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PISS-PROUD. Having a false erection. That old fellow thought he had an erection, but his was only pissproud; said of any old fellow who marries a young wife. PISSING DOWN ANY ONE'S BACK. Flattering him. PISSING PINS AND NEEDLES. To have a gonorrhea.

PIT. A watch fob. He drew a rare thimble from the swell's pit. He took a handsome watch from the gentleman's fob.

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PIT. To lay pit and boxes into one; an operation in midwifery or copulation, whereby the division between the anus and vagina is cut through, broken, and demolished: a simile borrowed from the playhouse, when, for the benefit of some favourite player, the pit and boxes are laid together. The pit is also the hole under the gallows, where poor rogues unable to pay the fees are buried.

PITT'S PICTURE. A window stopt up on the inside, to save the tax imposed in that gentleman's administration. Party wit.

PIT-A-PAT. The palpitation of the heart: as, my heart went pit-a-pat. Pintledy-pantledy; the same. PITCH-KETTLED. Stuck fast, confounded.

PITCHER. The miraculous pitcher, that holds water with the mouth downwards: a woman's commodity. She has crack'd her pitcher or pipkin; she has lost her maidenhead. PIZZY CLUB. A society held, A. D. 1744, at the sign of the Tower, on Tower Hill: president, Don Pizzaro. PLAISTER OF WARM GUTS. One warm belly clapped to another; a receipt frequently prescribed for different disor

ders.

PLANT. The place in the house of the fence where stolen goods are secreted. Any place where stolen goods are concealed.

TO PLANT. To lay, place, or hide. Plant your wids and stow them; be careful what you say, or let slip. Also to bury, as, he was planted by the parson.

PLATE. Money, silver, prize. He is in for the plate; he has won the heat, i. e. is infected with the venereal disorder: a simile drawn from horse-racing. When the plate fleet comes in; when money comes to hand. PLATTER-FACED. Broad-faced.

PLAY. To play booty; to play with an intention to lose. To play the whole game; to cheat. To play least in sight; to hide, or keep out of the way. To play the devil; to be guilty of some great irregularity or mismanagement. PLUCK. Courage. He wants pluck: he is a coward. Against the pluck; against the inclination. Pluck the

ribbon;

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ribbon; ring the bell. To pluck a crow with one; to settle a dispute, to reprove one for some past transgression. To pluck a rose; an expression said to be used by women for going to the necessary house, which in the country usually stands in the garden. To pluck also signifies to deny a degree to a candidate at one of the universities, on account of insufficiency. The three first books of Euclid, and as far as Quadratic Equations in Algebra, will save a man from being plucked. These unfortunate fellows are designated by many opprobrious appellations, such as the twelve apostles, the legion of honor, wise men of the East, &c. PLUG TAIL. A man's penis.

PLUMB. An hundred thousand pounds.

PLUMMY. It is all plummy; i. e. all is right, or as it ought to be.

PLUMP. Fat, full, fleshy. Plump in the pocket; full in the pocket. To plump; to strike, or shoot. I'll give you a plump in the bread basket, or the victualling office: I'll give you a blow in the stomach. Plump his peepers, or day-lights; give him a blow in the eyes. He pulled out his pops and plumped him; he drew out his pistols and shot him. A plumper; a single vote at an election. Plump also means directly, or exactly: as, it fell plump upon him it fell directly upon him.

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PLUMP CURRANT. I am not plump currant; I am out of

sorts.

PLUMPERS. Contrivances said to be formerly worn by old maids, for filling out a pair of shrivelled cheeks.; PLYER. A crutch; also a trader.

POGY. Drunk.

POINT. To stretch a point; to exceed some usual limit, to take a great stride. Breeches were usually tied up with points, a kind of short laces, formerly given away by the churchwardens at Whitsuntide, under the denomination of tags: by taking a great stride these were stretched. PoisoNED. Big with child: that wench is poisoned, see how her belly is swelled. Poison-pated: red-haired. POKE. A blow with the fist: I'll lend you a poke. A poke likewise means a sack: whence, to buy a pig in a poke, i. e. to buy any thing without seeing or properly examining it.

POKER. A Sword. Fore pokers; aces and kings at cards.
To burn your poker; to catch the venereal disease.
POLE. He is like a rope-dancer's pole, lead at both ends;
a saying of a stupid sluggish fellow.

POLISI. To polish the king's iron with one's eyebrows; to'

be

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be in gaol, and look through the iron grated windows. To polish a bone; to eat a meal. Come and polish a bone. with me; come and eat a dinner or supper with me. POLL. The head, jolly nob, napper, or knowledge box; also a wig.

POLT. A blow. Lend him a polt in the muns; give him a knock in the face.

To РOMMEL. To beat: originally confined to beating with the hilt of a sword, the knob being, from its similarity to a small apple, called pomelle; in Spanish it is still called the apple of the sword. As the clenched fist likewise somewhat resembles an apple, perhaps that might occasion the term pommelling to be applied to fisty-cuffs. POMP. To save one's pomp at whist, is to score five before the adversaries are up, or win the game: originally derived from pimp, which is Welsh for five; and should be, I have saved my pimp.

POMPAGINIS.
AQUA.

