. Rich, in good circumstances. To warm, or give a man a warming; to beat him. See CHAFED.

WARM

WARMING-PAN. A large old-fashioned watch. A Scotch warming-pan; a female bedfellow.

WARREN. One that is security for goods taken up on credit by extravagant young gentlemen. Cunny warren; a girl's boarding-school, also a bawdy-house.

WASH. Paint for the face, or cosmetic water. Hog-wash; thick and bad beer.

WASP. An infected prostitute, who like a wasp carries a sting in her tail.

WASPISH. Peevish, spiteful.

WASTE. House of waste; a tavern or alehouse, where idle people waste both their time and money.

WATCH, CHAIN, AND SEALS. A sheep's head and pluck. WATER-MILL. A woman's private parts.

WATER SNEAKSMAN. A man who steals from ships or craft on the river.

WATER. His chops watered at it; he longed earnestly for it. To watch his waters; to keep a strict watch on any one's actions. In hot water: in trouble, engaged in disputes. WATER BEWITCHED. Very weak punch or beer. WATERPAD. One that robs ships in the river Thames. WATERY-HEADED. Apt to shed tears.

WATER SCRIGER. A doctor who prescribes from inspecting the water of his patients. See PISS PROPHET. WATTLES. Ears. Cant.

WEASEL-FACED. Thin, meagre-faced. Weasel-gutted; thin-bodied; a weasel is a thin long slender animal with a sharp face.

WEDDING. The emptying of a necessary-house, particularly in London. You have been at an Irish wedding, where black eyes are given instead of favours; saying to one who has a black eye.

WEDGE. Silver plate, because melted by the receivers of stolen goods into wedges. Cant.

To WEED. To take a part. The kiddey weeded the swell's screens; the youth took some of the gentleman's bank

notes.

WEEPING CROSS. To come home by weeping cross; to repent.

WELCH COMB. The thumb and four fingers.

WELCH FIDDLE. The itch. See ScoTCH FIDDLE. WELCH MILE. Like a Welch mile, long and narrow. His story is like a Welch mile, long and tedious. WELCH RABBIT. [i. e. a Welch rare-bit.] Bread and cheese toasted. See RABBIT.--The Welch are said to be so

remark

remarkably fond of cheese, that in cases of difficulty their midwives apply a piece of toasted cheese to the janua vitæ to attract and entice the young Taffy, who on smelling it makes most vigorous efforts to come forth.

WELCH EJECTMENT. To unroof the house, a method practised by landlords in Wales to eject a bad tenant. To WELL. To divide unfairly. To conceal part. A cant phrase used by thieves, where one of the party conceals some of the booty, instead of dividing it fairly amongst his confederates. WELL-HUNG. The blowen was nutts upon the kiddey be cause he is well-hung; the girl is pleased with the youth because his genitals are large.

WESTMINSTER WEDDING. A match between a whore and a rogue.

WET PARSON. One who moistens his clay freely, in order to make it stick together.

WET QUAKER. One of that sect who has no objection to the spirit derived from wine.

WHACK. A share of a booty obtained by fraud. A paddy whack; a stout brawney Irishman.

WHAPPER. A large man or woman.

WHEEDLE. A sharper. To cut a wheedle; to decoy by fawning or insinuation. Cant.

WHEELBAND IN THE NICK. Regular drinking over the left thumb.

WHELP. An impudent whelp; a saucy boy.;

WHEREAS. To follow a whereas; to become a bankrupt, to figure among princes and potentates: the notice given in the Gazette that a commission of bankruptcy is issued out against any trader, always beginning with the word whereas. He will soon march in the rear of a whereas. WHET. A morning's draught, commonly white wine, supposed to whet or sharpen the appetite.

WHETSTONE'S PARK. A lane between Holboru and Lincoln's-inn Fields, formerly famed for being the resort of women of the town.

WHIDS. Words. Cant.

TO WHIDDLE. To tell or discover. He whiddles; he peaches. He whiddles the whole scrap; he discovers all he knows. The cull whiddled because they would not tip him a snack: the fellow peached because they would not give him a share. They whiddle beef, and we must brush; they cry out thieves, and we must make off. Cant. WHIDDLER. An informer, or one that betrays the secrets of the gang.

WHIFFLES. A relaxation of the scrotum.