Aqua pompaginis; pump water. See

POMPKIN. A man or woman of Boston in America: from the number of pompkins raised and caten by the people of that country. Pompkinshire; Boston and its dependencies. PONEY. Money. Post the poney; lay down the money. PONTIUS PILATE. A pawnbroker. Pontius Pilate's guards, the first regiment of foot, or Royal Scots: so intitled from their supposed great antiquity. Pontius Pilate's counsellor; one who like him can say, Non invenio causam, I can find no cause. Also (Cambridge) a Mr. Shepherd of Trinity College; who disputing with a brother parson on the comparative rapidity with which they read the liturgy, offered to give him as far as Pontius Pilate in the Belief. POPE. A figure burned annually every fifth of November, in memory of the gunpowder plot, which is said to have been carried on by the papists.

POPE'S NOSE. The rump of a turkey.

POPS. Pistols. Pop shop: a pawnbroker's shop. To pop; to pawn: also to shoot. I popped my tatler; I pawned my watch. I popt the cull; I shot the man.

His means are two pops and a galloper; that is, he is a highwayman. POPLERS. Pottage. Cant.

PORK. To cry pork; to give intelligence to the undertaker

of a funerai; metaphor borrowed from the raven, whose note sounds like the word pork. Ravens are said to smel carrion at a distance.

PORKER. Ahog: also a Jew.

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POU

PORRIDGE. Keep your breath to cool your porridge; i. e. hold your tongue.

PORRIDGE ISLAND. An alley leading from St. Martin's church-yard to Round-court, chiefly inhabited by cooks, who cut off ready-dressed meat of all sorts, and also sell

soup. POSEY, or POESY. A nosegay. I shall see you ride backwards up Holborn-hill, with a book in one hand, and a posey in t'other; i. e. I shall see you go to be hanged. Malefactors who piqued themselves on being properly equipped for that occasion, had always a nosegay to smell to, and a prayer book, although they could not read. POSSE MOBILITATIS. The mob.

POST MASTER GENERAL. The prime minister, who has the patronage of all posts and places.

POST NOINTER. A house painter, who occasionally paints or anoints posts. Knight of the post; a false evidence, one ready to swear any thing for hire. From post to pillar; backwards and forwards.

POSTILION OF THE GOSPEL. A parson who hurrics over the service.

Por. The pot calls the kettle black a-se; one rogue exclaims against another.

POT. On the pot; i. e. at stool.

POT CONVERTS. Proselytes to the Romish church, made by the distribution of victuals and money.

POT HUNTER. One who hunts more for the sake of the prey than the sport. Pot valiant; courageous from drink. Potwallopers: persons entitled to vote in certain boroughs by having boiled a pot there.

POTATOE TRAP. The mouth. Shut your potatoe trap and give your tongue a holiday; i. e. be silent. Irish wit. POTHOOKS AND HANGERS. A scrawl, bad writing.

POT-WABBLers.

Persons entitled to vote for members of parliament in certain boroughs, from having boiled their pots therein. These boroughs are called pot-wabbling boroughs.

POULAIN. A bubo. French.

POULTERER. A person that guts letters; i. e. opens them and secretes the money. The kiddey was topped for the poultry rig; the young fellow was hanged for secreting a letter and taking out the contents.

POUND. To beat. How the milling cove pounded the cull for being nuts on his blowen; how the boxer beat the fellow for taking liberties with his mistress.

POUND. A prison. See LoB's POUND. Pounded; imprisoned. Shut up in the parson's pound; married. PoWDER

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POWDER MONKEY. A boy on board a ship of war, whose business is to fetch powder from the magazine.

POWDERING TUB. The same as pickling tub. See PICKLING TUB.

PRAD LAY. Cutting bags from behind horses. Cant. PRAD. A horse. The swell flashes a rum prad; the gentleman sports a fine horse.

PRANCER. A horse. Prancer's nab; a horse's head, used as a seal to a counterfeit pass. At the sign of the prancer's poll, i. e. the nag's head.

PRATE ROAST. A talkative boy.

PRATING CHEAT. The tongue.

PRATTS. Buttocks; also a tinder box. Cant.

PRATTLE BROTH. Tea. See CHATTER BROTH, SCANDAL BROTH, &C.

PRATTLING Box. The pulpit.

PRAY. She prays with her knees upwards; said of a woman much given to gallantry and intrigue. At her last prayers; saying of an old maid.

PREADAMITE QUACABITES. This great and laudable society (as they termed themselves) held their grand chapter at the Coal-hole.

PK. The virile member.

PRICK-EARED.

A prick-eared fellow; one whose ears are longer than his hair: an appellation frequently given to puritans, who considered long hair as the mark of the whore of Babylon.

PRICKLOUSE. A taylor.

PRIEST-CRAFT. The art of awing the laity, managing their consciences, and diving into their pockets.

PRIEST-LINKED, Married.

PRIEST-RIDDEN. Governed by a priest, or priests.

PRIG. A thief, a cheat; also a conceited coxcomical fellow.

PRIG NAPPER. A thief taker.

PRIGGERS. Thieves in general. Priggers of prancers; horse stealers. Priggers of cacklers: robbers of hen

roosts.

PRIGGING. Riding; also lying with a woman.
PRIGSTAR. A rival in love.

PRIME. Bang up. Quite the thing. Excellent. Well done. She's a prime piece; she is very skilful in the venereal act. Prime post. She's a prime article.

PRIMINARY. I had like to be brought into a priminary; i. e. into trouble; from premunire.

PRINCE PRIG. A king of the gypsies; also the head thief or receiver general.

PRINCES,

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