WHIF

WHIFFLERS. Ancient name for fifers; also persons at the universities who examine candidates for degrees. A whiffling cur, a small yelping cur.

WHIMPER, OF WHINDLE. A low cry.
TO WHINE. To complain.

WHINYARD. A sword.

TO WHIP THE COCK. A piece of sport practised at wakes, horse-races, and fairs in Leicestershire: a cock being tied or fastened into a hat or basket, half a dozen carters blindfolded, and armed with their cart whips, are placed round it, who, after being turned thrice about, begin to whip the cock, which if any one strikes so as to make it cry out, it becomes his property; the joke is, that instead of whipping the cock they flog each other heartily. WHIP JACKS. The tenth order of the canting crew, rogues who having learned a few sea terms, beg with counterfeit passes, pretending to be sailors shipwrecked on the neighbouring coast, and on their way to the port from whence they sailed.

TO WHIP OFF. To run away, to drink off greedily, to snatch. He whipped away from home, went to the alehouse, where he whipped off a full tankard, and coming back whipped off a fellow's hat from his head.

WHIP-BELLY VENGEANCE, or pinch-gut vengeance, of which he that gets the most has the worst share. Weak or sour beer.

WHIPPER-SNAPPER. A diminutive fellow.

WHIPSHIRE. Yorkshire.

WHIPSTER. A sharp or subtle fellow.

WHIPT SYLLABUB. A flimsy, frothy discourse or treatise, without solidity.

WHIRLYGIGS. Testicles.

WHISKER. A great lie.

WHISKER SPLITTER. A man of intrigue.

WHISKIN. A shallow brown drinking bowl.

WHISKY. A malt spirit much drank in Ireland and Scotland; also a one-horse chaise. See TIM WHISKY. WHISTLE. The throat. To wet one's whistle; to drink. WHISTLING SHOP. Rooms in the King's Bench and Fleet prison where drams are privately sold.

WHIT. [i. e. Whittington's.] Newgate. Cant.---Five rumpadders are rubbed in the darkmans out of the whit, and are piked into the deuseaville; five highwaymen broke out of Newgate in the night, and are gone into the country. WHITE RIBEIN. Gin.

WHITE FEATHER. He has a white feather; he is a coward: an allusion to a game cock, where having a white feather is a proof he is not of the true game breed. WHITE

WHITE-LIVEREr. Cowardly, malicious.

WHITE LIE. A harmless lie, one not told with a malicious intent, a lie told to reconcile people at variance.

WHITE SERJEANT. A man fetched from the tavern or alehouse by his wife, is said to be arrested by the white serjeant.

WHITE SWELLING. A woman big with child is said to have a white swelling.

WHITECHAPEL. Whitechapel portion; two smocks, and what nature gave. Whitechapel breed; fat, ragged, and saucy see St. GILES'S BREED. Whitechapel beau; one who dresses with a needle and thread, and undresses with a knife. To play at whist Whitechapel fashion; i. e. aces and kings first.

WHITEWASHED.

One who has taken the benefit of an act of insolvency, to defraud his creditors, is said to have been whitewashed.

WHITFIELITE. A follower of George Whitfield, a Methodist.

WHITHER-GO-YE. A wife: wives being sometimes apt to question their husbands whither they are going.

WHITTINGTON'S COLLEGE. Newgate: built or repaired by the famous lord mayor of that name.

WHORE'S BIRD. A debauched fellow, the largest of all birds. He sings more like a whore's bird than a canary bird; said of one who has a strong manly voice.

WHORE'S CURSE. A piece of gold coin, value five shillings and three pence,frequently given to women of the town by such as professed always to give gold, and who before the introduction of those pieces always gave half a guinea. WHORE'S KITLING, OF WHORE'S SON. A bastard. WHORE-MONGER. A man that keeps more than one mistress. A country gentleman, who kept a female friend, being reproved by the parson of the parish, and styled a whoremonger, asked the parson whether he had a cheese in his house; and being answered in the affirmative, 'Pray,' says he, does that one cheese make you a cheese-monger?'

WHORE PIPE. The penis.

WHOW BALL. A milk-maid; from their frequent use of the word whow, to make the cow stand still in milking, Ball is the supposed name of the cow.

WIBBLE. Bad drink.

WIBLING'S WITCH. The four of clubs: from one James/

Wib